Chapter 28 - Replaced

Stunned.

Angry.

No, not angry. Angry was too soft a word… furious. Furious. So furious.

So Fucking Furious!

And hurt. Like her very soul had been ripped out of her body and trampled over for good measure.

Hurt.

So damned hurt that she couldn't stop the tears from spilling out of her eyes as she sat in her car and glanced up at Mac's darkened apartment. It was late, extremely late - 2am to be exact but, Jordan couldn't find the will to slip the key in the ignition and just drive away. And so she sat in her car for over two hours sobbing uncontrollably wishing… no… praying for something she knew she was losing.

Losing, yes… because she hadn't fully lost him yet. Had she?

It wasn't her intention to be in Mac's apartment when the pair stumbled in, the Marine wrapped around Harm like a cheap suit. She certainly didn't plan to have to slink into the shadows, press herself against the rear wall and...watch. And watch. And watch.

Oh yes, she watched all of it, the way Harm held Mac's hands above her head. They way Mac's leg wrapped over his thigh. It was dark but the glow from the streetlights cast enough ambient light that she could see the figures moving. Perhaps it was the hour or so of traipsing around Mac's apartment in the dark that had improved her night vision. Whatever the case, she had seen them. All of it.

All. Of. It.

From the jacket draped off of one of Harm's shoulders, to his hand caressing her thigh moving upward to… to…

Entranced she couldn't pull her eyes away because it was never...ever like that with her. Oh yes, they had a good time in bed, he could please her like no man had but...it wasn't like that. Harm would never let control snap that way, he was never enraptured by that level of passion. That kink of having her against the wall certainly never happened. It was always on a bed, him on top and she below.

Vanilla. Good. Not boring but not...that. He never held her down, he never touched her with intensity and maybe a little reverence.

There was protection… safety… all of which clearly went out the window with that whore Marine. He'd taken her so… so… savagely and Mac let him which equally terrified and excited Jordan. She found herself hoping he would hurt the Marine enough so that she would protest and it would stop. He didn't. She liked it - urged him to continue without so much as a sliver of latex between them.

Lord to even hold a tenth of that power over Harm, to have him lose control so much that he'd asked her to stop him… She hoped it would end there and the Marine would see how completely wrong that tryst had been.

No… no...no!

Jordan punctuated each thought by hammering her fist into the steering wheel. It wouldn't end there at the back of Mac's door - the assault on her senses would continue because Harm carried Mac into her bedroom, left the door open and she could hear everything. From the sounds of the mattress protesting against their combined weight, the reverberation of cloth - Mac's dress - ripping. The whore had the audacity to laugh at the sound, beg him to continue - screamed Harm's name over and over.

And then… and then...Oh God, he'd said it… that profession of love in a voice so sure, so sincere her heart broke by its timbre. He wasn't exhausted as he'd claimed to be during their own nocturnal interludes when he would nod off only minutes after he'd come. Harm was panting, talking, laughing with Mac.

They were speaking too low for Jordan to formulate what all the conversation had been about or maybe her mind just drowned them out completely unable to take more of this torment. Eventually, she heard the shower running, a sign that she needed to head out as fast as the night would carry her.

"I love you, Mac."

Even in the early morning light his voice echoed in her ears, taunting. Causing that ache to kick itself off once again. She swallowed back a sob and glared up at the window of apartment 201.

"How could you?" But then, she knew… she predicted it, the fact that Harm would be hers until the whore Marine decided she wanted him. Perhaps it had been her fault to plant that seed in Sarah MacKenzie's feeble mind? She was letting a lesser woman win, a woman who, from Harm's own account was an alcoholic with a shady past.

"No." She would expose Mac for all that she was, she would find a way to destroy her career and show Harm what a charlatan he'd taken to bed. Harm was far too good for Mac and even if he never wound up in her arms again, Jordan would make sure he and the Marine would part ways for good.

With a renewed strength, she brushed away the last tears, steeled her spine and drove off. She would regroup and the Marine would never know what hit her.

"Mac?" His hand reached out to her side of the bed finding it empty and cold. He frowned and called her name once again. Light filtered through an improperly closed curtain casting a soft glow about the room. She wasn't in the bathroom, she wasn't in the room and he was about to toss his legs over the side of the bed when Mac walked in with a tray loaded with breakfast food items. She opened the curtain, making his eyes squint and cheerfully she set the food on the center of the bed. It was loaded with breakfast items, croissants, fruits, eggs, bacon, coffee and two glasses of orange juice.

"Good morning.." Mac's voice was so cheery it was infectious and he found himself grinning when she hopped into bed next to him. "You were dead to the World, I was starving." So she quietly slipped out of bed, went to the market in the corner and picked up some items for breakfast. She covered the gamut in foods.

"Isn't the guy supposed to make you breakfast?"

She shook her head, snagging a piece of bacon and happily chewing on the salty delicacy. "Nope. We're partners. Fifty-Fifty. And if I waited any longer for you I'd be dinner time and you'd have a pissed off Marine on your hands.."

"There is that. What time is it?"

"Almost noon." She said over the brim of her coffee cup watching his eyes widen. "Hey I only got up about an hour and a half ago myself. Guess we wore each other out." She blushed at the memory of last night and took a deep breath. Damn they were good together, so so good together.

