“I didn’t save you,” Elle assured her. “That was all you. You made the right decision, Mrs. Monroe.”
Janice glanced at Jeremy and Sandra being loaded into the backseats of police cars, but then pressed a kiss to the top of her son Brian’s head. “I hope so, Ms. McCoy. My Sandra…” Her expression was pained when she met Elle’s gaze. “What he did to her… I hope they’ll understand why she did what she did.”
Elle squeezed her hand, wishing she’d been able to help the woman and her children sooner, that she’d been able to reach out to them before their situation had come to this. “I hope so, too.”
Elle didn’t know how much time passed before she and Gabe were able to finally leave, but her head was pounding and it was all she could do to make it to where Gabe had left his Tahoe.
“I need to call Charlotte,” she told him as he handed her into the SUV. “Before she hears anything on the news.”
He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “I’ll take care of it. You look completely drained. Just rest while I drive you home.”
She nodded, her eyelids drooping as the exhaustion dragged her down. The next thing she knew, she was waking up in Gabe’s arms as he carried her into his house and down the hall to his bedroom.
“Hey there, handsome,” she drawled sleepily.
“Hey there, beautiful.” The dimpled smile he gave her was so sultry, warmth began to spread through her body, pooling in all the right womanly places and bringing her fully awake and alive.
“I seem to recall we had some plans for the evening,” she mused.
He lifted a single brow. “Oh yeah?”
She nodded. “Mmm-hmm. I believe there was a hot bubble bath involved.”
“I might be a little low on bubble bath at the old bachelor pad,” he told her, his aqua eyes growing darker as he peered down at her, “but I think I can handle the hot part.”
“Oh, honey,” she said with a grin, “I have no doubt about that…”
Gabe set her on her feet, then removed his gun, laying it on his dresser before taking off his gun belt and setting it aside. She watched him with hungry eyes as he removed the clips from his uniform buttons, placing them in a neat little pile.
The pace he was undressing at was maddeningly slow.
“Here,” she murmured, stepping closer, slipping her hands beneath his shirt and sliding it off his broad shoulders. “Let me help you with that.”
Next was his T-shirt. She untucked it and drew it over his head, tossing it aside. Then she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his bare chest, grinning at the low moan it elicited.
Then she slid her hand down between them, cupping him through his pants. “I think the bath can wait just a little while,” she said, giving him a slow grin. “Don’t you?”
*
Gabe didn’t answer. Couldn’t. His powers of speech had left him. All he knew was need—the need to be inside Elle, to lose himself in her love, to reassure himself that she was safe in his arms.
He pulled off her T-shirt, then popped the button on her jeans, slipping his hand inside and finding her already slick with desire. And at that moment, any restraint he possibly maintained left him. He captured her lips with his in a savage kiss, his fingers stroking her with demanding caresses as she moaned and arched against him.
When he felt her muscles begin to spasm, he finally broke their kiss and peered down at her, bracing her with his other arm as her release rocked her, loving the way her rapture played over her face.
“Oh God, Gabe!” she gasped, her fingers digging into his arms. “Please.”
Seconds later, they had shed the rest of their clothes and were falling onto his bed together in a blissful tangle. He joined their bodies in one rough thrust, making love to her with the same savage, life-affirming abandon. She rose to meet him, drawing him in, clutching at his back, demanding all he had to give.
When she came again, his name on her lips in a breathless gasp, he let go with a ragged cry. Then his mouth found hers in a slow, languid kiss as her hands smoothed over his skin, soothing him with the tenderness of her touch.
*
“Mind if I ask you something?” Gabe said sometime later as they lay in his bed, their arms and legs entwined, her head resting on his chest as he held her close. “Why did you go out to the Monroes’ farm on your own? Don’t take this the wrong way, but what the hell were you thinking?”
Elle explained about the call she’d received from Janice Monroe. “She needed help. Even if it was a ruse to get me out there, her cry for help was genuine at the heart of it. Would you have reacted any differently if she’d called you?”
She has a point, but still…
“It’s my job to rush in when people need help, Elle,” he reminded her. “I’m trained to handle myself.”
She sighed. “Well, I’ve decided helping women like Janice Monroe is where my heart is. I’m taking the job at the foundation.”