Always a Hero Read online

  She pulled open the door.

  “Kai, you should have heard me!” Jordy exclaimed, practically bouncing as he came into the room. “I really nailed that Mayer riff!”

  “Did you now?” she said as she stood back to let him past her.

  “I played it back, and you can really recognize it!”

  “I’ll listen to it, if you don’t mind.”

  “Of course not. I want you to, you can tell me—”

  He broke off suddenly, and Kai knew he’d spotted his father.

  “What are you doing here?”

  There was no mistaking the open antipathy in his voice, or the scowl on his face. This could be trickier than she’d thought.

  Wyatt didn’t speak, just gestured with his coffee mug. Way to answer without lying, she thought.

  “Couldn’t you just wait downstairs?” Jordy said, teetering on the edge of a resentful whine.

  Wyatt again said nothing. Kai wondered how long he’d been putting up with that tone from his son. Judging by his lack of expression, far too long.

  “This is my home, Jordy,” she said quietly. “I don’t care for rudeness.”

  The boy flushed. “Sorry,” he said, but it was to her, not his father. And for the first time she really saw what Wyatt was dealing with on a daily basis. She’d admired him in an abstract sense for taking on the son he’d never known about, appreciated his sense of responsibility, and that he’d literally changed his entire life to take charge of that responsibility.

  But now that abstract admiration was becoming something more solid. And she didn’t think it was just because he could boil her blood with a touch. Jordy was so different with her that she hadn’t quite realized what Wyatt was putting up with one on one, she guessed every day.

  “We were just talking about…your father being late to pick you up tomorrow.”

  Jordy flicked a glance at Wyatt, but then focused on her, as if she were the only one he wanted to listen to.

  “How late?”

  “Late enough that I’m thinking pizza for dinner.”

  Jordy brightened instantly. “Really? Up here with you?”

  Ouch, she thought at the instant shift from resentment to delight. It was a wonder, Kai thought, that Wyatt didn’t hate her for the disparity in the way his son treated them.

  “I’m sure your father would like an evening to himself,” she said.

  “Why? He never does anything. Or lets me do anything.”

  Again no reaction from Wyatt. Her own father would have taken that tone from her once, and once only.

  “Did you ever stop to think that you’re the reason he never, as you say, does anything? That maybe he’d be out enjoying himself every night if he didn’t feel he had to be a good parent and stay home with you?”

  Wyatt moved then, she saw it from the corner of her eye. He set down the coffee mug, staring at her. Jordy merely gaped at her, apparently too stunned to even register the betrayal she was sure he was feeling.

  “Don’t ruin your relationship defending me,” Wyatt said quietly. There was a touch of warning in his voice, and she realized he meant that she wouldn’t be able to get what he needed from Jordy if the boy wasn’t speaking to her, either.

  “You’re siding with him?” Jordy yelped, finally finding his voice.

  “I’m siding,” she said, “with courtesy under my own roof. I can’t control outside, but in here, I’ll take nothing less. No matter how much I like you.”

  As she’d intended, her last words calmed him. But he still cast a glare at his father. And Kai couldn’t help thinking that she’d landed in an already boiling pot.

  Heat of many kinds seemed to be taking over her life just now.

  Playing With Fire, indeed.

  Chapter 19

  “He thinks Max wants a job there, that’s why he’s asking those questions,” Kai said the moment the door to her apartment closed behind them.

  Wyatt looked at Kai skeptically. “You believe that?”

  “Are you going to blow up at me if I do?”

  Considering the way she’d kissed him into near oblivion the moment he’d walked into the store on this sunny Saturday—clearly not worried about anybody walking in—he’d be a fool to do anything of the sort. And after she’d flipped the closed sign over, he wasn’t about to.

  “No. Just asking.”

  She gave the question more serious consideration than he would have. She’d spent a few days now trying to glean information from Jordan, after laying the groundwork that night over the pizza. A night which had put Jordan in such a good mood that he was almost civil even to his father for two or three days. A novel experience.

  The boy had, she’d told him, seemed to accept that she was just wondering why she hadn’t seen Max since he’d come in to pick up his sound gear, and Jordan had offered the theory on his own. He obviously didn’t know about Wyatt’s confrontation with Max, at least not yet.

  “If it was anyone but Max,” she said finally, “I would probably believe it. But I know he’s up to no good in one area, and after what you told me about that compound in the cold pills…no, I don’t believe he’s just picking Jordy’s brain to try and get a job.”

  Thank goodness, he thought. She might be overly trusting, but she was far from a fool. And once she realized they were likely dealing with a drug connection, she became as determined as he was.

  Kit, he thought, feeling a pang of something as he thought of the years-dead fool. To have had Kai madly in love with him, and then thrown it away was up there so high on the stupid scale he couldn’t even give it a number.

  “Are you going to call the sheriff?” she asked.

  “And tell them what? A suspected drug dealer is talking to my son?”

  “Quizzing your son. About a place where they package stuff used in making drugs. They’d at least look into it, wouldn’t they?”

  “Eventually. In case you hadn’t noticed, they’re stretched a little thin out here. Literally and figuratively.”

