by Cat Johnson
Oh yeah, she wasn’t near done yet, which was good, because neither was he. After a quick tear of the foil wrapper and he was safely covered, he sank himself inside her and felt exactly how not cold she was.
Wet and ready for him, her body accepted his like they were made to fit together. “Oh, darlin’. You feel so sweet.”
He wanted the feeling to last a very long time, so he kept the pace nice and slow. Lia pulled her knees up and his next stroke sank him even deeper into her. He groaned his approval.
She threw her head back against the pillow and gripped his forearms. “Harder. Faster.”
Yup, she was a talker all right, and she liked to give orders. Jimmy took orders all day at work. He wasn’t about to have to follow them in bed too. With her knees pulled up and braced against his chest, he couldn’t even lean down far enough to shut her up by kissing her. That didn’t mean he couldn’t teach her a lesson about being bossy. He slowed his rhythm even more.
“I said faster, damn it.” Her ice-blue eyes flashed.
That had really pissed her off. He smiled, having more fun than he’d had in a long time. Shaking his head, he slowed down to an absolute crawl.
She frowned. There was a good chance no one had ever said no to her before, poor thing. Jimmy was proud to be the first. He stopped the in-and-out motion totally, pushed in deeper and ground himself against her in small circles. He knew how to please a woman. She’d just have to shut up long enough to realize it.
Each rotation of his hips ground the base of him against her most sensitive spot. He watched her eyes drift closed, then heard her breath catch in her throat. She started to shudder again and with one incredible cry, she shattered around him. He did love hearing her come.
Her muscles squeezed him and he enjoyed every pulse. Only when the spasms slowed to a stop did he give in to her previous wish, purely for his own pleasure of course. Jimmy took her deep and fast until he lost it himself, coming hard until he could barely support his own weight on his shaking arms. He collapsed on top of her with a groan. They both lay panting for he didn’t know how long. Finally, he gathered enough energy to raise up on one elbow.
Jimmy gazed down at the satisfaction clear on Lia’s face. “One word of advice, darlin’. Never tell me how to make love.”
She seemed shocked for a second, and then pursed her lips in a reluctant smile. “I’ll try and remember that.”
He smiled too. He was still hard inside her, so he pulled out and stripped off the used condom. Quicker than she could say “yes sir, may I have another”, he’d rolled on a fresh one.
Sitting up on his knees, erection pointing proudly at her like a divining rod, Jimmy slapped her hip playfully. “Flip on over, darlin’. This time I wouldn’t mind a view of that sweet ass of yours.”
She raised one perfectly shaped brow at him, but rolled over without saying a word. He said a quick, internal word of thanks for her silence and slid himself into her for round two.
Money or not, everybody was the same when they were naked and sweaty.
Sex. The great equalizer. That should be a bumper sticker or something. Jimmy smiled to himself. He was hot tonight.
Chapter Three
The dim gray tint of dawn filtered through the blackout curtain covering the window in the suite’s bedroom. After years in the military of snapping awake and being ready for action, even that dusky light was enough to break into Jimmy’s sex-induced sleep coma. He came quickly back to consciousness and became immediately aware of the warm, naked body pressed against him. Memories of a long night of incredible sex flooded his mind and body.
True to form, one part of him in particular was ready for some action. He pressed his pelvis against the soft cleft of Lia’s ass and let out a groan. There was no better way to wake up than with some nice, easy morning sex. Lia apparently agreed with that sentiment. With a soft sigh, she snuggled closer. Giving his hard-on better access to her, she bent one knee before pushing back against him. Just the tip of his morning erection entered her. He basked in the incredible feel of her warmth and longed for more.
Before things went any further, he slipped out of Lia and into one of the condoms he’d left within reach on the nightstand last night. He rolled back to her waiting body and slid easily inside. She purred out a groan—a soft, sleepy, contented sound. He liked that about Lia. The woman was a hellcat one moment and a kitten the next. A man would never get bored of a woman like this.
