In Jack's Arms (Fighting Connollys) (22 page)

interior of the penthouse was exactly what I had expected. Bee, Nick Connolly and Mattie sat on the

couches in the living room area and watched a comedy. While Mattie seemed totally relaxed and blissfully

oblivious to all that had happened tonight, Bee and Nick were visibly tense and obviously relieved when

they spotted us.

Bee leapt off the couch and rushed Kelly, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist. He

laughed softly but didn't fight her when she covered his face with noisy kisses. Eventually, he took control, cradling the back of her head and kissing her into silent submission. It was the same way Jack often

claimed me, his touch so gentle but commanding. Suddenly, I craved some privacy.

But Mattie needed me right now, and my employees deserved as much of my time as they required. My

needs and wants would have to wait.

"You missed the pizza, Abby."

"Did I?" I sunk down onto the plush couch next to my brother and gave him a lingering hug. "That's okay. I'm not hungry." Thinking back to the night Jack had calmed him after the brick went through our window, I decided to follow his example. "Mattie, do you want to ask me anything?"

He played with the remote control while watching the television. "Are you okay now?"

"Yes."

"And no one is going to shoot at us anymore?"

"No."

"Eric was here earlier. He asked me questions about the arts center."

"Did you answer them honestly?"

"Yes."

"Then you did everything right." I wanted to ask Mattie what he had told Eric but figured I would find out soon enough. At any rate, I was too tired to delve into the what-ifs. "Where are you sleeping tonight?"

"Bee says I can sleep on the pullout couch if I want."

"I'll bunk in here with you," Finn said, falling down on the other side of Mattie. "But you better keep that snoring to a minimum."

"I don't snore!"

"Yes, you do."

"No!"

"Yeah."

Smiling at them, I leaned over and pecked Mattie's cheek. "I'm going to make some phone calls and

head to bed. If you need me, come find me."

"You guys will be in the guest room on the left," Bee called out. "It's the one with the blue door."

I made sure to give Bee a big hug and a thank you for opening her home to us tonight. She squeezed me

tight and made sure I knew that we were always welcome. Nick reached out when I walked by the couch

and grasped my hand. He gave it an encouraging squeeze that took me by surprise.

Ducking into the guest room, I rubbed my face between my hands and inhaled some long, cleansing

breaths before digging my phone out of my pocket. An hour and three calls later, I had checked in with my

security guys and Mark. They all sounded groggy but were relieved to hear Marley was okay. I didn't know

what to tell them about Dan or Leonard and was glad that none of them asked.

As if he had been listening from the hallway, Jack entered the room just as I finished my last call. He

slumped against the closed door and blew out an exhausted breath before holding out his hand. "Shower with me?"

Feeling grimy and dirty, I happily accepted his offer. We ducked into the en-suite bathroom and

stripped. Jack pulled me into the walk-in shower and enveloped me from behind. Content to be held, I

leaned into Jack's embrace and enjoyed the relaxing rush of hot water pouring over our naked bodies.

Eventually, Jack reached for one of the wrapped soaps on the corner shelves. He lathered up the small

bar between those strong hands and spread the citrus-scented suds all over my skin. He palmed my breasts

with his slick palms and slid them down my belly and along my hips.

Bending down, he nipped at my neck and nibbled my earlobe. The hard length of his cock rubbed

against my lower back. Taking the bar of soap from him, I created a foamy lather between my hands and

attacked his sinfully sexy body. I ran my hands over his sculpted chest and down his arms before sweeping

them along the ridges of his abdomen. My hand glided lower, my fingers sifting through the nest of curls

crowning his cock before they wrapped around the pulsing shaft that I wanted buried deep inside me.

Shuddering under my touch, he groaned. "I need you, Abby."

"Not in here," I said, worried we might get carried away and fall. "It's too slippery."

He grunted but didn't push the issue. Quickly stepping under the spray, he rinsed off his body and made

sure to maintain as much skin contact with me as possible. He shut off the water and handed me a towel,

shooting me a look that told me not to dally or else he was going to throw me down on the floor and take

me right there.

