And then there was Winter Chill. They had to track down the Game Time production project or controlling the devices they had would mean nothing.
As she listened to Brodie drift off into slumber, she took stock and realized that she wasn’t afraid. She didn’t doubt the Kindred’s capability. The prospect of pain for Brodie kept her awake. Caine and Cuckoo were coming at him for something that had happened when he was a younger man, a less experienced man. He was still dealing with the loss of Art, and the reminder of the loss of his parents was the last thing he needed while he was finding his feet as the Kindred chief.
Brodie was under a lot of pressure to make the right decisions, to not screw up, and he’d feel the weight of Art’s teachings as though his uncle was there over his shoulder watching out for every mistake he might make.
All Zara could do was be here for him as a support, both in their work and in their bed, because saving the world from Game Time meant dealing with emotional issues that he’d sidelined for most of his life. It was all about to come out. It was all about to get real, and there was no assurance that this story would end well for any of them.
SEVENTEEN
She was cooking in the kitchen, whipping up something to take over to the hotel when Brodie came in and propped both hands on the lower part of the kitchen island. Glancing over her shoulder, she waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.
“What?” she asked, sampling the sauce one more time before she turned off the heat and went to wash her hands.
“Your CI lawyer friend sent you a message,” he said.
Snatching the towel, she dried her hands on her journey to his side. “Well?”
“He came through. We’ll have to trawl through every transaction. Tuck’s gonna come back to start trying to figure it out. Your friend doesn’t know what we’re looking for, we have to find it ourselves. It might take a while, but we’ve got the info, that’s a great start. Your lawyer buddy saved us some legwork.”
Asking Julian had been a spur of the moment decision, one she was glad to have made. “See?” she said. Stretching her smile, she bounced up to sit on the counter. Holding onto his shoulder while Brodie took her hip and slid her to him, he settled between her parted thighs. “I told you it was a good idea.”
“I stand by what I said, the dude wants into your pants. He got the job done damn quick for a guy who’s just helping out,” he said.
“I’m sure a quick blow job will suffice,” she said, but when his expression became more deadpan, she shook her head and patted his chest. “I’m kidding.”
“Yeah, keep working on that sense of humor, ‘cause I think the guy likes his tongue in his head and his balls in his pants, which they won’t be if you open your mouth for his dick.”
She wasn’t the only one whose jokes missed their mark. When Brodie said things like that, she could never be sure if a laugh was the response he was looking for. Levering up to kiss him, she ran her hand over his hair. “You better let this grow again.” She missed being able to tangle her fingers in his hair.
“I will,” he groaned. “I know you hate it.”
“I don’t hate it. You look sexy and dangerous.”
“Which goes away when it’s longer?”
“No,” she said, wrapping her legs around his pelvis. “I just like to have something to hold onto when your head’s between my thighs.”
“Can’t say you’re not honest,” he said and kissed her before unhooking her legs from around him. “I have to get over to the hotel. I’m gonna help Tuck pack up. We don’t need to keep watching Kahlil if we know who he’s working for and with.”
“About that,” she said, coiling her leg around his thigh to prevent him from getting too far away.
“What?”
“There’s something that didn’t come up when we were talking before. This morning, before he left, he spoke into his cellphone like he was recording something. I think he might be a double agent, I don’t think Sikorski has him.”
“What did he say?” Brodie asked, intrigued enough to return to his previous position.
“The most important thing he said was that he had poison in his watch.”
Why it was there was another question and one that made her think he wasn’t being as compliant with Sikorski as they believed. Sikorski would bring money to the table, money that Kahlil probably didn’t have. But the Game Time deal he’d offered came with the promise of plenty of green. She couldn’t see Kahlil having those kind of private funds. He dressed well but had maintained a subordinate place in his previous organization. If he’d had the funds to go it alone, she’d guess he’d have tried it by now.
But carrying poison and claiming his aim was to eliminate a target suggested more than it being an undetectable defensive measure.
Possibilities flickered behind his eyes, and she was curious about her love’s conclusions. “Why would he say that?” Brodie asked. “Poison for him or someone else?”
“I’m going with someone else because he said if he got close enough, he would eliminate the threat or the target… something like that. I can’t remember which word he used.”
When his pondering concentration broke, her actions became Brodie’s focus. “And you tell me this after having sex with me and sleeping in my bed all day?”
“I’m telling you now,” she said. Telling him sooner would have caused him to take action, and he needed his rest. “I tried to call you about the poison as soon as he said it, but you didn’t pick up your phone.” For this, she gave his chest a shove. “Sometimes I do have important information. I don’t just call to ask what you want for dessert.”
“I guess that explains why you had a message from Thad about poison. Atta girl.”
Anticipating the possible need for an antidote impressed him, so she supposed that she was out of the doghouse for delaying giving him the news. “Just thinking ahead,” she said. “Except as it turns out, there isn’t one. So we will have to be careful.”
He frowned. “Yeah, I read that. He wrote a fucking essay, the toxin comes from fish or something, I don’t know.”
