Uncover Me

by Linda Barlow

  "Be thankful you've still got your cover," said Nick. "Don't blow it again."

  "What about the photographs?" I asked in a small voice. "What are we going to tell your grandfather about them? The truth—that I have claustrophobia?"

  Nick hesitated. "I don't know. Let me think it over. Nigel's hot now on getting those pictures taken. For your own safety, it's probably better that he doesn't start thinking of you as less useful than I promised you'd be."

  I shivered a little at the underlying threat.

  "Don't say anything yet," Nick added. "I'll stall them for another day or so."

  Nick didn't join me in the cabin, where I dawdled for a few minutes before we left to go ashore. He didn't sit next to me in the rowboat. By the time I was installed with his grandfather in the compound, I had some serious misgivings. Nick had made sweet, fervent, almost desperate love to me all night long, but not once in the hours since the dawn had he kissed me, or touched me, or smiled.

  Something was wrong.

  * * *

  "Is something the matter, Ellie?" Nick's grandfather asked later that afternoon.

  "No. Everything's fine."

  "Are you having trouble with Nick?"

  Some actress, I chided myself. I'd have to do better than this. I paused in the painstaking task of wrapping small clay potsherds in plastic and packing them in a box. "Why do you think that?"

  The elderly man's blue eyes seemed to twinkle. "Everybody knows you two had a disagreement yesterday. Hauled you off to his boat so he could yell at you in private, I understand. Nigel was talking of organizing a rescue party."

  "I doubt Nigel had my welfare at heart."

  "No, probably not. He'd have been glad to embarrass Nick, though. I stopped him. I figured you could handle the matter yourself." He waited. When I didn't speak, he added, "I hope I wasn't wrong."

  I could feel myself color slightly. "I handled it. Everything's fine."

  "Nick can be moody," he observed after a slight pause.

  I made a noncommittal sound.

  "Are you in love with him?"

  I gave a careless laugh. "Oh, yes. For now."

  "No doubt he knows it, and that'll be what's scaring him."

  "Scaring him?"

  "You think he can't be scared? Cool-under-the-collar, unflappable Nicholas?"

  "He's not likely to be scared by me." Rather the contrary, I thought.

  "A woman's affection might scare him. Especially if he felt drawn to her, too."

  "Why?" My voice was no higher than a whisper.

  "Because the women he's loved have either died or left him. The young Nick was different from the cool customer we see now. He was sunny and affectionate, full of life and joy. He adored his mother. She died. He transferred his affections to my wife, his grandmother, but before too many years had passed she, also, died. Finally, he loved a young woman he went to college with. Elizabeth was her name, a lovely girl, if somewhat fickle."

  "I've heard about her," I interrupted. "Nigel lured her away, apparently."

  "That's right. A most unfortunate situation."

  "What happened to her?"

  "She also died."

  My mouth dropped open. "I didn't know that. How?"

  "I'm not certain. But the point is, Nick's had woman problems ever since. That can happen when you lose too often. He's not the most forgiving person in the world. Oh, yes, Nick's been getting back at the fair sex for a while now."

  I considered the implications of this. Was that why he could sometimes be so hard-assed and cruel?

  "I'd like to see him settled," Sir Avery went on, sounding wistful. "With a woman he loves, and maybe a family."

  I blinked. A family? A woman he loved? What did those things have to do with me? "Why are you telling me this? I haven't known your grandson long, and soon we'll probably go our separate ways."

  "If so, I'll be sorry for it. You strike me as the sort of woman who'd be good for Nick."

  "Forgive me, but you hardly know me, Sir Avery. How do you know what sort of woman I am?"

  "I'm an old man who has seen much, my dear." After a moment or two of silence, he added, "I know, for example, that you're secretly appalled by the task your fingers are performing now. Wrapping those potsherds for illegal sale."

  My fingers faltered.

  "Nick never should have told you the truth. It offends your sense of values, perhaps even your sense of history, to know what we are doing here." He paused while I raised troubled eyes to his face. "You don't criticize, yet you make me feel ashamed."

