How much further might her reach have extended?
Perhaps the organizers could work with her to keep the impact and volume of interactions to a minimum.
She looked at the clock in the corner of the screen to find that only ten minutes had passed since she’d last looked. Where was Six? Her heart raced a little, and she wondered how military spouses coped when loved ones went on deployment, facing threats on a daily basis. Louisa could only imagine how hard it was to bury the fear and anxiety to get on with life. Saying good-bye to Six for the afternoon had been hard enough, even though she’d been as angry as she was aroused. Jealousy squeezed her lungs as she wondered whether there had been a time when Six had had to leave a girlfriend behind before.
The shift in him earlier had been instantaneous. One moment, he’d been about to devour her on the porch; the next, he’d chastely kissed her on the cheek, albeit with a look of longing and a very stiff erection, and had handed her her clothes before disappearing inside. She’d waited for him to come out before asking him what was going on, and her frustration had bubbled over into anger when he’d explained little more than that they’d had a lead. Finally, he’d given in and told her that the lead was the person they suspected of paying Kovalenko to abduct her, but then he’d kissed her on her forehead and headed for the door, telling her that Bailey and Ryder would be outside.
The ring tone on her phone startled her, and she quickly grabbed it off the nightstand. “Hello,” she said.
“Ah, Louisa.” One of Vasilii’s quirks was the way he drew her name out across the three long syllables. Looo-eeee-zaaa. Blood pumped through her heart so quickly that she could hear the rushing in her ears.
Should she play it cool? Or should she just come clean and tell Vasilii that she knew what Ivan was up to and that she had nothing left to say to him? No, she’d keep quiet, her shyness having inadvertently taught her that people often said more than they meant to when the other party stayed silent.
“Vasilii. What can I do for you?” she asked.
“I am calling to apologize. I’m sorry I didn’t handle the break-in at the lab … differently.” He sounded uncertain. Which was strange, because if there was one thing that Vasilii wasn’t, it was uncertain.
“Thank you, Vasilii,” she said, surprised by his admission. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“I need to see you in person to discuss … things. I know you asked for some time off, and I am more than willing to honor that, but I believe we should talk. Clear the air. Can you by chance come by the house?”
Despite being scared, she felt a tiny tremor of anger surge through her. “You delayed talking to the police, putting me at risk. Have you corrected that? Do the police now have all the details?”
Vasilii exhaled noisily. “I have spoken to them. Yes. If the sample has truly been stolen, which I now believe it has because a thorough clear-out of all laboratories in the building has failed to find it, I am nervous about the fallout. I don’t want the publicity of losing a dangerous sample to reflect badly on the lab … or you,” he added in a way that unless she was sorely mistaken was an implied threat.
Louisa stood and began to pace. She reached for the pens she’d left on the small desk earlier and began to line them up, then dropped them as she remembered Six’s words about her habit. “Why would it reflect badly on me when it is a lapse in lab security? I came to you about it as soon as I realized they were gone. If there is any delay in an investigation to understand what happened, that’s on you. If there is no security camera footage, that’s on you too. But people have attempted to kidnap me twice, and I am certain the two things are connected. Your refusal to handle this properly for the sake of reputation left me hanging in the wind.” The conversation had taken a sudden turn south, leaving her confused.
“This is my reason for wanting to talk. Away from Ivan. Away from the lab. To see if we can’t come to some kind of agreement. At a minimum, we should talk about your future. I want you to continue working for me. I would hate for this … misunderstanding … to jeopardize this. “
The shock at his words made her shake. “It’s much more than a misunderstanding.”
“We need to move on, Louisa. I made a mistake, I have said I am sorry. And now we need to figure out how we go forward.”
Fury replaced every other thought in her head. Its heat streamed through her. “Go forward. I’m still trying to figure out who is trying to kidnap me. I can’t believe I am saying this, but put the research on hold. Schedule the lab for its detailed clean or something. Ivan is good, but he does not have what it takes to forge a breakthrough, and you know it. He was my arms and legs, but he was never the brains. You are a businessman. You should have looked at this objectively. You should have taken action. You should have told the police when the sample was stolen.”
“I understand, but please try to see things from my perspective. Where is the objectivity you have always prided yourself on? I have explained my reasons. They were wrong. You were wrong to divulge company information to the police. Please. Come to meet with me. It is most urgent that I speak with you. Right now, you are overwrought. You should—”
“No, Vasilii. I shouldn’t do anything.” Her head throbbed with the idea that he thought she was in the wrong. “We should be working together to find out who took it because whoever they are, I have a feeling they are struggling to re-create the test sample and they are after me to help them do it. It is either a competitor of the lab, in which case we definitely don’t want them to get ahead of us. Or it has been stolen for a much more dangerous reason. Yet you call me and tell me nothing I don’t already know. And seriously, if you suggest I was wrong to give the police information that I thought was imperative to my personal safety, information you should have already provided to them, again, I will sue your ass for any and every reason I can think of and I’ll use that money and my own to set up my own lab.”
