Chapter Eleven

Ruston seriously doubted Gracelyn was actually sleeping, but since she wasn’t saying anything, he stayed quiet as well.

And replayed every second of the nightmare that’d happened at the sheriff’s office.

That’d been over twelve hours ago, and after the shots had ended, both Gracelyn and he had gotten caught up in the investigative whirlwind of trying to piece everything together. That had been both an exhausting and frustrating process that was merely on pause so everyone could get some rest.

In Gracelyn’s and his case, they’d chosen for that “rest” to happen at the ranch so she could be with Abigail. Ruston had even managed to get Gracelyn to eat something before they’d gone to bed. Well, she had gone to bed, and he’d taken the chair again. She had offered to share the queen-size bed with him, and that’d been a damn tempting offer, but he didn’t have a lot of willpower right now when it came to Gracelyn. What could start as a hug of comfort could turn into a whole lot more, and Gracelyn didn’t need that right now.

Like him, she needed some rest so she could approach the investigation with a clear head.

Clearly, Duncan wasn’t in the rest mode, because even though it was well past midnight, Ruston’s phone lit up with a text from him. Ruston had put his cell on silent, even shutting off the vibration so that it wouldn’t wake Gracelyn if she did indeed manage to fall asleep. But she must have seen the flash of light, because she sat up, her gaze racing across the room to him.

“Did they find Allie?” she whispered.

The only light was coming from the ajar bathroom door, but Ruston had no trouble seeing that she was not only wide-awake but that she was just as on edge as he was.

He shook his head. “Duncan got IDs on the two dead fake cops, though. And they were fake,” he emphasized, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. Abigail was only an hour into what should be a three-or four-hour stretch of sleep for her, and he didn’t want to disturb her.

Apparently, Gracelyn was concerned about disturbing Abigail, too, because she moved as if to get out of bed to come to him. Ruston fixed that by going to her. He sat on the edge of the bed so they could talk, but he hoped this would be a short conversation. He was still hanging on to the hope that Gracelyn might actually get some rest tonight.

She wasn’t wearing the pajamas that Joelle had brought in for her but had opted for a loose pair of loaner jogging pants and a T-shirt. Her shoes were right next to the bed beside her freshly restocked go bag. All indications she was ready to get Abigail out of there if necessary.

Ruston was hoping like the devil it wouldn’t be necessary.

“The dead men are Eddie Baker and Andre Culpepper,” Ruston told her. “Both have criminal records. According to Carmen, when they showed up to escort a prisoner to Austin, she thought there was something suspicious about the paperwork they had. She was about to call Austin PD when one of them grabbed her.”

That was a nutshell account of what’d happened. Of course, the emotional couldn’t be put in a nutshell. There’d been an attack at the sheriff’s office, and now two men were dead. No wonder Duncan was still at work.

“What about the prisoner they were supposed to transport?” Gracelyn asked. “Was he in on it?”

“Duncan doesn’t think so. Austin PD was actually sending down two officers to collect him, but they weren’t coming for another two hours.”

She stayed quiet for several seconds. “So, these two fake cops would have had access to Austin PD info,” she concluded.

“Looks that way,” he agreed.

“Zimmer,” she muttered. “He could have set all of this up.”

She’d get no argument from him about that. In fact, it was possible Zimmer had orchestrated this and everything else that’d happened. The man had sounded somewhat sincere when he’d told them about his quest to catch those involved in the baby farm, but that could have been all smoke. A ruse to confirm Gracelyn and he were at the sheriff’s office so he could send in the thugs to attack.

“We were the targets,” she said. “Me, you and Allie. They came there to kill us.” Her voice broke and she squeezed her eyes shut as if trying to hold back tears.

Cursing and breaking his promise to himself that he wouldn’t try to soothe her, Ruston pulled her into his arms. A hug probably wasn’t going to do much, but it was all he had. There was no good news to give her. Heck, he couldn’t even dispute that part about them being targets. In fact, it all made sense if Zimmer was trying to tie up some loose ends.

“I’m not going to let Allie or Zimmer get to Abigail,” she whispered, her words brushing against his neck.

Ruston rethought that notion about a hug not doing much good because Gracelyn sounded stronger than she had just seconds earlier. Of course, the baby could do that. Ruston would protect the little girl with his own life, and that included not letting Allie or Zimmer get anywhere near her.

