Guilty Pleasures

by Tori Carrington

  He reached into the backseat where he’d dumped his weapons and handed Mara a sawed-off shotgun, indicating she load it. The SUV bounced over a rut in the road and he automatically reached over to brace her. She ignored him, emptying out the spent shells and loading fresh, then handed it to him.

  “Load the other one back there, too.”

  She nodded and put the gun aside, doing as he asked.

  She handed it to him. He took it. Then handed her the other one. She looked at him.

  “Hold on,” he said.

  He slammed down on the brakes, sending the Blazer into a half-spin until they were facing the pickup. But he didn’t stop there. As soon as they’d done a complete one-eighty, he stepped on the gas, evening the SUV out…and challenging their opponents to a game of chicken.

  An armed one…

  Jon maneuvered his shotgun out the open window, leaning the shortened barrel against the sideview mirror.

  Mara did the same through the passenger’s window.

  They were coming up on the pickup fast. The roar of the engine was loud in his ears.

  A hundred yards…

  Seventy-five…

  Fifty…

  Thirty…

  Mara shot first, her spray hitting the pickup’s front grill and tires. Steam hissed from multiple holes in the radiator and the truck swerved slightly to the left before the driver righted it. Jon realized it was because she’d caught the tire. Rubber exploded from the rim like a colony of bats.

  But the pickup kept coming.

  Twenty…

  He aimed for the windshield and squeezed the trigger.

  The glass exploded.

  Still the pickup came…

  Jon veered slightly right while the pickup veered left, the driver shooting as they passed, taking out the back windows.

  He stood on the brakes, bringing the Blazer around again, only this time he slammed it into Park, climbed out and rounded the back, using the vehicle as cover as Mara did the same on the other side.

  Only one of the men got out of the pickup—the driver. Jon squinted, the truck’s interior light revealing the passenger either unconscious or out of the game altogether.

  Still, the goon kept coming, walking without cover.

  Jon shot…and the blast covered the lower half of the man’s body. He jerked and stumbled, dropping to one knee. Then he slowly got back to his feet and continued coming.

  No way…

  Jon deduced he must be wearing full body armor. A new, lightweight variety he’d heard about but had never seen…until now. It had to be. No one could take a direct blast like that and still get up and walk.

  “Head,” Mara shouted.

  Jon nodded. His head was the only unprotected part of him.

  As the man walked, he shot. And the closer he got, the more accurate.

  Jon squinted down the shotgun barrel, focusing on his head.

  “Got it,” Mara said on the other side of the Blazer.

  He looked to find she had exchanged her shotgun for the vintage 1873 Winchester rifle, doing the same thing he had moments before by closing her left eye and targeting their adversary with her right.

  A single bullet rent the night in two in a bright display of white gunpowder…

  And the man went down.

  Permanently…

  * * *

  MARA SAT QUIETLY in the passenger’s seat as Reece drove. The Blazer resembled a piece of metal Swiss cheese. It was a miracle it was running at all. But it was.

  The farther away from the site they moved, the harder her throat tightened.

  “We stick out like a middle finger,” Reece said.

  She watched as he took his cell phone out and put in the battery while he drove. She wanted to ask who he was calling, but didn’t have the energy. Did it matter?

  She couldn’t believe he’d called in the FBI.

  “Steve? Hi, big brother. It’s Jon.”

  She recalled him naming his siblings and Steve had been one of his older brothers. The oldest? She couldn’t remember.

  She wanted to tell him the FBI had probably already picked up on the signal and were likely on their way to their location now.

  But why bother?

  “I’ve got a favor to ask,” Reece said. “I need you to meet me at that place we went when we were kids. The one where that Johnson kid got fresh with Jenna and we had to teach him a lesson. In twenty minutes, okay? Leave your cell phone at home.”

  Mara listened with half an ear, the fact that he hadn’t named a location that could be followed or that he popped the battery back out of the cell mattering to her not at all.

  They drove in silence for miles. He was avoiding main roads. It was a good thing, since they’d likely be discovered the instant he hit a main highway, given the condition the Blazer was in.

  “You okay?” His voice broke her out of her reverie.

  She looked at him, but curiously, her voice seemed to have left.

  “He didn’t hit you, did he?”

  She lethargically shook her head. No, she hadn’t been hit.

  She wasn’t entirely clear why she felt the way she did. She experienced the same apathy she had when he’d told her he didn’t care whether she’d committed the crime or not.

  He’d called the FBI….

  So? a small voice inside her head said. The diversion the Feds had created was what had allowed them to escape the compound.

  Still…

  Minutes later, Reece pulled to a stop outside an old high school football stadium. It was late and he’d come into town through back streets. While she was sure the drivers of the few cars they’d passed had done a double take, she was relatively sure none of them did anything besides stare.

  He pulled around back near the far end of the bleachers in the empty parking lot. Empty except for a newer yellow Volkswagen bug.

  She watched as the driver got out. He looked so much like Reece, they could have been twins.

