Rules of Protection (Tangled in Texas) (Volume 1) (21 page)

“It was kind of you and the others to help. You guys hardly know me.”

“I know you, Emily. Better than you think. You are so much like my daughter, Lucy, in personality. The two of you could’ve passed for sisters.”

“I’d like to meet her.”

“You can’t. She died four years ago.”

The shock made my head whip around to him. “Oh, I…I’m sorry. No one told me. I thought the clothes…”

“I couldn’t get rid of them before, but you came along and…well, I wanted to help. It made it easier to part with them.”

I patted his hand with understanding. “May I ask how she died?”

“Lucy was in her first year of college when she met a man named Brian Wellington. They went out only a few times, but he was obsessed with her. He got jealous easily, so she broke it off. When he caught her at a party talking to another boy, he went crazy. After she left the party, he followed her back to her dorm and stabbed her to death. The bastard went into hiding before the police could arrest him.”

“Did they find him?”

“No.” Junior’s eyes turned black, making him look more savage than I’d ever seen him. “And they never will.”

I swallowed. He didn’t have to spell it out for me. “Is that why you stopped working as a tracker?”

“Yes.”

“What about Lucy’s mother?”

“Suzanne died a year after Lucy from a brain aneurysm.”

“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to lose everyone you care about. My parents…”

“I know.”

I gave him a strange look. “Is there anything you
don’t
know?”

He grinned, but didn’t answer.

“Who told you?”

“The first time I met you, I knew something was going on. When Jake introduced you as his girlfriend, you were caught off guard.” He chuckled softly, as if remembering the look on my face. “Few people can lie to me and get away with it. Jake’s not one of them.”

“I understand helping Jake find me when you thought I was his girlfriend, but now that you know I’m nothing to him, why bother?”

“I could find you faster than the boys could. I wasn’t able to save my daughter…or my wife…but I could help you. It won’t bring them back, but maybe it’ll save my soul. ” He gave me a knowing look. “And you’re something to Jake, whether you two admit it or not.”

…

Floss hugged me tightly, bringing a smile to my face, before Junior could lift me out of the truck. I didn’t doubt she’d been standing in the driveway since we hung up with her.

“Hank and Jake are on their way back now,” Floss said. “Let’s get you inside and clean you up.”

Junior carried me into the cottage with ease and sat me gently on the bed. He turned to leave, but I grabbed his hand, pulling him back. I touched the side of his face and kissed his cheek. “You’re a good man, Junior.”

With his Native American skin color it was hard to tell, but I was sure he blushed. “Take care,” he said before leaving.

Floss played doctor, checking the bump on my head and looking at the scratches on my legs before pulling two thorns and a couple of large splinters out of my feet. Several small cuts had dirt packed in them, but I told her I’d scrub it out in the shower. She helped me stand—amazingly easy to do when you don’t have spikes crippling your feet—and shuffled me into the bathroom.

I sat on the bed with fresh clothes and clean, damp hair while Floss checked my feet again. With the dirt and mud gone, thorns and splinters would be easier to spot. She removed another sizable splinter, applied antibiotic cream to both feet, then wrapped them in gauze. I was glad I wouldn’t have to look at the small white pustules that had formed where the fire ants stung me. It was like my feet had broken out with a bad case of acne.

As she finished, Jake exploded through the cottage door wearing his gun in his shoulder holster. I jumped, not having heard them pull up. He didn’t say a word, just positioned himself in the doorway. I tried not to look directly at him. Flustered, I waited for him to move, to do something, to yell at me, but he didn’t say anything.

“I’m going to let you two chat,” Floss said before making herself scarce.

The room closed in on me and I couldn’t breathe. If Floss was running, I had to expect the worst. I wished she’d taken Jake’s gun with her.

He was bound to be upset that I caused more trouble, costing them all a sleepless night. I probably could guess his thoughts.
Hurricane Emily strikes again.
He openly and loudly disapproved of my stunts any other time. Why wasn’t he shouting colorful words at me already?

After the bar fight, he struggled to control his temper in the parking lot. Before that, I hadn’t thought he was capable of losing control. Not completely, anyway. Sure, he yelled at me a lot when I made him angry. Holy freaking cow! I must’ve done a bang-up job pushing his buttons if I left him speechless. He was never this quiet, this motionless, for any length of time.

I should say something, apologize or at least explain what happened. I wasn’t sure it was the smart thing to do. His silence and restricted movements were “Don’t Feed The Bear” signs, if I’d ever seen them. If I opened my mouth now, I’d be inviting the danger. Maybe it’s what he wanted. His way of surrounding me with fuel, striking a match, and letting the flames force me to react. With unwavering patience, Jake could easily wait me out.