Somehow we made it to the bedroom. Mindful of the others in the penthouse, we tried to be as quiet as

possible. Jack guided me down to the mattress, covering my naked body with his and reminding me how

powerful he was. Capturing my mouth in a sensual kiss, Jack caressed my breasts and toyed with my

nipples. I loved the way he lightly pinched them, tugging just enough on the sensitive peaks to make my

pussy throb. His head dipped and he sucked one of the dark buds between his lips. His tongue swirled

around my pebbled flesh before he suckled me again.

My hips bucked off the bed, and my sex brushed against his leg. I widened my thighs and rocked my

hips again, rubbing myself against him in a search for stimulation. Jack laughed softly against my breast and walked his fingers down the sloping plane of my belly to the juncture of my thighs. He cupped my mound

and stabbed his tongue between my lips, tasting me and making my senses reel.

His fingertips carefully parted my folds. Already, I was soaking wet for him. He tested my entrance

before gently sliding a finger deep inside me. A second one soon joined the first, curving just enough to

stroke that spot that made my toes curl and my breaths come faster. He swirled his thumb over my clitoris, and I moaned his name.

He silenced my low whimper with another kiss, his tongue gliding against mine in the same way his

fingers thrust in and out of my pussy. It felt so good to have his digits sliding deep, but I wanted more. I reached down and clasped his shaft, pulling him in closer. "Please, Jack."

"Tell me, sweetness."

"Your cock," I said, practically begging. "Make love to me, Jack."

"You want cum, Abby?"

"Yes." I did. I wanted to feel that blazing heat filling me. "Come inside me, Jack."

He growled and shoved my thighs apart, pushing up onto his knees and moving into position. Cupping

the back of my head, he thrust into me, burying the steely length of him in my wet heat. I locked my ankles behind his back, refusing to let him move too far away, and peered into the green eyes that I loved so

much.

Knowing my body as well as his own, Jack found an angle that made me shiver. He snapped his hips,

driving into me harder and harder. I rose up to meet his thrusts, running my hands down his back and

holding onto his shoulders as we rocked together and chased the promise of pure ecstasy.

"Jack!" My climax hit me suddenly, the power of it knocking the air out of my lungs. He watched my face as I came, his eyes shining with such love for me. After everything we had survived, it felt so good to enjoy such pleasure. It felt so good to feel
alive.

Growling my name, Jack slid deep inside me and shuddered. His cheek touched mine as he pumped his

seed into me, marking and claiming me as his. Though I wasn’t even close to being ready for
that
step yet, I silently acknowledged that when I was ready there was only one man in the whole wide universe I wanted

to share that journey with—and he was right here with me now.

Smiling down at me, Jack nuzzled my cheek. "I love you so much, Abby."

I brushed my knuckles along his jaw. "I love you."

Jack carefully rolled onto his back. I snuggled in next to him, grinning at the way he gathered me close

and kissed my forehead. His fingertips trailed up and down my arm as we enjoyed the afterglow of our

lovemaking. "I know it's been a rough week, Abby, but it's going to get better. We'll get through this."

"I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better," I remarked, thinking of the potential blowback from everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. "I'll be lucky if I'm not sued."

"If you are, we'll deal with it. We'll figure it out, Abby."

"We, huh?" I really liked the way that sounded.

"We. Us. You and me." He punctuated each word with a light kiss on my forehead. "Together."

I interlaced our fingers and let the heat of his love warm me. "Together."

Chapter Fourteen

Four Weeks Later

"Hey, batter, batter, batter, batter!"

Kicked back in the bleachers, I smiled as Mattie's voice filtered out of the dugout. He was riding the

bench this inning and wasn’t about to pass up the chance to razz the opposite team. Eric's players were

down four runs in the top of the ninth. Barring a miracle rally, Mattie's team was going to take this win.

"Is this seat taken?"

Surprised by the sound of Besian's voice, I nearly slid off the metal seat. "Oh my goodness! Come here.

