by Susan Stoker
Jeremiah grinned when he remembered the look on his father’s face right before he’d blown his head off with the shotgun the old man had loved to threaten him with.
Maybe taking Jonathan with him when he went to Mexico with the bitch’s baby wasn’t the best idea. Jonathan might turn on him like he’d turned on his own father.
The more he thought about his past, the more paranoid Jeremiah got. Making the decision right then and there to start completely over without Jonathan.
Getting a new son was the best idea he’d had in a long time. And taking the flesh and blood from the bitch who’d ratted him out was the perfect revenge indeed.
Rubbing his hands together, Jeremiah imagined all the things he’d do to the boy to show him who was boss. Who was in charge. His dick got hard just thinking about it.
Settling into the dirty chair in the corner of the motel room, Jeremiah unzipped his pants and palmed himself. Oh yeah, he was definitely looking forward to starting over in Mexico with his new family.
Chapter 8
The week went by quickly for Milena. She worked each morning at the clinic downtown and spent every afternoon with TJ and their son. He’d done extremely well so far with JT, as if he’d been a parent his whole life. He was nurturing, but didn’t spoil the little boy. When she’d commented on it, he’d simply said he paid attention to everything she did and tried to emulate it.
Which of course made her stupid heart turn over in her chest.
He’d been attentive to her, but not suffocating. Each time they came back from whatever outing they’d been on, he made sure she and JT were inside her parents’ house safe and sound before he left. He never tried to finagle an invitation to come inside, even when she kind of wanted him to. He didn’t crowd into her personal space and hadn’t tried to kiss her.
All in all, the week had been confusing. She could tell TJ was different than he’d been three years ago. It was as if the bad stuff about him had just disappeared altogether. He didn’t seem angry, he wasn’t impatient, he didn’t even mind when JT threw a fit in the middle of the store. He simply stood over him in the aisle and let him scream until he’d exhausted himself, seemingly unaware of the disapproving looks from other shoppers as they passed.
Now, at the end of the week, Sadie had been visiting Milena at the clinic, and they were chatting about nothing in particular as they left when a man caught Milena’s attention. He was standing down the street, leaning against a wall. Staring at them.
“Sadie, straight in front of us, see that guy in the hat?” Milena asked her friend softly as they walked toward her car.
Hearing the tension in Milena’s voice, Sadie immediately went on alert. She looked where Milena indicated and stiffened. “Isn’t that Mister Jonathan?”
Milena swallowed hard. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”
Sadie’s hand went inside the bag she always carried on her shoulder. Milena knew she had a cute little pink gun. A gun that might be small, but was still deadly.
When the man realized he’d been seen, instead of turning around and leaving, he tipped his hat to them in what might’ve been a gallant gesture, except for the evil grin on his face.
“Holy shit,” Milena breathed, and reached for her phone. She unlocked it and went to her contacts, clicking on TJ’s name before she’d even thought about what she was doing.
“Hey, Milena. What’s up?” TJ asked as he answered.
“Sadie and I are outside the clinic and I’m pretty sure Jonathan is watching us.”
“Go back inside,” TJ ordered immediately in a voice that had changed from jovial and happy to urgent and pissed off in a heartbeat. “Now.”
“He’s not doing anything, just standing there staring at us.”
“Please, Doc. Go back inside. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“He’s leaving now.”
“Milena,” TJ warned. “You had better be on your way back to the clinic.”
Jonathan turned and sauntered down the street as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He veered down an alley and disappeared from view. But before he did, he blew a kiss in their direction.
Milena shuddered in revulsion. “He’s gone now.”
“Milena, for God’s sake! Go. Back. To. The. Clinic.” Each word out of TJ’s mouth was clipped.
“Sadie, TJ wants us to go back to the clinic and wait for him,” Milena told her friend. What she really wanted to do was get in her car and go home, but it had been a long time since she’d heard that tone of voice from TJ, and she wasn’t sure it would be smart to go against him.
Her friend looked at her for a heartbeat, then asked, “Is he on his way here?”
Milena nodded.
Sadie glanced in the direction Jonathan had disappeared, then at her friend once more. “Then we need to do what he says.”
“Are you there yet?” TJ asked impatiently in her ear.
“No, but we’re going,” Milena said.
“Good.”
She heard a door slam and knew TJ was now in his car. She blew out a relieved breath. Just knowing he was on his way went a long way toward making her feel better. “He didn’t do anything, TJ. Just smiled and blew us a kiss as he left.”
“Fuck!” TJ swore. “Doc, every law enforcement officer in a hundred-mile radius is looking for that asshole. He and his dad are on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. No one has seen them since the school was raided. The fact that he’s still hanging around in San Antonio and standing outside your clinic doesn’t exactly give me warm fuzzies. Not to mention blowing you a fucking kiss. I hate to say this, because I know it’s not going to make you happy, but this changes things.”
“Changes things how?”
“In that the half-ass job I’ve been doing of keeping my eye on you just changed to a more full-time job. There’s no way I’ve found you again, only to have a perverted asshole snatch you away.”
