“Where was he the night of the fire?” Margo knew from the AI that the boyfriend, Jack Engle, had an alibi. She wanted to know if her sister was covering for him.
Dane barreled through the station door and stopped at Margo’s side.
“Leave me alone, Margo.” Elise bolted for the car, which wasn’t an answer, but it was something.
“Shit for timing,” she droned as she watched her sister ride away with the devil.
“I couldn’t handle her talking to you that way, and Cap’s looking for your paperwork.”
Margo groaned and headed back inside. Damn things weren’t going to write themselves.
7
Gannon’s sure hands shook as he lit the last of the candles and waited for Margo to find him. Wouldn’t it be something to burn down the house just as it neared the end of the repairs. It had been twenty minutes since he’d heard her enter the house and his nerves were shot.
He hadn’t used rose petals to lead the way up the stairs to her bedroom—too cliché. He’d written notes for her to follow. Memories that had carried him through his toughest days. Every one featured the love of his life, front and center.
Commander Tucker once told Gannon that people could only make you feel what you allowed them to. They’d been talking torture resistance tactics, but the same was true in life. The people of Combine made him feel like a loser because he’d given them power over him. As a kid, he hadn’t known how to preserve himself. Now? On a mission, he’d liberated an African tribe from oppression. Sure as shit, he could do the same for himself. The past be damned.
“Gannon?” Margo rounded the doorframe with the stack of notes clutched to her chest. Tears streaked her cheeks. They mauled him, but her tentative smile and then the slack in her jaw as she took in the room countered the pain.
“I see you, Margo, and when I let it, the world falls away. Not because you’re gorgeous.” Her brows hiked, and her smile returned brighter than before. “You’re so beautiful it hurts to look at you without putting my hands on you.” She nodded her approval. “But the world falls away because you see me despite everything.” He stepped forward, took the bag from her shoulder, and pulled her into the room. “And after years of looking and dreaming about you, I finally see you. Strong. Determined. Brave. Bold.”
Her fresh face and blond hair shook in disagreement. “When we were younger, no one talked to me because I was a Foster and surely stuck-up and spoiled. But you never let that stop you. You’ve always seen me, Gannon.” She squeezed the notes so hard the paper bent. A fresh tear slipped down her cheek. “But now, you finally see yourself. Strong. Determined. Brave. Bold. Hot as freshly minted sin.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Margo giggled and shoved her shoulder against his ribs. “No, you’ve always known the last one and used it against me.”
Gannon’s cock twitched. “Not near as much as I would’ve liked to.”
“Oh, yeah?” She tossed his words back at him with a seductive gaze.
Twitch to full-on throb. He laced his fingers into the hair at the base of her neck and wrapped his other arm around her back. His lips lowered so close he could smell the soap she’d used at the station. Her hips increased the pressure on his growing erection.
“Margo, wanting you is all I’ve ever done.”
“Then have me.”
His mouth descended, meeting soft sweetness. It plunged lust and adrenaline through his veins like he’d never experienced. Time and distance made him desperate. His pulse pounded. Possession drove him.
He lifted her off the ground and soldered her to his chest. Margo’s mouth grew ardent, biting and sucking on him. Their lips tangled in a torrent of need and emotion. Her legs scaled his and wrapped his hips. The move shot through him, an unfed hunger finding its first meal.
Gannon turned and stalked to the bed. The candles surrounding them; the bath he’d drawn and dinner he’d cooked for her and set on the balcony for them faded into the background. Only Margo mattered. Getting inside her and connecting with her in the most primal way urged him.
Plush bedding met his knee, and he laid her down. Her arms curled around him, leaving no question about her intent. It rivaled his own. Hell, this morning it had been outshooting his. But now, nothing could stop him. He ate at her neck and savored her sharp jawline. The notes crinkled between their bodies. His hands ran over her pants-covered thighs and sank into her ass. He pulled her closer, rocking her hips. Her core cuddled him, and he dragged it across his erection.
