But she couldn’t ignore the tension building in her body. It had started with a heaviness in her chest that seeped into her belly, making all of her muscles tight with anticipation.
It hadn’t affected her work yet, but Mal had to have noticed. Especially when the doorbell rang at 10:00 p.m. and she nearly jumped a foot off her chair.
“You want me to make myself scarce?”
The doorbell rang again and she had to take a deep breath.
“No, it’s probably just Annie being nosy.”
But it wasn’t Annie.
“Hey, doll.” Luke leaned against the doorjamb. “I was in the neighborhood so I thought I’d stop by and see if you—”
“Looks like we’re not the only ones working tonight.” She gestured behind her. “Mal and I are just catching up on some work.”
Luke got the hint to shut up, but now she had a different situation to contend with. Her brothers were bad enough, but add Luke’s cop sensibilities into the mix and she wasn’t sure she could bluff her way out this one.
“Working late, huh?” Luke stuck out his hand to Mal, who took it. “Anything good?”
“Just a case for my mom we’re trying to clear. We were collating some data from a stakeout tonight.”
Luke’s attention swung back to Janey. “You were on a stakeout?”
“I thought Janey might see something I would have missed.” Mal drew Luke’s attention again. “I was right.”
Luke’s gaze rested too long on Mal for her peace of mind, but when he looked at her, he was all smiles. “All right, hon. I’ll let you two get back to work. Nice to see you, again, Mal. Janey, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
As she shut the door behind her, she turned to find Mal watching her.
“Is there something going on between you two that I should know about?”
Guilt flashed through like a cold blade as she lied. “No.”
“Good.”
And before she could think about it further, he stood up, grabbed her and carried her to bed.
Chapter Seventeen
Mal woke as he always did, alert and aware of exactly where he was.
Yeah, he had a smile on his face.
Janey sprawled next to and over him like a blanket, one arm and leg thrown across him, her head snuggled on his shoulder. He turned and nuzzled his nose into her unbound hair, covering them both like fine silk. He even had it woven through his fingers, as if he were afraid she’d try to get away while he slept. He breathed in her scent, trying to imprint the smell of her into his brain.
He wanted to lie here forever and not face the reckoning sure to come. With a quick glance at the clock on the bedside table, he saw it was 1:00 a.m. They’d been asleep for about two hours.
He wanted to wake Janey with a kiss and pick up where they’d ended. It would be so easy. He’d discovered every erogenous zone on her beautiful body. All he had to do was touch her right above her—
He sucked in a sharp breath as his body responded to his thoughts. He shifted slightly away from her, not wanting her to wake and find him aroused again, as if sex was all he thought about. When what he wanted was a lot more.
He closed his eyes.
God, he’d screwed up royally this time. He’d come to bring those involved in Dev’s death to justice. Not sleep with the suspect.
Who, he’d realized, he might just want to spend the rest of his life with.
And she was going to hate him.
Sharp pain slashed through his chest, and he swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat, gripping her more tightly to him. What the hell was he going to tell her? And what would she tell him? Did he really want to know the truth if it implicated her in Dev’s death?
Janey snuggled closer, flexing the hand resting on his chest. When she didn’t stop her lazy motion, he knew she was awake. She hadn’t said anything, though she must have realized he was awake as well. So he didn’t speak, just enjoyed the gently arousing motion of her fingers against his skin.
“Mal, tell me about your dad,” she whispered into his ear just before nipping the lobe. Sensation shivered through him like liquid silver, and he had to concentrate before he could comprehend her question.
“Why?” he asked, genuinely surprised.
He felt her shrug, then grow still.
“You know so much about my family, and all I know about yours is that your dad trained sailors. I guess… I really don’t know that much about you.”
He closed his eyes, biting back the insane urge to spill his guts and beg her forgiveness.
“Mal?”
He grabbed her hand and laid it flat over his heart. “My dad was a crusty sailor who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He had this huge laugh. Loud and kind of rough. And he had the wickedest sense of humor. He was always telling these stupid-ass jokes that most people didn’t understand but laughed at anyway.
“He had a nickname for everyone and they always stuck. Except me. He always called me ‘son.’ I used to wonder if he actually knew my name but I realized Dad never called anyone else that. It was his way of telling me…”
She shifted slightly away from him until she could raise herself up on one elbow to look down at him without removing her hand from under his. He looked into her eyes but couldn’t read anything there in the almost complete darkness of the room.
“He loved you.”
“Yeah.”
“Sounds like he was quite a character.”
Mal’s felt his lips curve. “Yeah, he was.”
“He must have been pleased that you followed him into the navy.”
“Actually…he wasn’t. He wanted me to go straight to college. But I’d been traveling the world so long that I couldn’t stand the thought of being stuck somewhere for four years. We argued about that for two weeks straight before my eighteenth birthday. He wouldn’t sign the early-admission papers, and I accused him of trying to run my life.”
He cringed to remember those fights now, the bitter words he’d flung at his dad, who’d only wanted Mal to have a better life than he’d had.
