by Roz Lee
“Not when it comes to Celeste. She’s mine.”
“Then how did I get this?” He ran a hand over the bite mark on his shoulder. Sean saw it then, the unmistakable teeth marks.
He saw red.
“She’s a tiger. I can see why you’d want to tame her, but I like her wild—.”
Sean’s fist connected with his jaw and sent him reeling. Drew landed on the closed toilet seat. He made no attempt to get up. He rubbed his jaw and glared at Sean.
“I don’t blame you for that. You deserve as much, but out of respect for Celeste, I won’t fight with you, Sean. She loves you, something I can’t comprehend, and you’re an ass. If you don’t give her what she wants, she’ll get it somewhere else. For the record, I’m willing and able to give her anything she wants.”
“Stay the hell away from her.”
“I still have twenty-four hours with her. I intend to take my turn, if she’s willing.” He rubbed his shoulder again. “I don’t see any reason she wouldn’t be.”
“You’re a son-of-a-bitch. You know that?”
“I know. But you’re a perverted idiot. Go put your collar back on her, Sean. But this time, don’t pretend to be someone else when you have her in your bed. That’s what you did, didn’t you? She’s confused. She doesn’t know who you are anymore. When she’s with me, she knows who she’s with, what she’s getting. With you? Who knows? I do know this – you better get your head screwed on right before you put your collar on her or she’ll be sleeping in my bed Sunday night.”
“Fuck you!”
Sean backed out of the bathroom and slammed the bedroom door. He heard Drew’s mocking laughter as he stormed to his own room. Christ, he needed sleep.
Unfortunately, sleep eluded him. He had a reputation for cool-headed thinking in life-or-death situations. Not that this one qualified on that level, at least not in any immediate sense. He’d tried living without Celeste. He knew his future, without her in it was bleak enough to qualify as the direst of circumstances. He turned Drew’s comments over in his mind. Was the asshole right? Had he unwittingly sent her to Drew’s bed?
God. He couldn’t think about Celeste so worked up she put those marks on Drew’s shoulder. Sure, she’d marked him before, but only when he’d allowed it. Well, tonight there wouldn’t be any doubt what kind of relationship they would have, if she chose him. No more of that sensitive shit.
Celeste was his sub. She just needed a reminder. He’d be fair, let Drew have another try at convincing her to choose him, but after tonight, the bastard wouldn’t have a chance.
* * * * *
Drew examined his jaw in the mirror above the sink. Goddamned dirt-shitter could still land a good punch when he wanted to. In a few hours, he’d have another bruise. It was worth the pain though. He touched the bite mark, testing the skin with his fingertips. The dental impression was fading, and anyone who got close enough could tell it wasn’t all that recent. Sean had been so blinded by his own idiocy he hadn’t made that observation. Score one for aging spooks.
It was possible Sean was losing his touch, but Drew didn’t believe that was the case. Celeste could blind any man, make him stupid. Sean was definitely stupid when it came to Celeste.
Drew dressed in crew member dock wear – turquoise shorts and a matching polo-style shirt. Sean had gone to his room, probably to get some sleep. Let him sleep. He was going to need his rest if he was going to fight for Celeste.
Drew headed for the security office, by way of the Parthenon Buffet. He had an eco-terrorist to stop from God only knew what, and an empty stomach to fill. Stomach first, eco-terrorist second.
He filled his plate and found a table along the bank of starboard windows. The weather looked fine for sailing aimlessly around the Caribbean. Except for one shore day at a private island, the Lothario puttered around the sparkling ocean waters for days. No one onboard seemed to mind. There was plenty to do on the ship, if you liked sex, and everyone who booked passage on this ship liked sex.
A couple strolled past, stark naked and groping each other. The woman had red hair, and fair skin that would burn if she spent much time on deck without any clothes on. He couldn’t help but remember another redhead, one with cream skin spattered with a few freckles. The feel of her skin came easily to mind. He remembered expecting her to be cool to the touch, but her skin had felt like silk warmed by the sun. Then there was the most extraordinary part of her—her sweet pussy, as tight as a glove, and filled with molten lava. Yea, she was volcanic all right. He had the teeth marks to prove it.
