End Game (Games Thriller Series) (4 page)

“Say it.” He stared intensely at her through his wet hair.

“Ty,” she gasped. “I love you.”

Chris lost control, wrapping his arms tightly around her, kissing her deeply, his hips arching into her over and over again, increasing the speed and power of each thrust until he finally exploded inside her, creating another delicious wake of her own.

Her body felt like a wavy noodle that had boiled too long and she was glad his arms were wrapped around her because if he let go, she was sure she’d collapse on the shower floor.

“God, Jessie.” He leaned into her against the wall, his voice laden with exhaustion. “You’re gonna end up killing me.” He lifted his head from her shoulder and smiled. “I think my heart stopped on that one.” He slowly uncoupled and set her on her feet steadying her when she wobbled before stepping back under the warm spray.

Jessica leaned against the tile, glad for the solid wall behind her because her legs still hadn’t fully recovered. She watched him tilt his head back and let the water pound on his forehead, raining down his body with a small smile of contentment on his lips.

After a few moments, his blue eyes opened and met her gaze. Reaching for her, he pulled her into his arms, pressing his lips to the top of her head. “I am so in love with you.”

“I know.” She looked up. “So where are you going tomorrow?” She smiled and for a brief instant almost glimpsed his thoughts before the door slammed closed with a mental bang.

Dimples appeared briefly and he snatched a quick kiss before grabbing the soap and lathering up. “That was sneaky.”

She returned his grin. “I try.”

Chapter 7

Chris got up very early for his road trip and darkness still blanketed the room when he sat on the edge of the bed and wiped a stray strand of hair out of her face, kissing her slack lips. Still in the clutches of sleep, she mumbled his name and his heart soared at the smile that formed on her face.

God
, he loved her and that’s what he clung to on the drive to Connecticut. Two hours later, he pulled into the driveway of his destination and rubbed his palms on his thighs, wiping the thin sheen of sweat away.

He swallowed and stepped out of the car, staring at the average colonial and crossing to the door. Each step twisted the knot in his stomach and he hesitated at the doorbell, taking a deep breath and chuckling at his jumbled nerves.
This is worse than waiting in the cold for her yesterday
.

Shaking the jitters out of his head, he licked his lips and pressed the doorbell.

Joanna Campbell answered the door and her eyebrows rose. She looked around Chris, expecting to see her daughter and grandchildren in tow. When they landed on the little red Corvette in the driveway, concern flashed over her features and she shot her brown eyes to his, adjusting her spectacles and opening the storm door. “Is everything okay?”

Chris stepped inside. “Everything’s fine. I wanted to talk to Russ. Is he around?” Chris smiled, disarming Jessica’s mother. He took his coat off and hung it on the stair railing.

Joanna led him into the family room where Russ was reading in his favorite recliner. He had aged well. Jessica had inherited her high cheekbones and graceful body from her mother, but she had a lot of her father in her too, most notably the intensity of their stare and the same shocked expression he sported matched hers when she was surprised.

“Everything is fine,” Chris repeated, seeing the surprise turn to concern almost immediately. “I just needed to talk with you.” He sat down in one of the chairs, looking at his hands before he met Russ’s questioning stare. Chris drew in a deep breath and got to the point of his visit. “I came to get your blessing. I want to marry your daughter.”

Russ took equally as deep a breath as Chris did. He closed the book he was reading as he formulated his thoughts. “I have never been very fond of you. Your family history bothers me and I have no idea why you sought out my daughter to begin with.”

Chris felt the bite of his words and went to speak.

Russ stopped him with a shake of his head and a raised hand. “I know you told me, but I’m still not buying it.”

Chris looked down at his hands and then back up at Russ. “I’ve loved your daughter since I first met her
, Russ.”

“I know that
, Chris. But there’s still something about you that I can’t quite put my finger on and it bothers me as much if not more than your family history.”

“Russ, my father was a cop, so my family history isn’t what you think it is,” Chris said, leaning back in the chair.

