Endgame

by Mia Downing

  She must have heard a noise because she jumped a little, his cock riding harder against her crotch. She ended the kiss by giving him a quick, sharp smack on the lips, then dismounted. And though his dick still raged, the passion in her eyes cooled to a frosty chill. Lusty to frosty in a nanosecond, and suddenly she was Wedding Charlotte again.

  “He’s in here, cowboy,” she called. “Trussed up like a Christmas goose. The house is clear.”

  Cowboy? Aaron realized then that his mouth was unbound, free, and he opened his mouth to scream for help when six foot of brawn rounded the corner, dressed in black with a black knit cap on his head, a cell phone to his ear, his hands also gloved. Jake Anderson. Aaron didn’t know if he should be elated, scared, or pissed as hell to see his older brother.

  “Yeah, he’s safe. Trussed up like a Christmas goose, just as Ginger said.” Jake had a pistol. In his hand. A real one. A .45 if he remembered anything from the spy film he’d done last year. Aaron gulped. Why would his big brother, the tax collector, be carrying a gun?

  “I didn’t catch the intruder,” Jake said to the phone. “No, I don’t need to run more, asshole.”

  Charlotte gave a very unladylike snort. “You’ll have to ask Chase if I’m staying, love.”

  Chase? Why would Jake call his asshole best friend at a time like this? And why the hell was his brother here in L.A. with a woman who wasn’t his wife?

  “Is Ginger staying?” Jake swapped the phone to his other ear, set the gun on the foyer table, and leafed through Aaron’s mail. “You realize I’m going to have to tell him.”

  Tell me what?

  Jake nodded. “I’ll call you later. Send my love to the women.”

  Aaron could take no more. He struggled against his bindings, needing to be free. “Jesus, what’s going on? Why the hell am I tied up, and why the hell are you both here?” He glared at Charlotte. “Is this some joke? Or is this revenge for me kissing you?”

  Jake’s head snapped up from the mail. “You kissed her? Her?” He pointed at the glaring Charlotte. “That woman, right there.”

  Aaron closed his eyes. Busted, so busted. When he was nervous, his mouth tended to run on and on, the filter tossed aside. “Yes, I kissed her. Jesus, don’t sound so shocked. I don’t think she liked it as much as I did.”

  “Shut up,” she hissed in his ear. The ropes around his waist tugged hard, and he grunted.

  Jake stared, his blue eyes narrowed. “You danced with her and then you kissed her? Holy hell, where was I?”

  “Smearing your wife’s face with cake,” Charlotte sneered behind him.

  At the mention of Tia, Aaron fought the sinking feeling in his gut. As much as he loved his brother, Jake was a man whore, but he had prayed Tia had finally set him right on that path. Charlotte was more than pretty, but God only knew what her past was. Then there was the fact that Aaron had no luck whatsoever when it came to women.

  Aaron’s luck mandated Jake and Charlotte were hooking up.

  “Where the hell is your wife, bro?” he blurted out. “You ditch her already?”

  Jake stiffened. “Tia’s at home.”

  “No shit. She know you’re here with another woman?”

  Charlotte pinched him, her fingers digging into his side, right above a rope. Aaron stifled a yelp and stared hard at his brother. Not his fault Jake was heading down the wrong path. Again.

  Jake started in on the second stack of Aaron’s mail. To the outside world, Jake would appear unfazed by the questioning, but Aaron idolized his brother. He knew damned well Jake was rattled by the way he set his jaw. “Charlotte is a co-worker. My partner.”

  “That’s what they’re calling it now?” Aaron’s arms were now free, and he rubbed his wrists. The ropes at his ankles tugged as Charlotte began working at those. “Get away from my mail. That’s private.”

  “I’m glad to see you, too, little brother.” Jake yanked his hat off, and Aaron narrowed his eyes. Jake’s hair was longer now, almost shoulder length, like his. It was also darker than his usual blond, as if Jake had dyed it to look like…him. Jake now looked more like Aaron than Paul, Aaron’s fraternal twin. Jake was a little shorter and a little more muscular, but the resemblance was uncanny, even to Aaron. Almost…identical.

  “Why the hell do you look like me?”

