Chapter 12
Louise wasn’t exactly sure what had brought her to make that move. Maybe it was just a need to be held and to know everything would be okay. Which was kind of foolish considering she was here in this massive place with more security than she had ever seen. But when his arms wrapped around her, and he held her close, she realized that was really what she was looking for—the comfort of human touch in times of stress. Yet she didn’t want that with just anyone—only with him. She squeezed him gently and then stepped back. “Just needed a hug. Thank you.”
He focused on her, a serious look in his eyes. “Everybody needs hugs now and again. And you should never have to ask.”
“I didn’t really ask,” she said cheekily.
He grinned. “Well, maybe I’m asking.” He opened his arms.
She stepped back into them, once more laying her head against his chest. For a long moment they just stood like that. Offering, accepting and taking as needed. An odd buzzing noise sounded through the room. She tilted her head back and said, “What’s that?”
“That’s Levi calling for the meeting.”
She nodded. “Then we better go and attend. Considering this is all about me.”
He led the way to the office on the same floor. For some reason she had figured it would be some other third floor. It seemed odd to have bedrooms and offices together. As she stepped inside a large room, she could see another dozen people there. Most she knew. She smiled at everyone and took a seat closest to Rory.
Ice stood and said, “I’ve just spoken with Detective Mannford. The second shooter is talking. He’s handed over names, dates, his bank account to track payments. He also supplied the names of their eight people killed, including the poisoned shooter. This surviving gunman’s accepting responsibility, along with his dead partner, for all five shooting deaths. They were under direct orders to make sure nobody was left to talk.”
“Who are they?” Rory asked. “Exactly what are we up against?”
Ice smiled. “It’s not a new drug cartel. It’s a new arm of an old drug cartel. They’ve been operating in the US for a long time. Based out of Colombia. They’re trying to get a new product across the border. What we ended up doing was messing up their distribution network.”
“And how did that happen exactly?” Louise asked. “I didn’t do anything.”
“They were operating within successful businesses well-known for international deliveries, using those easily recognized delivery trucks to disguise their drug-running, while making regular deliveries. This route had a new driver. He handed over the wrong shipment.”
“Is it that simple?” Louise asked. “Really?”
Ice nodded. “That’s all it took. How many times have we either lost or gotten the wrong shipment? It happens. The fact that it was a new guy is what concerns me. Sounds like the cartel is growing and is short on trained men.”
“Too bad he had to die for his mistake,” Louise said quietly.
“Eight dead bodies now,” Ice said. “All belonging to the same crew. Detective Mannford thinks they are closing down the arm of the cartel and moving to a new location. They are just cleaning up their tracks.”
“I would,” Louise said. “I would move across the country and change my delivery system completely.”
“That’s quite possibly what they are doing. The police still don’t have the analysis back on the drugs yet. The labs apparently are overrun, so they’ve been a little too busy.”
Louise gave a half snort. “Every lab in the country is overrun. But obviously it’s some drug the cartel wants.”
“According to the informant, it’s heroin. And it’s very pure.”
“So how do we stop it? Did they give any details about where their warehouse is? How are the drugs coming across the border?”
“Detective Mannford is planning a sting operation tonight,” Levi said. “That’s why we’re waiting to set any trap with Louise or her look-alike. Let Mannford see what he can come up with overnight. If he can bring down the bulk of that arm, then we should be free and clear. But, until we know how his sting operation went, I don’t want to set anything up that’ll divert men from that location.”
In a convoluted way Louise understood that. “So we just wait till morning?” she asked.
“And quite possibly all day tomorrow.”
“Good. Anything else?”
A few other questions were asked. Ice answered those and then said, “You’re on your own until I call you again.”
Everybody got up and filed out. Realizing it was already past nine, Louise walked toward her bedroom. Rory was at her side. She stopped at the doorway and said, “I’m going to shower and go to bed.”
He nodded. “Have a good night then.”
He walked past, and she was disappointed. For some reason she thought there would be a good-night kiss, but then had they really progressed down that path? Inside she turned to close the door, only to find him standing in the doorway, his arms crossed his chest.
She glanced at him in surprise. “I thought you left already.”
“I did, but I came back.”
“Why? What’s up?” She glanced around him. “Did Ice need something?”
He shook his head. “No, but I do.”
She opened the door wider and motioned him inside. “What is it you need then?”
