“Agreed,” she said reluctantly. The nearly thirty skeletons in the incinerator at the Pharmaceutical packing facility was one of the more gruesome aspects of this case as far as she was concerned.
“I’m assuming you know about the Inner Circle and a man called The Broker, right?”
“Yes.” She was glad to be able to say that definitively. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had to claw even that much out of the feds. The FBI was investigating the skeletons and they were super hush hush about the whole thing.
“The Broker is Hasim ibn Armeen al Saud.”
That announcement took a moment to sink in. Isabella felt as though she were falling down a well. It explained almost everything and nothing all at once. If nothing else she now knew why her superiors and even the State Department was trying to push her off this case.
“What about Jabar,” she asked suddenly.
“Dead as of four days ago. He was shot at a home in Baltimore.”
Isabella couldn’t help it. She leaned forward and put her elbows on her desktop. Then she pressed her palms to her face and tried to reconcile what she was hearing. “Hasim never said—nobody—how could that slip by us? Jabar and Hasim are two of the most popular men that hang around the Embassy here in the US pretending to be helping us with the terrorist threats coming out of the United Arab Emigrates.”
“Yeah,” Trapp said derisively. “You remember that thing with their sister?”
“You mean the one where you snatched the soldier out from under my authority and let him go with a slap on the wrist?” she snorted. “Hell yeah I remember. It’s a bit hard to forget something like that.”
“This actually dates back to then.” Trapp looked as if he was about to completely lose it and Isabella felt real fear. Trapp did not lose it. “He took my sister in retaliation for his sister’s debasement and murder.”
“They were the ones who murdered her!” Isabella shot back.
Trapp made a face. “Technically her father murdered her.”
“Those brothers tortured and murdered their own sister for soiling the family honor. Then they killed their youngest brother for trying to protect her or something like that. I forget how it went!” She jumped to her feet and started pacing. “Oh my God I was so mad!”
“For the record, Asif—the younger brother—was never killed. We could call that a plot device I suppose. Something to make the story more dramatic.”
“How do you know Asif is alive?” Isabella demanded.
“Later.” Trapp obviously didn’t want to talk about Asif. “It was an Army captain who committed the crime. The soldier who should have kept that captain in line eventually began working for the Armeen al Saud brothers. He’s now been eliminated. I could name off dozens more who have also been eliminated while working for these assholes. They’re cleaning house and we need to know why.”
“I’ve noticed.” She made a vague gesture to the neat stack of files on the corner of her desk. “They’ve all been recorded, but we didn’t see the connection as any more than vague.”
“Hasim arranged to have Jabar murdered,” Trapp said quietly. “He said as much. Jabar was onto him. Hasim and an accomplice had fudged the books. The accountant found out and told Jabar. That got the two of them murdered.”
“Shit!” Isabella felt like ripping her hair out. “I’m so far behind it’s not even funny! How can Jabar be dead? He was the brains.”
“But Hasim has an agenda. We just don’t know what it is yet.”
“So we have to find your sister,” Isabella guessed. “That’s what you’re saying right? If we find your sister we find out what Hasim has planned.”
Trapp set his jaw and gave her a hard nod. “I’m sort of guessing that whatever he has planned is going to be aimed directly at us.”
Isabella felt a shot of adrenaline. “Then let him come. I’m ready.”
Chapter Two
Those had been were bold words from a woman who usually sat behind a desk. There was no doubt in Trapp’s mind that Isabella was a capable field agent. She just generally didn’t do that kind of work. As far as he was concerned it made her a liability. Yet when it came down to it, he needed her with him on this. Even if it was only as bait.
“So.” She gestured to her door. “What is the next step in your investigation? I got notification that any investors in clubs connected to the disappearances of those women have been”—her expression turned speculative—“let’s just say they’re preoccupied with the IRS.”
