Page 20 of Outlaw Ridge: Jesse
“You know I’m coming in with you,” Jesse said, ending the silence that’d settled between them.
Yes, she had figured he would. He’d pretty much taken charge after they’d done their reports and Hallie had ordered them to go home. Jesse had led her out to his truck, helped her inside it, and driven the eight or so blocks to her house.
“I know you’re coming in,” she said, forcing herself to get out of the truck.
She didn’t have the energy to stonewall any other help or support Jesse might want to dole out. In fact, she welcomed it. It felt like a vise in her chest to even consider stepping into that dark house alone.
Jesse got out with her, and she didn’t miss the way his gaze swept around the yard and the neighborhood. She did some glancing, too. Looking for their attacker, who was still at large.
They walked to her porch, the quiet of the night pressing in around them, broken only by the chirp of crickets and katydids. The quiet was a stark contrast to the chaos of the past few hours. The shooting. Scrambling for their lives.
The explosions.
Followed by the chaos that followed an attack on two police officers. They’d had to be checked out by the EMTs, and once they’d been given the medical all clear, they’d had a mountain of reports to do at the station.
During those reports, they’d found out that Isabel was safe, that she had simply chosen not to answer her phone when Jesse had called her back. That’d been one of their big questions solved, but so many others remained.
While at the station, they’d gone over pretty much everything there was to go over—including Reardon and Belinda’s insistence that they hadn’t been the ones to attack them. And while they didn’t exactly have alibis, there was no proof against them either so Hallie had had no choice but to release them.
Lauren wished she had a crystal ball to know if Reardon and his wife were indeed guilty, but since she didn’t, she had to hope they were telling the truth. And keep a close watch in case they weren’t. She believed in innocence until proven guilty, but she didn’t intend to trust them either.
“How good is your security system?” Jesse asked her as she used her phone to unlock the door and pause the system so they could go in without setting it off.
“Good,” she replied. “The best,” she amended. As a survivor of an abduction, she made sure she had the equipment to alert her if someone broke in. “Strike Force installed it.”
Jesse made a sound of approval as they stepped into the cool of the A/C. She immediately closed the door, locked it, reset her security, and turned on some lights. Then, she stood there a moment just to gather her breath.
He did some breath gathering, too. “Hell of a night,” he muttered.
“Yeah.”
She made the mistake of looking at him. Really looking at him. Their gazes collided, and she saw the hurricane of emotions in his eyes. Fatigue. Yes, it was there. Frustration. Yes, that as well. But as they stood there, something else began to stir.
Something familiar.
Something that had made her accept that date with Jesse all those years ago.
The heat came, and it was as if there’d been no time lapse between back then and now. She felt the attraction slide through her, overriding everything, including exhaustion and common sense.
Without breaking the eye contact, Jesse reached out, hooked his arm around her, and pulled her to him. They landed body to body. Breath to breath. Heat to heat.
And Lauren didn’t resist.
She let herself sink into him, just for a moment, her cheek against the warmth of his neck, the steady beat of his heart grounding her in a way she desperately needed.
His grip tightened slightly before he pulled back. His eyes searched hers, something unreadable flickering across his face.
She swallowed hard. “Jesse…”
But she didn’t know what she was going to say. Didn’t know if she wanted to stop this or let it happen. All she knew was that the heat between them was real.
Jesse’s hands were still on her waist, his thumbs brushing light circles over her hips, sending shivers through her. His gazeflicked to her lips, and for a moment, Lauren forgot how to breathe.
Then, he kissed her.
It wasn’t hesitant or careful. It was slow, deep, and deliberate, like he’d been holding onto this for as long as she had. Maybe longer.
Lauren melted into him, her fingers fisting in his shirt as she kissed him back, taking in the taste of him, the solid heat of his body against hers. She felt dozens of wonderful things. All good. All things she hadn’t been sure she would ever feel. Yet, it was all here. Right in this kiss.
