Sweet Reward: A Last Chance Rescue Novel

by Christy Reece

  Cold wind whipped around them, and Jared groaned when Mia wrapped her arms tighter around him and burrowed against his back. Anytime now, he was expecting her to start questioning what the hell she was doing with him, tap him on the shoulder, and tell him she’d changed her mind. He’d done almost nothing since he’d met her other than insult her abilities and question her competence. And the elevator stunt had been over-the-top insane. He wouldn’t have blamed her if she’d slugged him. Instead she’d wrapped herself around him and responded with a passion that’d almost blown his head off.

  If the elevator hadn’t buzzed, would he have stopped before he was inside her? Hell if he knew the answer. He wanted to say he wouldn’t have taken her that way, but his control had been stretched beyond any limit he recognized.

  No way the five LCR people who’d been waiting for the elevator hadn’t figured out what was going on. If Mia’s high color hadn’t given it away, he was sure the wild, crazed look in his eyes had.

  He’d seen the speculative looks in everyone’s eyes, except for Lucas’s. In his, he’d seen astonishment. Lucas knew him better than anyone. Jared Livingston did not lose control, even with a beautiful woman in his arms.

  The fact that he’d almost lost it with Mia should have concerned Jared, too. And that might be the biggest problem of all, because it didn’t trouble him in the least. He wanted her; he had to have her. He didn’t plan to spend any time thinking about what was going to happen after the need was appeased.

  He gripped the handlebars and leaned into a turn. Twenty miles over the speed limit, zipping in and out of bumper-to-bumper traffic like he was being chased by the devil himself, and it still felt as though they were moving at a snail’s pace. If nothing else, the busy traffic forced him to concentrate on his driving and not how good Mia felt wrapped around him.

  No sooner had he congratulated himself on his unerring focus than he felt a soft hand glide down his stomach and caress him through his jeans. Jared jerked at her touch, thinking she’d realize the danger and remove her hand. Instead she grew bolder and cupped him firmly. Cursing vividly in his mind, he nevertheless gritted his teeth and enjoyed the hell out of what she was doing.

  Almost at the point of having to tell her to stop, he felt sweet relief as her apartment building appeared. Jared revved the gas and skidded into a small parking spot. As he pulled himself off the bike and then helped Mia off, he told himself he’d understand if he saw refusal in her face. Even though he continued to throb with a never-ending need, the heat of the moment had long passed. Maybe she’d realized the craziness of what he wanted and had changed her mind.

  Instead of refusal, he saw even more than he could have hoped for. There was need, desire, and a most definite yes gleaming in her eyes. He took her hand and pulled her forward, to the door.

  “Wait.”

  Jared whipped his head around, his heart dropping. “What?”

  “Condoms?”

  “Got ’em.”

  They made it to the elevator in record time, but then had to wait for the cage to return for them. Small talk had never been his thing, and coming up with anything even remotely appropriate right now was well beyond his limited conversational skills. Tension and awareness bounced off Mia. If he took one look at her face, once they got into the elevator, he figured he’d finish what they’d started. He didn’t want their first time to be in an elevator, but the longer he had to wait, the less sure he was of where that would be.

  At last the elevator arrived and they both jumped inside, with the same amount of speed. If he’d had any extra air, he might’ve laughed at her apparent urgency. To know that she was as anxious as he was pleased him immensely.

  They stood apart, Mia on one side, Jared the other. If he touched her … hell, he didn’t know what would happen, but he didn’t want to chance it. The sexual tension was palpable, like a living thing, sucking up all available air. Heat covered his body; sweat beaded on his brow. Desire pulsed, throbbed … needed. Would the damn thing ever get to the fourth floor?

  The bell rang, and at last the doors opened. Before he could grab her hand, Mia grabbed his and pulled him down the hallway to her apartment. Once again, he wanted to laugh at her urgency. But right now, nothing was funny.

  He took her keys from her hand, unlocked the door, and pushed it open. The door clicked shut, and with a small gasp of relief, she flew into his arms.

