Rook Security Complete Series

by Camilla Blake

  He started a patient, methodical rhythm as she tossed her head from one side to the other, her hair in a dark fan around her head. He saw the roll of her eyes, the white flash of her teeth as she gasped for air.

  She was talking but he couldn’t hear anything through the roar in his ears. The slick heat of her was destroying him as his thumb found her pleasure point and started the same circling motion from before.

  He scraped stubble against the gorgeous calf on his shoulder and bent forward, opening her further and push-push-pushing into her. His thrusts were impossibly thorough. He found he could barely bring himself to pull out even an inch or two, that’s how badly he needed to be inside her. So his thrusts became an up and down grind against her as he braced his weight on one hand.

  “Cedric!” her voice was in his ear as he grinded in demanding circles against her and he felt her satin channel clamp impossibly hard against his length. Her fingers clawed at his back as he felt the electric tension of her pleasure shoot through him, like electricity that had been conducted between them.

  She trembled against him and he expected her to fall back, sated. But she was suddenly alive with energy. She pushed hard at his shoulders and Cedric rose up, back to his knees, keeping them connected. Elena pulled off of him and pushed him again so that his back went to the headboard, his legs akimbo in front of him.

  A war-like, lusty look in her eye, Elena straddled him, her palms flat against the wall behind him. And then Cedric’s life as he knew it was blown to pieces as she rode him.

  Her strokes were somehow fierce and sweet all at once. She took every inch of him and where his pace had been patient and inexorable, hers was furious and wild. She took him like she’d been waiting her entire life for a man like him.

  Cedric knocked his head back into the wall, banging it gently a few times as he clamped his jaw, his teeth flashing in the dark. “You’re gonna make me come, baby.”

  “Good,” she growled, her teeth clamping down on his lip as their flesh met over and over. He couldn’t help but thrust up into her from below.

  “Not yet,” he growled back, trying to slow her.

  “Yes,” she demanded, adding a twist of her hips that had Cedric banging his head on the wall again.

  “Not. Yet.” He had to say the words through a jaw that wouldn’t open. Cedric leaned forward, licked across her pulse point to distract her, and then tumbled them back so that he was over her again.

  She acquiesced immediately, opening her legs as wide as she could for him, their fingers lacing together against the sheets. He thrust high and hard, with a delicious little grind at the end of each stroke and it wasn’t long before Elena was arching against him again. She gasped hard and he swallowed it down. This time, he let himself go with her. He followed her over the edge of the waterfall that he wanted to drown in.

  Cedric buried his face in the curve of her neck and grunted his release through clenched teeth, his face torn with pleasure, his body caging around her, protecting her, even in his most undone moment.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “Man,” Elena said eventually, as their breathing began to normalize. “Atlas wasn’t lying when he said you were good at sex.”

  Cedric’s head came up from her neck, his hair a bird’s nest and his eyes blurry with contented relief. “Atlas said what now?”

  Elena laughed at how ridiculously boyish her man looked. Tousled and debaucherous and somehow still sweet. She stroked a hand over his auburn hair, smoothing it down and then ruffling it up again. “He told me that you were good at sex.”

  “And how the hell would he know that?”

  Elena shrugged. “How the hell does Atlas know anything? Who knows what goes on in the depths of that brain of his?”

  “How did this come up in conversation?” He balanced his chin on one hand. They were slick and sweaty and still connected. Neither of them wanted to move.

  “When he figured out that I had a mondo crush on you.”

  Cedric was quiet for a long moment. “Elena, do you think there was any world where we could have denied this thing between us? Or just put it off for a while?”

  Elena read between the lines. “Are you feeling guilty for flouting Rook’s orders?”

  Cedric winced. “Actually, on second thought, I’d rather not discuss my coworkers while I’m still inside you.”

  She laughed but could tell that he still a bit concerned with the fact that he’d just defied a direct order.

