Chapter Nineteen
Dominic left the negotiation room at eight that night. The last four days had been a monotonous grind comprising of twelve-hour stints in the negotiation room—still situated in the main prison admin building—and sleeping a few, short inches away from a woman whose looks and scent were starting to drive him insane with lust.
He’d had a brief meeting with the Incident Commander and Kurt Montana when he’d finished his shift tonight. He planned to be back on duty by six AM sharp tomorrow. If the hostage-takers didn’t surrender beforehand the plan was for three tactical snipers to simultaneously shoot all three hostage-takers as they walked to a helicopter that would be waiting for them in the courtyard. A hugely difficult plan fraught with the potential for death of the hostage-takers and the hostages alike, but the authorities were losing patience with these inmates.
In the meantime, the negotiators needed to keep the hostage-takers calm and talk them through all the stages of what they thought was their exit strategy. Making sure each stage was carefully choreographed even though the prisoners would never leave the compound.
The hostage-takers were to leave the four hostages on the ground, and the FBI pilot would serve as their only remaining captive until he set them down somewhere remote north of the border. That was the deal. The pilot would be armed, and the prisoners needed the guy alive as none of them could fly a helicopter. Still it was a hell of a brave thing to agree to, even in principle.
These men were armed and dangerous and, as Milo had proved, completely unpredictable.
Dominic followed Ava back to their trailer, his steps dragging with weariness.
The prison shrink was shocked Milo was involved. The serial killer was doing a doctorate in philosophy and had a good working relationship with the staff at the prison—nothing like multiple life sentences to focus the mind on education. According to the psychiatrist, Milo had been a model prisoner who regretted his crimes and respected the warden and was grateful to her for allowing him to continue his studies. The guy had never been alone with her though, or armed and in control. That changed things.
A lot depended on the sadist’s fantasies, and if any of these events fed into them, not to mention whether or not he was swallowing the medications they were sending in via an air vent in the wall.
Dominic did not like the steady deterioration in Gino Gerbachi’s behavior. The man only dozed if Frank took a watch. He was sweating, nervous, exhausted, pissed. He was close to breaking. Dominic found his tired eyes instinctively going to Agent Kanas’s round ass as he walked behind her to the trailer. Maybe Gino wasn’t the only one close to breaking.
He shook his head at himself. She was off-limits and the last thing he should be even thinking about was sex. Except now he was thinking about sex. Goddammit.
“I have some news on the investigation,” Ava began, turning eagerly to fill him in on any updates.
He touched his hand to her arm and felt a familiar jolt of electric energy pulse through him the same way it did every time they came into physical contact.
“Sorry, Ava, I don’t want to think about that tonight. I want to concentrate on this situation until it’s over.” And hopefully at the end everyone would still be alive.
He’d taken over negotiations that afternoon. He hadn’t apologized or explained. He’d just calmly introduced himself. “My name’s Dominic. You’re dealing with me now.”
No drama, no theatrics. Just a done deal.
Joe had been amazing over the last few days, but he was clearly exhausted and Dominic was worried he’d inadvertently let something slip about the takedown operation. He still didn’t think he’d uncovered the unknown unknowns in this situation—the Black Swans—but FBI analysts were still digging.
Gino didn’t warm to him much but Frank did. They’d begun talking about everything from favorite ski hills in Vermont to scuba diving in the Bahamas. Gino sat with a sneer twisting his puffy features. Milo remained silent sitting calmly beside the warden like he was guarding her, but that might be a crazily off-center assumption.
“Dominic, I—”
He squeezed Ava’s shoulder. “I promise I’ll be back on the case as soon as this is over, but right now I need a shower, a cold beer and a few hours’ sleep.” Must be the car accident and the pressure of this incident but he was whacked.
She searched his eyes and must have seen the imminent exhaustion threatening to suck him under. She nodded uncertainly. “Okay. Let me go pick up some food. Anything in particular you like?”
“Not pizza.” Pizza was the staple of most late-night, armed standoffs and crisis negotiations.
“I’ll see what else is available around here.” She dropped her laptop inside the trailer and headed straight out the door. He stumbled inside and had the world’s fastest shower and collapsed unconscious onto the mattress he was using on the floor. Ava wasn’t back and the image of her talking to the HRT guy the other morning punched through his consciousness. No doubt about it, any number of those guys would love to get into her pants.
Her choice.
He clenched his teeth at the thought.
Five hours later he surfaced to the soft sound of Ava’s breathing. The moon was full and everything was lit up inside the trailer with a bright silver glow. He carefully lifted the flimsy sheet that separated them to look at her. She lay on her back on top of the thin coverlet, wearing another one of her camisole tops and a pair of boxer shorts.
God she was pretty, those elegant, winged brows and that lush, wide mouth that gave as good as it got. He shouldn’t be looking at her like this, staring like a lover when the sheet was there to give them both privacy in cramped quarters. He was about to drop the sheet back into place when she rolled over and her hand flopped toward him, her palm connecting with his bare chest. He jolted. Her fingers spread wide, and the sear of her touch branded him. Then her eyes slowly opened.