  "I—I'm sorry. I never meant to..."

  "I know. You're uncomfortable here, but you're loyal to Nick. You won't betray us, however much you might despise the nature of our activities. Am I not correct?"

  I slowly nodded.

  He chuckled and patted my shoulder. "I'm fond of you, my dear. If my grandson gives you any more trouble, come to me and I'll set the rascal straight."

  I didn't see Nick again until suppertime. His withdrawal was all the more obvious when the men tried to get us to dance again. Nick refused, and no amount of teasing could get him to change his mind.

  He didn't avoid me. He was courteous, yet distant. Even when the meal was over and he rose and took my arm, saying, "It's late, Ellie. Let's go," there was no fire in him, no anticipation.

  When we reached our room, I felt all the tensions of the day rising like mist to surround me. We were finally alone. Surely now he would catch me in his arms. Surely now he would hold me, kiss me, or, hell, even order me to kneel. Surely that cold expression on his face didn't mean that he didn't want me anymore.

  Even as I had these feelings, I hated myself for them. Just because we'd had good sex last night, I seemed to have forgotten the way he'd been abusing me.

  "I'm going to have to spend the rest of the night on the boat," he said, his voice expressionless as his face. "To prevent any further accidents to the yacht's electronics."

  "And you want me to stay here."

  He handed me the key. "You can lock the door. You should be safe."

  I met his crystalline green eyes. They were fathomless as the sea. "Fine," I said, trying to sound as cold as he did.

  "Good," he said, and turned to go.

  The words came out without my volition: "Why are you treating me like this?"

  "Like what?" he asked, but I saw the muscles jump around his tight-clenched jaw.

  "As if last night didn't happen."

  He hesitated, and my heart took a dive. "I've got a lot on my mind."

  "Okay." That was hard to argue with, but I wanted a clearer answer. At the same time, though, I was asking myself what the hell I'd expected? Hearts and flowers? He had kidnapped me, and now he had fucked me. End of story.

  "You're not going to make a big deal about this, are you?" he said.

  "No. It's just..." I fumbled for words. "You were so sweet and affectionate last night."

  "You mean after I tied you up and jerked off on you? Or after I fucked you?"

  My breath left me in a rush. Oh, yes, Nick's been getting back at the fair sex for a while now. Jerk. My stomach felt hollow. I should have known better than to let myself start crushing on the man who had put a rope around my neck and whipped me with a belt.

  "Get out." He'd seen me panic; he'd seen me in a state of sexual bliss. But I was damned if the asshole was going to see me cry.

  Chapter 27

  NICK

  I made for the door, feeling every bit like the jerk I was trying to be. I couldn't let her get too attached to me. It would hurt her even more if she started harboring any doomed romantic feelings. She deserved someone better than me. Someone kinder. Someone less fucked-up.

  But at the door, I fumbled with the handle, palms slippery with sweat. A great sense of misgiving came over me. I felt dizzy and had to lean my forehead against the door. Her violet eyes, dark with pain, haunted me. Shit. Not like this.

  I turned. She was staring at me, frozen, her hands
clenched into fists. "Just go," she said, her mouth forming the almost-silent words.

  "Fucking hell." I went back and jerked her against me, cradling her for a moment, and then hauling her off her feet. Next thing I knew, I was whirling around and around with her in a confused, silent dance. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. It's just that I'm no good for you, no damn good at all. I was only trying to free you. You don't need a man like me."

  Her head came up, her eyes searching mine, her lips so damp and wet and open that I couldn't resist them. I wrapped my fingers in the hair and sought her mouth with all the hunger of a starving man. For an instant she was stiff, resistant...for an instant she fought me. Then she made that familiar crooning sound in the back of her throat and pressed against me, arching.

  "Ellie, Ellie, Ellie..." Muttering the litany of her name, I carried her over to the mattress and laid her down, falling upon her, crushing her beneath my hard and ready body. I drove against her belly, cursing the clothing that divided our flesh. She whimpered and dragged her fingers down my spine; I could feel the imprint of her nails.