  Reece put the Blazer in Park and got out.

  “Where’s your truck?” Reece asked as he gave his brother a bear hug.

  The obvious closeness of the two reminded Mara of her own younger siblings and she knew a pang of sadness. Would she ever see them again?

  “Samantha blocked it in the driveway with her car,” Steve said. “What in the hell happened to you?”

  She listened with half an ear as Reece explained that he needed to borrow the bug, and he’d recommend his brother call his wife to pick him up rather than take the Blazer back to his place.

  “Damn it, Jonny, what kind of trouble are you in?”

  “I’ll explain later.”

  Steve tossed him the keys to the car and Reece thanked him. Then he indicated Mara join him.

  She climbed out of the SUV, taking nothing but the bag, Reece’s duffel and the Winchester with her.

  “Don’t call Samantha until we’re gone for at least five minutes, okay?” Reece said to his brother after a brief introduction.

  “Right. I’ll just sit on the bleachers a bit. Sweat. Relive old memories.”

  Mara put one of Reece’s T-shirts on the passenger seat first, to avoid any staining from her still-bloody thigh, then got in the car.

  The two brothers hugged again.

  “Thank you, Steve. I owe you one.”

  “Last I looked, you owed me about a fifty. But who’s counting?”

  Reece chuckled then got into the driver’s side.

  “Call if you need anything,” Steve said.

  As they drove out of the parking lot, leaving Reece’s brother behind him, the new-car smell making Mara slightly nauseous, she couldn’t help thinking that this was it. This was where she and Reece needed to p
art ways.

  And just as soon as she could force her head around that fact, she’d find a way to do it….

  22

  JON TOSSED HIS DUFFEL to the king-size bed in a motel room just outside Phoenix. The place was slightly better than the last one they’d stayed in, but that wasn’t saying much.

  Still, everything was a bit newer and it didn’t smell like stale smoke.

  He watched as Mara passed him on the way to the bathroom then closed the door behind her without making eye contact.

  He grimaced and sank down on the edge of the bed. They’d stripped off their gear some miles back and dumped it in a supermarket trash bin, but he lifted his T-shirt now to get a look at the impact site from the bullet he’d taken at the compound. A black circle about the size of a dime was the center of a chest-wide violent purple bruise. He absently rubbed it and winced, wishing he could get a closer look at Mara’s wound.

  Mara…

  She’d barely spoken to him since he’d told her he’d called in the FBI for backup, and had looked at him even less.

  He could only guess what was going through her mind. In fact, he was surprised she hadn’t told him to stop somewhere and let her off.

  And if she had?

  He ran his hands over his hair.

  The bathroom door opened to reveal pretty much the same picture he’d seen the night before—hell, had it really been only twenty-four hours ago? She was wet from a shower and wore nothing but a towel. Only now her hair was short and blond, there was gauze taped to her outer left thigh and the light seemed to have left her eyes.

  He questioned whether it was wise to leave her alone, but he needed a shower. He took a fresh T-shirt from his bag and tried to hand it to her, but she ignored him as she sat on the other side of the bed, her back to him, her tattoo emerging somehow ironic now that they were in a city named Phoenix.

  He took a few more things from the duffel then went to the bathroom without saying anything. If she left, she left. There was nothing he could do about it.

  Somehow, he got the impression she wasn’t going anywhere. At least not yet.

  He stood under the shower spray for long minutes, thinking about all that had happened. And everything that still might…

  He hoped some kind of plan on how to proceed would present itself soon. Because he had no idea where they needed to go from here.

  A short time later, he stepped from the bathroom to find Mara in bed, wearing his T-shirt, her back still to him, feigning sleep.

  And he knew an ache so acute it eclipsed everything he’d ever known….

  * * *

  MARA HEARD REECE COME OUT of the bathroom. She forced herself to stop biting her bottom lip and closed her eyes. She listened as he moved around the room, switched on the TV, which was preset to a local station covering the news—heat, heat and more summer heat forecast for the region—and then turned it off again. The bed moved as he sat down on the other side.

  She bit her bottom lip again. Hard.

  How was it she wanted nothing more in that moment than to roll toward him and lose herself in his arms?

  “Mara?”

  Her heart hitched, as it always seemed to do whenever he quietly said her name.

  “I know you’re not sleeping.”

  She remained silent, unmoving.

  He sat for long moments. Then, she guessed by the movement of the mattress, he stretched out next to her.

  No, she didn’t have to guess. Despite the size of the bed, she could feel his heat next to her, hotter than any Arizona summer day could offer up.

  She swallowed hard, the sound unusually loud with nothing to compete with it.

  He sighed. “Okay, then. Good night.”

  He shut out the light, shifted then cleared his throat.

  For reasons unknown to her, Mara’s eyes swam in stinging tears.

  He was such a good man. Solid. And he’d certainly gone the extra mile for her.

  Then why was she shutting him out?

  Because she had to.