Instead of withdrawing her hand she blinked a few times and then rubbed her palm over his pecs and down his rib cage.
“I imagined you’d look like this…” Her voice was low and soft as velvet. Her hand stroked up and brushed his nipple.
He gritted his teeth against the pleasure her touch wrought. “You’ve been imagining what I looked like without my shirt on?”
Did that mean she’d been thinking about sex the way he had whenever he lost control of his thought processes?
Her eyes rose up to meet his, voice husky with sleep. “I wondered what you’d look like naked.”
“I’m not naked.” His voice dropped two octaves and then he watched as her hand drifted lower and curled around his cock which was standing to attention in an impossible to miss salute.
“Is this where I apologize for touching you?” she asked, eyes dark as they fastened on his.
God, this woman.
He swallowed as lust infused every cell of his body. She was so erotically over the line and yet he didn’t give a damn. Between her sultry voice and deft touch, he could barely speak.
“I’m good,” he said.
“Are you?” she murmured, discovering the changing shape of him with appreciation that threatened his control to a breaking point.
He closed his eyes briefly, her touch stoking his desire until his blood caught fire. They shouldn’t be doing this, but if he didn’t have her soon his head was going to explode. He opened his eyes again.
“Do you really want to find out, Ava? You want to have sex with a guy a lot older than you are? One who’s theoretically in a position of superiority?” He held her gaze in the darkness.
She ignored the age difference like it was non-existent. Maybe at this stage it was, they were both consenting adults. But it didn’t change their respective positions within the FBI.
“Theoretically?”
“You have my cock in your hand. Trust me, that changes the power dynamic.”
“Yes,” she bit her bottom lip. “I want to have sex with you, but I don’t want it to complicate an
ything.”
Sex always complicated things but right now he didn’t care. Let them get as complicated as all fuck, as long as he could get inside her right now.
He hooked his arm around her waist and dragged her onto his mattress, dropping the sheet behind her and rolling her beneath him.
Her hands came up to grip his upper arms and she held on tight.
“You’re sure about this?” he asked.
She nodded, eyes on his lips.
He lowered his mouth to taste her and felt her body melt against him as her arms came around him.
He kissed her slowly, nibbling the edges of her mouth, hands cradling her head, holding her exactly where he wanted her. She tasted like the mint of toothpaste and something sweet and sexy and sinful.
Her skin was soft as satin, but hot, feverishly hot. He licked the seam of her lips and waited for her to open up to him. He needed to know they were both in this together. It only took a moment for her tongue to be tangling with his as he unhurriedly discovered her flavor.
Her nails dug into his back, and her thighs parted as her legs went around him. He settled his hard length against her core and kissed her faster, deeper. Those hands of hers slipped into his boxers and squeezed his ass, moving against him in a way that had him careening toward the edge way too fast. He was trying to make this last but Ava was in a hurry.
He grabbed both her hands and pinned them above her head with a firm grip. “Patience, Kanas.”
Her eyes flashed and then narrowed.
Oh, was this ever gonna be fun. He dragged the camisole top high enough to uncover her breasts and then leaned down to run his tongue over her plump flesh, edging ever closer to those dark, perfect areoles. Finally, he gave in to her silent demands and sucked one hard tip into his mouth. His tongue tormented her breast until she begged him for more, and then he moved on to the other nipple.
He shifted down her body, and she stiffened and grabbed his short hair when she realized where he was headed.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t have to?” he asked incredulously. “What if I want to?”
“I don’t know…guys always say that but…” She seemed to become impatient with herself. “I’ve never actually come when a guy did it, so…”
Dominic did not want to be reminded of anyone else going down on this woman, but he never could resist a challenge. “How about we give it a try, and if you don’t like it you tell me to stop?”
She nodded, appearing a little embarrassed by their frank discussion as she looked down at him settled between her thighs.
She was so ballsy most of the time that whenever she appeared uncertain or worried, he wanted to reassure her and calm her fears. She brought out some sort of savior complex in him he hadn’t known he possessed. He didn’t like that realization, but it didn’t stop him sliding her shorts far enough down her legs that he could see the trimmed triangle of hair at the apex of her thighs. The scent of her made him want to dive deep, but he wasn’t usually a greedy lover. With Ava, however, he wanted to do everything.
He slid his tongue down over her clit and felt her rear up off the mattress.
“Should I stop?” he asked with a smile.
“No.” Her voice was high and faint. “Give it your best shot.”
He laughed against her stomach and felt her muscles twitch in response. He slid his tongue back through her folds and centered his ministrations on the small nub of tissue that held the keys to most women’s orgasm. Slowly Ava relaxed and her thighs fell open enough for him to drag her shorts all the way off and for him to taste her more deeply, even as he ached to be inside her.
It took time and concentration to find the rhythm she needed. Thankfully patience was one of his strong points. Her shallows pants told him she was close to losing it, and he sucked on her clit to push her right over the edge. She sobbed quietly, and her whole body shuddered as the first climax hit. He hoped to hell HRT weren’t standing outside the door with heat sensitive cameras.
