Lethal in Love

by Michelle Somers

  ‘I know you’re tough. You’re one of the strongest women I know. But it’s okay to be scared. Someone out there wants to kill you. Anyone in your situation would feel the same.’

  Fathomless blue dragged her in, her words of denial powerless to move past her tongue.

  ‘We have to get him.’

  ‘We will. I won’t let anything happen to you.’

  ‘You might not have a choice.’

  His hand reached for hers. ‘You’re right. I haven’t had a choice since you ran away from what could have been a swinging success the first time we met.’

  Despite herself, she had to smile. ‘Swinging success?’

  ‘Too cheesy?’

  ‘Just as well you write better than you pick up.’

  ‘I’m not interested in picking up. Not anymore.’

  Happiness crept through her as she allowed his words to sink in. Dare she believe in something she’d given up all belief in? Now was the worst time to lose focus and become entrenched.

  Or perhaps it was the best.

  Seth had seen her at her lowest and hadn’t run, much as she’d given him every reason to. The knowledge warmed her like nothing else could. What was she supposed to do with it?

  She pushed away from the back of the couch. ‘What happened to coffee?’

  He handed her a black mug from the coffee table. ‘It’ll be cold by now. I didn’t want to wake you.’

  She sniffed. ‘It’s perked.’

  ‘You don’t drink anything else.’

  ‘Before you met me, you didn’t know percolators existed.’

  ‘Before I met you, I had no reason to.’

  It wasn’t the cold now that made her shiver. He’d bought and kept a percolator. For her. The action more than hinted at permanence. It screamed it from the rooftops.

  One more sniff and she discarded the mug on the clear glass tabletop. He shifted it to a coaster then dropped his hand to her knee. Wild flames sizzled up her leg.

  She shivered.

  ‘You’re cold. I’ll make you another.’ He made to stand.

  She pulled him back. ‘No.’

  He dropped down. ‘No?’

  ‘That’s not what I want.’

  One tug separated his shirt from his waistband. Her fingers fumbled over the buttons.

  The lethal slide of a grin across his lips melted her—inside, outside, every place that remembered the feel of him, the taste—and she wondered that a look could hold so much heat. Was it possible to orgasm on promise alone?

  ‘It’s not?’ His palm edged upwards, then stopped.

  ‘I think you know what I’d prefer.’

  ‘I’d still like to hear it.’

  She lost herself in the blue of his gaze. ‘I want you, Seth Friedin.’

  His fingers slid higher as his lips lowered, brushing hers with the softest of sweeps. She tasted coffee, and something far more intoxicating—him.

  She quivered, inside and out. All that filled her thoughts, her awareness, was Seth, and how much she needed him, now, more than now.

  Something in his eyes held her, consumed her, made her breath catch in her throat.

  ‘That’s good, Jayda Thomasz. Because I want you too.’

  It was unclear who led who to bed, and it shouldn’t have mattered. But when Jayda took his hand and drew him near, his heart stuttered in a way that was entirely new to him.

  Her eyes were wide, her red lips moist and waiting for him to take them. He’d never wanted anything so much.

  ‘You’re beautiful.’

  She was. With a beauty that stretched beyond looks.

  Much as the creamy curve of her shoulder made him want her in the most basic of ways, his response went deeper. To the world she was Detective Thomasz—hard-headed, tough, distant—but he’d glimpsed her vulnerability. She’d let him in, and that meant more than any story ever could.

  The job, the success, that front-page headline he’d chased for so long—none of it made him whole. She did that.

  It wasn’t so much a realisation as a journey’s end.

  Her fingers slipped beneath his waistband, banishing every thought other than how much he wanted her. This. And how he didn’t want it to end. The thought should have brought panic, instead it gave him peace.

  They shed their clothes and came together, Jayda showing none of her previous hesitation.

  He pulled her on top, growling as she spread her legs across his body and slowly took him inside. The fit was snug, right, and she closed her eyes, letting her head fall back as she lifted and then sank back down, taking every last inch of him in once again.

