by CP Smith
“Baby?” James said softly, relief choking his voice that she was alive.
Sluggishly her eyes rose to his, and she blinked as if to focus on him. “I think I killed him,” she murmured then dropped the skillet to the floor, and James moved, sweeping her off of her feet and out of the house.
____________________________
“How you doin’, slugger?” Detective Pike asked as he approached. I was sitting in the back of an ambulance having my blood pressure checked.
Rudy Jackson was headed to the hospital with a fracture to his skull, but he wasn’t dead, thank God. James was inside his house, packing a bag, and grabbing my stuff because his was now a crime scene. We were headed to my rental when they were done with me, with plans to stay there until they released his home. James thought it would be sometime tomorrow, but in the meantime; we were to lay low.
“Will I be charged with murder if Jackson doesn’t survive?”
“He’ll make it, but even if he doesn’t, it was self-defense.”
“Will I have to testify in court?”
Pike shook his head. “We found a gun with a silencer in his jacket. Caliber matched the bullets we found at Sullivan’s apartment. I’m confident it will match, so we’ll be able to hold him on three counts of murder. If they don’t, then he’s wanted in Nashville on a dozen warrants. Either way, we’ll be able to keep you out of this by the sheer fact that he won’t want anyone knowing he was brought down by a half-pint of a woman with a frying pan.”
There was a commotion and I looked up. Then watched James exit the house with a face that still looked like thunder. He was still pissed about Jackson assaulting me, and from the looks of it, he’d worked himself into a fine lather. When he bit off the head of a deputy working the crime scene, Pike turned his head and looked at him, then back at me and mumbled low, “He blames himself. Said he promised you’d be safe here. My advice, let him vent ‘til he gets it out.”
“No one could have predicted Jackson would be listenin’ to the police band and followin’ us around. He’s not exactly Superman, for goodness sake.”
Pike grinned. “Okay, Lois Lane. I’ll leave him in your capable hands, then.”
I bit my lip to keep from grinning as my wild man stormed across the yard toward me. He stopped in front of me, scanned my body from head to toe without mumbling a word, then bent at the waist and picked me up.
“I can walk,” I chuckled.
Silence.
“James, this wasn’t your fault. Please don’t beat yourself up over this.”
Still nothing.
I sighed and figured I’ve give him more time.
He stopped on the passenger side of my car and opened the door without putting me down, then gently set me inside. I opened my mouth to say something, anything that would break the ice that was forming around us, but I gasped instead when he grabbed my face and kissed me so deeply that a gun could have been fired and I wouldn’t have noticed.
“Thank Christ, you’re okay,” James murmured against my lips.
“I’ll be better once you get me home and into bed,” I whispered back.
His eyes flashed to ink and then he kissed me again, as thoroughly as any woman had ever been kissed in the history of the world.
“You got it,” he returned then slammed my door, rounded the car, and climbed inside.
It was less than a five-minute drive to my house. When we arrived, James’s brow furrowed in anger as he stared at my front door.
“Stay here,” he ordered, then opened his door without waiting for a reply.
He was pushing open my front door, a door that should have been locked, when I walked up behind him.
“Thought I told you to stay in the car?” he bit out, but didn’t turn back to look at me.
I grabbed the back of his shirt and held, stating, “The last time you told me stay put, I almost got dead. I’ve decided the safest place in the world is right by your side.” He stiffened at my comment, then looked back at me.
His eyes had gone indigo again.
“Can we find out if Jackson broke in or what?”
“I’m gonna have my hands full,” he muttered, then pushed open the door and stepped inside.
“Oh. My. God.”
My house had been torn apart. We checked every room and it was as if a tornado had spun through. Pictures. Pillows. You name it. Destroyed. All of it. I had nothing left. Just the clothes on my back and what little I had in my overnight bag.
