by Avery Flynn
No, he’d stripped off his pants without even giving her a warning to look away. It had taken an embarrassingly long moment for her to slap her free hand over her eyes to block out the sight of his thick, muscular thighs and high, round ass. Getting out of her silver dress had taken a bit more cooperation from him. After she’d struggled to get the zipper down, he pushed her hand away and lowered it for her. All of her attention focused on the bare brush of his fingers along her spine, the dress had slipped off, thanks to the snipped strap, before she could catch it. Putting on a nightgown or T-shirt was impossible while they were chained together unless she wanted half of it slung up on her shoulder. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other as they got into the bed, which had seemed so much bigger the last time she’d slept in it alone.
He shrugged one of his broad shoulders. “I get hot at night.”
“At least that makes up for how chilly you are during the day.”
Now that was a direct hit.
“You think I’m cold?” he asked, the heat in his eyes at the moment anything but.
Keeping a grip on the sheet so it wouldn’t inch downward, she rolled onto her side so she could deliver her next words face-to-face. “You’re an ice floe on the winter solstice.”
“Really?” The air sizzled between them as his gaze dipped down to her mouth and then traveled down her curves, burning a trail of fire across her skin as if the thin sheet wasn’t even there.
Ignoring the warning bells going off in her head, she brazened on. “As if you’re really shocked by that assessment.”
“That’s not how I’d describe what I’m feeling.” He shifted until he was close enough that the intoxicating heat coming off him washed over every inch of her. “Not even close.”
Her breath caught. She should roll over, turn away, stop wanting—despite her every instinct screaming at her to get away—for him to eliminate the small distance between them. But like a lust-drugged idiot, she tilted her chin upward so only millimeters separated their lips. The moan escaped before she realized she was making it.
Desire darkened his eyes to the deepest shade of ocean blue. “There’s that little sound of yours again.”
Denying his statement wasn’t an option. In the next heartbeat, his lips were on hers in an icy-hot kiss that didn’t just silence her instinct to run, but turned it to ash. He deepened the kiss, his tongue plunging inside to tease and torment in the best possible way. The same rush of desperate wanting that had burned her from the inside out when he’d watched her reflection as she’d changed into her dress before dinner, returned with a vengeance. All of the pent-up frustration of lying next to him while she was wearing only her panties stole away her common sense. Every frisson of attraction since she’d walked up the steps of Moad Manor pushed its way to the surface.
Without ever breaking the kiss, she pushed him onto his back and rolled along with him so she sat astride him. The sheet tangled around their legs, locking them together just as the silver chain around their wrists did. She rocked against his hard cock, the lace of her panties and the cotton of his boxer briefs blocking direct skin-to-skin contact was as frustrating as it was tantalizing.
She planted her palms on his pecs and straightened up, breaking the mind-melting kiss while still undulating against him. Closing her eyes and losing herself in the passion and the electric sensations rocketing through her was the smart move, the trick she usually played with the men she dated. But this time, for whatever reason, she couldn’t. She kept her eyes open and watched him. She drank in the sight of his muscles flexing and the way his jaw tightened in a pleasure and pain mix whenever she rotated her hips. It wasn’t just that, though; it was the war of control playing across his face that fascinated her as much as the pleasure touching him gave her. Like her, he didn’t give in. Ever. He would always find a way to get exactly what he wanted.
An unexpected bolt of emotional want slammed into her. Just the idea of what it would be like to be at the center of all that determined focus hit hard enough that she had to drop her gaze. But that wasn’t her. She would never be that woman. Growing up like she had, she knew better than others the danger of that kind of obsessive devotion.
“We shouldn’t be doing this.” He ground out the words while letting his unchained hand glide up her side and then cup her breast before expertly rolling her hard nipple between his fingers.
“I know.” But that didn’t stop her from moving against his hardness, each forward and back stroke sending jolts of pleasure ricocheting through her core.
“It’s just the situation.” He curled upward and lifted her breast to his mouth. “The nearness.” He grazed his teeth across her nipple. “It’s you.” He sucked it into his hot mouth while doing some magical circling thing with his tongue around it that had her clenching her legs tight against his hips. He released her nipple with one last flick of his pointed tongue. “I’d have to be dead not to want you.”
If he’d meant his words to put her off, to add distance between them, it wasn’t going to work. Not now. The draw was too strong, too undeniable.
“Rationalize however you can, but you want this. So do I.” And she did—more than anything else at the moment. The rest of the world, the chaos of the next few days, the danger that surrounded them like a high-voltage spider’s web as long as they were on Fare Island, none of it mattered.
The air around them changed the moment he’d made his decision, almost as if there was more energy in the room than it could contain. With a muttered curse, he sank the fingers of his unchained hand into the flesh of her hips and pulled her tight against his girth so she couldn’t help but feel every inch of him against her heated flesh. When she began to move against him again, it was amazing their underwear didn’t spontaneously combust.
“You like this, do you? You like rubbing that sweetness of yours against me. You’re so wet for me, so hot.” He sucked in a quick breath. “Do that again.”
She shouldn’t play with him, not when they were both on the edge, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to see him go over that line he was always so sure never to cross.
