Heartland (15 page)

“I wish you didn’t feel like you had to paint a target on yourself,” he said into her hair.

She pulled away far enough to meet his gaze. “I wish I didn’t either. But I don’t see any other way. I don’t want anyone else to be in danger and hope he’s caught long before he gets to me. I have my baby to worry about.”

He narrowed his eyes and his hard regard made her uneasy. “You didn’t go with your parents because you’re afraid of the temptations of drugs and alcohol but because you want to bait Mike.”

She stepped back, but he held onto her arms. “I thought you’d figured that out at your party.”

“No, I didn’t. I knew you wanted the world to know you were here, but I thought you’d stay hidden.” His jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth. “Damn it, Emily, this isn’t a game. Was any of what you told me and your parents true?”

Emily didn’t appreciate his anger, but she understood it. He was responsible for keeping her safe, a job he took seriously. “I didn’t totally lie. I’m past the point of hiding my pregnancy and the road would be tough, but I would’ve gone if it meant keeping my family safe. I would have dealt with the pregnancy news and fought through the temptations. I’ve been having cravings and haven’t fallen off the wagon. I’ll never touch drugs or alcohol again. But going with them wouldn’t have kept them safe.” She moved out of his grasp. Fear made her knees tremble, and she sat on the bed again, facing the windows. Lightning lit up the sky and thunder boomed as the lights flickered in the room. “Here we can predict Mike’s movements and control them. If he’s been planning his escape for what must have been years, he’s too smart to get caught by chance.” She met his gaze and prayed she’d never have to face the sick man she once loved as a father. “We have to be smarter than him. I’ll be the bait, while you spring the trap. It’s the only way to catch him.”

Chapter 12

Awed by her strength and her trust that he’d protect her, EJ knelt before her. She placed too much faith in him. But he hadn’t done anything to discourage her, had he? Even now, instead of telling her about his failed mission when he got an American ambassador, her advisor, and five members of his Army Ranger team killed, he sat tight-lipped. He should tell her this plan of hers was crazy. However, he couldn’t. She was right. Mike was too smart to get caught randomly, and if he was a betting man, EJ would wager the Jensen women weren’t his only accomplices. Not all of Mike’s organized crime associates had been arrested eight years ago.

For fifteen years, Mike Ritter ran a sex slavery operation out of a cabin on his parents’ ranch. He oversaw a local branch of a complex organization of criminals who lured young women out of Mexico and as far south as Central America with empty promises of a better life, then sold them on the black market to the highest bidders. Right under the nose of the sheriff’s department he worked for.

The man had tricked a pregnant and scared teenage Abby into marrying him in order to steal her inheritance to set up his part of the operation. When Abby threatened to tell Emily about her real father and to let the world know, he blackmailed her to keep her mouth shut out of fear he’d lose his second wife and all of his lies would explode in his face. Mike Ritter was calculating, ruthless, and extremely dangerous.

EJ caressed the back of his fingers over the satiny skin of her cheek. The combination of her nearness and scent of lilies and lilacs sent his restraint to the limits. “You are an amazing woman.”

She gave him a skeptical smile and rested her hands on either side of his face. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”

Her fuck-me smoky voice broke his control to hell. As their lips collided in a hot, demanding kiss, he wrapped his arms around her and shifted to lay her on the bed. She threaded her fingers into his hair and held on as their tongues slid together in an erotic mimic of sex. Needing to touch her, he grabbed the bottom of her t-shirt and pulled it up. They broke the kiss long enough for him to pull it over her head. While she made short work of the buttons of his shirt, he hovered above her and drank in the beauty of her full breasts encased in a black lace bra that left little to the imagination.

“God, you’re beautiful.” He shrugged out of his shirt. “I have condoms if you want me to use them. I haven’t been with a woman since Raquel and--”

She placed a finger over his lips to stop his words and shook her head. “I trust you and I’m okay. I was tested for everything under the sun while in rehab”--a smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she rested her hand on the swell of her belly--“and obviously we don’t need them for any other reason.”

“Good. I hate those things.” As he kissed her again, he pushed the waistband of her yoga pants over her hips. She undid his belt, then he left a trail of nipping kisses down her neck to her breasts. When she got his pants open, he shifted off the bed to get rid of the rest of his clothes. She bit her bottom lip as she watched him and removed her own pants, leaving a black thong in place.

After she scooted up the bed to lay her head on the pillows, he climbed back on the mattress and caressed his fingertips down her body from her neck to the roundness of her belly. A lump formed in his throat as he wished the child she carried was his.

She rested her hand over his and met his gaze. “Whatever you’re thinking stop,” she whispered as she guided his hand to her lace and satin covered mound. Desire darkened her eyes to the color of a stormy sea and she arched into his touch. “EJ, I want you.”

His thoughts scattered into the wind of the storm raging outside, and his heart pounded in time with the downpour pelting the tin roof. He flicked open the front clasp of her bra and bared her breasts to him. As he cupped the left one and rolled the puckered nipple between his thumb and finger, he kissed down her neck, across the rise of her right breast. When he took the dark pink nipple into his mouth and suckled, she moaned his name and arched her back under him.

While he worked her breasts with his fingers and mouth, he slipped his hand under her panties. Not expecting to feel bare skin, he pulled away. “Damn, you’re smooth.”

She ran her nails over his chest to his cock. As she stroked up and down the length of him, she gave him a seductive smile. “You are too.”

At the fiery sensations, he clenched his teeth. “Fuck.”

“I intend to.” She used his distraction to push him onto his back. “I prefer playing cowgirl.” As she kissed him, she removed her thong, then straddled him.

“You know what they say, to save a horse, you have to ride a cowboy.” His voice came out in a raspy growl.

She nuzzled his neck and let out a throaty, sexy laugh.

