“God, I love making you wet.”
That received my complete attention. “I am wet,” I whispered.
He stood and from the look in his eyes I realized we weren’t speaking about the same type of wet. I jumped up, but he grabbed me before I reached the door. “Not again,” I yelled. “I’ll be good, I promise.”
He had me upended over his shoulder before I could beg again. I laughed, but it didn’t stop me from kicking and beating against his back. His palm landed smartly on my ass and I laughed harder. He surprised me when he waded out in the surf and took us both under. I came up waist high in the water at the same time he did. He shook his head, slinging water from his wet, too-long hair my way.
“Did you need cooling off, Mister Green and Blue Eyes?”
He wiped the water from his face. “I always need cooling off around you. Just so you know, when this assignment is over, I plan to fuck your brains out.”
His words had me clenching my legs together. My entire body tingled with awareness. “I can’t wait until tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” he asked.
“The vibrator. I need some relief and maybe then I can stop acting like a dog in heat for more than five minutes.”
A devious look appeared in his eyes. “Let’s swim for a minute and then we can go back in and finish our dinner. My steak is good, by the way.”
“If swimming will help eliminate your woody and my nymphomania, I’m all for it.” I took off without waiting for his comeback. We swam for ten minutes before returning to the hut. I left my clothes on the porch and grabbed a towel out of the bathroom. It barely covered me. Brack was out of his pants with a towel around his waist when I came out. So not fair.
“Your newest punishment is washing my laundry tonight.”
I looked down at his towel. “I like you better in what you’re wearing right now.”
He laughed. “I’ll help with the wash.”
“That’s not much of a punishment,” I said as we sat back down at the table to eat our cold steaks.
“I’ll save the worst punishments for after this assignment is finished.”
Oh goody. I could handle any punishment this man could dish out.
Chapter Fourteen
Brack took a long shower before bed. I knew exactly what he was doing in there. It was extremely sad that I was so dependent on my vibrator. There had to be something seriously wrong with me because I couldn’t get myself off without it. It was so damn simple for men. I thought about telling Brack to sleep on the floor if sex wasn’t on the menu. It truly sucked that I wanted the comfort of having him in bed beside me. He didn’t think I allowed fear to rule me, but he was wrong. I was scared to death to be alone right now.
He wore a pair of boxers when he came out of the bathroom. He climbed onto his side of the bed without a word. His breathing deepened within minutes and I knew he was asleep. I’m sure his soapy hand during his shower helped. And why did I go there? My fantasies kept me awake for hours.
Brack woke up with the sunrise. I rolled over with a grumble and closed my eyes until the scent of bacon had my stomach growling. I went into the bathroom and put on a swimsuit. I walked outside and grabbed a t-shirt from the rail. We’d hung the clean, wet clothes there the night before.
Breakfast was quiet until I had two cups of coffee in my system. I usually didn’t drink the stuff this close to a major Grand Slam tournament, but it wouldn’t kill me. I’d need a caffeine jolt to get through the day. My headache was completely gone. Even with lack of sleep, I felt better than I had the previous day. One way or another, I was running today.
First things first, though. “What time should our supplies be here?”
“Sometime this morning.”
Okay, my libido could wait that long. “I’d like to take a swim after my food settles. Is that a problem?”
“I’ll swim with you. We can’t head to the hangar until after Mack drops the supplies off.”
I thought he would fly in. “How does Mack get here?”
“Boat,” he said between bites.
“Okay, I need a favor.”
He didn’t reply, just gave me his stoic gaze.
“I need to run.” I went on before he could object. “Two to three miles should do it. I’ve got to stretch my legs.”
I watched him just as intently, trying to read his mood. It didn’t work.
“I’ll give you a mile out and a mile back. You’ll run in the surf and I’ll run along the shore. I should be able to keep up that way.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal. We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“I’m paid to keep my eyes on you at all times. I’m aware you need to stay in shape. If you’re dead, none of that matters. Take it or leave it.”
