But he removed his mouth from hers. Their breaths met in the space between their mouths. Want clenched in her abdomen when she opened her eyes to the deep, dark desire in his.
Behind her back, he opened the cab door. Haley turned on his lap so she could get out, but his erection beneath the material of his jeans rubbed between her legs. Rem grunted and she stumbled as she climbed to her feet outside the cab.
Her knees felt unsteady while she waited for him to pay the driver. She didn’t want to think about what the driver had seen, much less what he thought.
Rem climbed out of the cab and took her hand, his face set with determination. She let him tug her inside the hotel. She half-trotted to keep up with him. At the bank of elevators, Rem stabbed the Up button. It seemed an eternity before the elevator doors opened. It was empty. He pulled her inside and pressed the button to close the door, then their floor number.
Haley tugged his hand as she moved to lean against the elevator wall. She wanted him against her. Rem sank his fingers into her hair and kissed her. She spread her feet apart on the elevator floor and he moved his hips in answer, swearing in French.
She smiled against his mouth and told him how good he felt in the same language.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, still in French. His hands kneaded her rear, pressing her against him.
The elevator doors opened. An old woman stood stiffly in the hall, eyes widening at the sight of them.
Haley hung her head as Rem pulled her behind him out of the elevator and down the hall. She ran her hands up his back as he opened the room door. She felt outside of herself, as if another woman was so brazenly touching this frightening man. She was going into a hotel room with him, where he would make love to her. He would penetrate her. Invade her the way she’d been told she’d been invaded in Iraq. Would it be like that? Her mind told her no, but another part of her couldn’t separate the horror from what could have with Rem.
Thinking of it in those terms stopped her. She stepped into the room only enough to allow the door to close. What was she doing?
Rem didn’t seem to notice the dose of reality that had just descended upon her. He peeled off his shirt and let it fall to the floor. The sight of his bare chest distracted her. He slid his gun from his pants and put it on the table and stepped out of his shoes. Then he just looked at her, as if waiting for her to do something.
She didn’t. Couldn’t.
Finally, he noticed the change in her. He moved toward her, those long, strong legs striding cautiously.
Haley couldn’t get enough air. She felt more and more suffocated as he approached. When he stopped right in front of her, she had an inclination to turn and run from the room.
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” she managed to say.
He put his fingers under her chin and coaxed her to lift her head higher. She met the softness of his eyes. That open window she was starting to think very few people ever saw.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I won’t hurt you.”
And she melted. The sound of his raspy voice trickled through her nerves. Real trust stole over her.
He touched his lips to hers. Gentle. Soft. His eyes were still open, watching her, assessing, gauging. He lifted one of her hands and put it on his chest. She flattened her palm there, feeling a rekindled spark ignite. She put her other hand next to it. His skin was smooth and lightly haired.
Leaning closer, she bent her head and pressed her mouth on his chest between her hands, breathing him in, kissing her way up his neck, along his jaw, until she found his mouth again.
He slid his hands around her waist, drawing her with him away from the door. Turning her, he backed her up until he had her closer to the bed.
Taking the hem of her dress in his hands, he pulled it up her body, moving slow, as though knowing anything too fast would spook her into withdrawing. He couldn’t know how right he was. Her heart pounded from more than desire as he lifted the dress over her head and dropped it to the side of the bed. She hadn’t worn a bra, so the only things left were her underwear and sandals.
Wrapping his arm around her, he knelt on the bed, lowering her gently to the mattress. Sliding her up the bed so that they both fit on it, he kissed her. Soft, quick touches. Sometimes lingering. She drifted into a fine eddy, let herself get lost in the feelings that came with it.
He moved down her neck, leaving a trail of fireworks along the way. His hands roamed down her waist and over her hips to her thighs. He reached her breasts and bestowed each with tender kisses, taking one of her nipples into his mouth and circling it with his tongue.
Haley bracketed his head with her hands, wanting that mouth back on hers. He obliged her, kissing her harder now. Kissing her endlessly. Until finally he seemed to have to break away. Breathless, he rose up onto his knees, straddling one of her legs as he reached for the button of his jeans. He looked his fill of her lying on the bed, those light blue eyes taking in every inch of her body. Instead of frightening her, it intrigued her and heated her blood.
The zipper went down and he pushed the jeans over his hips. His underwear went down, too. Working his way out of the rest of his clothes, he positioned himself between her legs, watching her again.
He stopped, kneeling over her. Hesitant. Mindful of her needs. Her fears. Intrigue won over fear. Intrigue. And trust. The impact of that bathed her senses. Trust. Did she trust him?
Yes. On the most intimate level.
Rolling onto her hip, she let him know what she wanted. He lay on his back, a soft grin pushing up his mouth as she climbed on top of him. He put his hands on her hips and glided them around to her back as she leaned forward. Her hair fell like a curtain beside their faces. She kissed his grinning mouth. She moved on to his throat and reached his chest, hearing and seeing his excited breathing. His stomach muscles tightened as she kissed her way down his body. He put his hands on her shoulders, curving over the joints. Ready to stop her if it got too torturous.
