The Admiral's Bride

by Suzanne Brockmann

  “Letting you sit in,” Christopher interrupted, “would prove our trust in you. What are you going to give me that proves you’re worthy of that trust? Something that proves your acceptance of me as leader of the CRO.” He smiled tightly. “Let’s be honest, Jake. I know you’re a very ambitious man. You wouldn’t have gotten where you did in the Navy if you weren’t. But if you’ve got any intentions of coming in here and taking over my show—”

  “Whoa,” Jake said. “Christopher. You are the CRO.” He laughed. “Okay, I am ambitious, but my goal here is to sit at your right hand at the council table. Be your chief adviser. Your second in command. I’d never try to take you down or undermine your authority in any way.” He lied smoothly. “Never.”

  Chris sat behind his desk. “Then prove it.”

  “I will,” Jake said. “Like I said—through information. I can give you computer passwords. Back door entrances to highly sensitive files. Information on security procedures in government buildings—”

  “You have more to give than information,” Chris said, “although I’ll accept that as a sign of your loyalty—in part.”

  Jake shook his head. “Chris, I came to you empty-handed. As far as wealth goes, I don’t have much. Even these clothes I’m wearing are yours and—”

  “Zoe.”

  Jake sat back in his chair. “Excuse me?”

  “You’ve got Zoe.” Christopher smiled. “I’d say that makes you a very wealthy man.”

  Jake laughed, but then stopped when he realized that Christopher wasn’t laughing, too. Holy God, the son of a bitch was serious.

  Share his personal wealth. Share…Zoe. The CRO believed that a wife was a man’s possession, but God…

  “Why don’t the two of you join me in my private dining room for dinner tonight?” Christopher said, standing up. “Seven o’clock. There’s a high council meeting scheduled for noon on Friday, here in my inner chamber.” He gestured to the door on the far right. “It would be nice—for all of us—if you could join us.” He moved to the door that led out of his office, opening it for Jake, dismissing him.

  Jake rose to his feet despite the fact that this conversation wasn’t over. He had more to say, to protest, to explain, but the phone on Christopher’s desk rang. And the guard outside the door gestured for Jake to follow him.

  Jake didn’t move. “Look, Chris—”

  “I’ll see you at dinner tonight.” Christopher nodded to the guard, who stepped forward and took Jake’s arm.

  There was nothing he could do short of creating a scene. Christopher’s door shut behind him as the guard ushered him into the corridor, closing that door behind him, as well.

  And Jake stood in the hallway, certain of what had just been implied and sickened by it.

  If Zoe slept with Christopher Vincent, Jake would be in.

  If Zoe slept with Chris…

  Jake laughed aloud, a sharp burst of disbelieving air, as he headed briskly down the hallway toward his room. No way! He wasn’t going to let Zoe anywhere near Christopher the scumball Vincent. She was his, dammit, and he wasn’t about to share.

  Except she wasn’t really his. Their marriage wasn’t really a marriage. It wasn’t legal. And even if it were, Zoe wasn’t the kind of woman any man could ever completely possess.

  He took the stairs down two at a time, moving faster, almost running.

  But there was no way he could outrun the truth.

  Jake had found a way to get the information they needed. If Zoe slept with Chris, he’d find out at noon, Friday, exactly what the CRO intended to do with the stolen Triple X. And he’d probably even locate the missing canisters.

  If Zoe slept with Chris.

  He stopped short, gripping the handrail tightly, sitting down right there in the stairwell between the second and third floor, directly in the blind spot between two surveillance cameras.

  Oh, God. She would want to do it. Sex just wasn’t that big a deal to Zoe. She’d made that more than clear to him many times over. She’d as much as told him she was willing to do anything for this mission. Anything.

  Except it wasn’t knowing that that made his stomach hurt so badly he had to sit down. It was the knowledge that it mattered so much to him. Here he’d been pretending that what he shared with Zoe was only sex.

  But it wasn’t.

