Honeymoon To Die For (33 page)

“But you know what I’m facing in a few days. That we may never see each other again after this week.”  He should have thought about that before he let things go so far in the Jacuzzi. But thinking hadn’t been possible when she was in his arms.

Her fingers tightened on his arm. “We’ll find a lead soon.”

Ryder didn’t want to remind her that she hadn’t found even a hint of anything suspicious in all the hours she’d spent looking today. He didn’t want to dampen her happiness and tell her the reality was that someone had covered their trail so well it would take a miracle to find Kearn’s killer.

He hugged her instead, holding the only miracle he’d ever known in his arms for what little time he could have her.

CHAPTER 32

Margaux rubbed her eyes and walked into the meeting room at Slye Temp headquarters where there’d better be coffee.

“The Duke have trouble sleeping?” Nick Ferrari asked, using the nickname that annoyed her. He was of Mediterranean descent with brown eyes so dark they appeared black and thick eyelashes a woman would kill for. Sexy packaging with bad wiring. He was a wild card. No one knew exactly what he would do at any given time, but Nick came through at times when no one else could.

That didn’t stop her from wanting to pull out her Sig and warn him about using that stupid nickname again.

“I sleep like a baby,” she lied. Margaux hadn’t slept soundly since asking Nanci to work on this mission. They’d never had differences until now, but they’d argued last night. Margaux got that Nanci’s duty was to the FBI first, but Nanci could’ve told Margaux that she had a way to communicate with Bianca.

Lack of good intel pissed off Sabrina.

Pissing off Sabrina was never good for a person’s health.

Not any more than pissing off Margaux or anyone else on the downstairs Slye teams. Tidy corporate security jobs were arranged
upstairs
in the street level offices, but the black ops missions to protect national security—or anything Sabrina deemed worthy of her dark ops teams—were handled down here in the soundproof basement.

Margaux filled a mug with black coffee and turned to find Josh, Dingo and Tanner walking in. Josh Carrington always had the put-together look of a man accustomed to money, which he had aplenty, where Dingo melded into any dark shadow even in broad daylight. Josh and the Aussie went way back with Sabrina—like back to when they were little kids.

“You look like you could use a full body massage,” Tanner said with a twinkle in his baby-blue eyes. “Let me know if I can lend you a hand.”

Margaux took a sip of the hot brew, holding his suggestive gaze as she lowered the mug. “Speaking of your sex life, if you change hands in mid-stroke does that make you a polygamist?”

Tanner grumbled something about liking his women sweet in the morning.

Dingo opened his laptop and started typing. Josh thumbed keys on his smart phone, and Nick ignored everyone.

 Sabrina entered the room holding a USB flash drive up in one hand.  “I found this on my desk this morning.”

Everyone tensed because Sabrina did not have an open door policy. Margaux had an inkling that privacy might’ve come at a premium for Sabrina growing up, because it had sure as hell been that way for Margaux, and she protected her space just as ruthlessly.

No one entered Sabrina’s office unless invited in. To get there, you had to go through former MI6 Intel tech Amanda Talifero, who would step away from her keyboard long enough to hurt anyone who tried to enter Sabrina’s inner sanctum.

Margaux asked, “Any sign of B&E?”

“No.” Sabrina closed her fingers around the flash drive. “Professional job, which is saying a lot considering our security system.”

Dingo stopped typing and looked up. “Someone went to a lot of trouble to make a statement about delivering that. Video feed was altered. Our codes can’t be easily hacked. The skill required to get in here is—”

“CIA level,” Josh finished.

“Wasn’t
him
,” Sabrina said, ending any further conversation on “him.”

Margaux knew enough about the history of Sabrina’s core team to know they’d been screwed over on a mission Sabrina was running for the CIA two years ago. But Margaux had no idea who “him” was or why he brought on an angry glare from Josh.

Sabrina moved on at her usual speeding-bullet pace. “Dingo will reset all the security today. After looking this over, I doubt we’ll have a return visit, but I want the pass codes changed daily until Ryder’s mission is completed.”

