by J. M. Madden
As they let themselves back into Aiden’s warehouse, she wondered if her life would ever get back to normal.
The men ate, then gathered chairs around Aiden’s desk to go over the hard copy information. John had taken the drives, promising to put them in a secure location and Aiden had seemed comfortable with that.
She could see the relationship between the brothers growing, and it made her heart happy. They’d both had rough starts in life and it was easy to see how much Aiden looked forward to it growing. He needed to be a part of his nephews’ lives.
As for where they stood…
It would be nice if he’d take a break to talk to her, but she understood the pressure they were under. They only had a short window of time while the Collaborative was regrouping. Or maybe they were just sweeping everything under the rug.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. When she saw what the notification was, she walked over to hold the phone out to Aiden. “I set an alert to watch for the Silverstone Collaborative. This just came in.”
Priscilla Mattingly, Silverstone Collaborative Chief Operations Manager, Assumed Dead in Fiery Crash, the headline read.
Ms. Mattingly was reportedly on her way to a conference in Denver when she lost control of her SUV on Interstate 70 west of the city. Also in the car were three other people, suspected to be her assistant as well as two other coworkers. No other cars were involved in the crash, although the left lane of the interstate was shut down for several hours.
Chief Donnelly from Fire Station 18 advised that dental records would be needed to identify all involved.
Aiden looked up at Fontana. “You were right.”
The other man nodded, but he didn’t look happy about having his suspicions confirmed.
“So, there’s no way they got rid of all the bodies. What happened to them?”
Aiden shrugged. “They might turn up on the streets later or something, suspected overdoses or murders. The company’s public relations manager is all over this right now, I’m sure. Anton Scofield is a fixer and as slimy as they come. He’ll make sure the company comes out in the most positive light possible. I figure we’ll be seeing Wilkes himself in an interview bemoaning the loss of his Ms. Mattingly.”
Three hours later, just in time for the eleven o’clock news, that’s exactly what he did. Angela had seen the man many times before, but he’d struck her as just another rich white guy trying to save the world by making as much money as he could off the downtrodden. Damon Wilkes’ perfectly styled blond hair was a little mussed, and his brown eyes concerned. He looked like a man genuinely in mourning for his lost coworkers. Now that she had met men that he had actively approved using horrendous testing and torture on, Angela could see the cunning in Wilkes’ eyes. She didn’t even hear what he said but she was sure it was some saccharine sweet platitude.
A woman stood just beyond his shoulder, hands folded in front of her, a bruised look around her pale eyes. She was Damon’s perfect Stepford Wife.
“What’s the blonde’s name?” Angela asked.
“Elizabeth,” Wulfe answered immediately.
“What a pretty little couple,” she murmured.
Wulfe mumbled something under his breath and pushed up from the chair to walk across the warehouse to get a bottle of water.
“Did I make him mad?” she asked Aiden.
His dark gaze followed Wulfe and she could feel the buzzing in her head as the men talked, but he eventually shook his head. “I think he’s getting cabin fever.”
“I think we all are,” she agreed. “Think we’re safe? Have you had any more woo-woo feelings?”
Lifting his brows, he looked at her, one side of his mouth quirking up. “Woo-woo feelings? No. Not a bit. And neither have Fontana or Wulfe.”
“Think I can go back to my apartment?”
Aiden’s expression cooled. “If you want to, yes. We’ll take you home tomorrow after the meeting and check things out. I don’t believe the Collaborative will do anything now until they know who has Shu’s information.”
He was probably right.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Wulfe and Aiden studied the information voraciously, while she and Fontana cooled their heels. The big man paced the warehouse, over and over again, then started using Aiden’s work out equipment. The monotonous thump of the weights to the mat eventually had Angela curling up to doze on the couch. She could understand his frustration. Not knowing if there were more men like them in cages somewhere across the world waiting to be rescued was agonizing.
