Sudden Death

by Allison Brennan

  “It’s time,” he whispered into her ear.

  “For what?” She licked his jaw, up to his earlobe and he clutched her tighter.

  “To make love.”

  She pulled back. “Here?”

  He shot her a smile. “I’d love to, but I was thinking more along the lines of a bed. This time.”

  This time.

  His hand rose from the water and he was holding a key. The number on the plastic tag was 115.

  “That’s mine.”

  “It was in your pocket.” He grinned as he kissed her, then swam over to the edge of the pool, holding her close to him. He lifted her out, sat her on the edge, then pulled himself out with the grace and sex appeal of a champion swimmer. The water poured off his body and she couldn’t avoid staring.

  He held out his hand. She took it and he pulled her into his arms. Jack didn’t take his eyes off her as if fearing she’d change her mind.

  She may have lost her mind, but she had no intention of changing it.

  They walked to her room, but Megan didn’t notice anything except Jack as he unlocked the door and they slid inside. As soon as it closed, he backed her against the door, his mouth on hers, her arms around his neck. She shivered, from the heat of passion and the cold dip in the pool. He turned her around, walked her over to the bed as if they were in the middle of an intimate dance. His leg was between hers, her leg was between his, and she felt through his wet shorts how this tango was going to end. The thrill coursed through her body, a surge of both lust and apprehension.

  “Jack—” She could say no more because he was kissing her again.

  “You’re cold.” He pulled off her cami in one motion. His hands cupped her bare breasts, warming them, and she gasped at the extremes, the heat and the cold.

  Jack’s hard body radiated a thousand degrees of heat, and Megan’s chill disappeared, filled instead with something she hadn’t felt in … forever. No thought, no responsibility, no doubt, no regret. She opened her arms to Jack, offering everything she had, knowing he would take it all and more. Knowing he would give everything, and then some.

  What happened to his shirt? He wasn’t wearing one. He’d left it at the pool. He stepped out of his wet shorts and he was naked. In the dim light, she saw his silhouette, a perfect Cuban god. Her breath caught—Breathe, Megan! Breathe!

  She swallowed, her mouth dry, and stepped forward. Her hands rested on his chest, she ran her fingers up and down, back and forth, massaging his chiseled muscles. He leaned into her, and she felt the edge of the bed against the back of her knees. And still he moved forward. Pushing her down, his hands on her hips, tugging her pants and panties off together.

  “Megan,” he whispered in her ear, then nibbled on her lobe, his tongue darting in and out and around, his hands on her breasts, her shoulders, her head. His hands moved in a rhythm they created together, seeming to touch her everywhere, but not enough. She wanted more, more of him, as much of Jack as she could have.

  She grabbed his hands, held them tight, and arched her back so she could kiss his neck. His day’s growth of beard was both rough and incredibly erotic as it scratched her cheeks and lips. Her tongue came out, licked him like he was a chocolate ice cream cone, up to his lips, where she claimed them as hers. At least for now, at least for tonight.

  Jack had known from the moment he kissed Megan in the plane hours earlier that he would be in her bed tonight. One kiss did not satisfy him; he’d been tasting her ever since. He was intoxicated with the need, on the verge of losing control. He never lost control. Not in life, not in the field, and not in bed with a woman.

  But with Megan, he felt that hard-wired control slipping away, her body both sexy and timid, arousing him beyond reason. He wanted her now, all of her, without hesitation. Her skin was soft, her muscles hard. The contrast was as sexy as the woman herself. She had no idea how he’d craved her, no idea that the minute she burst into the jail cell when Carlos Hernandez’s goons were trying to kill him that he’d wanted her just like this. Naked. With him. In bed.

  Her hands were everywhere, his head, his back, squeezing his biceps. Her legs moved as well, up and down his calves, her back arching whenever he eased up, trying to catch his breath, trying to slow things down. Slow things down before he couldn’t. But slow meant being in control, and his last thread of restraint snapped.

