Exposed (11 page)

Jack was acting as if he wanted more, and her least favorite scenario of the short fling was better than nothing from him. She wanted him that badly. So she decided to be glad he was being careful with their new relationship, but she also decided she was going to be bolder.

Nia got up and sat on the side of the bed while fluffing her hair back. She'd heard Jack say quite clearly that he didn't want vanilla marriage sex. What they'd done on the couch the evening before hadn't been very vanilla for her. Even before Jack talked dirty to her, which was
so
hot—who knew—she'd thought it wasn't average. Now she wanted to find ways to keep that going. She wanted to surprise Jack with something tonight. What the erotic surprise was going to be she wasn't sure, but she had all day to come up with something.

Getting out of bed, she went to find coffee and toast before her morning shower. It was kind of late in the morning for her, an indulgence, but she didn't have work ... all she had to do was plan for Jack’s sexy surprise and maybe call her lawyer.

Nia was just rinsing out her coffee cup when someone pounded loudly on the front door. Jerking at the loud noise, she barely caught the coffee mug from slipping from her fingers. The pounding came again, longer and louder. Just the nature of the pounding sounded frantic, and she became alarmed. Looking down at her scant nightclothes, she knew she couldn't answer the wild knocking.

"Better to just pretend no one is home," she exclaimed beneath her breath. She set the coffee mug in the sink, then inched toward the entrance to the kitchen. She wanted to see the front door and make certain it looked locked.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Nia jumped back. Who would attack a door like that? Then she heard a furious bellow. "Nia! Nia!" It was
Dan
. Her eyes widened as she stood trembling in the kitchen entryway. "You fucking bitch! I know you are in there with him, I can see your car!"

She clutched her throat. She’d never heard him like this. Banging attacked the front door again and it sounded like feet and fists. "Open up, Nia!"

Nia turned and ran to her bedroom, where she grabbed her purse with shaking hands and found her cell phone. She could still hear the attack on the front door and Dan yelling awful things about her being with Jack.

"Hey, sweetheart," Jack answered.

"Jack," she cried. "Dan's here!"

"Whoa, sweetheart. What's the matter?"

Nia tried to calm down, thinking Dan was outside and she was in a locked house. "H-he's screaming and beating the front door, Jack."

"Damn," Jack cussed.

Then Nia heard a crash of glass. She squealed in fright, yelling into the phone, "He broke a window."

"Nia!" Jack shouted.

She screamed over him. "He could be in the house!"

"Go to my room, lock yourself in the closet, Nia. Now!" Jack ordered.

She didn't think twice; she did exactly what he said.

Jack grabbed his keys while running out the back of Rent-All to his truck. He dialed 911 on the move and was already driving when the emergency operator came on the line. He explained there was a man outside his house trying to break in and breaking windows. After getting his address, the operator said the police were on their way.

He called Rent-All quickly, needing to get back to Nia, because she was terrified. He told his counterman to take over and that he would not be back that day, then he pressed Nia's number. He was five minutes away.

"Talk to me, baby," he said as soon as it went through.

"Jack." She sounded as scared as he knew she'd be.

"You in the closet?"

"Yes."

"Good, baby. The police will be there; it's a bet whether I get there first."

"Why is he this crazy, Jack?" She’d sobbed the question. "He knows we are together."

"Sadie," Jack growled, knowing it had to be Sadie that told Cooper.

"Oh!" Nia shrieked.

Jack clutched his cell so tightly he thought he might break it.

"More glass crashing," she exclaimed.

"I'm almost there," he uttered.

"Jack, be careful," she pleaded. "Nothing's worth getting hurt."

He wanted to yell that she was worth it.

By the time Jack arrived at his house he couldn't see Cooper out front, and he pulled a crazy angle in the cul-de-sac to park, then jumped out of his truck. He was afraid that not being able to see Cooper meant he was inside. Jack could hear the sirens in the distance as he sprinted to the front door. Several neighbors were hanging outside their front doors looking as he opened his front door and stepped inside. He went cautiously, but quickly, not seeing Cooper.

