Colorado 02 Sweet Dreams (53 page)

“They didn’t question her,” I told him something he knew.

“She’s been out. They will soon’s they can.”

“Then it’s done? They’ll find him?”

“Unless I’m wrong, he didn’t come prepared. She’ll have seen him or somethin’ that identifies him. He fucked up. They always fuck up and he fucked up. Cops’re hopefully keepin’ an eye out. He knows he fucked up and he’s probably gone.”

“But he had a knife,” I pointed out.

“He uses a hunting knife. Probably keeps it clipped to his belt.”

“I still don’t get it. Why would he –?”

“Sometimes even monsters can feel the touch of a good soul,” Tate said gently. “Sunny’s a good soul. He’s convinced he’s doin’ right, teachin’ bad girls a lesson. He knew he had a good girl. He knew he was doin’ wrong. He did her there, right where we found her, left her bike, left her clothes, left the evidence of the struggle, left a trail. He’s smarter than that. Maybe he was freaked out or maybe, after what he did to Sunny, knowin’ she wasn’t his usual prey, that he hurt a good girl, he wants to get caught.”

I looked out the windshield as Tate turned into his drive. The entire time he drove down it and swung into the garage he opened with the remote, I thought about Sunny being a good soul but still finding herself attacked by a monster.

Tate switched off the truck, I grabbed my purse, hopped out and then opened the backdoor to reach in and grab one of our bags. Tate had the other one. He waited for me to precede him, I skirted my car in the garage and went to the mudroom. I dumped my purse and the bag on the floor the instant I got in.

“Toss that there, honey, I’ll worry about them tomorrow. I need a shower,” I murmured, not looking back as I walked into the hall. I kept going, flipping on the light switch by the dining room table.

Buster came out of the bedroom and stretched in the hall, booty in the air, paws straight out in front of her. She righted when I got close and asked a questioning “meow”.

I cooed nonsensically at her, leaving her for Tate who she preferred anyway. She liked me well enough but she definitely knew who her daddy was. I went into the bedroom, right to the nightstand where I switched on the light.

I started for the bathroom but got waylaid with an arm around my belly. I was pulled back, turned into Tate’s body and his arms curved around me.

“Tate,” I said looking up at him and putting my hands on his pectorals, “my hair is straggly, I still have chlorine on me. I need a –”

“You love me.”

My breath caught and my fingers automatically curled into fists against his chest.

“I –”

“Love me.”

“Tate,” I whispered.

“You said it, Ace.”

“It was the moment,” I quickly (and somewhat desperately) half-lied. It was the moment but it was also the truth. “I was having a good time with you and Jonas and I –”

“You protected him.”

I blinked then asked, “What?”

“When Neeta was there, fuck, before she even got there you had hold of him but after she did what she did, you got hold of him again and used your body to shield him.”

“That was messed up,” I said softly. “Anyone would do that.”

“Wasn’t anyone doin’ it, it was you. It was you doing handstands with him in the pool and you makin’ him eggs too.”

“Tate.”

“And bringin’ me coffee.” He paused, his face changed, shifted, that tender look came into it, not the soft and warm one, the tender one that was so sweet it made my heart stop beating and he kept talking quietly. “Long’s I can remember, he wakes rough. Takes him awhile to shake it off. You brought me coffee and left so I could be with him.”

“I didn’t know that, I just… I’m a waitress,” I explained lamely. “I bring people drinks. It’s instinct.”

He pressed his lips together.

Then he muttered, “Babe.”

“Tate,” I whispered. “I need a shower.”

Very unfortunately, he returned to his earlier subject. “You told me you love me.”

“Can we talk about that tomorrow?” I asked. “Or, um… the day after that?”

“No,” he answered.

“Captain, I was just… it was just… the moment.”

His brows drew together.

“So you don’t love me?”

My eyes slid to the side. “Well…”

“Lauren, eyes on me,” he ordered and of their own accord my eyes moved back to him and, with one look at him, my heart slid straight up into my throat.

His face was still tender but his eyes were intense, burning into mine.

His head bent and his face got close to mine.

“Say it again,” he demanded gently.

I felt the pulse in my throat beating. I licked my lips and stared into his eyes.

