“You look beautiful,” he says, his eyes shining. He stands and crosses the distance between us. “This dress is giving me wicked ideas.” Before I can ask what they are, he tugs the elasticized, shirred bodice down, and my breasts spring free. With a smile, he bends down and takes one into his mouth, the warm heat of his tongue flicking the tip until I moan. He sucks and tugs, then lets it go, admiring the now-rosy and erect point he’s made. “I love how responsive your nipples are to me.” How responsive all of me is to him, I think. He reluctantly pulls my dress back up, but makes sure he does it slowly so the elasticized fabric scrapes over my nipples erotically. I glance down. “I wasn’t going to wear a bra, but I may have to now.”
“Don’t you dare.” His smile fades. “We leave in the morning.”
“Back to Mexico?”
“Yes. But tonight is ours. I want to take you to dinner somewhere nice, take a walk along the beach. Enjoy our last night together before whatever happens when we get back to Mexico.”
An hour later, we walk hand in hand down to one of the restaurants at the resort. Mabul is small, and everyone is here to dive, but the nicer resorts like ours have capitalized on the touristy side of things and have a spa and several restaurants. Liam has made reservations for us in the nicest of the two, and we order wine and a selection of seafood, along with a few side dishes our waiter assures us are culinary favorites.
“Try this,” Liam says, lifting a piece of shrimp to my lips with his fingers. There’s something both sweet and erotic about the gesture, and on impulse, I take his fingers into my mouth along with the food. Even in the dimly lit restaurant, I can see his eyes darken with lust.
“I wish we had more time. The things I’d love to do with you…so many more things to discover together.”
“Me too,” I say.
After dinner, we take a walk along the beach. There’s something about the beach at night—the secret rhythmic crash of waves in the distance, the moon reflected on the black water—that makes me long for something more, something hidden deep inside me like a pearl just waiting to be discovered. Or maybe it’s just because it reminds me of Playa del Carmen. That night seems so long ago, and in so many ways, so different. Liam had been different. Dominant still, but not like he’s been with me this time… Demanding, ruthless even, in his need to possess me.
“Have you always been interested in kinky sex?” I ask him.
He’s quiet for a moment, considering. “I’ve always liked to be in control.”
I roll my eyes. “No kidding.”
He shoots me a sidelong glance and smiles. “You do see me in ways no one else does,” he marvels. He threads his fingers with mine and continues. “I’ve blindfolded girls before and tied up a few, and there was one pretty memorable and drunk time in Prague with some ice and wax, but to be honest, I’ve never had the dynamic we’ve had the last few days…or the craving to possess someone the way I need to with you.”
We walk silently for a few minutes, and then he says, “I’ve never met a girl like you—one who looks at you sweetly before giving you a devilish grin and destroying you with her submission, which is all the sweeter precisely because she’s such a control freak.” His voice drops. “One who gets wetter the harder she’s pinned.”
“Are you trying to turn me on? Because it’s totally working.”
His voice is gruff with need as he says, “All we have left is tonight, baby. I intend to make it count. I want to see you bathed in moonlight, and make you come under the stars.”
His words are an echo of that night in Playa that changed everything, and I search his face for a sign that he remembers.
“What?” he says, giving me that grin of his that makes my stomach somersault.
“Nothing.”
We make it back to the hotel, but we don’t turn on any lights, instead stepping out onto the deck over the water by unspoken agreement. He comes up behind me as he slips off first my dress and then my panties.
“You’re beautiful,” he says reverently. With my back pressed to his chest, we both face the dark ocean illuminated by a blanket of stars. His lips are on my neck, his fingers on my sex, and I’m already desperate for him to fill me, to make me his one more time.
With a growl, he scoops me up and lays me down on the cushioned chaise, his arm braced over me as he looks into my eyes, an inexplicable look on his face. “I wish we had more time. More time to explore your boundaries, and mine.” He nips my chin as his hand skims down my stomach. “I want to give you everything.”
