by Cherry Adair
“Why do I have the feeling you were the cheerleader in the Save Angela Sidel campaign?”
“There were nine of us, and we all worked toward a common goal. She got a divorce and her ex landed in jail for breaking the restraining order. That was the good news.” Kess wrapped an arm around his waist and sank into his strength.
“Wexler raped her?” Simon asked, his breath ruffling her hair.
“He’d been raping her for months. She was too scared to tell anyone. But one evening I stayed at work late to finish up a report I was doing. He kept Angie late as well, and didn’t realize that I was right next door and could see their shadows through the glass. I suddenly realized that she’d been hinting about the assaults for months. None of us had listened.”
Simon’s even breath let her finish the story.
“I raced in there, so furious I could barely see, to find he had her spread out on his desk. His pants were around his knees, and he’d definitely taken his Viagra because he didn’t even pause when I rushed in.
“Angie just lay there not making a sound, her head turned to the side, tears streaming down her face. Her eyes looked dead. All I could think of was what she’d already endured, and I went nuts. Picked up his complicated damn phone system and hit him on the head with it.”
“Good for you. I hope you killed the bastard.”
“Unfortunately not.” Her jaw ached and Kess realized that she was clenching her teeth. As if he realized it at the same time, Simon brushed a knuckle back and forth along her jaw. “The entire time I was yelling at Angie to get up and go, but she just lay there, stunned. Wexler staggered back, a big gash in his forehead where I’d smacked the son of a bitch with the phone, he tripped over his pants—or his freaking penis—and he went down, crashing into his chair, which shot across the room and into the glass wall. Of course that shattered into a billion pieces.
“Then he came at me with one of those Boy Scout knives—I didn’t realize until he cut my arm, right here.” She indicated the faint white line on her forearm. “I swung the phone again, knocking it out of his hand. By this time Angie was up, and she was hysterical. Begging me not to hurt him. And I’m thinking—‘Not hurt him?’ I had blood running down my arm as she raced out of there as if the hounds of hell were after her. And I thought, ‘Good. She’s safe.’”
“What about you?”
“I was mad as hell and running on sheer adrenaline. He had his pants around his scrawny white knees and came at me with a big brass table lamp, trying to yank up his pants at the same time. I hit him—this time on his arm.”
“Jesus, Kess.”
“I know. I broke it. My hand, not the lamp. Insane. I was so angry I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing.”
“And without Sidel nobody believed you that you were protecting her from rape?”
“Right. She disappeared. I quit, or was fired, depending on who’s telling the story. I was picked up and charged the next morning.” She blew out the painful gust of air trapped beneath her sternum. “Honest to God, Simon, I’ve never lost my temper like that. It was an aberration. And now I’m going to have to pay for it.”
“Unless we find Angela Sidel and her son.”
“The election comes before my trial. I have a two-hundred-dollar-a-day PI looking, but so far there’s no sign of her. And even if I did find her—would she testify on my behalf? She was scared before I exposed this new abuse. What if she’s gone so far underground we’ll never find her? And hell, if I were in Angie’s shoes, I’d stay hidden as well. Wexler will crucify her in court.”
“I’ll have her found.” Simon’s voice was grim as he took out a tiny phone and punched a number. “And T-FLAC will sure as hell protect her. Give me any info that you remember, and I’ll get a team on it immediately. Steve? I need a four-person team in Atlanta—”
Kess hoped Simon didn’t think she was undoing the buttons of his fly out of gratitude.
Eleven
One-handed, Kess spread open his jeans and he sprang free. She murmured low in the back of her throat, making the hair on his body stand to attention along with his cock.
“Let me get back to you on that,” Simon said into the phone, his voice strangled as he disconnected. Hard as a rock, he could barely contain his moan as her cool hand fisted around him. Instinctively he thrust into her hand. “Jesus H. Christ…” He tossed the sat phone onto the dash, taking his foot off the accelerator at the same time. The top of his head was about to blow off. He didn’t want to hit a tree or an animal…
Kess bent her head, her bright hair spilling over his lap. Her warm breath fanned across his groin, making his entire body tense in anticipation. She placed a firm hand on his knee and used a little pressure to keep his foot on the gas pedal. “Uh-uh. Don’t slow down.”
