I couldn’t help it. No matter how much my brain told me to keep my hands to myself until we talked things out, I reached over and put my hand on his arm. “I missed you too.”
“Can I ask something?” He seemed to steel himself. “Why didn’t you come to me to talk? I would’ve listened to you about everything. I could have held you while–”
His voice cracked, and his hands tightened on the wheel. A moment later, we pulled into his garage, and the moment the car was still, he turned toward me, a foreign, pleading expression on his face.
“All I’ve been thinking since I left the hospital is that you’re going through all of this, and I’m not there to go through it with you.” He took both of my hands in his. “I failed you. You were on that street because of me. You were alone because of me. I should have stayed with you. Better, I should have taken you back inside and told Elise to leave. You should have been my priority.”
I shook my head and gently pulled my hands away. “Your child should be your priority. I would never ask you to choose me over him or her.”
He opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again. He got out of the car and came around to my side to open my door. He held out a hand, and after a moment, I took it, letting him help me to my feet. His eyes met mine as he threaded his fingers between mine and tightened his grip, and I knew he was waiting for me to pull away again. This time, I didn’t.
“I brought you here because I wanted to show you something.”
He didn’t expound as he took me into the house. As we walked through, I looked around, half expecting it to be different than I remembered. A week and a half had to have been enough time for Elise to leave her mark, especially since she’d lived here not too long ago. Other than a few additional dirty dishes, everything looked the same. Either Elise hadn’t made any changes in this part of the house yet, or something else was up.
We went up the stairs, and a flash of heated arousal sparked low in my belly. Logically, I knew there were things to talk about before I could fall into bed with him, but my body craved the contact, no matter how much I told myself that I needed to be strong.
We walked past his bedroom door and went into the second door on that side of the corridor. What had once been a guest room was now empty and painted a pastel yellow. Even without furniture, this would obviously be a nursery. A door to the right stood open, revealing the master bathroom that was attached to Jalen’s bedroom. Another door on the other side of the room was open as well, this one to a smaller bathroom.
“Once the paternity test is done,” he finally broke his silence, “I’ll know whether this needs to be a nursery connected to my room and to a guest room, or if I can find another use for it. Maybe something a bit more… adult.”
I shivered at the heat in his voice but pushed my desire down, so I could focus on the important part of what he’d said. “Has she moved in yet?”
“No. It won’t be like that.” He pulled me through the master bathroom and into his bedroom, leading me over to a chair. I sat down, and he let go of my hand, so he could sit on the edge of the bed. “I did some research, and there’s a non-invasive paternity test that’s ninety-nine percent accurate, and it can be done any time after the eighth week. As soon as I knew you were safe, I scheduled an appointment for Elise and me to go to the doctor and get it done. I haven’t gotten ahold of her yet to tell her about it, but by this time next week, we should know if I’m the father or not.”
A week. Just a single week more of not knowing. I supposed if Jalen could handle that, so could I.
“And if you are?”
“Then I’ll go to doctor appointments with her. I’ll make sure she’s taking care of herself. I’ll furnish and decorate the nursery.”
“And the other room?”
“I’ll make sure it has everything a mother would need, but if Elise wants anything more than that, she’ll have to bring it herself.”
“She’ll be living here then.”
Jalen moved into a crouch and took my hands. “She will have a guest room while the baby’s young so that neither of us has to try to do the feedings and all that alone. And if I need to get a nanny because Elise wants to travel around modeling again, that’ll be the nanny’s room.”
I loved that he wanted to be involved in his child’s life instead of just sending a check every month, but my feelings were tempered by the fact that I still didn’t know where I stood.
“What about me?” I asked softly. “What role do I play here?”
He reached up to brush back some hair from my face. “Whatever role you want. I need you to be part of my life, Rona. If the baby is mine, I’ll take care of him or her, but I want to take care of you too. I don’t want to lose you because of a lapse in judgment before we met.”
I was silent for a minute, collecting my thoughts as Jalen leaned back on his heels. “You can’t do anything like you did at the auction. Never again. You can’t put yourself in that sort of danger. You must put your son or daughter first. That’s the only way this can work. If you promise me to keep yourself safe.”
“I promise,” he said sincerely. He put his hand over his heart. “Never again. Just, please, Rona, don’t shut me out.”
I held out my hand, and he took it, pressing it against his forehead.
“I was terrified,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I didn’t know where you were, what was being done–” The last word cracked, and he took a shuddering breath. When he spoke again, he sounded much calmer. “What I was thinking isn’t what’s important. What you need is what matters.”
I ran my fingers through his hair and leaned forward to kiss the top of his head. “Thank you for finding me. Thank you for coming for me.”
He raised his head, our faces inches apart. “I will always find you. No matter what it takes.” One corner of his mouth quirked upward. “Even if I have to break my previous promise about not doing anything stupid.”
I couldn’t help but smile in response. It wasn’t a surprise to hear him say it that way, and I knew he meant it. He wouldn’t have been the man I loved if he wasn’t willing to put his life on the line when he thought it was necessary.
