“No regrets. That’s what you said at the beginning of this, remember?”
“I remember.” She sighed and let him go, leaning back on the bed with her legs open. So tempting. “I wish I’d married you instead of Dan. You were much more exciting.”
He picked up his hat and keys. A memory flashed through him, bringing with it remembered bitterness. “Too exciting, I believe. Or so you told me at the time.”
She shrugged. “You were always dashing off somewhere, not calling for weeks at a time, returning with that wild look in your eyes. It was too much for me back then.”
He snorted. “And then you left the Army and joined the CIA to become a field officer. Pretty exciting stuff on its own, don’t you think?”
“What choice did I have when the Army wouldn’t let me try out for the Rangers, much less the Green Berets or Delta?”
That much was true, but the Army had come a long way in the past twenty years. Women were trying out for Special Forces now—and getting in. Still, that wasn’t what they were really talking about here. “We wouldn’t have lasted, and you know it. We were always like oil and water—except in bed.”
“You asked me to marry you.”
“And you said no.” He didn’t think he was bitter over that anymore, but maybe he was. And not necessarily because of her. If he’d married Sam, maybe he could have avoided the resounding heartbreak that came later. The woman who had come later and who had been taken away when his feelings for her were still so new and overwhelming.
Sam blew out another cloud of vapor. “I did. My bad.”
Mendez couldn’t help but laugh. “You aren’t in the least bit broken up about it either.”
She grinned. “No, I guess not. I’m just pissed off at all the great sex I could have been having if I’d said yes.”
He leaned down and kissed her, then licked a nipple while she gasped. “Look at it this way—if you’d said yes and we’d gotten married, we’d have ended up divorced and not speaking to each other. And we definitely wouldn’t be fucking now, would we?”
“No, we wouldn’t.” She brought her foot up and rubbed it over his crotch when he straightened, laughing as she discovered his hard-on. “We could go another round before you leave.”
He sighed. “Wish I could, but I got to get back.”
“You’re still worried about your operator, aren’t you? Daniels, right?”
“Yeah.” He knew Fiddler and the girl had made it to Paris and that Hawk had set them up with everything they needed. But he didn’t know what Androv was up to other than the typical intel he had on the man. He couldn’t send assets into the mix right now, and it was killing him not to be able to do so.
He’d asked Sam, but she’d been uncertain she could do anything from her end. She grabbed her robe from the bed and stood up, putting it on and belting it. Her eyes were sympathetic as she gazed up at him. “This thing with Congressman DeWitt has really got you wound around the axle, hasn’t it?”
DeWitt shouldn’t be anyone important as a junior member of the House Armed Services Committee, yet he seemed to have made it his personal mission to turn a critical eye onto everything HOT. He’d been busy whipping up interest in Congress for an investigation into HOT’s operational scope. One wrong move right now and DeWitt would have all the ammunition he needed.
Not to mention that Mendez hadn’t forgotten what Ian Black had said to him once. DeWitt… watch him closely.
“It happens with every administration,” he told Sam. “Remember when the president and the joint chiefs kept the NRO a secret from Congress back in the seventies? Now they’re paranoid about everything the Pentagon does.”
She set down her e-cigarette, put her arms around him, and hugged him tight for a second. “Let me try again, okay? I’ll see what assets we have in Paris that can help.”
He pushed her hair back from her cheek. “What do you know about Ian Black?”
She seemed to hesitate for a second, but then she frowned. “He was disavowed a few years ago. He’s gone rogue from what I understand. But how do you know him?”
Every instinct he had told him to be cautious here. If Sam didn’t know that Black was still with the agency, it wasn’t his place to tell her. “I ran into him in Qu’rim. He’s an interesting character.”
“He’s a traitor.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“You sound as if you don’t believe it.”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “You know as well as I do that nothing is as simple as it seems in this business.”
“If the agency tells me he’s a traitor, then he is.” She picked up her e-cigarette and put it to her lips. But her fingers trembled slightly as she did so. It surprised him and puzzled him.
But he didn’t mention it. He’d learned as a Special Operator that some of the smallest things were often some of the most important. Instead, he smacked her on the ass and grinned.
“Good-bye, Sam.”
She returned his smile. “Bye, Johnny. I’ll call you if I have any news.”
It was dark when Sophie woke. It surprised her that she’d slept so long, but she didn’t remember getting up even once. She went and took a quick shower, then put on the robe hanging on the back of the door. When she opened the bedroom door, she fully expected to find Chase watching television or cleaning guns.
But the room was dark and empty. She moved toward the bedroom he’d said he would take. The door stood open. She peered into the darkness, trying to make out a shape in the bed or hear the sound of his breathing.
But there was no sound, no movement. Sophie spun with a cry and rushed back into the living room. The apartment was empty. Just empty.
Bastard.
She clenched her fists at her sides and sucked in air. He’d lied to her. He’d said he wouldn’t leave her alone, but he had. He’d gone to Tyler’s apartment, gone to see the lay of the land and figure out if any of Grigori’s people had been there. He’d left her here alone with no phone and no way of communicating with him.