Russ raised his eyebrows. “Oh.”

“He died in the line of duty. My mom was so messed up by my father’s death that she married the first man to come along
. Unfortunately for us that was Jacob Aris, and yes he was a mean son of a bitch,” Chris said. “I did learn a lot of things from being in the Aris household: I learned to hate everything that they stood for and vowed to never treat people the way they did. Unfortunately, my brother was not as diligent as I was in keeping them from getting into my head.”

Russ narrowed his eyes, studying Chris and the outpouring of information, which was by far the longest conversation the two of them had
had in the five years he had been with Jessica. “All right, I’ll give you a break on the family history.” He tilted his head a little as if hearing something in the distance. “But I still have a feeling that there’s more than meets the eye where you’re concerned.”

Chris laughed.
Oh yeah.
“Not much, Russ. What do you want to know?”

“I want to know if you had anything to do with what happened to my daughter ten years ago?”

Chris’s smile disappeared and he shook his head, blocking all thoughts. “No.” He maintained eye contact with Jessica’s father and his heart clamored in his chest.

Russ nodded, believing the lie. “I still don’t understand why, but my daughter loves you and you seem to make her very happy.” He chewed on his bottom lip and inhaled through his nose. “So yes, you have my blessing to marry her, but if you ever hurt her, you will have to answer to me
,” he finished, staring him down.

Chris nodded. “I couldn’t hurt her,” he said suppressing the word ‘again’ from his response. “Ever.” He held his father
-in-law’s stare. “I love her too much,” he added and then couldn’t help the grin that spread over his face. “What are you two doing next Friday?”

“We don’t have anything on the calendar. Why?” Joanna asked.

“I think it would mean a lot to Jess if you were at our wedding. We’re getting married in New York City next Friday.”

Russ sat back in his chair. “So what was all of this?” He waved his hand in irritation.

“Your blessing means a lot to me.”

“And if you hadn’t gotten it?”

Chris shrugged. “I would have married her anyway.”

Russ sighed and nodded
, turning his gaze toward his wife.

“We would love to be there
.” Joanne beamed.

Chris stood and smiled. “I’ll have a car pick you up on Thursday night and I’ll get you a room at the Plaza, but you have to do me a favor.” He looked from one to the other.

“What kind of favor?” Russ asked.

“I want to surprise Jess. I don’t want her to know I arranged this.”

Joanna and Russ both nodded, agreeing to keep the arrangements on the QT.

“I’ll arrange for transportation from the hotel to city hall on Friday as well.” He stood.

“One more question,” Russ said.

“Sure,” Chris replied.

“Does Jessica know what you’re worth?”

Chris shook his head. “Why, do you?”

Russ smiled. “I did my research.”

Chris returned his smile. He would have done the same thing if he had a daughter
, regardless of her age. “She will never want for anything,” he assured Russ. “Neither will our kids, or our kids’ kids.” He held out his hand and his father-in-law-to-be shook it.

“Welcome to the family,” Russ said.

Chapter 8

Jessica woke up to the boys climbing into her bed.

“Where’s Daddy?” CJ asked and snuggled next to her.

Tommy climbed in on the opposite side of Jessica and promptly fell back asleep.

“Daddy had some things to do today.” Jessica yawned. “He’ll be back a little later.” She pulled both boys close to her and glanced at the clock. “Get a little more sleep. It’s still very early.” She closed her eyes and sleep threatened.

“Mommy?” CJ whispered.

Jessica’s eyes fluttered back open. “Hmmm?”

“Is Daddy’s name Ty?”

The question woke Jessica as effectively as a slap would have. “Why do you ask?” she asked, stalling enough to cloak her thoughts. She turned and took in her four-year-old son, the spitting image of his father in so many ways but his gifts exceeded both hers and Chris’s combined. He could reach into their minds and extract information at will, which annoyed the hell out of her at times. A four
-year-old should not know what is going on in the adult realm even though his intellectual level bordered on genius.