I stood up and whipped the t-shirt over my head. “Fine, but I’m sitting outside in the nude until I feel like swimming.”
“If Mack shows up early, he’ll love that.”
I wanted to scream just for the satisfaction of doing it. My goading techniques needed some work. “Fine, I’ll wear my bathing suit.”
“I thought you were an exhibitionist for everyone.”
“No,” I said over my shoulder as I walked to the door. “Just for the men I want to fuck. It makes it easier when the mood strikes.”
His eyes sizzled. “I hope you don’t mind if I head in and shower before we swim.”
I looked down at the outline of his heavy erection. “A cold shower,” I said with a smile.
“That won’t work. I need to rub one out again.”
I walked out the door with a laugh. He just thought he could resist me until after this job concluded. He was wrong. I’d drive him crazy before that. After the vibrator arrived, I’d be in a better frame of mind to plan an extensive seduction. And Brack would be seduced. He wouldn’t admit he found me attractive, but I saw it in his eyes. He’d said he wanted to fuck me. He just needed a little extra push.
We went for our run after our food settled. The water and sand held me back and pulled against my legs making up for the shorter distance. It also allowed Brack to keep pace with me. We hit the ocean on our return. I swam laps in the deeper water to work my arm muscles. On my thirteenth pass, I saw a mid-sized boat out of my peripheral vision. Mack slowly brought the craft closer, but stayed in the deeper waters. He tossed a line to Brack like they’d done this many times before. He threw two containers overboard and jumped in after them. They floated. He swam them to Brack as I swam their way.
“You look better,” Mack said when I made it out of the light surf. He looked me up and down in a very non-sexual, clinical way and put his hand out.
I gave it a brief wet shake. “I feel better.”
He didn’t beat around the bush. “Your father’s surprised you haven’t contacted him.”
I just bet he was. “Phone calls go both ways. When he has time, he’ll call me and you can tell him I said that.” I laughed at the grimace that appeared on Mack’s face. He at least had the brains to be terrified of the senator.
Mack turned toward Brack. “You want to help me get these to the house?”
I grabbed one end of the one closest to me. “I can help too.”
Of all the things I expected it wasn’t Brack placing his large hand over mine. “Don’t get your back up, tiger. That was code for we need to talk about business matters. Stay in the same area you’ve been swimming and we’ll come get you in a few minutes.”
I reined in my temper over the tiger comment. Brack not wanting me to hear about things concerning my well-being was another story. “Think again, asshole. If it pertains to me, I need to know. This isn’t national security; it’s my life on the line. If you want my cooperation, then include me. If you want me running off at the first opportunity, then by all means keep your secret squirrel shit private.”
Brack gave in and nodded his head. The guys carried the containers as I trailed behind them. I’d lifted one end befo
re giving it over to Brack. It was heavy and not worth fighting over. I could probably carry it myself, but it wouldn’t be easy. Pick your battles. The main one I’d won.
Chapter Fifteen
After pulling a t-shirt over my swimsuit, I placed a bottle of water on the table for each of us. We sat down.
Mack barely glanced at me before turning to Brack. “There’s been no change. I’ve run extensive computer searches on all her friends. Nothing out of the ordinary pops up. We know he’s close to someone connected to her inner circle and…”
I cut him off. “I’m right here, you know? I’m a person and you’re talking about me.”
His eyes flashed to mine and his cheeks went pink. “Sorry.”
“Go on,” Brack said to Mack as he cast an irritated look my way.
“The senator…” Mack looked at me. “Your father is not making things easy.” His gaze returned to Brack. “I need you to call and talk him down.”
Brack didn’t blink. “Sure. What else?”
Sure. What the fuck? No one talked my father down when he was on a roll. I couldn’t believe Mack and Brack thought it would be so easy. I held back a giggle over their rhyming names. I’d save that for a time I needed a good insult.
