Tori closed her eyes but not before he saw the pain and tears. The scars did not define her, but the circumstances surrounding her acquisition of them had damaged her. Jacob’s hands continued his massage of her leg and foot. “Did Amiri hurt you?” He watched the emotion his question evoked tumble across her expressive face.
Her voice trembled. “Physically? No. Even though I was his patient, his focus was getting information from me for the CIA. I was just a mind that had data and he did his part to ensure I told them everything. I was never a priority—the information was. My recovery wasn’t at the top of his agenda. They needed to ensure they knew everything I told my captors, and that information was all that mattered to him and the agency. When Amiri confirmed he’d extracted what information they needed, I was allowed to resign and go home.”
Jacob worked through her revelations. He continued the slow, methodical kneading of her beautiful legs. Tori kept her eyes closed and appeared to relax as his hands continued the sensuous message. He decided to drop the questions for now. He needed to make her understand that she, not information, was his priority. “Everyone in D.C. has an agenda. I have one, too. I’ll let you in on a little secret. My agenda has just one item, Victoria—you.” He allowed the unadulterated lust he was feeling to resonate in his voice. She deserved to know how much she turned him on. No games with this one.
Her lids lifted to reveal deep blue pools filled with the same desire he was feeling. He brought her foot to his mouth and kissed her toes. He gave a gentle tug on her leg.
She slid towards him. Her nipples tightened enticingly when she lifted out of the water. “How do you propose to take care of your agenda item?”
He grinned at the husky throb in her voice. His last tug on her leg brought her across the tub and he grabbed her waist as she slid next to him. “Straddle me. I’ll show you, woman.”
His lips followed his words as he pulled her into him. The urgency driving them both replaced any pretense of gentleness. Tori lifted over him and braced her knees on the bottom of the tub. Her eyes dropped to his mouth and then back up to his eyes.
“Oh hell yeah, baby. You’re driving me crazy. I want to know and kiss every inch of your body—later. Right now? I want to be deep in you.”
If she hadn’t been mere inches from him, he wouldn’t have heard her breath catch in her throat. Her whispered response was almost lost in the hum of the whirlpool jets. “Then take me.”
Oh God, heaven did exist. His erection strained under her, and the touch of her tight ass against him caused his cock to jump. His hand circled his shaft before a bolt of reality him. Condoms! Fuck! He wanted her. Now. Bare.
“I’m clean baby. Do we need protection?” Jacob’s thumbs circled her tight nipples teasing them.
Tori’s head fell back. Jacob’s lips immediately found her exposed pulse point and sucked and kissed her delicate skin.
“No, I’m on birth control and I was repeatedly tested—after. There’s been no one since. We’re safe.” Her hands clenched on his biceps, biting into his skin as he dropped his head and took her tight nipple into his mouth. Her smooth low moan echoed in the steamy heat of the bathroom.
The need and desire that resonated from her hit Jacob like a sidewinder fired from the rail of an F-15. He lifted her and centered himself under her heat. Tori’s hand opened her delicate folds as the engorged head of his cock pushed through her tight opening. He glanced from her half-closed eyes to where her sex lowered, consuming his cock. Inch by inch she sank onto him. The perfection and feel of her hot channel and the soft beauty of her bare skin forced him to close his eyes and concentrate in order not to come like a horny schoolboy. Finally, her scorching confines consumed his entire shaft.
She trembled at the slightest touch of his hand to her skin. Wet tendrils of hair clung to her cheek and fell over her shoulders. He folded her into his chest and kissed her with soft sweeping lips and tongue. In an instant, his kiss flamed into an explosion of need and desire. Her tongue thrust back against his and he consumed her. He wanted everything she would give him. Maintaining the kiss, he braced his legs on the side of the tub and pumped in and out of her body. The heat of the water paled in comparison to the tight velvet of her core. She gave a small cry as he sank deeper into her. He froze, broke the kiss, and held her face in both hands. “Did I hurt you?”
She took great gulps of air shook her head. “God, no. You fill me up. This is so good. Please, don’t stop.”
