by Cynthia Eden
Hathway was a straight-up asshole.
Bran’s hand fisted. And so am I. He started to back away.
The door opened. Steam drifted out, closing around him and brushing over his overheated skin. His gaze fell onto Julia. She stood there with a towel wrapped around her and her wet hair sliding over her shoulders. A bead of moisture slid over her cheek.
She stared back at him, and her eyes widened in alarm. “Is something wrong?”
Bran shook his head. He couldn’t speak. Hathway might be a bastard, but he was also right. As soon as Bran had seen her on his front porch, he’d been a goner. One look into her eyes…
And I think I lost my soul.
“I-I took a quick shower,” Julia said softly, her faint stutter catching him by surprise.
Why still act hesitant? Shy?
“I thought you might need me, so I hurried.” Her words rushed out.
She was so small. He should back away. He didn’t move.
She bit her lower lip. Looked even more innocent. Even sexier.
“Don’t do it anymore,” he heard himself order, voice too harsh.
Her hair slid over her shoulder. “Do what?”
“Pretend to be someone you’re not. Hathway told you how to work me. Stop it. You don’t need to do it anymore. I don’t want some lie. I want the real woman.”
Did hurt flash in her eyes? Because it sure looked that way, and his chest ached. He didn’t want to hurt her. Hell, for a bit there…
I wanted to give her the whole world.
Now who was lying? Because…
I still want to give her the world.
“I’m not pretending anything. I’m nervous and I’m scared, and the adrenaline crash is about to tear me apart.”
His whole body leaned toward her.
“I told you lies, yes, but like I said before, everything wasn’t a lie. I never intended to get personally involved with you. That was my mistake. But I wanted you more than I’ve wanted anyone in a really long time, and I promised myself, if I found someone like you, if I had the chance to let go, then I’d take that chance.”
She was going to bring him straight to his knees. “Julia…”
“Do you want to know the truth? I want you. I want you right now. I want you because I know we don’t have much time left.”
They could have all the time in the world.
“I don’t want to look back with regrets, Bran. I want to remember every moment. I was terrified when I realized the stalker had probably gotten into your cabin. I was frantic to get you out of there. I had to get you to safety.”
And he’d just had to get her.
After he’d ended the call with Hathway, Bran had stormed after her, gone into her room, marched to the bathroom door, but then he’d frozen.
She wasn’t frozen, though. As Bran watched, her hands lifted. She dropped the towel. It hit the floor with a soft slither of sound.
“I’m nervous, and I’m scared,” Julia confessed again. “I’m afraid that you will turn away. But I’m more afraid that if I don’t have you one more time, I will regret it for the rest of my life.”
He broke. Simple as that. Nothing on earth could have stopped him from reaching for her. For locking his arms around her and hauling her against his body. He lifted her up, and their mouths met in a surge of raw, desperate need.
There wasn’t control. He didn’t have any left, not with her. Everything was too basic. Too wild. Too savage. Her body was soft and wet, warm from the shower. Her hands flew over him and clawed at his shirt, and he wanted it out of the way. He wanted everything gone. Had to be skin to skin with her. She was the only thing that mattered.
Maybe she was the only thing that ever would matter.
He backed her against the tile wall of the bathroom. He caught her hands and caged them above her head as he kissed her. Her tongue slid against his. Her moan drove him insane. Her bare sex rocked against his jeans. Those jeans had to freaking go. He needed to be in her. Wouldn’t be able to push the demons away, not until he was in her. Not until he was sure that Julia was his.
“Bran!”
He loved the way she said his name. Her body twisted against his.
“I can’t wait!”
Neither could he. He pulled her from the wall. He had this terrible fear that if he didn’t have her, right then, he would lose her. She’d vanish, and he wouldn’t be able to get her back. He had to tie Julia to him. Had to bind them.
He carried her into the bedroom. Put her on the bed and ditched his clothes as fast as he could. He reached for her—
“Dammit!” Bran snarled.
Her eyes widened.
“No condoms.” He leaned over the bed, over her, and his hands clenched around the bedding.
She gave him a slow smile. “Look in the nightstand drawer. This is one well equipped bed and breakfast. Guess they like for their guests to have everything they need.”
He yanked the drawer open, ripping the thing straight from the nightstand.
Her soft laughter seemed to stroke around him.
He found a condom, tore open the package, and shoved it over his cock. He whirled back for her. She was propped up on her elbows, her hair skimming her shoulders, and her lips parted. Her pert breasts thrust toward him. Her legs were spread, giving him a glimpse of paradise. For a moment, Bran couldn’t move. He wanted her so badly that he felt as if he were about to explode, but he also simply wanted to stare at her. To drink her in. He needed to memorize every single part of her.
She licked her lips. “I told you…” Her voice was husky and sensual. “I don’t want to wait.”
He surged toward her. Jumped onto that bed and went straight between her thighs. His hands caught her hips as he lifted her up, and Bran surged into her, sinking as deeply as he could go.
The desperate pulse of fear that had been riding him ever since his cabin blew to hell…it vanished. Nothing mattered right then, only her. He could gaze into her eyes forever, stay buried in her body and be blissfully, completely happy.
