Facing Fire

by HelenKay Dimon

  The sound spurred her on. With careful clicks, she lowered his zipper and slipped her hand inside. His erection filled her palm. He sprang to action then. No more gentle coaxing and slow flirting. He sat up and grabbed something out of his back pocket before pushing the jeans down. He moved fast with jerky movements. All finesse gone.

  She could feel the need pulsing off him. His excitement ratcheted up hers. When he came back to her his hands went to work on her shirt and bra. In two seconds she lay underneath him, naked and shaking with desire.

  His fingers trembled as he brushed them over her cheek. “You are so lovely.”

  The accent made the compliment sound even better. It rolled off his tongue. The intense stare, the way his hands moved over her. She knew he’d laid his doubts to rest or at least put them aside. Right now, right here, he wanted her. Not just a warm body. She knew that was true down to her soul.

  “Josiah.” She slipped her hands into his hair and pushed the strands off his face. “Now.”

  The corner of his mouth kicked up in a sexy smile. “Yeah, baby. Now.”

  Her heart flipped over. Then her body took over. She kissed him while her hands went exploring. She lifted a leg and he caught it behind the knee and balanced it against his thigh. The workings in his mind might be a mystery but not this. Her fingers wrapped around his erection, slipping from top to base. He grew under her palm. Thick and long, she wanted him inside her.

  His head dipped and he took her nipple in his mouth. Sucked and licked until her back arched. She heard a low tumble and realized it came from inside her. Every part of her body pulled tight in anticipation. When he lifted up on one arm she saw the condom in his hand. Not willing to wait, she grabbed it and opened the wrapper. She would have ripped it with her teeth by this point, but it didn’t come to that.

  With a smile he took it out of her hand and rolled it on, letting her watch as he covered every inch of his erection. It was the most sensual thing she’d ever seen. No embarrassment or strangeness. So intimate but yet so right.

  He treated her to another smile. “Now we’re ready.”

  She so was. She wanted to shoot back a response but he started to enter her and she gasped. Her vision blurred as he slid in, slow but determined. The inner muscles stretched and her breathing kicked up along with her heartbeat. It pounded in her throat.

  When he filled her, he stopped. His forehead dropped against her. “You okay?”

  On fire. Ready to explode. Ten minutes from digging her fingernails into his back. “You need to move.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh, I will.”

  Then the pumping started. In and out in a rhythm slow at first, then fierce in its quickness. Her fingers slipped through his hair and her thighs clenched his hips. She couldn’t get close enough or drag him in deep enough. She wanted all of him all over her. She could smell him. She pressed a kiss on his shoulder and tasted him.

  The speed picked up even more. With each press forward, a rough sound escaped his throat, half groan, half something raw and delicious. She wanted to watch him and draw it out but her body tightened. She clamped down on him with those tiny inner muscles and his moan filled her ears. She was pretty sure they heard that one back in DC, but she didn’t care. She wanted this and didn’t care who knew.

  Words and thoughts raced through her head. She couldn’t grab on to any of them. She opened her mouth to say something—anything—and drew in a deep breath. When his fingertips touched her, swirled over her as he pressed and retreated inside her, something broke. The tension snapped and the building inside her let go.

  She pressed her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming his name as everything exploded. Her body bucked and her hands tightened into balls. A heel dug into the back of his thigh. She didn’t have control over any of it. He’d set off a frenzy inside her and all she could do was ride it out as she came.

  When she felt him stiffen and sink deeper into her, she could barely see. She wanted to watch his release. See it race through her, but she could only find the strength to lift a hand to the back of his neck and bring his face tighter against her neck. A shiver moved through him as his elbow gave out and his body fell harder against her.

  She hugged him close as the last pulses of his release moved through them both. When he relaxed against her again with his hands curled under her body and his mouth pressing against her neck, she thought she could stay like that forever. He’d drained the energy out of her and he didn’t look any stronger. The thought that she did that to him, that she could make him lose control and concentrate only on her, filled her with a sense of feminine power she planned to hold on to.

