by Jayne Blue
“You in there, Deputy?” Jillian said, breathless. She ran beside me, sweat beading her brow. God. She was sexy like this with no make-up, her hair in a straight ponytail with strands popping out on the sides. It was early October now and the trail we took along the Huron River had us surrounded by red maples and evergreens. It was beautiful out here and I could see why Jillian picked this place. The fresh air filled my lungs as I looked down at her. She wore a purple tank top and black spandex leggings. I realized she didn’t let very many people see her like this. So maybe I was wrong: I had a piece of Jillian Key all to myself after all.
“Just thinking,” I said. “I forgot to tell you, no surprises, but we got the lab work back on that white powder. Cream of tartar.”
Jillian raised a blonde brow as she slowed. Huffing, she put her hands on her knees. Her long blonde ponytail fell over her shoulder. She kicked out the stiffness in her left knee. I’d learned over the last few weeks she’d had surgery on it right after high school. She’d been an All-State high jumper and had torn cartilage at the final meet of her senior year. I wondered what she’d been like back then. Probably not much different than now. Smart. Determined. Guarded. I’d actually asked around. I knew it was my job but part of me felt guilty for doing it. She didn’t keep in contact with the people she went to school with. Not from high school, college, or law school. Nobody claimed to know her very well. She kept herself distant, aloof. No one had anything bad to say about her. To the contrary, her reputation was one of serious intelligence but with a drive and determination everyone assumed would take her far. One of her college professors wrote a piece about her in the school paper right after she’d snagged her judicial appointment. He expressed surprise that she’d settle for the relative obscurity of the federal bench. He saw her as future presidential material. But maybe, he speculated, she might yet rise even higher someday with a spot on the US Supreme Court.
“Cream of tartar?” Jillian wrinkled her nose; it made a line in the center of her eyebrows. “How the hell does someone think to do that?”
I shrugged. “Who knows. It was probably something they just had on hand.”
“Huh.” Jillian stretched her leg in front of her and shook it out again. She hopped up and down then stretched each of her arms over her head.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s just … oh, nothing.”
“Jillian, what?”
She put her hands on her hips. That crease formed between her brows again. I’d seen her do that a hundred times by now when she was lost in thought, usually from the bench while mulling over a ruling she was about to make.
“Are there sulfates in cream of tartar?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Well, I’m allergic to sulfates. You’ll know it if I ever drink a certain type of wine. I’ll break out in hives and my skin itches.”
My mind’s eye flashed to those moments I spent with her when she came out of the shower in her office bathroom. She’d complained her skin burned and she did have blotchy skin. I’d chalked it up to nerves. My spine tingled with unease as Jillian’s eyes turned dark with thought.
“Probably just a coincidence,” she said. “But I did have that itchy feeling for a few minutes before I washed that stuff off me.”
I nodded. “You’re right, it probably is just a coincidence.” I didn’t want to alarm her but I didn’t like the implications one damn bit. “Still, is your allergy something other people know about?”
Jillian shrugged. She stretched her leg against a nearby tree trunk. An innocent gesture, but it put her ass in full view. It was round and supple beneath the spandex. I blew out a breath and turned to the side. God. Why couldn’t she have been some blue-haired, octogenarian battle ax? Times like this it got damn hard to concentrate on what I was really doing here.
She turned to face me and blew a strand of hair away from her forehead. Even that was a side of her I knew no one but me got to see right now. The minute she stepped into the courthouse, she was cool, calculating, perfect. Now, with her hair mussed and sweat beading her brow, she was different, natural. Mine. I pushed the thought out of my head as quickly as it formed but it left a throbbing hunger behind that I knew might only grow.
“It’s not a secret. It’s also not something I broadcast.”
“Any courthouse Christmas parties or anything where you had that reaction?”
Jillian chewed the inside of her cheek. “Maybe one. Yes. And I didn’t have a reaction. But they were serving red wine that made me cautious. I asked for a cocktail instead and Judge Pierce made a joke. It was nothing.”