She ran her tongue over his warm flesh, loving the texture and the way he responded. He wanted her. She marveled over that, over the way he made her yearn to give him as much pleasure as he would give her. She wanted him to know this act of love would not be forgotten. Not by her.
Kissing her way back up his torso, she toyed with his chest, all the while gliding her hands over him, his sides, his arms.
Then she lowered her body onto his. Their nakedness generated warmth and the intimate contact made her press her hips more firmly to his, moving over his erection, the only barrier her underwear.
He swore in French again, this time sounding rough and unsteady. The idea of Rem unsteady gave her a triumphant sense of gladness. That she could render him that way with only her mouth. A man like Rem…
She touched her mouth to his for a sweet kiss, but he’d taken all he could of her attention. With a smooth roll, he had her underneath him again.
He kissed her long and deep while his hand ran over her breast and down her side. He hooked her underwear with his fingers and slid them down. She kicked them free of her legs, but she still had on her sandals.
Rem must have known it all along, because now he moved down one of her legs, brushing kisses along her inner thigh as though he’d planned it all along. Down her knee. Her lower leg. She barely noticed when he peeled off her sandals. They landed one after the other with soft thuds on the floor.
Now he crawled back up toward her, between her legs, spreading them wider as he moved. At the juncture of her thighs, he stopped, looking up at her with dark desire humming in his eyes. The first touch of his tongue made her put her head back onto the bed and shut her eyes. He was excruciatingly gentle, each brush sending shards of sensation spinning outward from where he touched. He slid his stubbly chin against her softness. The sensations intensified. A sound erupted from her, one she had no control over.
He didn’t stop. He kept strumming her nerve endings, always, always…relentlessly gentle. Just when she thought she
was going to explode, he withdrew.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed, only then aware of how audible her breathing was.
Taking her mouth into a long, wet kiss, he maneuvered the tip of his erection where his mouth had been.
The invasion made her stiffen. He kissed her cheek and then the skin near her ear.
“It’s me doing this to you,” he told her, pushing himself a little deeper. “It’s me.”
Rem. It was Rem filling her. No one else. She gripped his arms, digging her fingers into his hard-muscled skin.
He lifted his head to look at her. “Haley.”
She wondered if she looked as vulnerable as she felt.
He pulled back and pushed in again, going deeper than before. Pressure stretched her inner walls. He pushed in more. More. Until he lodged himself all the way in.
Haley broke into a cold sweat. But instead of enduring him pounding her, she ended up waiting. He didn’t move. He went still inside her, letting her grow accustomed to him.
She began to relax. Her legs trembled again as tension eased from her muscles. She began to see the way he was looking at her. Really see it. Intent on giving her pleasure. Intent on obliterating Iraq from her mind.
“Rem,” she whispered.
With a satisfied groan, he moved. Each thrust touched off incredible feelings that radiated and burst. He moved faster. Sensation intensified. She came hard on him, squeezing his rigid flesh, pulling another groan from him.
He did pound her then, but it wasn’t long before he reached his own release. As he lay on her, she knew she’d never felt more alive in her life. Complete. Healed. Herself again.
She sighed, long and content. Welcome back.
Chapter 10
Haley woke with a long stretch and a moan. She blinked her eyes open, feeling a delicious fatigue. Sunlight poured through the window. The room was quiet.
She rolled onto her back and looked beside her. Rem was gone. She put her hand on the sheets where he’d been. No longer warm from his body heat.
She sat upright. The blankets fell away and cool air brushed bare skin. He was nowhere in the room. She heard no sounds from the bathroom, either. Where was he? A stab of disappointment gripped her. Couldn’t he have waited for her to wake up? Why had he sneaked away like this? Again.
She knew, of course. He’d gone to the second hawaladar.
Pulling the covers aside, she rose from the bed. She dressed in jeans and a white short-sleeved T-shirt, wondering what she should do. Wait for him? She’d all but gone crazy the last time she’d tried that. Maybe she’d go down for some coffee and breakfast. If anything it would kill some time. She found her wallet in Rem’s duffel bag and paused in the bathroom to put her hair up before leaving the room.
On the main level, she headed for the brasserie. Growing aware of a presence behind her, she glanced over her shoulder. A man walked a few paces back, a cell phone to his ear. He saw her and looked away. But something in the way he spoke into the phone alerted her. Too quiet. Too discreet.
Heart springing into faster beats, she faced forward and walked faster. Should she try to go back to the room? She’d have to turn around to do that, and then she’d have to get past the man. Maybe she was overreacting.
She searched the lobby. It was nearly empty of people this morning. She spotted the front entrance. There were two cabs parked in front. She headed there.
Outside, she looked behind her. The man had put away his cell and was still following her. Again, he looked away when he caught her glance.
“Crap,” Haley hissed lowly. She opened the door to one of the cabs and climbed in.
“Wenceslas Square,” she told the cab driver.
The dark-haired, dark-skinned man pulled into traffic. Haley twisted to look behind the car. Sure enough, the man had gotten into the second cab.
She faced forward. “Drive faster.”
The driver looked in his rearview mirror and didn’t respond. Nor did he drive faster. Traffic was heavy.
