He hated borrowing. He’d promised he’d pay Audrey back. It was part of his honor code, which had taken a beating after stealing the truck. He’d copied down the owner’s address in order to make amends when they solved this mess. He just hoped to hell he’d have the chance to do so.
“That scruffy guy lives here?” Audrey stared up at the modern building they walked toward, huddling into her jacket against the cool breeze that swept through the concrete canyon. He put his arm around her and snugged her close.
“He’s a best-selling writer now, remember?” he replied. “Plus, I think he plays the stock market. The guy has done well since he left the service. I wish I knew for sure I would. It would make it easier to take the leap.”
Why the hell had he divulged that? He hadn’t told anyone his fears of making it in the real world. Not even Linder. He pissed himself off sometimes, more often lately.
She paused on the sidewalk. “It’s okay to be worried about your future, Cam. You’ve been in since what, eighteen? Twenty? That’s a helluva long time.”
“Twenty-one,” he said through clenched teeth. This was so not the time to get into this. He started toward Zack’s building’s revolving door, but she remained behind. He stopped, back rigid, shoulders stiff. She was going to make him deal with his buried concerns. Right here, right now.
“It’s going to be a big adjustment, but if I could do it, so can you. I took you for a lifer.”
“I thought I was. I am. Hell, I don’t know anymore. I could be losing my touch. Look how screwed up this case has become. Shit, it was supposed to be a simple prisoner transfer, and now I’m dealing with terrorists and an unspecified hit. My one-time best friend turned traitor is dead, and my CWO, who I also thought was my friend, is an assassin for a conspiracy group planning a coup. What the hell is going on!” He spun in a circle but stopped short when Audrey wrapped her arms around him and held tight.
His body sagged against her. He sighed, leaning his forehead against her hair. God, it felt good to say what he felt. He’d been hiding his doubts, swallowing his worries. Relief stole through him. He’d spoken his concerns and hadn’t been laughed at. She’d validated them with her accepting silence.
“It’s the same for me, believe it or not. I’ve been a florist, experimenting with edible flowers, and now my home was broken into and my shop was destroyed.” Her voice broke. Cam hugged her tighter. “I didn’t want anything to do with terrorists.”
“I’m sorry I involved you. I know I’ve said it before, but I mean it even more now.”
“I’m not.”
He looked down into her face.
“I wouldn’t have met you otherwise, Special Agent Cameron Harris. The rest will work itself out.”
He didn’t believe that, but he appreciated the effort. Besides, he was glad he’d met her. Damn glad. “I’m glad I met you, too, Audrey Jenkins. I just wish it was under better circumstances.” He inhaled deeply. “Shall we see what kind of welcome we get from Zack?”
She nodded, and they walked to the doorman, arms around each other.
It took some doing, but they got the doorman to call up to Zack. After a short phone conversation, the old gatekeeper motioned them into the marble-floored lobby.
“Elevator four.” He sniffed, reminding Cam that he and Audrey hadn’t taken time to change clothes. They’d thrown some things into a bag at her house and then booked it down the highway. They probably looked like street people.
The penthouse door was open when their elevator regurgitated them. Zack leaned against his entry doorframe, arms crossed, hair tousled, an unlit cigarette drooping from his lips. Both Cam and Audrey halted as the elevator doors whisked closed, and the car disappeared below.
“Hey, Zack. Thanks for letting—”
“You two have got a lot of nerve showing up here.” Zack straightened, which still brought him well under Cam’s height. But his look was enough to make Cam want to curl into a ball.
“We totally understand. You’ll get no argument from us if you send us away. But if you don’t, we could really use your help in stopping an assassination.”
Zack gaped at Audrey; Cam did the same. What the hell was she thinking? Zack wasn’t an idiot. He’d run for the hills after that lame-brained explanation. Cam opened his mouth to smooth things over, but his buddy talked over him.
“Now there’s an assassination? It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since I saw you. I can’t afford to lose any more of my shit. I don’t have that many houses I can allow to blow up. Both of you are like the plague.”
