by Justine Davis, Amy J. Fetzer, Katherine Garbera, Meredith Fletcher, Catherine Mann
Tory wasn’t sure she liked Ben labeling her as his. But deep inside she felt a little reassured that he had. His gaze met hers and he stared into her eyes with an intensity that made her tremble. An intensity that seemed to say, “You belong to me and I protect my own.”
It didn’t matter that she knew she could protect herself. It didn’t matter that every time she trusted a man he let her down. It didn’t matter that Ben lied to everyone he cared about. In that instant, she knew he had her.
Charles cleared his throat. “I don’t know him well enough to get either of you an appointment. But I believe Veronica socializes with Lydia Pearson.”
Ben glanced at her, and Tory wasn’t sure what to do. She knew he had a stake in the outcome. But she was used to going it alone. And this time she didn’t want him by her side. She couldn’t be sure whether he was going along for justice for special ops or to shut her up if she learned too much.
Charles called Veronica, who was en route to her party. Tory didn’t take her eyes off Ben. He watched her, as well, and she knew that their relationship would be changed by the outcome of their interview with Pearson.
Her career and her personal life once again were on a collision course. She only hoped that this time her judgment was better than it had been with Perry.
Tory stood in front of the window, staring down at the rolling hills of Virginia. The moon played over the landscape, giving it that dreamy sepia tone that she loved. She longed to have her favorite Nikon in hand. When she was behind the lens of a camera she could forget about her problems and just shoot film.
A light snow started to fall, and Tory was entranced by it. She loved to watch the snow. She didn’t get upset by the traffic snarls it inevitably caused or by the wetness it left behind. She’d spent too many Florida winters praying to see it.
She wore a pair of flannel-lined satin pajamas but she still felt chilled. Hugging her arms around herself, she turned away from the window.
She finally had the kind of exclusive story lead she’d always craved, and now she was worried about whether she could do it justice.
Athena Academy training had given each of its graduates that innate knowledge that she could do anything. Take on anyone and come out the winner. But tonight, in Charles Forsythe’s study, she hadn’t really felt that she could take on anything. She’d felt she might have bitten off more than she could chew.
Honestly, though, was it the story or the situation that bothered her? She’d proved herself on Puerto Isla and had more confidence in her survival skills than ever before. No, what worried her was Bennington Forsythe.
She’d retreated upstairs to type up her notes and write the story that was in her head. The story that she knew was going to rock the capital when she broke it wide open. She’d gone back over the campaign finances and still hadn’t found anything concrete to link Del Torro or Santiago, who both were coca-leaf ranchers, to Whitlow.
She knew she was missing something, and hoped that once she talked to Pearson she’d have what she needed to go live with the story.
She was too restless to sleep. She doubted she’d really be able to rest until after this entire story had aired and steps were taken to make sure that no one in Whitlow’s White House could willingly hurt U.S. citizens again. She knew that it was a naive attitude, but she clung to it.
There was a brief knock on the bedroom door. “Who is it?”
“Ben. Can I come in?”
“Yes.”
He opened the door and paused in the darkened entryway. The light from the hall spilled into the room, and Tory stood where she was, observing him. He wore only a pair of black pajama pants that rode low on his hips. His sleek muscles were illuminated and she just stared at him. Physically he was perfection. Honed, toned and ready for action, he was one of America’s fighting elite. And she knew he’d do his job under any circumstances.
“Come to make sure I haven’t leaked any state secrets?”
He cursed under his breath and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. The room was plunged into darkness save for the fall of moonlight in front of the big window.
“Scared?” he asked, in a raspy tone she hadn’t heard from him before.
“Bennington Forsythe, Athena women aren’t scared of mortals.”
“Tory?”
Tory knew it was childish, but she slunk deeper into the shadowy drapes near the window. He walked silently into the room.
After the way he’d scared her earlier, she wanted back a little of her own. She made him come to her, using her own retreat to move him just where she wanted him.
“What kind of game are you playing?” he asked, his voice a husky whisper.
“One where I’m in control.”
“I love it when you take control.”
“Good.”
He crept closer to her and she stood her ground, watching him move. When he was close enough to touch, she reached out and swept him off his feet with a hook kick behind the knees. He controlled his fall, making sure they both landed on the bed.
Tory braced her hands on his shoulders and straddled his waist. He wasn’t breathing heavily and neither was she. Well, okay, she was a little bit, but only because he was close to her.
She felt his erection through the layers of both of their pajama pants. “Is this what you had in mind?”
She didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to let him get to her any more than he already had. She wasn’t going to take him with her to visit Pearson.
She leaned down and nipped his pectoral with her teeth. He moaned deep in his throat, his hips lifting toward hers. She slid down his chest, kissing and nipping.
He caressed her breasts, cupping the full globes in his hands and then lightly scraping her nipple with his nails. He pushed her top up and grabbed her waist, pulling her up his body.
Leaning up, he caught the tip of her nipple between his lips and suckled. She held his head to her body and ground her center against him. She couldn’t wait any longer. She had to have him.