  Tomorrow I'll stop, tomorrow I'll leave her fuck the alone, I promised myself as I rose to my knees and tore at her jeans. She helped me. She was as eager as I was. I could feel her thighs trembling as I bared them. They convulsed around me as, not even bothering to strip off my own jeans, I unzipped and freed my dick. She pulled me down on her, sliding her hands under the tight blue denim to clutch my ass as I arched and drove into her.

  Christ! She was so soft, so silky smooth, so sweet. She fit my body perfectly. Glove-tight, she surged around me. Breathing hard, I thrust in long, slow strokes, rough cloth against silken skin, half-aware that I might be hurting her, yet hearing nothing but pleasure in the low, ecstatic cries she gave. Our rhythm increased. She writhed and wrapped her legs around me as if to draw my entire body inside her. "Please," she panted. "Please, Nick, please!"

  Tomorrow I'll make her see that I'm bad for her. Tomorrow. God forgive me, but I can't stop it now.

  I loved her. Harder, faster, deeper. Then suddenly I felt as if I were outside myself. We were both transported into a tunnel of light stretching ahead in time and back in time in an endless series of meetings and partings, unions and reunions, births and separations and deaths. I cried out her name, but it was not her name; it was a name I'd never heard before. And yet she answered, calling out to me in an unknown language.

  Total freak-out.

  As the convulsions of orgasm rocked us both, I knew the bodies that gave such pleasure were dust and ashes, reborn like the phoenix to live a short while, then die. But we were joined; we were mates. Our souls were eternal. I might deny it; I might dismiss the experience, laugh, or try my best to forget it—in fact, I was sure I'd dismiss it as soon as the weird-ass climax faded. But it would still be true.

  Chapter 28

  NICK

  Having weird, mystical-shit sex with Ellie didn't exactly do good things for my peace of mind the next day while I worked my ass off dismantling the excavations. I suppose it was better than brutal sadistic sex, for her, anyway. For me, who knew? My head was a total mess.

  It didn't help that I was afraid Nigel was about to bolt. That was always the risk—that he would spirit himself out of the way before the troops came in and arrested him. He had always been a slippery rat. He seemed to sense the traps that were laid for him. Gossip had reached Metin, who had a knack for getting along with everybody, that Nigel and his small group of loyalists were packing up their gear.

  I needed to get Granddad away before Nigel left. I wanted him, not my grandfather, to be caught with the loot. If my cousin was planning to skip out on us, I had to follow through with my plan to distract him.

  Which meant using Ellie.

  When I returned to the compound after an afternoon keeping watch on Voyager, I hoped Ellie would be glad to see me. Even though it wasn't bedtime, I pictured her lying in bed, waiting up for me. Her silky-soft skin. Her lush, fragrant hair, her small breasts, so pale but for their crimson-brown peaks that jutted when I stroked them. Her slender thighs and the moist, dark triangle in between.

  I wanted her naked this time. Making love almost fully clothed had been exciting, but tonight I wanted to see her. I wanted to watch her body arch in the moonlight. On her hands and knees, arching her spine in pain/pleasure as I spanked her ass and thrust into her from behind. I imagined plucking, twisting, pinching the crests of her breasts as I rode her. I knew now how much she liked that. I needed to watch her writhe and hear the little gasps she released as she made her pleasure sounds.

  I'd buried all my qualms from the previous night. I couldn't stay away from her. No, this fire would burn until there was nothing left to feed it. Maybe I shouldn't have kindled the blaze in the beginning, but it was far too late now to damp down those flames.

  She was sitting on the chair and brushing her lovely hair when I entered our room. For a moment I envisioned her tied to that chair, naked, her arms bound behind her and her legs spread apart. I couldn't seem to help it—every time I looked at her, I thought of sex.

  Get it together, fool.

  She smiled at me. "You look tired. Rough day?"

  I crossed to her and kissed her, thinking how domestic this seemed...I came home from work and here was my beautiful partner waiting for me. We had come a strange distance in just a few days from me holding a gun on her and wrapping a belt around her throat.

