Hot Pursuit (To Catch a Thief Book 1)

by Kay Marie

  “Jo, stop! Wait!”

  “Why?” she snapped.

  Now that he could see her only way out, there was nothing holding him back. With a foot on her and legs in pants instead of a tight dress, Nate finally caught up and grabbed her hand, spinning her around.

  “Don’t do it, Jo.”

  “Don’t do what?” she spat.

  “Ryder is on the move. That’s what Leo was telling me through the comm. Ryder is on the move, and you’re going to meet him.” Nate paused, taking a deep breath. His grip loosened, giving her the chance to leave, the choice not to. “Don’t.”

  Jo lifted her face, turning to look up at him.

  For a moment, Nate swore the stars reflected in her eyes.

  “Why shouldn’t I, Nate? Give me one good reason.”

  His throat went dry. “Your dreams. I can make them happen.”

  “My dreams…” She released a puff of air as the edge of her lip rose with a sad little smile. “I don’t need you to make my dreams come true, Nate Parker. I already know I’m the only one stopping myself from achieving them.”

  He opened his mouth.

  No sound came out.

  Jo stared at him, giving him the chance to speak, to offer her anything, everything, whatever it took to make her stay.

  But he couldn’t.

  A clog in his throat held him back.

  She turned.

  He tightened his fingers. “Jo…”

  “There’s a problem with your deal, Nate,” she whispered, not letting go of his hand but not holding on either, just letting it be, letting them hover in an in-between. “The word ‘deal’ implies an exchange. But the way I see it, I’m giving everything, and you’re giving nothing. Immunity? I’m free now. You don’t have anything on me. If you did, I’d be arrested already. I can’t be the only one risking my life, the only one with something to lose.”

  “What do you want from me?” he rasped, not understanding.

  Jo glanced back toward his face, studying him with her gaze, reading every hard edge, every line, every curve. “Show me you have something to lose.”

  “I do, Jo. More than you know.”

  “Like what?”

  He balled his hands into fists. “My job. My respect. My justice.”

  “I’m not talking about that.” Jo shook her head.

  “Then what?” He didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”

  Jo squared her shoulders, facing him fully, no longer trying to run. “Take your comm out.”

  “I can’t. It’s against protocol.”

  Jo arched a single brow. “Take your comm out.”

  Nate ground his teeth. Was this what Leo had foreseen? Was this what his partner had been afraid of?

  The rules…or Jo? The rules… His boss would understand.

  Nate plucked the piece from his ear and yanked on the wire leading to the mic at his wrist, pulling the entire unit free from his tux and holding it out to Jo.

  “Unplug it.”

  He held her gaze for a moment, then disconnected all the wires and let the batteries fall to the ground before he shoved the useless set into his pocket.

  Jo stepped closer.

  She put her palms to his chest.

  She leaned in.

  “Don’t you see, Nate?”

  He searched her eyes for the answer to her question but couldn’t find it.

  “Me, Nate,” she whispered. “I want to be your something to lose.”

  He froze.

  Jo didn’t pause. She slid her hands over his shoulders and curled her fingers around the back of his head, massaging his scalp in a way that made sparks dance across his eyes.

  “It’s just you and me. No partners. No teams. No rules. If I walk away right now, I can still have my bakery. I can still have my freedom. I can still have my family. All I lose is you.” She lifted onto her toes, pressing her breasts against his chest, her lips to his ears. Her breath was a warm kiss dancing across his skin. “Convince me to stay.”

  His head dropped onto her shoulder as his muscles gave out, his fight. His voice came out a deep groan. “Jo…”

  “Convince me you don’t want to lose me either.”

  Every moment since they’d met had been leading them here.

  To this inevitable choice.

  One that would have been easy a mere week before but now seemed impossible.

  Jo was a felon.

  A criminal.

  Everything he hated. Everything he fought to destroy.

  And yet, she was so much more. Warm and exciting. Full of wonder and joy. A bright spark igniting a fire within him, burning hotter than anything he’d ever felt before. They didn’t make sense. They never would. And yet, being around her felt right, felt perfect for those few seconds when he could forget the world and focus only on them. She made him want to share parts of himself he’d never shared with anyone. Being around her was like riding a bike for the first time—thrilling, exhilarating. He never knew what came next. There was a bit of fear, a bit of risk, but most of all there was a sense of fun, of wonder, of hope, a sense he’d thought he’d lost a long time ago but had somehow found with her.

  Being with her would break all the rules.

  His life would no longer be black and white.

  But maybe there was a different sort of glory to be found in shades of gray. A different kind of beauty, if he’d just open his eyes and see, if he’d only let her show him.

  Nate lifted his forehead from her shoulder.

  Jo sighed.

  She dropped back to her heels.

  She let her hands fall down his chest and started to turn.

  In that split second, Nate saw a future where he let her go, let her walk away, let her leave. He saw her slip around the corner, gone forever, no trace left behind. And his world went dark. As though there was no light without her.

  “Stay with me.”

  The words tumbled out before his mind could stop them, propelling straight from his heart and into the world, like a bullet from a gun.

  Jo hesitated.

  He gripped her upper arms.

