by Cynthia Eden
“Oh, baby, I trust you completely. I’m sure you weren’t planning to flirt with Dex and get the guy in your bed.”
She couldn’t quite read his mood other than realizing that it was…dangerous. “Good.” She stepped to the side. Faced him. “Because I had no intention of trying to get Dex into my bed.” I’m still adjusting to having you there. One spy in her bed was more than enough.
Sebastian kept advancing.
“I think we all need to take a breath here,” Dex announced. “I wasn’t trying to get your lady in my bed—”
“You won’t try. Ever. And you will not put your hands on her again.”
Dex threw up his hands. “Listen, man, I don’t know how you found this place, but you need to calm the hell down. Then you need to get out. You’re going to compromise the location!”
Now Sebastian smiled. Who would have thought dimples could be so lethal? “Do you think I’m buying your bullshit?”
“Uh…yes?” Dex asked.
Sebastian shook his head. “I know what you’re doing.” His gaze dipped to Alyssa. Sharpened. “But I don’t know why you went along with him.”
Her mouth had gone dry. Sebastian in this particular mood was a whole new beast for her.
“What is it that you think I’m doing?” Dex demanded.
“Using her.”
Oh, well, Sebastian was right.
“You wanted Alyssa away from me because you were afraid of what I’d do in order to protect her.”
Sebastian was still staring at Alyssa. She couldn’t look anywhere else. Did the green of his eyes always burn so brightly when he was furious?
“Was I wrong?” Dex’s voice was low. Guarded.
A muscle flexed in Sebastian’s jaw. “Why did you go along with him, Alyssa?”
“Because he would have made Winston arrest you. Because that would have created more trouble for you and Winston and—”
“Why?”
“Because I want this to stop. I knew that Dex was planning to use me, and if using me meant that you would be safe, then fine, I’d be used.”
“The fuck you will.” He reached for her.
Dex shot between them. “You need to go.”
“I’m not going anywhere without her.” Sebastian’s voice was crazy hard and intense. She scooted around Dex to get a better look at Sebastian’s face. Yep, crazy hard and intense. A perfect match for his voice.
“You’re compromising this location,” Dex accused. “You—”
“The place is a friggin’ trap. You were planning to compromise the location yourself. That’s why it was child’s play to track you both here. You’re waiting for the perp to come in, and you think your team will swarm and take him down.” He nodded. “Fine. Do that shit. Commence the swarm, but I’m not leaving her alone.”
“You…you let her go at the hospital, though.” Dex’s chin jutted up. “You let her walk away!”
“No, I let anyone watching see her leave. I stopped Winston from having to lose the job he loves because you were screwing around with him, and I even managed to get Antony off my back.” A shrug. “Then I made sure to get right to Alyssa, only to find you holding her damn hand. Want to tell me what that was about?”
“Well, sure,” Dex began. “I think she’s got you wrapped around—”
“It wasn’t about anything,” Alyssa hurried to say. The last thing she wanted Dex to do was say that he thought Sebastian was wrapped around her finger. Obviously, Dex was wrong. A million times wrong on that score.
“Maybe for you, it wasn’t,” Sebastian growled to Alyssa. His gaze pinned Dex. “Something you want to add?”
“Sure.”
Why would Dex not shut up?
“Alyssa knew I planned to use her, too. She thought by coming here, she was helping to keep you and her brother safe. She made the choice, she made the sacrifice, and I think it was brave of her to do that.” Dex’s jaw was locked just as tightly as Sebastian’s. “I hope you know how important she is. I hope you don’t dick this up.”
“I’ve got Alyssa.”
“I’m standing right here,” she snapped. She had herself.
Sebastian’s blazing stare immediately shot to her. “Oh, baby, I see you. I have always seen you.”
She’d always seen him, too. She was just seeing new sides of him now.
“Ahem.” Dex’s throat clearing was ridiculously loud.
