Until Death
Do We Part
FIONA DAVENPORT
Copyright
© 2016 Fiona Davenport
All rights reserved.
Edited by PREMA Romance Editing.
All rights reserved. No part of this
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This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places and incidents are the
product of the author’s imagination or
are used factiously, and any resemblance
to any actual persons or living or dead,
events
or
locales
are
entirely
coincidental.
The
author
acknowledges
the
trademark status and trademark owners
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Dedication
For those of you who always wondered
what happened after 'happily ever after.'
Prologue
Alex
“Sold!”
A smile crawled across my face as
the tall, silver haired auctioneer
slammed the gavel down on the podium.
I stood slowly, biding my time as I
watched the most beautiful woman on
the face of the planet walk toward the
stage to collect the painting. She was tall
and
graceful,
her
hips
swaying
seductively as she moved. Her profile
showed off her long lashes, straight
nose, full lips, and an incredible set of
tits. My mouth watered, but when she
turned to face the front, I surreptitiously
checked for drool at the sight of her ass.
Her shiny, mahogany hair hung long, the
ends brushing right along the top of her
ass and I flexed my fists, trying to relax
the muscles twitching in their need to
wrap it around one hand while the other
left a pretty pink handprint on her skin.
She glanced behind her and my eyes met
hers, glued to the sight of round,
chocolate brown eyes, accented by her
tanned complexion. Her full, rosy lips
tipped up and she raised an eyebrow,
clearly amused at my unabashed staring.
Fuck, she was amazing. An absolute
goddess. I winked, and her smile
became a wide grin before she took the
wrapped Cézanne being handed to her
and sauntered to the exit on the left side
of the room, leading to a wing of offices.
A low whistle sounded from beside
me and an unexpected growl rose to the
surface. I tamped down the desire to hit
something, or someone, as I turned to
look at my companion. Colin’s eyes
were on the door where Genevieve
Porter’s very fine ass had been seconds
before. “That’s the art dealer?” he asked
then looked at me, his brow lifting in
surprise.
I imagined it was because of the dark
look on my face. I couldn’t explain it,
but I was suddenly pissed he’d been
looking at my woman. That thought was
out of the blue, and it probably should
have knocked me flat on my ass. Except,
I recognized the truth in it. I would do
whatever it took to have her. Luckily, I
was in London to oversee the sale
contract between Genevieve and my
client, a museum owned by a large
corporation in New York. I’d read the
dossier on her from cover to cover, but
there hadn’t been a photo, for which I
was eternally grateful because if my
superiors had seen my reaction to her, I
would
have
been
given
another
assignment.
“You can go, Colin,” I informed him
gruffly. “You won the piece, the
paperwork is my job. No need for you to
stay. I’ll meet you back at the hotel with
the information.”
Colin opened his mouth to reply but
was interrupted by the shrill ring of his
cell phone. He retrieved it from his
pocket and stepped back into a darkened
corner of the room to take the call. I
gathered my briefcase and coat, then
headed in the direction I’d last seen my
goddess.
“Alex.”
The tone of Colin’s voice brought me
round, and I joined him just behind one
of the thick, blue velvet curtains draped
on either side of the wide double doors
leading into the auction room.
“Pierce is dead.”
“What the fuck?” I growled. It was
the last thing I needed right then.
Colin
shrugged.
“Robbery,
apparently. Found him in a house in
Kensington. Throat slit while he slept.”
“Did the police find anything?” I
asked.
Pierce
was
the
collector
Genevieve had purchased the Cézanne
from. We were anxious to speak to him,
but he was a recluse and as best we
could tell, Genevieve was the first
person to have any contact with him in
two years. I’d really been hoping for an
introduction. Shit.
Colin was tapping away on his
phone, and I cuffed his shoulder to get
his attention. He frowned at me and
glanced back down when his device
buzzed yet again. “Jack says they found
evidence of mafia ties.” Shocking, I
thought, mentally rolling my eyes. He
was silent for another moment, then shut
his cell down and put it in his pocket.
“They found the ledger. I guess he kept a
paper trail after all. Turns out, there was
a kill order placed two days ago. People
are fucking pissed. Anyway, Jack says to
finish the transaction and enjoy your
vacation.”
I scrubbed my hands down my face
and nodded. “Yeah. Okay. What about
her?”
“Doesn’t look like she knew
anything about his activities. Jack says
the company did a full profile, she’s
clean. Just do the deal and hand off the
painting to the courier.”
“Fine,” I agreed, my mind already
jumping ahead to my new plan. “I’ll see
you back in Washington next week.”
He slapped me on the back and
strode from the room. I started toward
the spot where I was supposed to meet
the goddess, Genevieve, already plotting
my attack. She wouldn’t know what hit
her.
***
“Stop, Alex!” Evie screeched as she
made a run for it. I easily caught up to
her, my arm slinging around her waist
and slamming her body back against
mine. I used the momentum to propel us
both onto the large bed in our bedroom.
She started screeching with laughter as
my fingers dug into her ribs. I flipped
her onto her back and covered her body
with mine.
“I’m going to keep you right here
until you agree, baby,” I whispered, my
face so close to hers our lips brushed
with every word. Leaning back a little, I
grinned down at her. Fuck. She was so
damn gorgeous. Her eyes were sparkling
with humor and happiness, her skin
flushed, and her chest heaving from the
exertion of laughing so hard. “When are
you going to marry me?”
Her face softened and her arms slid
around my torso before she hugged me
tight. Her soft tits pillowed against my
chest, and I was suddenly very aware
that the only barrier between her sweet
pussy and my cock was a tiny scrap of
fabric.
From the moment I officially met
Genevieve, I was addicted, and that
addiction had only gotten stronger with
every day we were together.
“Alex Shaw,” I had introduced
myself, holding my hand out.
“Genevieve, well, Evie, Porter.”
Her hand slid into mine and a sizzle
streaked through me. The look on her
face told me she’d felt it too.
We completed the sale of the
Cézanne and with very little persuasion,
she agreed to meet me for dinner. I was
loathe to leave her, but I had to pass the
painting off to the courier. I may have
been intending to overwhelm her, but it
was me who fell like a ton of bricks. She
showed up to the restaurant in a white,
strapless, summer dress, the color and
design showing off all of her assets. Her
skirt swished around her tanned, endless
legs with every step, and don’t get me
started on the sexy heels on her pink
tipped feet. Her hair hung loose, the
moon causing the reddish tint to
shimmer, and she wore very little
makeup, she didn’t need it. I was
mentally and emotionally knocked over.
She was my every dream come true, and
I knew there would never be anyone else
more perfect for me than my Evie.
Throughout dinner, I studied her,
hoping to see any sign she was feeling
the same way. I was so flustered by the
new sensations, I almost missed it. But,
Evie was no shy wallflower, thank fuck.
“Alex,”
Evie
leaned
forward,
placing a soft palm on my forearm as it
rested on table, searing my skin from the
contact with hers. The waiter had
cleared our last dishes and as I’d paid
the check, I was contemplating the odds
of how likely it was I could get her to go
back to my hotel with me.
I smiled. “What, baby?” Her cheeks
tinged a little pink at the endearment.
Damn, that flush would look so pretty on
every inch of her skin.
“If I invite you back to my apartment,
will you still respect me in the
morning?”
I burst out laughing and quickly
stood, grabbing her hand and dragging
her from the restaurant. Once we hit the
side walk, I started toward her
apartment then froze, causing her to
stumble into me. I spun her into my arms
and kissed her nose. “Where to, love?”
She chuckled and kept a tight hold on my
hand as she took the lead, her
determination betraying her eagerness.
We were making out like teenagers
by the time we hit her building, and we
barely made it through her door before I
had her up against the wall, her skirt
bunched around her waist and my mouth
buried between her legs. I closed my
eyes and inhaled deeply, her sweet floral
scent going straight to my dick. She
whimpered when I dragged my tongue up
the center of her panties. “Hmmmm.
Good thing I saved room for dessert,” I
said, as I pulled the fabric aside and
repeated the pattern with my tongue on
her bare pussy. Her steep inhalation and
the shivers racing through her body
guided me as I built her to a swift
orgasm.
“Alex!” she screamed, as I worked
her clit between my teeth. Unable to wait
a minute longer, I surged to my feet and
clasped her face between my hands and
kissed her deeply, passionately, putting
every new and overwhelming emotion
she made me feel into it. Telling her
what I wasn’t sure she was ready to hear
yet. She was mine, and I wasn’t letting
her go.
Bending slightly, I gripped her ass
and lifted her up, giving her no choice
but to encircle my waist with her legs.
She directed me to her bedroom, and as I
carried her, I used my teeth to lower the
top of her dress and one cup of her
strapless bra, until one voluptuous tit
popped out. Her nipple was dusky from
the darker tint of her skin and the tip was
hard, so perfect. I licked the sensitive
little peak before sucking it into my
mouth and swirling my tongue around it.
We finally reached the bed and
collapsed in a heap, my mouth unwilling
to release its treat. I scooted up the bed
on my back, settling Evie astride me, the
heat of her pussy bathing my cock. I
finally let the nipple go with a pop,
playing fair and giving her other sweet
tit equal treatment.
She was getting more worked up, her
body writhing on top of me, the friction
swelling my cock, proving me wrong
when I thought there was no fucking way
I could get any harder. I was reluctant to
stop feasting on her delicious nipples,
but I needed to get inside her or I was
going to come in my pants. Taking her
mouth in another deep kiss, I tugged her
dress down to her waist and lifted her
hips to push it past. She pulled back and
sat up, quickly shoving the dress down
and completely off. The front clasp of
her bra twisted easily open and her tits
spilled out, the soft, round globes filling
my hands. Fuck. I couldn’t remember any
woman before my Evie, but I was
positive I’d never held such amazing
breasts in my palms. Her nimble fingers
worked the buttons on my dress shirt,
even as she closed her eyes and moaned
when I squeezed. When her lids lifted
once again, her irises were so dark with
passion, they almost completely blended
with her pupils. Despite the darkness,
they were filled with fire and I lost my
patience. With my hands on her hips, I
helped her up to her knees and undid my
belt, divesting myself of my slacks and
grey boxer briefs.
I returned my gaze to hers, searching.
“Are you on birth control?”
She smiled like a Cheshire cat,
asking, “You want in me bare, stud?”
I groaned, just hearing her say it had
me leaking pre-come. I wanted it more
than my next breath. “I can’t imagine
anything more perfect than fucking your
sweet pussy with nothing between us,
baby,” I ground out, my control slipping
with every moment she remained
hovering over my erection. “I haven’t
been with anyone in...” I trailed off and
to my mortification, I could feel my face
heat. Holy fuck, I couldn’t believe I was
blushing. I cleared my throat and forged
ahead, through my embarrassment. “In
four years, I think. Maybe, five.” She
grinned, and I couldn’t help but return
the expression. “I’ve been busy,” I
explained. More like I’d never been one
for casual sex and hadn’t found anyone I
wanted to be with in a long time. Until
my Evie.
She placed her palms on my chest,
caressing my pecs, and tracing all of the
grooves of my abs and hips, making me
groan from the pleasure. She leaned
forward and kissed me softly. “Me too.”
I thrust my hips up and pressed the
underside of my cock to her wet pussy,
letting her feel how much I needed her.
She moaned long and loud, and it was
hot as fuck. “You ready, love?” I asked
with a calm I wasn’t feeling. Her hand
slid down my stomach, then her long,
elegant fingers wrapped as far as they
could around my large cock. Evie hadn’t
balked at the size, she’d practically
salivated at the sight, so I didn’t worry
about easing any fear I might not fit. She
guided me inside, slowly lowering her
body, inch by inch.
“Oh fuck, Evie. You’re soaked,
coating me so I slide right in and then
strangling the fuck out of me. You’re so
damn tight, baby.” She paused to adjust,
and I began to play with her nipples,
building her arousal. “Keep going, baby.
Just a little farther until I’m so deep you
won’t know where I stop and you
begin.” She sank farther, and I growled
in utter ecstasy. “That’s it baby. Yeah,
fuck. I’m so damn deep, Evie.”
I was finally all the way in, her
pelvis flush against mine, the tip of my
cock right up against her cervix. I
wanted to flip her over and take her
hard, fuck myself into her so she would
never be able to get away. And yet, there
she was, sitting atop me like my very
own queen, her gorgeous tits swaying as
she rocked into me. Her head was back,
her hair falling to tickle the tops of my
legs, but when she sank her teeth into her
luscious lower lip, I was done. I gripped
her hips and encouraged her to start
lifting and falling on my cock. “Ride me,
baby.”
“Oh, Alex. Oh!” She bit that damn
fucking lip again, and I fought every urge
to come. Her eyes slowly opened and
her dark eyes met mine, then she winked.
“Harder, stud.”
“Fuck!” I yelled as I lost all control.
I flipped us over and hammered into her
until we were both screaming the walls
down as the world imploded around us.
After the most mind-blowing sex I’d
ever had, I spent the night attempting to
top it and convinced her to spend a week
with me in Fiji, all the while knowing
one week would never be enough. It
turned out to be less complicated than I
expected. She’d recently decided to
relocate to D.C. and was about ready to
start house hunting. Fuck that. I had her
moved in two weeks later.
It had been four weeks, and I was
tired of waiting to give her the ring I’d
had burning a hole in my pocket since
the day I returned home.
“Evie,” I warned. “When? I love
you, but you better decide quickly, or
I’m dragging your ass to the courthouse
in the morning.”
She laughed, the sound full of joy
and filling me with light and life. Her
hands came up and cupped my face.
“Okay, stud. How about you hold your
horses”—she snorted at her own little
joke and just like every time she did it, I
fell a little harder—“and give me two
months. Let me plan a little wedding to
marry the love of my life?”
I grumbled but agreed, grabbing her
wrist and sliding on the two carat,
emerald cut diamond, flanked by scarlet
red rubies. They reminded me of her
passion and zest for life, the ring had her
name all over it when I walked into the
store. She sighed and admired it, holding
her hand out to let it catch the light. “You
done good, stud.”
“Feels like this stud’s filly is in
heat.” I smirked, pressing my rigid
length into her hot little pussy. “Maybe
we should practice breeding.” Her
laughter was short-lived, she was too
busy moaning and calling out my name.
***
“Dude, are you crying?” My elbow shot
out, and I grinned in satisfaction at the
wheeze I heard when it connected with
Colin’s ribs.
“Shut the fuck up,” I grumbled, but I
blinked rapidly, trying to clear away the
moisture at the sight of Evie walking
down the aisle, her white dress
reminding me so much of the day we
met. We stared into each other’s eyes
and held hands as we said our vows.
We’d decided to write our own, and I
stared into her loved-filled eyes as I
pledged my life to her.
“Genevieve,” I grinned when she
rolled her eyes at the use of her full
name. “You are everything. There is no
other way to describe you, you’re
simply, everything. I feel as though my
life began the moment you put your hand
in mine. I’ll always strive to be the man
you need and want. I love you more than
words could even express. Until death
do we part.” I couldn’t help it, I pulled
her to me and kissed her deeply before
whispering in her ear, “And forever
after.”
Chapter 1
Evie
“I have another assignment for you.” My
boss’s words weren’t a surprise. I used
to live for the sound of them. There was
always another job needing to be done,
and I’d risen up the ranks quickly
because I never hesitated to do whatever
it took to accomplish the task at hand.
The travel was an added perk, letting me
see the world on someone else’s dime.
In the days before Alex came into my
life, I didn’t have any roots and accepted
every assignment which came my way.
In the years since, I had become more
selective—or at least, as choosy as my
employer allowed me to be.
“I just got back two days ago. I
haven’t even finished all the paperwork
from the last job,” I argued. He was a
stickler for proper documentation, one of
his few weaknesses. I had used it to my
advantage in the past, and I hoped my
excuse would put him off for a little bit
this time around too. I still hadn’t seen
my husband since my return home
because he was in London dealing with
a contract issue for a client. His flight
was due to land at six o’clock tonight,
and I planned to welcome him home in
style.
“It’s in Rome. But, you’ll have
enough time to take care of any loose
ends on your last assignment while the
team works on obtaining the research
you’ll need for this one before you have
to leave.”
“Rome?” I didn’t allow my surprise
to bleed into my tone, but I was feeling it
nonetheless. Rome was the location of
my primary contact, sort of a home base,
where I reported to the chief of station
when I was in Europe. Then, I would
travel to my assignments from there.
Also, Alex and I had a vacation home
there. Running a job so close to home
(so to speak)—in a place I’d built part
of my life with Alex, a life I kept
separate
from
my
job—wasn’t
something I was the least bit interested
in doing. “Wouldn’t it be wise to use
local talent? Avoid shitting where we eat
and all that?”
His answering chuckle held no hint
of humor at my turn of phrase. “You’re
know the area, you’re available, and
have the right skill set for the job.”
“But—“
“My decision is final.” His tone
hardened, and I knew there was no
leeway this time around. Not unless I
wanted him to think I doubted his
judgment, which wouldn’t be wise on
my part.
“Understood, sir.” I’d just have to
find a way to make it work, but I’d
worry about it tomorrow. Tonight I was
going to focus on my husband.
Tossing my stuff into my bag, I
followed my boss out the door and
locked up my office behind me. It was
still early afternoon, but nobody
questioned me as I marched through the
building and out to my brilliant red Audi
R8. I’d purchased her a few months
before meeting Alex, and she was my
baby. I’d had to pull some strings to get
her since the model was an extremely
limited series. She was worth it, though.
She went from zero to sixty in 3.1
seconds, handled fast corners with
precision, and was as suitable for the
race track as it was for the streets. Alex
had given me a bit of a hard time over it,
citing safety issues, but I hadn’t been
willing to budge, pointing out it had been
outfitted with a race-package option that
included a full roll cage, a fire
extinguisher, and four-point seat belts.
Starting the engine, I took a moment
to enjoy the power of my little beauty for
a moment before peeling out of the
parking lot. After a quick stop at the
store, I was home making dinner for my
man, in a house complete with a white
picket fence and gourmet kitchen. Four
years ago, I had been certain this was the
last thing I wanted for myself. Meeting
Alex changed everything for me. I knew
with my first glance at him that I’d end
up in his bed. He was ruggedly
handsome, six feet and two inches of
lean muscles wrapped in a suit which
had to have been designed to fit his
body. His dark hair had been cropped
close to his head back then, and the dark
stubble on his face accented his chiseled
features. It also made my inner thighs
tingle at the thought of that stubble
rubbing against the sensitive skin there.
His charm was lethal, and it didn’t take
long for my heart to fall right along with
my body as I tumbled into bed with him.
I’d been wrapping up an assignment
and hadn’t been looking for anything
serious, but he had swept me off my feet.
A week-long vacation to Fiji with an
itinerary full of hot and sweaty sex, with
all the orgasms a woman could hope for,
left me wanting more of Alex. My
employer had been pushing me for
months to accept a transfer to D.C. so
when I learned Alex lived there, I got the
ball rolling to make the change. Alex’s
offer to move in with him told me he
wanted this as badly as I did. Three
months later, we were married. Ours
was the epitome of a whirlwind
courtship, and I wouldn’t have had it any
other way. I was well aware things
could change in the blink of an eye, and I
refused to waste any time when it came
to starting my life with Alex.
Glancing down at my hand, my
engagement ring sparkled in the sunlight
streaming through the windows. The
huge diamond in the middle was
flawless, but it was the rubies on either
side of it which drew my eye, as they
always did. Alex couldn’t have known
how appropriate the ring was for me
when he’d picked it out, but I’d taken the
scarlet red gems as a sign that our
marriage was meant to be and threw
caution to the wind for the first time in
my life. It was a decision which brought
me more happiness than I ever thought
I’d have. I had an amazing husband who
adored me and made my heart race, the
same way it had done from the very
beginning. The only thing that was
missing from the perfect image of the
cliché housewife was my flat stomach. I
wasn’t barefoot and pregnant. Not yet
anyway.
My hand slid down the apron I was
wearing, over my belly, and an idea
jumped into my head. Time was short if I
was going to pull it off since Alex would
be home any minute. Racing into our
bedroom, I stripped out of the dress
slacks and blouse I’d worn into the
office. Striding into the walk-in closet, I
tossed the dirty clothes into the basket
for dry cleaning—a habit Alex had
helped me develop with inventive
rewards involving orgasms—and pulled
a white teddy, thong, garter, and hose
from one of my dresser drawers.
Changing into the lingerie, I caught
my image in the floor-length mirror Alex
had installed and grinned at the wicked
gleam in my eyes and the flush on my
cheeks. Wrapping the apron back around
my body and tying it into place, my grin
turned into a satisfied smirk. Alex was
sure to take the phrase on the front of the
apron seriously. Kiss the cook indeed.
At the sound of the garage door
going up, I stepped into a pair of four-
inch sling back heels and headed for the
kitchen. It was a good thing I could run
in heels because I had just reached the
counter and started chopping vegetables
for the salad when Alex walked through
the door connecting the garage and
kitchen.
“Evie, baby, I’m—“
Thunk.
I looked over my shoulder and found
Alex stripping out of his suit, with his
briefcase on the floor beside him. His
suit coat was next to it, and his shoes
were kicked to the side. I blatantly
stared as he unbuttoned his shirt, letting
it drop to the floor as he stalked towards
me. He unbuckled his belt, flicked open
the button on his pants, and lowered his
zipper in the time it took him to reach
me. He stopped about a foot away from
me, his gaze raking me from head to toe.
“Welcome home, stud.”
He closed the gap between us, his
body flush against mine as he untied the
apron and let it drop to the floor. “Did I
miss a special occasion? Anniversary?
Birthday?”
Like he’d ever miss anything so
important. My hubby had a mind like a
steel trap and never failed to spoil me
rotten when the occasion called for it—
or when it didn’t. “Nope,” I answered.
“I just thought it was worth a little extra
effort to welcome you home since we
haven’t seen each other in two weeks.”
“A little extra effort?” He tilted his
body away from mine and trailed a
finger down a bra strap, along the top of
the cup hugging my breast, and
underneath the front clasp. His thumb
slid over it and with a flick of his
fingers, it opened. “Cooking me dinner
might qualify as little, but doing so in
nothing but lingerie, heels, and an apron
is going above and beyond the call of
duty. And that’s before factoring in your
choice of color. You know how much I
love to see you in white.”
I made a big show of glancing down
at his hands which were kneading my tits
while my bra hung open. “Almost as
much as you like to see me out of it.”
“Can you blame me? How is it that
you look even more gorgeous now than
the day I met you?” His breath was hot
against my ear, sending a shiver down
my spine. “It shouldn’t be possible when
you were already the most beautiful
woman on the planet.”
I slid my palms up his chest,
enjoying the feel of his taut skin and firm
muscles, before wrapping my arms
around his neck. “I guess I’m one of the
world’s great mysteries.”
“You
know
I
like
to
solve
mysteries,” he quipped. It was true, he
was quick to find solutions—faster even
than most of the analysts I worked with.
“I better do some in depth research to
figure this one out.”
I held on tightly as he lifted me up
onto the counter. “You’re going to need
to dig deep, stud.”
“The deeper, the better, right?”
“Always,” I breathed against his
lips.
“What about dinner?”
“I made something that would keep
for later.”
“My smart woman,” he murmured
against my skin, right before his lips
wrapped around my nipple. His tongue
and teeth worked together to torture me
as he toyed with my breasts. Biting,
licking, and sucking until I was writhing
in need and spread out on our kitchen
counter. When he trailed his fingers
down my stomach, I shivered in
anticipation. They slid over my panties,
moving lower to grip my thighs and push
them farther apart. Positioning himself
between my legs, he bent low and licked
from one knee, along the sensitive skin
of my inner thigh, and up to the seam of
my panties. When he moved his head
away to repeat the process with the other
leg, I moaned in protest.
“Don’t tease me, Alex. It’s been too
long.”
“Are you on edge, baby?”
“Yes,” I hissed as his fingers teased
along the edge of my panties.
“You want to come on my fingers or
my mouth first?”
“Fingers,” I bit out. “Then your
mouth. And your cock after that, as long
as you’re asking.”
“Greedy girl,” he chuckled, one long
finger sliding under my panties to dip
inside me.
“Only for you, stud.” There wasn’t
anything in the world I craved more than
Alex.
“Damn fucking straight it’s only me.
You’re mine, Evie.” He added a second
finger, twisting his hand so his thumb
rubbed my clit with each thrust of his
fingers. I arched my hips up as he
worked me. My breath caught in my
throat when he bent his head to suck a
nipple into his mouth. When he bit down
on it, the tension inside me broke.
“Alex!” I screamed. My hands
clenched against the edges of the granite
countertops so hard, I was surprised it
didn’t crumble from the pressure.
“So fucking wet for me,” he
murmured, giving the spot on my breast
he’d bitten a soft kiss before licking his
way down to my pussy. “It’s a good thing
you wanted my mouth on you next,
‘cause I can’t wait any longer to get your
taste in my mouth. I’ve been craving it
the whole time I was away.”
Then, he ripped my panties from my
body, opened the lips of my pussy with
his thumbs, and licked me from top to
bottom. A growl rumbled up from his
chest and he ate me out like he was
starving for me. He held me in place
with a firm grip while he nibbled and
sucked until I was begging him to let me
come again.
