Sweetened With a Kiss (30 page)

“Where the hell did you learn how to do that?” he asked between ragged breaths.

Jen shrugged, wiping her mouth provocatively. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m not sure I was even doing it right. Maybe I need more practice.”

Still slow on the uptake, he didn’t catch her in time when she grinned, bounced her eyebrows, then disappeared out of his line of vision.

“Jen,” he hissed and then felt the back of her throat and well, he was human, after all. For a second anyway. Before she reduced him to a primitive creature who could only roar and claw the sheets off the bed.

And centuries later when his vision cleared and he fell back into his body, he opened his eyes to find her lying next to him on her side, smiling as she traced the lines of his abs with his fingers. She looked up when she felt his eyes on her.

“Do I have your full attention now?” she asked sweetly.

“Yeah,” he managed, but that was the extent of his language capabilities.

Her fingers traced up slowly, until they caressed his jaw, then his bottom lip. She raised up then, pressing her hand to the side of his face. Her expression so serious, he started to get nervous.

“There’s something else,” she said softly. “And I need you to listen very carefully because it’s important. I thought you knew it already but earlier, when I was listening to that crazy old man, I realized I’ve never actually told you.”

“What, baby?” He tried to reassure her, covering her hand with his against his cheek. “Whatever it is, we’ll deal.”

She smiled at him. A completely different sort of smile. Her whole face lit up and he blinked a little as he saw her for the first time. She really wasn’t a kid anymore. And she was strong, too. The resolve in her eyes undid him.

“I love you,” she said, saying exactly the last thing he’d expected to hear. Her fingers pressed to his lips before he could respond. “I have always loved you. I woke up in the hospital to the sound of your voice. I came back to you. I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.” Then because it was all too intense for both of them, she added, “So you’re kind of stuck with me. Deal with it.”

“I’ll try,” he assured her very seriously.

Laughter bubbled up out of her and her eyes shone. “And I love this house. It’s perfect. And not just the kitchen. The porch ceiling, and the chandelier, and saving the fireplaces. I know the ovens were Rogan’s idea, but that was completely self-serving of him because he just wanted brownies. I do get that.”

He laughed, and a tiny hurt he’d never been willing to admit to suddenly floated away.

“I want to fill it full of your children. Raise our family here. Grow old here with you, and love you to my very last breath. Are we clear now?”

“Yes,” he growled, rolling her suddenly. She laughed when she heard her panties rip. He shoved her legs wide and buried himself deep, finding nothing but scorching, sweet bliss again. He looked down into warm caramel eyes and let himself bask for a moment. “Now, tell me again.”

“I love you,” she whispered, swollen mouth smiling gently. She was so damn beautiful it chipped parts of his soul off just to look at her. “I always have.”

“And I have never loved anyone else but you, Jen,” he said, barely getting the words out before the rest of his brain shut down. He moved and watched her lips part and her face soften. He pulled back, then glided in, letting that plush, silken heat strip away his sanity. “You got that?” he groaned, shaking her back so her eyes snapped up to him before he went out of his mind.

“I got it,” she said, and the last thing he heard was a soft laugh that turned into a moan that sent her arching and dragging him deeper, and he lost himself again. But what he found was so sweet, he didn’t much care if he was ever himself again.

She’d finally done it. The parts of Jen’s brain still functioning threw a party. She’d tipped him over the edge. He was gone. Stripped of every little bit of control he’d ever had. She pulled her knees back, letting him in deeper, sighing as he moved harder, wondering why it didn’t hurt, and thinking maybe she shouldn’t like this quite so much. She watched his face for half a second. His eyes were closed so tight. His jaw about to break until he froze over her, his mouth falling open when he blew apart. Watching that. Seeing him like that, dragged her with him a second later. And she was pretty sure, when all the pieces came back together, some of his got mixed up with some of hers. He was deep inside her, under her skin, skimming through her nervous system, and permanently lodged in her heart.

And she was keeping him there.

Later Jen rested her head against his chest and threw one leg over his as she snuggled in close.

“So now, tell me about Robbie,” she finally said, wincing when she felt him go very still. She pushed up on her arms so she could face him.

He took a deep breath, his whole chest rising beneath her as he dragged his free hand across his face. “As soon as Robbie was born, Mac immediately started an allowance and put money in a trust for him. When he’s twenty-one, we’ll give him his father’s share in STI and hopefully a job, if he wants one. But right now, we can’t let the judge get his hands on the company. You have to understand that. We’re trying to protect it for you, Robbie, and Lizzie.”

Jen nodded. “The judge wants STI to go public.”

“I’m not surprised,” Stefan sighed. “He’s a greedy son of a bitch.”

“I shouldn’t have listened to Madlyn.”

“Why not?” he asked, sounding strangely bitter. “I’ve spent years undermining your instincts about her. This is my fault, Jen, not yours. I should have seen her coming. If I had listened to you, I might have. Instead you listened to me. And look where that got us.”

Jen shrugged, kind of loving where she was right then. “You should probably send her flowers.”

He grinned. “I really should. Blood red ones.”

“I remember playing with Robbie at the park with Lizzie.”

He reached up, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“There are all these flashes. That was right before Katrina, wasn’t it?”

He nodded.

“How could I forget him like that? What else am I not remembering? There really is something wrong with me. I can’t trust my own mind.”

