THE GUARDIAN (Taskforce Series) (31 page)

If he didn’t make her his, right here, right now, she would self-combust.

Thank you, Jesus,
Jackson thought. Shutting the drawer he’d been riffling through, he approached her wordlessly, backed her against the door, and crushed his mouth over her questing lips
.

The kiss was as blistering as the sun outside. With their tongues entwined,
Jackson
cupped the cool, soft mounds pressed against his chest. Circling the velvety peaks with his thumbs, he brought her nipples into stiffness, eliciting a sexy whimper that drugged him with desire.

Somewhere along the way, his plans to court her slowly, while savoring every moment, had gone up in flames. With
Lena
, self-control and planning ahead were proving impossible. Breaking off the kiss, he stroked the length of her arms, twined his fingers with hers, and drew her toward the bed.

She followed him willingly. With a hint of color in her cheeks, her eyes sparkling with anticipation, she sank gracefully onto the mattress and scooted to the center to make room for him. The vision she made, with her legs slightly parted, tan lines highlighting her private parts, made him pause just long enough to strip off his swim trunks and take a mental picture. He would savor the memory later. Fully naked, he crawled over her, using his upper arms to push her legs apart. “So beautiful,” he muttered drinking her in
.

“
Jackson
.” She arched in languorous invitation.

With a growl, he lowered his mouth to her naval, swirled his tongue into the hollow there and tasted salt from the river. He measured the cradle of her hipbones with his lips, lathed the brackets between her thighs and her vulva, approaching the tempting pink flesh that peeked out between the plumper mounds. When he finally licked the tender petals, her cry of satisfaction hit him like a drug being mainlined to his veins.

If only he had all the time in the world to learn what pleased her most. For now butterfly flicks of his tongue and the finger he stroked into her dewy opening seemed sufficient. When she drove her hips eagerly against his hand, he added a second digit. Her muscles gripped him, betraying her eagerness
.

“Please, I want you inside me this time.”

He wasn’t about to deprive himself again. Retrieving a condom he had found in his shaving kit, he ripped into the wrapper with his teeth. “It’s been a while,” he confessed, embarrassed by his fumbling hands. Prophylactics never seemed big enough. But her eyes, wide and luminous, were mercifully focused on his face.

With the condom covering him, he settled between her open thighs and gazed down at her. Breathing fast, she kneaded his shoulders as if caught up in the immediacy of the moment
.
He could see the pulse beating at her throat.

“
Magdalena
,” he murmured, watching for the least hint of discomfort as he advanced his penetration inch by inch. “Talk to me. Tell me what you need.” 

“More.” Her lusty answer was almost his undoing. He stilled, afraid of coming too soon.

She undulated, drawing him deeper still.

Pleasure wicked up
Jackson
’s spine and nearly made his head explode. “Promise me,” he rasped, “this won’t be the last time.” As much as he didn’t want to think of
Davis
right now, he was terrified of what the future held in store for both of them. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

Her eyes locked with his. “I promise.”

Surrendering himself to sensation, he pushed all the way inside her.

Lena
had to be in heaven. She’d never experienced this sense of absolute, delectable fulfillment. It was shockingly titillating, outrageously erotic. A primal rhythm pulsed at her core, emitting a slippery heat that allowed them to defy the laws of geometry. God, he so felt incredible inside her!  

“You okay?” he asked
.

“Oh, yes.” 

He moved, igniting a relentless craving in her to be driven over the brink. “Take me there,
Jackson
,” she pleaded, coaxing him to keep up with her
.

What he made her feel when he moved transformed her into a creature of impulse and appetite. Every foray of his body into hers, whether fast and hard, or deep and slow, was exactly what her body wanted
.

“Perfect,” she breathed when he shifted to a different rhythm. A light layer of sweat coated them both, enhancing the slippery collision of their bodies. “Don’t stop,” she begged him as he fought for control. “Don’t ever stop, baby.”

But her senses could only take so much. With a cry of ecstasy, she gave into the current that swept her toward the brink of release. At Jackson’s answering growl, they plummeted over the edge together, crashing into a pool of bliss where they sank deep beneath the surface, pummeled by pleasure, until they floated gently toward shore, secure in the circle of each other’s arms.

Peering through her lashes, Lena was almost surprised to find herself in the same place as where they’d been twenty minutes ago, though the room was distinctly warmer and perfumed with the scent of sex.
Jackson
’s stunned and blown-away expression had to be a mirror reflection of her own.

What they’d shared had been sublimely, frighteningly perfect
.

With tender fingers, he brushed a damp tendril from her cheek. His heavy sigh seemed to correlate with the pressure that descended suddenly on her chest. She didn’t want to leave him, was terrified to let him waltz back into Gateway knowing his safety now rested in her hands. What if Peter refused to tell her before he went public? “I’m scared for us both,” she admitted.

