And she hadn’t felt Jake leave the bed? She must have slept more soundly than she realized. She was certainly more relaxed, more sated…The red lights on the clock caught her eye once more, and she groaned. “I still need to get to work.”
“Don’t go.” His palm came to rest on her stomach, his hand splaying wide, his skin hot and warm against her flesh.
Her pulse leapt and her insides coiled into a tight, tempting knot of desire. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve dragged myself out of bed because I couldn’t justify staying home?”
“I’ll give you justification.” He slid his hand downward, his fingers resting on her feminine mound. Slick moisture trickled between her legs, while a pulsing, pounding awareness started slow and grew until it enveloped her.
“Stay home with me, instead.” His husky voice echoed in her ear as his arm snaked out and he reached for the phone, dangling it in front of her eyes. “Come on, Brianne. Call in sick.”
She wanted to. She yearned desperately to shed the years of automated behavior and the obligatory need to follow a set schedule. She bit down on her lower lip. “I’ve never called in sick unless I was deathly ill.”
“Then, do it this once. Give yourself a well-deserved treat.” One finger dipped lower, teasing her with the beginning of the intoxicating waves he was so good at creating.
“People are counting on me,” she murmured, but the protest was weak.
“Then, how about a compromise? Call and say you’ll be late.” With one smooth move, he rolled on top of her, his naked body aligned and all but joining with hers. Though he wasn’t putting weight on his shoulder, the position had to be uncomfortable for him. “I’ll make it well worth your while.”
He grinned, and she couldn’t resist the sparkle in his eye, the warmth and temptation of his body or his willingness to put her needs before his own. Minutes later, her phone call was made and work was pushed aside. As she put the phone back in the cradle, she glanced down at her nightstand drawer and remembered the box of condoms Kellie had given her the other day.
Embarrassed but determined, she opened the drawer and pulled out a foil packet. Then turning back to Jake, she allowed the intimacy they’d shared to guide her as she drew a deep breath for courage and positioned herself on top of him once more. Her legs on either side of his waist, her femininity directly over his erection, she slid down against the length of him, teasing him with what could be. He was hot and hard beneath her, his enlarged member pulsing with desire. For her. Feeling him erect against her, she let out an appreciative sigh.
“Damn, but I like this position.”
“I can make it even better.” She held out the foil packet she’d retrieved earlier, and he snagged it out of her hand.
“’Extra lubrication and increased sensitivity,’” he read, his blue eyes glittering with want.
“Care to try them out? There’s an entire box of them.”
“Honey, we are definitely speaking the same language.”
She hoped so because her entire body was taut with longing. As if he read her mind, he reached out and cupped her breasts. His large hands kneaded her flesh and satisfied a tiny part of the need he’d inspired. But only a part, because her nipples puckered hard and rasped against his coarser palms. He rubbed gently, increasing the friction and her aching need for fulfillment. In response, her hips began to gyrate in circles against his heated skin.
He gestured with a nod to the condom that had fallen beside him on the bed. “Put it on me.”
With shaking hands, she tore into the packet and moved back onto his thighs so she could slide the plastic sheath over his erect penis. With one hand she held his extended length while the other worked the condom over him. She felt every velvet inch and hard ridge of masculine steel. Her pulse pounded, not just in her wrist but between her legs, and a matching trickling of moisture followed.
“You’re good at this, Brianne.”
Swallowing, she met his gaze. Her hand was still wrapped around him, and she knew for certain she wasn’t imagining the play of emotions crossing his face as he watched her. A lump formed in her throat.
Never in her limited experience had the act of protection been a part of sex itself, but now, with Jake, it was foreplay of the most intimate kind. The kind that only occurred between two people who cared for one another, Brianne thought, and she shook the overwhelming, impossible thought away. It was too soon. They were too new. Yet she knew they’d connected with their first glance and she was lying to herself now.