“Don’t sl—”
“Faster.”
The person holding the joystick had all the control. Magically he put the car on autopilot. A hundred mph. The vehicle sprang forward in a plume of red dust. Not that Simon noticed; his glazed attention was on Kess licking her lips a breath away from his straining erection. His heartbeat ratcheted up even higher and his fingers tightened on the steering wheel even though they had no need to be on the wheel at all.
He sucked in a breath as her tongue painted a sensual line from base to tip while her short nails scored lines up the inside of his thigh through the too-thick fabric of his jeans. When she cradled his balls at the same time as her mouth closed gently around the head of his dick, Simon almost ripped the steering wheel off the driveshaft.
His T-FLAC training made it possible for him to see and compute; sunlight spilling through the windows and turning Kess’s hair to liquid copper as it spilled over his lap, the speed of the car, the rich greens and umbers of the passing vegetation; he recognized each animal dotting the plain within his line of sight. And he was cognizant that the vehicle stayed on the road and was heading toward the correct coordinates.
The other ninety-eight percent of his awareness was between his legs.
Painfully hard, balls tight, he held his breath as Kess’s hot, wet mouth closed around the head of his penis. His eyes glazed as her teeth scored a delicate path along the sensitive corona where shaft met head.
Every nerve and muscle strained for release. At that point Simon didn’t give a damn if they hit a tree. He arched his back—
And found himself sitting on the floor in his empty, half-completed living room in Montana.
Alone.
He threw his head back and roared, “Fuck!”
Suddenly, Kess found her nose pressed to the leather seat in a car going a hundred miles an hour without a driver. For a moment she just lay there, trying to figure out what had just happened. The delicious sexual haze left her body like air from a slowly leaking balloon.
Oh, hell. Simon’s defective powers had extremely bad timing.
Pushing herself upright, her brain kicked into gear and she started to laugh. Oh, God. Poor Simon. Scrambling to get her arms and legs to coordinate, she awkwardly managed to slip into the driver’s seat.
“That annihilated the sex buzz in a hurry,” she said with a grin, half amused, half horrified by Simon’s abrupt disappearance. She bet he wasn’t in any way laughing right then.
Even pumping the brake didn’t slow the car, but at least she had control of the steering. The speed and the adrenaline still racing through her bloodstream surged into a different kind of excitement as red dust cut through the green blur that was the swiftly passing scenery and the heavy vehicle practically flew down the road. “I’d enjoy this a whole hell of a lot more if you’d come back,” Kess told the absent Simon. She hoped he was okay. Had his disappearance been as much a surprise to him as it had been to her? Or had he planned it?
Somehow Kess didn’t think a man would plan to disappear at quite such a critical moment. Nope. His powers had malfunctioned again. She sobered as she saw a herd of thirty or more zebra running across the road ahead. Beautiful.
And soon to be very dead if they didn’t move out of the way. She pumped the brake, but kept going. “Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.” She pressed her palm on the horn hoping they’d get out of her way in time.
“You have a thing for speed,” Simon said, materializing in the passenger seat without warning.
She’d never driven so fast in her life, but yes, she liked it. A lot. Kess gave him a brief glance. He had a powdering of snow in his dark hair. She bit her lip and averted her gaze to look up ahead. “Are you okay?” she asked, keeping a straight face with some difficulty. She felt his pain, she really did, but his expression was priceless. Frustration. Disgruntlement. And he was clearly still aroused.
“Coitus interruptus is one thing,” he said flatly, wiping a trickle of water from the rapidly melting snow off his temple. “But I can’t protect you if my powers aren’t fully functioning. And Christ only knows, they aren’t working worth shit. Turn around and head back to Quinisela. I don’t want you anywhere near this damn virus without a protective shield around you. Especially if I can’t depend on my powers to keep you safe.”