“So you joined the navy.” Janey’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Why not the army or the marines?”
“Because I love my dad.” The words were out of his mouth before he’d even realized he’d said them. They brought a smile to her face, and he wouldn’t have taken them back for the world.
“I know what you mean. I would do anything for my parents.”
Cupping her cheek, he drew her down, kissing away the worried line between her eyes. “I’ve never met anyone like the DeMarcos.”
He heard her take in a quick breath and then release it with an amused sound. “We’re not that strange, are we?”
He looked down into ocean blue of her eyes and wondered if he’d ever be this close to her again.
“No, not at all.” He didn’t know what else to say. Then, because he couldn’t wait another second, he tried to kiss her, but she pulled away. Dread struck him hard in the chest, until he realized she was playing with him. Her head dipped so she could kiss his chest, just below the hollow of his throat, causing little shivers of remembered ecstasy to course up his backbone.
“Janey?” He forced the sound through the lump in his throat.
“Shh.” She raised her head long enough to gaze into his eyes. “Let me.”
***
When Janey woke, alone, a quick glance at the clock on bedside table told her it was only 6:00 a.m.
The aroma of coffee filled the air. Damn, he was good.
She wanted to go to Mal right now—wrap her arms around him and kiss him until she felt faint. Just thinking about it gave her a head rush. Last night had proven Mal was the man she’d been looking for since she’d been old enough to know she wanted one. Strong, confident, dedicated. Loving.
Jumping out of bed, she threw on her robe then ran a brush through her hair. She left the bed just as it was. On second thought, she grabbed a condom from the bedside table, slipped it
in her pocket and went to find him.
When she rounded the corner into the living area, reality returned.
Mal sat at her desk, typing with one hand, holding a cell phone to his ear with the other. He spoke so softly she couldn’t make out what he was saying.
She stood paralyzed for several long seconds as fear rose up to bite her confidence. A minute ago, she’d been ready to declare her undying love for this man.
What was she? Nuts?
Mal’s heated gaze lifted from the monitor and caught hers, calling to her. She walked to him, pulled the wheeled chair away from the desk and straddled his lap. His expression was enough to make her blood boil.
“I’ll have to call you back.”
Janey kissed him on the cheek, then rubbed hers against the stubble he hadn’t shaved yet. She heard him hitch in a breath and drew back. And was shocked to see what looked like regret in his expression.
Startled, she frowned, but he quickly wrapped an arm around her waist and nuzzled into her neck.
“Janey.” He didn’t say anything else, just her name. She caught her breath again, because resignation underlined the desire in his tone.
“Working already?” she asked, though she could hear the trepidation in her own voice.
“Yeah, just a follow-up on the neighbor. I put a call in to a friend at Fort Meade. She’s going to do a little digging for me.”
“Your friend from dinner the other night?”
He leaned back. “Yeah.”
“She seems nice. Merri, right? Pretty name.”
Mal grinned. “She’s one of a kind.”
“Did you work with her long?”
His expression never changed, but she could feel his tension level rise, like a force field around him. “Not that long. She was twenty-one when she started in the code lab, fresh out of MIT with her doctorate. They like ’em young and brilliant with few family ties. But you know that, don’t you?”
She shrugged. “Obviously, if you did any research on my family before you took the job, you know I turned down an offer from the NSA.”
“Yeah, I knew. Why’d you turn it down?”
“It wasn’t what I wanted to do at the time. My parents were proud I’d been asked but they also know what the life is like. And they wanted me to make an informed decision. I was ready to say yes just to get away.”
“Get away from what?”
Her cheeks flushed a dull red. “My family.”
Mal pulled her closer, watching her dark hair spill over her shoulders. He loved to see it unbound. “Why?”
“Because I felt like I was suffocating.”
“I can understand you wanting to be out on your own. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
She shook her head. “I know that, but it was for the wrong reasons. I wanted to run away, but I realized that’s all it would be. Me running.”
“You would have suffocated at the NSA.” He couldn’t imagine her in that warren of cubicles—no family, no friends except those in the building and no life. “Some people thrive on that environment. I got bored fast.”
“That’s when you started doing field work?”
His eyebrows lifted. “You know you can be arrested just for knowing that, but yeah. With my background in the military, it was a logical move.”
“And how do you like it here?”
He couldn’t tell whether her question was serious or teasing. Words twisted in his throat and he didn’t know what to say. Instead, he fisted her hair in his hand and drew her down for a kiss.
“You didn’t answer the question.” Now she smiled.
“Do I need to?”
Desire was building. He could see it in her eyes and feel it in her body. Her breathing shallowed out, her eyelids got heavy.
He already had an erection she had to be able to feel through his boxers. In fact, she spread her legs just the least bit more and pressed against him. And through the thin cotton he wore, he could have sworn she wasn’t wearing any underwear.
“Then answer this question. Do you want me?”
Instead of answering, he pulled her back down for another kiss. At the same time, he pressed her hips down and thrust his up. Her moan shattered all notions of control he might have had.