Just as he was trying to convince his cock that she wasn’t his type, Celeste was, he heard her voice.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Agent Stanton.” He shifted his coffee cup to make room for her. “Not at all. Have a seat.”
She set her plate and juice glass on the table and sat across from him. She spun the napkin rolled utensils with practiced ease, and placed the cutlery precisely next to her plate before she dropped the napkin in her lap.
“It’s Bree, Drew. Surely, after all we’ve been through, we can be on a first name basis.”
“You bit me.”
“Really? Hmmm. I’ve been known to do that. No one has ever complained.”
“Maybe no one else has ever had to explain the bite mark to the woman they love.”
She cut her pancakes with the precision of a vascular surgeon, speared a rectangular stack and brought them to her mouth. “That would be Agent Hamilton—Celeste Hamilton.”
“What would you know about Celeste, I mean, Agent Hamilton.”
He watched her chew for a moment. Her lips moved, and he imagined the feel of them moving against his.
“More than you can imagine. What happened to your face?”
She had no idea how much he could imagine. “I ran into a brick wall.”
“I bet that’s hard to do on a cruise ship. Did Agent Hamilton do that when she saw the bite mark?”
“No.”
“Oh well. Must have been a jealous husband then. Did you get caught climbing out of a porthole you shouldn’t have been in last night?”
“Damnit! No! How I got it is none of your business. Tell me what you know about Celeste.”
“Oooh, now it’s Celeste. I knew it.”
She continued to demolish her pancakes, pausing between bites to torment him.
“I’ve worked with her for a couple of years. I’ve heard all about her two partners. I got the impression the three of you were partners in more ways than one.”
He watched her lips as she masticated another stack and waited for her to continue. He hadn’t miscalculated. Lord, the woman could talk the ears off a jackass.
“The way she talked about you two, I expected you’d be a cross between James Bond and Superman.” Another forkful disappeared between her full lips. She swallowed and that tongue of hers he knew could do wicked things, darted out to capture a drop of syrup lingering on her bottom lip. He almost missed her next comment.
“Boy, was I surprised to find out you were only human.”
What the hell did the witch mean by that? “Look, Agent. . . . ”
“Bree. I think we’re beyond the formalities, or did you and Callahan make a habit of fucking Agent Hamilton on the office furniture?”
His blood boiled. He didn’t know which would be more satisfying—pitching her smart ass over the nearest railing, or dragging her over the table and showing her how inhuman a former spy could be. It would be easy enough to silence her with his cock between those luscious, vile lips of hers, either set. He wasn’t picky.
Drew clenched his jaw and winced at the jolt of pain where Sean had landed his punch. He made a conscious effort to relax. Who was this woman? Every word out of her mouth taunted him, and her body tempted him beyond reason. He’d been inside her more than he’d been inside Celeste, in all the years he’d known the latter. He loved Celeste. You didn’t have to fuck someone to love them, and just because you fucked someone did
n’t mean you loved them either.
So why did this woman make his blood boil? And, why had he all but challenged Sean this morning to claim Celeste, or lose her? He’d told Sean how confused Celeste was, but he wasn’t in any better shape.
“Look, Bree,” he emphasized her name, “my personal relationship with Celeste is none of your business. Our. . . ” he waved his index finger between them to indicate he was talking about the two of them, “relationship is going to be nothing but business from here on out. I apologize for being unprofessional. It won’t happen again.”
She drained her juice glass and smiled at him. “If you say so.”
Drew watched her perfect ass sway out of sight and wondered how he’d ended up in this parallel universe. Perhaps they’d sailed off course into the Bermuda Triangle, and the ship was caught in an invisible force field that turned your brain to mush. It sounded as good as any other theory he could come up with.