His hands came to rest on her hips, and he lifted her, still watching intently. Inch by smooth, moist inch, she took him inside her, felt him filling the emptiness and becoming a part of her.
And then he began to move, his hips pumping upward, bringing him deeper, harder. She sucked in a breath and held it fast, then repeated the effort, finding that the controlled breathing brought her closer and closer to release. Her pelvis rocked with his, circular motions that became rhythmic, putting pressure on exactly the right spot at the right time. Each rotation took her higher, higher, until everything exploded in a flash of blinding, all-consuming light and sensation.
He’d just rocked her body, and she knew without a doubt he’d also rocked her world.
JAKE SAT UP in bed, physically sated but mentally alert. The shower ran in the other room, and no matter how much he’d like to join Brianne, he couldn’t. He’d bought himself some time by convincing her to go to work late—late enough for him to contact private investigator David Mills, an ex-cop, a damn good detective and the only person Jake trusted to keep an eye on Brianne when Jake couldn’t be there himself. He’d already taken care of Frank’s family by calling in another favor. And he’d warned Frank’s wife to be extra careful, something she understood well.
Jake had attempted to get in touch with his detective friend once during the night, but David’s wife and partner said he was out cold after a prolonged stakeout. She’d agreed to take on David’s current case to free him up to watch Brianne, and Jake didn’t mind owing the Millses a big favor. The stakes were high and the reason worth it. While Jake focused on loose ends, he needed someone awake and alert to protect Brianne.
He’d had to keep her occupied until he could arrange for her safety—not that spending the morning in her bed had been a hardship.
If he’d had any second thoughts about his growing feelings, they’d been answered in the seconds he’d watched her sheath him with protection. His heart had filled as he watched her attempt her task with shaking hands while biting down on her lower lip in intense concentration. And when she’d taken him inside her body, he’d lost a part of himself, probably for good.
He shook his head and cursed aloud. “Focus,” he muttered, frustrated with himself and his distracted thoughts. The tattoo and the long-awaited Forensics report would give him a solid lead on Ramirez. Now he had to step up the heat and get Louis behind bars. He was relieved to have set up David to watch Brianne’s back during the day. Jake would cover the nights himself.
But who would cover him when Brianne walked out for good?
CHAPTER EIGHT
JAKE HAD GOTTEN Brianne out the door, but not without almost succumbing to the urge to make love to her one more time. And he would have if not for her insistence about getting to work. Jake swallowed a groan, knowing that he’d let his heart rule his head and that it couldn’t go on. He had to concentrate on his job.
It was a job that he wanted over and done with so he could deal with his future. For now, the job had brought him to a rendezvous with Vickers at the hospital where the overdose victim had been admitted. And the hospital where Brianne worked.
As he walked up the concrete stairs, Jake glanced around at the crowds on the street, but Ramirez was nowhere in sight. Not that he’d expected the slime to jump out of the shadows and announce himself. But it was the guy’s damn lurking that was getting to Jake, making him wary and causing him to wonder what Ramirez had in store for Jake—and Bri
anne.
He glanced at his watch but his empty stomach already told him it was close to lunchtime.
“Make sure you get yourself something to eat in the cafeteria. I damn sure don’t want to listen to that grumbling all morning,” Vickers muttered.
Jake laughed, then sobered fast as he remembered why he’d had no time for breakfast. Indulging in more erotic pursuits, he thought wryly.
“Thompson will have my ass if he finds out I brought you with me to question a witness.”
Jake shrugged. The lieutenant was the least of his problems. If Jake ran into Brianne now, he’d have a hell of a time explaining why an on-leave cop with a bum shoulder was hanging around waiting to question a witness.
He glanced at Vickers, a brawny, balding man with good instincts but little tact. “What the lieutenant doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Jake said. Not that he held any illusions. The lieutenant would hear about his visit one way or another. Jake just didn’t give a damn.
“At least if I get reamed I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing I won’t be the only one.” Vickers snickered.
