The call connecting him to the FBI felt like he was exposing them to death rays with every minute that ticked by. The chances that someone could make a connection between him and an FBI agent he’d met twice were slim, but he still wanted off the phone.
“Special Agent George Lanning.”
“George, Levi Cooper. I’m in the area and need an in-person favor. Can we meet? Very public and somewhere you normally go.”
“Cowboys Red River. We dance there on Thursdays,” George answered. “Nine o’clock, inside, midway on the right near the mechanical bull. I’ll find you.”
Another risk, bringing someone he barely knew to help Jo. He had no choice. They needed information and if he went to anyone in the Marshals Service his gut told him the murderers would find them.
“Red River’s less than twenty minutes from here,” he told Jo after he disconnected.
“I still can’t believe there’s a motor home park so close to Dallas.”
“Yeah, but you heard the manager, they get a lot of tourists.”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing the States in this contraption.” She looked from the front closed curtains to the closed bedroom door. “Of course, I’d probably want to see a bit more of it along the way.”
Her mood had brightened since they’d made the purchase. Maybe because she’d made the suggestion and you actually listened to her?
“It’s better if you stay out of sight.”
“I’m teasing you Marshall Dil—Levi. I know why I sat in the back. I know why the curtains are closed.”
Her mother’s file was under her palm, flat on the table, waiting to be opened. As much as Jolene had expressed that she wanted to read its contents, she hadn’t glanced inside. He’d removed the photos. No child should see their mother like that. He didn’t feel right about getting her to remember it on her own. But there was no choice.
“Jo...”
“I know, I have to look. We have to go through it. We have to find the Rainbow Man.”
“There’s a possibility he’s out of the picture. He could be dead, skipped the country.”
“You don’t believe that, either,” she said, sounding miserable.
“We have six hours to kill before we meet George. What would you like to do?” He slid onto the bench seat next to her. Aching to drop his arm around her shoulder. Wondering if it were the right thing to do. They needed to talk about the file, about a plan, about what would happen if she didn’t remember.
He didn’t want to talk.
“We could explore,” she said, scrapping her fingernail across her bottom lip.
She had no clue what she did to his blood flow. Explore? Yeah, he wanted to explore her silky skin and discover every freckle, scar or goose flesh she might develop when he had her naked and stretched across the bed.
Six hours to explore. Heaven or hell?
Her hands rubbed her thighs. Her lips parted. “I’m dying to get outside for a while. How about you?”
Torture.
“Walking or running?” he asked, dreading the answer, dreading the delay.
They wanted each other and he was tired of denying it. He couldn’t pretend she was off-limits much longer.
“I think I’m too drained for a run and going in circles around the drive isn’t really what I had in mind anyway.” She lifted the corner of the folder.
Jo wasn’t making a move to open the file and didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get out the door. Did she want him to make a decision for her?
Normally, he was an intuitive guy. His fellow marshals trusted his instincts. With Jo, he was a clueless idiot, sitting on his hands, waiting for the perfect moment that would never come.
“A walk around the park then?” He turned to her, met her eyes. She actually seemed a little irritated. He backed off the bench, not losing eye contact, following those beautiful orbs right to the moment her lips locked on his.
Normally intuitive? Never with this woman.
Jolene launched herself at her thickheaded protector. The only running she desired was her fingers through Levi’s thick, short hair. The man’s lips devoured her. One hand at her nape kept her mouth against his. The excitement shooting through her body built and needed more.
More of him against her. More of her against him.
Levi moved his lips to her neck, pushing aside the T-shirt.
“We could get this out of your way.” She lifted the hem. Be bold. Tell him what you want.
“No waiting, huh?” He tilted his head back and half smiled like he knew something she didn’t again.
She loved and hated that grin all at once. And just as sure as she’d been a few moments before, she was completely uncertain now. Did he know just how many guys she hadn’t slept with and how inexperienced she was?
She shrugged, completely unsure how to proceed with this contradictory man who knew too much about her life. “We can do whatever.”
“Fast is good,” he said and pulled her shirt over her head, following with his own. “Time for slow later.”
His thumbs brushed her breasts through the lacy bra. The sensation spiked straight through to her spine like lightning sparking on a cloudless night. She closed her eyes and imagined herself as someone brave and bold. Someone who went after what she wanted.
Without feeling it happen, she was topless and longing to feel her skin pressed against his hot bare flesh. She shoved at Levi’s shirt, pushing it over his shoulders. Her fingers returned to tour the light dusting of chest hair she’d wanted to touch for days.
His hands skimmed her sides and tugged at her jeans while her fingers were on a quest of their own discovering the contours of each muscle she’d ever admired.
No words. No talking. If they said anything he might try to convince her it wasn’t right, convincing himself again that it shouldn’t happen. But everything was perfect. Every stroke, every touch, every bit of the frenzy and heart-pumping excitement she felt.