His arms tightened around her, holding her more securely. “It’s not too late for you to go home,” he reminded her.

“And leave you here alone? I don’t think so.”

“As long as you tell us when your boss takes his story public, I’ll be fine. You’re the one who’s in danger here.”

“I’ll be fine,” she tossed back, using the same words.

They lapsed into quiet, an uneasy truce between them.

“What are you most afraid of,
Jackson
?” she asked, her fear getting the better of her, ruling the words that slipped off her tongue.

He drew a deep breath then let it out all at once. “You really want to know?

“Yes.” She wanted to know everything there was to know about him, to carry those details around in her head like love letters to be taken out and examined later.

“All right. I’m terrified of dying in the line of duty. I never used to be afraid of that, and it makes me sound like a coward.”

“Not at all,” she assured him. “What would Naomi do without you?”

“Exactly. I should put my family first.”

A warm gush of emotion filled
Lena
’s heart and sent tears rushing into her eyes. She had never fallen in love before, but if she had, she imagined it would feel like this.

The unmistakable thump of a car door closing caused them both to start. “Naomi’s grandmother’s back.”
Jackson
’s tone was gruff with reluctance.

The tears in
Lena
’s eyes abruptly dried
.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her, reading her expression of chagrin accurately as he scrambled from the bed. “I’ll go talk to her.” Rifling through his drawers, he produced a pair of drawstring pants and T-shirt. “You can wear these home,” he said. He snatched his swim trunks off the floor, dropped a swift kiss on her forehead, and headed for the door. As he crossed the hall into the bathroom,
Lena
dressed in his overly large clothing, rolling up the pants and tucking in the voluminous T-shirt
.

She heard him retreat down the hallway and speak to the grandmother in the kitchen. Feeling awkward and uncertain, she gathered up her damp clothes, took a deep breath, and walked through the living room into the kitchen.

The middle-aged woman standing at the counter looked up at her and beamed. “Here she is,” she exclaimed, taking in
Lena
’s flushed dishevelment without so much as a blink.

Bemused, Lena allowed herself to be hugged as
Jackson
introduced them. “Silvia, this is
Magdalena
.
Lena
, this is Naomi’s grandmother.”

“Nice to meet you,”
Lena
murmured. Her face felt like it was on fire. She glanced at the kitchen clock, “but I do have to get going.”

“I’ll walk you to your car,”
Jackson
volunteered. Having grabbed her sandals from where she’d left them by the sliding doors, he placed them by her feet.

“Hope to see you again soon,” Silvia called as they passed back through the kitchen and out the door there.

“You will,”
Jackson
said on
Lena
’s behalf.

In comfortable silence, they crossed to her Jaguar.
Lena
unlocked the doors remotely.

Warm air wafted out as he opened her driver’s side door. “Make sure you have Toby’s number,”
Jackson
reminded her
.

Toby had called her cell so she’d have his number on her caller ID. Reaching into the car, she pulled her phone from her purse. “Area code 202?”

“That’s him.”

Glancing up, Lena caught
Jackson
studying her intently. The feelings that had overpowered her earlier rose up in her again, and she took a quick step toward him, laying her cheek against his chest to hide her surfaced emotions. His arms folded tenderly around her.
I could just stay right here,
she reflected.

“Remember what you promised me,” he rumbled overhead.

He had made her promise that they would be together again; that she’d be careful.

“I won’t forget.” Forcing a smile, she eased away from him and slipped into her car. Despite the heat in the vehicle a chill formed on the top of her head as she realized she’d be facing her sister’s killer in just two days.

It’ll be fine
, she told herself. She’d made
Jackson
a promise, and she intended to keep it.

**

As the wail of a siren penetrated the glass in the cafeteria windows, the parolees and imams looked up from their bowls of lentil soup. The interruption wrested
Jackson
from memories of the extraordinary contentment he’d experienced yesterday, memories that caused him to get lost in abstraction when he could least afford it. He realized now that the fire marshal had arrived for their surprise inspection. The time had come to search Zakariya’s office.

With identical frowns of confusion, the imams rose from their table and hurried outside to investigate. The parolees all looked at one another then abandoned their own lunch to follow them.

This is it,
Jackson
told himself.

Dawdling, he was the last to reach the exit. Instead of heading outside, he doubled back and hastened to Zakariya’s office. The door was shut but thankfully unlocked, saving him the hassle of having to pick the lock
.

Slipping into the sunlit office,
Jackson
shut the door and looked around. Unlike Ibrahim’s office, Zakariya’s personal space was cluttered with books and paperwork. Finding the evidence he sought would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.