Sit down." I winced with sympathy as his jaw tightened when claimed the spot next to me. "Are you still in a lot of pain?"

He shrugged as if wholly unbothered by the obvious discomfort. "It comes and goes." Rather pragmatic, he added, "I'm alive. I'd rather feel pain than be cold and dead in the ground."

"Fair enough," I murmured. "I came to see you in the hospital the day after I brought the plant, but they told me that you'd left against medical advice."

"They were driving me insane. How the hell is a man supposed to rest and recuperate when those

nurses are coming in every hour to poke me and squeeze my arm?" He shook his head. "I was better off at home." Smiling mischievously, he added, "That plant you brought me looks fantastic in my office at the Wet, by the way."

I wrinkled my nose. "Ew."

He braced his stomach and chuckled. "That's the response I expected from you. Still turning up your

nose at my establishment." He clapped when a young woman whacked a ball into the left field and waited until the noise died down to continue chatting with me. "How are things at the shop?"

"They're getting better." Business had nose-dived after all the trouble became public. Though the full truth about the hitman and the cartel hadn't become known, we had still suffered through a period where

only our regular customers would visit. "In the last ten days, our loans are finally climbing back up to normal numbers. We'll recover but this won't be a record setting year."

"When people need money, they don't have a lot of choices. It's a nice shop like yours—or a back room like mine," he remarked. "You'll get your customers back. What about your employees?"

I had a feeling he wanted to know about one employee in particular. "The security guards all quit, and I had to scramble to find new guys. Kelly helped me find a new crew through the Lone Star Group. I had a

couple of ladies on the day shift quit, but everyone else quit. Mark is our new night manager."

"Really?"

"He surprised the hell out of me asking for the job. I had expected him to hand in his resignation after he was discharged from the hospital, but he showed up at his next shift like nothing had happened." I didn't tell Besian that I wasn't going to make the same mistake Granddad had made with Dan by cutting him out of

a partnership. In the next few weeks, I planned to sit down with Mark and talk to him about his future at

the shop. He had been there for years, and I wanted him to know I appreciated him, even if we didn't

always see eye-to-eye.

"I heard Lorenzo Guzman made Lalo Contreras cut Dan and his kid loose after a couple of days. They're damned lucky it went that way for them. They were lucky the cartel boys settled for cash and were happy to let the problem slide rather than risk anymore bad press coverage."

"Yeah, the cartel settled for cash Dan and his son stole from me," I grumbled in aggravation. "But I guess it was a small price to pay to keep them alive."

"Do you know what Dan's up to now?"

I shook my head. "He hasn't come around the shop yet." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why? Do you?"

"I've heard some things."

"Like?"

"Like he's working collections for Hagen's successor."

"No way!"

Besian nodded. "Yes. That's where he's supposedly earning his paycheck."

I didn't want to believe it but acknowledged that Dan had to do something to pay bills. His skill set from many years as a pawn broker probably came in handy in that line of work. "I'm glad he landed on his feet."

The mobster sent a strange look my way. "Are you?"

"Of course."

"Even after everything he did?"

"I don't have room to judge, Besian." My attention turned to Jack and Finn, the brothers standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the dugout and offering pointers to their players. They had risked so much to keep me safe and to protect Mattie. "Dan was just trying to save his son. I can't fault him for that." I paused.

"Well—I do hate that he put Marley, Mark and my guards in such danger. That was so wrong of him. I still don't the guards didn't press charges or try to sue me."

"I'm sure they had their reasons."

His tone piqued my curiosity. I noticed the way he wouldn't look at me. "What did you do?"

His mouth settled into an irritated line. "Not what you're thinking."

"And what am I thinking?"

"That I intimidated or threatened them," he guessed rightly. "I prefer a much easier and more persuasive method."

"Money." He didn't try to deny it and nodded. "But—why?"

"Because Jack and Finn saved my life," he answered simply. "I owe them a debt. I know Jack would want me to make sure you're protected so that's what I did to repay him. You won't have any more trouble