“Please, stud. Just a little bit harder.
I’m so damn close.”
The thrust of his tongue into my
pussy and the scrape of his teeth against
my clit was exactly what I needed,
sending me over the edge again. My
body arched and I screamed his name a
second time. He didn’t give me any time
to recover, rising up and positioning
himself with his cock pressed against the
entrance of my pussy.
“Gimme your cock now, stud.”
My head dropped to back onto the
counter when he roughly pushed into me,
going deep with one thrust. I wrapped
my legs around his waist and held on for
the wild ride, panting as he moved
faster. Leveraging myself up onto my
elbows, I watched the play of his
muscles as he hammered into me. His
dark eyes locked with mine as he fucked
me hard and rough. My body jerked with
each of his thrusts, and I felt a third
orgasm building inside me.
“Come for me,” Alex rasped. “I
want to feel your pussy squeezing me
tight while you come over my cock.”
His command sent me over the edge,
making me cry out as I did exactly as
he’d ordered—my pussy clenching
around his dick.
“Yes, my Evie,” he groaned. “That’s
just what I needed. To feel your wet
pussy milk my cock. You want my come
now, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I answered, my eyes locked
with his as he continued to pound inside
me. “I want that more than anything.”
He growled low in his throat, his
eyes darkening. “I’m going to fill you up,
mark you as mine from the inside out.”
“Good,” I panted, “It’s time to kick
baby-making practice into high gear. I
expect you to get me good and pregnant
in a few months.”
He paused in his thrusts, his head
snapping back in shock. “Evie?” he
gasped, his cock growing harder and
longer inside me as hope flared in his
eyes.
“I didn’t refill my prescription
before my trip. I’ve been off the pill for
two weeks now. The doctor says it will
be a few months before my body is
ready, though.”
With one more thrust, he planted
himself deep, his fingers digging into my
hips while he came for me. Came inside
me,
completely
unprotected
from
pregnancy for the very first time.
Keeping us connected, he lifted me into
his arms and carried me to our bedroom.
After dropping me onto the mattress, he
strode into the bathroom to grab a warm
washcloth. He hadn’t said a single word
since my admission, and I was starting to
get a little nervous. He gently cleaned
between my legs, dropping a kiss on my
navel which settled my nerves some.
When he was done, he tossed the cloth
over his shoulder, something he’d never
done before. My heart raced as he
moved me to the center of the bed,
covered me with the sheet, and slid in
beside me. My head dropped against his
chest when pulled me into his arms, and
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Say something,” I whispered,
finally breaking the silence between us.
He used one finger to tilt my head
until my gaze met his. I was startled to
find tears in his eyes. “Thank you, Evie.
I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect
homecoming.” Suddenly, he grinned. “I
don’t care what the doctor says, I think
we might have made our baby today. But
just in case we didn’t, I think we need to
try some more.”
And try we did, until the wee hours
of the morning when he dropped down
next to me and passed out. If my co-
workers saw me like I was with Alex,
vulnerable and open, they would
probably fall over in shock. In my
professional life, I was the furthest thing
from welcoming. My work environment
didn’t exactly foster friendships, and I
took those boundaries seriously. Even
amongst a group of loners, I had a
reputation for being even more of a lone
wolf. Fierce and solitary, but loyal. It
was a persona I was comfortable with
because it kept people at a distance.
Everyone but Alex, who I adored
beyond reason. Our marriage was
perfect...except for the whole other life I
was hiding from him. A life I needed to
rethink if we were really going to have a
baby. I’d have to take the next few
months while my body adjusted to figure
things out. The other part of my life
wasn’t a world into which I wanted to
bring an innocent life. I’d been able to
protect my husband from that side of my
life by keeping the two halves of myself
completely separate. But a pregnancy
very well could result in those two
worlds colliding. As I stared down at
my gorgeous husband, his face relaxed in
sleep, I vowed to find a way to make it
work. Alex wasn’t the most patient man
in the world. It had only taken him two
weeks to talk me into moving in with
him. Four weeks to pop the question.
Two months to exchange our vows. Four
years of comments about breeding me,
filling my belly with his baby. Four
years of me putting him off, knowing the
risks involved but was unable to explain
it to him. The decision had been made. I
was done making my husband wait. He’d
been patient long enough.
Chapter 2
Alex
Sometimes I really hated my job. I
hadn’t seen my wife in weeks and after
the perfect night we’d shared, all I
wanted to do was stay curled up in bed
with her for a week. At least. I was
determined to prove the doctor wrong
and plant my baby in Evie’s belly right
away. If it didn’t happen last night, I’d
be pretty shocked. It was like hearing
her say she was ready set something off
inside of me. I don’t think I’d ever
orgasmed so hard or filled her with so
much come. I wouldn’t be surprised if
my balls were dry as the fucking desert
this morning. But the erection pressing
against my wife’s stellar ass, as I
wrapped her up even tighter in my arms,
proved otherwise.
It didn’t matter what I wanted, the
constant buzzing of my cell phone was
shattering the perfection I was cocooned
in. The distinct pattern of vibration told
me it was my “work” cell and I stifled a
groan, not wanting to wake Evie. If I
ignored it, there would be a team of
agents swarming my house in no time.
That wouldn’t be easy to explain away.
“Oh, honey, these are some guys I met
at poker night. They thought we had a
game this morning. They didn’t mean to
break in... What? They look like spies?
Preposterous!”
The last thing I needed right now,
especially after she’d finally agreed to
have a baby, was to break it to my sweet
wife that she was married to a spy. I
didn’t intend to hide it from her forever.
I could appeal to the higher ups to have
her read in, and I planned to do so, some
day. I wanted to wait until I was ready to
leave the field. I struggled with the guilt
of lying, but I didn’t see one good reason
for causing her to live life in fear every
time I left the house. No, it was better
for her to remain blissfully ignorant,
believing I’m simply a contract lawyer
with a plethora of international clients.
Lifting my hand from where it had
been resting against her flat stomach, I
twisted and reach out to grab my phone.
The screen confirmed my suspicions, I
was being paged into the office.
Resisting the temptation to throw it at the
wall, I set it back down on the bedside
table. Curling back up around my Evie, I
resolved to put in for a long fucking
vacation. A babymoon. I perked up at the
thought. It was just what we needed. I
could spend my days and nights putting a
baby in my wife for a week—no ten
days—wait—maybe two weeks. Yeah,
two weeks sounded perfect.
I lifted my head and brushed a kiss
over Evie’s temple before reluctantly
letting her go and getting out of bed. She
stirred, and I leaned down to taste her
sweet lips.
“I’m sorry, I’ve got to go into the
office, baby. Stay right here and get
some rest. I’ll be back to wear you out
again in a couple of hours.” I winked at
her, and she smiled sleepily. She looked
so fuckable right at that moment. I started
to back away, having a firm talk with
myself about letting her sleep and getting
my ass to work.
It was hard (pun definitely intended),
but I managed to tear myself away and
go take a shower before putting on a suit
and heading to my home office. I
realized my briefcase was still in the
kitchen so I quickly went to retrieve it.
With my cover job as a contracts
attorney, a big portion of my paperwork
was extremely confidential and lucky for
me, my wife understood the sensitive
nature of what was in my briefcase and
didn’t ever attempt to see inside. Of
course, she had no idea how truly
sensitive the contents were.
Evie and I each had our own home
office, designed by us personally. When
we were building our house, I worked
with an architect on The Company
payroll to have a walk-in safe covertly
installed. In the back of my closet, there
appeared to be a small wall safe.
However, when unlocked, the entire
wall slid into a pocket, opening up into a
combination of a SCIF room and vault
for my personal arsenal.
Shutting my office door, I hit a button
to turn on a low murmur, so from the
hall, it sounded as though I was on a
call. Then, I headed to the safe and
punched in the code, entering and setting
my briefcase on a table in the center of
the room. I hit the combination to release
the catch and it sprang open. The case
held my Beretta 9mm and my Sig P226,
as well as an extra clip for each
magazine. It also had some other small
gadget weapons and a compartment for
my identity papers and cash.
The identity papers inside were still
good, so I stowed them away and
grabbed a new passport, driver’s
license, and a variety of banknotes for
several countries, not knowing where my
next assignment would be. I refilled both
magazines and clips, grabbed a boot
knife, and a few other ‘toys,’ before
locking up and heading to my car.
I slipped inside my Aston Martin and
chuckled, shaking my head like I did
every time I got into my car. I wasn’t
happy with Evie’s choice of vehicle, it
worried me over her safety. But, what
I’d never admit to her, is seeing her in it
was an incredible turn on. She had a
wild side most people didn’t get to see
and it was sexy as fuck.
I begrudgingly accepted her choice
and the matter was settled. Then, on our
first anniversary, I found James Bond’s
car sitting in my driveway. It was equal
parts joke and a thank you for backing
down over the car issue. Though the real
joke was lost on her, giving her spy
husband the same car driven by the
ultimate covert agent.
I left the house and drove to an office
building downtown, parking in the
garage underneath. The structure housed
several law offices, some legit, and
others a front for offices of clandestine
operations.
On the first floor, I flashed a badge
for Webster, Shaw & Associates before
entering
the
elevator
behind
the
reception desk. It only took a minute
after hitting the down button for the car
to stop and the doors slid silently open
to reveal a large room full of desks and
computers. As usual, there was a low
buzz of noise from my co-workers
chatting, strategizing, and computers
humming.
“Justice.”
I turned and saw Colin walking up to
me, his hand outstretched. I grasped it
and returned the greeting with his code
name. “Outrigger. What are you doing
here? I thought you were on a long-term,
covert assignment in India.”
Colin was an American citizen, but
he’d been raised in England and was
permanently stationed there a few years
before. I’d still worked with him on
several missions until he went dark. All
I knew was the assignment was in India,
but the details were kept classified.
He let go of my hand and grimaced.
“My cover was blown and I lost the
target. They brought me back to brief you
on the situation before they send you on
a retrieval.”
Retrieval missions were pretty
straight forward—capture, interrogate,
and pass the prisoner off to another
agent. Sometimes, it was easy, taking
only a day or two. Other times, it could
take weeks to track down the target. If
this guy was aware he was being
pursued and had gone on the run, it
meant I was looking down the barrel of
the latter. Fuck. I’d been home for less
than twenty-four hours and I was being
sent back into the field. How was I going
to explain this to Evie?
Colin started to relay information
about the op as we made our way to a
conference room across the way. When
we passed by the office of our chief
analyst and resident tech genius, Martin,
I popped my head in to say hello. As a
senior field officer, I often ran a team for
ops, and Martin and I worked closely
together. However, on solo ops, such as
the one I was about to embark on, Martin
was often my life-line. The difference
between ending up back in bed with my
wife or in a box, six feet under.
He mumbled something resembling a
greeting, without looking up from
whatever he was working on. I laughed
and continued on to my meeting. I
followed Colin to the room and we both
took a seat at the large, oval table. Our
superior, Howard Donovan, was already
seated, looking through a file, and his
head lifted when he heard us enter.
“It’s about damn time, Justice.”
I held tight to my patience and
swallowed a sharp retort. “I’ve only
been home for a few hours, Donovan.
Barely enough time to greet my wife
properly”—my
eyes
narrowed
in
irritation—“and leaving her in bed this
morning was not on my to-do list. The
list was one fucking word long,
Genevieve.”
Colin snorted, trying to contain his
laughter and Donovan rolled his eyes.
“Let’s get on with this, the sooner we
finish briefing you, the sooner you can
complete the mission and get back to
practicing your talents as a Raven.”
It was my turn to scoff. “My
seduction skills don’t need any fine
tuning, just ask my wife. She’s the only
one who will ever be the recipient
anyway. But that’s beside the point. Just
so you know, when this mission is over,
I’m taking a month off.”
“Done.” Donovan nodded then slid a
file my way. The manila folder was
stamped with CODE-WORD
CLASSIFIED, which explained why it
was only the three of us in the room.
Only a handful of agents in my office had
a code-word clearance. Inside was a
dossier on the target, Mark Sai, code
name: Heron, with a picture and as much
information as we could gather on the
man.
“You think he’s hiding out in Rome?”
I shot an irritated glance at my boss.
Evie and I vacationed there frequently,
which means I spend a great deal of time
there as myself, as the real me, Alex
Shaw, contract attorney and devoted
husband.
Donovan sighed. “The higher-ups
are putting their foot down. They want
you for this assignment and they don’t
care about anything else.”
“I’m going to have to be twice as
vigilant, and it’s going to slow me
down.”
Donovan shrugged, and I knew it
was the most I was going to get out of
him on the subject. At least Evie wasn’t
going to be there with me. Every once in
a while, the jackasses I answered to
would send me on a mission while I was
in the middle of traveling with my wife.
Never in Rome, though.
There wasn’t anything I could do
about it, so I went back to skimming the
file. One line in particular stood out,
“What the fuck?” I growled. “He was an
agent-in-place?” The background stated
he had tried to defect half a decade
before but had been convinced to
continue working for the foreign
government, similar to being a double
agent, but he was a civilian. Losing an
asset like him meant we were running
blind, not knowing who he was
informing on or what they were being
told.
“I was his case agent,” Colin
informed me. “I don’t know if he
exposed me or someone in his chain of
command got enough information to
piece together the clues and blew my
cover. Either way, Mark got spooked
and took off.”
“We need to know what he’s shared
and how much of it is fact versus
fiction,” Donovan added.
A mess of this caliber wouldn’t be
contained to our department, and I
needed to know what else I was up
against. “Is there a kill order?”
Donovan nodded. “I heard they gave
the job to Scarlett.” Fuck. It wasn’t just
a retrieval, it as a damn fucking race to
the finish line. Scarlett was practically a
myth around here. Rumored to be an
agent for dark ops, the operative was a
fucking ghost, going in for the kill,
accomplishing it, and disappearing
without a trace. We’d gathered enough
intel to recognize Scarlett’s work back
in London, four years ago. The agent had
slit the target’s throat before we could
get him in a room to interrogate him.
“Why can’t you guys work the fuck
together? I shouldn’t be hampered by my
own damn agency, Donovan.”
He leaned back in his chair, crossing
his arms over his chest, his face
impassive. “That’s above my pay
grade.”
I shook my head solemnly, “You’ve
just killed my hero-worship of you,
dude. I can’t believe you’re a slave to
the man like the rest of us schmucks.”
“Get the fuck out of here and do your
job, Justice,” he said gruffly, but there
was a layer of amusement in his tone and
laughter in his eyes.
I gathered up the information folder
and strode to the door. “A month,
Donovan. And I’m leaving my fucking
phone in my safe.” I yelled over my
shoulder before exiting the room.
***
I slipped silently down the hallway of
the Rafaello Hotel in Rome. My
destination was room 501, the top floor,
with windows facing another building.
It took me three fucking days after
arriving in Rome, but I’d finally tracked
Heron to this hotel. I waited another two
days, watching his routine and plotting
the best time to do a snatch and grab. At
one point, I sent a weasel agent from
another department scurrying back home.
I wasn’t fool enough to think there
weren’t more, though I’d yet to
encounter another.
I was getting more and more
impatient with this assignment. When I’d
left the agency after my meeting with
Donovan and Colin, I went home to face
my wife. To my surprise, Evie was up
and packing a suitcase.
“I got a call about a Rembrandt
I’ve been trying to acquire. It’s in Port
Elizabeth,” she informed me, her
expression wary and her tone thick with
apology.
I walked up to her and pulled her
into my arms, kissing her soundly.
“One of my clients breached a fucking
contract and I’ve got to go to Brazil
and straighten it out.”
She wrapped her arms around my
middle and hugged me tight, her cheek
resting on my chest. “Aren’t we the jet-
set couple,” she murmured sadly.
Lifting her chin with finger, I
placed a soft kiss on her nose, then
another on her sweet lips. “I’m taking
a month off after this trip. How about
we go back to Fiji?”
Evie’s face lit up like a Christmas
tree. “Really?” she asked excitedly.
“Really, baby. No phones, no
internet, only you and me—“I rubbed a
hand over her stomach—“and the kid I
put inside you.” I winked and she
laughed, hugging me close once again.
Reaching the correct room, I pushed
away the emotions invoked by the
memory. I needed to focus. Unlatching
my hidden shoulder holster, I pulled out
my M9 and put my ear to the door. It was
silent, which wasn’t surprising because
it was the middle of the afternoon and
I’d learned it was when Heron slept,
keeping a vigil at night. I’m not sure why
the idiot thought the light of day would
make a damn bit of difference.
I tried the knob, because, well, you
never knew with these dipshits. It was
locked, but the movement of the door
indicated he hadn’t dead bolted it.
Rather than kick the door in and make a
raucous, I shoved my gun into the back
of my waist band and knelt in front of the
door to pick the lock. The click of the
tumblers was inordinately loud in the
surrounding silence.
Retrieving my weapon, I slowly
pushed the door open, grateful for well-
oiled hinges. Gun aimed in front of me, I
stepped over the threshold, sweeping the
room with my gaze only to discover an
empty bed. I heard a rustle in the
bathroom and stepped back against the
wall, blending into the shadows as much
as possible.
Heron exited the bathroom in nothing
but a towel, and I rolled my eyes
heavenward. I really didn’t want to grab
this guy without clothes. Situations like
this
never
ended
well
for
me,
considering I usually have to wrestle the
target to the floor in order to subdue
them. Apparently, Lady Luck was with
me because Heron didn’t seem inclined
to walk around in the buff, or to notice
my presence, as he went about getting
dressed. If all I had to deal with was a
glimpse of his saggy, white ass, I could
deal.
Once he had on jeans and a shirt, but
before he could put on shoes, I stepped
from my hiding spot and quickly stalked
up behind him. He was staring out the
window, squinting at something, and
didn’t even notice my approach until he
felt the cold steel of my Beretta, pressing
against his neck.
“What do you say we skip the tussle
and go right to the part where you give
up and I drag your ass out of here?”
Chapter 3
Evie
“You’re a go.” I barely blinked at the
confirmation of the kill order when it
came through my ear piece. It wasn’t a
surprise, even though my target was
technically a civilian. Leaving Heron
alive was a risk my boss wasn’t willing
to take, which I understood, since he
was privy to sensitive information after
having worked with the agency for five
years. The man had come to my country
for protection and found himself
between a rock and a hard place because
he had been in the unlucky position of
being of strategic use to our government
—but that didn’t excuse his decision for
turning traitor. He’d agreed to be pulled
into this kill or be killed world, the same
as I had.
Eight years ago, I’d never expected
to find myself where I was today, flat on
my belly on the roof of an office
building, fifteen hundred yards away
from the Rafaello hotel in Rome, with
my 338 Lapua Magnum aimed at the
window of my target’s room. I’d resisted
the CIA’s attempts to recruit me out of
college. With my hard-earned bachelor’s
degree in Art History in hand, I’d
planned to head straight into graduate
school.
My goal had been to become a
curator at one of the top museums in the
world. The Louvre, the Guggenheim, the
Tate, the Met—my sights had been aimed
high, but I was convinced I could
accomplish anything if I worked hard
enough. It was a mindset my father had
instilled in me, and in the blink of an
eye, the veil was torn away from my
innocent eyes when he never arrived at
my graduation. For as long as I could
remember, it had been him and me
versus the world—right up until an old
enemy from his days serving as a Navy
SEAL rose up from the ashes of his past
to murder him in cold blood.
When the agency recruiter came
knocking on my door the next day, with a
confidential dossier on the asshole
who’d taken my dad away from me, I’d
signed on the dotted line. No questions
asked. To avenge his death, I sold my
soul to the devil and I’d never looked
back. I used the skills my dad and his
SEAL buddies had taught me to hunt
down the man responsible for his death.
All those years of shooting lessons,
hunting trips and obstacle courses were
put to good use. I’d earned numerous
marksmanship awards over the years,
but I’d never aimed a gun at a human
being until that day. It was my first kill,
but nowhere close to my last. I’d
exceeded my recruiter’s abilities and
was quickly moved to a division running
missions so dark, we didn’t even have a
name. But they put my years of martial
arts and weapons training to good use,
honing me until I became the ultimate
weapon. Scarlett, the assassin with more
kills to her name than anyone else in the
agency, although there was no official
record of my body count.
Tonight, I was going to add another
to my tally. It hadn’t taken me long to run
my target to ground. I’d spent the last
three days observing him, studying all of
his behaviors and looking for any sign
he’d made contact with anyone else who
could pose a threat in the future. I’d
caught signs that other agents were
hiding in the shadows, the same as me,
but nobody had approached him yet. The
involvement of others this early in the
game meant the clock was ticking faster
than I’d originally anticipated. I’d
always been good at reading people, a
skill my dad had cultivated with pop
quizzes about the people surrounding us
at the oddest times growing up. With the
added behavioral training the agency had
given me, I was an expert at determining
motives and weaknesses. Heron was a
man running scared, and he hadn’t yet
had the chance to head for the safety of
another country’s agency. The degree of
his anxiety indicated it was a possibility
in the future, though. Hence, the kill
order.
Glancing down at the watch strapped
around my wrist, I noted the time. If he
followed the same pattern as the last
three nights, Sai would be out of the
shower and dressed for his nighttime
vigil any minute now. A quick look at my
Kestrel 1000 wind meter confirmed the
conditions hadn’t changed since I last
checked. No additional adjustments
needed to be made to the sight on my
Vanquish .308 sniper rifle, so I lowered
my head and peered through the scope.
As expected, it didn’t take long for me to
catch sight of my target in the window.
But a split-second later, I was in for the
shock of my life as I watched a man,
dressed in black from head to toe,
approach him from behind and press a
handgun into his neck. I was determined
to follow through with my mission,
refusing to allow this shadowy figure to
swoop in and steal my target. My finger
started to press down on the trigger, but I
stopped the motion when I recognized
the man’s eyes. There was no mistaking
who they belonged to, not when I’d seen
them gaze down at me with love, heat,
and humor many times over the last four
years.
I lifted my finger completely away
from the trigger as the implications of
what I was seeing registered in my
brain. Alex. The man in black, with the
gun in his hand, was Alex. My husband,
who was supposed to be in Brazil taking
care of boring lawyer stuff. I didn’t have
the chance to wrap my brain around the
situation. As I watched Alex move the
man away from the window, I noticed a
flash of red light moving in a sweep
from the left side of the window towards
the two men.
Laser light.
“Shooter,” I hissed, taking aim and
firing over Alex’s head, knowing he’d
get the hint and take cover. My shot was
followed by a volley of fire from the
other shooter.
“Fucking amateur,” I muttered as I
shifted my gun and took aim at him. No
self-respecting sniper would use a
tactical light. The laser was pointless
because it draws a straight line and
doesn’t account for bullet drop. Not only
did it not add any accuracy to the shot, it
increased the odds of tipping off your
target, like he’d just tipped me off.
Spotting his hidey-hole through my non-
reflective scope, protecting my position
from him as he scanned the area, I added
to my body count by taking him out.
Swinging my rifle back towards the
hotel, I swallowed the lump in my throat
at the sight of shattered glass and bullet-
ridden walls. There was no sign of Alex
or Sai, and I could only hope my
husband had made it out of the room
alive and uninjured. Not only because I
loved him, but so he could explain to me
what the hell he’d been doing there in
the first place!
With swift motions, I broke my rifle
down and packed it up. As I headed for
the door, I yanked the ear piece out,
dropped it on the ground, and smashed it
with my heel. Pulling a secured satellite
phone out of my pocket, I dialed the only
number stored in it and waited for my
boss to answer as I raced down the
stairwell. The elevator would be faster,
but I’d only disabled the cameras on the
stairs since it was my planned route. The
last thing I needed was to run into
security when I needed to get my ass out
of this building and down the street.
“Status?”
“Mission incomplete,” I answered.
Stunned silence filled the line for a
moment. In all my years with the agency,
I’d never answered this question in the
negative before. “Explain.”
“There was another shooter. An
amateur, using a laser scope.”
“Were you able to eliminate the
competition?”
“Yes, sir. That situation has been
neutralized,” I confirmed.
“And the target?”
“Fled the scene. I’m in pursuit.” I
hesitated, unsure how I wanted to
explain that Heron hadn’t been alone
when he’d left.
“Is there anything else I need to
know, Scarlett?”
Heaving out a deep breath as I
reached the ground floor and headed for
the exit, I considered everything I knew
about my husband. Puzzle pieces fell
into place, and the most likely
explanation came to mind. “Is the
Special Operations Group aware of the
situation with the target?”
“Yes, why?”
“I think there was an agent with the
target, attempting a retrieval, when the
shots were fired.”
“I’m sure they’d like to have a
conversation
with
him.
Did
you
recognize the agent?” he asked.
Did I recognize him as an agent?
No.
Did I recognize him as the man I
adored, and who I planned to have a
baby with in the very near future? Yes.
“I’d hate to be put in a position
where I have to disavow all knowledge
of
you
because
you’ve
withheld
information which might help me protect
you and the mission,” he prodded,
irritation clear in his tone.
“Would your access let you run
facial recognition software using a photo
in comparison to the agents in the
Special Operations Group?”
“Of course it would,” he snarled.
“Did you take the time to snap a picture
of the guy when you should have been
eliminating your target?”
