DEADLY GAMES Jaycee Clark 1

by james

  DEADLY GAMES Jaycee Clark 89

  He stepped closer and she started to move to the side. His arms shot up on either

  side of her. “We’re really going to have to work on this.”

  She swallowed and looked into his eyes. If she wanted to, she could make the man

  move, but then.… She took a deep breath. She really didn’t want to move him.

  “Work on what?” she asked.

  “You acting as if you’re afraid of me.”

  It was her turn to arch her brow. “I’m not afraid of you.”

  He leaned in closer. “You’re not?”

  She licked her lips, watched as his eyes dropped to her mouth. “No, I’m not.”

  “Well, that is something then,” he whispered, his eyes rising to meet hers, his

  breath warm on her face. “Isn’t it?”

  He closed the distance between them.

  She’d kissed the man before and though it was nice….

  Then his lips were on hers. He didn’t touch her, except for his mouth. His tongue

  traced her lips, his own lips coaxed hers open, his teeth gentle as they scraped over her

  full bottom lip.

  Rori leaned back against the armoire and he shifted, his chest on hers, one leg

  between her own.

  She sighed and opened her mouth as he swept in. His kiss demanded cooperation

  and she gave it, sparring with him, as his tongue licked the sensitive roof of her mouth.

  The kiss set her blood to humming, speeding through her veins. She started to

  move her arms up, but his elbows came down on her arms, his own hands moving from

  flat against the armoire doors to frame her face.

  God.

  He pulled back a moment and shoved his hand into his pocket. He took a deep

  breath and frowned. “Better.”

  Bloody wonderful. Here she was thinking of them together and he pulled away.

  Better? Like it was a bloody lesson?

  Rori took a deep breath.

  His one hand still on her face he said, “There’s something else.”

  She cleared her throat before taking a calming breath. “What?”

  His head tilted to the side. “This.” He straightened and pulled her left hand to him.

  She glanced down and blinked. “What are you about?” Freeing her hand from him

  proved useless. Finally, she looked up into his dark blue eyes.

  Sometimes this man was so bloody intense. Those eyes were narrowed on her, the

  planes of his face seemed harsher than moments before “We can’t just say we’re married.

  Rings, Rori.”

  Still she tried to pull her hand free. “Not everyone wears rings.”

  “My wife does.” Those eyes challenged her.

  Just like that. My wife.

  A slight grin pulled one corner of his mouth. “There’s that look.”

  “What bloody look?” she snapped.

  The grin grew. “That look that says, ‘what the bloody hell am I doing?’ and ‘fuck

  off’, all at once.”

  Rori took a deep breath. “I don’t think --”

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  Without another word, he slid the ring onto her finger. She stared at it. Nothing

  ordinary for this man. No plain gold band, no big flashy diamonds--not that she’d wear

  the latter anyway. No, this ring was wide, appeared old with almost tarnished, yet

  shimmering gold. Round stones so deep blue or green they appeared black, were spaced

  and raised from the band. Deep grooves and swirls roped along the top and bottom of the

  ring. It looked old, pagan, Mediterranean. It was beautiful.

  “You’re not about to say something so clichéd such as, ‘I couldn’t possibly’, are

  you?” he asked, rubbing his thumb back and forth over the ring that fit perfectly on her

  finger.

  She could only stare at it, and vainly liked the way the dim lights glinted on the

  gold and nearly black stones. Swallowing, she looked from the ring to him and said, “Of

  course not.” The ring pulled her attention back to it. She shouldn’t wear it. “Is this an

  heirloom? It appears old. I don’t want it… That is.” It was just a ring. And a beautiful one

  that he’d given her. “Never mind.”

  An inquisitive smile lightened his face. “No, it’s not an heirloom. Or I suppose it

  might be, but I saw it in London and thought of you, so I got it. Simple.”

  She rolled the ring on her finger. “Right, then. Simple. Just to keep the cover

  complete.”

  He ran his tongue around his teeth. “Something like that.” Ian reached into his

  pocket and pulled out a gold band with the same design inlaid within the smooth band.

  He handed it to her and smiled. “Do me the honor, dear?”

  She rolled her eyes and grabbed the ring from his palm, noticing it was still warm

  from his body heat. “How long have you carried these around in your pocket?” She

  pushed the ring onto his ring finger. His palm was warm where she held it. The band slid

  past his first knuckle. She ran her finger over the metal.

  “This I’ll defend,” he muttered.

  She looked at him. “What?”

  Ian shook his head, his voice low. “You’re wearing my ring.”

  She cocked her brow and leaned back, even as he moved in. “So?”

  His hands ran from her hands, up her arms, over her shoulders, to her neck.

  “We’re in Scotland,” he said, his voice low, his lashes sweeping down to hide his eyes.

  “And you’re claiming to be my wife. Do you know what that means?”