“How’d you know about your cabin?” Cam asked.
“I’ve got surveillance they haven’t even dreamed of at the Pentagon. It wasn’t a good sign when I saw the image go poof.” He mimed an explosion with his hands and then stepped aside, allowing them entry.
“Oh my goodness, this view is amazing.” Audrey breathed like she’d just had the best orgasm ever as she walked into the penthouse, straight to the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out on the city and, farther out, the Pacific Ocean. She touched the glass like a lover.
“Yeah, and I’d like to keep it. Like the cabin, it can’t be traced to me unless someone followed you. Were you followed?”
Cam met Zack’s narrowed gaze head on. He was still wrapping his mind around the thought that Zack had eyes on what went on in the cabin. Everything that went on. His skin itched. He gave a slight shrug in answer to the question. “I don’t think so. But they’re already in the city. We overheard that there’s going to be a hit very soon right here in San Francisco. We don’t know when or who.”
“That’s where we hope you’ll let us use your computer.” Audrey turned from the window. She’d pulled her hair into a neater ponytail, but her skin was even paler than before, her eyes shadowed. She was running on fumes—they both were. He vowed not to let her stay up all night researching again. Or anything else, since there were probably cameras up the ass here, as well.
Zack dropped into one of the leather pub chairs that faced the view out the wall of windows. Cam and Audrey sat on the matching sofa with twin sighs.
“People don’t assassinate without a cause. Money, revenge? There’s got to be an underlying cause. Are you sure it’s real?”
“It’s real.” Cam’s and Zack’s heads both swung toward Audrey, who’d spoken in a tone that brooked no argument. Cam relaxed on the sofa, resting his arm along its back and behind her.
“Oh yeah? Tell me more.” Zack sat forward in his chair, like a kid waiting for story time. He’d always been an easygoing guy. That’s why his ex-wife was able to fleece him out of millions. Looked like he’d recouped most of it from the appearance of this place. Cam decided this explanation was going to take too long, and he and Audrey needed to clean up, eat, and then dive into conspiracy theories. He posed a postponement.
“If you don’t mind, Audrey, Zack, I’d like to take a shower and eat. In that order. Zack, if you want to do what you do best and find someone appearing in this city worthy of assassination, we could get changed and reconvene at, say, nineteen hundred? With food?” Cam avoided looking at Audrey. She was all for barreling forward, but since he’d sat down, the last two days had caught up with him. He wanted a break, and she looked like she could use one.
“For crap’s sake, Harris. You blow up my cabin, barge in here, leaving a trail for who knows who, and then ask me to feed you and put you up? You’ve got balls, that’s all I gotta say.”
“You know you love the excitement. Coming, Audrey?”
She stood up slowly, glancing between the two men. “I guess a break would be good. I’ve never been in a penthouse bathroom.”
“I’ve got three, and they’re all awesome. Take your time. You’re safer here than in the woods. Hide in plain sight, I always say.”
Audrey flinched at his casual words. Cam frowned. What was that all
about? He’d ask her when he got her alone. But first, he paused beside Zack while Audrey headed down the hallway like a sleepwalker. “Can you watch everything that goes on in your places?”
Zack laughed in his face. “Worried I saw something, bro? Relax. I’m not a voyeur. Yet. My phone beeped a warning when the explosion happened, that’s all.”
Cam searched Zack’s face for duplicity and didn’t find it. He released the breath he held and nodded. “Thanks for this. I know you could’ve turned us away. I’m glad you didn’t. We’re sucking fumes, and it looks like it’s only going to get worse.”
Zack gave him a shove. “Shut up and hit the racks. You look like shit. Make it twenty hundred. I can nose around online, but your girlfriend is the real star. She understands people like nobody else I know. The way she can figure them out is a thing to watch.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.” The way his pulse ratcheted when Zack said the word told him otherwise. Was that good or bad? Hell if he knew.
“Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that, bud.”
