by Campbell
The carpeted alcove between her bedroom and his was bathed in shadow with only a faint light coming from the nearest window. She tapped at the door, then applied more pressure when Shaz didn’t answer.
“Come in,” he called.
She eased the door open and stood in the doorway as he emerged from the bathroom with a towel hanging around his waist and another around his shoulders. With one end, he dried his locs.
“You shouldn’t dry your hair so vigorously,” she said. “The rough treatment will break the strands.”
“Too late,” he said, adding a lazy grin as his gaze slid from her tank top to her lounge pants.
With both hands crossed over her chest, she leaned against the doorjamb hiding the effect of his close study on her body. “It’s never too late to take good care of what God gave you.”
“Agreed,” he said, lowering his hand and moving steadily toward her.
The movement called attention to his abs. She wanted to touch the caramel skin covering that impressive six pack and the ridges of his chest. All too slowly, her focus returned to Shaz’s face.
“I’d like to believe God gave me … you,” he murmured.
Aside from an appreciative curl of the lips, his eyes glimmered and he ran one hand over his goatee. She followed its journey when it fell to his side and couldn’t miss his response to her, jutting from the towel that seemed in danger of falling off his hips. She dragged her attention back to his face and pulled in a sharp breath when he threw the towel he’d been using on his hair onto a padded chair and advanced a few more feet. Camilla’s first reaction was to take a step back.
His slow approach threatened to shatter what was left of her equilibrium.
“I guess you wanted to ask me something,” he said, coming nearer.
Why did I come? For the life of her, Camilla couldn’t get her brain to unlock the reason for this impromptu visit. She stood straight, and he stopped in front of her with mere inches separating them.
His gaze touched her everywhere before returning to settle on her lips. Shaz said nothing, but waited, as if he had all the time in the world.
An alarm beeped inside her head, and she cleared her throat. The heat from his skin reminded her how dangerously close she was standing to the sexiest man she’d ever met in her entire life. She pulled in a deep breath, inhaling the crisp citrus bath gel with a hint of jasmine and enough male pheromones to lay her flat on the floor. Then good sense returned. “I … um, I wanted to ask about transportation for tomorrow.”
“What about it?” Shaz’s voice emerged as a husky whisper.
“I want you …”
The easy rise and fall of his chest distracted her. Before she knew what she planned to do, she traced the line in the center and skimmed his pectoral muscles with one finger.
“You were saying?” Shaz gripped her wrist in a gentle hold, stroking her skin with his thumb.
She stepped in closer and spoke against his neck, hiding a mischievous grin. “I was saying, before you distracted me, that I wanted you to arrange—”
A gasp cut her words as Shaz drew a line up her neck with his tongue.
“Yes?” As his arms slipped around her and the length of him branded her belly, Camilla was in no doubt about where they were headed.
“A ride.”
He fused his lips to her neck and sucked gently. Under his gentle ministrations, her legs threatened to give way.
“Is the hospital visit what you’re trying to remember?’ he whispered, lifting the fabric of her tank top to spread his hands across her back. “Or something else?”
Her laughter was soft and sultry. “You, Shaz, are a wicked man.”
With soft kisses, Shaz traced a path across her jaw toward her lips. Before his mouth settled over hers, he chuckled. “I’m not aiming to prove you wrong.”
He explored her mouth, stroking her tongue with his. His pace was slow and thorough, then intense, stealing her breath. As her hands came up to clasp his head, Shaz ended the kiss. Cupping her jaw, he said, “I said no pressure, and I meant it. Are you ready for this?”
“If I think about it, I’ll convince myself I’m not.” She inhaled, then laced her arms around his neck. “But it feels so right.”
Shaz waited a few seconds before he replied, “Like I said, I’m not in the business of contradicting you.” He dipped his head, and again, all rational thought dissolved as his hands roamed under her tank top.
Camilla held on to his biceps, and when he grazed the undersides of her breasts, she let out a soft moan. His long fingers stroked back and forth across the center of the soft globes, causing her knees to buckle. With one arm sealing her to his torso, Shaz moved her across the room nibbling her neck until he stood with his back to the bed.
He lifted the tank top and paused to ease it over her head. The light material fell to the floor as he sat and pressed a soft kiss to her stomach. She moaned when he flicked her navel and swirled his tongue inside.
His touch was so light, she barely felt him slipping off her pants and underwear. Then she stood naked and unashamed before him, basking in the appreciative gleam in his dark-brown eyes.
Shaz got to his feet and enclosed her in an embrace. For a moment, he did nothing other than whisper, “You’re beautiful.”
“And so are you.”
He did a thing that she translated as rolling his eyes.
Laughing, she protested. “It’s true. You are.”
“Whatever you say.”
He tipped her chin up and sealed his mouth to hers, going deep and forcing her to hang on to him to stay upright. Shaz gripped a handful of her behind and turned her with him so he faced the bed. “Get in, love. Lights low.”