  Time rushed forward. A single second turned to an hour. The world blurred, moving faster and faster, moving on without them, as they froze, halted in this moment. Those big green eyes were the only things in acute focus. Those eyes and the decision his heart had made long before his mind had caught up.

  “Stay with me,” Nate said, louder this time.

  Confident.

  Firm.

  Convincing.

  Jo opened her mouth to answer, but Nate didn’t let her. Whatever her response, it was swallowed by his lips as he lifted her to her toes and brought her face close, bending his to meet it. Their mouths crashed together, as inevitable as a wave against the shore, impossible to fight, impossible to stop, as nature intended, somehow meant to be.

  - 21 -

  Jo

  At first, it had all been a game. Dance with Nate. Seduce Nate. Tell him what he wanted to hear so she could get where she needed to go—to his room, to his files, to her information. But with each passing second, with each consecutive word, the game changed, bit by bit, until his lips finally touched hers and everything shifted. No more rules. No more tricks. No more deceit. Jo realized every confession that had spilled from her mouth had been real, honest, pulled straight from her heart, and it sent her world off its axis, leaving her unbalanced and unsteady, forcing her to hold on to Nate as her anchor in the storm.

  She wanted her freedom.

  She wanted her bakery.

  She wanted her dreams.

  And there was no more denying that she wanted Nate Parker too. He was her something to lose, just as she was his. But there was only one way to keep him—betray the other two men she loved.

  Jo pushed that thought away for another time and snaked her arms around Nate’s back, digging her fingers into his shoulders as she pulled him closer, deepening their kiss, getting lost in it. A groan stirred d
eep in his throat as his palms slid up her arms and into her hair, fingers gripping her scalp, possessive and commanding, yet somehow gentle and tender. He tilted her head as his lips shifted, peppering across her skin in scorching touches that were too short, too urgent, trailing down her neck until he found that sensitive spot along the curve, eliciting a sigh as her head fell back. His tongue flicked, fast and searing, making her toes curl in the tips of her heels as her vision spotted, overwhelmed by the magic of his touch.

  “Jo,” he rasped, voice deep and demanding. The warmth of his breath sent a shiver down her spine. “Stay with me.”

  He captured her lips again, hungry and hard, smashing any protest as she melted into his embrace, muscles turning weak.

  I will.

  I will.

  The answer bubbled at the back of her throat, but before she could say it, a light flashed over them, bright and jarring, the headlights of a car. They broke apart, foreheads pressed together, nothing but ragged breath and a few bare inches between them. Light strains of music and the dull murmur of conversation filled the empty alley, spilling over the wall, bringing her back to reality.

  Jo opened her mouth to say she would stay, but instead, a different sentiment spilled out. “Come with me.”

  Nate blinked, the heady passion clearing from his eyes. “What?”

  Jo reached up and grabbed both of his hands, then took a step backward, tugging him along. “Come with me.”

  “Where?” He shook his head. Jo could see the rules and regulations and logic starting to flood back into his gaze. “The car is around front. Follow me, and we can find Leo. We can go to headquarters. You can sign the papers. We can—”

  “Nate,” Jo said, yanking hard on his hands, forcing him to focus on her. Because paperwork and offices and more Feds were the last things she wanted right now. All she wanted was him. Alone. No urgency. No rush. The two of them in a room with all the time in the world. And Jo knew from her snooping that his hotel was about thirty blocks south. “Come with me.”

  He scrunched his brows but followed, still holding her hand as she wound them through the rest of the alleyway and the gated entrance to the street, far down the other side of the block where no one from the gala would ever see them. Nate turned left, but Jo tugged him right and lifted her free arm. Two seconds later, a cab pulled to a stop on the street corner.

  Jo got in.

  Nate looked to where his partner must have been waiting, looked at her, looked back, and then followed her inside.

  “Fiftieth and Lex, please,” Jo murmured to the driver.

  Nate cut her a confused glance and then said, “Actually, can we go to 26 Federal Plaza.”

  Jo rolled her eyes with a sigh. That was the address of the FBI headquarters in New York. A definite no, thank you.

  Difficult. Why do men always have to be so incredibly difficult?

  She squeezed Nate’s palm and leaned close, pressing her lips to his ear, letting her chest rub against his arm. Her free hand landed on his mid-thigh and crept ever so slightly higher as she whispered, “Do you remember the photo I sent you?”

  His eyes practically bulged from his head. The red lace panties. The just-padded-enough bra to perk her chest into optimal position. Oh, he remembered. He definitely remembered. At the time, she’d thought she’d only been teasing him with the idea of barely there lingerie, but in the back of her head, she must have always known where the night would lead. Why else would she have spent a few hundred dollars purchasing new undergarments when she’d already had some perfectly acceptable black cotton ones for the evening? Not sexy, per se, but acceptable.

  “Do you remember why I bought them?” she continued, nuzzling into his neck, pressing a soft kiss to his skin.

  Nate cleared his throat and shifted his weight. “Yes…”

  The obvious strain in his voice brought a wicked smile to her lips. “Don’t you want to see if I was lying, Agent Parker? If you can catch me red-handed?”