Fury rolled through her—
Something rattled the door and her heart hammered harder. What if it was Grigori’s men? What if they were breaking in, coming for her?
She spun, heading for her room and the balcony that overlooked the courtyard and the rooftops. She could go out there, climb over to the next roof maybe—
The lock turned and the door swung inward, freezing her in place. Chase came inside and closed the door behind him, locking it.
She stalked toward him, and he looked up as he saw her move in the light coming from outside the windows. She didn’t stop, and he dropped something before catching her arms and locking them at her sides. That’s when she realized she’d raised them as if she were going to strike him.
Or maybe she’d just been planning to wrap her arms around his neck and not let go.
“What the fuck, Sophie?”
She twisted, trying to break free, but he was too strong. “You left,” she panted. “You promised.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. Angry tears. Helpless tears.
“I’m sorry,” he said and she turned her head, lowering her chin. She didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want to see the casual disregard in his eyes.
“Let. Me. Go.”
He did and she stumbled back, swiping at her eyes and cursing herself for letting him see how upset she was.
He retrieved whatever he’d dropped—and she smelled food. He flipped on a light switch and the room flooded with soft light. She blinked as she looked at the bag he held up.
“I went to get dinner. I was gone for twenty minutes.”
And just like that, he made her feel like a crazy bitch. Food. They needed that, didn’t they?
“You could have left a note. Or you could have woke me.”
She knew she sounded ungrateful, but he’d scared her. God, she hated that they had to wait to get the package. It was making her lose her shit. She just wanted to get it and go—b
ut it had to arrive first.
“I was gone twenty minutes. I didn’t think of it.”
She went over to the kitchen and searched the cabinets for plates like a normal person would—a normal person with trembling hands. “You should have. I bet you don’t disappear on your teammates, do you?”
He set the bag on the table and shrugged out of his leather jacket. “No, I don’t.”
She turned with plates in hand and set them down. “Then don’t do it to me either, okay?”
“Okay.”
She looked up at him, surprised he’d agreed. His voice had been soft as he said it, almost regretful.
“Do you mean that?”
“Yeah, Sophie, I mean it. I should have lit a firecracker under your ass and woke you up just so I could tell you I’d be back in twenty minutes.”
“You should have.”
He shook his head as he removed the food containers from the bag. Sophie gaped at what he pulled out and then couldn’t help but laugh in spite of her determination to hold on to her anger a bit longer.
“You’re in the greatest city in the world for food and you got Chinese takeout?”
He frowned at her. “It was fast and I know what I’m getting.”
She grabbed the chopsticks that had been shoved in the bag and started opening containers. They sat down and she broke the wooden chopsticks and rubbed them together to get rid of splinters. Then she carefully took a little bit from a couple of cartons before setting them down again.
When she looked up, Chase was watching her.
“You hardly took anything,” he said, and she felt herself color.
“I have enough.”
“Do you?”
“Yes, I do.”
He dumped out a bunch of orange chicken and some noodles onto his plate. Then he picked up an egg roll and tore into it with his teeth. “You know what I think?” he said after he swallowed the bite.
“I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.”
He pointed at her plate with his chopsticks. “I think you need to stop worrying about what everyone else thinks. You said that starving yourself wouldn’t make you look like your mother. Well, you know what? You look better than she does. Ten times better. Healthy and gorgeous—so eat the fucking food and stop thinking about your weight.”
She grabbed a piece of chicken with her chopsticks and ate it. The flavors melted on her tongue, and her stomach rumbled anew.
“I am eating, asshole.”
He picked up some noodles with his chopsticks and held them out to her. “You didn’t take any noodles.”
“Noodles are starchy.”
“Try them, Sophie. For me.”
She snorted. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those guys who like to stuff a girl full and watch her get fat.”
His eyes gleamed. “Oh, I like to stuff a girl full all right, but it’s not food I’m using when I do it.”
20
She was sitting there in that fucking robe—the second time she’d worn a robe in his presence—staring at him with her mouth hanging open. Her hair was messy and piled on her head, and she didn’t have on any makeup.
But it was the gaping vee of the robe that had most of his attention. He could see the curve of a breast, the creamy swell of flesh and the lacy edge of her bra. He wanted to put his face there, smell her skin, and lick his way to her nipple.
He’d gone to check on her after he’d wakened earlier. She’d been lying on her stomach in that bed, covers thrown back, one leg kicked up, her ass cheeks peeking through the lace of her panties. Fucking lace panties with no lining. Just lace and skin and a pretty pink bow at the waistband. He’d wanted to turn her over and see if the lace was see-through on that side too. If there was another bow.
If he could see the soft triangle of her curls and the pink lips of her pussy.
He’d stood there above her, fighting the urge to wake her gently with his mouth on hers, his hands filling with her curves, and frantically thought that going to get food was a damn good idea.
He’d desperately needed the cooling-off time that going around the corner for Chinese would give him.
He wanted to fuck her. Badly. And every time he decided that was acceptable, it wasn’t the place or the time. So by the time he found himself with ample opportunity, he’d had time to talk himself out of it. To think of all the reasons it was a bad idea.
