by Dawn Ryder
He looked over to where Saxon and Vitus were staring at him. “Might want to open the vent shaft. The air can get mighty stale down there.”
Vitus looked back at the plans of the silo.
“Won’t find it there, son,” Milton informed them. He picked up a pencil and contemplated the blueprints for a long moment. “Should be about there.” He made a little mark on the faded paper. “With all that water, bet the door is crusted over.” He pointed into the distance. “Comes up over there by that group of Chevys, the fifty-two is over the grate.”
Milton offered them a wink before he started back toward the area he was restricted to. He paused beside the wreckage of what had once been a chair. The red fabric was dulled by time and rotten. The crew had unceremoniously dropped it. He reached down and pulled it upright. For a long moment, he stared at it, before the sound of his customary whistle floated behind him as he traversed the space between the house and the silo entrance.
Vitus turned and started toward the cluster of trucks.
“That family is full of surprises,” Saxon muttered before he was off following his brother.
Bram ended up watching Milton for a long moment. The old man seemed to know it, turning around and sending him a stern look. Milton lifted his hand and tapped the wedding band he still wore.
He wanted to say yes.
Felt the urge bubbling up from inside him like a spring someone had drilled a well down to reach. It was life giving but he just couldn’t get past the idea of knowing he’d be the one receiving life while Jaelyn was being consumed.
A whistle came from the truck, Saxon was waving him over. It was a welcome distraction.
Except he didn’t care for how much he knew he was avoiding the issue.
* * *
Jaelyn was watching the coffeepot.
It was empty.
Her grandfather came in, his whistling filling the little vintage kitchen as he grabbed a clean mug and made his way toward the coffeepot.
“Don’t think you’re going to get away with whatever you were doing out there.”
Her grandfather turned and smiled at her.
“Nope,” Jaelyn informed him. “You’re going to sing … loud and clear.”
Milton Sondors looked back at the empty coffeepot and opened a cabinet. There wasn’t a can of grounds anywhere in sight, just the lingering scent of it.
“Just like Jeanie,” he muttered. “You know when to take off the gloves.”
Jaelyn fixed him with an expectant look. Her grandfather sat the mug down and wandered out the back door. She snorted with frustration and was pretty sure she heard him chuckling.
A moment later, he plucked a thermos off one of the boulders where he’d stashed it and twisted the silver cap off. He leaned back against one of the boulders as he poured a steaming stream of dark java into the cap and toasted her with it.
There was a soft sound of amusement from behind her.
“Your grandfather is a gem,” Ginger said as she leaned in the doorway of the kitchen with her baby on her breast.
“Sometimes I agree,” Jaelyn muttered as she dug out the coffee grounds she’d hidden and went to make a pot. “Other times, I want to strangle him.”
“Well, he got those boys to look at something,” Ginger said as she peered out the kitchen window. “Can’t say I’m not enjoying the way Milton catches them off guard. It’s been far too sedate around here.” She looked at Jaelyn. “Don’t get me wrong, after the way I first met Saxon, a little quiet was just what I craved, but now I’m bored.”
Ginger grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. “So … since your grandfather won’t sing and Bram is hiding from you…”
Jaelyn turned and looked at Ginger. “Yeah?”
Ginger swept her from head to toe. The baby hiccupped and she lifted him and put him against her shoulder as she patted his back. “Come on down to the bedroom. Let’s see what we can find to entice Bram out of the dark end of the work yard.”
* * *
They needed to talk.
Bram ducked under the water in the shower before it was hot because he needed to find Jaelyn before the sun went down.
They’d end up in bed if darkness was there to help them ignore reality.
I will marry you …
Her words were like balm for wounds he hadn’t realized he was sporting across the surface of his soul.
They were the force drawing him to her. The magic of her embrace was a shield against the harsh edges of his life.
Which was why he stepped out of the shower and went looking for his clothing.
A few moments later, he was looking for Jaelyn and he realized, it was both the best and worst thing he might ever do.
And she didn’t make it easy for him. The door of her quarters was locked but he used his key and poked his head inside after she failed to answer the bell.
There was nothing much in the room. A bed that was neatly made. On one side was a desk with a chair pushed in and on the other was a doorway to the narrow bathroom. On the wall that the door was in there was a closet. It honestly didn’t look like she’d ever been inside it. The bed was made tightly enough to pass inspection.
Bram shut the door and went toward the house.
Saxon looked up when he knocked on the screen door. His team leader shook his head. “Left half an hour ago.”
Bram stood between the house and the mobile quarters, picking up the faint sound of the shower running in LeAnn’s unit. Milton had found a hammock strung up in the backyard between two huge trees. The sound of his snoring drifted on the evening breeze.
The sun was a glowing ball on the horizon. There was an ache forming inside him and he realized it was because he didn’t know where she was. All of the logic and reasoning aside, it wrenched his gut to know she was out of reach.
The sensation made a moment last a whole hell of a fucking long time while he slowly scanned the area in back of the mobile quarters unit.