She and Fontana eventually left the warehouse to go get groceries. Aiden gave them each a long look when they told him what they were going to do. “Be careful,” he murmured, dropping a kiss to her lips.
Angela smiled. It was the first affection he’d shown her for a while. He’d been so absorbed in the files she didn’t even think he’d been aware of her presence.
They had no issues, other than the incredible sweet tooth she discovered Fontana had. “I craved molasses cookies,” he told her softly, looking at the distinctive red and white Archway bag he’d picked up. “They weren’t my favorite before the Spartan program, but after the camp they definitely were for some reason.”
Angela threw three bags into her cart, along with Oreos, Nilla Wafers and several other brands of sweets.
By the time they made it to the checkout her cart was mostly full. She paid for everything and they hauled it all to the warehouse. Wulfe and Aiden left their work to come see what she’d gotten, and returned to the table with a box of crackers and some sliced cheddar cheese. Aiden gave her a lingering look, and a thrill surged through her at the heat she could see in his expression.
Angela liked to see Aiden eating. Maybe now that the Collaborative had backed off a little he could ease up on the austere lifestyle he’d created for himself. Living on the streets was no life, and now that he was getting along with his brother, maybe that negated the need to surveil them from a distance.
Angela made chicken fajitas for dinner that night. It was easy and filling, and the men dug in hard. Then, finally, Aiden called it a night. All of the hard copies and notes they’d taken today were placed into his hidden wall safe.
Wulfe changed the sheets on the bed and let Aiden and Angela have it back. With a teasing wink he let himself from the room, closing the door softly behind himself.
Finally, they were alone. Angela kicked off her pants, wincing at the bruises, and sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you getting a grip on everything?”
“Yeah,” he murmured. “There’s just so much to look at and research. I know Fontana wants to ride to the rescue, but we have to plan it out carefully.”
“Oh, I agree. You know he’ll go though, right?”
He sighed as he sank down beside her, cupping his palm over her thigh. “I know.”
Angela lifted a hand to rub his shoulders, and he leaned into her touch. She massaged the knots in his shoulders and he moaned, head lolling down. Hours had slipped away as they’d gone through the information, and his body wasn’t used to being stationary that long. But the information was so absorbing.
They now knew there were at least two other camps, one in Guyana and one in Venezuela, with more men than had been at their own camp. They’d discovered where they’d actually been, a tiny little village called Taraza, where the locals were amenable to outsiders coming in. There were easier ways to get there than trekking through the jungle like they had, but luck had been with them because the city where Wulfe’s brother Nik had picked them up had been where the Collaborative also received their shipments. It was the closest large city to the training camp. By sheer blind luck they’d chosen the correct direction.
Aiden blinked, feeling Angela’s fingers moving on his shoulders. It was too easy to fall into her touch.
Forcing himself to straighten, he turned to her. “I’m good. What can I do for you?”
She tilted her head, her hair falling down beside her shoulder. “I don’t kno
w. I’m kind of bruised everywhere right now,” she grinned.
Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to her lip. It wasn’t as swollen anymore, but still bruised. The Band-Aids still covered her eyebrow and some of the purple shading had circled her eye, giving her a bit of a shiner. She looked like her boyfriend had beat the crap out of her.
Lifting her unbruised brow, she gave him a look. “What are you thinking?”
“That you look like your boyfriend beat the crap out of you.”
She made a face. “My boyfriend wouldn’t do that. He’s too much of a good guy to even think about beating me.”
Aiden blinked, trying to follow her words. Did she… were they… “Wait, you have a boyfriend?”
She gave him a narrow-eyed seriously, dummy? look and things rearranged themselves in his head. “Are you saying I’m your boyfriend?”
She leaned back, frowning at the shock in his voice. “Well, apparently not. I guess I jumped the gun a bit.”
She moved to get up and he grabbed her hand. “Wait, just, wait…”
Aiden looked out the window at the sky, his heart racing as thoughts crashed through his mind. He was so rusty at personal relationships. “I just didn’t expect this,” he said finally.
