by Katie Reus
He grasped one of her hands and pulled her close but she held up her other hand, pressing against his chest.
“I’m sweaty. I don’t want to mess up your shirt.”
That was the last thing on his mind, but something he could quickly remedy. He stripped off his jacket then started on the buttons of his shirt, keeping his gaze pinned to hers.
Her pale eyes flared as she realized what he was doing. “Just because we’re posing as lovers doesn’t mean—”
“I know,” he bit out, not wanting to hear whatever she had to say. “But we’re going to kiss and you can’t blush at the sight of my bare chest.”
She looked as if she wanted to say something, but paused as he slid his shirt off, her eyes tracking over every inch of his exposed skin. And damn if he didn’t get hard at the hungry look in her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, but not from nervousness. She was turned on and whether she was acting or not, she looked the part.
He sure as hell wasn’t acting. When she watched him like that, everything else seemed to fade out and all he could think about was hours of raw, primal fucking. But it would be more than that between them. Even if he wanted to keep things strictly physical, that was an impossibility with Selene. She’d woken something up inside him, even if he couldn’t define what it was. She made him feel again. It was disturbing and confusing, but he couldn’t deny the truth of it. “Touch me,” he demanded, feeling like an ass for ordering her around, even as he craved her hands on him.
To his surprise, she didn’t shy away. Instantly she reached out and slid her hands up his chest as if she’d done it a hundred times, her fingers gentle against him. He tried to fight it, but he shuddered at the feel of her moving over his skin. She stopped at his shoulders, her fingers just barely settling over him.
Her pale eyes seemed to darken as she watched him with a mix of nervousness and need.
“You can’t be nervous around me. You’ve seen every inch of my naked body many times,” he murmured, watching in fascination as her cheeks flushed a darker shade of red. “Seen, touched, kissed, and licked all of it.” What he wouldn’t give for that to be the reality. His cock ached at the thought of those pouty lips taking him in her mouth.
She still looked nervous, but taking him by surprise, she moved one of her hands from his shoulder and slid it behind his neck. He loved the possessive way she held him. When she went up on her tiptoes, he met her halfway as he slanted his mouth over hers.
He tried to tell himself to be gentle, to go slow, but everything in his mind short-circuited around Selene. Considering her hands were actually on his body, it was a miracle he was even thinking at all.
He didn’t know where to put his damn hands because he wanted to touch her everywhere. Sliding one up her spine, he didn’t stop until he held the back of her head. Her hair was in a ponytail so he grasped it lightly and tugged.
She moaned into his mouth, her tongue flicking against his in erotic, eager strokes. Yeah, this wasn’t acting. Or he hoped it wasn’t.
He grasped her hip and tugged her fully to him as he rolled his hips against hers. She groaned again, letting out the most needy sound as his erection rubbed against her abdomen. He loved how tall she was, her body a perfect fit to his. When her fingers tightened on his shoulder and she leaned harder into him, his grip on her hips flexed. Her breasts were pressing against his chest and the sports bra she wore did nothing to hide the fact that her nipples were tight with arousal.
Damn it. This was just supposed to have been for the benefit of the op.
Breathing hard, he stepped back. As he did, a rush of guilt bulldozed into him. He tried to stop it, to shove it back down, but it erupted all the same.
She saw it in his face.
Eyes narrowing slightly, she didn’t look hurt so much as angry. “If you’re going to order me to touch you, don’t look so fucking ashamed after we kiss!” she snapped out, then seemed to catch herself, her expression going carefully neutral.
He drew in a sharp breath. “I’m not ashamed.”
“And don’t lie to me either.” Her breathing was as erratic as his as she turned away from him to grab her toiletry bag and the garment bag.
He let out a growl of frustration and grabbed her upper arm, forcing her to look back at him. “It’s not shame. It’s . . .” Just say the damn words. “I think she would have liked you.”
Selene’s expression immediately softened, which pretty much told him that yeah, Meghan would have liked her. They were different in so many ways, but they both had a good core, were good people. Selene didn’t say anything though.
He forced himself to continue. “I do feel guilty, but not because of you. It’s the whole damn situation.” Because he felt like he was in a free fall around her and couldn’t seem to catch his breath. “There’s no logical reason for it, I know that, but it doesn’t seem to matter. I don’t want to stop whatever this thing is between us from happening.” Saying the words made him feel exposed, something he wasn’t used to.
Her pale blue eyes were unreadable now and he was under the impression that she didn’t believe him.
That pissed him off, even though it shouldn’t. “You think I’m fucking lying?”
She rubbed a hand over the back of her neck and sighed. “I don’t know what to think, Levi. This”—she motioned between them—“could be an act for all I know.” For the briefest moment, she revealed a raw vulnerability before she covered it up. But he knew what he’d seen.
It wasn’t an act, but there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to prove to her he wasn’t a liar. “Did someone hurt you?” He shouldn’t be asking right before an op but hell, he wanted to know more about her. Wanted to know everything that made this woman tick.
Clutching her toiletry bag to her chest, she gave him a jerky shrug. “Not in the way I think you mean.”
“But you lost someone.” Leave it alone, he ordered himself. Now was not the time for this.
