by Tara Brown
When I got to the black SUV with the tinted windows and the door wide open, I contemplated running in the other direction. Being alone in a vehicle with him was never a simple car ride.
Taking a deep, dissatisfying breath, I climbed inside and let the driver close the door. I didn't turn my head to look into Servario’s hazel-green eyes. I knew what lurked in there. He had a history of speaking with a stare.
In my peripheral I could see his dark hair was a little long for him. Normally, he kept it short, but it was playing with his ear, resting there with promises of feathery tickles against my thighs as he whispered the sweetest words I would ever hear.
His skin was paler than normal. Usually he was tanned and his skin was aged a little from the sun. Being Italian-Serbian made him a candidate for a year-round summer glow. He wore pale-gray slacks, like he had the first time we met. The way they fit him, you knew they were custom-made by the very best Italian tailor.
His shoes were deep-burgundy Italian leather, shiny to the point I could see the back of the seat in the reflection. He wore a steel-colored dress shirt, opened at the top so you got a glimpse of the places your fingers naturally wished to explore.
The man was sex.
He breathed sex.
Lived for sex.
Made you obsess about the type of sex you would have with him.
And you knew it was going to be nasty sex.
The heat radiating from his body next to mine made me uncomfortable in a variety of ways. The main one was the way my thighs clenched together and my vagina begged me to just strip down and let him force me into positions I wasn't comfortable with.
“Hello, Evie,” he finally spoke, softly but with confidence, even if it was a whispered greeting.
“Hello, Servario.” I nodded, forcing my eyes to focus on the back of the seat in front of me.
“What are you wearing?” He cocked an eyebrow.
“Yoga pants.” I didn't understand the question so I answered cautiously.
“I miss the days when flying was something you dressed up for.” His hand moved from the bag. It didn't pause or hesitate as it moved directly to my leg, landing on my knee. “These are like some sort of spandex, aren’t they?”
My eyes dragged down to his hand on my knee. “Yeah, they are.”
“Yoga pants and a ponytail. Did you sleep in and nearly miss the flight?”
“No.” An annoyed looked crossed my face. “I like to be comfortable when I fly.”
“Let me guess, your entire carry-on in filled with more treasures like these?”
“Stop.” I growled a little. “I’m not here to impress or please you. It’s work.”
“Tell yourself that if you must.” He flashed a wicked grin. “How have you been?”
“Great,” I snarled.
“Excellent,” he muttered as he trailed his fiery touch up the inside of my thigh, burning me through my yoga pants. His hand tickled as it climbed up my leg. My lips parted, my heart pounded, and my insides twitched with the temptation he represented. He wasn't the serpent in the tree; he was the apple.
When he reached the top of my leg, the highest point he could on the inside of my thigh, he brushed his pinkie finger between my legs. I sucked my breath like a fool, letting him know how desperate I had been for his forbidden touch. He lowered the finger again, delicately, and yet with enough force that I could feel every small touch he placed over my pants and what was beneath.
He didn't speak or tell me how much he had missed me in the days we were apart. He didn't try to convince me to run away with him. He didn't offer me the world. He was painfully realistic in what he offered—momentary bliss and then forced abandonment. And for whatever disgusting reason, I wanted both. The ecstasy of the fucking was just as sweet as the longing for the next time. I actually enjoyed the torture of waiting for the moment we would be alone and he would be inappropriately forward and convincing.
His finger ran up and down me, hearing nothing more than the initial gasp from me. I nearly held my breath trying not to let him see how obviously affected I was by even the slightest touch.
“I missed you,” he finally whispered, but I didn't take the bait, regardless of his fingers rubbing me. He didn't mean it, and if he did, it was not the kind of missing I needed from him.
We drove a short distance to a sight I still hadn’t grown accustomed to: a private runway. Servario didn't like anyone to know where or when he was traveling. He liked to keep his movements unpredictable. His private jet was something I had grown familiar with, as we had become intertwined in each other’s lives, professionally and privately.
