Stitched Up Heart (Combat Hearts Book 1) (25 page)

“You know…Army combatives. Grappling.”

“I know what they are. Why should we do them?”

His hand ran up her back. “In case someone attacks you.”

She dropped her forehead to his chest. “Jase…”

“Come on. It’ll be good exercise.”

He slid out from under her and moved the coffee table out of the way.

Groaning, she sat up. “Fine, but you need to put the dogs out. They aren’t going to like this.”

“Charlie. Polly.” The dogs raised their heads when he called their names. “Outside.” They rose from their beds and trotted after him. Charlie stared up at Jase, tongue lolling from his doggy smile. Silly mutt probably thought they were going to play ball.

She stood and twisted at the waist, popping the joints in her back. Jase strolled back into the living room and rolled his neck from side to side. Bracing her legs, she waited, hands loose at her side. He matched her wide-legged stance, but braced his hands on his hips.

She raised her brows. “Well?”

“Come at me.”

“No. You come at me. I’m supposed to practicing against an attacker.”

He rushed her. At the last moment she stepped to her left and jammed her knee into his stomach. It hit him low because of the height difference.

His breath left him, and he grabbed his stomach. Bree spun and took two steps back, watching him catch his balance. He straightened and turned slowly.

She smirked.

One of his eyebrows raised. “Don’t get cocky.” His eyes became intense and he stepped to his right, circling her.

Shit
. He let her have that one.

He took her down in less than ten seconds.

He straddled her in mount position and held both her hands in one of his. “What are you going to do?”

She stared up at him. None of the ideas she had involved getting him off her. More like getting him further on top. She bucked her hips. He didn’t even move. She rolled her hips and licked her lips.

“What’re you doing?”

“Let go of my hands and I’ll show you.”

Instead of letting them go, he raised them above her head, bracing his other hand on the floor by her head. He shifted and moved his legs between hers, forcing her hips wide. Lowering his head, he hovered his mouth over hers. “So your plan is to seduce your attacker?”

“Only if it’s you.” Her tongue flicked out and licked his bottom lip. His mouth slammed down on hers and his hips rocked against her. She moaned, pulling at his hold. He let her go and she ripped his shirt over his head. Her shirt and bra got shoved up and he pulled her breast into his hot mouth.

She tossed her head as heat pooled in her core. “Fuck. I need you.”

He was gone.

Her eyes snapped open. “Wha—?”

He crawled back on his knees away from her. His eyes were dark — almost angry. “Up. Turn around.” He pulled her back to his front and palmed her breasts. Her head dropped back onto his shoulder. She reached behind her for his hips and rubbed her ass against his erection. His rough palms skimmed down her stomach, leaving small tremors in their wake.

God, yes.
Her whole body shook as his hand delved into the front of her running shorts. He slid two fingers between her folds at the same time he scraped his teeth on her neck.

She panted. Each quick breath released as a gasp.

He removed his hand.

“No!” She grabbed it, trying to push it back in.

He pulled out of her grasp and hooked his thumbs in the sides of her shorts. “Shirt and bra off. Now.” Her shorts were shoved down her hips to pool around her knees.

She yanked the shirt over her head and fumbled with the clasp of her bra, throwing it away from her once she freed herself.

Pressure between her shoulder blades forced her forward. “Down. Hands on the ground.”

Another shiver wracked her body.
Holy fuck, that’s hot.
His control. His demands. Moving her body where he wanted it. She dropped her head and waited.

He rubbed his thick shaft through her slick folds, hitting her clit with each forward stroke. One hand stroked down her back and the other dug into her hips in a punishing grips. She’d have bruises tomorrow and she gave not one single fuck.

“Brace yourself, Bree. I’m not going to be gentle.” His voice growled and she felt herself growing even more wet.

“I don’t want gentle. I want you to fuck me.”

He buried himself to the hilt and stayed deep inside her, not moving. Bree turned her head to look over her shoulder just as he brought his hand down on her ass, causing her to gasp.

“I’ve been thinking about that since the morning I found you gone.” He smacked the other side of her ass before he pulled back slowly and slammed home, hitting her core and speeding her toward her orgasm.

Again. And again. A slow withdrawal, then slamming back in hard. His balls slapped against her with every thrust.

“Shit. Fuck. Jase. I’m gonna come.”

“Wait for me. I want to come while you scream my name.” Her arms collapsed and she rested her head on her hands, shaking it back and forth.

The hell with this.
She needed Jase to be as uncontrolled as she was. She reached through her legs and grabbed at his sac. Each time he thrust forward, she curled her fingers on the underside of his balls and gave a light squeeze, milking him as he fucked her.

“Fuck,” he grunted. His thrusts sped up, became shorter. He pushed her hand out of the way and pinched her clit.

She screamed. Her orgasm exploded through her and she saw stars. Jase buried himself to the hilt and roared. His chest met her back. He bit the base of her neck as he groaned and shoved into her one final time. The combination of pain and pleasure pushed Bree into another orgasm.

Breathing heavily, Jase shifted his weight so his hands were braced on either side of Bree. He licked the spot where he bit her. “You okay, darlin’?”

She nodded, unable to speak.

It was a lie. She was not okay. In that moment, she realized she was falling in love with him.

Please be the endorphins.

He kissed his way down her spine as far as he could reach without separating from her.

She was so screwed.

