Say It Again (First Wives)

by Catherine Bybee

  She nearly dropped the wine.

  “You want to work for me?” Neil looked directly at Claire.

  She sat quietly.

  “Your night is done once every dish on this table is clean. You report at oh five hundred. Showered, bed made. Is that clear?”

  Claire blinked. “Uhm . . . h’okay.”

  Neil narrowed his already piercing gaze. “Excuse me.”

  She glanced at Sasha, then back. “Sir.”

  He nodded and turned his attention back to the last bite in his hand.

  Trina walked back in the quiet and motionless room, stopped short of her husband. “What did I miss?”

  Wade pulled his wife onto his lap. “Claire volunteered to wash the dishes.”

  Three people laughed . . .

  Including Claire.

  Sasha’s shift on the cameras was scheduled to start at four in the morning. Instead of fighting sleep and the headache of jet lag, she made her excuses early to find the quiet in her own room.

  She shed her clothing the moment the door to her room was closed and headed straight for the shower. With her hair balled in a knot on top of her head, she let the hot water ease some of the tension from her shoulders.

  Things were moving along. They were on the tip of new information now that they had more names to run through their system.

  Mandarin.

  Sasha didn’t realize Linette even spoke that language.

  Then again, what did she really know about the woman? Almost nothing. It wasn’t like the two of them had sat down for drinks at the pub the night she’d returned to Richter. Sasha smiled at the thought. Brigitte certainly turned out to be a lot more forthcoming than the headmistress.

  Maybe looking into Linette’s personal life would shed some light on things.

  Sasha made a mental note to run Linette Lodovica’s name through the paces.

  She cut the water and grabbed the towel hanging off the shower door. The cool air of the room combined with her wet skin had her moving quickly to dry off.

  A slight breeze coming from the bedroom along with a faint creak of a floorboard caused her skin to prickle.

  Her heart rate sped up.

  She dropped the towel and removed the needle-like hairpin from the top of her head. She palmed the would-be weapon and peeked out the door.

  AJ stood in the open door of the balcony, his back to her.

  Sasha considered retrieving the towel, then decided against it. She rested her shoulder on the threshold into the bathroom and adopted his relaxed stance.

  “You’re watching me, aren’t you?” he asked without turning around.

  Her answer was a long, deep breath.

  He turned, slowly, and brought his gaze up last.

  Shock registered on his face before he closed his eyes and turned his head. “Oh, damn. Sorry—”

  How amusing. “You sneak into my room while I’m in the shower and you’re sorry?”

  AJ gave his head a firm shake and opened his eyes. She had to give the man credit, he was doing his best to keep his gaze on her face.

  “No. I’m not . . .” His eyes drifted lower. He licked his bottom lip.

  The movement of his tongue brought her nipples to attention.

  “Is there something I can do for you?” she asked, knowing damn well what he was there for. Even though she cautioned herself for provoking him, and going against her constant rule of not playing where she ate, Sasha also knew what pent up sexual tension did to her psyche. In order to concentrate, she really needed to purge the unknowns of this man from her head.

  “I have you at an unfair advantage,” AJ said.

  She pushed off the doorway, revealed the pin in her hand, and quickly wound her hair back on the top of her head. “Even naked, I’m not without resources.”

  “Naked is your resource.”

  With a smile, she took several steps closer.

  AJ stopped at the edge of the bed.

  “Second thoughts?” she asked.

  He shook his head.

  Speechless. She liked that in a man.

  He reached for her waist with both hands and pulled her closer.

  She let her arms dangle, curious to see what he would do next without any prompts from her.

  AJ traced her hip bone with his thumbs before sliding both palms up the sides of her body. He watched his own action, lips parted. When he reached her breasts, those thumbs teased the edges of them.

  “I’ve wanted to taste these ever since I sat down across from you in the pub.”

  The thought of his lips on her had her chest rising and falling.