Whatever he’d meant to do before right now, Levi’s body reacted to her hand on his zipper. He sucked in a long breath and pressed their bodies together.
They tugged, tripped and stepped from their shoes and jeans until they were skin to skin at the edge of the bed.
“You sure you want this?” Levi asked her.
“You’re the one who’s been turning me down,” she said, laughing. “Really, Levi, shouldn’t you be saying something along the lines of how beautiful I am?”
“You’re beautiful and I’m an idiot for waiting all this time.”
“Shh.” She laid her finger across his lips.
“Beautiful and bossy.”
There was nothing rushed in the way he gently lay her on the bed or slowed their frenzied touching to luxurious lovemaking.
She’d been wrong about a lot of things since her father had died. But there was a prediction she’d made with scary accuracy. No one could protect her heart from the man in her arms. He’d stolen it straight from the protection of her chest.
Somewhere during the four years they’d known each other, she’d fallen in love with Levi Cooper, the U.S. Marshal. But when it came to Levi the man, she knew absolutely nothing.
Chapter Twelve
Levi flipped her underneath him, causing the motor home to sway slightly. He’d agreed that fast was good but evidently had changed his mind since his lips lingered at her neck while his fingers intertwined with hers.
He gently scraped his bristled cheek across her shoulder to her breasts.
How could he drive her this crazy with just a five o’clock shadow delighting her skin?
“Levi, didn’t you say fast was good?” She tugged her hands, trying to escape for her own survey. Tugging again, he gently held her closer, scraping her taut nipples with his cheek stubble, making her more sensitive with every pass.
“Slow has a few good points all its own,” he whispered.
She wanted to touch him and he knew it. When he returned to nibbling her neck she wrapped one leg around his hip
and pressed against him. Her breasts flattened under the muscles she adored as she arched to rekindle some of their intensity.
“Guess we aren’t playing fair, then?” he whispered and teased her ear.
That sound lightened her heart and brought a smile to her lips. She hadn’t heard him relaxed since...well, since her last visit to Boulder.
When they’d kissed on the train and in the hotel, it was edgy and forbidden. His body had been strong, unyielding, on guard. Here on this lumpy mattress, his hot lean frame melted her into every sculpted, manly curve.
And she wanted more. Lots more.
Beautiful and bossy.
His words echoed. She could do bossy. “My turn.”
With her hands free, she discovered and embraced one corded muscle at a time. Lingered over Levi’s shoulders and biceps. Amazed at his strength and even more impressed how he was holding back.
Levi touched her everywhere with fingertips, lips, breath, even his eyes. His feathery touch skimmed up her arms and across her ribs, while his rough chin tickled the hollow at her neck and his leg created wonderful thrills on its own.
Her whole body tingled in anticipation of his next move.
And then the anticipation was gone. The thrill of being touched in all the right places culminated in one great build of tension shattering her into a thousand pieces.
“Your turn,” she said when she could force her voice to work again. “Definitely, your turn.”
He rolled over her in the tight space of what the owner had said was a very good-sized bed for a motor home. But again, Levi had a habit of filling her space with his presence. He reached over the edge of the bed, fumbling through their clothing.
“I...try the drawer under the bed,” she said, knowing he searched for protection. “I grabbed some from the store earlier.”
“Funny.” He grinned, coming back with a packet in hand. “So did I.”
So the U.S. Marshal who tried his best to treat her as a witness had been thinking about her as a lover, too. If she hadn’t been warmed-over butter in his hands before, she certainly was now.
Levi set her on top of him. She was more than ready to finish what they’d started. Or begin a new part of their lives. But she was unprepared for the connection she experienced when he entered her body, her mind and her heart.
* * *
PROPPED UP WITH a pillow under her elbow, Jolene drew concentric circles on his chest with her nails. Caressing, almost tickling his skin, it was hard not to jump and let her know how much her touch affected him. He looked at the delicate skin of her throat, no bruises to remind him how close she’d come again to disappearing or even dying.
He wanted to say something profound or just tuck her under his arm and hope she understood how much he cared. But nothing would change. She was in danger and it was about to get worse.
He must have opened his mouth while trying to figure out what to say. Jo laid a finger across his lips, rising up to look through his soul.
“If you’re about to apologize for what just happened, I hope you rethink opening your mouth. Or at least rethink what you should do with it.”
Levi sucked her nail between his lips and caused her to shiver dramatically next to him.
She’d read his mind because an apology had been a split second from happening. Apologize for taking advantage of her or the situation or say something stupid like their sleeping together had been a lapse in his judgment.
Lies. No errors. No lapses. And nothing wrong about the way their bodies knew each other. Then or now.
“So you should just rest quietly. Unless you’re ready to start over?” Her hand skimmed his chest and lower. They still had five hours before they needed to leave. Five more hours of “exploring.”
“Levi?”
“Hmm?” He took her hand in his and began kissing his way up her arm. A classic move, but he’d promised himself a look at every freckle. “Were you going to ask me something?”