Her legs curled around his hips. Her sex squeezed him tightly.
Bran withdrew. Thrust. The peace of the moment vanished as the wild lust took over. A driving need to consume her. A need to make her scream and claw at him. He wanted her crazy for him. Beyond thought and reason.
Just as he would be for her.
He drove into her. Slid one hand between their bodies. Found her clit and worked that small bud of need even as he pounded into her. Her moans filled his ears. His breath sawed in and out, and he felt her shudder as her climax built.
“Yes, baby, yes,” Bran urged her. “I need to feel you come around me. I need to feel everything!”
Her head tipped back as she gasped out his name. Her climax slammed over them both, sending him careening into his own release. The pleasure didn’t sweep over him. It wrecked him. Surged through every cell of his body and left him gasping for breath as he held tight to her. His heart raced, his body shuddered, and all he knew was her.
Julia.
His Julia.
His gaze swept over her face.
How the hell was he supposed to ever let her go?
***
“I’m not staying in the damn hospital,” Cole Vincent muttered as he glowered at the nurse and doctor hovering around him. He’d already had more than enough hospital visits to last him a few lifetimes, and if he had to stay in that place even a little longer, he thought he might go crazy.
“You have a concussion,” the doctor began, rolling back his thin shoulders and jerking up his pointed nose. “You need to stay for observation—”
“My knee,” Cole snapped as he tried to focus the guy. “You said it wasn’t broken.”
The doctor squinted and looked down at his chart. “Uh, no, but you were very, very lucky, especially considering the damage you previously sustained—”
Cole rose from the hospital bed. He was dressed in a paper-thin gown, and air whispered over his skin. He
took a step forward and almost toppled straight onto his face. He would’ve, if Rick hadn’t been there. The guy grabbed his arm and steadied him.
“Concussion,” the doctor announced. “I’ve told you this several times! That’s why we have the fall risk warning on your hospital room door! You will experience dizziness, unsteadiness, you will—”
“My knee gave, that’s all. It does that.” Even though he’d spent hour after hour in physical therapy. Sometimes, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be fully healed.
But, screw that. He was alive. He was functioning. He’d get the job done.
His head swiveled to Rick. “Tell me you know where my clothes are because I don’t want to walk out of here in this piece of paper.” Though he would. He’d saunter out of there buck naked if need be.
Rick’s hard face didn’t soften. “I know.”
The young nurse was inching for the door.
The doc stood his ground. “I recommend against leaving. You need to be watched. You could have a seizure. You could—”
“I’ll watch him, doc,” Rick assured him. “I’m a former EMT. I know what to look out for. Thanks.”
Cole had almost forgotten that Rick had been an EMT back when he worked at the fire station with Julia. Those two were usually pretty tight-lipped about their pasts, but Cole had managed to pry a few details from Rick one night at a bar. Turned out, vodka was Rick’s kryptonite.
But then, vodka was a lot of people’s kryptonite.
The doctor barked out more instructions. Rick nodded politely enough, and then the doc was whirling and marching away with a flare of his lab coat. Rick produced new clothes—Cole just raised a brow at those, wondering where his own items really were—and a few minutes later, they were making their way out of the hospital.
Very, very slowly making their way out because Cole wasn’t in the mood for an up-close meet and greet with the gleaming hospital floor.
“Where’s Julia?” Cole asked. He had a last memory of her being in the ambulance with him. And that shit scared him. Had she been hurt while rescuing him? When he’d talked with Eric on the phone, the guy had assured him that Julia was all right. But Cole tended to be the believe-it-when-I-see-it type. He’d feel better only when he put eyes on Julia himself.
She went into the fire for me. Why? He could’ve told her he wasn’t worth it. No way should she ever risk her life for him. No one should.
“She’s with Bran. Wilde Securities has them set up in a new safe house.”
When they reached the parking lot, Cole glanced around, confused. “How long was I in the hospital?”
Rick hit a button on his key fob. A nearby truck’s tail-lights blinked. “Long enough for Bran Copper’s cabin to get blown to hell and back.”
Cole wobbled. “What?” Eric hadn’t told him that. But, maybe the boss hadn’t known when they talked.
“Julia figured it out in time. The attack on you seems to have been a distraction. While we were all focused on your place, someone slipped in Bran’s cabin and wired the place. She and Bran came racing out right before it exploded.”
Cole climbed into the truck. His hands fisted. An IV had been attached to the back of his right hand, and he glared down at the purpling bruise. “I shouldn’t have been caught unaware.”
Rick slid behind the steering wheel. “Shit happens to everyone. Don’t beat yourself up over it. I mean, hey, you already have a concussion, why go for more pain?”
“You are not funny.”
“You sure? I think I’m fucking hilarious.” Rick reversed the vehicle. Got them out of the lot.
Cole forced his teeth to unclench. “I checked in with Eric. Told him, I swear, man, I told him that I thought I remembered hearing a woman’s laughter right before I blacked out.”
“But you didn’t see anyone?”
Cole struggled to remember. “I…someone grabbed my ankle when I was on the stairs. I went tumbling down.”
“The laughing woman? You think she’s the one who did that?”