  Mia had never been so breathless or anxious in her life. Every cell and fiber of her being beat with a thousand tiny pulses of need. Jared ate at her lips, and she eagerly accepted his tongue, loving his taste, his scent. Cool air touched her back, and she realized he’d managed to get her jacket and blouse off.

  She backed away, intending to do the same to him, and then froze. What breath she had managed to catch immediately left her body. No one had ever looked at her like that. The heat gleaming in the depths of his eyes promised pleasure beyond her comprehension.

  Mesmerized by that look, she felt Jared’s hand unclasp her bra. His eyes swept down, and that heated look focused on her breasts. Her nipples were tight and needy already, wanting his mouth on them, aching to feel his lips sucking. As he continued to stare, she could feel them tighten even more … a groan of frustration left her mouth.

  “I never imagined anyone as beautiful as you.”

  Oh my. A rush of pleasure swept through her. No one had ever said anything so sweet to her. And for Jared, a man who tried to deny that he possessed any kind of sweetness, to say that made it all the more special.

  Slowly, he lowered his head, and his mouth covered an aching peak. Heat spread from her breast to the hot, throbbing center of her inner core. Moaning her pleasure, Mia cupped Jared’s head in her hands and held him to her. With each draw of his mouth, a corresponding throb answered between her legs. With her lower body molded to his, she moved back and forth, creating an overwhelming, heated friction, and then gasped as a delicious, bone-melting moment came upon her. As she was zooming toward nirvana, nanoseconds from explosion, Jared pulled away.

  As if those slow moments of near ecstasy had put him at the end of his patience, he tugged and pulled at the rest her clothes. With the same urgent need, Mia returned the favor. Pants dropped to the floor, shoes were kicked off, and underwear floated to their feet. And then, oh sweet mercy, then Jared pulled her close and she felt the heat of his hard, beautiful body from the top of her head to her toes. Two hundred and thirty pounds of hard, aroused male melded into her smaller, softer body.

  Winding her arms tightly around him, Mia gasped as he cupped her bare bottom in his hands and slid his erection between the folds of her sex, creating a fiery friction. Need shuddered through her as he moved back and forth slowly, rubbing … teasing. About to spread her legs wider so she could take him inside her, the world tilted sideways as he scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom.

  She landed softly on the bed, and Jared was beside her in an instant. His mouth traveled from her face, down her neck, and settled onto her breasts again. Her hands caressed smooth, broad shoulders, her fingers worshipped hard, muscular arms and then moved to his chest, where they glided and swirled over rock-solid pecs and circled copper-colored nipples. Everywhere she touched was a new and exciting tactile experience; smooth as silk, hard as steel. His body was a work of art, and never had she appreciated art as much as she did right then.

  Jared rolled her over onto her back and Mia arched upward, wanting and needing, her hands reaching. When he backed away, she blinked to focus on him. His eyes were roaming over her entire body, the gleam in them telling her he liked what he saw. She felt beautiful, powerful. Invincible.

  “I wanted to go slow the first time, but I can’t.”

  She didn’t know what thrilled her more: that he had lost that ultra control she both admired and reviled or that he intended this to happen more than once.

  “We can save slow for later,” she murmured.

  Drugged with need and a throbbing want, Mia heard a
crinkly sound and dimly realized he was opening a condom wrapper. And then he was there, entering, pressing, sliding slowly and deeply into her. She needed him there quicker, faster. Mia grabbed his tight butt and pushed him, then arched upward, gasping at the fullness, his heat, as he filled her completely.

  Jared was close to losing his mind. Control had never been a problem for him. He could compartmentalize and concentrate without wavering. And restraint during sex was usually a nonissue. He was human and enjoyed the physical release, but he always made sure he never lost focus. This was entirely different. The instant he’d kissed her, he had started unraveling. Mia tasted exotic and fresh, like a never-before-discovered spice, and he couldn’t get enough of her.

