Flames (A Special Agent Novel Book 3)

by C. P. Mandara

  There was a devilish little imp inside me that wanted James to do precisely that. I wanted to feel his hands in my hair, pulling at my tresses, and I wanted his skin so close to mine that I could smell him. There was an attraction between us that he tried his best to ignore, but I had no problem goading him on occasion. Even if I couldn't have him, you couldn't blame a girl for trying, right?

  “Lois,” he warned in a deadly quiet voice. That was probably my cue to be a good girl and do as he said, but I was damned if I would. I wanted him to come over here and feel what I was feeling. I also wanted to make sure that I wasn’t imagining the connection between us. If I was going crazy, there were two men around these parts that were to blame.

  Several slow seconds passed before I heard the distinctive scrape of a chair being pushed back. The sound of soft, careful footsteps followed the noise, and I braced myself for attack.

  In the next heartbeat, James’s lips were almost touching my ear as his hand coiled around the hair at the nape of my neck. “Don’t think I don’t know you aren’t doing this on purpose,” he purred, as he pulled my head up to look at him.

  "If you're so smart, why are you playing straight into my hands then?" I whispered, and as my eyes latched on to his, they swam in the icy blue depths, caught and trapped, like a rabbit in a fifty-watt beam.

  "Perhaps I'm just as bad as you are," he purred. "Perhaps I just can't help myself." His lips were so close to mine, I could feel the whisper of his breath against my face. All I needed to do was lean forward, and he would be mine. I didn't, though. There was a flutter of panic inside me that remembered his earlier rejection. If he thought he could pass me over to Adie again when the going got tough, then we weren't destined to be friends.

  Scraping my own chair backwards, I stood up, trying my best to put some space between us, and failing miserably. James simply loomed over me, pressing my backside into the table, as his body leaned against me.

  "Uh, uh, uh. Don't think you can escape the second the going gets tough, Lois. You're not moving an inch until I have my answer." His thighs were now brushing against my legs, and I swear my heart was doing somersaults inside my ribcage.

  “I can’t give you your damn answer when you’re this close. I need space,” I moaned. The truth was probably the exact opposite, but this wasn’t about getting what I wanted. This was about retreating while keeping my sanity intact, and sometimes, retreat was the only sensible option.

  "Sure you want to see this assignment through to the end, Miss Reeves?" Capturing a lock of my chestnut hair in his fingers, he pulled it forward, pulling me into him. I resisted, for a second or two, but he kept on increasing the pressure until I had no choice but to move forward. When I did so, my crotch ground up against his erection, and I sucked in a tight breath, as flutters of desire made my clit pulse over and over.

  “What do I get if I say ‘no?’ I whispered, knowing full well what his answer would be.

  "Whatever you want, Miss Reeves. Tell me your heart's desire, and if I can make it happen, I will." Hmm. It was tempting, oh so very tempting to cave in for that offer. It would also have been the easy way out. I wanted to show James that he couldn't keep playing these games and expect to get his own way all the time.

  Pressing myself in closer, and letting my fingernails scrape down the exposed curls in the V of his crisp, white shirt, I sighed. Standing once again, I pushed my breasts firmly into his chest and ran my knee up his inner thigh. Hearing him moan, I smiled.

  “That is such a tempting offer, Mr Leveritt, but alas, I’ll have to decline. I’m seeing this through to the bitter end.” Pulling sharply out of his hold, I marched away as quickly as I could. If he caught me again, I wasn’t sure I’d have the strength to walk away twice.

  “Even if it kills you?” James slammed his fist down upon the table, and I winced, although I didn’t stop walking.

  I seethed with anger. Were we back to this again? Counting to ten, I then said, "Even if it kills me." As soon as the soft click of my bedroom door indicated that I was safe, I sank towards the floor and heaved in giant breaths of air. I was playing with fire, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to get burned.

  Chapter Sixteen - Adie

  "Are you coming out for dinner?" This was the third time I'd banged on Lois's door, and I didn't hold out much hope for a response. Banging again for good measure, I decided I'd keep going until she did me the honour of replying. Eventually, my fist would get her attention.

  “Go away. I’m not hungry.” Her voice was sullen. It looked like the golden couple might have had an argument. How delightfully delicious.

