by Leah Braemel
She withdrew, taking the time to press a kiss to the end of his glistening shaft in a gesture so sweet, so gentle, he wanted to gather her in his arms and just hold her. How had he ever let her just walk away? Why hadn’t he flown to London to visit her, to find out… No, he told himself. Those days were past, and while he knew there were questions still to be answered, this was not the time. If nothing else came of this reunion, he’d have the memory of her beneath him, around him one last time.
A frown creased her forehead. “I should have a shower. I’m all sweaty.”
“So am I. I don’t care.” He pulled his T-shirt over his head and dropped it on his sweat pants then reached for her shirt.
Their clothes on the floor seconds later, Lauren stretched out on the bed, propping herself up on the pillows. His chest tightened as her hand smoothed over her belly and she parted her folds and began to play with herself. His cock ached to be inside her, especially when she let her legs fall open and gave him a glimpse of her glistening pussy. Shit, she knew how he loved watching her get herself off. But watching would have to wait.
He crawled up the bed and wedged himself between her thighs. God, he’d loved how she smelled, how she tasted. Her scent had lingered in the closet for a few weeks, no more, and he’d mourned when it had faded. He buried his face in her mound and inhaled, filling his lungs with her.
Ignoring the need to continue his path up her body, he stayed right where he was. He deserved the chance to reacquaint himself with this part of her body. Besides, while he was primed and ready, she’d had no foreplay at all.
He nuzzled lower until her essence coated his lips. Her taste burst on his tongue like a ripened peach. He swirled his tongue through her cream, alternately lapping and teasing until he found the tiny bundle of nerves. Her hips rose off the mattress but he clamped down, holding her in place.
He’d intended to hold off on finding his own pleasure until she’d come for him twice, but she moaned that deep-throated gasp that forewarned him of an impending orgasm and all his plans flew out the window. He found himself over her, his cock poised at her entrance. Her legs wrapped about his thighs and drew him close until he was buried to the hilt inside her.
None of his dreams, none of his memories, matched the sheer heaven of being surrounded by her heat. He stared down at her, wanting to order her to open her eyes, to watch them unfocus as she came. But there was something ethereal about the look on her face that made him hold off. He didn’t need to see her eyes when her body told her everything he needed to know. Her swollen lips were parted, tiny puffs of air as she gasped for breath warmed his arm when she turned her head, unseeing, toward it. Her body rippled around him, drawing him in deeper. Her hips undulated, grinding her clit with each pass. Her nipples were hard dark berries, larger than they had been when they were first married, softer too, from age and breast feeding but they were just as beautiful.
He dipped his head and caught one between his teeth. He wanted to crow when her pussy clamped tight around him. When this was over he’d ask her about the scar on the inside part of her arm that looked like a burn or the one on her hip where a bullet had gone in one fleshy side and out the other. For now, he’d celebrate that they were here. Together.
He rocked his hips back then pushed back in, balls deep. His own eyes closed as he set a steady rhythm, until he could control himself no more. Her heels dug into his behind and her nails dug into his biceps as she came silently. When he followed her seconds later, he wasn’t so quiet, his hoarse roar echoing off the walls.
It took him a moment before he could rouse himself to roll off her. As soon as he was on the mattress beside her, Lauren rolled into his arms with a murmured, “I love you” that had him closing his eyes and burying his face in her hair.
Maybe they could make it work. For the first time in years, hope replaced the dark pressure in his heart.
Chapter Ten
Lauren awoke to find Chad wrapped around her the way he had for the last four nights. Like each previous morning, his hand rested on her breast while his erection prodded her hip. “Mmm, that’s a nice way to wake up.”
“Just relax, babe. Let me do all the work.” The heat of his breath on her skin was the only warning she got before he sucked her nipple into his mouth. He spent a few minutes toying with her, his teeth rasping over her delicate flesh, occasionally tugging with a sharp nip, then his tongue would soothe the sting until she was panting.