The lighting in the room dimmed as Shaz lay on his back and shifted Camilla so she lay top of him, which brought her chest in line with his mouth. Her breath whooshed out when his lips closed around the dark-brown berry topping her breast. As he teased the bud with skillful fingers, she clasped his head, weakened by the delicious suckling motion. Before she could utter a sound, his fingers followed the line of her hip, down to her groin, and caressed the sensitive pearl at her core until she gripped handfuls of his locs and whimpered in his ear. He kept up the pressure until she convulsed and begged him to stop.
While he stretched to the bedside table, then slipped on protection, she lay with one leg thrown over his thigh. Her hands were drawn to him as if by a magnetic force and she cupped them around him, exploring new territory that was destined to be part of a delightful journey. Her teasing strokes pulled a long sigh from him.
“If you keep that up for much longer,” he murmured, “What you expect to be a bang will end in a fizzle.”
Despite her arousal, Camilla chuckled. “You’re something else, you know that?”
Shaz nipped her ear, tickling her with his breath. “So I’ve been told a time or two.”
She opened her mouth with the intention of telling him to shut up, but didn’t get the chance. With his arm pinned across her lower back, Shaz raised his hips and entered her, searing her flesh one torturous inch at a time. Camilla closed her eyes and lowered her head, but when he was sheathed inside her, Shaz growled in his throat. “Look at me.”
Camilla opened glazed eyes and focused on him.
He nodded. “Yes. Stay with me.”
A slow, lazy rhythm and their intense mental connection kept Camilla tethered to Shaz, who refused to increase his pace despite Camilla digging her nails into his sides to urge him on. She was as the point of wanting to yell at him to go faster when he cupped her bottom and flipped her on her back.
Legs locked around his middle, she ground her hips into his with every powerful stroke. Perspiration dewed her skin, while sweat dripped from Shaz’s forehead onto her chest.
Each time her inner muscles massaged him, Shaz thrust harder and his breath tickled her ear. The brush of his locs against her sensitive skin added to the sensory overload engulfing her. As their skin clung and r
eleased, a tiny flame started at her core and spread outward, threatening to explode and send her careening as far away as the island she’d come from.
Shaz let out a roar and continued plunging into her as she arched against him and let herself go. Her legs trembled uncontrollably as shockwaves spread outward from her center and flung her into space.
A starburst of color showered behind her eyelids as Shaz’s heart thundered against hers. His harsh inhalation and slow, prolonged thrusts sent her crashing headlong into another orgasm. With his name as a keening cry on her lips, Camilla descended from an incredible high.
Shaz shifted them until she lay with her head on his chest. Minutes passed with her listening to the slowing pace of his breathing. He pushed the hair off her forehead and gathered her to his chest. Their lips met in a soft, sweet kiss that evolved into what Camilla could only describe as a meeting of souls at a level she’d never experienced with anyone else.
The soothing caresses to her hair made her want to wrap herself around Shaz and cuddle for the rest of the night, but the insistent pressure from his erection prodding her inner thigh told her they were headed in the opposite direction.
CHAPTER 24
The muted buzz of the phone woke Shaz. He untangled his legs and removed his arm from Camilla’s grip. In the darkness, he kissed the smooth skin of her cheek.
Her last-minute transportation request had created the leeway for the consummation of their relationship. The sight of her in lounge pants and tank top had reignited the fire below his waist that he’d been beating back for a week since she moved into his suite. After a night of mind-blowing sex, he refused to let her leave his bed.
He rolled over and reached for the cellular on the bedside table.
Reno’s voice was crisp and clear, as if it was nine o’ clock in the morning instead of an ungodly hour of the night. “It certainly took you long enough. You need to get down to the boardroom.”
Searching his mind, he asked, “Did I miss a notice for a meeting?”
“Just get down here and wear something dark.”
“Who’re you talking to?” Camilla mumbled, while settling her hips against his crotch.
“Castle business.” Shaz dropped another kiss on her jaw and ignored the fullness at his groin. He rolled off the bed, yanked out the bureau drawer, then stepped into his underwear, his mind taken up with what could have happened while he slept. “I have to go.”
Camilla sat up and switched on the bedside lamp. “In the dead of night?”
His gaze shot to the alarm clock. “Actually, it’s 3:00 a.m.”
“Same thing.” Camilla flopped down on the sheets watching him.
“Don’t worry.” He pulled on a navy sweater and a pair of black jeans, then dropped the medallion in his pocket. “We’ll talk when I get back.”
Yawning, she swung her feet over the side of the mattress. As she pulled on her panties and tank top, Camilla mumbled, “I’m going to check on Ayanna and get back in my own bed. See you when you return.”
In a few strides, he made it to where she stood with her pants hanging over one shoulder. He wrapped both arms around her and spoke against her mouth. “Check on Ayanna, but when I return if you’re not here, I’m coming to find you.”
