Chapter Twelve

Jillian

The past two nights flew by despite my attempts to stop time. I even tried to keep Damon in the hospital longer—even just one more night to give me time to figure out what to do. But other than a little soreness at the surgical site, there was no apparent indication he’d even been shot.

I thought he was bluffing a little though, being a tough guy for my benefit. There was no way his shoulder didn’t bother him.

Benny waited at the curb and opened the door for us to get in. Damon wrapped his good arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to his side. Stir-crazy didn’t come close to describing how he’d climbed the walls over the last twenty-four hours. Even so, I was in no hurry to leave. After he was given the all-clear by Dr. Falco, nothing could’ve wiped the smile off his face.

“I can’t wait to get you back to my place. Alone. All to myself. I have so many plans for you. Don’t plan on walking normal for a month.”

His sexy voice in my ear made my temperature soar. His full lips against the shell of my ear sent chills pebbling across my skin. His hand possessively gripping my shoulder erased my resolve to make him rest.

I’d already decided to tell him everything once we were in the safety of his apartment. The embezzlement. Lorenzo. My mother. I couldn’t wait to unload everything I’d been holding inside. He’d know what to do and how to help me. I’d wanted to tell him what Lorenzo had threatened while he was in the hospital, but I couldn’t take the chance of him leaving against medical advice then developing an infection. Damon would’ve walked out while wearing his hospital gown and headed straight for Lorenzo to settle it man-to-man.

I was a little nervous about telling him. I’d never seen Damon mad, and I wasn’t sure how he’d react to my keeping something like that to myself. His sense of honor dictated he defend and protect his own. He’d told me many times he’d claimed me and I was part of his family. My only hope was he’d understand I’d never been in such a predicament before and wasn’t certain how to handle it.

My mind was reeling with all those thoughts when his mouth found mine. Soft yet firm, he captured my lips with his, holding them as a willing hostage while I became a molten puddle of need and want. While the city blocks ticked by, everything except him disappeared. I was so lost in the man beside me, in his arms, in his kiss, in his entire being, I didn’t care who was watching or listening.

My heart raced, and my breathing kicked up a notch. My hands shook and my insides quivered, but my mind stayed focused on the wicked pleasures he gave me.

His other hand reached up, his fingers gripping my hair, when I felt him flinch and immediately withdraw his hand. I pulled away, breaking our kiss, and gave him a knowing look. “I know that hurt you. Stop trying to hide it from me.”

The sweet smile I’d only seen a couple of times made another appearance and completely wiped away my aggravation with him. A good heart beat underneath his tough exterior, and I was a lucky woman to have experienced it.

“I’m all right, doll. Nothing to worry about. I can still take care of you.”

“What if I want to take care of you?”

His eyes darkened with desire. “Oh, you can take care of me all you want. But don’t think for a second that fine ass of yours isn’t mine.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

The car stopped in front of Damon’s building, and Benny opened the door for us. With a quick step through the lobby, we reached the door of his penthouse in record time. By the time we entered his enormous apartment, clothes were haphazardly flung wherever they landed in our quest to reach bare skin. He slowed only long enough to get his arm out of his shirt without injuring his wound.

He guided me as I walked backward to his bedroom. Our lips were fused together. Our hands were everywhere on each other’s body, every bit as hungry to touch and feel as any other part of us. When the backs of my knees hit his bed, I broke our kiss and sat on the edge. He gently pushed my shoulders, telling me to slide back, but I slowly shook my head.

“My turn to take care of you.”

I took his cock in my hand and began stroking him from base to tip. He grew harder and harder with each pass. My tongue circled around the head, skimming along the ridge before flattening across the top. He placed his hands on the sides of my head, and his fingers curled into fists and pulled my hair with them. When I took him deep into my mouth without warning, the low timbre of his growl rumbled through his chest. His hands gripped tighter in my hair, and his hips began to surge faintly.

My hand squeezed his girth, gliding up and down his cock in tandem with my mouth. The speed of his hips increased and perfectly matched my ministrations. He released a loud groan and held my head still in his grip.

“Are you sure?”

I smiled around his cock and continued toward my goal. He dropped his head back and every muscle in his body tensed in anticipation. “Fuck, Jillian.” He moaned as he succumbed to his release, the hot, salty essence hitting the back of my throat in short bursts. With a quick glance up at his intense gaze with his cock still in my mouth, I swallowed every drop of him.

The next second, I found myself flat on my back with his face buried between my legs.

“It’s been too long since I’ve tasted this sweet pussy. It’s time for me to feast on you.”

And he did. The room spun. I couldn’t breathe between screams. My fingers gripped and pulled his hair. I begged him to stop when the intensity was too much…but he didn’t. The more times I came, the more he was challenged to make another orgasm tear through me. It was the best torture I’d ever experienced.

When he moved to lie beside me on the bed, I straddled his lap and guided his cock to my wet entrance. His hands held my hips as I lowered myself onto him, taking him inside me to the hilt. I rolled my hips, gliding back and forth then up and down, riding him straight into another earth-shattering orgasm. He followed quickly behind me before I collapsed, resting my head on the uninjured side of his chest.

