Holding on Tighter (Wicked Lovers 12)

Jolie wondered if he knew that he wasn’t her sister’s type. Karis liked them buff and slick and full of charisma, just like their mother.

“Who else would it have been?” Arthur implored. “I’ve been paying attention to your likes and dislikes. When you and Ben split up a while back, I thought . . . maybe, here’s my chance. So I studied you for weeks. I wanted to show you that I’m more than a number cruncher and a gaming geek. I can be thoughtful and romantic.” With a tsk, he turned back to Heath and Jolie. “But you two kept reading the most menacing meanings into my notes.”

“They all but threatened Jolie, so yes. We were concerned.” Heath sized him up. “The rock through her window Saturday with ‘bitch’ painted in red letters?”

Arthur paused, lips pressed together in a stubborn line. Then regret furrowed his brow. “I was angry. I’m sorry. I’ll pay for the damages. It’s just . . . I could have been spending the weekend with Karis. My worry that she would never love me might already be over if you had simply talked to me about the policy.”

“You’re right, and I regret that I didn’t take time for you.” Jolie frowned. “But you made me believe someone was out to do me bodily harm.”

“No. You two decided that. If I didn’t know otherwise, I’d say you’re unromantic people.”

“Why didn’t you even try to ask me out?” Karis asked.

“I wanted to.” He looked away. “I’m not always good with words.”

“You spent all this time getting to know me, and I’m flattered. But how was I supposed to fall in love with you if you never let me know you?”

Arthur looked at Karis as if that had never occurred to him. “It’s . . . I, um— I guess I hoped you might give me a try if you knew I could be caring.”

Karis shook her head. “Buttering me up won’t do you any good. All my life, I’ve watched my mom fall for the wrong men. And it always ends horribly. Ben was the last guy I let sweet-talk me. I woke up one day to find him sexting someone else while I was lying right beside him. I let myself feel heartbroken for a while. When the burglar had me cornered in the office the other night and I worried I could die, I decided it was time to be more like my older sister than my mother. I resolved to get my life together.” She turned to Jolie. “Yesterday, I enrolled in college. I start after the holidays. I’ll be attending classes at night. I’m ready to make something of my life. And someday, my Prince Charming will come. But I won’t need him to complete me. I’ll be a complete person all on my own.”

Jolie swelled with pride. It was weirdly maternal but also like the thrill she’d feel for a good friend.

“I’m so proud of you.” She grabbed her sister into a big bear hug and felt her eyes sting with tears.

“I really am sorry about everything,” Arthur offered. “I thought I was being smart but . . . I see your point. Can we start over, Karis? Maybe go to dinner? That is, if our boss will lift the anti-dating policy and I still have a job.”

The old her would have fired him on the spot. The new her had a vastly different approach. “Everyone is human. We make mistakes. Consider this your second—and last chance. You’re on probation for ninety days. But if there are no more problems, mysterious boxes in the office, or rocks through my window, then you’re still employed. You’re a great asset, and I’d hate to lose you. Whatever happens between you and my sister is up to you two.”

Karis hesitated. “Maybe we’ll start as friends, see where it leads.”

It wasn’t the answer Arthur wanted to hear but he accepted it with grace. “I’d like that.”

***

A few hours later, Karis and Arthur had disappeared into a theater room with a big screen and hooked up his console so the accountant could introduce her to the postapocalyptic world he gamed in. No one had seen them for hours, so Heath guessed they were hitting it off. Jolie worked quietly at the kitchen table with her pad of paper and her mobile, making one phone call after another, beating the bushes for a new investor.

Heath focused on his job—keeping her alive. Arthur had owned up to everything except the two most troublesome events: the break-in and the attempted shooting. If Heath couldn’t point the finger at the accountant for those, he wasn’t sure where else to cast his suspicion.

Stone tapped away on Jolie’s computer, the grooves bracketing his frown growing deeper with every moment. “Okay, this is bad.”

“What?” Heath really didn’t want more bad news. He simply wanted to take his wife to their bed, shut the door, and forget about the rest of the world.

“Last Wednesday evening, someone got onto your wife’s system and started installing a whole bunch of data mining software and tracking cookies. Basically, they wanted to know her every keystroke and query.” Stone shook his head. “Whoever started the download didn’t finish, though.”

“We interrupted them. When Jolie and I first approached during the break-in, we beat the police there. Karis was inside, by herself.”

“She was scared,” Cutter supplied. “She told me.”

“Absolutely. Jolie was afraid for her, and I promised to get Karis out alive. But when we arrived, we found a man typing on her computer. We interrupted him, so he tried to steal the machine.”

“There’s something on here that he wants badly.”

