Elite Ops Complete Series

by Lora Leigh

  He could give it to her. Just a little. With nothing more than his fingers he could bring her to climax, showing her what she was attempting to deny.

  That would be cheating, he thought. He wanted her begging for what he could give her, tortured with the need to know what waited on the other side.

  Not knowing, imagining, wondering what she had pulled away from could in ways be more powerful than knowing.

  His finger slid from the clenched opening, slipped upward, circled her straining clit, then pulled away.

  He wasn’t finished with her, not by a long shot. As she stared up at him, that beautiful gaze sinking into his soul, he brought his fingers to his lips and let himself taste her.

  The taste of her exploded against his tongue like liquid sunshine. Fresh, vibrant, a hint of sweetness and spice that he knew he could so easily become addicted to.

  Her eyes widened as she watched, her lips parting. Swollen cherry red lips. He could easily imagine them parted, those eyes staring up at him as he let himself fuck the sweet recess of her mouth.

  His balls tightened at the thought. She was so innocent, she would be hesitant. He would be her first taste of true passion, and he’d ensure she knew every ounce of pleasure possible.

  “A little then?” He kept his voice quiet, the rasp of his nearly broken voice more of a growl.

  Her lips trembled. It was sexy, and vulnerable. That vulnerability touched him in a place he hadn’t known existed. In the heart he had sworn he didn’t have.

  “Why are you doing this?” She tugged at her skirt, straightening it, her hands trembling as she stared up at him in confusion.

  That look did something to him. Something he couldn’t explain. It pierced a part of his soul that had remained frozen hard, solid, for so many years.

  “Why am I doing what?” Brushing her hair back from her face, he had to admit Mikayla Martin could make even a dead man dream.

  “Why are you messing up my life, Nik Steele? I was fine before you arrived.”

  “You were bored,” he assured her, his fingers brushing along her jawline. “I saw you at the bar, baby. I watched. If your eyes had become any more glazed you would have been comatose. Tell me, have you even heard from the bastard since that night? The one you were there with?”

  She hadn’t. Nik saw it in the nervous way her tongue peeked out to touch her upper lip.

  “I heard he was dating the daughter of one of the firm’s partners after that night.” Her shoulders lifted in a tight shrug. “No big deal.”

  Her date hadn’t even called to see if she had arrived safely, Nik knew. Actually, the man had spent the night in the other woman’s bed. And every night thereafter. He’d preferred the barracuda to the gentle woman he’d been with.

  The good girl. The virgin.

  God help him, Nik wanted to be the man to share that first climax with her. The one who watched her eyes widen, watched her body shudder, and heard her cries as she came around him.

  “This isn’t over,” he told her as she shifted away from him, his gaze locked on her. “You want to think it is, Mikayla, but you know as well as I do that it’s not.”

  “Why?” Pushing her hair back, she watched him in dismay. “You can have any woman you want, Nik. Why me?”

  “Why me?” he asked instead. “Why are you opening a door I didn’t know existed inside me? Why, Mikayla, are you making a dead man dream?”

  He froze. He hadn’t said that. Fuck.

  He jerked the door open without another word and stalked through the shop and out the door.

  This was finished. It was simply over.

  And he knew better.

  It wasn’t over. It couldn’t be over until he had the scent of her out of his head, the taste of her from his tongue. And he knew he couldn’t stay away from her long enough for that to happen anytime soon.

  Striding to the parking lot at the side of the shop, Nik swung onto the Harley and within seconds roared down the street. He wore the helmet, though he wished the wind were in his hair, the scent of a coming rainstorm filling his senses. But rather than wiping the smell and the taste of Mikayla from his mind, it would only remind him of her. She was as wild and as free as the storm, beneath that good-girl exterior.

  In her eyes he saw more than the dressmaker, more than the virgin. He saw the woman fighting to hold on to safety when safety was the last thing she truly wanted.