“No, sir. The picture I want you to
use is one of my husband.”
“Well, shit, girl. That would be one
hell of a turn of events.” My boss’s
voice softened. He was well aware of
Alex’s place in my life and had advised
me to have the agency run a thorough
background check on him before we
married. Clearly, the report I’d been
provided with had excluded quite a bit
of important information . “I’ll have an
answer for you within ten minutes. But
regardless of the answer, I need you to
do your job Scarlett.”
“Understood,
sir,”
I
bit
out,
disconnecting the call and hopping into
the car I’d been using during this
mission. Revving the engine, I exited the
alley where I’d been parked and headed
towards the hotel, three blocks away. As
soon as I rounded the corner, I caught
sight of a white van idling at the curb.
My target was being shoved into the
passenger seat. Ignoring the red light in
front of me, I blasted the intersection to
the blare of horns from angry drivers
who had the right of way. The sound
drew the man in black’s attention as he
circled the van for the driver’s side. He
turned to look over his shoulder, and I
was struck anew by recognition. The
way he moved, the shape of his face, his
height. This man had to be Alex.
I raced through another intersection,
the last one separating me from the van,
while it peeled away from the curb.
Tires screeching, the driver made a
quick getaway with me right on his rear
bumper. He tried to evade me, but I
stayed glued to him, even as several
police cars passed us as they raced
towards the hotel.
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” I chanted,
unused to waiting instead of acting. But I
wasn’t about to do anything that could
cause the driver of the van harm if it
might be Alex. Watching the vehicle
weave in and out of traffic, I couldn’t
help but be impressed with the driver’s
skills—much the same as I had been the
first time Alex had driven the Aston
Martin I’d given him as a present.
Although only four and a half minutes
had passed, it felt like forever when my
sat phone rang.
“Is he an agent?”
“Yes, Scarlett. It would appear like
attracts like in the case of your marriage,
because Alex is part of the Special
Operations Group, where he goes by the
code name Justice.”
“Justice,” I repeated, part of me
wanting to laugh at the nickname which
fit my husband so well, while the other
side of me wanted to howl in frustration.
Then it hit me, “Wait, the Justice
everybody is always talking about? The
one who is able to break anyone?”
“Yes.”
This was too much to comprehend
all at once. Justice was a fucking legend
in The Company. And apparently, I was
married to him. Now what did that say
about my ability to read people?
“Snap out of it, Scarlett. You still
have a mission to complete, one which
is at direct odds with the orders your
husband has most likely received. Can I
trust you to get the job done or do I need
to send someone else in?”
“You can trust me, sir.” I wasn’t sure
if my answer was truthful, but it was the
only one I was willing to give. There
was no way in hell I’d allow another
assassin from my division anywhere in
the vicinity of Alex. “I’ll handle it.” One
way or another.
Disconnecting the call, I dropped the
sat phone on the passenger seat and dug
in the center console for my personal
cell. With a quick swipe across the
screen, it powered up.
“Call Alex.”
Following my voice command, the
call went through and I waited as the
line rang on the other end. Once. Twice.
At the third ring, I figured he was going
to let it go straight to voicemail
—understandable since he was in the
middle of a high speed chase on the
streets of Rome with an unwilling
passenger in the van. Then on the fourth
ring, he picked up.
“Hey, baby. I’m kind of in the middle
of something. Is everything okay?”
Oh, he was in the middle of
something all right.
“Hey, stud. I was wondering if you’d
like to meet up in Rome instead of Fiji.
It’s been a little while since we’ve
visited there.”
For pleasure at least, I wasn’t about
to count any of my post-mission
debriefings there. Who knew how often
he’d been there for the same reason over
the last four years? Now that I thought
about it, if Rome was his station in
Europe too, I was kind of surprised
we’d never run into each other
unexpectedly during a mission before
now, since we’d both been out of the
country simultaneously a ridiculous
number of times over the years. And he
didn’t know I was in the car following
him, yet. I was curious to see how he’d
try to talk his way out of this one. Yeah,
even though I’d been lying to him just as
long and in the same way, I still wanted
to fuck with him a bit because I was a
little hurt. It wasn’t exactly fair, but the
feelings were there just the same. Who
knew I could be such a girl?
“I don’t know, baby. I was looking
forward to seeing you in nothing but your
tiny white bikini.”
The van swerved to the right, and
there was a muffled grunt in the
background, followed by a growled
curse from Alex.
“What was that, Alex? We must have
a bad connection because I couldn’t hear
you clearly.”
“Nothing, baby. Just some asshole
who had something to say about you in a
bikini. Don’t worry, I shut him up.”
His response was so typical Alex
that it made tears well in my eyes. No
matter what we’d been hiding from each
other, one thing was undeniable—Alex
loved me as much as I loved him. Our
love would see us through this mess, I
was certain of it. The authorities must
have realized the seriousness of the
situation because ten more police cars
zoomed past us, sirens blaring wildly.
As I was preparing to blurt out the news
that I was in the car behind him, I heard
the sound echo through the line.
“Evie?” He must have heard it too.
His brain didn’t take as long as mine had
to sift through the facts and reach the
right conclusion. “I’m pulling over.”
His voice was a deep growl, the one
usually reserved for when he was about
to fuck me hard. It sent shivers down my
spine, even as butterflies took flight in
my belly. Sure enough, the brakes lights
went on in front of me as the van slowed
down and moved to the side of the road.
I followed behind him, coming to a stop
as he leapt from the van and stalked
towards me. Dressed in combat boots,
black cargo pants, a tight black shirt
stretched over his chest, and with a
black knit cap over his dark hair, Alex
was the epitome of a dangerous man.
Hot and deadly with the Beretta gripped
in his right hand. The situation was
fucked beyond all recognition, but he’d
never looked sexier to me.
Chapter 4
Alex
I jerked the van to the side of the road,
ignoring Heron when he was thrown up
against the side door. His restraints kept
him from righting himself, and I didn’t
care. The asshole shouldn’t have been
making comments about my wife.
Speaking of my wife... I jumped out
of the driver’s seat, out onto the
sidewalk and glared at the car
screeching to a stop behind my vehicle.
Sure enough, Evie sat behind the wheel
and I was caught up in a tumble of
emotions. The most prevalent being fear
for her safety, but anger was a damn
close second. I heard a thump and a
grunt of pain from inside the van, and
since I was irrationally blaming Heron
for this whole situation, I was
inordinately pleased at the thought of
him trying to shift around inside and
injuring himself in the process.
While I waited for her to turn off the
engine and exit the car, I ripped my ear
bud out and stuffed it in a pocket so I
didn’t have to listen to Martin ramble
on. He was trying to figure out what was
happening, and I didn’t have the slightest
fucking clue, nor did I want anyone to be
privy to the situation at hand. I stood
there taking deep breaths, trying to calm
my racing heart and cool my ire before I
absolutely lost it on her.
She stepped from the car, her long,
lithe body encased in form fitting black
pants, a long-sleeved thermal, and boots
laced up to her knees. Her long
mahogany hair was pulled back into a
slick ponytail, the red highlights showing
up in the sun. Her face was devoid of
makeup, giving her a natural look so she
wouldn’t stand out. But, it didn’t matter
what Evie did to try and blend in, she
drew every eye around her. It was about
the worst timing ever to be sporting a
hard on, but my wife looked so fucking
sexy I almost forgot what I was mad
about. All I wanted to do was drag her
to the nearest bed and fuck her hard.
Shaking my head a little, I tried to
clear away the lust-filled haze. I tucked
my gun into the back waistband of my
pants and covered it with my shirt. I felt
like one of those idiots in movies, but at
the moment, it was the best way to keep
it hidden. She stopped near the rear of
the van and peeked into the window, an
irritated expression materializing on her
face at whatever it was she saw. She
turned and leaned against the side of the
vehicle, crossing her arms over her chest
and stared at me.
“What the fuck are you doing here,
Evie?” I growled.
Her eyes narrowed and her chin
lifted stubbornly. “I could ask you the
same question, Justice.”
It wasn’t like I’d had much time to
process all of this, but I didn’t realize
how much I was hoping this was all
some kind of fucked-up coincidence
until she used my code name.
“And by the way,” she snarled, “you
need to watch your back more carefully,
Alex. Another sniper might have shot
you, and I’d rather you didn’t make me a
widow.”
I staggered back a half step, she
couldn’t possibly mean... No. Could
she? “It was you shooting the spray of
bullets through the window?” As
shocked as I was that Evie was clearly a
sniper, and holy fuck was I shocked to
learn my sweet wife was a fucking
assassin, I had a hard time believing it
had been her. She was a perfectionist,
and I couldn’t see her being so careless.
“how She scowled, clearly offended.
“Of course it wasn’t me,” she snapped.
“I only fired the warning shot. I’m not an
amateur.”
Not an amateur. How long had this
been going on? “Exactly how long have
you been experienced at this, Evie?” I
asked through clenched teeth.
Her face fell and sadness crept into
her dark brown eyes. “You mean how
long have I been lying to you? Probably
as long as you’ve been doing so to me.”
Was our whole life one big charade?
A painful thought began to creep into my
head, no matter how much I tried to keep
it out. Had she married me to establish
her cover? I pushed back the insistent
doubt. No. I knew she loved me as much
as I loved her.
However, this shit ended right now. I
wasn’t going to let my wife constantly
put herself in danger. It would tear me up
inside, and I couldn’t live with the
worry and pain. What if something had
happened to her? How could she
continue going on missions, knowing she
was endangering my whole reason for
living?
I closed the distance between us and
gripped her biceps firmly, but gentle
enough so I wouldn’t hurt her. “We are
going to have a long ass discussion
about this, but I haven’t got the time right
now. I need to get my target to a safe
house.”
Evie
shuffled,
looking
slightly
uncomfortable.
“About
that...”
she
trailed off, glancing at the van before
meeting my eyes again. Her usually
warm brown eyes were filled with
steely determination. “I’m going to need
you to remand him into my custody. I’ve
got orders too.”
“Why don’t we take him in together?
We’ll both get our chance to interoga—”
I broke off when Evie’s face turned
wary.
Her eyes strayed to the van once
again, then she sighed as she looked
back at me. “I’m not here to talk to him,
Justice.”
I bristled at her us of my code name.
I didn’t like hearing it from her lips. But
she was obviously using it for a reason
and when it sunk in, I wanted to put my
fist through a wall. Or through the face
of the motherfucker who recruited Evie.
She was sent to kill Heron, which
meant—my head was about to explode
with the amount of shit being heaped
onto me in such a short period of time.
“You’re Scarlett.” It was a statement,
not a question.
“Yes.”
Holy fuck. My wife had one of the
highest kill records at the agency. Well,
she would if they actually acknowledged
her as an operative. I had to admit, there
was some pride blooming in my chest
because my wife was the shit. Although,
no one would know. Evie was beyond
black ops. Her division, if you could
call it that, wasn’t on any official
records. Not even top secret, redacted
files. Which meant, if she was ever
captured, there was no paper trail to
connect her to the CIA. She would be out
in the cold, which is an ironic
expression
considering
she
would
become a burned spy.
The fear previously masked under
my anger shot to the surface. I didn’t
care how good she was at her job,
nobody was perfect. If she ever made a
mistake—I couldn’t even think about it.
And, I would never know what
happened to her. She would simply
disappear. Before I could drown in my
terrifying thoughts, I called on every bit
of my training and focused on the
mission.
“I can’t let you have him, Scarlett.” I
saw the tiniest wince in her features
when I used her field name. She didn’t
seem to like it either. But, we were
suddenly in operation mode, and it was
clear we both felt the separation from
our home life and our job.
“I don’t think you’re grasping the
situation, Justice. I don’t have the luxury
of even one do-over. Failure is not an
option for me.”
I grunted in frustration. “You’re
asking me to voluntarily blow this op. I
can’t do it. I’m sorry, but Heron is more
valuable alive than dead.”
“Not according to my superiors.
They believe he poses too big of a threat
and needs to be eliminated.”
Before I could respond, the double
doors at the back of the van flew off
with a loud bang. One of them smashed
into the car Evie had been driving, one
corner embedding itself in the driver’s
seat. I’m sure that would haunt me later
but my training kicked in, and I
immediately started assessing everything
around me. I darted to the van,
wondering how a bomb got planted and
whether Heron could have survived the
blast. I glanced back at Evie, searching
her reaction, wondering if she’d been
able to complete her mission after all.
Had I missed her setting the charge? I
was trained to be hyper-observant, I
couldn’t imagine I wouldn’t have seen
it.
A sliver of hurt slashed through my
heart at the thought of Evie choosing her
assignment over me, killing the target
before we even had a chance to talk. Her
eyes widened at my accusatory frown,
hurt that mirrored my own showing
through as she shook her head. I couldn’t
consider any alternative, even knowing
she’d been lying to me for year, at that
moment; I instinctively trusted her.
Darting over to the smoldering
opening, I looked inside and didn’t see a
body. I did however, see bloody zip ties
lying on the floor near the sliding panel
door on the left side of the van that
opened out to the street. Blowing the
back doors had been a decoy so he could
get out another way, unnoticed. I took off
down the street, running like a bat out of
hell. I didn’t see him anywhere, but I
knew the most likely routes he would
take. After about thirty minutes, I slowed
to a stop in an alley, I wasn’t going to
catch up with him this way. I was up shit
creek without a paddle, the bastard had
escaped.
The rumble of an engine drew my
attention, and I looked up to see Evie
driving the battered van in my direction.
She parked and hopped out.
“The cops were going to be there
any second, so I figured it best to move
the van.”
I nodded, walking toward the back
of the van. “Your car?”
“Rental. I didn’t pick it up and the
alias used is thorough. It can’t be traced
to me.”
I studied the blown doors, trying to
figure out how Heron had gotten out of
the restraints, and even worse, how the
fuck he got a bomb in the van.
“Your glove compartment.”
“What?” I shifted my attention to
Evie as she rounded the corner of the
van.
“He raided your glove box. Why the
hell did you leave chemicals in there?”
She held up a bottle of brake fluid
(Polyethylene glycol) and a jar of what
looked like chlorine dioxide mixed with
some other stuff.
“Shit.” I scrubbed my hands over my
face. “I didn’t have a chance to sweep
the van before I took it out. The last
jackass who used it must have left them
in there.”
She pointed to a melted piece of
clear plastic. It looked like he put tiny
amounts of each into the empty water
bottles up front and tossed them at the
back door. The explosion was small
enough to blow the back off the van,
covering the sound of the opening side
door and him running away.
Then it hit me, the thump I heard
after I got out of the car. If Heron had hit
hard enough to break a thumb, he might
have been able to work his hands out of
the binding. It looked like he’d taken a
lot of skin off with them.
The injury would hamper him a
little, but not much. A quick check of my
watch confirmed the sun was about to set
completely. I knew it was more likely
the target would travel at night, but he
would have to take care of his injury
first. We could get some rest and pick up
his trail in the morning, hopefully
catching up to him before he slipped
away the next night.
Evie pulled a backpack from the
passenger seat and slung it over a
shoulder. To most people, it didn’t look
like anything special, but in reality, it
was a tactical backpack.
“Valkyrie?” I guessed.
She shook her head as she pulled out
another smaller bag, and slammed the
door shut. “Vanquish. It’s my personal
weapon,
so
I
don’t
need
the
ambidextrous feature. I saw no reason to
switch, the precision is equally good on
either.”
It was her personal weapon? I
pictured my own little armory at home
and wondered. “The safe in your
office?”
She cocked her head to the side,
studying me. “SCIF and weapons. You?”
“Same.” The conversation was
taking on a surreal quality, and I wasn’t
ready to get into everything right then.
So, I changed the subject. “Let’s find a
room and we’ll figure things out
tomorrow,” I suggested wearily.
“Sure.” Evie gestured for me to lead
the way out of the alley. Before we left, I
quickly retrieved my briefcase and go-
bag. Then, I dumped the rest of the brake
fluid around the van and as we walked
away, I tossed in a lighter.
***
“I’m going to grab a shower,” Evie said
before disappearing into the bathroom.
We’d checked into The Waldorf,
figuring it was a better choice than our
villa. Neither of us wanted to draw
attention to our vacation home while in
the thick of an assignment. After tossing
her bug out bag on the bed, she slid her
rifle underneath. She immediately moved
to the mini-fridge and opened it to stare
longingly at the small bottles of alcohol.
She sighed and grabbed a water.
I almost smiled at how damn cute
she was, but I was too tense to really be
amused. I wasn’t, however, too occupied
to miss the sight of her heart-shaped ass
sticking in the air as she bent down to
peer into the appliance. She always had
the power to make me want her, no
matter what. My body and heart
recognized my soul mate. The love of my
life.
Turning away, I strode to the phone
and ordered room service. When it
arrived, we ate in relative silence,
neither of us knowing what to say. I
hated the awkward tension. It had
always been easy with us, even when we
got angry with each other. Knowing there
were always lies between us actually
made me realize how strong our
relationship was. We were sure of our
love for each other and despite holding
our own secrets, we still had complete
trust in one another. A rarity for people
who lived their lives in a world of
espionage. I wondered if we’d ever be
able to get back to that place.
I cleaned up once she closed the
bathroom door, trying not to think about
what was on the other side. I didn’t
know why I was even trying. Resisting
Evie wasn’t possible, even with the
“what ifs” hanging over us. She was
mine, she would always be mine.
I stripped on my way to join her in
the shower, entering the room naked and
hard as a fucking rock. The sight of her
in the big, glass shower, her head back
to rinse her hair, thrusting her amazing
tits in the air, her flat stomach, the flare
of her hips, her beautifully bare pussy,
had my muscles clenching and all the
blood in my head rushing straight to my
groin.
Pulling the door open, steam
billowed out and made rivulets of
condensation roll down my already
overheated body. The draft of cold air
creeping in blew over Evie, causing her
nipples to tighten into hard little peaks.
I tore my eyes away from the dusky
tips, dragging my gaze up to meet her
eyes. Only, they were glued to my cock,
standing up against my stomach, already
begging to be inside her. As I slowly
approached, she finally lifted her gaze
and the burning want in those chocolate
depths made any hesitancy I’d been
harboring dissipate.
My hand slid easily over her wet
skin, grasping her around the waist and
slamming her body into mine as my
mouth sealed over hers. It had been over
four days since I’d tasted her lips, and
just like every time I was away from her,
it felt like I hadn’t seen her in forever. I
licked the seam of her mouth and she
immediately opened for me, our tongues
twisting
and
tangling,
matching
desperation in our kiss.
I loved her so fucking much and I
needed her more than my next breath. My
hands traveled up her torso to palm her
full tits, their size making them spill out
of my hands. Massaging them to the
rhythm of our kiss, I felt a shiver rip
through her and I wanted more. Shifting
so I was cupping her, exposing her hard
little nubs, I trailed kisses down until I
took one peak into my mouth. I was
rewarded with another shiver. Her hands
delved into my hair, sending tingles
straight down to my cock. I switched to
her other tit until I’d had my fill, then let
it go with a little pop before sinking to
my knees.
With my hands on her hips, I
encouraged her to turn and face the
shower seat. “Bend down, baby. Widen
your legs so I can see your pretty, pink
pussy.”
She bent and opened her legs, but it
wasn’t enough and she knew it. I slapped
a palm down onto the creamy skin of one
ass cheek, enjoying the sight of my mark
on her and the deep moan ripping from
her chest. “Tilt your pussy, and get those
legs open, or I’ll eat until I’m full and
won’t let you come.”
Her ass angled higher and her legs
moved open wide, exposing her lower
lips. Even though she was wet from the
shower, I could see the slightly thicker
wetness of her arousal on the insides of
her thighs, and I couldn’t wait any
longer. “Always so wet for me, aren’t
you, baby? You’re fucking soaked.” I
pushed her ass a little higher until she
was on her tip toes, then I spread her
pussy lips and licked her with the flat of
my tongue, from bottom to top. She
moaned again, but as I began to eat her
in earnest, her sounds became cries of
passion, spurring me on.
“I love your taste, baby. I want it to
fill my mouth. Come on my face, Evie.
Do it now.” I slid two fingers inside her
incredibly tight pussy and sucked her clit
so hard, my cheeks hollowed out. She
exploded, screaming my name as her
body wracked with shudders, her juices
flooding my mouth, the sweetest taste in
the world.
Surging to my feet, I flipped us
around so I could sit on the shower
bench. “Sit on my cock, baby,” I
commanded. “I want you to ride me.”
She straddled my legs, giving me the
perfect opportunity to bite her ass,
causing her to give a little squeak. The
next thing I knew, she dropped down
onto my dick, impaling herself all the
way, and I shouted, “Fuck! You’re so
damn tight.”
Rocking back and forth a little, she
let herself adjust to my size. I put my
hands under her elbows and brought her
arms up to circle my neck, behind her
head. “Keep them there, baby,” I
whispered before nibbling on her ear.
Her skin was slick as my hands slid the
rest of the way up her arms, then back
down and over clavicle, falling to
squeeze her tits and play with her
nipples, plucking and twisting them. She
squirmed on my cock, and I groaned at
the way her pussy walls were clenching
around me.
Her rocking slowly turned to
bouncing, until she was wildly lifting
and dropping as my hips thrust up to
meet her.
“Oh! Oh! Yes, Alex!” Her cries
fanned the fire inside until I was no
longer satisfied with our position.
“I need to fuck you, baby. Hard. I
know you can take it, right?”
She mumbled an agreement, still
panting and moaning from her orgasm. I
lifted her off my cock with a tortured
groan and spun her around to face me.
Backing her up the wall, I grasped her
ass and raised her high enough for me to
drive home. She immediately came,
screaming my name.
“The feeling of you coming around
my cock is unbelievable, Evie. Give me
more of it.” I increased the power of my
thrusts, my hands gripping her ass hard
enough to bruise. Her legs encircled my
waist and her head fell back against the
wall with a soft thump.
“I can’t,” she whined. “Just finish,
Alex. I can’t come again.”
Smirking, I leaned in close so my
face was a breath away from hers. “You
know better than to give me a challenge
like that, baby,” I growled.
My hips moved back and forth with
power, driving deep each time. When
she was writhing once again, I used my
thumb to press down on her clit. She
went off like a fucking rocket, her
screams music to my ears. But, I was an
over achiever, so winning the challenge
just once wasn’t my style. I sucked up all
of my restraint and slowed down while
her racing heart calmed.
“Alex,” she whimpered. “Please.”
“One more, baby. Then I’ll let you
rest. I know you can give me another.
Your body is already tingling with need,
isn’t it? I can see the beautiful blush on
your skin, your hard little nipples, and
your pussy is holding me so tight I can
barely move in and out. Fuck! The feel
of your pussy—Oh fuck! Come on, baby.
Do it.”
I put everything I had into my
movements, driving her higher and
higher, and going right along with her.
“Yes! Yes! Oh, Alex! Yes!” she was
shouting the fucking walls down.
“Keep it down, baby. I love to hear
you screaming my name, but it’s for me
only. Nobody else gets to hear you
come.” I decided to help her out and
crashed my mouth down over hers. My
balls drew up, and I knew I was about to
fall over the edge so I took two fingers
this time and pinched her clit,
swallowing her screams as she gave me
the orgasm I demanded.
I let go and sensation after sensation
washed over me as I came. Long, hot
jets of semen shot from my cock in
spurts. I filled her to the brim, my come
leaking out of her pussy.
Eventually, our breathing slowed and
our hearts returned to a steady beat. I
hastily washed myself, then took my time
gently cleansing her from head to toe.
After we were done and dry, I lifted her
naked body into my arms and strode to
the bed. Using one hand to pull the
covers away, I helped her slip between
the sheets. I quickly checked the bolts on
the door and windows, then shut off the
light and got into bed with my wife.
I wrapped myself around her from
behind, throwing a leg over hers, one
arm under her head, and the other
splayed over her belly.
“Alex,” she called softly.
Kissing her temple, I rested my
cheek on her silky hair. “What, baby?”
“What do we do now?”
That was a loaded fucking question
and I didn’t know the answer. The best I
had was to focus on the mission.
“I guess we’ll team up and find the
son of a bitch.”
“And then?”
I sighed, having no solution. Only
one of us could succeed in our
assignment.
“I don’t know, baby. We’ll cross that
bridge when we come to it.”
We lay in silence awhile, and I
thought maybe she’d fallen asleep until
she shifted her head to look up at me. “I
love you.”
My heart burst with the same warmth
it always did when she professed her
love.
“I love you too, my Evie. Until death
do we part. And forever after.”
Chapter 5
Evie
For a brief moment, when I woke up in
the middle of the night with Alex’s body
wrapped around mine and the sounds of
Rome filling the air, I thought we were
on vacation in our villa. I snuggled into
his hold, letting my eyes drift shut again
and intending to fall back asleep when it
hit me—my lawyer husband was an
operative. Not just your everyday,
ordinary spy either. Justice was the guy
they called in when The Company
needed answers and the target wasn’t
inclined to offer any. Considering his
reputation and the kind of cases his name
was connected with, it was hard to
believe we hadn’t been assigned the
same target before Heron. Not unless
one of the higher ups had been protecting
our cover identities from possible
discovery, intent on making use of us for
as long as they could.
