Chapter Fourteen
018
Jackson was quiet for a few minutes, his mind racing as he pulled a trembling Nicky so close it felt like the fronts of their bodies would fuse together. Not only was he a head case, he was a fool. He should have known Nicky would never lie and say she loved him just to gain her freedom. She wouldn’t have reached for him after he set her free, or be spilling her guts right now if she didn’t love him. She wasn’t the type to talk emotional stuff with anyone but her nearest and dearest. Her feelings were as real as the passion between them.
And as real as the hellish position she was in with her husband.
No wonder she’d let the bastard take their daughter. Even if the man was lying, what mother would be willing to risk the chance— even the slight chance— that he wasn’t? He was threatening her child’s life, for god’s sake.
Derrick was a fucking monster, whether he was bluffing with the death threat or not.
“I don’t know a whole lot about how the legal system works,” Jackson said in a low, soothing voice. “But couldn’t you testify to what he said? Wouldn’t that be enough to throw suspicion on whether he’d be a good—”
“I wouldn’t get to testify. He said he’d kill Abby first, so the only way I’m getting on a stand is if she’s already dead.” Nicky’s breath rushed out on a shaky breath. “Besides, who would take my word over Derrick’s? I’m a high school dropout who’s worked as a waitress, a lingerie model, and now a bartender at a semi-sleazy bar. He’s a rich real estate investor who graduated top of his class at Stanford.”
Jackson wanted to tell her things like that wouldn’t matter, but he wasn’t a fool. How many times had he been looked down on for owning a tattoo parlor or sporting two full sleeves of ink down his arms? Things had started to change after the reality show, but he still got the hairy eyeball from store clerks from time to time.
“Your silence is very reassuring,” she said, shifting in his arms, the way her breasts pressed against his chest reawakening things that had been deflated by the news of her ex’s death threats. Even now, more anxious than he could remember being in years, he still wanted to be inside Nicky.
When they were making love, when he was buried to the hilt in her gripping heat, he didn’t have to think about anything. Not the danger her little girl was in, not the uncertain future, and certainly not the fact that he wasn’t at all the man he’d thought he was only a few short weeks ago.
He’d not only followed through on his plan to kidnap Nicky, he’d chased her down like an animal when she’d run and used brute force to haul her back to his cabin. He obviously wasn’t right in the head, and was displaying far more similar traits to her bully of an ex-husband than he wanted to admit.
Even if he figured out a way to help her and cleared the path for them to start dating seriously, how could he be sure he was any better for her than the man he’d helped her get free of? He knew he’d never dream of threatening a child, but then. . . not so long ago he’d been certain he’d never kidnap a woman and tattoo her against her will, either.
Did he even know what he was capable of anymore?
“Jackson? Is something wrong?” Nicky’s eyes were wide and worried, but she still clung to him the same way she had since he’d untied her.
When she’d reached for him in spite of what he’d done, Jackson had thought his heart would explode. She really did care— it hadn’t all been a lie.
But maybe she would have been better off if it had been.
He loved her more than anything in the world, but who knew if that love would be enough? This Derrick creep had obviously loved her in his way, and look how that had turned out. Could Jackson be certain he’d do any better by Nick? Sure, he’d never ignore her or tear her down with words, but who knew what else he’d do once he’d settled into being the dominant man around the house.
No matter how strong Nicky was, she was a submissive through and through. She would place her trust in him and have faith he would make the best decisions for them both. But what if he couldn’t handle the responsibility for two lives— three including her daughter’s? What if he wasn’t the man he thought he was, and ended up bringing even more hurt into the life of the woman in his arms?
“I really wish you’d talk to me. You’re starting to freak me out a little.”
Jackson winced inwardly. Freak her out. He should freak her out. He’d been acting like a maniac since the night he headed out of Vegas, bound for California. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“About how we can make sure Derrick is the one considered an unfit parent,” he said, the lie sliding easily from his lips. He couldn’t tell Nicky about his doubts about himself. Not now, not when she obviously had no one but him to turn to. “My partner and I opted out of another season of Sin City Ink, but I’m still in touch with a lot of the cameramen who used to work on the show. Most of them live in L.A., so it shouldn’t be hard to find someone willing to loan us the proper equipment.”
“What kind of equipment?” she asked, a hint of hope in her voice.