She shifted, with every intention of touching him, but her hands wouldn’t move. Another tug confirmed it—he’d restrained her wrists above her head while she slept. Had he restrained her ankles too? She wiggled her feet. Nope. Well, this should be…interesting.
Squinting, she opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the bright sunlight slanting across the bed that painted his skin pure gold. “You mind telling me just how long you plan on keeping me here?”
Tell me “forever”.
He lifted his head and looked at her, a wolfish look in his eyes and a smile tugging at his lips. “I don’t plan on loosening those restraints until I’ve made you come at least three times.”
“You’ve always loved a challenge.”
He set to his task, using his mouth and his hands to rediscover all the places that drove her crazy—the spot on her neck directly beneath her ear, the soft skin inside her elbow, just above each hip. She closed her eyes and gave in to the erotic sensation of his breath and his mouth on her. He explored every inch of her body until she was panting, aching with need.
Finally he parted her folds with his thumbs. His tongue traced where his thumbs had been, flicking over her clit with a light touch.
“I’ve always loved how you taste, Lauren.” When they’d been married and he said that, there had been pride in his voice, but now…now there was need, heat, urgency. And something else. Not anger, but… determination? Whether to prove something to her or to him, she didn’t even try to guess. Before she could decide how she felt, he returned to his task. Her orgasm slammed into her like a tidal wave, lifting her hips from the mattress as her pussy sought to be filled.
He planted his hands on either side of her head and eased into her. She lost herself in the familiarity of the scene. Of his scent, his rhythm. Him surrounding her. Filling her. The sounds of flesh on flesh, their breathing as it quickened, became her whole world. This. This is what I’ve searched for. This is what I missed, what I’ve wanted.
He’d just collapsed on top of her, both having found their release, when someone knocked at Chad’s bedroom door.
“Do you think if we’re quiet they’ll go away?” she whispered. She felt Chad’s snort more than heard it.
The handle to Chad’s door rattled. On the far side there was a quiet curse, then whoever it was pounded on her door. “Get your butt out here, Miller.” Troy. Shit. “Sam’s on the phone.”
“All right, I’m coming,” Chad called in return.
“Not anymore,” Lauren said beneath her breath. Even exhausted from their lovemaking as she was, she couldn’t help but admire his butt when he rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
When he returned, he leaned against the doorframe. She tugged on the restraints still binding her to the headboard. “Do you mind letting me go? I could use a trip to the bathroom myself.”
Her chest hurt at the predatory satisfaction of the smile he gave her. “I’m not sure. I’m not done yet, am I?”
“What do you mean?”
“I told you I’d make you come three times and by my count you’ve only come twice.”
“You always were an overachiever.” Her breath caught when he leaned down to kiss her. Without breaking the kiss, he freed her, allowing her to wrap her arms around his neck. They were both breathing heavily before he broke away. “Promise me you’ll come back and give me a chance to even the score?”
“I won’t be long. And I will definitely be back. You can count on it.”
“Chad.” Troy pounded on the door agai
n. “Get your ass out here before I break the effin’ door, damn it.”
He returned to his room and closed the adjoining door. Lauren swung from the bed and padded to the bathroom. When she returned, the connecting door was open once again. Instead of Chad, Troy stood in the middle of the room, his expression guarded as his gaze raked the length of her.
“Well, well, well. Looks like Father Christmas arrived early—or late—this year. You look good with your hair all messed up like that. The razor burn on your chest is a nice touch too.”
She headed to the closet to grab a robe, then stopped. Chad had said he would be right back and she was damned if she’d let Troy stop him from giving her that third orgasm. Instead she grabbed the top sheet off the bed and wrapped it around her toga style. “Where’s Chad?”
“Talking to Sam on the encrypted system downstairs. He’ll be back in a bit.” His gaze met hers finally, his expression hard. “The longer you play kissy-face while lying to him, the worse it’s going to hurt him when he finds out the truth. Just get it over with—tell him. Tell him everything.