“Oh, yeah.” She visibly shivered again, the kind that lets a guy know he’s doing something right. “I don’t know...Oh, my goodness.”
Levi nibbled longer on the inside of her elbow, nipping and receiving more shivers through her gorgeous body. “You were saying?”
“You know everything about me. More than you should because of your extra eyes on me in Georgia.”
He let his lips wander to her taut stomach. Yeah, he knew she worked out three or four times a week to keep it as tight as it was. He liked the hard, yet feminine muscles she’d developed.
“There are a few things I don’t know about.” His hand wandered lower and her body arched to meet him.
“Wait.” She sat up and pulled a pillow to hide behind.
“What’s wrong?”
She hugged that pillow like she’d erected an electrical fence. “I’m serious.”
“I’m confused.” He thought she’d been directing their lovemaking and thought he’d done what she wanted. Maybe he was wrong?
“My world has no secrets and I don’t even know the first thing about yours.”
“Is that all? I thought I’d done something you didn’t like.”
“This is important, Levi.”
“You’re right and wrong.”
“Now I don’t understand.”
“I have no idea how you’ll react to, say, this.” He threw her protective layer of pillow to the floor and pulled her on top of him. She straddled his legs, her delicate hands splaying his chest. “You’re still in charge. Interrogate as much as you can before I escape.”
“Bru-ha-ha. I have you in my evil clutches,” she wiggled her bottom, “and you must answer all my questions truthfully.”
“Cross my heart.” He drew an X between her breasts, dragging his knuckles across her puckered nipple before returning his hand to her hips. “What do you want to know?”
If he could only tell her how much he wanted her heart to be his. He would when this mess was over. When they had the answers and no one was trying to kill her. Things would be different.
“Do you like ice cream?”
She could ask him anything and that’s what she wanted to know? He could play along. “Yes.”
“And what about artichokes?”
He nodded. “From what I’ve had in Italian food, sure.”
“So you like Italian then?” She bounced excitedly on his legs.
“What man doesn’t like...pasta?” Or the feast before him.
“Your middle name is...”
“Gene.”
“Okay. Really?” she asked after a major pause.
“Yeah, got that a lot as a kid. I was named after my two grandfathers. My dad never thought about it ’til someone else read my name out loud.”
“Cute. Where were you born? What about family? Do they know what you do?”
Her hands were making it hard to concentrate on words. But he understood her need for a connection to him. He’d held back a lot over the past four years. “Jo, I haven’t lied about my attraction to you.”
“Just...” She kissed his mouth. “Answer...” Then his chin, her breasts barely touched his body. “Please...” Then a kiss to his chest. “There are rewards for quick responses.”
He could tell. “Amarillo. Yes. Not really.” He tried to tug her back for another kiss, but she blocked his movements and crossed her arms—a reward in itself. “All right. My aunt knows I work for the Marshals Service and assumes I work with the Witness Protection division because I can’t talk about my work. No more talk of family in bed.”
He wanted to take advantage of Jo’s position and the hours they had to spend on this thin mattress. Talk of either of their families would stop their fun faster than a nun walking into the room. His partner seemed to understand and continued her own touching exploration.
“So you’re a Texan?” She sat straight again, her body sleek and inviting.
“Born and bred.”
“Ever ride a horse?” she asked impishly.
&nb
sp; “Goes without saying in my part of Texas.” He hadn’t ridden since high school but didn’t think that mattered.
“So you were a cowboy?”
“Enough with the questions.” He reached for her and she avoided his grasp.
“So you don’t feel like having your life under a microscope?”
“What I feel like...is kissing you.” He snagged her shoulders and quickly pulled her mouth to his, stopping the questions he didn’t mind answering.
Her softened lips heated. He’d never get enough of how she tasted. He felt satisfied and yet wanted more of her. It was a conflict he’d never experienced before. He’d never thought about...contentment.
“Later. You aren’t getting off that easy,” she said between a few short pants and opening herself to him again.
He laughed, unable to control the burst of simple pleasure. They had a few hours of safety. He wasn’t going to waste it thinking about what they might be doing. He wanted her here, in the moment with him.
His body hovered as his guilt led him beyond Jolene’s arms. What would happen next week? Or after that? The years of telling himself he couldn’t have a relationship, especially Jo, overrode what his body wanted.
“Hey there, where did you go?” Jo clipped him gently on the chin.
“Maybe we should—” Stopping was the last thing he wanted. He already ached to be a part of her again.
“Shh, Levi. No what-ifs. There’s just right now. This minute. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment act. It’s been four years in the making. And judging by the number of condoms we both bought...”
Right now.
Her words made light of this moment but her sensitive eyes said how much she needed him. And no matter what his head knew as fact, his body couldn’t hide from Jo again. He’d make love with her every minute they had together.
Two boxes may not be enough.
Chapter Thirteen
Dangerous Memories Page 12