Hold On Tight

by Cynthia Eden

  Savannah sucked in a quick breath.

  He knew she’d spotted Agent McNeely. The guy looked pissed as hell as he approached the elevator with his gun drawn. “Secure the fucking scene!” McNeely thundered.

  Jett pressed closer to Savannah. He sent his shadows out, sweeping around her even tighter.

  McNeely stopped near the elevators and glanced around the garage. “That vehicle.” He pointed to the silver SUV. “It doesn’t leave, understand?”

  Some random cops nodded. The uniforms on scene looked nervous, uncertain, while the men and women in suits—the ones Jett pegged as agents—wore angry, tense expressions.

  Didn’t like that we gave you the slip, huh? Too bad.

  McNeely glanced to the left. For an instant, he seemed to look straight at Jett and Savannah.

  Jett tensed. Baby, he can’t see us. Don’t make a sound.

  McNeely kept staring. Then the elevator dinged. The doors opened. McNeely turned and stormed inside. “Lock down the freaking building—”

  The doors shut.

  Two uniformed cops and an agent stayed in the garage. The uniforms headed toward the silver SUV. They tried to open one of the doors.

  Not happening, fellows.

  After a few failed attempts, they turned away from the vehicle. Started mumbling to each other. Kept looking uncomfortable. Too green for this case.

  Savannah trembled. Her sweet scent surrounded him. He loved her light, flowery scent. They were pressed together, bodies flush, and he knew she had to feel his growing arousal. Not something he could help. More a perpetual state around her.

  Savannah’s fingers bit into his shoulders.

  She was afraid. He didn’t want her fear. So why the hell not try distracting her?

  His lips pressed to hers. He kissed her, a fast, open-mouthed kiss. Just to get Savannah’s mind off her fear. Just to try and help her to—

  She kissed him back. Her hands pulled him ever closer, and her lips parted for him. Her tongue met his. Desire ignited. Not just a hard-on because he wanted her…a fucking wildfire of need because he was desperate for her. His mouth was rougher on hers, wilder. He couldn’t get enough. Couldn’t taste enough, couldn’t—

  Dammit. I need to hold the shadows in place.

  He tore his mouth from hers. Sucked in a deep breath. But still tasted her. So, yes, kissing her had obviously been a colossal mistake. He’d made her forget fear for a moment, but he’d almost lost control.

  A good mental note for next time. Her kisses packed too much punch.

  Time to get moving. Savannah, I’m going to distract them, then we’re heading for the garage exit. They’d go on foot. They’d stay in the shadows until they were clear of danger. He wanted to be long gone by the time McNeely and the others came back downstairs. Just remember, I need to keep touching you.

  The longer he was with Savannah, the easier communicating psychically with her seemed to be. The more natural it felt.

  Savannah gave a small, nearly imperceptible nod.

  Jett shoved his left hand into his pocket. Jay had tossed him a set of keys before the chopper had lifted, and Jett pressed the alarm button on those keys now. When he did, the SUV’s horn blared, over and over again, even as its headlights flashed.

  The two cops and the agent immediately jumped. They whirled and aimed their weapons at the car. The agent even fired.

  The bullet flew into the windshield, right on the driver’s side.

  Then the cops and the agent closed in on the vehicle.

  This is our chance. He laced his fingers with Savannah’s, and they ran for the sloping exit of the parking garage. As soon as they cleared the exit, he saw the other cops and agents waiting out there. But they never even glanced Jett’s way. The night was working to their advantage. He never would have been able to pull up such strong shadows in the day.

  They hurried down the sidewalk, not making a sound, and, wanting to cover more ground faster, Jett scooped Savannah into his arms. He took off, never looking back. Leaving the agents and the hapless Biloxi PD in their wake.

  He kept going, running, pushing his body to full speed as they covered block after block. He wasn’t going to stop, not until Savannah was safe. Not until she was clear of the danger. Not until—

  “Jett.” Her breathless voice. “I’m getting dizzy.”

  He slowed down. Went from a blurring run to a walk.

