I’m ready to drive inside and pound the ever-loving hell out of her – but I freeze at the last second, remembering what’s happened. Staggered by my near loss of control, I try to be careful as I push my way inside, one thick, blistering inch at a time, all too aware that she had surgery just three weeks ago. ‘Are you sure this is okay?’ I ask, my deep voice rough and low as I search her glistening, pleasure-dark gaze. ‘Are you sure I won’t hurt you?’

  ‘Stop worrying,’ she whispers, her pink lips curved in a womanly smile, her hands stroking down the rigid muscles in my back, tugging me closer. ‘I’m fine – and I’ll be a hell of a lot better once you’re fucking me.’

  I growl low in my throat, loving it when she’s greedy. When she tells me exactly what she wants and needs. And once we get started, there’s no stopping. Any control I’d hoped to claw on to is shredded, and we go at it like we’ve been apart for years instead of weeks. Like our entire existence depends on how hard I can give it to her, and how deep she can take me, my hips working my heavy cock in and out of her plush, tight cunt like a piston, until I’m taking her so rough and fast that the bed is slamming against the wall like a hammer. I brace myself on a straight arm and slide my right hand between us, rubbing my thumb over her swollen clit until she’s digging her heels into my arse, her nails in my shoulders. Then I slide my fingers lower, past the tender place where my big, wet dick is spreading and penetrating her, until I reach her tight little arsehole. I rub it with the tip of my thumb, and though she tenses up a bit, she doesn’t say no, so I start applying a bit more pressure.

  ‘Just my thumb right now,’ I tell her, loving how easily I can read everything I’m making her feel on her beautiful, expressive face. ‘But one day soon, Em, I’m squeezing my cock in here. Every hard, thick inch of it.’

  ‘Oh, God,’ she moans, and her pussy clenches around me, somehow clasping me even tighter.

  I keep going, no longer able to control the filthy words coming out of my mouth as I share with her all the things I intend to do to her, with her, and I have a feeling she’s as bright red from the dirty-talk as she is from the aggressive way that we’re fucking. But she loves it, her little teeth sinking into my shoulder as she claws at me, drawing me closer, and this time . . . Yeah, this time we both know that we’re never letting go again. We’ve both run, and we’ve both chased, and now we’re going to stick together through whatever the hell life throws at us.

  We crash into climax at the same time, coming in a scalding, blinding rush. I take her mouth in a deep, wet, eating kiss, unable to believe how insanely good it feels to blast my hot cum inside her without anything between us, and I just keep going, feeling like I might never stop.

  ‘I’ve got more to give you,’ I growl against her soft lips. ‘Your little cunt’s so greedy, Em, it’s pulling it right out of me. It’s making me give you every goddamn drop.’

  ‘Missed you,’ she whispers back, cupping my face in her hands. ‘Missed you so much.’

  Her words undo me, and I press my forehead to hers as my breath hisses through my clenched teeth. I grind against the moist cushion of her sex as my cock gives a final, mind-shattering pulse, her inner muscles clasping me so tightly that there’s a bite of pain with the pleasure that I love.

  ‘Damn,’ I groan, after I’ve carefully pulled out and finally collapse at her side, my left hand looking huge as I lay it over her navel. ‘No matter how hard or deep I take you, it’s never enough. I’d stay inside you twenty-four seven if I could, and never leave. I think you were made for me, Em. Or I was made for you. Either way, we belong together.’

  She turns her head towards me and gives me a smile. One that’s soft and sweet and so incredibly sexy.

  ‘I love you,’ I say in a harsh rumble, reaching up and cupping the side of her face with my hand as I lean in closer. ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t say it before, when we were in San Diego. I wanted to, I just didn’t know how. But I fucking love you, baby. So much.’

  She lifts her hand, setting it gently on top of mine as she searches my fierce, burning gaze and asks, ‘Do you still want me?’