“Sheldon Pierce?” I curled my fists into a ball. His name had crossed my desk on her enemies list before. Conventional wisdom said he would have most likely gotten her seat on the Federal bench if she hadn’t.
Jillian nodded. “I mentioned him to you before. What did you tell me?”
“Let’s just say I’ve seen him in action. He’s got a reputation of being very anti-law enforcement. Some of his rulings have caused real issues for some friends of mine.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. I don’t think anyone would shed too many tears if he retired. But I don’t really think he’s the type who could be behind what’s happening to me. Do you?”
“I can’t rule out anyone or anything yet, Jillian. I don’t want you to worry about this cream of tartar business. I’ll pass on what you said to the investigators over at the FBI but doubt much will come of it.”
Jillian smiled and slapped me on the chest. Then she took off in a dead run. “Sheeit,” I muttered. The woman was competitive on top of everything else. If I were chivalrous, I would have waited and let her have her head start. In that moment, I wasn’t feeling it though. I shook my head and started off after her.
A crisp, fall breeze kicked up. Jillian’s hair flew behind her like a banner. My heart thundered in my chest as I closed the distance between us. She looked over her shoulder and that was her first mistake. She took an awkward step and I started to gain on her. Jillian let out an excited squeal that made my heart speed up. I knew how rare this moment was for her as well. She was completely unguarded and out of control.
“You’re fast, Judge,” I called out. “But I’m faster.”
She picked up her speed a notch as we hit a downhill stretch of the trail. “Eat your heart out, lawman!” She jumped over a fallen branch and put some distance between us. The end of the trail was only about fifty yards away. At the bottom of the trail, we’d hit the banks of the Huron River. With Jillian in sight of it I kicked into top speed and made up the ground between us. She was just ahead of me, so close her flying hair tickled my cheek.
Jillian turned back one last time; she had to have felt my breath against her neck. I heard a crunch as her bad knee buckled. As she pitched forward to favor it, I caught her by the elbow. Just a few steps from our finish line, we both staggered forward in a tangle of limbs.
She landed on top of me, straddling me. Her hair had come loose from her ponytail and spilled around her face and my shoulders in a shimmering gold curtain. I cupped her elbows and held her up.
“You okay?” I said, breathless.
She threw her head back and laughed. A tiny pulse in her neck beat a furious pace and at that moment, I knew it wasn’t just from the exertion of the run. My nerve endings seemed to catch fire as I felt the full weight of Jillian pressed against my chest. Her eyes glinted and widened.
“Huck?” I don’t know for sure what she would have said next. Her breathless uttering of my name set off an explosive chain reaction inside of me. Maybe I could have held back, pushed her gently off me. But there was really only one thing left I could say.
“Oh, fuck it.”
I leaned up at the same moment Jillian leaned down. I shifted my weight, flipping her so she lay on her back with me hovering over her. There was just a quick flash of fire in her eyes before I brought my lips down and met hers.
Combustible.
Th
at’s what it was. Jillian tasted like honey and a hint of sweat. Delicious. Devouring. God. The second I started, I didn’t think I’d ever want to stop. She craned her neck up toward me; threading her fingers through my hair she held me in place. Her quick tongue darted out, sending a flash of fire straight through me from my lips to my throbbing cock.
Fuck. I wanted her. I’d wanted her since the second I laid eyes on her and saw that sexy flash of her thigh as she stepped up to the bench. I wanted her when she was fierce, cutting formidable men like Jerry Jordan down to size. I wanted her when she was vulnerable, looking up at me with pleading eyes when she wasn’t sure what would happen next. And dammit, I wanted her now, sweaty and out of control with the woods all around us.
