Stolen Vengeance: Slye Temp book 6

by Dianna Love

  He talked to her without looking her way as he stepped over to stir the rice. “Have to let the coconut milk cook down a little then we’ll eat.”

  He was putting a lot of effort into sounding casual.

  If they kept this up, tonight would be worse than the years she’d spent watching for him to return.

  She put her glass down.

  Enough was enough. “What were you doing at Navarro’s tonight, Dingo?”

  Snapping the lid down on the now warming rice, he stood still, eyes on the counter, then turned and leaned back against the sink.

  He crossed those guns he called biceps and said, “I had a tip.”

  “Your evasive answers worked once,” she said, moving around the island to face him. “I’m not as accepting as I was years ago.”

  He covered his eyes with his hand.

  She’d started this. She would finish it, even if it meant getting her heart ripped out and stomped on again. She’d been twenty-two back when they met and far from naïve, but forgiveness and acceptance had come easily when she’d been caught up in lust.

  Then she’d figured out it was more than wanting his body.

  She’d wanted the man. All of him.

  And stupid, stupid woman, she still wanted him even knowing he was no one’s keeper.

  Truth hit her like a lightning bolt as she stood there looking at him. If she couldn’t have him all the time, she refused to live without him at least some of the time.

  You have to take what you can out of this world when you can, Hot Stuff.

  I’m finally hearing you, Dad.

  “Navarro talked about you,” she continued, watching Dingo. “He said you saved his father’s life–“

  “Yes,” he admitted, dropping his hand to his folded arms.

  “–then betrayed him,” she finished.

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you join up with his father and later betray him?”

  “His father was running a massive criminal organization with a string of profitable endeavors from drugs to gun running to white slavery.”

  She waited for more, but true to nature, she had to prod him. “Is that why you disappeared without a word? To join that group?”

  “Yes.”

  She hated one word answers. He’d joined a deadly group of men. She had a sick feeling building in her stomach about what had prompted that move. “Why, Dingo?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  She slapped the counter. “It does to me! I’m asking for the truth. One. Time. Is that too much? Navarro told me a lot before you got there.” Not really, but Dingo had no way to call her on it. “I’ve waited a long time–too long–to find out what happened back then. Just tell me.”

  A debate raged in his gaze that sparked with gold flecks, then he looked away.

  She added, “Please. You owe me that.”

  When he turned back to her, she wasn’t ready for the pain in his face.

  He said, “When I asked you to locate any family or childhood friends of Giuseppe, I didn’t consider how far you’d dig. When you showed up with everything from three addresses to personal banking to the 9mm he’d hocked plus the places he frequented and a bartender who had just seen Giuseppe that week, I saw the connections between him and Satan’s Garden Club that I’d been investigating for a long time.”

  She recalled that moment when she’d been expecting to be showered with affection as her reward and Dingo had raged instead, then left, saying only that he had to check on something.

  That had been her last vision of him. Angry with her.

  “When did you save Navarro’s father?”

  “Two in the morning on Labor Day after I left you.”

  She’d seen him on Saturday night. “You still haven’t told me why.”

  He dropped his hands to the counter on each side of the sink and cupped the ledge. “I can’t tell you about what I do.”

  “That isn’t good enough anymore. Not on this. Why. Did. You. Do. It?” She would not lose her temper. Not now.

  Dingo didn’t look as if he could make the same claim. “Leave off on this, Val,” he ground out between clenched teeth.

  She walked all the way around the counter and stopped an arm’s length from him. “No, I won’t. Why, Dingo?”

  “It doesn’t concern you,” he lashed out.

  “I think it does and you’re lying,” she yelled back. “Why, dammit!”

  His grip on the counter had turned white-knuckled. He didn’t shout but the growl in his voice should be shaking the room. “Some things are better left unknown.”

  She was too close to snapping that control he clenched with all his might. She poked him and couldn’t stop the hot tears rolling down her face. “Tell me why you couldn’t have cared enough to tell me goodbye! Why?”

  He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her only because his body thundered with fury. “I couldn’t risk any contact with you once I went deep undercover. Not after I walked away to keep Garcia from touching you, dammit! Giuseppe worked for him and talked too much, which was why you were able to find some of the things you shouldn’t. Garcia tortured Giuseppe’s daughter and killed her baby in front of her and Giuseppe before cutting their throats and throwing all three bodies in a bloody dumpster.”

  Oh, God.

  He’d rushed into danger to keep her safe and she was bitching him out for it.

  Valene lunged up and kissed Dingo, clutching at his shoulders that were tight, ready to battle.

  Dingo vibrated and she knew it was from the effort of not stepping over that line again. Screw that. She deepened the kiss and said, “I want you.”

  He backed her up to the island and lifted her, never breaking the kiss. She held his face, finally content. This was what happy felt like.

  No, this was ecstatic.

  Happy was watching a shooting star.

  This was like being in the center of the universe.

  His hands pulled her to him until she wrapped her legs around his back. “Missed you so damn much.”

  “No more than me missing you, babe.” His lips devoured hers, pulled her out of time and place as quickly as being dragged underwater into a different world.

