Hannah and the Hitman

Chapter 21

21

HANNAH

Holy shit. HOLY SHIT.

“You don’t know me,” I whispered, looking at him through my lashes. It was almost as if he was too bright, too potent to look at straight on.

His palms were warm, his touch gentle. So different than his dominant touch earlier in the stacks. No static zap this time, but there was still something here, something extra potent between us. I hadn’t felt it when I first met Kevin… or ever. I hadn’t felt this way about anyone.

“I want to,” he murmured. Someone came in to pick up a to-go order, but Jack didn’t even look that way. “Do you want to know me?”

I felt really, really shy. Maybe cautious. My heart had been hurt this year in so many ways. I lost my health. I lost the business I dreamed of. I lost a boyfriend. I was getting all those things back, but in a different way than I expected. The change was scary, but all of a sudden it became hopeful and exciting. I nodded, because it was exactly what I wanted. So much. I did want to know him. It wasn’t because he gave me my first man-given orgasm either. And he’d done it like on my list! In the stacks at work! I’d settle into how naughty and amazing that was later.

“That’s my good girl.” His gaze was warm. A smile teased at his full lips. Good girl? I should yank off my panties and give them to him now. Oh yeah, I already had. “Then it’s settled.”

I couldn’t help but smile back. He made it seem so simple. “Just like that? We met on a plane, Jack. This is crazy.”

“Your family is crazy,” he grumbled, glancing away for a moment, probably remembering the horrific dinner. But then his dark gaze was holding mine again. “You can’t tell me you don’t feel whatever this is between us.”

“There’s something here,” I agreed.

He nodded and sighed, as if relieved that I was right there with him in this.

I was Jack’s girl. I was his good girl. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it seemed getting fingered was part of it. I could still feel them deep inside me. I probably would for days because he hadn’t been gentle, as if he couldn’t control himself. Inside, I was grinning and jumping up and down. Tossing confetti.

I’d never felt this way with a guy before. I wasn’t a nun, but I also wasn’t Paige either. I knew of her conquests from high school and since it had been almost ten years, I had no doubt her list was much longer now.

Good thing Jack had no interest in being on it .

For once, talking about the tumor and the treatment of it hadn’t made me want to climb in bed and throw my blanket over my head. Brittany was well aware that had been my coping strategy, losing myself in a panicked depression nothing but a ‘ the procedure went great, and you should make a full recovery’ from the doctor would cure.

Even then, it had taken me some time to grasp what had happened and even more time to realize not every headache meant the tumor was back. I still hadn’t gotten my thoughts worked through completely on the whole thing and still had irrational–and sometimes rational–fear.

Jack’s earnestness was heartwarming. He knew the truth and wasn’t running. I felt… whole. Or like I wasn’t alone. Brittany had been incredible, but she’d never looked at me the way Jack was now. Brittany was my BFF and Jack was my… lover?

I’d felt his hard dick when he’d pinned me against the shelves and found my g-spot like a pro. Hmm, I shouldn’t think about how he was a pro at it. The petty jealousy I felt when Paige wanted to lick him like an ice cream cone was coming back.

He had a past. Only, I didn’t know what it was.

Jack’s cell chimed. He pulled it from his jacket pocket and read the screen.

His face morphed from the gruff but sweet Jack I was coming to know to a serious, hard facade. I saw it the night before in my parents’ bathroom.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

His eyes met mine as he shoved the cell away. He stood, tugged me to my feet. “We have to go.”

I blinked as he threw some bills on the table, even though he’d already paid when we ordered, and tugged me out of the restaurant. We hadn’t finished our pizza and wasting the remainder by not taking it to-go.

“What’s going on?” I asked, letting him lead me.

He squeezed my fingers. “Nothing, I was done with my pizza, weren’t you?”

I was almost running to keep up. “Jack, you’re hurting my hand.”

That had him stopping, turning to face me and wrapping an arm around my waist. He scanned the sidewalk, even the road and to the other side. It was a busy time of day since restaurants dotted these few blocks with outdoor seating, taking advantage of the good weather.

“Shit,” he murmured. “I’m sorry, gorgeous.”

“What’s going on?”

He gritted his teeth, then said, “Something came up with work.”

“Again?”

He didn’t answer because he seemed too in his head. “I’m going to take you back to your car.”

I blinked at him. “What? You’re leaving? After what we just talked about?” Had he changed his mind about sticking after all? What had the message been about? A wife asking when he’d be home for dinner? God, had I even asked if he was married?

He nodded, his mind clearly elsewhere, then finally looked at me. “Sorry. I told you my work was hectic.”

“Are you married?” I asked bluntly.

He stared at me as if I’d spoken in tongues. “What? No.”

“What is it that you do then? Do you own a restaurant or something? ”

“Something,” he muttered, not meeting my eyes.

He was giving me whiplash. Maybe he was lactose intolerant. We did have extra cheese on the pizza and maybe there wasn’t cheese on the burgers the night before, but he’d had a lot of baked beans. I might be his girl, but if he had intestinal issues, that wasn’t something discussed until much, much later in a relationship.

Relationship.

Was that what this was? I had no idea, but if he needed a bathroom and some privacy, he could say that. I was the last person to hold any body issues against someone.

I was so confused. He’d made me come on his fingers, then called me his girl. Now he was escorting me home.

“Jack, is it really work that’s making you run off?”

He nodded. “Yes. Definitely yes. Nothing else would keep me away. Dinner. Tomorrow night?”

“I think we can say dinner is a bad time for you.”

He sighed, knowing I was right. “Lunch then. Even better. I’ll see you sooner.”

I shook my head. “I have to work.”

He bit out a swear word as if tearing off a piece of beef jerky. “Dinner. I promise I won’t bail.”

I studied him, the taut lines of his body. The way he was distracted by whatever was going on with his work, but still solely focused on me. Not anyone on the sidewalk who had to veer around us. Or the car whose radio was blasting driving by.

“I’m… I’m still your girl?” I asked, sounding ridiculously vulnerable. Brittany would whack me up the side of my head for that question. I needed to know. I didn’t want to be strung along, especially by my emotions .

He wrapped his other arm around me and pulled me in for a hug. I felt his steely length pressing into my belly, then his lips on the top of my head.

“Hell, yes,” he murmured. I felt his cell vibrate against my boob, where it was caught between us in his jacket pocket. He needed to go, and I was stopping him.

I tipped my chin up. “Okay to dinner, but what if I come to you?”

The only time I met him was here in Coal Springs. It wasn’t fair he kept coming up here to see me. Plus, I wanted a peek into his life in Denver.

He stroked my hair back from my face, his face softening, as if only for me. “You’ll come down?”

I nodded. I would come down out of the mountains for him.

A dark, predatory gleam took over. “Then bring a bag. You’ll stay the night. Oh, and unblock my number, gorgeous.”