“Jillian.” I moaned her name as her hands moved from the nape of my neck and trailed down to cup my ass. She pulled me closer. I held myself up with a flat palm on either side of her head. Her chest heaved and I caught a glimpse of her pebbled nipples through her purple tank top. I moved my lips from her mouth, down the column of her throat, lapping her flushed skin as I went. She let out a sensual groan that damn near drove me out of my mind. It was the same noise I’d heard her make in her dreams on the other side of that thin wall.
“Oh God,” she whispered. I shifted my weight, stretching myself along the length of her. I ran my hand along her thigh. She shuddered beneath me and parted her legs as if on instinct. I touched her there, running the pad of my thumb over her soft mound. God. She was so hot, her juices already starting to soak through. Jillian arched her back, pressing against the palm of my hand. I worked her there, teasing along her folds. I knew the spandex between us had to be torture for her.
This was wrong and right on so many levels. She was the job. That’s all she should have been to me. But she was Jillian and dammit if she didn’t feel made for me. From the second I laid eyes on her I knew this, right here, like this, was exactly where I wanted things to go. I’m a strong man, but I’m not a monk. Every logical thought flew out of my head. I wanted this woman and that was all that mattered. I would have taken her right then and there, like two wild things rutting in the wilderness. It flew against everything Jillian tried to maintain. But I liked her like this, out of control and reckless. Her hungry kisses against my neck told me she needed it as much as I did. She had me rock hard, my head spinning with lust and wanting I could barely control. Then everything came sharply into focus and I couldn’t catch my breath.
A sound came from behind us. Jillian went rigid as we heard a barking dog and laughter. I dropped my shoulders and pressed my forehead against her shoulder. She tapped her palm against my chest. My heart thundered behind my ribcage and my erection throbbed, straining to get out. I bit the inside of my lip hard enough to draw blood as I tried to reign myself in. I had about as much luck as the Titanic trying to maneuver around the iceberg.
“Huck,” she gasped, desperation in her voice.
Hissing through my teeth I nodded. “Someone’s coming,” I said. Desire still ripping through me, I managed to bring myself off her. I held a hand out to her to help her up. For that split second before she took it, I drank in the sight of Jillian lying beneath me, her legs parted and lust coloring her cheeks. She let out a sigh and licked her lips, then she smoothed her tank top back into place and let me pull her to her feet.
She moved away from me; quickly gathering her hair into her hand, she twisted it up and into another rubber band she had tied around her wrist. The transformation was almost total except for that dark flash of desire I still detected in her eyes. But the moment was gone as two other runners, a middle-aged man and woman, crested the hill, their chocolate Lab ahead of them on a leash. For a second, I wished I could vaporize them both by just looking at them.
“Hullo, there!” the man yelled out.
Jillian and I raised our hands in salute at the same time. The dog barked out a greeting and rolled his tongue to the side. I turned to say something to Jillian. The color drained from her face and she took an awkward sidestep. A moment ago, she’d nearly given in to wanton abandon. Now that her heartbeat started to steady, I knew Jillian the control freak was firmly back at the helm.
“I’ll run ahead,” she said, her voice icy and detached now. “Meet you up at the house.”
She looked scared, not of me but of herself and what almost happened. Shit. I knew that look. With that, she took off in a streak of blonde hair and disappeared over the top of the hill. I knew what would come next. She’d start to shut down and put her walls back in place. I didn’t know if I could stand the coldness from her again after I’d almost tasted her heat.
Chapter Ten
Jillian
Air like acid burned my lungs. I ran as fast and far as I could. Just once I looked back to see if Huck was following me. I knew he was. He wouldn’t let me completely out of his sight. Beneath the cold sweat rippling down my back, I still felt the warm glow of desire. I’d nearly let it drag me down. Huck’s lips. Huck’s hands. Huck’s heat. I wanted him. I felt starved for it and it scared me. What had I been thinking? Just a single moment and I’d nearly ruined everything.
If I let myself feel what I knew I needed from Huck, everything could come crashing down around me. I would have control of nothing anymore. I knew some deep part of me wanted exactly that. But once I fell down that hole, I might never be able to climb back out again.
