For Kaitlyn's Sake

by Dani Criss

  Relief rushed through her that he was safe, then she realized he was leaning on the other man for support. Blood covered his left shoulder, ran down his arm and chest. She dropped the gun on the table, whirled a chair around and watched, shaking, as Steele eased Jake into it.

  “Jake,” she cried, kneeling in front of the chair. “My God. You’re hurt.”

  “I’m all right, Katie,” he said, his teeth gritted.

  She refused to believe it. There was so much blood. His face was drained of color. “Fallon shot you?” she asked weakly.

  “Knife wound,” Steele corrected, rummaging the drawers for a clean towel. “That was my gun you heard.”

  “Bastard was waiting for me when I came around the corner of the house,” Jake said angrily. “He knocked the gun out of my hand, then stabbed me. Dallas got there just as he took off.”

  She glanced at Steele. “Did you...” She halted, unable to ask if he’d shot the other man.

  “I missed,” Steele said with a muttered curse. “He was already headed down 120th Street when I fired at him.”

  “There were two police officers in pursuit,” Jake managed to add. “We’ll get him.”

  She stared at the amount of blood soaking Jake’s knit shirt.

  The red stain had drenched his sleeve and was spreading down his chest. So damn much blood.

  He could have been killed. Kaitlyn could have lost him forever. She felt the world spin.

  “Put her in a chair,” he commanded someone behind her.

  She hadn’t seen Max Slater come into the room, but he was there now. He caught her by the upper arms and guided her into another chair.

  “I’m all right, Katie,” Jake repeated, his voice strained but strong.

  She nodded weakly. There was so much blood and his face was lined with pain. Steele ripped away the shirt to expose a gash several inches long. The room spun again. Slater shoved her head between her knees.

  “Deep breaths,” Max said, his hand on the back of her head. “Deep.”

  Kaitlyn inhaled, held the breath for a couple of seconds, then exhaled. When she felt able to cope, she looked up. Steele had a clean kitchen towel pressed to Jake’s wound and was applying pressure. Rob Donovan walked in and silently assessed the situation.

  “Looks like Fallon got away,” he said angrily. “We’re bringing in some more units to canvass the neighborhood, though. If he’s anywhere around, we’ll find him.” He eyed Jake’s wound. “How bad is it?” he asked Steele.

  Steele glanced at Kaitlyn. “Don’t worry, Red. Half a dozen stitches and Jake’ll be as good as new,” he said brightly.

  Chapter 12

  A dozen and a half. That’s how many stitches it actually took to close the wound. Standing beside the gurney in the emergency room, Kaitlyn counted each one and, as each one was completed, thought about how close the knife had come to Jake’s heart. A few inches lower and to the right and Fallon might have killed Jake.

  She had no doubt that was what the man had intended. He wanted Jake out of her life. He’d almost made that happen. Had almost taken Jake away from her forever. Jake could have died before she’d had a chance to tell him she wanted him, that she cared for him. Fallon had brought Jake into her life again and could have taken him out, as well. She shuddered.

  “It’s almost over,” Jake said, squeezing her hand as he gazed up at her.

  She nodded weakly. The ordeal wasn’t over by a long shot. Fallon was still out there, waiting to strike again. Waiting for another chance to kill Jake.

  Because of her. She’d called Jake in on this matter and he’d stayed to do what he could to keep her safe. He’d thought nothing of the danger to himself tonight when he’d gone out into that yard. He’d sent her to the bedroom and commanded the dog to guard her. If she were to ask why, he would say it was his job. It was his nature, she knew. But Kaitlyn was certain his reasons went deeper.

  She was frightened of where her feelings for him were carrying her, but the thought of never making love to Jake again was more frightening. As Steele drove them back to the condo, she sat next to Jake, holding his hand tightly until he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

  “You’ve been very quiet through all this,” he commented, kissing the top of her head. “Are you all right?”