Jaelyn stepped into sight, like she’d felt him searching for her. She moved into the doorway of the huge barn, giving him a glimpse of a dress that allowed him a mouthwatering view of her legs.
Her hair was down, brushed out from the ponytail she kept it in most of the time.
His fingers itched to comb through it.
She was waiting for him. Duty might have been the reason he went looking for her but in the end, he realized she was drawing him to her, just as she always had.
God help them both.
* * *
“Do I want to know why you’re looking out there at Bram with a smirk on your lips?” Saxon Hale asked his wife.
Ginger turned around and sent him a glance that still made his collar feel too tight.
“You mean … this look?” she asked in a sultry tone.
Saxon nodded. “You’ve been around Thais too much.”
“Hummm,” Ginger responded. “Actually, you should be far more conscious of the fact that I have spent the week with Jaelyn.”
“Why is that?” Saxon asked.
Ginger smiled brighter. “You’re adorable when you’re trying to protect me.”
Saxon sent her a look she knew well. It was the one she’d seen a lot when they’d met, right after she’d stumbled on a murder in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Without him, she’d have been the second victim that day.
“I’m not so sure you should get too cozy with Bram’s case subjects.”
Ginger felt her smile fade a little. Her husband could roll into mission mode in a snap of the fingers.
“Jaelyn,” Ginger said, enunciating very precisely, “has been a tremendous help.”
“Gin, don’t get used to her being around.”
Her husband wasn’t being hard-hearted. No, he was using his low tone, the one he reserved just for her when he was attempting to break something to her he thought she’d be upset over.
“That’s going to sort of suck.” Ginger was back to purring. “Because Max is worn out, Trevor is h
alf asleep, and as for me … well, I’m not exhausted because of Jaelyn helping out.”
Ginger pulled the clip out of her hair. It tumbled down around her shoulders in a messy bundle of curls that drew her husband’s gaze.
“Bram’s determined to see them free to resettle.”
Ginger sent her husband a flutter of her eyelashes.
“Jaelyn strikes me as being up to the challenge of dealing with him.”
Saxon frowned at her. “Are you playing matchmaker with my men?”
“I may have loaned her a dress,” Ginger said as Saxon caught her up against his hard frame. “In the interest of taking shameless advantage of having the energy to remind you why marriage is bliss.”
Her husband was stroking her back, his eyes narrowed as he let out a low growl of approval. “It is, baby.”
Saxon leaned down and captured her mouth in a kiss. Her senses came to life, like a rosebush in spring. Logic didn’t have much to say about the way they’d always taken to one another.
Bram really needed to accept that fact about love.
* * *
Bram was coming for her.
Jaelyn savored the tingle that went across her skin. The barn was a huge structure but when Bram entered the doorway, she felt like it shrank. He swept her from head to toe, hunger drawing his features tight as he took in the dress she’d borrowed from Ginger.
It was just a jersey one but it left her acutely aware of how easy it would be to wrap her thighs around his hips. His gaze lingered over her belly, freezing the breath in her chest as she recognized the flare of need in his eyes.
“You’re playing with fire, Jaelyn.”
She offered him a small smile. “That’s the story of our relationship, Bram.” She shifted away from him, unable to stand still. “I might get a tattoo with it.”
“Don’t … you … dare…” He’d started to give chase.
“Ink my skin?” she asked softly. “Or do something permanent to say I want to belong to you? Something you can’t hide from?”
“You don’t know me, Jaelyn…” he said, squaring off with her. “Not really.”
She forced herself to face him, fighting back the urge to keep retreating. The light was fading, and she was backed into one of the corners.
Into the shadows …
“I know you make me feel things on a scale I’ve never encountered before.” She offered him a shrug. “I told you I was looking for someone who would curl my toes. You do.”
She could see he liked the sound of that.
And it frustrated him as well.
Jaelyn moved toward him, the lust shimmering in his eyes drawing her forward with that boldness he alone set loose.
“I know…” She reached out and flattened her hand on his chest, closing her eyes as their flesh connected and she felt the surge of intensity rise inside her. “I know I’d still be only half alive if I hadn’t kissed you that night.”
His features were tight with need. “Fuck…” he mumbled under his breath.
“Yes,” she whispered.
She watched his eyes flicker with desire.
“That’s not what I meant,” he said, forcing the words out. “I came out here to tell you to forget getting married. To me that is. I shouldn’t have touched you, shouldn’t have let you give me your trust.”
“I kissed you,” she said. “And I do not, will not ever regret it because even if you’re gone, I will know I was woman enough to take the challenge you gave me.”
Nope. She forbid herself to ever regret it.
Live in the moment …
Jaelyn pulled away from him. She felt it keenly, the separation, and so did he. Another muttered “Fuck” drifted through the barn.
* * *
“I kill.”
His tone was hard and razor sharp. His expression was that one she’d only glimpsed a few times, when he’d been in the heat of the moment and focused on defending them.