Without breaking the kiss, he fumbled with the tie to her robe, then pushed it off her shoulders. She caught it before it hit the ground.
“Condom. In the pocket.”
Together they fumbled the robe around until the condom fell out onto the floor. He bent over to grab it at the same time she slipped her hands beneath the waistband of his boxers.
She wrapped her hands around his erection, nearly making him come just from her touch.
“Hang on,” he told her.
She moved her hands to his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist, pressing the warmth of her lower body firmly against his throbbing erection. Her moan found an answer in his, and he knew with a certainty that was frightening that his life had spun out of control.
He forced his lips hard on hers, dropped one hand to cup her bottom, rubbing her against him, increasing the ache. The urge to spread her out on the dining room table like a banquet was almost too great to overcome.
They made it to the living room, where, with one hand he pushed his boxers off, then fell back into the couch.
Janey slipped his T-shirt over his head then watched as he rolled on the condom. When her gaze returned to his, he could feel the little bit of sanity he had left desert him, making his heart rip open wide.
As he watched, she rose slightly onto her knees, bringing her breasts close enough that he could lick the hardened tips. She gasped, then slowly lowered onto him.
He could feel each breath as she took him, centimeter by centimeter, into her body. He watched her teeth sink into the fullness of her bottom lip. Lifting his hands to her hips, he settled them there, just to feel the softness of her skin.
Any minute now, he was going to lose it. And she knew it. She looked directly into his eyes. It was the most erotic sight. He wanted to thrust into her, but her expression said she was in charge. So he waited—and wasn’t disappointed.
When he thought he couldn’t wait another second, she rolled her hips so he was suddenly, forcefully lodged within her.
He heard her gasp, felt her arms come around his neck and her fingernails dig into his back.
He moved and she countered, tilting her hips toward him, deepening the contact.
God, this was going to be over way too soon. But he couldn’t slow down. He rode a wave of emotion that threatened to drown him in its intensity. Deliberately, he tried to ease the pace, but she wouldn’t let him. Urged him on with her hands and her soft moans and the way she flicked her tongue over his and then kissed her way down his neck to gently sink her teeth into his throat.
He felt her tighten around him with her first contraction, heard her moan, felt his answering release and the complete and utter happiness that went along with it.
***
Janey wanted him to shower with her, but they’d never get to the office on time if he did.
He only had to look at her and he wanted her. Naked and wet, she might actually induce a heart attack. He declined, pleading exhaustion.
Bennett’s old neighbor wasn’t the only person he’d been investigating. He’d also been going through Janey’s computer. He needed to know what was going on. Now. He refused to believe she was criminally tied to Dev’s death. It just didn’t fit her profile.
Since she wasn’t as careful about deleting files at home as she was at work, he’d hit pay dirt—copies of the encoded files.
It took him too damn long to decide to send the copies he’d made to Merri. But damn it, he wanted this over.
They took separate taxis into work for appearances. On his way, he dropped the USB drive at a courier who would have it in Merri’s hands in a few hours. Janey shared a cab with Annie, who had given him a level look and a pleasant “good morning” before getti
ng into the car.
When he arrived, Grace was sequestered in her office with a client. An hour later, she appeared in his office doorway.
“We just got confirmation today that the boy is still alive. I’m meeting the father at the airport and we’re heading to Virginia for the exchange. We should be back by tonight but I just wanted to check in before I left.”
He nodded, trying to make his face as blank as possible. He hated having to lie to this woman. He hated this whole charade because he knew it was going to cost him too much.
“Have a good trip. I hope it turns out well.”
Grace paused. “Is everything okay, Mal? You look a little under the weather this morning. Your aunt still on the mend?”
Yeah, well, lack of sleep and a lot of sex will do that to you, won’t it, son?
Did he imagine it or did she stare at him a little too hard? “My aunt’s fine. I’m just tired. Bennett’s case is coming along pretty well. I think I’ve got a lead.”
Her smile erased the intensity. “Well, that is good news. I have a plane to catch or I’d ask for details. You can reach me on the cell if you need me. For anything else, let Janey or Annie know what you need. I’m so glad that girl finally decided to take us up on a job. Janey could use the help, even though she’d never ask for it. I’ve got Annie with the father finessing the banks for the money. She should be back soon. Goodbye.”
Down the hall, he heard Grace greet Janey.
“Okay, you’ve got the fort. Your father’s trying to keep Jimmy from going stir crazy. They’re going to the movies. God help the theater manager. You know how your dad is about the sound. Is everything okay, honey?”
Shit. Grace was the sharpest person he’d ever met. She could pick up on the slightest inflections of voice and extrapolate from there.
“Yeah, Mom. Sorry, just preoccupied. I’m doing a little research for Mal, to help him clear Bennett’s case.”
Grace paused and Mal held his breath, expecting her to order Janey away from the case. “I thought you were working for the jewelers down the street.” Grace’s tone had tightened. “Did you find out how the thieves cracked their security system yet?”
Sex, Lies and Surveillance Page 20