Black Jack

by Lora Leigh

  “What did I do when I fought?” she asked him. “Did I kill?”

  She knew she had. She rubbed her finger and thumb together, knowing her fingerprints weren’t there any longer and they weren’t there for a reason.

  “You don’t remember anything about the past six years then?” he asked as he turned more fully to her, the backs of his fingers stroking down her lower arm.

  Did she remember anything?

  She remembered her nightmares. They were filled with pain, rage, and fear. She remembered a sense of drowning, of icy water closing over her head as she fought to breathe. She remembered a kiss, a touch and an underlying anger that made no sense.

  She remembered the sharp retort of a gun, and then nothing.

  “I don’t remember anything.” At least nothing that she was willing to discuss at the moment. Especially considering the fact she was presently being watched.

  A long, slow turn of the stool seat gave her a clear view of the bar and within seconds she knew all she needed to know. A second later she was facing him once again.

  “You have friends with you.” She kept her voice low enough that it wouldn’t carry to any listening device, unless he was wearing one himself.

  She felt herself paling at the thought and dropped her head to stare at the beer. Where had that suspicion come from? How could she look around once and see so much, pinpoint those who were there for fun and those she knew were there to watch her?

  When her gaze met his again, she saw a warning in his eyes. A warning that she not see any more, or say any more?

  “There’s no one with me,” he finally replied. “But you.”

  Yeah, right, no one was there with him. He was lying to her and they both knew it. But he was also warning her. To protect her? What the hell was going on here and what did this man want from her?

  “Why am I here?” she asked him. “Are we going to talk or play games all night?”

  “I rather enjoy playing with you.” He grinned then.

  “And I’m getting rather impatient.” She got to her feet. “You want to talk, Mr. Caine, then you can come to me.”

  Lilly stood to pull her jacket on, only to have his fingers curl around her wrist to halt her.

  “The same willful Lilly I’ve missed like hell,” he murmured. “Tell me, how does your family handle your stubbornness? I’ve heard your mother rarely has the patience for it from anyone else.”

  Not anyone else, not from her, Lilly could have informed him. But he didn’t need to know that.

  “I’m her daughter.” She arched her brow. “Of course I can get away with more.”

  “Of course you can,” he agreed. “So tell me, Lilly, why did you sneak out of the house tonight rather than informing her that you were leaving?”

  “The same reason I’m walking out of here now without answering your question,” she retorted blithely. “Need to know.”

  At that, she turned and walked out.

  He was following. She could feel him. Moving close behind her, the arousal that was so much a part of him spreading around her. Her thighs were tight, her pussy heated.

  Her pussy.

  She paused at the door, allowing the cold air to wrap around her and possibly cool her libido. He chose that moment to move closer, to step up to her until they were touching, the hard proof of his erection well defined beneath his leather pants as it pressed against her lower back.

  Lilly gripped the door frame and held on tight. She wanted to rub against him, wanted to thrust back and feel the heady hunger rising harder and faster between them.

  Right there, surrounded by dozens of bar customers and “friends” or perhaps “nonfriends” of Travis Caine’s.

  “Tell me where to meet you,” he demanded. “Just the two of us.”

  “It was supposed to be just the two of us this time,” she whispered breathlessly.

  Taking a deep breath, Lilly stepped to the sidewalk, tried to brush away the need racing through her system, and headed for the parking lot. He was still behind her, walking silently, but she could feel the warmth of his body still surrounding her.

  Moving to the motorcycle, she threw her leg over the raised seat effortlessly then unlocked her helmet, all the while too aware of him standing next to her, as though waiting for something, expecting something.

  “What?” She turned to him, frowning, her heart racing.

  His lips quirked. “You remembered the bike after all.”

  Lilly jerked her head down, her gaze focusing on the helmet straps she was playing with. She had remembered which storage unit it was parked in, she had remembered where she had hidden the keys.

  She knew things that didn’t make sense. Things that had no memories to back them, and that terrified her.

  Such as the knowledge that this man could make her burn with hunger.

  He had also taught her how to survive at one point. She was certain of it.

  Why was she certain of it?

  That question would drive her insane. Why? Why did she know? How? How did she know?

  “Who am I?” Lifting her head, she tried to fight back the sense of loneliness and confusion racing through her. She felt lost.

  Staring back at him, she watched as his hands lifted, his fingers stroking back the hair that had fallen across her face. As he tucked it behind her ear a small smile tipped one corner of his lips.

  “You’re wild and brave,” he told her softly. “Over the past years I’ve sworn you’d get both of us killed.”

  And that only confused her more.

  Travis watched the heaviness of her expression, the way her lips turned down, the sadness and loss in her gaze. He could read how lost she was, and for Lilly, that wasn’t something he was familiar with. She didn’t often show her emotions, no matter what they were. Unless it was passion. Damn if she hadn’t burned the night down around them.

  “Come with me, Lilly,” he urged gently. “We’ll talk, uncensored. I can tell you who you are.”

