Sweet Seduction Secrets (Sweet Seduction, Book 8): A Love At First Sight Romantic Suspense Series

by Claire, Nicola

  He’d been the one to pull us back together. To reknit the frayed fabric that had been our family. There were still holes, still threads threatening to unravel. But Will kept on going, kept on insisting we could do this. We could be free.

  It was futile. We all knew it. Even if we found the missing handlers, and that was looking more and more impossible now, the Government would never allow us to walk free.

  We were staring down the barrel of a gun, our own ammunition depleted, our escape routes compromised. The last rogue spies standing at the end of the firing range.

  Our days were numbered, but Will refused to let go.

  In a way it was inspirational. He drew us to him like moths to an open flame. We were refusing to let go, too, it seemed.

  And now Adam. Stupid, loyal, wonderful Adam. Who had just jumped into the circus ring with us, baring his teeth at the lion.

  I loved him all the more for it, even as I donned the mask of the emotionless spook.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest to stop myself reaching for him.

  He smiled in return. Fucking smiled. And offered a shoulder shrug as he said, “I knew you missed me, firecracker.”

  Yeah, I had. And it had initially confused me. Thrown me for a loop and made me wild. Until Brayton had pulled me aside, shown me Adam’s army file, and laid it all bare.

  “He’s stronger than you think, Charlie,” he’d said. “Been to hell, climbed back out, and has the scars to prove it. Not everyone wears their scars on the outside, you know, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t earned them.”

  He’d been wrong, of course, Adam did have scars on the outside. He just covered them. Like I covered mine. With an emotionless façade. With a hard edge and lethal focus. With a wall around me a mile high that no one could get behind.

  But he had. Adam had. He’d scaled that fucker and slipped inside, before I even knew he was there.

  He matched me. He challenged me. He could get himself killed by loving me.

  “This isn’t your battle,” I said. No emotion in my tone. No give in my features.

  But I was feeling. Fuck, I was. Like that proverbial duck, serene on top of the water, I was kicking my flippered feet for all I was worth underneath the surface.

  “Now, you see,” Adam drawled, so fucking like Caleb it made me smile briefly, “that’s where you’d be wrong, Charlie.”

  “This should be fuckin’ good,” Joel announced, throwing his feet up on the table before him and rocking back in his chair.

  “I say we hear what the pup has to say,” Brayton declared. It didn’t surprise me; not anymore. This was exactly what he wanted. Me out of here. One of us safe, when the others couldn’t be.

  “It won’t change a thing,” Reid offered. “Unless, of course, he’s hiding our handlers.”

  “Are you?” Hamish demanded, and the look he gave Adam said it all. Whose side are you really on, civvy?

  Adam did a double take, eyes flicking between Caleb and his brother for several long seconds. Then he ran a hand over his face and softly swore.

  “Two of the fuckers,” he muttered, staring at the floor and shaking his head in disbelief.

  “Double the fun,” Caleb drawled.

  “Great.”

  “So, are we keeping him?” Ava asked, perched on the kitchen bench off to one side. She was sipping what looked like an elaborate fruit cocktail, but I knew it to be an energy drink. She just liked fucking with people. That was Ava. The Ava I’d only recently begun to see.

  Will came forward and pulled out a seat. In smooth but measured moves he sat down, leaned back, and then held Adam’s stare. Adam, for his part, had picked up on who was in charge; his whole demeanour coming alert. This was the person he needed to impress, and he knew it. The rest could squawk and quack all they liked, but William Riordan was the one who would seal the deal.

  I looked at the man who had taken me utterly by surprise and, while he was at it, stolen my heart. And I couldn’t have been prouder. Adam was no slouch. He was quick to assess a situation. To adapt his behaviour to suit. You looked at him and saw a leather clad drifter who liked bikes. If you weren’t careful, you’d miss the sharp wit, the lethal skills, and the cunning ability to cut to the chase.

  I didn’t want him here. I didn’t want him in this fucked up world. Tainted by the Director.

  Tainted by me.

