He filed the information away and went on to the next bit.
If the previous data saddened him, this one surprised him. Mara had served a stint in the army….
His cell rang.
He didn’t recognize the number.
“Hello?”
“Oh, my God! He answered…”
Julie.
What in the hell?
He grit his back teeth together, motioned for the waitress then pressed Mute while he placed an order.
“Oh, wait a minute.” Did Mara like pie? “A piece of that blackberry, too. To go.”
“You got it, sugar.”
Silence on the phone. “Where are you? And who just called you sugar?” Julie demanded.
Jon didn’t bother explaining. He didn’t have to. He knew she’d be off on her next rant within the span of breath it would take him to try to explain, anyway.
And, indeed, she was.
He decided she had whatever time it took for his burger to get there then he was cutting her off. Until then, he half listened to her, half stared at the door to motel room #3, wondering what Mara Lynn Findlay was doing right that very minute…and whether or not he’d walk in and find her naked….
8
JON RETURNED TO THE motel room to find Mara fast asleep, without a towel, and totally, gloriously uncovered….
He stood in the open doorway incapable of movement, caught between wanting to slam the door shut and staying quiet so as not to disturb her.
Damn, but she was sexy as hell….
She lay with her hips turned toward him, her left leg over her right to keep him from seeing too much. But her arms were still above her head attached to the board with the cuffs, leaving her breasts bare and open to his hungry gaze.
Never, ever, had he returned to the house he shared with Julie and found her sleeping like that. First of all, if she was waiting for him, she wouldn’t have been asleep. Second of all, she’d have catapulted from the bed the instant she heard him, anxious to fill him in on every minute detail of her day, whether he cared or not.
Mara…
Well, Mara had been handcuffed to the bed by him and still managed to not only fall asleep, but look damn good doing it.
His gaze skimmed over her, from her tousled hair and curvy hip to her shapely calves and purple-painted toenails. Hunger hit him so strong, a hundred double-size cheeseburgers wouldn’t have been unable to satisfy him.
He considered the bag of food in his hand, then put it down next to the TV before quietly closing the door. There was only one bed in the room. He could sleep in the uncomfortable-looking chair, but Mara was restrained and the bed was big. He figured he should be able to get in a good night’s sleep without worrying too much. When it came to self-control, all he’d have to do was remember Julie. Thoughts of her would be like a bucket full of ice poured down the front of his boxers.
He pulled off his T-shirt and laid it over the chair. Then he took off his boots and socks before going into the bathroom to clean up and brush his teeth using a bag of supplies he’d picked up from a drugstore across the street. He put on deodorant, ran his damp hands through his hair then went into the other room and shut off the TV and the light before carefully lying on the very edge of the bed next to Mara.
He found his gaze drawn to her beautifully bare form again. Then he silently cursed himself, before throwing the top sheet over her, nearly covering her head, as well. She made a soft sound and shifted, but didn’t wake.
He was immensely grateful.
If a sleeping Mara did this to him, he could only imagine what an awake one could do.
No, he didn’t have to imagine; he knew. She’d nearly shredded his intentions to handcuff her earlier with just a couple of soft hums of approval as he smoothed lotion on her back.
Jon positioned pillows behind him so he was half sitting up, then joined his forearms behind his head, staring at the ceiling. Was it him, or did she smell good? Quite a feat, considering she’d used the cheap motel soaps and shampoo. Yet there you had it.
He closed his eyes and swallowed hard, mentally reviewing what he’d learned about her and her situation. When his thoughts started straying again, he threw a shot of Julie into the mix. Was it too much to hope that she wouldn’t find another friend’s phone to call him? At this point, he wanted to keep the ringer on in case Lazarus called again.
He stretched his neck and counted backward from a hundred. Only, when he got to ten, he upgraded the number to a thousand….
The instant daylight broke, he intended to make arrangements to turn Mara over to federal officials as soon as humanly possible. The quicker the naked little temptress was out of his life, the better all the way around….
* * *
PURE, ANIMAL NEED FILLED HIM from the groin outward….
Jon stretched and thrust his hips against an unknown source of pleasure, his erection thick and pulsing.
He groaned, not wanting to wake from the dream, but knowing he had to. If only because he was afraid of who he’d find himself having sex with in his sleep.
The trouble was, the sensations didn’t dissipate when he groggily opened his eyes. Indeed, they intensified.
If only because it wasn’t a dream.
Somehow Mara had freed herself from the cuffs, opened his jeans and was slowly stroking his long, hard length with her fingers.
Damn, how…?
She seemed to register he was no longer asleep. But rather than stop, she continued stroking him. He was trapped between wanting, needing to break away from her and wanting, needing for her to continue….
Julie, Julie, Julie…
He was a breath away from rolling off the bed when Mara slid her mouth over the head of his cock.