“That’s right.” Trapp gave a hard nod. “It was important to cut off Hasim from any American cash flow resources. We might not be able to touch him thanks to our wise and omnipotent State Department, but we can certainly pinch him where it will hurt the most.”
Isabella pursed her lips. Trapp knew her well enough to know when she was trying to decide if she was going to share information or not. That figured. The woman was probably holding out on him and would continue to hold out on him if only because he had been party to that mess with Lieutenant Will Whiteside and that Army captain who couldn’t keep his damn pants zipped.
“Look,” Isabella said in a tone that had a touch of deliberate dismissiveness to it. “My superiors don’t want to touch this.”
“But Homeland Security has heard some buzz about a terrorist threat,” Trapp guessed.
She swung around to look at him just as she was headed out the door of her office. She seemed to change her mind and then she abruptly shut the door. “Look. Nobody is supposed to know. All right? The chatter is really strange. It’s just—strange. All right?”
“We have some idea of how strange,” Trapp told her drily. “Your department isn’t the only one with ears to the ground, you know.”
SHE HATED HOW smug and sure of himself he was. Sometimes she just wanted to scream if only to see whether or not that would finally rattle that infamous composure of his. Alexander Trapp was one hell of a man. He was huge—at least six foot three. And his broad shoulders tapered to a slender waist that was packed with muscle. He looked like exactly what he was. A total SEAL badass. His thick black hair was cropped so close to his head it looked like velvet. She longed to run her fingers lightly over the surface and see if it was as soft as it looked. His legs were long and muscular and he had an ass she wanted to grab so badly she had to clench her hands just to regain control.
Ugh! What was wrong with her? It was like her hormones were stuck on high and she couldn’t get them back under wraps. Sure. She was thirty five. She had no prospects of the romantic kind and hadn’t had sex since she’d gotten a little tipsy at that hotel in Marrakesh—but she wasn’t thinking about that. Ever.
“Isabella, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she growled. “I’m just trying to decide if I need to have you locked up in a tank somewhere so you can stop putting your nose in the middle of something that is none of your business!”
“My sister is my only business,” he retorted.
She groaned. “Yes. But you’re not on that assignment. Don’t make me pick up the phone and have you reassigned.”
“Go ahead and try it,” he snarled. “They’ve already tried to pull my team back onto active duty before their leave rotation was over. I had to pull some strings to keep Romero from being considered AWOL.”
“What?” Her brain started spinning as she tried to reconcile that bit of intel. Who would have done that and why? If she had wanted the SEALs off this case she would have gone down to Little Creek and kicked their asses back to camp.
“What aren’t you telling me?” He annunciated each word carefully as if he were barely hanging on by a thread.
For some reason that only made her want to push harder. She rested her hand on the doorknob of her office and gently pressed the button to lock it. Her tongue snaked out to wet her lips. This was such a bad idea. She wasn’t just poking the bear. She was waving a pound of bacon in front of its face.
Turning around, she faced Trapp and pointed right in
his face. He backed off. She kept backing him toward her desk until he was crowded up against the tidy surface. So he thought she had OCD did he? The man had no idea what she was like. Not really. Maybe it was time he got a first hand look at just how ruthless she could be.
TRAPP FELT CORNERED without understanding why or how. Something in Isabella’s manner reminded him of a lioness stalking her prey. She took a breath, her chest rising as she did. Her breasts gently brushed his chest. He felt the touch like a burning brand against his skin. Suddenly he could not breathe. Her nipples were hard. He could actually feel that! It was erotic beyond endurance.
That black straight skirt of hers was just long enough to cover her silky thighs. Her blouse hung in a very flattering way over her strong shoulders and trim waist. This was a woman who took care of herself. She smelled good and her hair was pulled back into a tight bun. Damn how he wanted to stab his fingers into all those blonde waves and just watch the pins fall out. He would make her let loose if it killed him. The same way he had in Marrakesh.
He took a breath to speak, but she beat him to it. Then he realized that she had no intention of talking. She slung her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a long, drugging kiss.