Kess could tell by his tone of voice that he was pissed about his power outage, but beneath the annoyance was a thread of…What? Fear? She couldn’t imagine Simon afraid of anything. Yet his powers were very much a part of him. She could only imagine how the unreliability would impact him. “You still have all your super-spy skills though, right?” she asked. “That’s enough for me. Besides, despite the little spat thing you and the president had earlier, none of the doctors or relief workers have been infected. There’s no reason to suppose we will be either.”
“Why ask for trouble when it’s easy enough to avoid it? Wait a minute. Are you telling me that in the last half a dozen months that millions have died, none of the victims were the people sent in to help them?”
“Right.”
“That doesn’t make any damned sense at all—” Simon paused to interrupt himself. “Want me to slow the car down now, or are you still enjoying playing Indy 500?”
“As long as I don’t mow down anything,” Kess told him, happily relieved when the zebras cleared the road ahead. “I’m loving this. No. No one else has been infected. It’s the one thing that’s puzzled all the virologists and scientists the president has working on a cure.”
“Is that a fact?”
The pleasure of racing through the countryside at breakneck speed disappeared at the serious turn in the conversation. “Take your voodoo off and give me control, please.” The car slowed instantly. “To be honest this has been bothering me as well. First, why is it taking these virologists so damn long to figure out what this virus is, and second, why aren’t the medical personnel being infected?” She shifted to a more comfortable position in her seat.
“Good question. When we get to this village I’ll take samples and send them to T-FLAC’s labs. See what they have to say.” Simon reached out and grabbed his phone from the dashboard where he’d tossed it earlier.
It barely had time to ring on the other end before he spoke. “Teleport a couple dozen hazmat test tubes to me at these coordinates,” he said without a greeting or saying who he was. “Make sure there’s a lab in—” he paused, “Make it Cape Town. And have a three-person team waiting for me at my hotel in Quinisela at oh-eight-hundred tomorrow.” Another brief pause as he listened. “Yeah, this is a psi op. Any more intel on Noek Joubert? How the fuck is that possible?! Dig deeper.”
Simon stretched out his legs in the cramped foot-well, and Kess noticed immediately that the bulge in his jeans hadn’t gone down at all, in spite of an unexpected disruption. “Any word on Angela Sidel? Keep looking.” He closed the tiny phone and shifted in the seat, apparently getting comfortable. “The turn’s up ahead.”
Seeing Simon aroused was turning her on, too. Her nipples pushed against the soft cotton of her T-shirt. “Nothing on Angela?”
“Not yet.” He used his thumb to dial. “But they will.”
She believed him.
“Mason? Yeah, great hearing you, too. Look, I have a situation with my powers.”
He sounded way too casual about it.
“Power surges, outages…Hell, yeah I’m concerned. About three weeks. No, exactly twenty-three days…No. No pain. Just malfunctioning. Where are you? Can I swing by later tonight or tomorrow and have you che—A beach, a bikini, and a babe? Yeah, it can wait a few weeks, I’m in the middle of an op in Africa—anyway. Mallaruza. Remember Abi Bongani?” Simon asked with a smile. “Nah, he’s toned down his wardrobe some, he’s running for president again so he’s keeping it conservative.
“Heard of a powerful wizard in Africa? Name’s Noek Joubert? When you get back to civilization would you see what you can find out about him? T-FLAC intel hasn’t found a damn thing. No, I know, impossible. But that’s what we have on him right now. Nada. Sixteenth? El Jadida? Sure. See you then.”
He clicked the phone closed, tossing it back onto the dash. “Now. Where were we?” The vehicle suddenly picked up speed. Simon must’ve put it back on auto.
Kess laughed. “Oh, that ship has sailed, sailor.”
He slid his hand under her hair and closed his fingers on her nape. “Ya think?” Using his free hand, he gently brushed her hair over her shoulder, then bent forward and nibbled on her ear.
“Hey!” A bolt of electricity shot directly from her ear to her groin, making Kess shudder. “You can’t exchange tat for tit.”
“No exchange.” He licked a path around the shell of her ear, then nibbled on her lobe. “Just continuing on. Jumping ahead a little.”
