CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hell.
He’d blown it.
Jake glanced at the bedroom door where Maggie had just disappeared. Then, he forced himself not to glance at it again just seconds later. He halfway expected her to come back out and force him to deal with this attraction between them.
She didn’t.
The door stayed shut.
Too bad his brain and body didn’t take it as a sign that he should keep it that way. He knew this was a mistake. In just a few hours, after the bone marrow procedure, Maggie would have to leave. He might never see her again. Knowing that, it was wrong to sleep with her.
That didn’t stop him from wanting her.
Jake considered a shot of whiskey but didn’t need anything else playing into this. His head was clear. And he had no excuses for what he was about to do.
He headed down the hall toward the spare bedroom where Maggie had gone. But he only made it a couple of steps before she opened the door and came out.
“I was listening for your footsteps.” She frowned as if she hadn’t wanted to admit that to him.
“I was waiting for you to open the door,” he admitted right back.
The corner of her mouth lifted into a partial smile, but the amusement didn’t make it to the rest of her expression. There was the fire. On her face. In the way she drew in a thin breath. And even the partial smile vanished when she stepped toward him at the same moment Jake stepped toward her.
They met, their mouths coming together at once.
It was as if they were starved for each other, and the kiss was hard, long and deep. Instant erection, but that didn’t surprise him. He stayed pretty much aroused whenever he was around Maggie.
Jake cupped the back of her head, anchoring her in place against his mouth and his body, but Maggie did some anchoring of her own. She slung her arm around his waist and dragged him as close to her as he could get.
Well, he could get closer, if he was inside her.
He had no doubts that would happen soon but maybe not soon enough because he was already burning for her. Judging from Maggie’s impatient, hungry hands, she felt the same. Her fingers dug into his back. Then lower. And she pressed him against her sex. The fit was right.
Without breaking the kiss, he moved Maggie toward the doorway, but Jake’s shoulder rammed into the doorjamb. That only added to the stars he was already seeing, but it darn sure didn’t slow them down. They turned, in some awkward dance that got them across the room and to the bed.
They tumbled onto the mattress. Maggie on top. With her leg pressed right against his erection. She reached her hands between them to unbutton his shirt. She pushed it open and then pulled away from him, her gaze going from his face to his now bare chest.
She made a sound. An erotic little hitch of breath that went through him and made him even harder, something he hadn’t thought possible. With that sound still purring in his ears, she ran her hands over his chest. And lower. To his stomach.
Then lower.
Oh, man.
This was the best form of torture.
With her gaze locked with his, she undid his belt, shoved down his zipper and slid her hand to the only place he wanted it to slide.
Now, it was Jake’s turn to make a sound. Not the breathy hitch that Maggie had made. His was more of a groan, throaty and deep. Not exactly a request for more, but she had the proof of what he wanted in her hand.
It didn’t take long for her touch to fire up the need to finish this now, and Jake reached up and pulled off her sweater. Her bra was white, no lace or frills, and he unhooked it so her breasts spilled out into his hands. She was small, firm. Perfect. But touching wasn’t enough. He dragged her closer so he could take her right nipple into his mouth.
Maggie made that sound again and melted back onto the mattress. It gave him good access to her pants, and while Jake kissed her breasts, then her stomach, he peeled off her jeans, taking her panties with them.
“Yeah, perfect,” he said.
Her face, flushed with arousal. Her nipples, drawn and tight. She was breathing through her mouth now. And her lips were trembling. Fingers, too. But there was no fear on her face or in her eyes. The trembling was from need.
Jake upped that a little more.
He slid his hand down her stomach and between her legs so he could touch her. He wanted to see the pleasure on her face, while he was still capable of seeing. Once he was inside her, all chance of that was gone. So, he touched now. Slipping his fingers into her sex. Into all that wet heat.
He did more than tremble. Maggie jolted at his touch, and she grabbed on to handfuls of the bedding, bunching them into her fists. She made that sound again. Lifted her hips and let him touch her just the way he wanted.
“I’m toast,” she mumbled.
Jake knew exactly how she felt.
He could feel her already close to a climax, but he didn’t want her there yet. He wanted to be inside her when she came so he shifted their positions, adjusting.
And then he cursed.
Maggie’s eyes widened, and she caught onto him when he started to move away. “You’re not stopping.”
“No condom,” he said.
She cursed, too. “Surely, Royce has got one around here somewhere.”
Oh, yeah. His brother was no saint and definitely not celibate.
Jake kissed her and slid his gaze down her naked, waiting body. “Hold that thought.”
He got off her and hurried into the bathroom that divided the two bedrooms. Jake found not one but two boxes of condoms in the medicine cabinet. He’d thank his little brother later, but for now, he took one. Then, a second.
He hurried back to the bedroom and tossed one of the condoms on the nightstand. Maggie helped first with taking off his jeans and boxers and then helped with the condom. At least she tried, but her touch was like a lightning rod, and by the time they had the condom in place, Jake figured foreplay was over. Maggie clearly felt the same because she latched on to him and pulled him back on top of her.
