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Jett tucked her hair behind her ear and then trailed his fingers along her jaw, down her throat, until he cupped a breast. “She ended things?”
“Yes.” Her voice sounded higher with the intimate touch. “And I tried not to look too relieved.”
Still holding her breast, Jett bent down to kiss her throat. “I’m sure she knows you’re motivated by caring.”
Did he expect her to talk while his hot mouth moved over her skin? “Even when Molly is in the middle of business, she usually takes my calls.”
Jett opened a button on the flannel shirt. “She’s an author, right?”
The depths of his research amazed her. Or maybe he was one of her sister’s many fans. “Have you read her?”
“No. She writes suspense or something, right?” He shook his head. “I’m more of a biography kind of reader.”
Natalie frowned. “So that’s just part of what you learned while snooping?”
He paused with his fingers inside the flannel shirt. “Okay, let’s clear the air on that one first.” He put his hand down the front of her shirt, and now it was his hot palm holding her. “You say you’ve been burned? Well me, too.”
Natalie bit her lip, part in reaction to his touch and partly because of the scenarios that ran through her mind. “Did you have a broken engagement?” Or even worse, was he divorced? Had he been madly in love with someone who broke his heart and now—
Somehow, Jett always knew her thoughts. “My heart is intact, honey. But I’ve had women come on to me to get insider information on cases, and let me tell you, being used like that burns.”
Natalie drew back. “Spies?”
He moved his thumb over her nipple, and when it tightened he met her gaze. “Nothing that dramatic. But once I was investigating this influential businessman, finding all kinds of dirt on him, personal and professional, and out of nowhere, some hot babe wants to get under me.”
Hot babe? Natalie scowled at how he said that. “Let me guess: you asked no questions.”
He shrugged. “I’m not ashamed to say that I was a typical guy and just went with it. I thought we clicked sexually, that she wanted me that much.”
He thought they had clicked sexually too. She wanted to groan. What was a very special and unique experience for her was apparently run-of-the-mill for Jett.
“I was interested enough that I didn’t look for ulterior motives.” He paid undue attention to his hand on her breast, pushing the flannel down, toying with her nipple—making her insane.
Natalie put her hand over his to still the distracting and provocative movements. After a deep breath to help regain her thoughts, she glared at him. “You had sex with her?”
“Yeah.” He bent to put a kiss on the swell of her breast then met her gaze. “Afterward, while I was still in the bed regrouping from a freaking marathon of over-indulgence, she said she was going for a drink.”
Natalie could guess where this was headed. “But she wasn’t really thirsty.”
“Guess not.” Looking only slightly chagrined, Jett shook his head. “I busted her trying to go through my computer files, luckily before she was able to find anything. See, she was a hacker hired by the businessman. Her end goal was to corrupt any data I’d already gathered.”
Natalie didn’t want to admit to her own deep jealousy, but it was there, stewing inside her. Her lip curled a little when she said, “Bet that was one heck of a scene.”
He laughed. “You have no idea.”
“Meaning?”
“She was a hellcat who knew how to fight.” His gaze went to her mouth. “Damn near kicked my ass too. I mean, I’d never fought a chick before. I didn’t want to punch her, you know?”
Natalie gave him a sour frown. “How righteous of you.”
He agreed. “Especially since she had no qualms about decking me. Even hit me with the damn keyboard, and broke it.”
Natalie narrowed her eyes. “So what did you do?”
“I finally tackled her and then held her down on the ground until I could get the keyboard cord wrapped around her wrists.”
“Gee, that sounds familiar.”
One side of Jett’s mouth kicked up. “Not even close to the same thing you and I did, so don’t go there.”
She couldn’t help it; her thoughts were all over the visual of Jett stretched out atop a sexy femme fatale, a woman he’d found appealing, a woman with whom he’d just indulged in ambitious sexual participation.