  He didn’t want slow. He wanted now.

  He put his hand between her legs, damp from the pool, damper with desire. She gasped when he pushed his finger into her. He leaned up, watched her face. The way her flushed face glowed. Her lips red and swollen from his relentless kisses. Her hair was wet and loose around her head, tangled and wanton. Her eyes were half-closed, and she licked her lips, her breath heavy, her fingers clutching his shoulders as she sighed.

  “Look at me.”

  She opened her eyes at his command. He kissed her softly, his tongue and lips trailing up to her ear and back to her mouth. He stared into her eyes, so dark green and so deep he could drown in them.

  This moment in time was perfection.

  He forced himself to enter her slowly, easily. She gasped and wrapped her legs around his calves. For a moment they both froze, as if they’d reached a juncture and didn’t know which way led to safety, which way to destruction.

  “I want you, Megan.” He sank into her, not knowing which path this union would ultimately take, but willing to fight for them, this primal possession unfamiliar but real. More real than anything Jack had felt or believed in for a long, long time.

  He wanted her, yearned for her, needed her. He couldn’t articulate it, he couldn’t fathom how he could have Megan in his life. It was an overwhelming sensation of rightness as he wrapped his arms around her, holding himself deep inside her, wanting to go slow, to savor her touch, her smell, her tightness, her trust. But slow wasn’t in the cards, not this time, as the blood rushed from his head and Jack could no longer think, and all patience disappeared.

  Megan lost her ability to reason as Jack began to move deep inside of her, slowly, the muscles in his neck tense with forced restraint. She put her hands on his tight backside and held him inside her, wanting to stay like this forever, but needing to rush the explosion that was building rapidly within her. It was as if all the energy in the room, in the city, in the entire state, had merged within them, combustible, waiting for the blast.

  “If you touch me like that I’m going to lose it.”

  “I. Am.” She couldn’t finish her sentence. She had lost all common sense and reason when he touched her at the pool. She knew then that they’d only be able to appease their desire in bed. It was lust, pure animal lust.

  But it felt so much bigger than simple sex. She didn’t want to think too much for fear their connection would slip away.

  His slow strokes moved faster and dove deeper. She gasped, her hands running up his back, squeezing, to his shoulders, her short nails digging in as she felt the last of her energy rushing to the spot where their friction generated combustible heat.

  They were in sync, their bodies moving together for the mutual benefit and need to pleasure the other, skin slick with perspiration. Meg closed her eyes again, the sensation of their flesh together so dominate, so volatile. Her hands gripped his shoulders.

  “God. Jack.”

  He kissed her, his lips moving in rhythm to their hips, and she cried out into his mouth as her body turned inside out, releasing her lust, her mind, and her heart to Jack.

  When Megan’s body shook beneath him, Jack let go. It had been an inner battle to hold on as long as he did. He wasn’t a teenager anymore—what was with this insatiable need? He’d gone in too fast, unable to stop himself. He didn’t lose control.

  Until now.

  He rolled over onto his back, bringing her with him. Kissed her over and over again. Her skin tasted of salt and chlorine.

  “Now,” he said, “I can do it the right way.”

  “If that was the wrong way, I like the wrong way.
”

  He smiled and kissed her.

  “I want to make love to you.”

  “And what was that?”

  “That, darling, was sex. Pure lust. Now I’m going to make love to you.” He kissed her. “Slowly.” He brushed her hair away from her face and licked her forehead. “Very slowly.” His heart still raced and he felt hers pounding against his chest. His hands caressed the side of her face. “You’re beautiful, Megan.”

  His hands ran down her body as she rested on top of him, breath heavy and satisfied on his chest. He loved the taste of her, especially now, her body hot and slick and relaxed. She seemed to melt all over him, as relaxed as a purring cat.

  His fingers trailed down her spine, to her waist, and over rough skin. Feeling … what was that? He circled his hand over the unexpected texture of her flesh.

