Page 48 of Jacques

“Okay,” she said, her fingers curling into his shirt. “Talk.”

“Let the sheriff’s department handle all interviews with suspects,” he said, his skin on fire where her fingernails scraped across his chest.

“I like to know what they’re saying. I want answers.” She sighed and nodded. “But I get it and agree. To prosecute, they have to follow all the rules I’m not completely familiar with. The thought of someone getting away with a horrific crime based on a court error makes me nuts. I need to trust that not everyone is a criminal looking to exploit loopholes or technical errors in the investigation.” She rested her forehead against his chest. “I just want him off the streets where he can’t hurt anyone else.”

Jacques’s hands curled around the narrow curve of her waist. “I want that, too.” And he wanted her. With her forehead pressed to his chest, his hands around her waist, he waited for her to push away, maybe even go into panic mode because a man held her.

Jacques didn’t want to be pushed away. He wanted to embrace this incredible woman who’d proven she could hold her own in a barroom fight against a man twice her size. Even after taking a man down, she was no less beautiful or feminine. In fact, she was like a Valkyrie, standing triumphant and sexy as hell.

Jacques wanted, more than anything, to kiss Danny. He held back because she’d suffered one of the most devastating crimes a woman could endure, and her attacker was still out there.

He raised a hand to lift her chin. “We’re going to find him, and he’s going to jail where he can’t hurt you or anyone else.”

She stared up into his eyes. “I hope you’re right.” Her lips curved in a hint of a smile. “Thank you for helping me.” Danny rose onto her tiptoes and brushed her lips across his. In so doing, her breasts pressed against his chest, and her hips grazed his.

Jacques froze, calling on every ounce of restraint he could muster to keep from pulling her into a crushing embrace and kissing her so deeply he’d forget where he ended and she began.

Danny dropped down, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have done that. You didn’t ask for it, and I shouldn’t have kissed you without your consent.”

“Would you do it again if I gave you my consent?” he said, his voice low, heated.

Her tongue swept across her lips. “Only if you want me to.”

“If I ask for your consent to kiss you, would you give it to me?” He held his breath, afraid of her response.

She nodded and whispered, “Yes.”

Jacques closed his eyes briefly, drew in a deep, steadying breath and opened them again. “You have my permission to kiss me anytime, any day, anywhere you like and as much as you like.”

Danny’s green eyes flared and darkened. “And I want you to kiss me, more than I want to take my next breath.” She laughed. “I can’t even catch my breath at the thought.” Then she curled her hand behind his neck and drew him down to her. “Please,” she whispered against his mouth, “kiss me.”

“When I do,” he said, also barely able to draw a breath, “I want to hold you close.”

Her gaze shifted from his eyes to his lips. “I want that, too.”

“Are you sure?” He raised a hand to smooth over her hair. “You won’t feel threatened and panic?”

“I’m willing to take the risk,” she said softly. “Are you?”

Jacques couldn’t hold back a moment longer. He wrapped an arm around her and gently pulled her body flush against his. With his other hand, he cupped the back of her head, weaving his fingers into her still-damp hair, and tilted her head back. “If at any point you want this to end, just tell me.”

“Mmmm. Let’s stop talking and just do it,” she said in a sexy, gravelly tone. She pulled him down as she rose to meet his lips.

Jacques held back when he wanted to plunder her mouth, to claim it as his and kiss her thoroughly. He tentatively traced her lips with his tongue, giving her the choice to deepen the contact.

When she opened to him, she met his tongue with hers, greeting him hungrily.

His arms tightened around her, his control slipping as he took her mouth and everything she offered.

Everything around him disappeared. It was just him and Danny, alone in a haze of longing and need that had silently built inside him for the past year as he’d watched her from a distance.

His phone chirped twice, vibrating in his pocket, eventually dragging him back to reality.

Her lips left his, and her hands lowered to his chest as she drew in ragged breaths. “That was your phone.”

When he reached into his pocket for the device, she stepped back, out of his arms, taking the warmth of her body away.

Jacques wanted to throw his phone out the window for interrupting what had been an incredible, mind-blowing kiss.