She slid her arms up his chest and circled his neck, tugging one of his locs. With a sultry whisper, she asked, “Is that a promise?”
“You betcha.” He kissed her neck, then her mouth and her forehead. “Later.”
Her sinuous walk held his attention until his phone beeped another time. He’d received a text message from Reno.
If you don’t get here in five, we convene without you. Come armed.
Inside the closet, Shaz accessed the safe, extracted a Glock 43 and strapped it to his leg. With a leather band taming his hair and ankle boots on his feet, Shaz left the wing containing his suite and sprinted to the main building, then made the trip downstairs. He stepped inside the boardroom with ten seconds to spare.
Seven Kings stood around the table, dressed the same as Shaz— dark, long-sleeved sweaters and pants, plus heavy shoes.
Kaleb walked into the room a second behind Shaz and they all took their seats.
“Now that everybody’s here, let’s go.” Vikkas turned to the wall behind him and the doors silently slid open. One click to the remote brought the screen to life. “I know we were here earlier to agree on strategic moves regarding New Visions and The Hub, but Daron alerted me to suspicious movement there a short while ago. We have to accelerate our timeline.”
“This feels like we’ve dropped in the middle of a spy drama,” Kaleb said, frowning.
“Call it what you will, but what is certain is that we have to get moving.” Vikkas turned his gaze on Shaz. “You’ve been digging up graves and they’ve been trying to move the bodies. They took some of the girls out of the facility just after midnight.”
Vikkas held up one hand when they shifted in a wave, as if to rise. “Don’t lose it, they’re in safekeeping. That threat was neutralized by Daron and his team. It’s time to do a clean sweep of the property before the rest of them realize what’s happened.”
The atmosphere was charged. Shaz put the adrenaline flowing through his system into words. “I take it we’re moving right now.”
Reno rose from the table and glanced at his watch. “That’s a yes. Once we’re inside The Hub, we’ll notify Jason Stone of what we find. He’ll bring in a law enforcement team and they will shut down everything inside those buildings.”
“Jason Stone?” Dwayne frowned. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
“Cameron’s brother,” Daron said, referencing his woman.
“If this is urgent, what are we waiting for?” Dro asked.
“That’s what I want to know, too,” Kaleb said, to a rumble of agreement from the other Kings.
“Fact is, there are certain players, for want of a better term.” Reno grimaced, then continued, “that we will catch red-handed. Then there are others that, even now, are on their way into The Hub. Those are big wigs in this city as well. We can ruin this by being too gung-ho, or we can wait until those other men get here. If we’re patient and shut them down, we’ll be rid of at least four tentacles on this Hydra.”
Kaleb grimaced at the reference to the multiple-headed serpent from Greek mythology with the ability to regenerate its head once it was severed. Nodding slowly, he announced, “I’m with you. The sensible course would be to wait.”
Reno dipped his head in approval. “In a couple of minutes, we’ll head across and do what we have to do. We’ll enter the building based on our earlier plans.” Scanning each of them, he stated, “I trust you came equipped, as instructed.”
When they nodded, he continued, “Shaz, you’ll want to be in position out front at The Hub when the FBI rolls in, since one of the main shareholders, plus his sidekick, is in residence and they’re about to be entertained as we speak. I’m sure you won’t mind seeing the back of them.”
As Vikkas powered down the screen, Daron added, “We didn’t want to turn your stomach, so we opted not to show you that footage.”
With a finger to his earpiece, Daron pointed to the credenza where an electronic bank of radios stood. “Grab one each. The channel is already set. Test them and let’s go. Be careful and remember not to pull your weapon unless you intend to use it.”
They did as instructed, then used two elevators to access the ground floor and avoided the foyer despite the hour of the morning. Anything that concerned The Castle drew media attention and when things happened, the newshounds appeared as if summoned by magic.
The Kings converged on the headquarters of The Hub, accessing the building through designated entrances and exits, using stealth and aided by Daron’s gadgets.
Dro, Dwayne, and Shaz crept into an elegant marble lobby, furnished with plush sofas and heavy glass tables. The smile on the pretty blonde faded when they eased up to the counter. She shot out of her seat, frowning at them. �
��Can I help you gentlemen?”
“Don’t touch anything,” Dro said, as she reached for something below their eye level. “Otherwise you’ll be in more trouble than you’re already in.”
Her gaze darted between them, but she laid both hands on the marble surface as her face flushed.
Shaz’s lips quirked into a humourless smile. “Good decision.”
Daron, Grant, and Kaleb swept past them, along with several other men clad in black vests with FBI lettering.
As they disappeared down the nearest corridor, Dro turned his attention back to the receptionist, dropping the black knapsack he carried on the counter. “You’re going to let us into your space, but don’t do anything foolish.”