The Closer You Come

by Gena Showalter

  His friend clasped Brook Lynn's hand. When she focused on him, his lips were already moving. "--scale from one to ten, you're a nine...and I'm the one you need."

  He expected her to do a little mathing? Now?

  Who cared! "Selfie time! Me and Numbers." This had to be the best...idea...ever. Jase would see her with another man and sink into a black pit of rage; she'd discover how he handled the emotion. In a word: foolproof.

  Brook Lynn sidled up to Numbers and threw her arms around his shoulders. "I know what you're thinking. Yes, I did sit in a pile of sugar--because I've got a pretty sweet bee-hind. Now smile for the camera."

  Warm breath fanned her ear, making her shudder. She snapped the photo and bolted out of reach. Surely creepy and creepier was not the caliber of male on today's market.

  Or maybe they wouldn't have been so bad if she'd stopped comparing everyone she met to Jase.

  "You're so hot," the other one said to Jessie Kay, wiggling his brows, "even my zipper is falling for you."

  Jessie Kay slapped him on the back. "Dude. That's a good one. I know! I know! Did you buy your pants on sale...because at my house they would be one hundred percent off."

  The guys laughed. Jessie Kay gave Brook Lynn a look that said having fun already?

  No, but soon. Brook Lynn scouted the room for her next photo partner. Perfect! Young and cute. The mustache wasn't to her taste, and he was a bit on the thin side, but beggars couldn't be choosers and all that.

  "We'll be back in a bit," she told her sister. "You. Come on. I might need an interpreter." She dragged Kenna out of the corner, away from the circle of bad pickup lines, and bounded over to Mustache. "Let's take a picture together."

  The guy furrowed his brow with confusion, but eventually consented.

  Over the next half hour, Brook Lynn took a total of sixteen pictures, each more provocative than the last.

  "Jase is going to flip out," she said, opening a text to him, selecting all of the images--and pressing Send.

  Kenna moved in front of her. "Are you sure that's wise? What if you lose him for good over this?"

  She frowned, not liking the thought and rejecting it. "We'll be good as gold after this. I'll have my proof."

  "Proof? And, Brook Lynn, I wanted to jolt you out of your funk, maybe even to get you to talk about what's going on with Jase, but I didn't want to help ruin your life!"

  "You've helped make it better. You'll see." And now, the moment of truth. She opened another text to Jase.

  Come over 2nite. Let's discuss the pix.

  Send.

  Someone bumped into her, pushing her forward. She stumbled and bumped into someone else. "Sorry, sorry." The room began to spin faster and faster, and her stomach rebelled. She tried to move toward the bathroom--where the heck was the bathroom?--but she made it only two steps before hunching over and vomiting all over the floor.

  *

  BROOK LYNN WASN'T sure how she made it home. She woke up in bed, alone, with a splitting headache and a terrible taste in her mouth. Had rodents crawled inside it and died?

  Grumbling, she stumbled into the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and showered, dressed in a tank and a pair of panties and brushed her teeth again. As memories of last night's escapades invaded her mind, she decided to go back to bed--and stay there forever.

  My picture should be next to idiot in the dictionary.

  She turned the volume up on her implants, just in case her sister decided to make another surprise visit, and curled up under the covers. Lesson learned. Alcohol only made everything worse. She'd actually sent pictures of herself draped over other men to Jase. Of course he was going to rage.

  A weight settled at the end of her bed. Her eyelids popped open, and she gasped. Jase! He'd flipped on the lamp, and golden light spotlighted him. Rumpled dark hair, eyes that were bloodshot but not spewing fire. He didn't seem to have shaved since she'd left him, his stubble dark and thick.

  She sat up, her body already heating...burning. Readying. The man who'd pleasured her so perfectly, so many times, was here, once again within reach. His masculine scent filled her head, at last chasing away her headache.

  "Wh--what are you doing here?"

  He frowned, and she had to battle the urge to brush her fingertips over his lips. "You invited me. Remember?"

  She did, and she had to swallow a moan. The final text.