  “I was just worried about you,” she said, choking back the tears that filled her eyes at his thoughtfulness and tenderness.

  She might never have experienced either again. Might never have known his wonderfully strong and gentle touch. There was so much about him that she would have missed, she thought as she led him back to the bedroom once Steele got them home. So many things they had yet to do together.

  She helped Jake over to the bed, and knelt to pull off his shoes and socks, then helped him stand so she could ease his slacks down. Traces of blood stained the khaki fabric. Her breath caught again.

  “Jake... I’m so sorry... I shouldn’t have...”

  “Katie,” he said, lifting her chin until she looked into his eyes, “none of this is your fault.”

  “I know.” She sniffed back her tears, then cupped his handsome face in her hands. “But I could have lost you.”

  “Ah, Katie...”

  He patted the bed, and when she sat beside him, he held her as tightly as he could with only one free arm. She buried her face in the crook of his shoulder.

  “I don’t know what I would do without you,” she whispered. Her life would be so empty.

  He kissed her head. “You won’t have to find out, honey. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”

  She wished she could believe that nothing would take him away from her, but she knew better. “Fallon might have other plans—”

  “If he shows up before morning, the guys outside will have to take care of him. I’m too weak right now.”

  Kaitlyn heard the extreme weariness in his voice and remembered the nurse had given him a shot for pain before they’d left the hospital. She wriggled out of his light embrace, pulled the sheet out of his way, then eased him back onto the pillows.

  “Go reset the alarm,” he said on a sigh as she covered him. “Then come back and grab a couple more hours of sleep.”

  Kaitlyn did as she was told, but lying beside him, sleep eluded her. All the horrible possibilities kept running through her mind. She couldn’t put aside the thought that Jake might have been killed, leaving her alone and very lonely.

  A little before dawn, her thoughts turned to what she would do about her feelings for him. She wanted him in her life. She didn’t know how things would work out for them in the long run, but she decided she would let the distant future take care of itself.

  Right now she would concern herself with getting him well, healed, then with starting a relationship with him. A second time around. Right now she wouldn’t worry whether they could make it work. She would take it one day at a time, dealing with whatever problems might arise, not anticipating them.

  “Katie, honey, what are you doing?” Jake asked, coming slowly awake to realize she wasn’t lying beside him.

  She was sitting up, pillows propped against the headboard. In the early dawn he could see she was fretting over something and probably had been stewing about it for hours while he slept.

  “You should be sleeping,” he said, reaching for her hand and tugging until she slid down beside him. He was beginning to feel she belonged there.

  “Does your shoulder hurt?” she asked, laying her head in the crook of his good arm.

  “A little,” he said, though it was beginning to throb. But he would handle the pain for now. Knowing what had been going through her pretty head was more important. He nuzzled her ear, noting how wonderful she smelled, and how much he wanted her despite his injury. “What’s kept you awake?” he asked.

  “I was thinking how much I want you.”

  His heartbeat stumbled, then picked up an erratic rhythm as she ran her fingers through his chest hair, slowly, over and ov
er, stirring his need for her. Jake considered stopping her, but it felt so good and he’d been wanting her for so long. Wanted her now, before anything could come between them. Still, he had to be sure of her.

  “Katie,” he said, his breath catching as her hand inched a little lower. “Are you sure this is what you want? You know there’ll be no going back? No being ‘just friends’?”

  “So you said the last time I asked you to make love to me.” He could feel her smile against his skin. “When you’re able to handle it, I intend to seduce you. And you won’t be able to think, much less question my reasons.”

  He was rapidly losing all train of thought, he decided as she continued to trace a pattern through the hair on his abdomen, but he had to be certain there would be no regrets on her part. “Honey, I have to know why—Why now—”

  His breath snagged again as she raised up on one elbow and kissed his chest, then nuzzled his nipple. Wave after wave of need crashed over him, pulling him under, drowning him in desire. She’d once said he could seduce her so easily, but the reverse was just as true. One look, one tiny kiss, and it was all he could do to hold back.

