She was good for him, he realized, buoyed by having her up there with him, enjoying the flight. But as the plane neared the city, his thoughts returned to the capture he’d made last night, to the scum he dealt with and the risks he took on a daily basis.
Kate was good for him.
Trouble was, he wasn’t good for her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Kate stared at the lights of Dallas through the floor-length glass windows in her living room. She’d tried to keep from falling back into the black mood she had been in that morning, but as the evening wore on, the sadness returned.
Jase had dropped her off and left to deal with some business he needed to handle. She figured some of it involved collecting the bounty on Randall Harding. He was back now, had returned with takeout from Luigi’s, the family-owned Italian restaurant around the corner.
The man could really eat and he had been hungry. Kate had mostly pretended to eat, moving the pasta around on her plate, taking an occasional bite of green salad. The food didn’t sit well in her unsettled stomach.
It was getting late. For the past couple of hours, Jase had been sitting at the kitchen table, working on his laptop. Kate had gone into her home office and answered some texts, tried to do her email, but it was hard to concentrate. Her mind kept spinning back to the cemetery, to the coffin in front of the mound of earth.
She walked back out to the living room, her eyes stinging at the memory as she stared through the glass. She blinked, and the lights of the city came back into focus. The sound of heavy footsteps reached her as Jase came up behind her. His blazer was gone, but he was wearing the same jeans and T-shirt he’d had on all day.
“It’s getting late, honey. You ready for bed?”
The words didn’t thrum through her the way they usually did. She felt none of the warm anticipation that usually stirred deep in her core. She turned and looked up at him. “You go on. I’ll be there in a minute.”
His gaze found hers, steady blue into her pain-filled brown. “You okay?”
“For a while, I was.” She sighed. “I can’t get her out of my head, Jase. I keep seeing her on that table in the morgue. I keep thinking of her in that satin-lined box.” She swallowed and shook her head. “I’m sorry. Maybe you should go home. I’m not very good company tonight.”
He studied her for several long moments, considering, as if making some sort of decision. “Let’s go.” He took her arm and urged her toward the bedroom. Maybe she could sleep, but she didn’t think so. He wouldn’t press her for sex, though. Not if she really wasn’t interested. There was a sweet side to Jason Maddox that few people got to see.
Her thoughts returned to the moment, and weariness washed over her as he led her through the bedroom door into the room done in pink she usually found so comforting.
He reached up and loosened the now-drooping knot that still held up her hair, took the pins out and set them on the dresser. She didn’t move as his fingers sifted through the heavy curls, spreading them around her shoulders.
“It’s been a long, hard day,” he said.
“Yes, it has.”
Then he cupped the back of her head, leaned down and kissed her. Slow and easy, not pushy but coaxing a reluctant response. Little by little, he shifted gears, took the kiss deeper, from gentle to hot, wet and wild.
Her body shot from cold to scorching. Kate gripped his heavily muscled shoulders as the kiss turned hard, rough and hungry. Heat crawled through her, prickled her skin, turned her mind to mush. Jason kissed her and kissed her. She felt like begging when he stopped.
A look of burning intent settled over his handsome face, a look she had never seen before. “Take off your clothes.”
She stared, her mind fuzzy. “What?”
“You heard me. Do it, Kate.”
Interest filtered through her, grew stronger when he peeled his T-shirt off over his head to reveal his sculpted chest. The eagle on his biceps promised to make her fly away.
“Do it, Kate.”
Her mouth went dry while her insides turned hot and liquid. She reached for the buttons down the front of her blouse, opened them one by one, her eyes on his face. He looked different, harder, more in command. The change in him intrigued her.
“Lose the jeans,” he said.
Heat slithered through her, settled in her core. She slipped off her sandals and unzipped the jeans she had changed into, pulled them down over her hips and stepped out of them.
“Get up on the bed.”
There was something erotic about being naked while he still wore clothes. She moved toward the bed and started to pull back the covers, but Jase shook his head.