"It was pretty amazing… Are you okay?"

Mac pinched a strawberry and brought it to his mouth. "I'm a little sore but, pleasantly so." He was well endowed the same had happened the first time they slept together. A pleasant soreness between her thighs and that tingling at the thought of having Harm inside her again. "I like having you wake up in my bed."

"I like waking up in your bed. Think I can wake up in your bed tomorrow too?" He watched her over the brim of the coffee cup, hiding a smile as Mac leaned against the headboard and pretended to think, at length about his request.

"I'll take it under advisement but it's leaning towards a yes."

"Ugh." Harm said suddenly with a heavy sigh. "We need to head to my place at some point. No sea bag." He honestly, didn't believe she would let him stay. The whole idea was to create a fairytale date for her and then go home.

Mac dipped a finger into her orange juice and then brought it up to his lips, coating them. "You don't need clothes, flyboy." The tip of her tongue ran across the seam of his lips, licking off the sweet and tart taste of the juice.

"I don't?"

"No."

Harm swallowed hard, suddenly finding it very hard to breath or concentrate or anything else really. He may have been hungry but the moment her tongue met his lips that craving switched to something else. Enviously he watched as she merely grabbed a croissant and proceeded to devour the chocolatey goodness not even batting an eye at how aroused he certainly was. "Eat up, Marine. I think you're gonna need your strength."

A sly grin spread across her lips and that smoldering chocolate amber gaze met his. "I was hoping we'd make up for lost time."

"You're insatiable."

"Only with you."

Harm lay across her sofa, his head propped up against the armrest and an arm draped over Mac who lay on top of him. Her head was on his chest and a soft throw covered them. He was dozing off, a feeling of contentment and warmth blanketing the both of them until he heard Mac's voice asking the oddest of questions. "Did you move my gun by any chance?"

Gun? "What gun?"

She looked up to find only one of his eyes open and Harm not fully awake. "You know that pistol I keep behind the armoire?" Mac had taken to hiding weapons at various corners of the apartment, a quirk she'd picked up after a friend at boot had been attacked by her former boyfriend and killed Some would say she was a little paranoid but, having to live with watching her father abuse her mother had wired her differently. She took great care when she stepped out of any building, fisting her eyes between her middle and ring finger to use as a weapon if needed. Perhaps the one thing she disliked about the military was that she couldn't carry her pistol while at headquarters. She had one but it sat locked away inside a safe under the passenger seat of her Corvette. Ever since her altercation with Dalton and Farrow, it made her feel safer.

"It's there just not where it's supposed to be."

Harm knew exactly where she kept it and even razzed her about such a severe need for safety. "Maybe we hit the armoire last night without realizing?"

Mac bit her lip and tried to retrace where they had walked coming up blank. She's been too enraptured too into him to think of much else. "Yeah that's probably it." She still wasn't certain and even last night, for a split second, the hair in the back of her neck stood up. The feeling of not being alone passed fleetingly because Harm's lips on her own stopped all rational thought. She smiled at the memory and sighed happily snuggling against his chest until the shrill of her phone made her shift off of him with a groan.

"Don't answer it."

She rolled her eyes at him and swatted at his hand that was trying to pull her back down over him. "What if it's work?"

"This is not a time to worry about duty, Mac." She rolled her eyes again as she noted his eyes darkening when they scanned down her body to a very naked six. He sat up only to grab Mac around the waist and pull her onto his lap while she attempted to answer without giggling.

"Hello." A hand over the receiver stifled a moan, and then another and he only stopped kneading her breasts with his hand and kissing her neck because Mac breathed out a stern "Stop."

The building manager was on the other line, that much she understood and once Harm's hands moved off her body, she was able to think better. "I'm sorry, repeat that? No, I did not authorize that… What?"

"What's wrong?" Her suddenly ashened appearance worried him and even the short, paused words were terse given the woman who had been happy and laughing just a few minutes prior. Mac was definitely not happy now. In fact, she stood suddenly, her ear still pressed to the receiver when she disappeared into her bedroom and came back a few short minutes later dressed in sweats and sneakers. "Mac? What is it?"

"That was the building manager. Something about maintenance issues." She lied. The conversation had been mostly one sided but certain cue words came to the surface:

Key - Or a copy that was made without her consent.

Friend - A blond woman in Navy Blues who was "Sarah's best friend."

Sick - The woman claimed that Mac was too sick to return home from an assignment and needed to grab medication for the ailing Lt. Colonel.

Mac felt sick, the kind that made your stomach so queasy that it could only churn and churn. There was also the sudden headache that began to bang the inside of her head mercilessly. She smiled at Harm knowing he would see right through the fakeness of it. "I need to head downstairs and talk to him. Be happy you don't rent."

"Are you okay?"

She nodded as she grabbed the apartment keys. "I will be, yeah. Let me sort this out and then when I head back we can head to your place." Once the door closed behind her, leaving Harm alone in her apartment, she locked the deadbolt and then leaned against the hardwood. Her heart was hammering, her breath heavy and tears stung at her eyes.

Violated. Her privacy… even Harm's had been violated. And she would get to the bottom of it.

Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Marine.