“What,” she asked softly. “Expect to be my boyfriend or expect to fall in love?”
Aiden barked out a laugh. “Is that what happened? Is that why the thought of you leaving or being hurt terrifies me, more than even being hurt myself?”
She nodded, her grin lopsided. “And it’s why we have to touch each other.”
“Is it why my heart races when you walk into the room?”
She nodded again.
“And why I’m wildly fascinated by everything you do? When I’m handed the most important information I’ve ever needed, but still find myself watching you unload groceries?”
She blinked at him, as if waiting for him to come to the same conclusion she had. Aiden wanted to make her wait, because she seemed a little too smug, but he couldn’t. “Yeah, I guess I may be in love.”
A beautiful smile spread Angela’s mouth and she leaned into him for a kiss. Aiden met her but didn’t allow himself to get too excited. He didn’t want to hurt her lips.
“I love you, Aiden,” she murmured, pulling back to look up into his eyes.
He blinked, wondering why he couldn’t catch his breath. “We can’t. You can’t. I mean, how can you? Angela, look at me,” he demanded.
Once again she gave him that beautiful smile. “I don’t care about the beard or the hair, it’s what’s in your heart that I love, and your mind. You’ve lived through so much and yet you continue to work for others. You could have gotten away from the Collaborative and completely disappeared, but you came here to protect the brother you didn’t even know you had. You put your life on the line to protect him and his family over and over again. You’re fighting right now for men you’ve never even met. Your actions speak so loudly to me of the kind of man you are.”
He frowned, honestly shocked.
“And you’ve taken care of me the same way this week. I could have been dead several times over, but you put yourself on the line to help or rescue me. How can I not love a heart like that?”
Emotion took a stranglehold on his throat and he had to look away from her expressive eyes. “I’m not…” he stopped, words failing him. “I don’t feel charitable when I look at you. I want you all to myself, even to the point that I would consider leaving all of this behind for you.”
He waved a vague hand at the warehouse and computers.
Angela shook her head. “No you wouldn’t. I wouldn’t let you. Because now I’m invested as much as you are.”
He grinned at her and cocked an eyebrow. “Are you really?”
“Yes,” she said softly. “If there are more men out there struggling the way you guys had to, we need to find them and somehow get them to a safe place. I don’t know how we’re going to do it exactly, but we need to do as much as we possibly can.”
“I agree,” he murmured, somber, leaning in to kiss her. “I don’t want you to go back to your apartment. Why don’t you stay here?”
She sighed. “I’ll think about it. Right now it’s a little crowded. If the guys are going to stay you’re going to have to make some modifications to the warehouse.”
“Yes, definitely. If I do that, will you stay?”
Angela cocked her head to the side. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”
The phrase sent a tremor of fear through him, but also satisfaction. “Yes.”
“I’ll think about it,” she told him with a coy glance.
Aiden knew that meant yes and he grinned at her. Pushing her down onto the mattress, he leaned up on his arms above her. She spread her thighs to accommodate his hips, her arms automatically coming up to cup his face. Her fingers played with his beard hair. He loved that. She touched him exactly the way he wanted, and needed. He rocked his hips into her, showing her how ready he was to love her.
“If we’re going to do this, you have to be quiet,” she admonished. “I don’t want the other two hearing us.”
“I’ll be quiet,” he promised, “but I don’t think you will be.”
Conscious of her bruises, he stripped her pants off, then her striped panties. She leaned up enough to pull her shirt over her head and toss it away.
Aiden frowned as he got a good look at her body. Purple discolored her knees, and a large swath of her right side where she’d been tackled to the gravel. There were several scrapes mixed into the bruising, and he tried to be careful. It angered him that she’d taken that kind of injury, but he didn’t know if they would have made it out of the situation without her help. He lifted one leg into his hand, kissing from her delicate ankle all the way up to her thigh. She gasped as he pressed a kiss to the auburn curls between her thighs, then moved away. He could tell it pained her to move her leg, so he moved the left out to give him more room to maneuver. Then, as carefully as he could, he kissed his way up her right leg.
