Elite Ops Complete Series

by Lora Leigh

  She gasped as she felt herself being lifted. The smooth planks of the picnic table were under her thighs as Nik’s hand cupped her neck, holding her in place as his kiss deepened.

  Summer heat whipped not just around her but also through her. The feel of his strength, the touch of his lips, were heady. She wanted more.

  Mikayla couldn’t resist reaching up to his hair, her fingers tugging at the leather strap holding it back. The coarse, cool strands flowed around her fingers, down the sides of his face. The sensual feel added to the pleasure beginning to build in her body.

  “Such a brave little beauty,” he murmured, his head lifting as her eyes opened.

  What had ever made her imagine his eyes were cold? Icy? That wasn’t ice. It was a steel blue flame blistering in its heat.

  “Brave? Stupid maybe?” She was breathless, but it was the feel of his hands on her thighs, pushing the hem of her dress higher, that had her losing her breath.

  The heated rasp of calloused flesh sent fingers of blistering pleasure racing through her nerve endings. Her gaze jerked down. She had to watch. Eyes wide, her lips parting, she watched as his large, broad hands slid her dress slowly up her thighs until his thumbs met at the damp center of her silken panties.

  He stood between her spread knees, his legs shifting to part her thighs as his thumbs moved subtly against the center of her panties.

  “Nik …” She tried to breath. She had to convince herself this was a bad thing. She had remained a virgin all these years, waiting until it was right.

  Was this right? Or was it just a man who knew exactly how to play the human body?

  “Shh. I just want a taste, pretty baby,” he crooned. “I’ve never tasted innocence before.”

  Her gaze flashed back to his. That pale blue flame licked over her senses as his head lowered.

  His lips stroked along her jawline to her neck. Flash points of pleasure seemed to tear across her nerve endings, streaking to alternate points of her body as she began to ache with sensual heat.

  His thumb pressed against her clit as it throbbed for attention. The firm, knowing touch sent spirals of sensation tracking lower, invading the depths of her sex and clenching through her body with near-violent desire.

  She had never wanted like she wanted this touch. The heated warmth of his fingertips against her inner thighs, his thumb pressing against her clit as his kiss sank inside her.

  It was incredible.

  He was the ultimate bad boy bringing the ultimate pleasure, and Mikayla, like any good virgin, was much too susceptible to it.

  The exquisite sensation raced through her body like a narcotic she couldn’t resist. It weakened any thought to protest, any need to deny. It sensitized her flesh, heated it, and had her lying back for him as he came over her, his knee pressing against the table, replacing his thumbs as one hand gripped her hip and dragged her closer to the firm pressure of that diabolical knee.

  For twenty-six years she had remained a virgin and she was ready to throw it all away right now, right here.

  Her head tipped back as his lips moved from hers, to her jaw, to her neck. The heated rasp of his unshaven jaw brushed against her neck as his lips waged a path of sensual destruction along the tender flesh of her neck.

  It was incredible. It so surpassed pleasure, came so close to orgasmic bliss, she could barely breathe for it. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t do anything but feel.

  Oh, God, it felt so good.

  His fingers played at the edges of her breasts as his lips moved lower, brushed against the rounded tops, licked over them. His tongue painted a trail of fire that sent a quicksilver rush of sensation tearing through her womb.

  “You have to be the sweetest thing I’ve tasted in my life,” he growled as he pushed the strap of her dress over her shoulder, revealing more of her breast, daring to nudge her dress lower until the tender bud of her nipple was revealed.

  She was doing this on his deck? Letting him touch her like this, taste her like this, on his picnic table? And she was loving it.

  The side of his finger rasped against her nipple as she arched closer, feeling his tongue lick between the valley of her breasts. She wanted his tongue on her nipple. She wanted to feel it enclosed in the heated cavern of his mouth. She wanted it like she had never wanted another touch.

  Was it the danger she had faced? The knowledge that tomorrow had almost not arrived for her? Was it the danger? Was it simply the man?

  The man was incredible.

  A low, muted groan, or a growl, vibrated against her breasts as his lips smoothed over her nipple. Racing pleasure raked over the tender tip, sent an incredible mix of sensations flowing through her.