He pulled her into his arms and whispered, “This.” He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her. It wasn’t just a good-night kiss. It was a “Hey, are we in this together?” kiss. An “Am I doing this alone, or are we really feeling something between us?” kiss.
Sensing the tentativeness behind it, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close, kissing him with all the enthusiasm she possessed.
Responding to her, he tugged her tight against him and kissed her hard. When he finally pulled his head back, he said, “Now that’s a good-night kiss.”
He stepped away, and, with a grin, he walked to the door.
She raced behind him, opened the door, checked to make sure the hall was empty and said, “How was that a good-night kiss?”
Startled, not expecting her to come after him, he stared down at her. “Are you saying it wasn’t a good-night kiss?”
“Hell no. That was a prelude to a ‘we’re going to bed for the night’ kiss,” she snapped. She fisted her hands on her hips. “Just what are we doing here?”
He shook his head. “Anything you want. I’m open. Definitely interested. Free and single. You?”
She nodded. “Free and single, definitely yes. And interested, yes. So?”
He retraced his steps, a twinkle in his eyes. “So? What does that mean?”
“It means, are we working toward a relationship?” she asked in confusion. “I’m not really sure how we got to this point. And it seems very strange to have to actually question it.”
“Why are you?”
“Because I feel like so much of my life right now is out of control that I want to have some control over this.”
Understanding lit his gaze. “Okay, you’re in control. What is it you want to do?”
She stared at him for a long moment and smiled. “I’d like to have a shower, and I’d like to go to bed. But I don’t want to go alone.”
The look on his face was almost comical.
She chuckled. “Or is that a little too much control?”
He shook his head slowly. “No, you haven’t brought out handcuffs and a whip yet, so I’m thinking we’re still on safe ground.”
But instead of laughing she was interested. He on the other hand looked worried, and she felt her heart bubble with joy. “Can’t say I have ever tried either of those two things. Not normally my style.” She watched the relief whisper across his face and chuckled out loud. “Doesn’t mean I might not be interested in trying though.”
He flashed a wicked grin at her. “With you, I’m more than happy to go in any direction you want to take.”
“Of course riding crops would be more my style.”
Instead of backing away he took a step closer, nudging her deeper into her bedroom. He closed the door behind him with a hard click and said, “According to Ice, we have all night. What was that about a shower first?”
“Join me?” she asked, and then, with a laugh, she raced toward the bathroom.
*
Rory gave a shout of laughter and chased after her. The bathroom door almost closed in front of him. He hesitated and then pushed it open and stepped inside. Just as he looked around, a bra sailed toward him, followed by lighthearted female laughter from inside the large glass shower.
Water poured down, and she gasped at the coolness.
“You’re supposed to wait until it warms up first,” he said, chuckling.
“Well, you could come in here and warm me up instead. Unless you don’t like water?” Her head peered around the corner of the shower. “It never occurred to me that maybe you prefer to shower alone.”
He was already pulling off his clothes. “Good, don’t stop and analyze what you think I want. Be yourself. That’s all I would hope for.”
She gave him a brilliant smile and said, “In that case you had better hurry up.”
He kicked off his shoes, dropped his pants and stepped out of his boxers and socks all at once. He didn’t need a second invitation. He joined her in the shower, his gaze going to the smooth creamy skin in front of him. She was long and lean and trim. He reached for the bar of soap and stepped toward her. Against her head he murmured, “Do you need your back washed?”
She leaned her head forward, pulling her hair to the side and said, “Absolutely.”
He turned her slightly, so the water could sluice down her skin. Then he proceeded to soak and scrub her back, her buttocks and her long legs. When he came up the front of her body, his movements were slower, sexier. Long fingers stroked her flat belly, flicking over her hip bones, slipping into the curve of her waist and up to cup her plump breast. His other hand dropped to stroke the bar of soap through the creamy curls at the juncture of her legs, reaching down to kiss her breasts now at eye level. He covered the tips with his mouth and suckled lightly at first, then harder.
She moaned, swaying in his arms.
“Easy, sweetheart. Take it easy.” But he wouldn’t let up his torment, cupping and stroking and soothing as he nibbled and teased his way across the silky flesh in front of him. By the time he reached her chin, she was pliant in his arms, leaning partially against the shower wall, her head back, letting the water flow over them both. He straightened and stared. “You’re such a mermaid.”
She opened her eyes and gave him a beautiful smile. “As a little girl that’s all I ever wanted to be.” She slung her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “Are you willing to be my merman?”