Jacob bit her bottom lip and then slid his mouth to her throat biting a trail to her collar bone. “Believe me, I’m not stopping baby.” He held her hips as he lifted her slightly and drove into her again. Her stifled gasp and moan fueled his passion. Over and over, he pumped long, deep, hard movements into her.
He heard her cry of release echo off the walls in the bathroom. Jacob’s own growl broke through his controlled thrusts. His body surged into hers until he held her down tightly as he came, grinding against her as he rode out his own climax.
For fuck’s sake, the last time he was this exhausted he had been without food for three days and was carrying Chief’s heavy ass out of hostile territory—twelve miles with over two hundred pounds on his back. But this…this exhaustion he would gladly volunteer for, over and over and over again. Jacob held her against his chest and stroked her back. His mind searched for any previous sexual experience to equal the sensations he just experienced. He couldn’t think of any. Everything he ever wanted in a woman, smart, sassy, sexy, sensual, erotic, and beautiful lay panting in his arms.
Chapter Seven
Tori sat waiting patiently outside Jacob’s office and laughed silently as someone named Gabriel tore him a new one. She could see Jacob clearly through the open door. Anyone within thirty feet could hear the speaker phone.
“Jacob King, what in the fucking hell do you think you are doing? Why did I get a call from the D.C. doctors advising me you’d checked yourself out of the hospital against medical advice?”
“So they called you about that? Huh. Figures, asshole doctors.”
Tori watched Jacob run his fingers across his scalp and wince as he leaned back in the desk chair. The speaker phone vibrated with the tirade spewing from the other end of the line.
“Do you honestly think you can keep secrets from me? Your medic is still on my payroll. It only took one call and I heard about that emergency run he made in the middle of the night. Now, God damn it! What the hell’s going on?”
“Calm down, Gabriel. It’s not as bad as—”
“Calm down! Fuck that! What in the hell did you think you were doing? I pay you to run all overseas operations, not lead them. You keep taking yourself out of action and straying from mission objectives and that paycheck will stop. Do you copy me, Mr. King?”
Jacob shut the door to his office, but Tori still heard the man called Gabriel continue to reprimand him.
“I finally get you home from that piece of shit third world country and you release yourself against medical orders? Your own men didn’t know you had checked out. Let’s just top that off with the fact your medic had to respond to your house to patch you up! If you ever, I repeat, ever, break protocol again, you’re fired. Do I make myself absolutely clear?”
*
On the drive to the airport an hour later, Tori hid her amusement. The silent mass of raging testosterone beside her had had his ass handed to him. Bet that didn’t often happen. When Jacob pulled his Hummer onto the flight line, she saw a small huddle of people by the private jet’s open door waiting to board. The men looked familiar as Jacob introduced them. Tori shook Chief’s hand. The man’s expression never changed as he greeted her. Dixon and Drake, the identical twins she vaguely remembered seeing on the aircraft that night both smiled and took her hand. Doc nodded pleasantly as he passed her on the way to the jet. As a unit, there was no mistaking these men for anything but soldiers and Jacob was their leader. The men seemed to know not to engage him during the five-hour flight to Rapid City. The as
s chewing he received put him in a foul mood, but he never released her hand, keeping her firmly by his side the entire flight.
A mere five hours later, Guardian Security’s private jet landed at the small Rapid City, South Dakota airport. The ground crew marshalled the multi-million dollar aircraft to the private parking ramp. Tori watched out of the jet’s window as two black SUVs pulled alongside the plane. When the bulkhead door opened, she assessed the men as they disembarked ahead of her. If she saw them on the street in Rapid City, she would never know they weren’t born and raised in South Dakota. The jeans, boots, shirts, jackets, cowboy hats, and baseball caps were all worn and comfortable looking. Not a drugstore cowboy in the lot.
After their equipment and luggage had been loaded into the vehicles, they headed north to the ranch. Tori drove in the lead and turned off the interstate down an unmarked road. After an hour on the gravel road, Doc hung over the front seat. “Hey, Mom, are we there yet?”
