Up All Night Long: From Lust to Love (Romance Anthology) (78 page)

Chapter 2

Jon

"Jon, have a seat." The captain of the police department pointed to the chair in front of him as Jon walked into the room. It had been almost been a week since the showdown in the warehouse and Jon had written up and turned in his reports as required to do. They had him under full investigation beside Seth, which was to be expected.

How a cop could have a partner for two years and never suspect him to be the central drug lord in the city looked bad - really bad. Jon would have to work hard to get his reputation back, but perhaps it wasn't worth it anymore. He had joined the force years ago as a way to repent, to give back for his own past.

With Victor's demands on Kate and Marcus, Jon was stuck playing the part of a rat on the force to keep the people he loved safe. It was no way to live. His stomach tightened painfully at the thought of their current dilemma.

"I've read the reports, and I appreciate you taking the time to put so much detail into them," the captain started. "It would seem that Seth had all of us turned around ten ways to Tuesday. Insane how well he pulled this off. I'm so sorry that your brother was a victim of all of it."

"My brother made decisions that led him to death. I hate that he did and I guess some of that was my fault for not fighting harder for him, but it is what it is." Jon shrugged, hating himself for the moment. Adam had been the center of his world when they were younger, but Jon began to separate himself from his brother as Adam turned from wanting a good life, to simply wanting his next high. Having never been involved in drugs, Jon simply couldn't understand the life Adam had chosen. So he didn't try to.

"Well, we all make decisions based off of the pressures around us." The captain waved his hand in the air. "It's neither here nor there. I'm sorry for your loss in both your brother and your partner on the force. We will be assigning you a new partner soon."

"I don't want one."

"You don't have a choice, Peterson. You know that." The captain picked up a piece of paper from his desk, his eyes moving slowly as he read out loud. "It is my conclusion that Kate Jarret had no former information or evidence regarding the murder of Adam Peterson, nor involvement in the narcotics related incidents which occurred during the time under investigation."

Jon already knew every word in the report he had filed. He had read through it a million times before turning it in. He didn't care if Marcus was implicated. The man had been a thug his whole life and would continue to be one. If he got what he deserved from the situation, so be it, but Kate...

Kate was trying to clean herself up, trying to make a new life, and she had. She had until Marcus hooked up with Adam and left her stuck right in the middle of it. Jon would work to clear her name and help her to push forward into that new life in whatever way possible.

It's never going to happen.

He shuddered at the thought. Kate would never be free simply because of Victor's control over her. Hell, his control over all of them. Jon had very little left to lose in life, but what he did have, he treasured. His relationship with Kate had been shaky at best, simply due to the fact that he wasn't sure how he was going to deal with Victor's demands. Did the man really expect him to share Kate in the bedroom with others?

No fucking way.

Jon would have to let her go before his heart dove in deeper. He would have to decide to run with her or release her. There wasn't another choice available as sharing her would be the death of him. No decision needed to be made just yet. Marcus was meeting with Victor to get more details on what his intentions for all of them were. After that, just as he had always done, Jon would gather the facts and make a conclusion or decision rather.

"I wrote it. I know what the fuck it says, Mike." Jon lifted his eyebrow to his captain, the need to get the hell out of there rolling over him in waves.

"Read it again and again over the next few days. You know as well as I do that the review on you is going to get worse before it gets better. Keep your nose clean and if this girl means anything to you - walk away. She's trouble."

"Once a criminal, always a criminal?" Jon chuckled sardonically, his need to defend Kate rising up and threatening to suffocate him.

He didn't want to defend her. He wanted to save her. To offer her hope in the midst of this darkness, but he couldn't. He didn't have a large enough stick to beat Victor back and with the threat that sat heavy on him, he was locked in too.

"Exactly. I know the girl appears to be innocent, and I believe she is, but don't let anything even appear like you have lost your objectivity, or you'll be suspended until farther investigations can be done."

"That's fine, but you need to note somewhere that I'm going to stop by the club over the next few days. I need to solidify my understanding of a few bits and pieces I lost of the story through the drama. My brother's case is being closed and my notes are due to complete the process. I'll be quick and keep things completely professional, but note it in the files. I don't want some dumb ass watching me and thinking I have no reason to see Miss Jarret and her lackey. I do."

"Will do." Mike sat the papers down and leaned back in his chair. "Now that we have recovered Adam's body, do you have the funeral information? The guys want to come and support you."

"Yeah. It's tomorrow. I'll call Karen later when I get home and give her the info." Jon stood up. "Did you need anything else or what?"

"I think you should take a few weeks off to get healed from all of this, but I assume you're going to tell me to stick it up my ass."

"That I am. I don't want time to think. Not interested in that shit." Jon walked to the door and opened it, glancing over his shoulder and nodding at his boss and old friend. "Call if you need me."

"Will do. Remember what I said, Jon."

