ArousingMemories

by Samantha Cayto

  She smiled at him before turning his hand over and licking his palm. “Don’t worry about it. There’s plenty of time to reciprocate.” She couldn’t hold the smile. “However, first we need to do some work if you’re up to it.”

  “Absolutely. I want to help.”

  Haley settled back on her heels and opened the folder. “Good. I have some pictures here and I want you to tell me if you recognize anyone, or if any memories are jogged by looking at them.” She handed him the pile of eight-by-ten color photos she and others had taken while keeping tabs on Noah’s infiltration of the terrorist group. With bated breath, she waited to see if he recognized the men and remembered what they had said. She searched his face for any sign he remembered, hoping he would, not only because of the lives it would save, but also because otherwise she would have to continue with Operation Seduction. The plan was no hardship, of course, and justified, given what was at stake. Still, it nagged at her how she was using Noah.

  He frowned as he worked through the pictures, finally shook his head violently and threw himself back against the chair. “Damn it! I have no idea who these men are. Nothing is coming to me.” He looked at his arms and chest where bruises were still livid and cuts barely scabbed over. “They did this to me. They tortured me. I should remember who they are.”

  Hearing his misery, Haley grabbed the file from his hands and slapped it onto the table nearby. She took his hands in her own, rubbing her thumbs across his knuckles. “It’s okay, Noah. Don’t worry about it. We had to try and now we know it won’t be so easy to bring your memories back. We’ll think of something else.”

  He sighed. “What else could possibly work?”

  Haley swallowed hard before responding. “Well, when I need to remember something, I find it easier if I stop trying so hard and simply relax. I distract myself.” She almost choked on the last sentence, and yet it wasn’t a lie. The strategy did work. She had to put the nagging guilt aside. She had a job to do, and right now, her job included seducing Noah. To that end, she pulled one of his hands up to her mouth and sucked his forefinger inside. She sucked on it as she would the meatier part of him. The towel he wore moved as his cock roused with her provocative touch. She disentangled her other hand from his to slide it along Noah’s inner thigh, a place mercifully free of injury. He stopped her progress with his own hand, however.

  His lovely green eyes stared down at her intently. “You said we were lovers. Are we in love as well?”

  Love? Were they in love? No, she loved Severin Blake, the incessant tiny voice screamed again in the back of her mind. Shut up, the more rational part commanded. She knew she couldn’t lie to Noah regardless. Releasing his finger, she answered as honestly as she could without hurting him. “We haven’t known each other long enough to have fallen in love.”

  If he found her answer too much of an evasion, he didn’t call her on it. Instead, he yanked the towel away from his body, exposing the magnificent erection he sported. Haley didn’t hesitate to reach up and grab it in a firm clasp. “Ah,” he exclaimed and smiled. “You certainly have a way with my cock, and you do a great job of making me forget my problems.”

  “I love your cock.” The statement was true, and as she stared at the growing length of his hard-on, she licked her lips. “I love tasting it.”

  Haley maneuvered around his legs to position herself between them. It took no effort at all to lean over Noah’s lap and suck his cock into her mouth as she had his finger. It tasted so clean and sweet, the loose skin giving way to her tongue and lips. His gasp of pleasure spurred her on. She pressed down farther, taking the hardness as deep as she could. With one hand, she worked the base of his cock where her mouth couldn’t go, with the other, she massaged his balls. Her forefinger pressed into the taut flesh right beneath them.

  Noah’s hands descended onto her head. His fingers entwined in her hair and gently tugged at the strands. She pulled her mouth back until only the tip of his cock was inside, tickling the underside of the glans with her tongue. It was wet and salty. Glancing up, she could see his head was back against the chair, his eyes closed. His breath came out in shorter and shorter pants. He was close to coming, so lunging back down on his cock, she sucked as hard as she could. Hot semen hit the roof of her throat, but she didn’t stop. She merely arched her tongue to catch his juice and continued to milk him until his movements subsided. When he let go of her head, she popped up to spit his semen in the bathroom sink.

  He watched her closely when she reentered the room. “Sorry,” he said.

