Unforgettable Heroes Boxed Set

by James, Maddie

  “And I think it’s time to go,” he interrupted in an overly jovial tone. “Thanks for getting my girl trashed, Mom.”

  Joan kissed his cheek. “My pleasure, darling.” She grinned before she turned and sashayed toward the entrance, the quintessential mom clothed in a JCPenney suit. “You have your key. I spruced up the guest room. Make sure Ellie has everything she needs to be comfortable,” she said when they pushed through the door. Pausing on the sidewalk, she raised one arched eyebrow and fired her parting shot. “I’ll be home by five. That should give you two a little time to…settle in.”

  Ellie snorted, and his mother’s laugh rang out. She hid her face against Jack’s arm, flames kissing her cheeks as his mother dropped a bawdy wink and left them with a playful finger-wave.

  “You know, she’s just trying to get a head start on the grandkids thing,” he murmured into her ear.

  Unaware that her volume control had gone wonky, she tipped her head back and grinned up at him. “I love your mom.”

  He tightened his hold on her waist and too easily reeled her into his embrace. He peered down at her, amusement winking around the edges of his solemn gaze. “I’m glad. I love her, too.”

  “She’s you,” she whispered, falling headlong into the depths of those yummy cocoa-colored eyes. “She’s just like you.”

  He smirked. “Or I’m just like her.”

  “Whatever.”

  Jack ran his hand down her spine. “How drunk are you?”

  She pressed her cheek to his shirt, but she couldn’t stop her smile from spreading. “Just drunk enough to need you to help me…settle in. A lot.”

  Rearing back, he tucked his chin to his chest. “Yeah?”

  The hope blazing bright in his eyes melted her into a steaming puddle of goo. “Oh yeah,” she whispered, snaking her hand up to cradle the back of his neck. “And in order to truly feel comfortable, I’m going to need kisses, Jack. Lots and lots of kisses. Real ones, with tongue and everything.”

  Draping his arm over her shoulder, he steered her toward the parking lot. “Well, you heard my mom….”

  Hallowed Eve

  She smiled when the big yellow box truck rumbled into the apartment complex parking lot. Grabbing her purse from the passenger seat, Ellie bailed from her car just as Jack maneuvered the car trailer hitched to the back of the van into a parking place. The cluster of teenage boys shooting hoops on the fenced-in court abandoned their game the minute her man leaped from the rental truck’s bench seat. The same thing happened each time Special Agent Jack Rudolph visited her Louisville apartment. According to the boys who lived in this complex, her boyfriend was ‘legit’.

  Ellie had to agree.

  She hung back, lounging against the trunk of her car and admiring the view as he dropped the trailer. He hadn’t changed in the two-and-a-half weeks since she last saw him, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t stand to ogle some more. Jack wasn’t only legit. He was legitimately hot, and he was all hers. A fact she was validating with this move.

  It was hard to believe she hadn’t known him a year ago. They’d lived hundreds of miles apart for the entire time they’d known each other, and hardly spent more than seventy-two hours straight in each other’s company, but he was the guy who knew her better than anyone. He was the one.

  As if sensing her thoughts, he glanced up in time to catch her staring. Ellie didn’t blush or even attempt to look away. She had nothing to be ashamed of. He was hers to ogle at will, and ogle she would. To press the point, she lifted her eyebrows and licked her lips. If that didn’t light a fire under the man, she didn’t know what would.

  Barely a heartbeat passed before Jack called his parting shots out to the boys. Sneakers slammed pavement as he took off for the driver’s door again. He sent her a smoldering look when he climbed into the cab. And no one could smolder like Jack. Depending on the direction of his thoughts, the man’s soulful eyes ranged in color from sweet warm cocoa to dark chocolate sin. Always decadent. Always dangerous.