Cam ignored that last jab and followed Audrey. He opened the first bedroom’s door. He saw her shoes and socks on the floor and the adjoining bathroom door closed. Audrey was behind that door, naked. Instantaneous desire warred with fatigue.
Leave her alone, he told himself sternly. They’d had one hulluva day. Let her have some alone time. She’d taken Brett’s murder pretty hard, harder than he thought the traitor deserved. He hesitated a moment longer before moving toward one of the other bathrooms Zack had bragged about down the hall. He’d reassess his options after he bathed.
…
Audrey stepped out of the shower, agreeing with her host that the bathroom attached to her room was definitely awesome. Multiple shower jets that hit sore muscles in all the right spots, glorious hot water, and plush towels that swallowed her up in their softness wooed her to relax. And she did, for a while.
She hadn’t brought any sleep clothes, so she pulled on the shirt she planned to wear in the morning and crawled into the bed, which welcomed her with open arms. A nap sounded delicious, even though she wanted to find the target of the planned assassination. She was beat, and a twenty-minute power nap would revitalize her.
As soon as she closed her eyes, she saw Brett’s dead body, his face staring up at her blindly, the red stain widening on his shirt. She opened her eyes, looked up at the ceiling. He’d been a traitor to his country, an asshat to her, and a lousy friend to Cam. But he’d been a soldier for longer than a traitor, and he’d saved Cam’s life. Was that enough to wash away the bad he’d done? She didn’t know.
He wouldn’t let her sleep. Every time her eyes drifted shut, she’d jerk awake, reliving the moment he’d been gunned down over and over. The suddenness of the ending of a life. She’d been told by a superior once that a good soldier never got used to seeing loss of life. She certainly hadn’t. She tried hiding her head under the pillow, with no luck. The images sickened her.
She sat up. She needed a diversion, a tall, muscular diversion who could make her forget what had happened today, this week.
She climbed out of bed and opened the door, listening for signs that the men were still talking. Silence. She padded down the hallway, peeked into another bedroom, this one unoccupied. Its adjoining bathroom door was closed, however, and behind it she could hear the faint sounds of water splashing. Her pulse sped up.
She should leave Cam alone. He hadn’t joined her in her shower, after all. He was probably doing something chivalrous like giving her space, letting her grieve. That sounded like something Cam would do. But right now she didn’t want to be alone with the memory of a corpse. She reached out and turned the knob.
Was it a good idea? No. But she wasn’t known for making smart decisions when it came to men. That fact wouldn’t stop her. Cam Harris would overcome the ugliness, shoulder the image of a dead Brett out of her subconscious. Was she using him? Maybe. Did she want him? That was a hell yes. Now.
Her heart began to pound as moist heat assailed her through the partially open door. This was crazy. Last night’s stupendous sexual marathon had been life-changing for her. What Brett had known about making love barely filled a thimble compared to Cam’s expertise. He’d made her body sing. And from his response, she hadn’t been too shabby, either. Her insides warmed at her thoughts. Or maybe it was the condensation from the shower.
The bathroom mirror was fogged over. Steam curled around her. She could make out Cam’s body through the fogged-up glass shower doors. His back was to her. She took a second to admire his fine-looking ass, without an ounce of fat on it, a lighter shade than the rest of his toned body.
His back muscles rippled like a three-D relief map put into motion as he scrubbed himself down. Her mouth dried up. His legs resembled small tree trunks, corded and muscular. She watched him bathe, longed to touch him everywhere he touched himself, linger over every part of him.
She grabbed the bottom of her shirt and pulled it over her head, dropped it to the floor, and stepped out of her hipster-style panties. Lastly, she pulled her still damp hair from the ponytail she’d put it in.
As she reached for the handle on the glass door, her nipples tightened, and her body quickened. If she hadn’t known she wanted him before, she knew now. All her systems said go.