  But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thrilled to see him, to be near him, to breathe the same air as he did.

  I was a lost cause, there was no two ways about it. Adam Savill had hunted me down and he’d caught me. Completely.

  What the fuck did I do with that?

  “Why are you here?” Will asked in that clipped way of his.

  Adam leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees, placing himself in an inferior position to the big bad wolves that circled him. He did it on purpose. He did it with such ease. I saw Sofia widen her eyes. Saw Brayton smirk. Knew Will hadn’t missed a thing.

  Adam was playing us. But, fuck, he was playing us in style.

  He smiled, flicked a glance towards me, and then said, “While you’ve been hiding, licking your wounds, we’ve been sealing a deal.”

  “A what?” Hamish asked. “What fucking deal?”

  Will held up his hand for silence. The room stilled.

  “A deal for us?” he clarified. Adam half shrugged. “With whom?”

  “You can’t find them.” The handlers. “Neither can they.” The Government. “Neither can we, in all honesty, but that’s not to say we can’t be of some assistance.”

  “Why would we want your assistance?” Will demanded.

  “Because you can’t find them,” Adam repeated. “Because you’re staring down the barrel of a gun.” I let a breath of air out in an amused and highly impressed huff. “Because not all spies have to work alone.”

  “And why would a private investigations firm offer to assist rogue spies?” Will asked.

  Adam turned and looked directly at me.

  “Why do you think?” he said, and my whole body melted. Just like that. So easily.

  I shook my head, broke eye contact, and stared at the floor. I was off my game. Big time. And yet I couldn’t seem to get upset about it. Not really. Not the way I should be.

  He’d come. He hadn’t waited. I worked on not grinning stupidly.

  “How do you think you can help us?” Will asked purposefully, calling Adam’s attention back to him. “You’re well aware of what we’re capable of individually. How can ASI offer anything that we could possibly need outside of our own skills?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Adam drawled. “You’re all that and a bag of chips.” He looked at me again. I wished he’d stop doing that. Or maybe not. I wasn’t sure. Things were getting… emotional.

  “But the bottom line is your backs are against the wall,” he went on, “the authorities have blacklisted your smiling mugs, and each and every one of you has a bullseye on your back because of it. A trigger that’s just waiting to be squeezed. Every one of you,” he looked at me again, “except Charlie.”

  “Tell us something we don’t know, Savill,” Caleb growled.

  “I know that Charlie has immunity.”

  The room spun. The walls closed in. All eyes swung towards me and I struggled to breathe.

  “What?” I whispered.

  “Your email,” Adam said with a wide smile. “Fucking brilliant, that. You’ve given them something to work with. Something to fight. Of course, the Director’s dead, but his home revealed a few secrets Interpol was extremely excited to see. Yǐngzi is gone, but he left a trail. And you think we upset the flow of drugs on the streets? We only tumbled the South Pacific. You’ve smashed half the fucking world.” He chuckled to himself, and then the smile became grim. “That won you favour, sure. Made you big news. But it was never going to be that easy.

  “Mal,” he added. “Now he’s the real key. And they expect you to deliver the rest.” />
  “Me?” I queried, dumbfounded.

  He nodded.

  “You want me to hand over my colleagues?” I couldn’t believe he was suggesting this. Here. In front of my team. My lethal team. Was he suicidal?

  “They do. I don’t. Nick doesn’t,” he stressed. “What you give them are the handlers. What you give them is the means to allow your freedom. That’s the deal.”

  I was to be the inside spook. The one they thought would draw out the others. But they were wrong. And Adam knew they were wrong. He was offering me an out, while still allowing me an in.

  Emotions swelled; I battled to control them.

  “Don’t you think that’s what we’ve been trying to do?” Ava asked, pulling attention away from me, thank fuck. “You’re beautiful, handsome, but really, I thought you had more sense than that.”

  He offered the most lethal person in the room to handle a high powered rifle a smile and turned to look back at me. Again.

  I was getting used to it, I think. Even if my heart wasn’t.

  “Stay here and the assumption will be you’ve gone rogue, too.”