Zara poked his ribs. “How do you know I have a message from him?” Or from Julian for that matter.
Both men had messaged her private email account when she’d heard from them before finding Brodie in the bedroom. Julian wouldn’t even know how to contact a general Kindred address, he didn’t know the Kindred existed.
With a knowing look, she dropped the affront to smile. Tuck had said that Kadie acted pissed when he hacked her accounts, but she secretly wanted him to do it. Zara now got what he meant. It was sort of nice that Brodie was interested enough in her life to want to pry into what was going on. And she had nothing to hide from him, so he could read her messages as much as he wanted, just so long as she got to read his in return.
“Just watching your tail, baby,” he said, leaning down to kiss her shoulder. “Do you think he wants to take out Sikorski, or is it Leatt he’s planning on betraying? We’ll have to keep an eye on this one. The shit will hit the fan, someone’s getting a dose of that poison, either his partner or his banker.”
They would have to watch themselves, too, despite being lucky enough to have others looking out for them. Being part of a group gave them protection that the others wouldn’t have. She hadn’t seen Sikorski herself today, but she’d met him before. He traveled with others, bodyguards probably paid to take the bullet if one was shot his way. But honor among thieves tended to depend on who could offer the best benefits. Anyone could be working inside. She knew from experience that trusting an outsider with your secrets or your life could be the last mistake a person made.
“What do you think about Leatt?” she asked because she still couldn’t understand why he was allied with Kahlil.
“I don’t trust him. I never did,” he said. That could’ve had something to do with her sort of faux dating Leatt for a while. “But Leatt’s more of a follower than a leader. He didn’t come up with the plan
, whatever the plan is. That might make him expendable. Psychopaths tend not to carry dead weight, and that’s what he’ll be to Sikorski. What does he have to offer that Sikorski might need?”
“We’d have said Kahlil was a follower given his history, and it turns out that losing his job is a helluva incentive.”
“He’s angry,” he said. “We can’t be sure of how many people he’s working with. Recording that message about eliminating the threat, that was for someone.”
“Leatt?”
He tilted his head, and his squint made her think he disagreed. “Maybe. But what bonds these guys? It’s a good idea to have backup, but far as we can tell there’s no blood or sentimental relationship. Kahlil could have a brother or family member in the background. Maybe not. But we’ve got to be ready for anything. I don’t want any surprises this time. Maybe we should keep running the stakeout, see who else shows up.” Drawing in a long breath, he ran his hand up to the back of his head and gripped her neck in the other. “Good thing I got some sleep today. It’s gonna be another long night.”
“I’ll pack up some of this food and we can—”
“You’re staying here tonight,” he said, picking up a tendril of her hair. “I have to focus, and having you there is too much of a temptation.”
“You’re not going alone,” she said, recalling how she’d felt that morning when he’d raced after Kahlil and that was during daylight. “You should always have backup. You just said so right there.”
“Tuck’s been on watch all day. I’m not asking him to stay there another night. That shitty place hurts a guy’s soul, trust me.”
“I’m not talking about Tuck, I’m talking about me. If I say no sex then we won’t have sex. Taxicab, there you go, now you’re not allowed to touch me.”
Her smile was meant to portray her confidence, but when he leaned back to eye her chest and opened his hands on her thighs to slide them up under her skirt, her resolve wavered. It grew weaker when his eyes narrowed, and he dipped down to rub the bruise on her neck with his stubble.
He parted his lips and the inhale of breath against her skin made her eyes close. She grew weak when he kissed her once. Tracing his lips higher, he kissed her again on the underside of her jaw and moved over to kiss her chin. With excruciating pace, he let his lips sink onto hers.
She opened her hands on his chest and lessened the circle of her legs around his hips enough that she could lock her ankles together behind him. Opening her mouth, she expected his tongue, instead he withdrew and brushed his lips over her cheekbone to the shell of her ear.
“I know how to make you beg for me, pretty baby. You blink those big brown eyes and get me hard, rubbing my fucktoy all over me, those hot tits and your smackable ass. You push my property, that body, into mine and you’ll make me want you. I can’t be close to your tight pussy without wanting it. I don’t even have to touch you, I know how to get you so wet you’ll be soaking through your panties. You’ll be dripping, begging me to fuck you, no safe word can stop you from wanting me. When you want it, pretty baby, you’ll get it from me, hard and fast and any other damn way I give it.”
Her dry lips came together and she swallowed. He was right, her insides were alive, her blood simmering to a boil. She wanted him. Her man. She wanted him now. Her breasts were so heavy they hurt. The rasp of material on her nipples made them burn, and the zing of torturous want shimmied from her clit to her brain, blanking all thoughts but one.
“I want you now,” she gasped and grabbed his belt, but he backed away out of her reach, leaving her panting.
He laughed, a deep, depraved chuckle that tormented her because it punctuated his power over her. “And that’s why you’re not coming with me,” he said, reaching over to skim her chin with a fingertip.