It galled me to know someone in the
agency knew we’d married each other
and played God with our lives by hiding
the truth from us. And yet, I also
treasured all the years we’d spent
together in the dark. Time we might not
have otherwise had if I’d known Alex
was Justice. It probably would have
messed with my mind knowing I’d fallen
for a fellow operative, leading me to
think it had all been planned with the
intention of keeping tabs on me. What
better way to know what your lone wolf
assassin was up to during her off time
than to insert someone into her life,
right? I might have fought my feelings for
Alex back then, but I was in too deep to
do so after spending four blissful years
with him. There was no doubting the
depth of our feelings for each other—or
the stunned shock in Alex’s eyes when
he realized I was Scarlett.
I’d never intended for him to see the
darker side of me, but there was no
hiding it from him once he knew my
code name. My reputation had preceded
me, and the silence which stretched
between us when we’d reached the hotel
almost had me convinced that Alex
wouldn’t be able to deal with the reality
of what I’d done, even if it was in
defense of our country. The relief I’d felt
when he’d joined me in the shower was
staggering. He hadn’t backed away from
me in fear or disgust. If anything, the
force of his passion had been stronger
than before. More explosive, if that was
even possible, considering how amazing
it had always been between us.
I’d been helpless to resist his
sensual demands last night, as he forced
orgasm upon orgasm on me. Not that I
was complaining, because I’d enjoyed
the hell out of it. I’d enjoyed the power
he’d held over me, several times in fact,
but I wanted to get a little of my own
back. Exert some dominance of my own
and drive him beyond reason, the way he
had with me.
Shifting out of his hold, I tugged the
sheet down his muscular form, savoring
the sight of his tanned skin as it was
exposed to my sight. Trailing my
fingertips down his chest, I kept my eyes
locked on his as I moved to kneel
between his legs. When I leaned over
him, my hair brushed over his chest and
his eyes popped open. Holding his gaze,
I lowered my head and flicked my
tongue over one of his nipples, while
rolling the other between my finger and
thumb. As I raked my teeth over his
nipple, I felt his cock jump in reaction,
hot and hard against my belly.
“Watcha doing, baby?” His voice
was raspy with sleep, but his eyes were
alert and heated.
“I woke up in the mood to play,” I
murmured, before moving to the other
side and swirling my tongue around his
other nipple. It beaded into a tight nub,
and I bit down hard. Alex’s hips jerked
upwards in response, and he reached out
to grip my hair. He didn’t pull my head
away from his chest, though. Instead, his
fingers slid upwards until they tightened
on my scalp as he held me in place. I
sucked at his skin and smirked at the
sight of the dark red mark I left behind.
“Those four orgasms I gave you
didn’t tide you over?”
“I said play, not come,” I corrected
him as I moved farther down his body,
enjoying the taste of his skin, licking and
sucking as much of it as I could along the
way. When I reached his cock, I licked
the drop of pre-come from the tip,
sucking greedily before twirling my
tongue around the crown. “You’re the
one who’s going to be coming this time
around, stud.”
“Who am I to argue with a plan like
that?” Alex chuckled, lifting his arms
and folding them under his head.
“Resistance is futile anyway,” I
breathed onto his wet skin, making his
cock twitch. “I’m going to have your
come coating my throat one way or
another.”
“I guess I’ll just lay back and enjoy
the ride.”
“Mmmmm,” I hummed, sucking the
head of his cock into my mouth. Alex
continued watching me, his eyes hot with
need. His cock thickened and hardened
in my mouth, but I didn’t want him to go
too soon. I wanted to enjoy torturing him
first. Releasing him with a slurp, I
climbed up his body and positioned
myself so his cock was nestled between
my breasts. Squeezing them together, I
moved up and down with his cock
sliding in and out. Each time it poked out
of the top of my breasts, I stuck my
tongue out and swirled it around the
crown.
“Evie,” Alex hissed. “It feels so
damn good.”
Alex’s hips jerked with each of my
movements, his fingers tightening on his
biceps so hard his knuckles whitened.
The taste of his pre-come in my mouth
and the burning need in his eyes spurred
me on. On the next pump, I drew him all
the way into my mouth. Sucking so hard
my cheeks hollowed out, his breath
hissed out when the tip bumped against
the back of my throat.
“Holy fuck, baby. You suck me so
good. I don’t think I’m going to last much
longer.”
I released him with a pop, making
him hiss in frustration. Wrapping a hand
around the base, I squeezed. “You’ll last
as long as I say you’ll last.”
“Oh, is that how you want to play?”
His fingers unclenched as he lifted his
head. He moved his arms to his sides
before dropping his head back down on
the pillow. “Just keep in mind, paybacks
can be a bitch.”
“And so can I, stud.” I warned
before swallowing him whole once
again. I’d never had need to show him
my sharper edges, but knowing he knew
about the darker side of me meant I had
nothing left to hide. Humming deep in my
throat, I twisted my head in one direction
and twisted my hand in the other. His
cock grew impossibly big in my mouth
as his fingers delved into my hair. I
worked my tongue over his cock, and he
wrapped my hair around his fist. His
hold tightened, causing a slight sting in
my scalp, while his hips jerked up and
down in time with my motions. I slid my
hand from the base of his cock, down to
his balls and felt them tighten as I rolled
them in my palm.
“Fuck, Evie. You’re gonna make me
come so hard,” he groaned.
Bobbing my head up and down, I
quickened my pace. I wanted, no needed,
to send him over the edge. It didn’t take
long before I got my wish. Hot jets of
come exploded from his body, into my
mouth and down my throat. Swallowing
them down, I hummed in pleasure. When
his fist unclenched and his hold on my
hair loosened, I lifted my head and
kissed my way up his chest. His head
was thrown back against the pillow, his
eyes clenched shut. I curled up on his
chest, dragging the sheet with me and
covering us both. His arms slipped
around me and held me close.
Snuggling into his warmth, I felt
triumphant. I’d accomplished what I’d
set out to do, making my man come in my
mouth. Contentment filled me, and I was
drowsy again. My eyes slid shut, and I
drifted off to sleep feeling more secure
than I ever had before during a mission.
Alex and I might have opposing orders,
but he was still my safe place. My
beloved husband, and the only person I
would ever truly trust to have my back.
When I woke up a few hours later, it
was to the cold light of day. To a reality
where our situation couldn’t be avoided.
Where we couldn’t screw away the
truth. Our missions were fucked, both of
them. We had to find a way to work
together to track Heron down, and then I
was going to have to kill the target in
front of my husband and blow his
mission sky high. I didn’t want to fuck
him over, but I didn’t see another
solution that didn’t end up with me
burned—or even worse, dead. My
division operated under different rules
than Alex’s. He could survive a failed
mission with his career intact, while I’d
be lucky to keep my life. I only hoped
he’d come to understand why Heron’s
death was necessary when the time came
for me to do my job.
“I much prefer the mood you woke
up in earlier than this quiet intensity I’m
feeling from you now,” Alex whispered
in my ear as he lifted me out of the chair
where I’d been sitting while I sipped my
coffee and stared out the window.
“Me, too,” I sighed, settling onto his
lap as he lowered himself onto the seat.
“Everything will work out in the
end,” Alex assured me. “Between the
two of us, I’m sure it won’t take us long
to track Heron down. Then we’ll be able
to put this all behind us and head back
home.”
“What? No Fiji?” I joked.
“Did you pack your white bikini?”
“I don’t have it with me, but I’m sure
I can pick another one up along the
way.”
“Then Fiji it is,” he promised. “As
soon as we clear up this mess with
Heron. The quicker the better because
it’s been too long since I’ve enjoyed the
sight of you in a bikini.”
“It didn’t take me too long to find
him the first time around. I’m sure I can
do it again,” I answered carelessly.
“Or I could.” A competitive gleam
shown from his eyes.
“How long did it take you to track
him down to the Rafaello the first time
around?” I asked, pretty damn sure I’d
been the first agent to locate the Heron at
his hotel, since it had taken another
twenty-four hours before I noticed
anyone else on the scene. Alex had
hidden in the shadows, but the signs had
been there all the same.
“Three days,” he muttered, sounding
disgruntled.
I cocked my head, wondering if he
was even better at hiding in the shadows
than I realized. “Including travel time?”
“Plus the time it took me to get
here,” he admitted gruffly.
“Aha!” I crowed, triumphantly.
“Then I beat you to him by a whole day.”
“And yet he’s still alive,” he
grumbled.
“We don’t just go around killing
people willy-nilly,” I protested, hurt by
the implication otherwise. I strode to the
window and stared out, unable to see
anything through the tears which filled
my eyes. “I studied the target and
reported back to my boss before he
confirmed the kill order stood.”
“I’m sorry,” he sighed, coming up
behind me and wrapping his arms
around my middle. “That was a low
blow.”
“I wish I could say it was uncalled
for too, but I guess I can understand how
much of a shock it was to learn your
wife kills people for a living.”
He dropped his chin onto the top of
my head, tightening his hold, as though
he thought I was going to try to get away.
“It’s not like I can point an accusing
finger your way. I’m hardly innocent.
I’ve taken my fair share of lives over the
years, too.”
I straightened my spine and leaned
farther into his body. Running was the
last thing on my mind. “We both know
your job is different from mine.” Taking
a deep breath, I said the words I’d never
expected to speak. Not even after finding
out Alex and Justice were one in the
same. “And that your kill count is much
lower than mine. As is every other
agent’s in your division and most of the
ones who serve beside me in mine. It
might not be something you want to hear,
but I’m very good at my job.”
“Are you trying to scare me away?”
It sounded like I kind of was, but it
wasn’t my intention. “No, just trying to
make sure you see me for who I really
am and hoping like hell you still want
me afterwards.”
“Want
you?”
He
sounded
incredulous as he yanked me by one
shoulder and swung me around until I
was facing him. “Don’t you get it? Want
isn’t a strong enough word for what I
feel for you. Neither is love. Or need.”
My heart raced as I was filled with
hope we’d find a way out of this mess,
with our marriage intact. “Promise?”
“You’re mine, Evie. Period. End of
story,” he answered. “I meant it when
we said our vows and each time I’ve
repeated it ever since. Until death do we
part. And forever after.”
My nerves settled at the familiar
words. “I love you, too.”
“You’d better,” he muttered. “Cause
there’s no getting out of this marriage for
you.”
“Or you,” I warned. I might have let
him walk away from me four years ago,
but that ship had sailed a long time ago.
I’d hunt his ass down if he tried it now,
and I was damn good at finding the
people I searched for.
“How about you stop worrying about
what I’m going to think about you and
focus on proving your stuff instead?”
“Proving my stuff?” I sputtered.
“That’s what I said, baby. I’ve heard
about the infamous Scarlett for years. It’s
about damn time I had the chance to see
her in action,” he teased.
“I packed more ammunition than I
need. You want to be quiet or do you
want me to start using it?”
“Can you really blame me for being
curious?” he asked. “I’ve been married
to you about as long as I’ve known
Scarlett existed.”
I thought back to how we met, on the
tail end of one of my earlier missions. It
was too much of a coincidence to think
he hadn’t been in London hunting Pierce
down too. I’d just gotten to him before
Alex’s team had a chance to do a snatch
and grab. “London? When we met?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “It was the
first time Scarlett interfered with one of
my missions.”
“You really shouldn’t complain,” I
chided. “I left you the ledger, after all.”
My boss knew another team had been
sent in and wasn’t far behind me. It was
easier to leave the ledger to them after
I’d eliminated Pierce and made a clean
getaway.
“Gee, thanks,” he groused. “But you
also left a mess behind since we had
some questions to ask Pierce about his
mafia ties.”
“You snooze you lose,” I joked. “If
you’d managed to gain access to him
before me, then I guess you wouldn’t
have had that problem.” And I would
have had a bigger one, since I would
have failed a mission.
His gaze dropped to my tits, filling
with appreciation. “I think you had a
slight advantage that time around. You
had just the right assets to lure a
reclusive target into a meeting.”
I swatted at his arm. “If by assets
you mean my brain and my knowledge of
fine arts, then yes, I did.”
“Let’s put your big,” he paused to
slide his hands up to cup my breasts,
“brain to good use and figure out where
Heron’s hiding.”
“Just so long as you don’t think this
is me proving myself to you,” I replied,
sliding my hand down his side and
moving over to cup his dick. “Because
Scarlett doesn’t need to prove herself to
anyone.”
His thumbs slid over my nipples,
making them stiffen into hardened nubs.
In retaliation, I squeezed his cock lightly,
feeling it harden in my palm. “You sure
you don’t have anything to prove to me?
Like maybe how fucking gorgeous you
are as you cry out my name while you
come?”
I tugged him towards the bed. The
search for Heron was going to have to
wait a little while. I had a husband who
needed fucking first. A girl had to have
her priorities after all.
Chapter 6
Alex
Evie was lacing up her boots while I re-
packed our bug out bags when my cell
phone started ringing. My other phone.
Son of a bitch. I knew who would be on
the line.
I picked it up and pressed the accept
button. “Justice,” I barked.
“Relax, mate. It’s Colin.”
I was relieved the caller wasn’t
Donovan, but was still on edge, wary of
why he was calling. “You have
something for me?”
“You left me quite a mess to take
care of,” he muttered, his irritation
evident. “Lucky for you, Martin and I
handled it before it was brought to
anyone else’s attention. We scrubbed all
the traffic cam footage and sent in a
sanitizer to clean things up.”
“Thanks.” Colin had put his ass on
the line to keep this situation under
control and me out of the dog house with
the higher ups. “I owe you.”
“And, I’ll definitely be collecting.
It’s not the only reason I’m calling
though, I’ve got a lead for you. Well,
someone who can get one for you,
anyway.”
Colin gave me the name and address
for an old CI of his, someone who was
out of the game but still had their ear to
the ground.
“She went legit a few years back, but
she still hears things and will pass them
along for the right price.”
I ran over my reserves in my head,
I’d had to grease quite a few palms to
find Heron the first time. “I don’t think I
have enough, where is the nearest drop
site?”
The sound of clicking came across
the line before he replied. “I would say
you might not need it, but I’m aware how
pussy-whipped you are by your wife.” I
snorted but didn’t otherwise respond. If
what I had with my Evie was considered
pussy-whipped, they could tattoo it on
my forehead and I’d wear it proudly. He
ignored me and continued, “There is one
a little over eight kilometers from your
current location. It’s a used book store,
look for a first edition James Bond
novel, it’s in a compartment just above.”
“Bond?” I asked drily. “Really?”
Colin chuckled. “Whoever set it up
had a sense of humor. Give me half an
hour to get a cut-out to make a drop first.
You’ll also find keys in there and a car
parked out back.”
“Great. Keep me posted if you hear
anything else.”
“Will do. Oh,” he stopped me before
I could hang up, “Am I seeing things or
was that sexy as fuck dominatrix in
black, Genevieve?”
A growl rumbled to the surface from
my chest. “Colin”, I said, my voice
filled with malicious warning, “I don’t
ever want to hear you say the word fuck
and Genevieve in the same sentence or
I’ll cut off your balls and shove them
down your throat.”
“Whoa, whoa, okay. Won’t happen
again. Thanks for the very vivid image,
by the way. But”—he paused before
continuing hesitantly—“was it your
wife?”
“What if it was?” I was fishing,
trying to ascertain how much he knew, if
he’d realized she was also a spy.
“You’d better send her home, mate.
Now would be a good time to put in the
request to read her in, because she’ll
figure it out eventually, if she hasn’t
already.”
“I’ve got it under control.” It was all
I was willing to give.
“Alright, well, keep me posted and
I’ll give you a heads up if I hear anything
more.”
I hung up and looked at the name and
address I’d written down. Once I had it
memorized, I pulled out a small, yellow
Bic lighter from the pocket of my black
cargo pants and lit the paper on fire.
Dropping it in the ash tray on the room’s
table, I turned around and saw Evie
quietly speaking into her phone as well.
“Yes, sir. I’m on it. No, I don’t have
any leads but—” I waved my hands to
get her attention and when she met my
gaze, she raised an eyebrow in question,
to
which
I
nodded
confirmation
—“Never mind, sir. A lead just showed
up. Yes, sir. I’ll keep you updated.” She
snapped her phone shut and blew out an
exasperated breath.
“It’s like having a fucking babysitter
sometimes.”
I chuckled, knowing exactly how she
was feeling. Picking up our bags, I
tossed them over my shoulder, grasped
the handle of my briefcase, and made my
way to the door. “Let’s go, baby. I got
the name and address of an asset who
might know something.”
Evie pulled her backpack from under
the bed, and I held the door open as she
stepped out into the hallway. A quick
elevator ride and we were walking
through the hotel entrance, out into the
bright sunshine. Instinctively, we both
moved so we were standing out of the
direct rays, blending into the shadows.
“Someone is leaving me money and
a car at a drop about five miles away.
We’ll grab a cab and pick up my
packages, then head out to see Colin’s
contact.”
Evie murmured an agreement, and I
signaled to the doorman to flag us down
a taxi.
“Colin?” Evie asked when I gave her
my attention once more. “The sexy Brit
at your firm?”
Despite my complete confidence in
Evie and our love and desire for each
other, jealousy exploded inside my head,
pounding at my temples. “Yes, the dead
man who used to work with me.” I was
only half-kidding.
Evie’s eyes widened in surprise,
then her lashes lowered, but not before I
caught the coy gleam in them. “I should
have known he was a spook. He just
screams 007, don’t you think?”
I growled, gripping Evie’s waist and
pulling her against me. “Don’t push me,
baby. Or you’re going to find yourself
bent over my knee with a very red ass.
And then I’ll show you exactly who your
man is, by fucking you into next week.”
She looked up at me through her
long, dark lashes, her brown eyes
heated. “Promise?”
I stifled a groan with a curse. I was
going to need to learn to control myself.
If I had to spend the whole mission with
a hard on, it was going to make things
extremely difficult. “Behave,” I scolded.
Just then, the doorman whistled and a
cab pulled up to the curb.
Before climbing inside, she leaned
up and whispered in my ear, “Jealousy is
a sexy look on you. It makes me wet.”
For the love of... I was so screwed.
***
My eyes swept the perimeter of the
nondescript apartment building we were
standing in front of.
After collecting the stash from the
dead drop, I was startled to see two
extra passports. Again, I wondered what
Colin knew, or if he was simply
speculating and being over cautious. The
note said they were brand new
identities, under the radar from even The
Company. Apparently, he’d contacted a
local cobbler, one not associated with
any institution, but one he trusted.
The car was a boring, gray sedan,
perfect for blending in. With our
belongings in the trunk, save for the
weapons strapped to our bodies, we
drove to the address I’d memorized.
I did another sweep and my gut told
me we were clear. Glancing at my wife
—no, I needed to think of her as Scarlett
while we were in the field—she nodded,
indicating
she
agreed
with
my
assessment.
We
exited
the
vehicle
and
approached the building, halting when
the door opened before we could knock.
A pretty young woman stood there.
Probably in her early twenties, she was
a tiny thing with short, curly blond hair
and alert, blue eyes. “Brandon and
Penny Abel?” she questioned in Italian.
“Sì,” I confirmed. Those were the
names on our new identity papers.
She moved back and waved us
forward. “Entra. Come in. I’m Antonia.”
“Grazie,” Evie thanked her. “Per
l'incontro con noi, Antonia.” I knew
Evie spoke Italian fluently, just as I did.
I’d heard it many times, considering we
had a home there. However, no matter
how much I heard it, it never stopped
being a huge turn on. I had to find a seat
quickly and set the bag I was carrying on
my lap, doing my best to disguise my
growing erection.
Antonia took the chair beside mine,
forcing Evie to sit on the couch across
from me. Her eyes narrowed slightly, but
her tone was neutral as she started the
conversation. “You have information on
the whereabouts of Mark Sai?”
Blue eyes bored into me as Antonia
placed a hand on my bicep. My erection
suddenly withered and died, limp as a
noodle. “I do, but my knowledge isn’t
free.”
“Of course.” I reached into the bag,
but her hand moved to cover mine.
“I’m happy to trade what I know for
... other things.” A sound that could best
be described as a growl emanated from
the other direction. I looked to see Evie
sitting ramrod straight, her hands
clenched into fists on her lap, and her
face storming. The situation was too
tense for me to enjoy my wife’s display
of jealously, but make no mistake, I’d be
coming back to it later.
“Colin certainly enjoys his preferred
method of paying me and he suggested
you might too.” I hear whispered in my
ear. Colin. He was messing with me, and
I was going to kick his ass before I
strung him up by his balls.
“Would you please remove your
hand
from
my“—Evie
hesitated
—“partner,” she requested frostily.
“Before I remove it for you.”
Antonia spared her a quick glance
and must have noticed a connection of
some kind because her eyes bounced
from Evie’s ring finger to mine, then
back up to my face, smiling smugly. She
obviously wasn’t put off by Evie’s
attitude since she didn’t see a ring on
either of us. We didn’t wear them in the
field. Letting on that you have a spouse,
or family, puts you, and them, into even
more danger. It was the reason Evie had
referred to me as her partner.
It was time to shut this shit down. I
pulled my arm away and adopted a
bored expression. “I’m not on the menu.”
Opening the bag, I withdrew nine
hundred Euros and waved it in front of
her. “Talk.”
She sighed and leaned back in her
chair sulkily. “I heard rumors of an arms
deal going down in two weeks.
Supposedly, word got out and they are
moving it to a port off the coast of
Spain.”
“Why would we care about an arms
deal?” Evie pipes up.
Antonia finally turns her full
attention to my—to Scarlett. “Because
the man you’re looking for. He’s the
courier.”
I blew out an annoyed breath, no
wonder the agency wanted to interrogate
this guy. He could be the key to taking
down a major crime ring. So, why did
Scarlett’s superiors want him dead?
“You should know,” she added, “my
contacts also tell me this man isn’t only
dealing in weapons.”
My stomach sank. I knew what was
coming, but I hoped I was wrong.
“He’s deep into the slave trade as
well.” Definitely what I hadn’t wanted
to hear. I still didn’t understand how
anyone could think him more valuable
dead than alive.
We thanked Antonia for her help and
returned to the car. Once inside, I faced
Evie. I needed answers. “What possible
reason could your people have for
wanting him dead, rather than alive to
spill his secrets?”
She chewed her bottom lip as she
considered my question. I wanted to
reach out and remove it, but I waited,
keeping my hands to myself. Finally, she
seemed to make a decision.
“He’s got a noc list.”
I rear back in surprise, almost
slamming my head into the window
behind me. “How many?” I croaked.
“Every operative in southern Asia.”
Fucking Hell.
A noc list had the real identities of
agents working under non-official cover,
ones who didn’t have official ties to the
government. Spies like Scarlett.
I fought the need to drown in my fear
for Evie’s safety. This wasn’t the time to
let my training go.
“I still don’t understand the kill
order.”
Evie ran an agitated hand over her
head and down her smooth pony tail.
“He has a photographic memory. The list
is in his head. We can’t take the chance,
Alex. Not even within The Company.
There could be a mole, and the lives of
all those agents and their families would
become targets and they would be
picked off one by one.”
I shook my head in denial. “A
mole?” I asked skeptically. “This isn’t
the cold war, Scarlett. You know as well
as I do, the likelihood of a mole in the
agency is slim to none.”
“And yet,” she argued, “somehow
this guy got a look at a list of black
operatives.”
Her point was valid, but I couldn’t
swallow the bitter idea of a traitor
within our ranks.
“Thus,
my
bosses
want
him
eliminated.”
I finally understood their rationale,
but I didn’t agree with it. I wanted this
guy alive. I was going to bleed
everything he knew out of him, a drop at
a time. There was a reason I was the one
given
the
tough
interrogation
assignments. With me, everybody talked.
Chapter 7
Evie
I’d tried to forget about the dreadful
woman’s actions all day. I’d been
successful at pushing my anger down and
focusing on the task at hand, but it was
more difficult than it should have been
considering I’d never had an issue
keeping my emotions out of a mission in
the past. Then again, this was my
husband we were talking about. It wasn’t
a normal op.
After spending the day hitting one
dead end after another in our search for
Heron, once we were back in the safety
of a hotel room—at the Grand Hotel
Palatino this time around—I let my
irritation get the better of me. I finally
blurted out the question which had been
on my mind ever since her hand had
landed on top of the bag my husband had
been holding in his lap. The bag which
rested right over his cock—or my cock, I
should say, since I considered it my
personal property. The little blonde was
damn lucky we were on a mission and
needed information from her, because it
was the only reason I hadn’t broken
every finger in her hand.
I was staring out the window and
doing a sweep of the prime view we had
of Rome’s rooftops when the words
popped out of my mouth. “If I hadn’t
been there, would you have given her the
payment she really wanted?”
“Would you care to repeat that?”
Alex’s question was a deep purr as he
stalked across the room towards me. His
reflection was clear in the glass of the
window. His body was coiled tight and
his muscles were bunched, as though he
was ready to strike. “Because I must
have heard you wrong. There’s no way
in hell my wife just asked me if I’ve
betrayed her by fucking another woman
in the course of a mission.”
I swiveled on my heel, jerking my
chin up as I stared him down. I wasn’t
about to back down, not after what I’d
heard that little whore whisper into his
ear. “You’ve worked with Colin the
entire time I’ve known you, and he
certainly seemed to think you would
have taken Antonia up on her offer. What
am I supposed to think?”
