He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to be without her.
And this choice she’d made, the decision to let that client go, meant that he would have to leave her.
He ran a hand through his hair. His hands smelled of her. The faint scent aroused him all over again, but he was going to let her sleep. He needed to think.
He had to let the Guild know about the threat, and he couldn’t bring her along. He would have to travel alone. At best, he could leave her in Prospera while he went to Guild headquarters, but even that might be too close.
He still didn’t know how much he should trust her, even though he wanted to.
Trust wasn’t something he was used to.
Maybe he should let the Guild know and then resign. He could quit the Guild, quit the business, and spend the rest of his life with Rikki. He had money set aside. She implied that she did as well.
She certainly owned a lot of property all over the sector. That was a sign of some kind of financial independence.
But if he wasn’t with the Guild, if he didn’t work, who was he? And what would she think of him?
He pulled the covers down just slightly so he could look at her body, her firm breasts, her powerful muscles, those legs that could hold him in place with just the strength of her thighs. He still didn’t touch her, even though he wanted to. Even though he was ready to take her all over again.
It surprised him that he cared about her good opinion. He had never worried about anyone outside of the Guild before. He hadn’t trusted anyone outside the Guild before.
Not that he trusted her.
But he almost did.
Finally, he couldn’t wait any longer. He ran a hand down her side, then cupped her breast, lifting it to his mouth. He sucked on her nipple and she moaned, arching toward him. He slid the other hand between her legs. She was already wet.
He spread her legs gently, then slipped between them, going slowly. She moaned again, and moved with him, still not awake. He held her breasts, let her move, enjoying the friction, the dampness, the heat.
She came and that woke her up, her eyes fluttering open, her mouth falling back.
“I thought I was dreaming,” she murmured.
“No dream,” he said and continued the gentle movement. She came again, and he couldn’t hold back his own orgasm. He had to move with her, thrust hard, and she shifted beneath him, taking him, controlling his thrusts, those legs he had fantasized about a moment before wrapped around him.
He cried out, surprising himself. He never lost that kind of control. And then he collapsed on her, his face pillowed against her breasts.
“Wow,” she said. “I could do this forever.”
“Me, too,” he said. Then smiled at himself. “That was a lie, you know.”
Her hand was in his hair. “I know. We’d need occasional rest periods.”
He raised his head to kiss her, when something pinged.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I have a flag on certain incoming messages,” she said, “particularly if they’re ones I’ve been waiting for.”
“Like our client?” he asked, then wondered if he should have used the word “our.”
She didn’t seem to notice.
“Yeah,” she said. She shifted so she could open the drawer in the table beside the bed. That slight movement made desire flare through him. But for once, she didn’t seem to notice.
“Something important?”
She was frowning. “Yeah. I need to deal with this.”
“The client?”
She slipped out from underneath him. “No,” she said. “It’s Jack.”
Rikki tapped a code onto the tablet so that Jack would know she wasn’t quite in a position to talk. Then she got out of bed, and carried the tablet with her, even though she wasn’t going to use it to talk with Jack.
She didn’t want Misha to look at it too closely.
Apparently she didn’t trust him as much as she thought she did.
She grabbed a robe as she walked past the closet. Then she ran a hand through her hair. She stopped in the kitchen and got the device that Jack had given her long ago, something he called a “communicator for the assassinator.” Or CFA for short.
It only connected the two of them, and was very hard to hack into.
She pressed the start button, but kept the visual to her face. She didn’t want him to know exactly what she had been doing.
“Hey,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d hear from you so soon.”
“It’s been ten days, Rik,” he said, his voice chiding. “Where are you?”
“Moving to my office,” she said as she padded barefoot down the hall. Her clothes were strewn along the floor, mixing with Misha’s clothing. She smiled at the memory.
“You sound odd,” Jack said.
“It’s been an eventful week.” She stepped inside the office and pulled the door closed.
She wanted to be alone to hear this, whatever this was. She was almost afraid of what Jack would tell her.
Forget the qualifier. She
was
afraid. She was afraid he’d tell her that everything bad she suspected about Misha was true.
“Good thing you didn’t run this down,” Jack said.
“About Mikael Yurinovich Orlinski?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Where
are
you? Are we going to do audio only?”
It was probably best, but it would be weird. She put the CFA into its little holder, and suddenly Jack appeared on her countertop—a small well-dressed version of Jack.
“What the hell?” he asked. “A robe? Isn’t it the middle of the day where you are?”
“How do you know where I am?” she asked.
“You said your office. And you only have three, right?”
She smiled at him. “I’m not telling.”
“It looks like there’s a lot you’re not telling me,” Jack said. “You’ve got love bites on your neck.”
Her hand flew to her throat.
He laughed. “Got ya.”
She rolled her eyes. “Jeez, Jack. What are you, twelve?”
“If you recall, at twelve I had no idea what a love bite was.”
She smiled in spite of herself. She remembered explaining some of the more interesting aspects of sex to him around that time. He hadn’t believed her, until she showed him some holograms that would have gotten them kicked out of the government care facility if they had been caught.
“I hope he’s good,” Jack said.
“He was this afternoon,” she said, wondering if Jack knew that the “he” in question was Misha.
“Okay,” Jack said, “we’re moving into the realm of too much information.”
