On Fire (14 page)

She moved toward the obvious point of origin with a brisk stride.

Jared drew abreast of her. “You’re aggravated with him.”

“Some things have come up since I saw you last.”

“Oh?”

“Ask me about it when we get home.”

IT WAS JUST
after midnight when they got back to Darcy’s house. Jared could see how exhausted she was but knew more than the length of the day was weighting her slender shoulders. He decided not to press her to talk, to let her decide when she was ready to share. She was a solitary woman in many ways. Joining her inner circle was going to take time and patience. The latter wasn’t one of his strong suits, but he’d make the effort for her. Not that he had a choice; he wanted her too much.

In the meantime, he showered, then made them both some cold sandwiches while she typed her preliminary report for Ralston.
When they crawled into bed just after two in the morning, she turned into him, wrapping herself around him. With her legs tangled with his, her palms pressed to his back, and her face in his neck, he dropped into a deep sleep.

He woke up alone. Glancing at the clock, he noted it was barely six. He left the bed, then the bedroom, looking for Darcy. He found her in the living room, curled up on the couch beneath a chenille throw. She was watching a muted television, her eyes marred by dark circles. An open box sat on the floor by the coffee table, holding a variety of loose items, including framed photos of Darcy and Danielle.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Let me join you.”

She sat up at his urging and he settled behind her, taking her weight against his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair, brushing it back from her forehead. The feel of her bare skin against his soothed him. As the explosion had thrown him out into the parking lot, his thoughts had been with Darcy and how he’d be damned if some sick asshole blew him to hell before he figured out what he had with her.

“You wanna talk?” he asked softly.

Turning her head, she pressed her cheek to his chest. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Wherever you want.” He kissed the crown of her head, hating the misery that radiated from her and his helplessness to alleviate it. “I can pull it all together later.”

“How much crap can I dump on you, Jared, before you run screaming?”

“I never scream and I damn sure never run away.” He gripped her shoulders, resisting the urge to give her a little shake. “Spit it out.”

In a low halting voice, she told him about Miller’s visit and her subsequent talk with Nadine. “I knew she had to be with someone
familiar to me, but Chris…? I can’t believe she didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t have been upset.”

“A lot of people have secret lives. Their loved ones are shocked when they come to light. It’s no reflection on you.”

“I can’t help thinking that I fucked up somewhere and that’s why she couldn’t trust me with this.”

“It sounds like it was a couple random encounters. Maybe she was embarrassed. Heat-of-the-moment type thing that she regretted.”

“Even more reason to tell me, so we could’ve laughed it off and put it away.” She exhaled harshly. “And Chris…Wow. He had a responsibility to disclose his affair with her to the Feds. Why didn’t he, if he had nothing to hide?”

“It’s definitely a problem. But at least we’ve got enough to get a DNA sample from him now.”

“I’ve known him forever. He was my high school sweetheart. I thought I
knew
him.” Her exhale shuddered out of her. “I wanted to vomit when he said he slept with Darcy as a substitute for me. It’s so sick.”

“How far would he go to keep you from finding out about it? Especially if he’s the one who got her pregnant?”

She twisted to look into his eyes. Her gaze was so haunted it gored him like a dull knife.

“I hate that I was thinking the same thing,” she whispered. “He was important to me at one time. How could I be so wrong about two people I thought I was close to? The Dani I know couldn’t stomach casual sex. She always became emotionally attached when things got physical. And Chris…he’s a sheriff, for chrissakes.”

Jared brushed his fingertips over her cheek. “It’s killing me that you’re hurting and I can’t do a damn thing about it.”

“You’re here. That’s what I need more than anything.” Leaning into his palm, she sighed. “The answers will come later. We’ll find them.”

“Did she have a bad breakup shortly before her involvement with Miller?”

Her gaze softened. “You really do pay attention when your sister talks, don’t you? Yes, she met a fellow vet at a conference, and it was hot and heavy for a while. Then she found out he was married and that she was just a piece of ass on the side. She took it hard. I thought she’d sworn off men.”

“Or became determined to prove she didn’t give a shit about them.”

Darcy sat up, the throw falling to pool in her lap. “And I’m her example for that? What the fuck does that mean?”

“That she had issues,” he said calmly, “and she didn’t know you all that well. You like men just fine. You just hadn’t met one you liked enough to get serious about.”

“Until you.”

He inhaled deeply at the admission, knowing how important it was to her. And to him.

She stood, gloriously naked, agitation pouring off her in waves.

Straightening, he tossed the throw aside and held her gaze. “None of this is your fault, Darcy.”

“Right.” She paced, her lithe muscles flexing through her thighs and buttocks. “You know, you say ‘commitment’ and I get butterflies.”

“You’ve had commitments before. This one scares you because it’s the last one you’ll have.” He set his elbows on his knees and linked his fingers together. Between his spread legs, his cock was hard and thick, thrusting upward hungrily in appreciation of the sight of his woman. “Even I find that scary.”

She paused midstride, staring at him. He saw her chest expand on a slow breath and her eyes darken with both grief and longing. Her turmoil was tangible, and unable to bear it, he pushed to his feet. She plowed into him, nearly knocking him back into the couch.
Catching him by the nape, she yanked his mouth down to hers. His teeth cut his inner lip and the sharp metallic flavor of blood stirred him violently.

Lightning in a bottle. It had struck the moment they’d laid eyes on each other. Sexual creatures that they were, they’d both mistaken it as lust at first, and certainly that was a major part of what they knew about each other so far. But lust could be appeased. Sated. What they had ran much deeper, was more voracious than mere desire.