“Okay. You passed that test, Sheridan.” She sounded breathless, and she tugged on his hair. “Now get up here and gimme the rest of it,” she said it with a laugh, and he could get used to this playful Ava.
He crawled up her body, enjoying every inch of her flesh along the way. She dragged the camisole over her head, and he reared back to get the full impact of her nakedness.
“You are beautiful.”
“So are you.”
One side of his mouth kicked up. “Guys like me aren’t beautiful.”
“Whaddaya mean?” She pushed at his shoulder.
“Men descended from knuckle-headed Irishmen.” He traced the softness of her stomach and the vulnerability of her navel.
“I think you know exactly how hot you are, but you want more compliments.”
He smiled as he cupped her breast and tweaked the nipple with his thumb, pinching it hard enough to make her jolt. “Compliments are good.”
Ava huffed out a laugh as her body squirmed. She ran her hand over his jaw. “You have a nice face.”
“Nice?” He dipped his mouth to suckle and pulled her nipple into his mouth.
Her body bowed towards him. “I meant stupendous.”
“Better,” he murmured between tastes.
“I like your nose, and those fierce brows.”
He laughed and let his hand trace down her ribs and over her stomach to sink between her legs and tease her opening.
“I love the dark shade of your eyes.” She gasped and swallowed rapidly as he slipped a finger inside.
“Blue.”
“Indigo.”
“Bruised.”
She touched his face almost tenderly. “And the scruff on your jaw felt really good between my legs.”
“I’ll grow a beard.”
“Then you can try that again sometime.”
“I will.” He’d told her he liked sex, and he stored this information away for next time. The idea of pleasing Ava was addictive. He might not usually have sex with other agents, but it would make the next few days or weeks a lot more pleasurable if they could do this as a stress reliever every night.
They didn’t technically work together.
The FBI was fine with relationships as long as agents were on different squads—and the power balance was firmly in her hands when they were horizontal, not that he’d ever compromise himself or her.
He traced his lips over the protrusion of her collarbone and simultaneously sank his fingers inside her with his palm stroking her clit. Her body was toned and fit, but still soft and womanly. She had the longest legs he’d ever seen, and round hips, and full breasts that could hold his attention for decades.
“I like your chest and your shoulders.” She squeezed the muscles at the top of his arms.
He scraped his teeth over her slender neck, careful not to mark her where others could see it.
“And your neck.”
He laughed. She was terrible at compliments.
“And I definitely appreciate the rock-hard pecs and those very nice abs, Sheridan.” She was teasing him. “Not bad for an old man.”
“I’m thirty-five. Nine years older than you are.”
She ran her hands down his back and over his ass. Then her hand slipped between his legs and she held him firmly, her eyes on his. “I like this part of you too.”
“My ass? Or my cock?”
She huffed out a laugh. “Both.”
“Say it, Ava.”
“I like your cock, Dominic. I want it inside me.”
He could feel himself growing harder at her bold words and touch. She bent her knees and rubbed the end of him against her opening, and he had to force himself not to sink inside.
He grabbed his wallet out of pants he’d tossed aside earlier and rummaged through it for the emergency condom he kept tucked in there. He found it, thank god, but she took it out of his grip before he could open the package.
She tore it open slowly and carefully
covered him. He swallowed at the sensation of her stroking him from tip to root and then positioning him at her entrance.
“Did I mention I like your cock?” she asked with a quick grin. “I’m hoping to love it in the very near future.”
He grinned, despite the gravity of this episode pressing down on his shoulders. It was just sex. And yet he couldn’t remember having this much fun before or having his brains reduced to rubble just from the thought of fucking someone.
He nuzzled her ear as he thrust forward, unable to hold her gaze. Somehow that made it too overwhelming, too real to watch those pretty eyes as he filled her. But he wanted it to be real, he wanted to see everything he was feeling reflected back at him.
He raised himself up onto his good elbow to look at her beautiful face and body, to kiss her long and deep before he began moving inside her.
God, she felt good. Tight. Hot. Aroused. He made sure every thrust hit all the good spots, angling her hips to doubly make sure. His injured shoulder was feeling no pain right now.
He wanted to take it slow, but the desire cruising his blood was stoking his body to a boiling point. He counted to one hundred in French to stop himself losing it. Even when Ava spasmed around him he held on until he could breathe again, slowing it down, wanting it to last forever.
He kissed the sweat from her temple before carefully rolling them over and letting her sit on top of him.
She rode him gently at first, tentative movements, learning him and what he liked until she gained confidence. Then her arms came to rest on his chest, one hand over his heart as she closed her eyes and took what she wanted from his body.
As she started to tighten around him for the second time, he locked his arms around her hips and slammed into her so forcefully he was worried he might hurt her. Then she cried out again and they climaxed together, him gripping her tight and holding back a roar that would have brought backup bursting through the door.
Ava shuddered and sank against him, their hearts beating in unison.
Holy shit.
He swallowed repeatedly, pretty sure his head had exploded. He closed his eyes and wondered what the hell he’d done. Then he wondered how quickly he could get hold of more condoms so they could do it again.
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