Operation: Endgame

by Christi Snow

  He growled as he finally reached the edge of her panties and found them drenched. He softly worked the petals of her core and felt her falter as she stroked him. Slowly he inserted one finger, then two into her. He felt her breathing hitch and he couldn’t deny himself any longer.

  He lowered himself to his knees in front of her and slowly inched the sides of her dress up her hips until he could see the tops of her garter and the matching bright red lace thong that made his mouth water. He slowly slipped the fabric to the side and looked up at her. She watched him with desire etched on every gorgeous angle of her face. “You are so beautiful,” he whispered and blew on the folds of her moist heat. Even here, the essence that was wholly Cassie pervaded. Plums and wintergreen invaded his senses as he dipped his tongue into her and felt her groan above him.

  Slowly he slid his tongue into her wet, hot folds while he worked his fingers over the hard nub of her clit. Cassie worked her hips in time with his fingers as her breathing ratcheted up another notch. He inserted his fingers into her and felt the tension coil within her. He grasped her clit between his tongue and his lip and sucked. He felt her shudder as her orgasm took hold and she moaned his name and shattered.

  The flood through her pussy took the last shred of Jake’s self-control and he reached into his back pocket for the condom he had put there earlier in the night as he stood up before her. Her eyes were glittering with desire as she took his erection in one hand and the condom in the other and sheathed him in it.

  As Jake poised himself at her entrance, she grabbed onto his shoulders and swung her legs around his waist. He could feel her moist heat teasing at the tip of his cock and he couldn’t wait any longer. He entered her in one swift movement which had them both sucking in gasps of pure rapture. He’d forgotten just how damn good she felt. How could he have ever forgotten this ecstasy? She was tight and liquid around him. He could feel her muscles working his full length and couldn’t stop the instinctual flex of his hips to surge in and out of her.

  Too soon he could feel his oncoming orgasm boiling at the base of his spine so he reached between them to find Cassie’s clit once more. A single touch was all it took before she was screaming his name again. The tightening of her muscles around him sent him barreling into his own orgasm and had him shuddering with the explosiveness of it.

  He stayed there as he stood buried within Cassie trying to catch his breath. Her legs were still wrapped around his waist and he looked down into her eyes to find them filled with tears. He swiped at one as it leaked out of the corner of her eye. “Damn, I didn’t hurt you did I?”

  Cassie laughed even though her tears were still there, “God, no. That was just so incredible.” She looked at him in awe.

  Jake gave her a slow smile and pressed his lips to hers, then whispered. “I love you so damn much Cassie. How about we try that again without clothes and with a bed this time?”

  Cassie gave a sexy little laugh and then a gasp as she felt him slide out of her. “I think that’s a plan I can work with.”

  Chapter 36

  Cassie awoke the next morning to a slew of deliciously sore muscles from a night spent slaking her lust for Jake in as many positions as possible. He had been a tireless and insatiable lover and as she rolled over to nestle into the cozy heat of his body, she was surprised to see him awake and watching her.

  “Good morning, Cass.” His green eyes were slumberous and so damn gorgeous it made her heart wrench.

  She gave him a slow, sexy smile. “A very good morning it is, isn’t it? But I think I forgot to mention one very important thing last night.”

  Jake started with concern, but when he saw the flirtatious look in her eyes, he settled. “Oh, what’s that?”

  “I think I forgot to mention how much I love you. I do love you, Jake. Last night was wonderful. Thank you.” She started pressing sweet soft kisses into the hard planes of his chest which caused him to groan in reaction.

  “You better be careful or I’m never going to let you out of this bed again.” He threatened.

  “Is that supposed to scare me, because I’m thinking it sounded more like a promise than a threat,” she teased. He responded by flipping her over onto her back and he settled in between her thighs.

  Finally, several hours later, the need for food did finally pull them out of Cassie’s bed. They made a silent agreement to not let the real world intrude upon the romantic bliss of the day and agreed to stay within the warm cocoon of the house for the day, but that was interrupted by a frantic call from Colton.