“I
’m going to cancel the trip this weekend.”

Bree looked over the top of her book. Her feet rested on Jase’s lap, and he was rubbing the balls of her feet while he watched a baseball game. “Why? What happened?”

His thumbs stilled, and he shifted his gaze to her. “You have a stalker who is killing people. That’s what happened.”

She set her book facedown on the back of the sofa and pushed up. “You want to cancel your trip because of me?”

“Yes.” He continued rubbing her feet and went back to watching the game.

Bree yanked her foot from his grasp and stood. Grabbing the remote off the coffee table, she turned off the TV and threw the remote back down.

“Absolutely fucking not.”

“Bree—”

“No.” She glared down at him. “I’ve put up with you following me to base every morning. I’ve put up with you losing your shit when I forget to text you when I’m leaving work. But you will
not
cancel your trip because of me.”

Polly raised her head from her bed and whined.

Jase stood and matched Bree’s angry stance. “Excuse me for wanting to keep you safe.”

“This isn’t about keeping me safe, Jase. This is about a promise you made to guys who need this trip. You are not going to cancel on them so you can sit here and play mother hen.”

“You seriously think that’s what I’m doing? Playing mother-fucking-hen?”

She closed her eyes and took a breath. Polly’s heat pressed against her leg, and Bree rested a hand on her head. Fighting for calm, she opened her eyes. “I’m exhausted. It’s been two weeks and I’m tired of constantly being on alert. I’m tired of looking over my shoulder and staring at everyone who passes me in the street like they’re going to pull out a knife and stab me.”

When he opened his mouth to answer, she covered it with her hand. Anger still rolled off him in waves, and whatever he wanted to say was going to piss her off even more.

“I’ll ask Denise to come stay with me for the weekend. I’ll call Tim every afternoon. But you are
not
going to cancel this trip. We are
not
going to put our lives on hold because of this whacko.”

He bit her palm. “Ow.” She yanked her hand away from his face, shook it, and glared at him. He grabbed her around the waist. Her struggles to get free were pointless. She huffed and folded her arms in front of her.

“You deserved it.”

“Like hell.” She refused to meet his gaze and stared off to the side.

He nuzzled her neck, tickling her with his beard. “You’ll call Tim every day.”

Sighing, she gazed up at the ceiling. “Yes.”

“Denise will stay with you.”

“Yes.”

He raised his head and held her chin between his forefinger and thumb. “You’re more important to me than my business or five strangers I’ve never met.”

Her anger and annoyance melted. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his chest.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you, Bree.” He rested his chin on top of her head.

“Nothing will.”

Bree leaned back against the arm of the sofa and stared at her phone. No messages or missed calls. “I haven’t heard from Jase yet.”

“Did he say he was going to call?” Denise asked.

“Yeah. He said he’d call when he was on his way back.”

“Maybe his phone died.”

“Maybe.” It didn’t feel right. He would have borrowed someone else’s phone.

“Call him. Maybe he hasn’t left yet. Or is still out of range.”

He answered on the third try. “Hey. Are you back?” she asked.

“Yeah. Got back a few hours ago.” His voice was flat, with a slight slur.

“Oh.” Pressure built in her chest, squeezing her heart. Something was wrong. “Are you coming over?”

“I’m wiped. I’ll see you later.”

“Wha—”

“’Night.” The call disconnected.

She stared at the screen again, like it was magically going to provide an explanation for what just happened. “What the fuck just happened?”

“What?” Denise asked from the kitchen.

Bree raised her head. “Jase just told me he’d see me later.”

“Okay. What’s wrong with that?”

“He hasn’t left me alone except to go to work for the last two weeks and now it’s
I’m wiped;
I’ll see you later
? What the eff?”

Denise joined her on the couch, holding a plate and glass. “Maybe he realized you’re okay by yourself. Maybe he really is wiped and knew I was going to be here. Maybe he needs to decompress.”

“I guess… It just seems like it’s a complete one-eighty from how he’s been this entire time.”

“I know. But we all have our off days.” She bit into her sandwich. “This whole thing has been stressing him out. Give him a day and let him relax. You can freak out if you don’t hear from him tomorrow.”

Bree shook her head. “There was something in his voice. It was…I don’t know. It was off.”

“Call him tomorrow. If it’s still off, then you can unleash unholy fury on his ass.”

He didn’t reply the next morning when she texted him on her way to work. When she still hadn’t heard from him by late afternoon, she stopped by his office on the way home.

“Hi, Ms. Carol. Is Jase in today?”

“Oh no, honey. He never comes in today.”

“Monday?”

“No. It’s— I thought for sure he would have told you.”

Bree frowned and tilted her head. “Told me what?”

“Oh, Bree. Today is the anniversary of Tony’s death.”

Bree’s hand flew to her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize. Wait. Why are you here then?”

Carol sighed. “I accepted Tony’s death a while ago. Jase…hasn’t been able to get past it, I’m afraid.”

“Why is he having such a hard time?”

“Tell you what. There’s a nice little cafe a few doors down. I was getting ready to lock up anyway. Why don’t we go have a cup of coffee and talk?”

Carol locked up and set the alarm before hooking Bree’s arm and leading her down to the end of the strip mall.

“Let me explain about Tony and Jase first.” Carol opened the door to the cafe and scanned the small bistro. “How about over there?”