by Nikki Duncan
“That could have been your indulgence. Instead, you owe me one.” One that would likely surprise them both. Perhaps he would ask where her trust issues came from, what made her cynical. Unless he had read her completely wrong, something bad had happened. She wasn’t hard or unfeeling—far from it—but there was a reserve in her. Something kept her from accepting easy touches or even the concept that a couple could fight any odds and stick together.
“You realize you don’t get carte blanche with this.”
“That’s not how a bet works, Kieralyn.” He leaned into her and whispered in her ear. “You can’t set the terms of it after you’ve lost.”
“You can’t make me have sex with you.”
“I wouldn’t force you. Then again, I wouldn’t need to. You want me.” He pulled back. “I know that from the pace of your heart and the scent of your excitement.”
“Ian—”
“Relax.” He returned to his meal and waited. “Eat.”
“I need to know what you’re planning.”
“We have a long walk after dinner. We’ll talk then.”
She tucked into her meal, but tapped her fork on her plate between bites. Vibrations of anxiety rocked the air around them. “You know something. You heard something that you aren’t telling me.”
“I’ve heard many things tonight.”
The South American came out and moved to the bar.
“You know something that has to do with my case. You owe it to me to read me in.”
Possibly at the cost of your life if we pursue it here. He grabbed her chair and scooted her close until his thigh brushed hers. Her arm flexed and brushed against his when she raised and lowered her fork.
Ian lifted her wine glass and offered it to her. He leaned into her and kept his voice low. “Later. For now, you need to forget who you are at work and just be a woman on a date.”
“I never forget.” She took her glass and swallowed. “And this is not a date.”
“Then set it aside.” He rested his lips against hers. Wine flavored her soft lips, beckoning him to explore deeper. To discover what other tastes would be waiting for him. “Trust me. It’s important.”
“Then eat fast. I’m an impatient sort.”
“Channel that impatience into the show you’re supposed to be putting on.” He slid the tip of his tongue along the edge of her mouth. “Pretend you’re so into me—that you are so aroused by my touch and the sound of my voice at your ear you can hardly wait to get me home. Imagine what you want me to do to you with smooth sheets gliding against your silken skin.” His bed. He kissed a path along her jaw to her ear. She shivered instantly, something he realized she did more quickly each time he closed in on her. “What you want to do with me in a large bed.”
“You seem to have enough imagination for us both.” Her voice cracked and she wiggled in her chair. The musky scent of her longing wafted up and arrested his senses. Emotional and logical reservations held her back, but her body reacted to his. She held no hope of denying an attraction.
If he had to use that against her to keep an eye on her, to learn more about El Dogo’s involvement, he would do it without hesitation. With any luck at all, he would be able to walk away before she walked out on him.
He had no doubt that she would walk because she wouldn’t trust anyone enough to let herself stay.
After wrapping up dinner and paying the bill, Ian allowed Kieralyn to lead him from the club. On the sidewalk, he linked his fingers with hers and strode toward home.
He kept to a leisurely pace and split his focus between the sexy woman at his side and the South American following them. The man’s heart thumped loud and rapid like he was tightly leashing violence. Taking the watch-and-wait position he’d been forced into went against his nature.
Kieralyn’s hair brushed her back in a gentle sway with each step. Her body twisted slightly as she looked behind them. She expected to be followed, but she didn’t seem to spot their tail.
“I should go pick up my car.”
“Turn left two streets down. I know a shortcut.” Having her car gave them an advantage over the South American following them. When he realized their plan, he could call for a lift, but by the time his ride showed, Ian and Kieralyn would be gone.
Kieralyn looked for a tail again as she made the turn and sighed with disappointment. She thought she’d failed at getting the owner’s attention. It was a thought that could lead her to dropping her guard—a mistake that could cost more than she could afford. He could tell her she’d succeeded, but he preferred having control over the situation.
“So, what indulgence are you going to require of me?”
He had to respect a woman who would admit when she was wrong and accept whatever price she had to pay. He slid his thumb along the pulse point at her wrist and smiled when it kicked in reaction to him. “It’s a tough decision. I mean, we have a certain chemistry that would be interesting to explore.”
“You mean sex.”
“Can you honestly tell me you aren’t interested? That you aren’t attracted to me?”
“Wow.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He sighed and wrapped his arm around her waist. The man following them turned the corner and stayed close to the buildings. “Though, as much as this may shock you, I want something else.”
“Like.”
“The truth.”
“Ha. You think I haven’t told you the truth.”
“I know that you’ve held something back from me. My indulgence is answers.”
Chapter Four
Each step closer to her car, each moment Ian didn’t specify what answers he wanted, sent vibrations of awareness through Kieralyn and ratcheted her anxiety up another notch. He’d been silent for the last three blocks. Instead, he held her close and kept himself on high alert as if he expected trouble. His body brushed against hers, inciting waves of anticipation.
If he really hadn’t listened to her conversation with the couple at the bar, what had him on edge? She looked over her shoulder but again saw no signs that they were being followed. Had her plan worked? Was she closer than she thought to answers and success? Had he heard something?