The action shocked him so thoroughly that for the span of five seconds he could not think past the feel of her soft lips pressed against his. She tasted exactly as he remembered. His arms slid around her body of their own volition. He pulled her flush against his front and felt her arch to press herself more tightly to his chest. His erection fit so perfectly into the vee of her pelvis and he could not help but groan at the sensation. He wanted her so badly he wondered if he wasn’t going to go up in flames.
She was undulating against him. He felt every luscious inch of her generous body pressed against his. His cock was throbbing and he could not think past the desire to be inside her. It had been so long—too long. Then he felt her hands skim down his belly. She tugged at his shirt and pulled it out of his waistband. Her bare palms connected with his abdomen and he groaned in delight as she stroked him.
Her nails scored his skin. She drew patterns and traced the grooves on his belly. His hips began to twitch involuntarily as his cock begged her for attention. She kept letting her fingers quest lower and lower toward his waistband even as her tongue enticed him with her kiss.
Finally when he felt her unzip his pants, Trapp groaned as if he’d finally found the ultimate release. She stabbed her hands into his fly and held the length of his cock in her hot little hands. She squeezed him. Letting her fingers crawl toward his balls, she gently rubbed the soft skin beneath the twin spheres before moving them back up the shaft toward his tip. He was completely insensible now. There was nothing for him but what she was doing with her hands.
“Do you want me, Alex?” she whispered against his lips.
He muttered something completely incoherent in response. She actually laughed. Then she pulled back far enough to gaze up into his eyes. “Then I want you to take me. Understand? Bend me over this desk and fuck me the way you fucked me in Marrakesh.”
What?
There was a cold logic portion of his brain screaming that this was far too good to be true. Unfortunately his cock was calling all the shots for the moment.
ISABELLA WAS LOSING her mind. At least that was the only reasonable answer that could explain what she was doing at the current moment. She had no business being anywhere near Trapp, much less begging him to fuck her.
Damn but she needed him. Her pussy ached. Every fiber of her being was on fire for this man and what he could give her. She was so needy! It had been so long and her body was dying for attention. The kind of attention that Trapp could provide her with no strings attached.
He spun her around exactly as she had demanded. She bent over her desk, shoving things out of the way and not even caring what a mess she made. Her heels put her butt at the perfect height and when she arched her back she had never felt so damn sexy.
Trapp yanked her skirt up above her thighs. She could actually feel him staring at her. Then he touched her backside and she moaned and wiggled her butt. Her pussy was on fire. Her own juices were smeared on the insides of her thighs and she felt needy enough to know that she was going to come just as soon as he entered her body.
Then he put his hands on her butt and spread her even wider. She felt him move into position. The head of his cock probed her entrance. He began to slide inside her pussy and she whimpered with pleasure. It felt so good to be stretched by his huge cock. There was nothing small or weak about this man. He was powerful and when he penetrated her she knew that for certain.
When he was finally fully sheathed inside her, she felt deliciously full. Then he backed out only to slam inside once again. She moaned and pushed back against him. She wanted more. More. More. She craved the hard fucking he could give her. And when he finally slipped the leash on his self control she thought she might die of the sheer pleasure of it.
He thrust hard again and again. The slapping sound of their coupling filled her office. Her cries echoed off the wall and the room smelled of sex and satisfaction. She reached out and hooked her fingers over the far edge of her desk just to hold on. Her climax began building at the base of her spine. She felt it wind its way through her body, uncurling as it went and nipping her psyche with sharp teeth of desire.
Then it snapped all at once. Her orgasm hit hard and fast. She cried out as she felt Trapp straining to pour his seed deep inside her body. He thrust hard one more time and then he collapsed against her back. It was strange, but she didn’t really want him to move. Even with the leavings of their coupling running down the insides of her legs, she never wanted the moment of softness and fulfillment to end.
