by Becky McGraw
“We won’t be gone long, just a little recon for tomorrow.” A tremor moved through her arm down to her hand and he squeezed it. “Fallon, I’m not leaving you alone. Zane will be here, and he’s more than capable of handling anything that might happen.”
“Can’t I go with you?” she asked.
“No, sweetheart, you can’t.” God, Jax wanted to kiss that bottom lip she was gnawing, but he forced his eyes to hers. “You’re safer here, and we need to focus.”
“Yeah, we need to focus,” Chris drawled snidely, and Rick Mann snickered behind his napkin before he threw it on his plate. Both men shoved back their chairs to stand, and Chris stretched his hands over his head, almost hitting the chandelier before he dropped them to his sides. He looked down to the head of the table.
“Zane your watch, buddy. I guess we’re headed out with Jax to scope things out.” Chris walked down to Mrs. Greenwood and leaned in to kiss the cheek she offered. “Thank you for a delicious dinner and fine company, ma’am.”
The thick honey coating his teammate’s drawl, the southern charm and manners weren’t wasted on Ms. Moneybags either. Mrs. Greenwood smiled up at him and reached to pat his cheek. “It was my pleasure, Mr. Cassidy. Where did you say you were from again?” she asked her eyes and tone flirtatious.
“The Deep South, ma’am. Sweet Home Alabama,” Chris said proudly.
Jaxson fought a gag as he threw his napkin on his plate and made the mistake of looking at Fallon again. The rich, chocolate-coated need in her eyes drew him. His head gravitated toward her, but he caught himself and quickly shoved his chair back to stand. The warm spot on his thigh where Fallon’s hand had rested throbbed, and he rubbed it as he leaned into her ear. Her intoxicating flowery scent teased him and he hardened.
Jaxson decided this afternoon that he was through fighting that battle.
“I had to move you to the first room on the right at the top of the stairs. It was the only one that was unoccupied that didn’t have French doors and a balcony,” he whispered into her ear, and she shivered. He fought the urge to nip her earlobe. “Don’t lock the door, because I’ll be staying in there with you tonight.”
As he expected, Fallon’s head spun so she could meet his eyes. Her lips were a hairsbreadth from his and her quick breaths heated his mouth. Jax enjoyed the tension buzzing like a live wire between them for a second, before he asked, “You okay with that?”
Her quick nod, the happy smile that curved her mouth set him on fire, but he backed away from the temptation to kiss her. There would be plenty of time for that tonight. While he walked the perimeter of the grounds this afternoon, checked the windows and doors in the house to make sure they were secure and climbed up on the extremely high and steep-pitched roof to look for places a tango might have an advantage, Jaxson had nothing but time to think.
What he decided was over the next two weeks he’d store up memories, give Fallon memories too, just in case things didn’t work out for them when this was over. In the process, he could take the edge off the need chewing up his insides and stealing his focus. Denying himself in the name of keeping his head right sure hadn’t worked. Maybe once he had his fill of her, Jax could find that clarity of thought he needed to do his job.
SEALs always had a plan B and that was his where Fallon Sharpe was concerned.
***
Fallon glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand again, and the red digital numbers said it was after midnight now and she knew if she didn’t get to sleep soon she wouldn’t be worth anything tomorrow. She needed to be worth a lot, be at the top of her game when Peter Crifaso and his attorney strolled into her courtroom tomorrow mid-morning to start the trial.
But there was no way she could go to sleep.
Her body practically hummed with anticipation and had since Jaxson told her at dinner he’d be sharing her room tonight. Not just sharing her room. His words, the way he’d asked if she’d be okay with that, told her he didn’t plan on sleeping.
That was more than fine with Fallon.
Forget trying to sort things out between them, finding out if he wanted more than sex from her in the middle of this ordeal. After their harrowing experience this morning, Jaxson’s absolute freak-out over the bombs, which freaked her out too, combined with the other things they’d survived in the recent past, Fallon realized what Jaxson probably already knew.