  “I can’t move.” He mumbled the comment against her skin.

  For some reason she found it hysterical. She laughed, a giggle at first, then full-on laughter. She tried to get control but she couldn’t after everything. Not when this perfect moment meant everything to her.

  He lifted his head and watched her with eyes filled with amusement. “You okay there?”

  Her shoulders stopped and she put a hand over her mouth. She wanted to say something but went with nodding.

  “I need to get back out and see what they’ve found. Get Ellery back,” he said.

  Reality kicked her in the gut. Hearing him talk sucked the life right back out of her. A desperate clawing sensation started deep inside her, as if she had to hold on now or risk losing this feeling forever.

  Still, she kept her voice calm and steady. “Okay.”

  “But not yet.” He rested his head on her chest and wrapped a hand around her waist. “I want this for just a few more minutes.”

  Relief filled her. That made two of them. She couldn’t imagine a time when she wouldn’t want this. It could be the adrenaline rush or the danger, but being with him shifted her world into perspective. She’d been searching for so long. Now that she was so close, what she really craved was this quiet time with him.

  In this dream world Ellery was safe and Benton was in jail. In here she could pretend. But the world would intrude and she understood that, too.

  “Do you think you can save her?” Sutton needed the reassurance. Needed him to act like it was no big deal.

  “I have to.”

  Not the answer she expected at all. Her hand froze in the middle of brushing her fingers through his hair. “Meaning?”

  For almost a full minute he didn’t say anything. He lay on her. She could see his eyes were open and a bit glassy. He hadn’t tried to sit up or move.

  “My mom was killed when I was still in college.” He used his finger to trace a circle pattern on her stomach.

  She didn’t say anything because she feared any question, even a hum, might stop him. The idea of knowing more about this man with the bone-deep protective streak, of seeing the man behind the gun, suddenly meant everything to her.

  “I was home and my father and I were fighting because we always fought.” He exhaled, blowing a breath of hot air across her skin. “We were standing right at the front door and he was yelling. Telling me what a disappointment I was to the family name because I’d had too much to drink the night before and acted like an ass in front of his powerful friends.”

  She kissed the top of his head. “As twentysomethings do.”

  “He wouldn’t stop. He trotted out every sin I’d ever committed, because he never forgot anything. I snapped.” His voice grew louder as if he were reliving every minute.

  She winced, fearing what he’d say. “Did you punch him?”

  “Worse, I humiliated him.” He flattened his hand against her, cupping it just below her breast. “I started talking about his mistress and how everyone knew and how they all talked about it, and how she wasn’t the first.”

  She didn’t know what to say to that. Her mom raised her alone and they fought, but normal mother-daughter stuff over friends and clothes. “I don’t think—”

  “My mom was right there.”

  “Oh.” Sutton closed her eyes on a
wave of pain for him. For that poor woman.

  “She ran outside to the waiting car. See, my father is an ambassador now but he was far more powerful in government back then. The war in Iraq was going on and there were protests and bombings.” Josiah closed his eyes then. “She got in the car and started it . . . and it blew up.”

  Everything inside Sutton stopped. Her mind zipped to that video of his uncle. It had to stand a reminder of the horror of seeing his mother lost, of being right there and not being able to save her. That would kill a man like Josiah. She now saw what shaped him and why he operated the way he did. It all became so clear but all she wanted to do was hold him close and help him ride out whatever emotions churned inside him.

  “My father blames me. It didn’t matter what I said or that I went into intelligence work or came to the Alliance to try to make amends. He liked that I changed my name for the job, so he could pretend I no longer existed, but nothing made up for that one moment.”

  There were no words to fix or soothe this, but she tried anyway. “The bombers did it. Your father’s bad decisions made her run. You didn’t do anything.”

  “I told his secret.”