“Stop the car!” she yelled.
He pulled to the side of the road and after tossing money at his lap, she bolted.
Wenceslas Square and the shop where Rem had gone to find the hawaladar wasn’t far from here. Besides, she didn’t want to lead the man following her to Rem. And she needed Rem right now.
She ran. A quick check confirmed the other cab had stopped, too. She ran into a café. Dodged tables and gaping people on her way back to the kitchen. A man shouted at her in a foreign language. She spotted a back door and ran for it. Outside, she ran up an alley until she came to another door. She tried it. Locked. She ran to another one. This one was open. She ran inside of a tea and coffee shop, making her way from the back room to the front, where people took up two small, round tables and a waitress looked over her shoulder at Haley as she ran past. Back outside, she ran up the street toward the boutique where Rem had gone.
At last, she saw a sign above a shop window that said Josef’s. Breathing hard, she looked down the street. No one followed. She opened the door and stepped inside. It was quiet. No one else was in the shop, not even a clerk. What if Rem was no longer here?
She saw a door leading to a back room and went there. Opening it, she peered into what appeared to be a stockroom and office all in one. She entered, leaving the door open behind her. Movement to her left made her jump. Rem put his gun back into the waist of his jeans.
“Rem.” She breathed her relief and more. Seeing him after what had transpired between them felt different now. More intimate. Which also made her feel vulnerable.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked.
That settled her well enough. She focused on the present. “Someone followed me. I lost them before I came here, but he was in the lobby at the hotel. I was going to grab breakfast when I noticed him.”
He went to the door, opening it to check the front of the shop. When he closed it, she knew no one had come in after her.
She spotted a computer on a small desk. It was on and the email software was open. Rem had been searching it. Something on the floor caught her attention. Two feet stuck out from behind a stack of boxes. A man was lying there.
She shot Rem a glance. His jaw flexed and his eyes turned hard with angst.
“What did you do?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. She marched toward the man on the floor. Rem put his arm out and stopped her like a gate. She pushed his arm and forced her way past him. She rounded the stack of boxes and sucked in a shocked breath of air.
A man lay in a pool of blood, some of it having soaked into the floor-level boxes. He’d been shot in the chest. The second hawaladar.
She gagged and put her hand over her mouth. When the nausea faded, she faced Rem. “What happened?”
With intensifying annoyance, he turned back to the computer and didn’t answer.
She looked at the body again, at the signs of struggle around the room. Tipped over boxes. Paper. Blood…
Rem continued to click away at the computer.
“Why did you kill him?” She was too appalled not to stop and think. After sleeping with him…
He clicked the computer mouse, opening an e-mail. “What makes you think I’m the one who killed him?”
“Didn’t you?” Confused emotion whirled inside her. It looked as if he had, but…
He straightened from the computer and sent her a furious glance.
A sound in the front of the shop made them both look toward the door. Rem pulled out his gun.
“Stay here,” he ordered with a feral gaze arrowed at her, and went through the door.
Haley followed, but kept herself concealed at the door. She heard talking, harsh at first, then calmer. Rem reappeared, gun once again stowed in the waist of his jeans and another man following.
She moved aside when Rem and the man entered. The man had dark hair and was not very tall. His dark eyes found the man on the floor and with a sound of anguish, went there.
“He said he
was a friend of Josef’s,” Rem told her. “His name is Alan.”
After a moment, Alan straightened from the body and came around the boxes, wiping his eyes as he stopped before Rem and Haley.
“You found him this way?” Alan asked Rem.
When Rem nodded, Haley struggled whether to believe it was the truth. Alan clearly was Josef’s friend. If Rem had killed Josef, wouldn’t he want to appear innocent? And yet…
“You are that man,” Alan said. “The one who is looking for Farid. You are Rem D’Evereux. No?”
Haley’s awareness sharpened and she sensed Rem do the same.
“How do you know me?”
“Josef told me about you. He said that Ammar warned him you might come. Josef told me he was afraid of what Ammar would do. He also said that if anything were to happen to him, I was to find you. Come.” Alan headed for the door. “I have something to give you.”
Haley exchanged a glance with Rem, just as surprised as him. They followed the short man out of the shop. Haley searched with Rem for the man who’d followed her. He looked at her and she shook her head. She didn’t see him. Alan led them into the shop next to Josef’s. A gift shop filled with colorful and gaudy baubles. Behind the counter, Alan bent and retrieved a manila envelope.
Rem opened it and slipped out a handwritten note with a South American address. Argentina. Locke had told him the truth.
“Josef said if you came and he was dead, that he hopes this information will help you avenge him. He hoped you would kill Farid and his son.”
“Are you sure Farid went back to his ranch in Argentina?” Rem asked. “It’s the first place our government would look.”
Haley could see Rem’s disbelief, and maybe his chagrin that he hadn’t thought of it himself before now.
“Josef said that Farid was a fool for hiding in plain sight. He said if your government didn’t find him, that he hoped you would. He was counting on it. If you would have come before Ammar got here, he would have told you everything himself.”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous for him?” Haley said.
Unmasking the Mercenary Page 13