He stopped inches from me and
wrapped his hands around my upper
arms. My hands went up, palms out as I
held him back. “You should damn well
know better, Evie.”
As little as a day ago, the thought
never would have crossed my mind, but
things had changed since then. “There’s
a lot I don’t know about you, Justice.”
“I could just as easily say the same
about you, baby. But you don’t hear me
accusing you of fucking your way to a
kill.”
“We both know how you would have
reacted if some guy had lain his hands on
me and told me my pussy was payment
enough for the intel he could offer, since
one of my co-workers had told him I’d
be down to play!” I tossed out
recklessly.
My accusation seemed to break his
restraint and he pounced. He went to lift
me over his shoulder, but I countered by
dropping my arms to my sides and
completely relaxing them. I shook my
hands a little and envisioned my arms
extending from my shoulders down and
deep into the earth.
“Shit,” Alex huffed, struggling with
my weight. “I pick you up all the time,
but it’s like you’re impossible to lift.
How the hell are you doing it?”
“Your Evie might be willing to let
you haul her around, but you’re going to
find that Scarlett’s not so easy to
manhandle.”
“Manhandle?” he growled, bending
low and digging his shoulder into my
stomach as he successfully lifted me into
the air. “Every time I touch you, it’s with
love in my heart.”
He punctuated his statement with a
swat on my ass before tossing me onto
the mattress and swiftly following me
down, covering me with his body. If I’d
really wanted to get away from him,
there were several moves I could have
made. But I didn’t try a single one of
them, not even those which wouldn’t hurt
him. I’d poked and prodded at the beast,
and I wanted to stick around to enjoy the
show.
“You’re the only woman I want,” he
snarled. “There hasn’t been anyone else
for me from the moment I first saw you.”
The honesty and love shining from
his eyes helped to soothe my wounded
heart. “Then why did Colin tell Antonia
you’d be interested?”
“I haven’t even worked that closely
with him since they moved him
overseas. Then he had to go dark on a
mission so I haven’t talked to him at all
until this mission. And he knows me
better than that.” His voice softened. “I
don’t know what the hell he was trying
to pull, but I’m going to find out. You’re
even sexier than usual when you’re
jealous, but I’m not about to let his little
game stand if it hurt you in any way.”
“While you’re at it, let him know that
I’m a dangerous woman to cross,” I
mumbled, embarrassed by my show of
insecurity.
“I’ll handle him.” Alex’s tone was
firm, brooking no argument.
I cocked my head, studying his
expression and trying to discern why he
was so adamantly against the idea of me
getting into it with Colin. “I’m a
notorious assassin. I can handle him just
as well as you can.”
“As far as Colin is aware, your
presence here is a total coincidence,” he
pointed out. “One I haven’t even
positively confirmed, and I’m not sure I
want him knowing differently.”
“Don’t you trust him?”
“I’ve trusted him with my life
countless times,” he answered. “But
yours is a different story.”
Poof! There went any lingering anger
or doubt. How could I stay mad when he
was so damn sweet? “No handling of
Colin for me then,” I teased, attempting
to lighten the mood.
My words had the opposite effect,
though. “If you’re going to handle
anyone, it had better be me.”
“Oh, yeah?” I drawled. “How do
you want to be handled?”
“I want to fuck you.” His words
were blunt. Stark. But they sent need
racing through my veins. “Hard. But first
I want you on your knees, sucking my
dick with your dark eyes shining up at
me. After you take edge off with your
sweet mouth, I want to bend you over
this bed, hold your hands behind your
back and fuck you until you’re begging
me to let you come.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” I
whimpered.
“And then when I’m done fucking
you, I want to make love to you. To
worship every inch of your body with
my lips and hands until you know to the
depths of your soul that I’d never so
much as look at another woman.”
My clit throbbed right along with my
heartbeat. “In case you were wondering,
I’m totally on board with this plan.”
“I thought you might be.”
He smirked down at me, and just as I
was about to pull his head down to kiss
the hell out of him, he rose up to his
knees. Then he unsnapped the button on
his cargo pants and lowered the zipper.
His cock was already hard when he
pulled it out, and I was mesmerized by
the sight of his hand stroking up and
down his length. My tongue flicked out
to wet my bottom lip, drawing his eyes
to my mouth with the motion.
“You want this as much as I do, don’t
you baby?”
The question didn’t require an
answer. We both knew I wanted to suck
his dick, but I responded anyway. “Yes,
please.”
He climbed off the bed, tugging my
hands and taking me with him. After he
got me settled on my knees, with a
pillow underneath them, he stepped in
front of me and nudged my lips with the
tip of his cock. “Open up, baby.”
My lips parted and he slid inside my
mouth. His flavor burst on my tongue,
and I tilted my head back to let him go
deep. I gazed up at him, my eyes locked
on his as he pumped his hips.
“It feels so good, baby, to have those
plump lips of yours wrapped around my
cock while you suck me off.”
“Mmmmm,” I hummed around his
length, bobbing my head up and down in
rhythm with his thrusts.
“Almost too good,” he groaned.
“Since I’m not going to come until I’m
balls deep inside your tight pussy.”
Even if I didn’t have a mouth full of
his cock, I wouldn’t have argued with
him. Not when my pussy ached for him.
He was sexy as hell, staring down at me
while he fucked my mouth like he owned
it.
“Mine,” he murmured, as though he
could read my mind. “So fucking
gorgeous and completely mine. Men see
you and want it, but nobody else gets to
have this.”
He slowed his pace, rubbing the tip
over my lips before sliding into my
mouth again. I twirled my tongue around
his length, licking along the underside
and moaning when I reached the crown
and tasted his pre-come. Letting out a
groan, he pulled his cock from my mouth
and helped me to my feet. His fingers
shook while he made quick work of my
clothes, stripping them from my body
and letting them fall to the floor.
“Lean onto the mattress, baby,” he
instructed. “Belly down with your ass in
the air.”
I turned away from him, doing as he
asked without question. I wanted his
cock in me, just as he’d described. I was
rewarded with the feel of his palms as
they slid up my ass, along my spine, and
over my shoulders. Down my arms until
he gripped my wrists and tugged them
behind my back. He positioned himself
behind me, and I felt the material of his
cargo pants brush against my legs. It was
insanely hot to know I was completely
bare to him while his cock was the only
part of himself he’d exposed. It made his
control of me seem even more complete,
something I’d never given any other
person except for him.
“Knowing you’re willing to give me
this, seeing you this way. I can’t tell you
how much it means to me, Evie. Even
more so now that I know the Scarlett
side of you.”
He drove deep, filling me in one
powerful thrust that took my breath
away.
“Alex,” I moaned.
“Don’t come yet,” he warned. “Need
to fuck you hard first.”
He did exactly as he’d said he
would, each and every thrust sending me
closer to the edge. His thrusts were hard,
driving my body into the mattress like he
was trying to nail me into it. His cock
swelled within me, the heat of his come
tossing me over as my orgasm crashed
through me. When he released my wrists,
I blindly reached for the sheets and dug
my fingers into the mattress. Holding on
tight as we both found relief in each
other’s body.
“No,” I whimpered when he eased
out of me. I wasn’t ready to lose him yet.
“Shhh, baby,” he murmured, pressing
a kiss on my lower back. “I’m not done
with you. Let’s get you cleaned up so I
can worship you the way I promised.”
My legs were unsteady as he helped
me into the bathroom. I leaned against
the counter while he gently cleaned me.
After he got all the stickiness of our
come washed off me, he swatted my ass
and motioned towards the bed through
the open door. By the time I made it to
the bed, he was right behind me and
completely naked. He dove on the
mattress, twisting until he was on his
back, and crooked a finger at me to join
him. I didn’t hesitate, crawling over his
body and kneeling up until my pussy
hovered a couple inches above his
mouth.
“Spread ‘em for me, my Evie,” he
ordered. “I can smell how turned on you
are for me from here and can’t wait to
have you come all over my face.”
Sliding my hand down my body, I
rubbed over my clit along the way and
moaned.
“Now, Evie,” he barked.
The second I parted my lips with my
fingers, his head lifted off the mattress.
He gripped my hips tight and slammed
me down onto his mouth hard, eating me
like he was starving for my taste.
Sucking and licking until my knees
shook. Sliding his tongue in and out
while I rode his face, my hips pumping
as I raced towards another orgasm.
When his hand reached between us to
pinch my clit, I exploded. Writhing in his
hands as he licked me through my
climax. When it was over, my knees
gave out and I flopped to the side.
“Can you take me again, baby?” he
whispered in my ear, rolling over me,
his hands braced on each side of my
head and his cock nudging my entrance.
“Always,” I answered, lifting my
legs to wrap them around his hips.
He inched inside and I moaned in
pleasure. My nerve endings were
sensitive from my last orgasm, and it
was almost too much for me. Almost, but
not quite. My body tightened as he slid
in and out of me with slow strokes that
teased. As hard as he took me before,
this time was gentle. Loving. He really
was worshipping me with his body, and
I felt it all the way to my soul.
“I love you,” I whispered, cupping
his face in my palms and staring deep
into his eyes so he could see how much I
meant the words.
It seemed to be his undoing. “Fuck,
my Evie, I love you too,” he groaned as
he emptied inside of me. His orgasm
triggered another for me, and it washed
over me while I kept my eyes locked on
Alex’s, letting him see exactly how
deeply he affected me. Leaving myself
completely vulnerable, because I knew I
was safe with him.
“I’m sorry I was a jealous bitch
earlier.” My face was hidden in his chest
as I curled up in his arms.
“Jealous is as sexy on you as you
seem to think it is on me.” He tipped my
chin up to look in my eyes. “But you
don’t have any reason to feel that way,
baby.”
“Neither do you,” I reassured him
softly.
“Yeah, well, it goes without saying
that you damn well better not have used
your feminine wiles on any of your
missions.”
The possessiveness in his tone made
me giggle. Me. Giggling like a
schoolgirl. But who could blame me?
He’d just proved how much I was his in
ways which would stay with me forever,
but he still felt the need to get all growly
with me before letting me fall asleep.
“And yet you just said it.”
A deep growl rumbled up his throat
as his hands slid under my armpits. Then
he hauled me farther onto his chest and
tightened his hold on me. “I fucked you
hard enough you shouldn’t have any
energy left to sass me.”
“What can I say? I’m full of your
come and sass.”
“I like knowing you’ve got me deep
inside you, my scent marking you,” he
rasped.
“Such a possessive beast,” I teased.
“Damn straight.”
I loved my husband, but I didn’t
understand his reaction to some things.
“You seem to have no problem with the
number of targets I've eliminated, but
one mention of me so much as flirting for
intel and you turn into a raving lunatic?”
“Other men would kill to have you in
their beds, Evie. If it takes me being a
raving lunatic to keep you in mine, then
so be it.”
“Silly man.” I cuddled against his
chest, letting my eyes drift closed
without telling him that he didn’t have to
do any such thing. I didn’t have room to
talk—I’d kill to keep us together.
Chapter 8
Alex
Some people would probably flip their
shit if they found out their spouse was a
covert spy, and in particular, an assassin.
It was clear Evie wasn’t sure what to
make of my reaction.
It wasn’t like my hands weren’t
covered in red, though my job didn’t
often lead to death, unless they got the
chair, of course. I was no innocent, I had
a body count and it wasn’t exactly small.
In some ways, what I did could be
considered even worse than Evie’s job. I
used manipulation, yes, but I also used
pain and intimidation to get what was
needed, and I was damn good at it. The
justification was simple; what we did,
we did in defense of our country. Bad
deeds for a noble purpose.
As a spy, we spend so much time in
the darkness, sometimes the reasons
don’t make the pill any easier to
swallow, and we could lose sight of why
we’re doing those things. Then the
darkness is all that’s left. There were
moments in my life when I wondered if
I’d traded my soul for the safety of
others. Then, I met Evie. She was the
light of my life, and the love I felt for her
was like a balm to my wounded soul. I
felt some redemption in knowing my
actions protected her.
Finding out she was doing the same,
how could I judge her for having the
same sense of duty and patriotism? No,
her kills weren’t what bothered me. In
fact, knowing my wife was such a
badass was a pretty big fucking turn on.
What got to me, was seeing her in
danger, worrying about her. I knew she
would want to kick my ass for it because
she was the best at what she did, but it
didn’t stop the torturous emotions.
I wanted her out of this life, to stop
putting herself at risk, because what she
was asking of me, it was killing me. And
when this mission was over, we’d be
having a very frank conversation. I was
going to make sure she kept her sexy ass
at home if it was the last thing I did.
Knowing my Evie ... it very well could
be.
She walked out of the hotel lobby
after checking us out, came over to
where I was idling on the curb, and got
into the car. We were trying to avoid
being seen too much together in public,
putting off the assumption we were a
couple. Little things, like being at the
front desk of a hotel, could make all the
difference.
She buckled in and I drove out onto
the road, ready to make the hour drive to
Civitavecchia Port. We were going to
spend the night at a local safe house
while Martin tried to pinpoint Heron’s
location, or at least get us a lot closer so
we weren’t stumbling around in the dark.
I was only giving him a day, then we
would catch the ferry to Barcelona at
five o’clock pm. On our way to the
house, my phone pinged with a text and I
asked Evie to check it.
“It’s from... Archmage?” she ended
the statement with a question mark.
I laughed, explaining, “It’s Martin,
my tech guy. He was pissed because they
wouldn’t give him a code name. So, he
hacked his record and gave himself one.
Then he locked the file so no one but him
could edit it.”
Evie was silent for a moment, then
asked, “This is Martin Banks?”
“One and the same,” I replied. “You
know him?” It wouldn’t have surprised
me.
“More like, know of him. My boss
has been trying to recruit him to black
ops for years. Damn, I’m a little
envious.”
I stole a glance at her and winked
before looking back at the road.
“He sent an address.”
“Must be the safe house,” I mused.
She punched the address into the GPS
and we followed it to an old farmhouse
about ten minutes away from the port.
It sat a ways back from the road, and
from the rest of Martin’s message, it
appeared to be empty at the moment.
Turning onto the gravel drive, I glanced
out Evie’s window and saw an older
woman sitting in a rocker knitting, by all
accounts not paying the rest of the world
any attention. It was very quaint, like a
picture on a postcard.
I pulled the car around back and
parked a good distance from the house,
by an old shed and out of sight of the
road. Our go bags only had one extra set
of clothes, so this stop would give us
somewhere to lay low until we needed
to be at the port and the chance to change
and re-stock our bags.
Evie stepped out of the car and
looked up at the house, raising her
brows. “Damn. Your safe houses are a
lot bigger than ours. At least, the ones
I’ve been to.”
“You don’t drag your targets back
with you,” I reminded her. “Live people
can make a lot of noise.” My tone was
matter-of-fact.
She stared at me for a moment, and I
wondered if my candidness had given
her a glimpse of a side of me she didn’t
think existed. Seeing the ruthless spy in
action is a lot different than hearing
about the things I’d done.
I grabbed our bags and headed up the
porch, set them down, and dug around
for my key impression kit. When I found
it, I picked up my phone, scrolling
through until I found the file sent from
Martin a few minutes before. I attached
my phone to the kit and hit the transfer
button. After a moment, I opened it and
saw the new key impression and poured
the mixture from the bottle inside into the
mold. Shutting the case once more, I
pressed the start button and waited for it
to beep thirty seconds later. After
extracting the key from the mold, I stood
and inserted it into the deadbolt on the
door.
The lock clicked and the door swung
open. I held it so Evie could pass by me,
then retrieved our bags from the porch
and followed her. I put everything down
on a scarred, wooden table in the large,
old fashioned kitchen. Evie started
rummaging through our things, figuring
out what we needed. I meandered over
to the refrigerator to see how long it had
been since someone stocked the house.
Not surprisingly, it was pretty bare, but
the pantry was bursting. I sighed, well
aware this was par for the course on a
mission when you’re forced to stay out
of sight, a lot of dried or canned food.
Evie laughed, and I turned to see her
staring at me. “You’re adorable when
you pout.” I glared at her and she only
laughed harder. “Go find us clothes and
ammunition,
stud.
I’ll
make
you
something to eat. I promise, it won’t
taste like MREs.”
I grinned and walked swiftly over to
her, pulling her into my arms and giving
her a hard kiss. “Thanks, baby.” Then, I
did as I was told and left the room in
search of supplies. Turned out, the house
had a washer and drier, so rather than
make do with whatever we could find to
wear, and since we would be there
overnight, we decided to wash our
clothes. I brought us each a set of unisex
sweats usually found in these places. We
changed and Evie worked her magic
(damn my wife was amazing) and fed me
a lunch I could’ve sworn I’d ordered
from a restaurant.
We took advantage of the time in
seclusion and spent most of it in the
bedroom. I felt a quiet desperation
inside me, a mixture of fear and need. It
poured out of me as I made love to Evie,
and when the panic reached the surface,
I fucked her hard. I wanted to leave no
doubt as to who she belonged to and to
leave my mark on her soul.
The next day, a couple of hours
before our scheduled departure on the
ferry, we were all packed up and ready
to go. Evie was finishing up a call with a
contact while I ran our things out to the
car. As I jogged back to the house, my
phone beeped. Digging it out of my
pocket, I froze as I read the message.
Forecast: rain. Wind: four mph. Time:
twenty minutes. Roads blocked east to
west.
Fuck! “Evie!” I yelled as I sprinted
back toward the house. She appeared in
the door as I was about to throw it open
and I almost bowled her over.
“What?”
I tossed my phone to her and ran into
the kitchen. I stood for half a second,
thinking, then moved to the kitchen sink
and dropped to my knees. Opening the
cupboard under the sink, I located what I
was looking for and put it on the sink.
“Alex, we don’t use the same terms,
I don’t—“
“Wet work team,” I interrupted her,
“Four on the team, coming from both
directions on the road, twenty minutes
out.”
“Shit!”
“Pretty much.” I was in the pantry
looking for an empty jar. “Scarlett, run to
the shed out back and see if you can find
me some paint thinner, or rust remover.”
I didn’t wait to see if she would follow
my direction, I knew when I referred to
her by her code name it would kick in
her training.
I finally found a glass mason jar and
set it on the table before sprinting to the
bathroom
and
locating
hydrogen
peroxide. When I returned, I opened the
two containers and put the right amounts
into the jar. As I worked, Evie came
back and handed me a tin of paint
thinner. She was holding a length of pipe
and I threw her a curious look, but she
shook her head. It wasn’t the time for
questions.
Carefully
adding
the
third
component, I mixed it until the liquids
became a crystalized form of acetone
peroxide. I placed the lid back on the jar
and screwed it on tight. For good
measure, I poked holes in the top.
Jerking my head, toward the door, I
indicated for her to lead the way out.
Once we stepped outside, I left the door
wide open and set the concoction down
to the side of it, directly in the path of
the hot, afternoon sun.
Evie grabbed my hand, tugging me
after her and we ran to the back shed,
taking cover inside on either side of the
doorframe. Then, we waited. Eventually,
the sun should heat the jar enough for the
mixture to explode.
Whenever I’d jerry-rigged something
at home, Evie used to ask me if all I
watched growing up was MacGyver. I
laughed it off at the time, but the truth
was, in order to improvise something,
you just had to understand the basic
principle behind whatever it was you’re
making. The same thing applied to
weapons and explosives. And...maybe
an episode or two of MacGyver.
I was fervently hoping the makeshift
bomb would go off when the kill squad
was in the house searching. If it took too
long, they’d be headed for our little
hideout. Our weapons were already
packed up in the car, since we knew
we’d have to have them carefully
concealed to get them on the ferry. I felt
fucking naked without my Sig.
We heard the cars screech to a halt
before we saw them. The loud crash of
the front door was followed by a swarm
of movement we could barely make out
through the windows and open back
door. I stared hard at the jar, willing it to
ignite. A bullet whizzed by my head and
I jerked back. “Fuck! If the acetone
doesn’t ignite in a minute, they’ll be on
the shed in seconds.”
“What if Heron is in there with
them?” Evie asked, her face thoughtful.
I narrowed my eyes at her, wary of
the calculating look in her eyes. “It’s a
definite
possibility,”
I
reluctantly
agreed. Another hail of bullets sprayed
above our heads where we were
crouched.
“Friction or shock will set it off too,
right?” she whispered furiously.
“Yes, but—” Before I could finish
speaking or had any kind of clue as to
what was on her mind, Evie shot to her
feet and positioned the pipe, her stance
meant to absorb kick-back. I realized
she’d concocted a fucking zip gun from
pipe, a bottle cap, and a nail or screw of
some sort. If I wasn’t so fucking
terrified, I might have teased her about
her own MacGyver skills. However, at
that moment, Scarlett stepped into the
doorway and I felt my world stop. When
it started moving again, it was in slow
motion. I watched in horror as it played
out in front of me, and I could only move
as fast as the world around me. Which
meant there was nothing I could do to
prevent what was happening.
Scarlett took aim, and in a
surprisingly accurate shot for such an
unstable weapon, the single bullet went
flying. As bullets began to fly, so did I.
Barreling into Evie, I knocked her to the
ground, barely aware of the stinging pain
on my arm or sound of the blast as it
blew the house and engulfed any
remaining pieces in flames. Including its
occupants.
The stark terror inside me suddenly
morphed into blinding rage like I’d
never felt before. I lifted myself up and
shifted to look out the door. I spied two
unmoving bodies a few feet from the
burning structure. There was no way
anything inside had survived, so I stood,
pulling Evie up with me and throwing
her over my shoulder, ignoring her
protests and hauled ass to the car.
I threw open the car door and set
Evie inside, then sprinted around to get
into the driver’s side. I started the
ignition and screeched to the far side of
the property to get to the road, avoiding
the flames.
“What the fuck were you thinking,
Evie?” I thundered.
“I was thinking about accomplishing
my mission and saving our asses. If
Heron was in there, it solved both our
problems!” she snapped.
I should have cared that she’d
chosen to use our situation to complete
her mission without any protest from me,
but I was too focused on what could
have happened.
She said something, but I didn’t
know what. I couldn’t hear over the
roaring in my ears, fury and fear as
explosive a mixture inside me as the
acetone peroxide when it met her bullet.
I glanced at her and her eyes became as
wide as saucers as she took in my
expression. She abruptly twisted in her
seat and faced forward, remaining silent.
It was clear the storm inside me was
showing on my face, but I didn’t give a
fuck. Let her see it. Maybe it would
scare some fucking sense into her. She
could have been killed, I could have lost
her. It took everything in me not to lose
control at those thoughts. I held the
steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip.
A gasp from Evie brought me out of
the red haze long enough to see her
staring at my arm. I took my eyes off the
road long enough to look down and see
what she was looking at.
The long sleeve of my black Henley
looked wet and there was a small tear in
the fabric.
“Alex! What the fuck?” she shrilled.
“You were shot?”
Of course, after she pointed it out,
the wound started to sting like a bitch.
However, another quick inspection of it
showed the blood was already clotting
and the fabric was only torn the tiniest
bit.
“I’m fine, Evie. Calm down and look
at it again. I was only grazed.” My
expression turned thunderous once again
and my voice was dangerously low as I
continued. “Which is a fuck of a lot
better than what you’d be suffering from
if I hadn’t gotten to you in time!” By the
time I was finished, I was shouting. But,
our conversation came to a halt as I
pulled into the Park and Wait. I searched
for my phone but couldn’t find it, then
remembered I’d given it to Evie. She
must have sensed what I needed because
she handed me the small, black burner.
I punched in a number and it was
picked up before it even had a chance to
ring. “What the fuck, Colin?” I
bellowed. “How the fuck did they know
where I was?”
“Justice! Dude, it’s Martin. Calm the
fuck down!”
“You get that motherfucker on the
phone, right now!” I was going to kill
him. Slowly. With as much pain as
humanly possible.
“He’s in a meeting with Donovan
and the other suits trying to figure out
what happened,” Martin grunted in
frustration. “Colin and I were tracing a
lead when it led us to an encrypted com.
I broke it and we realized Heron had
hired a mercenary team. Colin flipped
his shit, certain they were heading for
you, then he and Donovan tried to head it
off. But they weren’t able to catch the
wire transfer before the group was paid.
Don’t know how they found out about the
house, but we think they were tipped off
by someone who let them know when
you’d arrived.”
“How, Martin? How did they find
the damn house?!” A thought hit me.
“Check into the people who lived across
the street.”
“Will do, man.” Martin got quiet,
then asked in a low voice, “Justice, are
you stepping out on your wife?”
Now was not the time to resurrect
that line of thinking, it only added fuel to
my fire.
“WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK.
MARTIN?” I was as close to screaming
as I could be without drawing the
attention of the people standing across
the parking lot.
“Justice!” Evie hissed. “I don’t think
the people in Spain heard you.”
“Chill, man,” Martin said tiredly. “I
read something else in the cable. But,
you owe me, Justice, because I kept it
out of Colin and Donovan’s eyes.”
I took a deep breath, shut my eyes,
and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“What?”
“Someone must have spotted you
because the team was warned to be
prepared for a man and a woman.”
I sat in silence, having no ability to
respond. My life had been officially
turned into a shit show.