  “Hey, you look like me. I’m older. And fuck if I was happy to have to do this.” Jake raised a brow. “You’re welcome.”

  “Fuck you. I didn’t thank you for anything.”

  “Well, that’s bad manners,” Charlotte said disapprovingly. “I thought hospitality was a thing of the South.” She knelt before him, working the knots at his ankles. “Watch your mouth, baby cowboy.”

  Baby cowboy? Aaron blanched, hating the nickname Jake had given him eons ago. And it shouldn’t bother him that she wasn’t happy with him, damn it. “He can swear and I can’t?”

  “Jake can do whatever he likes. He’s earned the privilege.” She glanced up at him with an indignant sniff. “Maybe I should tie you back up and gag you until find your respect again.”

  Aaron fought a shudder. He didn’t want to be bound, nor did he want to fight with her. But both, for some odd reason, flushed him with need that had nothing to do with being set free. “You seem like you’d enjoy that a little too much.”

  “Oh, this isn’t for me.” She laughed. “If I wanted you tied up, you’d be naked, love. Gloriously naked, on my bed.”

  As much as he hated kink, feared it, the image of her standing over him as he was bound and gloriously naked on her bed sent his cock into a whole new fit of hardness.

  “Calm the hormones, Ginger. Aaron doesn’t play that way.” Jake was at the windows, checking them. “He’s uptight.”

  “Who the fuck are you to discuss my sex life? You’re the kinky bastard.” As horny as he was right now, his sex life, or lack thereof, was a touchy subject. “And I’m not uptight. I kissed her in a basement ballroom at your wedding. I think I should get Anderson points for that one.”

  “Shut up about the kissing,” she hissed again. “Normal people don’t brag about that stuff. Not to their brother.”

  “I’m not normal, darlin’.” But it wasn’t normal for him to kiss women in any sense, never mind at his brother’s wedding. He just didn’t do that stuff.

  “Let’s discuss your sex life.” Jake didn’t seem to hear their whispered discussion from his position at the living room windows. He checked the locks and the seams with his hand. “When your sex life takes me away from the arms of my gorgeous wife, I think it’s open for discussion.” Jake stepped to other set of windows, checking those. “When you fuck the senator’s very married daughter-in-law and I have to come clean up the aftermath, it’s definitely open for discussion.”

  Aaron’s stomach dropped to his feet like a bad ride on a roller coaster out of control. Of course, this would come back to bite him in the ass. After the wedding, he’d gone to England, dreaming of Charlotte. He couldn’t get her out of his mind, her scent seeming to follow him about. Even one of those gofer girls on set had reminded him of Charlotte.

  Loneliness and too much whiskey made him do drastic things sometimes. So, two days ago when the filming had wrapped, his co-star Celia Shaw snapped her fingers and he’d jumped at the chance to get laid. He’d hoped to use her to banish any thoughts of the feisty redhead from his memory. He’d had no clue Celia was married, just like he’d had no clue he whispered Charlotte’s name as he came until Celia had beat the crap out of him. Bad, bad luck.

  “Why the fuck do you care who I screw? Either of you? It’s my business.” Pissed, he demanded of Jake, “Or is there a newly levied tax for men who screw married women that I don’t know about and you’re here to collect?”

  His brother supposedly worked for the IRS. Given that Jake now looked like a burglar in all black and was packing heat, he doubted that like hell.

  “Language, love,” Charlotte hissed from between his legs. She worked to untie his right one now.
“No need to be pissy at my favorite cowboy. He’s only doing his job.”

  Aaron frowned at Jake being her favorite anything, the jealousy boiling in his stomach too much to handle. “Really, Ginger? How does my brother’s love of collecting taxes have anything to do with my sex life? And you have to be just as depraved as he is, since he’s here with you instead of my sister-in-law. Seems I’m not the only one racking up the sins.”

  Jake inhaled sharply, and Ginger rose from between Aaron’s legs, beyond frosty. She put her hands on his thighs, her nails biting through the fabric of his jogging pants. She leaned closer until her nose almost touched his, her violet eyes glittering. “How many women have you fucked, love?”

  “None of your business.” But he wanted her to be number three, bad. He swallowed, so turned on. No woman had ever spoken to him this way, and her naughty mouth… His cock loved it.

