The Favor

by Cara Summers

  And he had to if he wanted to keep her safe. According to Matt Ramsey, the DC police hadn’t made any more progress than he and Sierra had, and Mark Anderson was still in a coma.

  It was going to take some time to figure out what role Brian James McElroy was playing in everything. And his intuition was telling him that they were running out of time. Living and working in DC, he’d become familiar with the way that political power brokers operated. If McElroy had something that would tarnish the record of someone like John Gracie, there might be other people who had a stake in preventing that from happening.

  They were running a risk going to Le Printemps, but it was the quickest way to find out who Mark had met with on Wednesday afternoon. And that information just might allow them to connect all the dots.

  Ryder scanned the lobby again before he inserted a quarter in the phone and punched in a number. There’d been no sign of the blue sedan on the trip from Union Station to this hotel. He was as certain as he could be that they were safe for the moment.

  The phone on the other end rang three times before Jed Calhoun picked up. “Yeah?”

  “I need two favors.”

  “Two? I’m just collecting on the last one you owed me.”

  Ryder grinned. “Just think of it this way. I’ll be in your debt again—big-time.”

  “I don’t like the sound of this. What do I have to do?”

  “First, I want you to find everything you can on a Brian James McElroy born in Kansas City in 1945.” He filled Jed in on all of the other information they’d found in Mark’s notebook.

  “Okay. That should be easy enough.”

  And it would be, too. Jed was the best man he knew when it came to hacking into computer systems and getting information that was supposedly secured. It was one of his many talents.

  “Well? I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Jed said.

  “You’ve got connections at the Pentagon. I want you to contact them and get me anything you can on McElroy. He either died or went missing in Vietnam, maybe in 1970.”

  There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line, and Ryder held his breath. It was a big favor he’d just asked, and it wouldn’t have lessened his regard for Jed if he’d refused. For the last three years, the man who’d been known as Jed Calhoun had disappeared off the face of the earth, and contacting anyone at the Pentagon threatened the anonymity he’d worked so hard to establish.

  “You got it,” Jed said.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yeah. I came back here with the intention to clear my name. I’ll have to get in touch with these people sooner or later. When do you need the information?”

  “Yesterday.”

  Jed laughed. “Should have known. How do I contact you?”

  Ryder told him about the meeting he’d arranged with Matt Ramsey and Natalie Gibbs at his apartment that evening. “One other thing.”

  “The favors are piling up.”

  “Just keep track of the tab. I may need you to take Dr. Gibbs off my hands.” He summarized their morning’s adventures.

  “You weren’t kidding when you said you’d owe me big-time, Pal. That woman is no Bianca.”

  “No, she’s definitely not,” Ryder said as he scanned the lobby again. The younger sister in Shakespeare’s play had been predictable, and Sierra Gibbs was anything but. That damn white scarf she was wearing was driving him nuts.

  And if he looked at her, he was going to get ideas that he’d be better off not having.

  “ZOË?”

  “Where are you?” Zoë asked. “We had a meeting scheduled for ten-thirty this morning. When you didn’t show up and didn’t call, I was nearly frantic.”

  Sierra could picture her research assistant quite clearly in her mind. Zoë would be sitting at her desk, a worried frown puckering her brow.

  “I’m sorry. I just got…distracted.” Sierra felt a flush stain her cheeks. Very distracted. If she remembered correctly, at ten-thirty that morning, she and Ryder were trying out a very interesting sexual position.

  “Are you in trouble? Should I call your sister?”

  “No. My sister Natalie knows where I am. There’s nothing to worry about.” At least not right now, she added to herself.

  “You never miss a meeting.”

  “I don’t have time to explain everything. You can call Nat and find out where we’re meeting later today. I want you to join us and I’ll fill you in then. In the meantime, I need your help on a research problem. I want you to find out everything you can on a Brian James McElroy—born in 1945 in Kansas City.”

  There was a beat of silence, and then Zoë said, “That’s it! I should have thought of it sooner. Your speed date was a success and you want me to check him out for you. But…”

  Sierra could picture the frown returning to Zoë’s forehead.

  “Nineteen forty-five? He’s a little old for you, isn’t he?”

  “He’s not a man I speed dated. This McElroy either died in Vietnam or went missing around 1970. I need everything you can find on him, and it’s a matter of life and death. I figure you must still have contacts in the CIA. I need the kind of stuff that no one else will be able to find.”

  There was another pause on the other end of the line. Instinctively, Sierra knew that she was asking a big favor. Zoë never referred to her former job in the intelligence community, nor why she’d left it.

  “Okay. And I suppose you’ll need this ASAP?”

  Sierra let out the breath she’d been holding. “By our meeting this evening, if you can do it.”

  “I’ll get right on it.”

  “I’m also interested in any connection you can find between this McElroy and the vice president.”

  This time there was no hesitation when she asked. “What are you involved in?”

  “I’ll fill you in when we meet.” She’d just hung up the phone and had turned to tell Ryder what she’d done, when it rang.

  “Pick it up.” Ryder was standing not three feet away, facing her, and he had the receiver of the pay phone at his ear.