Angela sighed, her body supple beneath his hands. Running his fingers up her shin, he explored the few little freckles that dotted her skin. Resting a hand over her sore knee, he tried to will healing into her joint, but that had never been one of their abilities. Lifting his hand away he kissed her, then dropped kisses up her thighs.
She tensed beneath him, wriggling her hips, but he avoided her subtle direction. Instead he pressed tiny little licking kisses up her lean belly, then to each breast. Her nipples were dark with arousal and she gasped as he took one into his mouth. A shimmy worked through her body, and she clutched his head to her. “I love you, Aiden. You make me feel so cherished.”
That’s exactly what he wanted. Shifting to her side he fondled her curls with his fingers as he drew her breast into his mouth, then slid his middle finger into her slippery heat. Her clit was easy to find, and he teased her. By the shifting of her body he could tell that she loved it when he circled her clit, although when he tapped at the tiny bud, she gasped. He continued to tap, very gently, as he paid homage to her breasts. Her body began to quicken, her breaths coming in pants. She was whispering something, but he was so focused on what her body was telling him he couldn’t distinguish her words.
Then her body began to quake, and he knew her orgasm was near. Shifting, he took her mouth with his own, kissing her gently, tasting. And as the orgasm washed over her, he sealed his mouth over hers, stealing her ecstatic cry.
Aiden pulled away and grinned down at her. “You were very quiet. Good girl.”
Angela grinned, her eyes soft with satisfaction. “I love you. That was very nice.”
She started to move, but he held her down. “No reciprocation. We can wait a day or two until you’re feeling better.”
It wouldn’t kill him not to orgasm tonight.
Very carefully he drew her panties back up her legs and resettled the elastic band around her hips when she lifted them. Crawling up the mattress he
urged her to follow, then he covered them both. Angela laid her head upon his chest, sighing as she sank into sleep.
Aiden couldn’t remember a more relaxed night of sleeping. If he dreamed, he didn’t remember them. He did remember dreaming of fucking Angel. Then reality shifted and he realized Angela was riding him, her warm body wet as she sank down onto his waiting cock. Aiden gasped as she rested her hands on his chest, brushing her thumbs over his nipples. He’d never thought they were an especially sensitive part of his body, but they responded to Angela.
Her body tightened around his and he realized she was not far from orgasm. Knowing that she had a huge bruise on her right side limited where he could touch her so he cupped her breasts in his hands. She gasped, arching over him, and her body tightened around him. Aiden realized he wasn’t far from orgasm either, and he wondered how long she’d been riding him. After going to sleep hard and aching, his body was on a hair trigger. Angela took in a shuddering gasp and her body bowed backward. Her long hair tickled his thighs as she lost herself in climax. She stayed conscious enough not to cry out, though.
Watching the pleasure she took from his body fulfilled him more than any orgasm he could have, but as her inner sheath clutched at him, he let his body go. He wanted to growl with primal satisfaction, but he clamped his mouth shut, gripping her rib cage in his hands as she swiveled her hips. She dropped down, pressing her lips to his in an abandoned kiss. It had to have hurt her bruises but she didn’t seem to mind, so he let himself go.
Angela satisfied him on so many levels. Aiden held her to him, vowing to himself that he would do everything in his power to make her happy. She was a woman of worth, and he’d not met very many of those in his life. He would honor and cherish her as much as humanly possible, because she was worth it.
“I love you, Angel,” he whispered into her ear. “I can’t get enough of you.”
Rather than appeasing his skin hunger, it seemed to have gotten worse. Molding her back with his fingers, he moved her hair to the side, stroking her soft as silk skin.
