by Addison Fox
And then she’d know.
She’d know if the angst and the anxiety and the endless questions could—finally—be put to bed.
“Thank you for helping me tonight. Even if it doesn’t always show, I’m more grateful than I can tell you.”
“You’re family. I’ll always help you.”
The words nearly spilled forth, a tart answer about feeling the love and support from a man who acted like nothing more than a brother, when she stopped. Cade had given her the perfect opening.
They weren’t family. Of the heart, yes, but not of the blood.
And it was damn time the man understood that.
Without giving herself time to check the action or rethink her approach, she closed what little space was left between them, fisted his shirt in her hand to hold him in place, and pressed her lips to his.
The move was bold and very unlike her. But more than that, it was the work of a mere moment to realize exactly where she went wrong. His arms wrapped around her, crushing her to his chest as his lips moved against hers. The solid footing she was so sure of evaporated, the floor vanishing beneath her as she fell completely, utterly, and fully under the spell of Cade Rossi.
Chapter Six
Foreplay.
The thought—when he could manage to hold on to it—lit up Cade’s mind as he held on to Jasmine. One moment they were arguing, battle lines stretching out in an invisible demarcation between them, and the next moment she was launching herself into his arms.
And he’d be damned if he was going to waste the opportunity.
The strength he’d observed in her body came to life beneath his hands. As their kiss spun out, he gave himself an opportunity to explore, using long, deliberate strokes to cover her back, trace her hips and play over that soft, pretty skin.
He touched everywhere he could, determined to imprint the feel of her body onto his senses as he took pleasure from their kiss. Her lush lips pressed to his, the warmth of her mouth open to him as their tongues met. Their battle of wills might draw tart words to the tip of that tongue, but in the physical, all they shared was a mutual rush to pleasure.
Who knew?
And how could his imagination have missed the mark so badly? Their kiss was hot and carnal, holding the joy of the moment and the promise of so much more.
A lifetime more.
A lifetime?
The thought was enough to pull him from the fever dream that was making out with Jasmine, and he ended the kiss, even as he kept his arms wrapped around her. “That was a surprise.”
Her eyes were half-lidded, a welcome look still stamped clearly in their dark depths. “Yes.”
“Are you okay?”
“Of course.”
“Because I—” She pressed her index finger to his lips, the sexual haze in her eyes fading, replaced with a glimmer of humor.
“Quit while you’re ahead. We seem to have trouble when we speak.”
He kissed the tip of her finger, nodding his agreement. Without saying a word, he reached for her free hand and squeezed, pulling her toward the hallway.
“I—” He mimicked her move, pressing his finger to her lips while still marching them both down the short hallway to his bedroom. By unspoken agreement, she said nothing more, instead following his lead for silence. It was only when they reached the door that he stopped, pulling her close once more.
He bent his head and took her lips in another kiss, curious to see if it would be as good as that initial rush of feeling that had drawn them both together. When his head nearly came off his shoulders, Cade took that as a decided yes.
Sweet and lush, she opened to him once more, a small moan dissolving in her throat as he deepened the kiss and took them both under again.
Was it a spell? Magic?
At the moment he hardly cared. All he did know was that they’d gone from fighting to the most powerful kiss of his life.
And now that he knew what she tasted like, he wasn’t interested in putting the genie back in the bottle.
* * *
Steady, insistent sunlight pressed against Jasmine’s eyelids, pulling her from the most delicious dream. Cade was kissing her, and she was kissing him back, and his big strong arms were wrapped around her, and—
Her eyes popped open before she closed them again quickly at the bright intrusion of sunlight.
Kissing?
She’d kissed Cade. And then they’d kissed each other. And then he’d kissed her.
And then he’d sweetly pushed her into his room and pulled the door closed, leaving her alone in the quiet of the darkened room.
Her lips were still sensitive, and she conjured the sense memory of his mouth pressed to hers. That delicious weight. The powerful thrust of his tongue. And the crazy urgency that had gripped them both the moment their bodies met.
She’d done that. Or started it, to be more precise. Impulse and anger and curiosity and a desperate need for comfort. They’d coalesced at the same time, a perfect storm of desire that she’d now have to live with.
Because Cade Rossi was no longer a question.
He was a big ol’ answer, and he’d exceeded every expectation she’d ever had.
They fit.
And wasn’t that a rub?
All the longing and angst she’d lived with for the past two decades was actually for something. She’d imagined she and Cade would match well, but late at night, in the quiet of her own mind, she’d admit to herself that she didn’t know if it was true. What if he was a bad kisser? Or if she froze the moment their lips met?
And what if the sex was bad?
He did go through women like water. Surely that was a sign of a selfish lover, one who took his own pleasure and left his partner wanting.
Even though she’d never heard a single word to support that wild supposition.
Of course, now she was fighting the effects of too little sleep, a kiss that scrambled her brain, and a deep, nearly desperate desire to know what it felt like to make love with him. To wake up in the morning with the knowledge of so much more than a kiss.
