by Lucy Monroe
He rolled on top of her and kissed her so she couldn’t say anything else to provoke his emotions.
She melted under him, just like always, responding with a passion no other woman had ever shown Myk. It wasn’t just physical response; Lana gave everything of herself when they made love.
He wanted to give her something.
He kissed a trail down her neck and across both breasts, sipping at each nipple for a few tantalizing seconds, before continuing down her body. He stopped to lick her fragrant navel. She’d admitted to rubbing jasmine oil into it and other key spots on her body the night before.
“That feels so good. I don’t understand why it does.”
He lifted his head, smiling at his sweet little scientist. “Stop trying to analyze it, doc. Maybe what happens between us is just pure magic, sweetheart.”
She looked totally dumbfounded. “Say that again.”
“It’s magic.” He dipped his head and kissed the very sensitive skin just below her navel. “You’re magic to me.”
She so was.
“Mykola.”
He didn’t know what brought that tone of voice from her, but he was determined to do whatever it took to get it repeated.
He nuzzled the musky curls of her mound and she moaned. He lifted his head once again to make eye contact. He felt deep satisfaction at her dazed expression. “Spread your legs for me, doc.”
She obeyed, a soft whimper sounding as his fingers found the slick folds he intended to taste. She was still swollen from their lovemaking the night before and the warm humidity between her legs called to him like the sweet nectar it was.
To him.
He didn’t know if it was a chemical match, or just plain magic, but she tasted better to him than any other woman ever had. He gently explored her inner labia and then the warm, wet tunnel of her vagina. “You’re so silky soft here, baby.”
She hummed, whether it was agreement, or pure pleasure, he didn’t know. And honestly, as long as it was a good sound, he didn’t care.
He played with her, letting his fingertip just barely brush against that spot inside her that he knew drove her wild. Her body jerked and she made the humming noise again. So pleasure.
He filed that knowledge away for future reference and dipped his head to take the first sample of her warm honey. She arched her pelvis, chasing more of his tongue, but he kept his oral caresses light and careful.
He wanted this to last and his sensual lover had a tendency to go off like a rocket.
He laved her from the bottom of her labia to the top of her clitoral hood in long, slow swipes over and over again until her pelvis was twitching like an itchy trigger finger. He gently caught her clitoris between his teeth while pressing more firmly against her G-spot, eliciting a long, low moan from her and a sudden arch of her lower body.
He flicked the right side of her clitoris with his tongue tip, repeating the jabbing and then sliding motion until she was begging for him to bring her over. He added a second finger to the first inside her and rubbed her G-spot with stiff digits.
She writhed, crying out and pressing herself into his mobile mouth. Then she was coming, whispering his name over and over, her body convulsing again and again.
He drew the pleasure out until she gasped a word other than his name. “Please.”
He knew she meant he had to stop, that she was too sensitive. He loved being able to read her that way.
He wiped his mouth on the sheet and climbed up her body, his dick so hard he thought he would explode.
“Rub off on me,” she said, her eyes heavy lidded with satiation.
“No. This was my gift to you.”
“Not a whole gift until you come, too.”
He stared at her and read in her expression a feeling he knew resided in his own heart. For his pleasure to be complete with her, it needed to be mutual.
She licked her lips. “Another fantasy for me.”
“Me rubbing off on you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re an amazingly sensuous woman, doc.”
She just looked at him.
“How do you want it?” he asked, giving in.
Because he wanted her to have her every fantasy and the thought of coming against her excited him beyond his ability to control.
She spread her legs so he rested between her thighs, his hard-on pressed against the top of her mound.
“This is dangerous, sweetheart.”
“You’ll be careful.”
Damn right he would. He was so turned on it only took a few strokes and he was coming all over her stomach, white jets of come landing in pearlescent globs against her pale skin.
“Now, rub it in.”
He didn’t ask if she was kidding. He could tell by her tone she wasn’t, but damn, he hadn’t seen this earthy side to her. He liked it. He liked it a lot. Maybe even loved it.
He’d never before experienced the primal feeling of possession marking her with his most intimate scent gave him. “Damn, baby, this might be a fantasy I never knew about.”
She smiled, still boneless from her own prolonged orgasm. “If I tell you there is a chemical in a man’s sperm that works like endorphins for his partner, helping her maintain a more positive mood, does that take away the sexiness for you?”
“Nope. Just makes me hotter.”
“It’s magic,” she whispered, like it was a secret. “The science kind.”
He nodded his head as the last of his come disappeared like lotion into her skin. “Magic.”
They showered together later, but he thought he could still smell his scent on her afterward. He liked that more than he wanted to admit.
His phone was ringing when they stepped back into the bedroom after drying off.
He looked at the caller ID and answered. “Morning, sir.”
“Good morning, Myk. I’d like to meet with you before flying back to D.C. later today.”
“Did you have a location in mind?”
“I’d like to see Smith’s brainchild.”
“ETRD?”
“Yes.”
“What time, sir?”
“We can share lunch in the employee dining room. Smith bragged about his chef.”