They nodded to the uniformed cop watching the woman’s hospital room door, knocked, and, once given permission, walked inside. A drawn-looking young girl—she looked too young to be called a woman—lay in a bed, an IV in one arm and a dazed, bleak expression on her face. Black hair fanned the stark white hospital sheets and drew attention to her utterly pale skin. She turned to look at them as they entered but she didn’t utter a word.
Jake stepped back and let Vickers, the detective on duty, begin the questioning. Vickers flashed his badge. “Ma’am, we know this is difficult for you but would you mind taking us through what happened two nights ago?”
A lone tear dripped down her cheek. She looked younger than her twenty-two years but not too young to know better. Why the hell was she experimenting with designer drugs? She was pretty, and too damn young to have been so close to death.
“If you don’t want to talk here, we can do it at the station after you’re released,” Vickers said.
“You’re an ass,” Jake muttered under his breath. He trusted Vickers like a brother, but the man had the delicacy of an elephant.
When she remained silent, Jake stepped forward. “Telling us what you know won’t bring your boyfriend back, but it might save someone else.”
She visibly swallowed, then turned her head away from them, obviously unwilling to talk.
“Vick, go get me a cup of coffee, will you?” Jake asked. They’d discussed this scenario ahead of time, and Vickers had agreed if she refused to talk to the police, he’d give Jake, the on-leave cop, time alone with her.
He pulled up a chair and dragged it to the side of the bed. “Cops can be pretty intimidating when they walk in and flash their badges, all full of authority and bull.”
She rolled her head to the side and faced him.
A start, Jake thought. “I’m a detective but I’m on leave. Name’s Jake Lowell but you can call me Jake.” He figured he’d just sealed his chance of the lieutenant finding out about this visit. He’d kill him, but if Jake got information it was worth it.
“Hospitals suck, don’t they?” When she didn’t reply, he merely continued. “I was laid up myself a while back. I was shot.”
She blinked and raised her eyes to meet his. “How’d you get shot?” she asked.
Her soft, melodic voice sounded out of place in the drab hospital room and in the face of her dire circumstances. But at least he’d captured her attention. She was listening. “At a stakeout. Probably by the same guy who supplied those pills you took last night. The pills that killed your boyfriend.”
She winced, and Jake felt the slice of a knifelike pain in his gut. He knew he was pushing her hard and being cruel, but he hoped that by reminding her of what she’d lost, she’d fight harder to get the guy who’d done this to her. And maybe by aiding in Ramirez’s capture, she’d regain some of the self-esteem lost through the other night’s indulgence.
“I’m not an addict,” she whispered. “Neither is, I mean, was…oh God…neither was Neil. We just wanted to see what the fuss was all about. I never expected—” Her voice caught and her eyes filled once more.
Jake patted her hand. “I understand. Believe me, I see this more times than I want to count. That’s why I need you to help me out, Marina. Help me get the guy. All I need to know is what happened last night. How you got the pills. I’ll take it from there.”
She let out a huge sigh and nodded. Then, slowly at first and then with more trust and courage, she talked. Jake listened carefully. He already knew Ramirez’s MO by heart: Ecstasy delivered to college kids with food as the cover.
Louis had started small, supplying the sandwich man going through the dorms at the local schools, then he’d moved on to the popular restaurant and pub frequented by college students seeking to have a beer or two and unwind. And when they requested the right drink of the night, the patron would receive not only their order but drugs slipped in a rolled napkin.
That was why the pill stuck inside the plastic take-out wrap had intrigued Jake. This girl’s version of events was a variation of Ramirez’s MO. In this case, instead of a college student, they were postgraduate Psych students in summer school who’d decided, like the other college kids, to let loose and forget studying. They went out and picked up a meal from the newest “in” place. In Jake’s mind the similarities were great enough that he refused to rule out Ramirez as the supplier.
“So we ended up at The Eclectic Eatery.” She sniffed, and since her hospital gown was too short to be of any use, she wiped her eyes on her bare arm.
