Jacob(41)

Jacob looked at his brother. Jared had been beaten up pretty bad during this mission. “What do you mean you’re not staying? Are you leaving Guardian?”

Joseph leaned forward and Chief twisted in the gunner’s seat. Jacob snorted when Jared flipped a double-handed bird towards the two onlookers.

“No, but I’m never working an overseas assignment again. I’m a cop. Evidence, forensics, and paperwork I understand. Hell, even the damn networking social bullshit I can do. But not this. Never again.”

Joseph’s eyebrow rose. “Damn straight, son. Get your ass home and leave this shit hole to me and those like me. All of you need to stand down.”

“Gabriel has already grounded Alpha team. He’s ordered me to take over international operations, leading a desk, not a team. No more field work.” Jacob’s eyes met and held with Chief. He assumed the big guy wouldn’t be happy with the news, but as was typical, Chief’s expression didn’t change.

“About fucking time. You two are good, damn good, but you don’t need to prove yourself anymore—and that’s a fact, not my opinion,” Joseph growled. He fixed his stare on Chief and asked, “What about you?”

“I’m sticking with Jacob. I’ll stay stateside.” Chief threw his chin towards Doc. “He isn’t going to be able to work like this again.”

Jacob’s eyes rested on his best friend. “We’re talking about building a training facility at the ranch.” He glanced at Joseph and explained, “It’s a place where teams can recover from missions, train new members, work scenarios and build cohesive units.” His tired eyes landed on Doc again. “We’ll need a doctor who has been in country to staff the recovery center, someone who knows the hell our teams go through. Who better than Doc? When he is up to it, the job is his.”

Chief leaned back against the doorframe and bulkhead and closed his eyes. Exhaustion showed clearly on his face. “If you’re building a facility there, I want in. That ranch is the closest thing to a home I ever had.”

“Done. I need someone I can trust to run it. It’s yours.” Jacob smiled at the sudden shocked look Chief threw at him. “But remember, I learned my employee management skills from Gabriel. If you fuck up, you’re fired.”

In unison, all four men said, “Again.”





Chapter Twenty-Eight


Jacob opened the front door to the Georgetown house and closed it quietly behind him. He and Jared had landed two hours early, just before the snow storm had closed Dulles. Jared was spending the night at Jewel’s to give Jacob and Tori the house to themselves. Chief accompanied Doc on the MedEvac to The American Hospital of Paris, the finest medical care facility in Europe. Doc’s condition had stabilized slightly, but his recovery was going to be a long, long haul. Joseph disappeared in Germany when Jacob and Jared were loading Chief and Doc into the aircraft for the flight to Paris. God only knew where he went, or what he was doing.

The warmth of the house surrounded him. Standing in the foyer, he could hear the melody of Tori’s voice. Following the softness of her words to the back of the house, he stood in the doorway, his hair and jacket sprinkled with melting snow. Just stood looking at her. Wasn’t he a fucking wimp? A royal wuss. Too emotional to say a damn thing. Choked up. Feet planted in the doorway just looking at the woman that owned him heart, soul, and body. God, he was never going to leave her again. She spoke to someone on speaker phone, her back to him.

“The airports are closing?” Tori’s voice held panic and disbelief. She seemed fixated on the Weather Channel’s coverage of the winter storm blanketing the East Coast. Jewel’s voice on the other end of the phone appeared to cut through her dazed gawking.

“This is not just a snow storm. They are calling it the storm of the decade.” Jewel’s voice held the same defeated disbelief as Tori’s and Jacob almost said something but the strange paralysis that gripped him at the sight of her wouldn’t release him.

“Seriously, are the fates aligned to keep me away from my husband?” Tori walked to the huge bay window in the back of the house that overlooked the back yard and opened a panel of shutters. Pure beautiful white covered the lawn and trees with large feathery flakes drifting down. An occasional gust of wind forced the huge tufts of white to dance sideways.

“I doubt that. If the fates were working against you wouldn’t have seen their signal. I mean who sees something like that? A data analyst mines for information through chatter, troop movements, local intelligence. How did you ever think to look at the satellite images that way?”