  The thought of her with Christopher Vincent—the thought of her with anyone else—made him completely crazy. He didn’t want to share her, not her body, not her smile, not her laughter, not any of her. He wanted her for his own.

  Because he was completely in love with her.

  God, no, how could he be? He still loved Daisy.

  None of this made any sense.

  Maybe he just wouldn’t tell Zoe. Maybe he wouldn’t even give her the option.

  Jake pushed himself to his feet.

  And maybe the canisters of Triple X would be waiting for him back in their room. Maybe this mission would just take care of itself.

  But even if it did, even if Christopher Vincent surrendered the missing nerve gas to them this afternoon, Jake was going to lose because—mission accomplished—Zoe would be off to Saudi Arabia. Or Amsterdam. Or Somalia. Only God would know when she would be back again. Or even if she would be back.

  The irony was intense. For all those years he’d been a SEAL, he had been the one who’d always left.

  And Jake had to laugh—it was either that or cry—because only now, by falling in love with Dr. Zoe Lange, did he fully understand just how much Daisy had loved him.

  Chapter 16

  “I need to see my wife.”

  Zoe looked up from what seemed like the four hundredth toilet bowl she’d cleaned in the span of three hours.

  “I don’t care if lunchtime is in thirty minutes.” It was Jake’s voice. “I need her right now. Zoe!”

  “In here.” She pushed herself to her feet as Jake steamrolled over poor pale Edith and came right into the ladies’ room.

  “Hey.” His smile was unnaturally tight and the look in his eyes completely wild. Something was really wrong. “Nice rubber gloves. Yellow looks good on you, babe.”

  “You all right?” she asked quietly.

  He shook his head infinitesimally. No. “Yeah, sure. I’m just breaking you out of here a little early, that’s all.” He looked behind him. “Do you have a problem with that, Edith?”

  Zoe peeled off the gloves and quickly washed up in the sink.

  “Well,” Edith said. “Technically, we’re not—”

  “Sorry for any inconvenience,” Jake said, grabbing Zoe’s hand and pulling her with him into the hallway.

  He had her jacket in his other hand and was already wearing his.

  Her first thought was that something had gone very wrong and they were evacuating—getting out of there fast. But as Jake punched open the door to the stairwell, he went up instead of down toward the main floor.

  Up. Toward the recreation deck.

  She had to run to keep up with him, he was moving so fast.

  But finally they were there. Jake burst into the open air as if he’d been holding his breath all that time.

  She followed. “Jake, what’s going—”

  He kissed her. He dropped her jacket on the deck, dragged her into his arms and covered her mouth with his in a kiss of pure possession, pure need.

  It was electrifying, mesmerizing—his mouth so demanding, his hands slightly rough and very proprietary. The sheer power of his desire sent her instantly aflame.

  Was this why he’d come searching for her? Because he needed her? Because he finally realized just how very much he needed and—please God—even loved her?

  He fumbled with the buttons on her shirt, growling in frustration, finally pulling, buttons flying everywhere. The front clasp of her bra gave just as easily, and the shockingly cold morning air hit her naked breasts. But Jake’s hands were warm and his mouth was hot as he touched her, kissed her, the rasp of his chin delicious against her skin as he
buried his face against her.

  “Oh, Zoe,” he breathed. “I need—”

  He kissed her again, his fingers at the waistband of her jeans, unfastening the button, releasing the zipper.

  “Yes,” she said. She needed, too.

  He stopped kissing her only long enough to shake his jacket off his arms, to throw it onto the deck with hers. Then he pulled her down with him onto the soft cushion those jackets made. His muscular body was so wonderfully solid, so deliciously heavy on top of her, cradled between her legs. She could feel his hardness and she reached for his belt buckle, wishing the layers of thick denim that kept him from her would just instantly be gone.

  He pulled back onto his knees, easily ridding her of her jeans as she kicked off her sneakers. He lowered his pants, covered himself and then, God, he drove himself hard inside of her.

