Rook Security Complete Series

by Camilla Blake

  Atlas laughed and shook his head in a good natured way. “Swift, I don’t think this crappy Ikea mattress is what’s sending her to the land of the sheep.”

  Several seconds passed and then comprehension dawned over Cedric’s face. “You’re saying it’s me?”

  “Yeah, man. You’re like a glass of warm milk. In man form. You’re her man milk. So go over there and give her the man milk.”

  Cedric laughed and blushed and cuffed Atlas over his incorrigible head. “You’re disgusting.”

  Atlas wriggled free and laughed too. “I like her, Swift. She’s a good person. If you can give her a little peace, them I’m all for it, you know?”

  “I’m just gonna go check in,” Cedric said, as much to himself as to Atlas.

  “Take your time,” Atlas said, turning back to the epic game of solitaire he’d been playing when Cedric had come in.

  Cedric closed the night duty door and stared at Elena’s door. He had the strangest feeling that behind Elena’s door was a brand new life. Completely different than the one that waited for him back in his own bedroom. He could turn on his heel and head back to his room and keep going on this path he’d carved out for himself a long time ago. Or he could knock on Elena’s door and step one foot and then the other into this alternate universe that he couldn’t begin to predict.

  In the end, it wasn’t even a decision. Or not one that he had to consider. His hand knocked gently, and then his hand was swinging the door open and there she was, on the other side of the room, moonlight turning her hair silver, an oversized T shirt to mid thigh, surprise on her face. And then, something else on her face. Something that Cedric would spend his life remembering, and contemplating, and treasuring, and considering.

  ***

  This was not normal for Elena. Normally, she was a very let-live personality type. She barely recognized this version of herself that had bitten her nails down to the pink over the last few days. A thought had taken root. One that she couldn’t shake. That Cedric and Sequence were throwing themselves in the way of danger in order to keep her out of it.

  It panicked her.

  She spent days imagining Cedric sitting half a foot from a mob boss, weapons in every pocket in the room, nothing between his neck and the sting of the mob boss’s scorpion tail. She pictured Cedric captured, tied up by faceless bad guys, beaten and left for dead. She pictured him with gunshot wounds. Knife wounds. She pictured him poisoned. Drowned. Run off the road, straight into a tree. Over the side of a bridge. She pictured a set of villainous hands firmly around Cedric’s perfect neck.

  This was not healthy. She knew this was not healthy. But neither was not sleeping and she had thrown herself headlong into that particular pursuit. Everything was soupy and distorted and tinged with panic.

  On the sixth night he was gone, Elena stared down the barrel of another sleepless night. She leaned forward against the windowsill in her hopeless, hated room and stared out at the East River. There were barges lit up and sparkling on the water, slipping past into alternate realities she’d never know. Oh, how she wished she were there. In the crisp cool outside air, belly up on a barge, watching the night sky slip past as she disappeared into the oblivion of the ocean. All she wanted was an ocean so wide there was no other side.

  The only shore she wanted was Cedric.

  Her bed laughed at her from behind her. She couldn’t even bear to look at the crumpled comforter, the misshapen pillows, the tangled sheet. It all mocked her.

  She heard a noise behind her and then the sound of her bedroom door swinging open. A trapdoor opened in her stomach. No one should be coming into her room this late at night. She turned on her heel.

  At first he was more shadow than man. His cannonball shoulders blocked the ambient light from the hallway. She couldn’t see the expression on his face, but she could feel it. He was watching her with those night-sky eyes and softly, calmly, attempting to figure her out.

  She could have laughed with relief. Her world tilted just a touch. She realized, as she brought him into focus, that her vision had been tipping strangely toward red for the last few days. Everything had seemed urgent and racing. But looking at Cedric in her door, as he gently closed the door behind him and stepped into the moonlight inside her room, Elena felt everything sort of slide from red to blue.

  She felt like she was in a quiet, calm aquarium. Cedric’s presence took the knot of anxiety in her gut and smoothed it away with two hands. She took a deep, shuddering breath and felt her feet touch the ground twice. She was launching through the air.