  “Sorry?”

  “I don’t think I was supposed to do that, come in your mouth.” he clarified.

  “Ah.” Haley sauntered back to him, not even trying to hide how pleased she was that she had blown his mind, in a good way. She put aside, too, the nagging sense of disappointment that her touch hadn’t instantly caused his memories to flood back. Give it time, she told herself, and enjoy the sex for what it is. “I don’t mind, I just don’t swallow, is all.”

  “Okay.” Patting his lap, he added, “Come here.”

  She frowned. “You must be too sore for me to sit on you.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not that bad.”

  “Hmm.” She wasn’t so convinced. “Are you sure you’re up for anything more?”

  “Haley, please,” he pleaded. “You’ve done a bit of touching in the last few hours. I’d like to do some touching of my own.”

  She didn’t need to be asked again. Her body already hummed with the desire to be touched. Her nipples were hard points, and her panties wet beneath her skirt. The mere fact that she elected to wear something other than her usual pants said something. Kicking off her pumps, she did as he asked and sat gingerly across his legs. The moment she did so, Noah wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a long, deep kiss. His tongue pressed past her willing lips and swirled around her mouth. It was so good, so comfortable, she almost missed how his hand had snuck under her shirt. In a move she knew well, he unclasped her bra, freeing her breasts.

  While he continued his gentle assault on her mouth, he shoved her shirt and bra up so he could play with one of her breasts. The other one pressed against his naked chest. His skin was warm and inviting, his touch teasing. Her body ached for more, and she couldn’t hide her need. She pressed closer into him, whimpering her desire. He broke off the kiss, but before she could complain, his mouth moved down to suck the exposed nipple. She groaned as he tugged the hard nub into his mouth and sucked and laved it much as she had done with his cock. Her clit throbbed in reaction and her fingers dug into the back of his chair. It was possible she would come from this effort alone.

  “Noah,” she urged.

  “Easy.” It was his turn to soothe her. His hand snaked under her skirt while his mouth went back to sucking on the hard tip. A finger pressed against her swollen flesh through her panties’ thin lining.

  She whimpered again and rubbed her head against his. Her hips thrust up to increase the pressure on her clit. Noah took the hint. He slipped his fingers past the top of her panties and slid them between her now-soaked folds. He moved slickly against her flesh. She jolted from the touch on her clit. Now it was her time to pant and moan.

  “Faster, harder,” she urged her lover, and he complied.

  Noah sucked hard on her breast. His fingers plunged into her pussy as his palm rasped against her aching clit. She squeezed her hot channel as tight as she could around the invading fingers, and thrust into his hand. She was like an animal, writhing and gasping as the first wave of orgasm hit her. With her eyes closed, there was nothing to see except the white-hot flare of her climax. There was nothing to hear except the roar of her own release. And there was nothing to feel except the bone-deep pleasure of Noah’s touch. The orgasm lasted long seconds, crested, receded, crested again, until she lay limp in her lover’s arms.

  It took a minute or two of oblivion before Haley came back to the real world and realized Noah held her in a vise-hard grip. Hi
s face was tucked into the crook of her neck, and yes, there was wetness there that she didn’t think was from her own sex-driven sweat. She kissed the top of his head.

  “Noah?” He shook his head in response, saying nothing. “Noah,” she said more firmly and lifted up his face to look in his eyes. They were indeed wet and he looked miserable. Alarm shot through her. “Did I hurt you?” She tried to get up from his lap, but he held her tightly to him.

  “I’m fine. Physically,” he amended. With one hand, he wiped the tears from his face with obvious disgust. “I can’t seem to keep my emotions under control, is all. One minute I’m happy, the next sad.”

  “You’ve been through a lot,” she reminded him, her heart breaking.

  “I know, and I hate it. I hate being so useless. I hate looking into the mirror and not recognizing my own face. I hate not recognizing your face,” he added in a softer tone. Cupping her cheek, he kissed her sweetly on the lips before looking away.