  “Yeah, it’s not forever,” she said, her gaze locked on his lips.

  Ian’s thumbs gently stroked her jaw, back and forth, back and forth, his fingers

  playing at the nape of her neck. Tension swirled in her gut, made her breasts heavy and

  tickled down her backbone. She looked back up into his eyes, her breath halted at the

  seriousness swirling in them. He leaned in closer and then closer.

  Instead of replying to her comment, he whispered against her lips. “Have I told

  you how sexy I think you are?”

  Her eyes closed, she just shook here head.

  “You are,” he muttered between nibbles on her lips. “Sexy and confident and

  that’s a turn on, babe.”

  He ran one hand over her short cropped hair.

  She kissed him back. “I hear husbands are supposed to tell their wives these

  things.”

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  “Are they?” The other hand moved from her neck, to her collar bone down to cup

  her breast. She pulled back out of the kiss to tell him…

  His thumb stroked over the center of her breast.

  To tell him….

  He gently squeezed.

  Her breath huffed out.

  “I’ve thought about doing this since I saw you at Nero’s wearing that lavender

  sweater that showed off your shoulder.” He kissed her neck, his tongue trailing a path

  from her collar bone to her jaw, to her earlobe.

  She shivered.

  “Oh, yeah, I’ve thought of doing this.…” He kissed her mouth again, their bodies

  pressing against each other, then he whispered against her lips, “This and a hell lot more.”

  DEADLY GAMES Jaycee Clark 92

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Switzerland, November 8

  Elianya looked out at the falling snow.

  Damn it.

  All her hard work had screeched to a halt.

  There was still the shipment moving from the Caribbean, and tomorrow she’d be

  on a plane t
o Paris, then onto Miami. Hot sultry weather in November…. Ah.

  And once she was in the States, she’d simply contact the person who owed her.

  Then she’d learn Dimitri’s real name. As of yet, there was no trace of him. But he

  wouldn’t leave a trace would he?

  If she learned his real name, she’d know how to get to him.

  And if there was anyone she could use against him….

  Eilianya smiled. He was one man she hated. Almost as much as Jacob several

  years earlier. And she’d taken care of that man and his little family. Though, she

  suspected his name had been something else, she’d never learned what it was.

  She hadn’t asked and hadn’t cared. All she cared about was that the man she’d

  hired had done his job. Followed one Jacob Angelovsky and then had gotten rid of him.

  As soon as the man had called her, she’d called her second contracted killer to take out

  the first. Neither man had a clue who she was, or who their mark was. Just the fact they

  were hired to do a job and did it successfully. At least jobs hired then had been carried

  out.

  A little bomb on the ignition and boom! Problem solved.

  The man had had a family! A family she had learned later! How could he do with

  her, what he’d done and still have a family? He’d deserved to die. Of course, he’d

  deserved to die before that for rejecting her. To learn he’d had a family only served to put

  the icing on the cake, so to speak.

  No man made her ‘the other woman’. She was any man’s only woman.

  And now Dimitri--or whoever the hell he was. She had men looking for him.

  So who was working with him? Who had the other man been that the Russian

  guard had spoken of? Your brother’s man and someone else....

  So who had the someone else been?

  She ran a hand over her coifed hair and checked the clock. It was almost time for

  her massage and last spa treatment. Who knew when she’d get back to Europe? New

  York had some good spas, but not like those here.

  She was a European snob and she knew it. The Americans were capitalists and

  she would use that. Other than their use to her, she had no need of them.

  But she knew she could make a beautiful profit in the U.S with her girls and she

  damn well would. Before long, she’d be someone the other bosses came to.

  As she pulled on the thick white robe and grabbed her room key, she decided she

  needed to hire at least two more body guards. Her driver was loyal, but after her

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  brother….

  At least everyone would know she meant business.

  And business was always important. A sharp head in business lead to power. And

  power.…

  Well, there was nothing like power was there?

  She checked the mirror on her way out and decided she’d hire three body guards.

  Two men and a woman.

  She liked diversity after all.

  * * * *

  November 13; 11:00 a.m.

  Ian put the car in drive, ignoring the way Roth glared at him. He merged with the

  rest of the traffic from Dulles.

  John, Tanner and Snake were following in another vehicle. He could only shake

  his head at the black SUV following them. Leave it to one of the guys to rent the vehicles

  and it looked like a damn Fed convention coming to town.

  “I wasn’t in charge of the rentals.” Roth said, straightening in his passenger seat.

  Roth, tall, short dark hair, a beard and built like a line backer was already helping in the

  area of protective services that KB Securities provided.

  Ian shrugged. “It’s fine.”

  “Jones probably would have arranged it anyway.”

  “True, along with several other details.”