He dropped his lips against hers and whispered, “Absolutely.”
With her warm slick skin against his, a shudder rippled down his spine. His erection pressed against the juncture of her thighs, but he didn’t want this moment to end. He didn’t want to rush anything. He hadn’t expected to be here tonight and wanted to savor every moment. They had all night according to Ice. But he also knew just how quickly plans could change. There were no guarantees. He wanted to make the most of this first time he had with her. His hands gently exploring, he took the time to caress every silky inch of her, to stroke, to tease his lips across her shoulder, up to the crease of her neck to her jawline. What he really loved was she just let him. She didn’t try to caress and stroke back, she didn’t participate in any way; she just soaked up every ounce of attention he willingly gave her. When he stopped, she opened her eyes and whispered, “My turn?”
He grinned. “If you would like a turn.”
Her eyes gleamed in the steamy half light. “Oh, I want a turn.”
Very quickly he reached for the shower wall for support.
Her hands danced and teased and tickled and stroked along his shoulders, his ribs, his chest and his hips, down his thighs, everywhere but where he was desperate to have her. Of course she knew that.
He groaned as she stroked the inside of his thighs, feeling the tension coiling inside him. “Don’t do too much of that,” he warned, “or this will be over before it starts.”
“Oh, no, it won’t be,” she promised. “I plan on having all night.”
“I thought the idea was to get some sleep,” he teased.
“Sometimes healthy loving is as good as a four-hour shot of sleep.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” he murmured. He’d found that himself, although it didn’t always work out that way. Sometimes it was a prelude to a heavy deeper sleep. But often it was a rejuvenating shot in the arm that kept him pepped up and going for hours.
Stepping behind him, she reached around and hugged him close, her breasts flattening against his back. She just rested in that position, her head against his shoulders, holding him close.
And he smiled. “Needing that hug again?”
When she nipped his back, he groaned, so she did it again.
He groaned a second time.
“Maybe I do want that riding crop,” she said with a laugh. She slipped her hands over his buttocks, gently caressing the crease between. His body jerked, his erection ready for action. She moved to face him, her hand sliding across and around into the curls at the base of his groin and then sliding up past his erection, over his belly, his ribs, up his chest to stroke his head. There she grabbed his hair and pulled him down firmly, and she kissed him in an openmouthed tongue-warring kiss that promised so much …
He wrapped his arms around her tightly, his temperature rising and his blood pounding. Finally he couldn’t stand it anymore. He tore free and said, “Here or on the bed?”
She grinned. “Here, then the bed.”
His gaze widened, but he didn’t hesitate. He picked her up, her back flat against the shower wall, shifted her hips so her legs were wrapped around his waist, and he plunged deep. She gasped and arched in his arms. Tension coiled deep inside as he slid in, reaching for and finding the heart of her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and started to ride. He gritted his teeth, as he tried to not end this too soon. Her taking over at this point wasn’t what he expected, but it was a hell of a deal.
It was all he could do to hold her safely in place as she moved gently, slowly sliding up and down his shaft, and then faster and faster until she arched in his arms and cried out.
Instantly he pushed her gently back against the shower wall and pounded against her, driving deeper and deeper until his own climax ripped through him. He shuddered in place, his head dropping to rest against hers, the two caught in their moment of complete togetherness.
Warm water rained over them both. When he could, he reached out a hand to shut off the water.
She chuckled. “I guess we’re not saving water this way, are we?”
“Nope, but it’s worth every penny.”
Slowly she separated from him, turned the water back on, quickly rinsed off, stepped from the shower and handed him a towel. “I’m tired, but I’m not exhausted.”
“Good,” he said seriously. “Because I really don’t want our first night to end so fast.”
She stepped into the bedroom, pulled the bedding back all the way and lay down. She had the towel under her wet hair, but she held up her arms for him. “Perfect. Even if you just hold me. It’s so nice to be with you.”
Touched, he tucked her close against him and wrapped one towel around her wet locks, then used his second towel to gently dry the parts of her he could reach. “You are very special, you know that?”
She shook her head. “No. If I was special I would have had a relationship these past five years.”
He leaned up on a forearm and stared down at her. “Five years?”
She nodded and gave him a wry smile. “Apparently I’m picky.”
He lowered his head and gently kissed her lips. “So am I. Sounds like we’re made for each other.”
She reached her arms around his neck, tugged him closer and whispered, “Prove it.”
He crushed her against him and showed her all over again just how perfect they were together.