Jonny's Redemption (Gemini Group Book 7) Read online

  Yeah, that was when Jonny’s life had taken a nosedive and nothing had ever been the same.

  “Jonny?”

  “Why are you here?” Jonny repeated.

  He wasn’t going to admit he didn’t need to open his eyes to know it was her standing next to him. He’d never cop to the way his body came alive when he sensed she was near.

  Jonny just knew it like she was a part of him.

  “I didn’t like the way we left things,” she said timidly.

  That was new.

  Bobby was not timid, she was bold and outspoken. She didn’t take shit from anyone. Most especially not from Jonny. It was one of the many things he loved about her. Bobby was a pixie of a woman. A small little thing with a big attitude.

  Hearing the nervous tenor made him right his head and open his eyes. Immediately he wished he hadn’t. Her blonde hair was longer than she’d worn it when he first met her. The bob had grown out and the tips now brushed below her shoulders. Short or longer, Jonny didn’t care, but the sight of it always made him want to run his fingers through it. Fist it and use the locks to hold her steady as he kissed her. But it wasn’t her hair that had him on edge, it was her shorts. Her short-shorts that showed off a hell of a lot of tanned, toned leg. She was too short to have long legs, but what they lacked in length they made up for in shape. The woman had perfect legs and Jonny had spent a good number of hours imagining what they’d feel like wrapped around his hips.

  He hadn’t gone past his perusal of her shorts when she sighed and Jonny’s gaze lifted to meet hers.

  That was okay. He didn’t need to take in her midriff and chest to know Bobby’s hips flared nicely before her waist dipped in, only to have her breasts swell. Bobby didn’t often bare cleavage but when she did it was impressive and sexy as all hell.

  She was a pretty package. But, like Bobby, Jonny was a sucker for eyes. And hers were stunning.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t’ve—”

  “Shouldn’t have what?” he snapped. “Driven out here?”

  Her shoulders went stiff and those beautiful, sparkling hazel eyes of hers narrowed.

  “No, Jonny,” she spat in the same tone Jonny had used. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given a shit you came out here to brood and whatever the hell else you’re doing out here all by yourself.”

  “Brood?”

  “Would you prefer pout?”

  That got Jonny to his feet. The wooden chair legs scraped on the newly refinished deck boards as he stood.

  “I’m not fucking pouting.”

  “You’re not? It sure looks like you are.”

  There she was—Roberta Layne in all her glory. Well, not all of it, she still had on her clothes. But this was the Bobby Jonny knew. The spitfire who said whatever popped into her head without remorse or regard.

  “So you drove two fucking hours to tell me I’m pouting?”

  “No, you ass. I drove two hours because I was worried about you sitting out here beating yourself up about things that are not your fault. That last case—”

  “Don’t.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. You did everything you could. So did Nixon and the team. You knew you had the right guy. Hell, Jonny, you spent your days off following him. And when that pregnant girl—”

  “Ayla,” Jonny ground out.

  “Ayla,” Bobby softly repeated. “You did everything you could to help her. I know it’s not cool to blame the victim, especially a pregnant teenager, but she wasn’t supposed to contact Cory. She did that, Jonny, not you.”

  Cory Saddler.

  The man was now rotting in jail, but not before he violated six young girls. One of them pregnant with his child, one of them dead. Six lives changed irrevocably, their families left in shambles. All of it happening in Jonny’s town on Jonny’s watch.

  It didn’t matter that for forty-five days, Jonny had followed Cory when he wasn’t on shift. He’d been studious in making sure he kept tabs on the man’s whereabouts. He’d worked with Nixon and the rest of the guys at Gemini Group and had gathered enough evidence for an arrest. But the State’s Attorney wanted more. Wanted an airtight case. The asshole wouldn’t hear of issuing a warrant without the guarantee of a conviction. So Jonny set out to get more dirt on Saddler.

  Jonny thought he’d have a little more time. Ayla had been keeping her head down, doing what her parents had asked, and not telling anyone she was pregnant. Until she was done listening and she contacted that sick fuck who fed her a bunch of bullshit about loving her and wanting their baby. So when he asked to meet her, she’d snuck out and gone to him. Jonny had been at the hospital with his friends. His buddy Jameson’s wife had gone into premature labor. So when Ayla had snuck out to meet up with Saddler, Jonny hadn’t been watching.