“This?” She twisted her hips, the move dragging the damp center of her panties over and exposing her slick folds.
“God yes.” He tightened his one-handed grip on her hip and arched, grinding against her.
It was good, it was so fucking good, but it wasn’t enough. Before she could even take the time for a plan to form, she shot up and stood on the bed over him. Their chained-together hands hung in midair between them.
“I want you inside me.” Fast as she could, she shimmied out of her panties and kicked the tiny swatch of material off the bed.
The vein in his temple pulsed. “Not yet.”
Planting her hands on her hips, she glared down at him. “Why not?”
“I want to hear you make that noise again.” He curled his hands around her calves and urged her up toward the headboard. “I want to hear it while my face is buried between those long legs of yours. I want to hear it while you come all over my tongue.”
His fingers tugged her down—not that she was fighting—until she straddled his face. The moment he lapped at her wet center with his tongue, she stopped breathing. It was a soft tease of a touch that had her white knuckling the beechwood headboard with her free hand. The other hand swung loose until he pulled it around her back as he reached behind her, grasped her ass and pulled her core closer to his demanding mouth.
With each lick and twist of his tongue, with ever-deepening suction on her clit, she lost a little bit more of herself to the moment. She’d closed her eyes as the sensations bombarded her, but she still saw him. There was no distancing herself from him like she always had with her other lovers. There was something about Lucas that wouldn’t accept that, and it had pierced her defenses. That made him more dangerous. It also made the vibrations building in her core stronger with his every caress. She couldn’t stop the desperate moan that escaped as she gave in and let her he
ad drop back.
“That’s it,” he said against her soaked, sensitive flesh, his fingers biting into her ass and holding her tight against his mouth. “That’s the sound I want to hear.”
The brush of his words against her folds followed by the rhythmic press of his tongue against her clit sent her spiraling over the edge. Her climax hit like a lightning bolt, sending waves of white-hot pleasure slamming through her and whipping her body taut. If it hadn’t been for Lucas’s hands holding her up, she would have collapsed on top of him.
Breathing hard, she sank down, twisting as she did so she ended up on the bed beside him. There were limp noodles with more bones than she had right now. Lucas didn’t have that problem. Cracking open her eyes, her gaze immediately went to the outline of his hard cock pressing against his boxer briefs. Suddenly, she wasn’t so tired anymore.
“Please tell me you have a cond—”
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
“Open this door right now, Ruby,” Jasper yelled through the door sounding as pissed off as she’d ever heard him. “You can’t marry that asshole.” He slammed his fist against the door again. “Open. Up.”
Jasper? Here? It didn’t make sense. Her brain was still floating somewhere outside her body, tossed out by the climax that had so thoroughly rocked her world. Then reality crashed through with the force of her brother’s pounding fists. Jasper was here. Lucas had gotten her brother here.
“You were the one who wanted him on Fare Island, so you better find a way to control him before he fucks up this entire mission,” Lucas said, his voice a harsh whisper. “I won’t let that happen. Do you understand?”
All of the post-orgasmic haze evaporated in an instant as the reality of where she was and exactly whom she was with blasted through her. What had she been thinking?
Her brother pounded on the door again. “I will break this damn thing down, Ruby.”
“Shut up, Jasper!” she hollered. “I’m coming.”
“We’re coming.” Lucas held up his arm, dragging hers up with it thanks to the chain connecting them.
She glared at him and scooted out of the bed, leaving behind twisted sheets that smelled of sex, but not the man who’d helped her make them that way. The sooner she figured out how to do that, the better, because an attraction like the one between them was nothing but trouble.
Chapter Seven
Answering the door with a barely covered hard-on while chained to the woman whose taste lingered on his lips wasn’t exactly the way Lucas had imagined this part of the mission going down. Then again, nothing had gone according to plan since he’d set eyes on Ruby Macintosh. He should be used to it by now, but it still made him twitch. A man had to stick to the plan, otherwise everything turned to shit.
Ruby grabbed her robe from the armoire, shoved her free arm through the sleeve and then tied it closed toga style so her chained arm remained outside of it. Then, she gave him an appraising look. As soon as her gaze dropped below his waistband, her cheeks went pink and her attention jumped back to his face. “Do you have anything you can put on?”
“I’m not a silk robe kinda guy.”
Her lips twitched, but instead of the smile he expected, she let out a huff of frustration. “You have to put something on.”
Considering the fact that her brother was already in mid-meltdown, it was solid advice. He scooped up his suit pants from where they hung over the armoire’s open door and awkwardly tugged them on with his free hand. Tucking his protesting cock down one pant leg and zipping them shut took a bit of work, but he managed. Confident he looked completely ridiculous in slacks and a bare chest, even if slightly more appropriate, he opened the door.
Ruby’s brother stormed through the opening, followed by Sgt. Talia Clausen, who looked as pissed as Jasper had sounded when he’d bellowed through the door. He was a big guy and had that whole crazed, mad-dog-ferociousness vibe going on. Lucas stepped in front of Ruby before Jasper could get within arm’s reach, blocking her from a possible—if improbable, going on the siblings’ history—attack. The move put his chained arm behind his back, but he wouldn’t need both arms to kick Jasper’s ass if it came to that. The guy was as tall and bulky as his sister was petite, but it would take someone a helluva lot bigger to get through Lucas to hurt Ruby.