I started to pick up a lamp, too much in shock at the destruction to even mourn the loss of my things, when James grabbed my hand, pulled me back out to my car, and locked me in with a raised finger pointing at me to stay put. Then he went back inside and used my kitchen phone to call Pike. Twenty minutes later, the crime scene had moved from James’s house to my house, and James and I were on our way to the nearest motel.
I should have been inconsolable about all my worldly possessions being destroyed, but considering I could have been dead, I just sighed and made a mental note to call my insurance company in the morning, then began to make a list of what I’d need to purchase.
“How long do you think it will take to clean up that mess?” I asked the passenger side window as I watched cattle grazing in a field.
“Doesn’t matter, you’re not going back.”
I blinked, and turned my head. “I’m not going back?”
“Nope.”
I narrowed my eyes. “And where exactly am I going to live?”
His answer? “With me. Where you fuckin’ belong.”
SIX
Six weeks later . . .
I WAS LATE FOR WORK again thanks to James, for the second time that week. Not that I cared when it meant getting two orgasms for lunch, but my coworkers tended to care, and I really needed to keep this job. James had basically kidnapped me and forced me to move in with him after what happened with Rudy Jackson, and now we were setting up house together. That meant more furniture, new curtains, and kickass rocking chairs for the front porch. Which meant I needed this job, so I could help contribute to the purchasing of said furniture and kickass rocking chairs.
Rushing in to the breakroom so I could take report, Jamila and Kari smirked at me when I entered. I ignored them and settled into my chair, then looked up. Right into the angry eyes of float nurse Donna Coletta.
Somebody kill me now!
“Sorry,” I said, flipping open my notebook.
“That’s twice you’ve done this to me,” she snapped.
I looked at her and cringed. She wasn’t just angry, she was furious.
“I got tied up unpacking,” I lied.
Everyone knew I’d landed the Casanova of Murfreesboro, even though he never was, and that I’d moved in with him within days. What no one knew, not even my girls, was that I’d been attacked and lost all my possessions in the process. To keep my name out of the papers, Pike taunted Rudy Jackson about being taken down by a woman until Jackson practically begged him to leave me out of it. So that meant no one knew I’d been attacked, or that my house had been ransacked and all my worldly possessions destroyed. I’d just told the girls it was a wild coincidence that my name matched the other dead Susan. So they didn’t know why I’d moved in with James, they only knew that we’d fallen fast for each other and I was still there. And it raised plenty of brows with the good folks of Murfreesboro, because good girls didn’t shack up with men in 1985 without a ring on their finger. But what James and I had went beyond mere shacking up. We were soul mates. Destined to be together forever. Ring or no ring. I was caught, and I was staying put, even if there were rumors that the only reason he’d moved me in was that I was pregnant. Which I wasn’t, thank God. I wanted kids. Wanted his kids. But a ring and a ceremony needed to come first or my poor father might lose his ever-loving mind.
“You got tied up or were tied up?” Jamila muttered under her breath.
Donna looked at Jamila then back and me and scowled. “I knew the rumors were tr
ue, that the only reason you’re in his house is that you’re a whore.”
I sucked in a breath at the insult. “That’s right,” I bit back. “I give good head.”
Kari, who’d been taking a sip of coffee during my remark, spewed it across the conference table. Coffee coated Donna’s files and the front of her white uniform before she could move out of the way.
Jamila, nonplussed by the coffee explosion, turned to me saying, “I thought it was because you were pregnant? That’s what I heard.”
“Keep up, that was last month,” I replied dryly.
Donna shoved back her chair and grabbed her files, heading for the sink in the kitchen area, throwing a barb over her shoulder as she went. “I’ve known James his whole life. You won’t last another month because James prefers women with morals.”
I rolled my eyes. I’d been insulted a few times in the past month, what with James being the most eligible bachelor in town. It seems many believed his player status, but it didn’t stop them from fantasizing about landing my man. Women who knew him, and apparently lusted after him from afar, now huddled together in coffee klatches dissecting ‘why Susan’ and not them.
“Looks like jealousy has a new color and it’s called Donna,” Kari snarked.