She pulled her top off and tossed it on the floor, then reached between them and pushed his pants down his legs. He did the same with hers and in a minute they were pressed body to naked body. His skin was hot to the touch, and everywhere her hands fondled soon grew even warmer.
“Enough,” he said between clenched teeth. “There’s a condom in the pocket of my pants.” Tory reached for his pants and found the condom and quickly covered him with it.
She positioned herself over him and slowly lowered herself down on his length. Ben lay beneath her, coiled and powerful, ready to take command yet letting her have the power. She rode him, swiftly bringing them both to the edge of climax. He grabbed her hips in an iron grasp and thrust upward once and then twice quickly. She shattered and fell over the edge, collapsing on his chest as his shout of completion filled the room.
Alex and Justin were in the sunroom when Tory came downstairs the next morning. Tory hesitated in the doorway, very conscious of the fact that were a lot of things left unsaid between herself and Alex.
“Good morning, Tory,” Justin said. “Want some coffee?”
“No, thanks. I’m going for a walk to clear my head.”
“Want some company?” Alex asked. She got to her feet before Tory could answer.
Tory nodded. Both women got their coats and then walked into the chilly November morning. The snow from the night before blanketed the ground, and as she took in the scenery Tory realized how pure and innocent the world looked. A pleasant silence fell between them.
Then Alex spoke. “Okay, what’s going on with you and my brother?”
Tory shrugged. Alex narrowed her eyes. “I’m not going to let this go.”
“I’m not trying to keep you in the dark. I just don’t know what’s going on. I mean, I’m attracted to him, and he’s funny and cute. But there’s also a part of him that I’m not sure of.” Tory knew she couldn’t really say too much about Ben to Alex. She didn’t know abou
t his very serious side. The dangerous LASER operative who had saved her neck on Puerto Isla.
“Men complicate things endlessly.”
“Does Justin do that for you?”
“Sometimes, but there are pluses to having him around.”
“I bet,” Tory said, smiling at her friend.
“He’s also helping with the Rainy investigation.”
“Because of his sister’s death.”
“Yes. Justin won’t rest until he has all the facts.”
“We won’t, either,” Tory said. “Did you have a chance to read the e-mail from Kayla?”
“Yes, what’s up with Betsy?”
Betsy Stone was the nurse at Athena Academy. She’d been avoiding answering any questions about Rainy’s supposed appendectomy.
“I’m not sure. It looks like she has something to hide.”
“I know. I wish I knew where Sam was. Her e-mails are always so vague about her location.” Samantha St. John, their CIA agent friend and the youngest Cassandra, communicated with them via sporadic e-mails.
“Well, she’s on the trail of Rainy’s killer.”
“I wish we could find some concrete proof of what happened. Everything we’ve uncovered makes me very uncomfortable.”
“Me, too. At least Darcy is safe now.”
“Yes. Who would have guessed that Maurice Steele would be such a psycho? I’m glad I was able to help her nail that bastard.”
“I wish I’d been in on it. It’s situations like that one that the Cassandra promise was made for.”
“I think Darcy didn’t really want us to know how bad the situation with Maurice was.”
“We can all be taken in by appearances sometimes.”
“When you are in a situation like that, it’s not always easy to be rational. And she wanted to protect her son at all costs.”
“Well, don’t you forget about the Cassandra promise. If you get in hot water, call for help.”
“I will.”
The women finished their walk and headed back to the house. Tory realized that she wasn’t as alone as she’d thought she was. Maybe the reason that all of her close friends were from her Athena Academy days was due to the fact that she’d made the kind of bonds with them that weren’t easily forged elsewhere.
When they got back to the house, they joined the rest of the family and Justin in Charles’s den. Ben brought everyone up to speed on Tory’s investigation. Tory used Charles’s computer to search one of the many databases she had access to through the network system. Ben towered over her. Leaning against the desk, he watched every detail she came up with, but he was strangely quiet this morning.
Alex and Justin helped out and ran the names of all of Tory’s subjects through the FBI database that they both had access to. Charles and Veronica drifted in and out of the room. Charles said it reminded him of the old days when he’d been active at the CIA. Veronica had worn a tired smile and said only that it reminded her of Alex and Ben’s dad.
Her eyes had gotten teary and Ben had gone from the room with his mother. Alex and Justin followed them out, and soon Tory was alone.
Tory finally found a connection between Del Torro, Whitlow and Pearson. They’d all attended Oxford in England at the same time. “Pay dirt.”
“What did you find?”
Tory glanced up. Ben stood in the doorway, his shoulder nearly spanning the opening. “How’s your mom?”
“She’s fine. She always misses Dad at the holidays.”
“What about you?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m okay. What’d you find out?”
Tory didn’t want to let the subject of his father go. But she was pursuing a story, and Ben was reluctant to talk about it. “Whitlow and Pearson were at Oxford with Del Torro.”
“Nice connection, but still weak.”
“I’m working on it.”
“Tory, this package just arrived from your network,” Alex said. She brought in a padded envelope that Tory knew contained the footage she’d requested of Pearson and Whitlow.