The idea hit her hard, and suddenly she became excited. For the first time in nearly a week, she realized she could form a plan of her own. A lab would be a pricy proposition. But perhaps her mom would help her. For insurance purposes, though, she wondered if she would need to disclose that her father had carried a hereditary disease. Perhaps it was time to know one way or another.
“You are behaving irrationally, Louisa. Your paranoia is taking over. Maybe it is time for you to get tested because I worry—”
Louisa rolled her eyes at the mention of the symptom of her illness he knew she was sensitive to. “We’re done, Vasilii.”
She hung up and flopped back down on the bed. She knew she wasn’t paranoid. Was confident that this wasn’t the onset of her illness. She wasn’t her father.
The collision of mad, excited, and sexually frustrated was an energizing combination. She leapt off the bed and grabbed a sheet of paper. With a black Sharpie, she wrote a title at the top of the page. True North Pharmaceuticals. Then she screwed it up and threw it in the garbage. She grabbed a second sheet. True North Laboratories. Better. But it still lacked … ambition. Size. Shit. How the hell was someone who hated being around people going to run a company? She folded the paper into an airplane and aimed it for the trash can. It drifted past and crashed into the glass doors to the garden.
At the top of the third sheet, she wrote True North Industries. Go big or go home, right?
She drew a tick box and added Hire a CEO.
Just because she owned it didn’t mean she had to run it.
For the first time in days, the tightness around her chest released.
* * *
Six turned the key in the lock and gingerly stepped into the house. No amount of adrenaline was able to prevent his body from realizing that two hundred and thirty pounds of bone and muscle hitting concrete hurt like a bitch. Despite the energy coursing through his body, he walked like an old man and needed the ice packs from the freezer in the garage, which felt too far away down way too many steps for his messed-up knees.
It had b
een the driver who’d cracked first, and Buddha owed him ten bucks because of it. Meatheads were all mouth and no balls. And Mitkin had learned an important lesson about holding phone conversations in the back of a car. Turned out that Mitkin was Lemtov’s son-in-law, and the one responsible for hiring Kovalenko. Even more interesting, they now knew that Lemtov was Ivan’s godfather. And that at Ivan’s request, Lemtov had sold the formula to an underground criminal organization in Russia. It didn’t look good for anybody involved that they couldn’t create it, and now they needed Louisa to solve it.
The lights were off in the living room and the kitchen, but he could see the light shining from underneath Louisa’s door. Deciding that a shower would be the best bet before ice, he made his way to his bedroom, pulling his long-sleeved shirt over his head as he walked.
Louisa’s door opened suddenly, and a gust of air hit the hallway. “You’re home,” she said, her eyes wide with … something. Excitement. He couldn’t quite tell. “Are you okay?” she asked, running her hands all over him, in his hair, and then working their way down his biceps as if checking for injuries.
It tickled. And it mattered that she cared. “I’m fine, Lou,” he said, grabbing both of her wrists in his hands between the two of them.
“Thank God,” she said with a sigh. Using the hold he had on her as leverage, she pushed herself up onto her toes and crashed her lips into his. “I was worried about you,” she mumbled against them, and then kissed him in the way he craved right now. Dangerous, and hot.
When he opened his mouth to hers, he couldn’t hold back a grin as her sweet-as-anything tongue met his. Jesus Christ. She was like a spider monkey, practically climbing up him. Their moment on the porch had destroyed the last remnant of his self-control, so if that’s how she wanted it, he was more than ready to comply. As was his dick, which was already rock hard and ready for action. Scratch that. Desperate for action.
He placed his arms around her waist and stood up straight as she wrapped her legs around him.
“Shit,” he gasped as his knees took the weight of both of them. Gently, he lowered her back to the ground.
Louisa took one look at his face. “Where are you hurt? You should have told me.”
“The only thing hurting Lou, is my dick,” he said, taking her hand and leading her back into her room. Papers covered the floor and table, and as much as he was intrigued by what she’d been doing, the only thing he could focus on was getting her naked faster than the speed of a bullet. Horny as hell, he felt like he’d spent the last forty-eight hours in a permanent state of arousal.
“You’re limping,” she said, tugging him to a stop. “Let me see.”
“I’m serious, Lou. That thing about balls turning blue and dropping off, it’s no lie.”
“You’re forgetting I’m a biology major, sailor. This is my territory,” she said, placing her palm on his chest. “Let me be your nurse, Six.”
Well, when she put it like that. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and saluted her.
“Very good. Now where does it hurt?” she said, running a fingertip down his chest and over his nipple. “I promise to kiss it better.” Her voice was low and husky.
It was clear she wasn’t going to continue until she knew what was going on. “My knees hit the concrete, but it’s no big deal, honestly.”
This time she took his hand and pulled him in the direction of the bathroom. “Let me be the judge of that. A good nurse always triages her patient. I need to assess what parts of you hurt most, and treat them in order,” she said, running her hand down the length of his cock in a move that made it jerk and him jump. The first time they’d made love had been incredible, even though she’d been uncertain. Now, as she fisted his cock tightly in one hand while looking him square in the eyes with a look that said she wanted to devour him, she had confidence in spades. And he loved both sides of her equally.
