by Justine Davis, Amy J. Fetzer, Katherine Garbera, Meredith Fletcher, Catherine Mann
Riley was impressed. Mostly he operated by garbage in, garbage out. If he attained knowledge but didn’t use it at least every now and again, he lost it.
“Let’s go with that for a moment, then,” he said. “Let’s assume there is some master assassin lurking out there in the deep shadows between nations. Why would he be interested in your friends?”
“Have you been keeping up with the news?”
“World events. Baseball scores.”
“You researched the Athena Academy.”
“Yes.”
“Have you heard about the potential scandal going on there? About students being used for scientific experiments without their knowledge?”
That caught Riley’s attention. “No.”
“The story was reported by Shannon Conner.”
“Who’s she?”
“A reporter for the ABS network. She was also a student at Athena for a time.”
“Is there any truth to the scientific experimentation accusation?”
“Not that I know of. But the academy does have a medical facility and a lot of lab space.”
“If there’s no scientific experimentation going on—”
“Listen to me.” Sam’s face took on a hard cast. “All the Cassandras made a vow—a promise to come, no questions asked, if any one of us called. It was only to be used in dire circumstances. Rainy made that call while I was in Munich in August. She died on the way to the meeting. I’m not buying for a minute that it was some tragic accident. I think she discovered something. And was killed for it.”
“Sam—”
“Riley,” Sam pleaded, “I just need you to get me access to those files. That’s all.”
Staring at her, Riley turned the situation around in his head, trying to find what it was Sam hoped to gain by convincing him of the reality of the hit-and-run assassin. Even if she proved the Cipher was after her friends, she wasn’t going to get out of solitary confinement. She still had the terrorist charges to answer.
“Mitchell’s not going to go for it,” he said.
“Make him.”
“I’ll tell him to talk to you.” Riley stood to leave.
“He won’t listen to me.”
“That’s up to you.” Riley started for the door.
In a quick blur of motion, Sam intercepted him. She put one firm, small hand against his chest. Her touch seared his skin. Her musk and traces of soap and shampoo, a hint of cologne, filled his nostrils. The urge to take her in his arms and crush her to him filled him.
And then she’d break your neck for trying anything, Riley chided himself. He had to steel himself. “What are you doing, St. John?”
Those ice-blue eyes peered into his soul. “Trying to convince you to help me help my friends.”
“By bucking Mitchell?” Riley shook his head. “That’s not going to—” Before he could say anything further, Sam snaked a hand behind his neck and pulled his face down toward hers. At first he almost resisted, thinking she was going to put him in some kind of martial arts hold.
Then he felt her hot lips colliding with his with bruising force. Control slipped through his fingers in the space of a single, ragged breath.
Chapter 10
Sam couldn’t believe she was doing what she was doing. Or with whom. All those evenings she’d sometimes thought of Riley McLane after a racquetball game, or after a briefing or debriefing she’d attended that he’d been involved in, seemed to come alive in her mind as she kissed him. Worse than that, all those nights she’d dreamed of him in the nude came to the forefront of her mind.
Electricity passed through her body, filling her with a heated rush of liquid desire. At first he didn’t kiss her back. Maybe he doesn’t find you attractive, she told herself. And maybe if you didn’t have your face glued to his and you were in better control of yourself, you’d worry about that.
But she wasn’t worried. At least, she definitely wasn’t worried enough. More than anything, she was amazed at how easily her body responded to his. She’d never done any heavy kissing before, never been involved with a male at all before. There hadn’t been a need, and she’d never experienced more than a fleeting desire. She’d always judged the cost too high.
She didn’t want to end up wrecked like some of the women she knew had. In their last year at Athena Academy Kayla had fallen for Mike Bridges, a young officer she’d met, and ended up raising a child on her own.
Sam had always had her hands full keeping herself together. There had always been lines that she wouldn’t cross, chances that she wouldn’t take. It had been one thing to pit herself against a physical exertion—she’d known her abilities, and she’d had to trust only in herself. But a relationship? No way. That had never felt safe. She would have had to place too much trust outside herself.
However, at the moment, she was surprised at how right everything felt, as though this was something she barely remembered but still had the knowledge to perform.
The lack of response from her partner shook her confidence, though. Embarrassed, she tried to think of a way to disentangle herself from Riley with at least a shred of self-respect and dignity. Stepping away from his lean, muscular body was going to be one of the hardest things she’d ever done.
Through sheer willpower, she forced herself back. Their lips parted for an instant. Then Riley swept over her with a cry that was part pain and part passion. He wrapped his arms around her, lifting her from the floor. A dozen martial arts moves flickered through her mind, all of them ways of breaking his hold on her, of escaping his grasp.
But that was the last thing she wanted to do at the moment.
His mouth pressed against hers. His lips melded to hers, blowing her mind and tearing apart her doubts. This moment was crystal clear; it was right and she seized it. His kiss was hot and couldn’t be denied. Her lips parted involuntarily and she felt his tongue invade her mouth. She craved the taste of him, the strength and determination of him, and she blended it to her own. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d doubled her fists up in his jacket and pulled herself up his lean frame. Her legs lifted and wrapped around his hips, pulling him against her.