Someone had to go first. “Before you say anything, I’d like to—”

“Don’t.” The only word he spoke.

Shit.
“If you’re going to yell at me, get it over—”

“Don’t speak.”

Fuck me. What’s he going to say next, three words? The anticipation was killing me, but I sat quietly, wondering what he was thinking. Come on, Jake. Yell at me. Punch a wall. Do something. Anything.

When he moved toward me, I changed my mind.

He sat on the side of the bed, facing me. I instinctually drew away from him, but he wouldn’t allow it. His arm slid around my waist, pulling me back and making me flinch. I still wasn’t sure of his mindset. My eyes refused to meet his, avoiding the storm I imagined raging inside, but he caught my chin and lifted it.

I was surprised at what I saw. Jake looked terrible. No, he looked like shit. And it wasn’t from the bruises left over from the bar brawl.

A painful scowl puckered his face and his dark, unruly hair was disheveled. His gray eyes appeared weathered, as if he had aged ten years overnight. Every bit of the strain showed on his face, but he didn’t look mad. He looked…pitiful.

“Jake…?”

“Shhh,” he said, pulling me into his chest. “Don’t talk.” His hand twisted into my hair as his fingers made feather-light strokes against my scalp. “Jesus, Emily. You were gone, dead for all I knew. I wasn’t sure we’d find you in time and I couldn’t stop thinking if I’d only—”

“Jake, I’m fine.”

He studied my face as his eyes clouded over. “But I’m not.” Then his mouth covered mine.

I tried not to lose my smarts, struggling to control the mind clutter and scattered feelings. But I had to contemplate whether Jake had a passive-aggressive disorder. When his tongue swept into my mouth, caressing mine, I no longer cared. After all, I’m no doctor. Hell, I was in the midst of spiking a fever myself.

When Jake resurfaced, his gray eyes had changed. Cold, murky ashes now smoldered with heat. He traced a velvety finger along my collarbone, as if finger painting across my skin, until he reached the strap of my halter top. Pushing it aside, he gently pressed his lips to my shoulder, then his tongue, making me shiver at his slight touch.

Confused, I pushed him back. “W-what are you doing?”

“If you don’t know,” Jake said, snaking his hand around my neck, “then you’re way behind.” He nipped at my bottom lip and trailed his mouth up my jaw.

“Wait…” I murmured unconvincingly, as his lips brushed across my ear, his tongue flicking at my lobe. But he wasn’t stopping. “Jake, hold on.” I put my hands on his chest and moved him back again. “Why are you acting like nothing happened?”

“I’m not,” he said softly, settling his hands on my hips and pulling me closer. “Something happened. Fine. We’ll talk about it later.”

“Later?” Did we switch roles somehow and I wasn’t aware of it? “Why later? Why not right now?”

“Because, right now, we’re busy.” Jake nudged me onto my back and crawled over me, lifting my shirt to reveal my midriff. He tickled it with his soft lips, moving upward with the shirt until he neared my breasts.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins, disrupting the delicate balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in my brain. It made it harder to think. Was he planning to yell at me later? If so, I wasn’t sure I wanted to have sex with him before getting berated.

With my hands, I blocked his progression to my breasts. “Talk first, sex later.”

He groaned with frustration and flopped onto his back. “Never thought I’d hear you say that,” he grumbled.

“Neither did I,” I admitted, trying to get control of my senses. “What is this? Aren’t you mad at me?”

“For stopping me, yes. For falling into the river and getting lost in the woods, no.”

I tossed him a suspicious glance. “You’re not mad?”

“God, Emily, it was an accident. We knew what happened the moment we found where you fell into the water. What we didn’t know was what happened to you afterward. I wasn’t even sure you made it out of the river alive. Not until Floss reached us on the radio and told us Junior had found you.” He ran his fingers through his hair, the stress of the memory showing plainly on his face. “I knew Junior would get to you first. The boys and I are good at tracking, but—”

“He’s better,” I said, finishing his sentence.

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “Junior said that, didn’t he?”

I smirked in confirmation.

“That stupid Indian has no modesty when it comes to his abilities,” he said. “He’s good at everything and damn well knows it. But I guess you know that already.”

“Because he found me first?”

“We passed Junior on the road. He told us about the hogs. You don’t know how lucky you are the Russian boar didn’t get ahold of you.”

“Well, I’m not stupid. I wasn’t going to stand there and let a four-hundred pound pig—”

“Five.”

“Huh?”

Jake sat upright. “Junior said the hog was closer to five hundred pounds.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feel stupid for guessing low or smart for coming as close as I did.

