“You lost me.” Rick glanced over his shoulder in time to see Seth settle on one of the barstools on the other side of the counter.
“Explain the food thing.” Seth pushed his gun to the side and balanced his elbows on the countertop.
Rick turned around again. “Ed’s suicide looked clean. There was no struggle and no defensive wounds. Nothing to raise suspicion.”
“Not to state the obvious but that could mean he really did kill himself.”
“Possibly or, my concern, it could mean poison. Something undetectable. Something that left his system before the testing.”
“You’re not taking the risk.”
“Exactly.” Rick nodded. “I’m not looking to go out choking on my chicken.”
Seth laughed. “I’m pretty sure you said it that way on purpose.”
“Yes, I did.” If for no other reason than to hear that deep sound come out of Seth.
He wore a hard I-can-kick-your-ass frown. He hid behind loads of sarcasm and held his body like he remained on permanent high alert. The package should be a turnoff. Rick had seen so much death that coming face-to-face with a guy this lethal should lock down his dick. The exact opposite happened. And when his voice dipped enough to let in a bit of humor and his face lit up in a smile, Rick barely remembered his own name.
Seth winced. “Could it be—and I’m just pointing this out for the sake of discussion—that you’re a bit paranoid here?”
Right, he was the one with the problem. “You could volunteer to be my official food taster. I’ll eat it if you don’t choke on it. Deal?”
“Huh, yeah. That’s not happening.”
Rick rested his hands against the edge of the counter and leaned in. The move put him close enough to smell Seth, to feel the heat coming off that body. “Exactly.”
“It’s not happening because people already think you’re a bit precious.”
Seth’s smiled tipped Rick off. The answer wasn’t going to be good, but he asked anyway. “What does that mean?”
“There are questions about your qualifications to do this job.”
“That I’m weak.” Because that was the plan. He didn’t want his presence to spike any concern.
“No one says that, but I have picked up concerns about you not being prepared for this.”
Even better. “Good.”
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “Is it?”
“Unqualified, clueless men don’t go looking for their predecessor’s murderer.” He had to work under the radar, and the only way to do that was to not pose a threat to anyone watching too closely.
“Aren’t you clever?”
“Clever enough to have swept this room for listening devices and cameras this morning and to add an extra line of protection before having this conversation in this room.”
Seth stilled. “Extra protection?”
“Two lines of thread, invisible to anyone not looking for them, set at two heights just inside the door. You broke them when you walked in. They were intact before that.”
Seth nodded. “Old school. Nice.”
“Sometimes that works best. And I really am hungry.” Rick turned back to the refrigerator and started unloading his supplies. He’d bought enough for one, but he’d stretch it to two. He sensed the joint dinner was going to be a habit, so he’d plan better next time. “Our choices are limited. Eggs, toast and bacon work for you?”
Seth glanced at the bacon then back to Rick’s face. “You don’t look like a breakfast man.”
That qualified as one of the weirder things Seth had said to him, otherwise Rick would have let it go. “You’re really going to have to stop with the cryptic bullshit.”
“There’s not an ounce of fat on you.” This time Seth’s gaze wandered all over Rick. Up and down, hesitating on his shoulders and stomach before dipping lower.
The look slammed into Rick. Seth might as well be touching him, running his tongue over him. Both sounded so fucking good. “There is.”
“I’ve seen you naked.”
The conversation didn’t chip away at his control as much as take a sledgehammer to it. “No, you’ve seen me with my pants down. Naked is for later.”
Seth slowly lowered his hands to the counter. “Just how hungry are you?”
Very and not just for food. But he had to be smart. Rick knew if he let Seth get to him, if he gave in every time he wanted to fuck him, they’d never finish this assignment. That meant setting some ground rules, even if they stayed only in his head and he intended to stomp all over them. “Hungry enough that I’m going to cook, but I promise to rush.”
