Broken Justice (Justice Brothers) by Suzanne Halliday Page B

pulse race.
    While her heart thumped wildly, Lacey cooed on, telling him random details of her life and at one point, desperate for words, even reading the community messages she found flashing on the local cable channel. She told him all about recycling dates and an arts festival coming to town. She read telephone numbers for animal control and recited the names of everyone in the school district’s administration, just to keep him still. Whenever she paused he moaned and became restless. It struck her someplace deep inside that the sound of her voice was bringing him comfort from his fevered demons.
    Time passed as his temperature continued to rage but Lacey never stopped her soft words and gentle touches. At some point he snuggled deep into her neck. She could feel his hot breath against her skin while he gently cupped her breast in the hand that had flung across her. She had to bite back a groan of her own when his sturdy fingers wrapped around the soft mound, causing her nipple to harden and ache from the contact. To add to her already off-the-chart physical awareness of him, when he shifted his thigh over hers she could feel the unmistakable presence of the part of him that made him so masculine; the part she had been ogling and curious about earlier.
    She adjusted her hips to make the contact more direct and flushed with embarrassment at the realization that she was enjoying their tangled limbs. Biting back a string of graphic swear words that she would never dream of uttering out loud, Lacey kept up the running dialogue that was soothing the dark knight.
    They stayed like that for long hours with Lacey wide-awake and conscious of his every move. At one point in his delirium, he mumbled what sounded like military talk as he fought off the nightmares. She caught words like ambush and IED and shuddered knowing he’d been through some sort of soldier’s hell. She thought that explained a lot.
    Trying to ease his anguish, she stroked the muscled arm crossing her chest and much to her horror, allowed her leg to move along his thigh while his manhood pressed intimately against her female core. He seemed to like that and nestled deeper into her, relaxing and murmuring hushed sounds that she couldn’t make out. She thought she heard him mutter “ponytail,” and went completely still.
    When he shimmied slightly causing his thigh to rub sensuously between her legs, Lacey didn’t even try to bite back the moan of awareness and full body shudder that rolled through her. He was killing her with a flash of fire she’d never experienced before. That he was unaware of what he was doing brought pangs of regret to her confused mind.
    Seconds later she distinctly heard, “Mmmm, Ponytail. Been waiting for you.” Her world shuddered to a screeching halt. Was he talking about her? Fevers didn’t lie and couldn’t play mind games. Was he dreaming about her? A girl with a shaky past and no future who he’d only met this morning?
    Leaning into him she whispered, “I’m here, Cameron. You’re with me and everything is gonna be alright.” His answering groan and the heavy, relaxing sigh that followed sliced through her composure like a hot knife cutting through soft butter. Lacey was undone. She never, ever allowed anyone to get close so she didn’t understand what was happening. How could she, who rarely relaxed or felt safe, suddenly feel as though she’d found a place that was hers and hers alone; wrapped up in an embrace with a man she didn’t really know?
    Left alone with her thoughts, there was nothing to do but wait. Wait and see where this strange encounter led. Dawn had long since passed when she felt his fever finally break. Waves of relief flooded through her now that the crisis had passed. Satisfied that she’d done all she could, Lacey slipped from the bed, pulled on his old sweatshirt once again, and collapsed in a thankful heap on the sofa before eventually drifting off into a deep sleep.

    The all-too familiar