He only saw that one of his front windows was busted, and when he passed through the side of the kitchen he saw the sliding glass door was busted on the top. As he hit the hall, he heard a crash of glass back in the kitchen. Then he heard Nia's returned scream—muffled, but still a scream. He didn't go back to see if Cooper had broken enough of the patio door to make it inside, he went to Nia.

Just as he got to the closed closet door, he heard Sadie screaming his name; it sounded as if it was coming from the garage. "Fuck," he cussed, grabbing the closet door, trying to calm down so he could speak to Nia.

"Baby, it's me," he called through the door.

One second later, the door popped open and Nia flung into his arms. He caught her, holding her tight and seeing that she had on one of his dress shirts, but her legs and feet were bare.

"Jack," she cried while he grasped the back of her head, kissing the top.

She was shaking, then they both heard: "Jack! I saw your damn truck. You love that stupid truck more than me!"

"She's drunk," Jack uttered, feeling disgust roll through him as he warned Nia, "Drunken brigade is attacking us." Nia nodded against his chest, and he said, "I called the cops, let's get out of here."

He started to pull Nia forward. "Dan's out there," she hissed.

He still tugged her to the bedroom door as he replied, "He was in back. We can get out front."

However, they both heard Sadie's voice right at the bedroom door. "You bastard! Having that skank in our bed!"

Jack hugged Nia to the side, away from Sadie, and he tried to lift his arm to throw off Sadie's fingernails clawing toward him. Sadie reached his cheek with a screech and he winced at the cut, but he elbowed her backward. Because she was plowed, she stumbled backward in the direction he needed her to go. Then he hauled Nia out into the hall and they hurried out toward the garage, where Nia tripped on her bare feet over a garage door opener. Jack realized then, with the garage door wide open, how Sadie got inside.

He grabbed Nia, lifting her up into his arms just as a police car arrived. He carried Nia to the end of the driveway, where he set her down, but held her tight against his side. Her arms wound around him and hugged him back.

He held up a hand to the officers. One was Officer Matt Dyer, who knew him. "We have some estranged spouses trying to break in," he told the officers. "One's around back breaking windows." Then he added, "They’re both drunk."

The officers seemed to take that as enough information, and one of them went around back. Officer Dyer stopped by Jack, nodding toward the house. "That Sadie in there?" Jack nodded. "It's her house. Don't know if I can do much about her in it,” Officer Dyer muttered.

Jack squeezed Nia, whose face was in his chest. "Damn it," he cussed. "I’ll press charges on Dan Cooper—that's the man wrecking my house, trying to break in."

Officer Dyer nodded and headed toward the garage.

Jack turned Nia toward his truck. "Let's get you in my truck, Nia."

She tiptoed beside him to his truck, and it pissed him off more she was outside his house barely dressed and with no damn shoes on. It all probably would attack his anger worse if they couldn’t get Sadie out of the house.

"I'm afraid to see him," Nia whispered, holding tightly to him in the open doorway of the truck.

Just then, the officer that had gone around to the back of his house came into view. The officer was pushing a handcuffed Dan Cooper in front of him. Cooper was stumbling, obviously drunk, but his over-bright eyes lifted and he saw them.

"You fucking him?" Cooper shouted, and Nia flinched. "That's my fucking wife!" Cooper yelled at the officer, who hauled Cooper to his squad car.

Jack kept his truck door open between them, while holding Nia tight, until the officer pushed Cooper into the back of the squad car and shut the door. Cooper was yelling foul things at Nia, and Jack felt her tears on his shoulder. He tightened his arm around her and took her to the back of his truck, putting his body between her and any sight of the squad car.

"Don't listen to him," he ordered.

Then a screeching Sadie came out of the garage with Officer Dyer. She was handcuffed too. "That's my house! You can’t come in and take me from my fucking house!"

Jack's eyes widened and he felt a little hope for the situation. Sadie caught sight of them before Officer Dyer got her into the other side of the squad car. "You keep that bitch out of my house, Jack! I'm going to own you with you fucking her!"

Nia groaned against him. The entire neighborhood heard that. Half of them, home that time of day, were out on their front porches watching the domestic dispute that rivaled reality TV.