  He should leave her alone, but he knew he wouldn’t. He knew he couldn’t. The part of him that had been dead was slowly coming to life for her. Staying away wasn’t an option.

  Reaching up to the side of the helmet, he activated the link to the base and the woman manning communications.

  “Jordan is getting nervous, big boy,” Tehya informed Nik as she answered the link. “He needs you back here.”

  “Not yet,” he answered, his voice hardening at the thought. “I need you to get some intel for me.”

  “Jordan finds out that I’m fucking around working on your ‘favor’ then he’s likely to punish me,” she drawled.

  Nik waited.

  “Okay, maybe he’ll actually get around to that spanking he keeps threatening me with.” She laughed lightly. “What do you need?”

  “Luke Nelson, Maddix Nelson’s son,” Nik answered her. “You didn’t tell me he had dated Mikayla.”

  “Baby, your little Miss Martin dates a lot,” Tehya informed him with a thread of amusement. “In the past year she’s gone out with eight different men. Even the little controversy between her and Nelson hasn’t slowed down her social life. Rarely the same one for more than a few dates, though. She’s very popular. She attends many of the parties that her dresses are worn to. Before Eddie Foreman was killed she was a very popular guest in many homes. That’s actually risen since she accused Maddix Nelson of murder. This war between them keeps everyone highly entertained, it seems. If you want to know more about the families you should ask Eleanor Longstrom.”

  Eleanor Longstrom owned the antique store down from Mikayla’s shop. An ex-CIA agent and contact for the unit, she could dig up information others only dreamed of acquiring.

  “Check him out. While you’re at it, see if you can dig up anything on Maddix that I don’t already have. Something’s wrong here, Tehya. Both of them can’t be telling the truth.”

  Tehya was silent for long moments. “She’s a pretty girl,” she finally said softly. “Are you falling, Ice Man?”

  It was a nickname Tehya used with fondness, as she did now. But it reminded him how dangerous Mikayla was to his self-control.

  “That has nothing to do with the truth,” he told Tehya. “They’re both sticking to their story and I need to get to the bottom of it. See what you can find out for me.”

  “Will do,” she promised. “It’s going to take a few days, though. The team is on mission and I’m providing backup intel.”

  “Understood.” The mission came first. “Work on it when you can.”

  The link disconnected as Nik turned the bike to the interstate, taking the exit to the house he had rented. He was going to have to finish this, quickly. Otherwise, the little fairy stealing his self-control was going to end up stealing his heart as well.

  Mikayla pulled the Jeep into her driveway, glanced at the house next door, and saw the lights that blazed inside as well as the glow of the back porch lights.

  It was well after dark. She had deliberately stayed at the shop as long as possible, trying to restore the defenses she had never had to worry about falling at a man’s touch.

  But no man had ever affected her as Nik Steele did.

  Shaking her head at the thought, she lifted her keys from her purse, pulled the strap over her shoulder, then stepped from the Jeep.

  As she closed the door and hit the automatic door locks, Nik’s front door opened. Leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest, he watched her.

  He looked tall, forbidden, shadowed.

  Turning from him, she hurried up the s
idewalk to the house, her gaze moving carefully along the yard, the porch, watching for anything out of the ordinary.

  She wasn’t as wary as she normally was. She wasn’t as frightened. Nik was watching her. He was there, and for some reason that gave her a sense of security that she hadn’t even felt when her three bruiser brothers had escorted her into the house, checked it out, and made certain all her doors and windows were locked.

  Nik was dangerous. He was more dangerous, she felt, than anyone who could possibly be waiting in the shadows.

  Unlocking her front door, Mikayla stepped inside, closed the door, punched in her security code, then locked the door behind her. The house was too silent.

  She felt completely alone and too restless.

  The urge to step back outside and walk to the one next door was overwhelming. It was an urge she forced herself to ignore.

  She’d waited until late to come home for a reason, hoping she would be tired enough to just go to sleep.

