In Jack's Arms (Fighting Connollys) (15 page)

To say Besian hadn't been pleased was quite an understatement. I had never in my life been happier to have friends in such unique and low places.

Because this wasn't just about me anymore. This was about Besian enforcing the boundaries of his

territory and showing the full force of his ability to protect and defend those he claimed as his. He would do anything to save face and uphold his reputation around Houston.

And that meant Jack wouldn't have to put his life on the line for me. I couldn’t bear the thought of the

man I had loved so long being badly hurt—or worse—trying to guard me from this mess that had fallen

into my lap. A warrior to the core, Jack wouldn't hesitate to take a bullet for me. I would do anything to make sure that didn't happen.

The door swung open and Jack stepped inside the bedroom. His taut expression relaxed as he swept his

gaze over me and shut the door. "You look good there."

I smiled at him. "It feels good to be in your bed."

"We'll have to see about keeping you there." Jack shot me a look that promised so much. "Did you talk to Mattie?"

"Yes."

"What did he say?"

"He told me that he saw Flea selling the camcorder to Dan one evening when I was working late in the

front of the shop. He was hanging out in the storeroom doing that make-believe archaeologist thing he does when he heard Dan open the back door and let Flea inside. He didn't think that it was okay for Dan to buy

things that way so he waited and swiped it off the shelf."

"And stuck it in your backpack?"

I nodded. "Apparently he planned to tell me about it, but he got distracted and forgot. You know how

he is about things like that."

"Yes."

"He didn't look at the video. In fact, he was really pissed at me for even suggesting he would do

something so rude. I've always been able to tell when he's lying. He's telling the truth on this one. He hasn't seen the video."

Jack let loose a relieved sigh. "Well thank God for that. It's the last complication we need."

"I agree." Though Jack and I could keep secrets, Mattie had never been able to handle them.

Jack crossed the room to sit on the end of his bed. With his broad shoulders toward me, Jack leaned

down and unlaced his sneakers before peeling out of his shirt and tossing it aside. He rested his elbows on his knees and placed his head in his hands. Not for the first time, I counted all the scars marring his skin.

God, what pain this man had known.

Overtaken by the urge to touch him, I pushed away the sheet and crawled toward him. I caressed his

back with long, slow swipes of my hand and massaged his shoulders. I dotted kisses all along his neck and

upper back. "I'm sorry about everything, Jack.

"Hush." He reached back and covered my hand with his. "You'll be safe here, Abby. We have a security system. Finn is taking the first watch downstairs. No one will touch you or Mattie."

"What happens when we have to leave your house? I have to go to work. Mattie is already talking about his art class tomorrow night." Guilt swamped me as I remembered how easily I had lied to Mattie about why we were staying at the Connolly house. Thankfully Eric had bought the lame excuse I had given.

Mattie had been so excited by the prospect of kicking it in Kelly's room that he hadn't even asked any

questions.

"We'll figure it out," Jack promised. "Between me and Finn and the help Besian has offered, we'll keep an eye on you two."

"And you? Who keeps an eye on you, Jack?"

"I'm a big boy, Abby." He signaled an end to that line of questioning by pushing up off the bed and turning toward me. Hands on either side of my thighs, he leaned into me, capturing my mouth in a sensual

kiss that blasted away the anxiety gripping me. His tongue flicked against the seam of my lips, coaxing me to let him inside. Powerless to fight this man, I whimpered softly and granted him access. Jack's tongue

dueled with mine, twirling and stabbing until I was clinging to his shoulders and throbbing all over.

He pressed me down to the bed and shoved my camisole out of the way, baring my belly and breasts to

his tormenting mouth. When he sucked my nipple, I arched up off the bed, my back bowing and toes

curling into the mattress. It was all I could do to stifle my pleasured cry. I clapped a hand to my mouth to muffle the sounds as Jack did wild things to my breasts, licking and suckling and nibbling at them until they ached.