  She cried out, she couldn’t help it—and he swallowed her cry of pleasure with the fiercest of kisses as he filled her again and again with hard, deep, demanding thrusts.

  He didn’t try to pretend that his need for her didn’t completely control him. He didn’t hold back, his kisses feverish, his hands and body deliciously possessive.

  And Zoe abandoned all pretense, too. She let herself love him—wildly, furiously, passionately—body, heart and soul.

  He was everything she’d ever wanted and everything she hadn’t known it was possible to want. The hero was just a shadow compared to the humanness, compassion and honest reality of the man.

  This incredible man who burned for her with the same urgent fire that consumed her very soul.

  She felt his body tighten and tense, felt him shake, heard him rasp her name, and the sheer power of his release made her explode. Pleasure pulsed through her, so intense, so scorchingly wild. She opened her eyes, and the brilliant blue of the sky seemed close enough to touch. Her senses were almost painfully heightened as she smelled the subtle scent of Jake’s cologne and felt the warmth of his breath against her neck, the slick heat of his body against hers, the sharply cold air against her legs, the indescribable sensation of him, still hard inside of her as he thrust just one more time, as the fierce waves of her release finally slowed, finally subsided.

  Zoe closed her eyes, holding tightly to him, afraid that she might cry from the exquisite wonder of it all. But then she had to laugh. She would never have believed that she could have had the absolute best sex of her entire life in the so-very-submissive missionary position.

  “Jeez,” Jake breathed without moving, his mouth against her neck. “What a gentleman. I didn’t even wait for you.”

  “You didn’t have to,” she told him. “I was right there, with you.” Her voice shook. “God, Jake…”

  He was still breathing hard as he lifted his head to look at her, acknowledgment in his eyes. What they’d just shared had been as powerful and as intense for him, too.

  “When you came looking for me like that, I thought we were in some kind of trouble.” She made her voice even lighter. “I had no idea the trouble was physiological.”

  “Zoe, I…”

  She held her breath. This was it. He was going to tell her that he loved her. Please, God, let him love her, too….

  But the expression in his eyes was completely unreadable. His ready smile was nowhere to be found. “I’ve found out how I can gain access to Vincent’s high council.”

  Not the words she wanted to hear. Still, she managed to hide her disappointment. “But that’s great!” She searched his eyes. Wasn’t it? “How?”

  “I need to prove my loyalty to the CRO and to Christopher Vincent,” Jake said. “He’s got this little share-the-wealth program. I think it’s some kind of power trip for him. Whatever his followers have got, he wants a share of. Money. Information.” He briefly closed his eyes. “Wives.”

  Wife sharing. Oh, God.

  “Of course the bastard probably wouldn’t be as interested in a guy’s wife if she didn’t happen to look like you, and…” Jake broke off, looking at her more closely, incredulousness in his eyes. “You know about this, don’t you?”

  She couldn’t lie to him. “Chris mentioned something about it to me. I guess he sees himself as the equivalent of some kind of feudal lord and…” She shook her head. “I just didn’t expect him to approach you about it.”

  “What, did you expect him to approach you about it?” Jake’s eyes were nearly as cold as the freezing air that slapped her skin as he pulled himself away from her. “And what the hell were you going to do when he did?” He swore sharply. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

  He had been mostly dressed, and it didn’t take him long to pull himself together. Zoe had to search for her underpants, turn her jeans right side out, find her sneakers. Her shirt had no buttons, and the plastic clasp of her bra was broken. She shivered, clutching the front of her shirt together, uncertain what to say, how to explain.

  Jake wrapped her jacket around her. “Dammit, Zoe.” His voice shook. “You could’ve at least let me in on the plan.”

  “It wasn’t a plan,” she told him. “It was…just an option I thought I should keep open. Jake, the man was dogging me for weeks. I thought I could go in there and talk to him. Tell him I was thinking about accepting his offer. I would have told you before I did anything. I thought at least it would be a way into his private office.”