  Cedric grunted and then let out a quick chuckle as he caught her in his arms. Elena’s legs banded around his waist, her arms around his neck. Her hair spilled everywhere between them. One of Cedric’s hands was firmly between her shoulder blades and the other was squarely on her ass, up under her sleep shirt. She could feel the pads of his fingers on the hemline at her thigh and the pad of his thumb at her lower back. His hands were so big they could span her entire ass in one delicious squeeze. He didn’t squeeze her right now though. No. He just pressed her to him, annihilating space between them until there was just heat and press and fabric and skin. She was huffing his scent at his neck, her delirious tears hot and wet on his throat.

  Elena was dimly aware that her thighs were trembling she was clinging to him so hard. Her fingers were tangled in his hair in what had to be a painful grip, but she couldn’t let him go. He was hers. If she let him go, then he might just dissolve back into the rest of the world. No. No way. Not when she’d just gotten him back.

  “Baby,” she heard him whisper into her hair. “Baby, it’s okay. I’m right here. Shhhh. It’s okay.”

  His hand swept down her back in surprisingly firm pressure. Elena could feel him grounding her to him and to the Earth. She hadn’t realized how close she’d come to spinning away into nothingness until he was here, reminding her that she was here to stay.

  A few minutes passed before Elena let her grip start to ease. Her fingers ached and still she trembled. It was then that Cedric tipped her head back with one hand and there were those navy blue eyes of his, lined with auburn eyelashes and rather stern auburn eyebrows. He looked at her whole face, concern in every line of his expression. “You need sleep,” he murmured.

  His eyes flickered to the bed and he frowned. “No wonder you haven’t slept,” he scolded her, though she’d yet to say anything to him. “Your bed looks like an obstacle course.”

  Without setting her down, Cedric stepped over to the bed. She clung to him like a baby marsupial as he leaned forward and straightened the sheets, tossed the pillows up where they were supposed to be, dragged the comforter up. When Elena glanced down at the bed, everything was all right angles and perfect lines, just like she knew it would be. The way Cedric made everything.

  “Here.” He gently pried her loose and set her in the middle of the perfect bed. She reached for him and he squeezed her hand and dropped it. “Gimme a sec.”

  He disappeared into her adjoining bathroom and came back with a cup of water.

  “Drink that,” he told her in a stern voice. “To the bottom.”

  And then he turned and strode to the windows. He cracked one of them for some fresh air and set about lowering the shades. Last, he took out his phone and put on a white noise app. Elena could hear summer rain and the occasional chirp of a cricket.

  He set his phone on the nightstand and looked pointedly at her cup of water. It wasn’t until he unhooked his watch from his wrist and set it next to his phone that Elena realized he was staying. It was then that she lifted her cup of water with two hands and gulped messily. Just now letting herself realize just how thirsty she was. Her eyes felt scratchy and puffy. Her breath shuddered, turning the clear glass foggy as she found the bottom of the cup.

  Cedric took the glass and filled it up again, though, this time, he set the cup on the nightstand next to his watch and phone. Then he sat on the edge of the bed and kicked off one sneaker and then the next.
Elena would have bet a million dollars that the shoes were perfectly lined up next to one another.

  Cedric pulled back the covers of the perfectly made bed and waited for Elena to crawl under them like an obedient child. He slid in after her, clicking off the lamp on her nightstand and sliding an arm under the crook of her neck.

  “Is this okay?” he asked her, his breath warm against the part of her hair as she curled into him.

  Elena didn’t answer. Tears were falling, fat and heavy, from her eyes. But these weren’t the endless, stubborn tears of grief that she cried each night. No, these were tears of relief. With each one that fell, Elena felt as if some painful needle in her gut was being slowly extracted and tossed away. Her eyes grew heavy until she was no longer looking at the soft gray of Cedric’s shirt.

  Sleep took her and finally, finally she rested.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Where’s Cedric?” Elena asked Geo, not a hint of embarrassment in her voice.

