her head, and changed into the dark brown skirt suit she’d worn the first time they had gone to the base. “You game for that?”
She swallowed. Nodded.
Bran drew her into his arms, bent and nipped the side of her neck. “I missed you last night,” he said softly, then took her mouth in a hot, wet kiss.
Jessie moaned.
Bran kissed and tasted, slid his hands inside her jacket, inside her blouse to tease her nipples through the thin silk of her bra. He kissed her until she was running her hands over his naked chest, gripping his shoulders and repeating his name like a plea. Shoving up her skirt, he slid down a pair of pink bikini panties that had him groaning, then kissed her again and turned her around. In her high heels, the table was just the right height to bend her over.
And didn’t she look just fine exactly that way.
“Beautiful,” he said as he ran a hand over her sexy curves and began to stroke her. Never one to pass up an opportunity, he’d grabbed a foil packet before he’d left the bedroom, sheathed himself now, tossed the towel, and slid into her welcoming heat.
Jessie moaned and arched her back, taking him even deeper. He always worried she might relapse to her days in confinement, but instead, she gripped the opposite side of the table, making it better for both of them.
Clenching his teeth against the pleasure, he increased his pace until she was making soft little sounds in her throat. A few seconds later she started coming, her sweet little body clenching around him, and Bran completely lost it.
Lightning struck, or it felt that way. He gripped her hips and pounded into her, and Jessie came again. By the time he’d finished, both of them were sprawled on the table, limp and sated. Bran pulled her up with him, turned her into his arms, and kissed her.
He smiled. “You’re going to kill me, I swear.”
Jessie pressed a last kiss on his lips. “Whatever happens, I’ll always be grateful to you for saving me.”
He knew what she meant, that he had helped her deal with her trauma. It was the whatever happens part that bothered him. He liked being with Jessie, liked it way too much. Sooner or later, it would have to end. Both of them knew it, accepted it.
His mood darkened. Apparently he wasn’t ready for that to happen.
“It’s getting late. We need to get going.” While he left to deal with the condom and get dressed, Jessie freshened up and rearranged her clothes. She was ready to leave when he returned. Only the flush in her cheeks gave away what they had been doing. It made him want her all over again.
Disgusted with himself, he scraped a hand through his hair. He needed to stop thinking about Jessie and focus on his upcoming meeting with the general.
Fortunately, life-and-death matters had a way of dulling his sex drive.
* * *
Jessie followed Lieutenant Dickerson down the hall to General Holloway’s office, Bran right beside her. She managed not to think about the amazing sex she’d just had by telling herself it would be okay if it happened again.
The general rose from behind his desk, spine straight, short, silver-touched brown hair perfectly groomed. He greeted Jessie, then turned to Bran.
“Captain Garrett. I gather you suffered a rather unpleasant night.”
“The deputies were just doing what they’re paid for, trying to keep all of us safe.”
Holloway nodded, seemed satisfied with his words. “I’ve got questions I need answered. Why don’t we sit down?”
They sat around the same table and chairs Jessie had been seated at earlier that morning.
Holloway focused on Bran. “Let’s start with you explaining what led to the conclusion that the man we now have in custody, Wayne Conrad Coffman, is linked to terrorism. You understand the risk I took in acting on the information Jessie gave me.”
“I do, sir. Completely.” Bran started from the beginning, describing the chain of events that had led to the murder of Jessie’s father, progressed to attempts on Jessie’s life, followed by the murder of Janos Petrov and the arrest of Wayne Coffman, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Bran made the case that if Coffman could be induced to implicate Weaver as the man who had hired him, they could pressure Weaver into giving them the name of whoever hired him, someone directly involved in the theft of the chemical weapons. It was the same case Jessie had made, but the