by Jody Wallace
“I’m not important enough.”
“Yes, you are.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You’re extremely important.”
“Stop it, you’re making me blush,” I said, but he had a point. We were assuming the saboteurs didn’t know about me. If the leak was John or Yuri, that was a false assumption, and I was as much a target as anyone with high level skills. Good thing I hadn’t concluded that before Atlanta or I’d have been even more of a nervous wreck.
“Why did you come home early from Atlanta?” I asked him.
“I’m going back in a couple days. I told them I had to take care of some things.”
“What things?” Bills to pay? Secrets to leak? His theory and the fact he believed it didn’t mean he wasn’t the mole. It might just be the truth.
He didn’t respond. When the silence became measured in minutes instead of seconds, I took a deep breath to ask him something along the lines of, “Are you leaking private YuriCorp information to someone who’s not supposed to have it?”
He chose the moment before the words left my mouth to speak. “When did you start dating him? Two weeks ago, you said he was a bastard and you wanted him locked up.”
Okay. That was a topic change I hadn’t expected. I chewed on my bottom lip. Truth or consequence? “Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? You could have asked in a text.”
“That wouldn’t have been appropriate.” He didn’t deny it was his intended topic.
“I’m not dating him,” I said. “I’m doing him a favor.”
His brow unwrinkled slightly. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
“You sound like an old codger. He was tired of everyone trying to get a piece of him.” I waved away John’s offer of a refill on my wine. “In case you hadn’t noticed, he looks a little different now that his fade is gone.”
“I noticed,” he said dryly.
“Well, you can’t tell anyone our epic romance is fake. He threatened to... Well, he threatened me, and I believe him.” I didn’t want to tell John what Beau had threatened. It was embarrassing to admit I was afraid of being embarrassed.
John clenched two very uncustomary fists. “If he lays one hand on you—”
“John,” I said, “it wasn’t that kind of threat. Come on! I’d have had Al kick his ass if he’d mentioned bodily harm. I might be chicken, but I’m not dumb.”
John swiveled in his chair, put his hands on my shoulders, and peered intently into my eyes. “I’m not talking about violence.”
“There’s no other reason he’d lay his hands... Oh.” I’d better not tell John about the kiss. “It’s not like that.”
But it sort of was, and I’d discovered today Beau wanted it to be more like that, because my life was insane and so were all the men in it.
“That’s not what I heard.” John ran a hand through his hair, mussing it further. “Why would you want to be with him, Cleo?”
Samantha must have told him about the kiss after I’d asked her not to. My face and ears heated with shame and annoyance. Women hook up with men they ought to dislike all the time. “A, I’m not with him. B, there’s no reason why I can’t make out with some guy if I feel like it. I’m single.”
“Walker, of all people. You don’t even like him,” John said. “It’s repellent.”
There wasn’t even a hint of mask around John’s handsome face.
I’d never been fond of Beau. Right now, I wasn’t fond of John. Whether or not he found the idea of me and Beau repugnant, who was he to question my relationships?
I tried to raise one eyebrow, failed, and jutted my chin instead. “Hell, John, maybe I’m horny and he was available. Unlike someone else I could name.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I haven’t gotten laid since I moved to Nashville, and frankly it’s starting to interfere with my tranquil nature.” I slapped my palms on my thighs and leaned toward him. “If we’re done talking about this, I have a few things to ask you.”
John glared at me. “What?”
I was pissed enough that subtlety was impossible. “Are you YuriCorp’s leak?”
Apparently being accused of corporate espionage revved John’s motor. He cursed and dragged me into his lap. One of his hands buried in my hair and held my head in place. The other arm wrapped around my ribs like a seatbelt.
“Hey, what...” I managed.
He silenced me with a long, drugging kiss. I resisted for less than a second. Our tongues tangled, teeth bumped, all that hot jazz. One kiss led to another. In less time than it should have taken, our shirts were in the floor, his mouth was at my breast, my hands were hovering in the area of his waistband.