“What happened to my clothes?” she demanded, finding her bare behind on the leather seat and her breasts being warmed by the sun shining through the windshield. “Funny how your powers don’t seem to be malfunctioning now. That is so not fair. I can’t make your clothes disapp—Hmm.”
She cast him an admiring look. He’d done a little hocus-pocus and made his own clothes disappear too. He gave her a wicked look. “Bed or backseat?”
Kess laughed against his mouth. “Oh, backseat by all means—Oomph.” They landed on the back-seat, wider than it had been moments before, Simon on top. “Watch that elbow, sparky.”
“Not my elbow. The box of vials I asked for. Here, let me get them out of the way.” The small box disappeared.
“Magic is so handy. Can it be taught?”
“Nope.” He slid down her body, kissing her all the way down her chest and belly, then kneeled in front of her, a hand on the inside of each thigh. Kess knew she should be blushing, he had her in the most intimate position, but his piercing eyes held hers as the fingers of both hands slid inexorably toward his goal, teasing and seductive, and pushed her thighs apart to accommodate his body between her legs.
She ran her fingers through his hair, pushing the silky strands out of his eyes. “You aren’t going to disappear again, are you?” she asked in a thick voice. “Because if I don’t have one of your parts on all of my parts pretty damn soon I’m going to internally combust.”
“I’ll take care of that problem for you,” he assured her, maintaining eye contact. The fact that the car had no driver was immaterial as he brushed his lips on the inside of her left knee. Nothing mattered but Simon and the delicious things he was doing to her body.
“Excellent start,” she told him, her heart racing faster than the car. Her breathing was erratic and she had to lick her lips to whisper hoarsely, “Carry on.”
She leaned back, one hand in his hair, the other supporting her body in the hurtling vehicle. The dirt road made what they were doing more…interesting. A delicious shiver skated across her skin as he blew gently on her damp mound. Her fingers fisted in his hair.
“Cold?” he asked, laying his face against her thigh. His jaw was bristly, rough against her smooth skin, and his humid breath so close—so damn close—caused her own breath to hitch.
“Hot…”
He kissed the tender skin on her inner thigh, then licked an intricate design wi
th the tip of his tongue—higher. Higher…Kess’s fingers tightened in his hair as Simon licked a path along the crease at the top of her leg. His shoulders eased her legs farther apart and he covered her with his open mouth. Kess strained for deeper contact, and when she felt his tongue enter her, whimpered with the need.
Her head rolled back and forth on the seat back as he teased and tasted her. He eased up just enough for her to think she might be able to catch her breath, and then he’d start all over again, using his tongue and teeth to drive her wild.
He skimmed his hands around her hips, then cupped his strong fingers around her bottom to draw her even closer. “Ripe as a juicy peach,” he whispered against the very heart of her. His breath fanned the sensitive, swollen bud and she shuddered. It was too much. It was too little.
Unerringly his tongue discovered her clit. He nuzzled gently, then a little harder, until Kess squirmed and moaned against the unbearable sweetness of the building climax. She squeezed her eyes shut as he sucked and licked, lifting her pelvis to grant him better access. “Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop!”
The orgasm rolled over her like a tidal wave. She arched violently, tethered to his mouth only by his fingers gripping her butt.
He held her safely in his hands as she crested, her entire body convulsing bonelessly. While her head was thrown back, and her body still quaked, Simon slid two fingers inside her. Kess bucked as her internal muscles contracted around his fingers. “I don’t think I can—” The second orgasm tacked onto the first, rendering her deaf and blind as the power of the climax turned her body to liquid.
“Ready for more?” he murmured against her belly.
“Yes.” The hot African sunlight spread over his head and shoulders through the windows. His skin was bronzed and satiny smooth, and looked darkly male against her own lighter skin. Kess had never felt more feminine, nor as powerful in her life. The motion of the car enhanced the experience. “God, yes. I want more. I want everything you have to give me.” And then I want more. His mouth trailed up her body as he whispered what he wanted from her. What he wanted to do. With her. To her. She strained against him, trying to fit the puzzle pieces, but Simon was in no hurry.