Sweet heaven…
How long had it been since he’d had a woman’s mouth on him? Long before meeting Julie, who thought oral sex unsanitary. She wouldn’t even allow him south of her border.
Mara slid her lips down the inside length of his erection, then licked her way back up before taking him into her mouth and sucking lightly.
Any thoughts of his girlfriend fled from his head as quickly as common sense and his body happily took over. Oh, yes, how he’d missed this. And if the fact that it was Mara providing the pleasure factored in to his heightened reaction, he wasn’t nearly ready to admit it. All he knew was he wanted her to continue. Please.
She withdrew her attention.
He groaned in protest, then felt her patting around in his jeans pockets.
“What…what are you looking for?”
“You can’t tell me you don’t have… Bingo!”
* * *
MARA FELT LIKE a kid on Christmas morning.
She opened the foil packet with her teeth, rolled the lubricated latex down over Reece’s hot, hard shaft then straddled him. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d wanted anything so very much. She wanted to feel him inside her so desperately, she couldn’t think straight.
“Wait,” he rasped, grasping her hips. “I don’t think this is a good idea….”
She licked her parched lips, then leaned down to kiss him. When he kissed back with as much fervor as she demonstrated, she knew he wanted this as much as she did.
“Oh?” she whispered. “Because I think this is the best idea I’ve had in a long, long—” she reached between her thighs and positioned him against her, sliding down over him in one, bone-shivering stroke “—time.”
Oh, this felt so very good.
He felt so very good.
Her earlier orgasm had been uniquely powerful in that she’d never experienced one to that degree without use of her hands. And usually a man was required. But she’d been so thoroughly sated, she’d drifted off into a sound sleep and hadn�
�t even heard Reece return to the room. But when she’d woken up a little while ago to the sound of his soft snores next to her…well, that physical need had erupted in her all over again, even stronger now that she felt him beside her.
She’d used her earring to pick the cuffs by straightening the dangling hook wire, and hadn’t been able to keep herself from touching him. He was such a perfect male specimen. Every part of him was buff and shined. But it was when she’d brushed the tips of her fingertips against the slight bulge in the front of his jeans, and felt his immediate, unconscious, primal response that she knew there was no turning back.
She knew he wanted her. She’d viewed the physical need in his blue eyes the moment they’d met at the airport. She’d felt it in his hands when he’d smoothed the lotion over her back.
Oh, she suspected he had a girlfriend. And she guessed that part of what he’d needed to do when he’d left the room earlier was maybe to patch things up with her. But just then, she didn’t care. All that mattered was this moment. Feeling him fill her to overflowing.
She leaned down to kiss him again, surprised and warmed when he cupped her face to bring her closer. His kiss was deep and soulful and hungry. And made her even hotter.
She reluctantly broke free, then braced her hands against his shoulders, rocking her hips forward.
Wow!
She did it again…and again…feeling him touch her everywhere, yet nowhere…. Her breathing grew ragged and her heart thrummed a rhythm so loud she could hear nothing beyond it.
She leaned forward to kiss him again, lingeringly. Then he gently pressed his hand against her shoulder, easing her back up, presumably so he could watch her.
And she’d thought she was turned on before…. She leaned back even farther, bracing her hands against his rock-hard thighs, and rode him slow and easy. His fingers moved over her sex, up her trembling stomach, then gently touched her breasts. She caught his hand and held it there, shivering as he lightly pinched her nipple.
“God, you feel so good,” he said, murmuring the exact same words she’d thought just moments before.
She couldn’t say how long they’d stayed like that—her on top…him stroking and caressing her—but her movements began to quicken, as if her body was eager to reach the release she’d promised. Reece followed suit, grasping her hips tightly and thrusting upward, long, hard strokes that left her breathless….
“I’m close,” she moaned softly. “So close… Come with me.”
His fingers grasped her tighter. “Already there.”
9
“SO WHAT DID YOU MEAN when you asked me that question?” Jon inquired.
A long time after he’d first awakened to the wet dream of Mara touching him, he lay back, one arm behind his head because Lord only knew where all the pillows had gone, the blankets, too, for that matter. Mara was curved against his side, her bare, damp pelvis resting solidly against his hip.
It had taken some work to move his mind beyond sounds to actually form full words. These past few hours had been…
Words escaped him again merely thinking about it.
Mara was so, open, mind-blowingly sexual…
“Which one?” Her response brought his halting thoughts to a stop.
“The first one you asked me.”
He lazily stroked her back from the tat to her bottom, then back again. She was smooth and sexy and hotter than any woman he’d ever known.
Julie briefly entered his mind but he quickly ousted her. Because the answer also applied to her, no matter how unfair that sounded. And this time with Mara, well, it existed as time outside of time. It wasn’t reality. While he didn’t excuse himself for what they’d just done, and understood there would be consequences, so long as he was in the moment, he surrendered to staying there.