Truth. He could want the truth about her source or about her attraction to him. Damn, but she wanted it to be the latter. She needed it to be the former. “Are you going to tell me what you want?”
“You in my bed would be nice.” His voice was even more seductive in the cool night breeze than it had been in the closeness of the club. He shifted a little behind her until his six feet four inches of solid muscle practically cocooned her.
“Imagine that. An original desire that I’ve never heard before.” An image that comes too easily to mind.
“I promise, you’ve never had a man do to you what I would. You’ve never known the pleasure I could give you.”
“Ha! How could you possibly know that?” Ian guided her around a corner and then quickly made a few more turns before steering her onto the sidewalk in front of the NSA compound.
“It’s in the way that you move and speak. Which lot is your car in?”
“North.” She headed toward her car. Ian stayed at her back rather than her side. “What makes you think you’d be so good for me?”
“I feel your body’s responses. Hear the way your heart beats as the blood heats in your veins. I know what turns you on and can sense the pleasure building inside of you.”
As if his words commanded it, her body pulsed and her blood heated. Her panties rubbed against her sensitized sex with each step, heightening her awareness of him. Heightening her desire for his indulgence to be erotic.
“Are you always so arrogant, Ian?” She veered right, toward her car sitting alone beneath a security lamp.
“It’s not arrogance.”
She pulled her keys from her bag and led Ian to the passenger door before going to the driver’s side and sliding behind the wheel. “Then what is it?”
“Confidence in the skills
I’ve spent my life developing.” He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes a moment before he pulled his door closed and relaxed into the seat.
Kieralyn rolled down her window and surveyed the area as she drove from the lot. Something had demanded his attention and kept him on guard during their walk. Had she captured the interest of the owner and enticed him into making a move? Had they been followed? Maybe her excitement and anxiety had been from a sense of someone following her rather than her attraction to Ian. She sure preferred that possibility.
“Well, you can keep your skills to yourself.” She zipped toward his home. The walk earlier had taken nearly thirty minutes. The drive would take less than five. “You said you wanted answers. Answers to what?”
“You intrigue me, Kieralyn Beckett. Just when I think I know what you may say next you jump topics.”
“And you always steer them back to sex.” She stopped at a light and sat watching her rearview mirror until it turned green. Without Ian touching her, she was convinced that at least a fraction of her nerves had been her instincts. She saw no one, but she’d been followed.
“And you only want to discuss business. That’s one way that I know you’ve never been fully satisfied by a man.” His hand brushed over her knee. His lips angled up in a small smile. “You need to learn to relax. To enjoy the simple things.”
“And you need to cut to the chase. What answers do you want?”
“You’ve been hurt by someone. You’re too smart to let a shitty father figure warp your views on men.” He nodded slowly. “You were hurt by someone you trusted. Someone you viewed as an equal, but who couldn’t or wouldn’t view you the same way.”
“That’s a nice theory.” And too close to the truth. Her jaw ached with the pressure to not clench her teeth.
“It’s logical, like you. It likely played into your decision to become an agent, which is a field dominated by strong men. You want to prove to yourself that you can belong. You’re not against shoving their faces in it when you succeed.”
“You’re an ass, Cabrera. What answers do you want?”
“See? I’m close. You’re putting me in my place, compartmentalizing me by switching to my last name.”
“Damn it. I don’t have time for your games.”
“You’ll have to play them a little longer. What I want from you… It’s more than you’ll be able to give in the time it takes to get to my house.” He pulled his hand back to his lap. “We’ll talk there.”
Arrogant ass. Cool air brushed over the warmth he’d left behind, mocking her. With him, she might find the warmth she’d looked for her entire life. It would only cost the control she’d fought to regain after her eighteenth birthday. The control she’d almost lost just as quickly as she’d discovered it.
She pulled into his driveway and slid the car into park.
“Hold on. I’ll open the garage.” He was out of the car and crossing the driveway before she could argue. There was no reason for her to park in the garage. She wasn’t going to stay overnight.
He stepped around the corner of the house, out of sight. A moment later the double wide garage door rose to reveal an immaculate space. It was equipped similarly to his lab at work, though on a much smaller scale and with the control panel along the right wall.
Rather than argue, she pulled in. He stepped into the garage behind her car, pushed a button and closed the door. He was opening her door before she could reach for the handle.
“Come on in. I’ll make us some coffee.”
“If I drink coffee this late, I’ll be awake all night.” She slipped her keys into her bag and eased out of the car. The garage door bumped against the floor. Some kind of sprayed-on padding coated the walls and the inside of the door. They were immediately cocooned in silence. “You soundproofed your garage?”
“The entire house actually. The coating is a specially designed insulation. It keeps the temperature regulated and blocks the outside sound.”
An image of Ben Affleck in a sensory deprivation tank in Daredevil popped into her mind. Was that how sound was for Ian? He didn’t act like it gave him the ability to see, but maybe it overwhelmed him after a while. She almost asked him, but knowing too much about Ian would draw her deeper into his world than she cared to be.