“Baby,” he said gently. “You had an injury to your skull, not your brain. There was no brain damage...”

“Well I am sure about one thing.”

“What?”

“That you aren’t telling me the whole truth again. I’m getting really good at recognizing that now, so you may as well cut it out.”  She wanted to smile when he opened his mouth to protest, then closed it quickly.  “Just tell me.”

“The doctors call it dissociative amnesia. High stress situations may affect your memory and after the last twenty-four hours, I doubt it’s even still an issue or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Jen tried to process what he told her.  She’d Google dissociative amnesia later . “It’s really time you stop trying to protect me from me, Stefan.”

“I’ll make you a deal.  I’ll work on not being over protective, if you’ll work on trusting me.”

“I do trust you,” she insisted. “I do,” she repeated, when he looked doubtful.  One sandy eyebrow went up and she sighed in defeat. “Ok, I’ll work on it.”

“I mean it, Jen. We’re going to have enough drama going after the judge.  I need to know you and I are good.”

“Going after the judge?”

“Oh, yeah. I just hired a new attorney. Robicheaux has no idea what he’s started.”

“Grant Marshall?”

Stefan shook his head. “Close but try again.”

Jen’s jaw practically hit the floor when she realized he meant Jared. “That is just so wrong.”

“But it will be fun to watch.” His expression turned serious. “You really didn’t believe I threatened to cut off Robbie’s allowance if Madlyn told you about Robbie, did you?” he said, his voice gruff, which made her smile.

“I don’t remember. And you know I have problems with my memory,” she said, shamelessly avoiding the question.

He kissed her nose. “I’d actually been trying to arrange a weekend for you to meet him again, but she kept finding excuses and I should have pressed harder. Now I’m going for full custody.” His smile was reassuring but it was not nice.

“Good, we can’t let the Robicheauxs continue to raise Robert’s son, Stefan. I don’t want that old man anywhere near Robbie.”

“Have you met my new attorney? He’s practically rabid.”

The Hawaii Five-O theme song started playing on Stefan’s cell. He answered, and Jen felt suddenly cold when he straightened up and sat on the edge of the bed. “Hey, Jackson.”

He nodded and gave a lot of one word responses. When he hung up, he didn’t turn around right away. Jen went up on her knees behind him and wound her arms around his neck. “He’s coming to arrest you?”

He shook his head, rubbing his hands across his face again. “I’m going to turn myself in.”

“I’ve always wanted to see Mexico.”

“I never run away from a fight. Besides this will be fun.”

“You have a strange idea of fun.”

He raised his eyebrows playfully. “Relax, I got this.” He pushed off the bed. “I’m going to grab a shower.”

“I am not visiting you in Angola,” she warned, following him into the bathroom.

He pulled her into the shower with him.

“Not even to bring me a cake with a file in it?”

“You wouldn’t eat the cake so what good would it do?”

“My cellmates will eat it.”

“You’ve got an answer for everything, dontcha, smart guy?”

He just grinned at her as he lowered his mouth. Before he kissed her under the hot running water, he paused, “Jen, really, I got this.”

“You got this?”

He nodded, rubbing his face against hers. “As long as we’re solid, Jen, I can handle anything.”

“You feel pretty solid to me,” she laughed, her fingers curling around him and stroking him shamelessly.

He groaned against her mouth.

“I really am in complete control of this relationship, aren’t I?”

“Yes,” he hissed as her hold tightened on him.

“You’ll do pretty much anything I say?”

“Pretty much.” His forehead dropped to her shoulder as his whole body shuddered. “Tell me again,” he pleaded against her skin.

“I love you,” she assured him. “And whatever you’ve got planned had better be good.”

“Oh, it’ll be epic.” He breathed out the words a second before he lost his mind again.

Stefan insisted she let Rogan take her to the beach. Because Grant was the one who originally suggested it would be good for her to get out of town, she agreed. By the time she and Rogan made it to her parents’ old beach house, she’d already gotten a text to check out Matt Hansen’s news blog and right on the front page was a picture of Stefan thrown against the hood of a patrol car being handcuffed, with Jackson looking really scary in full uniform holding up his hand to stop the camera. Matt’s daily news show went live on his blog that afternoon. And what happened next was the most brilliant and insane thing Jen had ever seen. And it was, just as Stefan had promised, epic.

Matt reported on his blog that Stefan had been arrested on assault charges after his wife had been kidnapped. Matt’s camera crew just happened to be set up in time for Jackson to walk Stefan up the front steps and into the police department. There was also footage shot on an iPhone of Stefan being fingerprinted and photographed. Mug shots were leaked online too. And he looked gorgeous in them, even though he was trying to look tough. The article reported in detail that Judge Robicheaux had demanded money and leveraged his custody of his grandson to try to blackmail and threaten Jen and the Sellers. The minute the judge’s name hit the internet, other news blogs picked up the story, and then one of Matt’s contacts at a business network ran it. They interviewed Matt, splitting the screen with video footage Matt had uploaded of their college days, and the volunteer work their fraternity had done. Then more footage of Stefan running charity triathlons and marathons. Stefan helping with the Special Olympics. Stefan working on construction crews volunteering for New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. Habitat for Humanity. Rebuilding apartments in New Orleans. Volunteering for FEMA’s search and rescue. They even had a video of Stefan pulling a dog off the roof of a flooded home.