* * * * *
Agent Stanton, Bree, was waiting for him in the security office. He took his time at the coffee maker, enough time to exert some will over his cock. He’d gone bone hard the second he walked in the door. She was bent over the desk, clicking away at the mouse, showing one of the security staff how to select and program a particular camera to zoom in on suspicious activity. Her rounded ass, displayed prominently to anyone who happened to walk through the door, distracted him.
A jolt of hot caffeine helped clear his head. He turned around. “That’s enough. Kyle, don’t you have someplace to be this morning?”
Drew leaned against the coffee counter and waited until the baby security guard practically tripped over his own tongue trying to exit the room.
“You shouldn’t toy with the help that way. He’s going to have to find a place to jack off now.”
“I was just having a little fun. He’s too young for me.” She took a step in his direction. “Besides, you told me I couldn’t fool around with the old guys either.”
The distance between them was shrinking at an alarming rate. Drew clutched his coffee cup like a shield.
“Bree…”
“That’s Agent Stanton to you.” She was close enough steam from his coffee cup could have steamed her glasses, if she had glasses. Her eyes sparkled with mischief, and her lips promised things a green guy like Kyle could only dream of. Drew knew firsthand what those lips could do.
“Who are you? I can’t decide if I should shove your ass out and lock the door behind you, or lock the door and shove my cock up your ass.”
His coffee cup left his hands, and he watched helplessly as she returned it to the counter behind him.
“Which will it be?”
Drew glanced at the door; saw her gaze flicker there and back. He hoped she’d choose the door, prayed she wouldn’t.
She wedged herself between his thighs. He let her get close, let her wrap her hands behind his neck, let her touch her lips to his. She tasted like maple syrup and that fruity juice concoction they served at breakfast. His hands rose to her waist and settled against the curve of her hips as if they were meant to be there.
His thumbs brushed the fabric underneath until it bunched and inched higher with each tiny stroke. At last, his thumbs brushed against her skin and he broke the kiss. He leaned back a fraction, just enough to see what his busy thumbs had uncovered.
A tiny scrap of white lace barely covered the wild thatch of red-gold curls at the apex of her thighs. His mouth went dry, and his little brain hammered at him to drink, to taste the moisture he knew would be there. He didn’t know how long he sat there; frozen in place, while his cock led him in a direction he wasn’t sure he wanted to go.
God, he wanted this woman. But he couldn’t have her, not again anyway.
“Drew?”
“Huh?” He shook his head to clear it and met her gaze head on. “No. We can’t do this.” He moved his hands, and her sarong fell like the final curtain. He closed his fingers around her upper arms and pushed her away. “Not again.”
“I don’t see why not. You’re all primed,” her fingers closed around the bulge in his shorts, “and so am I.”
He didn’t want to be rude, but he had to make her understand. He stepped to the side and as far away from her as he could get in the small office. “We just can’t.”
Damn, couldn’t she take no for an answer? Bree followed him across the room and he raised a warning hand to stop her. Much to his surprise, she stopped and smiled at him.
“Oh well. It was worth a try.” She pulled out a chair and sat. “Let’s get to work.”
She changed direction faster than a roller coaster and left Drew’s head spinning. He unlocked the door, took his seat at the control desk, and tried to focus on his job.
“I went through all the crew and passenger photos. Not a single one looks familiar. Can you separate out the most recent hires? It’s unlikely someone with such a dislike of cruise ships, and their practices, would be a long-term employee.”
Drew punched a few keys and waited. She was right about the new hires. If it was an employee, a new one would be the most likely to have a beef with the ship. That didn’t help at all when it came to the passengers. The Lothario took on a new batch every seven days. A list popped on the screen.
“Fifty-five new hires in the last month. Most of them are kitchen help and cabin stewards. That’s where the ship has the greatest turnover.”
Bree pulled the keyboard toward her and brought up the first personnel file. Drew sat back and watched her.
