“I remember.”
Of course I remembered. It was the first time she met me under the bleachers of our high school gym, the first time she let me slide my hand under her cheerleading skirt.
She leaned back against the mirror, resting the heel of her foot on the edge of the counter while the other slid from my shoulder and came to a rest in the center of my back. And then, so slowly that it felt like it took a millennium to move, she removed her hands.
And what a beautiful sight!
I brushed a finger over her thin line of trimmed pubes, a perfect arrow if I ever saw one. And then my finger moved slowly over her bare lips and spread them gently, revealing the treasure hidden inside. Kate moaned, as I brushed my thumb over her clit.
“So ready,” I said.
She didn’t answer.
I teased her clit a little, rubbing my thumb against it just hard enough that she could feel it, but not hard enough to offer her any relief. She wiggled her hips a little, but she wouldn’t look at me, wouldn’t touch me. So then I used the tip of my tongue to tease her and she hissed as her whole body stiffened. She pressed her hands to the mirror on either side of her and pulled herself up just slightly, stopping when she started to pull her clit too far from my reach.
I loved the way she tried to fight the one thing we both knew she desperately wanted. She was the one who invited me in here, after all. Therefore, I teased her a few more times, nearly laughing when a long, low moan finally escaped those perfectly full lips.
Then I couldn’t help myself. I really did want to taste her.
I slowly slid the tip of my tongue down below her clit, touching places that made her jerk and moan, places that made her wiggle her hips until I touched that place where she wanted me to be more than anywhere else. After a minute, her hand molded itself to the back of my head, her fingertips digging into my skull, directing me, helping me give her as much pleasure as possible. And I could hear the pleasure just as if it had a voice all its own. The sounds coming from her lips were more than music to me, more than the sounds of pleasure. They were a sort of salvation, a recognition that my life wasn’t as rudderless as I’d begun to think.
When her thighs tightened around my neck, I knew it was time. All resistance was gone as I made my way slowly up her belly, tasting and loving a path from her navel to the valley between her breasts. I paused to nibble one nipple, then the other. And then our mouths met and her hands were tugging at my briefs, reaching inside to tug my cock free.
She guided me to her, her eyes burning as they bore into mine. And when I was inside of her, when we were connected in the most complete way physically possible, it was overwhelming. I tugged her close to me, buried my hands in her hair and held her pressed against my chest. I could see my tattoo in the mirror; I could read as clearly as though it’d been written there just today. I thought my life ended that day. That the rest was just the sacrifice before the fall.
Now I certainly hoped not.
She wrapped her legs around me and I could barely move, but the rotation of her hips as she ground herself against me was more than enough. I felt her fall, and I went quickly after her.
If this was all there was, then it was enough.
I loved her. I’d always loved her. And I would always follow her down.
Chapter 17
Kate
I was nervous. My hands shook as I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and tried to apply eyeliner. I don’t know why I insisted on going to this stupid party. I mean, it could impact my chance of getting the promotion, but probably not that much. My manager knew what was going on and why I was missing work. She probably wouldn’t even notice if I didn’t make the party. But now that I’d put my foot in it, I had to go with it.
I’d had a dream last night, an odd dream that caused me to wake a little out of sorts. Then I got up and found Donovan in the kitchen, humming under his breath as he made breakfast. He smiled when I walked into the kitchen, his eyes moving slowly over the length of me as though he was thinking about what we’d done in this very bathroom last night. I knew I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But we couldn’t touch, couldn’t even offer each other a kiss good morning. So we sat on the couch and stared at each other while we pushed the food around our plates.
Then Ash arrived so there wasn’t even the possibility of ducking into the bathroom again.
I could hear him moving around in his bedroom, dressing in the tuxedo Ash brought him. I had to say, I was looking forward to seeing him in it. Not that he didn’t fill out a pair of jeans quite well. But some men look amazingly good in casual and formal clothing. I was pretty sure Donovan would be one of those.
“Damn,” I muttered under my breath as I missed the line of my bottom lid. I carefully wiped away the makeup and started again, beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get it done.
He had a scar on his back, above his hip. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. When I remembered the Purple Heart in his bedroom, it frightened me. What or who hurt him? And how close had he come to death? I overheard someone mention that he worked with explosives over there in Afghanistan. Had something gone wrong? Or had someone tried to stop him from making something go right?
I was afraid to know. That’s why I hadn’t asked.
How would I deal with the knowledge that I’d almost lost him before I finally understood that I needed him?
I drew down my bottom eyelid with a shaking finger and tried to draw the line again, but again I screwed it up.
“Damn it!” I cried, throwing the eyeliner pencil at the mirror.
A slight woman dressed in a dark suit suddenly appeared behind me. I jumped, swallowing a scream as I realized she was the female operative I’d seen at the Gray Wolf compound yesterday. She pointed to the pencil and then at herself.
She wanted to help.
