Lucky SEAL (Lucky Devil #2) (12 page)

Jennifer turned on the lamp and faced the man she wished with all of her being she didn’t have to leave tonight. Even if their time together only lasted until he returned to duty, Jennifer could feed on those memories for the rest of her life. When she first met Rourke, Jennifer couldn’t imagine being with a man she knew would be leaving her at any time. Now she would give anything for just a little more night with him, because Rourke wasn’t just any man. No matter how wrong she may be, Jennifer would always think of him as her man.

Rourke took up so much space. He made the area seem even smaller than usual. Her cozy little alcove became a closet with Rourke in it. He was taking in the area wide-eyed with big hands on his lean hips. He took in her three expensive dresses hang under the shelf that held an array of romance novels and the two pairs of heels on the floor. He then looked past Jennifer to the neatly made bed and the lamp in the corner. That was all there was to her temporary home, and she’d been so grateful to have it.

Jennifer noticed what Rourke was wearing while he looked her up and down. Her outfit was ridiculous, but it had done its job, so well in fact, that not even Rourke had recognized her. The darkness of the kitchen when she entered didn’t hurt either. She’d also been able to escape capture by walking right out of her apartment building in full view of one of Evan’s men, with some help from Marcy. Rourke looked mouthwatering in dark jeans and a crisp, cream-colored button-up shirt open at the throat. His feet were still encased in combat boots under the jeans. The man was mouthwateringly handsome in his rough way.

“What the fuck is going on here, Jennifer?”

“I’ve been hiding,” she told the truth. It was somewhat plain to see anyway.

“Are you married? Are you hiding from your husband?” he snarled the question, and his eyes burned into her.

“No! I’ve never been married. I’ve never really even had a really serious relationship. I told you that. I’ve always been too busy. I was career-minded, so I didn’t get too close to anyone if you must know.” She was insulted. They’d had sex twice, and he thought she might be married?

“Fuck!” Rourke ran a hand through his cropped, wheat colored hair. “I’m sorry, alright. I’ve been racking my brains for a week trying to figure out why you’d just walk away like that, a-fucking-gain. A husband was a damn good reason.” He was right, that would be a good reason for the way she’d fled.

“I want the whole story, Jennifer. Every bit of it, but first I need you.” Rourke erased the space between them and took Jennifer into his arms.

He kissed her with abandon. Not holding anything back. He told Jennifer he needed her, and he’d meant it. She could feel every ounce of worry and frustration he’d been experiencing since she walked away from him a week ago.

Had it only been a week? It felt like it had been years since she tasted his hot mouth and melted into his strong arms. She wished she could stay right there with him in her private sanctuary forever. She couldn’t do that, but she could make one more memory with her sexy SEAL.

*   *   *

Rourke’s mind was spinning like a fucking roulette wheel. One moment he was teaching a little thug a lesson about respecting the church, and the next he was reeling from the surprise that the thug was a girl. Everything in him recoiled from the idea of striking a female, and he’d just slammed her around as if they were in a training ring.

His surprise turned to horror when he realized the intruder was his very own Jennifer. The woman he’d been ripping apart Vegas looking for over the past weeks. Rourke went back to Luc and enlisted him to help turn over every rock in town. Pride be damned. Rourke would beg for assistance and take advantage of every resource available to Luc through his more nefarious connections.

Someone had to know something about Jennifer, and Rourke was determined to find her. He’d spent hours riding around town on his bike looking for her. If Rourke wasn’t spending time with his mom and enjoying home cooked meals, he was searching for Jennifer. He wasn’t sleeping well and he was going a little nuts. He’d come to the church to hound the pastor for information again when he saw a shady looking character creeping around the back from an upper window. Just like that, he had Jennifer back in his sights.

Rourke’s heart settled into a steady gallop. His skin tightened with anticipation. He wouldn’t be turning his back on the evasive woman until he had some real answers. Maybe not even then. After only a minute of conversation, Rourke’s self-control was frayed. He wanted to shake the woman, but more than that, he wanted to hold her and ensure himself that she was real. He’d actually found her in the church’s soup kitchen.

After ensuring he hadn’t seriously hurt Jennifer, Rourke followed her into the storage room behind the kitchen. The hidden room he’d never noticed in spite of having grown up in the church distracted him momentarily while he looked around the sparse space. This was where she’d been hiding? No wonder Pastor Davis ejected him from the church. Jennifer was hiding under Rourke’s nose in the church.