Sebastian glanced back at him. “No one saw me get in the building. As far as your perp is concerned, she’s up here with you and your guards.”
Dex nodded. “So you are fine with me continuing my plans. Fine with me setting the stage to see if our bad guy takes the bait.”
“It’s not his choice,” Alyssa fired. “It’s mine.”
Oh, yes, Sebastian’s expression could get darker. His stare flew back to her.
She would not be intimidated. “My choice, and I’m fine with the plan. Let’s see what happens. I’ve got a whole group of guards.”
“I got past them,” Sebastian pointed out. “Hardly what I’d call top-of-the-line security.”
Yes, that was…um, true. Not exactly reassuring.
“And that’s why I’ll be staying at her side,” Sebastian added grimly. “If the perp gets up here, I’ll be waiting.”
Dex frowned at him. “I don’t remember offering an invitation to join our party.”
Sebastian just looked at him.
Dex turned to her. “What do you say, Alyssa? Does he stay or does he go? Because I have this theory that I am dying to test…”
“What theory is that?” Sebastian rumbled.
“Why, it’s simple, really. I think you do anything she wants.” Dex’s expression was expectant. “Does he stay or go, Alyssa?”
“You’ve got to stop playing your games,” she warned him. “One day, they’re going to get you in serious trouble.”
He didn’t look concerned.
Her attention slid back to Sebastian. Yeah, one look at the wildness in his eyes, and it should be clear to anyone that this man only did what he wanted. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Noted.”
“You don’t want me taking risks.”
“Risks like jumping between your brother and a bullet? Nope. Can’t say I like that.”
“And I can’t say I like you being risked, either. So I was trying to catch the bad guy.”
Sebastian’s head inclined toward her. “We’ll catch him together. Because—just so we are clear—I am staying.”
She nodded. “Just to be clear, I figured you’d show up sooner or later.”
His gaze sharpened.
“I mean, you are a super spy. If anyone could find me, it would be you. I thought you might track my phone or something and then pop up in the bedroom when Dex wasn’t looking.” She slanted a quick glance at Dex.
Dex blinked a few times, almost as if he had to do some kind of mental reset. “Back up. You knew he’d come after you?”
“Of course. Didn’t you?” She was so on to Dex and his manipulations now. “Isn’t that why you left orders for the guards to let him come up when they saw him approaching the building? Because, I mean, if they really slipped up and let him get this close to us, I think you need to consider retraining them. Unless you gave orders for him to be allowed entrance.”
Dex smiled at her. “You got me.”
She almost smiled back. “I know I do.”
“I told the guards that if Sebastian appeared, they weren’t to interfere. No need to shoot to kill…or even shoot to maim,” he murmured. “They could let him slip right up.” He cut a glance toward Sebastian. “Sorry to break it to you, but you didn’t slide past them based on your superior skills.”
“If that’s what you need to tell yourself.” Sebastian didn’t seem concerned. “But maybe you should go check in with them and see if they really did notice me. And when you check with them, tell them that they’d better be paying a hell of a lot more attention to the west si
de of the building.”
Dex frowned.
“Go,” Sebastian urged, voice roughening. “Have an up close and personal chat with your crew because I want to be alone with Alyssa, and I want to be alone with her now.”
Dex took a step toward the door. Then stopped. “You’re going to play nicely with her, aren’t you?”
“When it comes to Alyssa,” Sebastian’s voice roughened even more, going almost savage, “I never play.”
“No.” Dex coughed. “I’m realizing that you don’t.” Then he left.
The apartment door shut behind him. She heard the click of the lock as Dex secured it from the outside.
Sebastian stared at her a moment. His eyes were so bright.
And her throat was way, way dry. “You came after me.”
“What the hell else was I gonna do?” He hauled her against his body and took her mouth with his.
Chapter Fifteen
Gentle, gentle, gentle. Yes, he knew he should be gentle, but his mouth was wildly plundering hers. He was kissing her with frantic, desperate need, and Sebastian couldn’t pull back. His control was gone.