  “Come here,” she told him, slipping out from under him and tugging him to his feet. “I’m gonna give you a shower, baby.”

  And that’s what she did. She washed him from head to toe under the warm spray of the shower, washed herself quickly, dried them both off, slipped clean underwear on them, and then tucked them into the other bed—the one that didn’t have dust and sex all over it.

  “Are you… mad at yourself for making love to me?” she finally asked him, into the darkness of the room.

  He rolled immediately, tugging her into his body and wrapping himself around her. “Baby, I’ve never been happier in my life. From here on out, I’m choosing you every single time. No matter what. I’m just a little freaked out that I’m starting my new life with you without a job. I want to be able to give you anything and everything, but I’m unemployed, and that freaks me out, you know?”

  “You really think that Rook is going to fire you over this?”

  “I resigned over this.”

  “What?!” Elena sat up in the bed, staring down, trying to read his face through the dark.

  “I sent my note of resignation to Rook while you were in the shower earlier tonight.”

  “When I came out and saw you sitting on the edge of the bed…”

  “I’d just sent it. Yeah. Rook responded that he would be meeting us in Paris tomorrow to escort you the rest of the way home. I said okay.”

  “I—you—wow.” Elena fell back to the bed, staring at the ceiling.

  Cedric was silent, but she knew him well enough to know that the quality of his silence was busy, not blank. He was figuring out how to ask her something. “Does me not having a job make you feel differently about me?”

  “Cedric!” Elena exclaimed, rolling over to straddle him. “I wouldn’t care if you were unemployed for a decade. That could never change how I feel about you.” She paused, stroking one hand over his shoulder, down his tattoo. “I just feel terrible that you had to quit over me. I know how much you love that job.”

  Cedric nodded slowly. “It’s a no-brainer, Elena. I can’t deprive us of this any longer. The case is winding down anyways. They think that you won’t have to stay in the bunker much longer, and then you’ll only need minimal security for a while. And even less if we’re spending our free time together. Besides,” he said as he started playing with the strands of her hair that tickled his chest as she leaned over him. “I think Rook will give me a recommendation for another security firm. The only strike against me is that I fell in love with you. So, it’s not like another security firm that hires me runs the risk of that happening again.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that I’m never going to fall in love with another client, Elena. Unless that client was you.” He said it calmly and thoughtfully. He was unaware of the storm of emotion that opened inside of her. “What?” he asked when he saw it cross her face, even in the dim dark of the room.

  “Never?” she asked hoarsely. “What do you mean by never?”

  Cedric, a little confused, played his own words back in his brain. “I said I’m never going to fall in love with another client.” Horror sifted through him. “Elena, do you think I make a habit of fraternizing with clients?”

  “No!” she said as she half-laughed. “I’m not talking about the client part. It’s just… Do you mean that you’re never going to fall in love with anyone else at all? Are you saying that I’m it for you?”

  “Oh.” Cedric sat up now so that they were nose to nose. “I
… thought I’d made that obvious already.”

  Elena hugged him so hard one of her shoulders cracked. He chuckled into her hair and painted circles on her back with his palm.

  “I figured you’d be mad at me,” he told her. “Considering I cracked under pressure, lost my job, and am leaving you without an official bodyguard until we get to Paris.”

  “Cedric,” she said, speaking directly into the skin of his neck. “Official bodyguard or not, who the hell would I be safer with than you?”

  She bit her lip for a second and then pulled away from him. Elena slid out of the bed and walked over to the window, and then back to Cedric, then back to the window.

  “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  “What’s your house like?” she asked him.

  “My what?” He pulled himself all the way up to lean against the headboard and clicked on the lamp. She was standing, sort of wild eyed, with her back against the far wall. Their sex had done a number on him too, but he was a little worried about Elena right now.

  “Your house. Is it mostly the same from when your grandfather lived there?”