“Do you think you could stay here tonight?” Jalen asked. “I couldn’t sleep last night, knowing you were alone at your place. I have plenty of rooms for you to choose from, and I promise I won’t touch you. I just need to know you’re here and safe.”
For a moment, I couldn’t figure out why he thought I wouldn’t want him to touch me. Then, it hit me. The doctors wouldn’t have told him anything about my examination, and I hadn’t told him anything about what I’d been through. All he knew was that I’d been kidnapped by the sort of men who auctioned off women.
“They didn’t rape me,” I said quietly. He flinched, but I kept going. He had to know. “They hit me and drugged me, but they didn’t sexually assault me.”
He muttered something under his breath, but I didn’t need to hear it to see the relief in every line of his body.
“I needed yesterday to process and rest,” I said. “I needed earlier today with Jenna to vent. Right now, I need something else.”
His hands went to my knees, and I could feel the heat through my jeans. “Anything.”
I put my hands on his and pulled them up my thighs. “Make me feel alive.”
He kept his eyes on my face as he undid my pants. I raised my hips and let him take my jeans and panties down at the same time. He tossed them aside and spread my legs, baring my pussy as he finally dropped his eyes.
“Lay back and relax,” he said. “Let me make you feel good.”
My eyelids fluttered as he kissed his way from my knees to my inner thighs, then switched to the other side. The faint scruff on his cheeks burned against my sensitive skin, and then something hot, soft, and wet was moving over even more sensitive skin. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to Jalen’s talented mouth and hands.
He kept his hands on my hips, holding me sti
ll as he worked his tongue between my folds and as deep inside me as possible. His nose brushed against my clit, and I jerked at the contact. From the moment he’d touched me, every nerve cell in my body had come alive, buzzing with anticipation. It wasn’t going to take much to set me off, and as his tongue traced around my opening, pleasure coiled into a tight ball, spinning faster and faster. A flick of his tongue across my clit, and I came.
“Ah!” My back arched, and my hips rose as I pushed myself against his mouth.
What had started as a breathless response to the welcomed release of endorphins turned into a half-scream as he fixed his lips around my clit and sucked hard. One climax became two, ripping through my body with a near-painful force.
I pushed at his head, desperate for respite even as my body craved more. He chuckled, the vibrations sending another wave of pleasure through me. He turned his face into my leg, letting my throbbing pussy have a break as he sucked on other soft skin, teeth worrying until I knew he left a mark.
“J,” I gasped and tugged on his hair. “Inside me. Please.”
He straightened, lips shining from my arousal. “Not yet.”
He reached for my sweater, and I raised my arms to let him pull it over my head, leaving me in only my bra. That was gone a moment later, and Jalen ran his hands over my sides and up to cup my breasts.
“You’re fucking gorgeous, you know that?”
He leaned down and took one of my nipples into his mouth. A long pull had me gasping and writhing beneath him. When he switched breasts, I grabbed his arms, dug my nails in. “Fuck, J.”
“I love watching the way your skin flushes when you’re aroused.” His teeth scraped sensitive skin. “Do you want gentle and tender, or do you want it rough?”
I blinked, confused by the apparent change of subject. “What?”
His tongue flicked out, teasing the tip for a few seconds before sinking his teeth into the soft flesh of my breast. I yelped, and he laughed, lifting his head.
“Do you want me to fuck you soft or hard? Gentle or rough?”
“Hard. Rough.” I dug my nails into his scalp, letting him see the greed in my expression. “Time for soft and gentle later.”
The raw passion on his face slipped for a moment. “Are you sure I won’t hurt you?”
I tugged him toward me. “Hard. Rough,” I repeated.
His mouth came down on mine, and he wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, holding me in place even as his free hand dropped between my legs. I whimpered as he shoved two fingers inside me, and he swallowed the sound. The digits twisted, rubbed against the sides of my channel, prepared me.
I tugged at his shirt, wanting to see and feel the skin that I’d been dreaming about. He broke the kiss and quickly tossed his shirt aside. I made a pleased sound as I raked my nails over his chest, teased his nipples. He put his mouth next to my ear.
“Fuck yourself on my hand, babe. Make yourself come on my fingers, and then I’ll let you have my cock.”
His words made me moan, and the sound only increased when I obeyed. I moved my hips, let my inhibitions fall away. Jalen didn’t see my scar. He didn’t judge how I responded to his touch, how good he made me feel. When he told me to do something, I knew he wanted me to let go and do it, not to overthink things.
He brushed his lips across mine, then kissed my jaw. He bit down on my earlobe, and I cursed, scratching his shoulders.
“Damn, you’re a little wildcat,” he murmured, with more amusement than pain in his voice.
“Sorry,” I breathed, bouncing my hips faster as I chased the fire growing in my belly.
“More,” he growled as he yanked on my hair, baring my throat. His thumb pressed against my clit and I scratched him again. “Mark me, babe. Make it so I’ll feel you for days.”
Damn if that didn’t just make me hotter.
He bit my neck, and I had the fleeting thought that I was going to have teeth marks where everyone could see them. The thought didn’t last long though because his knuckle rubbed against my g-spot, and I was gone.
