Bad Nights (27 page)

Morgan stripped off her biohazard suit as she watched the van with Crispin drive away.

“What happens now?” she asked.

“Crispin's caught in a system he isn't going to like—where his money isn't going to do him a damn bit of good.”

“He put himself there.”

“Or we did,” Shane said.

The three men had also taken off the special suits.

They'd come from an old Navy SEAL friend who now worked for Homeland Security. Bud Lewis. After Jack had explained what had happened, Lewis had gone along with Morgan's plan to turn the tables on Crispin. He'd taken charge of the deadly compound from Fort Detrick, provided the gear, and also arranged for Crispin's arrest.

Morgan was still looking at Jack. And she realized that the other two Rockfort men had left the room. When she heard an engine start, she looked outside. The other car drove away, leaving her and Jack alone.

“Where are they going?”

“Back to the office to deal with the authorities. There's a lot of mopping up to do.”

She moistened her dry lips. “What about us?”

The question could have meant a lot of things. He chose to say, “We're going somewhere else.”

She climbed into the other vehicle, and Jack slid behind the wheel. When she saw the rigid set of his jaw, she clasped her hands in her lap. This could be good-bye, for all she knew. And if that's what Jack had in mind, she was going to fight every way she knew to change his mind.

To her surprise, they drove back to the property where she'd been in hiding, but they bypassed the main building.

“We're not going there?” she asked as they passed the Victorian farmhouse.

“Not after Cunningham—I mean Crispin—broke in.”

She appreciated that he didn't go into details. He continued up the road. When he rounded the helicopter hangar, she saw a small building nestled in the woods that might have been a farmworker's cottage.

Jack pulled up in front, cut the engine, and got out. She joined him outside, steadying herself against the car door as he came around to her side of the vehicle.

“What are we doing?” she asked in a voice she couldn't quite hold steady.

“We have to talk.”

“Are you getting ready to leave me because you think it's the right thing to do?”

“I should.”

The words made her throat go tight.

“But I don't think I can.”

“Thank God.”

She reached for him, pulling him into her arms.

“Oh Lord, Morgan,” he whispered as she held him to her. “What are we going to do?”

“Love each other.”

“I finally admitted to myself that I loved you when I knew Crispin had taken you.”

“I knew it before that. I knew that I'd only been half-alive for the past year and a half, and then I met you and everything changed. I wanted to live. I wanted a life with you. Starting right now.”

He looked dazed, as though he'd thought she was going to object.

“I assume there's a bed in this house,” she said, reaching for his hand and leading him toward the front door.

The door wasn't locked, and they stepped inside. She got only a quick impression of a comfortable living room as they hurried through to the next room which was furnished with a wide bed. She took him down to the horizontal surface with her, where they clung together, rocking in each other's arms.

She'd held back her emotions the whole time they were planning the scam on Crispin. Then she'd been afraid of what Jack was going to say.

Not now.

She clasped his shoulders, pulling him close, her body pressed to his, sending her blood pounding hotly through her veins.

“I never did thank you for saving my life,” she whispered.

“Leaving you there would have been like my own death,” he answered in a rough voice.

He brought his mouth to hers for a kiss that said everything he hadn't yet put into words.

When they came up for air, she said, “I think we need to get rid of these clothes.”

They discarded jeans, T-shirts, and underwear quickly, then rolled toward each other again.

She made a small sobbing sound as he clasped her to him, overwhelmed by the feel of his naked body against hers.

He held her for long moments, then reached between them, shaping her breasts in his hands, then playing his fingers over her nipples, bringing them to throbbing points of sensation.

When he took one hard peak into his mouth, drawing on her as he used his thumb and finger on the other side, she cried out with the pleasure of it. And when he stroked his free hand down her body and dipped into the hot, slick folds of her most intimate flesh, she came to a jolting climax.

As she caught her breath, she looked into his grinning face. “That took me by surprise.”

“Me too,” he agreed. “But it was kind of fun.”

He began to kiss and caress her again, and this time she was better able to focus on each thing he did as he aroused her to fever pitch once more.

He dragged in a ragged breath, raising his head so that his eyes could meet hers. “Are you ready for me?”

“More than ready.”

He covered her body with his, and as he sank into her, emotions flooded through her.

He began to move inside her, and she matched his rhythm, her breath coming hard and fast.

Again, climax grabbed her, and she heard him gasp, “I love you” as he joined her.

