supposed to protect you. I couldn’t do that if my hands were tied.”
She rolled onto her side to look at him, ran her fingers through the fine mat of hair on his chest. “Do you think we could...um...try it again? I mean just the...you know...regular way?”
His body stirred and his blood began to pound. He’d tried to convince himself not to push her, that she was still recovering from Cummings, but he hadn’t had nearly enough of her.
“If you’re up to it.” Which he hoped like hell she was. He retrieved a couple more condoms, then returned to the bed. “Anything special you need me to do?”
Jessie leaned over and softly kissed him. “I just want you to make love to me like a normal woman. I just want to be a woman Bran Garrett took to bed.”
But she was way more than that. It worried him to think how much more.
He was already hard. He leaned over and kissed her pretty breasts, tasting the sweetness he had craved from the start. “Just tell me if you need me to stop.”
She nodded.
But Jessie never stopped him, and he didn’t quit until they had both reached another earth-shattering climax.
He took her once more in the middle of the night.
Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry about chemical weapons, finding a murderer, and trying to stay alive.
SEVENTEEN
The sound of Bran’s phone signaling on the nightstand awoke her. Jessie sat up as he fumbled, grabbed it, then cursed softly and swung his legs to the side of the bed.
The red numbers on the digital clock read 6:45 a.m. Bran was usually up by six, a little before she was, but they hadn’t gotten much sleep last night.
Heat slid through her as she thought about what they had done. She’d only had a couple of serious boyfriends. Sex with them was nothing like sex with Bran. There was just something about him.
Maybe his amazing body, or maybe just that he was such a virile male. He had taken his time, been careful not to push her too hard. She’d never flashed back to her abduction. Her mind was too full of Bran.
She sighed into the morning light seeping into the bedroom. She was going to have a very hard time forgetting him when all of this was over.
A thought that had her good mood slipping away.
Yawning, she focused on the call that had just come in.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Bran was saying. “I’ll get right on it. I owe you one, Tab.” The seriousness of his tone as he ended the call snared her attention. He slid on his jeans while Jessie slipped on her terry cloth robe and followed him into the living room.
“What’s going on?”
“That was Tabby. She’s been looking into Petrov and Graves, trying to find Weaver. Petrov’s real name is Janos, not Vladimir.” He raked back his sleep-mussed dark hair. “Yesterday afternoon Janos Petrov turned up dead.”
“Oh, my God.”
“It gets worse. The murder was reported on the local five o’clock news. At the end of the broadcast, the sheriff put out an appeal to the public, looking for any information on the victim. According to an internet news site, the woman from the resort recognized his picture, called in and told them about the fight. I checked us into the resort under my name, so now the sheriff has a BOLO out on me as a person of interest.”
“They think you killed Petrov?”
Bran just shrugged. “They’re looking for me, which means unless I want to dodge police cars all over the state, I need to turn myself in.”
“I’m your alibi. I’m going with you.”
“Oh, you’re coming with me. People are still hunting you. I need you where I can keep you safe. We’ve got time to shower, but we need to get going.”
Jessie cast him an interested glance and he grinned.
“As much as I like the idea, we definitely need more time for a shower like that.”
She laughed.
“While you’re gone, I’ll see what I can find out on the internet.”
Jessie spun and headed for the bathroom. “I’ll hurry.”
Thirty minutes later Bran pulled into an angled parking space in front of the El Paso County Sheriff’s office on East Vermijo Avenue. He got out and checked their surroundings, which was probably second nature after so many years in the army, then motioned for her to join him.
They shoved through the front doors and walked up to the counter, where an eager young deputy in a dark gray uniform shirt and black