by Lora Leigh
“Let me watch.” The order in his tone throbbed beneath the lust as he gripped her wrist and pushed her hand back to her thighs. “Let me watch you play with your pretty pussy, baby. I want to see it. Every stroke, every soft caress of your fingers.”
Let him watch? Let him see the agonizing need tearing through her as her fingers played against her clit?
He went to his knees, and she admitted in that moment that she would do whatever he needed her to do. Whatever he wanted her to do.
One powerful hand gripped her knee, lifting it and guiding it over the arm of the chair as he continued pressing her fingers against her pussy until they moved.
She found her clit again, her head digging into the back of the chair as she felt herself rapidly flying into the center of the sensual, sexual vortex he was building inside her.
His gaze became darker, yet more brilliant, his expression more savage as a reddish flush stained his sun-darkened face and his lips appeared more sensual, with a hungry curve.
“Oh yeah,” he breathed out roughly, his eyes centered on her fingers as she circled her clit slowly. “Show me how you make your pretty clit swell, baby.”
The hard bud pulsed and tightened further as Tehya felt her breathing escalate. The room suddenly became hotter, steamier with lust as his fingers slid up her thighs and parted the swollen folds of her pussy.
Sensation electrified her. It whipped through the sensitive bundle of nerves and left her gasping for breath as excitement tightened through her.
As his head lowered, his lashes lifting to stare back at her, she watched, entranced, as he licked through the saturated flesh, a low hum of enjoyment vibrating against her flesh.
Tehya jolted, a fractured cry parting her lips and she swore she lost her breath for precious seconds. Her hips arched forward, driving his tongue closer to the aching entrance to her cunt.
“I need you,” she whispered, desperate for him, needing him now in ways she hadn’t before.
Each time the pleasure seemed to be higher, hotter. It whipped around her with such incredible intensity that she wondered if she could possibly live without him or his touch now.
“Don’t stop.” His hand caught her wrist as her strokes eased, pressing them back to her flesh. “Let me watch you come, Tey. I want to see it.”
The silky slide of her juices was caught by his fingers before he stroked the clenched opening, then with two fingers, began to penetrate the tender tissue. He parted her flesh, working inside her as her fingers began to move more quickly, more firmly against the sensitive bud now burning with the need for release.
“God, yes, Tey,” he groaned as his fingers stretched her slowly, thrusting inside her with slow, deliberate movements. “Come for me baby. Let me see you.…”
“Jordan,” she cried out his name, jerking as her body tensed, tightened, and began to shudder with the orgasm suddenly tearing through her.
She was only dimly aware of his fingers sliding completely from her. She wasn’t given a chance to miss them. In the next second he was stretching her further, the intimate flesh of her cunt burning with the sudden intrusion of his cock impaling her with strong, heavy thrusts.
Her lashes lifted as her hands moved with drugged weakness, her fingers gripping the strength of his biceps as his hips surged between her thighs.
The feel of his cock rasping over ultrasensitive tissue, stretching, creating a friction and pressure that sent electric surges of pure sensation tearing through her senses was almost too much to bear. Rapture exploded through her. Tender nerve endings flared with each pulse of her release as her pussy clamped down on his cock as though fighting to hold him inside.
Until he thrust in deep, his body arching, and the feel of his release suddenly spurting inside her intensified those last surging sensations rocketing through her womb.
His head fell to her shoulder, his mouth pressing to it for a second before they parted, allowing his lips to grip her flesh as a harsh male groan tore from his chest.
His pleasure combined with hers, whipping through her senses until she swore she could feel him moving through her soul, possessing her, owning her as nothing or no one else ever could have.
For Jordan, it was like suddenly waking. A part of him that he had never known existed flared to life. With his eyes closed, his teeth gripping her flesh, the taste of her, the scent of her overriding his senses, he knew some integral part of him had changed forever.
And it had happened the moment he saw her sitting before the window as though daring her enemies to strike.
The last ecstatic pulses of his release left him weak, pressed against her, fighting to catch his breath. It left him wondering at the sudden aura of contentment, of satisfaction that raced through his mind.
This was a part of pleasure he had never known before. It was an intimacy he couldn’t have imagined existed.
The last surge of release shuddered through him as reality began to slip past the overwhelming sensations that had surrounded him.
Tehya rested against him, her arms draped over his shoulders, her breathing just as hard, just as rough as his own. Sprawled against the back of the chair, she held him to her, bonds of silk and feminine warmth locking him in place more tightly than chains ever could.
Moving wasn’t something he wanted to do, it was something he made himself do. That inner voice of warning was screaming at him, alarms clashing inside his head at the realization that this one woman was beginning to mean more than any other in the past.
“Don’t leave me yet,” she whispered, the desperate plea in the words tearing through him.
“I’m not going anywhere without you, baby.” As his flesh pulled free of hers and he rose to his feet, it was only to bend to her and lift her in his arms.
Cradling her against his chest, Jordan moved to the carefully turned-down bed and laid her in the center of the soft mattress before removing the rest of his clothing, her gown, and climbing in beside her.