“A hidden camera or two, a couple of microphones so tiny you can barely see them. Just a few things we’ll need for a little sting operation.” Jackson smiled when her eyes lit up. “If we can get Derrick on film threatening Abby, I think just about any judge out there will give you full custody until you go to trial and a nice restraining order, at the very least. If we’re lucky, the bastard might even get jail time.”
“You really think so?” Nicky asked, the excitement clear in her voice. “But we’d have to make sure Abby was safe before we showed anyone the film.”
“I think we can make that happen pretty easily. I’ll talk to my partner, Christian. He used to be a cop and will probably have some good advice on how to handle your ex.”
“He has experience with domestic disputes as well as digging up private information on people in a matter of minutes?” Nicky narrowed her eyes, making it clear she didn’t think much of Christian already. “I’m not sure I want this guy’s help if it’s all the same to you.”
“Christian’s a good guy. I’m the jerk who was nosing around behind your back. Give him a chance,” he said, feeling every inch a jerk. What had happened to the levelheaded man he’d always prided himself on being? It was like every ounce of restraint or common sense went out the window as soon as Nicky was in the picture. “If you don’t like him once you meet him, we’ll go it alone. We probably won’t need that much help anyway. Derrick has to go to work and leave Abby alone sometime, like at a day care or—”
“He has a nanny. Two of them, actually, a day nanny and a night nanny. But I still have the key to the house, so we should be able to figure something out.” She chewed her lip, obviously working through the scenario in her mind. “I’m sure he hasn’t changed the locks or the code on the security system. He doesn’t expect me to go against him in this.”
“So we’ll just wait until Derrick’s out of the house and go in and take Abby. Since we’ll have proof of Derrick’s threats by then, I doubt you’ll catch any legal flack for doing whatever it takes to protect your little girl.”
“Oh, and I know exactly when to do it!” She vaulted into a seated position, treating Jackson to a very distracting view of her breasts.
“When?” Nicky noticed the direction of his stare, but didn’t move to cover herself. Instead she just smiled, a secret little smile that made his cock even harder.
“There’s this new BDSM club Derrick was visiting pretty regularly before I left. It’s out in the Valley, but a lot of the girls who go there don’t mind partner swapping or performing with another man for their dom.” Nicky’s expression left little doubt how distasteful she found the practice. Good. Jackson wasn’t into sharing and had never understood doms who got off on watching their submissive partner perform sexually with other men. “We can stake out the club. Then, when he shows up, we head back to the house and get Abby. By then she and the night nanny will probably be asleep, so we can just sneak in and out without anyone even knowing we were there.”
“Sounds like an excellent plan,” Jackson said, reaching for Nicky in spite of himself.
With all the doubts still swirling in his mind, the last thing he should be doing was making a move to continue their sexual relationship. They should be friends and nothing more until her little girl was safe and they’d had time to talk about what they each wanted for the future.
But then Nicky took his hands and pushed them above his head, straddling him with that naughty smile. One look at the heated look in her eyes and he knew he was a goner.
“It does. Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me.” She leaned over him, teasing him with her breasts, brushing the soft skin against his face as she lifted first one wrist and then the other to the headboard.
Jackson didn’t fight. He let her cuff him, figuring she deserved the chance to turn the tables after all he’d done. After he’d manhandled her and tied her down without permission.
The thought was nearly enough to make his cock soften, but then Nicky was kissing him, pushing her tongue into his mouth, making him groan. She tasted so fucking sweet, like everything he’d hungered for in his entire life. He met her strokes with his own, exploring every inch of her mouth. Both of them were breathing fast by the time Nicky pulled away with a quick nip at his lower lip.
Seconds later she was busy at his belt buckle, tearing off his belt, fumbling with his fly, her hands shaking like she hadn’t been laid in years.
“No foreplay?” he asked, groaning again as his swollen length sprang free.
Nicky shoved his jeans and boxer briefs to his knees and then made quick work of her little black panties. “No foreplay. I want you inside me. Now.”
She rose up over him in one smooth motion, spreading the lips of her sex and positioning his cock at her entrance. Seconds later he was inside her silken sheath, encased all the way to his aching balls.
“God, Nick.” He moaned as she leaned forward, her hair spilling in silky waves around his face as she captured his lips once more.