“I had so little information to work with, Jewel. I felt like I was letting him down so I made a folder for each data line and went through each twice a day. I stared at those photos so often I knew when something looked different, but it wasn’t until the last initial that I knew it was a signal. In all honesty, it just wasn’t skill. It was luck.”

“Then I’m the luckiest man alive.”

Tori’s eyes flew open, twisting around she gasped, “Jacob!” The phone clattered to the ground. Tori launched across the room but only made it a few steps before his arms locked around her, picking her up and crushing her into him. The dropped phone began to ring insistently, but both of them ignored it. His embrace, like his kiss, demanded everything, wanted everything and gave everything. Her arms tightened around him as possessively as his claimed her.

The months of trials melted away and all that mattered was in his arms. He pulled back, both of them gasping in a lungful of air. He wiped the tears from her cheeks. These tears he could deal with.

Her eyes searched his face. Her hand trembled as she lifted it to his cheek. “Oh my God. You’re here. You’re really here?”

Jacob chuckled a little at her disbelief. He kissed her again, slowly this time, tasting her tears on her lips.

“When did you get back? Where are your brothers? How is Adam, Doc?”

Questions fell from her as he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bedroom. “Shh…we can talk later. I need you. Now.”

As soon as he put her down, their clothes disappeared, shed in record time. Animalistic desire, intense need, and a driving lust swirled through him, eagerly answered by Tori. Jacob pulled her to him and cupped her ass. His arms lifted her. Immediately he felt her legs circle his waist. Familiar. Hot. Sexy. “You fit me perfectly. God, Tori, I need this. Need the feel of your skin under my hands, your body pressed to me, against me. I need you.”

Her lips were on his throat. She bit his neck possessively and licked his skin. He shuddered at the restraint it took not to throw her on the floor and take her. Her hands traveled his chest, shoulders and back. “I want you in me now.” Her whispered demand unleashed what restraint he imagined he had.

With his hand under her, he positioned his cock at her wet center. He pulled back and watched her face as she loosened her legs and dropped onto his shaft. Her eyes closed, a small gasp escaped before a low, sensuous moan shattered the silence. Her core slid over him like a glove two sizes too small. His body vibrated with need, his senses on fire. Slowly he lifted her off him and allowed her to slide back down. “Oh God, Tori, I’m not going to last.”

Tori leaned forward and bit his neck again. The delicious feel of her mouth on him pushed him into a frenzy. He lifted her slightly and then pushed into her. His need blinded him to everything, but the desire to take her. He had to claim her again, to make her his. He felt her body clench around him, heard her cry out as she shuddered against him. He growled out her name as his orgasm shot down his spine and pushed up through him. Over and over he pulsed in waves inside her, the length of his climax a painful bliss in itself. Breathless and with weak trembling legs he walked to the bed and carefully lowered them both onto the mattress.

Tori opened her eyes when he laid her down. “Are you real?” The question was the first thing she had ever asked him and it had never seemed more appropriate.

“Yeah, honey I’m real. It would seem this time you were my guardian angel.” Tori laughed although it sounded like a sob. She pushed into him seemingly unable to get close enough to him.

“I wasn’t too rough, was I?” His hand traveled down her spine and back up and she shivered in response. “I had to be inside you.”

Her arms tightened around him and she shook her head. “No. God, no. I love you so much, Jacob. I missed you.” He felt the wetness as her tears hit his shoulder.

“Ah, hey now! What are you crying for? You know tears aren’t in my contract. Please don’t, honey. I’m home. I love you. I missed you, baby.” He pushed her away enough to kiss her wet cheeks. “I caused your tears and the anguish behind them.” God, it tore him up. He would make it up to her, cherish her and never give her reason to cry again. He hated tears, but her tears? They shredded him. “Baby, you’re everything to me.”

Rolling her onto her back, he wiped her cheeks with his fingertips and pressed his lips to hers absorbing the miracle of the kiss. Cradling her possessively in one arm, his lips lost in the soft, sensuous kiss, his hand traveled from her cheek over her throat and onto her breasts. He lightly caressed each running his thumb over her nipples loving how they hardened into tight buds at his touch. Perfect.