A Covert Affair

by Katie Reus

  “I did too.” She turned to face him as they reached her front door. She’d forgotten to leave her porch light on, but there was enough illumination from the moon and streetlights for her to see. She started to reach into her purse for her keys when Mercado stepped a fraction closer, completely invading her personal space.

  Oh, crap. Did he plan a good night kiss? He seemed so traditional that maybe—he cupped her cheek gently, his thumb stroking over her skin. She didn’t want anyone touching her but Nathan.

  Maybe something of her reaction showed, because he let his hand drop, his expression contemplative. “Why did you agree to go out with me again when you’re dating Miguel?”

  She was surprised by the question but lifted her shoulders. “He and I have been on exactly one date. I wouldn’t call that dating.” In case Nathan needed her to get into Mercado’s house again, she wanted to keep things open with him.

  He was silent for a long moment, his gaze falling to her mouth before he met her eyes again. “I would like to see you again.”

  She must have been decent company for him to ask her out again. Unless maybe he suspected something? That tightness was back in her belly, but she smiled and nodded. “I would too. This week I’m pretty busy with work, but I can make time.”

  “Good.” There was a sensual note in his voice as he stepped closer again, leaning down this time.

  She had to order herself not to stiffen up as his mouth teased over hers. The kiss was barely a kiss, just a brief brushing of lips, but guilt still bloomed inside her. Which was absolutely ridiculous. She’d done nothing wrong.

  Before he’d made it to his car, she’d unlocked her front door and stepped inside. By the time she locked it, she realized the beeping of her alarm hadn’t gone off. She knew she’d set it.

  Panic bloomed inside her for all of a second until Nathan stepped from the shadows of her living room. She pushed out a short sigh and clicked on the small lamp on her foyer table. She hadn’t expected him to be waiting for her, but she couldn’t deny the burst of pleasure at seeing him. Pleasure and relief. Tonight had gone well, but Nathan’s presence smoothed out the edges of her nerves. She wasn’t afraid when he was around. “What are you doing here?” she asked quietly.

  “That fucker kissed you.” His words were a growl and not even close to an answer. Her heart rate kicked up as he moved toward her with the lethal grace of a predator. His clothes were as dark as his expression.

  But the look on his face . . . Before she could ask again what he was doing there, he had her backed up against the front door, his hands caging her in on either side. Gasping, she slid her hands slid over his chest, a shiver rippling through her at the feel of taut muscles.

  His erection was unmistakable.

  “It was barely a kiss and just part of the . . .” She struggled for the right word. She wasn’t an operative or even close, but she managed to finish with “job.”

  “Don’t care,” he rasped out before he slanted his mouth over hers. His tongue slipped past her lips, completely demanding.

  There was so much she needed to tell him, should probably tell him before things went any further, but when he shoved her dress up to her waist without warning, she stopped thinking.

  The move was so primal, so Nathan. He’d always been like that, desperate to have her whenever they’d managed to sneak time alone together. Looking back, she’d wondered if it was teenage hormones, but as he ground his hips against her, his thick length pushing against her abdomen, she knew it was the chemistry between them.

  Groaning into his kiss, she grasped his shoulders and lifted herself up so that she wrapped her legs around his waist. With her dress bunched up and so few barriers between them, it wouldn’t take much for him to be inside her.

  Her inner walls tightened at the mere thought. Nathan Ortiz. She’d never thought she’d see him again, had been too much of a coward to even attempt to look him up.

  Yet here he was, back in her life, kissing her like a man who’d been deprived of sex for a thousand years. And though he hadn’t said the actual words, she knew he wanted to wipe away Mercado’s kiss.

  Her nipples tightened against the built-in cups of her dress as she arched against him. The friction primed her even more, the dampness between her legs growing by the second.

  One of his hands moved to her hip while the other cupped her face. As his tongue danced against hers, she could feel the energy humming through him. If she let him, he’d consume her.