  She’d woken up, alone in her bed, at 11 am. Which meant that she’d slept for over nine hours. Cedric’s phone was still on her bedside, chirping away with crickets and rain, as if he hadn’t wanted to take it and wake her up with the sudden absence of noise.

  She held the phone now in her hand like a talisman.

  Elena had taken the time to brush her teeth and jump into some yoga pants and a tank top, pile her hair on top of her head in a messy bun. But those small actions had dissolved her patience away into the air. She needed Cedric and she needed him now.

  Geo swiveled in her chair at the second floor surveillance desk and focused on Elena. “He’s still off duty for another…” she squinted at her watch. “Four hours or so. So he’s probably in his room. Third floor. On the river side.”

  Elena was off like a shot, her bunchy socks making her steps soundless on the floor. She’d woken up clear headed and calmer than she’d been in a week. And grateful. Endlessly grateful for the huge, calm man who’d horse-whispered her the night before.

  His door was slightly ajar when Elena pushed through and she quietly closed it behind her. Cedric stood in front of his dresser, his back to her and his hair wet from the shower. His room was humid and pine scented as steam from the bathroom wafted in through the open door. He was perfectly quiet, pulling a clean shirt over his head when he seemed to sense Elena behind him.

  He turned and his eyes widened. “Hi!”

  He tugged his shirt into place and his eyes dropped to her hands. “You brought my phone back. Did you just wake up? How did you sleep?”

  Just like last night, Elena used speed and momentum to get close to him. She was across the room in two steps, pushing at Cedric’s shoulders hard enough to have him stumbling back. The side of the bed caught him at the back of his knees and Cedric sat down hard. Elena anchored herself down on top of him, her knees on either side of his hips and the flats of her hands on the smooth slopes of his shoulders.

  Cedric’s calm blue eyes were wide and tightened to her face. But he wasn’t confused. Later she’d realize that he moved toward her as much as she moved toward him.

  She pushed herself into his space and their faces twisted just a touch before their mouths slashed down.

  She could feel the comforting scratch of his neat beard, his hands so firmly at her waist, like he was halfway torn between pressing her down or lifting her off of him. But more than anything, she felt the heat of his mouth.

  It shouldn’t have, but it surprised her when Cedric’s mouth loved on hers patiently, inexorably. Elena was swept away on a tidal wave of fire and Cedric was drinking her down calmly, thoroughly.

  This was what it was like to be savored, Elena realized. She’d finally found a man who moved slowly enough to really taste her. Experience her. He wasn’t going to miss a drop, she realized.

  Cedric’s lips were both on her bottom lip. He sucked at her lip gently, pulled it away from her mouth and found her with his teeth. He used his warm, rough tongue to smooth away the points of contact from his teeth.

  Elena breathed into his mouth and he breathed back. She felt as if the air between them was on a warm, scented loop. He tasted like…

  “Mmm,” she groaned and opened her mouth to his. “Cinnamon,” she said against his mouth.

  “My toothpaste,” he said, using his nose to tilt her head to one side and taking her under again.

  Their tongues met one another and slid dreamily from one side to the other. Elena felt as if he were searching for a hidden flavor in her mouth. Her eyes came open to see that his eyes were half-lidded and battling with lust in order to keep watching her face.

  She tilted her head to the other side and Cedric followed her there, grunting his approval and deepening the kiss to an almost pornographic level before he pulled back and went back to chastely sipping at her lips.

  He was a dizzying combination of gentle and powerful. Elena was a puddle of heat and tension in his arms and it didn’t matter, because Cedric had her. His arms were anchored around her and slowly traveling. She shivered when the palm of one of his hands found the arch of her socked foot. His other hand was holding the weight of her head, encouraging her to tip back.

  She did and his lips tasted her kicking pulse. Elena gasped and unfolded her legs so that she was squeezing his waist with her thighs, her ankles crossed behind his back.

  “Gah. Fuh-uck.” Cedric nuzzled behind her ear and slowly, slowly tilted his hips upwards until he was lodged between her thighs, hot and hard and aroused beyond belief. He wasn’t pushing at her or rocking against her. He was just there. So Cedric. Calm and patient and right where she needed him.

