The Last Detail

by Melissa Schroeder

  Sam’s cock twitched. “You keep looking at me like that and I might lose what little control I have right now, Jared.”

  Each word was said with precise diction, telling Jared that Sam wasn’t lying. Looking at his face, he could see Sam’s jaw flex, a definite sign he was on the edge. Sam always ground his teeth when he was pushed to the limit.

  Sam stepped forward and pulled the shirt Lou was wearing off with one quick jerk. Her golden hair fell about her bare shoulders as his gaze moved down her body. He was transfixed by the sight. She wasn’t a feminine woman, but she was definitely a woman. Full hips, breasts tipped with the most beautiful rosy nipples, and just the perfect roundness to her belly.

  He allowed his gaze to slip to the juncture of her thighs. Jared could already smell the faint scent of her arousal. His heart tripped when he looked up and saw her uncertainty. He was standing in front of her, his cock harder than Titanium steel, and he knew she worried about the scars he hadn’t even paid attention to. In fact, he had forgotten about them the moment she was bare to him. He could tell her, give her all the pretty words he had said to his lovers in the past, but he knew that she would never believe him. Instead he showed her.

  Jared stepped so close to Lou, she could feel his heat. It only added to the inferno that burned within her. The clean, fresh scent of him filled her senses as he raised his hands to cup her face. The calluses on his fingers slipped over her jaw and she shivered. The look in his green eyes was so tender it brought on a mix of emotions she could barely contain. Fear lanced through her at the same time the slow roll of arousal burned in her blood. He leaned closer and brushed his mouth over hers. He didn’t close his eyes. He slipped his tongue over her lips and she didn’t hesitate to open her mouth. He groaned, closed his eyes and dove into her mouth. His lip ached but he ignored it.

  All the nerves and fear melted away under the heat of his passion. As he deepened the kiss, she felt Sam move in behind her. His fingers danced down her spine all the way to her ass. Sam’s huge hand cupped one cheek at the same time she felt his mouth move over her neck. Passion spiked as liquid heat moved through her. Her pussy lips damped with need and her nipples tightened painfully. She arched against Jared, enjoying the way his chest hair felt against her breasts.

  She slipped her hand down Jared’s chest to take hold of his cock, but her fingers collided with Sam’s. She started at the contact and pulled back from the kiss. Sam removed his hand, then enclosed it over hers. Together, they moved their hands over Jared’s shaft. He tipped his head back and groaned. She continued to move her hand over Jared as Sam removed his and moved to stand beside the two of them. Jared raised his head and turned to look at him. Sam hesitated for a moment, then leaned in closer to kiss him. Both men winced a bit and she was pretty sure it had to do with their injuries from the fight.

  The first thing she felt was a slap of craving that hit her with such a force that she tightened her hand on Jared’s cock. Jared groaned and moved his hips, thrusting his cock into her hand. She continued to pump him as she watched the tangle of tongues between the two men. Lou hadn’t been too sure what she would feel when she witnessed this. She definitely didn’t expect to make her hotter. But it did. Every nerve ending in her body shimmered with need. Her appetite for both men increased.

  By the time they pulled apart, she could barely keep from pressing her legs together to ease the need building. The smiles they offered her told her she was in trouble.

  “What do you think, Jared?” Sam asked. His voice deepened over the words, telling her just how aroused he was. “I think she really liked watching us.”

  Jared stepped away from her as Sam bent his head and took a nipple in his mouth. His teeth scraped over the tender flesh and she moaned.

  “I think you might be right,” Jared said. He dropped to his knees in front of her and pressed his mouth against her belly. His tongue flicked out over her flesh as he moved down to her pussy.

  The heat of his breath hit her before his tongue slipped between her wet lips. She felt the tension amp up, her body shimmering close to the edge of her release. Jared pulled her clit into his mouth and sucked. Her knees gave out, but Sam held her up.

  Jared pulled back.

  “I think we need the bed,” Jared said.

  They moved on to the bed, laying her out on the mattress between the two of them. They shared a look that she couldn’t decipher before Jared looked down at her. He leaned down and gave her another slow, bone-melting kiss as he moved his body over hers. She wanted this, needed this as much as she had needed Sam earlier. He rose to his knees between her legs. He wrapped his hand around his cock and started to pump it.

  Sam moved closer to her head. “Open up, baby.”

  She readily did as he ordered. The first sweet salty taste of him hit her as she felt Jared pull her hips up. She lifted her hand to cup his sac, caressing, teasing. He moved in and out of her mouth, and she enjoyed his groan as she slipped her tongue over the tip of his shaft.

  With one hard thrust, Jared entered her to the hilt. She moaned at the fullness, pulling a groan from Sam. As Sam fucked her mouth, Jared thrust into her powerfully, causing the headboard of the bed to slam against the wall. Then Sam thrust into her one last time, almost causing her to gag. He groaned as he came, filling her mouth and throat.

  He pulled out of her mouth then lay down next to her, stroking her hair as Jared leaned down to take her mouth in a hot, opened-mouth kiss. She panicked at first. Sex was never something for pleasure, not until she’d met Sam, and now the pleasure moved through her, almost overpowered her. She tried to pull back from the emotions that were swamping her, the ones she saw in Jared’s eyes.

