Still The One (Family Stone #4 Jack) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) (7 page)

Bliss couldn’t look away as he moved with purpose back toward the bed. She was fully awake now and couldn’t help but appreciate the beauty of his body. Jack had filled out into all man. His shoulders were padded with muscle, his pecs a work of art, dusted with hair that lead like an arrow down his ridged belly to the nest of black curls that surrounded his erection.

His thick, engorged cock jutted from the V and bounced against his belly with each long stride. Her sex fluttered at the purpose in his gaze and another swell of desire made her light-headed as he ripped the package open and then rolled the condom over his sex.

She should stop him. Stop this. It had taken forever to get over him the last time. But really, it couldn’t have been that good. Right? There was only one way to find out.

And while for years she’d been telling herself that she’d romanticized and embellished his prowess in bed, she welcomed the chance to discover if he really was as amazing as her memories made him seem.

She’d missed this, missed him. No one since Jack had made her feel this way. Empty with desperate need, as if he didn’t get inside her, she would die from the lack. And he was the only one who could fill her up.

Her whole body clenched at the thought of having Jack inside her again.

Bliss tore the pale pink cami over her head and tossed it on the covers. By the time he got back to the double bed, she’d shimmied all the way out of the little plaid flannel shorts.

No hesitation. Jack came over her body. Pressed his naked torso against hers. The head of his cock brushed against her folds and teased her clit.

But he didn’t push inside. Jack propped up on his elbows, his hairy thighs abraded her softer skin, his erection nudged her sex and his ribcage pinned her to the bed. But she knew that if she said the word, he’d stop in a heartbeat.

“You sure?”

She wanted to say so many things. No, she wasn’t sure. But she was sure that if they didn’t do this that she’d always regret it.
Always
. “Do it.”

Jack rocked his hips, and his cockhead teased at her entrance. Bliss’s sex clenched as if trying to draw him in. Jack groaned. “You’re so damn wet.”

“So do it,” she commanded.

He groaned out a laugh. “Bossy.”

She hated to beg. So she nudged her hips up even as she curved her hands around his ass and pulled him closer.

Jack slid in another inch. He was so damn big. And it felt incredible. Her body had always surrendered to his invasion like the tide surrendered to the pull of the moon. “Dammit, Jack.”

With his feet, he spread her legs wider, and slid all the way home.

“Oh.” She sighed. He felt amazing, incredible, and she was weak with the desire coursing through her.

Jack thrust slowly, prolonging both their pleasure. With each glide the head of his cock massaged her g-spot and pushed her higher. Her whole body tingled as her head went light and her movements became more frantic. God, she needed him to push harder, faster. But with each urgent nudge of her hips, his movements became slower, more deliberate and her desire spiraled into heightened pleasure.

Bliss slid her hands around his back, held tight, and sucked at the sensitive spot below his ear. “Please.”

As if her plea broke something inside him, Jack began to plunge. Each forceful thrust banged their bodies together, he swelled impossibly larger, slid his palms underneath her ass and tilted her hips until they slammed together with hard thrusts. Each thrust pushed her higher until she imploded.

Her body in free fall, she contracted around him, her vision dimmed, as her climax went on and on and on. Her channel clenched around his cock until he erupted, his back bowed, tendons in his neck straining, his hands hard on her ass, his body rigid as his orgasm wracked his body.

The pulse of his cock against her walls triggered another mini-orgasm and Bliss moaned.

A fierce sense of triumph roared through her as he slumped against her body. His forehead bumped her collarbone, the rough sough of his breath feathered across her sensitive nipples and she shivered.

Her legs loosened their grip on the back of his thighs and fell limply to the bed. They were both bathed in perspiration and slippery as he laid his head on her chest. Her heart thumped against his cheek and Bliss tenderly ran her fingers through his hair, shorter than when they lived together. She savored the heavy weight of him on top of her.

And fuck, what had she done? Because she’d been wrong. She hadn’t romanticized him or the sex. It was even better than her memories.

***

Bliss woke slowly. Still pitch black outside, the hotel room was bathed in shadows. The sliver of light from the bathroom cast a glow onto the brown and gold polyester striped spread on other double bed. The other
empty
double bed.