“I love you so much,” she answered, as she came down from the heights, stroking her hands over his sweat-slick back.

He shifted off of her, and they lay together on the bed, both breathing hard.

“You are so good at that,” she murmured.

“I could say the same thing.”

They lay together for long moments, until he said, “Something I should tell you.”

“Good or bad?”

“Crispin gave Rockfort a down payment on the job of finding out what Trainer was up to. But he obviously had no intention of paying the rest—since he was going to eliminate me and the rest of the Rockfort men.”

She nodded against his shoulder. “That's behind you now.”

“Yeah, well, I got Trainer's bank account number from his computer. I transferred the money in it to Rockfort.”

“How much?”

“A million dollars.”

She gasped.

“I think we deserve it, considering what he put us through. The guys and I decided that half of it's mine.”

She found his hand. “Yes, I think you do.”

He swallowed. “Enough for a down payment on a nice house, with cash to spare, if we can figure out where we're going to live.”

“Is that a proposal?”

“You don't want to just live with me?”

“No. I want commitment.”

When he licked his lips, she felt herself tense.

“Is that going too far for you?”

“I thought I could ease into this.”

“Not a chance. I know you're the man I want.”

“You move fast.”

“When I have to. And I've been thinking about where we should live.”

“Oh yeah?”

“At the end of the semester, I'm going to resign from George Mason and go into clinical practice. In Rockville, so we'll both be close to work.”

“Clinical practice? Even after what you told me about that guy who hanged himself? And—uh—the way our hypnosis session ended?”

“Oh Lord, thank you for reminding me about that. Trainer told me why it happened. Well, he didn't know the importance of what he was saying.”

“What do you mean?”

“When he had me spread-eagled on that bed, he bragged that you weren't breathing after the guy hit you on the head in his office. His medic had to revive you.”

He swore under his breath. “Lucky for me he wanted information.”

She moved closer and hugged him tightly. “Lucky for me, too.”

For long moments, neither of them spoke, and then she inclined her head so that she could look at him.

“I've changed from the woman who found you outside in the woods. You've changed me. I'm a lot more confident of what I can do. And I hope you are too. You got us out of a lot of scrapes, and then you came up with a rescue operation nobody else could have pulled off.”

He nodded tightly, yet there was still a look of doubt on his face.

“What?”

“I'm in a dangerous profession. Your husband was shot and died. What if…”

She pressed her fingers to his lips. “There are no guarantees. I understand that better than most people. What I want with you is to live every day to the fullest.”

“Maybe you can teach me.”

“Glad to.”

And glad that this extraordinary man had stumbled into the woods near her family's old cottage. He'd had a hard life, but it was going to be a lot better from now on. And so was hers.

New
York
Times
and
USA
Today
bestselling author Rebecca York's writing has been compared to Dick Francis, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Maggie Shayne. Her award-winning books have been translated into twenty-two languages and optioned for film. A recipient of the RWA Centennial Award, she lives in Maryland, near Washington, D.C., which is often the setting of her romantic suspense novels.

Watch for the next in this gripping new romantic suspense series from
USA Today
bestselling author Rebecca York.

Betrayed

Rockfort operative and former Army M. P. investigator Shane Gallagher is working security at S & D Systems, trying to learn who's stealing vital secrets. Systems analyst Elena Reyes is the one with access to the most sensitive files and Shane is ready to close in—until he begins to understand Elena's terrible dilemma.

Coming July 2014
from Sourcebooks Casablanca

Rev It Up

Black Knights Inc.

by Julie Ann Walker

He's the heartbreaker she left behind…

Jake “the Snake” Sommers earned his SEAL codename by striking quickly and quietly—and with lethal force. That's also how he broke Michelle Carter's heart. It was the only way to keep her safe—from himself. Four long years later, Jake is determined to get a second chance. But to steal back into Michelle's loving arms, Jake is
going to have to prove he can take things slow. Real slow…

Michelle Carter has never forgiven Jake for being so cliché as to “love her and leave her.” But when her brother, head of the Black Knights elite ops agency, pisses off the wrong mobster, she must do the unimaginable: place her life in Jake's hands. No matter what they call him, this man is far from cold-blooded. And once he's wrapped around her heart, he'll never let her go…

Praise for
Hell on Wheels:

“Edgy, alpha, and downright HOT, the Black Knights Inc. will steal your breath…and your heart!”
—
Catherine Mann,
USA Today
bestselling author

For more Black Knights Inc., visit:

www.sourcebooks.com