  Suddenly he tore away from her mouth. His body and hand on her hip kept her pinned against the door. The way he looked at her had her entire body lit up with heat and hunger. There was no way he could be stopping now. Because this simply couldn’t end with a kiss. She needed him too badly.

  “I still fucking jerk off to thoughts of you.” He said it so savagely, almost accusingly. As if he didn’t want to think of her when he touched himself. She didn’t blame him, not after the way she’d so coldly ended things. The statement took her so off guard, both because of the savageness and the admission.

  Hell, she couldn’t believe he was standing in her foyer kissing her at all. She knew this had nothing to do with his mission. Maybe he wanted to get her out of his system? The thought should hurt her more, and though it stung, she still couldn’t blame him. God knew she’d never gotten him out of her system.

  There was no rhyme or reason for it either. She’d had sex since him and knew he must have, but no one had ever made her feel the way he did. For a long time she’d wondered if it was because he’d been her first, but now she knew that had nothing to do with it. She wasn’t sure how to respond, couldn’t find her voice anyway.

  When he slightly moved back, taking all that warmth away from her as he separated their bodies, she started to protest until she realized what he was doing. Hand still on her hip, he went down to his knees as her heeled shoes clicked against the wooden foyer floor. If he wasn’t still holding her hip, she wasn’t certain her legs would keep her up.

  With her dress shoved up, she felt exposed but not vulnerable with him. Never that. At least not in the sexual sense. Nathan would never hurt her, not physically. It wasn’t in his DNA. If she wanted to stop this, he’d stop.

  She didn’t want to. It didn’t matter that there were still issues between them; she needed him.

  Keeping his gaze pinned to hers, he slowly tugged her panties off. His eyes seemed somehow darker tonight. He never looked away as he tossed them to the side and lifted one of her legs, spreading her wider for him. She propped her heeled shoe on his shoulder.

  Everything about this moment was so intimate. Maybe too intimate. While she could never be physically vulnerable with him, emotionally was a whole other beast. Once they crossed this line—and they were definitely having sex tonight—it would rip her open if and when he walked out of her life. She couldn’t know for sure that he would, but Nathan was a black-and-white kind of guy. Or he had been. He’d never seen the world in shades of gray. Things were either right or wrong for him. She didn’t know how he’d react when she told him why she’d ended things.

  Still looking at her, he trailed a finger up her inner calf, then thigh. She was already shaking with the need for more when he oh so slowly slid his thick finger along her wet folds.

  He shuddered, his eyes going heavy-lidded for a moment. “This is for me.” A simple statement. No smugness, but a pure male satisfaction.

  She nodded, mainly because she couldn’t force her vocal cords to work.

  “I didn’t like you out with him,” he murmured, slipping a finger inside her.

  That much was definitely clear. Her lower back arched. “I know,” she whispered, amazed she had the ability to talk as he pushed into her wetness. The feel of him inside her, even just his finger, had her nipples getting even harder. She wanted to strip her dress off and feel his body against hers, on top of her, as he took her. She’d always loved the feeling of being completely and utterly possessed by him. And she wanted it a
gain. So much that it scared her.

  “I don’t care if it was for part of the op.” Again with that possessiveness.

  It shouldn’t turn her on. She’d never liked that whole macho thing, but with Nathan it was different.

  Letting out a rough, raspy sound, he tore his gaze from hers and leaned forward, flicking his tongue over her clit without warning. The sudden, intimate kiss had her reacting, not thinking. She didn’t want to think anyway, not right now.

  She rolled her hips against his face as she slid her fingers through his short, dark hair. When he moaned against her clit with such gratification, her inner walls started convulsing faster and faster around his finger. It wasn’t going to take her long to come.

  Pleasure slid through her as he continued to stroke and caress those sensitive nerves with his very talented tongue. It was as if he knew the exact pressure to tease her right to the brink of orgasm, but not push her completely over. Maybe he simply remembered the way her body reacted to him.