  He could tell her partial truths and half-lies. He could give her the explanations the agency had come up with. He couldn’t let her know who she was entirely, only the cover the agency had given her. It was a piss-poor offering, but it would fill in some of the blanks at least. Maybe wipe that lost look from her face, at least for a little while.

  “If you wanted to talk uncensored, then you shouldn’t have brought your friends along for this meeting.”

  She moved to pull away from him, to put the helmet on her head and to ride away into the darkness. But he wasn’t ready for her to leave quite yet.

  Sliding his fingers under her hair, he gripped the back of her neck, catching her by surprise as he tipped her head back and lowered his own.

  Travis caught the small gasp from her parted lips and took full advantage of the slight opening. His tongue brushed over her lips, then stroked inside in a teasing little thrust that had them both catching their breath when it deepened to much more than the gentle assault he’d planned.

  Once his tongue touched her, tasted the trace of beer and feminine warmth, Travis was lost. He needed a hell of a lot more than a teasing taste.

  As he held firm to her neck, his lips pressed down on hers, sipping from her lips, driving his tongue deep inside the honeyed recess.

  She set fire to him; there was no other way to describe it. She made him burn with need and a hunger to possess her unlike anything he’d ever known.

  There was something unique about Lilly. There always had been, he had to ensure that there always would be.

  As he felt her hands sliding up the leather covering his arms, the ragged need to have her naked against him tore through his senses. He’d been too long without her. Now that he knew the taste of her, the pleasure to be found with her, he wanted more. He wondered
if he’d ever have enough of her.

  “Come with me,” he ordered against her lips before nipping at them seductively. “I promise, you won’t regret it.”

  Lilly had a feeling it would be the one thing she ended up regretting more than anything else. But she didn’t want to resist either. She wanted to be wild and free with this man.

  She didn’t remember the past six years, but she did remember the years before it. She’d lived her life according to others’ expectations. Those of her parents, her friends, her associates.

  Her father expected her to follow in his footsteps as a purveyor of information to British Intelligence and she had wanted that as well. She’d been trained young to step into the role, just as her mother had begun training her young daughter to take her place in English society. They had fought over that, she remembered. Her mother had no idea the work Lilly did with her father, but she had known her husband often advised Lilly not to marry, not to commit herself to another person.

  She’d always done as she had been expected to do, as others had wanted her to do, as much as possible. She had never, that she remembered, lived within the moment. Taken a chance. Been wild and free. The woman Travis described wasn’t the woman Lilly remembered herself being. She needed to know who that woman was.

  “No censors?” she whispered, as his lips brushed over hers again.

  “None.” He demanded another kiss, another melding of lips, stoking the heat between them as Lilly gave into the pleasure.

  It was incredible. No more than the touch of his lips on hers, his tongue stroking against hers. His heartbeat pounded against her breasts—how had he managed to pull her so close without her realizing?—his arms tight around her.

  There was something about it that made her wonder if she had ever known passion before him.

  Something warned her that she had known it with this man, and only this man.

  Pulling back, Travis stared down at her shadowed features and knew she would follow him. He didn’t say anything. Instead he lifted the keys from the pocket of his jacket and moved to his own motorcycle.

  Straddling it, he pushed the key into the ignition. The two bikes started simultaneously. Within seconds they were pulling away from the bar and heading through town.

  Damn Elite Ops and the mission. It would end up destroying him and possibly Lilly as well.

  This was exactly what he hadn’t wanted. To see the pain and confusion that filled her eyes, that was slowly tearing her apart.

  There was instinct, suspicion, and what Travis knew was second nature. The fighter Lilly was was instinctive. It was as much a part of her as breathing. As being.

  With such instinct, with such pure strength as he knew Lilly possessed, the memories would not be much further behind.

  And now, they might well be closer than ever before.

  The house he owned in Hagerstown was located in one of the more historic parts of the city. It was two stories, brick, completely remodeled on the inside, with almost an acre of land heavily bordered by a hedge of tall evergreen shrubs.

  Hitting the remote programmed into the handle of the motorcycle, Travis slowed down for the rising of the garage door, then pulled the bike inside. Lilly rode in beside him, shut the engine to her own, and waited.

  The door behind them slid closed with a squeak of the rubber seal against the cement.

  “Nice.” Pushing the kickstand into place, Lilly swung off the seat and pulled the helmet from her head as she looked around.

  He knew what she saw beside the Jaguar sitting in the other bay. Travis Caine was wealthy, a man who worked with the most exclusive, the most powerful men and women on earth. His lifestyle reflected that. Beside the Jag sat a specially designed, security-upgraded Hummer. Beside that was another motorcycle, one known for its reputation of speed, power, and exclusivity. There were less than two hundred in the entire world.

  “Very nice.” She didn’t touch it, not that Travis would have cared. The cycle had belonged to the first Travis Caine, as had the house, the vehicles, and the funds he lived on. Funds carefully monitored by the agency.

