The Omega Team_Knight & Day

by Stephanie Queen

  Joe also observed that Ariana viewed it as part of her protection detail to protect Pope Luke Paul from the worst of the users and abusers of the Pope’s generosity, without appearing to. But he knew anyway.

  As they paraded inside the spacious accommodations among bishops and priests, Joe realized this was not a crowd to worry about. Cardinal O’Mara and the bishops and priests of the Archdiocese gathered to admire and behold the Pope’s greatness.

  Cardinal O’Mara himself walked with them to show them their rooms. The cardinal had put Joe in the room adjoining Pope Luke Paul. Ariana was on an upper floor where his housekeeping staff were accommodated.

  Joe knew this was not the first time this had happened her. Her graciousness impressed him, but Joe couldn’t help speaking up for her.

  “Ariana Day is the personal protector of the Pope at his request. She will stay in the room adjoining his and I’ll stay—”

  “I’ll stay in the room on the other side, Joe. The one without an adjoining door. We’ve prepared for this. We know the layout of your beautiful rectory, Cardinal O’Mara.”

  Before the Cardinal said another word, Pope Luke Paul put a hand on his arm.

  “This is a new age of empowered women, amazing women. I trust Ari with my life.” He paused and showed a sly dimple before adding. “Certainly you are not concerned about impropriety—”

  “No, certainly not Your Holiness.”

  The poor cardinal went on. Joe stopped listening and found himself staring across at Ari. If only she didn’t have that beautiful face. The thought jarred him. Because his vision blurred, essentially proving to him that it wasn’t her face he was in love with. It was her soul, her beautiful blessed stubborn soul, warm and tough at the same time. She was an impossibility come to life.

  The cardinal left them and Pope Luke Paul went into his room, leaving him with Ariana in the semi-privacy of a well-guarded busy hallway.

  “After dinner we’ll have some downtime,” she said to him now as if seeing his well-hidden exhaustion.

  “The Swiss Guard gets close duty?”

  “This will be the safest part of the itinerary, our only real chance to relinquish some measure of responsibility. They’re capable.”

  “I know. They show remarkable restraint in not displaying their resentment of me.”

  She laughed.

  “If they’ve gotten over me in their midst, Joe, they can overcome anything in the name of their mission of protection.” He watched the dancing twinkle in her eyes and felt like pulling her into one of the rooms that lined the hallway where they stood and shutting the door behind them.

  She read his mind. Or maybe she had the same thought. Either way, he enjoyed the rise of pale pink to her cheeks, the extra glaze in her eyes.

  “Let’s get some rest before dinner.” She disappeared into her room.

  That exchange wasn’t nearly enough to quench his need. It was an appetizer that heightened his hunger. He resolved to steal them some time alone from the incorruptible itinerary after dinner.

  If the Pope had arranged the dinner table, Joe was certain he’d have been sitting near Ariana. As it was, he could watch her, but he couldn’t hear her. He could see her bemuse an old bishop and make people around her laugh. God—and the Pope—only knew what she said, how she maintained her energy.

  All Joe had left was the underlying buzz of anticipation propelling him to the end of the meal. No one seemed to mind that he excused himself shortly after Pope Luke Paul and Ariana stood and left the room. He caught up with them in the hall as the Pope retired with his personal assistant. After a last check of the Pope’s room, she said, “The only thing we need to worry about now is a bomb or a fire or betrayal by a fallen staff member. None of which are likely.”

  “Good to know, Sherlock.”

  “I’m glad you’re still full of sarcastic humor.” She showed a dimple. “We have work to do. Final preparations for tomorrow. Follow me.”

  “I’m as full of piss and vinegar as you.” He would follow her anywhere.

  The knowledge was disquieting, but it didn’t stop him from walking into a library office behind her. She sat behind the desk and he sat in the only place he could—in a chair on the other side of the desk from her. Alone but separated. He spied the door. It was ajar. He contemplated getting up and closing it.

  “We’ll leave the door open for propriety’s sake. Cardinal O’Mara’s staff graciously allowed me the use of his library.”

  “You taking mind-reading lessons from His Holiness?”

  “I hate to tell you, but you’re not a tough code to crack.” She laughed.

  “I should be embarrassed by that, but I’m not—“.”

  “Before we go down this road, let’s take care of business,” she said. His anticipation ratcheted up to Vesuvius levels.

  She briefed Joe on details about the exact nature of the threat on the Pope.

  “The intel is unusual and indicates an up-close-and-personal attack, from what translators and analysts can tell me. They won’t share the original voice transcripts and messages that were intercepted.”

  “It’s probably a stupid question, but is there any way we can talk the Pope out of giving communion? It will be his riskiest point of vulnerability.”

  “It is a stupid question. But I’m hoping we can get some significant updates in intel—or chatter or whatever they call it—from the FBI. I’ve set up a conference call.” She looked at her watch.

  “For right now?” The phone rang and she picked up the receiver from the old-fashioned desk phone. He figured it was as secure as they were going to get.

  “Let me put you on speaker.”

  The conference call with the Boston Police Commissioner and FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Boston office on the other end of the line yielded no additional significant intel.