Her body was loose and achy. Wrapped in a tight, protective embrace, an inferno of heat ran along her back and the hot band around her waist suddenly registered. Every muscle tensed.
Oh my God.

What had she done?

Holy shit. She’d had sex with Jack Stone.

Last night’s encounter freeze-framed through her mind. Jack’s muscles rippling as he slid inside her. His thick, thrilling invasion. The press of his hips against her spread thighs. His perfect, heavy comforting weight as she fell asleep beneath him.

The sex had been amazing. Fantastic. Epic.

And such an incredible mistake.

She dropped her chin to her chest and fought the urge to curl up into a fetal ball. What the hell had she been thinking?

She hadn’t, clearly. She’d been freaked after the nightmare. She’d been searching through the house, looking for Maria but then the dream had morphed and she’d been looking for Jack. Each successive room was empty and her panic had escalated until she’d been frantic. Until she’d found him. Dead. Her fear for him. Her fear for her sister and father. Her fear for herself and her mother. All merged into one horrific dream where her worst nightmare had come true.

Of course when she woke all the way up, she’d reached out to him. To touch him. To verify with her own hands that he was alive and healthy. The emotional impact of seeing him again, the toll of worry about Maria, dredged up all her former worries, and her brain had mixed it all up and spilled out her terror.

Last night was physical. That’s all. A sexual release she hadn’t gotten in a very long time. A
very
long time.

Bliss wondered how difficult it would be for her to extricate herself from his arms and go have a breakdown in the bathroom. Likely impossible. Jack had been a light sleeper years ago. She’d guess that hadn’t changed.

She took stock. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was already awake. And typical Jack he was assessing, holding back, waiting for her.

She had to treat this as a casual encounter. She couldn’t afford to get emotionally tangled up with Jack again. The last time had nearly destroyed her.

Casual. Much needed release. She drew in a mental breath. She could do this. Pretend this wasn’t some monumental joining. Project an air of nonchalance. Just two healthy people enjoying each other’s bodies. Play it cool.

She patted the hand wrapped around her waist briskly and he moved his arm. Bliss slid out of bed and ignored the impulse to run for the bathroom. Instead she braced herself, turned and gave him a satisfied smile. “Morning.”

“Good. Morning.” His voice, gravelly and still laced with sleep, caused a rush of desire to warm her belly and flood her sex. But hell if she was going there again.

Her blood pooled in her groin but she forced herself to saunter to the bathroom slowly. Her heart pounded and sweat sheened her skin as she pretended all the way across the room.

Jack was a guy. Guys typically didn’t like to talk things to death. And Jack had been less likely to talk and share than other men she’d been intimate with but she needed to say something to indicate they weren’t going to talk about it. She turned at the thin, wood door, hand on the cheap faux brass knob and gave him a fake smile and stared over his shoulder. “Thanks for last night.” Then she closed the door behind her.

So, that happened.

***

Jack considered the closed bathroom door. He’d been awake awhile. He’d just lain there and savored the feel of Bliss in his arms. It had been a long while since he’d slept with anyone. Oh, he’d had sex, but the last time he’d actually slept in the same bed with a woman had been...with Bliss.

He’d lived on base when he’d been in the Navy, even when he was with Naval Intelligence. Even after he moved off base, he never brought women to his home. He went to their place and then left before he fell asleep. Now, maybe because he lived with his mother and siblings, he didn’t bring women home either. Last year when he’d moved back to Monterey to start the business, he’d moved back into the Stone Mansion and just...never moved out.

But sleeping with Bliss last night had been...amazing. She fallen asleep beneath him before he’d even gone completely soft. And when he’d come out of the bathroom after disposing of the condom, he’d stared at his bed, then at her naked form, and consciously slid under the covers and curled around her.

He hadn’t been able to bear leaving her yet.

Fuck. He needed to shut that line of thinking down right now.

It was just sex. Physical release. He’d been so busy getting the company off the ground he hadn’t had a lot of time for women in the last year. No way was last night as momentous as it felt at the time.