She nodded.
“Tell me who.”
For a moment he thought she would, but then she gave a brief shake of her head. “After the op I will.”
“I’ll hold you to it.” And he would. No doubt.
Wordlessly, she headed to the bathroom. When she shut the door behind her, the most cynical side of him wondered if this was part of an elaborate plan for Wesley to bring him in. The NSA clearly knew where he was now. He was basically a sitting duck. So he was just going to have to trust Selene not to betray him.
Trust.
That word was so foreign to him even thinking it raked against all his senses uncomfortably.
Unable to sit still, he redressed, put on the watch, then did another sweep of the house out of habit. He needed to get out of the damn bedroom. He knew he’d wiped down all the surfaces he’d touched and removed everything of his but rechecking made him saner and kept his mind off Selene in the shower. Naked. With water rolling down that tight body. Covering places he wanted to kiss, lick, stroke . . .
Fuck.
He had to get his head in the game. To think. Focusing, he thought about the way she’d talked to Wesley earlier. It had been interesting. Her tone had been respectful, but there had been a sense of familiarity and almost softness in her voice. Like when one spoke to a parent. The darkest part of Levi told him to file that information away and use it against Wesley if necessary but Levi knew he’d never do it. That pissed him off.
She pissed him off. Another lie.
God, he was like some randy teenager unable to get his mind off the one woman he should want nothing to do with. Selene had the ability to screw up his mission and years of planning. For all he knew she was playing him. So why didn’t he believe that?
He rolled his shoulders as he entered the bedroom, trying to ease some of the tension out of them. It was a fruitless effort. When Selene stepped from the bathroom, all the air left his lungs in a whoosh.
They might be dressed similarly, but he had nothing on her. Like a dying man, he drank in the
sight of her. He’d been right about the pants, they made her legs impossibly long. The jacket had a deep V, no lapels, and an asymmetrical fastening that could have looked odd, but completed the edgy look. At first he didn’t realize she had anything on underneath, but she wore a nude camisole that molded to her body like a second skin. Her hair was pulled into a tight bun at her nape, which made sense. Long hair could be used against her so she was taking away that option. And her stilettos would be another good weapon. Though nothing would be as good as the image she painted. On an intellectual level he understood that was why she was dressed the way she was.
Sex was the oldest trick in the book and using her body would make even the most trained agent distracted. Clearly.
“You look . . .” Swallowing hard, he trailed off as he met her gaze. He was surprised by the subtle hint of insecurity that flashed in her pale eyes.
Lips pulled tight, she smoothed her hands down her pants. “What?”
“Fucking hot.”
She blinked once, then let out a short, loud laugh he felt all the way to his core. “That’s such a guy thing to say.”
He picked up the box with her watch from the mattress. “I am a guy.”
Her full lips quirked up at the corners. “I know, I just . . . I’ve read your file. I expected you to be more polished.” She held out her wrist for him.
The intimacy of the moment wasn’t lost on him. The way they were getting ready together felt familiar and right and . . . almost normal. But he didn’t do normal anymore. Hadn’t thought he could do it ever again.
After he snapped the watch in place, he didn’t let go of her, but rubbed his thumb gently against her pulse point, savoring the feel of her soft skin. She shivered under his touch, her gaze pinned to his. “You strip away every ounce of civility in me, Selene.” She made him feel primal and raw and exposed in a way he didn’t grasp when she looked at him. And he wanted her to understand that there was nothing polished about him when it came to her. “When we fuck, nothing about it will be polished.”
She sucked in a breath at his words, her pupils dilating as she swallowed hard, the pulse point on her neck fluttering wildly. And when she didn’t negate his words and tell him he was an idiot for thinking she’d allow him to possess her body, that primitive man inside did a fist pump as if to say “hell yeah.”
Withdrawing her wrist from his hold, she took a step back. “We need to focus.”
He nodded, knowing she was right. “Agreed. I’m sure you’re already aware of this, but the meeting place won’t be where the actual meet goes down.”
“I know. It’s standard operating procedure for these types of things.”
“Have you ever done one with someone like Tasev?”
She paused, then shook her head. “I don’t think there’s anyone out there like Tasev. I’m usually looking at a target through a scope or assisting an op from the command center.”
“But you’ve created assets.” Her relationship with Alexander Lopez was proof of that.
She nodded and gave him a look that said she wondered why he was stating the obvious.
He cleared his throat. “For situations like this, we’ll meet someone under his command, be searched, then likely hooded and taken somewhere.”
She nodded again. “I know.”
“Are you okay with being hooded?” He watched her carefully, thinking of the way she’d reacted when he’d tried to put one on her. So far she’d held her own, but he’d never worked with her in the field. He had to be prepared for any situation.
“It wouldn’t be the first time so, yes, I’ll be fine.” Her words were sharp and brooked no questions.
Of course he had another dozen to ask her now, but he held his tongue. “Good. Listen . . . if shit goes south and you have a way out, take it.”
She blinked at him, clearly confused. “What?”
Against his better judgment, he loosely grasped her hip, tugging her close. He didn’t need an excuse to touch her and even though he knew he should keep his distance he wasn’t going to deny himself the chance to hold her for another couple of seconds. “If you have to sacrifice me to get out, do it.”
