by Honor James
And the glare was back in place, full force, much better. “You are such a pain in my ass,” he muttered. Shaking his head at her, he reached his hands up over his head and bent back slightly, a very loud bone-cracking sound filling her office. “Better,” he moaned, immediately bending to touch his palms to the floor with a low groan.
“Yeah, but what a cute ass,” she blurted before she could stop herself. “Trying to get into the role here,” she said to cover her own ass. “Now, I know that we will be able to figure this all out. How to act around each other. You just have to treat me less like a pesky kid sister and more like a lover, a wife. We have to learn this role, David. It’s the first time you and I have played this together.”
Straightening up, he rolled his shoulder, the one he’d been shot in, she knew, around a couple times while staring at her. The gleam in his eyes should have warned her. Really, it should have. Like, neon-sign-on-the-Vegas-strip warned her.
He settled on one leg, his stance a little cocky and loose as he smiled slowly. Not a full grin, but a crooked one with just a hint of dimple before sauntering toward her. Grabbing her hand, he hauled her up and into his body. Full frontal contact!
“I think I can manage that,” he told her. His voice, holy mother of god, his voice was low, sultry and did things that should be illegal to her entire nervous system. Lowering his head, he brushed his nose to hers as a hand landed on her hip and the other at the nape of her neck. “Can you?” he asked, his tone husky in a way that conjured up images of naked bodies twined in silk sheets.
Had she been wearing panties, they would have gone wet. Looking up at him, she licked her lips and nodded. “Oh, hell yeah, I think I can.” She was breathy, her words a mere whisper but truly, they didn’t need to be louder than that because they were so close to each other. “In fact I’m positive that I will be able to play your wifey-poo.”
She moved her hand down the front of his chest, then let her hand move back up again so that she could wrap her hand around his neck, pulling him closer. “You tell me, you sure you are ready?”
“You tell me,” he said. He drove his hand into her hair and tugged her head back. The next instant, she was being kissed by David Burnett. Holy hell. He took the kiss deep, his tongue slipping in to tease her own very lightly before they tangled for a small duel. And, because that just wasn’t enough, he pulled her in closer to him, a lot closer.
Hope hesitated for only half a second before she began kissing him back. Her fingers fisted in his short hair and she pressed as close to him as she could possibly get. Her brain shut down and instead, only the woman inside of herself began to react. All she did was feel. She reacted and needed as she had needed for far too damn long.
Finally, she pulled back and licked her lips. “Yeah. I think we will be able to pull this off.” She hadn’t moved away from him, except her lips from his. Her nose touched his, her breath mingled with his and damn if she didn’t want more.
“Glad you think I’m up for the part,” he said, a brow going up slightly. Lifting his head a little, he ran a finger over her cheek. “You should go home and get some rest. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow, Hope. And you shouldn’t be taxing yourself with an injury like you have.” But he didn’t let her go, he still held her tight to his hard body, and that finger was still brushing slowly over her skin.
Oh, he was very up for the part, if what she felt pressed against her stomach was any indication. “I will go home and get some rest. I will also rest on the plane, as you very well know.” She couldn’t fly, didn’t fly well at all, and in fact, she had to take Dramamine to make flights like the ones that she would have to take to go overseas. “I’m healing, David. You know. You saw the reports on me. What do you want next, to see the wound?”
His lips curled into another small grin. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll be seeing it, and a whole lot more, in the coming days.” Okay, he had a point there. They’d be living out of one another’s pockets practically for the assignment. Then he brushed a kiss to her lips, a shocker really, before stepping back. “I’ll see you in the morning, Hope.”
“David?” She stopped him with her low words. “What’s going on?” She needed to know. Had to know now, before they would be tapped with all kinds of fun listening devices. “What was that?” It had been a hell of a lot more than a kiss, both of them. Not just the hot one that had her ready to strip him, but the sweet one that was just brushed against her lips.