  “James says you’d better be else he’s coming in there to get you.”

  "He can try." Sparks of anger were literally flying from her voice, and I have to say I was quite glad I was not the focus of her displeasure. Still, I had a job to do. James had told me that he'd call our bet quits if I could get Lois out of her room for dinner, and one hundred pounds is one hundred pounds.

  “Lois, he’s six-foot something and built like a monster truck. If he wants to toss you over his shoulder and drag you to the dining table, my money’s on him. You may be fairly smart, but you’re still a five-foot-something tiny midget.”

  “I’m not a midget,” she barked at me from behind her closed door. “I’m of average height, thank you very much.” I rolled my eyes. That wasn’t what I had meant.

  "Not your height, silly. The amount you weigh. You're tiny. Even I could carry you." Actually, the idea was a good one. Maybe I could just barge in there and grab hold of her. If she kicked and struggled, I'd probably enjoy that, too.

  "I'm heavier than I look." Her voice now held an undertone of amusement, which was progress, in my opinion.

  “Look, you don’t have to speak to the ogre. You just have to sit down and eat. While the man doesn’t have great social skills, let me tell you he can cook. Whatever’s in that oven smells divine. I’m not kidding – honest. Tell me you’re hungry, Lois. You can’t lie to me.”

  I was met with a wall of silence, but I knew she was softening back there. If she’d wanted me to go, she’d have told me to fuck off by now. Lois wasn’t the shy type.

  "Don't make me come in there and demonstrate my weight-lifting skills, Lois. By the way, if you ever want another spanking…" The door opened violently inwards, and the gust of air it produced nearly tossed me over. Before I knew what had happened, Lois had her hand around my throat, and it felt like she was trying to crush my damn vocal chords. Thankfully, this time, I was ready for her. Pulling out the flick knife I held in my hand, I pressed it up against her jugular. She'd have a severed artery before I lost consciousness if she decided she didn’t want to play nice. For a minute, it was touch and go. Finally, giving me a dark look, she eventually released her chokehold. Smoothing down her t-shirt, as if nothing had happened, she sauntered past me and walked towards the dining table. Yes! Throwing my fist up in the air, I congratulated myself on a job well done. It wasn’t about the money, it was about pride in your work. Honest. Actually, fuck that – it was about the money.

  "This beef is excellent, James." We'd eaten in silence for the last ten minutes, so this was me trying to break through the wall of polar ice that surrounded us.

  "Thanks, Adie," said James politely, but he made no further effort to continue the conversation. It seemed we were all out in no-man's land, and everyone had to fend for themselves. Well, that needed to change. We were all working together tomorrow, and due to the delicate nature of our assignment, the least we'd need to be able to do was talk to each other. Finishing the last of the beef, I took hold of my napkin and gently wiped my mouth. Taking a deep breath, I ploughed straight in.

  "Whatever's going on between you two, it needs to stop. Either we're working together tomorrow, or we're not. Which is it?" I gave each of them a hard look and waited to see who would crack. Interestingly enough, it was James who broke the silence after a few tense seconds of awkwardness.

/>   “Yes, which is it, Lois?” Aha. Now I knew what the argument had been about. James wanted Lois to back out. That meant he cared about her. My initial instincts had been correct. This was an interesting little snippet I could store away for future use.

  “You know my answer, James, and you know I have my reasons. If that brain of yours is anywhere near as intelligent as it appears to be, you’ll know that I haven’t taken this on lightly.” Her lips compressed into a tight line, and I knew that she wasn’t about to budge. If this woman could take the kind of torture that I dished out, she was not about to be swayed by words.

  “Talk to me. Maybe we can work this out together, Lois.” James was pleading with Lois, and I had an inkling it was something he didn’t do very often. I wondered if he was in love with her, or whether his protective instinct covered all the women he worked with. Somehow I doubted it.

  “I can’t. It was being overheard that got me into all this trouble in the first place. I won’t risk opening my mouth again.” Lois’s breathy little voice held a hint of torment, and I lapped it up. It was the kind of expression I loved to see in a slave’s face, and it turned me on something fierce. James had to turn away from her, but I couldn’t stop staring. This one had been battered and bruised in more ways than I’d cared to imagine. Interesting.