First, there was Grigori Androv and their mission to consider. He had to keep a clear head over that. Second, she was Tyler’s stepdaughter, and that brought with it a whole level of complication he didn’t need. Third… he’d forgotten what was third.
“You always say stuff like that,” she finally said, recovering her equilibrium, “and I have yet to see evidence of it. I’m beginning to think you make it all up, Chase.”
He still held the chopsticks out, and she finally leaned forward and took the bite of noodles. He couldn’t say why that gratified him, but it did.
“Mmm,” she said, closing her eyes for a second.
And Christ, he wanted to kiss her. His cock hardened and sweat broke out over his body. When was the last time he’d been so intrigued by a woman that he’d felt this kind of anguished need for her?
Or maybe that was just the situation. Who they were. The forbidden aspect of his desire.
She opened her eyes again, and he picked up more noodles, held them out. She took them without hesitation. The next bite went into his mouth.
She offered him some of her orange chicken and he took it. Somehow they ended up feeding each other off their own plates, trading bites in silence, their eyes locked together in some sort of sensual duel.
It was, without doubt, the most erotic meal he’d ever had in his life—and that was counting the time he’d eaten dessert off a woman’s body. She’d been a chef and the entire meal had been spectacular, ending with an amazing array of chocolate, strawberries, and fresh whipped cream placed strategically over her naked form.
Yet somehow that didn’t compare to trading bites of Frenchified Chinese food with Sophie. She curled her tongue around the chopsticks, moaned at every bite, and chewed slowly and deliberately.
Finally, when he couldn’t take it anymore, he took the chopsticks from her and laid them on the table. Then he dropped to his knees on the floor and spread her legs open, running his palms up her calves, the insides of her knees, her thighs. She trembled beneath his touch, her breath shortening the higher he got.
“What is this, Chase?” she asked as he pulled her ass forward on the chair. “What are you doing?”
He looked up at her in disbelief. “You can’t figure it out?”
She sucked her lower lip between her teeth and an arrow of need lanced into him. “I keep thinking I’m going to wake up. Or you’re going to say never mind, this is a bad idea.”
“It is a bad idea. But a hard-on has no conscience, Sophie—and I’ve been hard for you for days.”
Her hands went to the tie of the robe and she undid it. He didn’t miss the trembling in her fingers as she unknotted the belt. But she pulled the robe open and his breath caught in his lungs.
“Jesus,” he said softly.
His eyes slid over her body, the lacy white bra pushing her breasts—big, beautiful, creamy breasts—into soft mounds of flesh. Her belly wasn’t flat, but he didn’t care. It was soft and curvy, her waist was defined, and her hips flared out into killer curves. A tiny scrap of panty covered her pussy. It wasn’t lacy, however. Judging by the strings on the sides, it was definitely a thong.
Holy shit, she’d changed from sexy panty to off-the-fucking-chain panty.
His mouth went dry. His throat ached. Sophie’s beautiful eyes glittered in challenge, but he knew she was putting on a brave front because he’d dared her to.
“Not quite what you expected?” she said, her chin thrust upward even as she leaned back in the chair with her ass on the edge.
“Better than I expected.”
And that was
the fucking truth.
Her chin quivered and he changed his plan to eat her pussy first thing, instead leaning in to her and curving his hand around the back of her neck before taking her mouth in a hard, passionate kiss.
Her lips opened and his tongue slipped inside, stroking hers. She moaned into his mouth and his balls tightened. Her arms went around his neck, her hands spearing into his hair. Her touch was sensual, sizzling. It shocked him how much she affected him with that simple gesture.
Hell, had he ever been this excited in his life? This ready to explode?
He lifted her up as she gasped, then walked her the few steps to the counter, setting her on it. But he didn’t stop kissing her, didn’t stop devouring her mouth even as he pushed the robe off her shoulders and went for the catch of her bra. He felt it snap free, and then he filled his hands with her tits. Her nipples were already hard points, but he intended to suck them into harder ones.
Just as soon as he managed to stop kissing her.
It took a lot longer than he expected. In the meantime, he thumbed her nipples until she squirmed, and then he tugged her forward on the counter until their groins fit together. He was very aware of the fact he had too many clothes on when her legs wrapped around his ass and her hips shifted, pressing her pussy against his cock.
But then her hands went to the waistband of his jeans and she started tugging his T-shirt out of his pants. When she had it free, she lifted it up until he had to break the kiss to let her pull it over his head. He took it from her and dropped it before claiming her mouth again.
Her palms were on his skin, leaving fire wherever she touched. He thrust his fingers into her hair and found the clip she’d used to pile it on her head. Then he released it and practically groaned when the silken strands fell against his skin.
He wound his hand into its length and tugged her head backward until he had to break the kiss with her. Then he let his mouth trail down her throat.
“My God, Sophie, you are so fucking hot.”
“Chase,” she moaned as he fastened his mouth over a nipple.
Hot Protector: A Hostile Operations Team Novel - Book 10 Page 12