He moved to the door and then stopped. Turning back slightly, he shot her a look filled with heat before he masked it. “That was something a long time coming. And my own personal curiosity,” he said with a shrug. “We can talk on the plane, we’re flying out private, and you know William and Douglas will be plugged into either music or a movie the entire trip. Get home and get some sleep.”
“I thought that I was going to help you?” she asked him with a frown. He had things to do and she had ensured that he napped for a while because she knew she was going to help him. “Come on, you know you need my help and yes, we will talk tomorrow. I won’t take the Dramamine until we have finished.”
David didn’t move, didn’t appear to breathe for a long time. “At this moment in time, Hope, it’s better you go home and rest. I don’t say that to be mean, but to be fully and totally honest with you. Because if you stay and we end up being the only two people in this building, the results may very well screw up our working relationship and the dynamics of the team. So, I’ll say it again, go home and rest.”
Licking her lips, she nodded. “I will give this to you, for now. I won’t take no for an answer on the plane, though. You know how much I hate to fly, so you know how important this is to me. I need to know,” she whispered. “I have to know.” It was a driving need inside of her. “And just so you know.” She watched him watching her. “I won’t be sleeping. I will be turning in my bed thinking of this kiss.”
Nodding, he tipped his head slightly. “You can sleep after we’ve talked,” he said softly. “Good night, Hope,” he murmured before slipping out of her office. She watched as he returned to his own and then vanished from view once he stepped inside.
Chapter Five
Adjusting her bag over her shoulder, Hope stepped into the private hangar where their plane was waiting. Pushing back the designer sunglasses onto her head, she looked around. Spotting David, she pulled her one case and carried the second one to drop at his feet. “You look good, husband,” she said with a grin. “I see that they set us up with matching luggage, and clothes, even, from the looks of it.” Their clothes matched, wonderfully well. Weird.
Shooting her a look, he snorted. “Yeah, I think wardrobe needs to have their asses handed to them.” They were both dressed professionally. He was in a dark-blue suit, crisp off-white shirt and no tie. She had on a matching skirt with a blouse and rocking heels. “Did you get any sleep?” he asked, stepping in closer once the luggage was grabbed to be loaded in the back.
“Nope, did you?” She had thought of him all night long. Hell, she had masturbated last night with her vibrator and still couldn’t get off. She was more than a little frustrated. “And don’t tell me that you did, because I see the circles under your eyes.” She reached out to touch him. “So come on, let’s get into the plane so that we can have our talk.”
“Not even a little,” he said with a shrug. “I knew I wouldn’t. Thank god for a long damn flight. But yes, we should get on board. Will and Doug are already on and have staked out prime real estate in front of the big screen. I warned them that they had to use the earphones or I’d shoot them both. So we can head right to the back, as far as possible from those two.” Waving her forward, he put a hand on the small of her back and walked with her to the plane. He even gave her a hand up the steps inside. Such a gentleman, when he wanted to be.
Hope moved past the boys that were already vegging out in front of some movie with explosions out the wazoo and into the very back of the plane. Taking a seat as far back as she
could, she settled in beside the window, closing it and the one in the row in front of them quickly before dropping into her seat.
Reaching under the seat, she pulled out the pillow and blanket and leaned back, watching David as he moved into the seat at her side.
Before he sat down, he shrugged out of the suit jacket and draped it over the seat in front of them. “You know, for a woman as deathly afraid of flying as you are, I just don’t get why you have to always have the window seat. Seems just a bit silly to me,” he commented as he settled in at her side.
“I know. I don’t get it either. I think most of it is because of the ability to lie against the wall of the plane. I really sleep a lot on flights and it’s just not right for me to lay all over others.” She looked to David and cocked a brow at him. “Now then, dish. Come on. Talk to me. Please?” She had to know if she was feeling something that was one-sided. If so, she had to ship out of the unit. She simply couldn’t handle being in the same space as him, knowing how much she cared.