Tori laughed and pointed. “Just over that ridge.”
When they crested the ridge, she knew what the men saw. Dark cross-beamed fences sliced through golden pastures forming a sharp contrast to the rolling hills around the ranch house. The cattle and the out-buildings radiated from the hub that centered on the massive log home and barn. The house stood two stories tall and boasted over seven thousand square feet. Her dad built every square foot of the dwelling with pine trees from their land. Her mom used to tease him, calling it the only log-cabin mansion in the state. As Tori pulled up in the yard, several dogs raced out from under the huge wraparound porch, barking wildly. She gave a sharp whistle that settled the animals down at once.
Her father came out of the barn, wiping his hands as he walked towards her. Tori skipped up to her dad and kissed him on the cheek. “Daddy, I want you to meet my friends. This is Doc, and yes, he really is a doctor. This is Chief. He is a communications and computer guru. One of these guys is Dixon and one is Drake, but I have no idea who is who. By all accounts, they fly just about anything and play with things that go boom.”
Her dad shook each man’s hand. He’d always said he could tell a lot by the way a man shook hands. He must have liked the way each man met his eyes and shook his hand solid. Tori put her arm around Jacob and smiled. “Daddy, this is Jacob King, the man we talked about.”
Her father nodded and shook Jacob’s hand.
“Mr. Marshall, thank you for taking us on. Hopefully, we won’t be too much of an inconvenience,” Jacob said.
Each man held the other with a steady look and a trace of a smile crossed her dad’s face. “Nope, won’t let you be. You are important to my daughter. That makes you important to me. Welcome to the middle of nowhere. Tori, take these men to the house and show them their rooms. Keelee will be back by sundown. She rode to the south pasture with Danny to fix the fence line before we head out tomorrow.
“Is Danny feeling better?”
Frank shrugged. “Showed up for work.”
Tori smiled and kissed him on the cheek again. “Okay, we’ll see you at dinner.”
He nodded towards the men and went back down to the barn. Jacob looked at Dixon, Drake, and Chief. “Head on down after Mr. Marshall and see if there is anything you can help out with. Doc and I’ll handle the luggage. You can find your rooms later.” The three men nodded, turned heel, and headed to the barn.
“That was nice, Jacob. I don’t think my dad would expect that.” Jacob nodded, but his eyes had caught the riders coming up the south valley and he turned to Tori in question. “That will be my sister Keelee and our full-time ranch hand Danny. Come on, it will take them at least thirty minutes to get here.”
Jacob gave the horizon another glance and grabbed his duffle and Tori’s weekend bag in one hand. Doc grabbed the other four duffle bags and followed.
*
The house was larger than Jacob had suspected. The living room had four, massive couches, numerous overstuffed recliners, and an abundance of comfortable chairs arranged in conversation groups. A stone fireplace took up the entire back wall and its opening was bigger than Jacob’s Hummer. The pine floors were cool. The feel of the house was comfortable, not stuffy. Something he’d like to have in the Georgetown house but the damn designer demanded authenticity and his brother Jared had caved. The grand stairway separated into two individual staircases going up to the second level. The floor split in half, rooms on the right and left. Damn it. If her room is on the other side of this fucking stairway, I’m going to go insane.
Tori led them down the long hall on the right and put Dixon, Drake, Chief and Doc in consecutive rooms. Jacob’s room was around the corner and hell yeah, next door to hers. Each room had its own bathroom and walkthrough closet with built in dresser. The king-sized beds were dwarfed by the expansive rooms. Impressive build. Enough space for a man to stretch out and relax. Doc put a duffle in each of the rooms and headed down to the SUV for the rest of bags.
Tori opened the door to Jacob’s room and stood inside. He dropped the bags and grabbed her as he kicked the door shut. Seven hours being with her and not being able to be in her. Too fucking long. “Those tight jeans you’re wearing are killing me. I need you.”