  Because Colton had been downrange for a deployment, he’d been without communications and Jake hadn’t been able to get a hold of him. He knew that would be the case when Colt sent him home to check on Cassie, but as promised, he continued to send emails to Colton to keep him apprised of the situation. As a result, when Colton finally got within touch of a computer and found out exactly what was going on with Cassie and her stalker, he was feeling more than a little panicked on her behalf.

  When Cassie answered the phone, he immediately went on the offensive. “Dammit Cassie. Why didn’t you tell me what was happening? Why did I have to send Jake to find out what’s happening to my own sister?”

  Cassie was so thrilled to hear Colt’s voice sounding safe and sound, even if he was more than a little ticked, that she didn’t let the fact he was yelling at her bother her. “Colton, are you okay?”

  “Of course I’m okay which is more than I can say for you. What the hell were you doing on your motorcycle when an obvious madman was after you? God, Cassie, what were you thinking? And how the hell could you NOT TELL ME?!?” Colton’s voice had gotten louder and louder as he yelled at her.

  “Colton calm down. I’m fine. I didn’t tell you because there wasn’t anything to tell. Until a week ago, it was simply some vague notes and threats and there wasn’t a thing you would’ve been able to do to fix anything. I’m okay, really.” She looked towards Jake. “Jake’s here now. There’s a police officer watching the house. We’re both armed when we go out. It’s going to be okay, Colt. They’re going to catch him and then this whole ordeal will be over.”

  As she had that thought, another thing pushed at her subconscious. When she was out of danger, Jake wouldn’t have any reason to stay would he? The fact of the matter was he had his own life in the Air Force and Arizona… Oh my God, she hadn’t even thought about Amy the last couple of days. What about the girl Jake was involved with? Why hadn’t she even considered her before she jumped into bed with Jake? For that matter, why hadn’t he? That wasn’t fair to the girl he had waiting for him back at his home.

  Jake saw the myriad of emotions cross Cassie’s face as she talked to Colton and with each subsequent look; he felt more and more of a sinking in his gut. The real world was going to intrude into their romantic interlude whether they wanted it to or not. He gestured towards the phone she was holding and said, “Let me talk to him.”

  Cassie nodded, but spoke to Colton first. “Colt, Jake wants to talk to you, but first, can you tell me? Are you going to be home for a while? At least until Christmas?”

  Cassie could hear Colt’s deep sigh across the long miles. “I’m not sure, Cassie. There’s a lot going down right now, but as far as I know, I’m home at least for a couple of weeks.”

  “Okay, let me know if that changes. I love you, Colton. Stay safe. I’ll talk to you again soon, okay?”

  “I love you too, Cassie. You stay safe. I can’t lose you too.” She could hear the worry in his voice and felt a surge of guilt for causing it. Colton had basically raised her and Chris. He took his responsibility for them very seriously. “Now let me talk to Jake.”

  As Cassie handed the phone to Jake she wandered over to the French doors to look out over the backyard. She could hear Jake talking to Colton quietly in the background, but she didn’t try to listen to what they were saying. Instead, the thoughts of Amy and the deception she and Jake had perpetuated against her were clamoring in her head. She leaned h
er forehead against the cold glass of the window pane. She felt Jake move up behind her and reach his hand around her waist as he nuzzled the back of her neck.

  His voice was rough and low as he whispered, “How about we head back to bed now?”

  She could feel the erection pressed into her back and the familiar tingles of arousal float through her body, but instead of sinking into him, she straightened her back and turned towards him. “What about Amy?” she asked harshly.

  Jake felt genuinely puzzled in the face of her obvious anger. “Who?”

  “Amy…your girlfriend in Arizona.” Cassie was looking at him impatiently now and Jake felt a sinking feeling in his gut.

  He closed his eyes as he remembered the little lie he told her. Damn.

  “Listen I know you said it wasn’t serious yet with her, but whatever it is, she deserves better than this, Jake.” Cassie waved a hand between the two of them.