He held tight. She held him just as fiercely, as though if she let go she would fall a million miles.
Stumbling, he reached the wall beside the door. He put a hand behind her head, cupping her neck and turning her face more up to his. Braced against the wall, she released her hold with her arms and put her hands on the sides of his face. Whiskers felt like fine sandpaper to her touch, and the rough texture sent another wave of desire thrilling through her. Her breath came in ragged gasps, worse than it did when she put herself through her forms.
He moved against her, his hips grinding into hers. She felt his erection through his clothing and hers, hard and insistent, and knew what it was instantly even though she’d never had the pleasure before. And it was pleasure. She couldn’t believe how much pleasure was involved in the contact. He rubbed against her, and she felt incredibly exposed. Wanted to be even more exposed.
His hands slid under her shirt. His callused palms caressed her back, spanned her shoulders, then slipped around to her breasts. He covered her breasts with his hands, and her erect nipples scraped against his flesh. An ache like nothing she’d ever experienced shot through her. Part of her, that small part of her mind that remained civilized, screamed at her that what she was doing was wrong.
Sam didn’t care. Maybe what she was doing was wrong, but it felt right enough at the moment. Her hips bucked against his, increasing the pressure against both their bodies. She felt his response as he grew even harder.
“Sam,” Riley croaked, breathing into her mouth, then inhaling and taking her breath away. His voice was hard and tight, totally male. He turned his head, breaking the kiss. His body surged against hers. “We can’t do this.”
She wanted to scream, Why not? But she couldn’t be distracted that long. Her mouth sought his again. Maybe he whispered no, but his body screamed yes.
“Sam. No.”
No? Even that only barely penetrated. Her mind seemed as if it had shut down, gone nuclear and suffered one hell of a meltdown.
“Don’t.”
Sam wanted to speak. She wanted to tell him that it was all right, that they couldn’t stop, that she couldn’t even possibly imagine wanting to stop.
He pulled back from her, but he couldn’t step away with her legs wrapped around her hips. His hands left her breasts and she instantly missed the pressure and strength of him holding her. Her breasts felt heavier than they ever had in her life. She wanted him to touch her.
“Sam, I mean it. This can’t happen.” Riley’s face held anger and disgust.
Looking at him, Sam couldn’t believe it. What the hell was he thinking? This can’t happen? It is happening! She instinctively gripped him, maintaining contact. Some of that was from her martial arts training, not wanting to get out into easy striking range now that she was up against him. Inside his reach, she could use his own size and strength against him. But she wanted to be against him for more than that reason.
“Sam.” Riley put his hands on her again, but this time he gripped her shoulders and pushed her back from him. His face was suddenly serious. “Sam! Dammit! Stop!”
Surprised and hurt, and more than a little embarrassed now, Sam dropped her legs from around his hips. Her feet hit the floor, but she didn’t think her knees would hold her up. Cool air against bare skin let her know that her top had crept up way past any point of decency. Mortified, she pulled the shirt down where it belonged. Her nipples stood out prominently against the material. Self-consciously, she crossed her arms to hide them.
Someone banged on the door outside.
“Special Agent McLane,” a male voice called through the door. “Special Agent McLane. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” McLane said. His eyes never left hers.
Sam stood straight and tall, defiant. Inside, she just wanted to hide. If she hadn’t needed his help—if Alex and Kayla and the others—hadn’t needed his help, she knew she would have demanded that he leave immediately. She hated the way she could still feel his touch and still long for it at the same time.
“Are you sure, Special Agent McLane?” the man asked through the door. “Because it looked like—”
“Pete,” Riley growled, still gazing at Sam.
“Yeah,” Pete responded.
“Go away.”
There was a hesitation. “All right. But if you need anything—”
“I won’t.”
Sam returned Riley’s gaze.
“What the hell do you think you were doing, St. John?” he demanded.
Now we’re back to St. John, Sam thought angrily. She could still hear her name whispered in a warm, ragged breath in her ear. “I was trying to convince you to help me. To help me help my friends.”
“What?” He shot her a look of disbelief.
“I thought maybe you might be more inclined to help me if—” Sam couldn’t finish. Her face burned with embarrassment.
“You thought I’d be more inclined to help you if you seduced me?” Riley blew out his breath and paced.
Sam didn’t know what to say, but she felt she had to say something. Usually she got along with silence just fine, but this silence between them was unbearable. “I didn’t think things would get so out of control.”
“What did you think would happen?”
“I thought you would help.”
“Because you offered me sex?”
His words stung her. Calling what she’d offered, what she’d never offered before, sex made her sound cheap and childish. She wanted to turn away from him. She wanted him out of her prison.
“Damn it, St. John. I’m not that kind of guy.”
She reached for her own anger out of defense and found it. “You couldn’t have convinced me. Not with that lipstick smear on your collar.”
“You’d break up a relationship to get what you want?”
She frowned at him. “If you’d had a relationship, I’d have known it.”
“How? ESP?”