She grinned, then turned the conversation back to the reason he called. “You said it was a good thing that you looked into this, not me. Why?”
She wanted to sound tough, but she couldn’t quite manage it. She needed to know, and she knew Jack would figure that out.
“Oh, Rik,” he said. “I found all the reports. Police, base security, fire, medical personal, legal.”
She was holding her breath. She made herself exhale. “Bad?”
Misha had been there to kill her father after all. He had lied to her. She sat down. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know this now. She wanted to pretend everything was all right.
“The reports were, yeah,” Jack said. “It’s amazing you survived.”
“I was in the hospital for a long time,” she said.
“Weeks,” he said. “And not from the fire like we thought. You were beaten within an inch of your life. If Mikael and his mother hadn’t killed your father, Rik, you probably wouldn’t have lived much longer. You were nearly dead. That’s why you were in the hospital for so long. It took forever to fix you.”
She closed her eyes. That was what Misha had said.
“Rik?” Jack sounded panicked.
She nodded, then made herself open her eyes. “What else?”
“This Mikael, he saved your life, Rik,” Jack said. “Every account mentions that he got you out of that house, and his mother’s testimony showed he had nothing to do with the death of your father. Which is too bad, really, because if I had run across your goddamn father, he would be dead too.”
She was shaking, but she managed to find her voice. “You were a scrawny eleven-year-old.”
Jack’s features darkened. “You know what I mean.”
He clearly wasn’t up for the banter.
“Yeah,” she said, feeling awkward. “I do.”
“Look,” Jack said. “So far as I can tell, this guy came after you not knowing who you were initially. He was protecting his turf. These Guild guys do that.”
Misha hadn’t lied to her. She was feeling giddy. He hadn’t lied.
“He’s like—some kind of straight arrow, for an assassin anyway. Everything he does is on the record, and by the book, and he doesn’t seem to make a mistake. He had some years where he wandered and there’s not as big a record about those, but then he came back to the Guild, and when he did, he’s been influential in it. At least as far as I can tell. They’re pretty secretive about the Guild stuff itself. But the legal stuff, the assassin stuff, he’s damn near perfect.”
She let out a small sigh. She hadn’t expected that.
“But you really don’t care now, do you?” Jack asked with a grin. “You got him out of your system?”
Only if you counted the fact that he wasn’t inside her at the moment. But she didn’t say that to her oldest friend. Some things were too personal even for people as close as they were.
“Not exactly,” she said.
“He’s not there, is he?” Jack asked.
She shrugged. “Not in the office.”
“You didn’t wait to hear from me?” Jack sounded offended.
“It’s complicated,” she said.
“It’s not like you,” Jack said.
“I know,” she said. She almost added
I
can’t help myself
, but that sounded wrong, like she was under some kind of spell. Which was probably true in a way.
“You know, Rik,” he said, “he seems legit, but I have the sudden urge to kick his ass.”
“Jealous?” she asked.
“Hell, no.” Then he made a face. “You know what I mean. It’s just that he better treat you right. A man has to protect his family and you’re all I got.”
She smiled at him fondly. “I know. I promise I’ll be careful.”
“You better.” He moved like he was about to sign off.
“Jack,” she said. “One more question.”
“Yeah?”
“You hear any rumblings about the Guild? About someone trying to bring it down?”
Jack looked odd for the first time since he contacted her. It was that same expression he’d had on Krell when she asked him about the Rovers.
“Did he get you into something?” Jack asked.
“No,” she said. “It’s just—I can’t talk with you about it over any kind of net. But I was thinking, you know, with the Rovers—”
“I have nothing to do with them,” Jack said curtly. “I have to go, Rik.”
“Thanks,” she said, but he had already severed the link.
That was strange. The same kind of response he had given her the last time she mentioned the Rovers. And it made him uncomfortable to discuss them on a link.
She sighed. She wanted to thank him. She wanted to pick his brain about this client. She wanted to let him know more about Misha.
But Jack clearly had issues of his own.
She picked up the CFA and stuck it into one of the more secure cabinets inside the office. Then she gathered up what few clothes they had scattered in here, and opened the door.
The air had been slightly stuffy. The other clothes were still strewn along the hallway, so Misha hadn’t come out of the bedroom.
That was good, because an odd sense of joy coursed through her. He was who he said he was. He hadn’t lied. He was a straight arrow, for an assassin. Exactly what he said he was.
She needed to apologize to him for failing to trust him. She needed to show him how sorry she was.
With every tool at her disposal.
Right now.
As creatively as she possibly could.
Jack? She had never mentioned someone named Jack.
Misha remained alone in the big bed. He moved off the wet spot, out of the warmth made by their two bodies. He could hear her voice speaking softly as she moved down the hallway.
She didn’t want him to hear a conversation with someone named Jack. And that made Misha feel odd.
He felt… jealous?
He had never been jealous before. Maybe it wasn’t jealous. Maybe it was… proprietary. No. That was too close to jealous. But jealous was one of those dark emotions that got a man into trouble. Jealous made people act recklessly, kill recklessly. Jealous made people make fools of themselves.
He got out of bed and found some clothes. He wasn’t going to listen in on the conversation. He had promised himself he would trust her.