  Jake nodded and swallowed hard. “You’re right. She would deserve better than this if she was actually a real person.”

  Cassie stuttered, “Wh…what?”

  “Damn, I’m sorry Cass. I made her up. There isn’t another girl back in Arizona. There hasn’t been another girl in a long time.” He reached up and cupped the side of her face. “I haven’t been involved with anyone since I was here in May.”

  Cassie’s eyes showed her confusion. “I don’t understand. Why would you do that? Why would you lie?”

  “Because I’m a jackass and I knew that was the perfect way to get you to back off.” Jake could see the hurt she was trying to hide. “I’m sorry. It was a stupid idea. I just had it in my head you were better off without me. I was wrong, so wrong. Please tell me I haven’t screwed everything up because of this.”

  Cassie reached over to him and linked her fingers through his, trying to sort through everything he’d just said. “No, you haven’t messed anything up. Just tell me you aren’t going to turn around and change your mind and break my heart tomorrow. I love you, Jake, and I need you…all of you…in my life.”

  “I promise you. I’m not going anywhere. I love you, Cass, and absolutely nothing is going to change that. We’ll manage to work everything else out somehow, someway. Just have some faith in us as a unit, okay?” He knew he should tell her about his questionable standing with the PJ’s and his life in the Air Force. But they were already on shaky, new ground in their relationship. She still had a stalker after her. He also didn’t want to do anything right now to bring up the unhappiness of Chris’ death. There was enough stress already without laying that burden on her too. He would just have to figure it all out himself.

  Cassie pressed herself against him as she reached up and kissed his neck. “Okay, I can do that. Now didn’t you mention something about heading back to bed?” She gave him a saucy grin as she led them down the hall.

  Chapter 37

  The next day Cassie finally managed to coerce Jake out of bed with the promise of food. This was definitely one of the perks to being a college professor. Cassie had a whole month off before she had to go into work again, so they were free to lounge around in bed and the days were hers to do with as she chose.

  They headed to the new little Italian kitsch restaurant everyone in town had been raving about. When they pulled into the parking lot, Cassie’s cell phone rang. She looked at the caller id, but it simply said UNKNOWN. Jake gave her a questioning look and she shook her head that she didn’t know as she answered with a quick, “Hello.”

  Immediately Cassie’s blood ran cold as it became clear who her caller was. His voice was deep and menacing as he said, “Cassie, you’re renowned for your military prowess, but I have to admit I’m disappointed with you. I expected more from you.”

  Cassie’s eyes widened with surprise and shock as they flew to Jake’s. “Who is this? What do you want from me?”

  “I want to impress you with my superior military might, but darling, you have to at least start making an effort.”

  As he talked, Cassie tried to focus on the inflections of his voice which seemed somehow familiar, but with the way he had falsely deepened his voice, it was hard to tell. “For now, I simply want to pit my military skills against yours. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I’m winning. Today’s Endgame already came for War. Goodbye, Cassie or should I say Cassandra?”

  “Wait! Wha… damn, he hung up.” Cassie turned stricken eyes over to Jake.

  “What did he say?” Jake growled menacingly as he tried to get his surging emotions under control. While Cassie had listened to the man on the phone, all the blood had drained out of her face and that was enough to cause Jake’s blood to run cold in fear for her.

  “Oh my God, Jake, this is all just a game to him. He was going on and on about pitting his military prowess against mine. He sees this as a competition.” Cassie’s brow furrowed as she thought back over the conversation. “He ended with a weird phrase… Oh my God, Jake, start the truck back up. We have to go to War’s loft. I think he may be in danger.”

  As Jake pulled out of the parking lot following Cassie’s directions to War’s loft, he asked her, “What exactly did he say about War and how do you know it was War, the person, not the event?”

  “I don’t exactly. It was just the way he said it, ‘Today’s endgame already came for war.’ Doesn’t that sound like a threat against our War? And he called me Cassandra, just like War does.”

