by M. S. Parker
“We needed her.” I put my hand on Bri’s shoulder. “And she was glad to help. This isn’t anyone’s fault except those drug dealers.”
Brianne shook her head. “You don’t understand.”
“Not to interrupt the blame game,” Clay said, “but we need to worry more about how to get Sylvia out of there than we do about how we got here.”
“He’s right,” I said. At the quick grin on his face, I added, “Don’t get used to it.”
“We need to get a closer look.” Clay turned back to the problem at hand. “We need to know that Sylvia is in there and that they didn’t take her somewhere else.”
“How about Clay takes the back. Bri, you take the left, and I’ll take the–”
“Hell, no,” Brianne hissed before the last word even had a chance to come out of my mouth.
“Um…what?”
“You are not going anywhere near that house,” she said. “I didn’t even want you to be out here at all, but I knew you’d insist, and we’d waste time arguing, so I figured I’d wait to see what we found.”
“Brianne,” I began.
“She’s right,” Clay said. Bri gave him a surprised look, and he echoed my previous statement, “Don’t get used to it.”
“What, you guys want me to go sit in time-out while the adults go do the work?” I folded my arms. “I’ve had enough of that, thank you very much.”
“Tess, we’re just looking out for you. You’re still recovering from that accident. You still have broken fingers, for crying out loud.”
Only the fact that Clay’s tone was sincere rather than patronizing kept me calm.
“If I have to tell the two of you that I can take care of myself one more time, I’m tattooing it on both of your foreheads.” I turned from one to the other. “Did I, or did I not, rescue myself earlier tonight?”
“She has a point,” Clay said, looking at Bri.
“Good,” Brianne said, returning his gaze with narrowed eyes. “Then you can watch her.”
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
Clay slid his arm around my waist. “I’ll be glad to take her to get something to eat so we’re all ready to go when you get back to Sylvia’s.”
“Clay,” I said, warning ringing in the syllable.
“You want to be strong enough to help us get Sylvia out, don’t you?” he asked, his thumb moving in a distracting back-and-forth fashion just above the waistband of my pants. “As you said, you rescued yourself not too long ago. You need to regain your strength and doing recon won’t help you there. Come with me, and we’ll get something to eat, get off your feet for a bit, and then we’ll figure out how to rescue Sylvia.”
His logic made too much sense to argue with.
“All right,” I said reluctantly.
Even though I’d agreed to do what she wanted of me, Brianne didn’t appear to be any happier. I supposed it had something to do with Clay’s arm around me, but that wasn’t any of her business. And it was one thing I damn well didn’t intend to listen to her opinion on.
“We’ll meet you back at the house,” Clay said to her without meeting her eyes. “If you need us, call.”
As much as it pained me to admit it, I did feel better after I ate and got off my feet. Clay insisted I stay seated while he cleaned up, and I actually listened. I was more tired than I’d realized, but it was that bad sort of tired where my body was exhausted, but my brain was going a hundred miles an hour. In this state, I knew I’d never be able to actually sleep.
“You can go to bed if you want,” Clay said, breaking the silence between us. “I promise that I’ll wake you up when Brianne gets back.”
I shook my head. “I’m comfy here.” That was the truth. “Besides, I won’t be able to sleep either place, so what’s the point in moving?”
“Aren’t you tired?” Clay asked as he came over to sit on the low table in front of me.
“Body, yes. Brain, no.” I shrugged. “You know how it is, when you’ve got too much on your mind to get that switch to flip.”
“I do,” he agreed. He reached down and pulled my foot up onto his lap. Before I could ask what he was doing, he took off my shoe and sock, then pulled the towel from where he’d hung it over his shoulder and began to wipe my foot with the cool, damp cloth. He did the same to the other foot, then put both my feet on his lap again. It was crazy how much better a person could feel from having their feet cool.
“Clay?”
“Relax,” he said as he pressed his thumbs into the arch.
My head fell back, and I couldn’t stop the moan that came as he kneaded my aching foot. Neither one of us said anything as his strong hands worked their magic. I was distantly aware that the sounds coming out of my mouth bordered on the obscene, but I couldn’t help myself. He did one foot, then the other, then started on my calves.
My muscles unknotted and promised a much less painful future, and for that alone, I planned to show Clay just how grateful I was. Unfortunately, at the moment, movement didn’t seem like a possibility. I was still thinking too much to sleep, but my body at least had transitioned from painful, aching tired, to the sort of heavy limbs that came from a hard day’s work.
Clay stood and swung my legs around so that I was stretched on the couch. I reached up, surprised at the effort it took, and grasped his hand.
“Don’t go.”
His eyes lit up as they met mine, and for several long moments, we stayed like that. Our time in Costa Rica was coming to an end, and we both knew it. We’d been living on borrowed time here, and once we landed in LA, our lives would be waiting.
“Brianne will be back soon.” He turned his hand so that his fingers threaded between mine.
“I know.”
