by Gennita Low
She shuddered at his intimate caress. “I’m still going to beat you up.” Her voice was strained.
He laughed. “Greedy. I like that in a woman. You want more than just to see Hades.”
He looked at her flushed face as he continued to pleasure her. He had his answer about her eyes; they were definitely getting greener. Why couldn’t she have continued sleeping so he could wake her up the way he’d planned? Now he had to keep her focused on him for the next few hours.
“You want Hades inside you. Admit it.” He leaned on her harder so his hand could get better access. Deeper. Wet and hot. He jammed her hand cupping his cock between their thighs, so he could use his to yank the waistband of her pants lower. Like that. Nudge her free leg wider. Like that. He just loved these pants.
Decision came swiftly. He couldn’t let her on her own yet. He had a feeling she would spend all that time trying to find a way to undo what he’d done and thus, blocking it from sinking deeper into her subconscious.
“Only if you’d admit to me that you’re Hades,” she panted. “Then I might let you fuck me. But I don’t think you’re him anyway. Five minutes? Hades can do a lot better.”
Jed smiled slowly. She was bargaining with him while letting him win this fight. It was a classic NOPAIN move. He expected no less from a GEM operative. She wasn’t going to win today, though.
That smile sent her heartbeat into warp speed. She’d never seen a smile so sinfully sensuous, oozing unspoken sexual promises that made her toes curl in her shoes. His eyes, that strange light color, held a male heat, frank and assessing, and she found herself unable to look away, unable to stop him from doing whatever he wanted. And the hard bulge nudging into her hand left no doubt what he had in mind.
What was wrong with her? She couldn’t form a single coherent thought as he pulled her pants further down her hips. All that resonated were the waves of pleasure pulsing from between her legs as she let him bring her closer and closer to climax. If he wasn’t holding her against the wall, she was going to slide down onto the floor.
She needed this. Ever since last night, she’d wanted this feeling again. It was as if she couldn’t get enough of this man. His fantasies fueled her desire. And knowing that he desired her, dreamed about sex with her, turned her on. Deviant. Maybe she was warped too, because she just couldn’t find a way to stop her body from betraying her. And the more she let him take control, the less she wanted to fight it.
His erection pushed boldly against her hand that was trapped between their bodies. God, she wanted to look at him. Not some computer-generated avatar. Just him and her, with nothing between them.
There was no lingering doubt left. Jed was indeed Hades. No one but Hades would be this audacious. That night, when he’d came to her in the dark—he’d bit her the same way as he was doing now, marking her neck on the same delicious erogenous spot. He knew now, as he’d discovered then, how doing so rendered her helpless with desire. The way her stupid body was out of control now, every single sensation was doubled. She closed her eyes. She shuddered as she concentrated on a finger wickedly making tiny circles. That tripled the pleasure.
But she wanted him to tell her himself that he was Hades. It wouldn’t make this surrender any easier but it would ease her mind if he admitted it to her face.
She forced her eyes open. He was still looking at her with the same hungry passion. His nostrils were flared. His eyes glittered in his tanned face. The kind of sexual teasing in which they’d been engaged went both ways; the man had to be just as turned on as she was. Testing her theory, she squeezed his arousal. His retaliation was devastatingly effective. His fingers pushed inside her and started stroking with a determined rhythm. At the same time, his other hand slid up under her shirt. She cried out as he gently pulled at her tender nipple, her whole body jerking forward and upward. She curled one leg around his. She was so close…right at the razor edge of pleasure…
“One more minute,” his voice was silky smooth, his breath teasing her ears. “Didn’t you say five minutes wouldn’t be enough?”
“No…” she protested, knowing instinctively what he was going to do. She pulled at his shirt fiercely. “Damn you…I know you’re him. Just…tell me.”
“I thought I’ve been showing you,” he mocked. “Thirty seconds. I don’t think you’re going to make it. Uh, uh, uh, no words…you’re going to waste these last twenty seconds.”
He nipped wickedly at her neck again, the slide of his fingers slowing down. She gurgled some helpless nonsense as he counted in her ear, dragging each number out. “Ten…nine…so wet…seven…six…”
She was getting faint from holding her breath. He had her so close to coming, her heart rate roaring like a freight train, her whole consciousness zeroing in on the silken glide that was moving in slow motion, a chaotic mixture of pleasure and panic. She whimpered, straining to reach…no, not yet…he stopped. For one frozen second, she stood at the knife’s edge of climax. Her breath whooshed out in total shock and disappointment.
“And one. I guess I’ll just have to show you more later.”
Her humiliation was complete as she stood there in helpless anger. She couldn’t believe he’d leave her in the lurch like this. Not like this! She watched silently as he adjusted her clothes. Zipped her pants back up. Released his hold of her.
He stepped back and unhurriedly licked his fingers, the sexual hunger in his eyes reflecting her own tumultuous feelings. Then, as if he turned a switch off, the look was gone. In its place was the cool, emotionless commando look she was beginning to recognize. How did he do that? The shuttered expression stopped every word hanging fiercely on her lips. She struggled to look equally unruffled, knowing damn well that was impossible with her mussed-up hair and smeared lipstick.