  Her eyes turned to violet steel, the set of her mouth firm, nostrils slightly flared. “Then keep in mind that I’ve killed more people than you’ve fucked. Watch your mouth when it comes to your brother.”

  That right there clinched the fact that his brother and Charlotte were not IRS. He stared and clamped his mouth shut, afraid to speak. She couldn’t have killed more than two people, could she? She was such a pretty, dainty thing despite her height—five-ten-ish. But right now, she oozed danger and spat fire along with sex appeal. And who was he to pass up an opportunity to play with fire? “Whatever you say, Ginger.”

  She open and closed the fingers on her right hand, as if she itched to smack him. “I can’t believe you’re the same guy I met a few months back. Chase was right.”

  “What the fuck does Chase have to do with this?”

  “He said you were judgmental, you have issues, and I should stay away from you.”

  “Charlotte, enough,” Jake snapped. “And Aaron, our mother raised us to be nice to women.”

  Aaron wanted to protest the whole thing. He wasn’t judgmental, and Chase Sanders, his brother’s best friend, had been a prick to him from day one. Instead, he focused his attention on Jake’s gun on the table guarding his mail. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Jake sighed. “I’m not IRS. Neither is Charlotte.”

  “No shit.”

  “I’m an agent with a secret operative branch. I’m a spy, Aaron.”

  A spy…it all made sense now. Jake’s reluctance to talk about work. His jumpiness, especially when he was woken abruptly or if Aaron snuck up on him. Jake had taken him down on many occasions, not waiting to ask questions. Or why he’d found a gun in Jake’s bag. Jake’s uncanny ability to know what was going on, everywhere, all the time, even though he looked like he didn’t have a care or clue.

  The movie releasing next week, Hidden Asset, was a spy thriller. Aaron had played a spy rescuing the heroine, avoiding danger at every turn. He paled to think this was what the brother he idolized did for a living, only the stakes were way higher. He’d never tell Jake he idolized him, though. Never.

  “And her?” He nodded to Charlotte.

  “She’s my partner, like I said.”

  Aaron took in her lean form, delicate bones, and frowned. She looked like a runway model, not a spy. Definitely not like someone who had killed more people than he had fucked.

  “And Tia?” His new sister-in-law was a gem, perfect for Jake. He shuddered to think she lived the same dangerous life. “God, does Tia know you’re here with her?”

  “Also on the team, and yes, she knows we’re here. She likes Charlotte. I can’t leave Tia to babysit you. She volunteered to help with Kate and the baby, since Chase can’t take time off because of your fuck up.”

  “Chase?” Though Jake didn’t look the part of a spy, Chase did, all dark and dangerous in a scary way. And Kate, Chase’s pretty blonde wife couldn’t be…

  “He’s my boss. Kate’s an agent, too, so don’t ask.”

  “You’re all spies? Jesus.” Aaron sat for a moment and stared at Jake. It was like looking into a mirror that wasn’t at all happy. “Wait, you said baby. Kate had the baby?”

  “Yes, two weeks ago. A boy—Alexander Jacob. I’ll show you pictures later. I’m the godfather, and you know how I feel about that.” Jake grinned, proud as hell.

  “Yeah.” Jake lived for that crap.

  “Chase is too much of a basket case right now, so Tia offered to help out while he works. After a madman broke into his house, Chase doesn’t do strangers. Period.”

  Aaron could understand that. He stared at his brother, then at Charlotte, both dressed in black, both suddenly looking more lethal and deadly than they had moments before. “Spies. Holy shit. CIA?”

  “We fall under our own little alphabet category.” Jake’s mouth was a grim line, and he gestured toward the chair. “Do you know who did this to you?”

  “No. I don’t remember anything.” Aaron closed his eyes and thought back. He’d woken late, jacked off, eaten, run… “Wait. I was jogging, arrived home, and I remember someone grabbing me and holding something over my mouth. I have a funny aftertaste.”

  “Okay. Good start. They probably drugged you with something to knock you out. We scared whomever when we arrived, and I chased them down the street.”

  Hope made Aaron sit a little taller. “Did you ID them?”

  Jake shook his head. “Nope. I lost them.”

  “You need to run more,” Charlotte observed.