  After the call, Ariana sighed deeply, then stood. He stood. Neither of them moved toward the door. He felt like a tuning fork that had been struck hard by a violent need to act. It was funny that he felt paralyzed at the same time.

  She held his eyes and seemed to be on the verge of speaking. He didn’t trust her not to dismiss him, so he jumped into the beat of silence when she took a breath.

  “We need to talk. You and me. About us.”

  They both held their breath for a beat as if letting the dust settle after an explosion.

  He’d said us as if there were an us.

  But so far nothing that had happened or had been said on this assignment between them should have led him—or any rational man—to that conclusion. Which left him to conclude that he was no longer rational about Ariana Day.

  Not a big news flash.

  She nodded, stayed silent. She’d never been a talky woman. Another thing he loved about her. Loved about her? He was fucked.

  She waited him out but he took his time, trying to think what to say, to think what was bothering him most. What the hell could he ask her that would help him bring closure to the gaping wound she’d left in his heart and soul?

  “Did I ever have a chance?”

  “More than you know.”

  “Don’t give me f—stupid riddles.” He swiped a hand through his hair and held onto his head, literally and figuratively.

  “I felt myself falling for you. It was a scary thing for me, Joe. It would have meant the end of everything in my life, everything I’d known and worked for…” She trailed off, seemingly running out of words. Maybe she was running out of patience with him.

  “Don’t you think it was scary for me too?” But I wanted you anyway. He couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

  “You haven’t found anyone else? All these years, Joe?”

  He couldn’t tell if she wanted him to say yes or no. He told the truth.

  “No. But then I haven’t been looking. I never meant to find the love of my life.”

  Boom.

  He’d said the words that he’d never meant to say, that he’d never said aloud befor
e. They echoed in his head, echoed in the room., He forced himself to keep her eyes on his, to feel the full brunt of her response, whatever it would be.

  “This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I didn’t want to hear this from you. I didn’t want to have to admit my feelings for you. I wanted them to be gone and to stay gone. And they would have—”

  Raw need roared in his ears, driving him forward to hold her. She leaned against him, in his arms for no more than a few hammering heartbeats.

  Then she pushed him away.

  “We need to get rest, Joe. We have important duties tomorrow, you and I. This can’t happen between us.”

  She swept past him and out the door. He gulped air and followed after her, swallowing his pride along the way. He didn’t catch up with her before she closed the door of her room behind her.

  Joe went into his room and closed the door. The adrenaline spike he felt now was more powerful than he’d had earlier that day, than any he’d had in a dangerous situation. It was all Ariana. It felt like he had more than his life at stake. He was there to protect her and he wondered now what he was to protect her from? What danger? Himself?

  Or was he to protect her from her own ambitions?

  Pacing around the room, he looked at the adjoining door and thought of asking His Holiness these questions. But that would have been beyond presumptuous. He was out of his mind. He needed to cool down. He needed to get the vision of Ariana Day from his mind.

  But he hadn’t been able to extinguish his passion for her in years of absence so who was he kidding about being able to do it now? He needed her to do it for him. He needed her to reject him all the way, to reject his lust and his love.

  Joe went back out to the hall and walked to her room in spite of the Swiss Guard he passed by outside the Pope’s door. He knocked on her door, eyeing the guard with a warning.

  “Stay outside that door. All night.” He would have felt guilty if the Pope hadn’t told Joe he was there to protect Ari, not him.

  She opened her door. He stood silent. He wasn’t going to beg. After a very long pause, she let him in.

  He closed the door behind him and pulled her into him before she could speak or argue. Even as he knew he was out of control, letting his lust and, worse, his emotions get the better of him, he held her, lowered his head and kissed her.

  It felt like coming home, like walking through the front door after being away at war for years. It was a feeling he knew. It was a lightening of his soul he hadn’t known he needed.

  She returned his kiss, lips cool and thirsty against his, soft and pliable. But then she separated, pressing but not pushing. He let her.

  He spoke then, his voice raspier than before.

  “What is it that can’t happen between us?”

  “None of this. I want you Joe, but I want more than I can have.”

  “Who says you can’t—?”

  “Let’s not argue.” She pulled back.

  “I want everything you can give me. I want to give you everything you’ll take. Isn’t that enough?”

  He moved close again while she stared at him, her eyes glassy, heat swirling between them. He backed her toward the bed. It was tall, but he pushed her onto it all the same, lifting her as she tried to protest.

  But the only coherent word that came from her mouth was his name.

  “Joe…” She didn’t say no. She didn’t say go away and leave me alone as he’d feared she might.

  A sense of power and euphoria filled him like he was about to conquer the highest mountain in the universe. That stopped him as he lay on top of her, looking down into her eyes, the soft features of her face cloaking the tough-as-nails interior. He wanted her, but he had no intentions of hurting her, not even to take what little comfort he could get to treasure. He would hate himself.

  “Ariana, I’m in love with you, with who you are—all the complicated messy parts of you, not an ideal. I’m in love with you—the woman trying to do the impossible and struggling like we mortals sometimes do.”