  “I hope you’re wrong on this one, Cass.” But honestly, it did sound like a threat against War. Jake felt a prickling on the back of his neck and that was never an indication of something good about to happen.

  Cassie chewed on her lip as she listened to her phone. “Damn, War’s not picking up.” She turned frightened eyes to Jake.

  “Give Brian a call and let him know he should probably meet us at War’s loft and that your stalker has made contact again.”

  As they pulled into the parking garage beside War’s loft, Cassie commented about another car parked in the guest parking. “That looks like Derek’s Explorer. Why would he be here?”

  Jake looked over at the car in question, but his concern was for Cassie. Was she safer sitting alone in the car or walking into a questionable situation up in War’s loft? Jake decided they needed to stay together. He looked over at her as he pulled out his handgun.

  Cassie’s eyes widened in surprise. “You think there’s going to be trouble, don’t you?”

  “I honestly don’t know, but I don’t have a good feeling about this.” He looked at her very seriously. “I need you to do exactly what I say, Cassie. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to duck, you duck. I need to know I can trust you to react to my commands.”

  Cassie gave a short nod as she pulled her handgun out of her purse.

  “Good girl.”

  Cassie rolled her eyes at him and practically growled. “I only agreed with you because what you said makes sense, but I’m not a trained dog, so you better not start treating me like one.”

  Jake gave a low chuckle. “Darling, make no mistake, I would never confuse you with a dog. Obedience is not in your personal dictionary.”

  As they moved up the stairs, Jake heard her mumble behind him. “You got that right. Good girl, my ass.”

  When they reached War’s door, Jake pushed Cassie behind him when he realized the door wasn’t closed tightly. He slowly pushed it open the rest of the way. Jake stealthily moved into the room, doing a quick assessing visual sweep. At first, it seemed there was nothing out of place, but then he saw where a lamp had been knocked off an end table and was shattered. At the same time he saw that, he heard a voice muttering from a room deeper into the loft.

  “I’m so sorry, War. You can’t die. I’m sorry. God, please don’t die.”

  Jake rushed to the room following the direction of the voice. When he walked into the room, Derek was standing in front of an unconscious War pressing into a bleeding wound in the center of his chest. War’s arms and legs were duct-taped to the arms and l
egs of the chair. From the looks of things, War had been shot while strapped to the chair. He heard Cassie gasp behind him, but he couldn’t do anything about that now. He needed to get Derek contained and away from War before anyone else got hurt.

  “Derek, I need you to stand slowly, raise your hands in the air where I can see them, and move away from War.”

  Derek looked up at Jake looking confused. “Wha…” Derek looked back down at his hands he had pressed into War’s bloody chest.

  “Cassie, call 911. Derek, step away NOW!”

  Derek was shaking his head, “I need to stop the bleeding. He’s going to die if we don’t stop the bleeding.” Derek was looking pleadingly at Jake and the gun.

  Jake nodded. “Cassie will take over, but first I need you to raise your hands and step away.”

  Derek looked like he was going to refuse, but he looked back at the gun again and then over at Cassie. “Okay, but hurry.” He addressed that last part to Cassie. “I don’t think he can lose much more blood.” Cassie nodded and when Derek saw her acquiescence, he raised his bloody hands high above his head and stepped far away from War.

  Jake kept his gun trained on Derek as Cassie moved over to War. She shrugged out of her jacket as she went and immediately started using it as a compress on War’s chest. She raised her worried eyes to Jake. “That ambulance better hurry. He’s losing too much blood.”

  Jake nodded, but kept his gun and focus on Derek, making sure he didn’t make any sudden movements.

  Cassie continued to put pressure on War’s chest as she turned her attention to Derek. “I don’t understand. Why? Why would you do this?”

  Derek continued to look stricken. “What? I didn’t do this. I just got here and found him like this.” He glanced frantically between both Jake and Cassie. “You have to believe me. I didn’t do this. I would never do something like this.”