He ran his card through the security slot. The doors slid open. He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Coming?”
***
“So what’s the decision?”
Jonah continued studying the menu, pretending an interest in different choices of main entrees. He hadn’t eaten out in ages and he wanted to eat everything. But he wasn’t stupid. He knew they weren’t giving him a treat because they felt sorry for him.
“We aren’t needed in Velesta. They have activated a cell.”
“Is that right…how interesting.”
“I think they don’t want to chance using another weapon.”
“We’d have fucking gotten the SEED if 51 here had been quicker locating the COS candidate.”
Jonah turned the page and stared blankly at the choices of desserts available. He should have known the fatter one would put the blame of losing the decoder on him. He wanted to say something to defend himself, wanted to point out that without him, they wouldn’t have known that the SEED was in Frankfurt, that he wasn’t the one who had failed to capture that remote viewer. In fact, he’d been the only one who had done everything right and had been quietly sitting inside the vehicle watching them fuck up. It wasn’t his fault that they couldn’t get inside a building themselves. Hell, those other agents did.
He frowned. He didn’t want to think about those moments when he was remote viewing that building. He didn’t want to remember the loss of his precious cache.
He snapped the menu shut. All his wonderful sex-filled recordings that he’d carefully collected and stored for his viewing enjoyment. They were his comfort in this stupid medical place. Now nothing to fill that empty void. Remote viewing was no fun without that serum. Just another fucking task to help these idiots get their reward. 51 go here. 51 look for that. What about his reward?
“So you’ve decided what you want to order, 51?”
“It’s Five-One,” he corrected with slow emphasis. If they were going to use him, they needed to at least call his special handle correctly. “It’s Five-One, not Fifty-One.”
He stared back at the man studying him. He heard the fat one snorting impatiently. The first agent put up his hand to stall his partner’s sarcastic remark.
“Of course, if it’s important to you,” the agent said mildly. “I didn’t know that’s the correct way to address you.”
Which told him that these two weren’t ever involved with the original CIA programs. There was a reason why the numbers were called out individually instead of as an entity. Five-One would have told a knowledgeable agent the division and experience. There were very few with the experience level he had and that was why it irritated him to be treated like a useless experiment by these assholes.
“Fifty-One makes it sound like I’m just a number down a long line of experimental remote viewers. I’m not. I’ve been handpicked for very special assignments, including for part of the supersoldier-spy program.”
“Which you failed almost immediately,” the other agent sneered.
Jonah refused to acknowledge that he was considered a failure. He was more than an experiment; in fact, he was a success for a long time. Why the fuck would climbing a rope or running for miles be so damn important anyway?
He shrugged. “I’ve never been in the army. I didn’t know they were expecting me to train like some athlete.”
“The serum, Five-One, was supposed to help you through that phase. Anyway, let’s get back to ordering food. We aren’t here to discuss the success of the program or the serum.”
Jonah reopened his menu, restlessly looking at the items again. Of course, they didn’t know how successful he really was with that serum that they’d fed him. Not only was he more clear-minded, not only was he able to function physically without the usual downtime after a remote-viewing session, but he’d discovered that he could pull and absorb certain energy from those he was covertly watching.
He’d gone after the pretty ones, the ones with their sexy late night romps still lingering around their aura. He wasn’t stupid. He put his life on the line for their covert games every time they shot him up with the juice, so he should have a few perks too. He’d kept his new power a secret. No harm done.
Payback was a bitch, though. The longer downtime and the headaches took him out for days. But his cache of recordings was worth it. In those hours of pain and darkness, he could retreat into himself and let all that sexy energy wash over him. He would replay them over and over and no one knew because he was left alone to rest.
But his treasure was all gone now. He felt that rage inside him growing again. He wasn’t enjoying his downtime at all. He needed the serum in his system soon. He had to get out there in the ether and get his fix, or break down like a lunatic. A fix, that was all. Just to tide him over till he found that bitch who stole his cache.
“I want the house steak, rare, with spicy potato wedges,” he said, “and afterwards, a banana split, with everything on top. Can I have coffee too?”
Caffeine and nicotine were no-nos during prep time for remote viewers. He had snuck a couple of cigarettes in past sessions. Unlike their tests, he found that the nicotine calmed him down. No one was regularly checking his blood pressure anyway. Besides, it wasn’t as if they were right about their serum. He couldn’t do what that bitch did.
“No caffeine, sorry, Five-One, but everything else is fine.”
“Am I remote viewing again so soon?” He hid a surge of hope.
“I haven’t gotten the green light yet but I’ve put in the suggestion to use your ability to find the missing explosive device in Macedonia,” his monitor said.
“So, we should be prepared in case the higher-ups give the thumbs-up.”
“Is it like the last assignment, when we were looking for the data converter device?” That was what the SEED had appeared to him when he was looking at it through remote viewing. It was used by some operative to retrieve some kind of codes from the computer. “And are we working against that other team we bumped into in Frankfurt?”
