It was yet another reason why she couldn’t be sure if Charlotte belonged to Dex or Eric—it had all happened around the same time. Later, when she’d been married to Eric, he’d flushed her birth control pills and torn up her prescription. She had not gotten pregnant again, something for which she was very thankful. Eric had not been a very attentive father to Charlotte. She didn’t expect he would have been any better with another child.
Dex strolled out of the bathroom and stopped. His hands went to his hips as if he was thinking about something. She still lay at the foot of the bed. She needed to turn around and climb under the covers so she could see him better. Somehow she managed to make her body obey this time.
“You all right?” she asked as she slipped her legs beneath the sheets and leaned against the headboard. Because she knew this had to be emotional for him too. She wasn’t the only one feeling the weight of their history.
He stalked over to the bed and sank down on it, leaning against the headboard beside her. “Fine. You?”
“I… Yes, I’m fine.” And she was, but she was also feeling guilty again. How could she tell him that he might be a father? What if he wasn’t? That wasn’t the kind of thing you told somebody when you didn’t have the answer. She had to get Charlotte tested first. Only when she knew the truth could she make a decision about how to proceed.
“That was great, Belle.”
She pulled her knees up to her chin, feeling suddenly vulnerable and exposed. His tone wasn’t that of a man who was thrilled with what they’d just done. “I thought so.”
He raked a hand through his hair, but he didn’t make a move to join her beneath the covers. “We can’t do it again. Not once we leave this place.”
Annoyance pricked her. “Well, no. We’ll be traveling, won’t we? And I didn’t think we were going to drop everything and have sex whenever the mood struck.”
He reached over and pushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ear. His eyes searched hers. “We probably shouldn’t have done it this time, Belle. But I don’t regret it.”
All she could do was tell him the truth. “I don’t regret it either.”
“Thank you for trusting me to take care of you.”
Her heart pinched. “I’ve always trusted you, Dex. You’re the only man I’ve ever believed in. The only one who never let me down.”
He got under the covers and dragged her down with him, tucking her into the curve of his body. She felt protected there. Safe.
“Better sleep now. We’ll have a lock on Lyon’s location soon enough, and that’s when things will get crazy.”
Annabelle closed her eyes. It felt so right with him. It always felt right with him.
But his words still echoed in her brain. If you’re thinking we’re going to fall in love again and take up where we left off, we aren’t.
*
Mendez sat in the leather recliner in his living room, nursing a beer and watching CNN International. He’d cycle through them all tonight—CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC, Fox—and he’d feel like he might know something by the time he went into work the next morning. Add in the intelligence briefings he got from the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA, and he was definitely well-informed.
He had to be because he had to make recommendations to lawmakers about where to use HOT assets or where the next trouble spot would be. There were a lot of trouble spots in the world, with more being added every day.
He took a swig of beer and gripped the object in his hand tightly, the smooth metal warm against his skin. He didn’t often take it out, didn’t examine it. But tonight he’d felt the need. He opened his fingers and stared at a locket. It was silver, engraved with a double eagle, and etched with a name on the back. He flipped it over and stared at the name.
Valentina Alexandrovna. Her first name and her patronymic name. Her last name wasn’t there, but it was imprinted on his brain. Rostov.
He rarely opened it, but of course tonight was a self-torment night. The photo of the woman was small but clear. Her hair was russet and her eyes were blue. She had high cheekbones and a delicate mouth. Her nose was small and tilted up slightly at the end. She was smiling, and his heart did a slow thump in his chest.
That smile was over two decades old. The woman in the picture was nothing but bones. A shell of a woman buried in an unmarked grave in Moscow. If she’d been buried. It was entirely possible she had not. He’d never found the answer, though he’d asked.
He snapped the locket closed and stared at the television, his jaw clenching tight. Dmitri Leonov, of all the damned people, was sailing back into his life while Valentina was dead.
He thought back to his first posting as a young intelligence officer. The embassy in Moscow. The Cold War had been in its death throes, but there was still a job to do. He’d met Leonov there. And Valentina. They were Russian Army. Dmitri was also KGB, though Mendez hadn’t known that at the time. He’d only learned of it afterward. After Valentina was lost to him and there was nothing he could do to get her back again.
He held up the locket by its chain before closing it into his fist again. He got up and went into his bedroom, put it back into its velvet bag, and tucked it into the drawer he kept it in.
There was no changing the past. But he could make sure that Leonov finally got what was coming to him.
19
Annabelle woke early, but Dex was already up. She heard him moving around in the kitchenette. It was still dark outside, but the smell of coffee permeated the air. She sat up and stretched, the sheets sliding against her naked skin. Her body was languid and relaxed. Her mind was not.
Anxiety crowded its way in, shoving aside the temporary respite she’d been enjoying. She got out of bed, searching for something she could put on, and found Dex’s discarded T-shirt. It covered her ass, which was all she needed right now. She’d get something out of her overnight bag when she located it.