  “I want you, Jake,” she said with emphasis. “I’ve wanted you since that day you walked into my office.” She brought her hand up to stroke his roughened jaw. “I’ve wanted you because you have that effect on me. I’ve wanted you when I’ve been afraid, when I haven’t been afraid, when I’ve been in this house alone and you’ve been right outside, protecting me.”

  “I’ve wanted you, too,” he said softly.

  “Then there’s nothing more for you to analyze.”

  She kissed him then, her mouth gentle as her lips brushed over his. He closed his eyes, savoring the heady taste of her, the feel of her hair as it skimmed over his skin. All too soon she’d pulled away.

  “I’ll get you a pain pill and something to eat,” she said.

  He caught her arm before she could leave. “Katie, I don’t want food and pills. I want you. Here and now.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise. “Jake, you’re hurt—”

  “I’m hurting, all right, but it’s another part of me that’s in agony. I don’t want to wait any longer. It feels as if I’ve been waiting forever to make love with you.”

  The aching for her had never been more intense, Jake thought. It was as if he’d known that the times she’d asked before, a part of her had been holding back. Now that she’d made it clear how much she wanted him, he didn’t want to wait another moment.

  “Kiss me again, Katie,” he ordered gruffly. “Kiss me like you mean it.”

  Kaitlyn didn’t have to be told a second time. All the pent-up longing rushed to the surface. She leaned over him, looking deeply into his midnight eyes, reading the caring behind the need. That was her undoing.

  Slowly she lowered her mouth to his handsome face, kissing first his forehead, then the straight line of his nose, the square angle of his strong jaw. She feathered the lightest of touches across his full lips, once, twice, a third and fourth time. When she would have continued, he wound his fingers through her hair and held her captive, his mouth only a breath away.

  “No more teasing, honey,” he said on a groan. “Kiss me.”

  “Umm,” she said, running a hand through the richness of his hair. “For a man who wants something from me, you’re giving quite a lot of orders.”

  One dark brow arched and a smile crooked one corner of his mouth upward a notch. “You want me to beg, is that it?”

  Kaitlyn hadn’t finished the nod before she found herself flat on her back, Jake looming over her, large and all male, looking not the least bit wounded despite the bandage on his left shoulder. She opened her mouth to remind him to be careful of his stitches, but he took it as an opportunity to plunder.

  His mouth was hard, firm, as he took hers. As always, the fire sprang immediately to life. Heat coursed through her veins. She wound one arm around his waist, the other around his neck so she could continue to run her fingers through his hair. The strands slipped between her fingers, cool and thick and soft.

  The kiss became more insistent, more demanding. When his tongue pressed against her lips, she let him inside, willingly giving him what he wanted. Bursts of longing shot through her with every bold stroke of his tongue. She moved beside him, trying to bring herself closer to his heat.

  “That’s it, honey,” he said on a moan of male satisfaction. “Show me I can still make you hot.”

  He nudged her head until she turned to give him access to her neck. He rained warm, damp kisses on her ear, her neck, then worked his way to her collarbone. A sound, half sigh and half moan, escaped her parted lips.

  “It’s always been this way between us, hasn’t it?” he asked against her throat.

  Yes, Kaitlyn thought, he’d always been able to arouse her so easily, so instantly, but the feelings went even deeper this time. The sensations were sharper, more intense. She wanted him with an aching that was near agony. No amount of time apart or together would change that. The need would always be there, deepening, becoming stronger. It would always bind them.

  “Jake, please touch me,” she said, knowing his ego would get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from her plea. Another time she would have worried that he could make her weak enough to plead, but this time she gloried in what he could do to her. She’d never craved another man’s touch this way.