I shouldn’t let him sex me up, but Christ, I hadn’t lied about the celibacy. John tasted good and felt better. I melted like fondue. I petted his toned abdomen and chest, my hands drifting lower and lower.
He cupped my ass and squeezed, pressing me against him. His spot hit my spot. When I swiveled my hips, we both groaned. Sensation blazed between my legs, up my spine and short-circuited my brain. The first time we’d kissed, it hadn’t gone further than awkwardness. Tonight, it looked like things were headed somewhere else without any help from Samantha.
This was all John, giving in to months of my seductive wiles.
This was all John, avoiding my question.
I came up for air with a gasp. “You didn’t answer me.”
He unhooked my bra and buried his face in my bosom. “I’m loyal to YuriCorp. Hush.”
“You can’t hide things from me.”
He lifted my breasts and sucked one nipple, then the other. My privates clenched. Oh, hell.
Panting, I tried again. “Why are you doing this?”
John couldn’t answer when he had a mouthful of boob. I squirmed and moaned. I was so not cut out to be a secret agent, befuddling men with my body while sweet-talking information out of them. I was too involved in my arousal to breathe evenly, much less trick John.
No tricking, then. How could I let this continue unless I knew whether he was the mole? He had to be. Al wasn’t, Samantha wasn’t, and John was behaving unlike himself.
I tugged his hair. When he vacated my nipples, a draft from the ceiling fan tightened them like pebbles. “Wait, wait. Why are you doing this?”
“Cleo, I thought you knew.”
“Knew what, about you being a spy?” I held my breath. I wanted him to say he wasn’t the mole, say it to my face. It would mean I’d have to confront Yuri, but please please please don’t let the man I wanted to sleep with be the bad guy!
“I thought you knew how much I wanted you. I tried to hide it from you, but how could you not have seen it?” He didn’t avoid my gaze or duck his head. He was telling the truth, but he wasn’t answering me. “I hate the thought of you and Walker together.”
Jealousy was motivating for some people. Horniness and lust were motivating for me, but there you go. “That’s why you jumped me? You’re pissed at Walker?”
He licked the corner of his mouth, his lips ruddy from the kissing and suckling. “I want you, Cleo. If you don’t feel the same way I do...”
“Oh, I do.” My body would spontaneously combust if we didn’t follow through.
“I thought so.” Framing my face with his hands, he kissed me gently. I leaned into him, our lips clinging.
“The first moment I saw you,” he whispered, sending shivers to the ends of my hair, “I wanted to do this.” He rose with me in his arms. Impressed despite myself, I clung to his shoulders and bent my head away from the door jamb when he carried me into the bedroom. It was like the rest of his house—clean on the outside, but through the crack of his closet door, I glimpsed lunacy.
The cabinet, the closet—the man?
He tossed me on the bed and shoved his pants down. Toed off his shoes, shook out of the slacks. Boxers. White. He flipped the elastic with his thumbs and stared at my breasts, which were not at their best with me f
lat on my back. I propped myself on my elbows and...
No, no, no. I would not be seduced out of doing my job.
“Look at me,” I demanded.
“I am.” He crawled up the bed, hovering over my hips. His gaze focused on the button of my shorts.
“Up here. At my face.”
He lowered himself, biceps bulging, until his breath splashed across my stomach. I sucked my gut in and he nipped the top of my zipper.
“You smell luscious.” His tongue flickered out to trace my navel. “Your skin has so many flavors.” Somehow he unbuttoned my shorts with his mouth and caught the zipper tab between his teeth. After he lowered it, he said, “I can’t wait to taste the rest of you.”
“Oh dear.” He licked and sucked, inching closer to a destination I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist once he arrived. As hot as I found his cataloguing of my DNA, I couldn’t let the taste test continue until he passed my test. I grabbed two handfuls of his hair and yanked.