They arrived back at the clinic and entered, Milena too focused on her conversation with TJ to care about her surroundings. “No one is going to snatch me away!” she exclaimed. “And it wasn’t like I was hiding from you. I’ve been here the whole time. In plain sight. We worked in the same city, for God’s sake. All you had to do was look up my name on that fancy highway patrol database and you could’ve found me, TJ. But no, it wasn’t until I was in trouble that you even bothered. You just have to be the fucking hero, don’t you?”
There was silence on the other end of the line, except for the faint sound of a siren in the background, as Milena waited for him to respond.
“What else?” he strangely asked.
“What else, what?” Milena huffed.
“What else are you pissed at me for? Go on, get it all out.”
“Pretty much everything, TJ!” she told him. If he wanted a list, she’d give him one. “As I said, you had the resources to find me whenever you wanted, but you didn’t. It wasn’t until you thought I was in danger that you even bothered. I’m upset that you won’t talk to me about what happened to you when you got hurt in the Army. I’m mad that you seem to be perfect now, but I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop and for you to hurt me again. I’m pissed at how good you are with JT without even trying, when I was scared every day for his first year that I was going to screw him up so badly he’d end up being a serial killer. And I’m mad that I’ve felt happier and safer in the last week than I have since the moment you walked out on me!”
Milena was breathing hard at the end of her tirade. Little puffs of air were coming out and she realized she’d been pacing in the lobby of the clinic as she’d gone off on TJ.
“You go, girl.”
The words were spoken softly from behind her, and Milena spun around and saw three teenagers sitting in the waiting room, staring at her. Sadie was standing with her arms crossed, smirking as she leaned against a wall. Milena didn’t know which of them had said the words, but was mortified that she’d spoken like that in front of other people.
&nb
sp; Milena closed her eyes in embarrassment.
TJ’s voice sounded in her ear, calm and seemingly unruffled. “I did look you up. I shouldn’t have waited as long as I did though. I figured you were better off without me. No, that’s a lie. I was scared to death that I’d look you up and find out you were married. I’m a coward, Doc. I was terrified to look for you and so damn depressed without you. Yeah, knowing you might be in danger was the impetus for me to get off my ass, but it’s not because I think you can’t take care of yourself. You’re an adult, Milena. I know better than anyone that you are no damsel in distress.
“As for JT, it might seem as if I’m a natural with him, but that’s only because I’ve been watching you. I hope there will be a time when you trust me enough to be alone with him, but I have to tell you, I’m petrified and excited about that prospect at the same time. What if I say something wrong? What if I give him something to eat that he’s allergic to? What if he gets hurt on my watch and you never trust me again? What if he decides I’m a no-good bum and hates me? I’m well aware he’s as amazing as he is as a result of your influence on him.
“And I’ll tell you everything you want to know about my time in the Army. Every fucking thing. I don’t want to; not because you don’t deserve to know, but because it makes me feel like a failure. But I will. I want you to know why I left three years ago, and to get to know the man I am today.
“And lastly, I haven’t been as happy and settled in my entire life as I have been in the last week. I wake up in the morning excited to talk to you, to see you, to watch you interact with our son, and I go to sleep at night eager for the hours to pass so I can be around you once more. I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear, but I’m not going to hurt you like I did three years ago. I’m one hundred percent in with this relationship. That means answering any concerns you have, manning up and talking about my feelings, and doing everything in my power to make sure you and JT are safe and happy.
“Now…I’m almost there. I’m going to look around. I doubt I’ll find anything, but I have to try. Go into the back, away from the windows. I’ll be in as soon as I’m done covering the perimeter.”
And with that, he hung up.
Milena took the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a beat before looking up at her audience a little sheepishly.
“Giiiiirl, he certainly seemed to have a lot to say after you told him off,” one of the teenagers said.
“We need to get away from the windows,” Milena said in a flat tone, feeling shell-shocked by what TJ had just told her. He hadn’t shied away from anything she’d said. He’d laid it all on the line. The shield she’d been holding around her heart cracked, letting him in just a little bit.
Sadie helped herd the teenagers into one of the examination rooms, and then stood in the small copy and storage room with Milena.
“I take it he’s outside?” Sadie asked.
Milena nodded and turned to her friend. “Am I crazy for thinking about giving him another chance?”
“If he’d blown you off when you called, I would say yes. But he didn’t. The second he knew you might be in even the smallest amount of trouble, he dropped everything and raced to get to you. Do you know how rare that is? I have the best and worst role models. The best because my uncle and his friends have showed me exactly what I want. A man who cherishes his woman. Who does whatever it takes to keep her happy. The worst because that’s a hell of a high standard a man has to live up to if he wants to be with me.”
She walked up to Milena and put her hands on her shoulders, looking into her friend’s eyes. “He fucked up. There’s no denying that. But he’s a guy, Milena. Unfortunately, they do that shit. And no one is perfect. It might’ve taken him longer than it should’ve to pull his head out of his ass, but he’s back now. And from where I’m standing, he’s back one hundred percent. He seems genuine in his remorse over what happened and how long it took him to find you. I’m not saying go out and buy a wedding dress and put money down on a venue, but I am saying to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“I don’t think I’d survive him leaving again,” Milena whispered.
