When he saw Nakia walk into the boardroom later that morning for the clients’ meeting in a fitted red dress with the hem stopping just above her knees, matching killer heels that made her incredible legs look longer, he was again thrown into a tailspin of excruciating lust. He’d barely paid attention to the meeting after that. Everything about her seemed fashioned just for him. He knew more than ever that she was the woman of his heart, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was married, period.
He wanted to tell her that they’d gotten Linda and her children into a safe place before they approached the judge. However, that didn’t end how he’d thought it would. Instead of fighting them and coming after them with all the political and criminal arsenal they knew the judge welded, the judge pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head. It seemed that the judge was afraid of the death he’d suffer under the hands of Baldacci.
Justin would’ve been happy with that outcome if it had gotten them Baldacci as well. With the file that he’d taken from Nakia, they were able to dig up even more damning evidence that would have put the judge away for life and given Baldacci the death penalty. However, now, thanks to the local news reports, Baldacci was aware of their visit with the judge before his suicide. Since then, the firm had three break-ins and several attempted hacks into their systems. They had to consider that they now had the mob on their asses. Too bad for them though. Nothing relating to the judge was in the firm’s records.
When he had taken the file from Nakia, he’d had Imani wipe the firm’s servers, Nakia’s computer in the office, and her personal computer, which further cost him her trust. She had only stayed at the firm because Colt had talked her out of leaving. Justin knew that Nakia had no idea how they’d invaded her privacy. She didn’t know of the security measures they’d placed around her. If she did, there’d be a shitshow all around.
Now that he’d gotten his orders from the Pentagon, he only had twenty-four hours to get his shit together to leave for the mission. Their elite team had been given no idea of the length of time for this mission, and he had a bad feeling about this one. So, it wasn’t surprising that after sorting his files for Colt to complete whatever needed to be done, he found himself sitting outside Nakia’s apartment building at nine thirty at night determined to see her before he had to leave.
Although he had a key to her apartment—a fact he was sure she’d forgotten—he’d had every intention of ringing her doorbell, except that he heard her scream, followed by a loud crash. He kicked her door in and stopped short at the sight of Nakia standing over a man with a gun in her hand.
She looked up at him with a frown of incredibility as if to say, ‘what the hell?’, but then looked back at the man on floor with cool focus. “Ralph, I’m going to give you a fair chance, which you didn’t give me,” she drawled. “Leave before I put a bullet in your ass. You come near me again, touch me again, and I’ll kill you.”
Ralph glared at Justin, picked himself off the floor and then went down on one knee in front of Nakia. “I love you, baby. I’m sorry about what happened. I never wanted to hurt you like that. Please believe me.”
“I don’t care, Ralph. Just leave.”
“I came to see you in the hospital, but that asshole over there kept me out.”
“I don’t care! Leave!”
Ralph stood, his face blotchy with fury. “You just want to be free to fuck white boy over there.”
“Who says I haven’t fucked him already?” Nakia smiled sweetly, goading him.
Justin snickered.
“You bitch!”
“Which part of get the fuck out of my life don’t you get?”
“Perhaps you need some assistance leaving?” Justin asked softly. He would relish the opportunity to beat the crap out of Ralph again. As soon as Ralph had posted bail while Nakia was in the hospital, Justin had found him and beaten him until the other man had fallen unconscious. And he’d waited for Ralph to wake and had beaten the bastard again. Appearing as a fully masked phantom, he had wanted to hurt Nakia’s attacker, as he’d hurt her. Ralph had cried and screamed and, at one time, had even wet his pants. Justin had known where to hit the other man about the body without breaking skin but had left him swollen with a few distended joints, torn ligaments, and damaged cartilage. The bastard would probably never play ball again. He was still out on bail and would probably go to prison for assault, especially after violating the restraining order. Justin was going to make sure of it.
“I wanna see you make me leave. She’s my wife.” Ralph charged toward him.
Justin chuckled. He didn’t know who he had to thank for this opportunity, but suddenly he felt like it was Christmas morning all over again. Ralph outweighed him by about forty pounds. However, that didn’t stop him from bringing Ralph down with one kick to the chest. Justin smirked when Ralph got up almost immediately and charged him again. This time Justin delivered two quick jabs to Ralph’s face and then a roundhouse kick to the side of his head, sending him careening to the ground.
“Damn, Ralph, you haven’t landed a punch yet. No wonder you like hitting women when they’re not looking,” Nakia taunted. She stood leaning against the wall with her legs crossed at the ankles.
“When I’m done with him, I’ll deal with you,” Ralph growled. He glared at Justin, trying to appear intimidating.
“You should concentrate on one opponent at a time. You don’t look like you’re handling the one in front of you very well,” Nakia told him cheerfully.
“Bitch!” Ralph started toward her but then seemed to have caught himself, paused in mid-stride, and instead turned to Justin.
Justin waited for Ralph to make his move. Ralph charged him as though he were still a defensive lineman on his old NFL team. Without much effort Justin brought him down again and again. After the fourth time, Ralph was bleeding profusely, and he could no longer use his right arm.