Sam didn’t want to explain. Couldn’t, really, she just…knew.
“Is that it, then, Riley?” she asked him. “Are you in a relationship? Did I step over some moral barrier? Because just a few minutes ago it didn’t seem like it was just me caught up in what was going on.”
Obviously struggling to get control of himself, Riley paced. “That was real. Too real. But I’m not for sale, St. John. Not to you. Not to anybody. I hold myself accountable for my actions.”
“Are you insinuating that I don’t?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I want to help my friends,” Sam said. “I can’t do that from in here. You and Mitchell have walled me off from everything I could do. I can’t just sit in here and pretend everything’s all right when everything inside me is screaming that it isn’t.”
“So you decided if you jumped me, delivered a sexual payoff, I’d do whatever you wanted?”
Actually, Sam had fostered hopes.
“Do you know how calculated that sounds?” he asked.
It had been calculated. Sam acknowledged that. But the results, her heated involvement and response, had been totally unexpected.
Riley ran a hand through his hair. He cursed. A crooked, mirthless smile fitted itself to his lower face but never reached his eyes. “God, St. John, you’re some piece of work. Were you trying to throw my career away, too?”
The accusation stung Sam on several levels. She tried to answer but her voice got stuck in her throat and wouldn’t come out.
Exhaling, Riley pointed at the walls. “They’ve got cameras viewing your room 24/7, St. John. That little attempt at seduction you just threw was recorded. We’ll be lucky if it’s not plastered all over the Internet tomorrow.”
Sam groaned inside. She’d forgotten all about the damn cameras once the fireworks had ignited inside her. “I wasn’t thinking—I didn’t think—about the cameras.”
“That was pretty damn stupid, wasn’t it?”
“I just wanted to get…get your attention.”
“Damn straight you got my attention, St. John. How do you like my attention now?”
Sam didn’t. Not one little bit. She was frustrated; how could he go from desirable one second and turn into a complete jerk in the next? A change that drastic could give someone whiplash.
“I need help,” she repeated. “I want to help my friends. I can’t do that from in here.”
“So you offer me sex?” Riley cursed, ran his hand through his hair again, and cursed some more. “You could have given me all the sex in the world and I still couldn’t get you through that door without Mitchell’s okay.”
“Things…got out of hand,” Sam said.
“Man, that’s the understatement of the year.”
Sam felt the harsh burn of tears at the back of her eyes. She clamped down on her feelings, pushing them again and creating space so they wouldn’t touch her until she was ready.
“I need help for my friends,” she insisted.
Riley shook his head in disbelief. “Because you think some mythical assassin is after them?”
“Yes.”
“Have you told your friend the air force captain about the Cipher?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it would cause problems.”
“What problems?”
“They would want to know why I wasn’t there to help them. They would want to know why I couldn’t get more information for them. They would investigate, and they’d find out I’m not on a mission.” Sam took a deep breath, feeling a little more in control of herself now. “Besides, Mitchell’s cyberwatchdogs wouldn’t let a message like that go through to Josie.”
Riley took his tie off and shoved it into his jacket pocket. “No. They wouldn’t.”
Sam thought frantically. There had to be a way to turn the situation around.
Seducing Riley had been a desperate move, but there was still another angle she could play.
“Tell Mitchell that the Cipher is my contact in Berzhaan,” Sam said. A chill filled her as she made the statement. Once she’d spoken, she knew she couldn’t take the false confession back. Mitchell would use that against her, and if he could, he’d hang her with it.
Riley looked at her. “Sam,” he said in a quiet voice, “don’t do this.”
For a moment Sam reconsidered what she was doing. In the end, though, she knew there was nothing else she could do. She’d failed miserably at seducing Riley over to her side. Worse than that, she’d made a fool of herself. The camera’s digital recording had captured every moment of it.
“It’s done,” she said. “Tell Mitchell.”
“Sam, you don’t know the Cipher.”
“No,” she agreed. “He contacted me through a blind drop. That’s why I’ll have to help the Agency find him. And to do that, I’ll need access to his records.”
She knew the ploy was one born of desperation, but “desperate” was her zip code at the moment. After she’d learned of the mysterious blackouts, tied in to the fact that some kind of medical procedure had been performed on Rainy all those years ago, and that Kayla, Alex and Darcy were now following up on one lead they could find, Sam knew that she couldn’t sit idly by anymore.
Her friends didn’t have the resources of the CIA, and only Sam was in a position to give them access to that information.
“This is stupid,” Riley said.
More stupid than trying to seduce you? Sam wondered. But she didn’t give voice to the question. She was afraid of the answer.
“Mitchell’s not going to buy it.”
“Tell him if he doesn’t, he’s going to be partly responsible for the problems that come up in Berzhaan,” Sam said in a flat voice.
Riley glowered at her. “Damn you, Sam.”
In control of her emotions once more, Sam looked at him. “I’d like you to leave, Agent McLane.”
“You’re digging yourself in too deep.”
“I’d like you to leave now,” she repeated.
Riley stood still. He looked frustrated and worried and confused.