  He kept his hands active, brushed just shy of her nipples and up to her collarbone, her neck. Both hands on her neck, thumbs brushing against her throat . . . yeah, anyone else and she’d have put a stop to that action. Instead she tried to control the shudder of her breathing as AJ circled the outsides of her ears and fanned his fingers into her hair. With one hand, he removed the pin and tossed it to the floor. “No weapons for you.”

  “I don’t need—”

  He stopped her from talking with a finger over her lips. He stepped closer and tugged gently on the hair in his hand before pressing his lips to the side of her throat.

  Sasha closed her eyes, let the sensation of his tongue and teeth move up to the side of her ear. She tried to turn her head, meet his lips with hers, but he guided her head to the side with the control he had holding her hair. “Patience,” he whispered.

  Not one of her strong points.

  Besides, she didn’t want things slow. Hard and fast, that was the way she liked it.

  Except there was something about the way he kissed the side of her jaw, skipped over her lips and moved to the other side. Something about the quiet things he whispered into her ear that she couldn’t concentrate on because he had yet to really kiss her.

  Sasha finally lifted her hands to his hips and waist, ran them down his ass and pulled him closer.

  “Anxious?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She tugged at his shirt, pressed her hands onto the bare skin of his back.

  AJ caught her hands, forced them off his back, and pinned them to her sides, all while his lips moved down the front of her chest.

  “You’re playing with danger,” she warned him.

  He teased her right nipple with his tongue.

  “I know.”

  Her hands balled into small fists.

  “You’ve already held off longer than I thought you would,” he said as he moved his way to her left breast.

  Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as he latched on before pulling away with a bite.

  Her whole body shuddered as if a blast of cold air blew through the room.

  The man had ten seconds . . . ten seconds before she turned this slow boat around. By the time she counted down to five, AJ took the back of her head in his hands, pulled her hair until she opened her eyes to look at him.

  The darkness swirling in his eyes, the way his mouth hung open . . . she liked his hungry look.

  He leaned down like he was going to kiss her.

  She reached for his lips and he pulled away and grinned.

  Unclenching her fists, she placed her palms against his chest.

  Two seconds . . .

  He must have seen her resolve to take charge and crushed his lips to hers. All fire, tongue, and passion.

  While his hands controlled her head, hers pulled at his clothing. They broke apart only to clear his shirt over his head. His chest smashed against hers, she couldn’t see it, but it felt glorious.

  He pulled up for air, kissed her neck, ears, and jaw again, this time with more fire.

  Sasha ran her hand down the length of him through his jeans. His hips surged into her palm.

  “Do that again,” he demanded.

  This time she gripped him, and he had to stop kissing her to hold it together.

  Oh, the control . . . how she loved the feel of him under her hand.

  S
he placed one knee on the bed, then the other, all while working the buttons of his pants.

  AJ stepped back and kicked off his shoes. Slightly out of reach, Sasha let her eyes travel down his chest and followed his hands when they worked to remove everything between them. He stared at her, and she took advantage of the position she was in.

  Resting her butt on her heels, she ran a hand down her thigh and back up. She spread her knees farther apart and did it again.

  AJ shook his pants free, briefs along with them, and stopped to stare.

  His erection jutted out in front of him.

  Sasha let her right hand dance up to the apex of her thighs, felt her own slickness as she brushed against the folds of her sex.

  AJ placed his hands over hers, fingers locked together. Her neck strained, looking up at him. “You’re so damn sexy, Sasha.”

  He kissed her again, dropped to his knees on the side of the bed, and moved his lips to her chest. Still holding her hands, he nudged her thighs farther apart.

  Now this she could get used to, the cool air on her warm, wet skin. The top of AJ’s head as he moved lower, spread her open farther. And like his gradual ease into kissing her, he hesitated over her, hot breath exciting her even more.

  Sasha waited, knew it would be worth more if she didn’t rush him.