Before Seth could take off his shirt or touch him or even breathe funny—anything to destroy Rick’s plans—Rick grabbed the one frying pan and set it on the stove. He turned on the burner and dumped the bacon in it. Next came a bowl and a fork to whisk the eggs.
And that pretty much covered all of his cooking skills.
“I can live with that compromise.” Seth drummed his fingers on the counter. “So, Kentucky?”
Of all the pieces of his past, that was an odd one to get stuck on. “That’s been bugging you, has it?”
Seth shrugged. “Is it real or not?”
“Real.” The question didn’t surprise Rick. He understood about cover stories and how most of what people knew or thought they knew about Seth and who he was amounted to a smokescreen the CIA developed to protect Seth and the people who mattered to him.
“Damn.” Seth whistled. “Well, then I figure you took a speech class.”
Rick got that part, too, but he wasn’t about to slit his body open and spill everything. Some parts of his past didn’t relate to the job. They were just for him, and this was one of them. “I traded Kentucky for Massachusetts when I was eleven. The boarding school I went to was pretty East Coast preppy. It was either learn to assimilate or get beaten up, and the latter got old fast.”
“That sounds like a pretty big lifestyle change.”
Rick searched for the right words to cut short this conversation. “My parents died. I was adopted.”
“Shit, man.” Seth blinked a few times. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.” Rick looked for a shredder and gave up. He settled for cutting pieces of cheese. He hoped that would add something to the otherwise boring meal.
“Those facts are not in your file.”
No, they wouldn’t be. That was part of the agreement he’d made with Helena long ago. A few people knew the truth and they all agreed his upbringing didn’t matter…so long as it didn’t impact the job. He’d had repeated psych evaluations to suggest it didn’t. “My guess is that Helena left it out on purpose.”
“Why?”
Yeah, Seth was not going to let this go. Rick guessed he should have seen that coming. “As a favor to me.”
“I don’t—”
“So let’s go over what I know about you.” The smell of cooking bacon filled the room and had Rick’s stomach grumbling. “Which version of your life is true?”
Seth swiveled the stool from side to side. It was a small shift, but noticeable. “How many versions do you have?”
Sudden fidgeting…interesting. “I was given two. One talks about your Chinese dad and American mom. She was military and they met overseas after she stayed in London for graduate school, where your dad was teaching. You moved around for years before settling in Washington State. If true, I’m guessing that means you were born with the travel bug.”
Seth’s stool stopped moving. His mouth dropped open and for a second he didn’t say anything. When he did talk his voice sounded strangled. “That’s some pretty specific information about people who aren’t me.”
“The file is in some ways weirdly specific and in others really general.” Enough to give insight but not enough to trace, no matter how good the sources. “Helena didn’t provide any names or dates or intel that would allow me to link the details with real names, of course.”
Seth reached over and grabbed
a piece of cheese but he didn’t eat it. He pressed it between two fingers and spun it around. Held it. “But those facts are real. That’s not my cover story. It’s exactly how my parents met.”
“The thing about growing up in Oakland and being a bit of a lost kid? Getting into the military and committing your life to service. Jumping to SAD only after you acted the hero during a raid in Fallujah. Yeah, I got that version, too. That one had lots of details.” Too many. It contained exactly the type of information someone would want so that they wouldn’t need to go hunting for more. Rick knew because he’d seen files like that during his entire CIA career. “It’s why I suspected it wasn’t real.”
“What the hell is Helena doing?”
“Building trust.”
Seth threw the cheese back on the counter. “Since no one is supposed to have my real background I’m not trusting her all that much right now.”
“Between us, dumbass.”
The tension seemed to whoosh out of the room. Rick didn’t realize it had been building and churning until it disappeared.
Seth’s shoulders fell back to normal height and the mix of confusion and anger pulling across his forehead eased. “Call me that again and I’ll shoot you.”
“A very stable response.”
Seth picked up a new piece of cheese and popped it into his mouth. “Admittedly, the Helena news has me shaky.”