The door opened a slice and Dex and peered in. Mussed hair. Shirtless. Sexy as hell. Loose sweats hung on his hips, revealing the V that made her mouth water. If the sweats slipped much farther, his cock would appear. Annabelle’s belly twisted with a hunger that had nothing to do with food.
When he realized she was up, he opened the door all the way and held out a steaming mug. “Coffee?”
“Please.” She wrapped both hands around the cup and inhaled the scent.
“You still take cream? I put some in.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
She followed him as he went back into the kitchenette and got his own cup. She leaned against the door and watched him. It felt so intimate. Like the old days when she stayed with Katie and then ran into Dex in the morning, making coffee after feeding cows. Sometimes he made her breakfast. They’d still been teenagers then, full of yearning, but they’d managed to keep their hands off each other when the possibility of discovery was so high.
Now, when they didn’t have to keep their hands off each other, life had changed too much to be so free.
“Want a bagel? I think I have cream cheese.”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
He took a bagel out of a bag, inspected it, then popped it in the toaster. “I bought these before I had to go home for Dad’s fall. They’re still good though. No green spots.”
“That’s a relief,” she joked.
He turned his head, his gaze sliding over her body, down her bare legs, back again. Heat flared in his gaze. “You look good in my T-shirt. Any panties under there?”
Fire rolled through her as she shook her head.
“Maybe after you eat your bagel, I should bend you over this counter.” He said it so matter-of-factly that it made her shiver.
Her nipples beaded. She was wet instantly, her clitoris throbbing with arousal. She could tell by the darkening of his eyes that he hadn’t missed the jut of her nipples against his shirt.
“You like that idea.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I do,” she said. “Very much.”
He grinn
ed as the toaster popped. “Then you’d better eat this bagel and prepare to hold on tight.”
He slathered cream cheese on it. Instead of giving her the whole thing, he only gave her half. “On second thought, I’m going to help you eat it. We can get another one after I’ve fucked you against the counter and in the shower.”
Her breath sat in her chest like a stone. “Why waste time eating?”
He ripped into the bagel with his teeth. “Energy, Belle. Going to need it.”
When she finished the last of her half, he grabbed the hem of the shirt she wore. He dragged it over her head and threw it into the bedroom. The front of his black Army sweats tented as he grew hard. She reached for him, but he dodged her.
“No, let me look at you.”
Her heart skipped as his eyes wandered over her. The harsh fluorescent light in the kitchenette didn’t hide anything. She didn’t look the way she had five years ago, which he could clearly see this morning. She was twenty-six, almost twenty-seven, and she had stretch marks from carrying Charlotte.
Her breasts weren’t as perky as they used to be either. Nursing a baby did that to a woman sometimes.
She tried to cover herself, but he gently took both her hands and pushed them away from her sides.
“What gives?” he asked.
“I had a baby, Dex. I’m not perfect.”
He made a growling sound in his throat. “Nobody is, Belle. And I think you’re still as goddamn beautiful as you ever were. Take my breath away.”
“You’re too nice to me.”
He tilted her chin up and forced her to meet his eyes. “I’m not nice. I didn’t like you at all until last night, remember? We’re working on being friends, so no, I’m not too nice. But you are just as gorgeous as you ever were. More so, probably.”
Her pulse throbbed. “Then you’re blind. You took a blow to the head and lost some visual ability along the way.”
“I’m a sniper, Belle. Vision is the most important thing I possess.”
He skimmed a finger over her collarbone, down between her breasts, over first one nipple and then the other. Goose bumps rose on her flesh, and she shivered pleasurably.
“You’ve lost your sharp edges and angles,” he said. “You’re lush and soft now, your promise fulfilled. I like this body. I want this body.”
He turned her, stepping up behind her to palm her belly, her breasts, tugging her back against him with his other hand on her hip. His cock was hard where it nestled against the cleft of her buttocks, and she pressed backward, seeking to make him groan for her.
He growled instead, and then he nipped her ear. It was a sharp feeling, not hard or painful, but it sent more goose bumps chasing in a chain reaction down her spine.
His mouth dropped to her neck, licking and kissing. He slid a hand down her abdomen, his fingers gliding between her folds. He hissed when he found her wet for him.
“Beautiful, Belle. Hot and beautiful. You want me in here?”
His finger slipped inside her, caressing her walls, and she moaned. “Yes.”
He took one of her hands in his and put it between her legs, rolled her finger over her clitoris. “Hold that thought, baby.”
She stroked herself softly while he went into the bedroom. She heard a drawer open, and she knew he was getting a condom. He tore it open, walking back to her.
“Hands on the counter,” he commanded. “Hold it tight.”
She did what he said, arching her back and sticking her ass out. He gripped her hip with one hand—and then she felt his cock at her entrance, probing. A moment later he slid home and they both groaned.
“Jesus, Belle. You’re so fucking wet.”
“You make me that way, Dex.”
He started moving, slowly at first and then faster, driving her against the counter. She pushed back against him, holding on tightly as he fucked her hard. She wouldn’t have thought she’d be ready for this kind of sex so soon, but she was completely overwhelmed by her need for it. She loved his roughness because it was also tender. Because he cared about how she felt and whether or not it worked for her.