Heath paced, teeth gritted. “We have no idea what. At first we assumed something business related but—”

“I’m not sure about that.” Stone tapped a few more keys. Then a couple more. His confusion turned to concern. “He seems most interested in her browsing history for the seven-day period before and after Wednesday. She searched for something on the Internet and he seems focused on those queries.”

“Such as?” Fabrics? Trends? Loans? Investment advice?

Stone leveled a hard glance at him. “The most searched item during that period of time was you.”

Cutter grunted. “I hate to say I told you so . . .”

Heath tried to absorb that news but it didn’t make sense. Yes, Karis had apparently used her sister’s computer to make inquiries about him but who was left to care? Anna’s parents probably had the most legitimate reason to hate him. He’d failed to protect their only daughter. But they had died before she had. His only other suspect, Kensforth, was gone, too. Hell, he would even suspect Myles . . . except the man was a continent away, trying to get on with his life. Of course he had the connections to hire someone to kill Jolie but why her? Why now? He’d lost even more than Heath had that day and still seemed to be grieving in his own way.

Who did that leave?

The mastermind of the attacks that killed Anna and Lucy. That nameless, faceless shadow of a figure who seemed more elusive than smoke. Heath cursed. He had to solve this mystery—for himself, for Anna, for his future with Jolie—before it was too late.

“Can you get anything else from the computer that might give us more information? How the burglar intended to watch Jolie’s Internet searches? Any hint of affiliation or identity or—”

“No, sorry. Like I said, he started the work. He didn’t finish it. There’s not enough here for me to go on, just a few files he downloaded from a known hacker site using Jolie’s own Wi-Fi.”

So no cyber fingerprints, as it were. The noose of fate and panic twisted together, slowly strangling him. “Thank you for trying.”

Stone tossed down a couple of business cards. “Call me if you think of anything else or have more questions.”

“Thanks. Any other suggestions?”

“Yeah, load your guns. I have a bad feeling about this.”

Heath did, too. “I’m going to follow up with Sean on the one loose end I’ve got. The burglar who broke into Betti escaped on foot. But we’re still waiting to hear from the city about any traffic cam footage they may have captured.

“I’m sure he’s had his hands full with the baby. They came home from the hospital yesterday,” Stone said.

“Callie texted me pictures,” Jolie supplied. “He’s precio

us. I hope I can visit them soon.”

Once this case was solved and the danger had come to an end? “Of course. In the meantime, I’ll put a call into Sean tonight and see if he’s learned anything new.”

But he got Sean’s voicemail before the device even rang.

With a sigh, he hung up and figured they’d start fresh tomorrow. His stomach was rumbling from lack of lunch. Jolie hunched over her mobile, her eyes squinting as if they’d become strained. Regardless of how tired they were or what else was going on, his need to hold her had risen slowly throughout the day. He had to have her, like air, like food.

Like love.

When Stone departed, dragging Arthur with him, Karis and Cutter retired to separate bedrooms upstairs. Heath approached Jolie, took her hand, and eased her to her feet. “Come with me, wife.”

Chapter Fifteen

Rule for success number fifteen:

Celebrate your wins.

HEATH’S voice made her entire body tingle. Four simple words, and Jolie was absolute putty.

On shaking legs, she stood and put her hand in his and sent him a saucy sideways glance. “Where are we going?”

She knew but she ached to hear him say it.

“Our bed. Leave your phone on the table.” His voice had gone low, commanding.

Jolie shivered. She was in the terrible habit of taking her phone with her at all times, even when she was supposed to be sleeping. It often dinged in the middle of the night with e-mails, important news stories, even Twitter notifications about mentions of Betti. But as he had since she’d met him, Heath reordered her priorities, making it impossible to think only about work.

“All right.” With a shiver, she rose and turned her back on the device.

As he led her down the hall, toward the master bedroom, he slipped an arm around her waist. His palm burned a trail down her body, straight to her ass. He cupped her cheek, bent to nibble at her neck, and backed her into the wall.

“I don’t know if I can wait to find the bed, love.” He sounded gruff, impatient. “I need to touch you and ensure you’re all right and still mine.” Cradling her face in his big hands, he kissed her, a deep claiming of her lips before he backed away with a pained frown. His grip tightened on her. “You must know what I was thinking when I heard that gunshot.”

Jolie knew exactly and she could only imagine the worry and adrenaline, his fear that history could repeat itself. “Nothing tragic happened. I’m here. I’m yours.”

She sealed her words with another kiss, and he held her tighter, dragging his lips across her jaw, to her ear, dropping to her neck, tasting, nipping, savoring. When he lifted his head again and seized her mouth once more, she was panting and tugging at his shirt, desperate to feel him inside her.