  And a pregnant girl who’d already been victimized had been beaten up. After that, Ayla’s family packed up and moved out of Kent County and he couldn’t blame them. Jonny had no idea where they moved, what happened to them, what happened to the baby. All he knew was Ayla’s face was still busted up when she fled.

  “He never should’ve been on the streets.”

  “I agree with you. But that wasn’t up to you, Jonny. And you’re not the only one pissed the SA dropped the ball. All the guys are feeling it. Chasin is so pissed he’s sent dozens of scathing letters to Annapolis lawmakers about the SA. There’s nothing more any of you could’ve done.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “You quit,” Bobby accused and Jonny flinched at the turn of conversation.

  He had quit his job because he couldn’t stomach another minute of the bullshit. He couldn’t do his job when his hands were tied behind his back and he was gagged. He couldn’t protect his community when the powers that be were working against him.

  You quit because you’re a failure.

  Christ, Jonny would do anything to make the voices in his head shut the hell up. They were right, all of them—he was a failure. He was an idiot, jackass, coward, who’d failed his own family.

  He couldn’t even think of the night his brother had murdered his father without wanting to puke. Time had done nothing to lessen the knot in his chest. Time had not dimmed the memory. He could recall every second with crystal clarity. Right down to the look of horror on his niece’s face when she witnessed her father killing her grandfather.

  Her father, Jonny’s brother.

  If the day his father cheated on his mother had set the fire that would burn down his life, the day Doug came to live with them was the accelerant. His presence had fueled the flames until they engulfed everyone.

  “I wasn’t a good cop.”

  “You ain’t right.” Oh, hell. Bobby was slipping into the drawl she’d artfully hidden. “You was a damn good cop and you know it.”

  Something else about Bobby when she was pissed and gearing up to have a snit—her lips barely opened enough to let the words slip past, and her cheeks seemed to do the talking.

  “No, Bobby, I don’t know that.”

  “Now you’re tryin’ to piss down my back and tell me it’s rainin’.”

  “Woman, I don’t know what the hell that means,” Jonny returned.

  “It means you’re lyin’.”

  Jonny was done.

  He didn’t want to have this conversation with the guys which meant he really didn’t want to have it with Bobby.

  “Go home, Bobby.”

  “No.”

  It would’ve been comical the way Bobby crossed her arms over her chest and did her best tough-guy glare if her stubbornness wasn’t something he liked so much.

  “Tell me, honey, did you come all this way to try to fix me?”

  He was being a dick and he knew it. It was on the tip of his tongue to apologize when Bobby’s arms uncrossed, both her hands hit her hips, and her glare turned into a deep scowl.

  “Ain’t no one can fix you but you, Jonathan.”

  “Go home.”

  “No. I’m not leaving you out here all by yourself.” Bo
bby had lost some of the twang as her stubbornness set in. “You’re not answering your phone, you’re not returning texts. Everyone’s gettin’ antsy. You should be happy I’m the one that came out and not Nix.”

  Good goddamn, the woman was maddening.

  “I’m not answering because I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

  “Too damn bad,” she returned.

  Jonny took a step closer and was assaulted by the smell of peaches and vanilla. From the first time he’d caught the scent, he’d wanted that fruity, fresh perfume on his sheets. He wanted it left behind by Bobby after he left her in his bed hot, sweaty, and satisfied. He wanted it there so the next time he crawled in he’d be surrounded by her.

  Bobby needed to leave. She needed to turn her fine ass around and high-tail it far away from him. The control he’d kept on a tight leash was slipping. There was only so much temptation a man could take when the one thing he wanted more than anything kept luring him closer.

  “Straight up, Bobby, you’re not safe in this house with me.”

  “Please, you’d never hurt me.”

  That was a taunt if Jonny ever heard one. A big red flag being waved in front of a bull. Bobby wouldn’t be getting the horns but she’d be getting something just as hard and dangerous.