On a hard sigh she rolled over and punched the pillow, briefly toying with the idea of falling back into sleepy oblivion. An idea that shattered as Cade’s scent wafted from the pillow and practically surrounded her in a cloud of delicious manliness.
Good Lord, what had she done last night?
Why had she kissed him?
Glorious or not, life was so much easier when they were fighting. When they stood on opposite sides of a battleground littered with the sharp spikes of anger, resentment, and frustration.
That was normal. Routine.
It was her and Cade.
The subtle slam of the front door was audible through the closed bedroom door, and Jasmine scrambled to sit up. Lazing around in Cade’s bed and imagining him there wasn’t going to help her keep her battle armor in place, and that’s exactly what she needed.
Last night was an aberration. A small fall into madness after an evening fraught with frustration and fear. Nothing more, nothing less.
With fresh determination, she slipped into Cade’s small bathroom and did her best to freshen up. She twisted her hair up in a quick bun, rinsed her mouth out with some mouthwash she found beneath the counter, and figured she’d just have to live with a few wrinkles in the clothing she’d slept in.
It was only when she stepped into the kitchen a few minutes later that she realized her horrible miscalculation.
There was no amount of battle armor that could shield her from the power of Cade Rossi, barefoot and bare chested, clad only in jeans, leaning against his counter downing the first cup of coffee of the day.
* * *
Cade kept his ass firmly planted against the counter, not quite sure his legs would hold if he stood on his own. He hadn’t slept, his mind replaying over and over those amazing moments when he’d held Jaz in his arms, their mouths locked in a kiss.
The aching need that had haunted him finally had shape and exp
erience and reality, and he wasn’t entirely sure what to do about it.
Yes, he wanted her. And more than that, he wanted to spend time with her.
But he had no idea how.
They were friends. And if he fucked up a relationship with her—which he was sure to do based on his track record—he would do more than just damage what the two of them had. He’d piss off his sister and his family.
They loved Jasmine, too.
Which meant he’d better decide that he was all in, or he had to walk away.
Could he even do that?
He knew his love-’em-and-leave-’em attitude won him no points in the decent-human department, but he had no way of explaining how stifling and trapped he felt when a woman got serious. Hell, he wasn’t even sure how to explain it to himself. All he did know was the moment his date began to see a future between them, all he wanted to do was put an end to things.
“You’re good this morning?” Jasmine spoke first, her voice still husky with the edges of sleep.
“Sure. Always.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped, seeming to switch direction. “I’ll just get a cup of coffee.”
He pushed off the counter, pleased his legs did hold, before reaching for a fresh mug in the cabinet above the coffee maker. He liked the single-cup maker his parents had gotten him for Christmas, but waiting for Jaz’s coffee to brew, he felt like the machine would never finish.
“I got a call this morning about Barrow. No one’s seen him yet, but they’ve amped up patrols in the neighborhood. They also did some door-to-doors in his last apartment building, but they haven’t found anyone who’s seen him. I’ve got calls in to find his parole officer as well.”
A light quaver echoed beneath the husky tones of her voice. “How is this man out and no one knows where he’s at?”
“We’ll find him, Jasmine.”
“That’s not my question. How did this happen? You and I are both in the legal system, and were both involved in this incident. Yet both of us were ambushed out and about.”
Out and about.
An oddly lilting term for an asshole criminal who’d committed a violent act and hadn’t displayed a single ounce of remorse.
The justice system wasn’t perfect. Cade knew that and had known it from the start of his career. Although he worked hard to ensure he did all he could to get the guilty off the streets, he knew some got out or never got put in to begin with. The slippery ones, who found their way in and around the system, never getting caught, would haunt a man to the end of his days.
And Cade would be damned if Paul Barrow ended up being one of them.
“You call what happened back in December an incident?”
She glanced up from where she blew on the edge of her mug. “What would you call it?”
“A crime and a violation.”
“I wasn’t that violated.” She stumbled over the last word, the pain visible enough to have Cade moving toward her.
“I can use a different word, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’d have gladly killed him if I could.”
“Cade.” She did look up at that, her gaze stark with shock.
“It’s true. Barrow’s lucky you have such a cool head, and backup was so close by.”
He’d relived those moments more times than he could count. The shock in seeing Jasmine manhandled so violently and the absolute rage that had descended upon him at the sight. He’d physically ripped Barrow off of Jaz; the work she was doing to stave the man off was weakening at the continued assault. Her clothing was ripped, the thin sleeve of her workout top baring a single shoulder, and there was a long rip over the thigh and knee revealing a large black-and-blue mark.
But she’d held him off.
Cade still had nightmares about what would have happened if he’d been ten minutes later—five, even. And then he’d wake up and promptly shut the thoughts down, refusing to think about what might have happened.
Focusing instead on the fact that he had arrived.
“I didn’t know,” Jaz shook her head. “I mean, I had no idea you felt that way.”
“Murderous?”
A small smile tilted the corner of her mouth. “I was thinking protective.”