  It looked as though that wasn’t happening anytime soon, though.

  Moving to the small office area between the living room and kitchen, she dropped her purse to the small end table by the door and moved to her computer.

  Powering it up, she moved to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of sweet tea, and walked back to the office.

  By the time she took her chair, the computer was loaded and ready to go.

  The file marked: “NELSON” glared at her from the desktop.

  How could she further her research into Maddix Nelson? She’d pulled everything she could find on him as well on Eddie Foreman, and still there was nothing she could use.

  The best she had been able to find had been a few articles mentioning production and material problems with a few jobs. Nothing that wasn’t found with countless other construction companies as well.

  Propping her elbows on the desk, she covered her face with her hands and wondered where she should go from here. There was nothing to tie Maddix Nelson to Eddie Foreman’s murder other than the fact that Mikayla had witnessed it.

  And no one believed her.

  She was at a dead end.

  Maddix Nelson was going to get away with murder.

  A heavy sigh slipped past her lips as she stared at the still-unopened file. She was concentrating so hard on it that when the firm knock came at her door she nearly jumped out of her skin.

  She stood up, her eyes going to the clock on the computer before swinging to the door.

  She knew who it was. She could feel him with every fiber of her being.

  “Mikayla.” The rasp of his voice, like sandpaper over velvet, stroked up her spine with sensual destruction.

  That didn’t keep her from moving across the room, her fingers punching in the code to the alarm before she unlocked the door and pulled it open.

  He wasn’t wearing riding leathers anymore. He wore snug jeans and a white shirt tucked into the low-riding waistband. Long sleeves were rolled to the elbows and a hint of light-colored chest hair peeked from the buttoned edges of the material at his chest.

  His long white blond hair was loose, falling around his hard-boned face with delicious rakish appeal.

  “It’s almost eleven, Nik. What do you want?” she asked wearily, tiring of the battle inside her to resist his magnetic appeal.

  “We need to talk.” He stepped into the house without an invitation.

  “We can’t talk tomorrow?” Sometime when her willpower was stronger perhaps? That would definitely be a better time to talk as far as she was concerned.

  “No. We need to talk tonight.”

  Mikayla closed and locked the door before turning to face him.

  “Do you want a drink?” she asked.

  Every nerve ending in her body was standing to attention now. The sheer act of walking, of feeling the silk of her skirt against her thighs, was becoming sexual.

  Geez, how had she managed to live this long without knowing the effect a man could have on her?

  “I’m tired,” she stated, though she didn’t feel in the least tired at the moment. Excited. Filled with anticipation. But tired was running in last place.

  His gaze raked over her. She could feel the hunger in that look, a dark need that at once terrified her and made her breathless in anticipation.

  It was all Nik could do to keep his hands off her. His palms itched with the need to stroke her silken flesh, to lay her beneath him, to fuck her until they were both sated, exhausted from satiation.

  His cock throbbed with the need. Every nerve ending in his body throbbed for it. Standing before him, her amethyst eyes curious, hot, she made him burn inside for her.

  He wasn’t here to fuck her, though. He was here to finish this. He’d already called Maddix. There was nothing to be found, no reason for her accusations other than the fact that she believed she had seen Maddix Nelson kill his foreman.

  The attack on her the night she and Nik met had been in response to her allegations against Nelson, the attacker striking in anger. Nothing else made sense. The graffiti on her shop window, all of it. She needed to step back, she had to let this go, and Nik had to leave.

  Nik believed Maddix hadn’t been there. His alibi was too solid. But Mikayla’s belief in what she had seen went too deep.

  There was nothing to tie either of them to anything suspicious, which meant the killer was still on the loose. He had nothing to fear, though, because the only person who saw him thought she had seen someone else.

  She was no threat, and there was no reason for the killer to harm her.

  It was time for Nik to go.

  “Why are you here this late, Nik?” She moved farther into the living room, her expression still and calm despite the arousal blazing in her eyes.

