It Takes Two

by Allie K. Adams

  “More.” She knew how weak she sounded as she begged them. She needed. Dear God how she needed. “More!”

  She howled when they did exactly that, both pressing into her at the same time. They thrust in time, faster and faster, until in one final coordinated thrust, her climax detonated, exploding inside her and shattering her soul.

  “Holy shit!” Jason hollered as he stiffened behind her, jetting his hot release across her back. Beneath her, she watched Jeremy. His eyes had darkened to almost black, his expression almost savage. He tightened his jaw and bared his teeth right before he stiffened and hollered as his climax took hold. He pumped his hips and without warning her orgasm returned, and her world dissolved around her.

  TWENTY

  Bree lay on her side, her head on her hand, propped up by her elbow, as she faced Jeremy. She expected it to be awkward. After all, she’d thought about sex with him since she was a junior in high school. That’s a lot of buildup leading to the actual act.

  Yet as they lay here, him running the tips of his fingers over her hip as she tried not to giggle from the way it tickled, she’d never felt more at ease. Jason had draped his arm around her waist as he spooned behind her, snoring quietly.

  Jeremy’s blue gaze danced in the faint light as he studied her. For the past several minutes, he’d traced every inch of her hip, her upper thigh, and had moved to play with the diamond-studded bellybutton ring.

  “I can’t believe we finally did it,” she whispered, a perm-a-grin on her face. He smiled, but the gesture didn’t quite reach his eyes. They seemed reserved, haunted. Her heart seized. Did he regret sleeping with her? “Is everything okay?”

  “Are you okay?” he countered, that concern swirling in his gaze now hardening his expression.

  “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

  His gaze flicked to his twin sleeping soundly behind her. “I wish I didn’t need him when it comes to you.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “I wish that were true.” He snapped his attention to her and frowned.

  “It is.” She took his hand and brought it to her lips, kissing his fingers. He watched the movement with sharp interest. “It’s just me. You never needed him with me.”

  “With you,” he sighed. “I need him more than ever.”

  “Why? Why can’t you be with me without him?” She knew that look all too well. Something had him deeply upset. “What is it?” When he didn’t answer, her emotions spilled over as fear fueled her words. “Why am I not enough?”

  He sat up and came over her, pulling her into his arms. “Don’t ever think that, Bree. You’re so much more.”

  “Then why—”

  “Because I’m not enough for you.” He turned away and moved to the side of the bed, dropping his feet to the floor. After grounding out a sigh, he muttered, “I’m not enough.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Jason barked as he slowly rose to a sitting position. “Are both of you seriously this insecure? This shit ends now. Bree, you’ve always been his girl. He saw you when you were invisible to everyone else, so stop thinking you don’t deserve him. And Jeremy? I did not give up my football career so you could spend the rest of your fucking life feeling sorry for yourself. If you ever say you’re not enough again, I will cut my kidney out of you and take it back.”

  “Kidney?” Bree jerked upright, pulling the sheet with her, and whipped her attention between the twins. The rest of his words fell to the wayside as she focused on that one word. People didn’t just give up a kidney, not unless… She moved to Jeremy’s back and touched his shoulder. “Are you sick?”

  He stood up and out of reach, his gaze carefully guarded as he threw on a pair of boxers. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re not fine,” Jason roared, shocking the hell out of her. He rarely showed a serious side, let alone an angry side. Jumping off the bed, he grabbed his pair of boxers and slipped them over his narrow hips. “When are you going to admit that attack changed you?”

  “Attack?” She jumped off the bed, dragging the sheet with her to give her some sense of modesty. As she stepped toward Jeremy, he put his hands up to stop her.

  “It was years ago. I’m fine now.”

  “That’s it.” Jason pounced, pushing Bree out of the way before grabbing Jeremy. She stumbled back. For a man with an injured shoulder, he moved swift and efficient as he whipped his brother around to face her.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Jeremy struggled against his hold.