  Travis was more interested in her shapely ass as she bent to look at the detailing of the hand-stitched seat.

  “Would you like a drink?” He strode to the well-stocked bar on the other side of the garage. Hell, all he wanted to do was get her in the bedroom, and here he was, stuck, while she admired his bike rather than his dick. Wasn’t that just his luck?

  “No.”

  “Shall we go in then?” Opening the door that led to the house, Travis entered ahead of her and made for the kitchen.

  Marble floors led from the small garage foyer to the kitchen and dining room.

  The damned place must have been an exercise for that first Travis Caine in how much money he could spend on a residence while keeping the outside so modest-looking.

  Opening the refrigerator, he pulled two cold beers free and tossed a bottle across the room to Lilly, watching her closely.

  She caught it, without thinking, then stared at the beer in confusion before lifting her gaze back at him. What he saw there made him want to curse. Confusion. Anger. Fear.

  “You knew I’d catch it,” she whispered.

  Unscrewing the cap with a deft twist, he tossed the metal disk to the counter before leaning against it casually.

  He shrugged. “You like beer.”

  “I detest beer.” Lilly stared at the bottle again, a bit surprised that her mouth was watering for the taste of it. Surprised that she actually wanted it.

  “You learned to love it.” She watched him. “You told me once that until you had been forced to drink it, you hadn’t known how good it could taste.”

  “And how was I forced to drink it?” Lilly sighed wearily.

  He chuckled. “We were in Mexico. It was my beer or their water. You chose my beer.”

  She just bet she had.

  “Why was I there, Travis?” she asked, barely able to push the words past her lips. “Why wasn’t I home?”

  No one else seemed willing to answer that question. Would he?

  “It had something to do with what you saw the night your father was killed.”

  Now, her surprise turned to shock.

  She hadn’t expected him to answer her. She blinked back at him, wondering at the quiet expression on his face as he continued to watch her closely.

  “What happened that night?” She didn’t remember it. The last thing she remembered was the party that night.

  Travis stepped to the large, marble-topped kitchen island and stared back at her with a heavy frown. “You said your father suspected someone of embezzling money. You said he had been acting strangely that night and then he disappeared from the party. You went looking for him and when you walked into his study, he was already dead.”

  Lilly fisted her hands at her side and fought against the rage and the pain. Her father had died that night, and she had been unable to help him. Unable to do anything but run, apparently.

  Shadows tangled together in her head. Like a fast-forward that went much too fast to make sense of, images raced through her mind.

  “So I didn’t see who killed him?” she asked. “I did nothing to save him?”

  Travis shook his head. “We think you were knocked unconcious. And you suspected, but never told me either way. You had issues trusting people, especially with your secrets.”

  “I did nothing to prove my suspicions?” She heard her own voice roughen, felt the agony of failure tearing through her.

  “I didn’t say that, Lilly,” he retorted gently. “You’ve investigated. At times I’ve helped you, but you always ran into a dead end. That doesn’t mean you haven’t tried.”

  She swung away from him, fighting her tears.

  “You were working cover
tly with MI5 before that night,” he continued. “You couldn’t risk going to them, though. You trusted no one.”

  “But I trusted you enough to tell you that?” She swung back to him, the anger and fear eating at her now.

  “We were close, Lilly,” he stated softly. “There were many times you trusted me. And there were times you didn’t.”

  At least he was admitting there were times she hadn’t trusted him.

  “Where did we meet?” The question was a whisper, as she fought to put together the puzzle of her life.

  “We met in Israel. I was your trainer for a while.” With that statement he turned, opened a lower cabinet door, and tossed the empty bottle away.

  He moved with a predatory male grace, a sense of preparedness and yet casual laziness. She couldn’t pinpoint the type of man he was, or even how trustworthy he was, and she considered herself a rather perceptive person when it came to others, but she couldn’t read him well.

  She watched as he moved across the room to her. Silently. He was even more silent than she was, and he was much heavier. There were muscles packed on that body.

  “What sort of trainer?” she asked breathlessly as he came closer, brushing against her, staring down at her with his heated gaze.

  What did she want? Information or that hard, hot body moving against her, over her? Her body was screaming for sex, her mind demanding answers and she was having trouble deciding exactly which she wanted to give in to first.

  “Hand-to-hand combat and weapons.” His head lowered, his lips brushed against her ear. “You were a very good student too.” One hand gripped her hip and jerked her against the steel-hard wedge of his cock beneath his pants as his fingers tangled in her hair to draw her head back. “Teacher’s pet, actually.” His lips brushed hers.

  Lilly caught her breath. She wasn’t a virgin, and if she had been this man’s lover then she knew damned good and well she wasn’t inexperienced. But she felt innocent, caught in a web of seduction and pleasure that was sensed rather than remembered, as she held her breath, waiting for his kiss.

  “Why are you here, Lilly? Information, or this?” He asked the question that raged through her mind, but he gave her no chance to answer.