Knowing he wouldn’t last long, Jimmy reached around, found Lia’s sweet spot and began working it. Her muscles tightened around him and brought his impending orgasm dangerously close. He clenched his teeth and held back with all his might when he felt himself losing control, but it was no use. With her clutched close to him, he gave in. With no further choice in the matter, he let loose, sorry he hadn’t lasted longer for her sake.
“I’m sorry, darlin’. Mornings tend to be quick for me.”
Lia groaned seductively and rolled toward him. “That’s okay. You have all day to make it up to me. Unless, of course, you have to work later.”
“Work. Shit.” Jimmy’s gaze cut to the digital clock on the nightstand on Lia’s side of the bed. He mouthed a slightly more vile curse. “I’m more sorry than you can know, but I have to shower quick and get out of here.”
She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow critically. “Why? Is your girlfriend expecting you?”
Jimmy laughed as he sat up and swung his feet to the carpeting. “No. Worse. My boss.”
She frowned. “Do you have to serve at a morning event? Like a breakfast or something?”
Getting pretty damn tired of the waiter crap, Jimmy shook his head. “No. I’ve got a zero-eight…” After all the years he’d spent referring to the time by a twenty-four-hour clock, the very military sounding zero-eight-hundred had nearly slipped out of him. He managed to smother the rest of it and corrected himself. “Um, an eight o’clock meeting with him.”
Leaving her to ponder that, he strode naked into the bathroom and flipped on the water. He had just stepped into the shower and was about to soap up
Little Jimmy, who he’d already divested of his latex covering, when the bathroom door opened. Jimmy felt the cool burst of air hit his skin as Lia slid open the sliding glass door. As naked as he, she stepped inside with a devilish smile. “I thought if you’re in such a hurry, I’d help you wash. It’ll go faster that way.”
He seriously doubted that, but after she closed her fingers around him and had delivered a few strokes, good sense fled and time lost all meaning. When she rinsed the soap from his skin, bent over and took him in her mouth, he couldn’t care where he was supposed to be or who was waiting for him there.
Later, dressed in the same black waiter’s pants and white shirt he’d worn on the mission, Jimmy burst through the door of the meeting room with barely a minute to spare. He hadn’t had time to go home and change, his hair was still damp from his shower with Lia, but he was there. That would have to be good enough. He took a deep breath to steady himself and then knocked on the commander’s closed door.
“Get your ass in here, Gordon.”
It wasn’t exactly a warm welcome, but Jimmy had no problem hearing the commander’s order from within the inner office. He opened the door and slipped silently into the room. Standing in front of the commander’s cluttered desk, he waited for the ax to fall.
After what seemed like a long time, during which the commander shuffled papers and ignored him, Jimmy was finally told, none too nicely, to sit the hell down.
He had a feeling this wasn’t going to be a fun meeting. In spite of the fact he’d gotten maybe an hour of sleep in between bouts with Lia, he was in such a good mood even the commander’s scowling face and unhappy tone couldn’t break it.
His little hellcat. It hadn’t taken Lia too long to lose the attitude and soften up toward him. By the morning, she was as cuddly as a kitten. A tingle ran right through him at the memory of waking up beside her.
; “Of all the men on this team, you were the last one I expected to…”
Jimmy tried to pay attention as the commander laid into him, but his mind kept drifting back to the suite and thoughts of Lia. While the lecture droned on, Jimmy’s mind wandered back to the many times he and Lia had enjoyed that big king-sized bed, and then later the shower.
Mmm. He’d really liked the shower. Her body all soapy. Her hands and mouth all over him. His hands all over her. Beneath that hot spray of water while they were both slick with soap, she’d even had him slide in for some anal action. A tingle ran straight down his spine at the memory. That had been the only time she’d broken his rule and told him what to do, but he hadn’t minded following that order one bit. Not at all.
Jimmy wrestled his attention back to the commander before he embarrassed himself and got a hard-on right there in the office. The commander was now up and pacing the room while he ranted. That wasn’t a good sign.