  “I’m showing her.”

  “No.” He twisted hard in an attempt to break free. When that didn’t work, he reached behind him to grab Jason. “Goddamn it. No!”

  Jason didn’t slow as he literally ripped the shirt from Jeremy’s back. The rest of the material fell away to reveal why Jeremy hadn’t wanted to remove his shirt in front of her.

  Scars. Horrific scars. Half a dozen, at least. Some blended with tattoos. Others were too large to hide with ink. He slowly lifted his gaze enough to snag hers and waited. The room blurred as tears swelled in her eyes. When she covered her mouth to stop the sob from escaping, he dropped his attention as his shoulders sagged.

  “Damn pain meds wore off,” Jason grumbled. “I need a stiff drink. You two get your shit straightened out. We are not having this conversation again.”

  He stormed out, leaving Bree blinking at Jeremy, tears streaming down her cheeks. Someone had hurt him. Someone had cut into his beautiful flesh, tore his skin, and left him scarred.

  “Jeremy?” she whispered, unable to muster up the strength for anything more.

  “Don’t say anything,” he mumbled, his voice thick with humiliation. “Your expression was enough. I know what you’re thinking.”

  “You don’t know what I’m thinking at all.” She wiped her eyes and slid a cautious step toward him.

  “I’ll get a shirt.”

  “Don’t.” She brought up her hand and slowly reached for him. He stiffened and retreated. She took two more steps and tried again. This time he didn’t move and held his breath as she ran her fingers over the rough scar on his left pec. With her other hand, she brushed the pad of her thumb along the scar stretched across the right side of his ribcage.

  “Bree,” he said in a strangled voice.

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “I don’t like to talk about it.”

  “Tough.” She refused to go one more minute without knowing his story. Enough was enough. He wasn’t the same. She wanted to know why. “Tell me what happened.”

  “Breanne, please.”

  “If you don’t tell me, I’ll drag Jason back in here. He’ll tell me.”

  “Goddamn it,” he muttered and worked his jaw. “Fine. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid the price.”

  “Jason called it an attack.”

  “It was.” He sighed and fell silent for several seconds. Finally, he spoke again. “TREX discovered one of our most wanted right here in Seattle. When it was time to move in and take him down, our field agent couldn’t be there, so the agency sent me in instead.”

  “But, you’re not a field agent.”

  “And I definitely proved it on that find. I screwed up and missed my chance to take him at the target point. Not wanting to fail my first mission in the field, I followed the tango into a warehouse to take him down. Only he and several of his friends were waiting. They messed me up pretty good and left me for dead.”

  “Oh, my God.” She hurt for him, but not more than her anger over TREX sending in a sideline agent to do a frontline agent’s job. “Why you? Why not another field agent?”

  “The field agent had already established himself at the target point. The tango knew him. Trusted him. It made sense for me to stand in.”

  “No, it doesn’t. Any other field agent could have done it. It didn’t have to be you.”

  “It did, actually. Jason was the field agent. As luck had it, he had an identical twin to take his place when he couldn’t be there. We had to move in
.”

  She inhaled sharply as it all clicked in place. That explained why Jason hovered around his twin like a worried parent. Why he dropped everything whenever Jeremy needed him. Why he did anything his brother asked of him, include sharing women. “They thought you were Jason.”

  “If it had been my brother, he would have taken them all. Instead…” He trailed off and shook his head. “I walked right into a trap and didn’t even see it coming. I’m definitely not field agent material.” He sighed heavily and added, “Maybe I’m not agent material at all.”

  She couldn’t imagine the guilt eating Jason alive. If it had been the other Bowman in that warehouse, would they have gotten the jump on him? He knew what to look for, knew how to read his surroundings. She’d been around them less than a week and had already picked up on that. Jeremy didn’t have the intuition Jason had.