“You already have,” I whisper.
Our lovemaking is different tonight, slow and sweet and filled with a certain finality that makes it even more special. I savor every kiss, every touch of his hand, every thrust, every cry as we come together half a world away from everything familiar, yet in this moment, he feels like home.
Afterward, we lie together on the chaise, our bodies touching, my head on his chest, looking up at the stars.
“There’s the phoenix,” I say, pointing to the constellation he’d shown me in Playa del Carmen, and again in Playa Nayarit. “Funny how we’ve seen it everywhere we’ve been. Like it’s some kind of omen.”
He sighs. “I hope so. I would love nothing more than to emerge from this whole debacle like the phoenix who was burned in the fire and rose up again from the ashes to start a new life. One where I’m not smuggling guns, or accused of double-crossing the government, or on the run from the cartel.”
“Well, you’ve kind of already done that,” I say. “Walker said the mission you were on in Pakistan was called Operation Phoenix. And the house went up in flames and everyone thought you were dead, but you weren’t. You’ve already risen from the ashes once.”
I can feel his body stiffen, and his fingers, which had been idly stroking my bare breast, go still. “Charlotte. The stars…the constellations. I remember!”
Hope flows through me like a river of light. He finally remembers Playa del Carmen, and us. “What do you remember?”
“The guns. I remember where the guns are.”
…
The next day, we take off for Cancun. There’s a feeling of lightness between us, no doubt due to the relief we both feel since Liam finally knows where the guns are. Although he was pretty confident of his memory last night, he confirmed it this morning, going down to the media center in the hotel and spending several hours with maps and a star chart spread out before him. He’d come back to the room ecstatic, eagerly showing me the high-definition satellite images he’d been able to access through his CIA contact which, when cross-referenced against Google Earth, showed that the stars of the constellation he’d dubbed the Phoenix converged into a point near the Mayan Riviera. Now we just have to go back to Mexico and find that point, where hopefully we’ll discover the small storage facility he remembered last night.
Flying doesn’t bother me as much this time. Maybe because I’m preoccupied by the knowledge that my time with Liam is about to be over. Well, I think with a sigh, it was a good run, and I wouldn’t change a single thing. Well, there is one thing…
“Excuse me.” I catch the attention of the flight attendant. “Could you make us a couple of Bloody Mary’s?”
“Of course.” As soon as she’s out of earshot, busily pulling celery and tomato juice out of the refrigerator in the small kitchen area, I lean over and whisper to Liam, “I’m going to the restroom. Join me in two minutes.” I’ve unbuckled my seatbelt and slipped into the bathroom before he can answer. I watch the second hand of my watch tick the seconds, wondering if he’s going to follow me. Exactly two minutes later, he joins me, closing the door behind him. It’s slightly bigger than the tiny restroom on our plane to Mexico, but Liam seems to take up an inordinate amount of space, and I suddenly wonder how we’re going to manage this.
“Why are we in here?” he asks, one corner of his mouth tilting up.
“We’ve got to join the mile-high club.”
The other corner curves up,
and I can tell he’s trying not to laugh. “We’re on a private jet with a sofa that folds out into a bed. Why are we crammed in a bathroom like two sardines?”
“Because it’s more fun this way,” I say as I unbutton and unzip his jeans. I slip my hand inside and slowly stroke the length of his cock. He moans and closes his eyes. “It’s the spirit of the thing. I’m pretty sure this is the only way to really be a member.”
“Is that right?” he murmurs, opening one eye. “In that case…”
In one quick motion he yanks my panties down and lifts my skirt up, and before I know it, he has me pressed against the door of the bathroom, my skirt up and my legs around his waist as he drives his cock into me. It’s hot as hell knowing we only have a few minutes, and the flight attendant is just outside the door and no doubt knows exactly what we’re doing. The plane lurches, and I squeak, but he just fucks me harder, his fingers finding that secret bundle of nerves. By this point, the plane could go down in flames and I wouldn’t notice, so intent am I on his cock stroking my core, his fingers driving me toward release, the desperate urgency of this fuck in an airplane bathroom. With one final thrust he comes, and while I’m close, I’m not quite there yet. I try not to pout as he efficiently tucks his cock back into his pants, buttoning and zipping them in a businesslike fashion. What did I expect from a quickie in an airplane bathroom? I reach for my underwear, but he beats me to, scooping it off the floor and tucking it into his pocket.
