Protecting Jessyka (SEAL of Protection) (Volume 6) (21 page)

Benny leaned down and picked her up with one arm under her knees and the other behind her back. Jess wrapped her arms around him, as she had before, and tucked her face into his neck. He carried her back over to Dude’s car and got into the backseat. The other men quietly climbed in as well, Abe in with Dude, Jess, and Benny. Mozart and Cookie joined Wolf in his car.

Dude turned on the engine and pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to the bar. Not a word was spoken as they traveled the short distance. Finally pulling into
Aces
parking lot, Dude shut off his car and said, “I’m fucking proud of you, Jess. I don’t know all that went on out there, but you obviously used your head and you survived. From what I can tell, you protected Benny. We found the tracking device you left behind, it led us right to him. Good job.”

Jess buried her head deeper into Kason’s neck and simply nodded, too overwhelmed to even answer the big man in the front seat. His voice had been gentle, but it was still too much for Jess right then. All she could see was the pictures Brian had put in her head that night. Of Cheyenne and the other women, hurting, or dead.

Dude climbed out and opened the back seat of his car for Benny. “You need any help?” he asked Benny.

“I got it. Thanks man. I owe you.”

“You don’t owe us dick, and you know it.”

Benny just smiled at his friend. He settled Jess into the front passenger seat of his car and buckled her in. He kissed her forehead and closed the door. He jogged around to his side, still in Wolf’s borrowed socks, and climbed in. He eased out of the lot and headed back to his apartment. He couldn’t wait to hold Jess close and forget how they’d both come way too close to being killed or seriously hurt.

Chapter Nineteen

Benny held Jess against his side as he fumbled with the key to his apartment and opened the door. He didn’t take his arm from around her waist as he took most of Jess’s weight and propelled them inside. He dropped the keys in the bowl by the door and shut and locked the door behind them.

Without letting go of her, Benny walked them to the counter and snagged the small envelope off the counter that held two pain pills left over from Jess’s hospital visit the night Tabitha had died. She hadn’t needed to use any more after that first night, and Benny had put them in a large bowl filled with odds and ends on the counter.

Benny then turned and made his way down the hallway to the master bedroom. Jess hadn’t said a word, she simply clung to Benny’s side and went wherever he led her.

He took them inside his bedroom and into the master bathroom. Benny walked her over to the toilet seat.

“Sit, gorgeous, give me a second.”

Jess did as he asked. She eased down, with Benny holding onto her waist. Once she was sitting, Benny took his hands away from her and grabbed a cup from the counter and filled it with water. He shook out the pills and held them out to Jess along with the cup of water. She took both without protest and quickly swallowed the pills. She drank half the glass of water before handing it back to him.

Jess watched as Kason turned from the sink and pulled the shower curtain back. She fidgeted on her seat. She couldn’t quite read Kason’s mood and she was getting worried. She didn’t think he was mad at her, but since he wasn’t talking to her, she didn’t know for sure.

Kason tested the temperature of the water and Jess kept her eyes on him as he then grabbed his shirt and tore it off over his head and dropped it on the floor. He eased the socks off his feet then turned to look her in the eyes as he unbuttoned and unzipped his cargo pants and dropped those to the floor as well. Jess’s eyes widened as Kason then dropped his boxer briefs to the ground. He stood in front of her completely naked, the most handsome man she’d ever seen. He was hard in all the right places. He had muscles on top of muscles. Jess was confused, as it was obvious Kason wasn’t aroused, and wasn’t getting ready to have shower sex. His manhood hung flaccid between his legs. Jess hadn’t often seen him when he wasn’t turned on, and she wasn’t sure what to make of whatever was happening.

Benny knew he was probably freaking Jessyka out, but he couldn’t think of anything other than getting her clean and then holding her safe in his arms. The words she’d hurled at Brian tonight kept pinging around in his brain. He knew exactly what she’d been doing and he’d never felt more helpless in his life. He was very rarely helpless, and found he hated the feeling.

When the water was a comfortable temperature, he stepped over to Jess. She hadn’t moved, that alone told him she was probably in more pain than she’d ever admit to.

