I got out of the cab and handed the driver a wad of bills. “Thanks.”

I wrestled my bag onto my good shoulder and blew out a shaky breath. It’d been two months. Two months since I made Jack and Brent go back home. Two months since I’d last seen Jack.

I was still in a shoulder sling, but I was feeling much better. I’d called ahead before moving and found a physical therapist that could see me in my new town, and I had an appointment the next day to get started. I had a new apartment, one I was sharing with Carly. She’d woken up from her coma the month before and had been eager to get away from the hospital and from Jackson. There was just too much there.

Things were happening for the better. I was making things happen for the better. I was at my first job interview in my new town and I was nervous, but confident. If they didn’t want to hire me, I still had some money saved up, so I could find something else in the meantime. I hoped they wanted to hire me, though.

Looking up at the giant square, glass building, I sighed. It felt like coming home. Stone Security was my first job interview. I was applying for a low secretarial position and was interviewing with an HR guy who didn’t know me, as far as I knew. I wanted to surprise Jack.

He’d been pissed at me. When I first told him I wanted him to go back to Memphis, he didn’t get it. We had a connection. There was something between us that neither of us could deny, and I was still sending him away. He didn’t understand that I needed to get my life together first. He had this perfect package, all ready to hand over to me, but I didn’t want to take it that way.

Letting Jack take care of me after I got shot would’ve been too easy. He’d fixed everything for me. He’d taken care of me while Snake was trying to kill me. He’d brought an end to the Rage MC’s attack on me. Most importantly, he’d managed to kill Snake. He ended the life of the man who’d been my biggest nightmare since I was sixteen. I owed him so much. If I just went with him back to Memphis after getting released from the hospital, I wouldn’t have ever felt like I deserved him.

Jack deserved a partner who had something to bring to the table—besides her body—which wasn’t nearly as pretty as it once was. I had been joking when I said I could go back to stripping eventually. The scar that the bullet left on my chest wasn’t ever going to allow me to get back on stage.

I was okay with that, though. During those two months, I’d started to realize that I could, maybe, live inside of the bubble of normal. I’d been working full time at the library, and spending my nights with Carly. The first month, I stayed with her in her hospital room. The nurses knew me well, by that point, and had no problem in letting me break the visiting-hour rules. When Carly woke up, I stayed with her in her apartment. We spent a while talking about what had happened, and Carly spent a while trying to convince me that it wasn’t my fault.

The job interview was good. The HR guy, Jeremy Byers, wasn’t that impressed with my resume, but when I talked to him about my experiences at the library, he changed his tone. I left his office feeling like I could have gotten the job. Then, it was time for the part that made me really nervous.

I got on the elevator and rode up to Jack’s floor. I felt like my knees were going to crumble from underneath me. I tried to calm down, but I didn’t know what to expect. Two months had been a long time. I’d missed Jack, but maybe he hadn’t missed me. I wasn’t sure. A part of me was terrified that he’d gone back to Stacey.

When the elevator stopped on his floor, I stepped out and swallowed all of that fear down. I had to see Jack and nothing was going to stop me. Not fear and not his secretary, who looked like she was going to ask me to stop, until recognition flashed in her eyes.

I gently knocked on his door, and then I pushed my way in.

“Yeah? Kim, I told you I’m in a—” Jack stopped talking when he looked up from his desk and realized it was me. A crooked grin broke out on his face and he dropped the pen he’d been holding. “I thought you’d never make it. You got to town days ago, Red. What were you waiting on?”

I glanced at the men who were sitting at his desk and smiled. “I didn’t realize you were busy. I’ll come back.”

Jack shook his head. “No way. You’re staying. Gentleman, give us a few minutes, would you? If you’ll go down to the cafeteria, I’ll buy you both lunch. Ask Chef Hamilton for anything you’d like.”

They gave me knowing smiles and then quickly left the room. I looked up at Jack and couldn’t help the slight blush on my face. “Hi.”

He circled his desk and inched closer. “You haven’t answered my question. You’ve been in town for days. Why are you just now coming to see me?”

I raised an eyebrow. I’d heard him the first time he’d said it, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Maybe he wasn’t following me around to make sure I came back to him. “You were keeping tabs on me?”

“Guilty. I’m not a patient man. I needed to know that you were actually on your way here.”

“You still want me?”

He was standing in front of me in the blink of an eye. Yet, he still didn’t touch me. “Yes. More than anything. You took too long to get back here.”

“It was only two months.”

“Two months too many. Are you here to stay?”

I’d thought a lot about what it meant to stay with Jack. He was a danger-loving wild man with a bossy streak. We butted heads and argued a lot, but I liked him. A lot. I didn’t know where it would go, but I knew I wanted to take the chance on him.

“Yes.”

He slipped his arms around my waist and held me to him, careful of my shoulder. It felt so good to be back in his embrace that I sighed into his chest. His strong body easily wrapped around mine and he rested his chin on the top of my head.

“I’ve missed you.”

Jack’s chest rumbled under my ear as he spoke. “I’ve missed you, too. I was pissed for a while, but then I just got over it. I just wanted you closer to me.”

“I’m glad. I was scared that I’d walk in here and you’d be back with Stacey.”

He chuckled. “You’re insane. There’s something about you. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head. Even if I had wanted to move on, I wouldn’t have been able to.”

I loved hearing that. I stretched my good arm up and wrapped it around his neck. “I feel the same way.”

We stared at each other in silence for a few moments, letting our words sink in. Somehow, in the craziness that was Snake, we’d managed to get attached to each other. Even when I thought I hated Jack, I’d wanted to be near him. I felt like it was a pull that was bigger than we were. I didn’t want to fight it. I just wanted to wrap myself up in him and breathe easier.

“Do you have a shower here?”

Jack frowned. “What?”

I kissed his chest and then higher. I ran my tongue over his Adam’s apple and moaned as his fingers tightened on my body. “A shower. I’d like to follow tradition and shower with you.”

Jack’s arms hooked under my thighs and lifted me so I was wrapped around him. “How’s your shoulder?”

I grinned. “Good enough.”

He walked us backward until my back was pressed against the door to his office. He turned the lock on it and then walked me back to his desk. “I do have a shower, but I also have this fantasy…”

I laughed as he cleared the papers off with a swipe of his arm. “Jack! What if you need those?”

He lowered me onto the desk with a wicked grin. “Red, I just can’t find it in me to care.”

I was okay with his apathy on that subject, especially after he showed me just how much he’d missed me. I didn’t know if I’d be able to walk out of Stone Security, but I was in physical therapy. They could fix whatever he broke.