  "Lois, you need to trust me," James's voice was cajoling, but the terror in Lois's eyes wasn't faked. Unless I was much mistaken, there was no way she was going to talk to him. Right on cue, she shook her head and gave him a mutinous glare. This conversation was over.

  Clearing my throat, I then said, "So, Lois is joining us for tomorrow's party. It's a done deal. Let's move on." Ignoring the dark look James was sending my way, I said, "Should we run through what's about to happen tomorrow then, or perhaps we should just surprise Lois on the day?" The sarcasm in my tone was unmistakable. We were wasting time, and James needed to get on-board with her decision quickly.

  “Fine.” James held his hands up in the air in defeat. Here was a man who knew when he was beaten, at the very least. “You run through the details. I intend to finish my dinner. This might be the last decent meal I get in a while.”

  I snorted. “Really, James? You are entering by way of a dominant tomorrow, no? You’ll get treated like royalty.”

  He gave me a sour look. “Just because I’ll get given the red carpet treatment, it doesn’t mean their chef can cook.”

  I frowned at him. “You’re such a snob, Mr Leveritt. Maybe you should infiltrate their kitchens and show them how it’s done?” Oh, the scandal that would produce. I loved the idea.

  “I don’t think so, Adie.”

  “But how will you survive without decent food?” I asked in mock horror.

  “I’ll feed most of what’s served up to my sub.” There was a wry twist to James’s mouth, but for all his protestations, I suspected he was looking forward to tomorrow. There were bits he wouldn’t like, of course, but the first day or two would be quite good fun.

  “Will you please both stop talking over me with cryptic overtones. While we’re at it, can someone tell me where we’re going tomorrow?” Lois’s fork screeched against her plate as she filled it full with potatoes, and then she gracefully put it to her lips with an artful flourish. Flames curled in my stomach. I wanted to rip the fork from her pretty little fingers and do unimaginable things with it all over her body.

  “Lois, if you make that awful scraping noise again, I am going to be forced to come over there and feed you,” I purred in my best French accent, “and if you are desperate to know where we’re heading tomorrow, then its name is Les Catacombes Adamantines,” I said helpfully.

  Lois looked at me in utter exasperation. “You know that means absolutely nothing to me,” she barked, her fingers curling into fists around her knife and fork, “so will you please do me the honour of elaborating.” Her fork scraped against the plate once more, and both James and I jumped upright as if someone had just trained a gun at our backs.

  “For God’s sake, stop it, Lois. Adie is just teasing you,” James said. He then turned towards me. “Get on with it, or you’ll have two people at your throat. I’m fairly sure we’d come out on top, too.” He then took a hefty sip of his wine, grimaced, and nearly choked on the stuff. Served him right.

  Standing up, I pushed my chair back gently and moved it alongside Lois's. Wrenching the fork from her left hand, while slamming the one with the knife down on the table, I prised it out of her fingers and confiscated it. Although it might have been blunt, that didn't mean the woman couldn't do serious damage with it. After our last few run-ins, I had decided that my safety was always going to be of paramount concern in the future.

  “Let me feed you,” I purred, reverting back to the Spanish accent I knew she adored. James might have rolled his eyes behind me, but at least he didn’t intervene.

  “I am perfectly capable of feeding myself. Get out of my face and start talking before I lay you out flat.” James was now trying his best to hold in a bark of laughter, and I shook my head, wondering if there was a man alive who was capable of controlling this woman. Whoever had picked her to play the part of a submissive woman should be shot.

  Keeping a tight grip on both her hands, I said, "Lois, tomorrow we are going to visit a rather disreputable dungeon that Alain has visited over the years. If you're coming, you're going as a submissive, and you're not going to be allowed to feed yourself. You may as well get used to this kind of treatment. It'll get you back in character for the next couple of days if nothing else. Wouldn't you agree, James?"

  James looked at me. "So we're definitely going? If that's the case, I'd better make the reservations. It's not the kind of place you turn up unannounced." He had a point.

  "Is it in France?" Lois's voice was softer now, but there was still a thread of steel running through it. She hadn't fought my hold on her, though, so it wasn't all bad.