  “I know. When Mrs. Day had her car stolen, it took them forever to get here because one deputy has to cover the entire north end of the county.”

  “Besides, there has to be more to this than Max. There’s somebody higher up, pulling the strings, and if we spook Max, he’ll slip away.”

  Her brow furrowed as she looked at him. “Why do you think there’s somebody higher up?”

  “If they’re after the product to break it down for the ingredient they need, that’s going to be a complicated operation. Max just isn’t smart enough on his own.”

  She was looking at him so intently, those gray eyes troubled, that it blasted all sane thoughts out of his head.

  “I can’t argue with that,” she said. “So what do we do now?”

  “You don’t want to hear what’s first on my list,” he said, his voice sounding rusty, rough, even to him.

  He hadn’t meant to say it. But it was becoming a habit around her, blurting out things he didn’t mean to. She didn’t even pretend to misunderstand, nor did she take it as a joke and laugh him off. She just looked at him, her eyes widening slightly, as if she felt as completely as he did the sudden heat he’d set off in the room.

  “Jordy,” she began.

  “Will be gone all day on that school trip.”

  “I know. I was more concerned about what he’ll think.”

  Interesting, he thought, that that was her first thought. And then, belatedly, another realization hit him. Was she actually…considering this?

  Molten sensation blasted through him. And in that moment nothing else mattered, not the stupidity of this, or his son’s reaction, or what he would likely be doing to himself and the near-peace he’d found here. Not even the idiocy of giving fate another lever to use on him could stand before the fierce, white-hot fever she ignited in him.

  “Kai,” he said, barely able to find enough air in the room to say her name. Just as well, he thought, because anything else he might say would be to try
and persuade her, even push her, because he wanted her more in this moment than he’d ever wanted anything. But it had to be her decision. He couldn’t, wouldn’t take on the guilt of pushing her into something she didn’t really want. His life was a fine balance already, any more guilt would likely tip him over the edge.

  And then she looked up at him, those smoky gray eyes suddenly warm and soft. “Let’s worry about Jordy later.”

  He felt a shiver go through him, an odd contrast to the heat leaping along his nerves. “Much later,” he said, promise and warning in one.

  “Works for me,” she said, in a husky tone that hit him much the same way as that same tone did when she sang.

  “You’re sure?” he asked, feeling he had to even as he told himself he was an idiot.

  “Changing your mind?”

  “God, no.”

  He moved before she could change hers. He kissed her, deep and long and for the first time holding nothing back. He didn’t know why, it made no sense that this woman, so different from any he’d ever known, would be the one who brought him back to life after so long in the cold. But she had, and no matter his own cautions, no matter the craziness of it, he didn’t even want to deny the fact.

  His heart was hammering when he finally pulled back. He hesitated one, brief moment, silently giving her one last chance to back away, to change her mind, although he thought it might just kill him if she did.

  Instead, her eyes full of a hot sort of wonder that both relieved him and sent even more heat licking along his veins, she reached up to touch first his lips, then her own.

  “Wow,” she whispered. “That was…as intense as you are.”

  He sucked in a breath, swallowed tightly. He grasped for the last shreds of sanity left to him. He reached, fumbled in his wallet for the condom someone had planted there as a joking goodbye, the day he’d walked away from his old life. He’d never removed it, thinking it a wry, almost bitter commentary on how badly his life was messed up that it had been there a year, unused, unneeded.

  But he needed it now. He’d been irresponsible once, he wasn’t going to do it again. Especially with Kai.

  “I have exactly one,” he said. “I never expected to use it…I didn’t expect this, Kai.”

  “Neither did I,” she said, smiling at him in a way that made him feel, for the first time in his life, like the luckiest man on the planet. “Nevertheless, I have a box in the bedroom. Courtesy of my best friend on my birthday a year and a half ago. She hoped I would need them someday soon. It’s still sealed.”

  “Good,” he said tightly. “Because one isn’t going to be nearly enough.”

  “Oh, I hope not,” she said, in that husky voice that sent ripples of chill and heat through him, ratcheting his already soaring tension up yet again.

  He knew he was already out of control by the way his hands fumbled the simple removal of clothing. She helped, and in the growing headiness of heat and need and drive, he wasn’t sure who took what off who.

  But he was sure he hadn’t felt like this in…forever. For a moment, after he kicked free of the last of his own clothes, he just stood there. Never had he literally shook at the sight of a woman’s bare curves, shoulders, soft, coral-tipped breasts, and his favorite, that luscious arc from waist to hip.

  His gaze snagged on the deep green tattoo, that thin, delicate, intricate circle around her left wrist. He reached out, wrapping his fingers around her wrist over the art. He circled it easily, and it felt delicate yet strong and warm. He liked the mark, he thought. It suited her. Anything bigger or more garish wouldn’t have.

  She reached out in turn, trailed a single fingertip down from the hollow of his throat to his navel, and he felt like she’d opened him with a hot blade, baring his heart and his very soul to her smokier-than-ever gaze. A shudder he couldn’t begin to hide went through him.

  That finger veered, over to the scar from a long ago bullet. Her expression changed, just slightly, and he wondered if she was finally having those second thoughts. Maybe she found it repugnant. Maybe he’d accumulated enough scars to make any woman change her mind about wanting a body more battered than they’d expected.