“Um, Justice?” Martin’s voice was
very hesitant. “Are you with your
Scarlett?”
My spine shot ram-rod straight and
my eye lids tore up as I registered his
question. “What do you know about
Scarlett?”
At my inquiry, Evie sat up straight
too, her eyes narrowed on my phone in
suspicion.
“Just that she was on the contract
too. I thought maybe you were working
together because I couldn’t see you
running around with a civilian while on
a mission. Especially a female.”
“Their information was faulty,” I
told him.
Something was wrong. It was all
wrong. But, I needed focus, so I steered
back to Heron. “Was he with them or
was he only the financier?”
“We weren’t sure, but one of his
aliases pinged five minutes ago at a bar
in Barcelona. We sent an agent, but he’d
cleared out by then. Looks like Colin’s
ass-et was right though,” he snickered at
his joke, and I rolled my eyes. The
asshole must have been bragging to
Martin. So professional.
“I’ve got a five o’clock ticket for the
ferry,” I informed him. “I’ll be in Spain
tomorrow, around one in the afternoon.”
Martin didn’t respond right away,
and I knew he was trying to decide
whether or not to let me change the
subject. But, he must have known me
well enough to figure out he wasn’t
going to get anywhere by keeping at it.
“I’ll let you know if he pops back up
on the radar.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” I snapped.
“You’ll hear from me later. I’m ditching
the phone.” I hung up.
I drove up to the ramp of the ferry.
We were early so there was no line.
They checked our tickets and waved us
on.
Evie reached into the back and
grabbed one of the jackets we’d tossed
back there earlier. “Here,” she said,
handing it to me. “Cover it up and we’ll
take care of it in our room.” I nodded,
still too livid to speak without shouting.
After donning the jacket, I picked up
my briefcase and Evie slung her
backpack over her shoulder, then we set
off to find our private room. The trip
would take about twenty hours, and
while I wouldn’t normally have booked
a private space, I didn’t want to spend
the trip separated from Evie, out in the
open. As we entered the room, I was
immensely grateful for my choice.
We set our things down, and Evie
went into the miniscule bathroom to get
the first aid kit. I took off my shirt and
tossed it into the corner where I’d set
our bags. The room was tiny and I was a
big guy, so maneuvering in it was a bit of
a challenge. I kicked off my shoes and
went ahead and ditched the pants too,
then sat on the side of the bed and
inspected my arm. It was little more than
road rash, the broken skin wouldn’t need
stitches.
Evie came back into the room with a
wet cloth and the white kit, pausing
when she looked at me. I took the
opportunity to run my eyes over her as
well. I’d had a knot in my stomach since
we’d learned about the wet work team.
It was becoming a slow burn, growing
hotter as my eyes landed on her full tits
and slim waist, the flair of her hips and
the juncture between her thighs.
She visibly swallowed and moved
toward me again. I was sitting with my
legs off the side of the bed, knees open,
and feet flat on the floor. She stepped
into the V, putting her chest at my eye
level, and I licked my lips involuntarily.
When I felt the sting of the antiseptic, I
hissed and put my head down, resting it
on her stomach.
Her flat stomach. Which, hopefully,
it wouldn’t be for long. It hit me, like a
ton
of
fucking
bricks,
crushing
everything except the one thought filling
my head.
“You could be pregnant.” The words
fell from my mouth without my
permission, gritted out through clenched
teeth.
“What?”
She
stopped
her
ministrations, but I didn’t look up,
completely absorbed in staring at the
place where my baby could be.
“I could have lost you both, Evie.” I
finally lifted my gaze to hers, letting her
see the growing fire inside me. “You
stepped into the fucking line of fire, and
I could have lost you both.”
She started shaking her head. “Alex,
I told you. The doctor said it would be a
few months.”
“No,” I stood as I spoke. “The
doctor said it could be a few months.”
Her head was still moving back and
forth, her face clearly showing her state
of denial. I gripped her arms and hauled
her up against me. “I won’t do it, Evie. I
couldn’t live without you. I won’t let you
go.” I slammed my mouth down over
hers, holding her as tightly to me as I
could without hurting her. I wanted to
fuse our bodies together so we would
never be apart, so she couldn’t ever put
herself in danger again.
I practically ripped the clothes off of
her body as I backed her up against the
wall. “You’re mine, Evie,” I growled.
“You need to remember”—I ran my
hands over her tits, before one traveled
up to grip her pony tail and the other
sliding down to cup her naked pussy
—“this belongs to me. And I’m not going
to let it go.” Dipping one long finger
inside her heat, feeling how soaked she
was, I couldn’t wait any longer to be
inside her.
I took her mouth in another rough
kiss, pulling her hair from the band and
spearing my fingers through the silky
strands. I pulled my hard, aching cock
out of my boxer briefs and grabbing her
ass, I raised her up enough to bring our
sexes flush with each other. “Legs
around my hips, baby,” I commanded,
once I’d torn my lips from hers.
As she encircled my waist, I lined up
my cock with her pussy and thrust inside.
She instinctively clenched her legs and
in turn, the walls of her pussy clamped
down on my cock. “I didn’t think I could
get any harder,” I said raggedly. “But
fuck, Evie, your pussy is so damn tight.”
I took a minute, hoping to calm
myself, but it was useless. Gripping her
wrists, I shoved her hands up against the
wall above her head, holding them there
as I began to fuck her so hard she was
sliding up the wall with each thrust.
Somewhere in my haze, I worried about
her delicate skin being marred by the
wall paper, so I brought her hands down
behind her back and held them there.
“Hold on, baby,” I warned her before
backing away from the wall.
The position thrust her tits up into my
face, and I couldn’t pass up the
opportunity to suck one rosy nipple into
my mouth. She moaned and pushed her
chest out even more. I was still a mess
of missed emotions—fear, anger, love,
they were all there. The fear had me
pulling her as close as I could. The
anger had me lowering her to the ground
and spinning her around to face the wall.
Returning her hands to the place above
her head, covered by my own and
fucking her as hard and rough as I could.
The love kept me from taking it too far
and poured into her through my kisses.
We were both reaching the peak and
I wasn’t ready, so I abruptly stopped and
she cried out in protest. I gave her a
swat on the ass. “Don’t worry, baby. I’m
going to have you coming so hard you’ll
see stars. But not until I feel like you
understand who you belong to. This
body, this heart”—I brought one hand
down to caress her stomach—“my baby
in your belly. I love you so fucking
much. No one is ever going to take you
away from me. Including you. So I’m
going to fuck you until you agree to quit
this life, Evie.”
I pulled out and thrust back in,
burying myself so deep in her pussy, I
felt as though we were one. “I want you
to choose me, our baby. Us. Until death
do we part. And, forever after.”
I dropped my face into her hair and
felt the strands turn damp as a few tears
slipped down my cheeks. My hips
started up again and I pumped into her,
listening to her cries of pleasure. I
couldn’t get close enough, deep enough.
I was lost in desperation, terrified to let
go and realize it was a dream and I’d
really lost her in that shed.
But, I couldn’t hold us off forever. I
glided the hand I’d kept on her belly
down to her pussy. She was so wet, my
fingers slipped through her lips. Finding
her sensitive little nub, I pressed hard as
I thrust in one last time and whispered,
“I love you, my Evie.”
Chapter 9
Evie
“I love you, too.” My words filled the
silence surrounding us. In the minutes
that had passed since we’d climaxed,
our breathing had evened out and our
heartbeats returned to normal. My body
wasn’t in its usual post-orgasm relaxed
state, though. Even with Alex’s body
wrapped around mine, pressing me
against the wall, my muscles were
clenched and butterflies swirled in my
stomach as I considered how to talk to
Alex about my job. About my decision to
put myself at risk when I’d taken the shot
at the bomb he’d improvised back at the
safe house.
This was a discussion I’d never
planned to have with my husband, the
sexy man with a boring job as a
contracts attorney. Turning in his arms
and looking up at him, I knew there was
no avoiding it any longer. He was a
covert operative who knew exactly the
kind of things Scarlett had been up to as
a black ops assassin. I’d managed to put
it off for the last couple days, but no
more. Not when my strong man had
actual tears on his cheeks over
something I’d done.
I reached up and swept the moisture
away with my thumb. “Thanks for the
save back there.” I slid my hand down
his neck, across his shoulder, and along
his arm to twine my fingers with his and
tug him over to the bed. He sat when I
gave him a little push, and I climbed
onto his lap. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
“Damn straight I was scared. What
you did was reckless, putting yourself in
the line of fire like that, instead of
waiting to see if the acetone peroxide
would ignite on its own.”
“I wasn’t reckless,” I argued. “I took
a calculated risk, a necessary one since
a team of hitmen had already marked our
location. If your device hadn’t gone off,
we would have been at a serious
disadvantage. They were well-armed
and all we had was my makeshift pipe
gun.”
“Which you could have given to me
so I could take the shot,” he growled.
“No, I couldn’t,” I sighed, hoping I’d
be able to make him see reason. “Not
only were we running out of time, but
I’m the better shot.”
He stiffened under me and I hurried
to explain. “I don’t mean that as an
insult, Alex. It’s just a fact. I’m damn
good with a gun. Any kind of gun. I have
been ever since my dad first put one in
my hands when I was little.”
“Your dad taught you to shoot?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “I remember
being six years old, out in our backyard
with cans setup on the fence. My dad
was lying next to me with a .22 propped
on a sand bag. His arms were around me
as I tried to line up the sights and pull
the trigger. I hit one of the cans on my
first try.”
I hadn’t shared many childhood
stories with Alex since it was hard to
talk about my dad. Even after all these
years, and knowing the culprit had paid
with his own blood, it hurt to think about
how he’d been stolen from me. Alex’s
expression softened and his arms
tightened around me in comfort. “Six
seems early to teach you how to shoot.”
“Maybe, but it had only been a
couple weeks since my mom had bailed
and I think he was looking for a way to
connect with me. He’d spent so much
time on missions as a SEAL that we
hadn’t really had enough time together to
bond before she walked out on us.”
“Any time you’ve mentioned your
dad, it sounded like you two were really
close before he died.” His words held a
questioning note in them.
“Shooting helped bring us together.
That, and him leaving the Navy the first
chance he got so he could be there for
me,” I explained. “Target practice in the
backyard turned into trips to the range.
Eventually, he was taking me to
marksmanship competitions and we
bonded over all the awards I was
winning. He was so damn proud of me,
bragged to all his SEAL buddies about
how his little girl could outshoot the lot
of them.”
“With what I’ve heard about
Scarlett, it’s not hard to believe he was
right.”
“Oh, I proved it more than a few
times,” I chuckled. “The guys got such a
kick out of it that eventually, they all
chipped in to teach me the skills at
which they excelled. Hand to hand
combat, knives, reading people, and
foreign languages. My education was
unusual, to say the least.”
“It’s hard to argue with the results
because you turned into an amazing
woman.”
My muscles unclenched a little at the
pride in his eyes. Opening up to him like
this and showing him the side of myself
I’d kept hidden was scary as hell, but it
didn’t seem to be changing his feelings
for me. If anything, I found myself
feeling even closer to him.
“An amazing woman who knows
how to handle herself in tough
situations.”
“I’m not trying to take that away
from you, baby.”
It kind of felt like he was, though. I
wasn’t sure how to make him see it from
my perspective, but I needed to try. “I
was recruited straight out of college, on
the heels of my dad’s death, and went
straight into dark ops after they helped
me hunt down his killer.”
His eyes lit with understanding.
“That’s how they got you, by playing on
your vulnerability after your father
died.”
“No, they played on my need for
vengeance,” I corrected. “By the time I
got it, I’d been sucked in too deep to
walk away. That was years ago, Alex. It
will be even harder to get out after
everything I’ve done since then.”
“Will you try? For me?” I felt Alex’s
chest expand as he took a deep breath
and held it, waiting for my answer.
I nodded jerkily. “I think so. Maybe.
I hadn’t really gotten far in my thinking
process yet, but when I made the
decision to stop taking my pills it was
with the knowledge that something was
going to have to change, because I don’t
want to be out of the country for
missions all the time. If we have a child,
I want to be there for him or her in all
the ways I wish my mom had been for
me.”
“Thank you, my Evie,” he breathed
out.
“Don’t thank me yet,” I warned “I
haven’t figured it all out yet, and I’m not
going to do so during the course of this
mission. I still have orders, and I’m
going to follow them through to the best
of my ability. Once this is over and the
dust settles, then I’ll talk to my boss
about making a change.”
He opened his mouth, and I slapped
my palm over it. “In the future. When I’m
ready, which very well could be months
or even years from now if it takes us
awhile to get pregnant.”
His lips moved underneath my hand,
making me glare down at him until he
stopped trying to talk.
“I’m not saying I’m going to walk
away from this world completely. I’ve
carved my place in it with blood, sweat,
and tears—earning my place. But I’m
willing to consider making some
changes, if my boss will allow it. Only
time will tell I guess, but he did let me
alter my mission parameters a few years
ago when I told him I couldn’t take
anymore up close kills after a mission
where I ran into some issues, and you
noticed the bruises which hadn’t healed
entirely by the time I got home..”
His eyes bugged out, and I pulled my
hand away from his mouth. “You told me
it was a car accident! That the taxi you
were riding in had been in a minor
fender bender and you bumped your
head because you weren’t wearing a seat
belt.”
“It’s not like I could have told you
the truth,” I reminded him, kissing his
cheek before climbing off his lap. “I said
what needed to be said so you didn’t
worry about me.”
“No more secrets,” he growled.
“I need food,” I blurted out,
unwilling to touch that verbal grenade.
We were spies, the both of us. Secrets
came with the job. With us working for
different divisions, and me in a position
where
the
agency
couldn’t
even
acknowledge my existence, it was what
it was, even if it sucked. “And so do
you. That might just be a graze, but you
need some protein to help speed along
the healing process.”
I felt his stare on my back as I
grabbed my clothes from the floor and
tossed them on. I glanced over my
shoulder when I neared the door and
found him glaring at me, spread out on
the sheets in all his naked glory. His
cock was semi-erect, lengthening farther
under my gaze.
“Or maybe I’m the one who needs
protein to keep up with you,” I joked.
Striding into the hallway, I heard his
laughter through door after it shut behind
me.
“If only I were kidding,” I muttered
to myself, slumping against the wall for
a moment. Between the adrenalin crash,
hot sex, and opening myself up to him the
way I had, I was exhausted. My stomach
growled, reminding me I needed food
before I could sleep. We only had
another eighteen hours or so before we
hit the Port de Barcelona. While it might
sound like a lot of time, we couldn’t just
eat, sleep, and fuck our way across the
Tyrrhenian and Balearic Seas. The ferry
had an internet cafe, which meant we
could get some research done before we
arrived in Barcelona. I hadn’t ever run
an op there before, and I needed to get a
lay of the land before I’d feel
comfortable. Luckily, the language
wouldn’t be an issue, although the locals
might snub their nose at my Latin
American dialect.
Weaving my way upstairs to the deck
with the a la carte restaurant, I sweet
talked the host into letting me place a
carry-out order. Twenty minutes later,
my hands were full. He’d packaged the
boxes into a bag to make it easier for me
to carry back to our room, which
allowed me to carry the bottle of Ferrari
Perlè sparkling wine he’d talked me into
purchasing, along with two flutes.
Wandering past the swimming pool,
casino, and disco on my way back to our
room, I couldn’t help but wish this trip
was for pleasure instead of business.
Alex and I had taken many vacations in
our years together, but we’d never done
a cruise. Probably because neither of us
wanted to run the risk of being caught at
sea if something went wrong while the
other was unaware of our career as a
spy. Maybe now that the secret was out,
we could consider taking one in the
future—after I figured out what to do
about my job. And before he managed to
knock me up. The last thing I needed was
to combine morning sickness with being
at sea.
Chuckling to myself at the thought, I
bumped my hip against our door, and it
only took a moment for Alex to open it
and let me in. He took the bag out of my
hand, pulling the boxes out and setting
them on top of a towel he’d laid on the
bed. When he glanced at the wine and
glasses in my hand, he quirked his head
and raised an eyebrow at me.
“The host did me a favor getting our
carry out order ready so quickly, I
couldn’t say no when he recommended
the wine.”
He peered at the label and chuckled.
“If I had to go out on a limb here, I’d say
you didn’t argue too hard since it’s a
spumante.”
I blinked up at him, trying to look as
innocent as possible. “What can I say? I
was lucky he suggested something I
knew I’d love. In my defense, I did
choose some of your favorite foods.”
I flipped open the lids on the boxes
filled with a mushroom and crispy bacon
risotto, sliced black Angus steak, an
Italian
cheese
platter,
and
fresh
pineapple.
“Pineapple?”
The contents of that box did look a
little out of place with the rest of the
food, but I hadn’t been able to resist.
Being on a mission with Alex had
apparently sent my hormones into
overdrive. “I thought maybe later we
could test to see if it changes the taste of
your come.”
He popped the cork on the bottle of
wine and filled both glasses, handing me
one while he dove into the pile of
pineapple. After eating, sleeping, and
completing all the prep work we could
before we made it to Barcelona, I had
the chance to test the pineapple theory. In
case you were wondering, by the time he
blew down my throat, the last thing on
my mind was the way it tasted. I was too
far gone to pay attention to anything
other than my next orgasm.
Chapter 10
Alex
“Have you been here before?” Evie
asked curiously, obviously noticing I’d
driven straight from the ferry to a
parking garage in the city, without any
direction.
“I was here for work a couple of
years ago.”
Her
forehead
wrinkled
in
concentration as she thought hard about
something. “Wait”—her jaw dropped for
a second before she continued—“two
summers ago when we had to put off our
anniversary trip because we both had to
go out of town for work?”
I nodded distractedly as I took a
ticket and pulled into a parking spot.
“Alex.” The odd tone of Evie’s
voice had me turning in her direction.
“You told me you were going to
Barcelona.”
I suddenly realized what had her
confused, and I laughed. “I was here for
my other job, if you can believe it.
International Contracts Attorney, Alex
Shaw.”
Evie started giggling and soon we
were both bent over with laughter. It felt
wonderful. For a moment, we were
simply Alex and Evie Shaw, a young
couple in love who had so much fun
together, their life was filled with
laughter.
I couldn’t help staring at her, awed
by how free and open she looked, so
beautiful. My Evie.
She looked at me quizzically as her
chuckles subsided. “What?”
I told her the absolute truth. “I love
you, baby.”
Her face lit up and she smiled wide.
“I love you too, stud.”
I picked up one of her hands and
brought it to my lips, kissing it softly
before giving it a little squeeze. “Let’s
get going, baby.”
We gathered our bags and weapon
cases, leaving the car with the keys in a
compartment under the wheel well. It
was time to ditch that one. Barcelona
was a pretty pedestrian city anyway,
mostly people used public transit.
Another agent would take care of this
car, and should we need to drive
somewhere, we’d get another.
“We have a flat by the Parc de la
Ciutadella,” I mentioned as we exited
the structure.
“Do you think it’s wise for us to stay
somewhere together?”
My jaw hardened at her question. I’d
taken her hand and my grip tightened, as
though I was afraid she would run away.
“No. I want you with me.”
“Alex—” she began, her tone
admonishing.
“No!” I barked. “I don’t give a fuck
about protocol or being seen together.
You stay with me.” I spared her a glance
to see if she would continue to argue
with me. But, she smiled and her grip on
my hand squeezed.
“Okay, stud. We stay together. Lead
the way.”
I dared anyone to find a woman as
perfect as my Evie. It would be a
pointless challenge because they would
always fail. When we arrived at the
building housing the safe house, I
punched in a code and the front door
unlocked. Then I rapped my knuckles on
the door with a gold letter A and the
number 1.
When the door swung open, a rough
looking, middle-aged man stepped out.
Despite his salt and pepper hair, he was
fit and didn’t look like someone who
would be easily handled. His eyes
landed on Evie and lit with appreciation.
I quickly pushed her behind me and
leveled him with a deadly look in my
stare. He smirked at me, but kept his
attention on me after that. We conversed
in Spanish for a minute, then he handed
me a key.
I led Evie to an elevator and we
rode up to the second floor, stopping at
the first apartment. I unlocked the door
and held it open for her to enter. She
walked to the living room and set down
her backpack while I took our other bags
into the bedroom.
Returning to the front, I walked over
to a black, cheap-looking desk with a
small laptop on it. The piece of furniture
was probably made of particle board
and would collapse if I put any extra
weight on it. I grabbed the computer
with a sigh, cursing budget cuts, and
went to the couch. Setting the laptop on
the low, wood-like coffee table, I
hunched over and booted it up.
Evie came to stand next to me and
tapped my shoulder, chuckling at my
uncomfortable position. “Scoot, stud.” I
immediately moved over and she
plopped down on the ground in front of
the computer. I slid back over and swung
a leg around her so she was caged
between my legs. She started tapping
away, and I watched, idly playing with
her hair.
“You don’t speak with a Latin
accent,” she commented. I leaned closer,
both
of
us
reading
through
the
information her tech had forwarded.
I almost missed the question,
absorbed in the files we were sifting
through. “What? Oh, no, I learned
French, Russian, German, and Italian
first. I spent a month on assignment in
Madrid early in my career and picked up
the language. Then I learned Farsi,
Arabic, and a few others”—I pointed at
the computer screen—“does that file say
Pájaro Negro?”
When Evie didn’t answer right away,
I tore my eyes from the computer screen
and saw her staring up at me with a bit
of wonder. “What?”
“How many languages do you
speak?”
I thought about it for a minute.
“Eleven, I think. I can passably speak
Japanese, but most people there look
pretty insulted when I do,” I finished
with a grin.
“I had no idea,” she murmured.
“Hey, hey, Baby,” I said softly,
lifting her chin so I could look directly
in her beautiful, chocolate brown eyes.
“We’ll learn all of these things about
each other. No more secrets remember?”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her
eyes. I tried to lighten the mood a little.
“How many languages do you speak,
smarty pants?” I’m rewarded with a
slightly brighter smile and a snicker.
“Twelve,” she informed me smugly.
I laughed, “Too fucking adorable.”
Shaking my head, I nudged her to turn
back to the computer screen. “Look, I’m
pretty sure that says Black Bird. Last I
heard that was the code name for a
major arms dealer based in Marseille.”
She looked through the next couple
of paragraphs. “Maybe he’s expanded
his operation down the coast,” she
hypothesized.
I shook my head. “I think he’s moved
his epicenter to Port de Barcelona.”
“Check this out.” Evie highlighted
the text of a cable sent to Pájaro Negro,
but there was no indication who it’s
from.
“Print out the whole communiqué,
baby,” I requested as I went back to the
desk and rummaged around the drawers
until I found a little silver cell phone.
Opening the phone, I dialed a
number and entered an extension as I
waited for the printer on the table next to
the desk to finish printing.
“Dude,” Martin said in greeting.
“Can you look into Black Bird and
find out if we have any locations for his
warehouses? Possibly one in Port de
Barcelona?”
“No problem. His operation has
been mobile lately, I don’t think I’ll have
anything for you until tomorrow.”
I grunted in frustration, I wanted this
shit over and done with. After hanging
up, I filled Evie in and despite our lack
of location, we spent most of the night
working through possible scenarios.
My phone rang again at six in the
morning.
“Are you aware of the awesome that
is me?” Martin said by way of greeting.
“Yeah, Martin, you certainly tell me
enough,” I replied drolly.
I could practically hear his eye roll
through the phone. I heard a litany of
taps, Martin’s fingers probably flying
across his keyboard. “Justice, I’ve been
picking up chatter. Please tell me I’m out
of my fucking gourd and you are not
working with Scarlett?”
I stiffened. “What makes you think
that?” I asked cagily. Grabbing the
papers off the printer, I took them back
over to Evie.
“Like I said, chatter.” The clattering
stopped abruptly. “I’m emailing you four
addresses, try one of those. But, back to
what I was saying, man.” He was silent
for a moment, and then I heard the click
of a door closing. “There’s random talk
of a two person team after Heron. The
thing is...” Martin trailed off, clearly not
happy with the information he was about
to impart. “They only talk about taking
out the female. The male is supposed to
remain
alive
and
his
mission
uncompromised.”
I sucked in a breath, as pain tore
through my chest. I tried calming myself
by remembering what Scarlett and I are
both capable of. Nothing would happen
to her. I almost believed it.
“This is coming from Heron’s
network?” I clarified.
Martin was silent for too long, which
meant he was about to drop a fucking
bomb on me.
“I’m not supposed to be monitoring
these people, but I got bored.”
“Who?” I growled.
“I have a contact who roams in the
CI network.”
“Okay.” I didn’t understand what
was so unusual about that. “So, they
brought the information to us, what about
it?”
“No, Justice. They were spreading
the information the other way. As
though... as though they were getting it
from someone here.”
“Find them!” I roared and threw the
phone at the wall, shattering it.
“Alex!” Evie exclaimed, jumping to
her feet, her eyes bouncing back and
forth between the broken cell and me.
“Someone
doesn’t
want
you
completing your mission.”
She put her hands on her hips and
cocked her head in question. I quickly
filled her in on the details Martin
discovered.
“Not Heron’s network. Someone
inside the fucking agency.” I was shaking
with rage and betrayal.