  ‘Want you?’ I mutter with a gritty laugh, stroking my thumb against the corner of her kiss-swollen mouth. ‘Jesus, Em. I’ve died a little more every minute of every day that’s gone by since I walked out of that hospital and left you there. I couldn’t survive another one. I want you so much I can’t breathe. Can’t sleep. Can’t eat. I want you forever. For always.’ The lump of emotion sticking in my throat is so thick that I have to swallow against it, my voice little more than a graveled rasp as I say, ‘You’re so bloody brave, Em. I’m in awe of you. Of the guts that it took for you to get on a plane and come here to face me. You’re a fucking miracle.’

  ‘You told me to hold on to you,’ she tells me softly. ‘You made me promise.’

  God, I did, didn’t I? That first day in San Diego, after I’d fucked her beautiful brains out on her tiny sofa.

  ‘Well, now it’s my turn,’ I murmur, sliding my hand down, over her slender neck and her delicate collarbone, then lower, until I’m curling my long fingers around one of her perfect breasts, my thumb making her gasp as it strokes over her sensitive nipple.

  ‘Yeah?’ she whispers, her eyes dilating with desire as she wets her lips with the very tip of her tongue.

  ‘Yeah.’ I keep my hungry gaze locked tight with hers, and solemnly say, ‘I promise I won’t screw up like this ever again.’

  Her eyes start to gleam. ‘You’d better not.’

  ‘And I promise to always be honest with you, and to not hide things from you.’

  This time, there’s a wry little twitch at the very edge of her mouth. ‘Smart man.’

  ‘And I promise,’ I husk, sliding my hand from her breast to the curve of her waist, ‘from the absolute bottom of my soul, that I will love you till the day I die.’

  She doesn’t say anything to that one.

  No, the gorgeous girl just leans over and kisses me instead. And in the tender, exquisite touch of her lips, I taste not only our future, but the promise of a life more beautiful than anything I’d ever thought I could have. Had ever even dared to hope for.

  I just have to find a way to keep us alive, so that we can have it.

  No matter what it takes, I have to make it so that my badass little American and I can have it all.

  Because I’m keeping this incredible woman in my life.

  Even if it’s the last damn thing that I do.

  Chapter Three

  Thursday afternoon

  JASE

  As I kiss my way across Emmy’s soft belly, I hear the grandfather clock out in the sitting room strike one o’clock. We haven’t left the bed since we fell into it hours ago, except for when I had to run and collect her suitcase when she suddenly remembered she’d left it sitting outside the door in the hallway. We’re both starving, but instead of struggling out to the kitchen, we’ve stayed right here, wrapped around each other, making up for lost time. For the twenty-one long, eviscerating days it’s been since we last saw each other.

  I’ve spent the last half hour or so simply reacquainting myself with her lovely curves and warm, silky skin – kissing every inch of her sumptuous body, front and back – while paying special attention to the lingering scrapes and bruises from the accident.

  And then, finally, I kiss my way over to the scar on her right side, my jaw tightening as I study the jagged little puncture wound. It’s still shiny and pink, and will take a long while to fully heal, and my eyes burn as I notice how close it is to the tattoo that flows across her hip.

  The tattoo that’s identical to mine.

  I lower my head again, pressing gentle, lingering kisses to the beautiful, intricate design, knowing only too well how lucky I am to be so close to it again. It’s an honor I’d feared might be lost to me forever, but now she’s here, in my bed, and despite all the shit that’s happening in my life, I feel a sense of peace that’s been missing since I walked away from her.

  ‘The scar’s pretty odd-looking, isn’t it?’ she says. ‘Maybe I should just tell people I was shot. That sounds a lot more badass than being stabbed by a car.’

  ‘Like hell you will,’ I mutter, lifting my heavy-lidded gaze up to hers as she sprawls back on the pillows, looking like a sultry nymph who’s been sent here for me to pleasure and please. ‘There won’t be anything to tell, because you’re not getting naked for any other bastard but me.’

  She rolls her eyes and laughs, like I’ve made a joke. ‘I do wear swimsuits, remember?’

  ‘Don’t remind me. I still get tense every time I think about the heads you turned at the pool and the beach.’