He paused in doing up the seat belt to look at her. “Did you just tell me to dish?” he asked, wrinkling up his nose. “What is it with women and that phrase?” he muttered so she was pretty sure he wasn’t actually asking her the question. Clipping the belt, he leaned back and looked at her. “What do you want to know?” he asked softly.
“The kiss. It was more.” For her at least. “How long?” Yes she was being vague as hell, but she wanted to know. She had to know. She wanted for this man to tell her what the kiss meant to him and not let him see what it meant to her. Yet.
For the longest time she was sure he wouldn’t answer her, or blow her off or give her some non-answer. She was surprised, though, by his actual answer. “It was a lot more,” he said with a nod. “And since the moment you joined the team. I’ve been fighting it since the start, Hope.”
“So it hasn’t just been me?” she whispered. “So what now?” She needed to know, she had to know. She moved to place her hand on his and made her own confession. “Because I have to tell you, what was in that kiss was powerful and I don’t want to lose something so intense. I need to have kisses and touches like that in my life.” She hoped that he got it. Really did.
Sighing, he flipped his hand over to lace their fingers together. “Relationships within the Agency are frowned on, but there’s nothing in the regs that says two agents can’t be involved. But we’re on the same team so that could potentially cause issue. I say we take this slow, figure out if it’s a flash fire or something for the long haul. We have this mission to see if it could work, and then we’ll keep going when we get back. We give it time and see where it goes. If it’s long-term, we’ll have to make the call on what to do, but that’s down the road.”
She squeezed his hand and nodded. “Deal,” she whispered and laid her head on his shoulder. “I want to do whatever it is that we have to do in order to make this work. I like you, David.” More than liked him. She had deep feelings for him, ones that she had felt for a great long time, and ones that had only grown since she first met him.
As they began to roll down the tarmac, he moved his arm around her shoulders and held her gently. “We’ll figure it out, Hope. But only after we both get a hell of a lot of sleep. I don’t know about you, but I really need about twelve straight hours.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” She pulled her Dramamine from her pocket. “Sorry, but I think that I’m going to abandon you to sleep.” She had to be out before the plane took off, or she would wig out. He knew it as well as she did. Dry-swallowing the pills, she looked up at him. “Keep my mind off what we are doing?” She had a deadly fear of flying. It was really sad, but it was true.
“Like you have to ask,” he said softly with a smile. Cupping her face in his free hand, he kissed her. Soft as could be, he took his time turning the heat up. The movement of the plane was lost to her, as her only focus became the point of contact, his lips on hers, the roughness of his palm on her cheek and the pressure of his arm pulling her a little closer.
When Hope pulled back from David, she licked her lips. “I would very, very much like to do more than that.” She was blunt to a point, but it was one of the things that he liked about her, she just knew it. Her eyes began to drift, and she moved the armrest from between them so that it was up and she could curl into David even more. “I need sleep now.” Not sleeping the night before and then the Dramamine, it was too much for her.
“Sleep,” he said softly, wrapping her in his arms. Adjusting the blanket over her, he reclined their seats. “We have a long flight ahead of us, so just rest. We’ll have a couple days’ downtime once we get there so we can talk more and figure this out. Until then, we both need to get clearheaded.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” she told him with a nod. “Sleep sounds good to me as well.” She yawned again. She couldn’t seem to stop her yawns now. “Sleep.” Another whispered sound. “I think I need rest.” She wasn’t able to keep fighting everything. “I’m sorry David but I am abandoning you for sleep.”
“Sleep then, Hope,” he whispered. Stroking his hand up and down her arm, he hugged her closer. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.”
* * * *
“Hope, you need to wake up. We’ve landed at Heathrow and need to head to the hotel for the night. Come on, blue eyes, wake up. Otherwise, I’m throwing you over my shoulder and to hell with your sense of modesty. Hope, I’m not kidding, open your eyes. I’ll let William take pictures of your underwear,” David added.
“You would, too,” she grumbled and moved. She didn’t open her eyes, but pushed him out of the way. “Damn unmanageable man,” she muttered. “I’m moving. Just know as soon as we hit the hotel, I’m falling in the bed.” She finally cracked her eyes so she could look at him. “After a hot bath, I think.”