“When it comes to Barrow, consider me both.”
Unwilling to stand so close and not touch her, he moved into her space, taking firm hold of the coffee mug she’d suddenly lifted like a shield. “I don’t think you’ll be needing this for the moment.”
With quick motions, he pulled the mug from her grip and settled it on the counter, using his other free hand to wrap around her waist and pull her close. Paul Barrow, the history between then, even his confusion about what he’d do when he inevitably screwed everything up, vanished in the glory of holding this woman in his arms.
And as her mouth opened beneath his, welcoming him with the softness of her lips and the answering response of her tongue against his, Cade knew he was lost.
He didn’t feel stifled or suffocated. Neither did he have any urge to run. And for the first time in his life, he began to wonder if all the running and flitting from woman to woman hadn’t been about running away at all.
Because with Jasmine Shane in his arms, all he could think of was that he’d finally found a woman to run to.
Chapter Seven
The precinct was quiet for a Saturday morning, but far from inactive. Several officers Jasmine recognized from her time in the DA’s office were tapping away on their keyboards while a few others were busy comparing notes over fresh cups of coffee.
A woman sat sobbing in the corner next to another officer Jasmine recognized. The young woman’s slumped shoulders revealed far more about her circumstances than her skimpy skirt and mascara-coated eyes, and Jasmine nearly stepped in when she overheard the officer mention that one of her colleagues in the DA’s office was on his way.
The wheels of justice kept on turning, even if they moved a bit more slowly on the weekend.
Which made Cade’s hunt for information on Paul Barrow relatively easy a few moments later, once he’d taken a seat at his desk. The desk’s wooden top was scarred but pristinely clean, either a holdover from Giavanna’s rigorous expectations of cleanliness or Cade’s own way of working. Either way, Jasmine figured you could have eaten one of Giavanna’s meatballs straight off the surface.
“What’s that look for?” Cade glanced up from his screen, his eyebrows suspicious slashes over those coffee-colored eyes.
“You’re awfully neat, is all.”
A subtle pink crept up his neck, but it was the gruff edge to his voice that let her know she’d hit pay dirt. “Is that a crime?”
“It’s sweet.”
“Sweet?” The blush crept higher, and his voice took on a strangled quality. “I’m a cop. Cops aren’t sweet.”
“If you say so.”
“Why? You think I should be a slob like my sister? I don’t know if she’s ever filed a piece of paper in her entire career.”
While Daphne wasn’t quite that bad, she did have a reputation for a sort of mad scientist-like clutter over her desk and filing system. She made up for it with dedication and a solid record of closed cases. Few argued with her methods, but Jasmine did enjoy getting the occasional jab in on her best friend now and again.
Funny how adorable it was to see the exact opposite behavior with Cade. And just how much fun it was to poke at him as well.
Leaning over, she made a show of reaching for his top desk drawer.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
“Looking for where you hide the Clorox wipes.”
“I’m not that—”
“They’re in the bottom drawer, left side!” One of Cade’s colleagues, sat on the opposite side of the room, shouted out the confirmation.
Jasmine waved at the woman before hollering a triumphant thank-you in her direction.
“I’m not that bad.” Cade muttered it again before tapping even harder on his laptop.
&nb
sp; “Being clean isn’t a crime. And it’s one more reason you can be your mother’s favorite.”
He glanced back up, those expressive eyes going wide. “I’m her favorite?”
“She wants you to think that.”
“But am I?”
As the younger of only two children, Jasmine had always envied Daphne the big family and general ruckus that came with it. It had only been in the last few years, with an adult’s perspective, that she’d begun to understand that the attention of that many pairs of eyes all at the same time could be overwhelming.
Obviously Cade wasn’t immune to the dynamics, either.
“Every one of you is her favorite. But I would comfortably wager big points to you on swelling her heart with pride, since you could eat food off this desk.”
“There’s no crime in being neat and clean.”
The urge to come around behind him and wrap her arms around his neck was strong, but Jasmine held back. They were in public, and seeing as how they weren’t dating, and were actually both dating others, a show of affection wasn’t the best idea.
But oh, how she wanted to.
Which was the wake-up call she needed for what to say to Gardner.
She’d already decided that he needed to hear about the incident at the End Zone from her, and had planned to call him after this trip to the precinct. But the fact that she’d already kissed Cade several times and hadn’t experienced a hint of remorse meant she needed to do the right and fair thing and break it off with Gardner.
No matter what came of these few crazy moments with Cade.
There was a reason things hadn’t moved forward with Gardner and it had everything to do with her. It was time to be honest with herself and with him. She considered how she might get away for an hour to go see her boyfriend and untangle what had become a sticky web.
“There it is.” Cade’s comment and tap on his screen pulled her from her thoughts,
“There what is?”
“Barrow. His parole officer is Emily Carmine. She started in May, which means she probably doesn’t have the whole history. Add on his paperwork was processed,” Cade leaned into the screen, “at four o’clock yesterday. Damn, the asshole wasted no time.”