  “It’s okay,” she reassured him, mimicking his actions. “Give yourself time. We’ve probably overdone it.” The idea caused guilt to well up again. She’d pushed too hard and too fast. And even though she rationalized it as a way to get back his memories, part of her was afraid she was doing it more for selfish reason. Perhaps it was her way to keep desire for Severin at bay.

  “No,” was Noah’s sharp reply, although he responded to what she had said, not what she had thought. “I love what we’ve done. It’s so normal within such abnormality. It helps, but I am tired. I suppose I should take a nap. Like a five-year-old during kindergarten,” he grumbled.

  It made Haley smile. This time, when she tried to get up, he let her and he also let her help him up from the chair and back into bed. He caught her hand as she pulled away. “Would you mind terribly staying with me for a while? I mean, if you’re not too busy.”

  Lying down beside him, she said, “No, it’s fine. I don’t have a meeting for a couple of hours yet. I’ll stay.”

  “Thank you,” he sighed and closed his eyes.

  As she lay there listening to his breathing slow down and even out, she prayed she was doing the right thing.

  Chapter Four

  Sev sat at the conference table doodling mindlessly on his notepad while Haley debriefed various field operatives. There really was no need to take better notes as all anyone said was that they had found nothing. No suspicious people, activities or items in the last two days and time was getting short. Within days, Boston would be jammed with thousands of people in town to celebrate the Fourth of July. If they didn’t figure out where The True Sons of Bitches, as he liked to think of them, were planning their mayhem, it was going to be an ugly event. It made him sick to his stomach.

  They needed to get lucky and fast, or Noah needed to remember what he had learned the night of the explosion. Sev knew that when she wasn’t coordinating the fieldwork or conferring with Ms Mac, Haley hung out with Noah. What the two of them were doing was a matter of speculation on his part, but he had a pretty good idea. Too bad it hadn’t worked yet. Of course, Noah was still a bit shaky from his injuries. Sev had kept his ear to the ground on that score. According to Noah’s nurse, a nice guy who was not Sev’s type in the least, the patient was slowly recovering and regaining his strength. It was hard to believe Haley would push the guy’s recovery with hot and heavy full-court-press sex.

  He’d wrestled with the idea of putting a similar plan into action. If Haley was right, and he knew she wouldn’t have lied or been mistaken about something so important, then Noah should be okay with Sev’s advances. Still, he wasn’t so sure. He didn’t know squat about amnesia. What if it changed a person? If Noah didn’t know his own name, maybe he didn’t know he was comfortable being bi, either. As he thought it, Sev scribbled “coward” on his paper. He was being a coward. Sexuality was ingrained. It had taken him a few years to accept it about himself, to accept he was a guy who liked fucking women and men in equal measure. Sure, it made him different, but it also made life a hell of a lot more interesting. Maybe being seduced by Sev would kick-start Noah’s memories when Haley’s touch couldn’t do the trick.

  The competitive thought made him smile inside and he felt guilty about it. It wasn’t supposed to be about besting his former love. It was about saving lives. The bitch of it was he couldn’t keep Haley out of the equation. He couldn’t keep her or his longing for her at bay. She was right there, hair slightly mussed, clothes wrinkled, her face set in a serious way that told him she was concentrating very hard. There was nothing even remotely alluring about her at the moment, yet he wanted her as much as he ever had. If he allowed himself to stare at her for a few seconds more, his cock would get hard. His bored mind would conjure up images of hoisting her onto the conference table, stripping down her pants and plunging his raging hard-on into her wet pussy.

  She looked at him. Her eyes narrowed as if she’d read his mind, and damn if she hadn’t always been good at that. If she knew where his thoughts were headed, she didn’t let on, though. “Severin?” she asked in her clipped, bossy tone he both hated and found surprisingly arousing. “Are you listening?”

  “Yes ma’am,” he assured her because he actually had been listening while pondering about Noah and fantasizing about her. “We’re moving to secondary targets in the more notable suburbs tied to the Revolution—Lexington, Concord, Arlington.” He scratched his chin. “I have to say Arlington means nothing to me.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “That’s because you’re from California. Around here, we know the town of Arlington was a village known as Menotomy back in Colonial days and the British marched through there on their way back to Boston. More people died in Menotomy than in Lexington and Concord. Not as well known, of course. It’s a long shot,” she conceded. “But everything is.” The room was quiet for a moment as they all reflected about the tough situation they were in. Haley broke the silence. “Well, we won’t get anywhere dwelling on the negative. Everyone has their assignments. Let’s get to it.”