  Everything sharpened with Dingo in hers.

  His skin tasted salty and clean, smelled musky and warm.

  His hands ... found her breasts, thank you, Universe. Heat rushed and coiled, twisting. She needed more. Lifting her head, she panted, “Here. Bedroom. Don’t care, but I have to have you inside me.”

  “Jesus, Val. Good way to make me lose it before I get there.” Dingo could feel his heart trying to jackhammer its way out of his chest. If he died now he’d be pissed.

  At least give me one more time with this woman.

  She laughed and his heart flipped over in his chest.

  He’d said he missed her.

  Missed? Could a word be more deficient in meaning? How could he explain what walking around without any hope of ever holding her again felt like? That he woke up at night calling to her. Wishing he could come back and change everything just to have another minute with her.

  She leaned in and he kissed her tenderly, careful of her bruised face. Dingo would find Navarro. When that happened, Navarro would pay in ways he could never imagine, but Dingo could. One thing about the life he’d led was that he had plenty of experience to draw on when it came to payback.

  He’d never been one to go after vengeance, but he couldn’t allow Navarro to get away with hurting Valene. Dingo would do this world a favor and wipe out Navarro’s organization, starting with the head of it.

  He’d never kissed much before Val, because kissing her had been more intimate than sex with women before her. She stole a piece of him every time her lips touched his and he’d given it up willingly, knowing the day he had to walk away there’d be a bottomless hole inside him.

  But he couldn’t stop himself back then.

  He’d never touched anything habit-forming... until he held her.
>
  She kissed his face and hair, murmuring, “I like your natural color. Looked strange as a blond. Like a pretty boy.”

  He rolled his eyes. He’d never been called pretty in his life. Leaning close, he nipped her ear and whispered, “This is crazy.”

  She scooted forward, backing him away from the counter until he had to grab her as she slid off. She took advantage of the move to tighten her legs and stole his breath when she pulled herself up against his dick that was so hard one more move like that would ruin everything he had in mind.

  His conscience started yammering about how he wasn’t going to do this again. He cursed the little bastard but it wouldn’t shut up.

  Dingo dropped his head to hers. “I hurt you once. Didn’t mean to, but I sure as hell don’t want to do it again.”

  She clamped a hand over his mouth. “Whatever idea you have about being honorable and passing this up because tomorrow you’ll be gone–which I pretty much have figured out–that’s not stopping us from doing this. I could have died tonight and so could you. Every second you stand here talking, is one less second you get to feel my mouth on you.”

  He swung around with her hugged up against his chest, flipped the knobs on the stove to off, and had made it to the great room when she reached down and cupped him.

  “Fuck, Val, keep that up and I won’t make it to the bedroom.”

  “Screw the bedroom. I can’t wait that long. I’m wet and ready. What’s wrong with here?”

  She would be the death of him. No question. He was panting so hard it hurt to laugh. “No condoms.”

  “Oh. Get moving. What are you waiting for?”

  “For you to let go of my dick so I can walk, babe.” He kissed her and she relinquished her grip on him. He’d run full obstacle courses with less effort than it took to stride across that room and down one set of stairs with Valene doing everything she could to make him blow a gasket.

  He tossed her on the first king-sized bed he found, then snatched a condom from the top drawer on the closest dresser where he’d stashed them when they set up this place. He tossed the unwrapped condom on the bed.

  She pushed up on her elbows. “It doesn’t work unless you wear it.”

  “Smartass.” Holy hell, he’d missed her. He grabbed the legs of her oversized sweat pants and yanked, pulling them down far enough to find out she had no underwear on.

  His mind blew two fuses trying to hold back after seeing that. He warned her, “Don’t do a thing or I’ll be the first one to have fun.”

  Velvet brown eyes twinkled with a wicked thought. She lifted her T-shirt over her head and pinched a breast. “You mean like that or...” His mouth dried out when her nipple turned into a hard little nub. Her other hand slid between her legs and she gasped, “Or like ...” Her head fell back. “Hurry up, Dingo!”

  Somehow, he had his jeans off, the condom on and landed on top of her in ten seconds. He couldn’t remember pulling down his zipper. “You’re torturing me.”

  He eased down and pushed her hand away from between her legs to make room for him to nuzzle all that sweetness. One lick and she came off the bed. He licked again and she grabbed a fist full of his hair.

  “Stop torturing me,” she yelled at him.

  “You can take it.” He chuckled then got serious about kissing and teasing her with his lips and tongue, taking his time driving her to the edge of insanity then bringing her back. He loved the sounds she made. Loved her yelling at him. He pushed his finger inside and she arched, trembling.

  Val was always strung tight as a well-crafted bow and he lived to make her snap, lived for the one moment she was all his and nothing in the world could reach her but him.

  He eased his finger inside her with his palm turned up, slowly bending the tip of his finger and stroking gently. She whispered, “Oh...yes ... ”

  His girl knew what he was looking for and wanted him to find it. Her G spot.

  One brush of his fingertip over that tiny rough area deep inside her was all it took for her to shout, “There! Right there!”

  He stroked her with his tongue at the same time his finger played across her G spot.