  “Oh, Josiah.” She cupped his cheek as the horror of all the guilt he lived with washed over her. “Did they find out who did it?”

  “They? I did.” He lifted up and balanced on an elbow over her. “I handled it.”

  She could guess what that meant but it didn’t matter. All she saw was the pain stretching across his face and darkening his eyes. “Of course you did.”

  “But every time, right before the shot goes off or the bomb explodes or the knife slices in, I see her face.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Just for a second. Because she was the one I couldn’t save.”

  Her heart ripped in half for him. “You’ll save Ellery.”

  He looked at her again. “I have to, Sutton. I can’t fail.”

  “We won’t.”

  17

  BENTON WALKED around the back of Ellery’s chair. The ties holding her hands behind her back dug into her wrists. More bands secured her legs to the hard wooden seat. He didn’t see blood, and she appeared to be able to sit up. He regretted not doing more damage, but in this case a healthy bargaining chip worked better than one near-death.

  He continued stalking around until he stood in front of her. With her head down and her auburn hair falling over her shoulders, her face stayed hidden. No matter, since he could see her chest rise and fall. He accepted the breathing as evidence that she was fine.

  But the time for hiding had come to an end. “I assume you’re comfortable.”

  She didn’t move. Kept her breathing steady and even. She’d been well trained. Kudos to Tasha and her crowd for teaching the tech girl survival skills. She was going to need them.

  “Ah, silence. Lucas would be pleased . . . if he were alive.” As expected, she flinched. Love, such a stupid emotion. It made smart men simple and tough women weak.

  Benton had no idea if that were true. Reports of his death could be faked but Frederick’s description of the wound gave Benton hope that he’d taken an Alliance member out. Not that it really mattered. He’d flown in especially for this moment and had not been disappointed. Frederick did not let him down, which proved a nice change after failing to inflict enough damage on the Alliance at Iselwood.

  “The silent treatment is not going to save you.” Benton folded his injured arm and held it close to his stomach, cursing the Alliance as pain shot down to his fingertips.

  She lifted her head and pinned him with a furious stare. Gave him the full treatment, flushed face, thin lips. “You’re disgusting.”

  “You don’t even know me.”

  He was the survivor. He escaped the lab explosion and rain of bullets that took his brother years ago. Since then he’d lived through countless attempts by rebels and warlords to steal his goods without paying. He even walked away from the missile Harlan shot right at him. Long after the Alliance ceased to exist and its agents were buried in pieces in the ground, he would thrive.

  She tugged on her arms and winced.

  “If you keep doing that you’ll slice through your wrists.” No cheap zip ties here. The Alliance would know how to break those. This job called for sharp wire.

  She slumped down in her chair. “What do you want?”

  “The complete and total destruction of the Alliance.” Seemed simple enough to him. “Your group annoys me.”

  “You sound like a petulant child.”

  “That kind of talk is going to earn you a bullet in your brain.” In reality, he refused to let her anger him. He had work to do and a plan. Calls for his head over the botched toxin auction needed to be handled. The Alliance would unwittingly help with that. “But maybe that’s your hope. Get me to end this fast.” He treated her to a tsk-tsking sound. “I think not.”

  “Stop talking about it and just do it.” She leaned forward and gasped. Tears formed in her eyes as her mouth dropped open.

  “You’re tied to the chair around the waist as well.” He frowned. “I bet that one hurt.”

  She groaned but didn’t say anything. Didn’t fight back.

  “So tough.” He shook his head in reluctant admiration. This group didn’t whine. He looked to Frederick for his reaction. “Impressive, isn’t she?”

  Frederick nodded but didn’t bother to uncross his arms. “Very.”

  He stood at the door to the warehouse. The same warehouse that sat just one mile from the one they’d blown up so they could grab Ellery. Benton loved the poetry of that. Send the Alliance scurrying and hide right in front of them.

