Chapter Fifteen

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Kit was having what had to be the longest shower in history, and she was thankful that Jace clearly had a seemingly endless supply of hot water.

When they'd arrived back at his place, her muscles had felt as if they'd declared war against each other. So tight to the point of being painful. That's why Jace had suggested she take a shower.

Alone.

He'd probably figured if he got in the shower with her, it would lead to sex and that sex might not be the best course of action. Some parts of her body disagreed with that.

Strongly disagreed.

Sex with Jace always seemed like a good way to unwind. But about halfway through her marathon shower, she had realized he was right.

She'd needed this time to process, well, everything.

And there was a heck of a lot to process.

For starters, it hadn't been her father's body that his assistant had found in his office. Instead, he'd faked his death, somehow. Jace and she didn't have the details on that yet. Or rather they hadn't known before she'd started her shower. But what was crystal clear was that Ramsey had pretended to be dead so he could then come after her.

She'd seen the rage on his face when they'd been rescuing Brandon. Had felt his hatred for her all the way to the bone.

But still, Kit hadn't expected this.

Maybe the rage had caused him to snap and take matters into his own hands instead of hiring someone like Rattler to do his dirty work. That was something Kit hoped Ramsey would explain if he actually spoke to the cops. As of now though, Ramsey was in a psychiatric hospital in San Antonio where his mental state was being evaluated to see if he was fit to be charged with a murder.

Murder .

That word pulsed through her, causing some of the tightness in her muscles to return.

Kit pressed her palms against the steamed-up glass and let the multiple jets continue to massage her body. Definitely no ordinary shower. Along with the six showerheads that were indeed giving her a massage and that endless supply of hot water, it was all glass.

Three of the sides faced the spa-like bathroom, and the fourth had a view of the pasture. That glass to the exterior of the house hadn't gotten steamy so she guessed it had some kind of special coating to allow her to watch the horses.

The whole scene created a perfect picture. The setting sun glistening off the ponds. Beautiful horses grazing in the pasture. No wonder Jace had bought this place. It was like his own paradise. A sanctuary. And something he definitely hadn't had when he was growing up.

She finally stepped from the shower and reached to take the terrycloth robe that she'd left on the wall hook. It wasn't there. But it soon appeared when Jace held it out at her. He was there, leaning against the marble vanity, and his gaze immediately combed over her face.

He must have approved of what he saw because he seemed to relax a little. "Feeling better?" he asked.

While Kit put on the robe and tied the belt, she nodded. And it was the truth. She was feeling better at just seeing Jace. She wanted to step into his arms. Wanted to let him carry her off to bed. But he had probably gotten some updates about…everything, and she needed to hear them.

"My father is going for an insanity or diminished capacity plea," she threw out there.

Jace nodded. "The first one."

His jaw went tight, and she knew why. If Ramsey's team convinced the legal system that he was indeed insane, then he'd be found not guilty of murder and attempted murder.

She wanted to curse. Along with a half dozen injured, two people were dead. Not the two that Ramsey had targeted—Marvin and her—but rather two innocent women who just happened to resemble her. Even though Ramsey hadn't admitted it, he'd likely shot them because from a distance he had believed he was murdering his daughter.

"What about the woman who was up the hall from me?" she asked. Jace had mentioned hearing her moan, and he'd apparently believed it was her. It hadn't been, but the woman, a notary public, had been only two rooms away. "Is she going to be okay?"

Jace nodded. "She was shot in the arm from one of the bullets Ramsey fired into the ceiling, but it's not a serious injury."

"Still, she was shot while trying to do her job," Kit muttered.

No way had she been able to protect herself because the shots had gone through the ceiling of the first floor and through the floor of the second. Several had knifed through the wood where Kit had been, but thankfully, the shots hadn't come close to her.

"Ramsey won't get off," Jace assured her. "Too much planning by setting up his own death. He had a high-end signal jammer with him and another device to lock all doors the moment he stormed into the courthouse."

"A jammer," she muttered. "That's why I couldn't text you when I heard the gunshots."

He nodded. "No one could text or call, but Angel was in the process of breaking in and coming to help when I had the fight with Ramsey and stopped him."

Yes, Jace had done that. According to the talk she'd heard, Ramsey had a broken nose, hand, and some cracked ribs. But Jace hadn't walked away unscathed. The bruise on his jaw was proof of that.

"There was also planning in faking his death," she added, lightly brushing her fingers over that bruise. She had a lot of good reasons for wanting to curse Ramsey, and his hurting Jace was just one of them.

"It doesn't hurt," he assured her, moving his mouth to kiss her fingers.

That gave her a nice jolt of heat. She would have acted on it, too, but there was something she had to know.

"Is Trevor the dead man found in Ramsey's office?" she had to ask.