She lifted her arms and placed them around his neck. “And I need you, but we don’t want to reinjure that shoulder. Doc is getting tired of patching you up, and I’d hate to know what Gabriel would have to say.”
Who in the hell cares about Doc or Gabriel? “Baby, I have that covered. I have countless ways we can make love without worrying about this damned thing. I haven’t pulled the stitches yet, have I?” His wicked grin and waggled eyebrows punctuated his statement.
Tori lifted up and kissed him soundly. “No, but you should clear it with Doc first.” Her taunt lit up his target square in the bull’s eye.
“Like hell I will!”
Tori giggled and twisted out of his grasp. “Fine, but I’m not responsible if you start bleeding again.”
He stalked across the room and grabbed her waist pulling her backwards. “Oh baby, you are definitely responsible.”
Tori pushed back into him as his one good hand traveled up from her waist and cupped one of her breasts. He pinched her nipple and a soft moan escaped her lips. “Is your old man going to have a problem with us?”
Tori smiled as she reached behind her and grabbed his hips bringing him closer to her ass. “No. Do you see that door?” Jacob stopped kissing her neck long enough to look up. He whispered, “Yeah, so?”
She drew a sharp breath and shuddered as he found an erogenous zone by her ear. “Ahh…that door connects this room with my room. We just need to be discrete.”
A knock caused them to pull apart and Jacob growled low in his throat. “Come in.”
Doc stuck his head in the door. “Heading down to the barn to see if there’s anything I can do to help.
“You’re going to rack up all sorts of “Atta-boys.” Tori grinned. “Just be back before dinner.”
Jacob nodded at his man and waited for the door to close. He pulled her back against him. “How long until dinner?” Tori sighed against his lips. “You smelled that delicious aroma too? Twenty minutes, maybe. We usually eat around this time. But don’t worry, my ravenous bear, you can have me for dessert as long as you promise to be good.”
Jacob kissed her slowly, probing her mouth with his tongue. He lifted his head to allow them both to catch their breath as he ground his hard dick into her. “I promise I’ll be good. The best you ever had.”
She put her forehead into his shoulder and whispered, “God, I don’t know what you see in me.”
“Tori look at me.” She shook her head. “Victoria Marshall, look at me now,” he commanded. His eyes locked with hers. “You make me happy. Do you understand?”
She held his stare. “No, I actually don’t. When I went back to Washington, I assumed we would have one date. If I were lucky, maybe, you would want me enough to make love to me, but never in a million years did I think I might have you for th
ree months. What happens if you get tired of me?”
Jacob sighed and lowered his lips to hers, breathing his response on her lips. “Never going to happen. Stop thinking—start kissing.” Lust kicked him in the gut like the recoil of a fifty-caliber machine gun. He kissed her again and then groaned, “Check that. God, get me out of this room or your father will kick me off the ranch before I unpack.”
*
Tori couldn’t help the satisfaction warming her as her dad surveyed the entire table with his “impassive face.” He didn’t fool her. She knew he was a happy as a cat in cream to see a full headcount at the massive table. He cut into the roast beef and purposely avoided looking at her and Jacob…again. She laughed to herself. Knowing her dad, he was probably wondering how long before he was going to be a grandpa. If only. She knew she was falling…heck, who was she kidding, she’d fallen. But no way in hell was she going to be “that” woman. The clingy, whiny, marry-me type of woman that every man she had ever known ran from. Nope, if Jacob wanted anything more than what they had, he would have to make a play.
Keelee walked in late and took her seat next to Jacob. Tori couldn’t help but do a double take. Keelee’d brushed out her hair and put on clean clothes. Damn, Keelee never primped. Tori flicked her gaze down the table. The twins were engrossed in a conversation about horses with Chief. Doc was quiet and kept glancing at Keelee when he thought she wasn’t looking. Interesting. What had gone on in that barn while she and Jacob were occupied upstairs?
Her dad buttered a biscuit and nodded toward Jacob. “Where are you from, Jacob? Couldn’t help but notice you have a strong southern accent.”
Jacob Page 8