“He knows about why I was at the spa.”
“Good.” He nodded in approval. “Then tell him the rest. About the Brigade, about Thalia’s part in committing you to that asylum
She stilled. “You know what she did?”
“I overheard that fight you had with her, remember? About how she’d told you Chad had remarried.” Troy had been the one who had told her Chad barely even dated. “I also told you, I got into your files, remember? After I read yours, I read hers.”
“Oh.”
“You need to tell him, Lauren. He needs to know.”
“What am I supposed to say? ‘By the way, Chad, your sister is a lying bitch who manipulated me and I was so stupid I let her’?”
“He deserves the truth, damn it. Not many men these days live with the type of code he holds himself and others to. If you want to keep him, you’ll effin' come clean to him. He deserves that much after what he’s given up for you both. He gave up his career to protect her.”
“Going against orders was his choice.” The hurt, the betrayal she’d felt when she’d learned what he’d done raked her again. Not that he’d gone against them, but that he hadn’t talked to her first. But even if she’d known, what would she have said or done? “He could have asked her to stop going to that damned place until Vandeburg was captured.”
“He had. She refused.”
Lauren stilled. “He never told me.”
Troy sighed. “All right, so save Thalia for later. For Christ’s sake, at least tell him who Cooper really is and have him banned from that damned club before he brings trouble to its doors. That’s the last thing either Sam or Chad need after sacrificing their careers for it.”
“Yes, Lauren. Tell me who Cooper really is. Tell me why he should be banned from his own club.”
Her own expression couldn’t have looked any less guilty than Troy’s when they both stared at Chad, who stood in the connecting doorway.
Tension radiated from him as he stalked into the room, his fingers flexing as if they wanted to go for his weapon. Or punch Troy in the jaw. When he looked at her, the warmth that had been in them just minutes before had been replaced with ice.
“Who the hell is Cooper, Lauren? What’s he doing that should get him banned from the club?” Chad repeated.
Troy’s shoulders slumped; he ran a hand through his thick mane of hair. “Cooper’s running—”
“Troy, stop,” Lauren interrupted, sensing he was quite willing to throw her to the wolves. “I’m sorry, Chad, but Troy can’t tell you anything about it. You need to forget what you just heard.”
The glare he turned on her could have withered a nun’s wimple. “Like hell I’m going to forget what I heard. Now, you tell me what Cooper’s up to.”
“We can’t.”
“You won’t,” Chad corrected.
“No, I mean we can’t. I signed a secrecy agreement.”
“What’ll happen if you break that agreement? You’ll be slapped on the wrist? Fired? You’ve told me you’ve already quit.” His voice could have frozen the Potomac in July. “What the hell is he doing? Is Cooper the man you were investigating? Is he the one who hired Harris?”
When she didn’t answer, he yelled, “Tell me, damn it!”
“Cooper was my boss. That’s all I can tell you. And even that can get us all in trouble.”
Troy apparently didn’t feel the same boundaries. “Fuck that. Cooper is head of The Brigade. It’s a multi-government, black-op, hostage rescue unit that operates separately from any of the government agencies in order to provide plausible deniability.”
Chapter Eleven
Chad jerked back as if he’d been shot. He straightened and looked between the two of them, processing the various scenarios from the little information he’d gleaned and added it to his conversation with Sam. “You lied to me. Both of you.”
“We had to,” Lauren agreed quietly. “The Brigade often has to infiltrate terrorist organizations. If the wrong piece of information gets out, if the wrong person finds out about something, people could die. If we talk to someone who we’re not authorized to talk to, we can be charged with treason and tried in a very private court with a very private—and very final—sentence.”
His stomach felt as if he’d been buckled into a roller coaster that was doing loops and spins, ready to rocket off its rails. He hated roller coasters.
