by Jamie Craig
“That’s not quite right either.” Starting at the nape of her neck, he licked a slow path down her back, sinking to his knees behind her.
Without being able to touch his stomach any longer, Remy moved her hands to cover his, guiding them as they molded over her stomach and onto her hips. Her satin skin pulsed beneath his touch, and as his fingers traced the smooth edge of her briefs, a long, shuddering sigh escaped her throat.
“Know what else isn’t right?” It was a whisper. As if she were afraid speaking louder would shatter the spell surrounding them. “Wanting you more now than I did yesterday. I thought being together like we have been would take the edge off, but…”
She didn’t finish the thought. Nathan finished it for her.
“But it’s not enough.” He dropped soft kisses along the curve of her ass. He reached the top of her thigh and paused to inhale again, enjoying the heady fragrance of her arousal beneath the softer blend of soap. She held his hands tightly, still guiding them over her body, and while he didn’t want to pull away from her, he did want to feel the tight heat of her pussy.
Nathan kissed a trail in the opposite direction, pausing as he reached the briefs’ band. Without warning or hesitation, he slid his tongue down the silk, his mouth moving along her crevice, until he reached the wet material acting as a thin barrier to her slick opening. Nathan teased her with his mouth, sucking, and scraping, and probing her flesh through the flimsy silk.
Her gasp made his cock jump. Beneath his palms, her muscles flexed as she parted her thighs, giving him clearer access to her pussy, but the movement caught her heels on the carpet, knocking her off-balance. Their entwined hands kept Remy from stumbling. As soon as she was steady again, she let one of his go, leaning forward to brace against the wall.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed. “God, please. Don’t stop.”
Like he could. He snagged her briefs and dragged them down her thigh, down the length of her leg, the soft silk gliding against her skin. She lifted her foot, daintily stepping out of them and letting them loop around her other heel. Nathan never took his mouth from her pussy, his tongue lapping at her hot skin. Remy guided his hand between her thighs, straight to her swollen clit.
He caressed the bundle of nerves as he took his time exploring her. Slowly, he pushed his tongue into her tight channel, her juices coating his lips, his head filled with her intoxicating scent. Remy tightened against him with each soft thrust, her muscles tremulous and sweet around him, her clit jerking beneath his finger.
It dawned on him there were words buried in her panting breaths. Most were lost, melting into less than the air it took to make them, but enough broke through, taking form to reach Nathan’s ears.
There was please and more and others he remembered from encounters years ago. But her want you, Nate struck the deepest chord. Every time she said his name, her body quivered, sometimes convulsed, always reacted in some way. Each time, her skin flamed hotter.
Nathan’s cock strained against his pants, throbbing with each of her moans. Each small tremor against his tongue sent a quake through his body. Blindly, he reached for his zipper, freeing his erection from the confines growing tighter by the second. He sighed against her skin as he gripped his shaft, stroking himself in time with his thrusting tongue. It didn’t help ease the pressure.
When he felt Remy rocking against his face, driving him further, deeper, harder against her clit, Nathan knew she was close. Her pussy walls fluttered around his tongue. All he craved at that moment in time was to feel her release. To taste it. To know she was coming because of him. He pushed on, determined to get it.
The cry wrenched from her throat, her thighs tightening as her body went rigid. Her juices flowed, and Nathan sucked them down, unwilling to tear his mouth away and lose even a second of her orgasm. Even as she began to beg him to stop, he didn’t move.
As soon as Remy’s muscles went lax, her body spent, he pinched her clit. Enough to make her muscles twitch like a bolt of electricity had been shot through the bottoms of her feet. Nathan grunted triumphantly as her muscles clenched around him again, and this time, she whimpered, incoherent words falling from her mouth. Nathan thought he could torment her like that forever, but his balls were tight, and his cock slick with pre-come.
Grudgingly, he pulled away, licking his lips as he straightened. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pressed his chest against her back, pausing for a moment to feel the heat of her skin.