“Arms up,” Benny told her in a low voice. Jess immediately complied, and he helped ease her shirt over her head. Once the shirt was removed, Benny held out his hands palm up. “Let me help you stand.” Jess wasn’t wearing a bra, it was still in the pocket of his cargos, so there was no need for him to help her to remove it.

Jess put her hands in his and he took most of her weight as she stood up. Benny kneeled down, feeling Jess’s hands rest on his shoulders for balance, and untied both her shoes and eased them off her feet. Then, still kneeling, he unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans and carefully pulled them down her legs. He tapped her right foot and she shifted until it was off the ground. Benny steadied her as she stood on one foot. He pulled the leg of her jeans off that leg, then repeated the same actions on her other side.

Benny meant to keep everything clinical and medicinal, but he couldn’t help himself. Having her so close to him, and in one piece, he couldn’t stop himself from reaching forward and drawing Jess to him. Benny lay his cheek on her belly and wrapped his arms around her and rested the palms of his hands on her back. He felt Jess’s hands go to his head and gently caress him as he took comfort from having her safe in his arms.

Finally Benny looked up from his crouched position in front of her. “You’re okay, aren’t you, Jess?” he whispered, feeling raw inside.

“I’m okay,” Jess whispered back.

Benny nodded and rested his forehead against the small pooch of her belly for a moment. Finally, he took a deep breath and pulled back an inch. He took hold of her panties on each side of her hips and drew them down her legs. He held Jess steady as she stepped out of them.

Benny stood up fully and wrapped his arm around her waist again and helped her to the side of the bathtub. Not allowing her to step over the deep side of the tub because he knew it would only cause her pain, Benny lifted her bodily into the shower. He closed the curtain after he stepped in with her and eased them both back until the water was hitting Jess’s lower back.

He put both hands up to the side of her head and gently tipped it back until the water was running over her head. “Close your eyes, Jess, let me wash away the night.”

Benny felt Jess melt into his hold. He gently squirted some of her shampoo into his hand and lathered up her hair. He washed and rinsed her hair twice before working in a handful of conditioner.

While the conditioner was doing its thing, Benny turned Jessyka until her front was facing the warm spray of water. When she went to protest, Benny shushed her with his words. “Let me, gorgeous. Let me clean you.”

Jess nodded and Benny squirted some of his body wash into his hands. He needed her to smell like him. He wanted to rub a small piece of himself into her skin. He ran his hands over her chest and belly, then moved to her arms and hands. He carefully ran his soapy hands over her neck and face, making sure to leave not one inch of the skin that had been sprayed with Brian’s blood unclean. Squirting more soap into his hands, he then moved to her legs. He briskly cleaned her sex, then rubbed her back. Once Benny was convinced Jess was clean and there wasn’t one speck of Brian’s blood left on her, he turned her back around and gently rinsed the conditioner out of her hair.

Then while Jess stood in the spray of the water, Benny quickly ran soap over his own body, not bothering to watch what he was doing, he kept his eyes locked on Jess. He took a step toward her and she stepped back until the water was hitting Benny, and not her. After a quick rinse, Benny reached around Jess and turned off the water. He then pulled her into his side again and opened the shower curtain.

He grabbed a towel and dried every inch of Jessyka’s body before wrapping the towel around her. He lifted her out of the tub.

Benny watched as she turned to the sink and picked up her toothbrush. He wiped himself down quickly and then wrapped the towel around his own waist. Benny picked up his own toothbrush and followed Jess’s lead. When they were ready, he took both their towels and threw them on the floor of the bathroom, not caring if they sat in a wet heap on the floor all night, he picked Jess up as he had in the park. He put both arms around her and lifted her up until her feet were off the ground and clasped her to him. Her front to his front, then carried her into the bedroom. He gently put her down, pulled back the covers and encouraged Jess to climb in. He followed behind her after turning off the overhead light.

It was now nearing dawn. Between the kidnapping, her running through the park, being rescued, and then being questioned by the police, the morning sky was slowly lightening as the sun made its way across the globe.

Benny wrapped both arms around Jess and pulled her to him. She buried her face into his chest and went to wrap one leg around his.

“No, Jess, I don’t want any strain on that hip.”