  As he’d slid into her, her legs had wrapped around his waist, and her heels and hands were pushing against his ass to drive him deeper. He watched her face, enthralled by her beauty in the throes of sexual need. This woman had fascinated him from the moment he’d met her, but in this moment, that fascination bordered on obsession. She was beautiful and vibrantly alive … her dark eyes gleamed with arousal, need, and, most of all, acceptance as she held him to her and took him deeper.

  “Ladies first” had always been his motto, but for the first time, he wasn’t sure that was going to happen. She was wet, so hot and tight as her inner muscles squeezed and drew at him.

  Complete sentences were impossible; jumbled words of praise, lust, and desire crowded into his head and left his mouth without any kind of order or coherence. “Beautiful. Oh baby, there … just like that. Yeah … that’s it …”

  Then words, too, disappeared. On the brink of explosion, one second of sanity made him draw back slightly. Inserting his hand between their writhing bodies, Jared pinched the aroused bud at the top of her sex. Mia’s eyes widened as a keening cry of release left her mouth and she tightened to a throbbing vise around him. Sanity fled once more, leaving him with only a driving need for fulfillment. Setting up a pounding thrust and retreat, Jared exploded, leaving devastation in the wake.

  Eons later, he collapsed beside her. With his breath still rasping from his lungs like he’d just run up the side of a mountain, he looked down at the beautiful woman in his arms. Her eyes were closed, her breathing as labored as his. Had he hurt her? Been too rough on her delicate body? He’d rammed into her without his normal finesse and care, as if he were a rutting animal. Something clutched at his chest, and a clogged feeling closed his throat. His speech garbled with emotions he barely recognized as his, he said thickly, “Mia?”

  Her eyes opened, and Jared wanted to howl at the expression in them. She looked bewildered and devastated; he felt as if he’d just crushed a beautiful bird. Ready to do something he hadn’t done in over two decades, he felt words of apology tremble on his mouth. Before he could say them, she whispered, “I honestly never knew it could be like that.”

  Swallowing hard, he asked, “Like what?”

  “Every nerve ending in my body was connected by this incredible, mind-blowing pleasure.” She shook her head slowly. “I’ve read about otherworldly experiences … just never believed in them.”

  Still not completely sure of her words, he said, “So, you’re okay?”

  And then she smiled, her beautiful face lighting up like a thousand radiant sunbeams. His heart went into overdrive, but it was her softly spoken “Spectacular” that flipped it over.

  Relieved beyond his comprehension, Jared barely knew what to say next. Mia had no problem, though. Raising up on her elbow so she could reach him, she whispered against his mouth, “Now, about that next time.”

  With a growl, Jared came over her and showed her that he actually did have a measure of control. His tongue glided down her silky body, tasting that special spice that was only Mia. Then, parting her legs, he settled between them, buried his face into her wet heat, and gave them both the pleasure he’d denied them before. Devouring her sweetness, her essence, Jared set out to prove that he could do more than grunt and thrust like a caveman. The way her body stiffened and then bowed as she screamed her release was his reward.

  Returning to her arms, Jared gathered her close and held her tight. At some point, sanity and reality would return. Until then, he was going to enjoy this time for what it was: a moment of peace with the rarest woman he’d ever met.

  twelve

  His fingers drummed nervous thumps on his desk as Garwood stared at his computer screen and debated what he was going to do. If he hadn’t screwed up, no one would ever have known about the incorrect deposit. He could have deleted the account completely and Josette never would have discovered it. And now he had to make a decision.

  If he was honest with himself, the boss man scared the shit out of him. What would he do if Garwood admitted his mistake? Would he fire him? Or do something even worse? He knew the man was capable of murder. And he had the contacts and the money to make people disappear permanently. Would that happen to Garwood?

  But what if he didn’t tell him and the man somehow found out about it? Garwood actually feared that worse. He’d rather die with a bullet in his head than go through what he’d heard others had endured. Like that schmuck Boyd Fuller in Chicago. Hell, Ricard and Fuller had been friends of a sort, and look what had happened to the poor bastard.