When the driver stopped the SUV, I glanced at him, finally taking his beauty in and letting my eyes wander his handsome face. “New plane?” I didn't want him to know I was thinking about him.
“Of course.” He nodded, smirking and popping the dimples. I knew what he was thinking. His eyes were practically giving me the details aloud. He licked his lips, taking his bottom lip in his mouth. “I’m going to have to give you a proper tour of this one.”
My insides jumped. I nearly abandoned my bag and ran from the runway, screaming and begging for mercy. The first time I had ever been truly fucked by a man, was on his last plane. It was the first time I knew what it meant to be consumed and overwhelmed.
Clearly, my expression had answered his request. He laughed, nodding. “Relax, Evie. We both know how much you like to fly.” He climbed from the SUV on his own accord as the driver got the door for me. Servario carried my lime-green luggage on board, not looking back to see if I had fled into the forest.
I sighed, hating how predictable I was, and followed him onto the new jet plane.
It was smaller than the previous one, seating only a dozen. The back of the plane was too large for it to end where the door was. I had to assume there was another room back there.
Choosing wisely, I sat in a seat, not near the one he had put my luggage on, and buckled myself in. When the door was closed the engines started, I turned my head, assuming it was now safe to talk. “Where the hell is everyone else? I thought we were meeting here.”
“They’re coming. Plans have changed. Now we will meet them in Dubai. I have a meeting and you will be my assistant.” He grinned like a Cheshire cat from the bar at the back where he was mixing a few drinks.
“What?” My eyes narrowed. “Does Coop know?”
“Of course.” His smile turned into a grin, a grim one. “I mean, it’s likely he does now. I imagine the orders have come down the line to him.” His words brought a sigh from my lips.
“You have to be kidding me. You mean he, Luce, and Jack will be coming to Norwich and then waiting for me?”
“No.” He shook his head. “They were found in Heathrow and redirected from there. They are on to Dubai right now. They have something to do there.”
“Shit,” I whispered as I turned in my seat, staring at the movie screen at the front of the plane. It was a wide-screen TV. Servario had never seemed like much of a movie buff, but the large screen made me think otherwise. There was a hallway at the front of the plane, obviously the pilot’s area and maybe a restroom. This was a much more civilized plane, compared to his last one. More family friendly maybe.
I folded my arms as Servario came and sat next to me, placing the cocktail on my tray. He sipped his scotch, rattling the ice in the glass. We didn't speak or touch. We sat and stared at the front of the plane.
The tension became thick enough to get lost in.
The heat of his body next to mine in the seat was enough to drive me to naked madness.
The little hairs on my arm lifted where we nearly touched, nearly.
Taking several slow breaths I tried desperately to ignore the smell of him in the air around me and the memory of the feel of him between my thighs. A breath left my lips a bit rushed and to cover it I turned sharply. “Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
Inhaling again a bit too quickly I
scowled. “Making it so we are alone.”
He shrugged, sipping his drink. “I thought maybe we could talk.”
“Right.” I rolled my eyes. “Except you don't talk.”
He reached into the back pocket of the seat in front of me, pulling out a folder and placing it before me. I stared at it for a long second, worried as to what I would find inside.
He was pleased with himself. It dawned on me then, he had pulled the folder from this seat, like he knew I would sit here. I hated being predictable.
I lifted my glass, chugging back the cocktail and passing it to him as I opened the folder. The last time anyone gave me a folder, it was to show me images of my husband and my best friend having an affair. Needless to say, the idea of opening folders made me sick to my stomach.
When I lifted the beige cover of the file I paused. The image was one I didn't expect, and yet I did. I turned to him, almost scared to ask, “Why do you have a picture of Coop’s sister Rachel?” She was the sister I had assumed was one of us, an agent, but Coop had sworn up and down that she wasn't.
He didn't answer right away. He looked into my eyes, searching for something, and then spoke softly, “She works for a man I know. Just thought that perhaps you might want to know about this, before something unfortunate occurs as a result.”