Another beat of time and then he moved behind me on the couch. As he settled, he pulled me back against him, cradling my body with his. Even with our clothes between us, I could feel every place we touched. I’d never been as aware of another person as I was of him. He rested our joined hands on my stomach and kissed my temple.
“Try to sleep.”
“This is enough,” I said on a long exhale of breath. “I can rest like this.”
“Brain still won’t turn off?”
I gave him a smile. “It got pretty close there. Where’d you learn how to do that?”
“My mom, actually,” he said. “When I was little, my parents would hire someone to stay with me while they went to one fundraiser or another. I always wanted to stay up until they got home, but I was never allowed. Instead, I’d pretend to sleep, and then when they got home, I’d sneak to my mom’s room and rub her feet while she took off her jewelry and did her nightly whatever routine. She’d tell me about the people she talked to and the things she’d seen. Those times were probably the closest I ever felt to her. All that was before I’d balked at the path they’d mapped out for me, of course.”
“How did I not know this about you?” I asked. Not knowing something from the time we’d been apart, that made sense, but I thought we’d known everything about each other from back then.
He shrugged, raising our joined hands to brush his lips across my knuckles. Heat feathered out from where his skin touched mine, moving down my body to coil into a tight, hot ball low in my belly.
“How long did it take them to believe that you didn’t want to go into politics?” I asked.
I’d known about their plans ever since I was fourteen and I’d overheard his mother telling him that he’d better not even think about asking Brianne on a date because a ‘girl like that’ would only come back to haunt him, even if she didn’t trick him into getting her pregnant. She’d then assured him that they had the money to pay for an abortion, but it’d be better for everyone if he just avoided it to begin with. I never told Clay that I’d heard what his mother had so cruelly said, but I’d never looked at her the same again.
I’d also heard Clay’s response. That he never intended to date Brianne, but not because of what his mother had s
aid. He told her that he’d choose for himself who he would date, and what career he’d pursue.
He’d gotten grounded for that, but it hadn’t been the last time he’d challenged them.
“I wonder if she knows I’m here,” he said quietly. “I know Dad always kept tabs on me at the Bureau, but since I didn’t go through the FBI to get here, I don’t know how much they’d be able to find out.”
“Things haven’t gotten better with them, then?” I ran my fingers over his forearm, still marveling that I was allowed to touch him like this.
He scraped his teeth along the curve of my ear. “I don’t think I want to talk anymore.”
My insides gave a pleasurable squirm. “What do you want to do?”
He released me and slid his hand a couple inches lower. The tips of his fingers brushed bare skin, then slipped under the waistband of my jeans to find even more skin to touch.
“Clay…yes…” I hissed out the word as he dipped one long finger between my folds.
“Do you know how many times I imagined being able to touch you like this?” he murmured in my ear. “To feel you, hot and wet, and know that I was responsible for making you this way?”
“Mmm…” I moaned, closing my eyes as his fingers dipped lower. “Not even close to as many times as I used to think about what it would be like to have you touch me.”
“Doubtful.” His first two fingers easily found my clit and made two quick strokes over the little bundle of nerves. “I still remember the first time I was thinking of you when I jacked off.”
I caught my breath, and it wasn’t all from the way his fingers were playing between my legs. Circles over my clit, then dipping down to slide inside me. All of that felt amazing, but I wanted to hear the rest of the story.
“Tell me.”
He pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the side of my throat. “Do you remember the summer I turned fifteen? My parents dragged me up to the Hamptons for the longest six weeks of my life, and when we got back, I went straight to find you.”
I remembered that summer, but I hadn’t seen him the night they’d gotten back. In fact, it’d been almost a week later, and I’d run into him by accident.
He continued talking even as his fingers coaxed me closer to climax. “You were in your back yard, dancing. There was no music, but you had your eyes closed and were moving like you could hear it. That was when I realized you were beautiful.” He nipped at my neck, the sharp sting soothed by his tongue. “I instantly got hard, and I was so embarrassed that I ran back home. Not embarrassed because I was turned on by you, but because I didn’t want to be the sort of guy who couldn’t control himself. I got in a cold shower, but that damn erection wouldn’t go down.”
The edge of humor in his voice made me smile, adding something sweet into the web he was spinning with his words and his hands. We were in a cocoon here, building something that felt powerful and fragile at the same time. We were both clothed, and while what we were doing wasn’t just kissing, we weren’t having sex either. This was…different.
“I never liked thinking about girls I knew, but as soon as I grabbed my cock, all I could see was you. Didn’t matter how much I tried to think of some model or some faceless body, every time I closed my eyes, it was you, dancing. I’d never come so damn hard in my life.”
His fingers pressed hard on my clit, and I exploded.
“That’s it, sweetheart.” Rough circles of friction and the sound of his voice in my ear pushed me higher. “Come on my fingers. Show me how beautiful you are when you come.”
What else could I do but obey?
Twenty-Nine
Clay
I’d intended to hold Tess until she fell asleep, then get up and take some time for myself. Instead, I’d felt her body relax against mine, and I’d kept watching her. In sleep, all the tension faded from her face, and for a moment, I could see that thirteen-year-old again.