“We’re monitoring her…” now he looked back at me. “… your apartment twenty-four-seven. We’re even keeping an eye on your internet connection in case he hacks in. Finding you at the hospital was easy. There were too many people who knew who you were and where you were transferred.”
The flowers really freaked me out, but I wasn’t telling them that. “What makes you so sure he couldn’t find me here?”
Brack spoke before Mack could. “The three of us, at this table, are the only people who know you’re here.”
“What makes you so sure he couldn’t trace you or Mack?”
Brack answered my question patiently. “We only handle high-profile cases. We keep our business off the internet and out of the media. That’s what we’re paid for.”
They weren’t telling something me. “What about my cell phone numbers? I changed them. How did he get the new numbers? The second time I changed it, I only gave it to my father.”
I received another one of Brack’s long indecipherable looks before he answered. “Mack discovered two cameras and microphones at your apartment.”
“What?” I jumped up from the table. I forgot Mack was even in the room. “This creep was recording me?”
“Yes, and we have no idea how long.”
I was too shocked to say anything. I plopped back into my seat and covered my face with my hands. It had been over two months since the last time I had sex at my apartment. We’d never made it into the bedroom. “What rooms were the cameras in?”
Mack answered, “The living room and your bedroom.”
There was nothing funny about this situation, but I laughed. Lifting my head, I immediately saw the concern on Brack’s face. “Don’t fucking look at me that way,” I snapped.
He grimaced. “It’s called sympathy. No one likes having their privacy invaded. And, everyone wants to feel safe in their home.”
“I’m not safe. This guy has been one step behind me for a year. Hell, he could have videotaped me longer than that. I’m surprised my sex tapes haven’t been all over the internet.”
Brack shook his head. “He’s obsessed with you. If he showed them, the cameras would have been found long ago.”
“Well hell. I feel so much better thinking about his masturbating to my sex files. He must know the cameras were found.” My voice rose, “What’s to stop him from broadcasting them now?”
Brack didn’t blink. “Nothing.”
“My father will be ruined.” He’d worked so hard to have a sterling reputation. I worked hard to keep my private life private. This would destroy him.
“The senator will survive. You’re not the first debutante something like this happened to.”
I saw red. “What the hell did you just call me?”
Mack stood and interrupted Brack’s reply. “I need to be going. Send me a list of supplies you’ll need at the end of the week. I’m glad you’re feeling better, Miss Stradmore. Please call your father when you have a chance.” You would think Mack’s ass was on fire by how quickly he headed outside and to his boat.
Brack held up his hands in surrender. “I take it debutante is a bad word?”
“Yeah, you could call it that.” I stood up and stepped closer to his chair. “Parading young girls so they can find an appropriate husband should have gone out in the eighteen hundreds. I couldn’t care less about parties or proms or anything that requires me to wear a formal dress.” Well, not since I was six and imagined myself in a princess dress swirling around the ballroom with my dad.
Brack’s smirk returned. “You’re right. Those little half-ass tennis skirts are more your style.”
He was such a jerk. He sat a foot away from the table, slightly tilted back in his chair with his long legs relaxed. Before he knew what I planned, I straddled his lap and the chair made a jolt as the front two legs touched the floor. I placed my arms around his shoulders and grabbed the hair at the back of his neck. His eyes stared intently into mine.
We sat that way for several minutes. His delicious, spicy scent filled my lungs and from the flare of his nostrils I guessed he enjoyed my scent too. I drowned in his eyes—green ocean in one and blue sky for as far as you could see in the other. My nipples ached to be touched and hardened in anticipation. Slowly his cock responded. A wet tide dampened my bikini bottoms. I wanted this man so badly. “You want to fuck me,” I finally murmured.
He reached behind his neck and grasped my hands. He brought them forward and held me still. “I told you, I don’t always get what I want. It’s not the right time. You’re a job and you need to stay that way.”