  “Someday,” she said softly.

  He knew what she meant. That someday, she’d want to know the story behind that mark, and probably the others. And she’d want more than “Gun, knife, bomb.”

  And then she moved that hand lower, laid it flat against his belly, just above the flesh that surged to meet her touch. And concern about what she might ask, want and deserve from him vanished.

  No, wanting wasn’t enough of a word for it, not this. Desperate, maybe. Frantic, definitely.

  Reckless. Risky.

  Yeah, those too.

  And none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was her, and the simply, undeniable fact that if he didn’t have her in the next moment there’d be no point in living that long.

  “Kai.” His voice was a raspy, strained thing he didn’t even recognize.

  “Are we going to make it to the bedroom?” She sounded like he felt, and this echoing of his own need drove him over the edge.

  “Next time,” he muttered, handling the condom in the last seconds before he reached for her.

  They went down to her plush green sofa in a semi-controlled tumble. He shuddered at the feel of her slender, taut body beneath him. He couldn’t get enough, couldn’t touch enough. He sucked in a sharp breath when she stroked both hands down his back to cup his backside and pull him closer. And let it out in a long, slow, shivery exhalation as he cupped her breasts and they rounded warmly into his palms.

  He ran his thumbs over her nipples, loving that they were already tight and waiting for his touch, shuddering anew at the tiny gasp of pleasure that burst from her.

  And then she slid her hand in between them, seeking. He twisted slightly, giving her access he hoped like hell she wanted.

  She did. Her fingers curled around him with a sweet, perfect pressure that nearly sent him over the edge right there.

  He tried to slow down, tried to rein himself in. And as she so often did, Kai read him perfectly. “There’s a time for ballads,” she said against his ear, “and there’s a time to just let it rip.”

  She guided him into her slick, welcoming heat. He heard a strangled sound, realized it had come from his own throat. It was difficult at first, and he found that the thought of hurting her had the power he hadn’t had himself, the power to slow him down.

  “It’s been—” her breath caught as he eased a little deeper “—a long time.”

  He could tell that. “Stop?” he asked from behind gritted teeth; if she said yes, he thought he just might actually die.

  She went still. He lifted his head, sensing her gaze on him. “You would, wouldn’t you,” she said; it wasn’t a question.

  “There’d be a word for me if I didn’t.” He ground it out with his jaw still clenched.

  She reached up, cupped his face, brought his mouth down to hers. And this time she kissed him, long and deep and impossibly sweet and hot at the same time. In that moment he drove home, smothering her gasp with his mouth, his tongue. And then she was with him, pleasure lacing a deep, heartfelt moan as he began to move. Just the sound of it sent him careening to the edge once more.

  And when it became too much, when the caress of her body and the sound of her, the scent of her, the high-strung energy of this vivid free spirit overwhelmed him, he had no choice but to give in and let go.

  And she was with him then, too, as her name broke from him in a rush echoed by his body. She cried out, and in the instant before he lost all awareness, he felt the tight, hot squeeze of her around him.

  And he thought that if he did die right now, it would be worth it.

  “I like your bedroom.”

  “What’s not to like, at the moment?” she teased. A little to his own surprise, he smiled.

  “Not a damn thing. But I do like it.” He glanced around at the bold blocks and stripes of c
olor. “It’s not frilly.”

  She laughed. She was snuggled against his side as he lay on his back in satiated exhaustion. What had begun as explosive had, over the course of a long, luscious afternoon, turned into a sweet, slow exploration that had fine-tuned the chemistry between them until the slightest move, the barest whisper set it off all over again.

  “Nope,” she agreed, “not a frill in sight.”

  It had been a very, very long time since he’d felt this relaxed. If he ever had. He wished she would have put off the intrusion of reality a little bit longer, but then he glanced at her bedside clock and realized there was no choice.

  “When does Jordy get back?”

  So much for relaxed. “In about an hour, if things go as scheduled.”

  “You’re picking him up?”

  “At school,” he confirmed. “He’s supposed to call me if they’re early.”

  “Will he?”

  “I doubt it.”

  She propped herself up on one elbow to look at him, a wry smile curving those soft lips. Odd, he thought. She still seemed so new, so exotic and striking to him, even now. He’d learned every line and curve of her, and she had, to his gasping pleasure, studied every inch of him in a way he’d never known, in a way that made him feel oddly honored, that she thought him worth the effort.

  “Are you worried about how he’s going to react to this? To us?”

  “Do we have to tell him?”

  She went very still. “You want to keep it secret?”

  That sounded wrong, the way she said it, like he wanted to hide her away as if he were ashamed.

  “Not like that,” he said awkwardly. “It’s just…he already hates me.”

  “And you think this will make that worse?”

  “I think he’ll feel like I’m…trespassing.” She considered that, watching him all the while, in a way that made him feel compelled to add, “It’s not that I want to hide it, Kai. If it were just me, I’d be yelling it to the world, along with ‘eat your heart out.’ I wouldn’t care who knew.” And to his own shock, he realized he meant every word of it.