I nodded and stepped aside as she reached for the pencil. She gently pushed on my shoulder, settling me on the edge of the counter at almost the same spot Donovan had…well, she settled me down and moved close enough that I could see the green specks in her blue eyes as she carefully fixed my makeup. Not only did she apply the eyeliner, but she adjust the shadow I’d put on my lids and chose a shade of lipstick that she carefully applied, making a pucker face my mom made when she taught me how to apply lipstick.
“Thank you.”
She inclined her head and smiled.
I turned and looked at myself in the mirror, more than satisfied with the image that looked back at me. I was wearing a simple black shift that I bought weeks ago that someone had thoughtfully gotten from my closet at home, my hair pulled back into a simple French knot that I’d perfected from watching YouTube videos when I joined the workforce. My makeup was simple but sophisticated, thanks to this small woman.
“Your name is Joss, right?”
She nodded.
“You don’t talk much.”
She shrugged as though to say there wasn’t much to say.
I studied her face for a minute, then nodded myself.
“You’ve probably got it right. It’s the rest of us who are still trying to figure it out.”
She gave me a thumbs-up with a sweet, crooked grin. Then she gestured toward the door.
Time to go.
They were all there in the living room. Ash in dark clothes not unlike Joss’. Kirkland in jeans and a dark leather jacket, that charming smile permanently affixed to his face. And Donovan.
Dapper was probably the word my father would have used for how Donovan looked. I would have said drop-dead sexy. The tux looked like it was made for him, the way it fit his broad shoulders and thick arms almost perfectly. The jacket accentuated those broad shoulders and still managed to emphasize his narrow hips. And the high collar was exactly Donovan’s personality. No tie, but formal enough to still look right.
“Hey,” he said softly, his eyes moving slowly over me. And when our eyes met, we were the only ones in the room for that brief second.
I wanted to slap him. Or make him disappear.
“Joss will drive you to the hotel. You are not to make any detour, no stops anywhere but the hotel parking lot.”
Joss nodded.
“Then Kirkland and I will be stationed inside the ballroom. Joss will take up a position by the back door. And we’ll have a team scattered throughout the hotel.”
Ash focused on me then, holding up a smartphone. “This is connected directly to David’s program. If you find yourself in trouble for some reason and you cannot identify a member of our team, you push this button,” he said, brushing his thumb over the home button at the bottom of the phone. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
He studied my face for a second, then handed me the phone. “Keep it on you at all times.”
“Wouldn’t think of putting it down.”
Ash stepped back and studied each of us, one at a time, his eyes lingering on Donovan.
“Let’s get to work. And don’t get dead.”
Donovan slid his hand into mine and led the way through the house to the side door. There was a stretch limousine half pulled into the small garage, a whole third of its butt sticking out the door. Joss nearly knocked us over, pushing past us so that she could open the door. She even found a chauffeur’s hat somewhere that she took off and waved with a flourish as she bowed.
“Thank you, my lady,” Donovan said in his most haughty tone of voice as he ushered me inside.
Joss smacked his ass with the hat as he went to slip inside. “Hey!”
She just shrugged, looking around as though trying to find the real culprit.
Donovan laughed.
She slammed the door behind him and climbed into the front, making a show of closing the partition between the two sections to give us privacy. Donovan slid his arm around me and tugged me into his arms, kissing me quite intensely. I pressed my hand against his jaw, sliding my fingers over the curve just below his ear to tug him closer.
“I’ve wanted to do that all day,” he said when he came up for air.
“Me, too.”
I moved closer to him, resting my head against his chest, loving the feel of his heart beating under my cheek.
“Can I ask you a question?”
He groaned, the vibration rushing through me. “Haven’t we covered this already? Joss is not my girlfriend. I don’t have a girlfriend. I just let you think I did because I was trying to see how jealous you would get.”
“Nice to know,” I said. “But that’s not what I was going to ask.”
“Oh.”
“What’s the deal with Joss? Why doesn’t she talk?”
Donovan shifted, forcing me to sit up. He looked uncomfortable, like he didn’t really appreciate the turn in conversation.
“I’m just curious.”
“It’s really her story to tell.”
“Yeah, well, she’s not telling much of anything.”
He glanced at the partition, then he sighed.
“She had a family. She managed to do what the rest of us haven’t: find some normalcy outside the military. And from what Ash tells me, she was very happy. But then there was an accident…”
“Accidents seem to follow Ash and those close to him around.”
Donovan glanced at me, and I knew it was the wrong thing to say.
“Bad things happen sometimes, Kate. It doesn’t have anything to do with who you are or who you know.”
I sat up a little more and slid further over on the slick seat.
“You have nightmares. Ash and David lost their parents. Joss lost her family. What happened to Kirkland?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re all broken.”
He glanced at me. “Not broken, Kate. Just human.”
“Yes, well, the five of you seem to be more human than most.”
Chapter 18
Donovan
The ballroom of the Florence Inn Hotel was a literal Who’s Who of Hollywood with a few Silicon Valley refugees and politicians thrown in for good measure. And Kate seemed to be in her element.