It definitely worked this morning. Last night it wouldn’t have.
“Dex,” she moaned. “Oh my god.”
He slapped her ass and she squeaked. It wasn’t a hard slap, but it stung. And it was precisely what she needed at that moment.
He came down on top of her, his front to her back, his fingers tangling in her hair and dragging her head back so he could kiss her. She moaned hard when his tongue met hers.
His body pumped into hers frantically. She shoved her hips backward, against him, taking everything he had to give her. When he reached around and fingered her clitoris, she came instantly. Stars exploded behind her eyes, and she wrenched her mouth from his so she could suck in air.
“That’s it, Belle,” he told her gruffly. “I love it when you come.”
She was still coming when he suddenly stilled, his cock swelling inside her, a groan tearing from him as he found his own release. She gripped the counter, her lungs pumping, her heart drumming, her world shattering.
Dex slid from her body and swung her into his arms. His grin stopped her heart. “Time to shower, baby.”
*
He fucked her again in the shower. He meant to take it easier, take it slow and overwhelm her senses with pleasure, but he had a desperate need to possess her again. Because this thing between them wasn’t going to last.
Dex didn’t want to start over with Annabelle. He didn’t want to take up where they’d left off, or try to rekindle the love they’d once had. Life moved on, and so had he.
But holy shit she was hot, and she still managed to make him lose his ever-loving mind. There’d been a time in his life when he would have said or done anything to get inside her. He didn’t feel like that anymore—and yet, when he was in her, it was hella good. Annabelle Quinn was an addiction. One taste and he needed more.
Three times in the space of a few hours. It wasn’t enough though. He knew he’d want her again later. But there was no later because they were on their way to find Dmitri Leonov soon. Annabelle might be going with them, but there weren’t going to be any opportunities to get her naked. She’d stay with Victoria Brandon and Lucky MacDonald, the two women on the team.
No more private rooms. No more chances to make love to her. Nor would she want him to once they were on their way and their heads were firmly back on the task of rescuing her daughter from a madman.
The thought of not having her again was depressing in its own way. He’d fucked many women since her, but none of them had a history with him. None of them made his guts turn inside out and his heart feel like it was being squeezed in a vise.
Annabelle did those things to him. And then, when he was inside her, stroking his way to an explosive orgasm, he felt like nothing ever had or ever would compare to the way it felt when he was with her.
She did things to him. Things he didn’t like anymore. It was nostalgia and history, but it still did a number on his mind. He shouldn’t succumb to the temptation of fucking her, yet he did.
Three damned times in a few hours. He dragged on his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair, his mood darkening as she hummed in the bathroom. She was in his space, imprinting herself on his memory, and there was no way he’d ever shower in that bathroom again without thinking of Annabelle on her knees, sucking his dick before he’d picked her up and shoved himself inside her while she wrapped her legs around his waist.
He’d forgotten the condom, but he’d quickly remembered, withdrawing and handing the packet to her. She’d rolled it on while he held her, and then he’d plunged into her again, groaning with the rightness of it. And with the sorrow, because being inside her bare, even for a second, had shown him what he was missing.
Still, he’d lost his mind and fucked her hard against the wall. She’d clung to him, urging him on, her legs tight around his waist and her arms wrapped around his neck. He’d sucked on her nipp
les, biting and licking them while she chanted his name and begged him to make her come.
He’d done what she’d asked and then he’d found his own release, pumping a load of hot semen into the condom. His knees were weak after that and he sank to the shower floor, taking her with him. They sat under the spray, holding each other and panting.
When the water started to cool, he’d turned it off. They’d gotten out of the shower, dried, and gotten dressed without saying much. Annabelle had changed into a pair of jeans, boots, and a clingy blue top that accentuated her eyes. She was gorgeous, and he found himself contemplating what it would be like to have her in his life on a regular basis.
Except that was impossible. She lived in Kentucky and he lived here. Never mind that she had a company in Briar City and a child to raise. There was nothing about this thing between them that could ever be anything but temporary.
His phone buzzed. He welcomed the interruption. “Davidson.”
“We’ve found Leonov,” Iceman said. “He’s in Jorwani, Africa. The mission is a go.”
“Be right there.”
20
Annabelle didn’t know what she’d expected, but a private plane hadn’t been it. She leaned back against the seat and watched the activity around her with hooded eyes. There were nine men and two women, Victoria and Lucky, on Dex’s team. Both women looked tough as nails. They chatted together easily. Once in a while, a couple of the men came over and ran intimate fingers down one of the women’s arms or exchanged meaningful looks. Whatever else was going on here, those four were couples.
Not quite what Annabelle expected on a military operation. Then again, she didn’t know what to expect. These guys didn’t even look like they were in the military. They wore civilian clothes, and other than a certain bearing they had, it wasn’t clear they were in the Army at all.
But she knew they were because she’d spent time with them in that brick building with all the razor wire and intricate security measures. She’d had to sign documents in order to access certain parts of it.
HOT Addiction: A Hostile Operations Team Novel - Book 10 Page 13