He bit the waistband of my tiny boyshorts and started to drag them down my hips, nuzzling his nose

against my mound as he revealed my naked pussy. Keenly aware that my brother was cross the hall and his

was downstairs with his father, I protested his determined onslaught. "Jack," I whispered in a begging tone.

"We can't. Finn, your dad and Mattie—"

"Hush," he gently admonished and whisked away my undies. "I can be quiet. Can you?"

He rubbed his mouth side to side against the plump lips of my sex. My clit pulsed with anticipation.

"You know I can't. Not when you're doing such wicked things to me."

He peppered noisy kisses up and down the seam of my pussy. "If you want it bad enough, you'll find a

way."

The daring way he said it warned me I was in for the tongue-lashing of a lifetime. Grasping my thighs,

Jack spread them wide open and swiped the pointed tip of his tongue between my folds. He zeroed in on

my clitoris, fluttering over the little pearl, and then suckled it with long, slow tugs. Unable to help myself, I lifted up on my elbows and watched the drop dead sexy Marine with his face buried between my thighs.

The sight of strong, powerful Jack kneeling at the edge of the bed to pleasure me did crazy things to my

heart.

Falling back to the mattress, I sifted my fingers through his dark hair and concentrated on the delicious

sensations that skilled tongue of his evoked. He had quickly learned the combination to unlock all the

frenzied passion within me. The right pressure, the right speed—Jack gave me exactly what I needed.

My toes bit into the mattress, and my thighs flexed as I swiveled my hips just a bit. He slid his hands

under my bottom, cupping my flesh in both hands, and delved into my pussy with wild abandon. I covered

my mouth with my hand and tried to maintain enough control not to shriek as Jack's tongue wiggled side to

side across my clit. Any second now…

"
Uh
!" Breathing hard and desperately trying to contain the ear-piercing shriek that threatened to erupt from my throat, I undulated atop the bed, hips jerking and fingers clawing at the quilt beneath me. Wicked, wicked Jack just kept right on pushing me, his tongue fluttering and flicking until he sucked my swollen

bud between his lips and sent me reeling head first into another even more shockingly wonderful climax.

Shuddering and panting, I hadn't even managed to open my eyes when he roughly flipped me onto my

belly and grasped my hips. He hauled me up onto my knees, pressed his cock between the slick petals of

my pussy and thrust deep. I bit my lip and pushed back against him, desperate to feel him taking me long

and hard.

With all the danger that surrounded us, I needed this connection to Jack more than anything. The way

he pumped into me, his fat dick pounding into me again and again, told me Jack craved the same thing.

When he gripped my hair in a tight fist, I nearly exploded again. An illicit thrill rocked me, my pussy

clenching his shaft as it glided in and out of my slick heat. He had never been rough with me, but the small taste had me wanting more.

Jack must have realized that I liked it because he pulled a little harder, urging me into a kneeling

position. With one hand clutching my hair, he used the other to squeeze my breasts and pinch my nipples. I had never felt anything like this. The changed angle in his penetration made me see stars. He stroked deep inside me, bumping up against the entrance of my womb and rubbing that sensitive spot that made my

damned thighs quiver.

Lips against my ear, Jack whispered harshly all the dirty things he planned to do to me when he took me

to that hotel suite he had promised me. I imagined all the erotic delights in store. Jack never broke a

promise. Soon enough, I would know what it felt like to be tied up, spanked and fucked with total

abandon, to be left weeping and trembling with pleasure overload.

"Touch your clit, sweet baby." Jack bit my earlobe and then nibbled the curve of my neck. "I want to feel this wet cunt milking my cum."

This uber-alpha, dominating side of Jack made my head spin. I gulped in air and slid my hand down

my belly to the juncture of my thighs. His cock glided in and out of me, his strokes faster now and his

erection steely and thick. Stretched and filled by the man who had owned my heart since the first time he

had flashed a smile my way, I strummed my inflamed clit. One sharp tweak of my nipple and Jack shoved

me over the edge.