Dyer got a screaming Sadie into the squad car, then came over to Jack. "You get that scratch from her?" he asked.

Jack felt kind of clueless, but reached to touch his cheek. A bit of blood came off on his fingertips. "Yeah, I did. Inside, she was trying to claw Nia. I blocked it."

"Good enough," Dyer announced. "I'm taking her in on domestic battery and him on breaking and entering."

"He was inside?" Nia asked, sounding shocked.

"Yes, ma'am, inside." Dyer slipped to the side, speaking quietly to Jack. "They could be out of jail by tonight on the matrix system."

Jack nodded his understanding, and Dyer dipped his head to Nia. "Ma'am." Then he turned and left them.

"Jack, I'm so sorry," Nia said, looking up at him.

"Wasn't your fault," he assured her, but she didn't look convinced as he watched the squad car pull past them.

Nia sat in Jack's truck while he stood outside it, calling someone to come and board up his windows. She couldn't bring herself to go back inside. What a mess. Jack stood at the front of his truck talking on his cell, while she wondered why Dan had become so furious. He didn't want her anymore; why did he care who she was with? Most of it was because he was probably really drunk. But breaking windows and cussing at her had been scary.

"Hey." Nia looked up at Jack standing beside where she sat in his truck. He looked worried.

"Hey," she said back. His hair was mussed, as if he'd run his fingers through it repeatedly, and his tie was undone. She was glad he was there.

"I have a guy coming to board up the window and back patio door."

She nodded, wincing when he said "patio door." "I guess I should go get dressed," she mumbled, and she started to move.

Jack's hand moved and settled on her hip, stopping her. "I'm not sure what we should do," he said.

Her hand landed on his shoulder. "I kind of heard they will be out of jail later today."

Jack rubbed his jaw, squeezing her hip. "Okay," he said, as if making a decision. "We'll get a hotel room, and then when I can get the day off we will go looking for a place to live."

"Jack?" she asked, surprised.

He started talking, "I'm going to need a place. The lawyer said Sadie will get rights to come back here. I know you will be with me, but I know it’s too soon for you to believe that yet. So we get a place ... eventually you'll get that we are going to make it."

"I don't know what to say," she whispered.

Wow.

Oh, God.

Wow.

"Baby steps. Room first," he said.

One thing it got her, and that was not back in Jack's house where she'd always be afraid either Sadie or Dan would show up. That was good. So they packed up more clothes than they needed for just one night and went to find a hotel room.

G
etting a hotel room turned out to be pretty romantic. Nia felt like they were going to a rendezvous as Jack stood beside her while they were registering.

Jack became more relaxed, giving her a warm look when she said outright, "One king bed."

The footman was going to bring up their luggage so it was just them in the elevator with their key. As soon as the doors closed, Jack leaned closer to her.

"I want to get business out of the way, because I am starting to like this."

She leaned against him more. "Me too, on the 'liking this' part."

"We should call our lawyers. That's the business part."

She nodded, getting a dreamy feeling looking up into his eyes. "Okay."

She kind of knew what she'd agreed to, but what she was really centered on was the fact she was going to be alone in a hotel room with Jack ... in about forty-five seconds.

Yes
.

His hand warmed the small of her back as they walked to the room. Once at the door to the room, he stopped and moved until she was pressed up against the door with his lips lowering over hers. She clutched his waist, kissing him back and liking the feel of him pressed up against her.

When their lips parted, he asked," You feeling better?"

She nodded, and asked, "You?"

He smiled and nodded, looking at her with warm brown eyes. "Just want you to know I would get you a separate room if you want."

A soft, thrilled feeling started at her heart and washed downward. She'd never felt anything like it before, and it was all for Jack. Her hands moved up his sides to his shoulders. "You're amazing," she whispered, and his mouth slowly closed over hers. After a few deep, penetrating kisses, she whispered again, "You came for me right away. Thank you, baby."

Jack murmured against her mouth and she felt his arm moving at her side.

"Say that again," he uttered, then she heard a beep and the door behind her opened. Jack hooked his forearm across the small of her back, and he backed her up into the room.