Dismissed, Shooter turned and left the room. How the hell am I going to keep Juliette from losing it when I tell her we need to leave town? Slipping inside the door, he shed his clothing and walked into the bathroom. Steam fogged the mirrors, and the sound of water on tile soothed him. Pulling back the shower curtain, he drank in the sight of the woman who’d come to mean everything to him. Her hair was dark silk piled on top of her hair to reveal a graceful neck that led down to a curvy frame. Peering over her shoulder, she delivered a shaky smile.
“Hi.” The welcome melted his heart. He’d been afraid she’d shy away.
He stepped inside and pulled her slippery body close.
“Juliette Marie Moore, I love you,” he whispered, peering deep into the darkened windows of her eyes. “I wanted you to know that. I had the words rattling around in my head for a while but you weren’t ready to hear them and I wasn’t ready to say it.”
“Shooter, I love you too.” Her voice was thick with emotions.
“We got some shit to discuss, but right now I want to love you. Is that okay? Can I erase an ugly memory for both of us? Give myself something good to carry me through this.”
“God, yes. Please make me forget.” Her voice caught on a sob.
Sliding his hands down her skin, he gripped her and balanced her against the wall of the shower. “Guide me home.”
She reached down between them, pressing his swollen head to her entrance, and he thrust home. Her legs tightened around his back and he held her gaze as he moved inside her tight heat. There were no words as he slid as deep as he could go, relishing the feel of her slick walls as she flexed her muscles and arched her back. The love she held shone bright, and every time he re-entered her body, the bond between them wove together tighter.
Her lips parted, and her pussy trembled around them as they reached the pinnacle together. She gripped his biceps as her body vibrated.
“That’s it, baby, give it to me.”
He thrust once, twice and she came apart, taking him with her. Her cries of ecstasy and his moans echoed in the shower as the memory embedded in his heart. Spent, he eased out, turned the shower head back on and rinsed them off.
“You stay here.” He stepped out, grabbed a towel and wrapped her up, gently drying her skin. With the words out in the open their dynamic shifted somehow. Suddenly they were more. It made him want to grin like a fucking idiot. He wrapped the towel around her, placed one around her waist and carried her over to the bed. He sank down, placing her on his chest. Trailing his fingers down her arms, he focused on the sound of her breathing. Steady and slow.
“Baby, I have to tell you something I know you won’t like.”
She lifted her upper body off his chest and met his gaze, bracing her forearms against his chest.
“I don’t like the sound of that at all, Shooter.”
“I didn’t expect you to. We have to leave.”
“And go to your apartment?”
“No, baby.” He shook his head. “We have to leave town.”
“Right now?” Her wounded expression tore at his heart. She had her world turned upside down and she could barely regain her footing before it was flipped again.
“Yes.”
She took a deep breath. “For how long?”
“Until Stant has his preliminaries and he’s at least monitored.”
“Who knows how long that’ll take?”
She moved to leave and he wrapped his arms around her waist, locking her into position. “Let me go.”
“Not until you listen to me. This is to keep you safe. You saw how easily he can get to you. I can’t watch you all the time and I’d die before anything happened to you. Please, do this for me. I’d lose my shit if anything happened to you, baby.” He’d take her by force if he had to, but it’d make for a long trip.
“I’ll lose everything, my house, my car and my job.”
“None of it’s worth your life, baby. I got your car and your house. I’m pretty sure we can come up with something for your job. We have the power to pull strings on this to get it processed. It’s not going to be longer than a month, maybe two at most.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.” Her voice shook.
“You don’t even have to ask. I’m doing it. You want to repay me? Follow my directions.”