As she teased the head of his cock by rubbing it over the soft, hot folds of her sex, he grabbed her hips and groaned. He’d never been with a woman who was completely bare before, and the erotic sensation had him fighting for control.

With another sexy-as-sin laugh, she leaned over him and nibbled on his ear. “You like?”

She was going to kill him. “God…yes. Emily…”

He squeezed her hips and gritted his teeth as she guided his cock into her slick heat.

She kissed him, sweeping her tongue in and out mimicking the same relentless rhythm in which they rocked together.

Shifting, he rolled her under him. As he leaned over her, he pulled her legs up over his shoulders. While he thrust into her fast and deep, she moaned and closed her eyes. Ecstasy slacked her mouth into a soft
o
with his name coming out in a throaty gasp. When her inner muscles clenched around him as she came, she gripped his shoulders until her nails bit into him.

Moving in and out of her time to his frantic heartbeat, he watched her bliss light up her beautiful face as she writhed in pleasure, then the need to orgasm became too much to fight. With a curse, he squeezed his eyes closed and emptied himself into her.

* * * *

Emily should tell EJ to leave. She shouldn’t be enjoying cuddling up against him with her head on his chest listening to the steady beat of his heart while he drew lazy circles on her shoulder. Nor should she be thinking of asking him to spend the night in her bed, or of how right this all felt.

“I’m curious.” He cleared his throat.

She shifted to look up into his face. “About what?”

He drew his brows together. “I’ve never been with a woman who shaved their...”

She laughed and kissed his nose. “Actually I wax. I’ve been doing it since I was about seventeen and started wearing skimpier stage costumes and dresses with the mesh cutouts that show a lot of skin. It’s easier than worrying about a wardrobe malfunction. Adhesive panties don’t stick to hair that well,” she said, getting the reaction from him she’d expected.

“Adhesive panties?” He widened his eyes slightly while his mouth opened then closed again. “Okay, I’ve decided I don’t want to know.”

With a chuckle at his embarrassment, she kissed him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her to him while his other hand slid between them. She gasped when he slid his fingers between her folds to her clit.

He sucked on her lower lip. “I intend to thoroughly explore this new discovery.”

“Emm…” She caught his lip between her teeth as he stroked her. The strong kick inside her belly startled her.

“Whoa.” He moved his hand from its erotic pursuit and laid it over her belly where it lay against him. When the baby awarded him with another kick, he smiled. “How far along are you?”

She laid her hand over his. “Almost seven months. I’m due the first week of October.”

He blinked and shifted her to lie on her back. “No wonder you can’t hide the pregnancy anymore.” The baby moved again under his gentle touch, and he laughed. “Do you know what you’re having?”

“A girl.” She swallowed at the stab of regret, while watching his face light up with wonder when the baby shifted again. “I’ve known for a long time. I had an amniocentesis early in my pregnancy to make sure she would be healthy.”

“I never felt Austin move inside Raquel.”

His quiet, husky words surprised her. “I don’t understand.”

EJ shifted to look at her and caressed his fingers over her face. “Raquel and I married a month after she discovered she was pregnant.” He rolled over onto his back and looked up at the ceiling. She turned to her side and propped herself up on her elbow, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze. “When I came home from my last deployment, Raquel was six months pregnant. She wouldn’t let me sleep with her, saying she was too uncomfortable.” He swallowed and closed his eyes. “I preferred sleeping in the living room anyway because I had horrible nightmares.”

When he finally met her gaze, his eyes were filled with sorrow. “Raquel hated being pregnant, but I didn’t make things easy on her either. I was a mess. Blamed myself for the mission’s failure and couldn’t talk about it. I still can’t say anything about what happened in Jerusalem because it’s top secret. Hell, the reason I can tell you this much is because those two diplomats were killed, and that made the news.”

She rested her head on his chest and snuggled up against him, holding him and giving him strength.

He wrapped his arm around her and trembled. “I think Raquel took my refusal to tell her what was going on in my head as meaning I didn’t care about her. She gained a lot of weight while she was pregnant and never connected with our baby, blaming him and me for ruining her life.” As he spoke, his voice took on a resentful edge. “She refused to hold Austin after he was born. I took care of him from the day we brought him home. The doctors said she had postpartum depression, but she was depressed long before she had him. She hated her life and us.”

Emily didn’t want his pain and anger to ruin their night, but she wanted to know what happened. Maybe she could help him understand why Raquel did what she did. “I know she overdosed on pills.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “She was addicted to Adderall and Zoloft. The doctor prescribed her the depression medicine, but the Adderall she got on the black market. Normally, they work well for those who need them when taken in the right dosages, but she…”

When his voice faded away, she completed his sentence. “She didn’t take as prescribed and they made a deadly combination.”

“I wish I would have known what she was doing.” His voice rumbled low in his chest. “If I hadn’t been absorbed in my own demons, I might have been able to save her life.” He sat up and ran both hands through his hair, then stood and faced the storm raging outside the window. Lightning flashed and illuminated him for a few heartbeats, making him appear like one of the ghosts that haunted him. “Our marriage probably wouldn’t have survived, but she--she wouldn’t be dead.”

As she sat in the middle of the bed, she stared at his broad shoulders and the way his back tapered to a perfect ass. She took a deep breath and tried not to think about how much she wanted him or the tingle of unwanted hope his admission about his marriage sent through her. He was hurting, and she wanted to alleviate his guilt. “EJ, I’m sorry. But if she was an addict there wasn’t much you could do until she wanted help.”

He glanced over his shoulder at her, and she slipped off the bed to stand beside him. When his gaze slid over her naked body, heat replaced the sadness for a moment in his eyes, but he looked back out the window, and his jaw ticked as if he was gritting his teeth.