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hysterically, her fingers digging into his arm and began crying loudly, “You have to let me go. My father! It’s my dad! I have to go back home.”
    Jake clenched his jaw and regretted unlocking the news channels. No matter what happened with her father, whether he died or lived, he couldn’t let her go before he was out of Colorado. He shook his head, remorse twisting his handsome features as tears started falling in torrents over Leona’s cheeks.
    “Please don’t do this to me. I won’t say anything to anyone. Just let me go. I want to be with my dad, he might be dying,” she shrieked and instantly regretted saying the words herself, because her whole body was racked with gut-wrenching sobs.
    Jake shook his head again and she grabbed the front of his shirt in both hands, twisting the fabric. “You son of a bitch!” she screamed. “Don’t you have a heart? I want to go home. Let me go home!” She cried and Jake clutched her face, bending his forehead down to rest against hers.
    “I’m sorry, Leona. I’m so sorry,” he whispered and Leona cried harder, her eyes clenched shut. Jake watched her beautiful face an inch away from his and he ached to soothe her, give her whatever she wanted as long as her pain subsided. He couldn’t do anything, he was helpless. This was her pain to deal with. “Shhh,” he said, sliding his fingers through her thick luxurious hair, caressing her scalp with his fingertips. “Shhh. It’s going to be okay, sweetheart, don’t cry,” he whispered over and over.
    Leona pressed her face against his chest, pushing her cheek into the deep crater in the middle of his wide chest. She felt lonely and she wanted someone to lean on, someone to ease the terrible ache in her heart as she thought about her father lying on a surgical table, bullets pierced through his flesh.
    “I want to go, Jake, please,” she whimpered, but in her heart she knew that it wasn’t going to happen. She couldn’t blame Jake. This was a life or death situation for him, too. He couldn’t risk his life for her. “I’m so scared,” she cried out and her body was racked with shudders as she began crying again.
    Jake clutched her tightly to himself, his first normal, human touch in four years, and he wanted to savor the moment, he never wanted to let her go. His body was hardening with arousal at her nearness, despite him not even thinking about it. His cock was pulsing and pushing through the front of his pants.
    “Don’t cry,” he said against her hair and then clutched her cheeks in either palm, twisting her face upwards to face him. “Don’t cry,” he whispered again, fiercely, and his lips descended to press against hers.
     
     
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
    Jake knew the instant his lips touched hers that he should stop, but then his mind went blank and his body took over every coherent thought. Leona was shock-still in his arms, her hands resting limply on his waist and her face in his palms. Jake broke the brief contact, but in a split second his starved body urged him to take her lips in a deep, plundering kiss.
    Leona shivered, her eyes closing as the incredible feeling of his full, molded mouth moved against hers. It slid back and forth, tasting the contours of her lips, and then his tongue pushed its way into her mouth.
    Leona moaned and her hands clutched at his shirt, tightening into fists as her lips began moving instinctively. She parted her mouth and slanted her head to receive his kiss. Her innocent surrender to his mouth’s insistent pressure tore a low grunt from his throat and his mouth slid fiercely over hers as he deepened the kiss.
    His insistent mouth was almost rough on her full, pink lips, his hands clutching her face. His eyes parted slightly and her face was so close, her long eyelashes falling over her cheekbones as she savored the kiss. Jake’s tanned hands were a stark contrast against her dark, ebony skin, and he slid his fingers back and forth over her cheeks, closing his