“Yes to the first question, not sure to the second, although the location’s a bit trickier this time. We have the basic location but it’s a lot bigger than a building. But let’s not get into the details right now.”
“Okay.”
“Think you can locate it this time?”
He looked at the fat one. He wished they would give him their names but they were so damn secretive. So, Fat One and Thin One.
“I located the SEED for you all,” he calmly pointed out. “I wasn’t the one who failed to get that woman.”
“You were supposed to get information on which exit she was using,” Fat One growled back.
“I did!”
“Not till too late. You went into some stupid panic mode and got all crazy. Look, if you’d done your job, I would have no problem tranquing and hauling her into our vehicle before her people even knew there was anyone after them. You fucked up and my partner here had to waste time calming you down. Precious seconds that we could have used to get us to that entrance. But no, he had to talk to you to get the garbled information out of you. So don’t sit there looking all snotty just because you could do this remote-viewing shit. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a loser, just like the rest of the ward…”
“Okay, okay, we’re going to calm down right now and have dinner.” His monitor gave his partner a warning look. “Enough. We aren’t going to make a scene. We’ll concentrate on Macedonia when the right time comes. Five-One, let’s eat and enjoy your night off.”
Jonah nodded. He was pissed. The rest of the ward…what did they think he was, some kind of lunatic? And were they idiots? His night off wouldn’t ever include two CIA clowns. But he would play their game right now. He needed them just as much as they needed him.
Catching sight of a beautiful couple entering the restaurant behind their table, he pretended to drop his menu onto the floor. He bent down to pick it up, covertly watching those two longingly. They had had sex that day, he was sure of it. Who wouldn’t want to fuck that beautiful woman? If he were on the serum, he would dip into their energy and record everything. Especially her, all naked and writhing for her man.
He sat back up, taking a deep breath. Fuck, fuck, fuck. What had he done to deserve eating dinner with these two?
Chapter Seven
Jed could feel her bristling as she walked beside him. She was well and truly furious now. Good. Keep that focus on him and let the subconscious do its work.
He tongued the inside of his bruised cheek, which was throbbing like a toothache. Fighting mad. He deserved everything she was going to dole out. The key now was not to push her so far that she’d hate him afterwards. He needed her willing cooperation. To a point. He suppressed the urge to smile. That would probably start her swinging at him again and he’d prefer to do that in private.
He hadn’t wanted to keep her hanging just now, but she’d challenged him with the five minutes comment. It had been a long time since he’d let a woman get under his skin enough that he’d considered all out sex in an elevator. He wanted her badly enough that he questioned himself about it, something unusual in itself.
Usually, he could step back and detach. With Elena, he found himself wanting more.
He blamed it on yesterday’s events. He always needed an outlet after finishing a mission. In his job, facing an opponent and taking care of business usually meant ending a life. He’d learned to be unemotional about it, to put his reaction on hold, and then, when the time was right, to channel all that energy into something more positive.
He’d wanted to come to Elena in a better mood, but instead, she’d come to him when he was at his most detached. Had to be, because he was getting ready to dissect the situation for debriefing and discuss the operation with his teammates. Not the time to get emotional about anything.
Elena showing up and challenging him was an easy excuse to make her the outlet for that tightly controlled coil of tension inside him that was patiently waiting for release. He could have put her off till he was in a less edgy mood, but her prickliness had pushed him When she’d confronted him, he could sense her discomfort and knew without being told that her “problem” was still bothering her. The thing was
, thinking about her “problem” made him hard just like that, especially now that he knew just how wild she was in bed.
He clamped down on his straying thoughts of coming inside her and turned back to the next meeting on his schedule. So much at stake and he couldn’t get sex out of his mind. Sex with one woman, that was.
But what was she thinking now?
He’d known what she was up to yesterday, with that request for a session in the CAVE. He’d easily guessed her plans in her quarters. Sabotaging them was too much of a temptation to resist.
Karma was a bitch, though. He wanted to get to his own climax with this woman and he couldn’t. Not possible. It would be selfish to find release when she wasn’t cognizant of what their time together meant.
He wanted to be as honest as he could. He gave himself a mental shake of the head. That was something new—being honest and trying to sexually imprint another operative. When did he ever have the dilemma of his conscience tugging at him?
Jed glanced to his right. She was too quiet, a murderous look in her eyes, as she kept in step. A sudden urge to soothe her arose from nowhere, but he knew Elena well enough that words wouldn’t mean much at this point. He was used to pulling back and reacting later; she wasn’t.
“After the next two meetings,” he told her, “I’m all yours.”
Her hazel eyes flashed back at him. Still a little green in them, he noted.
“You mean you’ll answer all my questions?”
“Perhaps.” Never make a full promise to any dangerous woman.
“Will you at least let me hurt you the way you deserve?”
He ran his tongue against the inside of his cheek again, regarding her for a moment. The woman did have quite a punch. Her raised eyebrow amused him.
“That depends on how long you propose to have me sit there passively while you’re at it.” A deliciously devious image of her taking charge in his bedroom filled his mind.