Benny put his own leg around hers instead, and pulled her into his body.

They were both quiet for a moment, enjoying the feel of each other’s body, skin to skin. Jess broke the silence. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel this again.”

“I can’t decide if I want to beat your ass for everything you did tonight or make love to you until the only thing you can feel and think about, is me.”

“Do I get a choice? I choose door number two.”

Benny smiled for a moment at her words, then got serious again. “Seriously, Jess, I think you took ten years off my life when I saw him push you into that clearing. He threatened to kill you if I didn’t do exactly what he said. I bided my time, thinking I’d be able to get away after he got me where he wanted me. I didn’t know exactly who was behind tying my ass to that tree, he had me blindfolded as he led me out there, until I saw him shove you to the ground in front of me. What the hell were you thinking?”

Jess didn’t even raise her head, but instead snuggled closer to Kason and his arms got even tighter around her. “He sent me a picture of you bleeding and unconscious.”

Without letting her continue, Benny barked, “So?”

Jess finally lifted her head at that. “So?”

“Yeah, so? Jess, I’m a SEAL. There’s nothing you could’ve done, as a civilian, to help me.”

“That’s not exactly true.” Jess was getting mad now. “You’re not invincible, Kason. No one knew you were gone. No one knew where you were. Only some asshole who took your picture while you were
unconscious
and
bleeding
and sent it to
me
. Tex couldn’t find you in the middle of a fucking forest for God’s sake with nothing to go on. I knew I was tracked. I knew he could find
me
. I figured if I could get to you, you’d figure something out and Tex could rescue both of us. I didn’t know you’d be all tied up without any damn shoes on.”

She hiccupped and continued, obviously on a roll. Benny just let her get it out. Jess was so damn cute when she was riled up. He didn’t think he’d ever get sick of watching her.

“I knew Brian was an asshole, but I didn’t know he was
that
much of an asshole. I did the only thing I could think of. He wasn’t going to let me just waltz on out of there. It’s not like I could’ve said, ‘Hey, I’m just going to take my bra off because it has a tracking device in it.’ Dammit, Kason, what the hell are you smiling at?”

“I love you, Jess.”

Jess stopped mid-rant and stared at Kason. Her face crumpled and she bit out, “Oh fuck.”

Benny smiled tenderly at her and pulled her into his chest again.

“I love you so much, Kason. I was so worried about you.”

Benny heard her words mumbled in his chest and he put one hand on the back of her head and caressed her.

“I know, gorgeous, I love you too.”

“I d-d-didn’t know what to do.”

“You were amazing.”

“You weren’t wearing any s-s-shoes,” Jess wailed, obviously having reached her breaking point. “They were r-r-raping T-T-Tabitha.”

“I know, I’m so sorry.”

“I d-d-didn’t know, Kason. I swear I didn’t.”

“Of course you didn’t, Jess. I’d never think that about you.

“I made all that stuff up that I told him.”

“Jess. Hush. I
know
.”

“He was going to go back and kill you. He s-s-said he was going to make me put a b-b-bullet in your head. Then he said he was going to r-r-rape Caroline and fuck the other girls. I didn’t want his filth to touch them. I didn’t want you to d-d-die.” Jess lifted her head and looked Kason in the eye. “I killed him. I hit him with that cement block. Then I did it again. I didn’t stop even when he was on the ground and not moving. All I could see was Tabitha, and you, and Cheyenne and the others . . . I’m not sorry. I’d do it again if I had to.”

Benny reached up and took Jess’s head in his hands and held her still. He saw her red-rimmed eyes and her running nose. She’d never looked more beautiful. “Good for you. I’m so fucking proud of you, I can’t stand it. You didn’t back down, you thought on your feet and you did what you had to do. I’m not thrilled you were out there in the first place and that you put yourself out there though. I’m sorry as hell I couldn’t rescue or protect you, but you did it for yourself. I fucking love you so damn much.”

Benny kissed Jess once, hard, then drew back, not letting go of her head. “I’m sorry you had to kill him, I’d never want that on your conscience, but I’m not sorry he’s gone.”

Jess bit her lip, then pouted. “I didn’t get my night you promised me.”