They kissed for what seemed like forever, a slow, sensual meetings of lips, teeth, and tongue that communicated so much more than words. Less than a half hour ago, he’d thought he’d never know this kind of connection with Nick ever again. That sense of loss was still so close to the surface, intensifying the pleasure of every kiss, setting every place they touched on fire.
And slowly driving him even further out of his mind.
Of course, it didn’t help that Nicky limited her movement to tiny circles of her hips, grinding against him so only the base of his cock felt the friction of sliding in and out of her tight heat. The slight movement made him impossibly thicker, harder, until things low in his body cramped with an almost painful pleasure.
It was a sweet breed of torture, lying there beneath her. He was dying to buck his hips, to drive inside her, hard and fast. But he only hummed into her mouth, forcing himself to follow her lead, to let her set the pace.
“Jackson.” She breathed his name, the arousal clear in her voice making his jaw clench.
Damn, it was hell to hold back, to force his movements to mimic Nicky’s own. But he could feel how her pussy clenched each time he nudged against her clit. She was close to the edge, her muscles strung tight and her breath coming in desperate little pants. The arms braced on either side of his face trembled and her hands fisted in the pillow beneath him. She only needed the slightest push and she’d shatter, her cunt clenching around his cock.
Thankfully he had just the perfect push in mind. “I want to suck my tits. Move for me.”
Nicky obeyed with a moan, shifting on top of him so that her breasts and her tightly puckered nipples were within easy reach. Jackson’s breath caught at the erotic beauty of her flushed skin. She was so perfect, the only woman who had ever literally taken his breath away.
He captured one rosy tip in his mouth, sucking and nibbling, tracing the pebbled flesh with his tongue until Nicky writhed on top of him. She picked up the pace of her movements, more wet heat gushing from her sex as he transferred his attention to the other breast, dragging his teeth over her nipple before licking away the sting.
“Are you going to come for me?” he asked, in between flicks of his tongue. “Are you going to come on your cock?”
“Oh, god. Oh, god, yes.” She moaned, the circling of her hips growing more and more frantic until finally she threw her head back with a wild cry. Her back arched, pressing her breasts closer to his face as she came.
Jackson sucked even harder, pulling at her sensitized flesh until she screamed his name and began to move again. In seconds she was coming a second time, fingernails digging into his shoulders with enough force for it to sting, even through the thick fabric of his sweater. The feel of her slick, hot pussy clutching at him a second time was almost more than he could take.
“Fuck, Nick,” he mumbled against her soft, damp skin. “Ride me. Ride my—”
She sucked in a deep breath, braced her hands on his chest and lifted her hips, slamming them back down before he could finish his sentence. Without the slightest urging, she set a brutal rhythm, sheathing him inside her again and again, as if she’d read his mind and knew exactly what his body craved.
The sound of flesh slapping against flesh filled the room as her ass made impact with his thighs, underscored by the grunts and groans as each of them neared the edge. Jackson arched to meet her as she dropped her hips, intensifying their connection, reaching all the way to the end of her and still not feeling as if he’d ever get close enough.
The smell of her arousal spun through his head, making his hands itch to reach between them, to gather some of the wet heat dampening her thighs and bring his fingers to his mouth. He wanted to taste her at the same time he lost himself inside her, wanted to drown himself in every aspect of Nicky.
“Jack. God, Jack,” she gasped, her rhythm starting to falter.
“Harder, faster. Don’t stop.” He watched her breasts bounce as she began to ride him once more. His swollen balls ached, throbbing with the need to come, but he forced himself to hold back his release, to savor every last moment of being inside his girl.
“I’m going to come, Jack. I can’t, I—”
“Come,” he groaned, the sound transforming to a cry of surrender as orgasm hit them both at the same moment. His cock jerked inside of her even as her pussy clenched around him, milking every last drop of seed from his body. Things low in his body twisted in ways that didn’t feel natural, but they sure as hell felt good. He couldn’t remember ever coming so hard his vision blurred and his skin felt too small to contain the pure pleasure exploding inside his every cell.
His ears were ringing by the time body and soul finally reconnected, the blood pounding through his veins making him decidedly hard of hearing.
That was the only explanation as to why he hadn’t noticed the men in the door sooner.