Now she just looked pissed. She batted his hand away and pushed him once in the chest. Not with any force. “We’re teammates. We go in together, we leave together. That hasn’t changed since you left.”
“Saving hundreds of thousands of people and killing Tasev are the only things that matter. If that bastard ordered the killing of my wife, I want him dead and I don’t care if I have to die in order for that to happen.” So far he hadn’t talked openly about Meghan but knew he needed to now. He needed Selene to understand. “So if you have to sacrifice me, do it. And kill Tasev. That’s all I ask.”
She swallowed hard and for the first time since he’d met her, her expression was damn near unreadable. Instead of responding, she simply turned from him and strode from the room.
• • •
Wesley clicked off the image of one of the interrogation rooms, hiding his frustration from his team in the command center. The men they’d brought in from the water plants were refusing to speak. They hadn’t even asked for attorneys. They just flat out weren’t talking.
After three hours with his normal team of interrogators, Wesley had gone in himself and still returned with nothing. So far they had a decent amount of intel on them from their fingerprints and DNA but those men were clearly more afraid of Tasev than anything anyone else could do to them. While Wesley wanted to go hard at them, he knew that wasn’t the best place for his energy right now. Playing psychological warfare with criminals could be a long process and they didn’t have time. They’d gotten lucky with that tip and there was no guarantee they’d get another one. They had to cut the head off the snake. And according to Dr. Schmidt, they had only days to do it.
Wesley pushed up from the computer station he’d been using and stood behind his six analysts, all at computers working together like a well-oiled machine. He’d pulled in his best for this op with his favored field guys ready and waiting for an order. “Where’s the north satellite feed?” he asked, not needing to speak to anyone by name. Whoever had the answer would respond.
“Two seconds,” Karen said as the live image popped up on one of the ten large screens on the main wall.
They were in a secure, soundproof room with no windows and no way to access without serious clearance. There were so many layers of guards before this floor—and everyone in this room was armed—that Wesley wasn’t worried about a breach. It was part of the reason he was able to focus completely here.
He scanned the images: some satellite feeds, other CCTVs around the city, and one was a live video coming from the vehicle Selene and Levi were in. A team had dropped it off for Selene and while she knew it was there she hadn’t said anything about it or looked at it. Wesley had no doubt Levi was aware of it too.
Wesley still questioned his decision to let Levi go in on this op but the man was incredibly talented. It had nothing to do with weapons training, though he had an impressive resume. Levi was a chameleon, sliding into various roles in a way Wesley had rarely seen in his long career. After Selene sent Wesley Levi’s airtight alias, he’d known that she’d be working with Isaiah Moore and no one else.
Tasev was elusive—that being an understatement—and too many lives were at stake. And Wesley wanted revenge for Meghan too. Not as much as Levi, considering she’d been his wife, but Wesley had loved her too. They all had.
“We’re nearing the final turnoff,” Selene murmured, her voice coming through his earpiece.
Wesley watched her sitting in the passenger seat of the SUV. The small camera they’d placed in the vehicle was part of the GPS dash, giving them a view of Selene and Levi. Selene was almost completely immobile, her body rigid as she scanned her surroundings. That was normal for her on ops, which made him breathe easier.
Levi had a typical grim expression on his face as he drove, but his body language was relaxed. Y
eah, he was ready for the op. The meeting place was an abandoned warehouse in the middle of an abandoned neighborhood. At the last minute the German had contacted Selene and changed the original meeting place, giving Wesley’s people no time to get set up in advance. They’d expected it, but he still didn’t like the situation.
“Two guards outside the warehouse. Armed,” Levi said quietly.
“Narrow in on their faces,” Wesley ordered.
One of his analysts did, using a satellite feed to zoom as close as they could. But the angle was bad, the men looking out toward the SUV, so they captured only the top of their heads. Only if they looked up into the sky could Wesley get a good look at them and plug their faces into facial recognition software.
“They’re motioning for us to slow,” Selene said.
A moment later both windows rolled down and they got a semi-decent view of the two guards. They held weapons on Selene and Levi but didn’t say a word, just surveyed the interior before the one on Levi’s side motioned them to move forward.
“Running their faces through our software,” one of the analysts said. “It’s only sixty percent accurate because of the distortion.”
It would have to be good enough. Not that it really mattered. Tasev wouldn’t have men important to his organization standing guard. Hell, Tasev likely wasn’t even here. Levi and Selene would be taken to him. This was the part Wesley hated—sending his people behind enemy lines.
From one of the feeds he watched as the warehouse door rolled up. Selene and Levi remained quiet as they started moving. They went from the relative darkness of outside to a pitch dark inside the warehouse.
Even with the video it was impossible to see much and neither of them was saying a word.
Right as Levi said, “Shit,” the video shut completely off as if someone had flipped a switch.
“Selene?” Wesley said her name quietly.
No answer.
“Their communicators and the SUV are dead,” Karen said, her fingers flying across her keyboard. “I can’t get a read on the GPS system, the video, or the extra tracker we placed. It’s all dead.”