Page 72 of In the Pursuit of Haven
“Not without me you don’t.” Jessie readjusted us both on the couch, so that he had me pinned between him and the back cushions. “You’re not going anywhere without me again.” He kissed me, his lips both soft and demanding against mine.
This was more than a partnership. He was making me breathless. My husband was doing everything in his power to make me forget everything wrong between us, and he knew my every weakness.
I didn’t mind a bit.
I melted against him like gooey cheese, my every sense wrapped up in him, so that I was no longer thinking, just feeling. I worked my hands around him to find his shoulders. “What about you?” Somehow I got the question past his fervent lips. “You’re takingmeeverywhere you go?”
“I’ll think about it.” He proceeded to work on turning my brain into mush with more of those electrifying kisses.
Oh! He was so impossible, and he was also making it hard to retort when all I could concentrate on was the strength behind his touch.
The front door in Haven’s breakfast room creaked open. I let out a gasp, even as Jessie’s hands slid across my neck, sending butterflies through me the instant I saw the passion behind his gaze. He had every intention of reintroducing me to the man I once knew, right here, right now… if not for—for… who was here?
Hunter’s flunkies hadn’t been far from my mind ever since they’d thrown us into that crypt. Had they actually met bail already? “Jessie! Someone’s here.”
He shot up from the couch, and the very next instant, his sister was crossing the threshold into the living room, her long blonde hair bouncing in curls behind her. His shoulders relaxed. “Abby, a little warning would be helpful.”
She laughed. “I tried calling you both. It’s not my fault you didn’t pick up.” Her eyes went to me and to my hair, which—judging by her amusement—must be all over the place after Jessie had his way with it.
I sat up, trying to make myself more presentable. I was positive Jessie wasn’t supposed to tell me about his sister getting mixed up with Hunter, and so for now, I kept silent about it. “Did you come from town?” I asked her.
Abby smiled, her wicked amusement turning even more obvious. “Yeah.”
Yeah, yeah, where else would she come from? And still I was trying to gather my wits. “Has anyone said anything about… um… the cemetery?”
There was a pretty big gaping hole in the retaining wall that led to a secret tomb.
“Oh yes, yes!” Abby snapped her fingers in recognition. “I guess that storm last night brought in some nasty lightning. It struck the retaining wall holding in the cemetery from Derby Street, and so they have some repair vehicles over there right now. The city’s patching up the wall.”
My hand landed against Jessie’s leg, and he returned my disbelieving looks. “What?” I cried out. Why would the city want to erase such a find… unless someone else had gotten to it first and found a way to cover it up?
And what about the security cameras? Luther had to know something about this, but before I could figure out how to reach himwithout my cellphone, Abby stumbled over our map.
She inhaled loudly and swung around to her brother. “You found it!”
Jessie held up his hand. “You cannot tell anyone about that, not a living soul.”
Abby’s big blue eyes were wide with astonishment as she ran her hands over the leather surface. “You’ve already figured out so much,” she whispered. Her naturally hoarse voice turned even sultrier in her surprise. “You weren’t going to tell me?”
Jessie’s stormy expression hinted that was exactly his intention. I didn’t blame him.
Abby pressed her finger into the map, scanning through our notes. “The nine guardians all have to do with one of these islands?”
Well, there was my evidence that she was in on this all along. She knew all about the Shepherds.
Jessie didn’t answer her.
His sister tugged off her coat that had been concealing her crop top sweater and the orange quilted nylon crinkled as she set it aside. “So how does it go? Crabb was only friends with people who had something to do with the islands?”
“You know how you can help, Abby?” Jessie cut through her musings, “You can figure out how to get us back our cell phones.”
She burst into laughter. “How did you lose those?”
“Your new friends threw them in the cemetery before they sealed us in a tomb.”
Her cheeks flamed red and her eyes flew from me to Jessie. “First off, they’re not myfriends, and secondly, whose tomb did they throw you in?”
“Take a wild guess.”