Damn, she was pretty. Every time he got within sight of her, his brain function switched from the top to the bottom, and lord knew, his lower brain didn’t have a lick of sense. He wanted her, though he knew he shouldn’t. What the hell was wrong with him? It hadn’t been more than a few hours ago he’d had his tongue in Celeste’s pussy, and now all he could think about was Bree.
He tried to concentrate on each file as she brought it up on the screen. One of these people could be a tree-hugging, eco-terrorist, and finding this person, or persons, another scenario they hadn’t examined, was top priority. Knowing it, didn’t make it any easier to concentrate.
Having her this close was pure torture. Her scent called to him like a bitch in heat. Like on the first night when he’d noticed her at the poolside mixer, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He’d been drawn to the overall package. It had been too dark, and too crowded to see details, like the gold highlights in her red hair, or how her skin was the color of cream and just as soft. He’d found out those things, and more when she’d taken him to her cabin and played the shy, quiet one with him. Now he knew, that had been an act, but he couldn’t regret the deceit. They’d spent hours touching and tasting and finally, making love. Drew shook off the last thought. No, not making love – having sex. That’s what it had been, just sex. But, God in heaven, great sex.
She pursed those perfect, plum colored lips as she studied yet another file. Drew’s cock pressed harder against the zipper, and he resisted the urge to adjust himself. The discomfort reminded him he wasn’t supposed to be thinking of Bree that way. But, sweet Jesus, he couldn’t forget how those lips looked and felt wrapped around him, or the way her soft little hand had played havoc with his balls and his sanity.
He forced his gaze away from her lips. A bridge of freckles spanned her pixie nose. A similar band ran along the top of her breasts, marking the uppermost edge of a swimsuit or bra. Drew’s tongue wet his lower lip, itching to trace that line again. He knew that underneath her clothes, where the sun had been denied access, her body was flawless. From the top of her breasts, to the crease where her thighs met her hips, not a single freckle marred the expanse of sweet cream.
Drew grabbed a pen and doodled on a pad. Anything to keep from reaching for her, hauling her ass back on the desk and plunging in her again. This was insanity. His body wanted Bree with an intensity that was foreign to him, but his heart ached for Celeste.
Celeste, who was with Sean, was probably wearin
g his collar again, and doing unspeakable things for the bastard. His blood boiled at the thought. He closed his fist around the pencil and the wood snapped, just like he’d snap Sean’s neck if he hurt Celeste.
“Drew? Hey, you still here?”
He tore off the top sheet of paper and wadded it into a ball before he dropped it and the broken pencil in the wastebasket underneath the desk. “Yeah. I’m here. Did you find anything?”
“No. Nothing that raises any red flags. Still, without complete background checks it’s impossible to know if any of these people told the truth on their applications. I don’t suppose anyone did that extensive a check when they hired these people?”
“I don’t know for certain, but I wouldn’t think so. We can check with the human resources department. Unfortunately, they’re in Miami. We can get a satellite connection and talk to them.”
“You’re probably right. It wouldn’t be cost effective to do that kind of check on every new hire, especially in these high turnover jobs. Besides, we don’t have any reason to believe it’s a crew member.”
“It could be anybody. It’s like finding one particular fish in the ocean. Not going to happen unless that fish jumps on your boat and says, here I am.”
Bree laughed, a full, easy laugh that reminded him of the way she let go when she came. She didn’t hold anything back then either.
Christ, he was going insane.
Chapter Ten
Celeste woke mid-morning, showered, and grabbed a sandwich from the twenty-four hour café on the Odyssey deck. She’d been so angry with Drew the previous evening that she hadn’t slept well. He was right, she didn’t have any place judging his behavior, but still, it hurt to think he’d been in another’s bed one night, and hers the next.
What woman wouldn’t want him? She knew from experience how those hands and lips could make a woman forget everything, and everyone. Well, almost everyone. She had to admit, though she’d never tell Drew, there were a few times she’d fantasized that Sean was the one touching her, making her feel like the most precious thing on the planet.