  Her head tipped back, her back arching as she bit her lips to hold back a cry. Her nipple lodged between his lips as his tongue stroked over it. Stroked, like a wet, heated flame.

  She was on the verge of begging for more. Begging was clearly becoming an option when she suddenly stiffened at a sound she couldn’t believe she was hearing.

  “Mikayla, are you out here?”

  Her brother? Scotty?

  Her eyes flew open, watching as Nik’s head lifted just enough to allow his eyes to glance through the veil of his lashes toward the gate that separated their yards.

  “Mikayla, your car’s out front. Where are you?”

  Her lips parted in shock. “He called the police the last time I tried to ignore him.”

  Nik’s expression tightened with predatory intent, a glint of danger flickering in his gaze.

  What was she allowing herself to get into here? Where had her common sense gone?

  “She’s not here, Neil,” Scotty called out. “Get Beau; we’ll call the sheriff. He might actually help us this time.”

  Her eyes widened. All her brothers were there?

  Oh, Lord.

  “Let me go.” She wiggled beneath Nik, still feeling too fragile, too feminine, against him. “They really will call the sheriff.”

  They didn’t care how they embarrassed her, but she was lucky. They cared. For all their overprotectiveness, for all their irritating ways, her brothers loved her.

  Nik’s gaze slid slowly back to her. She imagined she saw a war waging in his gaze, whether to release her or to hold her, to ignore her brothers or to tempt her further.

  Finally, between one breath and the next he eased up, straightened, then lifted her from the table.

  His hand slid the strap of her dress up as the other adjusted the neckline, hiding the rounded flesh of her breast as he stepped back.

  “A lucky save,” he told her, his lips quirking. “Go do what you have to do, pretty girl. We’ll talk later.”

  Talk? She could just imagine where that conversation would lead.

  “I think the best thing I could do is stay away from you,” she said softly. “I don’t need a broken heart, Nik.”

  “Do any of us?” He glanced behind her. “There are your brothers.”

  “Mikayla.” Suspicion laced Beau’s voice as he opened the gate. “What are you doing here?”

  Nik stepped back. “Good night, pretty girl.”

  He turned and stepped into the house, the doors sliding closed behind him.

  Mikayla turned, faced her brothers, and breathed out wearily.

  A lucky save? Or simply a reprieve?

  CHAPTER 5

  Maddix Nelson’s home was in the most exclusive part of Hagerstown. The rising mansions and gated estates were lavishly rich and heavily secured.

  The Nelson home was on the lower end of lavish, situated in a gated community, surrounded by other similar homes, just as expensive, just as secured.

  As Nik pulled the Hummer into the Nelson driveway behind several other vehicles, he was clearly able to see why his neighbors had been so certain Maddix had been home the evening Eddie Foreman had died. They were intensely curious. Even now Nik counted no fewer than half a dozen watching as he stepped from the vehicle and made his way along the precisely placed sidewal
k that led to the front door.

  The door opened as he stepped onto the ornately decorated front porch.

  “Nik.” Maddix opened the door and stepped inside. “They’re all here.” “They” being the two city council members, chief of police, and mayor, as well as Maddix’s son, Luke.

  Nik followed Maddix through the quiet, understated luxury of the house to the back of the house where the office was located.

  Nik stepped into the room, paying particular attention to the heavy, closed drapes, the dark wood walls.

  “Nik, Councilman John Cooker, Mayor Dempsey, Chief Daniel Riley, Councilwoman Caroline Faulkner, my wife, Glenda, and my son, Lucas. We were all here the night Eddie was killed.”

  “This is ridiculous, Maddix.” Glenda Nelson, Maddix’s younger second wife, was clearly his trophy bride. At thirty-three the former model with her dark chocolate skin and rounded dark eyes was an exotic beauty who was clearly put out at being asked to attend this meeting.

  His son, Lucas, sat slumped in a chair in the corner, his brown eyes narrowed with spoiled defensiveness. His expression bespoke a man who considered himself far beyond being required to attend to anyone else’s schedule.

