by S. K. Lessly
As much as I talked about couples that displayed their affections publicly, I was completely envious of them. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed that kind of love and attention until last night.
Talking to Shane about my ex and my past dreams made me realize just how much I did want some of the things I claimed that I didn’t need. I wanted a husband to take care of me, spoil me, and make me feel like I was the most important person in his life. It also reminded me of why I didn’t have those things now and my heart ached. It ached for the dreams that were so close that I could taste them. My heart ached for the future I felt I deserved, but most of all it ached for a man that I didn’t believe I could have.
It was fucked up, but it was the story of my life and the path I had chosen. The decisions that I’d made in the past had sealed my fate. I just wasn’t meant for the kind of happiness that Josh and Sweets had. I had to suck it up and deal with what God had given me. As I told Shane, I made the choice, serving my country instead of living for my family. There was no way I could serve two masters, if you will.
That didn’t take away the feelings I had for Shane. I would do anything if I could have my cake and eat it too. I truly believed that if there was a chance for Shane and me, God would tell me. He would give me a sign, and so far, nada.
Finally, I decided to give the couple their privacy and head to my office, but noticed Shane had stepped out of the conference room. I stopped dead in my tracks and watched him as he stood there talking to Malcolm. As I took in this handsome ass man, I swear that what happened next only happened in the sappy chick flicks that I watch. Shane’s beautiful blue eyes suddenly fell on me, and everything around me seemed to fall away; the background and the people as one of my favorite songs started playing in the background. It was crazy, completely unheard of, and yet amazing all at the same time. My body began to emulate the tune of the song.
My heart started pounding the bass and back beat of the song I heard against my chest. Goose bumps that pulsed along my skin resembled the notes of the piano keys stroked, intertwining me with the melody and the words to the song. As Shane peeled away from his brothers and walked toward me, the signature and unique sound of Fantasia’s voice floated as the chorus of “When I See U” filled my head space.
I looked Shane up and down while trying to swallow the tight knot in my throat. The man looked good.
His beard had been trimmed down to just a shadow and lined around his face, chin, and sexy lips. His hair was untamed as if he had run his fingers through his locks and spritzed them in place. He wore a simple short-sleeve, three-button, blue polo shirt with khakis and Tims. It was summer, but this man had on Tims. Good God!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the way this man walked. Goodness, he had so much swag. Hell, he always did. The man had so much confidence and cockiness that I sometimes took time to just drool over him, when he wasn’t looking of course.
And those intense eyes of his… They bore into my soul every time he looked at me, studied me, and undressed me. He was doing that right now as he walked toward me. I took a deep breath and felt my body relax the moment he touched me. His fingers danced along my cheeks just as Fantasia was hitting that hook to her song.
Something now is taking over me.
I’m not gonna run, I’m just gonna stand here and see.
I closed my eyes, letting the feel of this man run through my body, electrify my soul, and tantalize my womanly parts. The salacious memories of a couple of nights ago; the pain and the pleasure flooded me. I heard him whisper my name softly and I couldn’t stop the soft whimper that escaped my lips. The sound of him saying my name again floated around me and I smiled. Oh, the way he said my name…
This man was my future. He was changing me from the inside out. I felt it. I’d never had unprotected sex with any man except my husband. But I’d done it with him. Again, I wasn’t worried about my health with Shane or his from my end. We all got tested on the regular. And getting pregnant wasn’t something I needed to worry about. Still, I should’ve questioned him. I should’ve been worried, but I wasn’t.
That meant one thing from my perspective: he truly was the one for me. Shane was everything to me, and it was high time I told him so.
I felt a sudden tug at my arm that gave me a jolt. My eyes flew open, more confused than anything else. I looked up at Shane, wonderment in my eyes. Then I heard my name being whispered again. This time I noticed Shane’s mouth didn’t move. The voice that had called me wasn’t his.
“Misty…”
I felt another tug, but this time it was more forceful than before. I turned toward the direction of where the tug came from and found Sweets staring at me as if I had lost my damn mind.
I blinked a few times and just then the music was gone and reality hit me like a ton of bricks right in my stomach. I looked back at Shane and saw that he was still standing over by Malcolm and not directly in front of me. Josh had joined them at some point and he seemed to be talking to Malcolm. Shane was staring back at me from across the space with a glint of something mysterious in his eyes.
Oh…no…no…no!
I frantically looked back at Sweets to confirm my suspicions, and she looked at me more sympathetically than anything else. It was as if I had completely embarrassed myself. And I knew just then that I had. I wasn’t sure how, but I just knew it was bad.
“Oh God,” I mumbled and closed my eyes.
“It’s okay,” I heard Sweets say to me. “It wasn’t as bad as you think.”
I swung my eyes to her and narrowed them. “Oh no?!” I said to her, sarcasm drenching my voice.
Sweets moved closer to me and started to say something when her eyes grew wide. “Heads up,” she warned.
I turned in time to see Shane coming in our direction, a pair of green eyes fixed on me.
“Oh shit,” Sweets whispered, but I had to agree with her.
