Drawing The Line (10 page)

“So that’s it?”
Serenity’s knees responded with a hard wobble, and she reached out to grasp the armchair in front of her in a flimsy effort to restore her balance. “He’s just…
free
?”

             
Jason stepped in, close enough for her to feel the warmth of his body on her flour-smudged arm, and the near contact sent an odd shot of comfort through her before he stiffened and pulled back. “Brody’s not in jail, but he’s not exactly free, either. First of all, the judge hit him with the maximum amount for bail, which shows the charge is being taken seriously. And now that he’s been formally charged, we have some leeway to investigate him more aggressively than before. If the guy so much as orders a hamburger, our vice squad is going to know if he wants pickles and mustard on it. And trust me, they want to nail him as badly as we do.”

             
Okay, but… “So I’m stuck here until the trial.”

             
The hitch of Jason’s shoulders beneath his suit jacket gave her all the answer she needed. “Yes.”

             
She grabbed for a deep breath, some last-resort Zen from her mother’s favorite yoga instructor—
anything
that would keep her frustration at a manageable level— but it was a complete and utter no-go. “And when is that?”

             
His eyes zeroed in on hers, bright blue and unyielding. “The judge granted Brody’s request to fast-track the trial. But opening statements still aren’t scheduled for another two months.”

             
No
way
. “I have a business to run, too! I can’t be gone from Mac’s that long.”

             
“We’ll work something out to keep you in regular contact with Jules. But your safety is the most important thing, and the best way to guarantee that is for you to remain in custody.”

             
A hot wash of unexpected tears pricked behind Serenity’s eyelids, and she squeezed her lids shut to keep them at bay. She wasn’t an idiot— the sixty seconds she’d looked into Brody’s eyes during the lineup had sent a lifetime’s worth of chills up her spine. Plus, if there
had
been someone lurking outside the kitchen last night, staying under police protection with Brody on the loose was not only smart, it was necessary.

             
But she didn’t have to take it lying down.

             
“Okay,” she said, resolve building in her chest. “But if we’re stuck here for the long haul, I want to know exactly what I’m up against, no holding back. And I want to know how to fight it.”

             
Jason’s shock was wildly evident on his face. “You want me to teach you how to go up against a guy like Brody?”

             
“Absolutely.”

             
Fifteen minutes later, when Jason had moved all the furniture to the periphery of the living room and changed into a pair of black basketball pants and matching T-shirt, Serenity’s
absolutely
took on a slightly less emphatic edge.

             
“When I said I wanted to learn how to fight Brody, I didn’t mean literally.” The guy had at least sixty pounds on her, with mean to spare. No way could she beat that.

             
But Jason shook his head. “No, you’re right. You deserve to know what’s going on, and it’s smart for you to know some basics.”

Serenity’
s throat threatened a rigid knot over the words forming there, but she forced them into the open air anyway. “So you think he’s going to try to find me.”

He paused. “Our informants on vice have heard a few rumors. Nothing we can prove
as an outward threat. But yes. I think that’s a safe assumption.”

             
“Oh.” A thin layer of paralyzing fear bloomed beneath her breastbone, threatening to spread out and swallow her, but Jason moved into her direct field of vision, so close that she had no choice but to drag her gaze over his.

“Which is exactly why it’s a great idea for you to
learn some self-defense. Every little bit helps.”

             
Serenity nodded, bolstered by his surety. “Okay, but Brody’s a total thug. He could squash me in about two seconds.” She ran her fingers over the fading bruise at the base of her hairline, an all-too present reminder of her attacker’s strength.

             
“He might be stronger, but you’re going to be smarter.” Jason guided her to the middle of the cleared-out space, pivoting on the faded china-blue area rug to face her. “Brody wants you quiet, but he’s not stupid. It’s likely he’ll try to take you to another location so he can, ah. Control the situation on his own terms.”

Serenity shivered
as her imagination served up some fill-in-the-blank details, and yeah. Maybe there were a few euphemisms she was willing to let him have. “So how do I outsmart him?”

“It depends. Obviously, you want as much space between the two of you as possible
. The more stuff in the middle, the better.”

Huh.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Unfortunately, it’s also not too likely. Brody’s not afraid to do his own
dirty work and he doesn’t take chances, so he’ll probably play it so he can get his hands on you.” Jason lifted his palms casually, and Serenity waited for him to gesture her into the next part of the lesson.

But instead, he wrapped both hands around her arms and had her back against his chest in less than a breath.

“Oh!” Her lungs seized and went into lockdown, heart slamming against her breastbone so hard, Jason had to be able to feel it against the arm he now had angled snugly over her torso.

“It’
s all about action and reaction, Ms. Gallagher,” he said, his breath hot as it curved into her ear. “So what are you going to do?”

E
ven though it clicked in the back of her mind that this was part of the drill and that Jason would never really hurt her, Serenity froze. “I…I don’t know.”

“Well the first thing you need to do is relax.”

Right. And next she could do backflips all the way across the area rug. “Are you kidding me?” She let loose a sardonic laugh. “Look at my circumstances here.”

“I
am
looking at your circumstances. If you freeze up, you’re not going to be able to react. Just because I’ve got you doesn’t mean I’ve beaten you. Unless you let me.”