Jett gave her a chiding frown. “I restrained her so she couldn’t bludgeon me to death. It was one hell of a struggle without a single ounce of pleasure involved. By the time I got her immobilized, I had a damned black eye, a cut on the bridge of my nose and a bite on my neck that hurt for a week.” He shook his head in self-disgust. “The guys at the station still give me crap over it.”
“So let me get this straight. You picked up a complete stranger and then…”
“Did the nasty with her.”
She didn’t want or need his clarification. “And you were hurt because it didn’t work out quite as you’d planned?” Natalie tried to muzzle herself, but failed. “Such a tragic story.”
He didn’t take offense. “Not tragic, no, but I felt like a damned fool. She threw out bait and I took it, hook, line and sinker. No one likes to be a dupe, honey.” He simply held her breast now, his big, warm hand inside her shirt, curved around her possessively.
Not stroking, not playing, just…holding.
As if he now had the right—and she supposed he did.
“One point though—the encounter that night was far from intimate. It was sex, and only sex.” He bent to kiss her, deepening the kiss with the lick of his tongue and a hot exploration. He eased back a millimeter. “What you and I do is very intimate. Don’t ever confuse the two, okay?”
It always felt like more to her, but she hadn’t been sure of Jett’s feelings on the matter. “Since you say it was…somehow detached from emotion—”
“Very detached.”
“Then it’s not at all the same as my bad experience.” Dredging up the past always left Natalie hollow. “If you think you felt duped, imagine being in love with someone and thinking he loves you back, only to find out he wants to get in on the inheritance.”
The smile faded off Jett’s mouth. “You were in love with him?”
Probably not, but at the time… “I thought I was.”
Jett’s arm around her back curled her in close to his chest, and near her ear, with complete sincerity, he whispered, “Tell me his name and I’ll gladly kill the bastard for you.”
CHAPTER FOUR
NATALIE BLINKED AT HIM. “I hope you’re kidding.”
“Maybe.” Jett could tell she didn’t take him seriously. True, he wasn’t in the habit of killing for personal reasons, but after seeing the hurt in her eyes, he wouldn’t mind a little physical retribution against the one who’d caused her pain.
But now that she’d admitted she hadn’t loved the ass, maybe he could just beat him up real good. “Want to give me a name?”
“No!” She smacked his shoulder and laughed. “You’re outrageous.”
Some other guy had broken her heart, hurting her enough to make her wary of commitment. That fact gnawed on Jett. Didn’t mean he wanted the bozo to show back up or to make amends. Hell no.
“Pricks like him always have stuff they want to keep hidden.” Kissing her throat, Jett breathed in the scent of her skin, the perfume of sensual female. “What do you say, sweetheart? You want me to dredge up all his dark, dirty secrets? Maybe drag the schmuck’s name through the mud a little?”
Smiling, Natalie put her fingers to his mouth to hush him. “Not necessary. Believe me, Jett, he stopped being important to me long ago.”
If that was true, she wouldn’t still have her barriers up. But he was working on that.
Holding her gaze, Jett opened his mouth enough to draw in one fingertip. Natalie’s eyes flared, her lips parting.
He licked the tip of her finger, drew it deeper into his mouth, curled his tongue around her.
Her eyelids drooped in carnal awareness.
He knew damn good and well the images she’d have, of him at her breast, sucking gently; him between her soft thighs, eating her toward an orgasm.
His breathing deepened; he loved the taste of Natalie, the intensified scent of her body, how wet she got and how quickly she responded to him.
Needing her again, he released her finger and leaned her back on the couch. Her legs naturally parted for him to settle between them.
Already hard, he growled, “Damn, I want you. Again.”
“But…we just—”
In a rush of need, he went to work on the buttons of the flannel. “Doesn’t matter.” The truth caused him no small measure of alarm. It didn’t matter how often or how thoroughly he had her. “I always want you.” He worked his jaw. “Every fucking second of every day.”
