Tooth And Nailed Part 11

Her reward was a string of curses in Gaelic and a sharp swat on the a.s.s. "Watch it, Rowan. I just might take that as an invitation to do some biting of my own."

Rowan opened her mouth to retort then squealed again as she went flying through the air, landing with an "Oomph" on her back in the middle of his wide bed. Panting, she pushed herself up on her elbows. Whatever clever retort she'd been planning died on her tongue as he started shucking his jeans with lightning speed. The feral gleam in his eyes, coupled with the gleaming fangs bared by his grin had her gulping in a devastating combination of fear and arousal.

"No biting," she managed to choke out as he strode naked toward the bed. She thought of how she must look, sprawled on the mattress with her elbows under her, pus.h.i.+ng her b.r.e.a.s.t.s high. Her legs were sprawled and as she watched, he snagged an ankle in each brawny hand. He yanked, pulling her flat and dragging her forward so that the s.h.i.+rt she wore slid up past her hips.

He licked his lips, his eyes leaving hers to take in the smooth lips of her c.u.n.t, still swollen and sticky from their earlier lovemaking. "If I'm not going to bite," he rumbled, "I'll just have to be content with licking."

Rowan's head fell back on a gasp as he snaked his tongue through her sensitive flesh in one long swipe that ended with a quick flick on her c.l.i.t. She reached down to weave her fingers through his hair, holding him in place. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all," she managed then her eyes rolled back in her head and she gave herself up to the singular pleasure of being devoured by Jack Donnelly.

Chapter Nine.

Two weeks later, she was pacing the flat and wondering just how she could ever have thought being with him would be anything but nerve-rackingly, hideously annoying.

The first few days hadn't been too bad, she mused. She'd been worried about her dad, yes. But she knew Jack's team was the very best and she knew he loved her father almost as much as she did. He'd do anything in his power to keep him safe so she'd allowed herself to quit fretting about him. It was hard not being able to contact him in any way but she accepted the necessity of it.

Then there was the s.e.x. The s.e.x, she mused as she paced into the kitchen and back out again, was nothing short of amazing. The man was incredibly inventive in bed. Of course when a guy had been around as long as he had, he picked up a few skills here and there. And while Rowan didn't really care to dwell on just how he'd obtained his panache in the bedroom, she could certainly appreciate the result. She still wasn't quite sure how he'd managed to convince her to let him use a banana as an impromptu s.e.x toy but the results had been worth it. Even was.h.i.+ng the sheets after hadn't dampened the glow of the experience.

She'd even managed to get some work done. Working on her lesson plans for the year had been frustrating and depressing at the same time. Even though whoever they'd gotten to subst.i.tute teach for her had undoubtedly made up their own, she wanted to be ready when she got back to work. She missed her cla.s.sroom and the kids in it more than she thought she would, and the very real possibility she wouldn't have a job to go back to was a major downer. But she'd gotten it all done and it had kept her mind occupied for a while.

The problem now was she had nothing to do. Nothing except pace, watch televisiona"if she never saw another football match in her entire life, it would be too soona"and f.u.c.k. The f.u.c.king was fine, but she couldn't do it twenty-four hours a day. Jack might be able to go all night but being a mere mortal, she needed a little recovery time. And even though she got out occasionally during the day with Deacon, he had his own life to live and couldn't be available all the time. Which left several hours in the day with nothing to fill them except sheer, mind-numbing boredom.

On her third tour through the apartment, Jack looked up from the laptop. "Rowan, you're making me dizzy. Something bothering you?"

When she only hissed at him, he raised an eyebrow and shut down the computer. "I'd say that's a yes."

"There's nothing to do!" She threw her hands up in the air. "I'm bored out of my mind sitting around this apartment."

"I can think of something we could do." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Ugh, I'm so not f.u.c.king you right now."

He blinked. "Well, ouch."

"Oh don't give me that wounded look. You know very well you're Senor Studly in the sacka"I come screaming every time, you are a G.o.d among men." She paced to the window. "But no matter how many o.r.g.a.s.ms I have, I'm still stuck in this apartment. A prisoner with no one but you and Deacon for company. And it sucks."

He grimaced. "Don't say sucks to a vampire."

"Fine, it blows then."

Jack sighed and set aside the laptop. "Rowan, you knew it would be like this. You knew you wouldn't be able to contact anyone."

"Yeah, well. That doesn't make it blow any less." She turned from the window, pleading in her eyes. "Couldn't we just go out for an afternoon? A few hours? Honestly, Jack, I'm not trying to be difficult. But I've got a major case of cabin fever going on here and I'm afraid I'm going to start throwing things if I don't get out for a while."

"You've been out. We've been to the pub for supper, Deacon took you out for a spot of shopping the other day."

She rolled her eyes. "Grocery shopping isn't shopping. And it's been three days since I've been any farther than the front door."