“Thanks.”
Ben took the package and opened it up. Tory grabbed her notepad and moved to the love seat. Alex sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her Tory’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Tory hugged her friend back. “Me, too.”
Alex left the room and Ben tossed her the remote and then joined her on the love seat. “What are we looking for?”
“I don’t know. I ordered these so that I could see the way he moved and talked and maybe get a feeling for how to approach him.”
The interview footage showed a man who was smooth, suave and urbane. A man who moved through life as if he owned it. She learned he loved his yacht, the Cleo, and entertained both heads of state and celebrities on it.
She wondered if it was the same boat that both Addler and Terrence had fished with him on. She’d gone over the footage she’d shot in Addler’s home, but the name of the boat hadn’t been visible in the picture in Addler’s office.
Veronica had secured an invitation for Ben and Tory to attend a party that evening that the Pearsons would be attending. Tory was more than a little nervous.
“I wish there was some way to tie Del Torro to the campaign.”
“Have you searched the list?”
Tory rolled her eyes. “It was one of the first things I did.”
“Let me see it.”
She tossed him the three-inch-thick sheaf of papers. Ben groaned but started shifting through the sheets. Tory turned the volume up as a Discovery Channel special came on the tape. “Chris Pearson is known for his political influence and entrepreneurial skills, but he also has one of the most extensive collections of Egyptian artifacts in the United States. Today our cameras will be the first to see the collection that he started during a college trip with friends from Oxford.”
The footage shifted from the reporter, Brett Brown, a guy Tory had met a few times, to film of Pearson walking through the hallway of his mansion in Alexandria, Virginia, and into a large collection room. It was filled with sarcophagi and other Egyptian artifacts. Pearson talked about his collection for almost ten minutes.
“You are part of a Society for Egypt.”
“Nothing that formal. My group is just a bunch of friends from my college days who all share an interest in ancient Egypt.”
“What’s your group called?”
“Nothing showy—we’re just the Egyptian Society. We came up with the name when we were at Oxford studying ancient civilizations.”
“Is Governor Whitlow a member?” Brown asked. This interview had been filmed almost six years earlier when Whitlow had been the governor of Illinois.
“Yes, he is.”
Tory froze the frame and glanced at Ben. He stopped fanning the pages of the contributions list. Tory went back to the computer and found the list on there. She found that the Egyptian Society had made numerous contributions to Whitlow’s campaign. Tory did a separate search on Pearson and found he’d contributed money on his own. Del Torro’s name didn’t appear on the list.
“Here’s the lead I was hoping for.”
“It’s still not solid.”
“I’m not going to have to use it for evidence in a court of law. If I play my cards right, Pearson will tell me what I don’t know.”
“What’s your plan?”
“My plan is to let him overhear you and I talking at this party. To make it sound like we know more than we do and then see how he reacts.”
Chapter 18
Tory had been to fancy parties before as a guest and as a reporter covering events, so she had no real reason to be nervous tonight. Veronica Forsythe had picked out Tory’s dress, a sexy black Gaultier gown. The black sheath hugged her tight across the breasts and had a simple black strap over one shoulder. Veronica had warmed up to Tory over the past few days and had taken Tory under her wing. Alex had warned that her mother was eyeing Tory has a potential daughter-in-law, but Ben didn�
��t seem to mind, so Tory didn’t dwell on it.
The limo pulled to a stop and they all got out of the car. “I’ll be the envy of every man in the room tonight.”
Ben offered his arm to his mother, and the three of them walked up the steps and into the Gallery of Ancient Art, where the party was being held.
“I love this place at the holidays,” Veronica said.
“Mom, you love any place where there’s a party.”
“So does my son,” she said, leaning up and kissing Ben’s cheek.
Tory observed them, realizing that Ben and his mother had a really close bond. She hadn’t expected it, because Alex had told hair-raising tales about her mother’s obsession with keeping up their blue-blood society appearance. But Ben and Veronica both were graced with charm and the ability to put anyone at ease. Tory could easily see why Ben was able to fool the world into believing he was happy as a playboy who lived off his inheritance.
They left their coats at the coat check, and Ben braved the bar to get them all drinks. Soon Veronica saw some friends and left Tory and Ben.
“Have you seen him yet?” Ben asked when they were alone.
“No. It’s crowded in here. We could have some difficulty finding him.”
“Mom said he’s usually on the dance floor at these things. He and his wife took lessons last year and are eager to impress their friends.”
Tory took a sip of her drink and waited for Ben to suggest they go out on the dance floor and look for Pearson. Ben surveyed the crowd and smiled at several people he knew. Placing his hand on the small of Tory’s back, he escorted her to a group of his friends. Tory made small talk until finally her patience gave out. She gave her glass and Ben’s to a passing waiter.
“Shall we dance?” she asked with her on-air smile.
Ben excused them from the group and they walked toward the dance floor. “The man’s supposed to ask, Athena grad.”
“If only he’s astute enough to realize the lady wants to dance.”
Ben gave her a grin that made her melt. He was too sexy for his own good. And damn him, he knew it.