  The truck rumbled away, but Ellie had no worries about the driver’s imminent return. Parking was sparse, but she knew he’d find a spot down the road a bit. While it had only been a few weeks since they saw each other, it had been almost two months since they saw each other naked. Their Columbus Day jaunt to Florida to visit Jack’s mother proved to be a festival of frustration. First, because their time together was as fleeting as ever. Second, because the thought of being caught in the act by a parent became exponentially more embarrassing when the parties involved were well past the point of blaming the hormones. Besides, when Jack’s mom set her up in the guest bedroom and Jack on the sofa, they had no choice but to comply with her wishes. They chose not to discuss her gleeful cackles or the cracks she made about admiring their restraint on the morning of their departure.

  It was better that way.

  Ellie waved to the boys as they returned to their game. Seconds later, Jack came trotting around a bend. She bit back a girly sigh as she took in his long-legged lope. She was going to get him naked this time. Preferably in about three minutes.

  “Hey.” The word came on a huff of breath but was accompanied by a smile. She reached for him. She couldn’t help it. From the first time she met him it was like this. The man was irresistible, and whenever she was near him, she had to touch him. Her arms slid around his waist. His chest cushioned her cheek. The back of her head fit the palm of his hand to perfection. He kissed her hair then ran his fingers through it, sending shivers down her spine. “Let’s get my bag and go inside.”

  She needed no further prompting. Ellie pressed the button to pop the trunk and Jack retrieved the duffle bag he’d carried off the plane with him. She kept telling herself it was ridiculous to think this was the last time she’d ever pick him up at arrivals. The man was an FBI Agent, and she was in the hospitality industry. One or both of them would be traveling for work at some point. But this was the last time either of them would be going back to a home that didn’t hold the other. Thank God.

  “The guys are going to help load us up tomorrow,” he announced as they walked hand in hand to her first floor apartment.

  “How much is that costing you?”

  He shrugged. “The going rate.”

  “Twenty apiece?” she asked as she unlocked the door.

  “Keeps them out of trouble.” He followed her through the door to the tiny one-bedroom she’d called home for seven months but stopped dead two feet in. “Whoa.” His brow furrowed as he took in the stacks of cardboard boxes. “Where’d all this come from?”

  Ellie couldn’t be bothered with matters of logistics. Or to explain the need to salve her loneliness by surfing the home shopping channels. The frown he wore made him look even more handsome. And dammit, two minutes had ticked past and he wasn’t one button closer to being naked.

  Not that he was wearing anything with buttons. Other than his jeans. And they were still on, along with the faded and snug thermal shirt. As mouth-watering as the combination was, to her way of thinking, it had to go.

  “Jack?”

  “Hm?” He peeked around one corrugated tower and gasped when he spotted another. “I’m not sure we got a big enough truck.”

  Instead of tugging on his sleeve like a needy little kid, she opted to yank his shirt up over the ridged abs she hadn’t touched in far too long. Because even though she was needy, she was a woman, and they had better things to do than debate cubic capacity.

  “Wha?” The frown only intensified when he looked down at her hand. The gym bag dropped to the floor. Understanding dawned in those chicory eyes nanoseconds before a smile quirked his lips. “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Oh,” she mocked, pushing the shirt up to his armpits.

  Jack raised his arms high over his head, surrendering to her better judgment and getting in on the action as well. They left a trail of clothing along the hall leading to her bedroom. A wide, wicked smile lit his face when he spotted the one piece of furniture she’d yet to disassembl
e. He reached down, cupped her bottom in both hands, and hauled her up to meet him.

  “I love you, Elfie.”

  She pressed a hard, smacking kiss to his lips. “You always go right for the bullseye, don’t you, Rudolph.”

  His smile slid into a crooked grin as they landed on the bed in a heap of tangled limbs. “No sense in trying to play it cool now.”

  She framed his face in her hand, her heart skipping a beat when he pressed his cheek to her palm. “I missed you so much. It gets worse every time.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and coughed up a minor confession. “I bought a Nordic Ware ten-cup Bundt pan that bakes cakes that look like roses. I’ve never baked a Bundt cake in my life.”

  There’d be time to tell him about the shoe wheel storage center and Coca-Cola dart cabinet later.

  “I love a Bundt.”

  She squinted at him. “Do you even know what a Bundt is?”

  He shook his head. “No, but you’re naked and you said the word ‘cake’. Safe bet I’m going to love it.”