“Want company?” he asked with a smirk. Laughing, he got to his feet and grabbed their carry-on luggage. When she stood, she noticed there wasn’t another soul on the plane and the engines had long since fallen silent. Shooting him a look, he just shrugged. “All right, so I may have exaggerated the situation slightly. It got you moving, didn’t it?”
“Yes it did.” She shook her head and laughed. “As for joining me…” She put her hand on his chest and looked up. Nodding, she finally said, “Yes. I very, very much would like for you to join me. I would never turn you down. Now that you know, you should know that as well. I’m yours. For as long as you will keep me.”
“Which is going to make this next part mildly awkward.” Digging in his pocket, he held out his hand with a wedding and engagement ring in the palm. “I stuck mine on when I woke up so I wouldn’t forget. But you should have these on before we hit customs.” Lifting her hand, he slid them into place as he kept his eyes on her face. “And Hope, for the record. I plan on keeping you around as long as you’ll have me in your life.”
She pulled him closer and looked up at him. “Good. Maybe one day you can give me one of these and it will mean something more than this right now. Maybe.” She stepped in a step closer to him and licked her lips. “Only next time you put a ring on my finger, how about you do it in front of a minister so we can get that little piece of paper?”
“Are you proposing to me, Agent Bradshaw?” he asked, a smile curling his lips just a little. “I’m flattered and honestly don’t know what to say. This is just so sudden and unexpected,” he teased, then gave her a grunt when she popped him in his gut. Not that he’d likely actually felt it, but it did appease her slightly that he had at least made the effort.
“Nope, Senior Agent Burnett, you are going to propose to me.” Leaning up, she kissed his cheek and whispered, “Oh and when I wear a wedding gown, there will be nothing under it besides me. Just so you know. I want to be sure that we are honest with each other, and it starts now.”
“Mm.” He smiled with a chuckle. Sliding his arm around her, he drew her in closer and kissed her gently. “I like how that sounds,” he said softly. “I’ll make sure that I ge
t it right when the day comes. But if you have any tips or hints, feel free to drop them or write them down or just tell me outright.”
“Don’t worry. E-mail works wonderfully, as do dropping magazine subscriptions on your Kindle and so on. I’m sure that I can get you to do it just right.” She sighed and looked up once more. “Are you sure that we have to get off the plane right now?” She wanted to stay and kiss him again. Have his arms around her and his hands on her. “Oh, fuck it. Let’s get to the hotel quickly. We will have to figure out how to jam the receivers I’m sure are already in there, because what we do, I don’t want anyone else to know about, to hear or see. Please.”
Laughing softly, he kissed her again. “The hotel room here is clean, they will be just sweeping it again now. The one when we get to Germany is the one we have to be careful about. That’s the one we’ll have to assume we’re being watched at all times in.” Adjusting the carry-ons, he took her hand in his and squeezed. “Let’s get to the hotel. You need a bath and I have plans that don’t involve much discussion.”
“It’s about damn time that you are ready to do something about this heat between us.” She teased him with a smile. “And the one in Germany, we will have to figure out how to make love under a sheet because I damn well don’t want to have videos of us out there on the net, and I know that I won’t want to not be with you or fake it there.”
“There are plenty of ways to make love without anyone ever seeing a damn thing. But we have two days here before we have to move on, so let’s enjoy them and go crazy.” Smiling, he tugged her through the plane and out onto the tarmac. Pausing, he slipped on his shades, adjusted the carry-ons, and held out his arm for her to slip her hand through. Just like that, he slipped into his role, quick, efficient, and damned scary fast.
“I love the way that you think.” She pulled her shades out and put them on as well. Slipping her arm into his, she smiled up at him. The look on her face was one of pure affection and joy. A look of love from wife to husband. It was damn scary how fast she fell into the role and how much she wanted it to continue.