  “Elena, come here, baby.” He held out a hand to her and she went to perch on the edge of the bed, her eyes bouncing everywhere. Cedric landed a palm on her back to give her a rub. “It’s pretty different. I’ve renovated a lot of it. But it’s still homey, the way it was when he was alive.”

  She nodded, chewing her bottom lip. “There’s room for me to stay over sometimes?”

  He could still not figure out what the hell was going on with her. “Of course there is.”

  Elena stood up again and then she was pacing around the room. Her thumbnail was in her mouth. “You’ll have to come to my family’s house for Christmas. I’m sure you have your own traditions but I’m serious, my family will not take no for an answer. Probably for Thanksgiving too. And the Fourth of July, if I’m free from the bunker by then. I know it’s a lot, but that’s the way it is with the Vasquez’s. How’s your Spanish? Because it’s fine if you don’t have any, but they’ll tease you for it. Maybe we could get you some audiotapes to get you going on beginner Spanish.”

  She jumped when she turned and Cedric was standing right there in front of her. She practically face-planted into his chest. In one fell swoop, Cedric lifted her off her feet, deposited her gently into their bed, still warm from his body heat, and shoved a glass of cool water into her hand. “Drink this to the bottom.”

  He jammed his thumbs into the arches of her feet and worked a little bit of magic over her as she slammed the water back and melted backward onto the pillows. Cedric crawled over her and caged her in with his body.

  “Elena, what’s going on in that head of yours?” His hands stroked her hair and his body was so heavy and warm, and outside of their cocoon the world raced on. But what did Elena care about that when she had Cedric Swift laid out over her?

  “I’m in love with you,” she whispered.

  Cedric tightened up, his eyes bouncing between hers. “Say it again,” he said in a hoarse voice.

  “I am, Ced. I’m so in love with you.” Her hands were clamped over the barrel of his ribs and she knew she was probably gripping him too tightly, but she found she couldn’t let go.

  Slowly, like a statue coming to life, Cedric melted down onto her. For one breath-stealing second, he gave her all of his weight, his ear to her chest.

  Then he rolled, taking her with him, and she was the one laid out on his chest.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked him, propping herself up. “I don’t want to rush you, but I’m kind of dying over here. Even scrambled thoughts will do.”

  He laughed, because he was overwhelmingly overjoyed, and because she knew him so damn well. There was no possible way he could articulate anything resembling a cogent thought right now, but for Elena, he’d try. “I’m happy. And…overwhelmed. And I don’t understand what just happened.”

  Elena smiled against his smile and they kissed, getting more teeth than lips. “I told you I loved you, Cedric.”

  “Yeah. Got that part. But you were freaking out beforehand. And talking about my house and Thanksgiving and…”

  “I was thinking about what it will mean to incorporate you into my life. My real life. Not just my life in the bunker. I was imagining coming over to sleep at your house some nights.”

  “Most nights,” he corrected, making her smile. “At least until we get your apartment back together, and then we can split time, or whatever.”

  She groaned and rolled to the side. “Ugh. I don’t want to get that apartment back together. I just want to trash everything and find someplace else to live.”

  “You can live at my house,” he offered, without giving much thought to exactly what he was offering.

  Her head popped up. “Did you just ask me to live with you?”

  “I—” his brain promptly shorted out. “I… guess so?”

  She laughed and flopped back down. “Don’t worry, Cedric, I won’t hold you to a verbal contract or anything.”

  “No. That’s not… I don’t…It would…shit.”

  Elena laughed again. “Now who’s flustered?”

  Cedric took a deep breath, ignored her giggles, and closed his eyes, gathering his thoughts. When he opened his eyes, they rearranged themselves so that they both lay on their sides, their legs tangled and their faces an inch apart. “I’m in love with you,” he told her. “And I really want to live with you. At my house. But this is all new for me and I don’t want to mess anything up by moving too fast or freaking you out. So. Yeah. The invitation is out there. It’s a standing invitation. And whenever you want to take me up on it, I’m into it.”