When Margo panted and moisture breached the fabric, he eased back. The notes cascaded off her heaving chest and littered the bed. Something about those ever-present memories encircling them made it more powerful than any wax or petals ever could. The swell of her creamy breasts peeked out from the V of her shirt.
Gannon buried his face in the softness and pressed the sides of her sweet mounds together. He burrowed, laved, and sucked until he found her swollen nipples. His nose worked the fabric back. They etched exquisite divots in his tongue over and over again.
Margo’s hips jerked and writhed beneath him, but he kept his cock away.
“Easy, Mar. If you get too excited, I’ll rip your clothes off and pound into you.”
“That’s the idea, isn’t it?” Her hot breath caressed his face.
“Hell, yes. After I get you as mindless as I am.”
“Already there.” She clawed at his shirt. Her nails scraped his back enough that he hissed. “You haven’t been the only one wanting.”
He jerked down the zipper on her jeans, yanked them over her hips, and planted his knees on either side of her legs, pinning her to the bed. His thumbs hooked her shirt and pulled it over her head. Sleek abs carved her stomach. Two handfuls of breasts hung exposed from her lacy bra, the tips bright red from his attention.
Gannon worked his way down her thighs. His lips exalted each part of her chest and torso. Her hips were a thing of unadulterated beauty. They curved wide from her waist and spilled out over her wrinkled jeans. He filled his hands with her ass and worked it in circles while his mouth lowered over the strip of hair covering the tip of her pelvis. His tongue roved the subtle bumps just above her pussy’s lips.
Margo scratched at the sheets. Her back bowed off the bed. She tried in vain to shift her hips, to lever herself over him.
“I take back what I said earlier. The town was right. You are the devil.”
He smiled as widely as he ever had and rubbed it across her wet lips. His laugh created vibrations in his mouth, and he tortured her with it.
“Gannon, please.”
His tongue speared her between her folds and struck her clit.
“Oh, yes.” Her hips jerked and rolled.
His hands continued to mold her ass while she massaged her sweet nub on his tongue. She tasted like a dream, like his every fantasy, like his world.
“I want to come on your cock.”
“You will, but you have to come on my tongue first.” He quit toying with her bottom and used his fingers to spread her confined pussy’s lips. His mouth suctioned onto her clit, and he rubbed her pointed flesh. As if given no other choice but to comply, Margo’s thighs shuddered against his cheeks. Her belly quaked and her pants coalesced into one, long keening breath.
He lapped up her pleasure and then eased off. His fingers dragged her panties and pants off her legs. The pinks of Margo’s cheeks didn’t overtake the reverence with which she watched him strip her and then himself more slowly. He spread her legs wide and crawled atop her, kissing his way to her flushed face.
Gannon hovered there so ready to take what was his, what had been his forever. He framed her face. “I choose you. I love you, Margo. Fuck, I always have and always will.”
Before she could say anything, he drove into her. Margo enveloped him so completely. Mind. Body. Soul. He planted himself to the hips and stilled. His heart celebrated with confetti, jumping and shit. Like this was his first time. It should have been. Margo should
have been his first, and he should have been hers.
In a way, she was.
He burrowed his head in her nape and prayed he wouldn’t have to leave her silky, hot wetness. It was without a doubt the best thing he’d ever experienced. His breaths came quickly through his nostrils, and he tried to slow them, exhaling through his mouth.
“Margo, I don’t have a condom. I didn’t think about it. All I can think about is you.”
“I’m on the pill, but I don’t think I would have stopped you even if I wasn’t.”
The thought of giving Margo his baby ignited a fire in his belly. His mouth found hers and clamped on. Without thought, his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her up for a better angle. His hips thrust. He gave her long, deep pumps.
In the time they had left in this world—whether it be nine days or ninety years—their life could be whatever they wanted it to be. All along, he’d only needed to embrace it. If this gesture wasn’t an embrace, he didn’t know what was.