She didn’t want him to be right because she didn’t want him working alone. With a sigh, she surrendered to his wisdom. Going to their stakeout to back him up would only be useful if they both kept their mind on the job. When there was imminent danger, that was no problem. But alone in a bedroom all night, watching a man who’d probably sleep and only get up to pee, the temptation to take the risk would be too great.
Acknowledging that truth didn’t alleviate the weakness in her arms and the giddiness that was making it difficult for her to focus. The tingling need moistened her center in readiness for him, and she couldn’t be left hanging all night.
“Ok,” she said. “How about a webcam then?”
One corner of his lips curved high. “Nice,” he said in approval. “Then I can tease you all night long.”
“Without touching me.” Which was the point because he needed to keep his wits about him and his attention on Kahlil. Still, that solution didn’t scratch the itch of need that dampened her underwear just like he said his seduction would. “Ok… but you have to fuck me now… quick, I swear.”
Begging for his acquiesce, she worried he might refuse her. But he came back over and planted a hand on the counter on each side of her, forcing her to lean back. “No time for that,” he said. “I won’t be able to shower over there if I’m alone, and if I go over there reeking of you and sex… you’ll be the distraction I’m trying to fucking avoid. Do you think I don’t notice when my body stinks of yours?”
The distraction he didn’t want her to be. That could be why he’d showered before Tuck went to bed at the motel and why he’d let Tuck sleep beside her instead of taking the place himself. She knew what it was like to be horny in a room full of Kindred members and unable to satisfy herself. Sleeping beside her love was torture when she wasn’t allowed to play with him.
Instead of leaving her hanging as she feared he might, he grabbed her hips, yanked her to the edge of the counter, and winked before he crouched between her parted legs. He sank his mouth against her core. He licked and teased, tasting her drenched threshold with the tip of his tongue then sliding the stiff point up the center of her body’s seam to torment her clit.
His mouth was amazing, she’d known he loved to kiss from early in their relationship, and he loved cunnilingus almost as much. His mouth inspired ecstasy. Her legs crossed over each other and rested on his back as her fingers rasped through his hair. His thumbs slid between her folds, and he pinched her clit with a pad on either side, letting him roll and arouse the nub while his mouth went south to tongue her opening.
“God, I want to fuck this sweet cunt so bad,” he breathed the hot mumbled words on her, just a hairs width from her glistening flesh.
“Are you hard?” she whimpered, pushing his head back enough that she could look him in the eye, and the flash of black fire in his gaze made her groan and fall onto her back on the counter. “Oh, God, beau, don’t tell me that.” With her palms on her forehead, she ran her fingers through her hair.
Wrapping his strong arms around her thighs, he pulled her to his mouth, drawing her clit between his lips. He massaged it with his strong tongue, sucking and pampering it. He spread his hands on her pubis, his thumbs pushing down through her folds to push inside her.
She bucked up at the fiery shot of bliss that forced her to push into his mouth. “Oh, Brodie! Fuck me! Please, baby—”
He closed his teeth and squeezed her clit against her pubis, stimulating it with pressure on both sides. All she could think about was his dick, in his pants, so close to her, yet he was withholding the weapon she coveted. Opening his mouth in a hiss, the pressure of his breath took her to the pinnacle. Screaming out his name again, she arched and panted, trying in vain to take in the oxygen she needed to fuel this high.
Her body was still dragging on the cool counter beneath her with every heaved breath she took. Her legs hung loose over the edge, her hands were covering her eyes with her fingers in her hair, and the arousal still scorched the peaked hairs all over her skin.
When the weight of his hands landed on her knees and pushed up the front of her thighs, she let her hands fall away, and she smiled at him standing there between her legs, stroking her skin. T
he look of pride in his expression morphed to a concern that hung for a second, and then she saw him change his mind and try to hide the abrupt evolution of emotion his expression had betrayed.
“What?” she asked, sitting up to slip her hands onto his ribs under his arms.
He curved an arm around her to pull her forward so he could kiss her hairline. “Nothing,” he said.
Zara caught him with her legs when he tried to withdraw. “Tell me. Your face just did a weird thing. What freaked you out?”
“Nothing freaked me out, I just had a thought I’ve never had before,” he said and probably thought that this was going to be enough to satisfy her interest. It wasn’t. She tilted her head and raised her brows, she wasn’t going to let this go. “I love you.”
“You’ve never had that thought before?” she asked because she knew he had thought that before and suspected he was trying to distract her.
He exhaled. “I’m happy. That’s what I thought. This. Right now. It’s… perfect.”
An odd word to choose given all the crap that was going on in every other area of their lives, yet she got what he meant. Smiling again, she stretched her arms and legs all the way around him to clamp her body to his.
“You make me happy,” she said. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
His open hands moved up and down her spine while he spoke into the top of her head. “It would be better if we could take that food and go upstairs to spend the rest of the night together.” He patted her, but she didn’t let go, so he had to seek out her hands to force them from his body. She was disappointed but knew that the mission was more important than their relationship. “Hey,” he said, somehow reading her thoughts. He curled his index finger under her chin and with his thumb on the front, he tipped her head back. “This will all be over soon.”
Cuckoo (Kindred Book 3) Page 21
