by Mia Downing
Jake clapped as Charlotte rose and sauntered back to the patio. Aaron rolled over, and Jake smirked as he wrapped a congratulatory arm around Charlotte’s waist. “She’s magnificent, isn’t she?”
“I can’t believe a girl kicked my ass,” he lied.
“I can’t believe you were cocky enough to think I wouldn’t.” She accepted Jake’s kiss on the cheek and crossed her arms over her chest. “They didn’t send me to you because I’m a good girl. I can kick Jake’s ass.”
“Can she?” That impressed him. He’d wrestled Jake enough as a kid, and Jake had been part ox back then.
“Yes,” Jake said with a sigh.
Aaron heaved himself to his feet and went to stand behind Charlotte, hands on her hips as he kissed her neck. “Where did you learn to fight like that? It’s hot.”
“I had anger management issues that needed a different venue. It was this or learn to chuck knives at your brother.”
“She did learn to chuck the knives,” Jake informed him. “Keep that in mind.”
Aaron kissed her neck again, teasing that spot under her ear that made her moan, luring her into his web. “My Danger Girl.”
“Aaron!” She elbowed him in the ribs, and he winced.
Jake laughed. “Danger Girl. I like that better.”
“Don’t get any ideas. I can change your code name, too. Chase has always wanted to call you Asshole.”
Aaron let his hand trail down her back to her ass. He wrapped the other hand around her waist. She relaxed against him and tilted her head, allowing him access to her long, pale throat. God, he loved her skin. He lapped a path to her earlobe and gently bit. “That made me so horny. Let me work on four,” he coaxed in her ear, soft enough so Jake couldn’t hear.
“Mmm.” She placed her hand on his and took a step back, deeper into his embrace, her ass against his groin.
Aaron tightened the hold on her waist, reached his arm between her legs and lifted. She shrieked and struggled as he ran to dump her onto the grass. He sprang, covered her with his length, and pressed her to the ground before she could kick him into next week. She stared up at him, panting, violet eyes wild.
“All mine, baby.” He planted a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Call Chase.”
“Nooo,” she shrieked. “Jake?”
Jake shot Aaron a look of approval for beating Charlotte at her own game. “Sorry, sweetheart. He pinned you.”
“I had best of five.”
“You said he just had to pin you,” Jake reminded her.
“Whose side are you on?”
“I consider myself impartial most of the time. But Aaron should realize he was damned lucky. Ten seconds more and he would have died a bloody death.”
“Yeah, I know.” But it didn’t stop the grin from stretching from ear to ear.
She smacked Aaron’s chest. “Fine. Let me up.”
“Oh, no. Give me her phone, Jake.” Jake tossed it, and Aaron caught it and handed it to her. “Right now, then you can get up.”
“Fuck,” she muttered and dialed. “Hey, love,” she said in English, which surprised him because they seemed to never speak it on the phone. “Aaron has this crazy notion in his head that I’m to teach him spy games, and he wants your permission.”
She listened for a moment. “What kind of things? How to take a punch, shoot, hand-to-hand combat. Knives, maybe? Things he would need for the next movie.”
Knives? Aaron nodded and strained to hear what Chase said on the other line.
“What?” Her eyes widened. “No!”
“What did he say?”
“But I don’t want to.” She glared and put her finger to her lips. “I don’t know why, I just don’t. I’m telling you, this will come back to bite one of us in the ass someday.”
Spy camp was a go from the depth of the glare she shot him. Yes! Aaron leaped up and danced around the yard, knowing he was a poor winner. He didn’t care. He was going to camp.
“Fuck you, Chase.” She ended the call and chucked the phone at Aaron’s head.
Aaron caught it with a laugh, strode over, and held out a hand. “Awful touchy, love,” he said sweetly.
“You are my punishment,” she said with a sneer, rising without touching him. “I fucked up, so now I have to teach you whatever you wish, within limits. As if I don’t have better things to do.”
“You don’t,” Jake reminded.
She scowled.