Tanner asked, “Did the intel fairy leave you something special?”

Sabrina handed the flash drive to Dingo, instructing him to make two copies, then she answered Tanner. “Financial and inventory records on three international weapons dealers who do business with Van Dyke Enterprises. The two in Germany and Turkey also buy from Kearn Industries, but not the one in Dubai. It’s going to take some time to go through all this, but it’s clearly someone sending us information on this mission.”

Margaux scrubbed a hand through her hair. “How long? We’re running out of days at this point.”

“That’s why we need to get this to Ryder and Bianca now.”

Nick piped up. “You give that to the FBI, they’ll edit out what they don’t want passed on. Hell, they might sit on it for a couple of days first.”

Sabrina nodded. “Right. That’s why Margaux is going to give it to her cousin to pass to Bianca.”  She took the flash drive and a dupe from Dingo then handed both copies to Margaux. “Nanci has to give this to Bianca first, then she can have the second copy for the agency.”

Shit. This was going to be a worse argument than last night’s with Nanci, but Sabrina was one step from shooting someone over Ryder’s situation.

Margaux nodded. “Got it.”

This was going to be ugly, because Nanci would balk at not taking the intel to Murdock first and Marguax wasn’t leaving until she got what she wanted.

CHAPTER 33

Bianca stepped into the mega-blaster shower the next morning. She was still bruised and sore, but she felt as if she’d left her body last night for an amazing little vacation to OMG land.

Water hit her from every direction and all she could think about was Ryder taking her to climax last night while water surged against her.

She refused to regret what she’d done and, make no mistake, that had been her doing. Ryder hadn’t crossed the line with her. She’d pushed him over it.

Soaping up a thick washcloth, she started at her neck and shoulders, but the minute she dragged it across her breasts they perked up and her nipples pebbled.

How was she going to get through today thinking about sex all day long?

The glass door opened and closed.

Two arms came around her and his large hands took the washcloth from her. His husky voice rasped against her ear. “Looks like you got stuck in one spot.”

Decision time.

Okay that was a total lie since her body had already made that decision for her. She shivered with anticipation. “I could use some help.”

His hands started moving, slowly washing her breasts. She ached for him to toss the cloth away and use his hands on her. He was hard and that thick ridge pressed against her back, making her wet between her legs.

Then he was washing that very spot, moving the soapy cloth between her legs, gently washing back and forth over the sensitive folds. Her knees were shaking.

He moved away, bringing the cloth to her back and working his way down to her butt cheeks, sliding it between them.

She put her hands against the wall in front of her for support and he moved down one leg, then the other.

Then the cloth was gone and his soapy hands were on her hips, one sliding forward to barely touch one of her breasts. He rolled the nipple between his fingers, that tiny touch ripping heat from her breast to her womb.

 His other hand slid between her swollen folds that were so sensitive it only took a touch for her to climb on that ledge again. “Don’t stop.”

“No chance, Sweetheart.”

He moved to the other breast and left the first one begging for more. She was going to be in tears soon if she didn’t get relief.

His voice wrapped her in a sensual blanket as he described each part of her body in erotic detail. She’d never look at herself in the mirror the same way again. His hand finally held her breast, massaging and teasing one then the other, but it was his fingers sliding across her slick folds and zeroing in on the nub connected to all the nerves in her body that was spinning her out of control.

The orgasm exploded through her. She would have fallen if he hadn’t abandoned her breasts to hold her up against him, never letting up between her legs until she was gasping.

He wrapped her in his arms and held her, kissing her neck while water cascaded down from every direction. It was like making love in the rain.

When she could stand again, she turned to Ryder. Water rushed across that incredible body. An Adonis in a waterfall.

She reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. His tongue pushed past her lips and played with hers, tempting her with all the things that tongue could do.

There was no mistaking that he wanted her. His penis was hard and thumping against her stomach. What a heady moment to be standing in a shower with a man like Ryder, knowing he wanted her.