  Jase withdrew his cell phone. "Let's chat about these." He showed her the screen. "This one is of a strobe light. This one is of a crowd. This one is of a dirty table. This one is of multiple pairs of feet."

  Mission fail.

  Why not tell him the truth? Get everything out in the open? "I was trying to make you mad."

  "You...what? Why?" He set his phone on the nightstand.

  "Okay, fine. You got me. I was trying to make you more than mad. I was trying to enrage you."

  "Why did you think these random pictures would enrage me?"

  "They were supposed to be pictures of me with other guys."

  A terrible stillness came over him. "I see."

  She covered her face with her hair and peeked at him through her spread fingers. "I wanted to find out what you'd do."

  Several beats of silence. Such oppressive silence. "I see," he repeated.

  There'd been hints of anger in his tone, but nothing else.

  "I'm sorry," she said, miserable.

  "Did you do anything with these men?" he asked quietly.

  "No! Gross."

  He studied her features, still masking his own, before he stood. "I better go. I wouldn't want to frighten you with my temper. I'll see you around, Brook Lynn. Or not. Yeah, probably not."

  That was it? All he had to say? "Now just hold on a sec."

  "Why?" He pushed a hand through his hair. "You're afraid of me, even though I would rather die than hurt you. There's nothing else to discuss."

  A part of her melted. A part of her panicked. "You think this is easy for me? Being apart from you? Not trusting you?"

  "Certainly seems that way."

  There was a hint of bitterness in his tone. She deserved it, even welcomed it. He felt! "You're so cold so much of the time, Jase. You hold everything in. Then, apparently, you have times when you boil over and can't return to a simmer."

  His eyes narrowed. "This is true, but have I ever harmed you?"

  "You pushed me once."

  "I didn't know what I was doing."

  "Exactly my point!"

  He closed his eyes for a moment. "That won't happen again. I won't let it. I know to be on guard now."

  "But, Jase...I don't even know what happened that day. You've never told me."

  Tensing more with every second that passed, he said, "I saw blood and flashed back to prison, to the times I'd been ambushed and...stabbed. And worse things."

  She flattened a hand against her churning stomach. Knowing he'd endured such horrors was one thing. Hearing about it was another. "I'm sorry."

  "I'm not going to hurt you," he insisted. "You mean too much to me. Just give me time, and I'll prove it."

  "But...if I mean so much to you," she whispered, "why didn't you come after me?"

  His laugh was bitter. "You can't have it both ways. You can't run and expect me to chase you. I'm an ex-con. Do you know what a stalking charge would do to me?"

  See Brook Lynn's resistance begin to crumble. "I would never accuse you of stalking."

  "Will you give me time, then?" He seemed to stop breathing, as if her response mattered more than anything ever had.

  Tremors skated through her as she realized this was it. Decision time. There'd be no going back after this. He'd take her at her word and proceed accordingly.

  "I'm never going to be the guy who displays every emotion," he said. "I can't be. But I'm telling you, stating it plain, I want to be with you. I don't care how I get you--I just want you in my life."

  How am I supposed to resist him?

  "O...okay," she said. "I'll give you ti
me."

  He stepped toward her, only to stop. "Be very sure. I won't live through another separation."

  "I wouldn't, either," she admitted. "I'm sure. I want to be with you, too."

  His relief was palpable, his desire more so. His eyes hooded, making her tremors redouble. "I hope you're ready to cross another item off your fun list." His tone...from stoic to simmering, tentative to determined.

  "Always sometimes," she said with a nod.

  "Good enough." He placed a knee on the edge of the bed, then the other, and urged her to her back. "Because we're about to solve the mystery of the missing orgasm."

  She half laughed, half moaned in sublime surrender. "I believe I specified a mystery dinner."

  "Oh, don't worry," he said, bending down. "We'll be dining."

  Her heart kicked into a wild beat, her insides immediately flashing white-hot when he crashed his lips into hers, his tongue thrusting with brutal force, and she lost track of her surroundings.

  He took her mouth with the same sense of possession he'd first taken her body. It was as if a dam had burst inside him, and only passion spilled free. He began pulling at her clothing, ripping the material in his haste. By the time he had her naked, a glorious madness had overtaken her, his name the only word her fragmented thoughts could form.