  “Well, I’ve been in his office now,” Jake said tightly. “It’s small, no windows, one desk, three chairs. Three doors on the wall behind Vincent’s desk. The left is the bathroom. The right a room he referred to as his inner chambers. There was no sign of the missing canisters. I’m betting they’re in that inner chamber.”

  Which he would have access to—provided he share Zoe with the CRO leader.

  Zoe’s hand shook only slightly as she pushed her hair from her face. “So what did he say to you about…” She managed to make her voice sound remarkably calm, but she couldn’t say the words aloud.

  “It was all implied,” Jake told her. “He spoke of sharing my wealth. Mentioned you. Invited us both to his private dining room tonight at nineteen hundred—seven o’clock.”

  “Both of us?”

  “I asked one of his lieutenants.” Jake’s voice was raspy. “Apparently the way it’s done is, he invites us both, and I send you alone, along with my regrets, pleading I’m feeling slightly under the weather.” He laughed, a short bark of disbelief. “Believe it or not, it’s considered an honor for Christopher Vincent to mess with your wife.” He dropped his head into the palms of his hands. “Crazy-assed, twisted sons of bitches.”

  Zoe took a deep breath, filled with a sense of dread. “So. Did you tell him yes or did you tell him no? That we’d—I’d be there for dinner?”

  He looked at her, his eyes nearly as blue as the sky overhead. “We can cancel.”

  “That’s a yes,” she said. “You told him yes.”

  Jake shook his head. “I didn’t say yes.”

  “But you didn’t say no.”

  “I didn’t answer him one way or the other.”

  “Silence generally implies an affirmative,” she said tightly.

  “Yeah,” Jake said, the muscle flexing in the side of his jaw. “I know.”

  He put his head into his hands, unable to hold her gaze.

  Zoe closed her eyes against the rush of tears. Did he actually think…Could he honestly expect…“Are you asking me to have sex with Christopher Vincent?” God, what he must think of her, if he could ask such a thing.

  “No.” Jake lifted his head. His eyes were rimmed with red, as if he, too, were fighting tears. “I’m not asking you, Zoe. I could never ask that of someone under my command. Except you’re not really under my command, are you? And you haven’t been completely honest with me about this other option you had standing ready. Maybe you’ve got a better plan in mind to get me into the inner council?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t,” she whispered.

  “I’m not going to ask you do this,”
Jake told her. “But I’m also not going to tell you not to do it. I’m giving you the choice.” He cleared his throat. “I know this…this sort of thing doesn’t particularly bother you, so…” He shrugged as he forced a smile. “It’s your choice.”

  Zoe was dying. She wanted him to tell her not to do it. She wanted him to refuse to let her do it. She wanted him to hold her tightly and tell her that he was never going to let her go, that he honestly didn’t believe her capable of such coldhearted self-exploitation.

  “Do you…” She had to stop and clear her throat. Amazingly, her voice came out even and clear. “Do you want me to do it?” She had to know.

  He looked her squarely in the eye. “This doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

  The last of her hope died, and she turned to look out over the valley. “I see.”

  She’d done such a good job bluffing. She’d convinced him so completely that she was tough and strong—emotionally made of Teflon. He obviously thought she wouldn’t think twice about prostituting herself this way in the name of their mission. He clearly didn’t approve, and despite the fact that he’d made incredibly powerful, passionate love to her just moments ago, he didn’t think that her buying their way onto the inner council through sex had anything to do with him.

  Zoe felt like throwing up. Or bursting into tears.

  Instead, she nodded. “What am I supposed to wear?”

  Chapter 17

  Lucky poured Bobby a cup of coffee and set it down near the video screens in the surveillance trailer.

  “Thanks,” Bobby said.

  “Any change?”

  “Zoe got assigned to a two-woman work detail cleaning bathrooms,” Bobby stated. “Jake came in a little while ago and pulled her out. They headed toward the roof and have been out of contact for the past hour and a half. I’ve been cruising around, following Vincent’s two top lieutenants—neither one of ’em win any prizes, except maybe Dullest Human Beings on Earth.”