  She shivers, and I know damn well that she’s remembering what would come after. The way I’d toss her over my shoulder the second the door to the suite at the Del was shut behind us, carry her into the bedroom, throw her down on the bed whether we were dry or sopping wet from the pool, and come down over her. The way I’d rip her little swimsuits off, line up with her tiny slit, and drive deep, that alpha streak in me (the one she’s always giving me shit about) compelling me to stake my claim with a hard, mind-blowing fuck that always meant multiple orgasms for her, and me exploding so violently I knew she could feel the thick, heated pulses of my cum as I spurted inside her, filling her up.

  I’m sucking in deep breaths as the carnal, provocative memories roll over me, telling myself I need to let her rest and find some bloody control, when she brushes her hand through my hair and quietly says, ‘Jase, we need to talk now. You know, about what’s happened.’

  ‘Yeah, okay,’ I agree, though it’s not what I want. What I want is to just keep lying here with her before the open windows, tasting every inch of her creamy skin with my tongue and lips. But this needs to be done, and so I move on to an elbow beside her, and say, ‘First, though, I need to tell you that I feel like a fucking failure, Em. The best way to protect you right now is to be apart from you.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ she argues with a frown. ‘Either we’re a team, or we’re nothing. I get that your heart was in the right place, Jase – but your head wasn’t. Because if I’d walked away from here today, I don’t care what you might’ve said to me when you finally came back to San Diego. I wouldn’t have listened, because I’d have known that you didn’t trust me with the truth. That you didn’t treat me like an adult and give me the choice to decide what my future would be.’ She turns on to her side to face me, and her voice is firm with conviction as she says, ‘We’re either equals in this relationship, or there isn’t one.’

  A scowl tightens its way between my brows. ‘It has nothing to do with not trusting you or respecting you. Christ, Em, I’m just trying to protect you. Because it’ll kill me if anything happens to you. I nearly lost my damn mind the night of the accident.’

  She gives me a knowing, womanly smile. ‘And I’m afraid that’s just one of those pesky little side effects of being in love. The worries and the fears. But life is full of good times and shit times, and how we face them is what will make us strong. I don’t need you to stand in front of me; I just need to have you beside me.’

  ‘Jesus,’ I say with a heavy sigh, ‘I hear you. I do.’

  ‘But?’

  I shake my head as I snort. ‘Don’t shove me again, okay? It’s just that things would be a hell of a lot simpler if I hadn’t fallen for such a smart, independent, courageous little American.’

  ‘They wouldn’t be simpler,’ she says in a wry drawl, ‘because they’d never be in the first place. No way would you fall in love with someone who let you walk all over them. You’d be bored out of your mind within five minutes.’

  My chest shakes with a husky laugh. ‘Then I guess it’s a good thing the only woman I’m ever going to love is you.’

  ‘Damn straight,’ she mutters, leaning over and pressing those soft lips to mine. I try to slip my tongue in, needing the taste of her, but she’s already pulling back, and I can tell by the look on her beautiful face that shit’s about to get serious. ‘Now, tell me what you’ve found out. Do you have any idea who’s behind the accident?’

  I shake my head again as I blow out a frustrated breath. ‘I’m sure you already know that the police in San Diego weren’t able to track down anything about the men in the truck. It’d been stolen that night, and they didn’t leave any DNA in it. But I’ve been in contact with a friend from school who works at Scotland Yard, and he’s looking into both Cameron and Caroline for me, as well as a few CEOs whose businesses aren’t doing as well as mine and might be holding a grudge.’

  Her golden brows lift with surprise. ‘I know you said Cameron was causing trouble for you with your build that’s taking place in Thailand next year, and Caroline’s . . . Well, she’s a raging bitch. But what would they have to gain from having you killed?’

  ‘That’s what I can’t figure out. I mean, it’s a hell of a risk to take just because neither of them likes me. Still, I passed their names on to Danny because they’re the two people in this world who cause me the most grief. But so far the only thing he’s been able to uncover is some weird shit about Caroline’s background.’