“That’s exactly what one wants to hear from his bodyguard.” Rick used a fork to retrieve the bacon and set the pieces out on a paper towel. He looked at the egg mixture but didn’t put it in the pan. Not yet.
“I’m betting you know how to shoot,” Seth said.
“Born and raised, at least for a time, in the hills of eastern Kentucky you can bet I do.” There were days back then that he only ate if he found roadkill or shot a squirrel. That’s the kind of hunger a person didn’t forget.
Seth gave a quick look around. “Did you grab that gun you found?”
“I left it in the residence in case there was any evidence to be found on it.”
“Smart.” Seth hummed. “Do you have any guns stashed in here?”
This was not an issue to hide. Seth was the one guy Rick wanted armed and ready at all times. “Two. One taped under that desk by the window and another by the bed.”
“I’ll be checking that one out personally very soon.”
Rick picked up a piece of bacon and stopped right before it hit his mouth. “Subtle.”
“That reminds me.” Seth stood up and grabbed something out of his back pocket. “These are yours.”
Rick looked down at his glasses sitting on the counter. He’d only brought two pair with him to Germany, and he hated the backup pair he had on. He traded out one pair for another. “I thought I’d lost these.”
“You left them in the room. In the club.”
That didn’t sound quite right, but Rick suddenly had other things on his mind. He swallowed a second piece of bacon before answering. “After we had sex.”
“I’m a fan, by the way.” Seth grabbed for the bacon and more cheese.
“Of the sex?”
Seth used the end of the bacon to point before putting it in his mouth and chewing. “Definitely that, but I meant the glasses.”
Well, now. Wasn’t that interesting? The glasses got his ass kicked in elementary school and now they attracted hot ass-kickers. Life did have a way of working out. “They do it for you?”
Seth visibly swallowed. “You do it for me. The suit. That flat stomach you hide under it. Your ass…I mean, goddamn.”
Thoughts of food disappeared. So did any worry Rick had about maintaining control and holding off on more sex until at least later tonight. Fuck all of that. “What about the pretend cluelessness thing I’m working in the office?”
“Yeah, the whole package. It’s a new turn-on for me.”
Rick’s heartbeat hammered in his ears. The sound echoed and pounded until he wondered how he was still standing. “If it’s any consolation, the rough, barking-orders, could-cut-you thing usually doesn’t…what did you call it? Ring my bell.”
“What are you hearing now?”
“It’s dinging loud and clear.” Hell, he couldn’t hear anything else.
Seth stood up. “You still hungry?”
Not for food, but there was still a stray fact in that file with the real information. More than one, actually, but this in particular didn’t seem to fit with anything else. “One thing first.”
Seth came around the side of the counter. He reached over and turned off the burner. Moved the pan off the heat. “Make it fast.”
“Elizabeth.”
Right as he started to move in, Seth stopped and slouched back against the counter. “What the fuck?”
They stood just inches apart and Rick watched for any sign of dodging the truth. So far he’d only picked up on a flash of fury, quickly banked. He needed more. “Cover or real?”
Seth shook his head as he looked at the floor. “Fucking Helena.”
Not helpful. Not when all Rick wanted to do was reach out and run his hands all over Seth. “That’s not actually an answer.”
Seth’s head shot up and his vision looked clouded with anger. “Real.”
This called for caution. Rick tried to call up an ounce of it and chose his words carefully. “You dated her for months.”
Seth’s head fell to the side as he blew out a long breath. “You get the concept of bisexuality, right?”
Relief almost knocked Rick over. He put a hand on the counter right near Seth’s hip for balance. “Sure.”
“Then you have your answer.” Seth didn’t move. “Unless you’re a guy who thinks that bi means sleeping around or—”
“I know what bisexuality is and have no concerns.” That was the truth. It was the answer he hadn’t dared to hope for. He had no interest in being some guy’s dirty secret while he pretended in public to date women.