From the beginning, Rourke had pegged Jennifer as a very wealthy but bored socialite. It was laughable now. Rourke didn’t know yet who she really was, but he knew he had to have her. Nothing short of learning Jennifer was an Al-Qaeda operative would stop him from trying to win her heart. She wasn’t married, and that made her fair game.

Rourke finished his quick perusal of her tiny room. When his eyes rested on Jennifer again, she was watching him with sadness and longing in her ocean eyes. Jennifer looked so small in her too large men’s clothing. She looked so sad and nervous. Maybe even embarrassed by her dilemma.

She kept running from him, but Jennifer wanted Rourke as badly as he wanted her. The energy scorching the air between them was alive, just as it had been from the moment they met. Rourke needed to get to the bottom of her predicament quickly if he was going to help her, therein helping himself, but first, he needed Jennifer in his arms.

“I need you now,” he heard himself say in explanation or maybe apology when he lunged at her, erasing the space between them to claim her lips. Once Rourke saw Jennifer standing there looking so fragile with that little bed behind her, the only coherent thought in his head was to get them both naked and on it as soon as possible.

Jennifer kissed Rourke back eagerly. Their kiss was nothing short of incendiary. Rourke had seen missiles strike with less explosivity than what ignited between him and his little runaway. The primitive urge to a lay claim to Jennifer in some way was undeniable.

Jennifer’s hands roamed over his shoulders and down his chest. She hastily unbuttoned his shirt. When her hands met his bare skin, and she ran her nailed lightly over his nipples, Rourke growled into her mouth. Passion rose swift and potent between them. Rourke was still angry with Jennifer, but the urgent need to touch and be touched, love and be loved, was stronger than any other consideration.

Together, they worked to divest one another of the clothing that stood between them and satisfaction. Every smooth stretch of Jennifer’s skin Rourke unveiled distracted him from his task. He wanted to lick and nibble every piece of her luscious body. That would come later, after the roaring lust that poured through his veins had been tempered, and he could think again.

Once he had her stripped, Rourke lifted Jennifer into his arms, and she wrapped her long, toned legs around his waist. He walked them the short distance to the bed. It was a narrow space that was more like a cot or a portable bed. Rourke hoped it held up under their combined weight. He turned them and backed up until his legs hit the edge of the bed, and without breaking their kiss, Rourke sat gingerly with Jennifer over him.

Jennifer’s legs straddled his hips, and she clutched his shoulders. The desire to be inside of her welcoming body rose to an unbearable height. With his hands now free to roam, Rourke cupped Jennifer’s lush breasts and lightly pinched her pouting nipples. Jennifer hissed and ground her wet sex against him while gripping his head and guiding his mouth to her breast. The firm globes were perfectly rounded to fit his large hands. His tongue teased and licked, circling her rosy areolas in turn. Pleasuring them until she pleaded for more.

Rourke placed hot, open-mouthed kisses on the thudding pulse in Jennifer’s throat. Slowly, he made his way back to her lips. Prolonging the intimate foreplay for as long as he was able, Rourke indulged his need to taste those temptingly full lips and caress Jennifer’s lean, muscular body. Her small waist flared into hips perfect for his hands and an ass that would make any man beg for mercy. He would spend hours worshipping that ass. Rourke cupped Jennifer’s sex and found her hot, swollen, and slick. She was so ready for him. Thank fuck.

“Take me, baby. I need you to give me what I need, Jennifer. I need you. Only you,” Rourke admitted his weakness for Jennifer without shame.

He guided his rigid cock to her entrance and watched in wild, wondrous fascination as she lowered her pussy over his shaft inch by slow inch. Impaling herself on his cock while he stared and panted. She was scalding hot and beautifully pink against the darker shade of his shaft.

Jennifer panted and moaned her pleasure, and she swiveled and rotated her hips, taking him deeper and deeper as she went. Once he was fully seated in the heaven of her body, Rourke trembled with the effort of holding back his release. He breathed through the quivering and trembling of her inner muscles.

When Rourke was finally able to tear his eyes away from their joined sex, his breath hitched in his throat. Jennifer began a slow and steady ride without looking away. Jennifer’s eyes blazed with a raw need that matched his own and mesmerized him. This was about more than just sex. This was about them being together as one, and the shared emotion coursing between them only verified Rourke’s instinctual knowledge that this woman was his, now and forever.