His gravelly tone, bordering on resentment, gave her pause. “That’s a…bad thing?”
Forcing himself to stop, to think, Jett closed his eyes and cursed. “No.” Two breaths, a third, and he had a meager grasp on his control. “No, it’s not bad. It’s just…” He didn’t have an appropriate word to define the loss of control and pounding need, so he said,
“Unsettling.”
“You don’t want to want me?”
Wanting her wasn’t the problem, he could deal with that. Hell, he’d wanted plenty of women throughout his lifetime. Then he had them, one time or a dozen times, and that was it. The wanting ended.
With Natalie, everything was different. Exactly how different, he didn’t know. Jett met her gaze.
The pizza guy had impeccable timing.
His knock saved Jett from trying to come up with a plausible reply. “There’s dinner.” He kissed her then sat up, hauling her up with him. “Stay put. I’ll get it.”
Natalie clutched shut the front of the flannel. “Jett! You have…” When he looked back at her, she nodded at his lap.
“A boner, I know. Trust me, the pizza guy won’t mention it.” Jett felt her watching his every move as he got his wallet and went to the door. Always cautious, he looked out the peephole before turning the locks.
The delivery guy wasn’t alone. Hunkered down on the floor a few feet behind him sat a very cute, very dirty little gray dog with white markings and anxious eyes.
Jett frowned at the unkempt condition of the animal. With accusation, he sized up the delivery kid. “Your dog looks hungry.”
“He’s not mine.” The young man glanced back at the animal with a worried frown. “He was out front and followed me in.” Then hopefully, “I thought maybe he belonged to someone in here.”
That got Natalie’s attention. Shirt now decently fastened around her voluptuous breasts, she came to the door and leaned around Jett to look out at the cowering dog.
Immediately she said, “Ohhhhh….” in the softest tone Jett had ever heard from her.
Both he and the delivery boy looked at her with male awareness.
When Jett realized that, he scowled at the kid. “He’s not our dog.”
The pizza guy started stammering. “Yeah. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to let in a stray. I thought…you know…maybe he was…”
Seeing the guy go all tongue-tied over Natalie spiked Jett’s discontent even more. “Here.” He shoved a few bills at him.
The young man looked at the money and started to fumble for change.
Jett shook his head. “Keep it.”
“But…” Going agog at the hefty tip, he said, “That’s twice what you owed.”
Reluctantly, because he did want the guy gone, Jett said, “You did good letting the dog in. I appreciate it.”
Struggling to keep his gaze off Natalie, the guy swallowed. “You’ll take care of him?”
Jett nodded and saw the pizza guy let out a long breath of relief. The young man’s concern was enough that Jett felt like giving him another bill or two. “I’ll see to him.”
“Thanks, man. And good luck.” The guy split in haste, anxious to avoid sparking Jett’s temper again.
Paying no attention whatsoever to the food or the male delivering it, Natalie smiled at Jett. She had the look a woman gets when she thinks she’s seeing something extra sweet in a guy.
Jett frowned. “What?”
“You’re going to help the dog.”
He didn’t want her to see him as a marshmallow. He wanted her to want him, in every way that he wanted her. “Of course I am. Wouldn’t anyone?”
She shook her head. “Obviously not, or the dog wouldn’t have been out there all alone, abandoned.” Still looking ripe with affection, she glanced at the dog. She had her heart in her eyes, her soft side on glaring display. “He isn’t wearing a collar.”
Uneasy with so much attention, the dog lowered his head and tucked his tail. He looked up at Jett sideways, his big brown eyes slightly crossed.
Too cute, Jett thought, but he wouldn’t voice that observation aloud. “Looks like a hound mix, probably around a year old.”
“How can you tell?”
“I know dogs.” The poor animal shivered, his eyes filled with pleading. “It’s okay, boy.”
“Oh, Jett.” Natalie bit her lip, fretting. “He looks cold and hungry.”