“You called him Ty yesterday and that was the name he put on the inside of your ring,” CJ said.

“Ty was Daddy’s brother and he died saving my life.” It killed her to lie to her son, but he was just too young to understand or have the burden of the truth laid on him.

CJ’s eyebrows scrunched together in a skeptical mask that did not belong on the face of a four
-year-old. He closed his eyes and Jessica felt the force of his mind-scan crumbling the mental block she put in place when he asked the question.

“He had a scar?” he gasped and his eyes flew open.

“Christopher James do not do that! You can’t just force your way into people’s minds. It’s not right.”

“Sorry Mommy, but you weren’t telling the truth and you and Daddy both told me lying’s wrong.”

“CJ, there are just some things that you are too young to understand.”
Drop it
. She commanded with her thoughts and his expression hardened.

“You can’t control me
, Mommy, only Daddy can.”

Jessica shivered in response. “Let it go
, CJ. We will tell you about Ty when the time is right.”

“When will that be?”

When you’re over eighteen
. “When the time is right.”

CJ sulked. “I don’t want to wait that long.”

“CJ, you are four years old. I am your mother and I am telling you to drop it now.” She closed her eyes and pretended to go back to sleep but she didn’t fool her son.

“I’m sorry
, Mommy,” he said after a few minutes of silence.

“I know, now go back to sleep like your brother.”

“I can’t, I’m awake now.”

Jessica smiled. There would be hell to pay later when he was overtired, but she nodded and they slowly slid out of bed, quietly slipping out of the room without waking Tommy.

“Want to help me pick out a wedding gift for your father?” Jessica ruffled his hair.

“Sure. We could get him the new Play Station.”

Jessica laughed aloud. “I’m sure Daddy would love that, but I was thinking of something a little more personal, just for him.”

CJ bit his lip. “How about a new car?”

Jessica smiled at her son. Games and cars, that’s exactly what she expected him to come out with and it made her happy to know he was just like every other four year old in that respect. “Sweetheart, I think I want to get your father a gold chain,” she said. She loved looking at his neckline and always thought that a nice simple chain of gold would accentuate it.

“Or a watch,” she added. His watch was getting old. “Or both. Anyway, we can go over to the mall as soon as I exercise and your brother is up and moving.”

“Don’t wake him,” she scolded when CJ looked up at the ceiling. “It is way too early. None of the stores are open yet, so let him sleep.”

CJ gave his mother the ‘Aww Come On!’ look that Chris gave her any
time he wanted to do something but she wouldn’t allow it.

“You certainly are your father’s son.” She laughed. “What do you want for breakfast?”

“Pancakes. We didn’t get any yesterday.”

“Ok
ay, pancakes it is.”

Chapter 9

Tom stumbled out to the beach again and looked at his watch
—four-thirty in the morning. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, cracking open the new bottle of scotch and taking a swig directly from it. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the cell phone, stroking it with his fingers and tipping the bottle to his lips again and letting the smooth liquid fire deaden his shot nerves.

Sharon
made him fuck her again tonight—while he was sober—dangling the threat of killing Jessica over his head in order to get him to perform. He hated the feeling of her and each and every time he fucked her, he lost a piece of his mind. At least when he was drunk, he didn’t care quite as much. But sober, she made his skin crawl, so the only way he was able to give in to her demands was to become the character he had played in the movie she wrote. He momentarily became Ty Aris and fucked his wife without passion or conviction, just silent rage.

He drained the remainder of the bottle in one long pull, sending the cool liquid down his throat where it instantly spread warmth and heavenly numbness through his body.

“Fuck it,” he mumbled and tossed the bottle in the sand, flipping the phone open. He blinked a couple of times, his eyes slowly focusing on the names as he scrolled through the list until her number came into view. Without over-thinking it, he pressed the call button and dropped on his back in the sand. The stars blurred in and out of focus.

Tom didn’t care if he woke her up. Hearing her voice yesterday had been a small beacon of light in his otherwise dark life.