“Okay,” Evie said as she began to
pace, her fingers running through her hair
in agitation. ”Okay, um...” She stopped
suddenly. “They want the noc list.”
“Special operations doesn’t even
know about the noc list,” I argued.
“Seriously, think about it Alex.
Somebody has to.”
More than likely, she was right, but
if I spent too much time focusing on this
new turn of events, we’d both fail to
succeed in our assignments.
“We’ll keep our heads down, do our
best to stay off all radars. We need to
wrap things up with Heron. ASAP.” I
grabbed the computer and located the
addresses from Martin. “Bring the
papers,
baby.
We’ll
start
cross-
referencing the addresses with those
times and dates against shipping
manifests.”
We got to work and were able to
eliminate one address, but no matter how
much we scoured the information, it
looked like we would have to make a
visit to three of the warehouses.
It was only just after three in the
afternoon and we wanted to wait for
dark. So, I ran out for lunch and after, I
coaxed Evie into the bedroom and made
love to her, sinking inside her as I
reminded myself that she was there, safe,
protected, and strong.
“Alex?”
I looked down at Evie, where her
head lay on my chest. “What, baby?”
“Why did you become a spy?”
I realized she’d given me her history,
but I hadn’t ever shared mine. I ran my
fingers through her hair and kissed her
forehead before speaking. “My reasons
weren’t nearly as compelling as yours,”
I said ruefully. “I scored exceptionally
high in classes where the CIA monitors
students. However, the army got to me
first. You know I was in the military, but
what is kept on the DL is that I was
Special Forces. I loved it, but,
eventually the agency came knocking and
they painted a pretty picture. One of duty
and patriotism, making a difference in
the world. They presented it in such a
way as to make it look as though you
would be in so much greater service to
your country than any other government
work. So, I signed on the dotted line.”
“What about your family?” she
asked.
“I didn’t lie to you about my family,
Evie.” I tried and failed to keep the hurt
out of my tone. “I wasn’t keeping you or
them, hidden from each other. I really
did grow up in foster homes. I was one
of those rare kids who got extremely
lucky and I had teachers who did their
best to help me succeed. I went to a
local state college, then earned a
scholarship to Harvard.”
I sat up, brought her with me, and
stared into her beautiful face. “Fast
forward to four years ago. I met the love
of my life and she made everything that
had ever happened to me before her
worth it. Because it brought me her.”
Evie threw her arms around my neck
and kissed me with unbelievable passion
which led to hot, rough fucking. When
we were spent and sated, mostly, we ate
leftovers for dinner and as night fell, we
prepared to get to work.
The night yielded nothing, the
warehouse abandoned with no signs of
life, frustrating us to no end. The
following night resulted in the same.
However, the third night, when we
checked the last address, we witnessed a
shipment being offloaded. We had to
wait until the following night when the
activity had died down to sneak in and
take inventory.
The crates were loaded with drugs
and weapons, so we dropped a bug and
got the hell out of there. It took two more
days, but finally, we heard plans for a
meeting.
One
where
they
were
apparently supposed to pay a great deal
of money for a list. It was set for three
days from then, at eight pm, giving us
ample time to come up with a solid plan.
We avoided the elephant in the room
as we made plans, never discussing our
conflicting missions. But one thing was
certain, that night would be Evie’s last
fucking day as a spy. I would make sure
of it.
Chapter 11
Evie
I hadn’t been this nervous since my first
mission. It wasn’t as though Alex and I
weren’t prepared. We were. We’d
stayed up until the wee hours of the
morning, making sure we had our plan
set in stone. We were on the same page
for timing, access points, exit strategies,
weapons
to
bring.
Pretty
much
everything with one exception—what we
were going to do with Heron once we
got him.
I’d never questioned the orders I’d
received. Not once in all these years.
But listening to the quiet confidence
when Alex spoke about his role in the
agency made me wonder if it wouldn’t
be better to let Heron live just long
enough for Justice to question him. My
faith in my husband was unshakeable. I
knew he wouldn’t betray me or our
country with the information he would
be able to get from Heron, if given the
chance to interrogate him. My superiors
didn’t know Alex the way I did. They
weren’t able to factor him into the
equation in the same manner I could.
Plus, if there was someone in our agency
gunning for me while also going after the
noc list, I needed to find them. There
might be something we could learn about
that person’s identity from our target.
Dead men couldn’t talk, which is
exactly what my boss wanted—Heron’s
lips sealed. Even after I’d updated him
on the information Martin had uncovered
about me being a target of a wet work
team, he hadn’t lifted the kill order on
Heron.
National
security
took
precedence over one operative. Always
had and always would for him. It had to
be that way or he’d never be able to do
his job. It was a fact I’d accepted when
it was only my life at risk. Having Alex
with me on this mission changed my
perspective, though. If his boss treated
him like he was expendable, I’d burn the
whole agency down. My father’s murder
had filled me with a need for vengeance,
but it was nothing compared to what
would happen if Alex was harmed. And
his reaction to me being in the line of
fire at the safe house made it clear he
felt the same way about me.
It was an eye-opening moment for
me. One which I’d pondered these last
few days as I struggled with what I was
supposed to do, versus what I was
starting to think was the right thing to do.
A struggle I hid from Alex. Until I knew
for sure what I was going to do about
Heron, I didn’t want to give him ideas.
Sex worked well to avoid the subject. A
distraction technique I’d used often over
the last few days.
As I woke up from the five hours of
sleep we’d managed to get after we’d
fallen into an exhausted, tangled heap on
our bed, my body bore the marks and
aches from the hard fucking he’d given
me yesterday. Sex should have been the
last thing on my mind between the
urgency of the mission ahead and how
satisfied he’d left me last time around,
but it didn’t seem to make a difference to
my body. I wanted to feel him moving
inside me again, and I wasn’t willing to
wait until after the dust settled to get
what I wanted from him.
The morning of the meet, I tugged the
sheet away from Alex’s body, and his
cock sprang free, jutting toward me. A
quick glance up confirmed he was still
sleeping, but the head of his cock was
already
glistening
with
moisture.
Wrapping my hand around his hardened
length, I stroked him slowly from root to
tip while I kept my eyes locked on his
face. It only took a few strokes before
his eyes blinked open, hazy from sleep,
but also filled with desire and need.
“You sure do know how to wake me
up in the best ways, baby.”
“It’s not like I could let this morning
wood go to waste, could I?”
“Definitely not,” he chuckled, sliding
his hands up my back to tangle them in
my hair. “That would be a damn shame.”
I gave him a few more slow tugs
before leaning forward to wrap my lips
around the head of his cock. My tongue
flicked out and swiped the bead of
moisture from his tip, making him groan.
I loved when he made sounds like that so
I licked at the same spot, over and over
again, until he was writhing underneath
me with his fingers digging into my
scalp. When I parted my lips and took
all of him inside my mouth, his hips
jerked up and sent his cock deeper.
“Who’s in control here, stud?” I
mumbled around his shaft. He didn’t
bother answering with words, choosing
to show me that even though I was the
one sucking him off, he thought he was
the one in charge. I felt a slight stinging
sensation at my scalp as he pulled my
hair tighter, his hips thrusting forward.
He’d turned the tables on me, fucking my
mouth and using it for his pleasure.
“Fuck, baby. You suck me so damn
good. Feel free to wake me up like this
anytime you want.”
His words spurred me on, making
me suck him harder. I tilted my head,
giving him a better angle so I could take
more of his length into my mouth until it
bumped against the back of my throat.
More pre-come seeped from his tip, and
I hummed in approval at the flavor on
my tongue. His cock swelled, and I
whimpered when he pulled out of my
mouth.
“Gonna come deep in your pussy this
time around, baby.”
Before I had the chance to agree, he
shredded the panties I’d slid on last
night and flipped me around. I landed on
the mattress, flat on my back, his body
over mine as he plunged into me.
Wrapping my legs around his waist, my
hips rose and fell in rhythm with his
thrusts. My nails bit hard enough into his
shoulders I was certain they’d leave
marks, but it only made him thrust
harder. His hand slid between our
bodies, seeking out my clit and my
pleasure sky rocketed, throwing me over
the edge.
“Yes,” he hissed, his body jerking
with his own orgasm, his hands
tightening around my hips while he
emptied himself inside me. My legs
were still tight around his hips as he
briefly dropped his weight onto me
before rolling us over. Resting my head
on his chest, I hugged him tight while I
caught my breath.
“It’s going to be okay, Evie,” he
murmured, dropping a kiss on my hair
and rubbing my back in slow circles.
My frantic need wasn’t fooling him.
It probably hadn’t been the whole time
and he’d just gone along with it because
he knew it was what I needed. My hubby
knew me better than I wanted to admit to
myself. Either that, or my nerves were
showing when they never had before.
“I know it will be.” My answer was
soft. Hesitant. It sounded nothing like the
usual confidence with which I spoke, but
anxiety had taken flight in my belly and I
couldn’t shake it. Even a mind-blowing
orgasm hadn’t helped. I allowed myself
to enjoy the comfort of his embrace for
as long as I could. Too quickly, time ran
out and we needed to get moving.
There were no lingering glances as
we dressed.
No words exchanged as we double-
checked and packed all our gear.
Not a single smile shared when we
left the room and exited the hotel, hand
in hand.
We were both mission ready and
focused on the task at hand, but it was
more than that. A dark cloud hung over
our heads as we drove over roads we’d
traveled
before,
heading
to
the
warehouse we’d successfully infiltrated
only a few nights earlier. Tension built
as we arrived an hour before the meeting
we were hoping to crash. We exited the
car at the same time, meeting at the trunk
to unload our gear.
“You ready to do this?”
Alex’s question broke the silence. I
glanced up at him to find his worried
gaze locked on my face. Using every
inch of willpower in my body, I forced
myself to relax and offered him a smile.
“Of course I am, stud. I was born ready.”
He rewarded me for my effort with a
chuckle and a quick but hard kiss. I felt it
seep into my bones, warming me—but
doing nothing to lessen the tension I was
feeling.
“Then let’s get this over with, once
and for all.”
Hefting my bag over my shoulder, I
followed behind him. My head swiveled
as I studied our surroundings, looking
for any changes since we were last here.
The warehouse district was quiet at this
time of night, and nobody was around. I
spotted one light out over the door of the
building across from our destination, but
the bulb was intact. It hadn’t been shot
out, most likely just needing to be
replaced by the owner. I scanned the
windows and roof anyway, searching for
signs that we had unwanted company.
Reaching a hand out to touch Alex’s
shoulder briefly, he paused and glanced
back at me. He caught where my gaze
was aimed and joined me in my perusal.
After a couple minutes, he squeezed my
hand.
“Spot anything?”
“No,” I answered. Nothing except
the darkened light bulb was different, but
it was enough to put me further on edge.
I figured part of it was that I was hyper-
sensitive to danger after the close call at
the safe house, and because Alex was
with me. If it had only been me, I
probably would have set-up on the same
roof I’d just stared at, but I couldn’t
bring myself to be that far from him, in
case we needed to make a quick retreat.
If that wasn’t a sign I needed to seriously
reevaluate my role with the agency, then
I didn’t know what was. Letting emotion
impact my decisions was a sure fire way
to get myself killed, but I couldn’t shake
my gut feeling that I needed to stick
close to Alex. “I think we’re good.”
We moved on and rounded the
building to approach the rear door of the
warehouse. Alex kneeled down to pick
the lock, his back to mine as I kept
watch. I’d never worked a mission this
closely with another operative, and I felt
the weight of my responsibility for his
safety heavy on my shoulders. He made
quick work of the lock, and we entered
the building swiftly and quietly, softly
closing the door behind us so we didn’t
alert anyone to our presence.
Heading to the east side of the
building to the large stack of crates
where we’d dropped our bug. Nearing
them, I noticed the lid of one was
slightly off center. I was certain we
hadn’t left it that way, and we hadn’t
heard anyone open them while we’d
listened in. I stopped dead in my tracks,
gripping Alex’s arm so he halted with
me. It was then I heard it. Clapping.
Motherfucking clapping.
“Well done, Scarlett.”
I swiveled around, pulling a Glock
from each shoulder holster mid-turn, and
found our target standing about ten feet
away from us. He had four beefy
bodyguard types with him, each with a
gun aimed our way. I raised my arms and
aimed mine right back at them.
“I have to admit I was hoping you
were the one they’d send after me,”
Heron announced, his eyes raking my
body before he turned his attention to
Alex. “But I’m a bit disappointed, since
I’d heard you always worked alone.”
“Maybe you were too big a target to
risk losing with only one agent,” Alex
interjected, presumably in an attempt to
play on Heron’s ego.
“Ah, but Scarlett isn’t really an
agent, is she?” Heron replied. “You
might be, but she’s a bit more than that.
Or less, depending on how you look at it
since your government would be content
to let her die while denying her
existence. All of which means she could
be quite valuable to me.”
At that, the guards shifted their
stances so all four guns opposite us were
aimed Alex’s way. And my husband, the
stubborn ass, took several steps away,
drawing their aim farther away from me
and more firmly on him.
“How interesting,” Heron murmured,
his gaze darting between us with a
calculating gleam. “Looks like I’m not
the only one who thinks the infamous
Scarlett is valuable.”
I tapped my left foot, hoping like hell
Alex would catch the signal. Between
the two of us, we could take four of them
out fairly easily, but five would be
pushing it—especially since Alex was
hell bent on taking Heron in alive. This
situation called for kill shots if we
wanted to improve our odds of getting
out of here alive. With the bodyguards, I
didn’t have to worry about Alex
hesitating. If Alex understood what I
meant and started from the left, we had a
good chance to take them all out, leaving
Heron as the only one standing.
“I can think of at least four people
who would agree with you.” I stressed
the number as I spoke, and followed it
up with three light taps of my foot. As
soon as my sole hit the ground the third
time, I fired in rapid sequence. Three
shots from my two guns and one from
Alex’s pistol. Four shots, straight
between the eyes of each bodyguard. It
would have been perfect, except Heron
had used that time to reach behind his
back to pull out a weapon. A gun he had
aimed straight at my husband.
“You were just a name on a list to
me up until a few days ago, Scarlett. One
of many who I’d sell to the highest
bidder without thinking twice. Then I
heard rumblings about a dark ops
assassin who was hunting me, with a
male special agent at her side.”
“Fuck,” Alex hissed.
“An assassin so good at her job that
a kill team had been sent for her but
failed when she blew the safe house
where she’d been staying,” Heron
continued. “Someone on your side wants
you dead, and they’re willing to pay a
lot of money to make that happen. I’m
curious to see how much you’d be worth
to others, alive.”
“You’ll never find out because
there’s no way in hell you’re gonna walk
out of here with her,” Alex growled.
“Are you sure about that?” Heron
chuckled. “It’s not like you can kill me
since you’re supposed to bring me in
alive for questioning.”
“The only way she leaves here with
you is over my dead body.”
“If you insist,” Heron replied.
In those brief seconds as I watched
Heron take aim at my husband, I better
understood why he’d been so angry
about what I’d done at the safe house in
Rome. His fury merely masked his fear
of losing me. A nightmare I shared, as
images of our life together raced before
my eyes. I couldn’t just stand here and
watch it happen, not when Alex’s life
was on the line. I leapt into action,
diving in front of Alex just as Heron’s
finger pressed down on the trigger of his
gun.
Shit! I was hit. I’d never taken a
bullet before, but I knew what the flare
of heat and stinging pain in my upper
arm meant. Luckily, I’d already gotten
both of my shots off and it looked like
my aim had been true, one to his hand to
knock the gun out of it and another to his
knee so he couldn’t run. Mid-leap, I
twisted my body to avoid landing on my
injured arm. I went down hard. Damn
hard. I managed to miss my arm, but I
took the brunt of the landing on my upper
back. My head snapped backwards,
smashing against the concrete once,
before bouncing up and slamming down
again.
Fuck! The pain in my head
overshadowed my arm. Darkness crept
around the edges of my vision. I wasn’t
sure how much time, if any, had passed
since I went down. I heard Alex yelling,
but his voice was muffled as though he
was in a tunnel far, far away from me. I
tried to lift my hand and reach out to
him, to reassure him that I was okay, but
my body wouldn’t cooperate.
“I don’t care what the fuck it takes,
get an ambulance to our location and
make sure a medevac is on standby at the
hospital for her, Martin!”
Was it bad enough that I needed a
medevac?
“I know her personnel file is buried
deep, but you’re going to have to figure
out a way to unearth it because her
medical records had damn well better be
at Moron when we get there.”
Martin was good, but there was no
way he could get me onto a military
base for treatment.
“You’ve got plenty of time to find a
way to make it happen between however
long we’re at the hospital and the almost
two hours we’ll be in the air.”
Even if he managed to get an
operative who technically didn’t exist
onto the base, he couldn’t get his hands
on my info. Not that quickly anyway.
“Yeah, we need medical care for
two.”
My breath froze in my lungs. No.
Please don’t tell me it was all for
nothing.
“Damn fool woman leapt in front of
a bullet for me, and she still managed to
fire two rounds at Heron with a
precision most operatives don’t even
have at the gun range. He took one in the
hand and one in the knee.”
He meant Heron and me. Alex was
unharmed. Comforted by the knowledge
that he had escaped the confrontation
unscathed, my eyes slid closed and I
stopped fighting the darkness, letting it
swallow me whole.
Chapter 12
Alex
I rested my forehead on the bed next to
Evie as I held her hand tightly in mine. I
heard the door open and the doctor
walked in, staring at a chart.
“Mr. Shaw,” he greeted me in
Spanish, finally glancing up from his
clip board and shaking my hand. “I’m
Dr. Ruiz.” I had a lump in my throat and
fear was keeping me tongue tied, so I
simply nodded.
“From the bruising under your wife’s
eyes, and her state of unconsciousness,
it’s highly possible we are dealing with
a skull fracture, but I’m confident it isn’t
more than a linear fracture.”
He said it as though it was no big
deal. I’m no doctor, but it seemed to me,
any kind of crack in the skull was
fucking serious. The lump in my throat
became a boulder and I silently begged
Evie to wake up.
“We want to confirm this and rule
out an epidural hematoma. Normally,
we’d do a CAT scan but, I’d rather not
take a chance at harming the baby, so
we’ll move forward with an MRI.”
I froze. “The baby?” I croaked.
The doctor’s eyebrows went up into
his hairline as he registered my shock.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Shaw. This early on, I
shouldn’t assumed you knew. You
weren’t aware she could be pregnant?”
I shook my head, once again,
speechless. Then what he asked seeped
into my awareness. “No, I mean I didn’t
know, but we were trying.”
Evie was pregnant? My eyes strayed
to her belly. I’d put my baby in there.
Unfortunately, I was too worried to gloat
about the fact that I’d been right, and I’d
knocked her up the first night we tried.
“Well, congratulations, Mr. Shaw. It
looks like she is about two weeks along.
Once we get the results on the MRI back,
we’ll do an ultrasound to check on the
baby. Depending on the results, we’ll
clear her to be transferred to Moron.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, my eyes
still glued to Evie’s flat stomach. I
vaguely noticed the click of the door
shutting as I stood and sat a hip next to
her on the bed. I couldn’t wait to see her
round with our child. Now, if she would
just wake the fuck up so my dream could
become a reality.
Brushing her hair back from her face,
I cradled one cheek in my hand. “Did
you hear, baby? You’re going to be a
mom. But, you have to come back to me
first.”
Nothing.
I tapped her on the nose, then tried
another tactic. “I told you I’d get you
pregnant that night, didn’t I?” I asked,
infusing my voice with smugness.
“Aren’t you going to give me shit for
being so damn cocky?”
Nothing.
I leaned down and kissed her dry
lips softly, before resting my head on her
chest. The slow, steady beat of her heart
and even breaths brought me some
comfort.
A knock on the door interrupted the
peaceful moment, and I sat back up as a
nurse entered the room.
“This was left at reception for you,
sir?” She stretched out her hand, a small
black burner phone in her palm.
“Gracias.” I took the phone warily,
not sure if it was from my superiors or
Scarlett’s.
“De nada,” she responded, before
disappearing back through the door. No
sooner was she gone than the phone
began to vibrate. Unknown. With one
last glance at Evie to make sure she was
resting comfortably, I stepped into the
hall and answered.
“Justice.”
There was silence for a moment
before an emotionless disembodied
voice spoke. “Where is Scarlett?”
I gripped the phone tightly, already
sensing this call was going to piss me
the fuck off. “She’s in a damn coma.”
There was an extended silence once
again, fraying my nerves and making me
want to punch the son of a bitch on the
line.
“Give her a message. We’ve
received a burn notice on her. She’s
blacklisted.”
“What the fuck?” I roared, earning
me angry glances from the nurses and
fingers pointed at the signs declaring the
use of cell phones was prohibited.
I was prepared to stalk outside and
let the asshole have it when the call was
cut off with a resounding click.
Pulling the phone from my ear, I
stared at it hard, willing it to ring again.
The squeak of rubber soles on the
linoleum broke my concentration, and I
looked up to see the nurses arriving to
wheel Evie from her room for her scan.
For some reason, I felt panic that she
would be out of my sight for even the
smallest amount of time. Something
wasn’t sitting right, but I had no idea
what it was or what to do about it. So, I
let them take her, following until we
reached a restricted area and I had to
stay behind. When the procedure was
completed, I returned with her to the
hospital room to await the results.
I was starting to fidget, impatient for
answers, and frustrated that Evie was
still unconscious. With every set of
footsteps approaching the door, I shot to
my feet but then they would pass by and I
would slowly sink back into my chair to
brood.
Finally, there was a knock, and the
door opened to reveal a nurse in pink
scrubs entering the room with a smile.
She introduced herself as Beth and
picked up Evie’s chart. “The doctor has
prescribed some pain medication for
her. Often, with a closed fracture, pain
meds are the only course of treatment
and if she is suffering a great deal, it
could be contributing to why she is still
in a coma.” She smiled at me again and
again, something struck me as odd.
“Don’t worry, the medication is safe for
pregnancy.”
I nodded and watched her walk over
to Evie’s IV and uncap a syringe I hadn’t
realized she’d brought in with her.
Readying the shot, she picked up the
tubing.
“Stop!” I yelled, jumping to my feet
as I realized the insignia on the liquid
filled plastic wasn’t the one I’d been
seeing all day, everywhere. This
hospital had their logo on all of its
equipment. At the urgency in my voice
and my abrupt movement, Beth dropped
the syringe and darted for the door. The
bed hampered my movements and I
wasn’t able to reach her before she was
out of sight. Dashing into the hallway, I
looked left and right frantically, then
quickly checked several rooms in the
vicinity, but she was nowhere to be
found. Fuck!
Back in the room, I retrieved my
phone from my jacket pocket and hastily
dialed Martin. “There’s a kill order for
Scarlett,” I barked, “Get it called the
fuck off, Martin!” I was shouting by the
end, terror and rage clawing at my
insides.
“Dude, calm down.” Tapping.
“Someone just tried to kill my wife,
Martin. I will not calm down until I
know she’s safe!” I’d sidestepped
Martin’s questions about my concern for
Scarlett before, but no more. I was
beyond caring who knew about our
relationship anymore.
More tapping. The silence was
unbearable.
“Um, Justice,” Martin’s tone was
wary and shocked. “It’s not the agency.
There is no record of a kill order. Just a
burn notice. She’s on the books now
because she’s been blacklisted and is on
the no-fly.”
I was confused. “I’m telling you,
Martin. A woman was in here who
didn’t belong and she almost injected
Evie with something. Then she ran
before I could get to her.”
“Yeah, I meant, there isn’t a kill
order from us. I sent a secure text to a
contact and he just replied. It’s a hit,
Justice.”
I dropped the phone, stunned and
incapable of moving. It clattered on the
ground, and I could hear the faint sounds
of Martin calling my name. If there was
a hit out on Scarlett, how would they
know she was in the hospital? She was
checked in as Genevieve Shaw.
Suddenly, it hit me. I bent and
scooped up the cell, my voice like steel
when I asked, “Where is Heron?”
“Interrogation at Moron. The brass
wanted to wait for you, but Colin
convinced them to let him fly out there
and take a run at Heron.”
I was pretty sure I’d reached my
limit on shock for the day. One more jolt
and my heart would probably give out.
Colin. No fucking way. I’d trusted him
with my life countless times, I’d trained
him and been his partner. He’d been the
best man at my wedding for fuck’s sake.
“Martin, who all knows about the
noc list?”
He cleared his throat guiltily. “Um,
you know, the higher ups.”
“I don’t give a shit how long you’ve
known, Martin. Or the fact that you
shouldn’t. Who else? Does Colin
know?”
“I honestly don’t know, man. I can’t
hack a person.”
“How
many
times
has
he
interrogated Heron?”
Martin
clacked
away
at
his
computer. “Three. He stepped out twice,
ostensibly to give a progress report.”
“Did he make a phone call?” I asked
anxiously, more and more convinced by
the second.
“Let me check his log.” After a
pause, Martin responded. “Yeah, two on
his second break.”
Two? Shit. There could be another
contract on her life.
“Martin, you’ve got to get her out of
here and to Moron as quickly as
possible. I don’t care what it takes. Burn
the fucking agency to the ground if you
have to. I want her in the air in 30
minutes. And find out who the fuck took
the contracts.”