  I shook my head. “I won’t abandon them,” I stressed, testing his commitment. Testing the parameters of the deal.

  His smile widened. “Never said you had to.”

  That’s it. I was done. He had me. He’d had me since the moment we’d first met, I just hadn’t known it. But I acknowledged that fact now.

  I’d never believed in love at first sight. I’d never believed in the fairytales. I’d not been allowed to. All that had changed, though, when this man walked into my life.

  I’d loved Adam from the day I’d first laid eyes on him. It’s difficult to explain it to a non-believer. But there it was. The inability to speak. The way the earth had seemed to halt on its axis. The slow unravelling of the world as I knew it from that day onward.

  I’d fought it. Naturally. I was a highly trained specialist, love wasn’t meant to be real.

  But it was real for me.

  Adam Savill owned me. He knew me. He understood me. He matched me.

  Fuck. He loved me. Why else would he be here? And I was in love with him, as well.

  Always had been.

  “Then what the hell are you saying?” Will snapped. I smiled.

  This was it.

  Slowly, I started walking towards the man who had changed my world. Who had coloured it with emotions. Showered it with breathlessness. Wrapped it up in delicious adventure and challenge… and made it real.

  More real than it had ever been.

  “He’s saying we play them at their own game,” I said, taking another step forward. “We let them think they have an in. A way to trap you.” Another step. A twitch of Adam’s lips, his eyes target locked on me. “All the while I slip you inside information on what the Government’s latest assets are doing in their search for what remains of the Department.” One more step, almost there. “All the while we organise your freedom in exchange for each handler we hand over.”

  “Sneaky,” Ava murmured.

  “I don’t get it,” Joel groused.

  “You just want to be ornery,” Sofia snapped back.

  “It’s got nothing to do with helping us,” Caleb pointed out.

  “He just wants in Charlie’s pants,” Hamish finished for his brother.

  “I dare say, he’s already been there,” Brayton helpfully supplied.

  “This could work,” Will said and all banter ceased.

  I paused, about a foot or two away from Adam, and turned to look at our new leader. The man we’d chosen to follow when our world had been torn apart. I hadn’t know William well, I wasn’t sure I knew him that much better now. But I did know he was committed to getting us free. All of us.

  Adam had moved closer and I hadn’t realised it until his hand slipped into mine. I didn’t pull away. I relished his heat and touch. I savoured it, even as my heart rate sped up and perspiration made my palm clammy. Butterflies. There were fucking butterflies in my belly, too. How whacked was that?

  “We’ve really got no choice,” Reid was saying.

  “We’re cornered,” Ava agreed.

  “Backs to the wall,” Will concurred.

  “It was always going to come to this,” Brayton announced, drawing everyone’s attention. “Well,” he said, shifting to make himself more comfortable. “Charlie is out. And not one of us here would ask her to sacrifice that.”

  They all nodded their heads as I started shaking mine. I took a step closer, Adam shadowing me, still gripping my hand. Or I was gripping his, I’m not sure.

  “Babe,” Brayton said. “We’re family. Fuck what the Director did. Fuck what the Government thinks we’re responsible for. Fuck what they think we can do. We’re family. And if one of us can be free, then we all want them to stay free. Besides,” he said with a knowing grin, “do you really think the big man here will let you go again?” He pointedly looked down at where Adam’s and my hands were clasped, fingers laced, palm to palm, bodies aligned towards each other.

  I turned and looked up into the deepest of blues, a small smile curving Adam’s lips as he met my gaze. He shook his head. “Never,” he whispered, stepping closer, brushing hard thighs against my leathers. “Family. You’re part of my family too, you know.” He meant ASI. He meant Nick and the team who’d let me in despite knowing who and what I was. Who’d risked their lives to free me. I was speechless, but Adam wasn’t. He had more to say. More words to rock my world. “And as this lot is your family too, I guess that makes us cousins. Related in a way. All in this together.”

  “Cousins?” Caleb drawled. “Great,” he added, deadpan.