The woman in question, however, had other plans. With a swift shove from behind, she moved in alongside of him. Jasper glanced down at the thin silver chain connecting Lucas’s and Ruby’s wrists and muttered a few choice curses before letting out with something much, much louder. “What in the hell are you thinking, Ruby?”
“That my baby brother needs to remember how to use his inside voice.”
“Really?” he asked, his voice dropping a few decibels. “We’re ten months apart, so you can stop the baby brother shit, especially when you’re the one acting like an idiot. Do you even know who he is? He’s with the—”
Lucas moved to smack the words right out of the other man’s big mouth, but before he was even halfway to the target, Jasper grimaced and his whole body jolted straight for a second before slouching back to normal.
Jasper slapped his hand over the brand-new, small red welt on the side of his neck and glared at Clausen. “You have got to stop doing that.”
Clausen, who stood only a few inches shy of Jasper’s six-foot, two-inch frame, didn’t back down. “It’s set to the lowest voltage rating, and it was only for a second.” She pocketed the Silver Knight’s prototype stun gun, disguised as a flashlight, that she’d just used to shock him. “Anyway, I warned you what would happen when you wouldn’t stop ranting on the jet.”
“And I told you what would happen if you zapped me again.”
“She’s done this before?” Ruby took a threatening step toward Clausen, had more than half a foot of height on her, not to mention some of the best fighting skills of the Silver Knights.
Lucas raised an arm to put a roadblock in Ruby’s path at the same time Jasper sidestepped in front of the tall, redheaded Silver Knight. It was probably to protect Ruby, but Lucas’s sixth sense said otherwise. Yet another thing he’d have to have a word about with one of his best agents.
“Who are you?” Ruby asked while pushing against the barrier of his forearm.
Like a good agent, the other woman remained cool. “Clausen. I’m with him.” She nodded toward Lucas.
Before Ruby could ask any of the 482 questions he could practically see rolling through her head, Lucas held a finger to his lips. He’d swept the room for listening devices before dinner, but hadn’t since they’d returned. Clausen closed her mouth immediately. Jasper and Ruby wore matching outraged expressions but didn’t utter a word.
He crossed the room with Ruby in tow, the silver chain taut between them, stopping at the armoire and taking out his shave kit from the shelf above the hanging rod. “Look, Jasper, I know I’m not the guy you expected your sister to fall for. I’m sure that like your dad, you’d hoped she’d pick Joey.”
He took out what looked like a smartphone, but was actually an RF signal detector that could detect any listening devices and most wireless cameras. He continued to ramble on about how he and Ruby were perfect for each other as he and his intended circled the room checking for bugs. Finally, when no alerts popped up on the screen, he laid the device down on the vanity table. Now they could get down to it.
“Bring me up to speed, Clausen.”
“Do you want to go somewhere more secure?” She looked pointedly at Ruby.
“Well, since we’re currently chained to each other.” He lifted their connected wrists while Ruby shot an annoyed look at him that did nothing but make him want to kiss her until she again made that little moan she made only a few minutes ago. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
Jasper grumbled under his breath and glared at Lucas.
He did not have time for this. “However, little brother needs to wait in the hall. Quietly.”
“That’s not gonna
happen.” Jasper took a step forward, the look in his eyes just daring Lucas to try and move him.
The ego on this one was unbelievable. Lucas stuffed down his natural, inborn instinct to beat some respect into the drug-dealing asshole. “You’re our prisoner, or did you forget the two kilos of cocaine we found on you?”
Clausen cleared her throat. “There’s been a development, sir.”
His stomach twisted. God, he hated developments.
“I stay,” Jasper said, cocky satisfaction written all over his smug face. “Ruby gets off this island as soon as we can get that chain off her wrist.”
Lucas’s blood pressure skyrocketed. “You’re not in the position to be calling the shots.”
“Actually, the United States government says that I am.”
“Bullshit.”
“It checks out, sir,” Clausen said.
Lucas whipped his attention over to the Silver Knight agent. She had the tense, pinched look on her face of a woman about to go before a firing squad.
“I got back channel confirmation on the flight over here,” she said. “He’s with the agency.”
Of all the explanations she could have given him, that was the least expected. He mentally scanned over the brother’s and sister’s files until he hit on the one factoid that made it all make sense. Rolf Macintosh wasn’t their biological father. That honor went to a low-level gangster in New York. They’d been born in the United States and therefore had dual citizenship. Add to the mix the fact that every governmental spy agency from the Kremlin to Washington and everywhere in between wanted to keep tabs on Rolf Macintosh’s criminal empire, and the CIA turning Jasper into a protected asset made perfect sense.
“You’re sure.” He already knew the answer, but had to ask.
Clausen nodded.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ruby said, her words so soft they barely registered, even if the amount of fury pouring off her could be measured onto the Richter scale. “I agreed to this whole farce to protect you.”