As the tension eased and her body sank limply into the mattress, Darcy came to the awareness of the unabated erection sliding in and out of her ass. Blinking heavy-lidded eyes up at Jared, she moaned as his gentle fucking stimulated overworked and hypersensitive nerves.
“You just…”
“I did.” His voice was gravel-rough and sexy as hell. “And I have more to give you. Everything I am, Darcy. Everything I have. It’s yours.”
She set her hands over his where they gripped her hips. “Give it to me. All of you.”
Chapter thirteen
Jared ran his fingertips up and down the arm Darcy had draped over his abdomen and ran the gathered data through his mind for the hundredth time, searching for what he might’ve missed.
When Darcy bolted upright without warning, his arm shot out, his hand grasping for his weapon.
Breathing heavily, she stared at the gun he had aimed at the door, then met his gaze. “Dani never said a word to me about Chris, but she told Jim. I didn’t know they were close, her and Jim. Close enough that she’d share a secret lover with him.”
“Okay,” he said carefully, returning his gun to its holster. “You’re following the same train of thought I had. I e-mailed Ralston’s name to Agent Kelley. She might have some questions for him.”
She pushed her hair back from her face. “I don’t want to make trouble for him. He doesn’t deserve it.”
He propped some pillows behind his back. “You deserve answers and I’m gonna see that you get them.”
“You don’t think he has anything to do with this, do you?”
“He wasn’t one of the subjects the Feds interviewed, so technically he didn’t lie to them, but it’s never a good thing to withhold information. It smacks of having something to hide.”
“Or someone to protect.”
Reaching for her hand, he linked fingers with hers. “How close is he to Miller?”
“Not very. But I do think he said what he did yesterday to protect Chris. If you tie the arsons and the murder together—which is what Chris came looking for you to talk about—outing Chris’s relationship with Dani absolves him of both. He has an airtight alibi for the first arson, he was out of town for three days prior to it—his sister just had a baby. And the night of the shelter fire he was in the station when the call came in, working on evaluations. Unless you find out differently, that makes it impossible for him to have been the one to set the fire or make the call from Seattle.”
He tugged her close, urging her to snuggle up with him again. “Can you get Ralston to talk to you?”
“Yes.” She laid her cheek against his chest. “When I talked to Nadine yesterday, she said jealousy can make a person crazy. If Chris isn’t the father of Darcy’s baby, there was someone else in her life. Maybe he found out about Chris and lost it.”
“We’ll figure out the why when we figure out the who. We’ll get there, sweetheart.”
She looked up at him. “I’m ready to put this behind me.”
“Where was home for you before you came back here?”
“Albuquerque. I wanted something arid after growing up with so much rain.”
“I can do arid.”
Her gaze softened. “Would you?”
“Sure, I can transfer.”
“When I left New Mexico, I thought it might be a while before I figured out what was next. I quit my job, sold my condo…” She ran her hand over the light dusting of hair on his chest. “I can start over anywhere.”
“I don’t care what the plan is, as long as it includes you.”
“After losing Dani and then last night…I could’ve lost you, too. A few minutes here or there and you wouldn’t be here now. I don’t want to waste any chances, Jared.”
He hugged her tightly. “We won’t. We won’t waste a thing.”
DARCY PULLED INTO the parking lot of the fire station and waved at Trish, who waited for them with Ralston by the open apparatus bay doors.