Enemy Lover (29 page)

“Maybe he already has, darling,” Sophia said.

“What? You’ re changing your tune already? Are you suggesting I back out of this election?”

“I’m suggesting you take Calhoun up on his offer.”

Rowland and Sophia stared at each other, while Jax processed Sophia’s words. Was she saying? . . .

“He’s made his choice,” Rowland snapped.

“Only because you turned him down,” his wife reminded him.

“I’m not rehashing this, Sophia. We settled this matter long ago. Don’ t—”

“No,
you
don’ t,” Sophia snapped back at her husband. “We need this now. Give Mercer what he wants and you can have more.”

Shane leaned forward and spoke in Jax’s ear. “Richard Calhoun, the GOP presidential front-runner?”

Jax nodded, then asked, “That’s who you are talking about, isn’t it? Richard Calhoun?”

Sophia nodded. “The one and only.”

“It would solve a lot of our problems, Bill,” Maksim said.

“The choice has been made. There’s no going back.”

“Bill,” Sophia pleaded. “There is still time. There won’t be an announcement until next week. Please reconsider.”

“What offer?” Jax asked.

“Vice president of the United States,” Sophia Rowland declared triumphantly.

Holy shit.

Senator Rowland scowled. “I told them I wasn’t interested. I’m still not.”

“How could you
not
be interested in the veep job?” Jax asked.

Rowland sat down behind his desk. “I can do more as a senator than as a lame duck vice president.” He rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes, then looked at them with bleary eyes. “It’s a moot point. Calhoun has chosen his running mate. My only concern now is to salvage my daughter’s reputation, get reelected to a fourth term as
U.S. senator if it’s still possible, and get Joseph Lazarus off my back. Now, tell me how we’ re going to do that?”

“For starters, we take Grace into protective custody.” Jax looked to Dante. “Can you arrange that?” He nodded. “Good, then Shane and I will head over to speak with LeVech. If he’s in this alone, we’ re golden. If not, we’ ll find out who he’s sleeping with and go from there.”

“What about Mercer?” Sophia asked.

“First things first, Mrs. Rowland. There’s no sense in getting his antennae up if he has nothing to do with this. He’s being watched. If he blows his nose, we’ ll know it.”

“I agree,” Rowland said.

“Then let’s get to it,” Jax said, heading for the door.

“He’s dead,” she whispered as they approached LeVech’s front door.

“Who?” Shane asked.

“LeVech,” Jax murmured.

The front door creaked open against the late morning breeze. Shane pulled his pistol. Jax shook her head. “You won’t need that.”

Shane looked at her like she was crazy and kept his weapon drawn. First Shane entered. Almost immediately, she heard him cursing.

The blood scent was so strong, so pungent, that it clogged her nostrils. As she stepped into the foyer, she nearly gagged. Blood splattered in high arches across the soft green walls. Lying naked in a pool of his blood was LeVech, his groin mutilated.

“Whoever did this was pissed,” Jax said as she stepped to the fringes of the room where there was no blood.
Farther down in the short hallway was a woman lying facedown in her blood, her neck severed so severely that it lay at a ninety-degree angle from her shoulders.

Other than the two bodies and the blood, the house looked to be in perfect order. “From the lividity, it looks like maybe twelve hours. What time did you arrive last night?”

“Right after midnight,” Shane said.

It was noon, so the couple must have arrived home shortly after Shane’s visit. Whoever had done this to them hadn’t been far behind.

“Jesus. This runs us straight into a wall,” Jax said, walking the perimeter in order to stay out of the blood.

She squatted and looked closer at LeVech. Her skin crawled. “Look,” she said, pointing to the groin injury. “It looks like claw marks. Like an animal did this.”

“Or made to look like an animal did it,” Shane said.

“Mercer or Lazarus?”

Shane looked pointedly at Jax. “One has a senatorial seat to gain, and the other stands to lose it.”

“Let’s go chat with Johnny Mercer.”

“But first let’s go through the place and make sure there is nothing that can link LeVech to any Rowland,” Shane said.

Less than an hour later, with not one thread to tie to any one of the Rowlands, Jax called in the details to Naomi, who called the cops on a blocked number. When Jax hung up, she looked up at Shane. “Let’s get out of here.”

As they drove back to the city, Shane looked over from the steering wheel and asked, “How did you know they were dead before we got out of the car?”

She swallowed hard but didn’t flinch away from the question. “I could smell them.”

“How?” Shane asked, eyeing her cryptically.

“I-I got some of Cross’s souped-up blood in me. Apparently, it makes me more aware.”

“Jesus, Cassidy. What if he has AIDS or something?”

She looked over at him. “Trust me, that is the least of my worries.”

He opened his mouth to ask her more, but she shook her head. “Shane, after last night, I’m pretty sure Cross is going to make an introduction. I need you to trust me when it comes to handling him.”

“I trust you. It’s him I don’t trust.”

“That makes two of us.”

When Jax rolled into her room at sunset, she was startled to find Cross sitting at the small desk, casually playing solitaire on her laptop. Lucky for her she didn’t keep anything confidential on it.

She scowled.

Why wasn’t she surprised?

“I invite you in once, and now you think you’ re welcome anytime?” She was hot, tired and, damn it, horny. Mercer hadn’t been reachable; he was out on his yacht,
Foreplay
—she couldn’t help her mental snort at the name—and due back later tonight. She and Shane would be waiting for him. First, however, she was taking a few hours to clean up and rest up. “What are you doing here?”

Cross turned those laconic eyes of his on her and smiled, showing just the barest hint of his fangs. Apparently, he wasn’t even going to try and hide what he was any longer. Absently, she rubbed the spot on her neck where those fangs had spent so much time last night. Along with the desire that flooded her, however, part of her mind was on business. How many other vampires were there? What did it take to destroy them? Or love them. She was afraid if she asked, he’d close up, emotionally and physically.