  The phone rang again.

  When she picked it up, he said, “Hi, Doc.”

  “You’re calling me on the phone.” The absurdity of it made her giggle. “Why?”

  “I want a favor.”

  Her amusement faded and her throat dried when she saw the heat in his eyes.

  “Do you remember our last phone conversation?”

  Just the mention of it had the memories and the sensations flooding back.

  She moistened her lips. “But we had a plan.”

  “I’m improvising. I want to make you come again.”

  Her breath hitched. “Here? You can’t.”

  “You know I can. It’s just a matter of how. I have three ways in mind. And they all involve that scarf. Would you like to hear them?”

  Her insides were melting. She glanced around the lobby, where a number of people were milling about: a young mother pushed one child in a stroller and held another with her hand. A tall man in a gray suit pulled a suitcase on rollers. Two teenagers laden with packages rushed past. No one was paying them any heed. “Ryder…”

  His voice was soft as he continued. “Picture this. First, I’m going to undress you—somewhere near a bed. I haven’t made love to you on a bed yet. And then I’m going to take that scarf off your head.”

  Even as thrills shot through her, she said, “Are you thinking of bondage? I’ve never done that.”

  His mouth curved. “Then we’ll have to try it. But I’m not thinking of tying you up. I have something else in mind.” His voice lowered. “I thought I might tie some knots in the scarf. Three or four. Next, I’ll ask you to widen your stance just a little. Do it, Sierra.”

  She moved her feet apart as he asked.

  “Now I’m slipping the scarf between your legs and pulling it taut until you’re dampening it. Can you feel it pressing against you, Sierra?”

  She could.

  “Do
you want to know what I’m going to do next?”

  “Yes.” She barely recognized the breathy sound of her own voice. He was all she was aware of now. The noises in the lobby had faded so that she felt as if she were trapped in a little bubble with only Ryder. His eyes were hot and dark as they gazed at her. His hand gripped the phone so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. But in her mind, it wasn’t the phone he held in that hand. It was the scarf.

  “I’m pulling it taut, then releasing it. Pulling it taut and then releasing it. How does it feel, Sierra?”

  Biting back a moan, she closed her eyes. She was going to figure out how he could do this to her. Someday. But it was difficult to think with the pressure and the heat building inside her. His voice was all she could hear now.

  “I’m dropping one end of the scarf.”

  No. She barely kept herself from crying out the protest. She wanted the delicious torture to go on.

  “Now I’m pulling the other end slowly. Very slowly. Can you feel the friction of the first knot as it moves past your clit?”

  She could.

  “The second knot is larger. It’s not pulling through so smoothly. I’m tugging on it right now. Can you feel it?”

  She could feel the pressure building and building.

  “It seems to be caught. One more tug.”

  Sierra moved her legs together. The orgasm began exactly where he’d made her imagine the pressure and it built slowly, moving deeper and deeper.

  “That’s it. Come for me, Sierra.”

  The murmur of his words in her ear drove her higher and higher to an airless peak where pleasure buffeted her again and again.

  “That’s it. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

  She was aware that strong arms had clamped around her, and then she was falling.

  RYDER WASN’T SURE how long he held her pressed against him. What he was growing more and more sure of was that she felt just right in his arms. On one level, he was keeping his eyes on their surroundings, doing his job. But on another level, he was wondering what he was going to do about Sierra Gibbs.

  She’d gotten to him. And it wasn’t just that she was the most responsive woman he’d ever been with. What he was feeling went way beyond the great sex. When he was making love to her, watching the pleasure he could evoke move through her, she was his. And he wanted her to be his. Maybe even permanently.

  Permanent and commitment were never words he’d associated with his previous relationships. He’d learned not to depend on anyone or anything that morning when he’d woken up in the small apartment and found himself alone. All his mother had left was a note telling him to call his aunt.

  But he wanted something more than temporary with Sierra. This was new territory—and he was going to have to give it some thought.

  When she stirred in his arms, his grip tightened automatically.

  “Wow,” she said as she raised her head to look at him. “When you promise a favor, you really deliver.”

  Ryder’s eyes narrowed even as his heart contracted. The favor. Was it possible that she saw what was happening between them as simply part of the damn favors he’d agreed to do for her? A part of him wanted to set her straight. But how could he when he hadn’t quite figured it out for himself yet?

  The smile she shot him was wicked, and there was a mischievous gleam in her eye that he’d never seen before. “Maybe it’s time I did you a favor.”

  Before he could say a word, she’d slipped her hand into his and was drawing him toward the registration desk. Whatever she was up to, he should put a stop to it. They still had to get in and out of Le Printemps before they met with Natalie and Matt Ramsey at seven.

  “Follow my lead,” she murmured when the young reception clerk signaled her forward.

  Ryder barely kept his mouth from dropping open when she began speaking in Russian.

  When the young man glanced at him helplessly, Ryder said, “She always lapses into Russian when she’s excited.”

  “So sorry.” Sierra fluttered her hands and drew in a deep breath. “You have a reservation for Gibbs.”