“It was a good guess,” Jake said, which made me feel better. He swiped a strand of hair from my cheek and pushed it behind my ear. His hand rested on my neck, his thumb rolling lightly over my cheek. His eyes glazed over with emotion. “I…I don’t know what I would’ve done if something had happened to you, Emily.”

I touched his face in an effort to comfort him, but didn’t miss the shift in his posture or the stretched seam in his jeans. “Jake, I—”

“I need you, Emily. I need to touch you, to feel you under me. No more waiting. No more wanting. Right now.”

“What about the rules? You said—”

“Screw the rules.” He pushed me back onto my back, rolled on top of me, and nuzzled into my neck. “Now, where were we?”

Something dug into my rib cage. “Wait a second. You forgot something.”

“I have condoms,” he whispered, touching his lips to my skin.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said, though he ignored me, still licking and kissing my neck. “Jake…? Jake, stop.”

Reluctantly, he paused, but I could feel his hard-on through his jeans. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“No. It’s hurting me. Where are you putting your gun?”

Jake grinned widely. “Depends on which one you’re referring to.”

Chapter Eighteen

Once Jake’s 9mm handgun rested safely on the nightstand, he returned to the bed. He slithered up my body, kissing and touching lightly. An orientation of sorts. As if he was accustoming me to his touch, preparing my body for the inevitable.

The stubble on his chin rasped across my sensitive skin like steel wool, making the pangs of longing start low in my belly. I craved the tenderness he offered. The need to fulfill ourselves threatened to amp up the passion quicker than expected. Our clothes were merely speed bumps in the road to stimulation.

With our clothing lying in a heap on the floor, Jake pressed his lips to my ear, whispering obscene rumblings of expectation and promise. “You have no idea what I want to do to you, Emily. What I’m
about
to do to you,” he corrected. “God, I want to taste you.”

I could’ve OD’d on his words alone. I licked my wet, swollen lips. “So what are you waiting for?”

He propped himself up on his knees and flitted glances up and down my body, staring ravenously with a sex-starved expression. Jake resembled a man in a hunger crisis eyeing a buffet. It was a raunchy glare, his darkened eyes sponging up every detail of my naked flesh.

When his tender mouth closed on my inner thigh, I pressed my fist to my lips and let out a muffled cry. With feathery strokes of his tongue, Jake massaged my thighs, tempering me, adjusting me to his heat slowly before he tasted.

His ambitious mouth targeted me in all the right places. I arched under him, my hips undulating rhythmically in time with his pace. His creative fingers pulsed over my sensitive skin, causing the pressure to build. My hands fisted his hair as he pushed two large fingers inside me, rapidly building pressure that would result in an explosion.

The elusive orgasm I’d been chasing since I met Jake fiercely consumed my body like flames from a fire. I twitched and convulsed recklessly until my breath bottomed out and I finally let out a deep, satisfying moan.

I wanted to feel him plunging into me with the forcefulness he possessed. But he had other plans. Jake held on to my hips, pulled me back to him, and continued his exploration of my body with his mouth. I begged him to take me, but he ignored me. Instead, he carried me over the threshold of pleasure once more.

Waves of sensations vibrated inside me, making me purr with ecstasy. I appreciated the attentiveness, the generosity, but even then, for a brief second, I wasn’t sure Jake would stop long enough to give himself to me fully.

I squirmed in his grip, begging for more. “God, Jake, I want you. Please…”

The grin he wore as he rose to his knees wasn’t lost on me. He wanted to hear me pleading, begging him to penetrate my body to alleviate the deep, throbbing ache only one part of his could. He quickly snapped on a condom and kneed my thighs apart, positioning himself with his hand. I could feel his erection prodding at my soft folds, but he didn’t shove into me as expected.

“Open your eyes,” he demanded, unwinding my fingers that were still coiled around the sheets and interlacing them with his.

The heavy-lidded, lust-filled gaze I offered lit up his face, and a primal urge took over. He pulled my hips up roughly and grunted as he buried his thick, hot shaft inside, grinding against me fully. He kept scorching eye contact that burned into me, searing me with his flesh as well as his mind. It wasn’t fair for a person to have this much power over my emotions, my body, but I had accepted it the moment our clothes hit the floor.

No air was left in the room. I couldn’t catch my breath. I was plummeting in a merciless freefall that sucked all of the oxygen from my lungs and, although I grasped for it, my ripcord of completion was still out of reach.

I swept my hands along his back, feeling the hard-packed muscles tightening, rippling under my fingers. He was getting closer. But Jake was going for the big O…mine, not his own. Purposefully, he was holding himself back until he got what he came for. Literally.