“Remind me to thank whoever it was who taught you how to do that,” Remy said. She was slick with sweat, already grinding against his aching arousal. “As soon as my brain starts working again.”
Nathan chuckled as he adjusted himself, the head of his cock slipping easily against her wet flesh. Taking a deep breath, he thrust inside her completely, mirroring her pose as he braced a hand against the wall. He steadied himself, preparing to slide out and slam into her again, but her soft sigh stopped him short.
He rested his brow against her. “Please tell me I’m not hurting your back. Because, Remy, I’m about to lose it.”
“No, it doesn’t hurt,” she confirmed in a voice so low he had to strain to hear her. Her hand ran up his tensed arm before settling over his, their fingers entwining without breaking his contact with the wall. “It’s just…”
She stopped. Nathan waited for her to speak, his body bowstring tight. He was sure he would break before she said what was on her mind.
“I keep forgetting how right you feel,” she whispered. “And then you get inside me again, and I wonder how it is I could ever forget.”
Nathan knew what she meant, but it still felt like she had elbowed him in the stomach. Being with her, being inside her, did feel right. But the fact he felt it at all, that she felt it too, overwhelmed him.
“I know.” He thrust into her again. “I know.” He increased his tempo gradually until he found a rhythm to satisfy the blistering lust rolling through his body. “I know,” he panted as he pounded into her, losing himself in her exquisite heat, their chorus of moans, the burn in his muscles and chest, her slick skin, the erratic beat of his own heart thudding in his ears.
She began spasming around his cock far too soon. Cries too incoherent to be words this time carried with every thrust, and Remy’s head fell back, her free hand reaching around to cup his nape. She pulled Nathan down so his lips skimmed the saturation of her skin, her pussy clamping around his shaft, but beneath it all echoed her earlier words.
Nathan was unable to withstand the force of her third orgasm as it swept through her. He wasn’t ready to stop, wasn’t ready to let her go, but it was out of his control. He was at her mercy, and with the heat rolling from her skin to suffuse his flesh, he thrust into her a final time. He came with a deep shudder, his body shaking with the needed, but not quite welcome, release.
Twisting around, Remy sought his mouth, finding first the corner and then the full press as she kissed him with her breath catching in her throat. It was possible he imagined the quivering in her lips, though in the wake of his orgasm, Nathan realized that could have been his own lips trembling. Regardless, the caress coaxed them both down from their peaks.
“Think we can forget dinner and head straight to your bedroom for dessert?”
“We’ll order in,” Nathan said, somehow finding the strength to pull away from her. He tugged at the buttons of his shirt. “Dessert is nice, but we’ve got to keep your strength up.”
Without his body pinning her, Remy turned around and leaned against the wall. Her skin was flushed a rosy pink, the hard tips of her nipples prominent through her lacy bra. His mouth watered with the sudden desire to pull one between his teeth.
Reaching for his shirtfront, she pulled him back, guiding his hands to her plush hips. “Better get me off my feet then.”
Nathan smiled. “With pleasure.” He lifted her up, waiting until her arms and legs were locked around him before carrying her back to his bed.
* * *
N
athan’s cancellation soured Isaac’s already foul mood. Snapping his cell phone shut, he marched away from the noisy entrance of the Barn, his footsteps heavy against the sidewalk as he headed back to his car. Nothing to tell, my ass. Nathan was fucking the girl, and he didn’t have the balls to admit it. Under any other circumstances, Isaac would have been the first to wave the flag and lead the parade. God knew, if there was anybody who needed some companionship, it was Nathan.
But these weren’t other circumstances. These were fucked up beyond all belief circumstances. And Isaac would choose the life of his best friend over a civilian any day of the week.
The girl didn’t exist. Fingerprints had turned up nothing. Every database he fed information into had come back blank. He had gone as far as he could with the name she claimed to have, but everything ended at a stone wall. It had to be an alias, because nothing else made sense.
