by Marie Harte
Embarrassed anew, she took off the underwear and tucked them on the floor by the sink, then straightened her pajamas, which decently covered her from top to bottom. The pants and shirt had dark colors to camouflage body parts, although her nipples refused to stand down.
“I am such a mess,” she muttered.
Realizing she’d left him out there as she retreated like a scared turtle too afraid to face her actions, Remy straightened and, as Cole liked to say, “grew a pair”. She refused to feel used, not when she’d received as much pleasure as she’d given, if not more.
So they’d touched each other intimately. So what that she’d gone from “come on in” to “touch me, please” in the span of twenty minutes? She was a grown woman with needs. And her own company had gotten old long ago.
With a better, stronger attitude, she left the bathroom and found J.D. standing where she’d left him, all buttoned up, his hands in his pockets.
“J.D.”
His head shot up and he stared at her for a long time without speaking. “You okay?” He sounded gritty.
“Fine.” As fine as a virgin can be after getting her world freaking rocked. “You?”
“Just great.” He sounded annoyed.
“Fine. Then we’re done talking. It was nice seeing you again. Goodbye.”
Nice seeing him? He glared at her. “We did more than see each other. Or is this how you deal with all your male friends?” He saw red envisioning her and Cole or one of the Buchanans playing around. Thorne and Luc Buchanan had a way with the ladies, and who could resist Remy?
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly classify us as friends, would you?” she sniped.
Remy in a mad was such an unusual thing. He’d seen her annoyed, sad, happy, scared—but rarely angry. The thought made him stop and realize he knew her no better than she knew him.
Before today, he would have said he was a cautious man. He controlled his impulses. Yet he’d just had almost-sex with a woman who’d once nearly killed him. I’m so stupid, led by my fucking dick. Especially because I want to do it again. And again. And maybe once more.
He cleared his throat. “Right. Not friends now, but we were once. Hell, I’m not here about any of that.”
Aren’t you? he asked himself.
“I’m telling you that Jurek needs your help on this case we’re working. Hello? Benjamin Carter, crazy scientist, on the loose? If we can get a bead on him, maybe we can take him out for good.”
She gripped her hands tight, rubbing her fingers in a nervous gesture that took him back in time, to when she’d been a young girl anxious around her uncle.
He shook the thought away. “So will you help or not?” Her involvement, though necessary, would also give him an opportunity to put their past to rest. It wasn’t normal to desire someone who wanted you dead. J.D. had grown up since those terrifying days in the Institute. But he’d never had closure.
Now, standing in front of him, was the final piece of the puzzle. He needed it done, finished. No more memories of Remy to plague him. He’d learn about her, see and hear what he needed to. And hell yeah, he’d take her body and leave her heart far behind. He had no need of affection from her. But the sex… He was hard again just thinking about it. The sex between them would be explosive. And they both knew it.
“Remy?” he tried again.
The blue in her eyes called to his. His vision blurred then sharpened, just as it had over a decade ago when he’d been convinced he’d met his soul mate. He watched her with an angry hunger, denying yet wanting the connection, fearful that she still had hidden motives underneath the innocence she projected.
“Hey, snap out of it,” he growled, half to himself. He stepped closer and gave her a little shake, too attuned to how right she felt under his hands. But the shake turned to stroking hands when she trembled. He found himself wanting to soothe, not upset her.
He saw her confusion and the lust she tried to hide. A glance at her chest showed her nipples hard, her breathing fast. He looked into her eyes and saw dilated pupils broadcasting sexual excitement.
No one was that good an actress, he thought smugly. At last he had Elizabeth Remington Sinclair right where he’d always wanted her—in the palm of his hand. She couldn’t help her reaction to him, no more than he could control his to her. But he’d bet everything he owned that his sexual experience was far broader than hers. He wondered just how many men she might have had. With her looks and that fine, toned body, she could have had just about anyone she wanted.
