“Took a few shots,” Jack said. “Couple of stab wounds. No big deal.”
“You’re in a dangerous business.”
“Life is a dangerous business.” He leaned down to kiss me, and then slid his hand under the sheet. “You know what’s really dangerous?”
“Wolves?” I teased.
“You.”
He clearly didn’t want to talk. He wanted to touch. Everywhere. Until he brought me to the brink again and again and again.
Twenty
Later, languid and completely spent, we lay in the dark listening to the steady hum of traffic.
“Your chest makes a good pillow,” I said, snuggling up beside him.
Jack idly traced the curve of my hip. “I aim to please.”
“I wasn’t pleased when I came here,” I said. “I was the opposite of pleased. My parents think I’m out of control and were trying to convince me that marriage would solve all my problems. They still don’t see me or respect me as a person.”
“I see you,” Jack said.
I leaned up to kiss his jaw. “I was so angry with them. Angry at a world that makes it so difficult to get ahead. Angry for Bella, who is being forced into a marriage when she loves someone else. Angry that our heist won’t happen once everyone finds out that we’d be stealing from the mob. Angry with you for keeping that information from us.”
His fingers moved to my shoulder, a cool caress over my heated skin. “If you were so angry at me, why did you come?”
“I don’t know. One minute I was storming out of the house and the next I found myself here. Something about you calms the chaos inside me.”
“Something about you is distracting me from what I’m here to do.”
“It’s not just about the necklace, is it?” I pushed myself up to study his face. “There’s something more.”
Jack pressed a kiss to my forehead. “A man has to have his secrets.”
“You’re all secrets,” I said. “Everyone has opened up over the last few weeks. They’ve shared things about their past, their hopes for the future, personal details . . .”
“I just shared something very personal with you.” Jack lifted a suggestive brow.
“I’m not the only person you’ve shared it with,” I said, thinking of the black card with Clare written in gold script.
“Are you jealous?” He eased me up, so I was lying flat on top of him and well positioned to see his self-satisfied smirk.
Yes. No. I didn’t care. I’d had hookups before and enjoyed them for what they were. A fleeting moment of pleasure. I’d always been happy to walk away the next day and not look back. So why did the idea of never seeing Jack again make me ache inside?
“Of course not,” I said. “This was fun, but I have absolutely no expectations. You have your man-of-mystery life and I have my ordinary-woman life, and since the heist is likely over, we’ll go our separate ways and—”
“You’re giving up?” His hand slid down my body, cupping my ass. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“I don’t have a choice. I can’t do the heist alone, and who’s going to want to stay involved once they hear the truth?”
“You might be surprised.” He lifted my hand and pressed a kiss to my knuckles, making my insides curl with longing. “I don’t think your friends will abandon you so quickly.”
“They’re not friends. They’re a heist crew. After it’s over, we’ll probably never see each other again.” My heart twisted at the thought of never hearing Emma’s crazy stories or watching Anil wrestle with Gage in the grass. Even Cristian, who I saw only occasionally at Dad’s store, made me laugh with some of his outfits and his indignant sniff when anyone mentioned the boat ride. And Jack. Would I ever see him again? I closed my eyes and tried to memorize the feel of his body beneath me, his warmth, his strength, his scent, and the sparkle in his eyes.
“I have to get everyone together to break the news,” I said. “I suppose I could give them the option.”
“Your hand is bruised.” He held it up, frowning.
“That’s what happens when you punch a Mafia boss’s son.”
“Every time I think I’ve figured you out, you serve up a new set of skills,” he said. “You are hands down the most intriguing woman I have ever met. Even now I’m wondering, ‘What is she going to do next?’？”
“No one has ever wondered what I’m going to do next,” I said. “It was always ‘what are we going to do with her?’ or ‘how can we keep her quiet?’？” I told him about my childhood and how hard I struggled to be good and stay out of trouble when my brain didn’t seem to work the same as everyone else’s. I thought sideways instead of straight, was easily distracted, and my insatiable curiosity was rewarded with discipline and exasperation. I told him about the time my parents left me behind at a gas station on their way to a hockey game and how it was hours before anyone even realized I was gone.
Abandonment. My therapist had named it the first time we met, along with issues of self-worth, an inability to trust, and a fear of intimacy. Moving away from home had been a big step in helping me heal those wounds.
“I know what it’s like to feel alone,” he said, cupping my head and running his fingers gently through my hair. “To feel like you don’t fit in.”
“Things got better after I met Chloe,” I said. “She was lonely, too. Her dad left when she was young, and her mother was an alcoholic. We were paired up in gym class, and it was like finding the other half of my soul. She loves me for who I am. When I’m with her, I don’t feel the chaos. I can see the straight path.”
“That’s how I feel when I’m with you,” he murmured. And then he pushed up so quickly, I almost rolled off the bed.
“Are you ready to go again?” I was ready. I had not, in fact, stopped being ready since the moment I’d walked through the door.
“I’ve got something I want you to see,” he said, pushing off the sheet to reveal I wasn’t alone in my state of readiness. But when I reached for him, he gently moved my hand away.
“You wanted to know more about me. I’ll show you. Get dressed. We’re going on an adventure.”
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
?Jack made a call, and half an hour later, the concierge delivered a set of motorcycle leathers to his room as well as a helmet and boots, all in my size.
“Are you a secret billionaire?” I asked in the underground garage where he’d parked his Harley-Davidson Roadster, over six hundred pounds of badass black steel and chrome. “Or a spy or secret agent? Are you part of an off-the-books organization that steals necklaces and seduces candy store clerks?”
“Were you seduced?” He pulled on his helmet and buckled the strap beneath his chin.
“I will be once I feel the thrum of the motor between my thighs.” I put on the helmet and his voice faded to a dull muffle.
“I thought that had already happened.”
“Are you cracking jokes at such a serious moment?” I asked. “This is my first time.”