Page 36 of Ice Cold Liar (Ice Breaker Cold Case #14)

Chapter Nineteen

The house was quiet. Naomi peeked out of her bedroom window. The wreckage had been removed. No more agents rushing around. No more tow trucks. No more crazed gang members looking to watch her burn.

The sun had risen. A new day.

She’d slept some, on and off, even with the voices and the chaos from outside. Each time she drifted to sleep, though, she’d dreamed of fire. The fire that had taken her parents. The fire at her house.

A fire here, at the safe house. Only she hadn’t escaped the flames.

They’d been closing in on her. And then…

Eb had been there.

Hero. Villain. Maybe some combination of both. But what she knew with certainty was that when she needed him, he was there for her. Even in her dreams.

He’d helped get Henry back for her.

He’d fought the fire at her house with her.

He’d stood by her when the seizure had her shaking and unable to speak.

And he’d gone out to face a dozen bikers for her.

If he really hated her, he wouldn’t do any of those things. As for her own feelings, hate didn’t enter the equation when she thought of him. Something else did. Maybe it was time to stop hiding from the way she felt. To do something about it. To be honest with him.

Naomi threw on fresh clothes and her sneakers, and she hurried from the room. She darted into the hallway and pounded on the door right across from hers.

“Come in,” a gruff voice ordered.

She swung open the door and barreled inside. “We need to talk because I still want you and you still want— Hunter! ”

“Yeah, hey.” Hunter sat up in bed, with the sheets tangled around his waist. A long, jagged line of scarred flesh ran from his collarbone down to those sheets.

I recognize the raised, angry scar from a fire when I see one.

Because over the years, she’d volunteered with plenty of burn victims, and Naomi knew when she was staring at the damage flames could do to skin.

“Eyes up here, sunshine,” he chided.

Her eyes whipped up to meet his.

“I think you knocked on the wrong door.” A long exhale from him. “Pity. But I’m guessing you’re looking for Eb?”

“What happened to you, Hunter?”

“A nightmare. Same thing that happens to plenty of us. Lucky for me, my buddy Declan was there to help haul me out. He was also there to push me when I didn’t want to keep living.”

Declan Flynn. “I’ve read news stories about him.” Only those stories weren’t always the most positive. In fact, some of the stories just straight up said Declan Flynn was mob royalty.

And Eb’s sister had married that man?

“Ah, but you of all people know not to believe everything you read.” Hunter sawed his hand over the stubble on his jaw. “Declan is not the boogeyman. If he was, I’d be dead. Marley wouldn’t have married him. And Eb wouldn’t now have an extremely useful, exceedingly rich brother-in-law.”

She gripped the doorknob far too tightly. “Where is Eb?”

“He slept downstairs. I think he was trying to put some distance between himself and temptation.”

Naomi swallowed.

“Temptation…AKA, you.”

Yeah, she’d gotten that part. But should she be insulted or flattered that Eb had put so much space between them? Insulted seemed to be the way she was leaning.

“If he’s not sprawled on the couch, check the garage.” A lazy suggestion from Hunter. “The man is a fanatic about his car.”

She’d noticed that personality quirk, too. “Sorry to bother you.” Backing up, she began to pull the door closed.

“Naomi.”

She paused.

“He has a heart, too, you know. Try not to break it.” With that, Hunter lowered back into the bed. “Beauty sleep.” A dramatic sigh. “Why won’t anyone ever let me get it?”

Quietly, she closed the door. Then she hurried down the stairs.

Checked the couch. No sleeping Eb. So she went toward the back of the house because she knew the Impala had been moved to the garage.

Henry brushed against her, then headed for his food bowl.

While he munched, she slipped out the back door.

Shaking her head, Naomi noticed that there was a doggie door cut in the bottom of that wood.

It truly was a safe house that came with all the essentials.

The sky burned with reds and golds as she made her way to the garage. Her sneakers made no sound on the damp grass. Damp from dew, not rain. Birds sang in the distance, and the creaks and calls of insects teased her ears.

The garage door was open, so she slipped inside. Eb was at work, bent beneath the hood of his Impala. He wore jeans. Sneakers. A white t-shirt that stretched across the powerful muscles of his back as he leaned forward.

“You’re up early.”

His words made her jump because she hadn’t realized that he even knew she was there. Even as her heart raced, Naomi managed to say, “Ah, so are you.”