  She tensed and tried to roll away. He didn’t let her. He pulled her back. “This was where you were shot?”

  “Yes.” Her voice was clipped.

  She didn’t want to talk. Jack wasn’t going to let her remain silent. The light was dim, but he sat up and wiggled her around until he could see the wound clearly.

  The scar was large, part of it round, part an incision from where the surgeon had gone in to remove the bullet. But it wasn’t a small invasion. It had been major surgery to remove her damaged kidney.

  “I know, it’s ugly.”

  He kissed her scar. “All better.”

  She’d turned her head away from him. He turned her head back. Her eyes watered. Oh, God, no. He couldn’t take tears. Not these kind of tears.

  “Sweetheart, if you think a little scar is going to bother me, you don’t know me.”

  As he said it, he realized that they didn’t know each other. Not the details. He didn’t know where she was born, where she grew up, if she had brothers or sisters, why she and her mother didn’t get along.

  But he knew her heart and her mind. He could predict with relative certainty what she would say or do. He knew the important stuff. Her compassion was endless and her sense of right and wrong well formed. She was worthy of love. To love and be loved. Jack didn’t know if he was worthy of her.

  Megan stared, eyes probing his, and he kissed her. He didn’t care, he would do anything to keep her in his life.

  He might not know everything about her, but he knew that she fit with him. He wasn’t good with emotions or explaining his thoughts and feelings. That was why he’d been estranged from his family for so long. He was a man of action. Do it, don’t talk about it.

  But something about this scar bothered Megan deep inside. She’d been flip yesterday when she told him about being shot in the back. But she wasn’t flip about it now.

  He kissed her lightly on the cheek, and adjusted their bodies so that she was spooned closely against him, his arms tight around her, his lips on her ear.

  “Tell me.”

  “I have one kidney.”

  “I know.”

  It took her a minute to speak. He didn’t move. He wasn’t going anywhere. Neither was Megan.

  “I was ambushed. I wasn’t watching my back when I should have been. And took a bullet. It’s only one kidney, and it’s gone, and yeah, it still bothers me, but I’m fine.”

  The way she said it made it sound like a betrayal, but Megan didn’t say more. She took one of his hands, the one that had been lightly caressing her breasts, and kissed his palm. Her tongue sent jolts of lust down to his hardening cock.

  “You were going to show me the difference between having sex and making love.”

  “I am.”

  He kissed her neck, turning her on to her back so he could have easier access to all her soft skin. Lips to lips, lips to neck, lips to breast. His hands kneaded her shoulders, her arms, her thighs.

  “There is not going to be an inch of your skin I don’t taste,” he whispered, his voice rough. “From your head …” he kissed her eyelids, his tongue trailing down to her ears, then to her neck. “To your painted toes.”

  He slid off the bed and Meg groaned from the sudden chill. Then his mouth was on her toes and she gasped. Electric bolts jolted her body as Jack sucked her toes, licked the bottoms of her feet, kissed her ankles. The backs of her knees. And higher.

  True to his word, Jack tasted every inch of her flesh. Slowly.

  And slowly, they brought each other up and over the edge once again.

  After killing Ethan and Lyle Hackett, Karin walked a mile to the hotel she’d checked into the day before under one of her aliases, Erin Hunter.

  She’d always liked that name. Hunter. It suited her. Erin the Hunter. Erin. Hunter. Huntress. She grinned.

  It was late, but the hotel was brightly lit and she wasn’t positive that her late-night dip in the ocean had washed away all the blood. She slipped in through a side door, using her card key, and rode the elevator up to the penthouse suite. She deserved the penthouse. She’d ordered champagne when she first arrived, asking the staff to deliver it while she was gone. It was still cold, sitting in a stainless steel cooler filled with cold water.