Life was just too damned short not to live it to the fullest.
With the boulder she’d set into motion today with the FBI, Attorney General and a select investigative committee that Senator Greenwood was assembling, the situation could get much worse very soon. But Fallon didn’t regret a thing. When she walked out of Senator Greenwood’s library tonight she felt a hundred pounds lighter. Doing the right thing felt damned good.
Right now though, she and Jaxson both needed some stress relief, some assurance that things were going to work out fine. A chance to blow off some of the steam caused by their fear. Fallon couldn’t think of a man on earth she’d rather blow off steam with than Jaxson Thomas.
Her throaty giggle echoed in the darkened bedroom. When it faded she heard a strange scratching noise and glanced toward the window, where the curtains were closed and not moving. She craned her neck to listen for a minute more but the noise stopped. Plopping her head back on the pillow, she closed her eyes, writing it off to one of the many squirrels that probably inhabited the trees around the country estate. At the moment she’d probably jump if she saw her own shadow.
The temperature changed, a rush of air blew in through the window and Fallon sprang up in the bed, a scream frozen in her throat. A man’s upper body appeared between the curtains, and her heart stopped beating. He dropped onto the floor and rolled and all she could force out was a whimper as he got to his feet.
The silliest thoughts evidently came to a person when she was about to die. Fallon’s was that they were going to find her body buck naked in the morning. All the CSI investigators would see her naked, probably every person in this house too. She’d seen many pictures of bodies in just that way appear on the big projection screen in her courtroom.
The thought of being featured in one of those slide presentations mortified her.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jaxson shot across the room to put a hand across Fallon’s mouth so she didn’t scream. If she would have answered the disposable cell phone he’d bought her, he wouldn’t have had to scare the crap out of her when he came in the window. From the sounds of the intermittent vibrations he heard it making on the dresser while he broke into the window, she had the ringer silenced.
He’d never felt a woman shake so badly as he eased down next to her ear. “It’s me, and I’m sorry for sneaking up on you but your damned phone is off,” he growled.
Fallon’s body melted and Jax couldn’t be sure she hadn’t passed out as he eased her back onto the pillow. The room was pitch black, as black as the night had been. Jax didn’t have to worry about a full moon tonight, there wasn’t even a sliver of one. He’d actually wished for one during their recon mission. They’d made do with the older NVGs that Chris had in his bag, but Jax had to agree with him when he said it would have been infinitely easier if they’d had the four-tube newer model NVGs.
Even more proof that GAPS was a startup company.
Dex, the tech and computer guru at Deep Six, equipped the company’s operatives with every high-tech gadget known to man, even though Logan often bitched about the expense. Tonight, Jax wished he had those gadgets and the MIT trained computer geek to go with them to make damned sure their plan was solid.
They’d still gotten the job done the old-fashioned way without them, but it sure would’ve been easier with the gadgets. He, Chris and Rick Mann had defined the best route to take to the courthouse tomorrow morning, located all the possible sniper hides along the way and decided how they would set up outside of the courthouse to make damned sure Fallon was covered from all angles until she got inside the building. Jax f
elt relatively comfortable with their plan now, and the back-up plan they’d developed if things went south.
From his own research of the courthouse schematics and set-up, Jax was sure once Fallon was inside the highly secure facility with x-ray machines at the doors and guards posted throughout, she would be fine. He’d be inside with her to make sure of it.
All that planning took time though, too much time. It would’ve taken a lot more if his teammates weren’t there to help him. Jax was very thankful for Chris and Rick’s help, but when they got back to the house, and Chris claimed the room directly across the hall from Fallon’s and Rick took the one next door, he wished they weren’t there.
He knew the former SEALs had the same keen hearing he had and slept just as lightly, so to save Fallon embarrassment, and himself more harassment, he decided to pretend to take the balcony room at the end of the hall then climb down and come through her window.
With two burly former SEALs surrounding her, the reason Jax was going to give before to stay in her room, that she needed closer protection than him at the other end of the hall, just wouldn’t wash now with them or with the Greenwoods. Their room choices also made it impossible for him to sneak in there the normal way—through the door.