  She beamed up at him. “Not as much as I love you.”

  He kissed her slow and deep, drawing her in and wrapping her up with each silky caress of his tongue. “Trick or treat, El?” he rasped as he pulled away.

  She stared at him through lust-hazed eyes, knowing either way she’d come out a winner. “Trick.”

  “Good choice.”

  He let his approbation trail off, kissing his way down her throat, his long, lean body sliding over hers as he worked his way to the types of attractions that snagged a weary traveler’s attention. Ellie gasped when he sucked her nipple into his mouth. His tongue rasped the beaded tip, coaxing it deeper with every greedy pull. She looked down as he looked up, and the heat in his eyes almost set her off on the spot.

  “Too much,” he mumbled against her skin as he moved from one breast to the other. “Too long.”

  Ellie moaned her agreement, clutching his head as he suckled hot and hungry. His erection pressed against her leg. Her hips rose and fell with each pull of his lips. The tantalizing tease of sharp teeth kept her riding the razor’s edge of pleasure and pain. She undulated against him shamelessly.

  “Jack—”

  He rained wet, open-mouthed kisses on her stomach. His hands ran wild over her, stroking, squeezing, and shaping every bit of skin he could reach. He brushed restless kisses to the damp curls between her legs, groaning as he inhaled deeply.

  “Ellie, I can’t wait.” The admission tumbled from his lips, rough and ragged. “I want to…but damn, I’m going out of my mind. I have to be inside you.”

  “Commere,” she murmured, tugging at his arms.

  “I’ll take it slower next time,” he promised as he stretched out above her.

  “Take me.”

  She whispered the words as a joke. Nothing more than a coaxing little taunt meant to appeal to the inner caveman she knew he kept trapped beneath a twenty-first century demeanor.

  Damned if it didn’t work.

  For both of them.

  Ellie moaned as he filled her in one eager thrust. She draped her leg over his and gripped his bulging biceps, holding on tight. The tendons in his neck stood out as he set a determined pace. He fixed his gaze just above her head. Ellie smiled. She knew all too well he didn’t suffer a lack of interest so much as a fear of losing control.

  Eager and edgy, she licked and kissed and sniffed every bit of flesh she could reach. He wore the same cologne he always wore, but the scent of it on his heated skin never failed to excite her. She knew the contours of his back, how to mold her palms to the hard ridges of muscle, and exactly when to trail her fingertips along his spine to unleash the most delicious shivers. Most important, she had the magic words.

  “I love you.”

  He stilled. She smiled. His eyes snapped to her and tears burned in her throat. He was perfect. So perfect for her.

  “El.” Jack exhaled the diminutive only he could use. Brown eyes fixed on her at last, he swiveled his hips as he sank into her with a long, rumbling groan. “You feel so good.”

  “I’ve missed you so much.”

  “Never again.” His vow came ragged-edged and breathless, but Ellie had no doubt of the steel that lay beneath it. Pulling one of her hands from his back, he laced his fingers through hers and pressed it high above her head. “We’ll never have to miss each other again.”

  It was a sweet promise. Wholly unrealistic, but sweet all the same. She took it in the spirit it was given, reveling in the pleasure of being palm-to-palm, heart-to-heart, and blessedly hip-to-hip with him at last. He drove her up slow and sure, shifting the angle enough to make her want to purr. A part of her railed against the smug confidence in his handsome face. The tiny rebel inside her wanted to debase him of the notion that he was the man who knew how to love her right.

  But he was. “Oh God,” she gasped. He certainly was.

  Jack’s dogged pursuit of what he thought was just and right was one of his most admirable qualities in Ellie’s opinion. And that was never more true than it was in bed. He huffed and puffed as he watched her peak, but his rigid control never slipped. She pulled at him, clawed him, and cried out as he turned her into a whimpering little weakling. Again.

  He didn’t stop until he was certain he’d wrung every bit of her climax from her muscles. She wriggled beneath him, anxious for the surrender she knew he’d give at last. Her fingernails bit into the back of his hand as she lowered the other to his ass and squeezed. The thread of his control snapped.