  What he did have was a beautiful mind. He never used to be so damn moody. Constantly feeling inadequate would wear at a person like a cancer. She was just as much at fault as Jeremy when it came to never feeling good enough for anyone else. To hell with that. It wasn’t up to anyone else. Their confidence was theirs and theirs alone.

  Jason was right. They both needed to get their shit together. They needed to snap out of their joint little pity party and rejoin the world. Her eyelids drifted closed as she drew in a breath and held it. She’d never initiated sex in her entire life, always too scared it wouldn’t be reciprocated. She was tired of being everyone else’s idea of the perfect woman. Perfect poise. Perfect image of the perfect CEO. She lived in constant fear of failure all based on what everyone else thought she should be.

  She didn’t want to live in fear any longer. It was exhausting living up to everyone else’s expectations. Jeremy never expected anything but for her to be herself. It was time she lived up to her own expectations.

  “Tell me about this one.” She used her finger to trace the artwork that danced around the scar on his ribs and trailed to his back. As she drew in, she spotted the 1s and 0s. The entire piece was in binary. “What does it say?”

  He dropped his chin, studying the tattoo. “Sky above me. Earth below me. Fire within me.”

  “That’s beautiful. What about this one?” She moved to the tattoo that resembled a sun on his lower left side. “What’s it mean?”

  “That’s a spiral sun. It’s the symbol of healing. So is this Celtic knot here.” He pointed at another tattoo on the opposite side.

  “What about your back? Do you have any tattoos there?”

  He turned to show off an impressive string of vertical Chinese symbols covering massive muscles. “What are they?”

  “Dai Ko Myo Reiki Symbol. It means great being of the universe, shine on me, be my friend.”

  “I don’t see any ink on the scars themselves.” She traced the symbols.

  “Scars should never be covered,” he explained as he faced her. “Doctors need to be able to examine them, make sure they don’t become cancerous.”

  Another binary tattoo, this one by far the biggest and most beautiful in the intricate detail, drew her in. She took her time tracing her fingers along every flowing line that ran over his heart and covered his shoulder. “What’s this one say?”

  “Breanne.”

  “You tattooed my name on your chest?” She froze and held his gaze.

  He hinted at a smile as his eyes warmed. “It’s the first piece I got. It’s my favorite.”

  “Mine, too.” She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both. “Why do you have so many?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “To me, yes. But I don’t think it is to you.”

  He staggered back as his attention snapped to her face. “Are you saying I don’t know why I got inked?”

  “You did it to cover your scars,” she pointed out the obvious. His physical scars were nothing compared to his emotional ones. Those couldn’t be masked by ink. “It won’t hide the scars you can’t see. I know you, Jeremy.”

  “You used to know me.”

  “You’re the same person I’ve known over half my life. Most of that time we’ve been best friends. You’re still that same kid. It’s just now you’re in a grown up body.” She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. “A very nice grown up body.”

  He closed his eyes, clearly battling whether to break character and actually smile. That didn’t thwart her. She knew exactly what to do.

  “Three things.” She pressed her lips to his palm.

  “I’m not listing three things.”

  “Then I will,” she countered just as he’d done earlier.

  “Bree, stop this. It won’t help.”

  “You wouldn’t have come to the reunion if you weren’t an agent.” The disappointment clung to her and cracked her voice. No, damn it! She would not let herself fall back into pity mode. “But you did, and we reconnected—finally. I can’t wait to reconnect again.”

  His eyes narrowed. The look he gave her heated with ardent need. Was that a smile hinting at the corner of his lips? “Go on.”

  “You found a way to use your fascination with numbers and stats for something useful. You could have ended up in some boring desk job.”

  “I do work at a desk,” he chuckled.

  “It’s anything but boring.” She trailed her fingers along his strong jaw, loving the feel of his skin against hers. The rough stubble excited her, made her want to feel more of him. He leaned into her touch. “You save lives.”

  “I just find the money,” he corrected, cynicism dripping from his tone. “That’s hardly saving lives.”