  “Kissing cousins?” Ava queried, a little too enthusiastically.

  Adam sent her a sexy grin; I gripped his hand tighter. He offered me a wink and then with a shrug of his shoulders said to Ava, “Sure. Why not? You can have Brook or Koki. The rest of us are taken.” His eyes met mine with a challenge.

  A challenge I was more than happy to meet.

  I was doing this. I was following my heart. Allowing my emotions to lead the way. Doing something I never thought I’d be capable of achieving. Living. Like a normal human being. Or as close to one as a retired spy could get. I was taking a chance on love. Letting this gorgeous man catch me.

  I was taking a leap and falling… and I knew that Adam Savill had open arms, ready and waiting.

  I wouldn’t have thought this was possible, but I’d discovered so much in the past couple of months… I’d discovered I had not one, but two families. I’d discovered that I’d do anything to keep them safe. And I’d discovered that they’d do the same for me.

  There was no going back. This was it. I was walking away from the Department, but not away from the family the Department had been.

  “It’s settled then,” Will said, but my eyes were all for Adam.

  The others added their own two cents worth, but all I could hear was the beat of my heart, the pounding of my pulse inside my head. Vaguely, I was aware that they had left the meeting. Leaving us alone. More in tune with what was happening than I had been.

  The room heated, or it could have been my cheeks, my body. Me.

  The world seemed enormous all of a sudden, and also exactly the size it needed to be.

  Adam leaned forward and rested his forehead against mine. “What do you say, firecracker? Gonna let me make that catch?”

  Love can take many forms, I’ve realised. It can blindside you, smack you upside the head, and still have you disbelieving. I’d been trained to question everything. Moulded to discount emotions, consider them irrelevant to my needs. I’d been forged in a fire of evil, made to the exact specifications of a mentally twisted, power-hungry man. I’d had everything that was normal in me extinguished and yet still Adam had picked me. Had chosen me. Had come for me.

  And then had caught me. Time and time again.

  His hot breath coasted over my lips, making my tongue dart out to lick them. He groaned
, wrapped two arms around my body, and hauled me hard against his chest.

  “Quick now,” he urged. “Last chance,” he added. Last chance to escape the hunter. Last chance before he captured his prey.

  Too late.

  I smiled, nodded my head…

  And then he was kissing me.

  Love doesn’t stop when it arrives. It keeps on giving. It keeps on evolving. It keeps on proving its worth. Overcoming conditioning. Fighting those triggers… and winning.

  Open arms constantly catching.

  My stalker. Determined. Patient. My perfect match.

  I lost myself in that kiss, like I lose myself in Adam every time. But I didn’t feel lost. I felt home. Safe. Free. Wrapped up in steady arms that kept catching me.

  He pulled back to look down at me, a look of wonder on his face.

  And the words just came out.

  “Ask me again,” I urged, pressing a soft kiss to the hidden dimple in his cheek.

  He knew immediately what I was saying. My perfect match.

  “Who are you?” he said, voice beyond raspy.

  In the end, it was quite easy. In the end, the answer was just there.

  “I’m me,” I said. “I’m free,” I added. “And I am yours.”

  He stared at me for a suspended moment, then a rush of heated air escaped his lips. His voice was raspy when he spoke; deep and uneven.

  “I love you, Charlie. I have loved you from the moment I first saw you. Wrapped in leather, long legs hugging a superbike. I love you more and more with each passing day.

  “I didn’t know that you could love someone so much, so quickly. I didn’t know our hearts were capable of that. But the harder you fought it, the more I loved you for it. And the harder you fell - even though you didn’t know you were falling - the more determined I was to catch you.”

  He pulled me closer, tightened his hold, lowered his lips to mine and brushed across them softly. Then pulling back, he added, voice beyond rasping, “I’m yours. My body is yours. My thoughts are yours. And my heart has always been yours.”

  Oh. Now there’s something you don’t hear every day. I reached up, cupping my hand behind his neck, pulling him down, pulling him closer, and sealed my lips to his with a searingly hot kiss.