He rose to join her at the window. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and set his chin on her head. They watched each other in the reflection of the window. It was overcast, the sky a dreary gray that only added to her melancholy mood.

"I'm sorry I haven't seen how unhappy you are," he murmured.

She sighed. "I don't mean to be a pain in the a.s.s. Really. I know you're doing your best to keep me safe while the FBI and the team back in L.A. work to find Job and put him away. But I hate this kind of confinement. I hated it when I was a kid, when I had bodyguards following me everywhere. It was horrible, Jack, and I swore I'd never let my life be controlled like that again."

"I know, love. But I'd rather you be safe and unhappy than put yourself at risk."

She spun in his arms, desperate pleading on her face. "I know. But surely there's something we can do, something that won't put me in too much danger. I've got to get out for a while, for an afternoon. A few hours. Please, Jack. I don't know how much more of this I can take."

Jack looked down at Rowan. He hated to see her as unhappy as she was, as unhappy as she'd been these last two weeks. Being cooped up with very limited and supervised outdoor activity didn't suit her, and the strain was beginning to show. He sighed. "Rowan, I promised your father I'd keep you safe."

"I know." She lowered her eyes. "I know you did and I understand. Still sucks though."

"Yes, it does." He frowned when she moved out of his arms, walking across the apartment to the kitchen. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She turned and gave him a wan smile. "I'll just fix something for a snack."

"If you're hungry, we can go out and get something to eat. Get out of the apartment for a while."

"Nah, I'm sick of the pub. I'm not hungry for a full meal, anyway." She shrugged and opened the fridge.

Jack sighed, dragging a hand through his hair in agitation. He moved out of earshot from the kitchen and pulled out his cell phone. He punched in a number, watching the slump of Rowan's shoulders as she pulled plates out of the cupboard.

"Deacon, it's Jack. Yeah, I'm going to need your help with something, mate."

Making a snack had taken all of five minutes and she'd excused herself to take a shower as soon as she'd cleaned the kitchen. She worked lather into her hair, feeling sorry for herself. She didn't want to be, but she couldn't seem to shake the melancholy that had settled over her in the last few days. It made her feel like a petulant child to be broody and whiney when all Jack was doing was making sure she was safe.

But she couldn't help it. It was a knee-jerk reaction, one left over from a childhood full of bodyguards, restrictions and "necessary precautions" that made going on a school fieldtrip more complicated than a military operation in the Middle East.

She could resent Jacka"in fact, had resented him in the beginning. But it was hard to stay mad at a guy who was just following his loyalties. His devotion to her father was driving him in this and she could only be grateful her father had such a fierce and loyal friend. Also, multiple o.r.g.a.s.ms tended to mellow a girl. Besides, she was getting to like him. He was funny, entertaining and not as big a hard-a.s.s as she'd always thought him to be. Although he really did hate the nicknames she'd been using ever since she discovered his blood-sucker status. She grinned as shampoo dripped into her eyes. That was really fun.

But all that aside, she was going stir-crazy. Maybe she'd get Deacon to find a bookstore for her today. There was bound to be something available to read that would hold her interest for more than a few minutes. Maybe she could find the latest JD Robb.

She was deep in thought, making a mental list of thing to have Deacon look for at the bookstore, when the shower curtain was suddenly wrenched aside. She spun, choking back the scream on her lips when she saw it was Jack.

"Christ on a crutch, Jack!" She shoved soapy hair out of her eyes. "You scared the s.h.i.+t out of me. What's the matter with you?"

"You want to get out of the apartment?"

Rowan blinked. "Huh?"

Jack grinned at her. "I said, do you want to get out of the apartment?"

"Yes!" She frantically wiped more soap out of her eyes. "Are you kidding? We're going out? And not to the pub?"

Jack pulled a towel off the warming rack. "Here. Dry off and get dressed. Deacon and I will be in the living room."

She stood there, water streaming over her face, the towel in her hand getting soaked, for a full thirty seconds after the bathroom door closed behind him. Then she scrambled, rinsing the remaining shampoo out of her hair as fast as the water pressure would allow. She ditched the towel he'd handed her for one that was still dry and was in her clothes and headed for the living room in record time.

She skidded to a stop in the doorway, panting for breath. Deacon and Jack turned to look at her, both men fighting back grins at her wet hair and hastily put together appearance.

She looked expectantly from one to the other. "Well? Where're we going? What're we going to do? When do we leave?"

Deacon chuckled. "In a rush, love?"

Rowan grinned. "d.a.m.n right. So what's the deal?"

Jack extended a hand to her and she automatically crossed the room to take it. "First of all," he said as he began redoing the b.u.t.tons on her s.h.i.+rt she'd missed in her haste, "we need to go over the rules."

She rolled her eyes, impatient. "I know the rules, Jack. Stick with you and or Deacon, scream like h.e.l.l if anyone tries to s.n.a.t.c.h me and try to blend in."