  “What do you think that money is used for? Guns to put in a kid’s hands? Bombs that threaten our safety? Or worse? How many nine elevens have you stopped when you just found the money? I see how important you are to TREX. It’s time you see that, too.”

  “You’ve made your point.”

  “No,” she quipped and dropped the sheet between them. “I still have one more.”

  His expression softened as his gaze slid over her body, heating her and causing her nipples to pucker. Grasping her wrist, he tugged, pulling her to him. He feathered kisses along her jaw before resting his lips against the corner of her mouth. His erection rested against her stomach. He pushed her hair aside with his cheek, his lips teasing hers. “What’s that?”

  “I get to do this.” She curled her arms around his neck and arched her back, pressing her breasts to his chest. Her nipples tightened even more when his coarse chest hairs brushed over them. Pleasure mounted inside her, coiling like an angry snake. Wanting this moment, this anticipation that bordered on torture, to last forever, she inhaled slowly, taking in his delicious scent.

  He drank from her lips. She tasted his passion, his hunger. Locking her fingers in his hair, she held him close, moaning into his mouth as she writhed against him.

  Dear God did this man know how to make her knees weak. Hot kisses worthy of an inferno melted into her, searing her soul. She moaned again as he pulled her closer, tangling his hands in her hair, fisting hard. She loved it.

  He removed his boxers and sank two fingers inside her, spearing deep into her drenched, aching entrance. But that wasn’t the attention she wanted. She needed him to touch her, to stroke across her nerves unlike anyone else, and literally jumped into his arms. He withdrew his fingers and backed her against the wall. Then, in a single smooth move, he sank his hard flesh into her, inch by inch, to the hilt.

  “Oh, God!” She threw her head back and arched her entire body.

  “Look at me, Breanne.”

  Although the command seemed near impossible, she held his gaze and sucked in a breath to see such stark, vivid emotion in his eyes. He grabbed her hips and drove deep. She cried out again. “Jeremy. Don’t stop. Oh, please. Don’t stop. It’s just you and me. Just you and me.”

  “Watch me, baby.”

  She did, rocking her hips in time with his thrusts. It was the most deeply intimate moment she’d ever experienced. Out o
f nowhere, she screamed as an orgasm she didn’t even know she had building inside her ignited, throwing her into wild abandonment. She bucked. She rocked. Anything to ride out her climax.

  Bree screamed again as Jeremy plunged hard inside her. And she felt him. His semen, deep into her core, exploded out of him like a violent volcano. He held her, so close, and whispered gentle words she desperately needed to hear at that moment.

  Barely aware of him withdrawing and lowering her to the floor, she held his shoulders as her knees wobbled. They’d just had sex in less time than it took to take the elevator up to the suite. And without Jason here as an anchor.

  “That escalated quickly,” Jeremy mused.

  She laughed and rested her forehead against his chin, willing her soul to return to her body. When he relaxed and made the mistake of drawing away, she grabbed him and held him to her. She needed him touching her right now, needed to feel his strength. She had none left.

  Her knees shook, the tremor racing up her spine. The vibration grew, pulling her from the blissful daze of the afterglow. Her eyes widened when she realized it wasn’t her knees causing the shaking racking her body. And then a steady beep sounded, growing louder and louder.

  “Shit!” Jeremy threw a shirt at her the second the ear-piercing pulse of the alarm filled the air. He shoved his legs into a pair of pants as Bree struggled into the shirt. After grabbing his glasses and a gun, he barked, “Stay here.”

  And then he was gone.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Jeremy stayed low as he hugged the wall, his pistol at the ready. That alarm only meant one thing. Someone had breached the exterior.

  He should have heard it. TREX had three levels of security protecting this building. He didn’t see the blinking light. He didn’t see a damn thing but Bree’s eyes glazing over with passion so intense it was close to destroying his control. Who the hell was he kidding? She’d already destroyed his control.