Heat assailed her as soon as she opened the shower door. He turned sharply from the blast of cooler air she brought with her. She put one hand in the middle of his chest, pushing him back so she could close the door. Then she pressed her front to his and tilted her head back to look into his eyes.
“What are you doing in here? You should be sleeping.” His voice was raspy. His hands strayed to her hair, stroking it down her back, sifting the wet strands through his fingers. She wanted to purr at his touch.
“I couldn’t. You’re a smart CID investigator. Read the clues.”
He grinned, cupping her buttocks with his large hands and drawing her against him. His arousal jerked at their bodily contact, and she slowly smiled. One of his fingers traced the crease of her butt cheeks, and she got lightheaded. She wrapped her arms around his neck, never breaking eye contact.
He cocked his head, continuing that slow caress that was driving her mad. “Read the clues, you say. Hmm. I’m a tactile learner, so here goes.” He swooped in for her lips, covering her mouth with his. She opened in invitation, and his tongue swept inside, taking, giving, until she whimpered. Immediately he slowed down, tasting her lips, sucking on them with gentle force until she was weak-kneed.
He raised his head and the smoldering look in his eyes burned through her. He covered her breasts with his hands, cupping and molding her pliant flesh until her nipples were hard as pebbles. She squirmed against him, fingers spearing into his short hair as he plucked at the tight little buds with clever fingers, replacing them with his mouth at last.
She shot up the shower wall when he suckled first one breast, and then the other. She leaned back against the subway tiles, eyes closed, body rocking with each draw of his mouth on her nipple, each scrape of his teeth. She began to throb between her legs. Her hands roamed across his back, touching his slick skin, her head rolling back and forth along the wall of the shower. Tingles spread from her breasts and her core. It was happening so fast. She wanted, she wanted…
He dropped to his knees, pushing her quivering legs wider. She opened her eyes to slits, gasping when his fingers touched her, opened her. And then his mouth covered that aching spot, sucked deeply before swirling his tongue with expert precision. A keening sound escaped her throat as she slapped her hands against the tile, arms outspread, legs shaking uncontrollably. The hovering orgasm rolled through her like a runaway train, forcing her to grab his shoulders or risk sliding down the shower wall into a puddle.
All her thoughts scattered. Perhaps the top of her head had blown off. She couldn’t catch her breath. All her focus zeroed in on
his mouth and what he was doing to her. Every nerve ending in her body throbbed hot. She moaned, the sound echoing against the shower walls. She covered her mouth. She couldn’t face their host if he heard everything they were doing.
She forgot about potential embarrassment as Cam continued to drive her with his tongue, up and up, higher. She continued to hold in her squeals as the tingles burst into another full-blown eruption. The earthquake in her body surged through her like lava, nearly cleaving her in two, yet she never wanted it to quit.
“Yes,” she sobbed, greedy for more, but he left her, rising to his full height. Her eyes flew open, but before she could complain, his hands went to her butt, and he lifted her off her feet, entering her in one swift plunge.
“Oh my God!” Her eyes widened as he filled her, stretching her with his entire length. The ache he’d assuaged with his tongue moments earlier began to intensify once more. She met his hungry gaze through the pelting water and licked her lips. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and then he kissed her, a little sloppy, a lot delicious. She tasted, he tasted, and then he began to move inside her. It started all over again.
The climb was faster this time. She held his head with unsteady hands, kissed his lips like they were her lifeline. She rode him, rising and falling in time with his powerful thrusts while his fingers left imprints in her ass where he held her. He grunted, then growled, “You feel so damn good.” Just as an unheard of third orgasm broke over her, as strong as the first two, he stiffened and poured himself into her, continuing his rhythmic thrusts to wring as much pleasure out of it for them both.
She collapsed against him, resting her head against his wildly beating heart while the glorious sensations subsided, and the water began to cool. She didn’t want him to leave her body; she felt cherished, protected in his arms. Just as they were physically connected, there was an emotional connection she didn’t want to sever. What she’d experienced with him had never been duplicated with anyone else.
Zone of Action (In the Zone) Page 18