And wanting him back. He’d shown her what a man and woman could share. She pulled back, breathless. “We aren’t doing this unless you can, too.”

His eyes sparkled when he said, “I don’t know who stocked the drawer where I used to keep them, but I found condoms.”

Easing back away from him, she glanced down to find him already sheathed. When she looked back up she gave him a cocky smirk. “Pretty sure you were going to use it, huh?”

Even his shrug was sexy. “I can always take it off and toss it.”

She enjoyed the teasing, but understood that he was giving her an out if she didn’t want to do this. A painful memory flashed into her mind and she forced it away, refusing to think of
him
while she was standing here with Ryder.

Water ran down her face and into her eyes. Ryder’s hands came up, to hold her face. The warmth in his voice soothed her as much as him saying, “Don’t ever think you owe any man anything. I’m fine with throwing the condom away and dealing with this myself. I know you were hurt physically and emotionally. Watching you last night was a gift to be cherished. I’d like to find the asshole and show him what a man like him really deserves, but right now all I care about is that you only do what you want.”

She didn’t want to fall in love with this man. There were so many reasons not to, but her heart had come out of hibernation because of him. Lifting up on her toes, she said, “Here’s what I want. You inside me.”

He didn’t move at first, just stared at her as if he hadn’t heard her right. Then he kissed her and as he did he lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around him and moved against the hard ridge between them.

He held her with one hand and turned her back against the wall, freeing a hand to reach between them. His mouth devoured hers, kissing her as if the world would end before he could finish. His fingers were magic, stroking her until she was humping his hand.

His hands went to her waist, lifting her and breaking the kiss, but his gaze held her captive as he slowly eased her down until she felt his penis prodding at her opening.

“Just relax and tell me if anything hurts,” he said. He held her with one arm and reached down, feeding himself inside her inch by inch.

The muscles in his neck stood out from the toll going slowly was taking on him.

She tensed at the fullness, but then his fingers were touching her and teasing the mass of nerves between her legs. She dug her nails into his back, wanting to feel that release again. Everything inside her reached for it ... and she peaked all at once.

Somewhere during that moment, Ryder had slid all the way inside her and started moving.

She could feel his arms taut with trying to be careful.

He ground out, “Are you ... okay?”

“Not exactly.”

“What exactly then?” He sounded pained.

“I want you to do it harder.”

“Fuck.”  He started pumping into her, each push shoving her up against the wall.

She gripped him, holding on, with only his satisfaction in mind, but then her muscles started contracting again and the pressure built. Her thighs locked tighter around him and she squeezed against the friction of him driving in and out of her.

A wave of ecstasy crashed over her.

Ryder gave a powerful shove and went rigid, letting out a guttural shout, then kept pumping until he finally dropped his head on her shoulder, heaving breaths.

She held his head against her protectively, wanting to keep him here safe in her arms.

The water continued to rage, shielding them from the world for now.

Ryder lifted his head, his eyes searching hers for ghosts of past experiences.

She smiled. “I stand corrected. I do like sex.”

The smile he gave her in return was one she would remember for the rest of her life. There was the man she wanted to stay with. There was the man she had to save.

This was the man her heart had chosen for her.  

But nothing in the VDE computers had given even a tiny inkling of hope. She hadn’t said so to Ryder, because she wasn’t giving up.

But she had orders for this mission that Ryder couldn’t be privy to.

Murdock didn’t want Slye Temp or Ryder to know that the FBI suspected Hubrecht Van Dyke of more than selling weapons illegally. They suspected someone at VDE of financing terrorist activities. With time running out, Bianca had to choose between pursuing information on Kearn’s killer that she doubted they’d find at VDE and flushing out how Hubrecht, or someone else at VDE, was funding terrorists.

She owed her agency and her two dead friends to perform the job she was sent to do, but she couldn’t watch Ryder walk back into a prison either.

CHAPTER 34

Bianca stared at the elevator doors that would open any minute. She’d have to ride up thirty-two floors to the top of Van Dyke Tower.
Don’t throw up
.