There was no hesitation as she moved into his arms, her head lying against his chest as masses of red-gold curls spilled over his arm and stomach. The warmth of it was like silken chains wrapping around him, holding him in place.
God, what would he do without her?
For the barest second, his breathing paused at the thought. There had never been anyone in his life that he didn’t think he could survive without, until now. And that was terrifying.
“Did you follow them?” Her soft voice pierced him with the underlying fear he sensed in it.
“We followed them,” he answered as he smoothed his hand down her hair, finally allowing his fingers to tangle into the curls that lay over his stomach.
He didn’t want to talk about this. He knew the past was coming back to haunt her, that Gregor Ascarti had been one of the demons who had chased her since she was a child. One that refused to die.
“What aren’t you wanting to tell me, Jordan?” The fear was gone. There was an edge of steel in her voice now, a determination he didn’t particularly want to hear.
“Just lie here with me for a while, Tey,” he sighed. “Let me just hold you for a minute.”
He didn’t want to do this to her. Telling her Ascarti was still alive would be nearly as bad as telling her Sorrel himself had risen from the grave.
“Senator Stanton has been on the phone with Elite Ops Command,” she said, her voice quiet as she spoke of the shadowed group that governed the private multinational group they had been a part of. “He’s trying to get a team out here to back you.”
Jordan shook his head. “We have the backup team, Tehya. I don’t need, nor do I want an Elite Ops team on this.”
Hell, this was just what he needed, having his plans hijacked by a team that would do nothing more than clutter up the protection he’d placed around Tehya.
“Perhaps you should talk to him then,” she suggested, the noncommittal tone of her voice causing him to wince.
That was the tone she adopted when she knew he
wasn’t telling her everything. When she knew he had one of his backup plans in progress and hadn’t told her or the team.
“Perhaps,” he answered as he frowned up at the ceiling. “The thing about the senator is that if I tell him to pull back, then, like you, he’s going to know there’s more going on than he’s aware of. And the senator being the senator, he is going to apprise the committee. Then they’re going to get their heads together and attempt to lay insurance that their ass is covered, forgetting in the process that I’m rather good at covering all our asses.”
She was silent for long moments before he felt her breath whisper over his chest.
“Tell me who you saw, Jordan.”
Keeping it from her wasn’t fair. She deserved to know, but hell if he wanted to see the shadows in her eyes after he told her.
“Jordan?” Tension filled the room, as did the memory of the girl he had met eight years before.
Eyes too big for her pale face. Hair that had been darkened from its natural color. And in those eyes, he had seen the fear, the courage, and the hopelessness she had begun feeling.
“It was Ascarti, Tehya. It was Gregor Ascarti.”
CHAPTER 18
Gregor Ascarti.
He was a child’s bogeyman. He was the voice from the dark whispering her name with vicious amusement.
Come out, come out wherever you are, little girl. Daddy’s waiting. But first Uncle Gregor gets a sweet taste of you … and then laughter. That evil, demonic sound that she remembered echoing through her head as Boyd covered her mouth with his large hand, covered her young body with his own, and fought to protect her the only way he knew how.
The night they had been forced to run, they had nearly been caught. Tehya had been only twelve, gangly, always nervous, always certain the bogeyman was going to catch up with her.
That night, he had caught up with her, but Boyd had protected her. Less than three months later, Boyd had been dead, too.
Gregor was supposed to be dead.
For too long she had lived under the illusion of safety. And she was tired of the illusion. The weariness clawed at her, dragging her down, and reminding her, always reminding her like a sadistic whisper of evil in her head, that it would never be over. That she would never be free. That loving Jordan was the same as signing his death warrant.
She’d felt this in Aruba. That heavy, panicked uncertainty. The knowledge that either freedom or death was just a heartbeat away.
“Answers aren’t going to pop out of the shrubbery.” Jordan stepped into the bedroom, his expression a dark mix of both hunger and chilling danger.
He was a hunter, and he’d perfected the hunt. He was waiting, patient, composed, giving his prey the perfect opportunity and the time needed to make their move.
But the prey was cunning, it was evil, and it had taken the lives of other strong men, men born to the hunt. Men who had thought they could protect her.
Slowly, the sage green coverings slid over the windows, enclosing them in a dimmer, sun-dappled room rather than the previous heated warmth that had spilled in.
“Have you learned anything?” She knew the others, Noah, Micah, Travis, John, and Nik were out plotting Gregor Ascarti’s downfall. It couldn’t come soon enough to suit her.
“We’ve contacted the appropriate parties and given them the location of the weapons.” He checked his watch before his gaze lifted once more, sharp satisfaction filling it. “They should be hitting the warehouse any moment now.”
“We have to find him to neutralize him, Jordan.”
“No, our men have to find him,” he retorted. “All you have to do is look very pretty, and very grief-stricken tonight at the party. Once he’s certain I’m out of the picture, he’ll plan his strike. That’s when we’ll have him, if we don’t catch him at the warehouse.”
Ascarti would never allow himself to be caught in that warehouse.
“Ascarti isn’t that easy.” She gave a hard shake of her head. “You should know that by now.”