Seth didn’t look away. “Honestly, that’s not usually the response I get. Elizabeth never trusted that I wouldn’t find a guy and leave her.”
Rick had friends who were bi. He wasn’t clueless about this. He got it. “I asked because it’s not the kind of information Helena would normally include. It really falls in the not-my-business category. But she must have thought it mattered, so I wanted to check.”
And now Rick wanted to know why Helena had included it.
“No offense, but talking about my boss and her unusual, potentially security clearance–revoking chattiness about my private life right now might kill the mood, and that would piss me off.”
Seth changed the topic, and Rick let him. He stepped in closer, liking the way Seth spread his legs to make room. He brushed his hand over Seth’s cheek before it traveled around to the back of his neck.
“That would be a shame since I’ve had enough food to recharge.” For a kiss…and pants on the floor and anything else.
“Is that so?” Seth leaned forward and whispered until his breath brushed over Rick’s mouth. “Then let’s get you naked.”
Chapter 8
Helena spilling protected information. Rick’s evasiveness about his upbringing. The questions swirled in Seth’s head. Any other time the not knowing would have eaten at him. He would have kept digging. But then Rick stood on the other side of the bed and took off his shirt and thinking became impossible.
This guy didn’t just ride a desk. Hell, it looked like he lifted them. His broad shoulders made a perfect V ending at his trim waist. Muscles bulged. A sprinkling of hair covered his chest. When he unzipped his pants and pushed them down a fraction, along with his briefs, Seth could see a thin line of hair starting just under his belly button and running down before disappearing under the elastic. They called it a treasure trail for a reason.
“Get on the bed.” Seth gave the order because he needed to be in charge of Rick, of his body.
Rick shoved the dress pants the rest of the way down and toed off his shoes. Without breakin
g eye contact he crawled onto the mattress. Laid down on his back with his hands palm up by his head, wearing nothing more than his gray boxer-briefs.
Every brain cell screamed at Seth to jump on the bed, get skin to skin and find the lube. His hands shook from resisting the impulse, but he was going to. They’d rushed the sex last time, and that was the right call. The club, the music, the chance of being exposed cried out for speed. This time, Seth wanted to savor. And he’d start by peeling off those briefs.
The mattress dipped when he sat down on the edge. He trailed his fingers over Rick’s chest and down to that flat stomach. Felt the ridges from the outline of his muscles. Skimmed his fingers along the elastic waistband and watched Rick’s sharp intake of breath.
How sexy was that?
“These look tight.” Seth brushed his hands over the spot where Rick’s growing bulge pressed against the fabric. “That can’t be comfortable.”
“Take them off.” Rick balled his hands into fists as his voice grew tight.
“Are you sure?” Seth leaned down and licked his tongue over Rick’s length through the material. Dragged his teeth lightly along the sides, careful not to press too tight.
Rick’s dick jerked in response. “Holy fuck.”
“Yeah, that’s the plan.” Seth cupped him. Rubbed his thumb over him until the material pulled taut against his palm.
Rick’s hands curled into the gray comforter. “Seth, shit. Please.”
The temptation to play a long game of sensual torture nearly overtook Seth. If his insides weren’t so spun up he might have. But he craved this—Rick, time with him. Wanted to feel their bodies rub against each other as he watched those blue eyes cloud with pleasure.
Fuck, yeah.
“Let’s get these off,” he said as Rick lifted his hips.
Excitement bounced around them. Energy pinged through the quiet room. Seth knew with a certainty he hadn’t really felt before that, club or no, this was inevitable. There was no way he could be near Rick without wanting to be inside him. They’d only jump-started the process in Berlin.
He slipped Rick’s briefs down and off, revealing lean hips and the one part of a man sure to drive Seth wild. Some people called it the Adonis Belt. He had no idea if that was a technical term or not. That incredible space right below Rick’s waist, on the sides and so pronounced as it cut in, showing off hip bones and tight muscles.
Guarding Mr. Fine (Tough Love #2) Page 6