  She stripped, shoving her bathing suit and sarong into the black bag. The bag had to be disposed of, but she needed to destroy the evidence first. A heavy dose of bleach, then toss it in the ocean or a lake. She hadn’t wanted to take the knife, but after Ethan cut her, she had no choice. She worried about her blood on the floor, but hoped either the crime scene investigators didn’t test the small square where the knife had fallen, or that there was so much contamination they couldn’t differentiate her blood.

  Even if they were able to test it, her DNA wasn’t in any database. Still, she didn’t want it to be, and now she would have to be far more careful in her work.

  First things first. She had her own vengeance to seek. Then she could go back to business as usual.

  She showered and scrubbed her body under water as hot as she could stand it. Shampooed her hair twice. When she stepped out, her skin was pink and she felt fabulous. She stared at her reflection, took out scissors, and cut her hair yet again. She wished she didn’t have to do it, but hair grew and having a straight, short bob instead of shoulder-length curls would help with the disguise.

  Next, she took brown hair dye and colored her hair again. The dye wouldn’t stay as well on the blond she’d used yesterday, but all she needed was to change her overall appearance and this light brown was closer to her natural color.

  The end result was pretty good, a golden sort of brown. A little lighter than she wanted, but different enough from the woman—Rose—who’d been seen drinking in the bar with Lyle Hackett.

  She slipped into a luxurious white hotel bathrobe, the logo embroidered in gold on the lapel.

  Time to celebrate.

  She popped the cork off the champagne, poured herself a glass, and walked out onto the balcony. It was chilly on the coast this late at night, even in southern California, but she didn’t care. She breathed in the salt air, the breeze raising goose bumps on her damp skin.

  She’d take these hours to rest, and then she’d watch the police and the FBI run around in circles. And when the time was right …

  … she’d finish the job. She had Ethan to thank for her new skills. She could hardly wait to use them.

  “To Ethan,” she said to the ocean and drained her champagne.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Megan was awakened by the hard, naked body wrapped around her.

  Jack’s arm was draped over her, the blankets were on the floor, and the sheets a tangle around them. She would have been freezing if she wasn’t lying next to a self-charging heater.

  “Your phone’s ringing,” Jack said. “I didn’t think I should answer it.”

  She jumped up and found her phone in her purse, which she’d dropped on the small desk when she first came in the night before. Before the spontaneous swim, before making love to Jack.

  She missed the call. It was from Hans. Suddenly, she was mindful of her nakedness.
r />   “You’re blushing,” Jack said.

  “How can you tell?” she asked, looking around for her shirt. She found the cami she’d worn the night before; it was still damp from the pool. She opened her small suitcase.

  “You’re beautiful.”

  Her skin heated even more. At the rate she was going, she was going to look like a cooked lobster inside of two minutes.

  “Don’t be embarrassed,” Jack said.

  “I … we … it’s complicated.” Megan pulled on a T-shirt.

  He chuckled. “If you mean to say that you and me having sex complicates things, yeah, maybe a bit, but I like complications. Especially one like you.”

  He stretched like a satisfied cat, his long, hard body only partly covered by the sheet. She turned her back on him. She couldn’t look at him, not like that, without remembering exactly what they’d done together last night. How he made her feel not only during sex, but after. How he’d held her. Kissed her. She’d never felt so comfortable with a man, never felt so alive, so sexy, so desired.

  She pressed Send on her phone to return Hans’s call. He answered immediately. “Meg?”

  “Sorry, you woke me and I couldn’t find my phone.”

  “General Hackett is dead. We’re going to Santa Barbara.”

  “Hackett? Dammit, we sent agents to his house to warn him.”

  “I spoke to the Los Angeles office. They said they called and Mrs. Hackett said her husband was out of town for the evening.”

  “And they didn’t follow up?”

  Hans paused. “They assumed that if he was out of town, the killers wouldn’t know where. See where assumptions can lead?”

  Megan blanched. Hans was still angry, but she was more confident that her actions were right. “I’ll be ready.”