  "You should be naked and crawling to greet me, slave."

  She laughed. "Stop trying to dom me all the time. I don't know what your game is, Nicholas, but I'm beginning to realize that about 80 percent of everything you say is a lie. I don't know who you are, exactly, but you're not who I thought you were."

  Well, she had that right. I decided to go with it. "Do you trust me, Ellie?"

  "Not really," she said, with a certain charming candor.

  "Let me put it this way—how much do you trust me?"

  Grinning, she held her finger and thumb about a quarter of an inch apart.

  "Try this: how much do you trust me to keep a promise that I make to you?"

  Her expression melted. "Fine. Maybe in some respects you're trustworthy."

  "I am going to ask you to do something for me. Something dangerous. Something you will hate. But no harm will come to you if you do this thing for me." At least, I sure hoped it wouldn't. I was going to make damn sure she was protected. "It'll be unpleasant, but that part won't last long."

  She blinked. "If you are going to ask me to go into that cave and take those photographs—"

  "That's not it. More unpleasant even than that, I'm afraid."

  I had her now. Silly brave girl.

  "What could possibly be more unpleasant than that?"

  I swallowed. This part was difficult even for me to say, much less expect her to do. "I want you to flirt with Nigel. Make him think you could be his submissive."

  Her face went pale. "Are you crazy?"

  "Nothing will happen to you. I promise. I won't let him hurt you. I just need access to his stuff, and for that, I need you to distract him for me."

  "He creeps me out. And I don't want to submit to anyone except you."

  I rounded the chair and draped my arms around her from behind. She resisted for a couple of moments, then let her body go partially limp. I stroked her back, fondled her hair, and instantly had a hard-on. So what else is new?

  "If you do this for me, I'll explain everything. You're right that I'm not who you think I am, but I need you to go on playing the part you've been playing so well for the past few days. My not very submissive slave, who has caused me one headache after another. Who is not very trainable and might be better off with another master."

  "How about with no master?"

  I leaned forward to kiss the top of her head. "I need to get you and my grandfather safely away from here. The price for that is Nigel on a silver platter. That's as much as I can tell you right now. Please trust me and, for once, follow m
y orders."

  She twisted around in the chair to stare at me, her violet eyes wide. "You're working undercover?"

  I gave the slightest of nods.

  "Oh my god." Her face lit up. "Okay. I'll help you if I can."

  Fuck. She did trust me.

  I told her what I wanted her to do. She was skeptical. I really couldn't blame her.

  "You'll be safe. Metin will be looking out for you. Granddad will be there and he's already grown fond of you. He won't let anything happen. And I won't be gone for long."

  "But what if..."

  "It'll be okay. Just stay in the main hall where everyone else is. Don't go anywhere with the creep. The worst he can do is insult you. I don't think he'll even do that, but if he does, remember what I've told you about maintaining a submissive mindset. Just bow your head and let whatever he says float over you. Don't respond."

  "What if he touches me?"

  "He might. He's a touchy kind of guy. But as long as he doesn't touch you in a sexual manner—and I'll kill him if he tries that—it should be endurable, right? In public, what can he do? It's not considered polite to engage in public displays of affection in Turkey, particularly with a woman who belongs to someone else. He would incur disapproval, even from his own men."

  "I'm not sure he'd care."

  "He's not all-powerful. He has weaknesses, and I am going to use them. If it works, this'll all be over, and we'll be able to clear out of here."

  "Okay," she said, still sounding uncertain.

  I couldn't think of any way to reassure her that wouldn't be a lie, so I kissed her instead.

  Chapter 29

  NICK

  I talked to Metin, and then I went after Nigel.

  He was hanging out with his thugs in the main hall, drinking. His guys were drinking, anyway. Nigel rarely indulged in alcohol. He had always been contemptuous of people who gave in to their weaknesses.

  From the delicious smells coming from the kitchen, dinner was being prepared. My stomach growled, but I ignored it. Dinner had become a ritual around here, and a dependable ritual was exactly what I needed.