She held on to him as tightly as he held her. Breaths and moans, hers and his, filled the room. Hunger and need combined and culminated with his every drive.
Margo tore her mouth away and demanded his gaze. He lost himself in her blue eyes and heavy-lidded smirk. “I love you, Gannon. I always have, always will.”
“Mar.” He pressed her flat to the mattress and slammed into her, claiming what was his. Pressure built inside him. Margo’s head canted toward the sky, and she cried his name. Her tight walls convulsed around him, and she claimed him back.
Gannon poured himself into her.
When he could no longer hold himself up, he collapsed onto his side and pulled her on top of him, unwilling to leave her body, maybe ever. Sex had never meant anything. Now, he knew he’d lost a part of himself inside Margo. Added to the part of him she’d possessed for the last twenty years of his life and …
“You have all of me, Margo. I’m yours.”
“About damn time.” She nipped his chin and then kissed away the sting. Her gaze narrowed, and she grew serious. “You’ve always had me.”
Gannon pressed a kiss to her lips. After their mouths had parted, she nuzzled under his neck, and soon, her breathing slowed and steadied. Her limbs slacked. Things had changed. He still wanted to make a difference in the world, but now, he wanted to make Margo happy too. While he pondered how he could keep his job with Base Branch without traveling across the globe three hundred and twenty days a year, the night grew dark. The small candles burned out one by one. Sleep had defeated him before he found a solution to the problem.
He woke to Margo’s mouth on his cock. “Yesterday was the best day ever, but this one is fighting for contention.”
Her laughter rocked his balls. When he hissed, she popped off his pink head and smirked. “Yesterday, you only had me for a couple of hours.” She toggled his balls and licked a line up his throbbing shaft. “Today, barring any major disasters, I’m yours all day long.”
“Grif and I are supposed to finish painting today.”
“Screw it.” She leaned over his cock, bowed her mouth, and took him inch by inch to the back of her throat.
They did screw for the next two hours.
When their stomachs got the best of them, they showered, dressed in knock around clothes, and headed downstairs for food. After they had eaten, Gannon looked at his watch. The numbers read 10:00 a.m.
“I haven’t stayed in bed this long since high school.” Margo giggled.
“Yeah.” Unease scrambled its way up his spine. He walked to the front door and scanned the circular drive.
“What’s wrong?” Margo opened the door wider and peered outside.
“Griffin didn’t show.” He’d promised to be there three hours before to make up for leaving early the other day.
“Oh.” She pulled back inside, closed the door, and studied him. “Yesterday, I was surprised you didn’t knock him out on sight. Do you think he’s taking advantage of it?”
“No. I didn’t talk to him about the attack.”
She blew a breath through her lips that puffed out her mouth.
“What?” He shrugged, snagged the waistband of her shorts, and pulled her close.
Her arms came up between them. “Ah-ah, don’t you try and kiss your way out of this. It may have been years, but I know you. You can’t sit back and do nothing.”
Opening up was part of the deal with Margo. That she cared about him enough to ask eased a bit of the tension in his neck.
“I’m going to find them, convince them to leave Grif alone, and then get my brother some help. But first, I’m going to do this.” He leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers until she opened for him. Salt from the bacon and sweet from the syrup danced across her tongue to his.
He pulled back, and she was quiet for several seconds. She stared at him in awe. Damn, if it didn’t make him feel ten feet tall.
“How are you going to convince them? With violence or money? What if he doesn’t agree to help?” She swung a finger at him and shook it. “Don’t smile at me like that. You know me, and you know I can’t stand not having a plan or knowing it.” Her hands hit her hips. She gnawed on her lips and sighed. “I’ve tried helping Elise. It’s been futile.”
“Help her with what?” They hadn’t talked much about so many things. He wanted her to himself for weeks to dive into her body and mind—to find out what she’d done over the last ten years, and what she wanted to do for the next ten.