“Fine. I’ll help. I want to get rid of Carter for good this time,” she said in a shaky voice. “But you need to let go of me right now. I won’t tolerate you getting all grabby.”
He liked her so much better with a touch of mean. Her fragile looks combined with that aggression made him want to bend her over and take her all over again. “Honey, we’ll work this case together. I’ll make sure of that.”
The mutinous look in her eyes made him smile, despite his reservations about falling too hard, too fast for the lying vixen. “You’ll treat me like a professional or I’ll let Max know you’re bothering me.”
“I’ll treat you exactly like a professional.” The look he gave her could leave no question about what he intended. “We’re going to finish this. Because no way in hell am I not going to see where this goes. Don’t get Max involved, because you’ll be sorry if you do.” He sounded too husky, even to himself.
“Are you threatening me?” she asked with wide eyes.
“No.” He leaned closer and whispered, “But think how sorry you’ll be if you don’t get a chance to feel me inside you at least once. I’m a lot bigger than my fingers, Remy. I’ll make you come even harder next time.”
He pulled back, pleased at the dazed expression on her face. “But the other matter that needs addressing… You have to tell Max what you just told me about the night you left. I think we all need to review just how big a threat Carter is now.”
She surprised him by nodding. “On that we agree. I won’t let him dictate my actions, not any longer.” Then she gave him a funny look he couldn’t decipher, one that made his insides burn. “And J.D.?” she asked, using his name as if for the first time. “We’re not finishing a damn thing until we get a few misconceptions straightened out.”
“Whatever you say, honey,” he patronized. For some reason, annoying her turned him on a hell of a lot more than seducing her. Prickly and aggravated, she seemed more…real. And he wanted to look into the true soul of Remy Davis the next time she held his naked cock in her hands.
Her cheeks flushed and she took on a militant stance. “I think you should leave.” She looked at the door.
He pulled back from her and readjusted himself, no longer wanting to hide what she did to him. Because in arousing him, she aroused herself. He could feel the pulsing attraction throbbing in the currents between them. “I’ll see you on Monday. Oh, and don’t bother wearing a bra to work. Not on my account.”
“Shut up.” She fumed.
He glanced at his watch. “You might want to call Max. He seemed pretty worried about you. I’ve been warned not to bother you by Jurek, Max and Cole.”
“And yet here you are.” She placed her hands on her hips and he thought she looked adorable in her annoyance.
He cleared his throat and continued, “Before he sends someone after you, let him know you’re okay. He likes to worry.”
“I know Max,” she snapped. “Don’t tell me what to do.” Her blue eyes flashed.
After one more glance at her from head to toe, lingering on her breasts, he slowly turned and walked out the door, not surprised to feel a small push of energy move through him even as it warmed him with her touch.
Remy swore up and down after slamming the door behind him. She kept reminding herself he had a new name and a new life. For all she knew, he might have a girlfriend. Or heck, a wife. She froze at the thought, then remembered what she knew of Jurek Westlake’s top employees from the records she’d g
lanced over. No, no wife for J.D. Morgan. But a girlfriend?
She didn’t think he’d cheat, but did she really know him? Just because they’d once been close, sharing a common enemy, didn’t mean he hadn’t changed considerably in the years since. I mean, he never kissed me like that before. Or had me hold his cock.
Just thinking about what she’d done aroused her all over again. Her skin still tingled from his touch.
In all the years that she’d been free, she’d dated sparingly. She’d been kissed, even been lightly petted by a few men, but never to such an extent as today. She’d wondered about sex often, had read a ton of books and seen it at the movies and, yes, online. But she’d never had a close enough friend to question about such matters. Like what it really felt like to have a man put his hands all over—or inside—one’s body.
She wondered if J.D. had been able to tell her inexperience. She prayed not. She needed to be strong around him. Pity didn’t sit well with her, and though she’d seen compassion in his gaze when she’d mentioned living on the run, he hadn’t treated her like a fragile child afterward.