  Until he slid a second finger inside her and sucked her clit hard. The simultaneous actions were too much.

  “Nathan!” Her climax was sharp, battering her nerve endings as he continued thrusting his fingers in and out of her.

  Her heel slipped, her leg sliding down his back as her orgasm seemed to go on forever. He grabbed her leg, gently moved it off his shoulder as he stood. She reached for the button of his pants, but he moved faster, taking her hands and pinning her wrists above her head on the door.

  His expression was fierce as he brushed his lips over hers. “Taste yourself,” he murmured darkly, the erotic words making her tremble.

  After that orgasm she thought she’d be relaxed, sated, but she realized they were just getting started. It had been like this with them before. He’d just taken the edge off for her.

  She arched into him. “I want to taste you.”

  Her words seemed to set something off in him. She doubted he’d let her actually taste him right now, not when his erection was pushing so insistently against her abdomen.

  His breathing was ragged as he let one of his hands drop. The other remained firmly in place, holding her wrists pinned against the door. The pale glow from the small table lamp illuminated the planes of his face, made him seem fiercer somehow.

  He nipped her bottom lip between his teeth, sucked, before he started feathering kisses along her jaw. The stubble on his face rasped against her cheek, made her shiver as he continued teasing her. When he pressed down on her earlobe with his teeth, she shuddered.

  She could hear him doing something with his other hand, couldn’t figure out what it was until he leaned back and let her wrists go.

  “If you want to stop, tell me now,” he said as he ripped open a condom wrapper.

  “Stop and I kill you.” She reached for his pants, started on the button as he tugged his shirt over his head.

  Moving quickly, he was completely naked in moments, his thick length a beautiful sight. Before she had time to enjoy staring her fill of him, he reached around her and tugged the tie at the top of her dress free, stripping her as fast as he’d done himself.

  As her dress pooled on the floor, there was no time to be self-conscious—she was pretty much beyond that anyway—as he rolled the condom over his erection.

  She reached for him, sliding her hands up his hard chest, savoring the feel of his bare skin under her fingers when he fisted her hips and hoisted her against the door. Instantly she wrapped her legs around him.

  Then he was inside her, the sensation of being filled by him pretty damn close to making her orgasm again.

  He buried himself to the hilt and let out a groan as he filled her, stretched her. Instead of beginning to thrust, as she’d thought he would, he paused, looked down at her. Too many emotions were in his eyes for her to sift through. Blood rushed in her ears as she watched him.

  That same need she’d always seen years ago was still there. She knew it was mirrored in her own eyes. She wished she understood what it was about him that called to her on the most primal level. Right now she didn’t care, though; she just wanted him to find as much pleasure as she had.

  She rolled her hips once, a silent demand.

  On a moan, he pulled back, his grip on her hips tight as he slammed into her. Each thrust was more unsteady than the last, but he refused to take his gaze off her.

  She’d never felt more exposed in her life. It was as if he could see inside her. When his eyes got heavy-lidded, she grabbed his face and pulled his lips to hers. She needed to taste him again. His kisses grew even more erratic until he pulled back and buried his face against her neck.

  She clutched at his back, digging her fingers into the hard planes as he began to climax.

  “Amelia!” Her name on his lips set her off too.

  She held on tighter, some primitive part of her wanting to leave marks as another orgasm slid through her on an unexpected wave of bliss. Closing her eyes, she let her head fall back as more pleasure flowed through her.

  She wasn’t sure how much time passed, but eventually she became aware that she was still holding on to him with a death grip and winced. She loosened her fingers even as she tried to get her breathing under control.

  His own breathing was harsh as he lifted his head from her neck. For one long moment she was afraid she would see regret in his gaze, but as his dark one met hers, all she saw was raw hunger.

  There would be no sleep or talking tonight. In the morning she needed to come clean with him about everything. Even if he hated her after that, he deserved the truth.

