This was the animal urge part. His eyes held a need of a different kind, though. The pretty, ruthless god planned to claim what he believed to be already his. To possess her. It frightened her a little to think that he could do just that. Frightened her even more that she wanted him to do it.
It didn’t take much. A few more of those deep, plundering strokes inside her, and Caroline couldn’t have held back the climax even if she’d wanted to. She didn’t. But she refused to go falling over that edge alone.
Knowing exactly how to undo him, she lifted her hips, clamping her knees around him and dragging him harder into her. She let the muscles in her body force him into joining her. Her vision blurred, but still she watched him. And he watched her...while they fell together.
Caroline could feel those strings tightening around her, and while Jack gathered her into his arms and kissed her, she prayed for so many things. That this wouldn’t be the mistake she was certain it was. Because those strings weren’t just about love and broken hearts. They were about priority and focus.
And those strings could get them both killed.
Chapter Nine
Caroline still slept like a rock. Jack now had proof that it was something about her that hadn’t changed. Facedown, arms outstretched and butt naked on his bed, she’d slept all night and then through the beep of his morning alarm. Ditto for staying sacked out during his shower and the phone calls he’d gotten and the ones that he’d made.
While Jack would have liked to let her sleep even longer, he had things to do that couldn’t wait. So he poured a huge mug of black coffee that he’d brewed strong enough to the point of being bitter. Just the way Caroline liked it. He added a single ice cube to it to cool it down enough for her to drink it fast—which she would do.
When he went back into the bedroom, he had to push aside the punch of attraction he got from seeing her in his bed. The attraction got another punch when he recalled in perfect detail all the things they’d done there.
Oh, man.
He really needed to figure out a way to deal with what he felt for her so he could do everything possible to keep her out of danger. That had to be his mission now because he couldn’t lose her again.
She stirred the moment Jack held the mug near her nose, and then he moved it so her flailing hands wouldn’t knock into it and spill it. Yawning and groaning at the same time, she lumbered to a sitting position and groped to take the coffee. Jack kept hold of it, too, until he was certain of her grip.
No sips for her. As expected, she downed several long gulps as if it were the cure for all ills, before she looked up as if just realizing he was there. She smiled until her attention landed on his clothes.
“You’re dressed,” she said, frowning now.
“Been up for a while.” Jack eased down on the bed next to her, but not too close. If he touched her, he’d be toast. “You need to slap me. I forgot to use a condom last night.”
“Uh.” Caroline repeated that sound, pushed her hair from her face. “I’m on the pill. I started it last month to regulate my periods.” She added that last part in a barely audible mumble, and continued, “I haven’t been with anyone since, well, just since.”
Judging from the way her face flushed, that seemed to embarrass her. Ironic, since she was stark naked.
Something his body had noticed, of course.
Actually, what his body wanted to do was get back in that bed with her and go for another round or two. Not going to happen, though. But the comment that embarrassed her pleased him more than it should have. Which was stupid. Because the reason she hadn’t been with anyone else was because she’d been hurt and not because of some unremembered commitment to him.
“Zeller still hasn’t returned my calls, but Kellan texted me,” Jack explained, forcing his mind back where it belonged, and it darn sure shouldn’t be on her breasts. “The warrant came through on the missing girl from New Beginnings, and we have the file. Lily Terrell’s coming into the sheriff’s office with her lawyer in—” he checked his watch “—about an hour.”
“An hour,” she repeated, and she sounded a little panicked now.
“I’d like to be there to hear what Lily has to say about those files,” Jack went on, “and I don’t want you here alone. Raylene’salready gone home, but Gunnar’s her relief, and he’s waiting out front in a cruiser to take us in.”
That got Caroline scrambling off the bed and into his bathroom. Gulping down coffee and mumbling, she turned on the shower. What she didn’t do was shut the door, so he got even more of the drive-Jack-crazy peep show of her naked body behind the clear glass of the shower stall.
“I had your other things brought over from the WITSEC house,” he called out to her. “They’re in a suitcase next to the vanity.”
While she showered, Jack gathered up what little willpower he had left and went back into the kitchen to finish his own coffee. He then phoned Teagan. It was his second call to her that morning. The first one had been an hour ago, so maybe she had something on how the location of the WITSEC house had been breached.
“You’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you,” Teagan said the moment she answered, and that caused Jack to groan.
“What happened?” he snapped, trying to steel himself for what would be bad news.
“All the WITSEC files are intact. None of them have been tampered with.” She didn’t snap at him, but there was irritation in her voice that let him know he might have preferred that to whatever else she was about to tell him. “I think the breach came from the laptop Caroline was using, the one you had couriered to me. Did you know she has hacking skills?” Teagan tacked on to that without even pausing.
“Yeah. One of her many talents,” he grumbled. Along with picking locks, hot-wiring cars and driving him crazy. “There were filters on that laptop,” Jack pointed out.
“Caroline got past them, and because her skills are better than ours, it took the geeks all night to find it. Several of the sites she used to do a search on Eric Lang had a tracker on them.Something experimental and beyond my skill set to explain. It’s called Geo-Trace. It wouldn’t have alerted her, and it was well hidden in the website codes. But the geeks think that’s how someone found her.”