He’d found her, and he wouldn’t let her go without a fight. It didn’t matter that he had no idea who she really was or why she was hiding. Rourke knew she was a good person to her core. He was in love with Jennifer, and whether she was ready to say the words or not, he knew she loved him, too.

Jennifer rode him harder and faster as they raced toward release. No reality existed beyond that small hidden room. There was no time to worry about what she was hiding from or for anxiety over the stress of maintaining a relationship with a SEAL. They were all passion and hot sweaty fulfillment.

Rourke rose to meet Jennifer’s downward strokes. He guided her hips in a steady rhythm that took them both up to and straight over the edge of ecstasy in a cataclysm that shattered them both. Pleasure rolled over him, wave after wave. With Jennifer clutched to his chest, Rourke turned to collapse on the tiny bed with Jennifer above him. The bed gave out under the stress of their lovemaking and crashed to the floor. The bed hit the standing lamp and knocked it over, causing the light the go out. Jennifer let out a surprised gasp followed by an amused giggle.

Her heartbeat was an echo in her chest that vibrated through his chest. Held her tight and softly kissed every inch of her face he could reach. Reality would return soon enough. For now, he just wanted to hold Jennifer tight on a broken bed in the haven of a hidden room the world knew nothing about and glory in the fact that she was safe, and they were together. 

Jennifer lay there, cloaked in darkness in the arms of the man she had fallen for at the worst possible time in her life. How was she going to walk away from him again? She didn’t know, but it had to happen.

“Tell me,” Rourke said, and he didn’t sound like he would be taking no for an answer this time.

Jennifer hesitated. She was sorting through what she should and shouldn’t tell Rourke to protect him. Like Marcy, the less he knew, the safer he would be from Evan.

“Talk now, and don’t you fucking bullshit me, Jennifer. I want answers. You will give them to me in private, or we’ll go to Pastor Davis. He wouldn’t confirm it, but I get the feeling you’re in danger. Finding you in disguise twice, and now hiding in the church confirms it.”

“Oh man. We had sex in the church. I’m going to hell now for sure.” Jennifer hadn’t even thought about where she was when Rourke came at her with lust in his eyes. She was horrified by her behavior. First, the pastor’s pantry. Now, the church basement.

“We technically aren’t in the church,” Rourke stroked her back. “We’re in the kitchen, which is in a separate building that was attached to a hall years ago. I’m sorry. Kind of. I saw you, and I lost it.”

“We really aren’t in the church?”

“No, we aren’t, I promise,” Rourke tried to soothe her mortified soul. “Now stop stalling. I want to know what’s going on, and I want to know now. If you still won’t talk, and the pastor won’t open up, then I’ll march your ass to the police station. If you’re in hiding, there might be a missing person report. Someone must be looking for you. Family, friends, coworkers, someone has to be missing you. If so, the police will know.”

Jennifer snorted. “Nobody is looking for me. Nobody cares where I disappeared to.”

“I fucking care, Jennifer!” Rourke shouted and shook her a little. “I’ve been looking for you, but it’s hard to find a woman with no last name and no known address. You ran off on me, twice. It won’t happen again. I’ll tie you to this fucking bed if I have to.”

Rourke was making an effort to moderate his tone when he went on. Jennifer could tell he was trying not to frighten her. She wasn’t afraid of Rourke. She was scared
for
him.

“We’ll deal with you running from me later. That hasn’t been forgotten. For now, let's deal with whatever has you on the run. If you feel the need to disguise yourself, I’ll venture to guess you are in big trouble. I want the whole story. Now.” He spoke through gritted teeth, and he gave her another little shake at the end to reinforce the demand for information.

Jennifer couldn’t see any reason not to tell him the whole truth. He wasn’t going to let it go. She was sure he wasn’t going to let her go, either. It made Jennifer happier than she’d been in years to imagine that Rourke might want a relationship, but she was getting ahead of herself. She had a story to tell. It was easier to talk about what had happened to her in the dark with Rourke’s arms wrapped around her. As if he could protect her from the memories. So Jennifer snuggled in closer and began her sad tale.

“I’m a dancer,” she said, and Rourke stiffened. “No, not an exotic dancer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“Not as a profession, no, there’s nothing wrong with being an exotic dancer, if you aren’t my woman,” he returned.

His woman?

