Her lips clamped into a thin line, and her chin trembled. “Or else he’s hurt her again, injured her.”
He threaded his fingers through hers and brought her hand to his lips. He wanted to rescue Yelena for her. And for the mission. It was his last chance to lure Roszca out to sea. He ought to tell her the rest, but not now. “If I can get that woman out of there, I will. But we need access through that damn tunnel.”
He’d had enough plotting and planning. Enough acting professional with this woman who set him on fire with a look, who made him so hard he could barely breathe.
She gave him a wobbly smile and gently withdrew her hand. “I’ve been working on a contingency plan in case Houdini can’t help us.” She pointed to the garden area beyond the guest cottages. “I think the tunnel exits somewhere around here. There are outbuildings — garden and tool sheds — and the hillside rises steeply from there.”
He slid closer. “Makes sense that that’s where it’d be. Right direction. Not far from Yelena’s end of the house.”
“Maybe she knows where the tunnel opening is.” She bit her lower lip.
How did that help? Simon narrowed his eyes, suspicion edging out seduction. “What are you getting at?”
She scooted to the edge of the seat. Her bare thigh sliding against his blitzed his concentration again. Her eyes glowed silver with fervor as she again pointed to the drawing. “Here. Beside the path to the gate is all heavy, wild growth. Ferns and low palms covered with climbers. Sansevieria and succulents. Good cover.”
“I suppose. Why—?”
“We could open the front gate with my electronic lock pick, get in the house and scoop up Yelena. Then we could escape through the tunnel. From that side of the steel door, the lock should be no problem.”
His jaw started to go slack, but he controlled his shock. One word branded his brain and froze his hands beneath the ever-present layer of sweat. “We? We?” He leaped to his feet and stalked across the room. “Janna, this is a one-man op. No way you’re going in with me.”
She shot to her feet and glared at him, hands on hips. “If you can’t use the tunnel, you can’t succeed without me and my electronics.”
He deduced the answer, but he had to ask. “Explain.”
“The cameras. Security cameras sweep the gate and surrounding area. I have a disrupting device that would zap them with static or shut them down.”
The way she looked at him, all fiery-eyed and eager, stirred his protective urges. Yeah, she’d had self-defense training — weapons, hand-to-hand combat and all that — but it made no difference in how he felt. His gut twisted into a granny knot at the thought of her slinking through the dark. “You could give me the gizmo.”
Desperation etched in lines around her mouth, she clenched and unclenched her fists. “There’s no time to teach you how to use everything. I can do it.”
She would accuse him of trying to control her. Damn right. He had to try to stop her with her weapon — logic. “Dammit. Our original plan will work without jeopardizing the mission and showing DARK’s hand. Going in the way you want is too dangerous. We could be caught. Killed.”
She marched around the cocktail table and got in his face. “Yelena doesn’t speak much English. You might need me to translate. She needs our help.”
She was grasping at straws because she ached to save the woman. He shook his head. “She speaks enough. Besides I need you to bring the Horizon around to the tunnel exit to pick us up. No telling what shape Yelena’s in if she could even swim here. We’d have no time to waste.”
He could almost see her brilliant mind making the leaps. “So first, we pretend to motor away and stop past that point, just out of sight. Any more excuses?”
He combed fingers through his hair and inhaled a lungful of air. The actions didn’t calm him or give him enough time to get creative, except in his language. Filling the salon with Baltimore street expletives, he paced back and forth.
When he stopped and gripped her shoulders, Janna startled and blinked, but stood her ground. “Dammit, woman, the thought of the muscle twins jumping you fries every nerve ending in my body to a crisp.”
Her mouth compressed. “Preventing a fellow officer from doing her job goes against DARK rules.”
“I’d be following rules if I reminded you exactly what your job is. As your superior officer, I could order you to stay on board to monitor movements in the house.”
Her cheeks flushed crimson. He could tell she wanted to argue, but his reminder of orders slammed the door. Her shoulders slumped slightly. “So that’s it? You’re ordering me to stay on the yacht?”
When he realized he felt her delicate bones beneath his hands, he loosened his grip. He massaged gentle circles on her shoulders. “No. I could, but I won’t. I trust you and your electronics. Your idea might work.”
Her gray eyes lit up like Independence Day sparklers. “You mean it?”
“I mean it. On one condition.”
“Anything.”
He slid one hand up to lift her chin. After capturing her lips for a slow kiss, he said, “Be careful what you promise, sweetheart.”
“What condition, Simon?”
“I won’t jeopardize the entire mission. If things get hairy — we can’t get through the gate fast or there are extra guards or something — we abort. No questions.”
A hint of challenge flickered in her eyes, and then she nodded. “Agreed.”
Pulling her close, he tucked her hair behind one ear and nibbled at her earlobe. Her skin carried the flavors of soap and salt and her own sweet energy. His body swelled and hardened in a raw flash of sensation. He wanted her. Now.
Speech demanded extreme effort. “Meanwhile, we have time to kill.”
Her eyelids drifted shut and she let her head relax. “Mmm. What did you have in mind?”
He gathered her up into his arms and kissed a trail down her elegant neck. “We can add on a few hours to our one night. What do you say?”