“So, sailor. Where do you hurt?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.
He stole a quick kiss. Couldn’t resist the playfulness. “Everywhere.”
“Everywhere?” she repeated.
“Everywhere.”
Louisa took his belt in her hands, unbuckled it, and then released the button and zipper of his pants. “Well, I am going to need to check out everywhere to confirm that.”
He placed his hands on either side of her head and kissed her hair gently, then released her and put his hands in the air in an act of surrender. “Be my guest.”
She dropped to her knees, and the sight of her down there, especially when she looked up at him and winked, had blood rushing from one head to the other. He leaned back against the sink and grabbed the counter. Studiously, she untied his boots, and he toed them off. Then, slowly, she slid his pants and boxer briefs down his legs, easing them over his knees, which were a bloody, raw mess.
“Six,” she said, sympathy lacing every word. “I need to clean these for you, honey.”
Honey. It was the first time she’d called him anything other than Six. And he liked it more than he probably should.
“I was going to shower before I came to see you, but then you jumped me in the hallway.”
“I didn’t jump—okay, maybe I did. As your nurse, I insist on a shower … as long as you let me join you. Just to clean you up, of course.”
“Purely medicinal. Got it,” he said and reached into the shower to turn on the water.
Louisa wiggled out of her pajamas. “Do you need my assistance walking in, or can you make it on your own?”
“Funny, Lou,” he said, tapping her ass to nudge her into the shower. Shit, she had a great ass.
She leaned her head back and he watched, slack-jawed, as water ran down her face, over her breasts, and between her legs. “Stand there,” she said once she was deliciously wet.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and stepped under the spray, letting the hot water do its thing. She dropped to her knees again, this time with a cloth in her hands. He stood stoically as she washed his cuts. He’d had worse, much worse, and he ran his hand down the scar on his stomach.
Once she was done, she looked up at him, in no rush to get to her feet. “What else did you say hurts?” she asked. Her eyes drifted up to his cock, so he gripped it, pointing it in her direction.
“I’m pretty sure this does.”
Her hands gripped his thighs, and her mouth opened. Those pretty pink lips of hers parted wide enough to let him inside. He resisted the urge to rock into her, clenching his ass and tightening his abs in a bid to let her take the lead on pace and depth. But damn, it was hard not to sink into the hot wetness. At first, she sucked the tip, leaving a trail of saliva and pre-cum on his cock, causing him to gasp at the visual.
“Goddamn, Lou,” he breathed.
With both hands, he pulled her to her feet and kissed her soundly, passionately, savoring the way her wet, naked body felt against his. Then he lifted her into his arms.
“Your knees,” she said, quickly.
“I’m fine, Lou,” he said, turning the shower off and leading them to his room without stopping to dry off. He placed her on his bed, and she got onto all fours to crawl into the center.
Fuck.
“Stay right there,” he said gruffly as he reached for the condom and put it on.
The air felt cool to his heated body, water dripped from her wet hair onto the bed, yet he shivered as he gripped her hips and pulled her back to the edge of the bed. Holy shit. She was going to let him take her while he stood. “Mmm. You look seriously hot, Lou,” he said, trailing a finger between the cheeks of her ass, going lower until he found her wetness. “Ready, too. I love that.”
Six slid his finger into her and then another, scissoring them gently.
“Oh, Six,” she cried out, lowering her forehead to the bed.
“Yeah. I feel it,” Six said, his voice low. Tension suspended between them, like an elastic band ready to snap. He lined up his erection and pressed slowly into her. A groan escaped her lips, and his, as
he pushed his way deeper until he was in as far as he could go and stopped.
“I wish you could see what I can, Lou. See the way you open for me, see how wet you are, how drenched my cock is.”
Louisa shivered at his words. He gripped her hips tightly as he slid out and back in, the sensation leaving him dizzy and desperate. Unable to control herself, Louisa ground against him. “Yeah, push back against me. Do whatever feels good, Lou.”
She bucked when his fingertips pressed against her clit in firm circles and her knuckles went white as she gripped the comforter with all of her might. He brushed his lips along her shoulder and pushed the hair off her face. “You feel so good, Lou,” he growled in her ear. “Watching you as you are now, uninhibited, taking what you need from me, is so incredibly hot. Do you feel what you do to me?” He drove into her harder. “I want you, every part of you, so badly. I want your breath, your skin, your sweat, your orgasm. Give it all to me, Lou.”
His thoughts scattered away as he focused on her. The way she was pinned to the bed as she took everything he wanted to give her, the way his breath came in short bursts against the side of her neck, the way their sweat drenched them both, and the way the need to come overtook him.
“I’m close,” she whispered, and closed her eyes.
“You’re squeezing me so tight right now, I can barely keep my shit together. So do it, Lou. Come. Show me how much you love us like this.”
God, he was so close, and he needed the release more than a junkie needed a high. He chased it, craved it. And when the telltale tightening began, he groaned in desperation. Rougher than he had before, he pressed his fingers against her clit, giving her the extra pressure she needed to get off.
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