“Am I . . . yours?” She shouldn’t ask. It was way too soon. It wasn’t his fault she was already so far gone there was no hope for her.

Rourke lifted his head and looked at her. She couldn’t really see his face well since the lamp went out after the bed crashed into it, but she saw the gleam in his eyes and heard the surety in his voice.

“You. Are. Mine. Do you think I’d chase after a woman who isn’t mine? Do you really think I’ve ever hunted for a female before? I haven’t. Only you. Because you’re mine.” He punctuated the statement with a quick kiss and rested his head on the pillow again. “Continue.”

Jennifer smiled. He was so bossy. She didn’t mind it much, though. Her heart did a gold medal worthy flip in her chest. She was his. Jennifer couldn’t think of anything she’d rather be than Rourke’s woman.

“I’m not sure where I should start.”

“The very beginning. How did you end up in Vegas? Are you a native?” he asked.

“No, I’m a DC transplant via New York.”

“I sense a story there.”

“It’s a long story, but I’ll give you the abridged version just to get you up to speed.”

“Good idea. We’ll have plenty of time to tell each other all the little details later,” Rourke said. Jennifer was overwhelmed by the thought that they would have plenty of time together. She couldn’t form a reply. So she went back to her story.

‘I learned to dance before I could walk, or so my mother always said. I danced all through school, and I went to a school for the arts in high school. I learned everything from ballet to hip-hop. Tap, modern, you name it, I’ll dance it.”

“That explains this body. You have this long, lean muscular form that drives me insane. The day I met you, I couldn’t keep my eyes off you. Then, I saw what you were hiding under that dress.” A shiver ran through his body. “Keep going or I’m not going to let you finish.” He sounded savage, and Jennifer loved it. She kissed his muscled chest and settled back into the story.

“My father indulged my ‘artsy side,’ as he liked to call it because it was good exercise and an appropriate activity for a young lady, but he insisted on top of the class grades. I had to earn the right to dance, and I did. I never got less than an A. When I entered my junior year of high school, and it was time put in college applications, Mom warned me I’d have a fight on my hands if I didn’t get into a business state of mind. My father is a lawyer. His father was a lawyer, and so was his father. My oldest brother was already in law school, and my other brother was about to start law school. He expected me to follow suit, Harvard followed by Harvard Law.”

“He needed all of you to be lawyers?” Rourke asked.

“Thank you,” she shook her head. Why couldn’t her father understand that wasn’t the life for Jennifer? “That was my point exactly. My brothers wanted to be lawyers. I didn’t, but Daddy didn’t care. He said I was too young to know what was good for me, and he believed it was his job as my father to guide me.

“I was accepted into every school I applied to, including Harvard. He was willing to let me go to another Ivy League college if I didn’t want to go to Harvard. That was his only concession. I couldn’t pick a school because I had no intention of going, so he picked one for me.

“When I graduated, he gave me the summer to come to my senses. I either needed to prepare to move to Cambridge or pack my things and leave his house by August. My mother pleaded with me. My brothers took turns trying to make me see the light of the family calling. I wanted nothing to do with it. I was eighteen, and I thought I had it all figured out.” She snorted at her own ignorance.

“You had a dream?” he asked.

“Of course, I was going to make it big on Broadway. I was going to roll into New York, and the world would fall at my feet. I didn’t understand why my father didn’t believe in me. He wanted me to have a real career, and dancing wasn’t good enough for his daughter. I was ordered to be present on the first day of classes at Harvard, or I wasn’t to ever darken his door again.”

“Wow,” Rourke whistled.

“As you can see, I didn’t go to Harvard. I just didn’t think college was for me. I wanted to be a dancer. He took my car keys and showed me the door the day I was supposed to leave for school. My mother cried and begged me to listen to Daddy. I didn’t.”

Jennifer was lost in the memory of the day she left her parent’s home. Her father was stern and unbending. He believed she would cave when he put her on the street with nothing but a backpack of her clothing. Her mother wept and begged her to listen to her father. Her mom tried to explain that Jennifer’s dad loved her so much and was only trying to put her on a solid path to a stable future. Her brothers stood by stoically, knowing there was nothing they could do to budge their father’s determination. It had become a war of wills. Daddy wouldn’t relent. Jennifer couldn’t be who he wanted her to be, and she didn’t understand why he couldn’t love her the way she was.

