Less than two hours later, they walked back into Simms Pharmaceutical with warrants. Warrick Staunton seemed to be hiding a storm behind his eyes as he looked at the warrant and Jarrod couldn’t blame him.
They were about to take down his company. If Staunton and Simms Pharmaceutical were being set up, well that just sucked. If there weren’t media out front by the time they left here, Jarrod would eat his holster for breakfast. Some journalist would either pick up the details of the warrant down at the courthouse or one of Simms’ own receptionists would call it in just to grab her fifteen minutes of fame.
They took what the judge allowed them to, including several computers, records and data related to the FDA trial. This included a lot of Jonathan Simms’ material and the laptops Simms and Staunton used for work.
They arranged for Staunton and Simms to come in for questioning. As a courtesy, they were letting them wait until the following morning so they could bring criminal attorneys with them. As in-house counsel, Joe hadn’t felt he should represent them in that capacity.
Jarrod dragged his ass back to his place, not at all convinced he'd be able to sleep.
He had been in his place ten minutes when Carrie started pounding on the door. Well, pounding alternated with ringing the bell repeatedly. He knew it was her before he even looked outside.
Furious eyes greeted him when he opened the door.
“You lied.”
“Actually, I didn’t.” He swung the door shut and turned to face her, hands on hips. He wasn’t in the mood to have someone else screaming at him.
“Bullshit. That’s a technicality. We had an agreement and you know it.”
“Carrie, it was out of my hands. Believe it or not, I’m not in charge down at NHPD. We tried talking to them before the warrants, but Jonathan Simms is holding something back. He’s got some kind of information that he’s not sharing.” She tried to cut him off, but he kept on going, shaking his head. “No, Carrie. I have a job to do here and you need to let me do it. I can’t have whatever this is going on between us get in the way of my job.”
Her eyes seemed to flash even more, if that was possible. For some stupid reason he’d had fantasies when he was younger about that Xena Warrior Princess woman and how hot it would be to be with her. Xena had nothing on the woman in front of him.
“I take it this means the media has the story?” He shoved aside the lust coursing through him and focused on what she was saying. Talk about the wrong time for his body to be running rampant on him.
“It’s all over.” She held up her phone where a local headline screamed about illegal drug testing down at the local shelter.
Jarrod swore under his breath, taking the phone from her and scanning for details. “I kept everything as general as I could, but I had to make the warrant specific enough to get us in.”
She just looked at him, the hurt showing now through the anger. He wanted to reach out to her and pull her to him. To hold her.
“What is it? What is it about this, Carrie? I know these men are your friends. I know you believe in their innocence, but why are you fighting so hard?”
He saw a small tremor in her chin and her face seemed to crumble a bit. “Because if they did this, it’s my fault.”
She wouldn’t cry. He could see that in her face.
He took her hands and led her into his living room to the sofa. “Tell me what you mean.”
She sank back into the cushions and looked at him, the defeat a little heavy around her. He hated that, hated the way she looked like she’d given up. “Because I brought them into the shelter. When I first started this job, nobody believed I could do it. I wanted to prove myself. I wanted to prove everybody wrong, so I went to all my friends and my parents’ friends. I took advantage of the fact that I’d grown up wealthy. They all had money, and I convinced them to contribute.”
“That doesn’t make you responsible. Carrie, somebody is doing this at the shelter, whether it’s one of your donors or not. But you have no responsibility for that. If anyone, Dr. Coleman bears the responsibility. He obviously knew what was going on. He had to be the one administering this drug. He let them take advantage of these people, not you.”
He could see he wasn’t going to convince her. “Damn, Carrie.” He reached out and pulled her toward her him.
This was stupid. Monumentally stupid. Those were the last thoughts that flashed through his mind as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, officially ending the battle that had been raging inside himself for weeks.
Carrie tugged at his shirt, wanting it off, wanting to touch his skin. Needing to feel his skin against hers. He reached for her shirt at the same time, pulling it up and over her head. A curse escaped his lips and she smiled. She knew what he was seeing. The black lace bra she put on earlier. She hadn’t put it on thinking this would happen, but she had thought of him when she’d pulled it out of her drawer that morning. She couldn’t deny that.
He slid the thin lace cups down, freeing her breasts, and worshipping them. She never in a million years would’ve thought she’d think that about a man while they were taking each other’s clothes off, but there was no question that was what he did. His mouth and hands teased and tickled. She wanted this to last. Wanted that in a way she hadn’t ever wanted with another man.
But something told her this man didn’t do lasting. This was not a relationship man. So she would draw this moment out. This moment in time. This moment with him. He was all man and she had a feeling he’d come by these muscles through a lot of hard hours.
Jarrod wasted no time, no movement. Everything he did seemed designed to drive her arousal higher still. With swift movements he had her beneath him on the couch, stretched out as he worked his way down her chest, across her stomach to her waist.
He stopped at the button to her pants, but just as quickly had her out of those. He seemed to be everywhere at once, and he found the slick wet folds between her legs, slipping deft fingers in between them, causing her to cry out.
Carrie struggled with the button of his jeans, her fingers clumsy, wanting in. No, she wanted him in. She wanted him inside of her and she didn’t want to wait.
He seemed to have other ideas as he moved his body away from her and slid down on the couch. He pulled one of her legs around his shoulder as his mouth went to work on other spots. She sucked in a breath and bit down on her lip trying not to cry out loudly, although she didn’t know why she was trying to be quiet.
Something about it felt secret, somehow. And she supposed it was. He would probably be fired if they found out he was sleeping with her.
He closed his mouth over her clitoris and she lost the ability to think about anything other than the feelings and sensations he was bringing on. He moved her closer and closer to orgasm. Then just as easily as he seemed to do everything, he moved away from her, producing a condom and slipping it on.
And then he was inside of her. Oh Lord, it was perfect. Deep inside her again and again, leaning back so he could fit a hand between them to continue the maddening pressure on her most sensitive spot. She clawed at him trying to hold him tighter to her, wanting more. It was too much and not enough all at once. It was everything she wanted, yet she knew there would never be enough of him.
Then there was no more being quiet. The cry that escaped her wasn’t something she could have held back. She felt him tense with his orgasm, following on hers, and then he lay still on top of her as they both waited for their breathing to slow.