My mouth went dry. “She’s an agent?” I knew it!
“No.” He shook his head. “She’s not. She’s sort of the opposite of that.”
“What do you mean?” My mouth got drier. I reached for his scotch glass, taking it in my hands and lifting it to my lips without taking my eyes from his. “She’s a double agent?”
“No.” He shook his head again.
“FUCK!”
“Don't swear, Evie,” he warned as he nodded, realizing I understood what he was trying to say. She was a bad guy, selling information to the wrong people. She and Coop came from a long line of agents. And Rachel was the one sister I had assumed was one of us. She just made me think it. Coop believed her cover story of being a clumsy, whimsical, artsy photographer. I think they all believed it. I think I was the first person to see past it—see it for the act it was.
“So she sells secrets, like James had been doing?” James, my dead husband, who had betrayed the world and me with it.
Servario’s stare answered for him. He neither nodded nor spoke.
“How long has this been going on?”
“I can’t say for certain.” He shrugged. “I know the man she works for. I would assume a while.”
“Oh my God.” I almost gagged. My insides burned for him—for Coop. I knew this pain. I knew what it felt like to know the person you trusted and loved had not only betrayed you but had also endangered your life and the lives of millions—billions.
“Why are you showing this to me?” If I knew anything about Servario it was that his desire to fuck with me was stronger than any other desire.
He pressed his deliciously sexy lips together and sighed. “Do you recall when I hung you out to dry, as you so eloquently put it, and left you to fight for yourself so I could save your children?”
“Yes.” The answer was a growl as I recalled hating him for leaving me to die but was stunned that he had been worried about my kids. He had left me to survive on my own. He was never really trying to save me but more like test me at all times.
“Well, I moved quickly, ensuring the kids and your mother were safe because I had discovered Rachel was responsible for your locations being leaked. She is the reason your cover was nearly blown. She was also the reason you were on that boat to fight for your life. She sold you and Coop out to James.”
I paused. The information on the phone—the phone he had traded me for once. “This was the secret on the phone that you traded me to James for? You wanted his informant?”
“I did.” He nodded slowly. “She double-crossed us all in Split. You were meant to be taken to a brothel and sold into sex slavery. I had guys there who would have broken you free and helped you kill everyone in the brothel. When you never showed up, it was because I had the new information that Rachel, Coop’s sister, had sold us out. She was working with James at the time. He sold her out, hoping it would work as a bargaining chip. He wanted you dead more than anything else and he wanted his money.”
My insides twisted into a knot. “How could you let us go to Coop’s parents’ house and not tell me?”
“I was watching. I was hoping she would slip up and reveal herself to you both, but she never did. I needed all the evidence I could gather on her; young Cooper isn’t going to trust me just because he has to. He will think I’m up to no good.”
“That's true.” I tilted his glass up and finished off his scotch with a shiver. As I brought it down he grabbed my face. The kiss he forced on me was unexpected, and yet the most welcome feeling in the world.
The glass fell to the floor as the jet plane took off. Servario cupped my face desperately, sucking my tongue and caressing it with his. Our mouths fought the force of the takeoff, frantically clinging to each other.
It was madness. In fact, it was disgusting that I was so desperate for this man.
I was dating Coop and despised cheating, but in my heart it didn't feel like cheating. Servario had told me he loved me long before any claim on my heart was made by Coop.
And I had told Servario I loved him too.
He had tried to force me to take it back but I couldn't. I loved him, even though he was seedy and wrong for me. He unbuckled my seat belt and his, lifting me into the air and walking, stumbling, to the back of the plane.
He pushed us through the door I had pondered about when we boarded, violently slamming it with a rough kick. I broke from the intense kiss to see a small bed and a closet full of women’s clothing. I sighed. “You put a bed back here?” My mood started to drop off.
“Yes.” He nodded, his eyes filled with passion and his lips moving as if he were going to say something more but he didn't.