  “And I think we’re far enough away that you can take a break.”

  He wasn’t sure how many miles they’d covered. Wasn’t even sure how much time had passed. But, up ahead, he saw a small motel. One with a flickering vacancy sign.

  Perfect.

  He approached the little motel. No one was out front, and he eased Savannah down to her feet. “The desk clerk won’t remember my face.”

  She gave him a doubting look.

  Jett’s lips curled. “I promise. I can use the shadows so that every time he looks at me, he sees someone different.” It was all about angles. Perceptions. “Just stay right here, and I’ll be back.”

  She gave a nod. Jett hurried inside, the bell above the door ringing to announce his presence. A fast survey showed no security cameras were perched anywhere. The place looked as if it hadn’t been updated in about, oh, fifty years.

  A bored guy—maybe in his mid-twenties—sat behind the counter, flipping through a magazine. “Fifty.” He didn’t look up.

  Jett tossed a fifty across the counter.

  The check-in clerk slid him a key. “Number eighteen. If you’re here more than two hours, it’s another fifty.”

  Right. He’d figured it was that kind of motel.

  Without a word, because speaking would just give the guy a voice to remember, Jett swiped up the key and headed out. Savannah was standing in the same spot, and when she saw him, relief flashed on her face. He curled his arm around her and led her to lucky room number eighteen.

  The lock was flimsy as hell and wouldn’t keep anyone out, but at least they were off the streets and sheltered, for the moment. He’d wait until some poor fool left a good ride nearby, and then they’d split. Until then… “Why don’t you get some rest? You’ve been up all night.”

  “Are you kidding?” Savannah stood in the middle of the tiny room, staring at him as if he’d lost his mind.

  “No, you have been up all night.” He pretty much knew jackshit about pregnant women, but weren’t they supposed to need extra sleep? Because their bodies were all busy making a new human and stuff?

  Her brows climbed. “There is no way I’m sleeping in that bed. I feel like I can catch something just by being near it.”

  His lips twitched.

  “It’s an hourly motel,” she added grimly. “I’m not touching the bed.”

  He closed in on her. Told himself to keep his hands off her. But he didn’t listen to himself. His hands rose. Curled around her shoulders. “It’s not hourly. It’s two hours at a time.”

  Her eyes squeezed shut. “Oh, my God.”

  “Savannah…You can sleep on top of the covers. You have to be exhausted.”

  Her eyes opened. “I know who it was.”

  What? “Baby, you should—”

  “I know who gave us the warning to leave the penthouse. I know who was in my head. I…I think you were right. I think I was always…” Her words trailed away, but then he heard her finish the sentence, in his mind.

  Always like this.

  “Savannah…”

  “If it’s genetic, if there is just something different about me or my brain that lets me hear the thoughts of others and even send out my own thoughts the way I just did to you…then doesn’t it stand to reason that someone else in my family could do the same thing?”

  Yes, it did. He’d had the same suspicion. But… “It could be another Lazarus subject. That’s right in line with our powers. It doesn’t have to be—”

  “My cousin? Sam? No, it doesn’t have to be him, but I told you, the voice seemed familiar. I could
n’t place it at first because I was so shocked someone else could get it my head.” Her shoulders lifted and fell. “It was him. Sam warned us to get out. He knew that McNeely had found me, he knew that I’d been, um, tagged or lojacked or whatever the hell it is. He knew, and Sam was trying to warn me.”

  Jett needed to play this scene carefully. “We have some time before I’m supposed to use the burner phone Sawyer gave me. A new location will be set up for us soon. A temporary safe house.” But just moving from safe house to safe house wasn’t going to work. “I need to get you out of town, Savannah.” She’d asked him to find her father’s killer. Asked him to give her justice before anything else happened.

  And he couldn’t do it. He was going to fucking let her down already, but her safety had to come first. “I need to get you away from Biloxi. I need to make you vanish.”

  Her head tipped back as she stared up at him. “You did that earlier. You made me vanish when a special agent was staring right at me in the parking garage.”