The way Shane was walking in my direction, I knew that shit was about to get interesting. It looked like he was going to do one of two things or both. He was going to either grab my face and stick his tongue down my throat or push me up against the wall, grab my face, and then stick his tongue down my throat. Either one would probably be the best and worst thing for the both of us.
I leaned close to Sweets and whispered quickly, “I need to get out of here. I’ll be right back.”
I turned and made for the main exit toward the bank of elevators. I made it through the big security doors and prayed for one of the three elevators to arrive. I heard the chime in less than a few seconds and I looked to my right, wishing I had the gift to wiggle my nose and make myself disappear like Samantha from the old TV show Bewitched.
The elevator that I called opened its door finally, and I looked behind me. The coast was clear. I rushed inside the elevator, pressed the button for the garage level, and jammed the close button multiple times as if that would make the doors shut faster.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath just as the elevator door started to close. But something told me to open my eyes. And the instant my eyelids parted, I saw Shane forcing his way through the closing elevator doors, using his broad shoulders as a wedge to keep from being smashed between them. My eyes grew wide at the sight, but he didn’t seem to even notice or care. He didn’t stop coming toward me, either and I had no place to go. I tensed up and braced myself for all that was Shane Marcello Cooper. Admittedly, I was far from being ready.
The lip lock that he put on me was the most sexiest and erotic kiss that I ever had without a doubt. My back slammed against the elevator wall with the collision of our bodies. I pushed my hands in his hair and held on as his hands went everywhere, around my waist, my ass, my face, my breasts, and along my spine in no certain order. His lips… Oh they seduced the hell out of mine. The second he released me, the elevator settled on what I believed was the ground floor and opened. Neither of us made a move as we stared into each other’s eyes. Our joint breathing came fast, our hear
ts beating even faster. I reached up and used my thumb to wipe the smudged lipstick from his lips. Shane closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and leaned his face into my touch. When he opened his eyes, he reached up and wiped my lips too.
The elevator closed, and we didn’t move. The small space around us became filled with some serious heat. However, neither one of us made any attempt to test how we could turn the sparks into flames.
After I pulled as much air as I could into my lungs, I said, “That was um…Wow.”
Shane looked at my lips and touched them again lightly with the pad of his thumb.
“You’re lucky you got out of there when you did.”
Oh, really? The side of my mouth curled into my cheek before I asked, “What were you planning to do?”
Shane didn’t respond to me right away. His eyes had suddenly turned a deep shade of green. He moved closer to me and replied, “Give me that look again in front of other people and you’ll quickly find out. Trust me. You won’t get away from me that easy again,” he warned, his voice low and raspy.
I started to counter his bluff, but the look in his eyes spoke volumes. I couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of look I’d had in my eyes upstairs and I wasn’t going to ask him to tell me either. I just decided it would be best not to let my mind drift like that again. This was the second time I had almost let the cat out of the bag. I was losing it.
The elevator started its ascent and stopped on the main floor. When the doors opened, Shane gripped my hand and pulled me out of the elevator.
“Where are we going?” I asked, resisting his tug.
“I need you to come with me,” he replied simply, weaving through the body traffic in front of the elevators. When we got clear, he released my hand.
I stopped walking. “Shane, I have a lot of work to do I can’t…” I began, knowing damn well if I left with him, there was no doubt in my mind that I would rape him in the parking lot, and then my day would be blown to hell.
Shane turned to face me. “Really? You have a lot of work to do?” He looked skeptically at me.
Showing a bit of defiance, I folded my arms in front of me. “Yes, I do. I’ve been pushing off filling out this stupid incident report and I have to make an appointment with the agency shrink.” I rolled my eyes at the last part.
After any agency shooting or incident that led to the death of a suspect, the agent involved had to go through a psyche evaluation. They wanted to make sure the agent wasn’t traumatized by the incident or killing. They also wanted to make sure that the agent took no pleasure in the death or injury of the suspect. I wasn’t sure what category I fit in. I was definitely traumatized by the entire thing and I had enjoyed every second of watching that sorry son of a bitch bleed out. I was a conundrum, completely complicated and crazy all at the same time.
I held Shane’s quiet gaze, standing my ground. Finally, he huffed and shrugged his shoulders. “Okay, I understand.” He pulled out his phone. “I can call Curtis or Jesse and see if they want to tag along.”
My interest thoroughly piqued now, I moved closer to him. “Tag along where?”
“Oh, there’s someone I need to go and talk to. Apparently, I’ve been lied to and I need to ask him why.”
My eyebrow rose. “Yeah? And will you be nice when you ask your questions?”
It was Shane’s turn to fold his arms in front of him. He dropped his chin and kept his eyes on me, considering me. “Well, that will depend on whose going with me. I could be nice or—”
“Let’s go,” I said quickly and walked past him.
“Whoa,” Shane called out after me. He reached for my hand and stopped me.
I turned to see a huge smirk on his face.
“I thought you had all of this paperwork to do.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Yeah, yeah. I do and I’ll get to it after I go with you. I need to um…release some stress. You know what I’m saying?”
Shane nodded. “Yup, I know exactly what you’re saying. Let’s go.”