  Elena wiggled closer to Cedric and tossed one leg over his hip, pressing their cores together and slowly slicking one hand up his chest. His eyes darkened and dropped to her lips.

  “That was the perfect answer,” she whispered, nuzzling her nose against his and groaning when his hand slicked up her leg and tangled in the hem of her underwear. “How come you always have the perfect answers?”

  He chuckled and started to kiss the hollow under her jaw. “Because I think about them really, really hard.”

  She wiggled closer and moaned when his big fingers slid through her wetness. “Slow and steady wins the race.”

  “Apparently,” Cedric replied, rolling on top of her and pulling their underwear out of the way just enough to slip into her an inch. “Because if this isn’t winning, I don’t know what is.”

  He pressed the rest of the way into her and they both gasped against each other’s mouths as if there were suddenly a worldwide oxygen shortage. Cedric rode her slow and deep until she jammed her face into his neck, clung to him and trembled. Feeling her ripple around him and wanting to prolong her pleasure, he picked up his pace. Their skin slapped together almost obscenely as he sprinted one of her orgasms into the next. The bed shook on its legs as he took and gave at the same time.

  “I love you,” she whispered into his ear and Cedric curled hard into her, twitching and grunting. He knew he’d never be the same.

  ***

  Elena held Cedric’s hand as they deplaned in Paris. They’d made love twice that morning. And Elena had never been kissed the way he’d been kissing her. Slow and thorough and unending. He was communicating something in that kiss and Elena hadn’t been exactly sure what it was until they saw Rook waiting for them on the other side of security.

  Tension rolled off Cedric like heatwaves. And she understood. On some level, Cedric felt as if he’d failed Elena in succumbing to their feelings for one another. And he felt as if he’d failed Rook as well.

  Now, Rook had to guard both of them on their way back to New York, which was just insult to injury.

  As they approached Rook, Elena imagined a scowl on his face, disapproving looks, maybe even a cutting comment from the very stern man. After all, their inability to keep their hands off one another had meant that he’d had to fly across the ocean to esco
rt them back home. He had to at least be annoyed.

  But as they got close, she watched Rook’s eyes flick down to where she and Cedric held hands, and a smile broke out on his face.

  He strode up to them and immediately pulled Cedric into a back-slapping hug, then he bent and kissed Elena’s cheek, pulling her duffel from her shoulder. “Congratulations, you two.”

  “I… what?” Was Cedric’s elegant response.

  “I’m happy for you, Cedric. I know that you wouldn’t have pulled this shit if you weren’t planning on making a life with her. And that’s something to be celebrated. I’m glad you two have found each other.”

  “You’re not mad at us?” Elena asked.

  “Eh,” Rook shrugged. “So I fly a lot over the course of two days. Big deal.”

  “And my resignation doesn’t completely screw up your scheduling for the next few months? I know you must be mad about that.” Cedric cleared his throat. Elena leaned into his side, just to remind him that she was there with him, no matter what.

  “Shit,” Rook growled and dropped his forehead into his hand. “I owe Geo fifty bucks.”

  “For what?” Elena asked, royally confused by his reaction.

  “She was convinced that your resignation was serious. I bet her money that it was a joke.”

  “A joke?” Cedric asked, his eyes widening. “But… you accepted it.”

  “I didn’t accept the resignation. I accepted the fact that your integrity had been compromised where Elena was concerned and that it wasn’t a good idea for you to be her only guard on the way back into the States. I seriously did not believe you were resigning over this.” Rook rubbed at his forehead. “But, knowing your honorable ass, I guess I should have predicted it.”

  “So…” Elena prompted, looking back and forth between Cedric’s dumbfounded expression and Rook’s irritated one. She bounced on the balls of her feet. “Does this mean that Cedric still works for you?”

  Rook dropped his hand. “I don’t know, Swift. Do you?”

  Cedric dropped his duffel bag, in the middle of baggage claim, and sat flat down on it. He covered his eyes and went into deep thought.