  He gripped her hips and held her still until she opened her eyes and stared at him through a haze of passion. His hands scaled her ribs, cupping her breasts, palming, squeezing, until her breath hitched and her nipples tugged into tight, elongated pebbles. When her eyes closed he stopped again.

  He needed to watch her unravel. And she, too, would watch. Watch him loving her.

  ‘Look at me, Jayda.’

  Her lashes fluttered open and he could die drowning in those hazy green depths. Then she smiled, lifted her hips, and slowly edged her way down. Her head dipped, her tongue darting out over his nipple before she grazed it with her teeth. The sensation shot straight to his groin and he groaned. ‘What you do to me!’

  Her eyes glinted as she nipped again. He grabbed her buttocks and thrust up and into her, deep.

  She moaned. ‘Tell me, Seth.’

  At some stage in the past five minutes his brain had sunk below his waist. That had to be why her words made no sense.

  ‘Tell you what?’

  Her lips rubbed across his nipple before she took it into her mouth and sucked. Sliding him into a gaping abyss with no way out.

  She lifted her head and licked the moisture from her lips. ‘Tell me what I do to you.’ Colour rose from her neck to her face.

  He’d never been so turned on in his life; Jayda splayed across his body, blushing, asking him to talk dirty.

  Her bottom lip clamped between her teeth. It was ripe red and he knew how good it tasted, how much he wanted to taste it again.

  She clenched the flesh around his, dragging a growl from his throat.

  ‘What do I do, Seth?’

  He barely registered as she bent her head and let him taste her lips. She was everything he ever needed, and more than he’d ever hoped for. When she pulled back, her gaze questioned his and he gave her the only answer he could.

  ‘You make me love you.’

  53

  Jayda’s heart gunned AK-47-style.

  It didn’t mean what she thought it meant. What she wanted it to mean. It was a heat-of-the-moment thing, right?

  Seth’s expression said it wasn’t.

  I’m glad.

  The thought surprised her, although it shouldn’t have. She’d always dreamed of what her parents had—a partnership, love and understanding, the unconditional kind. The knowledge that you need never be alone again. That one person to fill your world, your heart, make you whole in a way nothing else could.

  Albeit the dream had dwindled when she’d believed they were separated, but now they were together again and she understood why they’d split, the dream was back. And she wanted it with Seth.

  She wanted Seth to love her.

  The realisation should have brought peace. Instead it tied her chest into knots. The timing sucked.

  How had she let this happen? Complicated was the last thing she needed. And any involvement with Seth would be just that. Falling in love. Needing someone so badly she didn’t know what she’d do if he was gone.

  When he was gone. Because that would surely happen once he realised his dream and became a full-time reporter at the paper. He’d have his story and no reason to stay.

  Even with her lack of experience, she knew words said in the heat of passion belonged to the heat of passion. Great sex wasn’t a precursor to happy ever after.

  The knowledge saw the k
nots in her chest tighten.

  But he’s here now. Make the most of it.

  And maybe, somehow, you’ll make him want to stick around.

  ‘Jayda?’ His grey-blue gaze pierced her uncertainty as he ran his knuckles along her cheekbone and under her chin.

  She shivered. ‘Make love to me, Seth.’

  The blue brightened. ‘With pleasure.’

  He rolled her onto her back, feathering kisses across her face, down her neck, easing in and out, slowly at first then, as her breath hitched, faster. She tilted her hips, wrapped her legs around him, and discovered it heightened her sensitivity. His too, if his drawn out groan was any indication.

  Her nails dug into his back and she knew she’d leave marks. As he would when he clamped his lips to her neck and suckled, drawing the very essence from her soul.

  She didn’t care, not about anything but the moment and Seth loving her. She couldn’t think past that. Wouldn’t. There were too many uncertainties, his true feelings for her only one. She needed to find the bastard who killed Bec, who wanted to kill her. But as she did, she needed to enjoy every moment as though it were her last.