It was important he see her as an equal, or even a threat. She wouldn’t be less, she couldn’t be. Not after suffering so many years of loneliness and knowing the agony of being hunted and unsure. He didn’t need to know about her grief. Better he see her as a possible danger than a woman to be pitied.
“Oh hell. Who cares what he thinks? You have better things to do today than dwell on J. D.”
After a lengthy shower, she felt more refreshed. She counted the spring in her step as a positive movement toward reinventing herself. A sign she was back to being the take-charge woman she wanted to be and not a pawn of science gone way wrong.
As she took care of her weekend chores, she resolved to find Carter and finally deal with him. In the meantime, she’d have to keep up her guard against J.D. He fully intended to sleep with her. He’d all but declared sexual war. Apparent moron that she was, she couldn’t help wanting him back.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Yet her body still throbbed with remembrance of what he’d done. She knew sex without care would hurt her, especially with a man she was battling not to love anymore. But heck, who knew that once the floodgates on her desire had opened, she’d be so hard-pressed to close them again?
She finished scrubbing out her spotless refrigerator and wiped sweat from her forehead. Resolved, she promised herself, “Not in this lifetime, buddy. I’m no one’s doormat. No matter how sexy, gorgeous or hot you are.”
Chapter Five
Monday afternoon, sitting in the conference room with Cole while they waited for Max, Jurek and J.D. to join them, Remy continued to remind herself that she and J.D. shared a complicated past. Once friends, now wary acquaintances. He held a grudge and she came with serious baggage. Nothing more would come of their association. Nothing could happen between them, not if she wanted to maintain her sanity. But her virginity?
She flushed, glad none of the mind readers were in residence.
A little more time alone with J.D. and she might have lost more than sense. He baffled her, because she’d been around handsome men before. Heck, since she’d been working at Buchanan Investigations, she’d been surrounded by them. The Buchanans and Cole had looks, intelligence, psychic ability, and treated her with respect. Perfect men with which to have an affair. So why, in the year and a half she’d been here, hadn’t she felt anything for them? No sordid history to muck the waters. No expectations for long term other than pleasure.
A side glance at Cole reminded her of a friendly peck on the cheek he’d given her a few weeks ago. It had been surprising and somewhat sexy. Unfortunately, it didn’t come close to making her light up like the candle J.D. had fire-started Saturday. But maybe if Cole really put his mind to it, he could rev her up.
He sat next to her, his brow furrowed as he contemplated the documents in front of him. Cole had always maintained the distance she’d wanted. But she needed to come out of her shell. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if perhaps J.D. had released her long-dormant sensuality.
“Something wrong?” Cole asked without looking at her.
She wondered how to answer him.
He glanced up and raised an eyebrow in question. When his gaze moved from her eyes to her lips, then darkened, she smiled.
This might not be as difficult as she’d imagined.
“Um, Cole? I was wondering about something. A few weeks ago, you kissed me. I know, it was a friendly kiss. Meaningless.”
“A kiss always means something.” He winked.
She chuckled, at ease with him, like normal. “Well, I was thinking. Maybe we could do it again?”
He turned his entire body to face her, his deep-green eyes burning with intensity. His voice deepened. “Oh?”
To her surprise, he sounded…sexy.
She swallowed hard. “Yeah. Like, we could go out on a da—”
J.D. entered the room in front of Max and Jurek. Seeing her and Cole sitting close, he stopped in his tracks and frowned. “What’s going on?”
Cole turned to him and smiled. His welcoming grin warranted caution, because even Remy saw the challenge in it. Then he blatantly scooted his chair closer to her. “J.D. Hey, Jurek, Max.”
J.D. continued to scowl at them and sat across the table so that he faced them head-on.