  The councilman and -woman watched in interest from their places on a love seat. There was a heavy sense of familiarity between the two that bespoke of lovers, despite the fact that they were married, to other partners.

  The chief of police sat in a chair next to a cold fireplace, his lips set in a thin line, his hazel eyes watching Nik suspiciously as Mayor Dempsey nodded his head in greeting.

  The gang was all here.

  “Thank you for meeting me,” Nik said, making an attempt at a polite greeting.

  “It wasn’t as though some of us had a choice,” Maddix’s son sneered.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Nik agreed. “But I’m certain we all appreciate your cooperation.”

  Cooperation his ass. Nik had warned Maddix he would drag the son there by his hair if he wasn’t in attendance. It was a threat Maddix had evidently relayed.

  “Why must Luke and I be here, Mr. Steele?” Glenda crossed her arms over the soft pale cream blouse she wore with stylish white shorts. “I’m certain we weren’t needed.”

  “You were all here the night Eddie Foreman died,” Nik said. “I have some questions I wanted to ask.”

  “Yes, we were all here, which means Maddix obviously killed no one,” Glenda continued to protest. “That makes this an exercise in futility if you ask me.”

  So much for cooperation.

  “Did I ask you?” Nik queried with cool softness.

  “Enough, Glenda,” Maddix growled. “Let Nik do his job. If he asked you to be here, then it’s for a reason.”

  “We should have invited Mikayla.” Luke’s lips tightened into a smile of clear male appreciation. “Then perhaps I wouldn’t be so bored.”

  Nik turned his head and stared at the other man. “And why do you say that, Mr. Nelson?” he asked.

  The smile shifted to one of anticipation. “Once this is over, it would be nice to take what’s owed me. The little bitch was teasing the hell out of me before she dropped me cold after she accused my father of murder.”

  “Shut your damned mouth, Luke,” Maddix ordered his son furiously before Nik would make a move to shut his mouth permanently. “I told you to stay away from that girl before any of this happened. She’s too good for your spoiled, whorish ways.”

  There was an edge of contempt in Maddix’s tone that surprised Nik. Luke was Maddix’s only child, a son at that, and obviously spoiled past redemption. The fact that Maddix was taking a stand when it was obviously too late made no sense to Nik.

  “His mother raised him,” Maddix explained with a glare toward his son. “Until she couldn’t do a damned thing with him, either.”

  “He’s twenty-seven years old. Throw his ass out and let him figure it out on his own,” Nik stated coldly. “For now, he can sit tight and keep his mouth shut or he’ll deal with me.”

  He slid Luke a cold, hard look as the other man opened his mouth to speak again. Just as quickly, Luke settled back and merely glared mutinously back at them.

  “Why are we here, Mr. Steele?” the councilwoman asked then, clearly as bored with events as Nik was becoming.

  Nik turned his gaze to her, revealing nothing. “To satisfy my curiosity, perhaps,” he stated.

  The real reason was to gauge the honesty of Maddix’s alibi. Guilt was never as cleverly hidden as others believed it was. Bringing them all into the same place as they had claimed they had been the first time gave Nik a chance to decide if they were lying or if that meeting had truly taken place.

  “I wasn’t even in this damned room,” Luke muttered. “I was upstairs. If I remember correctly, Dad was rather insistent that I not stay.”

  Maddix’s lips tightened as his expression turned reproving. “He was drunk.”

  “I was.” Luke smiled sardonically.

  “I was by the pool.” Glenda waved a graceful hand toward the pool outside the office. “I don’t involve myself in Maddix’s business affairs.”

  No doubt. Not for the first time Nik was amazed at familial interactions. They were nothing like his family, back in Russia, before he’d lost all he held dear. His may not have been willing to stand up to their government to help Nik, but they all knew better than to disrespect their parents. He and his brothers and sisters had worked from an early age and learned to take care of themselves. Nik had never been able to make sense of men and women like Luke Nelson and Maddix’s trophy wife.

  “Was there anything in particular that you needed to know, Mr. Steele?” The chief of police watched him with barely disguised animosity. “Or are you just checking us out?”