Huck called my name as I got within sight of my house. I knew what he wanted. He’d set the rules. He goes in the house ahead of me, no matter how briefly we’d been away. A childish superstition crossed my mind. If I could just make it through the front door first, it would be safe, like base. I could start to rebuild my defenses and hide the turmoil inside of me.
“Jillian!” Huck was at my shoulder, breathless. His eyes flashed dark as I looked up at him. My hair spilled loose again as the rubber band I’d hastily tied snapped in two. My hands shook as I lifted them and smoothed the hair away from my face.
“Sorry,” I said, stepping back to let him in first. His eyes searched my face, looking for answers I wasn’t ready to give him.
Huck cocked his head to the side for an instant before opening the door and going in ahead of me. A few seconds later, he gave me the all clear and I walked back inside. He stood with his back to me, his hands spread wide on the kitchen counter. He raised his shoulders and took a breath before turning to face me. In that split second, I wasn’t sure what I wanted. Did I want him to pretend we hadn’t almost just fucked in the middle of the woods? Did I want him to tell me how sorry he was and that we could never let it happen again? Did I want him to change the subject altogether and pretend the whole thing was a dream?
I decided not to give him the chance to say any of it. I’d nearly lost control out in those woods. I would take it back now no matter what.
“That wasn’t . . . professional,” I said. Huck whirled around, his eyes wide; he looked startled as if I’d just slapped him in the face. My heart fell for a moment, then I straightened my back and steeled myself for the rest of it.
“Jillian,” he said. “I’m sorry. God. The last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable.”
I raised my hand. “No. I’m not saying you were unprofessional. That was . . . that was both of us. And look, I’ve been under a hell of a lot of stress. It’s not an excuse, but I lost control. You’re . . . well, I’m attracted to you. Obviously. But we can’t have a repeat of those last few minutes.”
A muscle in Huck’s jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth and swallowed hard. His eyes flashed with fire. I could still read the desire behind them and a dangerous, answering heat flared within me. Plain and simple, I wanted to jump his bones all over again. I curled my hands into fists and dug my nails into my palms. I’d just have to push those thoughts down and away from me. I had to stay in control.
“You’re right,” he said, his tone flat and cold. It gutted me, but it helped settle my blood. Yes. Professional. Distant. Controlled. That’s what I needed
. I didn’t need complications. I should have left it at that and gone up to shower before work. But something in Huck’s expression tore at me still. That reckless part of me still hovered just below the surface enough to startle me.
“I can’t have this kind of disruption. You understand that. Too many people are watching me and waiting for me to make a mistake. If . . . if that couple had shown up just a few moments later, if we’d taken that any further . . . well, that’s exactly the kind of scandal I don’t need. I have an image to project and protect. Like it or not, this is a political appointment. And I have ambitions. My actions reflect on other people.”
“What are you talking about?” Huck took a step toward me. The cold, detached tone he’d taken evaporated. His lips curled into a smirk that made rage flash inside of me. I could take anything but ridicule from him right now. “You’re not allowed to have a personal life? Yeah. You’re right, me getting involved with you stirs up some complications. But guess what? Federal judges are allowed to fuck, Jillian.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” He was testing me. Huck took another step forward. His smile widened. He leaned against the counter and crossed one leg casually in front of the other.
“I can’t, okay? I just can’t.”
“Can’t what? What are you so scared of? You ask me, you’re on a collision course for a breakdown, lady.”
“I didn’t ask you. You work for me, remember?” I didn’t like the venomous tone in my voice but I couldn’t help it. This man brought out every base instinct I had. I wanted to rip his face off. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to fuck him and feel his lips on me again.
“Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but I work for the taxpayers, actually. And you’re not my boss. Sure, you and me … not a good idea. But you and somebody? You go to work. You come home and work some more. You don’t drink. You don’t go out. You don’t socialize with anyone other than Rhonda and your secretary. When exactly do you unwind?”