He didn’t seem obsessed with trying to make me scream like a porn star, but I couldn’t say the urge hadn’t been there to do so. If I didn’t come again soon, I’d surely end up with brain damage.

“Come for me,” he demanded, shoving himself deeper into me. “Now, Emily. I want to feel it.”

He intended to get what he wanted, even if it meant coercing it out of me like a modern day pirate. Jake had charted the route to my satisfaction, but on his map, X didn’t mark the spot. G did. And he was obviously a “leave no stone unturned” kind of guy.

Shattering what strength I had left, my inner muscles contracted around him, milking him to orgasm. His body became rigid and he threw his head back, groaning loudly, enduring the sweet torture of his own gratification until finally collapsing next to me on the bed.

A half hour later, our heart rates returned to normal, but neither of us spoke. It wasn’t a rewarding experience, but more of a head-to-toe euphoric buzz.

Jake tucked me possessively into his chest and held me with gentle hands, like a fragile baby bird that’d fallen from its nest. I drifted in and out of consciousness, but became aware of him as his finger doodled across my collarbone.

“Should I consider your closed eyes as a ‘do not disturb’ sign?” he asked.

I cracked one eye open and smiled with contentment. “I’m already disturbed…in more ways than one. What the hell was
that
?”

“What’s wrong?” he said, grinning devilishly. “You didn’t like?”

“Oh, no. I liked it a lot,” I said. “But why do I suddenly have the urge to bless you with holy water?”

“Never had a woman complain before.”

“Not a complaint, more of an observation.” I hesitated to ask, but felt the need to. “Do you have any, uh…complaints?”

“Emily, I’m a man. We’re not hard to please. I was just thrilled you were naked.” He ran his hand lazily between my breasts. “Still am, in fact. Mother Nature’s wardrobe,” he said, leaning in for a quick kiss.

When he got out of bed, I watched the muscles tighten in his bare ass as he stalked across the room and opened the closet. A minute later, a blanket dropped over me. “You look cold,” Jake said.

“Thanks.”
Damn nipples.

Jake continued leaning over me. “I can do you one better if you want to take a shower with me. I promise it’ll be hot,” he said with a wink.

“I would, but I think you crippled me for life. I lost all my basic motor functions. I’ll probably never walk again.”

Jake flashed a proud grin and stroked his finger across my eyelid. “Poor baby. Sleep then. I wouldn’t want you to have any permanent damage.”

Thinking of only my heart, two words came to mind.
Too late.

…

Serenely, I drifted in and out of consciousness, but stirred when Jake crawled back into bed, his hair damp and his warm body smelling of soap. When I picked up my head, he glanced over at me.

“Hungry?” he asked.

“Is that an offer?”

“If we’re talking about food, then yes. Earlier, I went over to get you something to eat. Floss had already made us some chicken salad sandwiches. She left them upstairs in the fridge with a note. I brought them back with me and put them in ours.”

“A note? What’d it say?”

He did his best Floss impression. “Jake, I’m riding into town with Hank. I didn’t want to disturb you while you were boning Emily.”

I gigged him in the ribs with my elbow and laughed. “She did
not
say that!”

Jake laughed. “Well, close enough. I deciphered the hidden meaning behind what she wrote.”

“Which was…?”

“
Enjoy
. Though I think she was referring to the sandwiches. Stay here. I’ll get them.”

Jake got out of bed naked and walked into the kitchen. As I glanced toward the bedroom window, I realized the room had darkened a little. The late afternoon sun had already descended behind the trees.

“I hope you wore clothes when you went over there,” I yelled from the bedroom.

“I threw on a pair of shorts,” Jake called out, rustling around the kitchen. When he came into the bedroom, he carried a plate in one hand and a glass of tea in the other. “I’ve got something for you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “It better taste like chicken.”

“Doesn’t everything?”

I sat up, keeping the blanket tucked under my armpits to keep it from falling, exposing my nakedness. “You don’t want me to answer that.”

“Now you’re just being crude,” he said, scowling as he placed the plate in my lap. Two sandwiches cut into small triangles adorned the plate, along with a dill pickle.

I smiled at him. “I was talking about your pickled opossum and rattlesnake cheese. You know, all the wacky stuff you country people eat.”

Jake laughed heartily. “All you’re doing is giving me ideas. Rattlesnake cheese sounds pretty good.”

I bit into a sandwich. “I’m too hungry right now to be grossed out.”

“I should probably apologize for not letting you eat before attacking you.”

“But you won’t, right?”

He laughed. “Not a chance in hell. Be more careful about what you ask for.”