Aaron felt a little bad for her. She didn’t deserve Satan’s punishments, just his. “If you really don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
The scowl deepened. “No, now I have to. You don’t understand. If I don’t follow through, my ass will be his. He’ll know. He knows every-fucking-thing. You do what you’re told, or he finds some sick way to make you pay. Up until now I was exempt from the sick payments.”
“I warned you, sweetheart,” Jake said from the table. “No one is exempt, even me.”
Chase was a dick, but Aaron already knew that. “You don’t have to work for him.”
Charlotte’s eyes flicked over to Jake, who looked up at that point. They exchanged a glance that made Aaron wonder. “Easy for you to say.”
Aaron sighed. Of all the things he had expected out of spy camp, a reluctant coach wasn’t one of them. “Is it that bad, to teach me?”
“Yes.” She bit her lip and said to Jake, “Why don’t you teach him?”
“Your punishment.”
Ever nosy, Aaron asked, “You going to tell me how you fucked up?”
“You know why I fucked up.” She lowered her voice and scowled, which he didn’t find as cute as her glare. “Not watching you have sex with that tramp in England, one, which led to you tied in a chair for two. He doesn’t know I’m sleeping with you. Yet. When he does, that’s strike three and I will pay dearly.”
“Charlotte,” Jake warned, his tone firm.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
As angry as she was, Aaron couldn’t help but feel giddy at the idea of spy camp. This was going to kick ass. “When do we start?”
“Tomorrow.”
****
Charlotte had a problem, a huge one, and not a clue as to how to tell Aaron without looking pathetic and weak. As she brushed her teeth before bed, she contemplated her options. She could tell him as Ma’am. Order him to his knees, tell him he was going to sleep with her in his bed, hold her, and that was that. No explanation. Somehow, she didn’t think it would be long before he started getting nosy, demanded answers, and then made her feel like a fool.
Or she could just start out on the couch and sneak into Jake’s bed. She hated sleeping with Jake, especially now that he was married. Tia had given her permission, understanding the need, and that made her feel weak, too. But Jake didn’t soothe her enough.
She only had the nightmares when she had a certain feeling before she went to bed. She’d learned over the years to heed that gnawing feeling of despair and unease that triggered them. Chase commanding her to teach spy camp must have been enough to set the trigger off because she definitely felt uneasy. She didn’t want to stay up all night. God knew she’d done that enough. She didn’t have sleeping pills because she was working.
She left the bathroom, grabbed her pillow and gun from the living room, and shuffled into Aaron’s bedroom. He was in bed already, bare-chested, a book he’d borrowed from Jake in hand, surprised as hell to see her bedside.
She decided just to ask. “Can I sleep with you?”
“Sure.” He patted the spot next to him.
Well, that was easy. She set her gun on the table next to the bed, put her pillow down, and climbed in, under his covers.
“Why?”
Ugh, of course, he couldn’t leave it alone. “Because. Just shut up and let me sleep.”
He frowned. “You said this was sex only, and sleeping in my bed feels over the line.”
“The couch hurts my back.”
The book slammed shut, the noise ringing in her ea
rs. “Liar. I know for a fact the couch is way comfortable. If you want to sleep here, you have to tell the truth.”
She scooted out of the bed and gathered her pillow against her chest. “Then I’ll go sleep with Jake.”
Aaron sighed and set the book on his bedside table. “Just tell me why. I’m not going to think you’re anything but truthful if you do. Your gun is on my bedside table, after all.”
She hated him, hated living, and despised the truth. “You washed my shirt.”
“And I’m sorry.” He snorted and shuffled his feet in the bed. “You can wear one of mine if you’re in need.”
Damn him. “I have nightmares if I don’t wear the shirt, okay? Not all the time. Just sometimes.”
“Oh.” He sounded surprised, his brows arched over his inquisitive blue eyes. “I’m sorry.”
She hugged the pillow closer. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had one, and I don’t wake up. The shirts keep them away. But before I realized about the shirts, I had to sleep with one of them—Jake or Chase.”
“That explains a lot.” He studied her for a moment. “Are you afraid you’ll have one tonight?”