  Roth only grunted. Roth was also a retired Ranger who went to work with the

  same agency that had recruited Ian. He was originally from the Midwest somewhere, not

  that Ian cared. Roth was good at what he did and that was all that mattered. People paid

  for protection and for the price they paid, they got it.

  “Exactly where are we going?” Rori asked from the back seat. From the set of her

  pale, green eyes and the furrow between those perfectly arched brows, he could tell she

  was still pissed.

  Not that she had to come along, but he was glad she had. All for the girl.

  His gaze shifted to the little girl in the rearview mirror. Dressed in a blue sweater

  and jeans, little half boots on her feet, the black bear clutched in her lap, she appeared the

  normal little girl.

  Except for those eyes.

  He took another deep breath and paid attention to the road and the other drivers

  around him.

  “I should be driving,” Roth said.

  Ian only glanced at him, pulling his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and

  shaking out one out. He needed one. Long damn flight.

  “You pulled me off the detail in Boston for this. And what am I doing? Riding.

  The guard drives. The targets never --“

  “I don’t need a run down on body guard and target marking procedures.” He

  pressed the car lighter to the end of the cigarette and took a deep drag, shoving the lighter

  back into his slot and cracking the window.

  “That will kill you,” Roth muttered.

  Ian ignored him.

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  “Well, I agree with him,” Rori said from the back seat.

  “I didn’t ask you.”

  “No bloody kidding.” Her eyes shot ice at him. “One more week. You should be

  able to find out in that amount of time if anyone is looking for her, if your family is safe

  and if you have to help with anything else. After that, Mr. I-don’t-jolly-ask, you’re on

  your own.”

  He wanted to smile at her. He didn’t, he took another deep drag.

  His eyes stayed on hers for another moment and in that second he could all but

  taste what it felt like to kiss the woman senseless.

  A week.

  He sighed. He didn’t know what the hell to do on that front. She was agreeing to

  pose as his wife.

  Though he only planned to be here a couple of days and then they were getting out

  of this area. He didn’t want anyone to link him to his family. But he hadn’t lied to Rori

  before. There was simply no way he could not check on them and if--God forbid--he ran

  into them, they had their story straight. Of course if that happened, then he’d have to

  explain later how they divorced. Lie here, lie there. Lies were a pain in the ass.

  He was out of this damn job as soon as this was finished. He finished off the

  cigarette and tossed the butt into the ashtray.

  No fucking more.

  He hated the fact he had to be here so close to his family to begin with, but he had

  to check on them himself. Pete had told him they were fine, but they weren’t Pete’s

  family.

  And if all else, he needed to warn them. He’d already hired his own men to

  oversee their protection and to explain that, he’d have to at least meet with Aiden. Some

  things he could probably get away with, hiring several body guards for his family was not

  going to be one of the times he could merely shadow their lives unseen.

  The plan was to arrive at the hotel, check it out, meet with Aiden and discretely

  make certain the rest of the family was all right. Two days tops. Wit
h Aiden’s help, they

  could create a story, or more accurately he could create a story Aiden would likely go

  along with.

  Maybe there had been a threat against the hotel….

  Or maybe there was a threat against Jock and Mom. That would work. And so that

  they wouldn’t worry, every one else would go along with it. With the wealth that the

  Kinncaids had, they could be targets for any idiot wanting a buck. He’d probably go with

  that angle.

  For any that needed to know, Rori was his wife and Darya was their daughter.

  More than likely he wouldn’t even see anyone other than Aiden.

  “You think they’ll actually go for it?” Roth asked.

  “For?”

  Roth shook his head. “You haven’t changed since the last time I worked a detail

  directly for you.”

  Ian didn’t answer him.

  “And here I thought I was the only one who was the recipient of his gracious

  communication skills,” Rori said from the back seat. “He gives just enough information

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  to get you to go along with crap then has the annoying habit of telling you to be ready to

  go within the hour.”

  Ian shook his head, taking the exit he needed. “You were ready in ten minutes.

  You’re just pissed because you didn’t get to sleep late.”

  He noticed how late she slept everyday. How the hell she did it, he had no idea.

  “Two words, boyo.”

  He grinned. There were three cars that followed them down the ramp, one had

  started to follow them two miles from the airport. The blue Taurus.

  “Pete have someone tailing us?” he asked Roth.

  Roth didn’t even move. “The blue car?” A smile lifted one edge of his mouth.

  “Probably. Been with us for ten minutes.”

  Ian kept driving, weaving in and out of traffic, the black SUV behind keeping

  with them.

  The blue car finally turned off two blocks from the hotel. He took a deep breath.

  Two days. He could handle two days.

  He never knew if he liked being here or not. Normally, it was fine. But now he

  had that humming itch under his skin.

  “Ready to get to a room?” he asked Darya in Russian.

  As usual she didn’t speak. She only looked at him, but the corners of her eyes

  softened.

  Slow progress. He wanted to know more about her. What the hell did he actually