I rolled my lips and kept quiet. My girls had been over to James’s house multiple times. They saw how he treated me, and they loved him now. So much so that Jamila asked if his brother, Ken, was single.
I jumped when Donna slammed her files down in front of me.
“Room 3,” she began through gritted teeth. “Kidney stone.”
“Oh fun, a moaner for the night,” Kari sighed.
She wasn’t wrong. Men were worse than women when they were sick, and a man with a kidney stone carried on worse than a woman in labor.
“Room 7,” she went on, her tone growing angrier by the minute.
“Is there a reason she hates you so much?” Kari asked under her breath.
“No idea,” I replied without looking at her. “Maybe she’s one of those women Tonya told us about. The ones who want a piece of my hind end.”
Kari looked Donna over and smiled. “If she is, this’ll be an interestin’ work environment.”
She was right about that.
I trudged through the rest of the report with a single-minded focus: to get away from Donna. Once I’d accomplished that, I made rounds on my patients, checked for lab results, then settled in to update my charts. Thankfully, before I knew it, my shift was over and I was pulling in front of James’s home.
He’d had the day off, so he was waiting for me on the porch in one of the new rocking chairs we’d bought together, rocking leisurely with a beer in his hand as he studied the stars. He watched me intently when I climbed the steps, came straight to him, and climbed into his lap. His warm body bled into mine as I tucked my head into his neck and took a soothing breath.
“Rough night?” he asked in that deep, husky voice of his, his hand running through my hair in a calming touch.
I nodded, wrapping my arms around his waist, melting further into his body. Just being in his presence made the hectic night dissolve into a distant memory.
He grabbed my left hand and pulled it up to his mouth, tasting the skin on my wrist, causing my tired body to shiver in response. “Then marry me and have my babies instead. If you’re gonna be exhausted,” he whispered into my ear, “I’d rather it be me who wore you out.”
I froze, then pulled my head out of his neck in time to watch him slip a stunning, antique looking diamond ring onto my finger. I stared dumbfounded at the ring for a moment, then burst into tears of happiness.
“Are those good tears or bad tears?” His tone sounded cautious, and when I looked into his eyes, I could tell he was nervous. My hot as hell man, a badass S.W.A.T. team leader who didn’t even blink at danger, looked as if he wasn’t sure how I would answer, and that made me cry harder. That this passionate, unpredictable warrior supreme, who was loving, caring, and honorable, loved me was more than my poor heart could take, so I buried my face into his neck and cried more happy tears.
“Susan?” James asked hesitantly. “Is that a yes? ‘Cause, I gotta tell you, I’ll do whatever it takes to make you mine in every way. I love you, baby. More than anything. I’d fuckin’ bleed for you if need be.”
He loved me. He’d bleed for me. God, how I loved this man.
I nodded yes as my breath hitched, plastering myself further into his body. “Yes, I’ll marry you!”
“Thank Christ,” he answered huskily, then buried his own head into my neck, tightening his hold until we were one person instead of two. “Thank fuckin’ Christ.”
How he could ever doubt I’d say yes was beyond me. “Thank you for lovin’ me,” I said pulling back to look at my hot, sexy man.
His eyes gentled at the corners, then he placed both hands on my cheeks, his thumbs brushing away the tears spilling slowly, steadily down my face. “Baby, you gotta know, it’s the easiest thing I’ve done in my life.”
“I love you, too. So much, James. More than you’ll ever know.”
His eyes heated. “You’re caught now. I won’t ever let you go,” he growled. “Try it and see what happens. I’ll hunt you down, baby. To the ends of the earth.”
God. I get to love this man for the rest of my life.
I leaned in and brushed a kiss to his mouth, breathing across his lips, “How about huntin’ me down to the bedroom?” His eyes turned instantly from indigo to black in the dull light of the porch.
“You got it,” he returned, and then hunted me to the bedroom and proved once again why he was my wild man.
____________________________
One week later . . .
“No grand ballroom, Momma. James and I want a quiet ceremony here at the house.”
