The pager buried deep in TJ’s trouser pocket beeped, cutting through their labored breathing and vibrating against his knee. The effect was to jerk him out of the sensual haze and remind him they’d used no protection.
“Damn it!” Without pulling out of her, TJ fumbled to reach for the pager around his knees. With his cock still firmly entrenched in her channel, the task was impossible.
When the pager beeped again, Cassidy’s lips were sealed around TJ’s carotid artery and her teeth were poised to puncture the skin. Holy shit! She jerked her head away. Holy Shit! She’d almost bit him.
“I’m sorry, Cassidy.” TJ pulled her close and kissed her open lips.
The touch of his mouth to hers almost stung in its intensity. She could feel every beating pulse in his body, and she was still joined to him. How could she have let it go this far? “Let me down!” She beat her palms against his chest. “Let me down!” She had to get away. Hell, he had to get away!
“It’s okay, it’s just a pager and I didn’t cum inside you.” But he slid her upward and off his still stiff erection.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, she groped for her clothing and ducked out of reach. With her dress clutched to her chest, she turned to him.
He’d already pulled his pants up, buttoned them and stood with a confused expression denting his forehead. “I didn’t come here to do that.” He held his hands up. “Not that I’m sorry I did.”
She turned away, fighting the desire to climb back onto him and finish what she’d started. “You should go, now.”
He stepped toward her, his hand outstretched. “Cassidy, don’t shut me out.”
“Go. Please!” Her voice caught on a sob, and she spun to race up the stairs.
Three
TJ spent an agonizing night fighting hungry monsters. Damn, he hated vampires, the bloodthirsty bastards. He’d kill every one of them if he could.
When the day shift came on, the night shift was asked to stay and assist in last-minute evacuations. Near dusk, after being on duty for over eighteen hours, rain began to fall, gently at first. As the wind picked up, the droplets became projectiles, blowing in sideways from the south. He’d had to beg the police chief to let him weather the storm at home. Most of the force would be bedded down for the night in the precinct basement.
As he’d left the station, sustained winds blew at fifty miles an hour. Now, based on the way he was fighting to keep his truck on the road, the gusts must be nearing seventy. He hoped to hell Cassidy had gone like she said she would. He’d left so late the previous evening he hadn’t had time to check.
All night and day long, his gut kept telling him she’d lied. That she never intended to leave the city. That the crazy fool would try to ride out the storm in her two-story, wood-framed home.
After parking in his garage, he peered through the sheets of blinding rain trying to glean whether or not Cassidy was still there. He couldn’t see a blasted thing. With no other way to be certain, he had to go over there and check for himself.
He breathed in the innocent scent of a summer rain, hoping the torrential downpour would slack up, but knowing it wouldn’t. The storm was going to get a heck of a lot worse before it got better. He hunched his shoulders and leaned against the wind as he launched into the downpour. With his hand raised before his eyes to ward off the stinging rain, he splashed through soaked grass and up onto the front porch of the old colonial house.
When he shook the water from his hair and eyes, he stared at the house and swore. None of the shutters had been closed and streams of water ran down exposed glass windows. His lips pressed together. Stubborn woman. He would have closed the shutters for her if she’d let him.
Now that the hurricane was at hand, he didn’t have time to worry about her shutters. He pounded on the door and waited. No response. Wind and rain beat against his back and made standing still difficult.
“Cassidy!” He pounded again. “You better not be in there!” he shouted, feeling stupid, but not really caring. No one else was around to hear him.
With the rain thundering against the tin porch roof, he couldn’t hear anything going on inside to indicate whether or not Cassidy was still at home. His gut tightened when he noticed her car parked in the garage. If she tried to ride out the storm in her house, no telling what would happen.
He hammered against the door again. “Cassidy!”
No answer and he didn’t feel any more confident that she’d evacuated. The only other choice was to break the door in and check from room to room. He stepped back, took a deep breath and kicked his heel against the door next to the deadbolt.
The loud sound of wood splitting wasn’t followed by the door flying open like TJ had hoped. He snorted. She would have a good deadbolt. Hell, he’d helped her install it.
He stepped back again, breathed deeply once…twice…and kicked the door again. The wood cracked and the door shook but didn’t open.
A gust of wind slammed into him and slung him against the hardwood paneling. The weather was getting rougher and the sky darker as night approached. He couldn’t stay outside much longer without risking injury from flying debris.
“Cassidy!” He pounded his fists on the door. “Open the damned door!” With his hand raised to pound again, he stopped just as the door whipped open.
The wind jerked the knob out of Cassidy’s hand and slammed the door against the wall with enough force the doorknob penetrated the sheetrock.
Cassidy staggered backward as the storm swept through the opening, entering the house uninvited and claiming what it could reach as its own. Before she could object, TJ allowed the wind to push him through the doorway. He turned and forced the door closed behind him, shutting out the sideways rain.
Outside, the storm wailed and thrashed against the house as if angry it had been cheated. The windows shuddered to hold back the force of nature threatening to break through the single-paned glass.
With the door closed, TJ spun to face Cassidy, anger pulsing through him like a jackhammer through concrete. “What the hell are you still doing here?”
She stood, her shoulders hunched in silence.
“Why?” he asked. “Why didn’t you leave when you had the chance? Are you completely out of your mind?”
Her head jerked up and she stared at him, her arms crossing over her full breasts. “You think I didn’t want to leave? You think I’m stupid for staying? Well, to hell with what you think, TJ Evans. I sure as hell don’t need you telling me what I have to do!”
The fire in her eyes beat the defeated look of yesterday. This was the woman who’d captured his imagination and every sleeping and waking thought, not the one he’d seen hiding in the shadows for the past couple weeks.
TJ took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he attempted to say anything else. He reminded himself he was glad he’d gotten to her before anything happened. “I’m sorry.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I was angry and scared for you.” He wanted to shout, but he held his voice in check. Before he pissed her off again, he had to get her out of her house and into his. Soon. Really soon.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said, the anger draining out of her voice. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can. But you don’t have your storm shutters in place. All it takes is flying debris to break through a window-”
At that exact moment, a window shattered upstairs.
Cassidy screamed and threw herself at TJ, burying her face against his chest. “I didn’t think about that. I guess I just wasn’t thinking much.”
“Come on,” he commanded in a low coaxing voice, tugging her toward the door. “Let’s get to my house before this storm gets worse.”