Gripping her by the elbows, Jared lifted her to her tiptoes and took over the kiss. His lips sealed over hers, his head tilting to find the perfect fit. The stroking of her tongue along his was as arousing as if she’d licked his cock.

She reached down and grabbed his ass, grinding against him, massaging his dick with the soft firmness of her lower belly. “Fuck me.”

“Darcy.” There’s nothing he wanted to do more, but the rapid-fire switch in her mood gave him pause. He couldn’t afford to screw things up with her. As fragile as she was at the moment, the intensity of their lovemaking could be too much. “Easy, sweetheart. I’ll take care of you.”

“I need you inside me, Jared.”

He caught her face in his hands. “Let me set the pace. I know how to give you what you need, when you need it.”

Her nails dug into his flesh. “I need it now.”

She dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth. The drenching heat, followed by powerful sucking, nearly sucked the cum right out of him. Her tongue fluttered. Her cheeks hollowed with deep, drawing pulls. Maddened by her greed for his body, his balls drew up tight, the urge to blow his load almost too great to resist.

Catching her beneath the arms, Jared yanked her up. If he didn’t
get a handle on her, she’d have him so spiked he’d bang her on the couch again, rutting on the woman he was falling in love with like an animal in heat. On any other day there’d be no problem with that, but not today. Today they both needed more than a quick, furious orgasm.

“We’re doing this in a bed this go-round,” he muttered, lifting her feet from the floor and carrying her to the bedroom. She wrapped her legs around his hips, wiggling, trying to align their bodies. When the satiny soft lips of her cunt slid across the crown of his dick, his step faltered, his chest vibrating with a groan.

Darcy caught his mouth, latching on to his tongue and sucking. His knees buckled and he cursed, leaning heavily into the wall to keep them both upright. “Behave, damn it. Before I nail you on the floor.”

“Yes…Do it.”

Cursing, he stumbled into the bedroom and dropped her on the bed. As she dove for his cock again, he snatched his handcuffs from the nightstand and intercepted her. He had her hands restrained at the small of her back before she knew what hit her.

She froze prone on the bed, her breathing quick and shallow. “What are you doing, Deputy?”

“Pacing us, Inspector.” He was going to give her the love and tenderness she needed, by any means necessary.

“No.”

“No?” He ran the pad of his index finger down the length of her spine, finding the sight of handcuffs against her bare back the most erotic view of his life.

“I want you
now
.” Her voice was even breathier than usual and it did crazy things to him, taking him to the very edge of his control.

“You’re going to get me now, sweetheart. All you can take and more.”

Darcy absorbed the feeling of heavy metal around her wrists, then she processed how she felt about it.

Jared arranged her carefully with effortless strength, until she found her feet on the floor and her torso draped across the mattress. With her hands bound, it was a vulnerable pose. A shiver of anticipation coursed across her skin in a wave of goose bumps.

His lips whispered along her arm from shoulder to fingertip. “You’re so fucking hot in handcuffs.”

Hearing the lust in his voice spurred her into a feverish desire. Her breasts were tender, the nipples furled tightly against her rumpled sheets. Her pussy was damp and swollen, aching for the feel of his big cock pounding into her.

“Jared…I need you.” She felt cold inside. Distant. As if a part of her had shied away and retreated, like it had when Dani died. Jared had lured her out when he’d entered her life, made her start thinking beyond the moment, enabling her to envision a day when she might be able to put Dani’s death behind her and get her life back. She needed him to do it again, make her
feel
again.

“I know.” His hands slid under her and cupped her breasts. He nuzzled his lips just below her ear. “I need you, too.”

He caught her nipples between thumb and forefinger, tugging
gently. His cock brushed against her hands and she clasped him, her eyes closing when he groaned and thrust into her touch.

He was hard as a rock and hot. She squeezed her thighs together, fighting off the building throb. She’d wanted to make him come in her mouth, wanted to hear his pleasure. Taste it. Drink it down.

“Let me suck you off,” she said in what might have passed for a plea.

“Later.”

Darcy heard him move behind her, felt his hands cupping the backs of her thighs in the crease just below the curves of her buttocks. His breath gusted gently over the slick lips of her sex. She tensed in expectation.

“Such a pretty pussy,” he murmured. “I’m going to eat this cunt every chance I get for the rest of your life, Darcy. I’m going to shove my tongue in your hot little hole and tongue-fuck you so often you’ll feel strange when my mouth’s not buried between your legs.”

The rawness of his passion for her continued to astonish her. It mirrored her own in a way that felt like…kismet, a concept her rational mind scoffed at. But there was no denying that being with Jared felt like being half of a whole, two individuals drawn to one another by a fiery magnetic pull that was irresistible.

She bit her lip and quivered violently as he licked leisurely through her cleft, tracing her folds slowly and so gently that the touch of his tongue was like the kiss of a butterfly’s wings. Her hips circled into the teasing strokes, but he wouldn’t be rushed. When he finally pushed into her as he’d promised, she moaned into the bedding, so close to coming she could taste it.

Pushing her legs apart, Jared opened her farther, thrust his tongue faster, showing her with his greedy voracity how much he loved going down on her, how much pleasure he took in the carnal intimacy. His groans made her hotter. Wild and desperate. His
morning stubble scraped along her tender skin; the rough silk of his hair brushed over her in a whisper of a caress. She gasped and writhed, her skin misting with sweat as his tongue fucked relentlessly into her, making her cream for him until her inner thighs were wet with it.

“My clit,” she begged, her muscles trembling with the strain. “Lick my clit.”

Instead, he moved in the opposite direction, rimming the pucker of her ass with the pointed tip of his tongue. Darcy cried out, the tight ring of muscle flexing in delight. With a groan, he took her there with a lush dark kiss, pushing into her and thrusting shallowly.