She strutted right into that room, a smile glued to her lips and greetings flying as she moved from person to person. I felt like a puppy on a leash being dragged across the floor without any idea of what the hell was going on around me.
“Better watch out for this one,” David said in my ear through the Bluetooth bud I’d placed there as we got out of the car, “she’s ambitious.”
“Mind your business,” I muttered.
The Bluetooth was supposed to be a way for the team to stay connected, not be a gossip channel. We couldn’t let ourselves get distracted from our mission. Even if these people were as overstuffed as the couch in my parents’ den.
About two hours in, Kate grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the dance floor.
“I need a break,” she said with a tired sigh.
“And here I thought it was just you wanting to be in my arms.”
“There is that, too.”
I pulled her into my arms, cradling her against my chest as we began to sway across the floor to a song that wasn’t really intended to be a slow song. But I don’t think she minded, and I knew I didn’t.
“Kind of makes up for the fact that you chickened out of taking me to prom.”
“Chicken out?” I pushed her back slightly so I could see her face. “You were the one who was afraid your dad would have a stroke or something when he found out about us.”
“Yeah. He might still.” There was a twinkle in her eye that I knew. She was teasing me.
“Is there something for him to find out?”
She shrugged even as she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss my bottom lip gently.
“Let’s not get distracted,” Ash immediately said in my ear.
I grabbed her hand and twirled her away from me, causing the guy dancing with some tall, blond woman a few feet to our right to glare at me. I shrugged, pretending to be slightly inebriated by stumbling as I gathered Kate back against me. The guy turned away.
“We better behave,” I whispered against her ear.
“Katie? Kate Thompson?”
I turned, suddenly on alert, tugging Kate behind me. But then my eyes fell on a face I never thought I would see again.
Amanda Graham.
Her eyes widened when she recognized me at about the same moment I recognized her.
“Donovan Pritchard?”
“Hello, Amanda.”
She stared at me for a long moment, making me wonder what was going through her mind. The last time I’d seen her…well, it wasn’t a pleasant moment.
She’d come to the hospital with a group of kids from the graduation party who got word of what’d happened. She came into the emergency room just in time to watch them roll him out of the trauma room to rush him up to surgery. And the screams that issued from her lips…I’d had to grab her around her waist to keep her from following him onto the elevator.
But then Amanda smiled and reached up to kiss my cheek.
“It’s so lovely to see you. I heard you went into the military.”
“I did. I was given an honorable discharge two years ago.”
Amanda nodded, a smile on her lips that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You should have looked me up when you came back.”
“Do you live in the area?”
She shook her head. “I’ve been in San Francisco for several years now, working at Daddy’s tech company up there.”
“Really?”
“Computers were always my thing. You know that.”
I did know that. She and I had half a dozen classes together our senior year, including advanced computer programming. I was happy to hear she’d continued on with it. When I knew her last, she still hadn’t decided what she wanted to do with her life, just that she wanted to be with Joshua.
She and Joshua were clo
ser than any couple I’d known in high school. It was as if they knew they were meant to be together from the first moment she walked into our sophomore English class, a transfer from some high school in Chicago when her father decided he wanted to move the headquarters of his massive conglomerate to the Santa Monica area. From that moment on I was a perpetual third wheel to their almost sickening romance.
“So you work for your dad?”
“I run the company. His name is just on the door.”
“That’s awesome, Amanda.”
She smiled as she tilted her head in acknowledgement. “I’ve actually been talking to Kate about doing business with her bank. We have quite a few telecommuters from this area, and it would be convenient to have a local bank we can work with them through.”
“We have,” Kate said.
Amanda shifted, hiding her face a little behind a curtain of her long, dark hair. There was something about the movement that bothered me. But then Kate stepped forward and kissed her bare cheek and they started talking about dividends and something I didn’t quite catch and I was suddenly lost.
I’d been very careful since coming to the Santa Monica area to join Gray Wolf to avoid people I knew from the past. But this was…not as bad as I’d thought it would be.
I guess it is true, what they say.
Time heals all wounds.
Chapter 19
At the Compound
“Mind your business,” David muttered under his breath as he watched Kate Thompson reach up and kiss Donovan. “Do they really think they’re fooling anyone?”
He’d seen a lot, sitting here watching the monitors day in and day out, but watching Donovan fall for his childhood sweetheart had to be the most interesting thing he’d seen in a while. Watching Kirkland charm his targets was one thing, but this…there was actually some plot to it. It was like the difference between a porn movie and a chic flick.
“Let’s not get distracted,” Ash’s voice announced.
David glanced at the monitor that showed his brother standing just inside the entrance of the ballroom. He didn’t get what was going on with him. Did he not want happiness for Donovan? The man survived an IED attack, for Christ’s sake! Why shouldn’t he find something beyond the drudgery of this job?
COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) Page 27