She swallowed, feeling weak again because she couldn’t hide the fear. So stupid to be afraid of a bad dream. “Yes.”
He pulled the covers back on her side and patted the bed again. “Get in.”
She set her pillow down, took off her shorts, and slid into bed, curling onto her side. “This doesn’t mean I’m weak, you know.”
“Your gun is reminding me of that.” He tugged the covers over her shoulders. “If you don’t wake up, how do you know if you have one?”
She squirmed. Jake and Chase already knew the answers and it was so much easier. “I’m depressed the next morning and usually the bed is a mess. Sometimes I’ve found somewhere else to sleep in the night. Like a closet. Or under the bed. I…hide.” The hiding scared her as much as the anxious feelings the next day. She thanked her lucky stars she didn’t remember the dreams, because she knew they had to do with doomsday and all the things she’d blocked.
“If you have one, should I do something?”
“Just hold me. I’ll cry and thrash and try to hide. If you’re scared, you can get Jake. He knows what to do.”
“I’m sorry,” Aaron whispered and shut off his light. He curled around her and wrapped his arms protectively, tugging her to his bare chest. “How’s this? Feel safe?”
“Yes.” Too safe, actually. But she snuggled against his naked body, relishing his heat, the scent of his skin.
He smoothed her hair from her cheek. “How much did it hurt your ego to come to me with this?”
“Shut up and let me sleep.” But her ego hurt more than she’d ever admit.
“Tomorrow, I’ll reward you for telling me the truth, okay? Just like you rewarded me.” He kissed her nape. “Good night, Ma’am.”
The idea of him rewarding her triggered a shiver of the good kind. She turned her head to kiss his hand under her cheek. “Thank you for not being a punk.”
Chapter Twelve
The night Charlotte asked to sleep with him, she didn’t have any nightmares. Aaron had been extremely pleased and proud of his ability to keep her safe from nocturnal demons. He’d held her all night, barely getting any sleep. He didn’t want to miss a minute of her. Her soft breathing, a sigh here or there, her cheek snuggled against his bare chest as the sun came up. Sure, she’d been in his bed the night before, but they’d maybe slept an hour. Not a whole night of her tucked in his arms, her hand clutching his at times. His first adult sleepover.
If he didn’t think love couldn’t happen in that short amount of time, he’d swear he loved her. Maybe it was the idea he loved, a woman to hold and watch over. The idea that Danger Girl could protect herself from villains, yet she needed him to keep the nightmares at bay was headier than a power shift during sex. Maybe that’s what he confused with love.
Whatever it was, if anyone but Charlotte asked if he loved her, he’d be tempted to say yes. If Charlotte asked, he’d run like hell for Mexico, because she’d kill him.
He must have fallen asleep at dawn because when he woke a few hours later she was gone, but her pillow was still next to his, her scent on his sheets, proof it wasn’t a dream.
He rose, dressed, and lumbered out. She sat alone in the kitchen, on the phone and speaking French. She waved to coffee and some coffee cake thing Jake must have baked from a box. She must not have liked it. Only one piece was gone and it was one of those nine by nine sized pans. She could have easily eaten the whole thing.
After a moment, she ended her call. “Ready for spy camp?”
“Can I eat quick?”
“If you must.” Great. She sounded testy already.
He helped himself to the coffee cake, licking his fingers. Jake had done well. “What’s the plan for spy camp, counselor?”
“Today we’re going to learn assorted travel techniques and how to follow someone. Tail them.”
“Sounds good.”
“That’s what you think. You’re going to hate me by lunchtime,” she promised with a slow, evil smile. “You want to live my life? You’re going to regret what it takes to be me.”
She was right about him hating her before lunch. She made him run five miles—he usually ran two and not like he was being chased by pit bulls, a street gang, and ten vampires. She ran like she was flat out escaping holy hell knew what, looked fucking sexy as she did it, with minimum perspiration.