  She let go with a wild scream. “Yessss!”

  He didn’t stop until she finally fell back against the bed, limp. Now he could take his time without her berating him to stop fucking around.

  Yep, that’d been one of her favorite orders.

  But he had a few favorite commands of his own that he’d get around to before he was done with her. Running his hands over her silky skin would make a blind man not care about seeing. He reached her breasts and sucked on one, running his tongue over the tip that puckered, happy to see him.

  Missed you, too.

  She had perfect breasts because they were attached to the perfect body because it belonged to the perfect woman. When you started with a woman who could turn you on with just a smile, make you happy just to be alive and rock your world with just a kiss, you knew you’d found perfection.

  She pushed herself up and stared at him with the languid look of a cat who had fallen into a barrel of catnip.

  He paused, kept his eyes on her, and leaned forward to kiss each nipple.

  That’s all it took for her to rejoin the party. She shoved him over onto his back and climbed on him. His balls throbbed. They were worse than a mutt waiting to be given a treat.

  And she was a killer treat.

  Grasping his erection, she lifted up and brushed the tip back and forth through her wet canal and started moaning. “This is so good. Don’t you wish you were me?”

  He laughed, because if she didn’t slide down soon he’d cry. If his dick could talk, it’d be begging and offering her anything she wanted.

  She guided him in slowly then buried him inside her so fast he sat up sucking air. His hands held her still. “Don’t move.”

  She was stifling another laugh. Damn her.

  He heaved breath in and out. Every nerve in his body had locked onto the feel of her wrapped around him. “I’m telling you, Val. Been too long.”

  “We could fix that if you’d let me move.”

  He started laughing. He had never laughed during sex like he did with Val.

  Maybe because it was always more than just sex with her.

  Don’t go there. Just stay in the moment. No past. No future.

  Releasing her shoulders, he said, “Go for it.”

  Oh, she did, squeezing gently as she slid up and down, tightening her muscles more each time. He gripped his forehead, but it might as well be empty since all the blood had headed south the minute she’d played with herself.

  He lifted his hips, picking up her rhythm when she changed the tempo. She dropped her hands to his chest and he clamped his on her hips, driving into her over and over. Muscles corded in his neck and he gasped. “Do it.”

  She reached down to touch herself and arched.

  He was a goner.

  The inside of his head exploded with blinding light. He kept pumping until he was milked dry. When his brain fog cleared, he had her in his arms, tucked as close as he could hold her and was kissing her hair that had dried into blonde spirals.

  She didn’t move and he was content to just feel her skin against his, letting his thoughts drift to the times they’d spent the night in their favorite beach cove with a bottle of wine and a blanket. He’d wake to the ocean rolling softly along the shore and Valene curled up against him.

  If he had to define contentment, those moments would be the closest he’d ever come to putting it into words.

  She lifted up on his chest and grinned. “I felt that at my G spot.”

  “You feel everything there.”

  Her face took on a mellow expression and her eyes softened. “I feel everything you do there. Only you.”

  See? A woman like Valene made a man feel powerful enough to conquer worlds. He’d never wanted to conquer a world, but damned if he wouldn’t go hunt one down for her if they lived during the dark ages.

&n
bsp; So many people wanted power and money.

  All he’d ever wanted was to be wanted ... for more than right now.

  No matter how much someone said they cared, they eventually tossed him aside. Val cared. He knew she did, but their worlds might as well be in two different solar systems. He’d stayed too long the last time and almost got her killed. Just being associated with him had her in danger this time.

  He’d know when the time came to leave, but this time he’d tell her goodbye if he lived long enough to have that choice.

  Chapter 28

  Chatton sat near a tall window where she could watch airplanes take off at Los Angeles International Airport. In her other hand, she held a burner phone for calling Wayan. He should know better than to try triangulating her position since this phone had no GPS, but that wouldn’t stop him from putting every resource at his fingertips on it when she called.

  He answered, “Few people know this number and none call from untraceable numbers. What do you want, Chatton?”

  “I’ve got good news.”

  “You have located Soo Jin?”

  “I told you, Wayan. She’s dead. She went up in a small airplane with someone who was trying to release a poison into an aquifer in the US. Something went wrong and the airplane crashed. She has no fingerprints on file anywhere, but the woman who died was definitely Asian.” There was enough truth in that statement to stand on its own. Soo Jin had helped a man called Tanner on Sabrina Slye’s team stop the terrorist plot, and both of them almost died in the plane crash, but they’d had one working parachute and survived.

  Jin’s sister, on the other hand, had been marked as disposable and jumped with a sabotaged chute. That meant a female Asian body was recovered but not identifiable.

  “I do not accept that as truth.”

  “What would be the point in my lying to you, Wayan?”

  “To keep me from uncovering the reason you sought out the General and me. I also do not believe that you are sincere about Orion’s Prophecy.”

  Where was a hammer when she needed something to beat sense into the voice in this phone?

  “I’m as invested as you and the General, but I’m not calling to argue who cares the most.” If she tried too hard to convince him she was in all the way on the prophecy, he would definitely not believe her and she’d throw up in her mouth by the time she got the words out.