Chapter Three
Trapp had to admit to himself that screwing Isabella Rockwood was not one of his better decisions. However he had to excuse himself a little. What man could possibly withstand a request like the one she’d thrown at him? “Bend me over the desk and fuck me?” Really? It was like an adolescent fantasy come true. And he meant come in the literal sense of the word. As in he had come very hard.
However, orgasm or no orgasm, there was plenty of awkwardness between himself and Isabella as he took his leave of her office and headed back down the hallway as if nothing had happened. He could actually feel her gaze on his back as she watched him go. It was rather odd. He had the strangest urge to turn around and tell her to call him. That would be insane. The two of them had enjoyed a physical moment of release. That was it. Anything else would end in disaster and that was that.
His phone buzzed. The welcome interruption to his spinning thoughts came from Romero. The man had been tracking down information on the Armeen al Sauds since day one of this investigation. Now they were finally getting close and nobody wanted to lose momentum when they were so close to finding Rachel.
“What did you get out of Rockwood?” Romero demanded tersely.
Trapp cleared his throat, feeling weirdly uncomfortable with that question. He’d gotten a fantastic lay actually, but that wasn’t really relevant, was it? “She’s the one in charge of this investigation for sure,” he confirmed. “What I can’t decide is what she’s hiding from us. I’m going to guess that she’s getting some serious pressure from the higher ups to drop this whole thing, but I don’t know what office that’s coming from.”
There was a long pause on Romero’s end. Trapp had exited the building and was crossing the quad toward the parking garage by the time Romero finally spoke. “I’m sorry. You couldn’t get information out of her? I think that’s the first time you’ve ever said that to me about anyone. What the fuck?”
“It’s complicated,” he said before he could think better of it.
“Complicated.” Romero paused again. This time it was loaded. “You fucked her. Shit! Are you serious? All of this and you go and fuck Rockwood? What is it with you and that chick?”
“Hey!” Trapp put some authority behind his voice. “Watch yourself and
back off.”
Romero snorted. “Yeah right, we’re not on a mission. We’re not on an op. This is about your sister. Remember?”
Yes. He did remember. That was why he needed to stop thinking with his dick and be serious. “Fine.” Trapp rubbed a hand down his face. He unlocked the rental car and got inside. “Then give me a order. Tell me what to do next.”
“Follow Rockwood,” Romero suggested. “Whoever she sees next is bound to be in this thing up to their eyeballs.”
“Consider it done.”
ISABELLA COULD NOT make an excuse for her behavior. She could try to say she was attempting to screw some intel out of Alexander Trapp, but that would have been a lie anyway. The SEAL commander wasn’t a guy to let pillow talk become a weapon against him. Isabella had gone into this thing with her eyes wide open. Now it was time to think about the bigger picture. Meaning that she needed to remember that there was a case involved and possibly a very big promotion if she took this human trafficking ring down.
Promotion good. Trapp bad. She just needed to repeat that about fifty thousand times and it might actually start to sink into her hormone soaked brain.
Okay. Work. She needed to work. No. She needed to go meet with Ryan and ream his ass for leaving her in the dark about Jabar ibn Armeen al Saud being dead! With a determined stride she marched out of her office. Of course this required a detour to the restroom to clean up. She couldn’t look at herself in the mirror. She could not stand to see that self satisfied expression on her face. Her hair was a mess. Her makeup was a mess. She was sporting the freshly fucked look and could not make herself stop smiling about it.
Closing her eyes, she leaned against the bathroom counter and closed her eyes. Why did he have to be so good? The man felt amazing. He fucked like he was a professional. And there was that body of his too! The worst part was that the desk had barely taken the edge off. She just whetted her appetite for more. Now she wanted the whole package. She wanted a night with Alexander Trapp naked in her bed. She wanted to lick him from head to toe and enjoy every salty sweet inch of him. She would grip that long hard cock of his and wait for him to groan before she put him in her mouth. Then she’d tease him without mercy until he begged her to put him inside her pussy.
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