“I’m sure the head chef isn’t working on Sunday.”
“If he’s as good as Smith says he is, he’s trained his people to prepare equally delicious dishes in his absence.”
“Do I sense a small rivalry here, sir?” Something like the one between his mother and grandmother. Not an angry rivalry but there nonetheless.
“Perhaps, agent, perhaps.”
Myk laughed. “I’ll be there at noon on the dot, sir.”
“I look forward to our meeting.”
“You’re a glutton for punishment, aren’t you, sir?”
“I think I’m growing on you, Myk. Don’t think I haven’t notice you calling me sir, which is a step up from Whitmore.”
Myk laughed and hung up without saying goodbye.
Maybe the Old Man was wearing on him. Not that he was sure he wanted to keep working for TGP, but he understood a little better how Whitmore could have pulled Elle from the field. Everyone at ETRD knew who she had worked for. Not just the select two Smith had revealed her status to.
When she heard he was going to ETRD, Lana insisted on going with him.
“Sweetheart, I already agreed to take you to work tomorrow, as long as nothing we overhear on our listening devices makes me think that will increase your risk.”
“We know Vega’s scientists are busy today testing the enzymes under various conditions, trying to make them work.” She glared at nothing in particular. “I’ve lost enough time in my lab due to that man’s interference. If I have a chance to take some of it back, I’m going to.”
“All right, doc. You can come.”
He wasn’t surprised when Casey wanted to come, too, not when Nisha made it clear she could afford some time at ETRD catching up on work. He took the scientists in his Land R
over and a detail of Brett’s men followed in one of their Escalades.
Lana and Casey worked on updating measurements in both growing rooms, working together instead of separately as was their norm. That had been Mykola’s idea. He wanted one of their guards at the lab door and the other inside the growing room with them.
“I appreciate Myk assigning a guard to Nisha today,” Casey said as he wrote down the measurements Lana had just given him. “It makes me feel safer.”
“Being kidnapped is terrifying. It leaves you paranoid for a long time after, on your own behalf and that of the people you care about.”
“Is that why you bought me a watch with a GPS locator in it?” Casey asked. “You care about me, huh?”
“You’re my best friend, Casey.”
“And here I thought you always saw me as an annoying little brother.”
Lana grinned. “Well, you can be annoying.”
“I’m not mad.”
“That I bought the watch and didn’t tell you about the locator?”
“Yeah. I understand.”
“Thank you. That means a lot.”
“You think Nisha would wear one?”
Lana didn’t laugh. She didn’t even feel like cracking a smile. She understood what Casey felt. She shrugged. “You should probably ask her. Maybe an anklet, or something.”
“Where’s yours?”
“Who said I have one?”
“I’m keeping my watch on.”
She nodded. “It’s a belly button ring and Mr. Smith has the GPS connection for it.”
“Are you going to give access to Myk, too?”
She wished she could. “He’ll only be around until the current case is resolved, Casey.”
“Are you serious?” Casey looked shocked. “No way. The guy has it bad for you, Lana. Maybe as bad as I’ve got it for Nisha.”
“You’re crazy.” Oh, that was diplomatic. There went her nonexistent filter again.
“Not even. He couldn’t keep his hands off you the first day you met. Come on, Lana. What do you think that means?”
“That he’s highly sexual and knew I wanted him? I blurted it out when I first saw him. I was talking to myself again.”
Casey didn’t even crack a smile. “So? He had to be way into you to make out with you while his sister was still at risk from Vega.”
She’d never thought of that. “You think?”
“You’re the one that says I’m better at scenario creation than you.”
“Don’t get cocky or I’ll put you on the Oryza sativa detail for two straight weeks.” See how he liked getting what he’d started referring to as the “stink of death growing room” every day instead of every other day.
“Playing the boss card, are you?”
“It has its merits.”
Casey laughed. “Right. You’d keep it up for three days maybe before guilt got the better of you. You’re too nice, Lana.”
“And you take advantage of that.”
“Actually I don’t. That’s why you trust me.”
It was true. Casey had proven time and again to be a person of deep integrity. “I do.”
“I know.”
“I don’t trust very many people.”
“I figured that out. You mutter to yourself about stuff in your past sometimes.”
Lana sighed. “You know about Turkey.”
“Yes. I know you have almost no control over your talking when your brain is engaged in your work. So, at first I tried not to listen and then I just decided you wouldn’t talk about the stuff around me if you didn’t subconsciously trust me.”
“Because you noticed I didn’t talk about that stuff in front of other people.”
“How did you know?”
“Because no one else here knew about Turkey until Elle told them.”
“Cool.”
She gave him a questioning look.
“It’s one thing to surmise you trust me, it’s another thing to know it.”
She nodded, understanding washing over her.
Because no matter how many ways she thought to convince herself that Mykola saw her as something more than a convenient sex partner, until he confirmed it irrevocably, there was a part of her heart that was going to keep hurting. What scared her was the knowledge that that pain would be with her from now on.