With a tired breath, Jax slid his hand off her mouth and quickly shucked his clothes. A throaty rumble dragged his attention back to the bed as he stepped out of his pants and underwear. It grew louder then something slammed into him knocking him back, before a flurry of sharp fists and knees came at him from all directions.
So much for being quiet he thought, as he tripped on his pants and his hip connected with the sharp corner of the dresser, making things on the surface rattle and shake as the heavy mirror banged off the wall. But Jax only focused on covering the important parts of his body that were exposed to those sharp knees he couldn’t see.
“You bastard,” she hissed, as a fist glanced off his bicep.
Jax’s hand shot out quick to catch her wrist and jerk her to him. His arms closed around her fast, but she still squirmed, trying to bring her knee up between them. Turning his hips aside, he leaned down and put his mouth to her hair.
“Put that adrenaline into kissing me, babycakes, and we’ll both be happy,” he whispered, holding her tightly until her body wilted in his arms.
Jax loosened his hold, and Fallon’s hands slid up his chest to his shoulders, but when her nails curled into his flesh, Jax tensed getting ready for another round.
“You scared five fucking years off of my life. I knew for sure a picture of my naked body would be plastered on the front page of the Washington Post tomorrow.”
That’s what she’d been worried about? Jax laughed but heat flowed through him when he smoothed his hands over her silky round hips and became aware of her hardened nipples pressed against his chest. Fallon had indeed been waiting for him naked. Sliding his hand between them, he dipped his fingers into her heat and her shiver matched his own when he realized he could add ready to that description too.
“Don’t get too excited,” she said in a breathy whisper before she kissed his shoulder leaving wet heat behind. “That may not be what you think it is.” Tiptoeing, she ran the tip of her tongue up his neck to his earlobe and a tremor rocked him. “And we may need new bedsheets, asshole.” Her hot breath filled his ear and Jaxson shivered right before pain ripped through him when her sharp teeth closed on his earlobe.
Jax’s fingers dug into Fallon’s ass until she released his ear, then he shoved his hand into her hair and she gasped as he tumbled her to the floor and covered her. “Who said we need a bed, Judge Sharpe?” he growled, lifting her leg to push his throbbing cock up inside her warmth as he covered her mouth to swallow her moan.
Jaxson had never been so needy, desperate to come in his life, but he didn’t want to hurt her so he stayed still, let her adjust as he kissed her harder, enjoying the sensation of total connection of their bodies at the mouth and lower. Her little mewls vibrated through his tongue, while her hips made tiny circles teasing him. Jaxson realized her edge and desperation matched his own right then, so he set a slow and steady rhythm inside her body. That wasn’t good enough for her evidently. Fallon’s fingers dug into his ass pulling him closer as her inner muscles sucked him deeper, pulsed around him in time with her heady kissing.
Jaxon’s control snapped, his foot slammed against the dresser and he flinched when the mirror slammed against the wall again as he plunged into her, pounded his hips against hers, buried himself inside that incredible, tight heat time and again.
A shuddering sigh filtered into his mouth, as Fallon dug her heels into the thick carpet to meet him thrust for thrust, her body vibrating around him as she lifted her hips higher and higher. Her inner walls clamped down on him hard, and her scream filled his mouth. Jax groaned as the mirror banged against the wall once more. He pumped two more hard and fast times, fireworks exploded inside his head, and endorphins drowned him as his release crashed through him into her in hot spurts.
“Wow…” came out as a long sigh as Fallon melted into the carpet and Jax melted on top of her breathing hard.
More, Jax thought, as he realized he was still hard inside of her. But his head and other body parts needed a little recovery time. Rolling to the side, he tucked her against him and she draped her arm across his chest. He felt her smile on his skin and in his heart where she’d seemed to have embedded herself quickly.
How in the hell would he ever be able to let her go? How in the hell could he not? He had to work, and the field he’d chosen didn’t make staying in one place possible.