  Jake ignored her. “You remember anything else?”

  “No, not a damned thing.” Aaron ran a hand through his hair, wondering who the hell had done this to him, and why. Crazed fan was an option, but he wasn’t that famous yet. “You hinted that my sex life was now your concern. I fucked her once, two nights ago. What does this have to do with Celia?”

  “Celia’s husband is a very important man, Aaron. Son of a senator, political alliances, and he dabbles in drugs and other illicit things. I’m surprised you didn’t look before you leaped between her legs. He’s important, and he’s deadly. We’ve been investigating him.”

  Aaron tried not to blush at the sexual connotation. “That’s why you came out to California so much this past year. All these visits…you weren’t here for me.”

  He’d been thrilled Jake had visited almost every other week, claiming the California IRS branch needed him. He’d brought Tia with him a few times. It’d been good, since Aaron hadn’t spent much time with Jake over the years. But it was all part of Jake’s job.

  “That’s not true, not entirely.” Jake cocked his head at him. “It’s been the best part of my job, seeing you again.”

  Aaron brushed away the compliment. “I thought spies were international.”

  Jake glanced at Charlotte, and they exchanged a look. “Usually. But we don’t follow the normal rules in our office.”

  Aaron frowned. “How did you know about today? Spy sense, intelligence…”

  Jake shrugged. “I didn’t. You didn’t pick me up at the airport or answer your cell. That’s not you. I put two and two together.”

  “And her?” He nodded to Charlotte, waving a wand of sorts over items in the room.

  “Well, her original duties included helping me do surveillance, but now she’s your new bodyguard.”

  “What? Jesus, Jake. Who is going to believe she’s a bodyguard?” She was all long legs, gorgeous breasts. Nice hips. Unless she was going to leg-lock the bad guys, he didn’t see anyone believing it.

  “Watch it, love,” she growled, looking up from waving the wand thing over his lamp.

  “He’s right, Charlotte. You’re a dainty filly, all show and sparkle.” Jake grinned as she glared. “So now Aaron James will have a new girlfriend, and that will do double duty. She’ll keep your ass out of trouble, and she’ll send Vincent Perotti a very clear message that you are no longer sniffing around where you should not.”

  “I don’t want a bodyguard.” But Aaron warmed to the idea of Charlotte adorning his arm, especially since she definitely wasn’t doing his brother. �
��And you? Why the hell do you look like me?”

  “Just in case. I can sound like you so unless we’re side by side, few people are going to realize that I’m a hell of a lot better looking.”

  Aaron gaped at Jake, because he had switched from his usual drawl to Aaron’s non-accented speech pattern. Jake was almost more Aaron James than he was, and it scared the shit out of him. His brother planned to just step into his life and be…him. Would Charlotte then be on Jake’s arm instead of his?

  Aaron jumped up from the chair and began to pace the room. “You can’t go around being me. I have a film releasing. You don’t know shit about it. I’ll take Charlotte with me if I gotta, but you can’t go and be me.”

  “We lifted your film spiel from your agent’s computer. I can play uptight wannabe-priest-turned-actor in a heartbeat. Easiest job ever, and you won’t die for it.”

  No, no, no. Aaron stopped in front of Jake. “I don’t give a shit. You’re not becoming me. This is my life and I fucked it up, so I’ll deal with it.”

  Jake arched a brow over surprised eyes. “You sure about that? Dead is pretty final.”

  “I’m sure.” Okay, maybe he wasn’t keen on the dead part, but he was an actor and it sounded like the right note of drama.

  He had every right to be pissed about his life. He’d had a life path chosen as a kid, made all the right moves for that path, only to discover he wasn’t meant to be a priest. He was a failure at everything but acting, and that meant he was a hell of a liar. He didn’t want to be a liar, either.

  But he also loved his brother, and if he was in danger, no way in hell would he let Jake become him, even if Jake was armed to the teeth and could take down a herd of zombies before coffee in the morning.

  Aaron glanced at Charlotte, now standing next to Jake. Man, he ached for her. He wanted nothing more than to die between Charlotte’s pale thighs after he’d come a few times. Damn the attraction he felt for her. “Her Frostiness can escort me to my movie premiers and other social functions.”