He glanced at Troy, who was staring stone-faced out the window. “How long have you known about this?”
“About eight months. It was the Brigade who extracted our guys in Colombia.” Troy slumped on the windowsill. “Lauren was running the op. I don’t remember seeing Weir there, but things got pretty hairy and…well, maybe he was there and I just missed him.”
“Does Sam know about any of this?”
“No.”
Which explained why Troy had worked from home for weeks after he’d returned from Colombia.
The roller coaster they were riding flipped over in a dozen different directions then abruptly stopped. She’d owed him no explanation. If she’d been working with a black ops team, she wouldn’t have been able to tell him anything. They’d each had to keep certain parts of their work secret from each other before. How was this any different?
Troy was a different matter. He may have possibly put not only Hauberk but the club members at risk. However there was nothing to be done about it at the moment. Not until they’d solved this current situation.
“Is there really a threat? Is there really a Jack Harris?”
“Yes, there’s really a Jack Harris. He’s after me because I had him taken off active duty. And you’re a target because he may try to get back at me by hitting you.”
Could he believe her? She’d given him a completely different story in the gazebo. Was this tale any closer to the truth than that one? “Who is he really?”
“He’s a former British agent. He’d been working undercover to infiltrate an offshoot of the Shining Path when his cover got blown. He didn’t like the way his government handled his case after he got back so Cooper recruited him.”
“Why did you have him taken off active duty?”
She took a deep breath. “I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you we noticed he was having problems after a mission went sour in Somalia.”
“PTSD?”
She nodded. “Among other things.”
Somalia, with its war lords and lawlessness. She’d been facing those thugs? Chad pinched the bridge of his nose. Too many scenarios flashed through his mind. Too many questions. Troy had said Colombia had been a hell of a firefight; where else had she been? “Were you in charge of the op that went bad? Is that why he’s after you?”
“No, I was in charge of his next mission. He wigged out and damned near caused us all to be killed. When we got back Cooper put him on administrative leave. Because I was the one who signed the report, he’s focused on me
as being the cause of all his problems.”
“A variation of the ‘kill the messenger’ response.” He’d seen it before. “Was Weir part of the decision making process?”
“No. Ed was part of the team, but I’m the only one he’s targeting.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” There was no way to break it to her gently, and no time either. “Weir’s dead, Lauren.”
Beside him, Troy swore and turned away. Lauren said nothing but color drained from her face.
“He was found this morning in a seedy hotel room up near Fredrick. According to the news reports, other guests reported hearing an argument in the middle of the night and called the front desk. When the police arrived, the room had been trashed and Weir was dead. His throat had been slit.”
He narrowed his eyes at Lauren’s curse.
He shared a confused look with Troy when she knelt at the side of the bed and stuck her hand between the box spring and mattress. “Lauren? What are you looking for?”
“The transponder.”
“The what?” He took a step forward at the same time as Troy.
“A transponder—Ed gave it to me in case things went bad here and I needed to be extracted.”
“You didn’t have any sort of device with you.” Troy’s eyes were wide with horror when he met Chad’s glance. “I swear, we checked. Walters went over her with a wand before they took off the first time, and we checked again right after I met her. We took her purse away, everything. There were no devices on her. I swear.”
Lauren sat back on her heels and stared at the device she’d retrieved. It was smaller than the key fob Chad used to unlock his car doors. “Ed tucked it in my hair just before he left. Andy was thorough but you…”
“Just checked your fucking clothes,” Troy snarled.
From the look on Troy’s face, Chad was pretty sure if he hadn’t been in the room Troy might have attacked Lauren.
Her fingers closed around the device. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t broadcast its location unless it’s turned on. Which it hasn’t been since I arrived. So if Harris took the other unit from Ed, he can’t find me.” She placed it on the floor. “We have to destroy this one so there’s no chance it can ever broadcast our location. Troy, stomp on it. Break the damned thing.”