  The first brush of his tongue and she was lost. He latched on like he had with her breast, only this time he didn’t let go. She brought her hips up to meet him, braced herself with one arm behind her, one on the back of AJ’s head.

  Everything inside of her wound tight.

  “Harder, AJ,” she choked out.

  Thank God he took direction.

  AJ filled his palms with her ass and made every tight part of her body shatter.

  She choked on a cry, reminded herself that others might hear them if she released the scream that threatened, and rode her orgasm to the bitter end.

  AJ met her eyes, his lips wet with the taste of her.

  “You look pleased with yourself.”

  “Oh, I am.”

  She unfolded from her position, her knees and thighs now feeling the weight of exercise.

  AJ reached for his jeans and returned with a condom in his hands.

  Sasha scooted back up the bed, smiled as he crawled up beside her and pressed himself against her.

  “Want more?” she asked.

  He shook his head, pushed the hair from her face. “I haven’t even started.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Somewhere in the middle of the night, Sasha tried to kick him out of her bed. A move he knew without a doubt was her method of operation.

  AJ didn’t allow it.

  He rolled her onto her side, pressed his naked body against hers, and tucked her into his embrace. Then he told her to stop fighting and go to sleep.

  He wasn’t sure what exactly happened that she didn’t fight him, but after a few more minutes of fidgeting, her breathing had evened out and her body relaxed. The steady drum of a clock ticking somewhere in the room kept his brain company for the next thirty minutes before he joined her in slumber.

  When he woke, she was gone. The sun had already crested the horizon and it was past seven. She’d had a four o’clock shift. He vaguely remembered her trying to slip away and him holding on. She uttered something about work and he rolled over and let go.

  That was three hours ago.

  He dragged her pillow close and buried his head in it. The scent of her filled his nose and reminded him of the look on her face when she climaxed. Abandon and bliss. He’d done that to her three times before he gave in to his own needs. Each time she grew louder, until he had to silence her with a hand over her lips or possibly wake up others in the house.

  Not that AJ thought for a minute everyone on that floor didn’t know exactly what was going on behind her bedroom door.

  He stretched and pushed her pillow away. Ignoring his growing erection, he padded his way into her bathroom, used the toilet, and grabbed a towel. After gathering his clothes, he scurried across the hall before anyone rounded the corner and made his way to the shower.

  A clean shave, clean clothes, and a smile that spoke volumes, he made his way downstairs and across the Thomas compound to where he knew Sasha was watching the monitors.

  He moved through the kitchen, snagging a cup of black coffee on the way.

  Isaac sat in front of a computer, a pair of earbuds zoning him out in the room.

  Sasha sat, her back to him, eyes on the four monitors that had over a dozen camera angles of the ranch. She lifted a coffee cup high in the air. “I’ll take a refill,” she told him without turning around.

  “How did you know it was me?”

  She glanced over her shoulder, then back to the monitors. A wave of her hand at the surveillance had him shaking his head.

  “Of course.”

  AJ leaned over, pressed his lips to her ear as he set his cup down and grabbed hers. “Good morning.”

  She backed away slightly. “None of that. I work with these guys.”

  “Isaac isn’t paying attention.”

  “That’s what he wants you to believe.” Sasha brought AJ’s coffee to her lips. He went back into the kitchen and refilled her mug and proceeded to use it.

  “You’ve been staring at these for four hours?” he asked.

  She looked at him over the rim of the coffee cup. “It’s called surveillance.”

  He leaned back in the chair he sat in, pointed toward the monitors. “I can’t imagine anyone attempting to get into this compound.”

  “Wade Thomas has a lot of rabid fans. Jeb has his hands full without the added stress of us here.”

  AJ looked around the war room and at the lone guy seeming to rock out under his earbuds while the glow of the computer monitor washed out the color on his face. On the main board there were several new pictures, colored dots, and lines spreading in all directions.