“After we fuck, I’ll still be a job. Nothing will change. I need this.” I reinforced my words by rubbing against his hard-on.
“No.”
I wouldn’t beg. I could see from the stubborn set to his jaw that it wouldn’t get me anywhere. “Fine, let go of me.” I twisted my hands from his and extricated myself. I walked over to the containers that Mack delivered. One sat on the floor and one up on the cabinet. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take care of it myself. And if you do mind, well, fuck you.” I opened the first container and pulled out a cardboard box filled with vegetables. I set it to the side. There were more eggs, a few other kitchen supplies, and disposable razors along with a box that had a red Ray-Ban logo. That irritated me, but I bent to the other container. Filled with ice, it held bacon, steaks, and other assorted perishable foods. I went back to the vegetable container.
“We should probably talk about this.”
I looked up. Brack had moved and now stood close to me. “Don’t you dare tell me you didn’t order me a vibrator. Don’t you fucking dare.” I pushed a few items aside and searched around on the bottom. Nothing. “I. Will. Kill. You.”
The asshole smirked. “No, you’ll improvise.”
He had to be kidding. “Improvise?”
“There is every shape vegetable on the planet in there. One of them will surely do.”
No. I did not hear him correctly. I looked closer at the box of vegetables. Several were phallic shaped. He wouldn’t.
Ever so slowly, I turned so I faced him. My hands found one of the vegetables in question. Brack stupidly held his ground. The satisfying thunk when it hit his chest did nothing to alleviate my anger. I chucked the next one at his face. When he raised his arms to block it, I threw another.
“Stop,” he said as he backed up a step.
Nothing on earth could possibly stop me. Brack danced around warding phallic projectiles as I unleashed one after the other. “I hate you. If you think for one second you’re going into that bathroom again to masturbate, think again. I’ll block the door closed and light this damn place on fire while you’re inside. Peeing in the ocean would be your safest bet from here on out.”
When the vegetables were gone, I bent over and grabbed a steak.
Brack caught my arm before I could throw it. I dropped the steak while managing to fling my head to the side and connect with his mouth. He said I hadn’t fought with everything I had the day before. Well, that changed. I screamed like a banshee. And when he tried grabbing my shoulder, I kicked out. I missed his knee, but connected with his shin.
“Son of a bitch,” he yelled.
“You’re the son of a bitch,” I yelled louder.
He made another grab for me and I lost my footing, going down hard on my bad hip. It hurt, but my anger clouded the pain. Brack tried to pin me, so I rolled and kicked out again with my feet. He backed off.
He was breathing heavily. “Are you okay?” Deep satisfaction came over me when he wiped blood from his lip.
“Hell no I’m not okay. I truly hate you.” This was just too much. My life was too much. My unused pussy was too much. The damn stalker was too much. I curled into a tight ball and cried.
Chapter Sixteen
“Hey,” Brack’s warm hand rubbed my shoulder.
I cried harder. “You don’t understand.”
“I think I do.”
I was too upset to respond. He let me cry for several minutes, making slow circles on my back. When he spoke, his voice was low and soothing, “When we’re faced with death, it’s a normal reaction to reaffirm life. Sex is the best way to do that. There isn’t a Marine out there who will tell you differently.”
He had my full attention now. “You were a Marine?” I sniffed.
“Yes, and then a cop,” he said as he pulled a few strands of hair from my face.
“You’re too young.”
“And you’re too young to be the reigning world singles champion. I joined the Marines at eighteen and went to the police academy at twenty-two.”
I sniffed again. “Why did you quit?”
He hesitated a moment and I thought he wouldn’t answer. “I spent my military enlistment in the Middle East and saw some very bad things. My Marine brothers died. Women and children died and I never suffered an injury. Three years after joining the force, a meth addict shot me high in the leg. I almost bled out. They sentenced him to five years in prison because the jury felt sorry for him and his poor upbringing. I resigned the day after sentencing and here I am.”
Slam Page 7