“Baby, say it again,” he repeated.

“I don’t want –”

His arms gave me a squeeze.

“What’d I tell you?” he asked.

“About what?” I asked back, not following.

“About bein’ safe here,” he answered.

“This isn’t safe,” I whispered.

“Why not?”

“I’m out there,” I found my mouth admitting, unable to hold it back and then it kept talking. “You… I’m out there and it doesn’t feel safe.”

“Babe, you aren’t out there.” His arms gave me another squeeze. “You’re right here.”

“You know what I mean,” I said quietly.

“I need you to say it again,” he told me.

“Why?” I asked, my voice pitching higher.

“So I can say it back, Ace.”

My body locked and I stared up at him.

“You –?” I breathed.

“Yeah,” he cut me off.

Oh.

My.

God.

My body unlocked and melted into his.

“Really?” I whispered.

“Oh yeah,” he whispered back, starting to move, taking me with him, shuffling us toward the bathroom.

My eyes filled with tears.

His hands went into my t-shirt.

“Tate –”

“Time to shower.”

“Tate –”

I said no more because he kissed me. I kissed him back. Somehow he got us naked and in the shower. I wasn’t paying much attention because of what his hands and mouth were doing and because I was assisting in the getting us naked part. Once in the shower there was soap and shampoo, on both of us, but I didn’t pay much attention to that either.

My mind honed into my body around the time he lifted me with his hands at my behind, my legs went around his hips, he pressed me to the tiled wall and, with the water raining down on us, he slid inside.

I pressed my head against the tiles, held on tight with all my limbs and he moved in and out of me, gentle, slow.

“Work with me,” he said against my neck. “Touch your clit, baby.”

I did what he asked.

Brilliant. So brilliant, I moaned.

“That’s my girl,” he muttered, his head coming up, his cock sliding in and out, his mouth touched mine. “You’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you, Laurie?”

“Anything,” I whispered and it was the truth.

“Put up with my shit.”

“Yes,” I breathed, rolling my finger.

“Take care of my kid.”

“Yes.”

“Take care of my house.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Eat you how I want, fuck you how I want, sweet, hard, dirty.”

“Yes.”

“You’ll get dirty for me?” he asked.

It was building and I wasn’t paying attention to what I was saying.

Therefore I promised, “Anything, Tate.”

But that wasn’t a lie either.

He started moving faster, going deeper.

“Then you’re gonna come for me, Laurie.”

He was right. I was.

“Yes,” I breathed.

“Say it,” he demanded, going faster, beginning to pound.

“I’m going to come for you, baby.”

“No, honey, say it.”

My eyes opened, looked directly into his and I knew what he meant.

“I love you, Tate,” I whispered against his mouth.

Definitely pounding now, his hands pulling my hips in to meet his thrusts and I heard the whimper slide out of me as it built higher.

“Say it again,” he growled.

“I love you,” I repeated.

“Again,” he demanded but I couldn’t. It was happening.

“Baby –” I moaned.

“Fuckin’ say it,” he commanded, pounding hard now, exquisite and it hit me.

“I love you,” I whispered on a hitched breath and he knew what that meant, he’d heard it enough times and his mouth opened over mine, taking my cry.

I was still coming when his teeth bit my bottom lip, his hips drove into mine and he growled, “Love you too, baby. Christ,” he clipped, the power behind his thrusts building even higher. “Fuck, but I love you.”

His mouth opened over mine, his tongue invaded and then he groaned deep into my throat, his hips bucking hard, pounding me into the tile as he came.

He held me aloft as we both came down but his mouth left mine to trail down to my neck and his cock moved slow again, gliding in and out. I wrapped both my arms tight around him and held on.

He loved me. Tatum Jackson, ex-football star, ex-cop and current badass bounty hunter hot guy loved me.

He loved me.

I closed my eyes and smiled.

“Feel safe, baby?” he asked my neck.

“Yeah, Captain,” I answered, holding tighter with all my limbs.

He slid in and stayed there, I opened my eyes and his head came up so he could look into them.

“So my good girl’s gonna get dirty for me?” he asked, his lips slightly turned up at the ends.