  Nik allowed his lips to quirk mockingly. No doubt the police chief had investigated him. Nik could see it in Riley’s eyes, in the hunger to make an arrest that could possibly be the turning point of his career. Possibly. If he could actually come up with any proof to back the rumors that circulated in certain circles where Nik Steele was concerned. Thankfully, they were rumors. Even the U.S. government, armed forces, and law enforcement agencies often depended on the information he provided and even, at times, his services.

  “Just checking you out,” Nik agreed as he crossed his arms over his chest and turned his gaze back to the son. “You know Ms. Martin then?”

  “I spent the better part of three months wining and dining her,” he grunted. “She was ready to put out when she decided to try to ruin Father for whatever reason.” He glared back at Maddix. “Not that I could blame her much.”

  Nik watched Maddix roll his eyes. “He begged that poor girl for a date for two years. She finally gave in to him just to shut him up.”

  Luke snickered at the comment, his gaze filled with sarcasm as he stared back at Nik. “She’s a frigid thing, I have to say, but I could have melted her.”

  Frigid? Mikayla?

  There was no doubt in Nik’s mind that Luke Nelson hadn’t had a chance at Mikayla. She had been anything but frigid the week before on Nik’s back deck.

  “Did any of you know Eddie Foreman?” Nik asked as he turned to the others in the room.

  “I rather doubt it,” the councilwoman informed him as she smoothed back a strand of her carefully colored blond hair. “Our meeting that night concerned city business interests that Maddix is a part of, not his construction business.”

  That was pretty much what Nik expected. His reasons for being here had very little to do with the questions or any information that could be gained on the foreman.

  Nik was learning quite a bit, though, more than he had expected. There was a lot to be learned from simply watching.

  “What do you have so far, Nik?” Maddix rubbed at his forehead at he cast the others a disgruntled look.

  “Nothing yet.” Nik cast Luke Maddix another look, one he was certain was filled with confidence. “I’ve moved in next door to her, though. She’s a nice girl.”

>   “I told you she was.” Maddix shook his head. “I thought she was too good for this.”

  Luke was glaring back at him now.

  “How long before she learns why you’re here, do you think?” Luke grunted with bitter amusement. “It’s not as though you’re hiding it. Do you think she’s going to thank you for lying to her?”

  Nik arched his brow. “In this situation, lying isn’t an option.” He shrugged. “She’ll learn soon enough and I won’t deny it. I’ve told her no different.”

  He would give Luke Nelson no ammunition against him, or Mikayla. It wouldn’t matter whether others knew why he was there or not. Maddix had called Nik to find out why Mikayla was lying. The problem was, he couldn’t tell which one of them was lying, her or Maddix. It was a disturbing realization.

  “Do you think we haven’t checked you out, Steele?” Animosity thickened Luke Nelson’s voice.

  “Enough, Luke,” Maddix growled.

  “Tell him, Riley.” Luke’s sneer in the chief of police’s direction was snide and filled with derision. “You can’t arrest the bastard, though, can you? Can’t or won’t. Maybe you’re just too damned scared?”

  Chief Riley’s wide, square face tightened in anger as Nik merely shook his head. “He can’t arrest me.” Nik stared back at the chief. “I have yet to break a law.”

  Which wasn’t entirely true.

  “That we can prove,” the chief muttered. “You know, Steele, I’m only here because Maddix is a friend and I want this cleared up just as much as he does. Otherwise, I’d be trying to find a way to fry your ass, no matter the fact that certain government agencies find you useful.”

  “That you can prove. And fortunately for me, I have many friends,” Nik agreed as he inclined his head mockingly. “And on that note, before I murder this little bastard of Maddix’s, I’m leaving.”

  Fury stiffened Luke’s expression as he jumped to his feet and turned to his father.

  “I feel sorry for you, Maddix,” Nik stated, pitying the man. “Try suspending his allowance for a while. Maybe he’ll act like a decent human being rather than the disgrace he’s turning out to be.”

  Nik walked out of the room as Maddix lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. Almost simultaneously Glenda and Luke began raging. It didn’t surprise Nik that Glenda was joining in on Luke’s side; like the two council members, Glenda and Luke Nelson were making a little happy time between the sheets.