  "If you let me feed you, I'll tell you," I said, giving her my most winning smile. Giving me a hard look, she finally nodded her head in defeat. "Fine, but if you spill anything down me, I'll knock you out." I didn't doubt she would if she had the use of her hands, which she wouldn't.

  "No, no, no, Lois. It doesn't work that way. Your hands are going to be tied behind your back. That way, you'll have to play nicely.

  “I don’t believe this. What happens if I don’t play along with your twisted little games?” My hellcat was back.

  "Then you'll have a lovely surprise tomorrow evening. Your choice, darling." I sat there quietly and waited for her to comply. She would eventually. Curiosity was a beautiful thing.

  There was a bit of squirming for a few a seconds, and she looked pointedly at James a couple of times, but he said nothing. It seemed we were all trying to work together for the time being, so I was going to press my advantage.

  "Well, Lois? You have three seconds to decide whether to play ball. I don't care either way. It's getting late, and we're going to have a long day tomorrow, so an early night wouldn't be a terribly bad idea." I got up and released my grip on her hands. Turning my back on her, I began to walk towards the door.

  “Fine,” she said testily, I’ll play nicely, but you’d better talk.” Ah, the sweet sound of success. Wondering if James would stay for the theatrics about to unfold, I sat back down again and gave Lois a lop-sided smile.

  "Put your hands behind your back, darling." She gave me another look, but she didn't argue. Placing her hands carefully behind her back, she waited obediently for them to be tied. A quick glance from the corner of my eye confirmed James was watching us, and that just turned me on all the more. Oh goody.

  I made short work of fastening the cable ties around Lois's wrists. It was only there for show because I was well aware she could get out of them with barely a second's notice, but if she did, she wasn't getting nada from me. For the moment, she'd have to sit there like a good girl and do everything I told her to. Mind you, she wouldn't have to do much bar eat. Forking up a small mouthful
of potatoes, I placed the deliciously fragrant morsels at her lips. Lois made a little sound of annoyance in her throat but then opened up. At least the woman knew when she was beaten. Pushing the contents of the fork past her lips, I watched as her mouth closed around it. She then wouldn't let the thing go, and I had to pull so damn hard to get it out that I almost knocked my chair over. Honestly – women!

  "Round one to Lois," James remarked, and I knew without looking that the man was laughing his socks off. Hah. I'd wipe the smile off his face soon enough. Preparing another much larger forkful, this time of beef, I figured I'd keep her amused in other ways. Sliding my hand up the inner thigh of her jeans, her back immediately went ramrod straight, and she made a choking noise. Before she could utter a word, I'd shovelled the food inside her, which gave me ample opportunity to let my hand rove higher. Round two to me.

  “So, where were we? Ah yes, Les Catacombs Adamantines. Just as the French name suggests, it is in France, Lyon to be exact, and it is underground. It’s a very chic sex club for the over-privileged, and it features an underground dungeon. Women pay to join their ranks as submissives, and men pay to go to watch, and, if they’re lucky, do more besides. That’s more or less how it works. There are a few intricacies.” Forking another mouthful of food inside Lois before she could splutter about the whereabouts of my hand, I decided I’d drag my story out a bit.

  "Adamantine is quite an apt word for the club. Do you know what it means?" Lois shook her head, glared and me, and pointedly looked down at my hands, the same hands that were doing very naughty things against the tight seam of her jeans. Working my way slowly higher, I intended to watch her squirm for a bit. She could look at me like that all she wanted, but there wasn't a chance I was going to stop. "It means ‘unable to be broken.' The team at Adamantines like to prove otherwise, of course, and most of the submissives who book a three-night stay don't make it past day one, and those that do, rarely get past day two. To be honest, most of them like the ‘Fifty Shades' stuff, and figure it will be a really good laugh. They pay handsomely to get a spot, and often have to wait months or years on a waiting list before they are accepted for duty, as it were. All the places are highly coveted. The Adamantines crew work them hard, though. That's not to say that they don't enjoy themselves when they get there – because I assure you they do. They are just pushed to their limits in all the ways that count. Amusingly enough, most of them go back, year after year, to see whether they can make it to the elusive three-day mark. My hand was now unfastening the zip of her jeans, and judging by the expression on her face, I was mightily glad Lois did not have the use of her arms.