  Amelia’s image smiled down from the center of the wall.

  His heart squeezed in his chest.

  I’m going to find out who is responsible, he said in his head.

  “You okay?” Sasha asked.

  “Fine.”

  The front door opened, and Jeb and Cooper joined them. A printer sprang to life on Isaac’s desk.

  “Good morning,” Jeb greeted them first. “Anything interesting going on?” He crossed to Sasha, who was already pushing her chair back and giving him space.

  “Absolutely nothing,” she told him.

  “Excellent. Neil wants everyone back here in fifteen for a briefing.” Jeb sat in the chair Sasha vacated.

  “The missus made some fresh biscuits,” Cooper told them.

  AJ’s stomach growled.

  Sasha glanced at him, lowered her eyes to his abdomen. “You go ahead. I’m good with coffee.”

  He leaned close, watched as Sasha’s whole body stiffened. He put his lips close to her ear and whispered, “You need your energy after last night.” Then he walked past her without looking back.

  In the main house, AJ found the kitchen and a whole lot more than just biscuits laid out.

  Claire sat at the table, shoveling food in.

  “This is nuts,” he said, looking over the spread of three different types of breakfast meat, scrambled eggs in a warming dish, biscuits, fruit, and potatoes.

  “Rose, the cook, said she loves it when the house is full of people so she has something to do. She already started on fresh bread to go with lunch.” Claire pointed to the other side of the kitchen, where an extra large mixing bowl sat close to the stove and covered with a towel.

  “As in homemade?”

  “That’s what fresh means.”

  AJ grabbed a plate and started to fill it. “Smart-ass.”

  “One of my many talents.”

  AJ set his plate aside, grabbed one for Sasha, filled it with fruit and a biscuit. He covered both plates with napkins and grabbed them with both hands. He watched Claire as she cleaned the las
t of the food off of her plate and moved to rinse it off.

  “So what did Neil have you doing at five in the morning?”

  “Scrubbing floors,” she said without complaint. “I was given fifteen minutes to eat and have to be with the team at eight for the briefing.” Adrenaline agreed with the girl.

  He started to leave the room and hesitated. “Hey, Claire?”

  She looked at him.

  “When all this is said and done, you’re not going to be alone.”

  Her motions stopped. Water ran down the drain and moisture gathered behind her eyes.

  “We clear on that?” he asked. He wasn’t sure how that looked, after, but he knew there was no way he could watch an eighteen-year-old orphan live on the streets.

  A single tear slid down her cheek.

  She nodded and bit her lip.

  Back in the war room, AJ placed a plate of food in front of Sasha and ignored the roll of her eyes.

  It didn’t take long for her to start picking at the food.

  AJ sat at a tall island in the back of the room while Neil gathered a stack of papers and started sifting through them.

  Claire ran into the war room one minute before Neil’s start time.

  “Am I late?”

  “You’re fine, kid.” Cooper waved her over.

  “I’m not a kid.”

  Neil pulled a piece of paper from his pile and handed it to Claire. “You’re eighteen, but still a kid.”

  Claire took the paper, looked at it. “My birth certificate.”

  “Appears the administration at Richter is mistaken about your age. You’re not seventeen like they told the authorities.”

  AJ met Sasha’s eyes from across the room. Relief sat behind her stare.

  “One less thing for us to worry about,” AJ said.

  “That won’t stop any legal action on their end. So we’re going to avoid that mountain of trouble by staying tucked away a little longer.”

  “No running out for pizza,” Cooper teased Claire.

  She nudged his shoulder with hers.

  Neil nodded toward Cooper. “Bring everyone up on the new faces on the board.”

  AJ finished his food while Cooper pointed out six new pictures, four women and two men, whom he and Claire found from The Mandarin File. “There were two dozen names in the file from three years before Hofmann graduated until now. Of those twenty-four people, these are the faces of Pohl’s recruits. The ones who took the job.”