“You are such a pervert. Seriously? Who puts a bed on a plane and a closet full of women’s clothing? You make me sick.” I shoved and wiggled until my feet touched the carpeted floor of the shaking plane.
He grabbed at me roughly. “They’re for you. The bed and the clothes and the plane—it’s all for you.” His expression looked broken for a second, like I had wounded him.
“Really?” I paused, worried he was telling the truth. “Who puts a bed and clothes on a plane for a girl he isn’t seeing?”
“I do.” He stepped toward me again, lifting my face. “I see you. I always see you.”
I tried to step back, I honestly did. It was the right thing to do. But my heart was his. It had always been his. I lifted my fingers up into his longish hair and pulled his six-foot-three body down onto five-foot-four me.
We spun and fell onto the bed with him crushing me into the soft mattress. But we didn't kiss and we didn't fuck. We paused, staring at each other. It was delicate and frightening.
“I always see you, Evie,” he whispered as he rolled to his side and trailed his fingers up and down my torso, tugging at my blouse and brushing against my stomach like it was an accident. He traced heat trails up and down me, touching nothing that couldn't be explained away or considered innocent.
It was the strangest moment we had ever had, and while I longed to be fucked, I savored this much more.
Chapter Four
Greedy hearts
I woke from my nap to find Servario staring at me from the chair in the corner. It was unnerving that Coop had done it the day before and now today it was Servario. Waking that way twice in a row was spooky.
But he spoke, something opposite to what Coop had, “I want to fuck you, but I want you to ask me to do it.”
“No. Weirdo.” He was such a freak. He was a finger-in-the-ass freak and I had already played this game with him too many times to count.
“Okay.” He nodded. “I am going to offer you a deal and you have to choose.”
“What
ever.” I rolled my eyes. Actually, they might have rolled themselves.
“Don't roll your eyes at me, Evie. You know how I feel about disrespect.”
“Right.” I lifted my middle finger from my side. “And this is how I feel about your deals.” Had he just made love to me when we got on the plane I would have done it. But he had lost the control then and this was his way of getting it back.
“You let me pick your clothing, fuck you how I see fit, and treat you the way I want so badly to, and I will hand over Coop’s sister to the right people with all the proof.”
“I am growing tired of the head games.” I sat up, completely stunned that he would bargain this way to ensure his heart wasn't in the sex. He was always pushing me away. “What is the other option? Let her keep doing all those bad things and compromise our mission?” I scoffed. “Oh, okay, Servario. Sure. I’ll let you humiliate me so you don't feel like we made love and love each other, and you can treat me like a whore for that. Dipshit.”
“No.” He shook his head, a smug look crossing his face. “She will vanish with all the evidence and Coop will always wonder. His family will never have closure.”
“Dude!” I sighed. “I really thought you were smarter than this. I know what Rachel has done and I have the evidence in the folder.”
“You always underestimate me, Evie.” He lifted a syringe from the table next to him. “This is a drug that will take all your memories of the last twenty-four hours. They will be gone, completely. And I will fuck you anyway.”
“Do it then.” A sarcastic smile crossed my lips. “You can’t make me hate you. Nothing you do anymore makes me think you’re as scummy and horrid as you try to be. This whole walking contradiction thing with the buying me clothes and putting in a bed and then bribing me for dirty sex so you can get away without feeling something for me—it doesn't work. I see you too, just so you know.”
He narrowed his gaze.
Ignoring it, I stood on wobbly legs and walked to the clothing rack, lifting the tiny red dress, which looked like it might be a tube top, from its hanger. I walked back to the bed, undoing my shirt one slow button at a time and dropping it to the carpet. I dragged my bra off, letting my breasts linger in the air, exposed. I knew his face had an indifferent look upon it, but I also knew there was no way he was indifferent. I knew he loved me and he wanted me. And not just in the disgusting slutty way where he forced me to deep throat and I spent the morning on my hands and knees.