The loss of control was sickening - stifling. There was nothing he could do about it and yet it left him with the desire to crawl into the darkness and stay there. There were only two choices in the matter facing him. He could kill Victor and they would all be free to live as they pleased... all of them but him of course. The only other option was to run and have the bastard follow after them for the rest of their lives.

Kate and Marcus would never go for that, and honestly, Jon couldn't see it happening either. He would sooner die than run from anything. Letting her go and putting his mother in protective custody was the only remaining choice. That would free him to tell Victor to fuck off and maybe he could go back to his life before the incident.

Maybe there would be redemption and healing waiting for him. He needed forgiveness for Adam's death, for missing Seth's denial, for falling in love with a woman who needed far more help than he was able to give. She needed protection and he was defunct all of a sudden.

Jon picked up the large file on his desk and tucked it under his arm as he walked numbly through the police station. He needed a long nap, but it wasn't happening. He needed to know about Kate - truly know about her before making his decision to pull back, or risk it all.

There had never been a woman who felt so good beneath his touch, her moans and whimpers leaving him craving more of her. He let out a slow breath as he pushed the door to the police station opened and walked into the early spring afternoon. He could go see her, make love to her and spend the afternoon in her bed, but that would make things harder when he decided to break it off.

It seemed like the only viable option.

Jon tucked the file into an empty backpack he left strapped to his motorcycle and tugged it onto his back. Getting on the bike, he had the urge to just forget everything and go to her. Her presence changed everything and made him want to fight like a mother fucker for her, for Marcus, for all of them.

"I'm becoming bi-polar," he mumbled and started the bike, turning to head toward a small bar at the edge of town. He couldn't very well go to Expulsion to dig into Kate's past. She would be right beside him and he wouldn't be able to keep his hands off of her.

He released his thoughts and drove toward an old dive bar near the edge of the plantation homes he so badly wanted to take her to see. Why couldn't they have a simple life? A life filled with the tension of trying to figure each other out? A life that included making a few bad decisions that would lead to building the relationship up with great make-up sex? They could get married eventually and have a couple of kids together. He would work to make her life everything she had once hoped for.

She had wanted a normal life at one time, right? Jon wasn't sure. They hadn't known each other long enough to really discuss anything of that nature. The last few weeks had been filled with tragedy and horror. The fact that she forgave him for leaving her to deal with Victor's lackey was a miracle. That she didn't get raped and chopped into small pieces was almost too much to consider. She was tough... She was tough for a reason. He needed to know who she was. What made her into the woman she was now.

He could just go through the file, read up on her and hopefully the information would help him make a decision about what to do next. There was no one to help him work through his next steps, and Kate had made it perfectly clear the last time they spoke that she had to go forward with whatever Victor wanted. Something in her almost seemed to snap as if she wanted to move toward that old lifestyle again.

Did she?

Could he?

No. He never wanted to be a monster again.

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Bonus: POWER

Standalone Novella

Chapter 1

Nate

Five years.

Five years. Three months. Four days. Two hours.

All that time, and seeing her in front of the board of directors, manipulating them with her intelligence first, her dominance second, and those fucking eyes third, and I still couldn't seem to find enough air to breathe when she walked in the room.

I despised it. Her. All of it.

Wanting something I shouldn’t want, and would never have.

"Nathaniel. You're up." She had no clue just how right she was. I was always up around her. Everyone was.

She glanced my way, her dark brown eyes filled with intensity. The new ad she was proposing to the old geezers in the board room was risqué and yet it would make us a pretty penny if we could get past their conservative sensitivities.

Her long black hair was in a messy bun, and her glasses left her looking like a sexy librarian that belonged over the edge of a desk getting spanked. Too bad she was the senior advertising agent at our firm.

"Right. Thanks, Elizabeth. Great opening, as per usual." I reached for the clicker in front of me and pointed it toward the screen. She gave a subtle motion that I should stand. I blew her off. My cock was raging hard from watching her and the last thing I wanted to do was scare everyone in the room with my sexual immorality.

I hit the button and glanced around the room at the white-haired cast of clowns that ruled our world. "If you'll pay attention to the screen, I'll first show you the new ad, and then we'll walk you through our projections on why it's the next big thing for us."

Grumbling ran around the room, but I ignored it. I'd been in the business since I got out of college almost fifteen years before. Elizabeth had her position above me only by a margin, and even though she was someone I admired, if I even got a hint of blood in the water... I was taking her out. No questions asked.

My eyes moved over to run down the full length of her as she dimmed the lights for the video. Her tight pencil skirt tugged over her luscious curves, leaving my pulse running higher than it should. She leaned against the wall and glanced over at me, giving me a tight smile before turning her attention back to the presentation.

I couldn't force myself to stop staring at her. Everyone's attention was on the screen at the other end of the room from me, but mine was working hard to figure out how to seduce the woman ten feet from me that haunted my lustiest dreams at night.

Stop it. It's not happening. Think of Janice. The kids.