Chapter 24
JANNA’S SKIN TINGLED wherever Simon’s lips tasted. Her body thrummed at every pulse point. She was no dainty doll, but she felt feminine and light when he picked her up and carried her effortlessly to the master cabin.
Setting her on her feet, he backed her up to the wall and plastered himself against her. Kissing, stroking and kneading her flesh, he murmured hot words, sex words that hypnotized and made her light-headed with want.
She clung to him, rocking her mouth over his with a wild desperation approaching madness. She wrenched his T-shirt over his head as he tore at hers. The remainder of their clothing vanished as if burned away by their spontaneous combustion.
She wanted him with every molecule in her being. To imprint him on her flesh, in her heart, on her soul.
As he tumbled her onto the big bed beneath him, she fell into a vortex of impressions — racing heartbeats and bumping pulses, hard muscle and soft flesh, sweat-slippery skin and slick arousal. Bottomless kisses filled her senses with his salty male scent, with his dark gaze, with the raspy brush of his jaw.
“I want to make it good for you, but I can’t hold back a second longer.” His voice was a harsh croak, taut control making his words barely intelligible.
“Don’t hold back,” she murmured, arching upward to meet his thrust. A strangled moan tore from her as he buried himself to the hilt.
There was no gentleness to this mating, and she wanted it that way.
He took her body and she took his.
Urging him to move inside her, she curled her fingers into his tight buttocks and rocked her hips, frantic for him. Their movements became molten undulations, him driving into her, her shimmying her hips with him, squeezing him with her inner muscles to wring every last sensation from the release.
Telltale twinges shimmered through her veins, cascading into liquid spasms that spiraled her into a thousand pieces of glittering, white-hot light. A hoarse groan exploded from him as
his climax slammed into him, seizing him deeper into her, propelling her beyond aftershocks into liquid fireworks.
An eon later, he collapsed atop her with an incoherent murmur.
As the last torrid sparks ebbed, she held him tight against her, cradled him inside her. Her nerve endings were scorched, her heartbeat shaken and stirred. “What was that?”
Simon’s lips curved against the side of her neck. His voice rumbled through her as he said, “If you don’t know, sweetheart, we did something wrong.”
“I think we did everything right.”
Chuckling, he rolled to his side. He cradled her against him. “You’re okay then?”
“More than.” She nuzzled him and caught his mouth for a satisfying kiss.
“Whoa, babe. Give me a few minutes to recover, and we can try it sweet and slow.”
Still in a sensual haze, she had no objection.
***
When Simon awoke, night cloaked the cabin and stars salted the inky sky.
They’d made love again, as he promised, long and slow, learning each other’s sensitive spots, exploring each other’s bodies. And then they slept in each other’s arms.
She stirred and edged closer to him.
He smoothed her hair and waited until her breathing evened. He’d let her rest awhile longer. It would be her last chance for the night.
She’d come a long distance from fear to sleeping trust. The frantic way she held him and cried her need for him told him she didn’t want to end this intimacy either. Not really. She was just afraid to break her damn rules.
Once they were safely away from this island and Viktor Roszca, she’d see that they could stay together. No commitments, though. No strings. No setting themselves up for a fall. Just see where their feelings took them. They’d end it by mutual agreement. But not anytime soon.
“You should be smug and smiling, not frowning dark enough to start a thunderstorm.” Janna sat up and leaned over to kiss his forehead.
He shoved away his stormy thoughts and grinned. “Just thinking about later. Making sure I don’t forget something.”
“I need to put a few more things in our wet packs. Oh, and check for a message from Houdini.” Hair tousled and skin flushed from their lovemaking, she looked so beautiful he wanted to make love to her all over again.
She started to rise, but he pulled her down. “I want to ask you about something you said. And I have something to tell you.” Better she knew his plans for Yelena now than in the middle of the op.
She sat cross-legged beside him, naked and open, finally at ease with her body in front of him. “Ask away.”
“What did you mean when you said we could heal each other?”
“Intimacy with you has helped me free myself of the fear of being touched. I can live a normal life without jumping or turning to fight whenever someone touches me casually. I can move on, knowing that sex can be freeing and beautiful, not merely a means of domination.”
“I got that part. The part about healing you.” Oh, great, he’d helped rid her of fear so she could have sex. The thought of her coming apart in any other man’s arms lit a match inside him. “Have I created a monster? I thought we had an agreement. Are you gonna be Janna the boat bunny now and hop from bed to bed?”
“Whoa! What gave you that idea?” She hugged herself, covering her breasts with her arms. “But why not? Isn’t it what men do? What you do?”
“Dammit, you turned the tables on me. That’s what I get for debating with a brainiac.” Sure, one-night stands were what he did — correction, what he used to do. “Not while we’re together. And I don’t share.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, smiling. “We do have an agreement. I don’t plan to make any wild lifestyle changes.”
More relieved than he could admit to her, he scrubbed his knuckles across his rough jaw. “But me? I don’t need healing.”
“Not the same way, no. I hoped our time together would release you from your guilt. You can’t blame yourself for not saving me from Gabe’s abuse.”