I cleared my tight throat. “That is not my face.”
“Ow, Cleo!” He shot to the top of the bed until we were eye to eye. Chest to chest. Hip to hip. His boxers, my shorts halfway down—he wasn’t faking his interest in the proceedings.
“You have to tell me whether or not you’re the mole, John. I asked everyone but you and Yuri. Am I supposed to believe it’s Yuri? According to Al, there might be more than one leak. Maybe you and Yuri are in cahoots.”
He chose his words with care; I could tell because it took him so long to say them. “Nothing would make me happier than YuriCorp’s financial health and my continued employment there. I want only the best for YuriCorp.”
He was telling the truth. But it wasn’t a straight answer. “Are you leaking information to somebody that’s causing all these people to get burned out?”
“I don’t know anything about the supras who’ve been attacked. I don’t know why and I don’t know how and I’d go to great lengths to put a stop to it.” He gave me a tight smile. “I won’t ask how you can think that of me. It’s your job. It’s what Yuri, what we all, want you to do. We want you to make a miracle happen because we’ve tried and failed.”
“I’m not a miracle worker.” I wriggled, adjusting our lower halves so his body fit more comfortably between my legs. “It’s especially hard when I don’t have all the facts.”
He kissed beside my mouth, slowly, murmuring against my skin. “I know I haven’t been open with you, Cleo.”
I nodded, afraid to speak.
“I don’t like to get involved with coworkers. My job is my life. It’s what I am, what I’ve always been. I’ve avoided you because you make me want to break my own rules.”
“I do?”
What, I couldn’t believe the truth when it was staring me in the face, without a mask?
“You know it’s true.” He placed his lips against mine, his hand between my legs, and I didn’t ask him any questions for some time thereafter, except, “Jesus Christ, can you do that again?”
Chapter 18
Easy Peasy
John pulled me into the crook of his arm until my head rested on his shoulder. The sheet covered us, and my body ached with the pleasant afterglow of vigorous sex. He stroked my arm. “Was it—”
“Do not ask if it was good for me,” I warned. The man had been like a machine in bed. My body felt as drained as a farm pond in August.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say he’d been like a machine with an endless supply of batteries. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed himself at the end, but his determination to give me several O’s had been exhausting.
I tilted my head until I could see his profile. “I think you’ve done that before.”
“Me? Never.” He closed his eyes and smiled, a shadow coating his face, but since he was teasing, it was to be expected. “I feel so relaxed after sex. It’s the only time I can really unwind.”
I placed my palm on his chest. His steady heartbeat tickled my fingers. “Is that your way of telling me you’re about to fall asleep?” I wouldn’t argue if he was. I was tuckered.
“No.” He rolled us over, and for a minute I was afraid he was about to go for it again. There were only so many times I could orgasm before I got sick to my stomach. “I want to talk to you when there’s nothing between us.”
As we were both naked and slightly sticky, the “nothing between us” part was a given. “Was there something in particular you wished to discuss?”
“We need to finish our conversation from earlier.”
“We do?” I’d been satisfied his loyalty was to YuriCorp. He liked his job and wanted our company to do well. A mole would support some other company—or person, or agency, or secret initiative—hence the leaking of vital information.
“I don’t want any doubts left in your mind.” He kissed my nose. “No more secrets, no more worrying who’s telling the truth and who’s not.”
A thin shadow coated his features. After sex—after successful sex—my ability had a tendency to wane. It was similar to extreme physical exhaustion, but all I had to do was orgasm, not climb thirty flights of stairs in Chicago in the summer because the damn elevator was broken.
Alas, it never waned enough for me to believe it when a guy said I was the best he’d ever had and that he’d call. Why was John lying about being open with me?
“Honesty is crucial,” I agreed.
“Especially with you.” His gaze cut to the side for a moment. “It’s been hard to stay away from you, but we had our jobs to do. A relationship would complicate matters.”