Cole rubbed his grainy eyes. “I thought…I could’ve sworn her laughter came from close to the front door. But…I don’t know.”
Rick braked. His head swung to Cole. “Just how many people were in your cabin?”
If the woman had been near the door…then she couldn’t have been the one who grabbed his ankle. But… “I don’t know,” Cole said again, forcing out the words. “I’m not sure I can trust my own memory. Everything is foggy, and it just comes to me in flashes. Not whole pieces.”
Rick nodded. “Yeah, that would be what a concussion does to you.” He faced forward once more. “But if two people were there, that would sure change things.”
“You don’t…you don’t normally see a stalker team.” At least, not as far as Cole knew.
“No,” Rick agreed grimly. “You don’t.”
Chapter Sixteen
“I’m sorry.” Julia had her arm wrapped around Bran’s chest. Her body was turned toward him. She should have been pulling away. Putting distance between them. But…
Distance would come soon enough. She needed to say these things to him.
When I leave, I don’t want him thinking all I did was lie.
He stroked her hair. “All right, baby, what have you done now?”
Not funny. “I don’t like lying, even if I am good at it.”
His hand stilled. “Are you about to tell me some truths?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Can you handle them?”
His head turned so that he could stare down at her.
“My truths for yours,” she said because there were things she needed to know, too. Things that she feared he was holding back. The kind of secrets that could get a person killed.
“I haven’t kept secrets from you.”
She wanted to believe him. So maybe she should start by telling him the things she hadn’t shared in a very long time. “The last time I completely trusted a lover…” Her lips curled. A bitter smile. “The lover I trusted was a decorated firefighter. A hero who’d pulled people from the flames over and over again. Daniel Morgan was a good man. The best man. He’d give you the shirt off his back, just ask anyone.”
Bran stiffened beside her. A tensing of his muscles that she knew held a world of meaning.
“Except…I noticed that he started to disappear a lot. And Daniel…he was a little too good at the fire scenes.” God, that didn’t even make sense, did it? “Something was just off. He liked the fire too much.” It was so hard to explain the way her suspicions had grown. The sense that something was wrong. The nagging that had driven her to watch him ever more closely. To eventually search his home. To find the accelerants. To follow him. To see him in action. “He was setting the fires. Setting them so he could rush in and be the hero. Only he wasn’t always the hero. Two people had died in the earlier fires. He killed two people, and when I finally caught on to what he was doing, when I saw him and confronted him, then Daniel came for me.” Her voice grew faint as the memories swarmed her.
Bran lifted her hand from his chest. He brought it up and pressed a kiss to the scar on the inside of her forearm.
“I followed him into one of the houses. I saw him pour the accelerants. I tried to stop him, but he hit me.” Why had that stunned her? After everything else, why had she been so incredibly shocked when he’d driven his fist into her face? Maybe because she’d finally, truly seen the evil, and there was no going back. “He knocked me out, and when I woke up the flames were everywhere. I was actually lucky to wake up. I don’t think he planned for me to.”
“Sonofabitch.”
“But I woke up, and I scrambled away from him. He came at me, he was screaming and yelling, and he was going to try and stop me. He wrapped his arms around my waist to pull me back, but I kicked out at him, and Daniel fell back.” The memories were so strong that Julia could almost smell the fire and feel the flames against her skin. “The fire had made the floor weak
. Because he’d poured his damn accelerants on the rotting floor. He fell through, got caught, and he was screaming my name.” Her breath came faster. The words tumbled out as she said, “But the smoke was everywhere, and I dropped to my hands and knees as I tried to crawl out. All I wanted to do was get out. And then…Rick was there.”
“Rick Williams.” No emotion there.
“He was Daniel’s best friend. He burst inside the old house, covered in his gear, but I looked up, and I could see his eyes behind the mask. He got me out. Threw me over his shoulder and had me to safety and then…he went back in.”
“Did he get Daniel out?”
“Daniel wouldn’t come out.” Her quiet voice. “He…he was still alive. That’s what Rick told me. Rick said Daniel fought him. Attacked and the fire was spreading and the walls fell in and…” That night. God, that terrible night. “Rick got out. Daniel didn’t.” That was the way it had ended. Rick had blamed himself, but it hadn’t been his fault. “I think Daniel chose the fire because he knew that he’d be going to jail if he made it out. If he’d been able to kill me, then he could have escaped, and the world would have believed he was still a hero. But because I made it out, everything was going to change for him. Everyone would learn he wasn’t the big hero. Everyone would learn the truth, and he wanted to die with his lie.”
Bran pressed another kiss to her scar.
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” she whispered. “I was protecting you. I’m still protecting you. I didn’t expect what happened between us.”
Another kiss. “I didn’t expect you,” he replied simply.
Her breath sighed out. Her chest felt lighter, now that she’d told him about her past. She could breathe easier.
“I’m glad that sonofabitch is dead,” Bran continued in the same low tone. “Because if he’d been alive after what he did to you, I’d want to kill him.”
Julia swallowed. “You’re more bloodthirsty than I thought a rock star would be.”
“What did you think I would be?”
Now she had to control a wince. “Spoiled. Arrogant. Vain.”