Her ID card was an interesting twist, though, he had to give her that. Remy had argued more about giving the card up than she had the prints, which lent some weight to Nathan’s insistence it was important. Isaac scoffed at its bogus dates, but questioning her had led to more walls when she refused to answer them. He’d been left watching their retreating backs while they went and did…something Nathan refused to elucidate. Find answers, he’d said cryptically.
Remembering the conversation as he snatched open the door of his Toyota deepened Isaac’s scowl. If he found out they spent the day fucking back at Nathan’s apartment, there was going to be hell to pay. He’d lock Remy up, whether Nathan wanted him to or not.
To add to the confusion of the girl’s real identity were the blood samples Nathan had given him. There wasn’t much you could tell from the quicker tests. DNA testing would take at least a few days and, without any cause to make it a priority, a number of weeks. The techs had been half-assed with what tests they had done, claiming she had antibodies for infectious mononucleosis that indicated a vaccination at some point in her life. But according to them, that was impossible since there were no available vaccinations for the disease. Isaac was writing it off as a contaminated sample. What did he care what kind of shots Remy Capra had gotten as a kid anyway?
Beyond Remy was the issue of Kirsten Henryk. That, more than anything, was why he wanted to speak to Nathan. After palming the ID off on one of the few tech guys he trusted to stay discreet, Isaac had spent as much time trying to figure out her story as he had Remy’s. She was convincing. That was the problem. Plus, she had money. The contact information she had left for him had her holed up in one of the swankiest Beverly Hills hotels.
The only thing was, she was as much of a ghost as Remy. No records with any government office he could find, no credit reports, nothing to suggest she was in any way affiliated with any type of security back in D.C. He’d even contacted a friend at the FBI to see if maybe she was working something covert that wouldn’t leave a trail, but that had come back cold as well.
It didn’t make sense. His gut screamed at him that she was a cop of some sort, and he didn’t like ignoring his instincts. He didn’t want to ignore them now. But Isaac wasn’t sure what other alternative he had left.
Waiting at a red light, his fingers drummed along the steering wheel while he weighed his options. Part of him was tempted to drive by Nathan’s and interrupt, just for the perverse pleasure of witnessing his friend’s lips disappear from how tightly he’d purse them at seeing Isaac. That would be fun. There was also the fact that, dangerous or not, Remy was hot as hell. One more look at her shapely legs could be worth it.
A better idea came as the light turned green.
It took half an hour to get through traffic to the posh hotel Kirsten Henryk claimed to be staying at. Flashing his badge at the valet, Isaac waited on the curb long enough to make sure they treated his car as they would any of the more expensive models that rolled through the drive, then pushed his way inside, heading straight for the front desk.
The wonders of being a cop got him into the night manager’s office within two minutes. Within five, he had everything Kirsten Henryk had supplied them in order to secure a room. Within ten, he stood outside her door, waiting for the manager to let him in.
The room was empty.
She had slept there, but beyond some fresh toiletries and a single bag from the hotel’s laundry hanging on the closet door, she hadn’t done much else. No luggage. No litter. Another dead end.
He took the few strands of blond hair entangled in her brush before he left. He would have taken the brush itself, but with so few belongings marking her territory, anything else would be missed.
“Is this woman dangerous?” the manager asked as they waited at the elevator to go back downstairs. “Should I alert the staff?”
“No, don’t talk to anyone about this,” Isaac warned. “Right now, she’s not considered a threat, and I don’t want her to find out she’s under suspicion. She could be a flight risk.”
“So do you want me to call you if she checks out?”
“Definitely.” He handed over his card as the doors slid open. “And remember, mum’s the word.”
He saw her as he stepped off the elevator, her chin high, back ramrod straight as she came out of the small sundry store near the front desk. For a moment, Isaac debated ducking out of sight, but then her eye caught his and he knew it would be pointless. They both froze. No emotion flickered across her porcelain features, but somehow he knew she realized what he had been doing.