“Like father, like daughter. Two or three boyfriends ago, Elise burned through what inheritance my father couldn’t liquidate. She’s living on what little influence our family name retains, her narrow waist, and her boobs.” Margo batted the hair from her eyes. “I tried to get her excited about college or a trade, tried to get her to apply to beauty school. She’s so good at makeup and hair. Way better than I am.”
“You’ve never needed that shit,” he growled.
“Sure, sure.” Her mouth pursed. “Anyway, none of it took. Instead, she tried to get her hands on my inheritance after she found out I’ve only used it to maintain this place.” She gestured to the pristine mansion someone tried to incinerate a week and a half ago. “We got into a huge fight over it, and she hasn’t been back since. Until yesterday.”
“I never saw her at the house.”
“Oh, no.” Margo pushed out of his hold and spoke with wild arms. “She showed up at the precinct—where I had thirty active reports to complete and submit—with her worthless boyfriend wanting to know why it was taking the insurance company so long to pay out.”
“What’s her boyfriend’s name?” Instinct told Gannon he’d just found his arsonist.
“Jack Engle.” Her hands fell to her side. “Why?”
“A no-good guy attracted to a Foster. I know it’s cliché and exactly why I hate this town, but if the shoe fits.” Gannon grabbed Margo’s hand and pulled her back into the kitchen and to his phone.
“Well, it didn’t in your case, or his. I still don’t trust him, but the investigator checked him out. He has an alibi for the night of the fire.”
“We’ll see if it holds up.” Gannon grabbed his phone and texted the boyfriend’s name to the tech department at his DC headquarters, and then he called his brother.
8
“Let’s just go by his place.” Margo hated watching the hope drain from Gannon’s face every time he called his brother and received no answer. “It’s not that far.”
“Maybe he just blew me off.” His large hand pinched the back of his neck.
“The way he has acted with you the past week, he’s been different. He really did seem to have changed.”
“Liana.” Gannon snatched his phone off the table, and his fingers flew over the keys. “If there’s any good reason to blow off work, it’s for a pretty lady.” He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles.
“Miss Layla’s Liana?” Margo’s belly bottomed out. She didn’t know if it was from Gannon’s tender care or fear fo
r Griffin’s life. If he was fooling around with Liana, it was the latter.
“Yes.”
“Oh, shit.”
“I know.” He spoke into to the receiver. “Liana Gilly, please.” They both held their breath in the silence. “Liana, this is Gannon Lee.”
“Oh no, is something wrong with Grif?” Margo heard the woman’s distraught voice through the phone.
“I don’t know,” Gannon said. “He was supposed to meet me at the Foster Estate to work—”
“At seven. I know. He left my … hang on, let me get to somewhere more private.” After some shuffling, a door closed with a thud. “He left my house at six thirty headed your way. He had to swing by his place to pick up his tool bag, but he … He should have been there an hour ago. Have you tried his phone? I know he had it with him, and it was fully charged. We got a split docking station to … never mind. Have you called him?”
“Several times.” Gannon’s voice held a hint of menace.
“I’ll go check on him,” Liana announced.
“No.” The menace fully formed and rattled in the room. “I’m going. You stay put. I’ll let you know as soon as I find him.”
“Don’t you dare hurt him, Gannon.” Liana’s voice held a menace all its own.
“It’s not me I’m worried about hurting him.” He hung up the phone, shoved it in his pocket, and stood.
Margo stood too. “We’ll take my car. The first-aid kit is still in it.”
He grabbed her hand and ushered her to her vehicle outside. She had to scoop her jaw off the ground to keep from raking dirt into her mouth.
“Don’t look so surprised.”
“But I am.” She started the vehicle and zoomed toward Griffin’s trailer with the lights flashing.
“It may take me a while to learn, but once I do, it’s here.” He tapped the front of his head. “Like how much you like that thing I do with my pinkie.”
Heat rushed over her from chest to cheeks, both of them. “How’d you know I liked it?”
Dallas Fire & Rescue: Relentlessly Mine (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Base Branch Series Book 11) Page 6