  Ellie loved this most of all. These moments with hot, wild, patently-off-the-leash Jack were hers and hers alone. He’d told her once he never felt comfortable enough to truly give over. Until her.

  His strangled groan of release reverberated through her. The heat of him pulsed deep inside her. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, showering her with tiny, mindless kisses and soft, senseless whispers.

  Feeling every bit as smug as he’d been minutes before, but entirely justified, she closed her eyes and absorbed his weight. Even horizontal, they should have been a mismatch. Her toes barely grazed his calves. He was flat planes and hard muscle where she was squishy soft. But still, even though he was golden, light, and airy while she was dark, cautious, and wary, they fit together. This was right. They were real.

  Ellie pressed a lingering kiss to the side of his head. She’d been a fool to doubt their relationship even for a second, but she never would again. No matter how stupid she’d been or stubborn he continued to be, she and Jack would be together. Forever.

  Jack freed his hand from hers and shook it gently. Sliding it beneath her, he grunted in her ear as he rolled onto his back, taking her with him. Unfortunately, he’d misjudged their positioning.

  “Gah!”

  Her startled cry alerted him to danger, but it was too late. They were already traveling through space.

  They landed on the floor in a jumble of grappling limbs. The impact jarred a giggle loose. Shaking her head in wonder, Ellie crawled away from the wreckage of their lovemaking. “Sheesh, Rudolph, I’m not sure I should let you guide my sleigh.”

  He latched on to an ankle and pulled, laughing out loud at her squawks of outrage when her skin squealed against the hardwood floor. Pulling her into his lap, he nuzzled her nape before marking the spot with a loud, wet kiss. “Not done with you yet.”

  A triumphant smile curved her lips, but still she whispered, “We have to finish packing.”

  “We have all night.”

  She turned to look at him. “We have forever.”

  A hot blush burned her cheeks, but no matter how much the sappy sentiment embarrassed her, she wouldn’t look away. Jack caught her chin and coaxed her closer. The kiss unfurled low in her belly, slow and smoky, filling her with the promise of their future.

  He pulled away enough to whisper, “I love you, Ellie Nichols,” then kissed her again, this time harder and unquestionably more possessive. She tasted the tang of restraint on his tongu
e and ached to erase it. She drank in his doubts, swallowing them whole as she turned to face him without breaking the kiss. When at last they parted, his warm breath tickled her lips and his dark eyes shone with love so deep it seemed fathomless.

  “Marry me, Elfie.”

  She wasn’t sure if the words were meant to be a question or a command, but it didn’t matter. Her answer was the same either way.

  “Yes. Yes, I’m going to marry you.”

  ****

  Jack held her gaze and his breath as he waited for the inevitable addendum he was sure would come. When it didn’t, he drew back enough to take in her entire face. “You’re going to marry me?” He cringed at the doubt in his tone, but damn it, he was allowed to be a little skeptical. “But?”

  “No buts.” Ellie smiled, apparently amused by his disbelief. “You asked, and I said I’m going to marry you.”

  “Thanks for the recap,” he muttered. Wiggling so that she’d stop squishing the parts he hoped would make it through to the wedding night, he continued to search her expression for any sliver of hesitation. “That’s it. I asked, and you said yes.”

  Ellie wrinkled her perfect little nose then rubbed the tip of it to his, a move so girly and playful he was half-worried she’d pull a Scooby-Doo on him. More than anything, Jack needed to believe he hadn’t just made love to old Professor I’mthebadguyinamask. That would be enough to make the wedding night equipment shrivel up entirely.

  “I’m serious,” he cautioned her.

  “I know.” She pulled back, a mischievous light dancing in her evergreen eyes. “Didn’t you see how I jumped all over that?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Didn’t even give you a chance to rethink it.”

  Jack scoffed. “I don’t need to rethink it. It’s all I’ve been thinking about since I met you.”

  “Aw. I’m making all your dreams come true.” Framing his face in her small but infinitely facile hands, she peppered him with dewy kisses that left him short of breath. “We’ll need to come up with a better story,” she murmured absently.