Was he about to dump me? In bed? With his naked body squishing mine?
“We still have those jobs. That hasn’t changed.” I rushed to cover how hurt my feelings would be if he didn’t intend for us to start dating. “If this is just sex, I guess that’s cool, I know a lot of people sleep around at YuriCorp...hell, everywhere...I said I was hard up, and—”
He was already shaking his head, smiling a little. “No. It’s not just sex.” His gaze canted to the side again before returning, the pupils dilated in his bourbon colored irises. This close I could see flecks of hazel in the brown. “Do you trust me?”
“Suuuure,” I drawled. “But I have to warn you. When a guy asks that in bed, it usually precedes a vulgar proposal, and I’m tapped out.”
He didn’t frown. He really was relaxed after sex. “Do you suspect me?” he asked. “Do you think I have anything to do with the problems at YuriCorp?”
He’d never struck me as insecure, but I didn’t mind offering reassurance. “John, I saw your face. There was no mask when you said you didn’t know anything about the burnouts. Unless your hidden skill is to futz up my hidden skill, I’m a believer.”
“That’s wonderful,” he said earnestly. “I’d never willingly hurt anyone at YuriCorp, not even Walker.”
“I guess you believe me now, too. About Beau.”
He bent down until his forehead touched mine. “If you were involved with him, you’re not anymore. You’re with me now.”
“I’m definitely with you,” I agreed.
He hadn’t said he believed me, he just believed he’d converted me. He almost behaved like bedding me meant he’d one-upped Beau, but if he’d been attracted to me all this time, jealousy was normal. His competitive reaction was also normal.
Normal—no worries. No barriers between us. “You’re not angry I thought you were the mole?”
“No,” he lied. “Not angry.”
“Come on, John.” Lying to my face during a discussion about honesty. How rude! “You were a little angry.”
For a moment he frowned—the first frown I’d seen on his face in some time. Then he laughed.
“You’re good. All the years of honing your suprasense have given you sharp instincts about deception. Even after sex, you can tell, can’t you? Maybe it’s a woman thing.”
“Um, yeah, I can tell,” I agreed, because it was true, although I’d been using my suprasense to call him on his fib.
“Don’t try that again, mister.”
“I was angry at the situation, not you.”
That was true.
“You had an assignment, and you performed to the best of your abilities. Whenever we spent time together, it could have interfered, but now that you trust me, we can move past it.” A grin curled into one side of his mouth, awakening a single dimple. “We can be together. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Are you asking me out?” I teased. We’d come this far. No turning back now.
“Yes.” He kissed me, but it didn’t ripen into anything momentous. Then he rolled off me, our skin pulling apart like Velcro.
“Yeow!”
He laughed. “I don’t know about you, but after sex I want spicy food. Hot food. Food that’s bad for me.” He stood, rubbed his chest, and held out his hand. “All the food I can’t eat when my senses are working. You want to go to Merlin’s and get chili?”
“I’m a little peckish.” What did he mean, he wanted the food he couldn’t eat when his senses were working? It would take more than afterglow to bolster him through the evil beans. “Are you sure about the chili? You and Sam warned me away from it.”
Obviously I’d tried it as soon as I was at Merlin’s alone, and it had been so spicy I’d gotten blisters in my soul.
“Supras with a taste sensitivity crave it when we’re burned out. Chili, hot mustard, wasabi—we want it all. The chef makes it just for us. I figure we’ve got an hour or two of post-coital before I flicker back. Merlin’s is only twenty minutes away.”
“What? What? What?” Me, the broken record, skipping on a word like a twitch. I squirmed into a sitting position and yanked the sheet to my chin. “You’re burned out?”
He glanced over his shoulder and shot me a superior grin. “Not as burned out as you are. I only came once. But don’t worry—I didn’t pull that stunt where I pretend to climax so I can take advantage. It’s too difficult for a man to fake it.”