Ralph started crying, huge ugly sobs. Soon snot drained from his nose.
Justin smirked.
“You were never very bright, Ralph.” Nakia shook her head as Ralph tried to attack Justin again.
Justin was still in the doorway, and his dark expensive suit looked impeccable. His white dress shirt was pristine, his tie perfectly aligned, and his hair neatly in place despite the repeated attacks from Ralph. In stark contrast, Ralph was crying, bleeding, and cursing threats at him. Justin didn’t utter a word. He knew that his silence would completely unnerve the other man. He watched as Ralph turned slightly gray when Justin took a deliberate step toward him. Tired of the game he had been playing with Ralph, Justin leveled a vicious kick to Ralph’s head.
Nakia gasped. “Is he dead?” Her eyes were round with fear.
Justin couldn’t tell if it was fear of him going to jail for killing another man or fear for her husband. “No, he’s not dead. But he’ll have a nice headache for a few days.” He fished his phone from his jacket and called her security team. They had a lot to answer for. How the hell did this asshole get in the apartment?
In less than five minutes, the men had removed Ralph’s unconscious figure from the apartment and, after explaining the security lapse, had slightly mollified Justin’s fury. He now turned his displeasure on Nakia.
Chapter Seven
“Why the hell did you invite him in here?” he gritted out as soon as the last man crossed the threshold of the apartment and closed the door behind them.
“I didn’t invite him in.” Her voice was dripping with bitterness. “My parents came for a visit, and they brought him along. They left as soon as I opened the door.”
Justin could never understand any parent not wanting to protect or support their child. It boggled his mind that a man like Ralph, who’d put his spouse, their daughter, in the hospital for weeks would still have their support. It made no sense. “Where did you get the gun?”
“You, a Texas man, asking me where I got a gun?”
“Yeah, where did you get it, and
do you know how to use it?”
Nakia chuckled but didn’t answer the question. She expertly twirled the gun on one finger, switched on the safety, and placed it on a nearby shelf. “What’re you doing here, Jay? I thought we agreed to stay out of each other’s hair.”
Justin walked farther into the room. “I remember you saying something like that to stop yourself from jumping me.” He smirked.
“Ah, so you got jokes.” Nakia started moving toward the kitchen. “Just for that, I’m not giving you any. I’m giving it to my security team.”
All amusement left Justin as he followed her into the kitchen. He watched as she gathered several plates and started uncovering various pots and dishes she had on the stovetop, trying like hell to not let the dark thoughts swirling around in his mind simmer to the top. “What did you say?” He tried to tamp down the fury in his voice, but it was impossible to contain his volatile feelings.
She snickered as she started dishing up the contents on the pots onto the plates. “Dinner. I cooked for my parents, so I have a lot of food. I promised the guys they could try my Bahamian food.”
Justin breathed out slowly but didn’t dare let her see his reaction. “Do you make a habit of cooking for them?” he finally asked as she pressed one number on her phone, which he realized was a message to the two men guarding her. That action begged another question, but he was waiting for her to answer the first one.
“I hate cooking for one, and I hate eating out every night. So, it’s a win, win for all of us.” She walked out the kitchen with two heaped steaming plates and utensils wrapped in napkins just as one of the guards came in through the front door.
Justin clenched his teeth and jaw hard to not blast the guard, who looked up at him sheepishly as he took the plates and utensils from Nakia.
“Thanks, Carlos. That’s curry chicken, white rice, coleslaw, and some fried plantain. Hope y’all like it.”
He watched Carlos leave. His teeth ached from how tight he was clenching them. He took off his jacket and draped it over a nearby chair.
“I don’t remember inviting you for dinner,” she drawled. She stalked back into the kitchen and took another two plates outs and started dishing food out.
“Too bad. I’m not leaving until you explain to me why you let Ralph in here and then didn’t call your security team when things got out of hand.” He deliberately tried to keep his voice mild and neutral. “I also need to know what’s going on with you and Carlos.” Knowing that he was about to leave Austin for an extended length of time, he was going to ensure that both men kept their distance. He didn’t let himself think too deeply about what that said about his state of mind, especially since he still had no intention of getting a divorce. Not even for love, and he loved her. The thought of leaving her with her asshole husband, still determined to get her back, and this new wrinkle of her unanticipated closeness with her security team, well, that shit couldn’t stand.
Dropping the two plates onto the dining table, she turned and glared up at him. “I can handle Ralph and didn’t need the security team. And what the hell are you talking about me and Carlos?” She seemed irritated, almost pissed at his suggestion. She poured two large glasses of red wine without asking his preference.
“You’re a beautiful woman, Nakia.” Justin sat, dug into the food, and almost moaned out loud as the delicious flavors exploded on his palate. He had to take a moment, pause, and start again. “Carlos may be married, but he’s a man and…” He let his voice trail off at the look she gave him.
“So what? You’re thinking that I’m just some weak female who can’t get by without a guy? Any guy that’s in my orbit?”