That shit happened when a man tracked his lady across town, scaled a building to get to her, and then found a prick holding her hand and leaning in way too close to her.
Jealous? Oh, yes, he was.
Possessive. Sure, he was guilty as hell.
His hands dropped to Alyssa’s waist, and Sebastian lifted her up against him. “I’m going to fuck you,” he growled. Screw this being the right time or place, he needed her. A primitive, savage hunger was driving him like nothing ever had before.
Her arms wound around his neck. “Good.”
He almost stumbled. Shit. The woman had a way of making him extra crazy.
She bit his lower lip. “And could you do it fast? Because I don’t want to give Dex a show, and I have no idea how long it will be before he’s back.”
“He sees you naked, and he’s dead.” Sebastian carried her to the bedroom—the same room that he’d snuck into earlier. He’d scaled the wall, then unlocked the window. Windows on second floors weren’t normally wired for security—or at least, not wired the way the ones on the first floor were. Unless glass shattered from a second-floor window, the alarms didn’t usually sound. He’d made sure not to shatter any glass.
He lowered Alyssa to the bed and stripped her in seconds. He took care not to jostle her arm. He hated that she’d been cut, and he wouldn’t get over the sight of her bleeding anytime soon.
“What is it?” She pushed up onto her elbows and peered at him.
His hands went to the waistband of his jeans. “We have a problem.”
“I’m naked and you’re not? Is that the problem you’re talking about?”
“I don’t have a condom, and I want to fuck you so hard I’m shaking.”
Her tongue flickered out. Pressed to her lower lip. “That’s not really a problem. I’m on birth control.”
His whole body froze.
“And I’m clear. I’m always very careful. I’ve never gone without…except, well, I guess with you. Right now.”
Do not pounce. Do not. “Why with me?” His voice was nothing more than a guttural rumble.
“Because I want you this way.” She stared into his eyes.
I will take you any way I can get you. “I’m clear, too. You don’t have a damn thing to worry about.”
She smiled at him.
That was it.
It.
He put his gun on the nightstand because, yes, he’d been packing the whole time. He shoved down his jeans, ditched his shoes, tossed his shirt some damn place, and lunged for her. His mouth took hers, and he thrust his tongue past her lips. His cock was aching and eager, and he pushed at the entrance to her body.
Get her wet. Get her ready.
His hand slid between them. Eased into the sweet heat between her legs. He stroked her, caressed her clit with his thumb, and worked two fingers into her. He kept going, kept pushing and teasing until her body softened even more for him. Until she was slick and moaning.
Then he replaced his hand with his dick. The head pressed to the entrance of her body.
Nothing between us. Nothing.
He sank into her. Lost his freaking mind. She was wet and hot and so tight. For a moment, he didn’t move at all because when you suddenly found yourself in freaking paradise, you savored. You enjoyed. You made that shit last.
Her hips arched against him. “Sebastian! I need…more!”
He’d give her everything. He withdrew, thrust, and withdrew again. The flimsy headboard banged into the wall and the springs of the mattress squeaked as he became wilder and rougher. As he surged into her and pushed them both toward the pleasure that waited.
She came first. He felt the contractions of her inner muscles around him, and his dick surged into her again and again.
He erupted and poured into her as he came on a release that rocked his whole body.
His breath heaved in and out. In and out.
His eyes were on her. He hadn’t looked away. Couldn’t look away. She was flushed with pleasure.
Her legs were still around him. Her arms were on his shoulders. Her arms—
Sebastian swore. “Did I hurt you?”
“I don’t know. Give me a few minutes to think about it.” Her eyes closed.
“Alyssa.”
Her lashes lifted. “Yes.”
His heart squeezed. He was such a bastard—
“It hurt me on my birthday, when I thought you didn’t want me. We’d just met and it shouldn’t have mattered, but it did. You did.”