“And I am not … sorry.” He reached out and grasped her shoulder, holding her in a hard grip that drove home just how much control he’d always used when touching her.
“This hand is dirty, Jaelyn … do you get it?” He was holding his other hand out in front of her face, the fingers splayed wide. “Dirty with blood. You need a guy who’s decent. One who will come home to you and not chase danger. Not leave you wondering if you’re going to get a call from his team leader instead of a husband coming home. I’m not the right kind of man for you.”
“And I’m not naive. Or some little innocent good girl who’s never watched a dirty movie,” she countered, pulling back. He released her, his features tight with frustration and lust.
“I’m not sorry, either,” Jaelyn continued. “Not sorry I kissed you the moment I could. Not sorry one little bit either.”
She fingered the hem of the dress and pulled it up, drawing the garment off her body.
“And I’m not sorry I left my underwear off because I wanted you to join me in here and feed the need you kindle inside me.”
It was an ultimatum.
And a declaration.
“And I’m telling you … showing you … that you’re my greatest weakness. And no matter what, Bram Magnus, I will not be scared of what life throws at me. You’re trying to return me to a life I was dissatisfied with. That’s not your fault. But our paths crossed. I’m going with it, Bram.”
* * *
She was magnificent.
Something between a phoenix and a siren. Rising up from the ashes and calling to him with a song he knew was going to lead to his death.
But he was too damned enchanted to give a rat’s ass.
Bram moved toward her, gathering her up and pushing her against the hood of a car. She made a soft little sound of female pleasure, her thighs spreading wide to make way for his hips. It let the scent of her warm center drift up to him.
Intoxicating him.
Hardening his cock as he reached down to stroke her slit.
“I want to hear you purr…”
His tone was harsh. More of an order. He touched her folds, drawing his fingertips lightly through the wetness seeping from her passage and felt the bonds of civilization breaking.
“I want to hear you be … rotten…”
She leaned back, pressing her hands onto the hood of the car, so her tits were thrust high.
“Suck my nipples,” she said raspily. “Until they pucker.”
“Where in the hell did you learn to talk like this, Jaelyn?”
He was reaching for her as he asked the question because it was more explanative. A confirmation of just how well she took him by surprise.
“I’m learning right now … from the way you respond,” she replied. “As I told you, Bram, I like being honest with you.”
He let out a groan as he wrapped an arm around her waist to support her and cupped one breast in his other hand.
“I love your tits, baby. Plump and sweet.” He captured the nipple between his lips, licking the little nub as she let out a breathy little sound of delight.
It sent a twinge through his cock. The organ hardening even more as he teased her nipple into a peak and felt it draw into a pucker with his tongue.
Erotic wasn’t a strong enough sentiment to describe it.
Euphoric maybe.
He didn’t much care, so long as she let him sate his hunger on her flesh.
“The other one, Bram, don’t leave it out…”
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. There was a woman staring back at him. The one who had so brazenly challenged him to marry her. He knew for certain she had more strength than he’d ever suspected.
She reached out and stroked the front of his pants. “I want to touch you…”
It wasn’t a request. No, she was demanding it and he ripped his fly open in obedience. His cock sprang free, eager for space.
And her touch.
“Nice,” she said as she stroked it. All she did was tease him with her fingertip a
nd his heart was thumping like a jackhammer, his balls tightening as he feared he’d lose his load right there.
That’s what she did to him.
So uncontrollable.
So combustible.
But the scent of her heat told him he wasn’t alone. He reached down and teased her slit.
“Yeah, nice and hot…,” he said raspily, rimming the opening to her body with one fingertip. He watched the way she stiffened, saw the way her nostrils flared as her need built. There was a desperate urge building inside him to make sure he wasn’t alone in his addiction to her.
“But you could be hotter.”
He found her little clit and rubbed it. She gasped, unconsciously trying to escape. He held her with one arm as he kept the pressure on.
“I’m going to make you come, Jaelyn,” he whispered. “Going to show you why you left your body bare … for me.”
“Oh … Christ…,” she said as she groaned. “Harder … just … yes … there.”
It was a breathless little admission, one that made his cock twitch to get inside her but it also fired his determination. She was growing wetter, her clit swelling into a hard little pearl as her skin turned ruby.
The cry she let out when she peaked startled some of the birds nesting above them. There was a flapping of feathered wings before they settled and all Bram heard was the little sounds she made.
That he’d made her make.
Base.
Savage maybe.
But honest.
She lifted her eyelids and locked gazes with him. His fingers were coated in her juices, her scent thick in the air.
“I’m going to fuck you, baby…”
She locked her legs around him, guiding him closer as she shivered. “You’d better.”
He gripped his length, rubbing the head of his cock through her wet slit.
Once, twice … a third time.
As much as he wanted to plunge into her, the little sounds she made as his cock head slipped along her slit just captivated him. He wasn’t a stranger to bed partners who enjoyed sex.
This was different.
There was something about the way she came to life in his embrace that made her more sincere. She made him believe she craved him and not just the release.