“Then grab hold and don’t let him leave again,” Sadie fired back. “A relationship is a two-way street. Make him so damn happy, and reliant on you and JT for his happiness, he can’t even imagine walking away. Relationships aren’t all sunshine and roses, Milena. You know that. There are ups and downs, and it takes communication and a hell of a lot of work to keep things fresh and smooth. You’ve had more downs than ups, which sucks, but I’m fairly certain if you give him an inch, he’ll more than make up for the shit he piled on you.”
Sadie took a step back, put her hands in the pockets of her jeans and smirked. “Besides, I’ve been watching him for the last week when he’s been at the house, and I have a feeling he’s got a bit of Dom in him.”
“What?” Milena asked, shocked.
“Don’t get freaked,” Sadie told her friend. “When you were with him three years ago, how was the sex?”
“Um…good?”
“Of course it was. I don’t mean that. I mean, was he bossy in bed? Did he seem to take over when you guys went at it?”
Milena knew she was blushing, but nodded anyway.
“Right. That’s why he reminds me so much of my uncles Sean and Ian. I’m not saying he’s going to want to haul you off to a BDSM club and strap you to a Saint Andrew’s Cross and flog you in front of a roomful of people, but he needs that control. Just as you want to please him, he wants to make sure he takes care of you in every way.”
“I don’t understand half of what you just said. What’s a Saint Andrew’s Cross?”
Sadie waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter. You liked the way he was in bed, right?”
“Yeah, but what—”
“And forgive me this inelegant question, but if JT was in danger, who would you trust most to get him out of that danger? Me, you, your mom and dad, or TJ?”
Milena stared at her friend, the answer easier than she was comfortable saying out loud.
“TJ, right?” Sadie asked.
“I shouldn’t. I mean, he didn’t even know he had a son until a week ago,” Milena protested.
“It’s because you know, deep down, TJ would do anything for you and your son. He’s a Dom, Milena. Maybe not a full-blown, into-the-lifestyle Dominant, just as you’ll never be the kind of submissive who wants to play outside the bedroom. But the two of you fit. If you let him in enough to trust him fully, I have a feeling he’ll change your life for the better. He’s learned his lesson, he won’t let you down again. If you let him, you’ll have a partner who will kill to protect you and your son, will bend over backwards to satisfy you in the bedroom, and in return, he’ll get a woman who can make him believe in himself again.”
“How do you know?” Milena asked, blown away by how observant her friend was.
Sadie shrugged. “I told you. I’ve had some hella good role models.”
They grinned at each other.
Before Milena could say anything else, they heard the bell on the outer door to the clinic tinkle. She turned to the open door of the copy room and before she could move, TJ was there.
He strode toward her and, without a word or warning, wrapped one hand around her waist and the other went to her nape. He pulled her into him and kissed her. Hard. Deep. Without apology and without hesitation. As if he were rejoicing in the fact that she wasn’t hurt. That Jonathan hadn’t gotten to her.
Way before she was ready, he pulled back but didn’t take his hands from her. “You all right?”
Milena nodded and licked her lips nervously, tasting a hint of peppermint. He’d obviously had a mint or chewed a piece of gum in the not-so-distant past. The combination of mint and TJ was erotic as hell, and she shifted uneasily, feeling how she’d immediately gotten wet at his familiar taste.
“Sadie? You good?” TJ asked, not taking his eyes from Milena’s.
“I’m goo
d,” was her slightly amused response.
Milena watched as TJ took a moment to compose himself. Every muscle was tight. She could feel how tense he was under her palms, which were resting on his chest. His breaths came in short, choppy pants and he honestly looked like he wanted to tear someone from limb to limb.
Wanting to soothe him, Milena rubbed her thumbs back and forth over his rock-hard pecs. “We’re okay, TJ. He didn’t come near us.”
“But he was here. Watching you. He knows where you work.”
“Of course he does. Remember, he was the one who found me here.” She saw his jaw flex before he answered.
“There was no sign of him, but I didn’t really expect there to be. Is this the first time you’ve seen him since the raid?” TJ asked
Milena nodded.
“He should’ve been long gone before now,” TJ said. “If he and Jeremiah were smart, they would be on the other side of the country or in Mexico by now.”
“Maybe it was a coincidence.” Milena ignored Sadie’s snort.
TJ simply shook his head. “No, I don’t think it is.”
Milena felt his thumb brush back and forth at the base of her skull, making her heart flutter in her rib cage. That small caress brought back so many memories. He used to hold her just like this after making love to her. Her head resting on his shoulder, her arm flung across his chest, his hand at her nape, lazily caressing her as they both came down from their orgasms.
Sadie’s words rattled around in her head. Dom. Forgive. Trust.
Taking a huge leap of faith, and hoping like hell she wasn’t making the worst mistake of her life, Milena slowly moved her arms around TJ and laid her head against him, shoving her nose into the space at his neck.
* * *
TJ was so full of emotion he couldn’t control it. Anger at Jonathan for daring to show his face. Relief that Milena was all right. Frustration that he couldn’t take Milena to the ground and prove to her once and for all that he’d never hurt her again and would take care of her, in and out of the bedroom, for the rest of her life.