“Now . . .” She wasn’t asking.

“Not yet. I need you to do something for me, love.” He let out a ragged breath. “Trust me.”

“I do.”

“With every part of you. I want to try . . . Damn it.” Heath pressed their foreheads together as if he couldn’t get close enough to her. “Today I felt entirely out of my mind when those shots were aimed at you. We’ve been piecing the facts together all bloody day and nothing makes sense. None of this is within my ability to control. I need something that is. Surrender yourself to me—your pleasure, your body, your will.”

Mentally, Jolie found it tough to allow anyone dominion over her. Surprisingly, the one time she’d tackled the mental hurdle and let go with Heath in bed, she’d loved it. But this time would be harder. He’d want everything. The hunger in his eyes made that clear.

She wasn’t even sure she was capable of surrendering her whole self, but she loved him too much not to try.

“I’ll do my best to give you anything you need.”

“Anything?”

“I trust you.” She cupped his face. He would never hurt her like Carrington Quinn. Or crush her like Mom’s thoughtless, cheating exes.

“I haven’t topped anyone in seven years. I’ve seen it, been around others exchanging power. Most of my worldly belongings are still at Thorpe’s club. But I haven’t trusted anyone or cared enough to try since Anna. Does that change anything for you?”

“Does that make me trust you less because . . . what? You’re out of practice?” She shook her head. “No. I’m touched that you chose me, that you trust me, too.”

He smiled as he hoisted her against his body. She wasn’t used to anyone lifting her. Everyone saw her as ballsy and capable and strong. But she ached for this man to cherish her, to treat her as if she was the most special, fragile woman in his world.

When he carried her to the bed and lay her down, their clothes melted away with long kisses, sweeping touches, and soft strokes of his fingertips. She assisted him, ensuring that with each passing moment, he bared as much skin as she did.

When they were naked and panting, he cradled her cheek and stared. Then his demeanor turned hard. His voice dropped to something almost forbidding. “Give me your hands.”

Jolie didn’t question him or the thudding of her heart. She simply did as he commanded.

He kissed each palm, then stretched one arm flat against the mattress, toward the corner of the bed, before fastening it in a padded cuff she hadn’t noticed previously. He attached the cuff to something on the bedframe she couldn’t see. He repeated the process with the other. Her breath caught when ankle cuffs followed.

Suddenly, she was naked, spread out for his pleasure, waiting. Though he’d done nothing more than strap her down, Jolie’s heart revved. Her breathing quickened. Her insides began to melt.

“Where did you get the restraints?” She managed to breathe out the question.

“It’s Axel’s house,” he said as his lips wandered across her skin. “He works security at Dominion, so he has a few of his own . . . proclivities.”

“Oh.” But the question burning uppermost in her mind had nothing to do with Axel. “What about yours? You like restraining a woman?”

He shuddered. “I used to enjoy having total control. With you, it’s . . . so much more. I had Anna’s trust from day one. She wanted guidance, so I gave it to her. Guiding you can be like herding a cat, somewhere between difficult and impossible.”

Jolie had to laugh because she knew it was true.

“Most often, you don’t want my interference,” he went on. “You don’t need it.”

“But I need you more than you know,” she confessed.

“When your life is in danger—”

“It’s about more than that. You understand me and that’s more epic than you can imagine.”

“The fact you’re choosing to give your will and strength to me—because I’ve earned your trust, not simply because surrendering is in your nature—means the world.”

Jolie smiled up at him, feeling as if she glowed. Her body softened every bit as much as her heart. “What now?”

“Take me and everything I need to give you.”

She arched her back and flowered her knees open in offering. “I’m yours.”

Heath started at the top, filtering his fingers through her hair, as he kissed her—cheeks, jaw, lips, neck—working his way down to her breasts. Once there, he pinched, licked, sucked, nipped. Jolie didn’t recall her nipples being so sensitive. He toyed with them back and forth, tonguing them, drawing them deep in his mouth. The suction made her clit ache. She wriggled, feeling slick and swollen, wishing he would thrust inside her, plunge deep, so they would be as close as two people possibly could.

But he made her wait. He lavished every bit of his devotion on her, sliding his lips under the curve of her breasts, over her belly until he licked his way to her navel and dropped lower, hovering over the pad of her pussy.

Warmth turned to liquid heat when he breathed out a hungry sigh. “I’ve wanted to taste you again for days.”

“We’ve been busy.”

“I don’t have any illusions. We’re always going to be busy, love. But I need

you under my tongue. I need to drive you to pleasure and watch you come apart for me.”

He nudged her sensitive clit with his tongue then, jolting her with instant sensation. He reached up her body with his long arms,