I drifted off, still thinking about the moment when I’d realized I wanted my friend to be more than a friend.
“What the fuck?!”
Brianne’s voice jolted me from sleep, but Tess barely stirred.
“Shh,” I said as I eased myself out from behind Tess. “Let her sleep a little longer.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Brianne’s voice was quieter, but no less intense.
“Sleeping.” I motioned for her to follow me into the kitchen. “None of us have gotten much sleep lately.”
“It didn’t look like you two had been doing much sleeping.”
“Is this really what we should be spending our time doing?” I knew I was a hypocrite, trying to get her to focus on Sylvia when I hadn’t been thinking about the missing woman a couple hours ago when I’d had my hand down Tess’s pants.
“Leave her alone, Clay. I’m warning you. We get Sylvia out, then you and Tess are heading back to the States. To your lives on different sides of the country. She doesn’t have time for you to fuck around with her life.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that she didn’t know her sister as well as she thought she did, but I kept my mouth shut because fighting with Brianne wouldn’t do anyone any good. And then Bri opened her mouth, and I wondered if I’d be able to avoid the fight much longer because if she said another asinine thing, I was going to lose it.
“Brianne?” Tess’s sleepy voice interrupted what could’ve become something explosive.
“Hey, sleepyhead.” Brianne’s voice was overly bright and cheerful. I shot her a look, but she purposefully didn’t look at me.
“When did you get back?” Color suffused her cheeks.
“Just a couple minutes ago.” Brianne’s smile was tight. “Let me get cleaned up and get something to eat and then we’ll sit down and talk. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
She disappeared into the bathroom, and I turned to Sylvia’s cabinets. I was going to need caffeine if I planned on making it through the rest of today without biting someone’s head off. When I got back to Denver, I was going to sleep for an entire day. I’d never been as wrung out as I was on this trip.
“Want some help with that?” Tess asked.
“Sure.”
The silence between us was filled with all the things we should have talked about by now, but neither one of us seemed to want to make the first move. I didn’t blame her for it. She’d barely had time to adjust to the fact that Brianne had lied to her before the shit had hit the fan. I should’ve been the one to initiate the discussion, but I was a coward, terrified that if I brought up anything about the future, Tess would tell me that we didn’t have one.
That should have been what I wanted, and a few weeks ago, I probably wouldn’t have even given it a second thought. Now, however, I didn’t know.
“Do you remember that time we stole some of your mom’s fancy coffee?” she asked suddenly.
I laughed as the memory came to me. “We were convinced it had to be the best drink in the world because she guarded it so fiercely.”
“I thought it had to taste like chocolate even though it didn’t smell like it,” she said, her whole face lighting up the way it had that day. “It’d looked like melted chocolate chips.”
“You were so excited that I had to give you the first cup.”
She screwed up her face, making me laugh. “I took a big gulp and then spit it right out.”
“All over the new dress shirt Mom had gotten me for school pictures.” I’d hated that shirt.
“I was furious, sure you’d done it on purpose. Made me drink something gross.” Tess reached up and put her hand on my cheek, her thumb brushing against the corner of my mouth. “To prove me wrong, you drank the entire rest of the pot.”
“And I spent the night in the bathroom, vowing to never drink coffee again.” I put my hand over hers and waited until her gaze met mine to add, “But it wasn’t to prove you wrong.” Her forehead furrowed as her face took on a puzzled expression. “I didn’t want you to think I’d ever do anything to hurt you.�
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“Oh.”
The word was so small, barely a breath, but the way her eyes glowed told me that she’d understood me.
“Good, you put on coffee,” Brianne said as she came out of the bathroom.
I took a step back, hating the way Tess’s face fell, but knowing that we needed to focus. This wasn’t the time to get distracted by Brianne’s disapproval or my own lack of self-control. Sylvia had to come first. Brianne would understand that too. She and I worked in fields where the personal had to take a back seat to the necessary. Tess didn’t get that.
Thirty
Tess
For two people who were at each other’s throats most of the time, Brianne and Clay were an awful lot alike. Even when we were kids, the two of them had always bickered as much – if not more – than Bri and I had.
Back then, however, they’d still been friends. The way my sister had been glaring at Clay pretty much constantly since they’d found me earlier this week told me that things were strained with their friendship, unlike Clay and me. Once certain things had been cleared up, the two of us seemed to slip right back into the same roles we had before.
In a way, I was back where I’d been that last night all those years ago. Infatuated. Crushing. In…like. Yes, like. Not that other four-letter word. I wasn’t going to go there. Not when things were still chaotic.
Which meant I had to wait to see where things went, or at least until circumstances calmed down enough that I could ask him. The ‘where is this going’ conversation wasn’t really one I wanted to have, but I knew it was one we needed, for both our sanities. But until it was possible, I’d put it aside.
As much as I could, anyway. It was damn hard not to get distracted by Clay, who was even more gorgeous than usual when he was in his element, and this was definitely his element. As I watched him poring over the plan, I wondered what it would be like to see him in the field, using his skills as a profiler to help people, save people.
