“Fast. Hard.” Her voice wasn’t her own. It was hoarse, demanding, desperate.
Matt gave her what she needed as her nails dug into the flesh on his stomach. He propelled her upwards, out of her body, far away, riding on a wave of sensation and need. Riding the crest of overwhelming desire. All at once the wave broke. She screamed as she fell. Overwhelmed. Lost in him. She only knew his touch, his taste, his scent. There was nothing else. She felt him groan beneath her as she collapsed onto his chest.
Slowly, oh so slowly, she came back to herself. Matt’s hand stroked her back as his breathing evened out beneath her. She felt his heartbeat slow as she trailed her fingers through the smattering of hair on his chest. His hand worked its way up to the back of her head, where he clutched her hair. He angled her head to look in her eyes.
As soon as Jena’s eyes met his, her breath caught. No one had ever looked at her like that before. Like she was everything they wanted. Her heart stuttered at the sight. He pulled her up to his lips and gave her a lazy kiss.
“I changed my mind,” h
e told her with that panty-melting grin of his. “Next time you want me, don’t ask, just take. Taking works great. Taking is good. You can take anytime.”
With a chuckle, Jena rested her cheek back on his chest and closed her eyes.
Taking was indeed good. Cocooned in his warmth and strength, she felt her eyelids grow heavy. A moment later, she was asleep.
23
“I need to get Jena alone.” Frank Di Marco was pacing his hotel room. Agitation poured from him. Grunt noticed the trembling hands his temporary boss tried to hide. He was terrified. Things weren’t going as planned. Time was running out and he was getting desperate. “That Keystone Cop is with her all the time. You need to do something about him.” He pointed at Joe. “I ain’t paying you to sit around. This is no vacation.”
Joe’s jaw clenched. His biceps flexed. Grunt knew the signs. He was holding on to his self-control by a thread.
“What do you want us to do, boss?” Joe spat the word.
“What do I want?” Frank shouted. “I want you to do the job I’m paying you to do. I need access to Jena. And I need it now. How am I supposed to convince her to come with me if I can’t even talk to her? That cop won’t let her out of his sight. I need him gone. I need her alone. And it needs to happen now. Her mom isn’t pulling her weight. Jena isn’t listening to her.” Frank poked another finger in Joe’s direction. Joe looked about ten seconds away from breaking the finger off and feeding it to the man. “I need you two gorillas to pick Jena up. There’s an old factory outside town. I want you to take her there.” He cracked his knuckles. “I’m done screwing around. She’s gonna listen to what I have to say and I need a real quiet place where she can hear me properly.” His grin was equal parts stupid and malicious. Not a good combination. “Got it?” he yelled.
“Got it,” Grunt said to distract Joe from violence.
Frank threw up his hands. “The ape talks!”
Now it was Grunt’s turn to imagine all the ways he could pop the guy’s head like an overripe grape.
Frank waved a hand in disgust, oblivious to the fact he was skirting close to death. “Get out of here. Do the job you’re being paid for. If this hadn’t been last minute I woulda had time to hire a decent crew. Guys who knew what they were doing. We’re on the clock. No more excuses. Get me the girl.” With a flick of his hand, they were dismissed.
Without a word, Joe and Grunt left Frank to his pacing. Once outside Frank’s room, Joe’s demeanour turned murderous.
“I would seriously love to pour some concrete around that little shit’s ankles and drop him into the loch.”
Grunt couldn’t disagree. They went into Joe’s room, where Grunt sat in the only armchair and stretched his legs out. Joe handed him a beer from the mini-fridge. Grunt grunted his thanks. Joe seemed to deflate as he plopped down on the edge of the bed.
“This is falling apart around our ears,” Joe said. “This guy is losing control. If we’re not careful, we’ll go down with him.” He ran a hand over his military-short hair. “I thought this job would be a breeze. Instead we’re likely to get locked up in a foreign jail because we’re taking orders from a moron. We should walk. While we still can.”
Grunt took a large swallow of cold beer. “What about Jena? Frank’s losing it big time. We can’t trust him with her.”
“If we see this through. It means kidnapping her for Frank. You ready to face kidnapping charges if this goes south?”
“I like to think of it as borrowing.”
“Borrowing?”
“Yeah.” He finished his beer and put the empty bottle on the table beside him. “We take her. We put her back. Borrowing. Not kidnapping.”
Joe scratched his belly. “I got a bad feeling about this.” He let out a sigh. “I also don’t think we have a choice.”
“We could tell the cop. Give him a heads-up.”
“What will he do? He’s already powerless against Frank. Until Frank breaks the law, the cop’s hands are tied. All he can do is stand between Frank and Jena, looking mean. If we tell him, we tip our hand with Frank, then this gig really is over. Who’ll look out for Jena if Frank decides to persuade her with his fists? No. We can’t risk telling anyone.”
They stared into nothing for a while, each with their own thoughts.