He blew out a frustrated breath.
“You don’t ask much, do you, Justice?”
My response was a menacing growl
before I snapped the phone shut. I didn’t
know how long I stood there, my eyes
squeezed shut as I tried to process. I was
practically crushing the cell phone in my
hand when the doctor came back. I
stalked to Evie’s bed and hovered over
her warily.
“Good news, Mr. Shaw. The lab
results came back sooner than expected.
There is no sign of bleeding or trauma
beyond a very small fracture. No need
for surgery, it can be treated with pain
medication and rest. I’m clearing her to
be transferred.” He looked at me oddly.
“I’ve been told to wait on the ultrasound
and any other tests. Is this what you
want?”
I stifled a sigh. Martin had come
through. “Sorry, doc. I need to get my
wife to a military facility. Insurance and
all that stuff,” I lied.
He looked slightly affronted, but
nodded and left the room without
speaking further.
We were in the air no less than
twenty minutes later. I watched Evie like
a hawk, alert for any signs of things
being off. At last, we reached Moron
and she was taken to a private patient
room where I waited for her new doctor.
Dr. Pena eventually brought me the
rest of Evie’s test results and completed
an ultrasound. I breathed a sigh of relief
when it was confirmed that both she and
the baby would be okay. They were
convinced her state of unconsciousness
was simply her body healing from the
trauma.
I thanked the doctor and she left me
alone with my wife. I needed to call in
but unable to resist it a moment longer, I
crawled into the bed and held her, my
hand resting protectively over the place
where our baby was nestled. Sleep
eluded me as I ran over the events of the
last two weeks and the phone call about
Evie’s burn notice.
Guilt filled me, knowing Evie had
sacrificed her career for me. I realized
there wasn’t a part of her I didn’t love,
and that included Scarlett. I never
wanted to lose my Evie and changing
who she was would chip away at the
woman I so desperately adored. An idea
began to take root, and I mulled it over
until I heard the low buzz of my phone
vibrating on the bedside table.
***
I wiped blood off of my hands as I
stepped into the hall outside the
interrogation room. Looking down, I saw
it splattered all over my clothes. I
needed new ones and decided to shower,
hoping to cleanse away some of the
ugliness lingering over me from my
interrogation.
Perry, the Chief of Station, was
waiting for me and lifted a brow in
question.
“My wife?” I asked first. I wouldn’t
agree to leave her side for the
interrogation unless she was heavily
guarded and her condition monitored
closely.
“No change.”
There was nothing left in me to
deflate, yet somehow, I felt my body sag.
“I’m going to get cleaned up before we
debrief.” I stared at him for a moment,
daring him to contradict me. I was in no
mood to be fucked with.
He nodded and spun around,
marching down the hallway. I made my
way to a locker room and found a fresh
pair of jeans, a black t-shirt, and black
Converse. Seemed he’d been expecting
my demand. After a quick shower, I
dressed and dragged my tired ass to the
nearest conference room to give my
report.
Unsurprisingly, I found my superior
looped in on a secure feed, appearing on
a large flat screen mounted on a wall. I
lifted my chin in acknowledgment.
“Donovan.”
“Seems you’ve once again proved to
be invaluable, Justice. I hear you broke
them both.”
I dropped into a chair, wishing I
could slither to the floor and sleep. But,
the sooner I got the debrief over with,
the sooner I could get back to Evie.
“Heron is a weasel and it only took
threats to crack him wide open. He
rolled
on
Colin
immediately.
Apparently, Colin has been dabbling in
unethical methods and black market
sales for a while. Heron made the
mistake of approaching Colin to help
him with the sale of the noc list. Colin
clearly never learned to share as a child
because he wanted it for himself and
tried to kill Heron. He went on the run
and Colin came to us with his sob story,
hoping you’d send me to retrieve Heron
so he could interrogate and extract the
noc list.”
I clenched my fist, swallowing down
my fury as I relayed the next bit of
information. “Colin specifically asked
about the identity of Scarlett. Heron gave
it up, giving Colin the opportunity to put
a hit out on her life.”
Perry jumped in with a question.
“And the list? Did Colin get it?”
I pierced him with a dark stare.
“Colin has watched me interrogate
targets for the whole of our careers.
What the fuck do you think?”
“Justice,”
Donovan
said
with
reproach. I looked up, annoyed, but
slightly pacified when I saw the
understanding in his eyes. “What about
Colin?”
I narrowed my eyes and spit,
“Everybody talks.”
Colin had been harder to break, it
had taken some interrogation techniques
I couldn’t have gotten away with in
certain parts of the world.
“Heron gave me the list of agents,
Colin provided the names and locations
of the hired guns.” I locked my gaze with
Donovan’s before delivering the next
blow.
“He had a partner.”
None of us had expected this, but I
was the best there was at this fucking
job. Although, as I sat in the meeting, I
began to realize, I didn’t want to do this
anymore. I filed that away for further
dissection later.
“Leon.”
Donovan and Perry hissed matching
breaths before muttering, “Fuck.”
“Pretty much,” I agreed dryly. Leon
was the Chief of Station in the part of
India where Colin had been working.
Donovan sighed and shook his head,
then peered at me with a calculating
expression.
“You seem burned out, Justice.”
Burned. The term perked me right up
as I remembered the plan I’d been
formulating.
“Are you ready to move on from the
field?” he asked. “Because we’ve
decided to offer you a promotion. If you
take it, you’ll no longer be a field agent,
though you will remain field rated to be
one for any times it might be necessary.”
I guess my heart could take one more
shock. Because instead of stopping, my
heart sped up. Was it really going to be
this easy? I could make the change and
know I’d be coming home to my family
every night, not putting myself in
constant danger. But, the question was,
just how much they wanted me to fill the
position. I wanted something in return.
“I’m open to the change, sir.
However, I’ve got a few conditions.”
Chapter 13
Evie
“C’mon, baby. Open those pretty brown
eyes for me. It’s been too long since
I’ve seen them.”
There was something wrong with
Alex’s voice. It sounded hoarse, like
he’d been crying. That couldn’t
possibly be right, though. My husband
wasn’t a crier. I tried to think of the
last time I’d seen tears in his eyes, but
my brain didn’t seem to be in working
condition at the moment.
I felt the weight of his hand where it
rested on my belly. His heat seeped into
my skin, warming me, and I realized I
was chilled. Goosebumps raced along
my arms, and I wanted to pull the
blankets up higher but couldn’t seem to
make my arms move. There was a short
buzzing sound, and I tried to turn my
head in the direction from which it
came, but couldn’t manage it. I started
to panic, but then Alex spoke again and
the sound of his voice soothed me.
“Can you bring in a warmed
blanket for my wife? She’s cold and it
isn’t good for the baby.”
Baby? I knew he liked to call me
baby. It wasn’t something I’d ever
expected to enjoy, but I loved that Alex
had a cute nickname for me. Only, I
didn’t think that’s how he’d used it. It
was so hard to focus, but I could have
sworn he meant it as in an actual baby,
a life we’d created together.
Holy crap, how long had I been out
of it? I fought against the exhaustion
and pain, desperate to make it past the
darkness. I tried to open my eyes, but it
made
the
pain
worse.
It
was
excruciating, worse than anything I’d
ever felt before, but the added pain had
one huge benefit—it got my vocal cords
working again as a deep moan burst
from my lips.
“Evie,” Alex gasped, his hand
moving from my stomach to grab my
hand and squeeze tightly. “Come back
to me. I’m right here waiting for you.”
His voice is filled with hope and
rough desperation. I can’t let him
down. Not my Alex. I gathered all of my
meager strength and directed it towards
the hand he was holding, making my
fingers wiggle.
“That’s it, baby. You can do it.”
It was as if some of his strength
flowed from him to me, coursing
through my veins.
“Alex,” I croaked. My throat felt like
it was on fire, very dry fire. I swept my
tongue over my lips, trying to wet them,
but to no avail. My entire mouth felt like
I’d been walking in the desert for months
without water. The sound of pouring
liquid filled the room, and I almost cried
in relief.
“Here, baby,” Alex murmured,
sliding a straw between my lips. “Just a
little sip. The nurses will probably want
to kick my ass for giving you water
before I tell them you’re awake, but I
can’t bear to see you in pain like this
when there’s something I can do to
help.”
I managed a sip and the cool liquid
tasted better than the finest wine as it hit
my tongue. I took a second sip, and then
a third before he pulled the straw away
from me.
“No,” I protested, cracking an eye
open and wincing. I left it open,
squinting in the direction of Alex’s
voice, just in time to see him drop the
cup onto the floor as he jumped from the
chair beside my bed. He looked so
haggard in his rumpled clothes, with
dark circles under his eyes and more
days’ growth on his face than I’d seen in
a long time. “I want more.”
“My greedy girl,” he whispered into
my ear. “I’ll give you all the water you
want as soon as the doctor clears you for
it.”
“Doctor?” I repeated, thinking back
to the last thing I remembered. “We were
at the warehouse. Heron was going to
shoot you.” My other eye popped open,
the pain overshadowed by my fear for
Alex as I frantically searched his body
for any signs of a bullet wound, until a
long finger gently lifted my head until
our eyes met.
“I’m fine,” he reassured me. “You
dove in front of me and took the bullet he
meant for me.”
His gaze dropped for a moment to
my shoulder, and I was suddenly aware
of the throbbing pain there. A pain which
was mirrored in Alex’s eyes when they
met mine again. “Fuck, Evie. I can’t
believe you did that, but it’s something
we’ll discuss later when you’re fully
recovered.”
The thread of steel in his tone made
my lip tug up at one corner. It was as
close to a smile as I could manage. I
knew what he meant when he said we’d
be discussing it though, and the reason
why I needed to be better for that talk—
one which was sure to take place while I
was stark naked and spread eagle on our
bed. My thighs tightened together and the
slight movement sent a shockwave of
pain through my body.
“Hurts,” I whimpered.
Alex’s head swiveled away from me
so he could look over his shoulder.
“You’re due for more medicine soon.”
“Where are we?”
“Moron.”
His answer shocked me. Martin
really had been able to get me on a
military base.
“What’s my cover?”
Alex dropped back into the chair,
running his fingers through his hair. It
was a sure sign I wasn’t going to like
what he had to tell me. “You don’t have
a cover, Evie. There wasn’t a need for
one because you’ve been burned.”
He slumped even farther into his
chair and rubbed his palms over his
eyes, but we were interrupted before he
could tell me anything else.
“Oh, my,” the nurse breathed as she
walked into the room. “It looks like our
patient finally woke up.”
She flashed me a smile before
calling out to someone else in the
hallway. Before I knew it, I had a full
medical team in the room with us. They
hovered, poking me, prodding me, and
doing who knows what else. None of it
phased me. It didn’t even register. My
gaze was locked on Alex. I needed to
make it through their examination before
I could be alone with him. Before I
could find out why I’d been burned.
They explained that I’d suffered a skull
fracture, but to my relief, it didn’t
require surgery. Finally, after what felt
like hours, they left us alone.
“Tell me.” I didn’t need to say
anything else, Alex knew exactly what I
meant.
“Colin put a hit on Scarlett after he
got information about your code name
off the noc list from Heron.”
“Colin?” I felt like I was in an
alternate universe as Alex explained
everything that had happened with Colin,
Heron, and Leon while I’d been
unconscious.
“I’m damn sorry, Evie. Colin was a
part of our lives because of me.”
“It’s not your fault, stud. He managed
to fool us all, and from what you
uncovered, it sounds like he was after
Scarlett without knowing I was her,” I
reminded him. “And I’m probably
getting off lightly since I made the
decision to leave Heron alive against my
orders.”
“Why did you do it, Evie?” he
sounded tortured.
“Because I love and trust you, Alex,”
I answered. “You were so certain you
needed the information Heron had. How
could I take that opportunity away from
you? And look what happened. If I’d
killed him, you might never have known
about Colin. A fact my boss was
apparently unwilling to take into
consideration when he burned me, but
maybe it’s for the best. I’m clearly not as
good at reading people as I thought I
was. I didn’t know you were an agent
and I never pegged Colin for a bad guy.”
“About that,” he sighed. “We’re
lucky the agency doesn’t look at it the
same way you do because I didn’t see it
either and they offered me a promotion.
To a desk.”
“You won’t be in the field
anymore?” It was a huge relief to me,
knowing he’d be safe in an office. But
I’d seen for myself how he thrived in
that environment. “Are you sure it’s what
you want?”
“Yes.”
His one word answer wasn’t exactly
convincing. “Really?”
“I think I’ll make a damn good
Controller, and it means I get to come
home to you every night,” he replied.
“So yeah, I’m more than okay with the
promotion.”
“Good,” I sighed.
“That’s not even the best part,
though,”
he
continued.
“Special
Operations wants you to stay on with the
agency as an instructor.”
“They do?” I breathed, afraid to get
my hopes up. It was practically unheard
of for a burned operative to be allowed
anywhere near the agency, let alone to be
offered a position. “How did you
manage that?”
He grinned sheepishly. “It wasn’t too
hard to convince them to make it a
condition of my accepting the promotion.
My superiors didn’t want to pass up the
opportunity to have the infamous Scarlett
training the newbies. I think I just gave
them the perfect excuse to make it
happen.”
A giggle slipped past my lips,
surprising me considering the situation.
“I guess we’ll start on a new phase of
our lives together when they spring me
from here then.”
“More
than
you
realize,”
he
mumbled under his breath. His Adam’s
apple shifted as he gulped, making me
incredibly nervous.
“What haven’t you told me yet? Are
my injuries really bad?” My voice rose,
and I wiggled my toes to make sure I
wasn’t paralyzed.
“Shhh, baby. You need to calm
down.”
“I’ll calm the fuck down when you
tell me what the other shoe is that’s
about to drop on me!” I shrieked. Ouch!
Fuck! I needed to remember there was a
crack in my skull.
“Damn, Evie,” he sighed, freaking
me out even more until he placed his
hand over my belly again, and I
remembered what I’d heard when I was
struggling to wake up.
“Baby,” I gasped. “Am I imagining
things or did you tell the nurse I needed
a warm blanket because the cold wasn’t
good for me or the baby.”
“You’re not imagining things,” he
confirmed arrogantly. “You never stood
a chance against my swimmers. I
knocked you up that first night, just like I
said I did.”
“So damn cocky,” I sputtered.
“I’ve got more reason to be than I
ever have before, with you carrying my
baby.”
My left arm, the one not attached to
the shoulder where I’d been shot, moved
down and I rested my hand over his.
“I’m really pregnant?” It was almost
impossible to believe. I’d thought my
entire life had changed when Alex told
me I’d been burned, but it paled in
comparison to this news.
The shit eating grin on his face was
answer enough, but he gave me the
words
anyway.
“You’re
really
pregnant.”
“And the baby’s okay?”
“The baby is fine. They did an
internal sonogram and found the sac
holding our baby exactly as it should be
this early in the pregnancy.”
I heaved a deep sigh of relief,
horrified at what we could have lost
because of my actions. “I swear to you, I
never would have done it if I thought I
was pregnant. I saw the gun aimed your
way, knew he was going to shoot, and
didn’t even think of anything other than
you dying right in front of me.”
“You couldn’t have known, Evie,” he
reassured me. “The doctor even told me
it was too early for us to have known.”
“I’ll do my best to make it up to our
baby,” I promised. “I won’t take the job.
I’ll stay home with him instead. Bake
cookies.
Help
with
homework.
Whatever it is that stay-at-home moms
do.”
“No, Evie,” he barked. “There’s
been enough pretending in our marriage.
No more. You’re going to do whatever
makes you happy. If you decide it’s
staying home after the baby is born, then
I’ll support your decision one hundred
percent. But I love you for who you are.
All of you, Scarlett and Evie. You don’t
need to change for me, and you don’t
have anything to make up to our child.”
“I love you, too,” I cried, tears
streaming down my cheeks as he
carefully cradled me in his arms. “And I
want to go home.”
“Not until you’re back to fighting
form, baby.”
***
It took another three weeks before Alex
agreed to take me home. Three long
weeks of him watching me like a hawk.
The doctors had given me the okay two
weeks earlier, but Alex didn’t want to
leave anything to chance. I had a simple
linear fracture to my skull but was
neurologically intact. The second they
told him I would need medical attention
if I became symptomatic, my hopes for
going home flew out the window. That,
combined with the gunshot wound to my
shoulder and my pregnancy were enough
ammunition for him to convince my
medical team that they needed to keep
me longer.
As the car Alex had hired pulled in
front of the private jet which we’d take
for our first leg home, I found my
thoughts turning to how strange and
wonderful the world could be. I’d
played many roles in my life, some of
them planned and others unexpected
blessings or curses.
Genevieve Parker, beloved daughter.
Evie Parker, bereaved college
student.
Scarlett, notorious assassin.
Evie Shaw, adored wife.
As I stepped onto the plane with my
hand clenched tightly in Alex’s, I found
myself filled with excitement for the
most important role I’d ever fill—
Mommy.
Epilogue
Alex
I hit the button to lower the garage door
and stepped inside the kitchen.
“Evie, baby, I’m—”
Thunk. My briefcase hit the floor
and my jacket soon joined it.
Holy fuck. Evie was standing at the
counter in an apron that said Kiss the
Cook, what looked like white lingerie on
underneath, and fuck me heels. I was
happy to oblige. I had a weird sense of
déjà vu, but I was too focused on
burying myself deep inside my wife’s
hot little pussy to dwell on it.
My shoes were kicked off next and I
began unbuttoning my shirt, letting it
drop to the floor as I stalked toward my
wife. Her blatant stare of appreciation
hardened my already painfully erect
cock. I swiftly unbuckled my belt,
unbuttoned my pants, and lowered the
zipper. I stopped about a foot away and
raked my gaze over her luscious body.
Ever since giving birth to our baby girl,
Amelia, a year ago, Evie had gained the
most delicious, womanly curves. Her
body was my own personal wonderland
and it was about to be thoroughly fucked.
“Welcome home, stud.”
I closed the gap between us, my
body flush against hers as I untied the
apron and let it drop to the floor. I filled
my hands with her perfect tits and took
her mouth in a deep kiss. Pulling back a
fraction, my eyes darted around,
“Emmy?” I asked.
“With Martin and Kelly,” she panted.
Growling with desire, I lifted Evie
and placed her on the kitchen counter,
before dropping to my knees. I brought
my nose to her pussy and inhaled. She
smelled so fucking good, sweeter than
ever. There was something familiar,
something that wasn’t always in her
scent and it had my body humming with
desire.
She moaned and I moved a finger to
pull her panties aside, when I noticed an
opening down the middle. Crotchless
panties? Fuck, yeah. I had the perfect
wife, I thought, before leaning in and
running the tip of my tongue through the
slit, flavor filling my senses. Evie
shivered, and I grunted in satisfaction.
Licking again, I noticed once more,
something was different and yet familiar.
Impatient to have her fully in my
mouth, I used two fingers to split open
the fabric, ripping it wide so I had
complete access to her pussy. She
squeaked in surprise but the shudder that
rolled through her, and the glistening of
her pussy lips, betrayed how hot she
thought it was.
“Look at you, baby. Always so
ready, so wet for me.”
I dragged the flat of my tongue up her
sex, circling her clit before sucking it
into my mouth. She came with a rush of
liquid which I greedily drank every drop
of. Evie had always been incredibly
responsive to me, but for her to blow
apart so quickly and easily was unusual.
Standing, I took out my cock, then
grabbed her hips and yanked her to the
edge of the granite slab. I kissed her
hard as I plunged inside, sheathing
myself completely. I groaned at the
exquisite pleasure as she cried out. My
hips began to pump wildly, my grip on
her tight, my tongue mimicking the
movement, fucking her mouth.
Each powerful thrust had her
screams escalating and my cock growing
impossibly bigger. Tearing my lips from
hers, I dragged down the cups of her
bustier and wrapped them around one
pointed nipple, biting down lightly and
to my shock, Evie exploded into another
earth
shattering
orgasm.
It
took
everything I had not to go with her,
fighting the way her pussy was milking
my cock. “Fuck, baby. You’re so
sensitive tonight.” She moaned in
response. I continued to play with her
nipples, enjoying the way her body lit up
with yearning and the beautiful blush
spreading over her skin.
I licked my lips, her essence still
lingering. “I swear, you taste different,
baby. It’s so fucking delicious. Have you
been raiding the cookie jar with Emmy?”
She reached down and grabbed my
ass, pulling me even closer so my cock
was bottoming out with every drive
inside her.
“I didn’t do anything,” she breathed.
“You knocked me up again, stud.”
I stilled, earning a mewling of
protest and her hands clenching my ass,
her nails digging in.
Suddenly, it hit me. We’d been here
before. Two years ago, Evie had met me
at the door, just like this and told me she
was ready to have a baby. This time, she
was already pregnant. With my baby.
Color burst into my vision, the world
turning hazy with the coating of
happiness.
I shouted with excitement and held
Evie tight as I twirled her around. The
movement shifted my angle and I buried
myself even deeper. We both groaned,
and I swiftly walked to the nearest bare
wall, supporting her up against it,
pulling out and slamming back inside.
No wonder she was so fucking sensitive.
I pounded into her, my elation fueling my
energy.
“That’s it, baby. Let me hear you
scream. There’s nobody but me here and
I’ve missed the sound of it,” I growled.
“Your pussy is so tight, fuck! Squeeze
me hard, Evie. Clench that pussy around
me—oh, fuck! Just like that!”
“Alex! Oh, Yes! Yes!” she screamed,
and her body began to convulse with
another powerful orgasm.
“Seeing you come is the sexiest
thing, baby.” One, two more thrusts and I
let go, coming so hard I felt the world
tilt. I poured out my come inside her and
rode us both through our orgasms with
shallow thrusts, determined to drag them
out as long as possible.
As the world righted itself, I lazily
licked her nipples, then her shoulder,
before brushing my tongue along the
seam of her lips. Our mouths danced
with each other to the gorgeous music
only we could create together.
“I love you,” I murmured against her
lips.
I pulled back and felt warm all over
at the happy glow in her chocolate
brown eyes. Her bee-stung lips curled
up in a blinding smile.
“I love you too, stud. Now, take me
to bed or lose me forever!”
I grinned, “Seriously, babe? I’m way
more a Maverick than a Goose.”
Evie rolled her eyes and then
swiveled her hips, then leaned in close.
“Okay. How about this? Take me to bed,
stud, and fuck the hell out of me.”
I wasted no time heading for the
bedroom, but only ended up making it
halfway down the hall, falling into a
burning heap and fucking wildly on the
floor.
She wrapped herself around me as I
got up, my cock still half hard and snug
inside her channel. We finally made it to
the bedroom, where I spent the night
worshipping her body from head to toe.
She was so damn beautiful. My every
dream come true, even the ones I didn’t
know were lurking in my heart.
She was my light, my life, my
everything, my Evie.
“If I weren’t already pregnant, I do
believe we would have accomplished
the
task
tonight,”
she
giggled
breathlessly.
I rolled onto my back, bringing her
with me and settling her astride, with her
head tucked under my chin. I trailed my
fingers in circles over her back, my
mood thoughtful and quiet.
We’d both settled into our new jobs
pretty smoothly. Scarlett was the best
instructor they’d had for decades. Her
recruits scored incredibly high in both
cognitive and weapons training. I ran
ops from D.C. most of the time, but I’d
had to go into the field a few times. Evie
hadn’t liked it, but she’d supported me
every single time. She was amazing.
Then our little Amelia had come
along and she was the best of both of us.
A little spitfire, smart as a whip, and she
had her daddy securely wrapped around
her cute little finger. I fucking loved that
kid. She and her mom were both sides of
my heart. And now, I’d be sharing it with
three and I couldn’t fucking wait. Maybe
it was from growing up without a family,
but I wanted a home full of kids,
laughter, and utter chaos. Lucky for me,
family was every bit as important to
Evie and she had happily informed me
that she had the same visions for the
future.
“Hey,” she called softly. “What’s on
your mind?”
“You,” I answered. “I love you, my
Evie. Until death do we part. And
forever after.”
The Yeah, Baby Series
Box Set
The guy rules fly out the window for
these sexy alphas when they meet the
women they'll do anything to possess.
Baby, You're Mine: Guy Rule #1:
Sisters Are Off Limits
Baby Steps: Guy Rule #2: No sleeping
with your step-sister
Baby, Don't Go: Guy Rule #3: No sex
in the friend zone
This steamy box set full of insta-love
and oops babies contains all three
novellas in the Yeah, Baby Series
& three new bonus scenes!
Books by Fiona
Davenport
Risqué Contracts Series
Yeah, Baby Series
About the Author
Hello! My name is Fiona Davenport and
I’m a smutoholic. I’ve been reading
raunchy romance novels since... well,
forever and a day ago it seems. And now
I get to write sexy stories and share them
with others who are like me and enjoy
their books on the steamier side. Fiona
Davenport is my super-secret alias,
which is kind of awesome since I’ve
always wanted one.
For all the STEAMY news about my
upcoming releases... sign up for my
You can also connect with me online
Document Outline
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Epilogue
- The Yeah, Baby Series
- Books by Fiona Davenport
- About the Author
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