  Her long dark blond hair flowed down her back like a heavy cape. The image of a fairy came to mind once more. A fragile, innocent little fairy too good for the world she suddenly found herself within.

  “I’m leaving.” Hooking his thumbs in his belt, he fought the need to touch her.

  Surprise filled her eyes then. “Your job is over already? It was hardly worth renting a house for, was it?”

  Confusion filled her voice, as well as disappointment.

  “I managed to wrap things up faster than I expected,” he told her, wondering at the tightening in his chest as she continued to watch him with such somber intensity.

  “I see.” She nodded slowly. “When are you leaving?”

  “Tomorrow evening.”

  She asked, still watching. “So why are you here tonight?”

  He almost grinned. She was smart as hell. She knew something wasn’t quite right about the job he had claimed to have versus the fact that he was leaving so soon.

  “I’m here because of what you saw, Mikayla.” He tried to say the words gently, to lower his voice enough that she knew he wasn’t there to hurt her.

  She flinched. Hell, so much for trying. “You’re here because of Maddix?”

  Nik clenched his teeth for long seconds as he watched the feelings of betrayal fill her beautiful eyes.

  “I’ve known Maddix for a while,” Nik told her. “I’m confident enough in the man I know to believe he’s innocent. I was here to check you out, to figure out why you would want to destroy Maddix by accusing him of murder.”

  Nik wasn’t going to sugarcoat it. There was no gentle way to tell her. No easy way to break this to her or to keep her from hating him after he was gone.

  As she took a step back, almost in defense, her arms wrapped over her breasts, her face paling, causing her eyes to appear larger, darker than before. Pain swept across her features as moisture glistened in her eyes, proof that he was piercing at the heart of a woman who had been hurt too much in the past weeks.

  “I see,” she whispered, obviously fighting against the hurt and anger he could see building in her eyes. “The night at the club. The guy that attacked me. Did you know him, too?”

  Nik’s brows jerked down in a frown as he felt
the ice he had built around him before coming here beginning to crack.

  “You think I’d have someone attack you, Mikayla?”

  Her lips tightened in a mocking grin. “Sorry, how silly of me. You like doing your own dirty work, don’t you? Do you get more satisfaction that way?”

  He couldn’t blame her for her anger. He’d expected much worse than this. But he had to admit this silent pain tore at him more deeply than screaming accusations could have.

  He could have walked away from the screaming. Walking away from this quiet pain was harder.

  “I’d kill any man who tried to harm you,” he told her. “I’d never hurt you, Mikayla, not intentionally.”

  “What more does a liar deserve?” Her fingers clenched on her arms as she held on to herself. “Isn’t that how you see it? I dared to lie about your precious Maddix. What more do I deserve?”

  He shook his head, hating this. He hated this worse than he had ever hated anything in this life. Seeing the pain on her face tightened every muscle in his body and tore at his determination not to touch her.

  “I don’t believe you’re a liar, Mikayla,” he sighed. “Any more than I believe Maddix is a killer. What I do believe is that you think you saw Maddix. It was evening. Shadows stretch over the building site at that time of day. That can give anyone, anything, a far different look.”

  A tear slipped free.

  God, he hated that single tear, the proof that she was fighting so hard to hold back the pain he was inflicting.

  “Of course, that’s all it was.” She nodded in agreement. A mocking, ironic agreement. One filled with betrayal. “You figured it out, Nik. Thanks so much for fixing this little problem for me.” Her breathing hitched, breaking a heart he didn’t know he had. “Now you can get out of my house and go back to where you came from.”

  Any other woman he knew, or had ever known, would have been cursing a blue streak at this point. Screaming. Throwing things. He could have escaped and thanked his lucky stars she hadn’t actually managed to hit him in the head with anything.

  But not Mikayla. Her shoulders straightened, her chin lifted defiantly, and she fought her tears and her anger with everything inside her.

  And it was killing her.