  Because there was every possibility it may be.

  The stroke of Jayda’s finger over his eyebrow made him tremble. Almost more than making love to her just now had done.

  Her. Her touch. They did something that no other woman had been able to. They made him believe in more than his career. They made him believe he could be enough without it.

  He shared her pillow, the front of her body a perfect fit against the front of his. As if their bodies were one and the same.

  When he’d seen the crime scene tape surrounding her apartment he’d known—he would have swapped his newly gained job just to see her walk through the door. Then she had and his next thought had been thank God. He’d been handed his chance and damned if he was going to let it go that easy.

  ‘What happened here?’ Her caress over the raised skin above his left eye warmed him in a way the memories chilled.

  ‘An old war wound.’ He drew her hand away and kissed the palm, feathering kisses up her arm.

  ‘Really?’ She looked half dubious, half believing, and wholly gorgeous. He moved to her mouth and tasted her again, never wanted to stop tasting her.

  She pulled back. ‘It was one of the first things I noticed. That and your eyes. You looked like such a bad boy, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.’

  ‘And now?’

  ‘I still can’t stop thinking about you.’ Blush powdered her cheeks and his heart moved from his sleeve to his lips. What was it about her that fuelled this almost permanent soppy grin on his face?

  ‘I like that. Let’s discuss it some more.’ His lips moved back to the curve inside her elbow and he felt her shiver.

  Her eyelids fluttered, almost closed, then they opened and she drew in a deep breath. ‘Or not. How’d you get it?’

  Like a douse of cold water, the memories rushed in.

  He blanked his mind. The silk of her skin beneath his palm helped.

  ‘A fight. But that’s not nearly as interesting as your thoughts.’ He moved his hand over her hip and inwards, and whispered into her ear. ‘Like now. What are you thinking about now, Jayda?’

  Her sharp intake of breath as he found the heat between her thighs gave a clue. The green of her irises became inundated with black as she captured her bottom lip between her teeth. He stroked and she moaned.

  ‘Penny for them, Jayda.’

  Her eyes flew open and she pushed his hand away. ‘You’re stalling. Why?’

  He sighed and jammed his hands under his chin. Even aroused, the detective inside her wouldn’t let go. And wasn’t that why he admired her? Why she’d managed to burrow her way beneath his skin like no one else?

  ‘It was just a stupid fight.’

  ‘You’ve never struck me as stupid or a fighter.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘Then what happened?’

  He trailed a forefinger down her chin and over her throat. ‘Your imagination is more exciting than my story.’

  Her hand stalled his before he could reach her body beneath the covers. ‘I’m not looking for excitement, Seth. I’m looking to know more about you. Isn’t that what you do when you’re a couple?’

  ‘Are we a couple?’ He held his breath.

  She licked her lips. ‘I’d like to think so.’

  Again, that adorable red found her cheeks, but her eyes didn’t waver from his. When she looked at him like that, gave him her heart in the only way she knew how, he was powerless to deny her anything.

  ‘Henry Jenkins was a prat and Callum’s best friend.’

  ‘What did he do?’

  ‘That’s just it. He didn’t do anything.’

  ‘I don’t get it.’

  He’d have pitched for a diversion if he’d the slightest suspicion that it would work. She’d shown she was too sharp for that.

  Instead, he dragged in a breath and sunk his teeth deep into the proverbial bullet. ‘He wasn’t particularly special, not even a science nerd, which makes you count in the eyes of my parents. But his father was some lordly scientist in the CSIRO. Perhaps two degrees of separation from a person of importance in a highly respected scientific organisation made him worthy of notice. Unlike their son.’

  Bitterness spiked the back of his tongue. He hated its familiarity. Hated that he still lacked the balls to not care what his parents thought. Even more, he hated that Jayda was now privy to one of the chinks in armour it had taken years to build. A weakness that made him less desirable, even less the tough bad-boy she’d been drawn to at that first sighting.