I pulled back, stupidly, since I was tight to the wall and had nowhere to go. He felt and it and pressed deeper into me, his lips turning up more.

I bit my lip, let it go and mumbled, “Um…”

“Don’t worry, Ace, I’ll break you in easy.”

I’d thought about the stuff we’d already done. None of it was dirty, exactly, but a lot of it was wild and out of control so I wondered what dirty would entail.

“Maybe you should explain dirty,” I suggested.

“More fun to show you.”

“Tate –”

He stopped me speaking by touching his mouth to mine.

Then he said, “You can trust me Laurie.” His voice got deeper, that growl vibrating through it. “Swear to God, baby, there will never be a time when you can’t. Yeah?”

I looked at his face. He wasn’t smiling anymore, not even a hint of it. This was important. He was serious.

“Yes,” I answered softly which earned me another light kiss.

He slid out and dropped me to my feet. Then he turned me to the spray, my back to him, his face went into my neck and his arms went around me, one going south, his fingers gently invading to wash me clean.

We got out, toweled off and I lotioned because I was in Colorado and as exhausted, and sated, as I was, there was no way I was missing lotioning. Tate ran his hands through his hair. I combed mine. We brushed our teeth standing together at the sink. Tate left the bathroom while I moisturized. I walked into the bedroom, around the bed to the closet. I grabbed undies and a shelf bra camisole, pulled the towel from around me, tugged them on and met him in bed.

“My hair’s going to be a rat’s nest tomorrow, sleeping on it wet,” I stated inanely because what did you do after you had fantastic sex in the shower all the while sharing avowals of love with a badass biker?

Tate turned out the light and then turned to me, pulling me face to face.

“Lucky that’s an easy fix, Ace.”

“It means you can’t look at me first thing in the morning,” I informed him and he burst out laughing and pulled me deeper into his arms.

I snuggled into his chest, Tate kissed the top of my head.

“Wiped, Ace,” he muttered.

“Okay,” I muttered back.

“Sweet dreams, baby,” he whispered.

“You too, Captain,” I whispered back.

And for the first time, even after what had transpired that day and that night and three refills of diet pop, I fell asleep before Tate.

* * * * *

My body jolted and I came awake when I heard the noise.

My eyes opened and I saw Tate’s back in the moonlight. I was snuggled up to him, my arm draped around his waist.

I came up on an elbow at the same time Tate did. We both looked over our shoulders to the window.

Another rap sounded on it and I could see the pale knuckles and the ghostly pale face surrounded by dark hair that almost, but not quite, faded with the night.

Neeta.

“You have got to be… fuckin’… shittin’… me,” Tate whispered slowly as we both lay there, looking over our shoulders at the window.

“I think, since we have curtains,” I whispered back, “we might want to remember to use them.”

“Tate!” she shouted and her voice shouting my man’s name in the middle of the night while she was standing out on his deck after she made his life a living hell because he believed in her, he wanted to guide her back to herself and she didn’t let him; after she touched Jonas the way she did; after guessing that she didn’t touch him much better his whole life either physically or emotionally; after the night we had, Sunny in the hospital, Shambles in shambles; after the last few months of topsy-turvy road guiding us to each other – I lost it.

I crawled over Tate and out of the bed. I felt his fingers try to grasp hold of my hips but I was on the move and on a mission and they slid right off.

“Ace, let me deal with this,” Tate said and I heard him moving but I went right to the closet, my mind buzzing with Brad, with Neeta, with my Dad’s heart attack, with Tonia dead, with Bubba off fishing – I was focused. That focus was on the fact that I could not take one more thing and I was absolutely not going to allow Tate to take anymore.

My hands searched through my clothes in the dark closet, I felt a pair of shorts and I dragged them on then exited the closet buttoning and zipping them.

“Dammit, Lauren,” Tate clipped, I heard him behind me but I was on the move, going faster, darting down the hall.

I stopped at the sliding glass door to switch on the light and I saw Neeta outside by the door. My hand went to the lock on the door and I slid it down.

“I said, let me deal with it,” Tate was right behind me.

I whirled, my shoulder glancing off his bare chest, the deep recesses of my mind noticing he was wearing jeans but I was intent and nothing, not even big, bad Tate was going to stop me.