Free Breaking Bad by Karin Tabke Page A

hard again. “I have your flash drive. I know you’re hungry, and I know that as much as you want me, you’ll control yourself while we recharge and finish going over your case notes.”
    Stevie couldn’t believe his audacity. No one had a bigger set of balls than Jackson Thornton. “Keep the flash drive, I’m not hungry, and contrary to your overinflated ego, I don’t want you again.”
     
     
    Just saying the words conjured up what had just happened and the sense of power it had given her. She had been the one chained, but it was Jack who had lost control. Despite that, hell if she were going to order pizza and get all cozy with him in her house after he just barged in and ravaged her. A girl had her pride and she was drawing the line right here, right now.
    “Let’s put our mutual lust aside for the moment. Time is not on our side regarding our case. I prefer to be briefed by you, then by your notes—”
    “I really don’t care what you prefer at the moment, Jack. You had no right coming into my house and—”
    “And what, Stevie?” he asked his tone low and demanding. “Taking from you what you wanted to give me but were too damn stubborn to offer?”
    “You can’t just show up seven years after walking out on me without even a ‘see ya later’ and expect me to drop for you!”
    “Is that what this is about?”
    “Part of it, yes.”
    “I said I was sorry.”
    “Sorry doesn’t cut it with me.”
    “I should have called. I wanted to—”
    “But you didn’t. Why?”
    Jamming his fingers through his hair, Jack loudly exhaled, but looked pointedly at her. “I had my phone turned off when I was with you that night, Stevie. When I woke up at dawn, you were passed out across my chest. I needed to hit the john. I slipped out of bed and something told me to check my phone. I did. I had a dozen frantic calls from my sister and just as many texts. My niece had been abducted by her father. I took off. I had every intention of calling you.”
    “Why didn’t you?”
    He stared at her for a hard long minute then said, “Because by the time I tracked that asshole down and retrieved my niece, two days had passed. Then Quantico called and said they had a last-minute cancellation for the academy and if I wanted the spot I needed to be in Virginia within the next ten hours. I moved and was on the next flight east. I hit the ground running.”
    “A simple text, Jack.”
    He nodded. “You’re right and in hindsight, I realize I took the coward’s way out. I figured if you thought I was a schmuck it would get me off the hook.”
    “Off what hook?”
    He swiped his hand across his face. “I saw the way you looked at me. I knew you wanted more from me than I could give you.”
    Fury balled up like a fist in her chest. She punched him hard in the gut. He took it without flinching. “Well, I guess you shouldn’t have led me the fuck on and then fucked me!” He was her first and her only. “Do you have any idea how humiliating it was to wake up after my first time with a man to find him gone without a trace? I kept wondering what I had done wrong. How I had fucked up being fucked!”
    “Oh, God no, Stevie, you were amazing. I—Christ—I could have stayed in bed with you forever.” His eyes softened. “I didn’t know I was your first. If I had, I never would have touched you.”
    Stevie threw her hands up and stomped across the mats, putting distance between them. Otherwise, she’d geld him.
    “Do you know how perfectly egotistical you sound right now?” She began pacing the edge of the mats. “For the last seven years I have beaten myself up for scaring you off, only to find out you thought that if you reached out, I’d try to sink my hooks into you. Well, guess what, Jack? You’re a coward. I don’t want a cowardly man. And I certainly don’t want a man who doesn’t want me, so consider yourself – Off. The. Hook!”
    If a man could look sheepish, angry, and horny all at the same time that