Justin knew that he’d stepped in it and pissed her off further, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want any man sniffing around her. “That’s not what I said.” He thought about his next words carefully. “Look, I saw how he was checkin’ you out. He couldn’t control that look even with me watchin’.” It was more like he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and he hoped like hell no one had noticed. But Justin refused to admit that.
“I don’t have control over what Carlos does. I can only control what I do. At least most of the time,” she grumbled as she sat and started eating. “Look, I don’t have anything to explain. And no more questions. You’re going to give me indigestion at this rate.”
They both eat quietly for the next few minutes, neither willing to break the comfortable ambience of soft music, and delicious food, and wine.
“I’ve never had anything like this before,” Justin said as he finished off his plate. “You told Carlos that’s Bahamian food?”
“Yeah. Did you like it?”
“Like it? I loved it. I’m happy that I over did it in the gym earlier. Now I don’t feel bad about downing all that.”
“Yeah, Bahamian food ain’t good for anyone’s waistline or backside.” She giggled and patted her ass as she cleared the table. “Prime example.”
“That’s prime all right,” he mumbled as he followed her into the kitchen with their wine glasses.
She looked over her shoulder at him and smirked. “You keep window shopping the merchandise,” she teased.
He sipped his wine to stop himself from responding.
“I’m glad you like the food though.” Her smile and the change of subject let him off the hook. “Many of our dishes have their roots in Southern cuisine. Lots of fried food and plenty of spices.
He liked that she was more relaxed now and was smiling at him more and more. The last few weeks for them had been hell. He missed her. She’d been ignoring him in the office or looking straight through him as though he didn’t exist. “I didn’t know you could cook so well.”
Her smile disappeared instantly, and he hated seeing it. “Yeah, well, it didn’t help me much in keeping my man or stopping him from beating the crap out of me.”
Justin placed his wine glass on the kitchen counter carefully and forced himself to speak as gently as he could despite the fierce anger her words invoked. “His violence toward you is on him, not you. It wasn’t something you did or something you said. He chose to hit you. He chose to inflict pain on someone else, transfer his pain onto someone smaller and weaker than him. It was you because you were in reach, you were convenient. Don’t ever blame yourself for his shit. Let him own that.”
Nakia smiled over at him cheekily. “Are you sure you don’t like me just a little bit?”
He closed the distance between them, stopping only inches from her, letting her feel his heat without touching. “I love you, Nakia,” he whispered achingly.
“You didn’t just say that.” She stared up at him as though he’d lost his mind.
“I’m not taking that back. You are the love I never thought existed.” He gripped the strands of his hair and tried like hell to regulate his suddenly panicked breathing. “I wish I’d waited for you. God, I wish you’d waited for me. Or are you going to tell me that you don’t love me too?”
“Jay, you know how I feel.” She stepped into him.
He couldn’t help but feel the hard tips of her breasts against him.
“I love you too.” Her voice was husky with desire.
“Okay, glad that we’ve cleared that up.” He cleared his throat. “I need you to know how I feel because I’m going away for a while and I need you to remember us.”
“Where are you going?”
Justin smiled gently, knowing that no one could know where he was going, not even Colt. “Promise me that you’ll go nowhere without your security team.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve already extracted that promise from me.”
“Humor me. I need to hear it again.”
“And if I don’t promise?”
He moved closer, forcing her back against the kitchen counter, his hard frame against her, but he still didn’t trust himself to touch her with his hands. He knew she felt every pulsing inch of his cock. “I need that promise, Nakia. I have to f
ocus on the mission ahead, and I can’t be worried about you.”
“You don’t fight fair, Jay.”
He simply waited.
She curled her arms around his neck and reached up to kiss him. However, barefoot and standing on the tips of her toes wasn’t going to get her five-nine body high enough to reach his lips. She had to settle on delivering tiny kisses to his chin. “Do you ache as much as I do, Jay?”
He closed his eyes in acute agony at her words and her sweet softness against him. He stepped away from her slightly and immediately felt bereft. When this mission was over, he would have to really rethink his marriage code. “Your promise, Nakia.”
“God, I hate you sometimes.”
He waited.
She released him and edged from between him and counter, muttering under her breath. Walking over to the dishwasher, she started stacking dishes in the machine before giving him the promise he wanted. “Fine, I’ll stay with the stupid guards until you get back. Are you happy now?”
Wanting nothing more than to take her into his arms and put them both out of their misery, Justin contented himself with knowing that she’d be safe from her husband until his return. He’d have another talk with her guards when he was leaving in the morning to ensure they kept every male away from her. He wasn’t taking any chance that she’d meet someone while he was gone. He couldn’t have her, and he was going to make sure no one else could either. “I will be sleeping on your sofa tonight given your little visit from that bastard earlier.”
“I told you that I can handle Ralph.”
“I’m sure you can, but I’m going to make sure that asshole got my message.”
She finished stacking the dishwasher before turning to him with a cool gaze. “I’m not even going to bother telling you what to do. You’re going to do what you want anyway. So, I’m going to take my behind to bed. If I don’t see you before you leave, have a nice flight and have a nice life.”
Primal Obsession Page 7