  “Savannah…” Dammit, he could get lost in the woman’s eyes. And the hard-on he’d gotten from their kiss was just getting worse. “I have to protect you first, before anything else. I have to get you settled. I’m going to get you out of here, but I’ll stay behind. I’ll make sure I figure out who killed your father.”

  Her head cocked. “You think I’m leaving you?”

  “Being around me puts you in danger.” He’d done nothing but put her in danger from the very first moment.

  “No.” She shook her head, sending her hair sliding over her shoulders. Savannah just said the one word and nothing else.

  “Uh, Savannah…”

  “Don’t you get it?” She blew out what seemed to be a very frustrated breath. “I’m safest when I’m with you. You can literally make me disappear. Who else is going to be able to do that with a touch?”

  No one else came to mind.

  “You send me away, you get your buddy Sawyer or Jay to whisk me out of town, and then what happens? Do you think they’ll watch after me the same way that you will?”

  “Savannah, they would keep you safe.”

  Then she shocked the hell out of him. She reached for his hand. Brought it to her stomach. Pressed his palm to the small mound there. “You have a vested interest in keeping us alive. We’re a part of you.”

  We. Yes, they were. It wasn’t just about the baby. For him, it never had been.

  “We’re kind of a package deal,” Savannah noted with a soft smile. “And we both want you with us. All the time. So don’t go getting any ideas about putting us in a plane and watching us fly away. That’s not going down.”

  His hand stretched, his fingers flexing against her. His child was there. Savannah’s baby. “But you wanted justice for your father. I have to find out who killed—”

  “Yeah, you know what?” Her lips trembled. “I choose us. I choose the baby. I choose you. I choose all of us getting out of here alive. I said I wanted to find out who killed my father. And I do, despite anything that he may have done, I want to find his killer.” She licked her lower lip. “But you weren’t lying to me.”

  Baby, I never want to lie to you again.

  “Good, you’d better not.” Her fingers were still curled around his wrist as his hand pressed to her stomach. “There was a tracking device in my body. People with very big guns located us at the penthouse. You came back from the dead—everything you said was true, and I can’t just pretend it’s not.” Another deep breath. “You didn’t kill my father.”

  “No, I swear it.”

  “I believe you.”

  His heart raced faster.

  “I also believe that it is far more important for us all to get out of town than it is for us to catch his killer. Me, the baby, and you. Our lives matter. I don’t want you getting captured. I don’t want you getting locked away. I want you with me, every step of the way, and if that means I have to find out who killed my father later, if that bastard has to wait on his justice, then that is the choice I make.” She stared into his eyes. “Because the family I have is more important than the family I lost.”

  Oh, God. “I fucking want to kiss you right now. More than I’ve ever wanted anything else.”

  “And I fucking want to kiss you, too. But I am not touching that bed, so when we make love—which we are about to do because I have missed you—you are going to hold me up the whole time, got it? You’re a super soldier.” Her voice dropped to a husky whisper. “I think you can handle that.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He could handle anything. But he really wanted to back up to that part about when they made love…

  “Kiss me again,” she seemed to breathe the words as Savannah tipped back her head. “Because I’ve thought about you every single night. Sometimes, I’d cry myself to sleep.”

  Baby.

  “Sometimes I’d pray that the evidence was wrong. I wanted it all to be wrong because I wanted you—the hero I’d known.”

  Jett shook his head. “I’m not a hero.” She shouldn’t think that.

  “Let me decide what you are, to me.” She gazed into his eyes. “I want to be with you again, Jett. Before anything else happens. Before any bad guys find us. I want to be with you.”

  He wanted her. Was absolutely desperate for her. But… “I don’t want to hurt the baby.”

  Her laugh was like sweet music. “Loving me can’t ever hurt the baby.”

  Did she know…did she realize what he felt for her? How deeply? He’d fallen hard and fast, and he hadn’t even realized the truth, not until he’d walked away and discovered that he’d left his heart with her. A man without a heart—that was just not really a man at all.