Jake leaned over, pulled a tissue from the table beside the bed and handed it to her. “Here—” He shrugged uncomfortably. Though Jake loved the investigating part of the job, he could do without interaction with the bereaved. It was difficult under the best of circumstances, and this was particularly tough.
“Thanks.” She forced a smile and rubbed at her eyes.
“You’re welcome.” He smiled back. “So what did you order?”
“I asked for a Greek salad, and Neil, my boyfriend…” She paused to gulp in air. “Neil ordered something he said was called a falafel, which I’d never heard of. He said it was an Israeli specialty, and The Eatery has dishes from every culture. I always thought Neil was an all-American hot dog or hamburger kind of guy but…” She shrugged.
Falafel? Jake shrugged. Apparently he was all American too, because he’d never heard of the foreign dish. “Did Neil ever ask for drugs?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t even know he was going to get them. I’d never done any before. But when we got back to the apartment, he pulled them out of the bag. Like this big surprise.” She averted her gaze, obviously embarrassed.
“Did you ask him how he got the pills?”
She nodded. “He explained it was all in the ordering.”
“Greek salad and falafel will get you drugs?” Jake muttered.
“No. Every dish has a different name. Greek salad is called Hellenic Heaven. Hellenic, as in the ancient Greeks, you know?”
Jake didn’t know, but he wasn’t about to get into a history lesson, either.
“What did Neil order?” he asked.
A smile briefly crossed her face. “Apparently that Israeli dish also had a history-based name. He said he wanted to taste The Promised Land.”
“I’ll just bet he did,” Jake muttered. He had to admit, the place had a good gimmick going.
But if the substance in the pills or the dead man’s body was Ecstasy, Ramirez’s drug of choice, the cops would close them down in a heartbeat. Hopefully the toxicology answers would come soon.
Without warning, Jake’s beeper went off and he glanced down at the number, then rose from his seat. “Thank you for your honesty, Marina. If I have any other questions, I’ll be in touch.” He’d also make sure she had a good lawyer for the possession charge that was certain to follow and a counselor to ensure t
his never happened to her again. He squeezed her arm and stepped into the hall.
“Get anything?” Vickers asked.
“Everything. I’ll fill you in on the way out. I’ll grab a sandwich at the cafeteria, too.” He glanced around. Secure that he’d escaped without being seen by Brianne, Jake punched the elevator button and was lucky to make a fast escape.
BRIANNE’S HANDS had shaken as she’d worked on every client of the day. Even now as she got ready to take a lunch break, her insides were quaking. She wished she could put the reason into words.
She’d known making love with Jake would change her in some way. She just hadn’t realized how differently she’d feel afterward. How much she’d want to stay in his arms and forget the rest of the world—her job and his occupation. And for too many fleeting moments this morning, she’d wondered if there was any way for them to make a relationship work.
Before she could go off on another what-if session, someone tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey, ready to get a bite to eat?” Sharon, another physical therapist and Brianne’s usual lunch companion, asked.
Shrugging off the memories of Jake for now, she turned to her friend and nodded. “I’m starving.”
“Then, let’s go.”
They walked through a set of double doors and headed down the maze of corridors that made up the hospital, a maze Brianne could navigate in her sleep. But she wasn’t surprised they’d had to redirect more than one confused person who’d ended up in the wrong place.
“Did you hear about the commotion last night?” Sharon asked.
“You worked late yesterday? I thought you got off at five.”
The pretty blonde shook her head and laughed. “When was the last time either one of us got out on time? The wife of one of my older patients asked me to spend some extra time with him, and they’re so sweet, I couldn’t say no. So I was here when an emergency overdose case was brought in.”
Brianne shook her head and sighed. Although her job didn’t normally bring her near the Emergency Room, she wasn’t immune to the stories or gossip. She couldn’t work in a New York City hospital and ignore the often sad stories that floated through the halls. “There are always OD cases coming in at night. What makes this one so special?”
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