  It wasn’t like he hadn’t already made arrangements to fix the problem. The funds were hidden, and not even the geekiest of computer geeks could find them. Only three people knew about the incorrect deposit, and they would soon be taken care of permanently.

  Surely the man would be impressed that Garwood had fixed the problem himself. Question was, should he go ahead and take care of the problem and then ask forgiveness afterward? A chill swept through him at that idea. No, his boss would want to know up front what was going down. That way, when he made a public statement addressing the incident, he’d be able to feign horror that such a thing could happen to such fine, upstanding citizens. If he didn’t know why they’d died and thought their deaths were just accidents, he might not display his grief with the right amount of impact. The man enjoyed drama and used it to his benefit as much as possible. Garwood might get out of hot water simply because of the opportunity it would afford his boss.

  Still, his fingers shook as he typed up the email and sent it to the private email account. No matter how it went down, the man was still going to be pissed. Hopefully, the new package he’d just obtained would make up for it.

  Mia eyed the gorgeous man sprawled on her sofa. Dressed in a pair of faded jeans and nothing else, he brought to mind every erotic fantasy she’d ever had of rugged masculinity and raw sexual power. How a woman who had made the decision long ago to look beyond a handsome face and an incredible body could now be salivating over one was a mystery. But there it was, and there was absolutely nothing she would change.

  She had never expected to see Jared so relaxed and easy around her. Even when he’d been bluntly honest with her, he had always kept up his wariness and that damn impenetrable shield. Now he had an expression of satisfaction and contentment on his face, along with that ever-present dangerous air that zipped her heart rate up well beyond normal.

  They’d done nothing since they’d returned from LCR other than make love, eat a simple meal of wine, cheese, bread, and fruit, and then go back to bed for more of the most intensely sexual experiences of her life. She wanted more of the same. But they had to talk. And oh, how she hated to spoil the atmosphere, but she could avoid it no longer. “So are we ready to talk about a plan?”

  “And what plan would that be?”

  Though he knew exactly what she was talking about, Mia maintained her patience. The man had given her at least half a dozen orgasms in the last few hours. Getting angry with him seemed incredibly ungrateful. Still, she wouldn’t back down.

  “The plan where I reconnect with Philippe Ricard, tell him I’m interested in seeing him again, maybe in learning how a major charity works. And then I snoop.”

  “You think it’s going to be that eas
y?”

  “It’ll be easy to get in. The snooping will be harder, but I’ll succeed.”

  “Maybe you should tell me about this association. How is it that he’s a family friend?”

  “He’s not a friend exactly—more of an acquaintance.”

  With that implacable look of “I’m not budging” firmly in place, he waited for her to explain further. There was no reason not to tell him. She certainly wasn’t ashamed of her family; she was actually proud of what her father had accomplished in his career. Her biggest concern was how Jared would take the news. She’d had more than one man get uncomfortable when he had learned about her background. She told herself that Jared was the most secure man she’d ever met—this wouldn’t bother him.

  “My father works for the U.S. State Department. He’s a foreign diplomat. Right now he’s stationed in Rome, but he’s had posts all over the world.”

  His expression never changed; he looked neither impressed nor disturbed by the news. The breath she hadn’t known she was holding released in a long, silent sigh of relief. From the moment she’d met him, she’d realized that Jared was a different breed of man than she had known in the past.

  “You feel you know Ricard well enough to contact him out of the blue?”

  Here was the sticking point, but it might well be her best bet on getting close to Philippe as quickly as possible. “Actually, it was more than drinks and dinner. We saw each other off and on for about a month.”

  Now, that got a reaction. He sat up and said, “What?” very quietly. Way too quietly.

  “There was this embassy event several years back. Philippe was there, and we got to talking. Then we went for drinks. A week or so later, I saw him at a party; he asked me if I wanted to have a drink with him, and again, I said yes. A day later, I went sailing with a group of people, and he happened to be one of them. All of this was before he took over his family’s foundation. He had a reputation as a bit of a playboy, but he was always a perfect gentleman.”