Jake slid inside her. He tried to brace himself for the blinding pleasure, but this was a bracing kind of situation. Oh, mercy. He was toast, too.
“It’s not supposed to feel this good,” Maggie whispered.
Jake’s thoughts were leaning in that same direction, and he blamed it on the fact that it’d likely been a while since either of them had done this.
He moved inside her. Slowly at first. But the need soon dictated the speed. She opened her body to him, wrapping her legs around his waist and lifting her hips with each trust. It didn’t take long—not nearly long enough—before he felt the tremors of her climax.
She turned her head to the side, into the soft mattress, so that he couldn’t see her face. Even with the blinding heat ramming through him, he wanted to see the pleasure there. He wanted to see what this was doing to her.
He kept up the thrusts inside her, but Jake took her by the chin, turning her and forcing the eye contact he needed.
And he saw it.
The moment that Maggie went over.
He felt it, in every part of his body. Every part of hers. The overwhelming need. Followed by the overwhelming release.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she pulled him closer. Closer. Closer. Until Jake could feel the release, the surrender. Completion.
He buried his face against the curve of Maggie’s neck, and he let himself go.
He lay there, still buried deep inside her, and he let himself slowly come back to planet earth. Once he could catch a decent breath, Jake kissed her.
“I won’t be long.” And he headed into the bathroom for a moment.
He didn’t look in the mirror. Didn’t think. For just a little while, he wanted to pretend that life felt as good as his satiated body. Maggie must have felt the same because, when he climbed in bed with her, she pulled him right into her arms and curved her body against his.
“When we screw things up,” she whispered, “we do a thorough job of it.”
“Yeah.” But that didn’t stop him from hauling her to him for another kiss. “Give me a half hour and we’ll screw up things some more.”
She chuckled, the motion rubbing her breasts against his chest, and just like that, he was ready again. Sheesh. He wasn’t a teenager. He was thirty-five. But for the rest of their time together, Jake figured he would let this need, and Maggie, take over his common sense.
His phone buzzed, and Jake groaned. It was too soon to leave Maggie’s arms and bed. Too soon to do much of anything, but then he remembered all the bad things that the good sex had made him temporarily forget.
Jake crawled his way to his jeans and rummaged through the pocket to come up with the phone. It was Royce’s number he saw on the screen, and that nearly put him in a panic.
“Is something wrong with Sunny?” Jake asked the second he answered.
That question got Maggie moving, too. She wound the sheet around her and hurried to his side so she could listen.
“Sunny’s fine and already tucked into bed for the night,” Royce explained. “But we do have a problem. I got a call from Betsy Becker, and she saw someone suspicious in the parking lot at the Corral Junction hospital.”
Neither Maggie nor Jake made a sound, but they both knew this couldn’t be good. “Who was he?”
“We don’t know yet. It a man in dark truck in the back part of the parking lot. Betsy called the sheriff, and when he got out there, the guy sped away.”
Yeah, definitely not good.
“I don’t know how Tanner could have found out we were planning the procedure there. The only people who knew other than us were Becky and the doctor.”
Jake scrubbed his hand over his face. “Maybe Tanner had someone planted in the hospital. He knows we need the bone marrow for Sunny.”
And that meant Tanner might have hospitals staked out all around the area.
Hell.
“I could talk to the staff here,” Royce suggested. “And see if they can do it.”
“No.” Jake didn’t have to think about nixing that idea. “I don’t want to give Tanner any reason to go after Sunny. Yeah, he probably did that bomb threat, but it was just that. A threat. And I think he was just playing games with Maggie and me. It’s us he wants, and I don’t want to lead him to Sunny or the rest of you.”
Maggie whispered an agreement.
“So, what do we do?” Royce asked.
Nothing that would be totally safe, that was for sure. No matter which direction he went, it could be dangerous. The storm moving in certainly didn’t help, either, because he didn’t know how bad the roads would be. It wouldn’t do Sunny any good if Maggie and he got into an accident.
Jake looked at Maggie to see if she had any say in this but she just stared back. “I trust you,” she told him.
Great. Now she trusted him. He’d already planned to do whatever it took to keep her safe, but her trust upped the stakes. That and making love to her.
“Call Betsy,” Jake said to Royce, “and see if she and the doctor can meet Maggie and me at the Mustang Ridge hospital at midnight.”
“Hell’s bells, Jake. That’s the last place you should go.”
Maggie didn’t curse, but she did give him a questioning stare.
“I’m hoping Mustang Ridge is the last place Tanner thinks we’ll go,” Jake explained. “And just in case he has someone already in place, I’ll have Billy and Sheriff Marcus go through the entire hospital. Room by room. Once I have Maggie inside, the doors will be locked, and Billy and Marcus can secretly stand guard so that if Tanner’s hired gun drives by, he won’t be suspicious.”
“You think that’ll be enough?” Royce asked.
Jake hoped so. “Just protect Sunny,” he said, and he ended the call.
“You still trust me?” he asked Maggie.
She nodded. “With my life.”
It was the answer he wanted and dreaded at the same time. Because both hers and Sunny’s lives were in his hands.