“I need my underwear!”
“No you don’t. I think it’s time you started your own bucket list. I’m going to help you work on the first thing on it.”
“What’s that?” I ask suspiciously.
“Come over the Pacific Ocean. Your turn, sweetheart.” Opening the door, he says, “Meet me in the cabin in two minutes.”
…
When we land in Cancun, it’s seven o’clock in the morning. Liam made me come several times under the blanket on the plane, taking a perverse pleasure in fingering me to orgasm at the precise moment the flight attendant came to talk to us, and while the assistant pilot had talked to Liam about the plane, which had quickly turned into your typical guy story exchange. Finally exhausted by pleasure, I’d slept, my head cradled in Liam’s lap as he stroked my hair.
“Are we going straight to the warehouse?” I ask him as we get off the plane.
“Yes. We don’t have time to waste if they’re not there.”
I don’t say anything. Neither one of us wants to admit we’re out of options if the guns aren’t where he thinks they are. We catch a cab from the airport in Cancun to the point where the stars of the phoenix constellation converge. As the cab stops, Liam and I look at each other with dismay. It’s in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but trees.
“I guess I was wrong,” Liam says, his voice heavy. He starts to tell the cab driver to go, when I grab his arm.
“Liam. Wait. What’s that?” Off the road, almost completely obscured by the dense foliage, is a small concrete building. The windows are boarded, and there’s a padlock on the door. “We could try it.”
“Okay.” Telling the cab driver to wait, we get out of the car and slowly pick our way across the weed-filled gravel road to the small building. I wait, praying, while Liam slowly dials the numbers on the back of the necklace onto the padlock. Three spins to the right—one. One and half spins to the left—four. Once more to the right—three. Liam tugs, and the lock slides open. Our eyes meet, and a slow smile crosses Liam’s face.
He opens the door, and we both step inside. It’s dark and dusty, but in the faint light from the cracked door, we can see the room is filled with wooden crates. “Just stay in the doorway there and let me know if anyone comes,” he says, already bending down in front of one of the crates with his knife in hand. The first four crates are filled with soybeans. But as he pries open the fifth one, he looks up at me, a slow smile crossing his face.
“We found them, baby. We found the guns!” He closes the distance between us in three long strides and catches me by the waist, spinning me around before stopping, his arms still around me. We stand in a small shaft of sunlight for several long minutes, his face buried in my hair. Tilting his head back, he says, “Go ahead. Say it.”
“Say what?”
“What you’re dying to ask me.”
Giving him a grin back, I say, “I thought you’d never ask. What’s your plan?”
He throws his head back and laughs. “That’s my girl.” He plants a kiss on my lips. “My plan, sweetheart, is to get my life back. I’m going to call Martin, deliver the guns to El Gato as planned, take care of him, and then go back to my team. And,” he adds, “you can go back to your life too. I imagine the brides of Charleston are going to be relieved.”
“Yeah,” I say. I should be thrilled. The scariest week of my life is almost over. Liam found the guns. So why do I feel so miserable?
“When are you going to call Walker?” I ask as he locks up the shed again and we walk to the waiting cab.
“I’m not calling Walker, Charlotte.” His lips press into that stubborn line I’ve come to know so well. “I don’t want to implicate him in this at all. It’s my job, and I’m going to finish it myself. Besides, Martin told me not to tell anyone I’m alive. I promised him I wouldn’t.”
“But you told me,” I argued.
“I know, but that’s different. You’re no one to me.”