  The other operatives filed out. Sev waited until he and Haley were the only ones left before he shut the door and turned toward her. She looked at him with suspicion. Her full red lips were pursed, making them irresistible. He didn’t even try. Two steps and he was within inches of her. His gaze fixed firmly on hers, he lifted his hand and traced his thumb across the puckered softness of her mouth. The amazing thing was she let him. For a few glorious seconds, she stood still, staring at him as intently as he stared at her, allowing him the pleasure of touching her. A low moan escaped those luscious lips and the sound broke the spell. Abruptly she stepped back from him.

  “Stop that,” she admonished.

  He tried not to show how disappointed he was. “Kind of a delayed reaction, wouldn’t you say, sugar?”

  “We didn’t break up because I didn’t like your touch,” she shot back.

  Regret welled up, squeezing his breath out. “No,” he agreed quietly, not able to look her in the eye anymore. “We broke up because I loved you too much to picture you out in the field getting hurt or getting killed.” That last word almost choked him.

  She barked out a laugh. “That’s not how you put it to me. It was all about my being the dutiful wife and mother, staying home, caring for the kids and waiting for you to come home from your missions. I was supposed to greet you with your pipe and slippers and a hot meal.”

  “I never said that!”

  “It’s what you meant.”

  “No, that’s how you interpreted it. I meant what I just said. It killed me to picture losing you. Maybe I put it badly,” he conceded. Moron, he had definitely fucked it up. “I stated it in terms of creating a more normal family life and of making sure our children didn’t lose a mother. Those things matter to me, and antiquated as you may think of me, I do believe kids need their mother. But it was my losing you that made me half-mad. Once you were promoted to team leader, we didn’t work together much. I was no longer out in the field, keeping an eye on you. I
t wore on me.” The confession killed him, but it was past time to clear the air.

  Haley didn’t reply at first. She looked away, out the window before saying, “You should have said so.”

  “Would it have made a difference?”

  She shook her head slowly and looked at him. “No, not if it came down to you demanding I retire or take a desk job. That’s not what I signed up for.”

  Sev could only nod. What had he expected? She was good at what she did. A woman didn’t put that kind of dedication into her career simply to chuck it all away when the “right” man came along.

  “It doesn’t matter anyway,” she continued, walking to the door. “It’s over. We both made our choices. You don’t love me anymore, so you don’t have to worry about me.”

  He gave a rueful smile. What else could he do? “Right, I don’t love you anymore.” The expression on her face changed, only a small amount, and he couldn’t quite read her. Then she was gone. “Except I still do,” he added to the empty room.

  * * * * *

  A few hours later, Haley stepped out of the women’s locker room and looked around the pool area. It was empty, and that’s how she had arranged it to be. Being the team leader on this case had its advantages. The only people allowed in the indoor pool for the next several hours were her and Noah. Noah was already there, swimming gentle laps. He hadn’t seen her yet, so she stood away from the pool’s edge and admired his form. He had a long, lean swimmer’s body and it was almost completely visible because he wore a skimpy bathing suit. She knew he had been a competitive swimmer in college, and seeing him glide so easily through the water, she could believe it.

  He was such a beautiful, sexy young man. Her body, naked under the towel, already tingled in anticipation. Of course, it had been aroused before she had stripped off her clothes, thanks to Sev. Damn the man! All he had done was touch her lips and her body had been ready to betray her. If she hadn’t come to her senses, she may very well have ended up with him lying across the conference table and her filled by his fabulous cock. His beauty was a different sort from Noah’s. Sev was broader and more muscled. His tug on her was more primal. Maybe that’s the real reason she had flipped out at his suggestion she stay out of the field. A part of her deep down was lured by the idea of Sev wrapping her in his arms and keeping her safe.