I swallowed another bite. “You know we’re going to have to talk about it.”

“Eat first,” Jake said, squeezing into the bed next to me. “We’ll talk about it later. We have time.”

I would’ve argued, but after going twenty-four hours without eating, food received precedence over curiosity. I inhaled the sandwich, then started on the pickle. When I finished, I set the plate aside and caught him staring at me.

“You did that on purpose. Absolutely no one eats a pickle like that, especially when they’re in bed naked.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked, grinning slyly. “Thought you liked torture.”

“Only when I’m doing the torturing,” he grumbled. He watched me as I slid out of bed, walking carefully on my sensitive feet toward the bathroom. “Where you going?”

“I need to get ready for dinner.”

“Dinner? You just ate,” he noted. “You can’t possibly eat again so soon.”

I shrugged. “Didn’t stop you earlier.”

…

By the time I got out of the bathroom, Jake had disappeared. I wondered where he went until I heard a truck door shut. Hank and Floss were back. Wrapped in a towel, I sat on the edge of the bed and applied antibiotic cream to my swollen feet. Seconds later, Jake came back inside.

“Floss is going to start dinner, but it’ll probably be a while before it’s ready,” he said, sitting beside me on the bed. “Want any help? While we’re waiting for dinner, I could give you a little petting.”

“You mean pampering?”

“Petting sounds like more fun, but yeah, that, too.” He lifted my feet into his lap, reminding me of how he did the same thing to me the first night we arrived. I watched him doctor my battered feet and wrap them with gauze, just as Floss had.

Then he grabbed me around the waist, nuzzling his face into my damp hair. Jake’s hands rubbed over my shoulders, kneading them hard, as if trying to work out the knots. It wasn’t long before his gently massaging fingers moved from my arms to my chest, then from my chest to my hips.

“Special Agent Ward, I do believe we’ve tapped into one of your hidden talents,” I said rolling my neck as he continued kneading his fingers into my shoulder blades.

“Mental medicine,” Jake said, lowering his voice to a whisper, brushing my shoulder with his lips.

“Mmm-hmm,” I murmured in agreement, concentrating more on the motion of his fingers as they etched into my skin.

Just when I thought our mental state would turn physical, someone knocked on the door. “Dinner’s ready!”

Jake sighed and hollered back, “Thanks, Floss.”

“Dinner? Already?” I said, looking at him. “That was fast. What’d she make…a bowl of cereal?”

He shrugged. “She must’ve decided it was leftover night or something. Better hurry and get dressed or we won’t be making it to dinner,” Jake said, eyeing the towel that had crept halfway down my breasts.

…

After a dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, Jake offered to put some boxes into the attic for Floss. I came straight to the room, undressed completely, and slid into bed. A few minutes later, he joined me, stripping off his clothes before settling under the covers in the moonlit room.

He ran his hand the length of my body, as if to assure himself I was as naked as he was, then snuggled into me, resting his arm across my stomach.

“Seeing if I had another man under there?” I teased.

“With you, you never know.”

Offended, I sat upright. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Calm down,” he said, pulling me back down. “I didn’t mean it the way it came out. I meant you always do things to purposely upset me.”

I let some of the tension out of my body, still trying to figure out if I wanted to be mad about his remark. Since I probably deserved it, I let it go. “Defense mechanism,” I explained.

“What’s the point?”

I sighed heavily. “To push people away, I guess. That way I don’t build an attachment to someone who doesn’t plan on sticking around.”

“So if you abandon ship first, and the other person follows suit, you don’t feel like you got left behind?”

“Something like that,” I admitted.

“Has anybody ever tried to jump overboard to rescue you instead?”

I hesitated, not liking the direction the conversation had taken. “Let’s just say I’m a strong swimmer.”

“So you’ve dated cowards? That’s strange. I wouldn’t have pictured that type of guy for you.”

“Truthfully, I haven’t dated much at all. Two long-term relationships, but neither lasted for a year or was that serious,” I said. “You know how some women say they stopped compromising in the boyfriend department? Well, I actually stopped shopping there altogether. It saves me from the disappointment.”

“Sounds lonely.”

I shrugged. “I’ve been alone since I was fourteen. Guess I’m used to it.”

Jake rubbed his hand over my arm, comforting me. “You’re not alone here, Emily. You know that, right? We all care about what happens to you. Hell, Bobbie Jo—”

“You’ve kidding me, right? Unbelievable! We’re lying naked in bed together, and you want to talk about your ex-girlfriend?” Disgusted, I pushed him away and rolled out of the bed. “Bobbie Jo can’t stay away from you, though she thinks you’re dating me and you want to—”