Then they did pushups and sit-ups until he wanted to barf, because she’d informed him sweetly that Jake could do pushups with her lying across his back. He didn’t want her getting ideas. He picked at lunch. If he ate, he’d definitely barf, his stomach and legs on fire. She wolfed down her sandwich and polished off his, too, licking her fingers so seductively he would have fucked her on the table if his legs hadn’t hurt so damned much.
Then they went to the driveway for the afternoon session of spy camp. Travel techniques meant she made him break into and hotwire his own car since it was old, legal, and probably because it pissed him off. Despite keeping her bad dreams at bay all night, she seemed to live to piss him off today.
They moved onto the rental car after he mangled poor Stella, his car. She showed him a key-like device, slid the metal into the ignition of the newer vehicle, pressed a button, and turned it. The car started.
“That’s…” He stared at the device, then at Charlotte, awed. “Holy hell, I don’t know what that is.”
“Spy camp stuff. Shh.” She put her finger to her lips. “The keyless entry ones I have a different device for. They all fit into my purse. Very handy.”
“Of course they do.” And that pissed him off, too. “We couldn’t have done that to my car?”
She snorted. “Where would the fun be in that, love? And if you lose your keys, you can hotwire that piece of shit home now.”
“Thanks,” he muttered, not getting the hatred for his car. The engine was sweet. It was worth something if he restored the body. It was a convertible when the top decided it wanted to work. Stupid spy women. “Why do we have a different rental every day?”
“So Jake isn’t made while watching someone. It pisses Chase off, too. He doesn’t feel it needs to be changed daily. I think Jake does it just for the thrill of pissing Chase off.” She got out of the rental, and he followed her to the porch, where she studied the street with a keen eye. “Which neighbor is on vacation? Or old.”
His heartbeat picked up the pace. “Why?”
“We need to borrow a car.” The way she stressed borrow led him to believe they would be using her neat key thing on it.
“What? Jesus, no. We have a car. Two. Right there, in the driveway.”
She glared, and it wasn’t the least bit cute. “If I’m going to teach you to tail Jake, we can’t use that. He knows the vehicle. And I don’t trust it to take us down the block, never mind to follow Jake around.”
“Your morals are questionabl
e. Seriously. I’m never stealing a car. Come with, Ma’am.” Aaron went back through the house, to the back yard, Charlotte following. He peeked over the fence where his hot, lesbian neighbor was tanning. She tanned all year long, usually naked. If there was sun, she was out, even if it was only seventy degrees, like today.
“Hi, Kelly. Can I borrow your car? For an hour or so?”
Kelly raised her sunglasses—her only attire—and laughed. “You need a new set of wheels, Aaron-baby. That piece of crap is going to leave you stranded.” A moment later, he caught the set of keys.
“Thank you. I’ll be back in an hour.”
Charlotte snorted from the porch and gave him an I told you so look regarding Stella the car.
He waggled the keys in his hand. “At least my morals are safe and sound.”
“Judgmental,” she warned.
So they grabbed sunglasses and baseball caps and snuck out. They waited in Kelly’s car until Jake drove off with the rental. Charlotte stopped him from driving off with a hand on his wrist. “Don’t pull out when he does, give him a few. This works better with two cars, but since you have issues…”
“I don’t have issues. I have morals.” He finally pulled out, driving slower than his grandma. “Where’s he going?”
“For a latte. Then off to work.”
“Is that spy senses, or…”
“He told me.” She smacked him on the shoulder. “Use some sense, idiot. Don’t follow so close. Put a car or two between you. You could also pull down this side street and just head down the one parallel. We can see him from a distance.”
Jake drove like a man needing a latte badly. “I can’t believe I’m spying on my brother.”
“You wanted spy camp,” she reminded him as Jake parked in the café’s lot. “Pull over here. We’ll do surveillance. Not so close. If you were a real man, we’d have binoculars.”
Everything was his fault today. He pulled over to the curb and shut the car off. “Why do real men have binoculars?”
“To spy on people. Women.”
“Kelly lies out, naked. If I want an eyeful, then I walk over, say hi, and admire the view. I don’t need to creep on her.”