He eased from beneath the hood. Tossed a screwdriver into a tool box.

Carefully lowered the hood of the Impala and turned toward her.

Black streaks slid across the front of his shirt.

His hair was tousled, and his eyes were as intense as ever.

The thick stubble on his jaw just made him look rougher.

More dangerous. Way sexier. “Couldn’t sleep well,” he admitted.

“Me, too.” Low. She folded her arms over her chest.

“Every time I closed my eyes, I’d see that stupid gang coming for you.”

Her breath caught. “I kept dreaming about fire.”

His expression hardened as Eb took a step toward her. “I’m not ever gonna let you burn, Naomi.”

“I believe you.”

He gave a little jerk at those words. “Naomi. ”

She walked toward him. Her steps were probably too fast. Clumsy. Grace had never been her strong suit. Her hands fell back to her sides. “Sorry if I messed up your car.”

“Don’t apologize to me. You saved my ass.”

Her fingers trailed over the closed hood as she stopped before Eb. “Thought you could handle things on your own. That you didn’t need saving.”

“You didn’t know that when you came riding to the rescue. You came because you were worried about me.”

Yes. She swallowed. “I dreamed of fire, and I dreamed of you. When the fire was closing in, you were there.”

“I won’t leave you to the fire. Not ever.” His voice had deepened. Gone so much rougher.

His voice scraped along her body and soul in all of the very best ways. “Like I said, I believe you.”

His jaw hardened even more. “Means something different to you…”

“What?” What was he talking about? What was different to her?

“Nothing.” Eb cleared his throat. “I need to shower. I’m sure we’ll be having a hell of a day.” He started to walk by her.

But her hand flew out, and she caught his wrist. “Don’t leave.

” Low. Careful. She moved closer to him.

Pressed a kiss to his shoulder, right through the white t-shirt.

“I need…” But her words trailed off. Her fingers slid along his inner wrist. When he touched her there, sensation fired through her blood.

Awareness. Attraction. He probably didn’t feel the same surge, though, so she should just stop stroking his inner wrist.

She let him go.

But in a flash, his hands had closed around her waist. “What do you need?”

Her lips pressed together.

“I will give you anything you need. Just tell me, Naomi. Tell me. ”

Was this a mistake? Did it matter? Especially when the mistake felt so good?

“Naomi.”

Fine. But there would be no going back. “I need you.”

He lifted her up. Turned her and put her down on the Impala’s hood. Her eyes widened as her hands flew out and curled around his shoulders. “Eb?”

“Hunter is inside the house.”

She nodded but didn’t mention her accidental trip to his bedroom. No need to, ah, spoil the mood.

“No one can see us in here. And I want to give you exactly what you need.”

His hands flew down her body. He tossed away her shoes. Then those fast fingers of his moved to her waist. He unhooked the jeans, lowered the zipper, and started hauling those jeans off her legs… while she was on the hood of his car. “Eb!”

“Trust me?”

Her breath sawed out. “The car is supposed to be so important to you. Aren’t you afraid I’ll dent it or something this way?”

“You already did dent it—when you ran it into the biker.”

Oh, right. Her bad.

“And I can think of nothing better than fucking you right here, right now.”

That did sound promising, she had to admit.

“But I think I’m supposed to grovel.” He’d tossed her jeans and her panties to the floor of the garage. “So I should do that first.” He hauled her to the edge of the hood. Spread her legs wide. “Can’t say I have a lot of experience at groveling, so you’ll have to tell me if I do it right.”

“What?”

His fingers raked over her clit. “Sorry I lied to you.” His thumb stroked her. He dipped two fingers into her. “Sorry I didn’t tell you the truth from the very beginning.” His thumb stroked harder. Swirled and he?—

He bent and put his mouth on her.

She fell back against the hood, her legs widening more as he licked her and teased her with his tongue and his lips even as he worked those long, broad fingers into her again and again and again?—

“Sorry I made you doubt me.” A hard plunge of his fingers. His breath blew over her clit. “Sorry I made you cry.” He licked her. A long, slow lick. Then his tongue was dipping into her core.

“Eb!”

“Sorry I wasn’t on your fucking side…” She could feel each word. “From the beginning.” He teased her. Plucked her clit. Strummed with a frantic rhythm. “But I am now. I am now. ” His mouth took her again.

Her eyes squeezed shut. Her body tensed and shuddered, and an orgasm was close, she knew it was close. She knew?—