“Allie doesn’t even love her,” Gracelyn went on. “She was going to sell her.”

“I know,” Ruston murmured. And he knew something else.

That Gracelyn did love the baby.

Heck, so did he. That added even more urgency to the need to keep Gracelyn and her safe.

“Has there been any sign of Allie?” she asked.

“No.” And that had given him plenty to think about.

If Allie had told the truth about not having much money, she couldn’t have gotten far. Not on her own, anyway. But it was possible Zimmer or another thug was waiting near the sheriff’s office and scooped her up after she ran outside. If that hadn’t happened, then whoever had hired those two fake cops would no doubt be looking for her.

If they found her, they’d kill her.

Ruston knew Gracelyn was well aware of that. Allie probably was, too, but so far, that hadn’t caused Allie to seek out police protection, something she could get with one phone call to either Gracelyn, Duncan or him.

Gracelyn had left a message for Allie encouraging her to do just that. To accept that protection. But so far, there’d been no response from her sister.

She eased back from him, just far enough for her to make eye contact. “You moved in front of me,” she said, and he must have looked confused, because she added, “During the shooting.”

Oh, that. “Yeah,” he admitted. “It has nothing to do with you being a woman. It was just instinct.”

Since she wasn’t exactly doling out any thanks, he geared up to add an apology to that. And let her know that his instincts would be the same if it happened again.

“You did that at the baby farm, too,” she muttered.

Ruston couldn’t recall that for certain. Those moments they’d been pinned down by gunfire were a blur. Then again, he’d worked hard to make sure they were. He didn’t need images like that in his head.

She sighed. “What’s going on here?” Gracelyn asked.

And he didn’t think they were talking about gunfire any longer. Nope. There was just enough light for him to see the change in her eyes. Her breath hitched a little. He felt her muscles tense beneath his hands. A reminder that he was still holding her in his arms.

“I think what’s going on is a complication,” he admitted. “Something we’d like to postpone. But it doesn’t seem to want to go away.”

“No,” she quietly agreed.

They sat there, face-to-face, body-to-body, and it seemed as if everything stopped. Only for a second or two. But in that brief span of time, Ruston managed to have an argument with himself as to why he should move away from her.

An argument he lost.

Gracelyn lost it, too, because she was the one who leaned in and pressed her mouth to his. And just that, just that brief touch of her lips, sent the heat soaring.

He tried to rein in that heat. That need. But it was a lost cause and not one he wanted to win. He wanted to kiss Gracelyn, so that was exactly what he did.

She moaned, the silky sound one of pleasure, and immediately notched up the intensity by deepening the kiss. The taste of her hit him hard again, spearing right through him and instantly making him want more.

He took more.

Ruston tightened his grip on her and brought her closer to him. Until her breasts were against his chest. Until there was no space or distance between them. And even that didn’t seem close enough.

Of course, his body was insisting on getting closer to her. His body was urging him on and on. And Gracelyn certainly wasn’t putting on the brakes either. So, maybe she was using this to shut out the nightmarish thoughts if even for a minute. Maybe this was a kind of comfort after all.

That notion stayed with him until she skimmed her hand down his back and then snuggled even closer to him, adjusting her position until she was in his lap. The kiss didn’t stop. It continued to rage on. So did the touching, and Ruston got in on that. He slid his fingers over her breasts. And enjoyed the hell out of that little hitch that came from her throat.

This was how things had started the night after the baby-farm attack. The hug that had led to a kiss. The kiss that had led to, well, a hot and heavy make-out session that had landed them in bed. Since they were already in bed, they wouldn’t have far to go.

But was Gracelyn ready for this?

Physically, yeah, she was. He could feel the unspoken invitation she was offering him. However, going just the physical route here could cause her to have lots of regrets. That was what had happened last time, and it had sent her running. Ruston didn’t want that again.

And that was why he pulled back from her.

Not easily. It took every bit of willpower he could muster, and even then, he wasn’t sure it was a battle he was going to win with himself. If she’d kissed him again, that would snap the leash on the heat, and they would just have to deal with things like regret later.

But she didn’t kiss him.

She didn’t move off his lap either, and he was well aware that the center of her body was pressing against his erection.

Gracelyn stared at him. “I want you to know that after the shooting at the baby farm, I didn’t leave because of you. I left because of me, because I couldn’t stay and deal with what was going on in my head.”