  She licked him, darting her tongue against his steaming skin for a hot, quick second, as she tightened her grip on his leg. And then she fell back into her seat and crossed her arms, staring at him with a brow lifted.

  Nate swallowed.

  Slowly.

  And then leaned forward to tell the cabbie, “Fiftieth and Lex, please.”

  The address of his hotel.

  As he well knew.

  When Nate sat back down, he reached over and tugged her hand free, so their clasped palms rested on the empty seat between them. Jo didn’t fight it. In fact, she liked the feel of his large calloused hands in hers, the rough scrape she couldn’t wait to feel on other parts of her skin, the way he took charge. He absently rubbed his thumb over her knuckle, shifting and teasing, tracing shapes along her skin. She loved that it seemed to require no thought, no conscious effort, as though touching her was as easy and as simple as breathing, as necessary too. Where his fingers traveled, heat began to boil and stir, spreading up her arms and into the air, filling the small interior with a heat entirely of their making.

  The silence stretched.

  The tension grew.

  Taut and tight.

  A passionate kiss in the heat of the moment was one thing, but a decision, a choice, made consciously, fully aware of where it would lead, was quite another. They both knew exactly what they were doing. And somehow, that made every touch burn, every momentary glance sear, every fleeting second stretch, longer and longer. There was a unique sort of sexiness in knowingly choosing each other, something different from getting lost in the moment, something infinitely deeper and infinitely more intense, and it went without saying as the temperature rose between them. Their hands danced. Their eyes met across too far a distance, both gazes full of the heady desire of knowing exactly where the night would take them.

  “Tell me about after,” Jo whispered. After the interviews. After the paperwork. After the weeks of hurt and confusion, when the whole mess was done, and she was free, and her criminal days were long behind her, and there was nothing tangible tying them together, what then?

  This time, Nate understood exactly what she meant. He didn’t look down. He didn’t back away. He held her gaze, eyes bright and hopeful. “You could stay with me, for a while, if you want to. While you’re getting back on your feet.”

  The moment she handed her father over to the Feds, she’d lose everything. All her possessions would be confiscated as evidence. All her bank accounts would be frozen. She’d be starting over again, no assets, no family, no support system to help her. His offer meant more than he knew. She squeezed his fingers tight, a small smile on her lips. “Oh, and what sort of place does a single federal agent constantly on the move live in? I’ve become accustomed to a certain standard, you know.”

  Her tone was teasing.

  His expression was too. “Well, we can’t all live on private islands. Some of us have to make do with one-bedroom apartments, but I can promise it’ll be clean. And I live close to downtown DC. Lots to see, lots to do, enough to keep even you entertained, I’d imagine.”

  An image infiltrated her thoughts. His bed was probably perfectly made, one pillow, maybe two, because he was a man, after all. The sheets were probably blue. The comforter too. Though maybe there was a red stripe in the mix somewhere—he did have that all-American vibe. If she snooped through his drawers, she would bet anything his clothes were perfectly folded, neatly organized. His kitchen was probably pristine, nothing but take-out boxes in his fridge, the sort of spot begging for someone like her to come around and put it to good use.

  Typical.

  Perfectly typical.

  “I’d need a new computer,” she murmured, undertone undeniably goading.

  He lifted a brow.

  She shrugged. “For applying to culinary school, obviously.”

  “Obviously.”

  “But I think it could work,” she commented, tone light, though his probing gaze seemed to pick up on the deeper emotions swirling in t
he back of her thoughts. Could he see the pictures flashing? Jo in an apron and nothing else, waiting to greet him when he got home. Nate surprising her at the bakery where she worked because he’d just returned from an overseas assignment. Jo curled against his side as he studied paperwork for a new case and she brainstormed the latest rendition of the coopie. Nate kissing the sugar from her cheeks as they stumbled down the hall to that one bedroom they would share.

  He rubbed his thumb over her palm a final time as the cab pulled to a stop. “It could work.”

  Then he dropped her hand and pushed her door open so she could get out while he paid. Nate joined her a moment later, pressing his palm to the small of her back, always teasing with his touch, exploring her curves, roving over her skin, moving, constantly moving, so there was no break in the tingles spreading and sparking with uncontained fire.

  Jo held on to the beautiful dream of after as they made their way through the lobby and into the elevator, as they rose higher and higher, alone yet not quite, waiting a tantalizing wait until they were inside his room, no cameras, no people, no one but each other.

  They paused just beyond the doorway.

  No need to rush.

  Nothing but time.

  Nate lifted his hand to her cheek and brushed the backs of his fingers against her skin, as though she were the most precious thing in the world, a gift he couldn’t believe he’d received, a treasure he couldn’t believe he’d found. Jo lifted her hands to gently tug on the knot of his bowtie until it came free. She slid it around his neck, letting it fall to the floor, never once releasing his gaze as she reached back up to slip his jacket off his broad shoulders, feeling his muscles writhe beneath her gentle touch. And then she went for his buttons, slipping the collar loose, then the one below, the one below, down and down and down, until a taunting inch of his skin was revealed from his throat to his navel. They paused, breathing deeply, as though somehow, they both knew it would be their last taste of air for a while.