When I came back to myself, I was on the bed, and a smug-looking Jalen was stretched out next to me. His pants were on but undone, exposing the hard steel of his erection. His hand moved slowly over his cock, and I watched his thumb swipe across the head, taking a bead of pre-cum and smoothing it across his skin.
“See something you like?” he teased in a low voice.
“I don’t know,” I teased right back. I loved when he was like this. “Are you going to put that thing to some real use or just play with it?”
He moved over me so fast that I barely had time to register the movement before his weight was on me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and that was all the urging he needed. He slid home with one smooth thrust, and we both went still for a moment, savoring the feeling of completeness that came with finding a perfect fit.
Then we were both moving. He drove into me with deep, punishing strokes, and I rose to meet him, each thrust sending sparks shooting through me. His muscles flexed and bunched under my palms as I ran my hands over every inch I could reach. Neither one of us spoke, but we didn’t need to, not with the connection between us so thick and real that I could almost see it.
When I came this time, he followed right behind me, both of us clinging to the other, wanting nothing more than to prolong the moment. Every inch of me ached and throbbed, but the new sensations drove away the lingering pains I had from what’d happened before, just like being with him made everything else fade away.
As Jalen rolled us onto our sides, I curled into his embrace and smiled. Now, I truly felt safe.
Fourteen
“I don’t know where you thought you were going, but you should have known that you wouldn’t get far.” Serge paced in front of me, a dangerous smile on his face.
The temperature in the room dropped, and my teeth chattered hard enough to make my jaw hurt. Goosebumps exploded across my skin, and I shivered, unable to stop. I couldn’t tell if it was more from the chill in the air or the anticipation of pain to come.
“That’s my Rona. Always trying to run away.”
My father lurked in the corner, flipping a knife back and forth between his fingers. Blood dripped from the blade and ran across the floor toward me. I tried to move away, but my limbs were frozen in place. I couldn’t leave, couldn’t fight. All I could do was wait.
“I tried being nice,” Serge continued. “Those were high-quality drugs. Plenty of people would’ve paid top dollar for a taste of what I gave you for free.”
“Nice doesn’t work with her,” my father said with a rusty laugh. “You gotta practically kill the bitch to get her to behave.”
“Fuck you.” I glared at him. If all I had was words and expressions, I intended to use them.
“Come on, little girl, you know that’s not how I do things,” my father said. “Serge, however, might want to get a little taste before he sells you off. I told him you weren’t a virgin, so it’s not like he has to worry about spoiling the merchandise.”
Serge grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. I liked it when Jalen did it, but this wasn’t even close to the same. His breath was hot against my cheek as he spoke.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” he said. “When I’m done with you, you won’t be able to move without remembering me. I’ll ruin you.”
The last statement echoed in my head as I jolted awake. It was a nightmare, not a memory, but that didn’t mean my pulse wasn’t racing. I rolled over, but I already knew that Jalen wasn’t there. There was something about him that made me hyper-aware of his presence, whether he was there or not.
I put my hand on his pillow anyway. It was cool, telling me he’d left a while back. Since we were at his place, I knew he wasn’t running away because of some weird freak-out. I assumed it was work, but I trusted him, wherever he was.
He hadn’t left me a note, but the robe and fresh towels in the bathroom told me he’d been thinking of me, and that was enough t
o make me smile. By the time I emerged from the shower, I’d shaken off the nightmare and was ready to get back to my normal life.
For me, normal life meant heading back to my PI office and waiting for people to come in and hire me to follow their cheating spouses. I called a car to pick me up, but I wasn’t stupid. I stayed inside this time, and when the car finally pulled into the driveway, I made sure the description matched what was on my phone. Then I took a picture of the car and the license plate, sent them to Jenna, Jalen, and Clay.
If I disappeared again, I’d make sure they had a trail to follow.
My driver was nice, and we made small talk as he took me to the office. Someone had already cleaned the sidewalk both in front of Burkart Investigations and my own building. The steps were cleared too. As I walked up to them, I checked my voicemail and listened to a call from Jenna. It looked like once I changed into something more professional, I’d be heading out to the Archer house.
Jenna was working with the FBI to find Serge and the other trafficked people, and that case took priority over everything else. It wasn’t quite my normal, but it was close enough.
“I read over your statement,” Agent Matthews said. “Have you remembered anything else that might help us find these guys?”
I almost told him that if his partner had listened to Jenna and Jalen, the FBI wouldn’t have needed to find the traffickers in the first place, but I liked Raymond Matthews, as much as I knew him anyway. It wasn’t his fault that Clay had blown off Jenna and Jalen. Based on the annoyed expression on the agent’s face every time he looked at Clay, I had a feeling Clay had already been hearing it from him anyway.
“Unfortunately, nothing new,” I said. “But if I think of anything, I’ll let you know. Maybe something Rona and I find will jar a memory loose.”
“Are you sure you should be working this case?” he asked. “In the FBI, we usually discourage working on cases we have a personal stake in.”