She needed structure and predictability. Independence and control. She couldn’t afford him. “I can see the appeal, but I think I’d miss the sounds of life I can hear from my apartment.”
“I still hear sound from the windows, so the house isn’t entirely soundproof.” He opened a door that led to his kitchen and flipped on a light. She followed. “I would have foregone windows, but I like the warmth of the sun. There are pros and cons to everything.”
“Some things, like bets, have more cons. When are you going to tell me the answer you want?”
“Then you’re taking losing bets.” He walked to the refrigerator. “Would you like a bottle of water or a soft drink?”
“Just an answer.”
He shrugged and pulled out a water. His yellow lab, heavily grayed around his nose and eyes, padded into the room and sat beside the back door. “Hey, Maximum.” Ian walked over and opened the door.
Maximum. Interesting name for a dog.
They moved together as seamlessly as they had walking home. Ian had said they’d been together a long time, and the dog was obviously getting up in years. How long had Ian been blind? Was this his original seeing-eye dog?
“I want to know everything you know about the recording you brought me, including who sent it to you. And by who I’m looking for the background of how you know her. Why she chose you.”
His response jerked her from her thoughts. She wasn’t with him to get to know him. She stiffened her spine. “That’s none of your business.”
“But you’re going to tell me,” he continued. “Start with exactly what you said at the club when you went up to the bar.”
“Ah, so you can’t hear as much as you claim.” If he could, she wouldn’t have to tell him what she’d said. Explain its meaning, yes. But not what it had been.
“I can. I could have heard your entire conversation easily. I wasn’t listening.”
Why not? What had he been doing? She’d been certain he would have eavesdropped on everything she said.
He sat at his table and pointed at a chair opposite him. “Sit. Talk.”
“Should I perform tricks for you as well?” Like he’d done this morning, he commanded and expected her to obey. Unlike this morning, he wanted her to speak.
“You’re a smartass.”
“You’re just an ass.”
“Kieralyn, you accepted the bet and lost.” He closed his eyes and breathed deep. His jaw ticked, the scar along the edge danced. “Tell me what you said at the bar and who you got the recording from. There was a reason it was emailed to you privately, rather than your team or the Bureau as a whole. What is it?”
“What difference does it make?” She recognized the futility in her voice. He’d had sex on the brain when he’d dared her. Something had changed his mind. Something big to have him giving up a sure thing.
“It matters because it’s what drives you to solve this case.” He leaned forward and braced his elbows on the table with his hands out before him. His fingers rested inches from hers on the table. “You know, or knew, her personally. She’s not random.”
Kieralyn dropped her shoulders and sank deeper into the chair. He couldn’t make her life more difficult than her team. She told him how she’d introduced herself to the couple at the bar using Lana’s name and a slavery story angle and how very shortly afterwards the owner had walked away seemingly pissed. Ian was easy to talk to and he’d pinpointed the owner at the club when she might not have.
She’d wanted someone to talk to, someone she could tell about Lana. Maybe he would be more willing to help if he knew why it mattered so much—unlike her team.
“There was this group of pre-law students that I wanted to join. Cras Credemes
they called themselves. It means ‘tomorrow we believe’, and members of the group had amazing contacts and success. I wanted that on my resume. What they apparently left off of their crest was the second half of the saying. Hodie nihil—but not today.”
“What didn’t they believe in?”
“The value of women in modern society. That women had a right to get educations and compete against men for jobs. Take your pick.” Oh, but they had talked a good game until she saw the truth of them. “They refused to let me in, so I went to the school paper with plans of exposing them.”
“And you met Lana.”
“Yes. We put together an amazing article backed up with printed data and recorded statements from two former members. We proved that they were discriminating. Rather than let me or any other woman into their inner sanctum the group disbanded.”
“Really?”
“No, but they said they did.” Which just proved that people lied. “Regardless, during the course of the investigation, despite the pressures from the school faculty and the threats from the men in the group, Lana stuck by me. We got an apartment together the next semester and only split ways once our careers were headed down solid paths.” She was the first person to ever keep her word. The first person to never back away or run when things were less than perfect. “She’s determined to win a Pulitzer for writing a hard-hitting, emotional story.”
His brows popped up. “And you haven’t told your team that you knew her because they would insist you be taken off the case.”
“It’s a chance I can’t take.” She wanted a drink after all, so she got up and helped herself. “We’ve been tracking these kidnappings for a month. We’re getting reports of other women who’ve gone missing, but they’re from scattered towns and it’s taking time to follow up on the leads. I worry that even if I prove a connection and find the perpetrators that we won’t recover everyone.” She shook her head and sighed. “A couple days ago we were called about another one.”
“Lana.”
“I couldn’t believe it.” Tears she hadn’t allowed herself to shed clogged her throat. She wouldn’t cry now either. It would do no good. She uncapped the water and chugged it, washing the tears down. “There I stood in her home, knowing everything she’d ever done for me. Knowing the odds of recovery and that I may never see her again.”