He’d felt her wake up. Felt her tense. And the disappointment that overwhelmed him had been concrete. He’d been hoping for the soft, sweet, old Bliss. Instead, he’d gotten the new, closed off, secretive Bliss and for the first time ever he wanted to talk about what had happened last night.

Jesus, he was turning into a sappy idiot.

They needed to find Maria Torres before he completely lost his balls.

He couldn’t afford to get tangled up with her again. His business was going extremely well, his family was just starting to gel. Last night with Bliss was just a distraction. A way to get her out of his system once and for all.

But in the back of his mind, he wondered, what if this were a second chance?

Six

They were on their way back to California. Shane had met them at the Perry Regional Airport with a big smile on his face, which made Jack question his assurance that he had been hanging out with an old Army buddy last night.

Jack had avoided any personal, emotional minefields by sticking strictly to the case and spending as much time in the co-pilot chair next to Shane as possible. He had his pilot’s license but usually took the flight time to work.

Shane had raised a questioning brow and looked at Jack like he was crazy. He shook his head. “You Stone brothers.” Shane’s deep voice echoed in his ears, the noise cancelling headphones made it easy to hear him and blocked out the sound of Bliss breathing. “You got a captive audience, and you aren’t taking advantage of the opportunity.”

Brothers? The only other brother Shane had flown recently was Riley. He couldn’t possibly be talking about Riley and Diana Lundberg. She had shut Riley down hard when they’d met, and called Jack repeatedly, right up until the day before their trip, to try to get a different guide for her mission to Jolo Island to deliver school supplies.

But Diana was out of luck. Riley was definitely the best employee for the dangerous trip.

Too bad the headphones couldn’t also put up a wall around distracting people as well. Jack was hyper-aware of Bliss in the cabin behind him. They’d left the curtain to the cockpit open, in case she needed them. Her attention was firmly on the file in her hands. Too aware. She hadn’t looked up once, which told him she was trying hard to keep her attention on the papers and off everything else.

Like the fact that they’d had sex last night.

He couldn’t let his mind stray there. He needed to focus on finding Maria. Because that was his job, he needed to forget about last night just like she was clearly trying to do.

The interviews at the store and bank where Maria had stopped to get money and food didn’t yield any more information. No one remembered her. They’d already seen the security tapes. Jack had been impressed with Bliss’s professional demeanor as they’d questioned the store managers and employees. They could pinpoint which employees actually interacted with Maria but unfortunately they had no recollection of her. She’d managed to fade into obscurity. Which was good for Maria but bad for them.

There was a used car lot across from the Wal-Mart where she’d picked up new stuff.

Jack would bet that she’d bought a new car. He didn’t think she’d feel comfortable enough on any kind of public transportation, but they couldn’t know for sure.

Adams-Larsen had a security watch for her new identity on the booking computer systems for Amtrak and Greyhound. Both he and Bliss thought she’d be too vulnerable to security cameras and eagle-eyed security. But if she bought a ticket under another name then they were out of luck. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Although flying was definitely out of the question.

He had to believe that she would be terrified of Fernandez’s reach. After all, the man had kept her locked up for years and no one had ever discovered her.

Once they were airborne, Jack reluctantly headed back to the passenger area.

Jack would have preferred to spend the time hiding in the cockpit with Shane but he needed to go over the information with Bliss and decide on a plan of attack once they landed in Monterey.

He left the cockpit and sat down in the leather seat across the table from Bliss. She had a mug of coffee at her elbow and glasses perched on her nose as she reviewed the papers again.

“We need to come up with a plan once we touch down.”

“Okay.”

“Since we know Maria won’t be able to get to Salinas for another day even if she drives like a bat out of hell, she’ll have to stop to sleep, I suggest we pursue the threats Fernandez made.”

Bliss nodded. Her red hair gleamed in the bright sunlight pouring in through the oval window. “Sounds good to me. I also want to visit the house where she was held but we need to approach the crime scene carefully.” They likely wouldn’t be able to squeeze in a visit after they touched down. Even with the time difference, they took off from Iowa around eleven a.m. California time, so when they landed in Monterey there wouldn’t be enough daylight to check out Maria’s former prison.