That was the last thing she wanted him to do. His gaze traveled over her body; she couldn’t have controlled the warmth that spread through her or the tightening of her skin even if her life had been at stake. He did things to her no other man ever had, and she doubted ever would.

“Angry because I didn’t stay for breakfast?” he asked.

She shrugged and dropped her handbag on the bed. She needed a drink. “I didn’t figure you for the type that did mornings.”

He slowly stood. She moved past him to look out the window. The sun blazed a red glow over the city. When he moved behind her, Jax held her breath. He brushed her hair from her neck and lowered his lips to her ear. “I would if I could.”

She steeled herself against him. Sex with him again, no matter how incredible, was not a good idea. More sex would just complicate things . . . even more. She moved away, yanked open the sliding glass door, and stepped out into the balmy San Francisco dusk.

He followed her.

“I have a proposition for you, Jax Cassidy,” he said.

She didn’t dare turn around. She didn’t trust herself.

“I’m listening.”

“Me and you team up and take care of a little business down in L.A. tomorrow night.”

His hands pressed against the back of her shoulders and slowly began to rub. She closed her eyes. The day’s tension strained her muscles. What she needed was a good hot soak in the tub and a full body massage. And a glass of really nice merlot. Or . . .

She bit back a moan of pleasure. Or she needed more of what Cross was doing. His big hands dug into her skin, his fingers moving across her bunched muscles, loosening them.

“What kind of business?”

“Solution business.”

Jax stiffened. And waited.

This was it.

His big hands massaged her forearms and her biceps, then moved once more to her shoulders, to her neck. He dug his fingers into her hair and massaged her scalp. She fought the urge to lean back into him and let him do that to her entire body. He pushed her head to the left, then the right, releasing more tension. But a different type of tension was building in her loins. His fingers moved around to her waist, then her hips. He pressed softly against her back.

“Are you saying—” She gulped when his hands cupped the cradle of her hips and pressed her against him. She felt the sharp ridge of his erection against the small of her back. “—what I think you’ re saying?”

His fingers splayed across her lower belly. “Yes,” he whispered against her ear.

Jax squeezed her eyes shut and steeled herself. Suspicion immediately reared its head, mixing with desire. Unfortunately, the desire was winning.

She wanted him. She told herself it didn’t mean anything except a stress releaser on a really shitty day.

His fingers swept lower to her mons. “Don’ t,” she barely managed.

“Stop me.”

She didn’ t.

“Have you ever made love on a balcony?” he asked.

Jax didn’t trust her voice. She shook her head.

“Me either,” he said as he unbuttoned the top button of her slacks. Slowly, he pulled the zipper down. “Do you have another pair of these?”

“Pants?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

He grabbed the fabric on either side of the zipper and pulled. A rending tear, followed by the soft swishing sound of her slacks landing on the patio floor, startled her. “You’ ll need them. Eventually.”

He hooked his thumbs into the sides of her panties and easily disposed of them. Excitement sizzled through her. Warm air brushed against her thighs. He pulled her against him and lowered his lips to her ear and nibbled her there. “Have you ever made love beneath a sunset?”

“No,” she croaked.

He unzipped his pants and parted her thighs from behind with his knee. “Me either.”

Jax grabbed ahold of the railing to keep her balance. He trailed his hands up her waist to her breasts, cupping them in his big hands, and pressed hotly against her bare bottom. She leaned back and held her breath when he kissed her on the neck behind her ear. His tongue was warm, wet, and when it swirled along the shell of her ear, Jax moaned. She let go of one hand on the railing and grabbed his right hand and trailed it down her belly to her heat.

When he dipped a finger into her, Jax caught her breath and stood on her toes. His breath tickled her ear. Anticipation of all of him inside of her was almost more
than she could bear. She bit back words begging him to quench the fire in her blood.

Her body shuddered as his thick finger slid deeper into her waiting wantonness. Jax pressed her head against his chest and closed her eyes. He felt so good.

“You missed me?” he softly asked, sliding his finger deeper, hitting that soft sensitive spot that drove her wild. Waves of pleasure rippled through her.

“Yes,” she hoarsely whispered. She had missed him.

He moved his fingertip slowly back and forth across the sensitive spot as he pressed his swollen groin against her bare bottom. The sensations it caused were deliciously unbearable. Jax bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out. As much as she detested her weakness for him, she loved how he made her feel.

“I missed you too,” he said against her neck, his teeth grazing her skin. “I missed the scent of your skin, the taste of your sweat, the way your body responds to my slightest touch.”

Her hips moved hotly against the slow rhythmic movements of his hand. Jax rose to her toes as the tide of her arousal began to curl into a maverick wave.

She moaned as her body began to liquefy. Her thighs tightened around his hand, her body drew taut, and just when she thought she could stand it no longer, she shattered.

Everything shattered. Her body, her will, her control, her resolve, all of it, gone. In that one blinding moment of pure pleasure, nothing else mattered. She rode out the orgasm in quick, jerky movements, her body contorting as all synapses flared. Marcus slowed his rhythm to compensate the overload of sensations.

Jax gulped for breath as her lungs worked overtime to get oxgyen into her system. Marcus held her tightly against his chest. Jax licked her dry lips. She wanted more.

As if reading her thoughts, Marcus slipped his finger from her wet body, replacing it with his straining erection. Jax moaned loudly as he entered her. Inch by inch he filled her. The feeling of him filling her as his slow, rhythmic fingers strummed her mons was almost too much for her to handle. She felt his imprint everywhere. Not just where he physically touched her. He was everywhere. The way her body accepted him was as if they were designed for each other. In sync. Receptive. Complete.