She knew it. She had fought to survive his search for her for far too long to consider him so easy to catch, to even allow herself to hope he would be so sloppy.
“I’m aware of that, Tehya,” he growled. “I’m simply that prepared. There’s no way he can strike without us catching him. There are too many eyes waiting and watching.”
Tehya crossed her arms over her breasts, her gaze narrowing on the windows despite the fact that shutters now covered them.
Turning back to him slowly, she tried to ignore the heat that lingered in his eyes, the pure sensual, sexual interest in his expression as his gaze went over her, from head to toe.
“What do you have planned, Jordan?” He hadn’t told her what he had set up yet. She knew he had been with Noah, Kell Krieger, and the senator for most of the morning, but she hadn’t been invited to the plotting session. It had begun before she had ever awakened.
“The plan is exactly as it was.” He gave a faint shrug of heavy shoulders beneath the dark gray shirt he wore tucked into jeans. “We wait.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. That so didn’t sound like Jordan, to simply sit and wait and watch.
“I’m not lying to you, sweetheart.” Once again that faint smile crossed his lips. “There are times when nothing else but simplicity will do. This is one of those times.” Then his head tilted to the side as curiosity lit his gaze. “Tey, darling, isn’t that the same outfit that little old Indian trader in New Mexico made for you? The one with all the hidden weapons?”
Her brows arched. He remembered? She was certain he hadn’t been paying attention the day she had ordered the clothing. The shopping trip had been a treat during the early days of her contract with the Elite Ops.
She had been frightened to leave base during those days, terrified she would be followed somehow. Jordan and Noah, along with the communication agent, Kira Richards, and her husband Ian, had all but ordered Tehya with them for a shopping trip, supposedly funded by the Ops to outfit her in more than the worn clothing she’d owned. She’d learned later that Jordan himself had paid for her clothes.
“It is.” Her heart began to race. That something so small as the knowledge that he remembered that day should excite her, she decided, was truly pitiful.
He stepped closer, a predatory male animal suddenly shifting into stalking mode, his expression tightening with lust, his gaze blazing with hunger.
“I shouldn’t want you again so soon,” he growled as he stepped in front of her, the backs of his fingers whispering over the leather that covered one breast. “But I swear, Tehya, the sight of you wearing leather and the knowledge that you could kill a man before he drew his next breath has my dick harder than hell.”
And her pussy was creaming. Tehya could feel it, hot and moist, her juices saturating her cunt and preparing her for him.
“We could take a long break for lunch,” she suggested, as the other hand curved around her back and drew her flush against his body.
“If I get you back in that bed there’s no way in hell I’d go for the quickie it would have to be.” His head lowered, but rather than the kiss she needed, all she received was a sensual nip to her lips. “When this is over, though, I’m taking you to a beach somewhere and I’m keeping you naked for a month. Naked and covering my body like a second skin.”
The hard wedge of his cock pressed against her lower stomach as she tried to keep back the low moan of rising need surging inside her.
Laying her head against his chest and feeling his arms surround her, she wished there was a way to delay it, just for a little while longer. She would pay whatever price she needed to pay, kill whomever she needed to kill, for just a few more hours of security in his arms.
“When this is over,” she repeated, her voice soft, her arms tightening around his waist as she felt that cold hard kernel of fatalistic knowledge harden inside her soul.
It would never be over until her own death.
“It will be over soon, baby,” he p
romised as she pulled back.
Staring up at him, she realized the past eight years had only been the road to bring her here. She had been hiding, and a part of her had known it, just as she had known there would be a price to pay for it later.
“I love you, Jordan,” she whispered before he could keep her from voicing the promise. “You don’t have to love me. You don’t have to keep me. Just always know, if I had known what was coming, I would have made certain I hid better. I would have kept this from happening.…”
“God, Tehya.” His fingers were against her lips before she could finish the hastily whispered words. “Son of a bitch, baby, do you think in a million fucking years that I would even consider letting you face this alone? Do you think, Tehya, that I, or the others, weren’t watching for a threat against you? That we weren’t doing everything we could to ensure we were here if you needed us? Do you believe, for even a second, damn you, that I could have ever totally let you go?”
Frustrated anger, surprise, and a hint of amazement filled his voice now.
Jordan stared down at the little imp that had both tormented and comforted him for the past eight years. So delicate and tiny, he swore a good strong breeze could knock her over. She had a backbone of pure titanium, though, and a will that often amazed him.
“Teyha,” he chided, his voice softening as he allowed himself the luxury of running the backs of his fingers down the side of her silken cheek. “I’m not a fool. I’m not one man trying to protect a mother and a child. I’ve told you this before. If you don’t stop doubting me, sweetheart, then I’m going to become irritated.”
“It’s not you I doubt. Sometimes…” She swallowed tightly, fear flashing in her eyes, “fate—Lady Luck—doesn’t often favor the good guy, Jordan.”
He had to grin at that. “But baby, I’m Irish. Fate, Lady Luck, the Muses, and the gods. They love me.”
And he was bragging even as he knocked on wood. It wasn’t Fate, Lady Luck, or any other mythical force. It was preparedness, knowing what he was facing, and never taking things at face value.