He moved past me and I followed, a smile creeping along my face as we moved through the lobby. I glanced over to my right and caught a glimpse of a woman with dark hair heading toward the security booth in the lobby. She wore a green shirt and black tights that ended in a pair of black combat boots. I stopped for a second and gave the woman the once over. There was something about her that was oddly familiar to me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it was something.
“What’s up?”
I looked up to find Shane standing in front of me. He too turned toward the security guard desk, but quickly returned his attention to me.
I took in the woman for a second longer before I turned to face him. “Nothing. Check out the woman over there with the dark, short, hair styled in a messy, stringy bob that looks like a mop.”
Shane looked back at the guard station and then back at me. “Yeah, what about her?”
I shrugged and started moving toward the front of the building. “Nothing. I just thought I knew her; that’s all.” I looked back at him before I turned to face him directly. I continued to move, backwards, toward the exit. “Why don’t you tell me more about your meeting with that CIA woman and Jacks? If what Jacks said was true, I bet there were definitely fireworks going off at this meeting. Any guns come out? Knives?”
Shane laughed. “There weren’t any guns or knives, but if looks could kill, Jacks would be dead ten times over.” Shane shook his head.
I shook my head and laughed. “Jacks has such a way with the ladies.”
Shane opened the door behind me and held it open for me as I stepped through. “That he does.”
We walked to Shane’s Explorer, got in, and drove out of the building’s parking lot. We made our way to Route 1 North.
On the drive, Shane and I talked more about what he wanted to do with his CIA contact that had been feeding him the information on Diane. Some of the information he’d received was legit. What had Shane up in arms was the fact that he’d specifically asked if they were looking into the death of Diane and who were the list of contacts in the criminal world that would help her carry out this hit on Josh. I played the devil’s advocate and questioned just how high of rank his source was in the agency. Maybe the man just didn’t know. But Shane assured me that this guy was supposed to know.
“The asshole is holding out and I want to know why,” Shane told me.
I looked over at him and asked, “So how hard do you want to ask your question?”
What I wanted to know was how dirty were we going to get. Shane could just want to sit down with the guy and be civilized, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I had seen the anger in his eyes in the meeting earlier. He was pissed, and this guy was going to feel some pain. How much pain? That was the question. I needed the answer, so I knew how to act accordingly.
Shane glanced over at me and gave me a wicked smile that caused me to smile back. “Well, baby, that will depend on him. If he behaves, maybe I won’t smack him around as much. If he pisses me off even more than I already am, the sky is the limit.”
We drove on, talking about this case and our theories. We discussed the security measures he wanted to take to keep Sweets and Josh safe. He wanted us to sit down and map out a plan when we returned to the office.
Shane took the exit for I-395 West toward Annandale from Route 1. Twenty minutes later, we slowly drove past a dark red brick one-story house on our right. Shane stared at the house before he continued past it.
“Is that where we’re going?” I asked.
“Yup.”
Shane took a right and drove to an alleyway parallel to the street we’d just come up. He made another right and drove slowly down the back alley and pulled over a few houses down from the same one-story brick house. He shut off the engine and removed the key from the ignition. We both studied the house through the windshield.
“How do you want to play this?” I asked, without taking my eyes off of the back door of the house.
Shane didn’t answer for a long while. I ended up turning to face him and saw he was watching the other houses across from the target house.
“Shane,” I called out.
He turned and looked at me.
“How do you want to play this?”
He took a deep breath and pulled out his Glock 21. With the gun already on safety, he released the clip, checked the full magazine before he pushed it back into place. He then pulled the slide back and chambered a round before he slipped it back in his shoulder holster. “I want you to take the house from the front. I’m going to take it from the back. We can meet in the middle.”
I pulled out my Sig Sauer P220 and did the same safety check as he’d done. “Okay. Then what?” I placed my gun back in my shoulder holster underneath my sleeveless jacket.
Shane looked at me and smiled. “Follow my lead.” He then grabbed me by my shirt sleeve, pulled me toward him, and planted a hard kiss to my lips.
When he pulled back, I shook my head and smiled at him. I quietly opened the car door and looked back at him. “See you inside.”
He didn’t reply. He was already out of the car and heading for the back of the house. I caught a glimpse of him screwing a silencer onto his Glock and I started to sprint to the front door. Apparently, Mr. Shane Cooper was truly pissed off.
The man’s street was quiet this morning. I didn’t notice a lot of foot or car traffic along the street. There wasn’t much coming from the surrounding houses either. I made it to the front door of the house and pulled out my pick tools. It didn’t take much for me to open the door. There wasn’t a chain or anything impeding my break in except two bolted locks that seemed cheaply made.
Just as I walked inside the house and locked the door behind me, I heard a high-pitched scream and heavy footsteps rocketing in my direction.
“Coming your way!” Shane called out.
I had only a second to get ready before a saw a rather meaty man coming straight for me. I briefly contemplated shooting him, but I decided against it. Even though the street was quiet this morning, the sound of gunfire in this neighborhood would have SWAT on us in a heartbeat.