“What the fuck are you doing in my house?” he asked, his voice at its deep and most threatening best despite the fact that he was cuffed to a bed and not in a position to be doing anyone much damage. He must have forgotten to lock the door. A pretty stupid call out in the middle of nowhere, where they had more than their share of backwoods crazies.
“Shit!” Nicky shrieked and leapt off of him, burrowing under the covers before poking her head back out. “You scared the hell out of me,” she said, breath coming fast as she flipped one edge of the blanket over Jackson’s now exposed cock. Still, she didn’t sound afraid.
Probably because the men were cops. After a second look at the door, Jackson too noticed the khaki uniforms and the holsters, complete with walkie-talkies and standard-issue firearms. Shit indeed. Nicky had hit the nail right on the head.
“We were just leaving, ma’am,” the younger man said, tipping his hat and directing his eyes to a spot somewhere on the ceiling. “We’d gotten a report there might be a woman in trouble up here, but obviously we were mistaken.”
“Unless you’re the one in trouble, sir,” the older man said, a grin on his face, though he too had the decency to avert his eyes from the bed.
“Nope, no trouble.” Jackson willed his voice to be calm and collected, to not betray the anxiety he felt. If Nicky was going to turn him over, she would have done it already. Right? “At least not any trouble I don’t want to be in.”
“And you, ma’am? If you want out of here, we can wait while you get dressed and escort you back down to town.” The younger man stepped a little farther into the room and let his hand stray casually to his gun, making it clear he was ready to do whatever it took to protect and serve.
“No, I’m fine. We were just having a little argument earlier. Disagreeing about wedding plans.” She laughed, such a genuine sound Jackson would never have guessed she was lying if he didn’t know better. “You know how stressful that kind of thing can be.”
“All right, but keep the arguments in the privacy of your own home next time. You had a few people worried.” The older cop sighed, but didn’t seem overly annoyed. He and his partner probably hadn’t had much else to do tonight in a community like this one.
“Will do. Thanks, Officers.” Nicky smiled and actually waved as the two men turned and tromped down the stairs.
Jackson lay beside her, holding his breath until he heard the door slam below them. That had been entirely too close. What if he hadn’t stopped modifying Nicky’s tat in time? What if the policemen had entered the room to find a sobbing woman tied to his bed and him jabbing at her with a needle? Getting arrested wouldn’t have been anything he didn’t deserve at that point, but still.. . .
The enormity of his risk finally hit him in the face. Christian had been right. It had been a form of suicide to go ahead with his plan to kidnap Nicky. Even the fact that she seemed happy to be with him most of the time they’d been together didn’t make up for it. He was a madman, a criminal, and not nearly good enough for the woman giggling as she rolled over him to fetch the hand-cuff keys.
“Ohmygod, that was hysterical. I’ve never been caught in the act before. How embarrassing. I nearly peed myself I was so scared.” She unlocked the cuffs and then hurried into the bathroom, still laughing.
Jackson heard the water running and then the toilet flush, but not even those normal sounds could thaw the cold fear in his heart. He was going to have to watch himself very, very closely. Whatever madness had driven him to this point was probably still swirling around in his brain, waiting to come out and play. His job now was to make sure it didn’t get the chance, that he never committed another criminal act around Nicky or anyone else.
He’d help her, make sure she and her daughter were safe, and then he’d get the hell out of her life. It was the best thing he could do. There was no doubt he loved her, but she deserved a sane, rational man who would never think of doing half the things he’d done the past two days. Including taking advantage of a woman in a vulnerable position.
“So, I’m starved. What about you?” Nicky asked as she plucked her clothes from the floor and dressed. “Do you think that pasta you made is still good?”
“We can reheat it, and eat it on the road. Let’s get everything packed up.” Jackson rolled from the bed and tugged his pants up around his waist.
“Okay,” Nicky said, her tone wary. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just. . . I think we should get back to L.A. The sooner we get things moving, the sooner we get your daughter back.”
She nodded and walked toward her room, but stopped in the door to the bath and turned back to him. “I was never going to tell the police, Jackson. Even if you’d forced me to change the tattoo, I wouldn’t have. I care too much about you to ruin your life.”
Jackson’s heart lurched in his chest as he watched her disappear. Her words only cemented his decision. He had to get out of her life, as soon as possible. He didn’t deserve a woman like Nicky. Never had, never would.