“Relax,” she mumbled against his pec, then kissed him there. Her hand skated down his abs and he tensed when her warm fingers wrapped around him. “Unless you’re ready for round two? I still have some adrenaline to burn. You really did scare the crap out of me,” she said, pushing up to her knees.
“Don’t ever do that again, capische?” she asked playfully, in a comical New Jersey accent.
“East Coast Willie rubbing off on you, babycakes?” Jax asked with a laugh that sucked back into his throat as she straddled his thighs.
If this was the result of her being scared, he vowed to do it every chance he got. But Fallon could never be more scared than he was at the moment, because Jax knew, as sure as the sixth sense that had saved his ass more than once, the voice in the back of his mind was right.
There was not a chance in hell this would work out long-term between them.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The annoying alarm clock buzzed on the nightstand at seven a.m., precisely the time Fallon had set it for before she got into bed last night. Patting her hand around the mattress, she searched to find the snooze button, but then she opened her eyes and realized she was only half on the bed. The other half of her body lay on the velvet dressing bench at the foot of the four-poster bed. The last place she and Jaxson made love last night, or was that this morning?
Holy hell that man had some stamina, she thought, groaning loudly as she sat up on the bench, her head feeling stuffed with cotton, her body deliciously sore everywhere.
“Oh yeah,” Jaxson mumbled, sucking in a sharp breath through his teeth. “Come for me again, babycakes,” he hissed as he exhaled, while his hand slid across his hip to his impressive morning wood.
The man was a sex god—even in his sleep.
A slow dull throb beat at the top of her thighs, almost in time with the annoying buzz of the clock that said it wasn’t happening. With a sigh, she put her hand on Jaxson’s heavily muscled thigh, and shook him.
“Babycakes has to go to the office Ironman,” Fallon said, with a laugh.
One bright blue eye popped open then the other, as a lazy smile spread over his face. Holding her gaze, he stretched his arms high over his head and tightened every muscle in his amazing body, causing that dull throb to pound.
“See something on the menu you want?” he asked as he relaxed, and rubbed his hand down his tight abs to his waist.<
br />
“I’ll have one of everything,” Fallon replied, her eyes locking on the part of him she wanted most right then.
“I’ll give you everything I have if you change your mind about going to the courthouse today.” Jaxson said, and Fallon frowned as she met his now wide-open eyes. “I thought about it and it might be better if you bow out. Let your father handle it and the FBI will only have more evidence to nail him.”
Why in the hell had she told him about what she’d done last night after round two? Her pillow talk, or carpet talk as it were, just gave him ammunition to try to convince her not to go. He’d already tried to do that before she told him. That’s what started the conversation.
“Let me ask you this Mr. Decorated SEAL,” Fallon said evenly, lifting a brow. “What if someone tried to convince you not to go on one of your missions because you were safer bowing out? What would you tell them?”
Jaxson popped up to sit and his intense eyes bored into her. “I would tell them it’s my job, my duty, and I accepted the danger that came with it when I signed on. My extensive training and skills minimize the risk, but I still know I could die tomorrow and accept that too.”
“Well, my extensive training and skills, as well as the oath of office I took to become a federal judge at the ripe age of twenty-eight obligates me to do this too. It’s my job and duty to see justice done. If I recuse myself from this case, Peter Crifaso will get off. No matter if my father is eventually impeached or not, Peter will have been tried and in all likelihood will never see a minute of jail time for his offenses.”
Jaxson huffed a breath and ran his hand through his already mussed hair. “Why in the hell did I have to get involved with a lawyer?”
Happiness tried to bubble inside Fallon but she tamped the bubbles down. “Are you involved with a lawyer?” she asked, and his eyes flew back to hers.
“About as involved as a man can be, babycakes,” he said and his voice rumbled through her. They stared at each other a minute, and Fallon tried to say everything with her eyes her mouth wouldn’t let her tell him. I love you, Jaxson Thomas.