Staying with Mara.
“I’m still not following you,” she said quietly, running her tongue slowly over his nipple.
His muscles contracted. Who knew the male nipple could be as sensitive as a female’s? He sure as hell hadn’t.
He cleared his throat, hoping it would help clear his mind. “When you inquired as to why I hadn’t asked whether you committed the crime.”
Her movements ceased.
Uh-oh.
He sensed he’d said something wrong.
When she began to roll away, he knew he had.
He held her firm with his hand against her back.
“I’ve got to use the restroom,” she said quietly.
She’d just gone a little while ago, so he wasn’t buying it. “Nice try. Answer me. Please.”
She fell silent, then took a long breath, lolling her head to rest against his arm. “Do you really want to ruin this afterglow?”
He grinned. “I’m thinking it will take a lot more than a simple question to do that.”
She looked at him in the dark. “That’s because there’s nothing simple about it. Or the answer.”
He shifted slightly so her head lay at a better angle. “Now it’s me who’s not following you.”
“The question. The answer.”
He remained quiet, giving her the room she needed to explain. He figured it was a good sign that she was no longer trying to roll away.
Finally, she said, “Gut instincts. Rules. Roles. What’s important.”
“Go on,” he said.
“People should always come first.”
He put what little she’d said with what he already knew about her. “Ah. So you’re arguing Anarchy v. Law.”
“No,” she said slowly. “Truth v. Lies.”
She moved again. This time he let her. He joined his other hand behind his head and stared at the ceiling, aware of her folding her arms behind her head and sharing his ceiling contemplation.
“The first question I would have asked, you know, had our roles been reversed, is had you done it,” she said.
“And how would you have known if I was telling the truth?”
“I wouldn’t.”
He squinted at her. That made no sense at all.
“But I would have a good idea of whether you had or not. And, simple courtesy dictates that you at least give a body the benefit of the doubt before trying and convicting them.”
“Ah, but that’s the law.”
She smiled at him. “Yes, it is. And it would be a better world if everyone followed that particular one.”
“Except in this matter, you’re asking me to play judge and jury.”
“How so?”
“By finding you innocent.”
She fell silent.
“You see, it’s not my job to decide your guilt or innocence either way. It’s my job to bring you to stand before those who will.”
“For money.”
He nodded. “For money.”
“So how does that make you any different than the criminal?”
“Oh, I don’t know. No one gets shot?”
She lightly swatted him.
He didn’t say anything for a long time. He merely stayed there, listening to her breathing.
She eventually said, “That’s the thinking that got me into trouble with the military.”
He took in her profile, remembering the reference he’d seen about her having served.
“Dishonorably discharged,” she said, answering his question before he could ask.
“For…”
“Going AWOL. And convincing five of my fellow soldiers to come with me.”
He raised his brows and then chuckled. “Hot party somewhere?”
“In Iraq?” She shook her head. “Not likely. I disagreed with my orders.”
“Which were?”
“To play executioner without the target being offered a fair tr
ial. He was a man in the neighborhood we were responsible for.”
“You were ordered to kill him?”
“Yes.”
“So instead, you set him free.”
“No. I refused to kill him.”
He didn’t respond.
She rolled to face him. “He was a father of six, all under the age of ten. It was a time of war. I don’t care what he did, short of mass murder—which wasn’t the case. If any of us had committed a like crime, we would have come home to ribbons and parades.”
“Did you?” he asked.
“Did I what?”
“Come home to ribbons and parades.”
She stared at him. “Did you?”
He had. His mother had made sure of that. She’d brought out the Army Reserve Band and the media and the entire family when he’d come home.
“Yeah, thought so.”
“You have a problem with my mom welcoming her youngest son home?”
“I have a problem with the double standard.” She lay back down. “My father once told me, ‘The only thing worth anything is your word. So if you say it, you’d damn well better do it. Walk your talk, and talk your walk.’”
He couldn’t recall seeing anything about her father in the data he’d scanned. Where had the man been when Mara was sixteen, getting that tat and signing up with the local militia?
Or maybe her dad was the one who got her involved….
“And how is that not walking my talk?”
“I’m referring to my court martial and ultimate discharge,” she said. “Here we salute our flag and all she supposedly stands for—freedom, justice and the American way.”
“I think that’s Superman,” he interrupted.
She stared at him. “You know what I mean.”
Sadly, he did.
He’d noticed the double standard throughout his own tour overseas. Nearly every fundamental tenet of the American Constitution was broken at some point or another.
But it was war. And the only order that counted was the order that came from above. If not for them…well, there would be nothing but chaos.
“A man is only as good as the man leading him,” he said.
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