  Because he deserved better than her.

  The soft sound in the back of her throat served to upset her further.

  She’d never cried in front of anyone before. Ever.

  “Mara?” he whispered, sounding too close for comfort.

  She turned her head into the pillow.

  “Are you all right?”

  No. She wasn’t all right.

  Worse, she was afraid she wasn’t going to be all right ever again.

  She felt his hand on her shoulder. A light touch. She stiffened.

  “Shh… I’m just going to lie next to you, okay?”

  She wanted to tell him no. Shrug him away. Instead, she lay there as he rolled to curve against her, his hand still on her shoulder, his breath warm against the back of her damp hair.

  Then his hand moved. He smoothed it down her arm and back up again. Then rubbed her back in slow, gentle circles.

  So strong. So capable. Yet so very sweet…

  His attentiveness served to further expand her weakened state. A sob ripped from her throat.

  “Shhh…” he said again, drawing her against him.

  Against her will, Mara found herself turning toward him so they were front to front. But she didn’t look at him. Instead, she buried her face in his neck and clutched him tightly, giving herself over to the barrage of emotion battling for a way out.

  He smoothed his hands down over her back and up again, then tunneled his fingers into her hair, holding her closer still.

  “It’s just the adrenaline crash,” he said softly. “It’ll pass.”

  His providing her with a way out, an excuse for her soggy state, only made her soggier.

  How was it he was so tuned into her? How did he know just what to say and when to say it? How to touch her?

  Finally, the tap seemed to run out. She found herself pressing her lips to the skin of his neck. A silent thank-you? Maybe.

  But when the one kiss turned into another, and she found herself curving a leg over his, bringing the T-shirt she wore up over her hip, and her bare pelvis against his…

  Her hard swallow now had nothing to do with awkwardness and everything to do with need. A fundamental, overwhelming, all-consuming need to join with him, to feel him deep inside her, to explore the powerful bond that was growing between them without thought to anything else. There was no future. No tomorrow. Only this moment.

  And this moment she needed to make love to him.

  * * *

  JON ATTEMPTED TO STIFLE his groan when Mara pressed her bareness against his jeans zipper. He’d never had a woman fall apart so fully on him before and had never held her while she cried. He’d felt as helpless as a puppy that had wandered a little far away from its mother for the first time.

  He hadn’t known if he was doing the right thing by touching her and was uncertain if his holding her was bringing her comfort or making things worse. Especially when her sobs had intensified.

  Was he the cause?

  The idea made his stomach hurt.

  But now that her tears had stopped, and she was kissing his neck…

  He gave up trying to hide his reaction and groaned, holding her tight, not because she needed it…but because he did.

  He slid his fingers up over her face, then down to her chin, lifting her face to his. He searched her damp eyes, relieved when she didn’t try to evade his gaze but rather steadily returned it.

  Something opened inside of him at the naked honesty he glimpsed in those hazel depths. No. That something had already opened. It had just expanded. As it did every time he looked at her.

  He eyed her full mouth, running the pad of his thumb over her lower lip, then leaning in to kiss her.
/>   She was so beautiful. As was how she made him feel.

  Kissing her brought a sense of weightlessness. As though, if he wanted to spout wings and fly, he could. Soar high above the trees. Into a space of limitless possibility and endless pleasure.

  He teased her tongue with his, savoring the taste of her, the texture.

  When her fingers encircled his erection, he gasped, then he groaned as she slid her tight wetness over him, tilting her hips until he was in to the hilt.

  Sweet heaven…

  They lay like that for a long moment, neither of them moving beyond their continued kissing. Their bodies were joined. Jon felt his heartbeat everywhere and felt hers, too.

  Then the need to move within her was too much to bear….

  23

  MARA FELT WONDROUSLY, gloriously alive, aware of her every organ, her every cell, every molecule of air she drew in.

  Aware of Reece…

  He gently rolled her so she was lying on her back, then took a condom out of his discarded back jeans pocket from the side of the bed. He slowly withdrew and she moaned in protest even though she knew he’d be back. And all too soon he had sheathed himself and was positioning the hard tip of his cock against her again.

  She caught her breath, staring up into his face. He was so handsome. So kind. So hot.

  He surged into her. She moved to take him in all the way, but he stopped midway and withdrew again.

  A small whimper escaped her. She grasped his hips, trying to force him back inside. Instead, he leaned in and kissed her deeply, until she was breathless with want.

  Then he entered her again. Slowly. Torturously.

  Mara came instantly.

  She was so shocked by the quickness and power of her orgasm, she stared up at him in openmouthed wonder as aftershock after aftershock rocked her entire body, leaving her helpless to do anything but ride them out.

  As they finally began to subside, Reece kissed her softly…then stroked her, inside and out.

  If she’d been hot before, now her temperature was off the charts. She’d never achieved this sort of bliss before. This total abandon. This incredible heat.

  “I love when you come,” he whispered into her ear, then surged upward into her again.