Kirsten was the first to move. Long strides took her to the closest exit, and she was already melting into the darkness by the time his feet took flight. Isaac reached the door a few seconds later. Jerking his head in both directions, he saw a flash of blond hair disappear around the far corner of the hotel, and took off at a dead run. Fuck protocol. He would arrest the bitch and figure out what the deal was later.
He had his gun ready in his hand as he rounded the building, but the night swallowed any stray light from the streets. Slowing to a walk, he pressed further, eyes darting around as he tried to figure out where she was hiding.
He never heard the shot. He only knew he’d been hit by the sudden searing pain across his shoulder.
Slumping against the wall, Isaac fired on instinct. Her gasped cry was the only indication he’d hit her at all, but no more shots went whizzing by. All he heard were running footsteps, growing fainter as she fled the scene.
He banged his head against the wall, his eyes squeezing shut. Damn it. The bitch got away and he got shot. The perfect ending to his oh-so-perfect day.
Chapter Ten
Nathan fumbled through the darkness for his phone, his stomach growling and his head full of cotton. Remy had expressed a desire for pizza before falling into a light doze. He had forgotten about ordering food as he watched her sleep, captivated by the soft rhythm of her breath, the gentle rise and fall of her bare breasts, and the slight parting of her full lips. The spell was only broken when she smiled sleepily and asked where her dinner was.
He sorted through the stack of junk mail and flyers resting on the floor near the door until he found one promising delivery until two in the morning. Nathan began to dial the number, only to have a minor heart attack as his phone lit up and began to howl. Cursing under his breath, he brought the phone up to his ear.
“What do you want?” Nathan snapped, his voice low.
“Well, gee, a fine hello to you, too.” Sarcasm laced Isaac’s greeting. In the distance, traffic rumbled through the line. “Let me guess. I’m interrupting.”
Nathan regretted his harsh tone, especially with his heart rate returning to normal. “No, not interrupting anything except my ongoing quest for food. But, well, what do you want?”
“World peace, the perfect steak, and, oh yeah, to stop bleeding from this fucking gunshot wound.”
As soon as Nathan heard “bleeding,” his body reacted, striding to the bedroom, gathering up the clothes he had discarded earlier and dressing quickly. A dozen questions came to mind, but he
focused on the important one. “Where are you?”
Isaac gave him the name of an exclusive hotel in Beverly Hills. “Not inside, though. In the southside alley. I go back in and there’s going to be a scene, and I don’t need that right now.”
“How serious is the wound?” Obviously, it couldn’t be too bad if Isaac was hanging out in an alley and indulging in sarcasm, but Isaac also had the tendency to downplay his injuries.
“Through and through. Left shoulder. Hurts like a bitch, though.” He chuckled, a dry, wracking sound. “Only thing that makes it better is knowing I hit her, too.”
Nathan paused, his shoe hanging off his foot. “Her? Her who?”
“Who do you think? Kirsten Henryk.”
“Kirsten?”
A tight, icy fist clenched his heart as the danger they were in crystallized. Dull rage replaced the initial shock. He’d be damned before that bitch got a second shot at Isaac, or within a hundred feet of Remy. Kirsten Henryk had been a vague concern before, but now she was at the top of his list. With a bullet.
“Don’t move. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
The bed squeaked as he pulled on his pants. He looked up in time to see Remy turn a sleepy smile to him. “What’s going on?”
“I need to go get Isaac.” Nathan buttoned his pants. “He’s been injured. Well, shot.”
She sat up, pushing the blankets away. Swinging her legs around, she grabbed the underwear hanging from the nightstand. “Is he okay? Why isn’t he going to the hospital?”
“He’s survived worse. And he doesn’t like hospitals. But I’ll drag him into Emergency if I think he needs to see a doctor.” He put a hand on Remy’s arm as she started to stand. “You’re not coming with me.”
“What?” Her eyes flashed. “Why not?”