  A shell. A shadow.

  All that he’d become.

  He leaned toward her. His lips pressed to hers. Did she know that he’d longed for her taste? Imagined touching her? Seeing her? Over and over again? That she’d been his sanity when he’d been in hell?

  Did she know how much she mattered?

  No, because he’d never told her. But maybe he could show her.

  He curled his hands around her hips. Lifted her up. Held her easily. Kept kissing her. Her lips parted for him, and his tongue dipped into her mouth. His Savannah. Brave and strong and beautiful. Her tongue slid against his. Her hands curled around his neck. He kissed her slowly, he kissed her deeply. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he knew she felt the hard shove of his cock against her. But she just gave a moan, one that he greedily swallowed up, as Savannah rocked her hips against him. Rocked her body over and over, and made him ache for her even more.

  He turned, caging her between his body and the wall. He eased back, just enough to reach down and tear away her shirt. He tossed it behind him. Her breasts were covered in silky lace, and he lifted her up higher, wanting her nipples in his mouth.

  “Be, ah, careful,” she whispered. “They’re more sensitive.”

  He’d always be careful with her. Always. He licked her nipple through the lace. Sucked the tip. Licked, sucked—

  “Oh, God, that’s good.” Her hips were arching hard against him.

  And he was so swollen he hurt.

  Jett pulled away the bra, and her beautiful breasts waited for him. Tight, dusky nipples. Were her breasts a little bigger than before? So freaking sexy. He lifted her even higher. Caught one nipple. Licked it. Pulled it into his mouth. Nearly went crazy because she was so sexy.

  His hand fell to her waist. He eased his fingers down the front of her yoga pants. The pants were thin, the material soft cotton, but Savannah was so much softer. He stroked her, again and again with his fingers. He held her up with one hand and his other explored everything that he’d missed.

  It had been too long since he’d held her. Too long…

  “Jett!” His name was a sensual demand. “The clothes have got to go!”

  He let her feet touch the floor, but only long enough for him to strip away the yoga pants and her underwear. His fingers feathered over he
r stomach. Still so small. His baby was inside? His fingers trembled.

  “Jett.”

  He kissed her. Kissed her with all of the need and love that he had. Did she realize he would do anything for her? Absolutely anything. Lie. Steal. Kill. Without hesitation. Over and over again. She owned him that completely.

  He would move heaven and hell for her.

  “Jett, you still have on clothes!”

  He wasn’t worried about what he had on. His fingers were between her legs. She was wet and hot, and he was stroking her toward orgasm. He needed to give her pleasure. Needed her to see that he would always put her first. He kissed her, caressed her, then drove his fingers into her. She was so tight. So perfect. His hand pulled back, his thumb going to press against her clit. He remembered what she’d liked. Remembered the way she’d enjoyed his touch. He slid his fingers over her. Moved his mouth to her neck. Kissed her over her pulse. Licked. Sucked.

  She came for him. He felt her whole body jolt as Savannah cried out his name. And her pleasure was so perfect. His head lifted so he could see her face and watch the release wash over her.

  “Want…more…” Savannah panted. “Want…you.”

  With one hand, he unhooked the snap of his jeans. Then he eased down his zipper. His cock shoved toward her. She helped to position him, arching up, and then—

  “Slowly,” Jett cautioned roughly. “I don’t want to hurt you. I never want to hurt you.”

  Her gaze held his. She took him inside slowly, inch by careful inch.

  He couldn’t look away from her eyes, her face. She was so beautiful to him. Did she understand that?

  “I’m not glass.” Savannah leaned forward. Caught his lower lip between her teeth. Nipped. “I won’t break.”

  No, but the woman could easily break him. Jett put a stranglehold on his control. He let her set the pace. Rising up, arching down. He gripped her hips with easy strength but made sure not to hurt her. Never to do that. Again and again, she slid up and down his length. Driving him to the absolute edge of sanity because she was a hot, wet heaven. Gripping him so tight. Fucking. Insane.