  A tear slipped down her cheek and he kissed it away.

  “Joe, I wish you didn’t make me feel this way—as if I’d discovered the one person in the world who was my perfect match, who knew me, who excited me, who wanted me—all of me. The same way I want you. Because you know I made my choices—not any official vow like a nun or a priest, but the vow of a Swiss Guard and an extra vow to myself.” She paused and caught her breath and when she continued her voice was strangled. “An impossible vow.”

  “Not impossible. I promise I won’t…” What could he promise? That he wouldn’t seduce her? Because that’s sure as hell what he was doing at that very moment.

  She waited for him to finish.

  “I promise I’ll leave you alone.” It cost him to say the words. He commanded his arms to push off her that very moment in spite of his throbbing cock, in spite of his raging need, in spite of his breaking heart.

  But she held on. She pulled his head down to hers, pulling his hair and holding his chin with her hand. She opened her mouth all the way to devour him, to take in everything he had.

  5

  Joe cupped her face in her hands and feasted on her lush lips, her tongue, ran his tongue across her hard teeth, nibbled on the fleshy underside of her lower lip. He found himself breathing too heavy to go on so he released her and sucked in a breath, her breath, tasting and smelling the scent of her, that sweet, sure scent.

  “I want you more than anything,” she rasped. “Don’t leave me like this.” She pulled his face close and ran her tongue over his mouth, sucking his lower lip, moaning and arching her back. He would have told her that he would never leave her this way, wanting. He wanted to see her in that special euphoric state of orgasm, all undone and writhing with pleasure. He wanted to spread her legs and taste the glistening swollen clit he knew he’d find there.

  He lowered his hand, shifting, pulling the panties down her thigh, pushing the skirt up to her hips as she wriggled. She raked her hands across his back, slipping them under his shirt. He’d taken his jacket off but nothing else. As he caressed her warm soft thigh, moving his hand toward the vee, he wished they were naked, but he couldn’t stop himself long enough to take off her clothes, to take off his.

  She arched up to meet his hand when he reached the hot swollen mound of her sex. He slid a finger between the plump folds to find the marble-like clit and ran his thumb, slick with her excitement, up and down.

  She jumped and writhed and would have called out if he hadn’t covered her mouth with his, quieting her. She gasped for air while locked to his mouth, pulled the air from his lungs, murmured strangled words, and gyrated under him, fast and violent.

  When she lifted her hips and clenched her legs together, he pressed his mouth over her lips, swallowing her moan of ecstasy, and watched her face. Her beautiful, passionate, loving fierce face filled with pleasure, her long neck stretched, her hair tousled, head moving side to side as if in disbelief of this euphoric shattering that he was witnessing. The swelling and tightening in his chest, the stiffening and bouncing of his cock, made him want to shatter her again and again.

  As she came down from the orgasmic high, he didn’t want to let her sink all the way. When she reached for his belt, he moved, lifting himself from her, leaving a rush of cool air between them, meeting her eyes, dilated and passion-filled. They questioned him and he smiled.

  The muscles of his arms shook, not because it was a strain to hold himself off her, but because it was a strain to hold back his cock, to give her everything she deserved before he took from her. They’d waited five long years to have each other again. The anticipation had been dormant, but had sprung to life without hesitation, with her mere presence.

  He lowered his head and moved down her body, holding her thighs in his hands, relishing the plump soft feel as he scooped underneath to cup her ass. Then he lifted her and she arched so that the aromatic and juicy vision of her gleaming clit was right there in his face.
He almost lost control then, but he clamped down and took her in his mouth.

  She screamed out and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn’t stop. He clamped his hands tighter on her ass and she got herself under control, he could hear her breathing in ragged whimpers, feel her fingers digging into his shoulders as he licked the length of her from the top of her folds, over her quivering clit, down to where her pussy blended into her ass. He licked, flicked his tongue and sucked in the creamy honey dripping from her, reveling in the frantic sounds, her arching back and her struggle, pulling back before she could spasm and then diving back in.

  He was lost in her, tasting, smelling, breathing her essence. She moved her hands from his shoulders with a strangled sound, calling his name and pushing his face into her pussy hard. He opened his mouth and sucked in, swallowing her clit, flicking his tongue back and forth, over and over until she clamped her legs tight, stopping him from moving, and cried out a short rapturous sound.

  He couldn’t breathe, but he didn’t care. He let her clench, felt her spasms and the dripping honey of her endless orgasm and he wanted to stay in that moment forever.

  When she opened her legs and reached down to pull him up to her face, he let her. He wanted to see her face, flushed and dewy, tousled hair flung around her head, strands caught in her mouth, stuck to the perspiration of her forehead. This time when she reached for his belt he let her as he moved over her, pulling his zipper down. She reached his hand inside his boxers and put a hand around his cock as it bounced free. He shut his eyes and concentrated on the feel of her warm smooth hand, her finger running over the slick tip that leaked his juices, ready to explode.

  He leaned over her and lowered his head to her ear. He wanted to tell her how he felt. Wanted her to feel what he felt, to know what she did to him.