When they got back to the beach house, Myk asked Lana if she wanted to sit in on the sit rep from Brett. He’d had to explain that meant situation report and then she’d both agreed and smiled, telling him she enjoyed learning his shorthand talk as much as knowing her own industry’s.
Once again, he was unsurprised when Casey and Nisha asked to join them. He led them all into the living room.
Brett and Claire were sitting together on the extrawide armchair that matched the white leather sofa. They were kissing passionately.
Myk cleared his throat, but Casey wasn’t so circumspect. He let out a loud wolf whistle that had the couple springing apart.
Brett just grinned at them all, but Claire turned an interesting shade of crimson.
“You got a sit rep for me, Brett?” Myk asked as he sat down on the end of the couch closest to the married couple.
Lana sat next to him and he smiled inwardly to see Nisha and Casey taking similar positions at the other end of the long sofa.
“Vega is pissed,” Brett said succinctly.
Claire nodded. “None of the experiments have resulted in any change whatsoever.”
“Of course not.” Lana sounded happy about that fact.
Brett smiled at her. “Ramirez has tried to convince him that maybe the enzymes only work on plants.”
“He’s not happy about that possibility, either,” Claire said, sounding worried.
“What aren’t you saying?” Myk asked her.
“He hasn’t come right out and said it, but I think Ramirez is in real trouble,” Claire replied. “The way he was swearing and knocking things around his office, I would be surprised if he didn’t hurt her, or worse.”
“You think he’s going to kill her?” Myk asked.
“I think it’s a possibility.”
“I think he’s already hurt her,” Brett said. “Some of the sounds I heard during his latest temper tantrum were unmistakably flesh hitting flesh and a body hitting a wall at one point. She was talking after that, so I know he didn’t kill her, but one more temper tantrum and I think he’ll use his gun on her.”
Myk sighed. “That would not be atypical for him.”
Lana sat up. “Mykola, we have to do something. We can’t let him kill her.”
“She knew what she was getting into when she started working for him. It was her spying that put you and my sister at risk.”
“Yes, to one and no to the other. You can’t be sure she knew what she was getting into when she started working for him, or that she even had a choice. They’re related. You better than anyone should know cartel jefes don’t give their family a choice about working in the family business.”
“It’s true,” Brett said.
“What can I do?” Myk asked, exasperated.
“I don’t know. But I know you can do something. She’s probably terrified for her life right now.”
“She might flip for a chance at witness protection,” Brett mused.
“How soon can you get an extraction team down there?” Myk asked him.
“Not as soon as the mercenary team that took over our business when we got out of extractions.”
“Call them.”
“I’ll keep looking for some kind of map of the compound on one of the systems I hacked,” Claire said and then started looking worried again. “What are we going to do to keep Rarmirez alive in the meantime? Vega’s temper is on a hair trigger. He really doesn’t like being disappointed.”
“Were you able to hack into data on Vega’s organization?” Myk asked her.
“Yep. I’ve got information the CIA would kill for.”
“We’ll figure out
how to make an anonymous information drop later. Right now, I want to know if you were able to get his personal cell number and those of his employees?”
“As a matter of fact, I was.”
“Okay, we call Ramirez and we offer the data.”
“She is our negotiator?” Brett asked.
“Right.”
“What’s to stop Vega from demanding to negotiate the deal himself?”
“We tell him Lana doesn’t trust men and will only negotiate with a woman. She knows Ramirez, so she’s willing to talk to her.”
“You’re brilliant!” Lana threw her arms around Myk and gave him a tight hug. “The prospect of getting what he wants should keep her alive until we get her out.”
“What if she won’t flip?” Claire asked.
Myk shrugged. Not his problem. “Then we charge her with kidnapping and she goes to prison. Whatever happens from there is on her own head.”
Brett nodded. “It’s a plan.”
Claire got both Ramirez’s and Vega’s numbers for Myk.
First Myk called Vega, using an untraceable disposable cell phone. He didn’t bother with preliminaries. As soon as the man picked up he said, “Dr. Lana Ericson will be calling your girl Ramirez in the next few minutes with an offer you won’t want to refuse.”
He hung up in the middle of Vega’s demand to know who he was speaking to.
Lana called Ramirez and put the call on speaker.
“Hello?” Ramirez said, sounding far from her cocky self. In fact, she sounded exhausted, the kind of tired that comes from being so terrified a person can’t maintain the fear-induced adrenaline.
“This is Dr. Ericson from ETRD.”
“We were informed to expect a call.”
“By now, you have no doubt discovered that my enzymes do not work on anything but the plants they were developed for.”
“What? They don’t work on metal at all?” Now, Ramirez sounded resigned. To something terrible.
“No, they don’t.”
“But you said in your notes they would turn lead into gold.”
“Achieving a second harvest on staple food crops is that to me.”
“Oh.”
Spanish swearing erupted from someone else in the room. Ramirez’s phone must be on speaker as well. The sound of flesh hitting flesh could be heard. Ramirez made a sound of pain, then Vega said something to her in rapid-fire Spanish.