  "Jase...Jase..." Oh, how she'd missed him. At times like this, when they were intimate, she feared nothing.

  Their tongues parried and thrust in a sensual dance of dominance, and she realized this...this was what she'd thought she'd be getting when they'd first decided to commit. Raw carnality. A passion unlike any other. Almost...savage, with absolutely nothing held back.

  He kissed and nipped his way to her breast, kneading the plump flesh. He sucked her nipple so hard a cry parted her lips, her back arching--to get closer to him or put distance between them, she wasn't sure. It was a mix of pleasure/pain she'd never before experienced, and she was instantly addicted.

  "More," she commanded, fingers fisting his hair to hold his head in place.

  He sucked one nipple then the other, giving them the same fierce treatment, until both were swollen and throbbing with ecstasy, a mimic of the constant throb between her legs. She didn't think she'd ever been so aroused or so wet--until he anchored her feet on his shoulders and knelt at the edge of the bed, dragging her over and placing his mouth directly between her spread legs.

  He...utterly...devoured...her.

  Like a starving man who'd just discovered a banquet. Like a man who'd had too many treasures stolen and thought he would lose this, too. He was ferocious, almost like an animal. Nipping and growling his approval as she writhed against his face. She came once...twice...lost in an ocean of rapture and never wanting to be found.

  When she could take no more, her body so sensitive even the slightest breeze from the air conditioner tickled her, she used her feet to push at his shoulders. He raised his head, his eyelids heavy, hooded, and his eyes devoid of color, his pupils so large the green had been completely eclipsed. Tension branched from the corners, as well as from his mouth--a mouth wet with her pleasure.

  He straightened slowly. As she watched, he licked his lips, savoring every drop she'd ceded.

  "Not done," he said and slowly undressed. "Not even close."

  His every movement was now measured, as if he knew he'd reached a breaking point and had to make an effort to regain control. But as more and more of his beautiful body was bared, desire was stoked inside her all over again, as if she'd never reached completion.

  "Are you on birth control?" he asked.

  "Yes. I got a shot soon after I met you." She trembled, and she burned, and she ached. Empty, she thought. I'm so empty. Have to be filled.

  "You want me to wear a condom or do you want me bare?"

  "Bare."

  As she watched, he stroked the long length of his erection. "There is no one more beautiful than you, angel. Have I told you that?"

  Her trembles came faster. "Jase. Please."

  Maybe it was the needy edge her voice held. Maybe it was the plea itself. Either way, the frenzy hit him once again--only with more force. He grabbed her knees and pried them as far apart as they could go. He positioned himself at her entrance and slammed all the way home.

  She cried out, stretched and filled as she'd so desperately needed to be. Knowing there was nothing between them, that the hardness of his flesh glided along the wetness of hers, somehow shredded her control. The pleasure was incredible, accompanied by a rush of adrenaline every time he thrust...and thrust...harder and harder, faster and faster. She bucked against him, her hips lifting off the bed, causing him to sink deeper every time he pushed in, as deep as her body would allow.

  The headboard slammed against the wall again and again, the pictures anchored over it rattling. Jase never paused, just hammered inside her with greater force. She would still feel him tomorrow, in every cell of her body, and she would love it.

  When he pulled out of her completely, she shouted a denial, even reached for him. He dropped to his knees and licked the heart of her until she began to climax against his tongue. As the first spasms swept through her, he straightened and pushed back in her. His mouth met hers in a kiss that would forever blister her soul. Her spasms intensified, the pleasure too much...more than she'd ever experienced at once...

  "Brook Lynn," he roared, the harsh sound of his voice bringing her back down to earth. He gave one final shove before shuddering and coming inside her, hard.

  He sagged against her, and all she could do was hold him close as her mind began to return to earth...to the fears she hadn't yet shaken. Not completely. She trusted him implicitly in bed, but she was still a little nervous about everything else.

  She said she'd give him time, and she would--and she'd never been gladder about something. One thing she'd learned while apart from him: she couldn't breathe without him.