“In fact, after last night it would serve you right if I pulled you off of this assignment.”
Assignment. What assignment? Had he missed something during his daydreaming? The commander had stopped the deluge of words and now stood staring at Jimmy, so he decided this was a good time to make amends.
“Yes, sir. I apologize. It will never happen again.” Groveling out of the way, Jimmy hoped the commander would get back to the assignment and tell him what it was.
The commander scowled at him for another moment, sighed and then sat down behind his desk. This was a vast improvement over the pacing he’d been doing while chewing Jimmy out.
“You’re aware of the target CENTCOM has been tracking in Kosovo?”
Jimmy’s heart pounded. He suddenly had no trouble keeping his tired eyes wide open or his attention completely on the commander’s words. “Yes, sir.”
“We’re ready to move on him. You’re going in deep undercover, Gordon.”
His dream assignment. Deep undercover inside a terrorist’s organization.
“You leave tomorrow. Here’s the dossier. Memorize it then destroy it. Basically, you’re an American who’s been recruited by the target’s organization.”
Jimmy nodded, too excited to even speak.
The commander continued. “Coleman’s been setting your cover up online for months. The team will know what your assignment is, but no one else. Communications will be minimal and only when necessary. You got me? Call your mama to say goodbye, but tell her you’ll be training new recruits overseas for the next six months to a year and won’t have time to write or access to a phone. The same story goes for whoever the girl du jour is from last night. Now get out of here.”
“Yes, sir. And thank you, sir.” Wow. Six months to a year deep undercover. It’s what he’d been preparing for for years. Along with the excitement, Jimmy felt a deep tinge of regret. Lia’s cell phone number was safely folded in his wallet. He’d been toying with the idea of calling her later today.
Who was he kidding? Even if he wasn’t going to be playing with the bad guys in Kosovo for an indeterminate amount of time, he knew what last night was about. She was just some spoiled society broad getting her jollies diddling with the help. If anything, he’d been the boy toy du jour more than the other way around. But she sure would give him plenty to think about on those long, lonely nights to come. For that, he was immensely grateful.
The meeting over, Jimmy was dismissed. Walking, actually nearly sprinting down the hall, Jimmy realized he was whistling. He couldn’t wait to tell Jack he’d landed the assignment. His brother was going to be so jealous.
Chapter Four
Present Day
Jimmy sat—or more accurately lay like an invalid—on his bed with the same book he’d been trying to read for the last month open in his lap. He stared at the words on the page but they were just a meaningless jumble. Why couldn’t he concentrate? It wasn’t like he had anything else to do.
He could smell that his mama was baking one of her famous pies. He supposed he could limp downstairs and get some if he really wanted. Jack was still home on furlough for another few days. Maybe he could sneak outside and see what his brother and his new girl, Nicki, were up to. His other brother Jared had brought in a new stud stallion he was planning on breeding today. He could perhaps hobble over to the paddock and watch that.
Letting his head fall back against the pillow and roll to one side, he stared at the faded wallpaper he remembered so well from his childhood and decided all those ideas for diversions sounded like too much work.
Sighing, Jimmy considered taking a nap, but he doubted he could fall asleep. A man had to actually do something to get tired enough to sleep in the middle of the day.
Instead he let his mind drift to Lia, like he did so often even if it was the most pointless exercise on earth. He’d thought about her every day he was in Kosovo. He’d jerked off to visions of her each night. He didn’t even feel like doing that anymore. In fact, he didn’t think he’d had a hard-on since getting home from the military hospital in Germany.
The guards who’d taken him had worked him over pretty damn good before the team had rescued him. There’d been a time he’d wondered if he’d ever see home again. Now that he was here, safe and recovering, why didn’t he feel happier about it? Maybe because there was probably something wrong with his dick too.
Just great, that in addition to the bruises, broken bones and enlarged spleen, all of which he was pretty much recovered from now. He was just considering digging his teen-years stash of girlie magazines out of the back of his closet to test this new horrifying broken-dick theory when Jack knocked on his door.