The kids. That doused my need in cold water. I'd do anything for my two kids, including staying in a loveless marriage to a princess that had turned into the wicked witch of the west years ago.

I waited a few minutes before getting ahold of myself, and then rose to my feet as the video ended. "As you'll see, the ad is a little more sexually charged than we've produced and promoted before, but our client is looking to gain an edge against the competition, and with their target audience being males between the age of eighteen and twenty-eight, we believe adding something more sexually charged is the answer."

"It's slutty. I don't like it." One of the board members glanced down the table at me. "It's not our brand at all. Figure something else out."

"Now wait a minute, Frank." Elizabeth moved from the wall and walked to the front of the room. She lifted her chin a little and straightened her back as she pressed her hands to her hips. The movement caused her breasts to jut out, and damn if my cock didn't twitch beneath my slacks. The woman was going to be the death of my career. "This isn't just about sex, but about the emotions that go along with it."

She leaned over and pressed her hands on the shiny table before him.

"Explain." His voice softened, and I could see him melting like they all did. Where she didn't need anything more than her intelligence to move mountains, her impossibly beautiful face and wickedly hot body didn't hurt. Not in the slightest.

"What emotions does sex bubble up inside of you? When you think about making love to a sexy woman? Maybe back in the day, when you found someone attractive and couldn't stop thinking about them. What emotions?"

I hated the fact that the words slipped from my lips as I watched her work him. "Fulfillment. Acceptance. Power."

"Yes. Good, Nathaniel. Power." She smiled and turned her attention back to Frank. "Power, my old friend. That's what we want to pull from deep within the center of these men we're targeting. Power is sexy as hell. You need this new car to appear powerful, and in return... get laid."

"A lot." One of the other members spoke up and everyone chuckled.

Frank shook his head. "I get it, but I don't like it. Take the woman out of the second frame with the thin dress. I can almost make out her panties, Elizabeth. That's not needed, and the networks might very well ban it."

"I agree." I moved back from the table and clicked onto the frame in question, the one of the pretty blond with a little too much appeal. "We could have her in a similar dress that left more to the imagination."

"We discuss this and the reasoning for the need for a heightened punch at this juncture in the video." Elizabeth's eyes narrowed only slightly as she locked her jaw. She wasn't happy with me, but it was all part of the game. She didn't have the right to win all the time. We weren't fucking, nor would we ever be.

I was loyal to a fault to the witch of the west.

"Agreed, but I think Frank has a point." I stopped beside the screen and crossed my arms over my chest. "How about this... we'll rework that frame, send out both videos, and you gentlemen can vote via e-mail by tomorrow morning."

"I like that. Thank you, Nathaniel." Frank stood. "Are we done here?"

"We are." Elizabeth moved back and pulled something from her briefcase as everyone filed out of the room. As soon as the last member was gone, I let out a quick breath and walked toward her.

"Not bad. I think we're going to win this-"

"If you ever come up against me in front of everyone with no warning again, I'll eat you alive." She jerked her head up and took the last step between us, pressing her perfectly manicured fingernail into my chest. The passion on her face was scorching. Every cell in my body screamed for me to close the distance between us.

Grab the bitch and tongue fuck her until she shuts up. Show her. Now.

"You're gonna need to fast before we start that kind of event, Lizzy. I'm a big guy and you're not nearly enough woman to handle me." I gripped her hand and pulled it down slowly, dragging her single digit down the front of my body and casting her away just before she hit the top of my belt.

The way passion moved across her strong gaze left my stomach clenching, my cock growing thick and hard in record time. Only she could do it, and I was far beyond addicted to her power over me, though I hated it with a passion.

"I'll handle you like I do every other man in my life." She cupped me and leaned in, brushing her nose past mine. "One fucking bite at a time." She nipped at me before dragging her nails on the underside of my balls and picking up her briefcase. "Don't fuck me over again, Nate. You won't enjoy me returning the favor."

I couldn't speak, nor did I want to. The moment needed to stay where it was. She was in charge, and for the first time in my long life, I wanted to pass the baton of dominance to her and ask her to fuck me up in any manner she felt possible.

I wouldn't. Not ever, but the idea left me so close to coming it hurt.

Walking to the open door, I leaned out and watched her walk down the hall before closing the door to the conference room and pressing my back to it.

My heart was at the base of my throat, beating wildly as I panted. She'd been an unruly vixen since joining the firm five years back and taking my next promotion from underneath me. I pressed my hand over my bulging erection and let out a groan as my hips undulated several times.

Though I never intended it to happen, I came hard standing there, my mind envisioning nothing more than her in my face.

"Fuck," I groaned and gave myself over to it. I needed attention, and even if I had to start giving it to myself... something was going to have to change. It had been three months since Janice let me make love to her. And thanks to that… I was primed to make the biggest mistake of my life.

I couldn't remember ever wanting something so bad, so desperately as I wanted Elizabeth. On her knees... choking.