“You’ve earned a good meal and a nap. Then I expect to have round two later tonight,” he murmured against my head.

“You’re determined to kill me, I’m sure of it,” I teased. “Do you have any groceries in the house? I’ll cook something so you don’t have to go back out.”

“Mama cooked for us. Everything we could possibly want to eat is waiting in the refrigerator. Joe brought it all over first thing this morning.”

“I love your mom so much right now.”

We both rolled out of bed gingerly, but for very different reasons. He pulled on his lounge pants and tossed me one of his T-shirts to wear. After a quick trip to the bathroom to clean up, I told him to relax on the couch while I scoped out the dinner situation. He was exactly right—his mother had more than taken care of the food situation for the next few days. After making two heaping plates to replenish our energy, I joined him on the couch, and we ate in front of the TV like a couple who’d been together forever.

With my stomach stuffed and my heart full, I turned to face him and break the news. “Damon, there are a couple of important things I’ve been trying to tell you about, but we keep getting interrupted. The Saturday you were working, I stayed at my apartment and worked on my assigned account. It’s been a mess from the start, and I fell into a rabbit hole trying to figure out what happened with the accounting.”

He leaned back against the opposite armrest, listening intently to my every word. “Interesting. Go on.”

My chin dropped to my chest, and my shoulders sagged when my phone pinged with the chime assigned to my mom’s sitter. She would often text me if she had a question about Mom’s care. “This couldn’t have happened at a worse time. I’m sorry, Damon. Let me check that. It’s about my mom.”

“No problem, doll.” Then his phone pinged with a text, and one side of his mouth curled up. “Guess we’re popular, huh?”

He grabbed his phone out of his pants pocket while I dug in my purse for mine. “Doll, I have to call my dad. Go ahead and call your mom, then we’ll finish that conversation. Sound good?”

“Perfect. I won’t be long.”

With my phone finally in hand, I unlocked it and opened the text.

And nearly dropped my phone.

It sounds like you’re about to tell Damon everything and test me. I wouldn’t advise it.

The picture that arrived next was another picture of my mom, in a different outfit…inside her house.

You won’t win this game, sweetheart. Finish your job tonight or mommy dies.

My whole body shook, and I couldn’t breathe. How did Lorenzo know about my conversation with Damon? Why did his text have the same tone I assigned Mom’s sitter? Did he have someone there with my mom right then?

With shaking hands, I dialed Mom’s number. Margie, her sitter, answered, and I finally let out a relieved breath. “Hello?”

“Margie, this is Jillian. Can I speak with Mom?”

“She’s already asleep, Jillian. She’s had a rough day today.”

“What happened?”

“Oh, you know how she is. She tried to get up by herself and took a tumble. She’s fine, but waiting in the doctor’s office to make sure she didn’t break anything wore her out.”

“You or her nurse should’ve called me, Margie. Are you sure she’s okay?”

“That’s why I didn’t call you. So you wouldn’t worry when you’re so far away.”

I hung up with the promise of calling back early the next morning to talk to Mom and thanked Margie for taking such good care of her. Knowing I wasn’t there when Mom fell made me feel even more guilty for leaving her. But after confirming she was okay, a much more terrible reality held my undivided attention.

I had to choose yet again between saving my mom by killing Damon…or telling Damon and killing my mom. I was right back where I started, only I’d learned Lorenzo was somehow listening to my conversations.

I wasn’t a murderer. I wasn’t a violent person.

What was I supposed to do?

“Is something wrong, doll?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Damon jarred me from my thoughts. When I looked at him, all I could see was myself standing over the lifeless body of the man I loved. Killed by my hand. The next flash was one of my mother, brutally murdered by strangers. The woman who raised me. Who sacrificed what she wanted so I could have what I wanted. Who trusted me to care for her in her twilight years.

“Jillian?”

“She fell today. Margie had to take her to the doctor to make sure nothing was broken. She’s asleep, so I couldn’t talk to her myself.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I know how much you love her.”

“Do you think she knows?”

“Knows what, doll?”

“How much I love her.” My chin quivered, and I held my breath to fight back the tears gathering in my eyes.

“I absolutely think she knows.”

“I hope you’re right. Guilt eats me alive sometimes.” I stared at the floor, unable to look at him any longer.

“Are you ready to finish that conversation we were having?”

“Maybe later. The last thing I want to think about right now is work.”

“I understand. How about that nap, then? We’ve had a long day.”

“We have indeed. A nap sounds like a plan to me.”

“I’m going to jump in the shower to wash the hospital off me then I’ll join you in the bed.”

He kissed me sweetly before walking off to his enormous bathroom. When I heard the water running, I grabbed the large kitchen knife off the magnetic strip and robotically moved to his bedroom. With the knife hidden under my pillow, I pulled his T-shirt over my head, laid it on the chair close to the bed, and slid between the silk sheets.

And waited.