  “No, you don’t. Stay with us, Lou,” Jared said, every word coming out from behind clenched teeth. “Trust me.”

  She watched him and knew in that moment that she had always trusted him. Trusted him for her protection, trusted him with her life, and now, she could trust him with her heart. In that next instant, she came apart, her orgasm rolling through her like a supersonic blast. Jared followed after three more thrusts, groaning her name as he poured his seed into her.

  Chapter Eight

  Sam walked up the stairs and found Jared in the office cursing under his breath.

  “Having a few problems there?”

  Jared stilled then started typing again. “You brought a whole lot of shit on top of me and Lou, you know that?”

  That caught his attention immediately. “What the hell happened?” he asked as he made his way to the other office chair next to Jared.

  “It seems that there has been a price put on all our heads.”

  That sent a chill through him. “What do you mean? You and Lou too?”

  “Yes,” Jared ground out as he tossed him a nasty look. “Thanks to you, there are retrieval agents looking for her. And it’s dead or alive.”

  Sam didn’t want to face that, didn’t want to really admit it was partially his fault. It was in a way because he had known from the start that this undercover assignment was off. The assignment was bad, but he knew that he hadn’t been the one to set this ship in motion. “Not all my fault. You’re the one who sent her after me.”

  Regret filled his old lover’s face and Jared looked back at the screen. “Don’t you think I know that? Fuck. I’ve spent the last ten years protecting her.”

  That gave Sam pause. He had known she and Jared had worked together for a long time. “You’ve been together for ten years and never tried to get her in bed?”

  Jared shook his head. “At the beginning, let’s just say I didn’t sleep with girls who worked for me.”

  It took Sam a second to realize what he was talking about. “You son of a bitch. You whored her out.”

  “No. Not like that.” He sighed. “Seriously, I did mostly petty things, drugs and pickpocketing.”

  “You didn’t get that far from your brothers then.”

  Jared shot him an angry look. “I never whored her out
, or any of the other girls. I sort of looked out for them. We all looked out for each other. Lou, well, she was sort of lost then. So young.”

  Sam started turning over everything Jared had said in his head and then felt the sick slide of disgust in his belly. “She was only a girl.”

  Jared nodded. “I couldn’t get her off the streets. She hated it, really hated it. But no matter what, I couldn’t get her to change her mind. Even then she had a big set of balls. She was scared to death, but she was damned determined to stand on her own.”

  “Something happened.”

  It wasn’t a question but a statement.

  Jared rose and walked to the window to look out on the night. “Yeah, something. She got a john one night who thought he didn’t have to pay. When she started to raise a fuss, the bastard beat the living hell out of her. Jesus, I’ll never forget going there, finding her in that fucking alley.”

  He closed his eyes, and for that moment, Sam felt for the guy. Ten years ago, he had been barely twenty when it happened. In this sector, a forty-year-old arriving on Arcadia would feel like a virgin. He could imagine Jared showing up running away from his privileged life and being jolted by what life had to offer here.

  “What was she, fifteen?”

  Jared nodded. “Just. And she wasn’t close to the weight she is now. At that point, she probably weighed all of one hundred pounds.”

  “The scars on her chest?”

  Jared nodded.

  “The welts on her back? They’re kind of faint…”

  “No. Those she has had as long as I’ve known her.”

  He stared at Jared, realizing the woman he had been falling for over the last couple of days was more than he ever thought. She might come off as some kind of hard ass, but beneath he sensed a sweet woman, one who was afraid to need anyone but herself.

  “The guy?”

  “A petrol executive.”

  “Name?”

  “Doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “It might not to you but to me, it does.”

  “He’s dead.”

  Of course, he was dead. Jared wouldn’t let him live after doing that to Lou.

  “Took her three months to recover. She died a couple of times on the table.” The quiet words were filled with anguish. “It took over a year before she could actually be out on her own.”

  Just thinking about it made everything in his body want to do harm to someone. She didn’t ever let her guard down, except in bed. In that one place she had allowed both he and Jared to see the softness beneath.

  Jared yawned.

  “Why don’t you get some sleep? You had a longer trip here than I did.”

  “I need to get into the corporation to find out who is selling the secrets. I linked it to three people, but I can’t figure out just how the hell they did it.”

  “I can do that.”

  Jared snorted. “Really?”

  “Shit, Jared, back off. You had the damned thing locked down tighter than a virgin. I’ll let you know if I need help.”

  Jared sighed. “I would argue with you more, but the truth is, I really don’t have the energy. I have an alarm that will sound the moment they start tracing you. If they do, make sure you shut it down. I have it scrambling the outgoing signal but they probably have a lot of shit I don’t even know about.”

  Jared walked toward the door but paused. “I’m sorry for breaking your nose.”

  Sam waved it off as if it were nothing.

  “You never said why you left. I mean, I know why you understand why I ran from that insane family of mine. But you, why did you leave?”

  Sam knew he could go into all the ideas of why he’d done what he did. There was more than he could ever tell anyone, or even understand himself. “My father wanted another leader in the family. I just wanted to serve. It was as simple as that.”