“Hey, big brother.” Jack was always so damn cheerful, but then why shouldn’t he be? His dick worked just fine and he was working it out day and night with Nicki.
“Hey, Jack.”
Jack frowned. “You doing okay? You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine. What’s up?” Jimmy wasn’t exactly in the mood for small talk today.
Unperturbed by Jimmy’s short answer, Jack walked over to sit in the chair next to the bed. He shrugged. “Oh, not much, except that I was just talking to the commander.”
“About what?” Jimmy wasn’t sure if talking about work would be a good diversion or just make him feel worse about being away from it, but he asked anyway.
Jack’s face broke out into a wide grin. “He wants you to come back to base with me when I go in a few days.”
Jimmy sat bolt upright. “Really?”
Jack nodded. “You have to call him though. There’s a doctor sign-off or something you have to get before the big brass will let you back on active duty.”
He’d get a note from his mama, the Surgeon General and the President of the US of A if it meant going back on active duty. “I’ll call him right now. Thanks, Jack.”
Jack laughed. “I thought that news would cheer you up. I just hope it makes up for my bad news.”
Jimmy paused as he reached for his cell phone on the side table. He knew it was too good to be true. He narrowed his gaze at his brother. “What bad news?”
“The governor and that bastard senator who tried to shut down our base a few years back are coming here for sweet tea and pie tomorrow.”
“What the hell… Why?” His mama was having a senator and the governor over for sweet tea and pie? Was he having a really strange dream? He hadn’t taken any painkillers in a long time. He couldn’t be hallucinating from them still being in his system.
Jack rolled his eyes. “You know that organization Jared belongs to? The one that lobbies for the small farmer? Well, the governor and the senator are coming to meet with the organization, along with a shitload of press.”
Great. Nothing Jimmy loved more than the press. “So let’s let Jared deal with them all. He planned this mess.”
“Oh, I plan on it. I’m sending Nicki away for the day too. I don’t want her face in the newspaper right now. And you and I shouldn’t be posing for any photos ourselves. The commander wo
uld shit a brick and our undercover days would be over. I figure we can hang out at the barn and watch Jared’s circus from a distance.”
Circus was a good description. From what he knew of the senator, the man was pretty much a clown who’d do anything to get the most people to cheer him on and vote him into office again. Jimmy would love watching his youngest brother Jared play gentleman farmer for the idiots, as long as he didn’t have to do it with him.
He nodded in agreement with Jack’s plan. “Sounds good.”
“So, Staff Sergeant Gordon. You’re here for an evaluation.” The doctor glanced down at the paper in his hand through glasses that hung just on the end of his nose. When he raised his gaze again, he looked at Jimmy over the top of the frames.
Jimmy hadn’t been referred to by his rank since he’d been recruited out of the Marines for Task Force Zeta. It sounded strange hearing it now, but he supposed it was still accurate so he didn’t correct the man.
“Yes, sir, and call me Jimmy.” He glanced at the nameplate on the desk. Dr. Marvin Stein, PhD, MD. That was quite a mouthful. Absently, he wondered what Marvin’s friends called him for short. Marv, perhaps?
Doctor Marv took a pen from among the many lined up neatly in his breast pocket and scribbled something on a pad of paper. “Okay, Jimmy. Tell me about yourself.”
Jimmy raised a brow. Much like the stages of grief, he’d gone through many emotions over the last twenty-four hours since the commander had ordered the psych evaluation. First he’d been elated, followed closely by anger that he didn’t need some doctor’s note to tell him if he was ready to go back to duty. Now, finally, he simply felt acceptance. Whatever it took to get back on active duty, he’d do. Even put up with Freud here watching him over the top of his granny glasses while taking notes on everything he said and did.
“Um, about me. Okay. I was born in Pigeon Hollow thirty-four years ago on the horse farm that’s been in my mama’s family for three generations. Daddy was a drunk. He took off when I was fifteen, leaving Mama to raise us three boys. I’m the oldest so I helped as much as I could. I was all-state in football in high school—”