  “Harlan, Mike, and Josiah. They need to go first. I’m thinking I need something big and bold. An incident that leaves it impossible to even identify their bodies.” He walked around her again, stalking his prey and moving in closer with each round.

  “Go to hell.”

  He didn’t touch her because he didn’t have to. His words sliced deeper than any knife. For someone like her, someone who cared about her coworkers, hearing about what was about to happen and knowing she couldn’t stop it should rip her apart. “Unfortunately for you, you were in the wrong place on this assignment. Though convenient for me and what I need.”

  “Which is?”

  “I just told you.” And that was all he planned to say. She’d been searched and checked for trackers. He had wi-fi, cell, and GPS jammers. Nothing could get through. Still, he didn’t believe technology answered everything, and he didn’t take for granted that devices could stop the Alliance.

  “Pakistan.” She didn’t ask. She made a statement.

  A huge mistake. Just mentioning that assault brought the memories storming back. He’d been so close to perfecting the toxin delivery system. That’s what happened when you held brilliant scientists hostage and threatened to kill their families. Then the Alliance came to town. Led by West Brown, Harlan, Josiah . . . Mike. They’d all pay.

  “This is your revenge.” Her chin jutted forward. “Right? Your big play.”

  He was no longer satisfied with evening the score. Alliance had to be eliminated. “Every time I turn around, there you are.”

  She smiled at him. “Good for us.”

  Frederick took a threatening step forward but Benton waved him back. Hurting her now wouldn’t help the cause.

  “Why Sutton?” she asked.

  Benton debated avoiding this subject. Thought about letting her believe Sutton worked for him. But a part of him did want to brag. “She found me but now I’m afraid she’s a loose end that must be cut.”

  “What does that mean?” As she spoke, Ellery moved her foot. Benton suspected she looked for ways to escape. Enterprising though not enough.

  No more. If he started talking about Sutton and that bitch of a mother his temper would rise. He would not give Ellery that satisfaction.

  “You should be more worried about how connected she’s become to Josiah.” Benton laughed at his own observation. “The
men in your group are so predictable. They swoop in and rescue.”

  “Sutton doesn’t need rescuing.” Ellery continued to shift. Every time she talked, she moved. She likely thought the sound of her voice drowned out the creaking of the chair.

  Benton played along, pretending he didn’t see her fidgeting. Continued to stand there, looming over her. “But she does. So do you. The only question is if they’ll be willing to trade you for her.”

  The color drained from Ellery’s face. “Never.”

  Interesting. He could tell she said no but she feared yes. “Not that I would actually follow through with my end of that bargain since I intend to kill you both. Killing the women weakens the men, you see.”

  “You don’t understand the Alliance at all.”

  But he did. He’d studied them and counted on them to act in certain ways. They rarely disappointed him with their gung-ho, rush-in-first attitudes. So tiresome. “Don’t underestimate your value to them. Their connection to you makes then weak and I’ll capitalize on that.”

  Frederick laughed. A low and menacing grumble that grabbed her attention.

  “Who are you?” She stared at Frederick with confusion sounding in her voice.

  “He’s the one who knocked you out and killed Lucas.” Benton saw that every time he mentioned Lucas’s name she stiffened. She did an impressive job of acting as if she didn’t care but she clearly did. “I’d have him apologize but I told him to do it.”

  Frederick gave a little bow. “With pleasure.”

  Nice touch. “See? You’re not the only ones who hire men who kill on command.”

  “My team has a conscience.”

  “Such do-gooder bullshit. Sell that line to the widows of all bodies you’ve left on the ground from country to country.” He opened and closed his fist to keep the circulation moving. “See, your type always is so convinced you’re on the right side. There is no nuance for you.”

  “Stealing toxins and blowing up people with bombs is nuanced?”

  “Necessary.”

  Benton saw the blood. A thin line dripped down from behind her wrist. All that fidgeting resulted in an injury. Not that he cared, but her bleeding out wouldn’t help him. He gestured for Frederick to move behind her. “Check her.”