  A dangerous way to feel, but just then, she didn't care.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  JASE WOKE IN a rush, dead asleep one moment, upright and panting the next. Sweat had created a fine sheen over his skin. He scanned his surroundings--not his bedroom, he realized. Or his prison cell.

  Brook Lynn's room. He was in her bed.

  His gaze jerked to the slender body lying next to him. Morning sunlight spilled from the crack in the curtains, illuminating her sleeping form. Sleeping Beauty. Blond hair cascaded around her delicate features, tangled from the clench of his fingers. Eyelashes cast shadows over rose-flushed cheeks. Her lips were still red and slightly swollen from his kisses. Everything inside him relaxed. Back where I belong.

  But for how long?

  She was scared of him, she'd said. He hated that, but he couldn't blame her for it. He knew what she'd merely begun to suspect: the absolute utter darkness of his rage. He hadn't been pushed that far in a long time, but what if she was right? What if he snapped one day and hurt her?

  Suddenly sick to his stomach, he rose from the bed, careful not to wake her. She didn't have a private bathroom, so he used the one in the hall. He found a toothbrush still in its packaging and wondered if she'd bought it for him, pre-confession.

  He glared at his reflection in the mirror and saw a well-satisfied but obviously unhappy male. I can't give her up. I just have to prove to us both I can be trusted.

  And he would. No other option was acceptable.

  Noise drew him out of the bathroom. The sound of a cat being murdered, surely. But no. He found Jessie Kay in the kitchen, singing while making sandwiches. He paused as she glanced up from frying eggs and frowned at him.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked. "I didn't see your car, and last I heard, you'd gotten the ax."

  Had Brook Lynn told her sister about his past?

  Either way, it was time for a reckoning, he supposed. He closed his eyes for a moment--man up--before sitting down at the table. "Beck dropped me off last night."

  "I wish he'd stayed. I needed help painting my toenails."r />
  "Well, I'm glad we're getting a little time to ourselves."

  Her frown deepened. "Dude. If you're hitting on me, I'm going to take this knife and shove it up your--"

  "No. I'm not hitting on you," he said, speaking over her. "I'm trying to apologize for the way I treated you. In the beginning." Brook Lynn loved this girl, and now, knowing Jessie Kay and her vulnerabilities a little better, he understood why. She had a quick wit and an easy smile, and she would burn the world to the ground if it meant saving the ones she loved. As he would.

  "Can't say you didn't end up with the better choice," she muttered. "You may or may not have noticed I have a few issues."

  "You and me both. But Brook Lynn is merely the better choice for me. Some guy is going to be lucky to have you."

  She flipped her hair over her shoulder, saying, "Duh." Then she flashed him a wry smile. "What happened between you guys, anyway? Brook Lynn wouldn't say."

  She'd kept his secret, even from her sister. That had to mean something. "I told her how I...spent almost a decade in prison," he said.

  "What!" Jessie Kay spun around and gaped at him. "You're freaking kidding me."

  No more hiding, he decided. It caused too many problems later on. For others and for himself.

  Jase clenched the edge of the table. He had to pry his fingers loose before he snapped the thing in two as he told her the entire story. She listened intently, never interrupting. Her expressive face registered more shock, disbelief, horror and finally understanding.

  "Dude." She arched a golden brow at him, an expression he'd often seen on Brook Lynn. "I always thought I'd be the Dillon sister to end up with an ex-con."

  "You still could," he replied drily. "Your soul mate is still out there."

  "This is true. Well, fingers crossed."

  "So?" he asked. "Is this the part where you warn me away from your sister?"

  She peered at him for a long while, studying him, thinking. Then she sighed. "No. But if you ever hurt her..."

  "I won't." He'd run like hell out of her life first.

  "Good. Because I don't want to have to spend time behind bars for the murder I'll commit."

  Please. There'd never been a woman with more bark and less bite. "You're a good person, Jessie Kay. My...friend." She was, wasn't she? She could have tried to stop Brook Lynn from dating him, but she hadn't. She'd encouraged the girl. "Don't ever settle for less than the best. It's what you deserve."