“I understand,” he assured her. And he did. “There were times after my father was killed when I considered leaving for a while, too.”

“But you stayed because of your siblings,” she finished for him.

He nodded. Joelle and Bree had taken the murder so hard. Heck, they all had, but they had found strength with each other. Gracelyn hadn’t had that with Allie.

“Once this is over and the killer is caught, we should go on a date,” she said.

Ruston laughed and then immediately cut off the sound when Abigail squirmed a little. He waited until he was sure she was back asleep before he responded.

“I’d like to go on a date with you,” he told her and brushed his mouth over hers again. Not a hungry kiss exactly, but then again, with Gracelyn, hunger was always right beneath the surface.

She snapped it straight to the surface when she leaned in and kissed him again. The real deal kiss.

Nothing held back.

And considering they were both already hot and primed, Ruston knew exactly where this was going.

G RACELYN FIGURED THI S was a huge mistake, but she simply didn’t care. She wanted Ruston. Needed him. And she didn’t have the willpower to fight off that need any longer. She just sank into the kiss and let Ruston and his incredible mouth perform some magic.

The magic happened, all right.

She felt the heat race through her, and Gracelyn just let it carry her away. It had been like this on that other night Ruston and she had been together. That one, too, had been fueled with spent adrenaline and need. So much need. And once again, Ruston managed to notch up the heat.

They were already face-to-face, body-to-body, center-to-center, and that made it easier for him to lower his mouth to her neck and light some fires there. He touched, too. Mercy, did he touch. There was an urgency, and a gentleness, in the way he slid his hand down her back.

Gracelyn nearly got lost in the fiery haze, nearly let Ruston carry her away. But she wanted to give as good as she was getting. She wanted to do her own tasting and touching, so she unhooked his shoulder holster, setting the weapon aside on the nightstand, and then rid him of his shirt.

And her version of touching and tasting began.

She lowered her head, kissed his chest, and she felt his muscles stir beneath her mouth. Gracelyn used her tongue. Heard the rumble of pleasure that came deep from within his throat. She kept kissing while she slid her hand to his stomach.

More muscles stirred. He made that sound again. And she just kept pushing, firing up the heat. Until Ruston could seemingly take no more. He pulled off her top and turned the tables on her by touching her breasts. It was an amazing sensation that became so much more when he rid her of her bra.

The urgency escalated. Of course it did. This level of heat couldn’t last, and it demanded to be sated now. That was the word pounding through her head— now —when she reached for the zipper of his jeans. He stopped her, and Gracelyn muttered some profanity when he moved her off his lap and stood.

For a few horrible moments she thought he was stopping, but Ruston pulled off his boots before he fished through the pocket of his jeans and came out with his wallet. Then a condom.

Gracelyn wanted to curse some more because the heat and need had nearly made her forget the whole safe-sex thing. Thankfully, Ruston hadn’t. Also, thankfully, he was prepared.

And naked.

That happened when he shucked off his jeans and boxers. A fully clothed Ruston could fire her up, but a naked one stole her breath. The man was drop-dead hot, and he was hers.

Well, hers for this moment, anyway.

And this moment was enough. Gracelyn wouldn’t allow herself to think beyond it. She didn’t want to deal with anything but this urgency that was building, building, building in every inch of her.

Ruston moved back toward the bed, anchoring his knee on the edge of the mattress while he leaned in and pulled off her sweatpants. And panties. He didn’t lower on top of her, though. But he kissed her. A long, slow slide of his mouth that started at her neck and went lower. To her breasts.

Then lower. To her stomach.

Then lower still. And that was a kiss that had Gracelyn jolting. That had her nearly flying right over the edge of a climax. While she was certain that would be amazing, she didn’t want to finish things like this.

She levered herself up, not easily, and took hold of Ruston to pull him down on top of her. She wanted his body on hers. And that was what she got. She wanted him to be as mindless and ready as she was, and she got that, too, when she wrapped her hand around his erection.

Judging from the profanity he grumbled, that was the best kind of torture for him, and it caused him to hurry to get the condom on.

They were face-to-face again when he pushed inside her. Face-to-face when the thrusts turned from gentle and testing to deep and demanding. Face-to-face when those thrusts made it impossible for her to hang on any longer.

Gracelyn let him finish her. She let Ruston take her to the only place she wanted to go.

With the climax rippling through her, they were face-to-face when she kissed him and took Ruston right along with her.