  The man whose name tag read David punched numbers into his computer. When he glanced at Ryder again, his smile was tentative and apologetic. “I’m sorry. There’s no reservation for Gibbs.”

  Sierra lapsed into Russian again. Ryder could pretty much follow what she was saying. They were here in DC to celebrate their first anniversary. It was to be a surprise for her husband. Her hands waved in his direction. And the travel agent had promised her that everything was in order.

  David glanced at Ryder again.

  Ryder placed a hand on Sierra’s shoulder. “English please, dear. He can’t understand Russian.”

  This time Sierra explained everything in accented English. Admiration shot through him when tears thickened her voice.

  David busily punched the keys of his computer again. “We do happen to have a suite that’s available—if that would be all right.”

  Sierra beamed a smile at him and spoke more Russian.

  “I think that’s a yes,” Ryder said. A few seconds later, he had the plastic key cards in his hand, and a bell man was hurrying over to take his duffel.

  After waving him away, Ryder took Sierra’s arm and drew her toward the bank of elevators that filled a narrow hall off the main lobby. “You speak Russian.”

  She grinned at him. “Did I surprise you? I wanted to.”

  “Doc, you never cease to surprise me. But why use Russian at all? I’ll bet you could have just asked for a room and gotten it.”

  She shot him the dry look he’d come to love. “I’m following the lead of someone who’s a lot more inventive than that.”

  Even as he laughed, he experienced the same clutch around his heart that he’d felt before. Because he was beginning to think that she was the perfect woman for him.

  But he couldn’t think of that now. Not until they figured out what was going on. But lust was safe enough, and he wanted Sierra Gibbs with a desperation that increased each time he had her.

  The elevator was crowded, so they didn’t speak until they stepped out onto their floor. He reached for her, but she took a quick step back, raising her hands, palms out. “This is my favor so I call the shots.”

  He held out the key card. “After you, Doc.”

  He remained near the door while she inspected the suite. The only way he’d be able to go along with her rule was to keep his distance. The suite was large with a sunken living room and a baby grand piano tucked away in the corner by the windows. Sierra paid no attention to the view as she moved purposefully to the bedroom door and peered in.

  He could almost hear the wheels turning her head as she mentally listed her steps for seducing him. How hard would he have to work to distract her from them? he wondered.

  “You mentioned a bed. There’s a first-class one here,” she said as she glanced back over her shoulder.

  “No rush.” He moved toward her. “I was thinking of the grand piano.”

  “Really?” She gave it a glance and then looked at him through narrowed eyes. “You’re trying to distract me.”

  “I’ll have to try harder.”

  She backed into the bedroom with one hand raised to ward him off. “Try all you want as long as you remember I’m calling the shots.” When she backed into the side of the bed, she stopped and said, “I want you to take your clothes off.”

  “That’ll work,” he said dropping the duffel. Then he did what she asked very slowly while he watched the expressions that moved over her face. When he was wearing nothing but his briefs, he said, “Your turn, Doc.”

  She reached behind her for a second and then with nothing more than a wiggle to encourage it, the red sundress pooled at her feet. Ryder felt his mouth go dry. She was wearing nothing but a pair of lacey white panties and high-heeled red sandals. One foggy thought crossed his mind. If he’d known how easily that dress would come off, he wasn’t sure he could have been coherent during those
phone calls he’d just made in the lobby.

  He took a step toward her, but she quickly moved out of reach.

  “One request, Doc. Whatever else you’ve got on that list of yours, keep the shoes on.”

  She shot him a smile. “I can do that.” Then she was moving toward the bathroom. When she reached the door, she turned back. “But I’m going to remove the scarf. It’s part of step three.”

  “What’s step two?”

  “Lie down on the bed, and if you’re a good boy, I’ll let you know.”

  SIERRA WAITED only until he sat down on the edge of the bed before she disappeared into the bathroom. She was very much afraid that if she saw him laid out on the mattress, she might jump him. And she had a plan.

  Or at least part of a plan. Steps one, two and three had been easy. But after that…she drew in a deep breath and let it out. She’d just have to let her instincts rule. After turning on the faucet, she ran the scarf under the water and then wrung it out a little. She only wanted it to drip when she squeezed it.

  The research she’d completed on modern couples’ use of sex toys had unearthed some innovative ideas that didn’t require Internet shopping. Whipped cream, honey, chocolate, strings of beads and scarves were pretty common household items. The things that could be done with scarves had fascinated her the most. And Ryder’s inventiveness had inspired her.

  Turning, she walked back into the bedroom and very nearly dropped the scarf when she saw Ryder stretched full-length and totally naked on the bed.

  Her mouth was dry, her heart pounding, and she had to swallow twice before she spoke. “You’re trying to distract me again.”

  This time when he met her eyes, he wasn’t smiling. Instead, the look he sent her was so hot that she was sure the nerve endings along her skin began to sizzle.

  “How am I doing?” He turned on his side and raised himself on his elbow.

  “Great.” It took every bit of will power she had to walk, not run, to the bed. “Don’t you want to know what steps two, three and four are?”