When the front door to Jennifer’s home closed behind her, the sound of the deadbolt being thrown into place made her heart pound, and she finally began to sweat. Jennifer was the spoiled daughter of a wealthy and respected family. She’d grown up in a world of country club socials, lady’s tea parties, upscale restaurants, private schools, and vacations abroad. She’d never been on a bus or a train, and she’d never had to walk anywhere. Her meals were prepared by a cook, and her house cleaned by maids. She had no idea what the real world was like, but she was about to learn.

There she stood, all alone for the first time with nowhere to go and no money. This was when she was supposed to run back to her daddy and admit he was right, she wasn’t ready to face the world alone. But she didn’t walk back up those steps and accept her pampered fate. Jennifer didn’t know yet exactly how lucky she was to have been born to the parents she had. She walked away with her spine as straight as the poles that lined the mirrored walls in a dance studio with tears in her eyes.

Jennifer had reached the corner before her brothers caught up with her to try convincing her to reevaluate her choice to defy Daddy another shot. She couldn’t do it. There was no way she was going to give up on her dreams. Her brothers seemed to expect this outcome. They both gave her money. They handed over cash, and it looked like a lot of money to a person who’d never needed money.  She suddenly found herself with nothing, so the money was a big deal. Her brothers saved the day, or so she thought at the time. That money got her to New York and helped her pay for a tiny studio apartment the size of a postage stamp until she found a roommate and a job. Their father would be furious if he knew they’d aided and abetted her rebellion. If they hadn’t, she would probably have gone home within a day or two, willing or not. What other choice did she really have?

Sometimes at night when Jennifer was alone in bed, she’d think about that day and wonder what her life would be like now if she’d given in to her father wishes. It was a question she’d never know the answer to. She’d never seriously wished her life had gone the other way until the night she found herself Evan’s prisoner.

“So New York didn’t work out?” Rourke recalled Jennifer to her topic.

“No,” she shrugged. “I got a few gigs here and there, and I waited tables. I wasn’t thin enough to suit most directors. I’m too naturally curvy, and no matter how toned I am, I always have a booty.”

“What? There isn’t an ounce of fat on you anywhere! Your hips are fucking perfect! I can span your waist with my hands. I can’t imagine losing weight would be healthy for you,” Rourke practically snarled, indignant on her behalf. “That ass is enough to stop traffic.” Rourke rubbed a large hand over the booty in question.

Rourke’s approval made Jennifer feel somehow vindicated. He believed in her. He thought she was perfect. She did too, but it had taken her a long time to learn to love her curves. She had a womanly shape that was lean with muscle from a lifetime of dancing. She would never be the willowy, reed-thin woman and she didn’t want to be any longer.

“I’m glad you think so. Broadway didn’t agree to the degree needed to support me in New York. I’m not willowy enough. It’s hard to work so hard for something just to be told your ass is too fat for the costumes.” She tried to laugh it off, but it still hurt. She had starved herself to fit the image New York wanted, but it didn’t matter. It was all for nothing. She would never do that to herself again. She was healthy and strong, and that’s how she planned to stay. “I left New York when my roommate threw in the towel and went home. I couldn’t afford to live alone.”

“And you came to Vegas? Did you think about going home?”

“I thought about it, but I still wasn’t ready to give up on my dream. I’d learned to survive on my own. I’d worked for the first time and took care of my own needs. I wasn’t a helpless girl who needed her dad to tell her what to do to survive. If I went back, I’d spend the rest of my life scraping, bowing, and apologizing for being who I am, for having a dream that didn’t fit my father’s agenda. That was if he even let me in the house at all.

“So I took all the extra shifts I could get waiting tables and saved the money to cross the country to give Las Vegas a try. It was more of the same here at first. There are lots of dancers looking for jobs. I went on more auditions than I can count. Then, I got a part in a major show at the Winn. Landing that part was a dream come true for me. It wasn’t a significant role. I was a backup dancer, but I was doing what I love and making enough to survive, if not exactly thrive. I quit waiting tables and focused on my dancing.”

The memory of her life just before she met Evan brought a smile to Jennifer’s face and an ache in her heart. She had made it. She was working six days a week and paying the bills without a second job. She was saving for a car. She was making friends, and life was finally looking up for her.

“How long have you been here?” Rourke asked.

“I’ve been in Vegas for over a year now. This is where things start to go downhill for me.”

“I’m all ears. I’m still trying to figure out how you went from socialite to homeless.”