  ‘Weird how?’

  ‘There’s not a lot to go on yet, but it looks like she might have been living under a fake identity since her teens.’

  Emmy’s eyes go wide. ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Yep. But that still doesn’t give her motive to have me killed.’

  ‘Hmm. So then what about any jealous exes? Any bunny boilers in your choirboy past?’ she asks with a smirk, knowing damn well that I had a bit of a reputation as a ladies’ man before falling head-over-heels for her.

  ‘No bunny boilers,’ I murmur, thinking this is one of the last things I want to be talking to her about.

  ‘What about jealous boyfriends or husbands?’ she asks, tapping her finger against her lips. ‘Someone who took exception to you turning their woman’s head?’

  ‘Come on, Em,’ I say with a scowl, hoping that’s not how she really sees me. ‘You know me better than that. I might not have been a saint, but I’ve never screwed around with a woman who was in a relationship. I wasn’t that much of a dickhead.’

  ‘Well, maybe one of your women didn’t tell you the truth about her single status.’

  ‘I didn’t have “women”,’ I growl, getting exasperated. ‘It’s not like there was a bloody harem following me around. And I was never big on one-night-stands, so it’s not like my hook-ups were with strangers. So no, it’s not going to be some jealous boyfriend or husband who’s got it in for me.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess that really wouldn’t make sense anyway,’ she says, sitting up and wrapping her arms around her knees as she stares out the window, still working it all through her head. ‘I mean, why not just try to have you killed here? Why wait until you were traveling? Unless they just liked the idea of it happening so far away to lessen suspicions.’

  ‘All I know is that none of it makes any fucking sense,’ I mutter, sitting up beside her and shoving my hands back through my hair.

  Her own golden curls slide over her shoulder as she turns her head toward me. ‘Maybe the assholes who wrecked us thought we were someone else. Maybe they didn’t mean to come after you at all.’

  ‘But the part about “the Brit” hiring them?’ I say, rubbing my palm over my tense jaw. ‘That’s too much of a coincidence.’

  Concern darkens her gaze. ‘Then whoever wants to hurt you, they want it bad. Badly enough to try and set it up in another country, which had to have been a hassle. Not that all murder-for-hire isn’t without its problems, I’m sure.’

  ‘I know,’ I sigh, resting my arms over my bent, spread knees. ‘Shit, I know.’

  ‘So what’s happened since you came back?’ she asks.

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Seriously?’

  ‘Not a damn thing,’ I mutter with a fresh wave of frustration as I curl my hands into fists. ‘Even the crazy Becketts are behaving themselves.’

  ‘Huh.’

  ‘I know,’ I say again, this time with a growl, my temper getting the better of me. ‘I just want this prick to come out of the shadows and fucking face me head-on.’

  ‘Speaking of facing things head-on, have you thought any more about Douglas Hart?’

  ‘Damn, babe,’ I rumble with another gritty laugh. ‘You’re not pulling any punches today, are you?’

  ‘Just answer the question,’ she says with a small smile, ‘and stop stalling.’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve thought about him,’ I tell her, forcing my hands to relax as I pull in a deep breath, then slowly let it out. ‘I’ve also had one of my IT guys look into the historical building records to verify his story, and we know that he was there, in Kent, during the time that he claims, working on the Grafton family’s estate.’

  ‘What about asking Harrison about him? Just because you don’t ever remember meeting Hart doesn’t mean that your grandfather didn’t. They might have even known each other.’

  ‘I know, and you’re right. I should talk to him about it. I just . . .’

  ‘You’ve had a lot on your plate,’ she says with another soft smile that tells me she understands. ‘But this is important, Jase.’

  My chest lifts with another heavy sigh. ‘I know.’

  She’s quiet for a moment, lost in her thoughts as she reaches over and takes hold of the hand that’s closer to her, then tugs it down between us, so that our joined hands are resting on the bed. Then she looks at me again and asks, ‘When Harrison came to talk to you at Beckett House the night I left, did he say anything about your mom?’