She wanted to hug Cole. How better to show J.D. the other day meant nothing than to feign a relationship with someone else? Childish, yes, but Cole seemed to have no problem acting as a buffer. And, dear God, she needed one, because her libido cranked from zero to sixty at just a glance at J.D.’s mouth. She rationalized that it would be smarter all around if she and J.D. avoided each other. They could work together, but anything more personal would invite trouble.
Max and Jurek exchanged pleasantries with her and Cole, then sat down and started the meeting.
“Remy, you know why we need you here.” Max nodded to the folder in front of her. The same material J.D. had covered on Saturday lay in the file Max had handed her earlier this morning.
She and Max had had a long talk earlier about that last night in the lab. She nodded. “I’ll do my best to tell you everything I know about Benjamin Carter and the Institute.”
“Excellent.” Jurek seemed pleased. “I’ve arranged for J.D. and Hunter to pay our client—Mr. Brooks—a visit later this week. You have the information we’ve compiled in front of you. It’s not much, but the description of the man Brooks has been funding sounds like Benjamin Carter.”
Remy glanced through the folder in front of her while Jurek continued to talk about his client and their doubts about Brooks’s sincerity.
After thinking on it and making a decision, she spoke. “I think it’s more than possible that your Lee Brooks is pretending to need help in order to get a few psychics on his payroll. They’ll mysteriously disappear, only to fall into Carter’s hands.”
She took a deep breath and offered the only choice to close a lid on Carter forever. “But I think I should be the one to see Brooks, not Hunter or J.D. It’s me he really wants. Why not dangle the bait so you can grab him when, not if, he shows?”
The room stilled. She locked gazes with J.D. and couldn’t look away, curious as to the sudden blankness of his expression.
He and Cole spoke at the same time.
“No way.”
“Absolutely not.”
J.D. frowned at Cole. “Do you mind?” he asked icily. “I have more experience with Carter than you do.”
Cole, unperturbed, bit back, “Maybe so, but you’re also too close to this case to think rationally.”
Before they could turn this into an argument, Remy interrupted. She had more to lose than anyone if this went bad. “Excuse me, but I know Carter better than anyone here.” She swallowed the memories before they overwhelmed her. “I know exactly what he’s capable of doing.”
“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t be there,” J.D. growled. “It’s too dange
rous. You’re an IT rep, for God’s sake. Not a field operative.”
Cole chuckled. “That’s rich. You just started in the field not that long ago yourself. Just lost your pocket protector, to hear Hunter tell it.”
Hunter Greye, once a stellar agent for Westlake, now contracted his services to both Westlake and Buchanan Investigations. The man had married Max’s other niece, Cole’s sister, Alex. The ties that bind, she thought with a droll humor, wondering how tight J.D. and Hunter were.
J.D. flushed. “Hunter’s head is up his own ass since he married your sister. What the hell does he know?”
Cole shrugged. “Hey, I’m just saying what I’ve heard.”
“Bullshit.” J.D.’s eyes gleamed, the blue growing brighter as his energy licked at Remy’s.
“Besides, what do you care if she goes or not?” Cole asked. “She’s the one that almost got you killed, right?” He turned to Jurek. “Isn’t that what you said?”
So much for the Westlake pledge of confidentiality.
Remy grimaced at Cole’s thoughtless words. She and J.D. had seemed to overcome a major obstacle the other day, at least enough that J.D. no longer tried to put an end to her existence. And now Cole threw all that animosity right back into play with a casual remark.
But instead of lashing out, J.D. cocked his head. “Okay Sainte, what’s your game?”
“Damned if I know what you’re talking about.”
Remy wished they’d bring the matter back to Carter. It was hard enough to deal with the idea of being near her uncle again. She could have done without this drama. Surprised Max and Jurek let it continue without stepping in, she glanced at her boss and saw him watching his nephew with a crooked grin.
When he noticed her looking at him, he wiped the smile from his face and cleared his throat. “Okay, you two. Enough. In case you’ve forgotten, Jurek and I run the show.” He glanced at Jurek. “We need to send our MVPs on this one.”