  “You sure about that?” Jonny asked, taking another step closer.

  “Positive.”

  “Turn around and leave, baby.”

  “Or what?”

  Bobby’s chin jutted out in defiance, her shoulders snapped back ready for battle, her cheeks flushed pink with frustration.

  Her last stand.

  Cute.

  “Or we wouldn’t make it to the bedroom before I finally fuck you.” Bobby’s eyes widened but other than that she didn’t move. “Last chance, baby, walk away.”

  She didn’t turn and run like she should’ve. No, not Bobby. She stood her ground like a temptress issuing a dare.

  “Bobby,” Jonny growled in warning.

  “All talk,” she muttered and shook her head.

  Fuck it.

  What the hell are you waiting for, asshole? She’s standing right there, everything you ever wanted. Take her, idiot.

  4

  I shouldn’t have awakened the beast but I was done with the stupid dance. The game we’d been playing. If it took a bout of rough, hot sex to break through, so be it. It wasn’t like that wasn’t what I wanted. And his threat that we wouldn’t make it to a bed? Hot.

  Jonny Spencer could take me anyplace, anytime, and I’d be happy.

  I should’ve been happy because the man had finally snapped. He was stalking toward me with a wild glint in his icy eyes. But fear crept in. For all the teasing I’d shoveled Charleigh’s way about her being a born-again-virgin, I was no better. Thankfully, no one had ever questioned my lack of male company or bothered to turn the tables and ask me how long it had been.

  It was a little sad and a whole lot pathetic my dry spell beat Charleigh’s eight-year run. Pretty damn sad for a healthy woman in her thirties. But working in the music industry, even a lowly assistant to fabulous Vivi Rush, was a libido killer once I’d learned why men propositioned me.

  Which brought me to why I was quaking in my flip-flops. Jonny looked like he was ready to pounce and I didn’t have the first clue what to do with him. Well, I had a clue, I just didn’t have the skills to carry out all the crazy fantasies I conjured up. Alone in my dark bedroom, I could pretend I was good enough for Jonny, talented and sexy. But in the light of day faced with the reality of the beast, I wasn’t so sure.

  “You should run,” he warned.

  “I’m not gonna run.”

  I was nothing if not stubborn.

  Jonny didn’t halt his progress when he made it to me. He didn’t give me a chance to catch my breath when his arms wrapped around me, and his hands landed on my butt before he lifted me off my feet. Running on nothing more than instinct, my legs wrapped around his waist. I locked my ankles, and my flip-flops fell off my feet.

  He shoved his face in my neck and inhaled. “Peaches.”

  I didn’t tell him it was my lotion. I didn’t need to. I was obsessed with hand lotion; he had to have seen me applying it hundreds of times since I’d met him. But I couldn’t deny the tingle of satisfaction that ghosted up my spine at the reverence in his voice.

  Jonny had the screen door open and he walked through without lifting his head. He made a sharp right and the next thing I knew my bare feet were on tile and Jonny was working the button of my shorts. Then they were pooled around my ankles and I heard Jonny’s swift intake of oxygen. I hadn’t adjusted to my new circumstances when Jonny went to his knees in front of me. One hand gripped my ass, the other lifted my shirt, exposing a few inches of skin. The top of his brown hair was all I could see but I didn’t need sight, not when I could feel his lips on my stomach. Feather-light, he brushed them from one hip to the other. Slow, so slow my body hummed for more.

  “Jonny,” I whispered and his head tipped back.

  Our gazes locked and while his eyes were no less wild, the desire I saw cemented every feeling I’d had for Jonny. I was not mixing up sex and love. This wasn’t about love, not really. It was about Jonny wanting me—just me. Not Vivi Rush’s assistant. Not because I could get him backstage passes, an autograph, hook him up with a meeting with a label exec. Not the scummy girl from the holler who everyone thought was loose because it was a given a Layne girl would put out. Not because he thought being nice to me would get me to sneak him a bottle from my daddy’s still.

  The desire I saw was for me.

  And I loved he wanted me.

  “You should’ve run, baby,” he said.