He shook his head.
“And it hurt me that I had to pretend over the years that you didn’t matter to me. That I had to act like we were…distant friends, at best. Strangers, at worst.”
“We’re not strangers.” His voice was gruff.
“It hurt me to keep my secret,” she whispered.
“What secret is that?”
“That every time we met—every awkward party, every tense get-together—I wanted to be close to you.”
I was the same way, baby. Being near you was hell. But being away from you? Even worse. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“Why didn’t you?”
Fuck. Because I was afraid you didn’t want me. Because I thought being in your life—even distantly—was better than not having you at all. “Because I can be a dumbass.”
Alyssa snuggled close to him. “It’s been a long day.” Her voice was softening. Slurring a bit.
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “Sleep, baby. I’ve got you.”
“No, I’ve got you.” Her arm snaked around his stomach.
You always had me. You just didn’t know it.
He reached out and turned off the lamp. Darkness fell into the room. He pulled the covers over her, and a few moments later, Alyssa’s breathing evened out as she slipped into sleep.
Sebastian didn’t sleep, though. He stared into the darkness, and he thought about what would happen next.
***
Dex glowered at the guard before him. “Is this like your first day out of training or some shit? You’re here to watch the perimeter. You don’t let the guy just slip past you.”
The guard was sweating.
“You know what? I can’t trust your ass. Go switch out with Baylor. He’s got better eyes than you, and he’s not green.”
The guard hurried away.
Dex heaved out a breath. He did not need this crap. Was it too much to hope that the agency would just send him agents who could do their jobs? And not screw up royally?
He glanced up at the second-story window.
The light had just turned off up there.
Not like it took a freaking genius to figure out what had just happened in the apartment. He’d seen the jealousy burning in Sebastian’s eyes. The man had barely been able to keep his hands off Alyssa.
How the hell did you last all these
years? He’d had no idea Sebastian was so very taken with Antony’s younger sister. Though, he did have to admit, he could see the appeal. If you went for that type.
Baylor hurried toward him. Even saluted. What in the hell? Did it look like he was a general or something? He’d never been in the army. All those rules and regulations weren’t for Dex.
He liked to make his own rules. “If anyone gets in this building without you seeing, I’ll wreck you, Baylor.”
Baylor nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The others were in position. Sebastian was upstairs. No doubt, he was staying very, very close to Alyssa.
If all went according to plan, an attack would be coming soon. He’d certainly left enough breadcrumbs for the perp to follow.
Staying in the shadows, Dex made his way back inside. He and Sebastian needed to have a come-to-Jesus meeting because his gut told him Sebastian had made some plans that were truly going to screw with Dex’s future agenda.
Sebastian could be annoying. He could be arrogant. But the guy got the job done. He was a good agent. Fast and savvy. There was nothing Sebastian couldn’t do with tech.
Losing him wasn’t an option.
Keeping him, well, that just might require the right leverage.
Luckily, Dex now knew exactly what mattered to Sebastian. And when you knew what mattered to a man, you could control him.
Life, after all, was all about control. So was power.
***
The bedroom door opened soundlessly. A faint sliver of light spilled inside, and Sebastian’s gaze immediately went to the figure who was trying to sneak into the room.
The figure crept across the carpeted floor and headed straight for the bed.
“You’ll want to stop right there,” Sebastian told him, keeping his voice a low whisper.
The figure stilled. “Why?” Dex asked. “Is Alyssa naked?” His voice was just as soft as Sebastian’s had been.
“You won’t find out.” But, yes, beneath the covers, she was.
So was he. Hell, he didn’t even remember ditching his shirt. The jeans and shoes, yeah, he’d kicked out of those. When had he lost his shirt? Not that it mattered.
“We need to talk,” Dex murmured.
“I snuck in the window.” The window to the right. “You think I’m going to leave her alone so that some other asshole can sneak in that way, too?”