  Jared nodded and said nothing as he left him alone with the computer.

  Sam sat down in the chair Jared had been in and got down to work. The sooner he figured what the hell was going on, the sooner they’d deal with what the hell was happening between the three of them.

  Jared tried to be quiet when he slipped into the room, but as usual, Lou heard him.

  “You could never be a stalker, ya know?” she asked, her voice filled with soft amusement.

  “How did you know it was me?”

  She rolled over to face him as he pulled off his shirt. “You sound different to Sam. Your walk is different. And he is kind of quiet. You’re not.”

  He frowned and she laughed.

  “No, it isn’t bad. Sam and I have been out in the field a little more than you.”

  Disgust and embarrassment filled him. “I used to be able to sneak up on anyone when I picked pockets.”

  She sighed. “But you know, that was a really, really long time ago.”

  Her playful tone took him by surprise. This wasn’t the woman he had known. Hell, it wasn’t even the girl he’d known when they first met on the streets. But she was here beneath, waiting to be turned away. He realized now that all these years he’d held back had been a mistake. Of course, that meant he had time to make up.

  He shucked off his pants and walked toward the bed. Her eyes widened when she saw his erection.

  “Are you trying to be bad, Louella?”

  She frowned at him, but the mean look was ruined by the fact she looked so damned sweet. Her honey-blonde hair was dripping over her shoulders in disarray, her face flush with excitement, and her eyes were sparkling with mischief.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  He stood by the bed for a moment, watching her, and then he pounced, grabbing her legs and pulling her to the edge. She squealed, the sound filled with horror and delight. Happiness filled him first until he pulled her legs apart and saw her wet need already coating her pussy lips. He groaned as lust rushed through his veins and his cock twitched. All these years he hadn’t known she would be so sensual. It seemed that he and Sam brought it out in her.

  For a second, the thought distracted him. It wasn’t just him who did this to her, but Sam also. Was there something wrong with him that he didn’t seem to mind having Sam in the bed with them? There was something about seeing her pleasured by Sam that made him harder than a fucking pike. And she seemed to need it.

  “Jared?”

  He heard the worry in her voice and focused on her again. He got down on his knees on the floor. He gave her no time to adjust. Slipping his hands beneath that full round ass, he lifted her to feast. Damn, she was sweet and sassy, an aphrodisiac for his senses. She moaned his name as he slipped his tongue into her pussy and fingered her ass. She squirmed and then relaxed against him. Her moans grew as he added another finger.

  Then, without warning, she came. He raised his head and watched as she allowed the orgasm to take control. She bowed off the bed, her head back, exposing the column of her neck. Before she had completely settled down, he was rising to his feet, pulling her legs up and over his shoulders and taking her hips into his hands.

  “Open your eyes, Lou.”

  She did, barely.

  “Know that it’s me, tell me.”

  “Jared.” Her voice came out as a sigh, one filled with need and affection. It twisted his heart. He couldn’t hold back anymore. He thrust into her, loving the way she clamped down on him, feeling the way her body clung to his cock as he began to move. She couldn’t move, could only lie there as he moved in and out of her. She arched off the bed, and he could feel her slickness against his cock, the tight clasp of her muscles each time he thrust into her.

  Then she opened her eyes and looked at him. “Come for me, Jared.”

  In that moment, she took back control, asked for something from him she hadn’t before. He couldn’t hold back anymore. He didn’t want to. He wanted to give this to her, wanted her to know that he would never deny her anything. He slipped a finger down to where their bodies joined and pressed against her clit. She started to convulse agai
nst him again, pulling him deeper into her body. In that instant, he let go, allowed himself to pour his seed into her.

  Moments later, he dragged them both up on the bed.

  “Please tell me I don’t have to go anywhere.”

  He laughed at her request. “We are pretty safe here. No one but you knows about the safe house. Plus, I made sure I wasn’t followed. The sensors are fully operational, so if anyone approaches, we’ll know.”

  She rose to her elbow and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “What?”

  “You didn’t tell any of the other agents about this place?”

  He shook his head. “Of course not.”

  “But…why not?”

  “Because you aren’t an average agent. I made sure that no one but you knew about it. In this sector, you never know when you need protection.”

  She frowned.

  “You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”

  She shook her head. “You know I don’t talk much to the other agents. I don’t always play well with others.”

  “They were jealous.”

  “Of me?”

  He shook his head. “Of my feelings for you. You are my best agent, but didn’t you wonder why you always got the best assignments?”

  “But…Jared.”

  “I guess there’s no reason to try and hide it. I’ve loved you since I met you, Lou. I know that you are about the only person in the sector who doesn’t know, but I do.”

  “Even when I was…” She swallowed. He knew she didn’t like saying the words, hated to even think about what she had to do to survive.

  “Even then. I didn’t know what the hell it was, seriously. But when you were hurt, I…well, if you hadn’t made it, I’m not sure if I would have either.”

  For the first time since that night long ago, he saw tears shimmer in her eyes. He cupped her face with his hand. “Don’t cry, baby.”