He says it casually, and it feels like a knife in my gut. But he’s right. I am no one to him, and he’s no one to me. Sure, we’ve shared an amazing week together, but it was circumstantial. Our week is coming to an end, and with it, anything between us. Which, I have to admit, was just sex. I got what I wanted—to see what it’s like to lose control, to be the wild and irresponsible one. But that’s over now. It’s time to say goodbye. Liam and I were never meant to be.
Chapter Sixteen
Liam
“Do you remember the plan?”
“I feel like I’m in some alternate universe hearing that come out of your mouth instead of mine.” Charlotte smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
“I’m serious. Tell me again.”
She rolls her eyes. “I go inside the consulate, ask to speak to the consular agent, and tell her who I am and that I was kidnapped from the U.S. Then I tell her that Agent Martin Gray is expecting me and has arranged a plane for me back to Charleston. And if she has any questions, to contact him or Agent William Rummel at the CIA office at the number you gave me.”
“Good girl.” She sticks her tongue out at me, but I’m too focused on what I’ve got to do today to react. My first priority is to make sure Charlotte’s safe. Only then can I carry out the rest of my mission. “When I called Martin Gray last night, I told him the only way I’ll complete this now—while everyone thinks I’m dead and we have that edge—is if I know you’re safe. He assured me his boss, Rummel, will take care of everything and make sure you get back to South Carolina today. I double-checked with the airport this morning to make sure he’s holding up his end of the bargain. Gray has a military plane waiting.” I give her a small smile, which is more than I figured I’d be able muster this morning. Somehow, she always has a way of lightening my mood. “It won’t be what you’re accustomed to, now that you’re spoiled by flying in a fancy private jet.”
“At least I’ll know how to maneuver in a small bathroom for the future.” I know she’s just teasing, but the thought of her fucking some other guy on an airplane—or anywhere for that matter—makes me want to kill the faceless bastard.
I push the thought, and the resulting emotions, to the back of my mind where the memory of my parents and my younger self reside. They are safer there, hidden, unexamined. I can’t have Charlotte, even if I am in love with her.
Fuck. The realization hits me like a sucker punch. Over the course of our week on the run, I’ve fallen in love with Charlotte—with her smart mouth and her mischievous streak and her plans and the way she believes in me
and how easy it is to be with her. The way her smile lights up the room and makes me feel like I can do anything in the goddamn world as long as she’s there by my side…
It doesn’t matter. She wants a picket fence and a guy with a pension, not some crazy-ass Navy SEAL whose life is a mess and who’s gone all the time, trying to prove he can save the world single-handedly. She was right. I’ve created a life for myself where I don’t have to rely on anyone or get too attached. But somehow, I did.
But it’s too late for me, and certainly no time for sentimentality. I’m a Navy SEAL. And I have a job to do.
“You better go. I’ve got to meet Gray in an hour at the warehouse.”
She reaches for the door handle of the rental car, then hesitates. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to have El Gato meet you there by yourself? I know your CIA contact will be there, too, but you said the U.S. government can’t be involved and—”
“We’ve been over all this. And I meant to thank you for you helping me talk it out and think it through last night.” I reach over and tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. “There was a lot to work out at the last minute, and I was glad to have that obsessively organized mind of yours help me sort it all out.”
She smiles wanly. “But you’re still going to do it your way. Alone.”
“I have to, sweetheart. Don’t worry. I’m used to it. It’s the best scenario. The only one. Gray needs to see the guns to know I’m still committed to the mission and not double-crossing the CIA. And my odds are better for taking out El Gato in a warehouse than at his compound. Besides, Gray was the one who suggested it and offered to back me up! Who knows…maybe at this point, he has orders to see the job completed himself. It will be fine. And if not…” I shrug. “You know my motto.”
She takes a deep, steadying breath. “Right. Thank you for teaching me that.” She twists the diamond solitaire off her finger, puts it in my hand, and closes my fingers over it. “See you around, Prescott.”
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