Jason’s voice was so calm, so laid-back and reassuring that she was able to scoop in a breath, then another. “I don’t want to let you.”

From over her shoulder, she saw his smile from her peripheral vision as much as she felt it next to her skin. “Good. Now think.”

While his hold on her wasn’t particularly rough
, the intense cedar scent of his closeness filled Serenity’s nose and threatened to short out her senses, and the feel of his lean hips snug against her back sped up the passage of air to her already taxed lungs.

Nope. No way. It might be the ugliest escape in the history of self-defense, but she could do this.
Gathering her will, she squeezed the muscles in her belly as tight as they’d go and tipped her pelvis forward, thrusting back into Jason’s body with the resulting momentum. He hitched in surprise, and hot adrenaline clashed with pure instinct in her veins. Serenity used the split-second distraction and the space it had created to her advantage, jerking one foot from the floor to try and sidestep his grasp.

But the heavily-soled heel of her
kitchen clog smashed directly onto Jason’s bare toes instead.

“
Crap! I’m so sorry!” She yanked the offending limb back off the carpet as Jason exhaled in a sharp grunt, but the move— combined with the arm he still had wrapped around her— turned her footing into toast. Serenity threw her hands out in an effort to regain her fading balance, but with all the furniture moved well out of grasp, the only thing within distance was the person she was tangled up in.

And they were about to take one hell of a carpet nap.

Serenity braced for impact as her only remaining shred of equilibrium kicked out from under her. But at the last second, Jason arced her around with a swift twist, his body firmly beneath hers as he hit the floor and she landed straight in his lap.

Oh God.
Oh
God
.

“No. Just us. But you sure as hell are a force of nature,” Jason rasped on a groan, and only then did Serenity realize she’
d blurted the words out loud. She lifted her head from the spot where she’d intuitively buried it in his shoulder, pressing her palms into the thick nap of the rug to push up and scan his face and upper body.

“I am so, so sorry. Are you okay?” Serenity leaned back in, skating one hand from his temple to the smooth line of his jaw, checking to make sure there were no obvious injuries to his head.
Everything looked intact, and his gorgeously blue eyes were wide open and alert.

“Yeah.
I’ll live.” He blinked a few times without the suggestion of seeing anything, and oh God, she’d maimed a police officer with her total idiocy. “And don’t be sorry.”

“I smashed your
foot into the carpet and knocked you all the way to the ground,” she protested, but Jason reached out to capture her roving fingers with his own.  

“
No, you did exactly what I asked you to. You reacted.”

All at once, Serenity registered the hard muscle of his abdomen beneath her angled-open hips, the
inches-only proximity of her face to his mouth, and the Caribbean blue eyes that weren’t just wide and alert, but wide and alert and focused darkly on her lips.

And then she reacted again.

CHAPTER EIGHT

              As Serenity levered forward to bring that perfect pink mouth dangerously close to his, Jason knew having her in his lap with that serious-as-hell expression on her face was a very bad idea. It was his job to keep things calm, cool and professional, to protect her and work the case until he uncovered enough evidence to put Dirk Brody permanently behind bars so she could go home.

             
It was
not
Jason’s job to press up and slant his mouth over hers in one hot stroke.

             
But he did it anyway.

Her lips were soft on his
, just a whisper of warm skin completely at odds with the rush of electricity winding around it, and he traced the rim of her upper lip with his tongue in a wordless request for more. Serenity released a sigh as Jason parted her lips to deepen the kiss, and the vibration of her breath shot through every inch of his body. Her denim-covered thighs sparked wicked friction along his waist as she rocked forward for better access, pushing him to arc his tongue against hers in a demanding sweep. She tasted like the answer to a dare, hot and forbidden and so fucking sexy, all Jason could do was up the ante as he grabbed her hips to slide the seam of her jeans across his aching cock.

Screw the rules. This woman was blowing his mind.

“
Oh
.” A soft moan sifted up from Serenity’s chest, and he met it greedily, kissing, testing and exploring her mouth with want that quickly turned into a bidding of more-right-now from somewhere deep beneath his skin. Her crisp linen scent mingled with the taste of her as he broke from her lips, threading his fingers through the glossy black fall of her hair. As if she’d read his lust-filled mind, Serenity arched under his mouth, cupping the back of his neck with a hot palm to grant him full access to the bare skin below her ear.

“
Kiss me. Right there.”

The velvety demand laid waste to Jason’s last ounce of resolve, and he gav
e in to it with a reckless slide of his tongue. Christ, she was going to destroy him right here on the floor if she didn’t stop pressing against his mouth like that, encouraging him to kiss his way down the column of her neck to where the deep V of her sweater met the top swell of her breasts.

Jason reached down low, gr
asping the flair of her hips to notch their bodies together with dark suggestion that belied the clothing still between them. But rather than return to Serenity’s lips, he followed the trail of flushed skin over the line of her collarbone, lifting his hands to the tiny buttons on her sweater as his mouth followed the path of his fingers.

Even if they had a year
, he wouldn’t get enough of her.

The dark green edges of soft cotton fell away to reveal a thin layer of off-white lace, and
a groan tore from Jason’s chest as he lowered the fabric just enough to reveal the edges of her honey-colored nipples.