Free Jaq’s Harp by Ella Drake Page B

let Jaq keep her job.” Bovine gave Jaq a wink.
    The medics cleaned and healed their cuts and checked Harp’s chest. His ribs weren’t broken but he had some nasty bruises they treated with fast-mend. He declined the heavy-duty pain relievers and promised he’d come by for a checkup tomorrow. Jaq snorted as they walked away from the medics. Harp wouldn’t go to the med-clinic unless he was unconscious, bleeding, or ordered to do it.
    Jaq shook all over. Acting on autopilot, she led the way inside the apartment building. She ran hot and cold. Her mind flipped through all the events of the past year in a blur. The past few hours had turned everything up over end.
    They kept their hands off each other in the elevator. Harp didn’t touch her as she opened the door, but once shut in with him, in their home, he crushed her to him and took her mouth. The feel of him against her immediately soothed the panic she’d been holding at bay.
    She ripped her mouth away from his. Cheeks awash with color, eyes sparkling deep brown, he smiled tentatively, chest heaving as he gave her the most unsure look she’d ever seen on his face.
    For good reason.
    Her chest tightened. “No. You can’t just come in here like nothing ever happened.”
    “Will you give me a chance?” His plea came out husky and defeated.
    She turned her back on him and started down the hall, but a hollowness pitted her stomach and the pain came, an ache that only he could cure. She looked over her shoulder, smiled, knowing he’d follow.
    She shrugged out of her clothes and threw them into the laundry chute. Her raggedy jacket would probably fall apart after a few more cleansing cycles.
    The air around her changed, filled with heated spice. With a whirl on the cold tile in her bare feet, she faced him. His eyes were afire, roaming her nakedness, as real as a touch. Shivers broke out all over her. She groaned.
    He reached for her sensitive breasts but she stepped back.
    “Talk,” she commanded while she still had a voice. Her throat tightened as she turned from his haggard face, the already healing cuts, the bruises fading at his temple, the treated slash on his arm where they’d cut off his sleeve. She knew she’d take him back, foolish or not, but she’d hear his reasons first.
    She flipped on the shower and ran a hand under the stream to test the temperature.
    He slowly unbuttoned his shirt. “A year ago, I knew where we were headed. Even if you’d agreed to marry me, it was too fast for you. I’d turned down many pleas to go back in deep cover. I’d gotten the report on Giant Corp weeks before but turned down the assignment. They hadn’t found anyone else to send, but I didn’t care. You didn’t want me in deep, so I wouldn’t go. But I couldn’t concentrate on the simplest jobs. I started making mistakes so I could hurry home to you. I doubted my ability as an agent. That’s all I know how to be, Jaq. An agent.”
    He carefully slid his shirt off, gently moving it over his injuries. The black and blue contusions over his rib cage made her suck in a breath. She nearly reached out to him, but he unbuttoned his jeans and lowered the zipper.
    She froze, entranced by his bruised but honed body. Her mouth watered when he parted his jeans to free his undeniable erection. He didn’t look at her, but watched his hands as he pushed down his pants and continued to explain. Her body pleaded with her to rub against him, but she listened to his words. What he said now mattered more than the craving making her legs tremble.
    “Then, one night, I found those three words on the edge of my tongue and I froze. I knew if I said them, I couldn’t take them back. I knew if I said them, you wouldn’t say them back, and I knew it’d hurt like hell. So I ran.” His eyes glistened in the brightly lit bathroom, trained on her, pinning her to the spot.
    “You thought I’d hurt you?”
    “You would’ve. You hadn’t been able to open to me, like I had to you. You