“Wait, you aren’t gettin’ married here in Nashville?”
“I’d be happy gettin’ married at the justice of the peace, but James insists I have my day. Said he wanted weddin’ pictures to line the walls of our house.”
“I suppose I can work with that. I’ll look around when we come down this weekend. Is there a gazebo or somethin’ we can decorate for the ceremony?”
I looked out the window into the stormy night at the red barn that sat close to the house. I had the night off while James had to work, so I was making the most of my time alone so I could become Mrs. James Trevor Mayson as soon as possible.
“There are two red barns on the property. One is close to the house, which would give us easy access for a reception. He stores hay and farm equipment in that one. We could clean it out easily, and since it’s red it would be the perfect color for a weddin’.”
“How many people do you think it can hold?” my mother asked.
Crack! A bolt of lightning shot across the sky, illuminating the yard and barn. The trees bowed and moaned with the approaching storm as I looked at the structure. “Probably a hundred comfortably, I’d think.”
“That could work if we keep the guest list small. What does his mother think?”
“Alice and James Sr. are out of town right now.”
My mother hesitated, her concern we were rushing into marriage clear in her question. “Have they even met you?”
James’s parents had been in Florida for the past month, visiting old friends, and we’d been too busy right after we became a couple to get together, so we hadn’t met yet. Though the chuckling I overheard when James called and talked to his father about me made it clear they were two peas in a pod. James hadn’t beat around the bush about our relationship, and his father had promptly said, “Can’t fight the boom, Son. Stake your claim.”
I’d rolled my eyes when James repeated the conversation, which landed me on my back and him staking his claim immediately.
“No, we haven’t met yet, Momma. But it isn’t going to stop me from marryin’ James. I’m not rushin’ into anything. I’m, well, I’m stakin’ my claim on my man. I love him, Momma. More than I
thought it was possible to love a person. I want to be his. I want to have his babies and raise them to be men just like their father.”
She paused before asking, “You’re not,” in a whispered breath, “pregnant are you?”
Not this week, but with James anything was possible. He had a way of turning my head to mush. Fortunately for my scatterbrained mind, when he heard I got headaches on the pill, he demanded I don’t go back on them and took on the responsibility of protecting us with condoms.
“No, Momma. But even if I were, it would have no bearin’ on why I want to marry him.”
“Just checkin’, sweetheart. Your father’s had a little trouble acceptin’ that you’re marryin’ a man you just met. I’m afraid walkin’ a pregnant daughter down the aisle might be more than he could handle.”
I rolled my eyes. I’d had a Beaver Cleaver upbringing that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and I cherished my parents’ old-fashioned values, but I had a suspicion they’d never get over the fact that their baby girl had moved in with a man before getting married.
“I promise. Tell Daddy, no more surprises.”
A knock at the front door caught my attention, so I told my mother I’d talk to her tomorrow and hung up. Making my way toward the front door, I paused when I saw who was standing there. We hadn’t seen each other in a week, not since the night James proposed to me, so I’d forgotten about her hateful behavior. But now, staring at Donna Coletta’s anger-filled eyes through the divided light panes, it caused my hackles to rise.
Ripping open the door, I scanned her from head to toe. I’d only ever seen her free of makeup, and in her nurse’s uniform, so I had no idea how she cleaned up. Considering our uniforms were more like a sack than a dress, it could be hard to tell what anyone’s figure looked like.
The woman standing in front of me was anything but frumpy or ugly. She was slim, shapely, and her hair gleamed in the porch’s light. She was also dressed to entice any man in the vicinity.
Donna was decked out in a tight-fitting, off the shoulder red top and slim-fitting, acid-washed jeans, coupled with bright red spiked pumps that made her legs look a mile long. Her hair had been coiffed for maximum effect, her makeup heavy and sultry. She looked like she was on the prowl, and the fact she looked this way while showing up at James’s house confirmed my suspicion that she hated me because she had a thing for James.