His hand clamped over my mouth, muffling the noisy moan that escaped my lips. He sucked hard on

my neck, marking me as his with his lips and teeth, and slammed so deep inside me that my knees came up

off the mattress. Suspended in his powerful arms and balanced on his cock, I shook like a leaf and rode

wave after incredible wave of blissful ecstasy.

We collapsed to the bed in a sweaty, shuddering heap of tangled limbs. Jack curled up to my back,

tucking his knees beneath my bottom, and caressed my bare skin. His callused palm followed the outline of

my belly and breasts before touching my cheek. He turned my face ever so gently and claimed me with a

tender kiss.

Grinning teasingly, he said, "We're pretty good at this quiet sex thing."

I giggled. "I don't know about that. Mattie will sleep through a tornado but Finn?"

"He's a grown man. If he heard anything, he won't say a word." Jack moved away just long enough to peel off his socks and step into a pair of shorts. He tossed my panties back at me. "Put those on. Where are your shoes?"

"Over there," I pointed to the chair in the corner.

He retrieved the shoes and dropped them on my side of the bed. "Just in case," he said before leaning down to switch off the lamp.

"Just in case...?"

"Just in case we have to run." He opened the drawer on his side of the bed and removed a mean looking pistol. An expert with weapons, he checked the immaculately clean handgun and set out not one but three

loaded magazines.

Though I was a firm believer in the Second Amendment and had made a tidy sum on firearm sales, I

was also understandably nervous about having weapons out in the open. "Jack, please be careful with that.

Mattie has always followed the safety rules Granddad put into place, but he's so curious about things."

"I'll lock it up in the morning." He turned off the lamp on his side and slid into bed with me. "Finn and I have already checked the gun safe in the den. We've got two weapons out, one for him and one for me.

Both are in our hands or at arm's reach at all times. Mattie won't get close to them."

"I'm not trying to be a nag."

Jack hauled me against his body and pressed my cheek to his chest. "You're a good sister. I understand why you're worried. Mattie is lucky to have you." He kissed my forehead. "You're going to be an amazing mother."

"I don't know about that."

"I do." He spoke firmly and brushed a damp curl from my face. "You're loving and patient. That's all it takes."

Drawing my initials on his chest, I admitted, "Sometimes I worry that I'll be like my mom."

His arms tightened around me. "I worry that I'll be like my dad."

"You won't." I believed that with every fiber of my being.

His lips brushed my forehead again. Rather pensively, he asked, "Do you want kids?"

"Sure."

"Soon?"

My heart skipped a beat. "Well...not nine months from now soon."

He laughed softly and trailed his fingertips down my arm. "I didn't mean that soon. I meant two or three years."

I swallowed hard. Was he asking me what I thought he was asking me? "That depends."

"On?" When I didn't find the courage to answer, Jack rolled me onto my back and framed my body

with his larger, hotter one. His thumb grazed the apple of my cheek. "Does it depend on me?"

"Yes." I had never been more thankful for the shadows hiding my nervous expression.

Jack's thumb traced my lower lip now. "And what if I told you that I had been in love with you since

the first time I saw you swinging with Mattie at the park behind the gym?"

I blinked. "What?"

His thumb slid along the cupid's bow of my upper lip. "It was a couple of weeks after I came in to get that loan from your granddad. I had taken the small class I was training to run on the trail there. You and Mattie were laughing so hard and swinging like a couple of kindergartners. It made me smile. It made me

feel happy to watch you two." He went silent. "It had been a long time since I had felt that way, and for the rest of that week, I kept thinking about you, about your smile and your sweetness, and I just..." His voice trailed off to nothing. "I knew, Abby."

Feeling lightheaded, I asked, "You knew what, Jack?"

"That it was you. That it was always going to be you." He swallowed noisily. "This is all moving fast.

For me, it seems like a lifetime because I've been waiting for my chance to come clean with you about how

I feel, but for you—"

"I love you, Jack." I blurted out the four words in the most unromantic way possible. I didn't think he would mind though.

"Yeah?" I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Yes."

"God, I love you, Abby."

Our lips touched finally, and we shared a kiss filled with endless possibilities. I didn't know how we