  I lost his eyes when he dipped his chin but it was arguable which was better—looking into his blue eyes full of lust or feeling his tongue as it grazed the skin just above my panties. It was a toss-up—one I’d never have the answer to because there was no right answer. Both were fantastic.

  “I’m not running.”

  “No, Bobby, you’re not. I gave you a chance. You stayed, now you’re mine.”

  I didn’t ask what he meant by mine. Not because I wasn’t curious; I was. But when his fingers hooked the delicate lace at my hips, pulling the fabric until it started to rip, my breath caught in my throat.

  Was he going to…yep, he was. The black lace fell away leaving me bare and Jonny didn’t delay. One of his hands pushed me backward and my back hit the wall. He dipped his head at the same time he hooked my thigh, and the next thing I knew my leg was over his shoulder and his mouth was on me.

  “Jonny,” I breathed as his tongue speared my pussy.

  And that was the last thing I said.

  I panted, I moaned, I cried out, but not one coherent word came from me. I was lost in a dizzying haze of magnificence. Jonny wasn’t eating me—he was devouring me. He tongue-fucked me, licked, sucked, and nibbled. This went on a long time, not because he wasn’t good at what he was doing but every time my orgasm was near breaking, it was as if he sensed it and backed off, only to start all over again. Over and over. Up and down. Close, too far away.

  “Jonny.”

  My hands left his shoulders where I’d been holding onto him for dear life and went into his hair. Taking two large handfuls, I held his mouth where I needed it and rocked my hips. The growl that escaped my throat sounded nothing like me. I’d been so close to the edge so many times that when my orgasm finally broke I saw flashes of light and the pleasure was so overwhelming it was near painful.

  With shocking speed Jonny was on his feet, my shirt was gone, and I was up with my legs wrapped around him. I felt him working the button of his pants, then he slammed me down on his awaiting cock.

  “Fucking, goddamn,” Jonny groaned and I had to agree.

  I circled my arms around his neck and arched my back as pleasure rippled through me. There wasn’t a part of me that didn’t feel full.

  Jonny was thick, so thick he stretched me until I ached. So long t
hat each time he drove in I squeaked.

  And my heart felt too big in my chest, like there wasn’t enough room for it to beat.

  Full.

  I was finally full.

  Full of love, joy, happiness.

  “Should’ve been a better man,” Jonny grunted. “But it’s too late now. I’m not letting you go.”

  “’Kay.”

  If I meant to say more, the words died a quick death. All thoughts dissolved until all that was left was Jonny, his cock, and his mouth that was now latched onto my nipple. The lace of my bra scraped my sensitive skin, adding to the insanely hot scene.

  I’d barely come down from one orgasm and another was building. My thighs squeezed tighter, my head felt too heavy on my shoulders, my muscles burned, my ears roared.

  I wanted him closer, deeper. I wanted him to climb high and jump with me.

  But all I said was, “More.”

  “Not yet, baby.”

  “Please,” I whimpered.

  “Good Christ, you’re so fucking tight,” Jonny groaned against my breast.

  I was hanging on the edge of something good, something huge. I was reaching for it, but Jonny wasn’t giving it to me. I needed it, I would die without it. My problem was I didn’t know what “it” was.

  “Jon—”

  “Shh, Bobby, trust me.”

  Jonny’s hand went between my legs. His fingers grazed our connection and he lifted his head. I watched as he closed his eyes. He slowed his thrusts and I wanted to sob in frustration.

  “Please don’t stop,” I begged.

  “No fuckin’ way am I stopping.”

  But he didn’t power back up. Long, slow drives that were making me crazy, keeping me dangling so close.

  “Please,” I sobbed.

  Too far gone, too caught in my need, all I could do was whimper when his thumb circled my clit, moan when he slammed into me, harder and faster than he had been. So hard my head cracked against the wall. So fast my climax overwhelmed me and left me shouting nonsensical words.

  All I could do was hold on as astounding ecstasy overtook my body.

  It was unfortunate I was in the midst of blinding euphoria, gasping for air, shouting my release because I missed Jonny’s. I vaguely, in a distant, floaty kind of way heard him call out my name. I felt his body tense and shudder, but I couldn’t see his face through the shards of pleasure.