  Jake reached for the hem of the T-shirt she was wearing—his T-shirt, he noted with supreme pleasure—wincing as pain shot down his arm. He had no intention of letting it stop him, though. He’d waited five years for this moment. Five long and empty years without her. He couldn’t wait any longer.

  Katie, too, was determined to have the thin cotton barrier out of the way. “Let me,” she said, sounding impatient with his slowness.

  Carefully, so as not to bump his shoulder, she wriggled out of the shirt and tossed it to the floor. Jake gazed down at her, as always stunned by the beauty of her softly rounded breasts. The sight of her was even more mesmerizing than he’d remembered. He covered one small mound with his hand, pleased to hear her soft sigh of pleasure and feel her almost melt beneath him.

  He bent his head and reverently took one nipple in his mouth, tasting the sweetness of her. God, but he’d thought he would never get this close to heaven again, never get this close to her. He’d been wanting her and now she was his. Completely. She was giving herself to him without reservation. He traced his tongue over the taut bud and she arched against him, calling out his name and clinging to him.

  Kaitlyn tightened her grip around his waist, sank her fingers into his right shoulder, holding on with all her might as the sensations tore through her. Then he took the other nipple and sent another wave of desire flooding across her.

  She couldn’t think, couldn’t worry about where she would end up once this moment was over, couldn’t do more than want him. She’d craved his touch for so many long and lonely nights, longed to be in his arms, to have him touch her this way. All these years she’d been waiting just for him. Only him, she realized with a jolt.

  He reached to unzip her jean shorts with deliberate slowness. Her breath snagged. Her body tensed in anticipation of his bold touch. He pushed the denim aside and let his fingertips travel over the bit of skin he’d exposed, sending tingle after tingle of pleasure skittering across her nerve endings.

  Then he bent his head and kissed her stomach just above the waistband of the nylon-and-lace panties. Her grip on his shoulder tightened as she felt the brush of his tongue along her skin. She arched closer, craving more and more.

  When he raised his head to look into her eyes, she smiled at him, a smile meant to welcome him home. She heard his breath, sharp and quick.

  “Still have any doubts this is what I want?” she asked him, her voice sounding husky to her own ears.

  He managed something between a moan and a chuckle. “My only doubt is whether I’ll be able to get our clothes off before I explode. Think you mig
ht lend a hand?”

  “I believe I might go you one better,” she said boldly, then carefully pushed him back onto the bed.

  His perplexed frown lasted only a moment, until she’d slid her jean shorts down her hips and then the nylon scrap of panty she wore. Before the fabric hit the floor, she was leaning over him, trailing a string of passion-filled kisses across his collarbone, along his chest and down his abdomen.

  One finger under the waistband of his briefs, she paused. He was aroused and ready for her. She recalled other times when he’d had her mindless with need and had deliberately prolonged the sweet torture, and she decided to attempt a little torture of her own. She pulled the waistband down the slightest bit and kissed the skin she’d exposed, much as he’d done with her.

  “Don’t stop there,” he urged her stridently when she raised her head to gaze into his eyes.

  “Umm.” Without removing the cotton briefs, she caressed him intimately.

  He groaned, moved beneath her, then reached to push her back down onto the bed. She refused to relinquish the bit of control she had. Drinking in the rough gasp that he gave, she slowly eased the briefs down over his hips and muscular thighs, then tossed them on the floor beside her clothing.

  Then she straddled his waist, leaning forward to kiss him again, intimately brushing against him as his hungry mouth ravaged hers. One hand tangled through her hair, the other cupped her breast. When his thumb and index finger toyed with the firm nipple, Kaitlyn was the one who moaned. He took the other in his mouth, letting his tongue trace a mesmerizing pattern over the taut bud until she arched closer to him.

  His hardness pressed against her. She remembered how it had always been between them, remembered the feel of him inside her and recalled the wonderful things he could do to her. Suddenly she had to have him, had to feel him inside her.

  She started to move off him, but he stopped her.

  “I need you, Jake. Need you now.”