  She’d worry about that later. Now she planned to enjoy every second with Nathan as if it were her last.

  Chapter 10

  Eyes only: data that shouldn’t be discussed without explicit permission.

  Sid slowly steered the small aluminum boat across the private lake. The sun had only been up for an hour, and even though this lake was on private property and there weren’t any homes around for miles, he still liked to dispose of any bodies before sunrise.

  It was much easier to be invisible in the dark. But he’d gotten a late start and he hadn’t been willing to speed on the way here. Hell, he almost always went exactly the speed limit. He couldn’t risk getting pulled over with a dead body in his trunk. No way to talk himself out of that. He would have been arrested and would never see the outside of a cell again.

  Even if something went down and he wanted to turn on the people he worked with, he’d be dead before anything went to trial. Of that he was sure. Not that he wanted to turn on anyone; he liked the money too much. He’d been eyeing a vacation home down in Walker’s Cay. That wouldn’t come cheap.

  At least the body drop was done. The lake was deep enough for their needs. One woman dead and now a new one to replace her. Had to keep that money train going. It was so fucking brilliant he couldn’t stand it.

  A bird squawked in the distance. He looked over his shoulder as the boat glided slowly. His heart rate kicked up at the unexpected noise. There weren’t any ripples along the lake other than his boat. He could see to the other side easily. Thick foliage surrounded most of the lake except for one long stretch of sand where whoever owned this spread of land and the lake must have had it cleared off. It was where he docked his unregistered boat.

  If the lake had been attached to a chain of lakes, he’d have registered the boat under a bogus name, but there was no point, since no one knew about this place and there wasn’t a possibility of someone stumbling on it through an attached canal. The lake wasn’t man-made, but just one of the many thousands of Florida lakes that dotted the state. The perfect dumping ground, though he had others. He liked to spread it out. Gators should get most of the women, if not all.

  When he neared the dock, he felt a tingling sensation at the back of his neck. As if he was being watched. He’d been feeling that way more and more lately. Just nerves, that was all. Because if someone was watching him, he’d be in fucking prison by now.

  H
e rolled his neck once, trying to ease the growing tension that always came when he dumped a body. It was only natural that the more he risked, the more nervous he’d be.

  With a slightly trembling hand, he grasped the wooden dock and turned off the engine. Without the low hum of the engine, the only sounds were the birds and crickets chirping and a faint wind rustling the trees and overgrown grass.

  He tugged at his gloves almost self-consciously. It wasn’t cool enough to wear them this time of year, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Before moving the body he and the doctor had cleaned it and wrapped it in plastic. He wasn’t worried about his DNA being found anywhere, but just in case he was going to spray the boat down with bleach.

  Moving quickly, he secured the rope to the metal latches on the dock, then jumped onto it. Other than the chains to weight down the body and a spray bottle of bleach, he hadn’t brought anything else.

  After a quick spray-down of the boat, he headed back down the dock to where he was parked. Feeling foolish, he nonetheless scanned the foliage along the lake once again, looking for any signs of life. He wore a hat and sunglasses and he was far enough away that if someone had been watching him they wouldn’t be able to identify him. And hell, he’d be burning all his clothes as soon as he returned to their main base. No matter what, he disposed of everything when he dumped a body.

  Still, he couldn’t risk that someone had seen what he’d done. The body had been wrapped up, but if the cops got wind of it and decided to search the lake, they’d find more than one damn body. If he didn’t know that this area was so damn deserted, he’d spread the dumps out more, but this was simple and he had a smaller chance of getting caught on this property, since he was so familiar with it.

  Suddenly a flock of birds burst into the air from the bank, their flapping and squawking making him jerk back a step. Immediately he cursed his jumpiness.

  He needed to just get the hell out of here. No one was here; no one had seen him. He’d been doing this for a while now and he had to stop letting his nerves get the best of him.