He finished fixing her blouse. "Good. Now, we're going to be in a large crowd so it's extra important you stick with me. Deacon will be there as backup but I don't plan on letting you out of my sight the entire time we're there. But just in case we do get separated, we'll have a fixed meeting point. If anything happens, you'll go there, call me on the cell and wait." He tugged her chin up to look into her eyes. "You'll wait for me, Rowan."

"Yes, Jack. I'll wait for you. Cross my heart, hope to never have another multiple o.r.g.a.s.m again. Just tell me where we're going!"

He fought back a grin at her enthusiasm. "We're going to a concert."

Rowan clasped her hands together. "Great. Let's go."

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Jack managed to get a hand on her elbow before she swung out the door. "Don't you want to know who, where?"

"As long as it's not the two of you, in this apartment, I don't care." She grabbed his restraining hand and tugged. "Let's go."

Jack rolled his eyes at Deacon. "Should be an interesting afternoon."

The younger man grinned. "This was your idea, mate."

"Less talking, more walking." To ensure they both complied, she reached out and snagged Deacon's belt in her other hand and yanked them both out the door.

Chapter Ten.

"Slane Castle?" Rowan turned to gape at Jack. "We're going to a concert at Slane Castle?"

He frowned at her. "You don't like Slane Castle?"

"Don't be a jacka.s.s," she murmured absently, completely absorbed in the ma.s.sive structure in front of them. "This is so cool." She turned in a slow circle. "You know, a friend of mine who works in advertising got to do a shoot once when the Red Hot Chili Peppers did a concert here. Well, she didn't get to do the shoot," she amended. "It was the art department. I guess their tour manager liked one of their photographers, had him take some still shots of the concert and she showed them to me. It looked amazing. But it sure as h.e.l.l didn't do it justice."

Jack looked around, taking in the castle with her. "I guess it is pretty striking." He turned to find her staring at him. "What?"

"You have no idea how cool this is, do you?" She held up a hand when he started to speak. "No, how could you? You grew up with this stuff. It's old hat to you."

Jack s.h.i.+fted, vaguely uncomfortable with the idea he'd become jaded. "I grew up with rioting in the streets and an unstable government."

She sighed, eyeing him sadly. "That's my point, Jack. Even with all the trouble, you had thisa"" she spread her arms to encompa.s.s the enormity of the castle courtyard "a"around you."

"Yeah, well." He shrugged. "It's all a matter of perspective, I guess. I think L.A. is pretty neat with its museums and entertainment and all the different people who live there."

"Right. Perspective." She looked around. "When did we lose Deacon?"

"When you were gawking at the portcullis. He's taking up post on the other side of the stage." He held up a two-way radio. "We'll stay in touch with this."

Rowan rolled her eyes. "Take the poker out of your a.s.s, Jack, and try to have a little fun."

He rolled his eyes at her and shoved her forward with a hand on her back. "Shut up, Rowan, and hand the nice man your ticket."

She grinned at the fresh-faced freckled youth taking tickets at the turnstile. "Thanks."

Jack shook his head in sympathy when the boy, red to the roots of his hair, had to be nudged twice to take the tickets from the couple behind them. "Do you have to do that?" he demanded, guiding her into the crowd.

"Do what?" Her head was whipping around, trying to take in everything at once.

"Smile at impressionable young men. It gives them ideas." He watched her whirl around for another minute then clamped his hand on her head to hold it still. "Calm down, will you? You'll break your neck and save Job the trouble."

"Sorry." She beamed up at him. "It's just so cool. I'm outside. Around people other than you and Deacon."

"That sound you hear is my ego deflating."

She laughed. "You'll get over it."

He opened his mouth to respond but the crowd suddenly erupted in a roar, cutting him off. He turned, keeping Rowan tucked firmly to his side. The stage, which had gone dark after the last warm-up act had finished, was suddenly lit up again and the emcee was striding toward the center mic.

"Are they starting?" She practically shouted to be heard over the screaming throng.

He nodded, pulling her close to talk directly into her ear. "Stick with me."

Rowan rolled her eyes. "I will, I will." She bounced on her toes, trying to get a better view of the stage. She craned her neck then dropped back to her heels in frustration. She was just too short and the crowd was too thick.

She turned to look at Jack. "Kneel."

If she hadn't been so focused, she'd probably have enjoyed his look of pure astonishment more. "Excuse me?"

She poked him in the ribs. "Kneel down, I want to get on your shoulders." When he continued to gape at her, she flung a hand toward the stage. "I can't see! I want to sit on your shoulders."

He finally gathered his wits enough to shake his head at her. "No, too dangerous. If anyone here is on Job's payroll, it'll make you too easy a target."

She put on her most pitiful, pleading face. "Please? n.o.body knows we're here and I can't see!"