“I should’ve helped you before he hurt you. When he told me to back off, I should’ve been suspicious.”
“Gabe warned you off?”
“When you got engaged. Warning bells should’ve rung in my head. I was blind and deaf. I abandoned you. I failed you.”
“Neither of us suspected what he was really like. You couldn’t have known. No one knew. If you’d tried to intervene, he’d have kept me away from you. And then I denied the truth for too long. I wouldn’t have admitted it to you or anyone. But I’m fine now. Really.”
“Not yet. But you will be. Once you tell your family.”
She looked away. “I’ll try.”
He cleared his throat and propped himself on an elbow. “I have to tell you something about Yelena.”
Looking stricken, she clutched his arm. “Oh, God, something’s happened to her!”
He patted her hand. “No, nothing like that. Our plans to rescue her. You must see how she’s the perfect bait.” Damn. That was about as smooth as the jagged cliffs on the island.
“To lure Roszca to follow us, you mean.” She grasped it immediately, but he could see the shock in her eyes. As brilliant as she was with electronics, until now she hadn’t seen this as a strategy.
“Exactly. Once I get into her room, I’ll have her write a note. We’ll leave her door open as we leave. A guard is bound to see it. We want Roszca to know she’s missing soon enough to chase us.”
Janna pulled her hand away from his arm and rolled off the bed. Avoiding his eyes, she yanked on her panties, shorts and tank top. “You planned this all along. That’s why you weren’t too worried about Roszca not going for the yacht race. You’re using her.”
He sat up, facing her. He could do nothing about her anger except hope she’d see it his way. Eventually. “It’s no big deal. The end result is the same. She gets free of an abusive situation. And we reap a bonus. We get our man.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Her gray eyes were hard granite stones, giving no hint of the earlier heat.
“I’m telling you now.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug of chagrin. “I’m afraid it’s the only chance we have to get Roszca.”
Crackling static emanated from the radio at the helm.
“There’s our favorite international criminal.” He stepped into his shorts. “He must’ve decided to come clean and turn over the uranium.”
Janna watched Simon walk away before hurrying into her cabin. She stripped and washed up in the adjacent head.
She mouthed silent congratulations to herself in the mirror. She hadn’t reacted emotionally when Simon told her he planned to use Yelena as bait. She hadn’t even felt that his secrecy was an act of betrayal. He was the senior officer. Plans were his responsibility.
He wasn’t trying to control or manipulate her. He trusted her alternate plan, didn’t he? What hurt was that he didn’t trust her to share his plans until he had to. A pang reminded her that she hadn’t trusted him enough to point out his lack of trust.
She felt more barricaded than the mysterious metal door in the tunnel. Hadn’t she learned the hard way to protect herself? Love couldn’t protect her. Love without trust couldn’t last — for either of them — even if Simon loved her, for which logic told her she had no reason to suspect or hope. So in spite of agreeing to try a relationship, she had to end their affair. It was the only choice.
But if following her self-imposed rules of no involvement was supposed to immunize her against more hurt, why did she feel she was dying inside?
She tugged on her tank-style suit and slipped on a T-shirt over it. Might as well be ready for the evening’s festivities.
“Janna,” Simon called through the closed door. “Roszca’s inviting us for a farewell drink. Says Yelena wants to say good-bye.”
When she opened the door, the sight of him lounging there gave her pulse a little kick. His h
air a spiky forest, his jaw darkened with stubble and wearing only his ragged cutoffs, he tempted her to drag him down on her bed.
She straightened her shoulders. “I’d like to go, if only to see with my own eyes if Yelena’s all right.”
“No telling how long this farewell might take. A few drinks under his belt set Roszca off on one of his verbal marathons. Are you all ready for later? All the gizmos and gadgets in your bag of tricks?”
She considered, ticking off the equipment in her head. “I need to regulate the electronic disrupter. The lock pick might need adjusting to work at optimum speed. And—”
“Reckon you’re not ready after all. Neither rescue plan leaves room for error or delay.”
She wondered at the relief that flashed in his eyes. He just wanted to keep her out of the volatile situation as much as possible. “Then it’s better if I stay here,” she said. True for more reasons than organizing. She needed time away from Simon, time to stiffen her resolve.
“Agreed. I’ll make your excuses. He sure made them for her about the picnic.” His mouth tilting in a self-deprecating grin, he indicated his old cutoffs. “I’d better go change into classier duds.”
Fifteen minutes later, dressed in black shorts and Henley, Simon buzzed away in the tender. The bodyguard named Ivan waited for him on the dock.
She went to the computer to check e-mail. At last, there was a message from the new FBI lab at Quantico. “Please, Houdini, work your magic for me.”
Hoping for the easy solution she doubted even existed, she clicked open Houdini’s e-mail. She skimmed his opening banter until she saw what she needed.
I got three methods for you, kid.
1. Best choice is an electronic lock pick…
She gave a thumbs-up sign. That item she had, a state-of-the-art little number with digital decoder capabilities. All you had to do was plug— Uh-oh. She kept reading.
Dark Rules (The DARK Files Book 3) Page 19