  ‘He had the gall to call me a loser before school one day, so every opportunity after I showed him just how much of a loser I was.’

  His finger idled along the curvature of her upper arm, her waist, her tummy. Not once did she flinch. It gave him the courage to continue. No sense in baring half his soul. He’d gone thus far, what was a little more? For any chance at a future together, she’d need to see every flaw. He amended—every flaw but one. If she knew the rest, knew just how unlovable he was . . .

  He shoved at the thought. ‘They may have hated me for the fights, but they sure as hell couldn’t continue to ignore me.’

  At first he thought he’d botched it.

  Then her hand covered his on its journey up over her ribs. ‘I notice you.’

  His hand stalled, his heart expanding so he thought it might burst.

  Then she squeezed. ‘I would always notice you.’

  Jayda waited for the walls to close in again.

  Love filled Seth’s eyes. She knew because she’d seen it before. Her parents shared the same look. It had heat. Seth’s look was packed with heat. It consumed her.

  And God, it felt good.

  ‘I—’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘I know the timing sucks, and us working together is about the story and the case. Was about that. It’s still about that. But it’s become more for me. I want it to be about more for me. And I want it to be about more for you.’

  Damn! She was rambling. When had she ever rambled?

  Seth looked as if he just discovered aliens ran Gloria Jeans. Not that the news would be all that surprising—what would aliens know about good coffee?

  She rolled her eyes, a burn rolling up her neck and out over her cheeks. ‘I suck at this.’

  The heat in his eyes spiked. ‘No, you don’t. You’re amazing. It’s perfect. You’re perfect.’ His palm cupped her cheek. ‘And in case you haven’t guessed, I want more too.’

  His head edged across the pillow and his lips met with hers. It felt good. Right. As if this was where she was always meant to be.

  She returned the pressure, opened her lips when his tongue requested it. Let him in, rolled out the red carpet and welcomed Seth into her heart. He urged her back, threading his fingers through hers, pressing her hands into the pillow either side of her head.

  Making her brea
thless and happy and wanting all at once.

  When the need for air overtook their need for each other, he dragged his lips from hers. His gaze told her all she needed to know, but still she had to be sure.

  ‘Does this mean we’re a couple?’

  His grin made her knees weak. Lucky he already had her flat on her back.

  ‘We’re a couple.’

  Her heart melted, the scent of pine filling her with each breath, melding fantasy with reality. She hadn’t been looking, but somehow she’d found the future she’d always dreamed of. With a man she wanted to know inside and out.

  ‘So, I get to ask you couple-y questions?’

  ‘Aha. And do couple-y things.’ One hand carved a path down her arm to cup her breast, his tongue tasting and taunting until she thought she might die. ‘Like this.’

  She closed her eyes and sighed. ‘I like couple-y things.’

  ‘Me, too.’

  He moved to kiss her again.

  ‘I have a question.’

  He pulled back, quirked a brow. ‘Only one?’

  ‘For now.’ She grinned. ‘What’s with this place? All your furniture outside this room looks like it just left the warehouse.’

  His expression closed. ‘I’m house-sitting.’

  ‘I knew it! Whose house?’

  ‘No one important.’ He tilted his hips and hard muscle nudged at her thighs, a reminder of more pressing things that required attention.

  ‘Think we should make our couple status official?’ That quirky grin did things to her body that shouldn’t be legal. Things that shouldn’t be possible with just a look.

  She felt her lips curve as he dipped and found the racing pulse at her neck, chasing every thought from her brain other than how much she wanted him. It took a while for her limited brain function to allow words to form. ‘What do you have in mind?’

  ‘I think I’ll run with instinct.’ His palm drifted down her tummy and she shivered. ‘You can follow my lead.’

  She wrapped her leg around his buttocks and pressed her palm into his shoulder, flipping him onto his back. ‘Or as a twist, you could follow mine.’