Jace was quick to shake his head, but he must have understood why she had thought he might be. Shortly after the attack at the courthouse, the cops had been unable to get in touch with either Deanna or Trevor. And with Trevor and Ramsey having such similar builds, the assistant could have believed she saw her boss when she was actually seeing his son.

"There's no ID on the dead guy yet," he explained, "but the cops are looking into it. They found a vehicle parked about a quarter of a mile away so it's possible Ramsey arranged for the guy to come to the house. Maybe under the guise of hiring him for something. Then, Ramsey killed him to set up his death."

"More planning," she said on a sigh.

"Oh, yeah. And the cops have found what they think might be the tip of the iceberg. Ramsey was shifting around money, putting it in accounts that he could better access from overseas. He had also purchased a plane ticket to Morocco under an alias. An alias that matched a fake passport the cops found."

Kit felt her mouth drop open for a moment. "Ramsey was going to flee the country?"

"Looks that way," Jace verified. "I think it was his backup plan, that he honestly believed he could get away with murdering Marvin and you. With both of you dead, there'd be no one to testify or no plea deal to send him to jail."

Yes, she could see Ramsey believing that. "How is Marvin, by the way? Did Ramsey come close to killing Marvin?"

"Marvin wasn't hurt, and the trial will be rescheduled. That'll give the cops and the city time to process the courthouse and get it cleaned and patched up."

All of that was needed, but… "It could also give Trevor time to figure out a way to silence Marvin. And me," she tacked onto that, and she groaned. She wasn't in any shape to testify, but she wished she could just get this over and done.

"Marvin is probably taking some precautions," Jace said. "He got damn lucky. During the attack, he was in the men's restroom with his lawyer, who was apparently trying to steady Marvin's nerves. Ramsey did open the door of the restroom, several witnesses verified that, and when he didn't see Marvin, he then headed to the second floor to the witness holding area."

Where he would have found her had Jace not stopped him.

"Thank you," she muttered. And she knew those two words could never convey just how grateful she was.

"Don't thank me. Two women are dead," he spelled out. "Other people are injured."

"More than that would have been hurt or killed had you not put an end to that nightmare," Kit pointed out just as quickly. "Ramsey was heading my way," she added, her voice not as steady as she wanted.

He closed his eyes for a second, and like her, he seemed to be trying to tamp down the images of that happening. Since she thought they could both use it, she slipped her arms around Jace and pulled him to her. And because they could use more, she did something else.

She kissed him.

The heat came. Of course, it did, but this time there was so much. There was a gentle soothing that slid through her. After everything they'd been through, this felt like coming home.

Later, they would need to jump back into the investigation. They'd need to help Ruby dig for anything that could help them learn if the danger was over. Or if there was another threat out there. But now, this was what needed to happen.

Since Jace was already anchored against the vanity, Kit leaned against him, pressing her body to his. He increased the contact by hooking his arms around and drawing her closer and closer.

Now, the heat started to rise. Little by little. Still no urgency. Just a slow kiss in each other arms.

Jace slipped his hand between them. And into her robe. His fingers gliding over her still-damp skin. He touched her, touching her breasts. Her nipples. Then, he slid his hand to her butt, cupping her and aligning them so their centers met.

The kiss didn't stay slow. The caresses didn't stay soft. She'd known they wouldn't, and just as she'd expected, the need began to escalate and spiraled the heat up so many notches.

He kissed her now with an urgency. A purpose. And that purpose was clearly to take them past foreplay and into full-blown sex. She was all for that.

Kit reached for his belt, undoing it and unzipping him while he shucked off his shirt. He tossed it to the bathroom floor, along with some towels he took off a rack on the vanity. In a blink, he'd made them a bed of sorts, and he kissed her all the way to the floor.

He eased her into a landing on her back and immediately opened her robe so he could land some of those fiery kisses on her body. Kit knew this would feel amazing, but she had a different kind of amazing in mind. She flipped him onto his back and started stripping off the rest of his clothes.

Kit kissed the naked parts of him. His chest. His stomach. And when she got off his jeans and boxers, she just kept going, taking him into her mouth. Jace made a sound, a groan mixed with pleasure. Since she liked that sound very much, Kit kept it up. Tasting him, arousing him. Driving him to the brink.

But Jace didn't settle for the brink.

Cursing, he did another round of turning the tables by sliding her back up his body. She might have protested, but then he kissed her neck and slid his left hand between her legs and into all that wet heat.

No protest came.

But she nearly did.

Again, Jace pulled back from that brink. He also remembered something that wasn't even on her mind. Safe sex. He reached over, opening the bottom cabinet, and locating a condom. He got it on and then let her have a go at him.

Kit was more than ready for it.

She straddled him, taking him inside her. She had to go still for a moment because of the intense pleasure, but lust was a greedy SOB who wanted this hard and fast. So, that's what she doled out. Kit rode him, giving and taking the pleasure. Driving them both to the other place they wanted to go.

Gathering him into her arms, she made those final thrusts that gave them both exactly what they needed.

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