  Elena gasped and drew his mouth back to hers.

  Everything had moved into glorious slow motion for Cedric. The world was a technicolor slide. He was halfway hypnotized by that light little flavor of hers. It was indescribable and he chased it, trying to find its gorgeous source. He felt like he was sipping at the center of a flower, searching for nectar. Elena in his arms was beyond anything he’d ever imagined as a teenager or as a man. He’d had plenty of women in this position before, but never before had he felt as if he was fitting perfectly into a puzzle. Touching her was the same satisfying click as a car door slamming. Like there. Yes. That’s right.

  He couldn’t explain it more. It was just right. Her slender, tiny self so securely fastened to him. Her muscles trembled and he delighted in the fact that she was using her entire strength to hold him to her. As if she feared he would turn away from her if she didn’t hold him tight.

  Her tongue slid over his and dissolved into those lush lips pushing against his, pouty and succulent and giving and taking all at once. He almost laughed at the idea of pulling away from her.

  An emotion tore up through his throat and he planted his forehead on her shoulder and just breathed for a minute. He realized they were seated on the edge of his bed in exactly the position he used to daydream about as a teenager. After their project together, sometimes he’d just look at his bed and remember the fact that she’d sat there. Right there. He’d dreamed of a different life, one where he’d lifted her onto his lap and kissed her into an electric, purring mess. The way she was right that very second.

  Cedric’s heart banged in his chest so hard he felt like it was pushing itself around with the force of its own beating. Each pulse was alarmingly opposite of itself. Ka-bump ka-bump. Every bang of his heart went from full to empty in a mind-bending second. She was filling him up and emptying him out over and over. Ka-bump ka-bump. For the first time in his entire life, Cedric had words bubbling up. He never had words. As long as he’d lived he’d had feelings. More feelings than he knew what to do with. But right at that second, there were words. He had to tell her. He had to tell her about high school. About what watching her sit on his bed had done to him. He had to tell her what it meant to him to calm her into sleep last night. To be the one she put her entire weight on.

  Cedric lifted his head and sucked in a much-needed breath. His eyes were on her
dark irises. He couldn’t tell where her irises ended and her pupils began and it thrilled him, hypnotized him, aroused him. Her beauty was in the shadows, the contours, those gorgeously dark, secret places. And she was here, on his lap, letting him kiss those dark places. Letting him taste. Letting him suck her scent into his lungs.

  “Elena—”

  BRAAANG BRAAANG BRAAANG.

  An alarm had them both jolting. Had Cedric’s arms coming around her hips and him standing up with her in his arms.

  A red light started twirling in the corner of his room in time with the alarm.

  “Shit.”

  “Cedric? What—?”

  “Elena, that’s an intruder alarm, okay? It doesn’t mean that anyone is inside, but it means that someone attempted to breach the gate.”

  “Okay.” She stood on her own feet, looking up at him with blank shock in her eyes.

  He took her firmly by the shoulders and led her to his closet. “You’re going to stay in here until either me or the team comes back for you. But Elena, you’re safe, all right? Once I leave the hallway, I’m going to put it in lockdown mode and no one will be able to get in to you. You’re safer in here than if you were in a bank vault, you hear? Elena, do you hear me?”

  She nodded, her eyes dazed. “You’re leaving?”

  “Yes. Elena, I need to go. You need to stay.” He opened his closet, flicked the light on and sat her gently on the floor. Of course it was scrupulously clean. On a fleeting thought, he reached up and grabbed one of his sweatshirts off the shelf and shoved it into her arms. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, all right?”

  And the closet door was closed and he was gone.

  ***

  The first thing Cedric did after locking himself out of his bedroom was to take his earpiece from his pocket and slip it in place.

  “Does anyone have eyes on Elena,” Rook’s voice was angry in his ear and Ced knew that the precious seconds he’d taken to explain things to Elena had cost the team a year in anxiety.