Alien vs. Alien (13 page)
Authors: Gini Koch
CHAPTER 21
B
EFORE I COULD QUESTION WHY
Olga had mentioned Chuckie and not Jeff in terms of Buchanan’s usefulness, Adriana popped her head into the room. “I’m sorry, Ambassadress, but the Ambassador just called. He’ll be home shortly.”
“Ah, then I must ask our guests to take their leave. My Andrei will be wanting his dinner right away.”
We all took the hint. We were on Romanian soil while in their Embassy, and Andrei wasn’t quite as aware of things as his wife and granddaughter were. I was quite willing to continue to keep him in the dark.
We said our good-byes, and I noted the boys both hugged Adriana. I knew without asking that it was hard for her to be trapped in the Embassy as much as she was, even though it appeared she spent the downtime training in how to be the best New KGB operative ever. But I didn’t begrudge her some handsome male attention, and the boys were happy to provide it—she was a cute girl.
Buchanan walked us across the street. “I’ll find you tomorrow.”
“You’re not coming for dinner?” I’d gotten used to eating with him.
He shook his head. “Your husband won’t like it.”
“I’ll bet you twenty bucks that bird will be joining us.”
He laughed. “Probably. But we’re back home now, and we need to have things appear to be normal.pear to /fonnth="
“Whatever you say.”
“See? That’s only one reason you don’t want me at dinner.” He grinned as I blushed. “See you later, Missus Chief. Try to give the bird a chance. And if you really can’t stand her, I promise she’ll meet an untimely death due to a sniper’s bullet.”
“You’d shoot Bellie if I asked you to?”
He nodded as he turned and walked away. “Yeah. My job has nothing to do with making your husband happy.”
I waited to go in until Buchanan turned the corner. “Does anyone else want to know where the hell he goes?” To date, I’d never been able to spot or find Buchanan unless he wanted me to find or spot him. And I’d tried. It was as if he had Dr. Strange’s Sorcerer Supreme powers. Jeff hadn’t liked it when I’d mentioned that comparison.
“No,” Len said shortly.
“Ditto,” Kyle added.
Come to think of it, the boys hadn’t liked the Dr. Strange comparison, either. There were times, like now, when I felt the boys saw Buchanan’s existence as my mother saying the boys weren’t good at their jobs. I knew this wasn’t true, but now probably wasn’t the time to get into that particular discussion.
“I’m just curious. He sort of comes and goes like the wind.”
“I don’t care where he goes as long as he shows up when you need him,” Len said. “I want to know what’s really going on.”
“Me too,” Kyle agreed. “From what he said, it sounds like we should avoid finding out, though.”
“I agree,” White said. “I think our little team would be better off remaining out of the loop, at least for now.”
“What do we say if someone tries to tell us something?” Len asked.
“Tell them part of the truth—you don’t want to know because you don’t want to have to censor yourselves around me. I’m sure Jeff and Chuckie will agree.”
White nodded. “It’s quite reasonable. And true. Now, let’s do as Mister Buchanan suggested and get ourselves as back to normal as we’re able to.”
Every apartment in the Embassy had its own dining area, and the kitchen had two nooks, an island, a table for four that could extend to a table for eight, and a bar where you could eat. However, the Embassy also possessed a huge formal dining room, and that’s where we found the others.
I was pleased and surprised to see Bellie nowhere in sight and Jamie in Jeff’s arms. Good thing Buchanan hadn’t joined us—I’d have owed him twenty bucks.
I got the “Mommy’s Here!” squeal. It was always nice to know my baby missed me, even if I was only gone from her for about an hour.
“See, Jamie-Kat?” Jeff said. “I told you Mommy would be home soon.”
Jamie was bouncing with excitement. For her, this had to be the best night in a long time, because she had both of us. I sat next to Jeff and took Jamie while he put his arm around me. Everyone else was he ne . For here, chattering away, catching each other up on what had gone on while we were gone. Even Nurse Carter, who was sitting next to White, seemed relaxed and part of the group. It was pleasant and comfy. I leaned against Jeff. “It’s nice to be home.”
“It’s nicer to have you home.” He hugged me and kissed the top of my head, then nuzzled my ear. “I missed you, baby. More than you can imagine.”
Humongous dining table filled with people and our baby in my lap or not, I started to drool just a little. It had really been far too long since I’d been naked with my husband.
Jeff chuckled. “Nice to see your mind’s gone straight back to the priorities.”
I chose not to share that my mind hadn’t left the priorities for the past month, but I was too busy trying not to let the drool get onto Jamie.
The conversation was pointedly kept on either what interesting things our Embassy personnel had done while we were gone or mundane Washington stuff. Of course, mundane meant scandals, snubs, and the like. Pierre was, unsurprisingly, a fount of all that was Insider: Washington.
Doreen and Irving were also loaded with stories about all the interesting things we’d missed, including their baby’s first smile. Doreen insisted Ezra had given her the first, Irving felt he’d gotten it. Pierre’s expression indicated that, as far as he was concerned, Ezra’s Uncle Pierre had scored the first smile in reality.
I would have liked to exchange stories with Doreen about what cute things Ezra and Jamie had done while we were gone, but Jamie had spent most of her time being miserable, and now wasn’t really the time anyway. I wasn’t all that interested in who was sleeping inappropriately with whom, mostly because I couldn’t keep it straight and tended to either forget or mix it up at the wrong time, which meant when I was with one or more of the people being indiscreet.
Amy, however, was fascinated. Chuckie looked like he was taking mental notes, which, as I thought of it, he probably was. I checked everyone else out. Yep, they were all hanging on Pierre’s every juicy word, even Tito and Christopher, who I wouldn’t have thought would care at all about who was zooming whom. The thought occurred that I should maybe pay attention.
“And the lovely people from the Czech diplomatic mission were our neighbors, but only for a fortnight.” Pierre shook his head. “We barely had time to visit before they had to move right back to their old haunts, which are inadequate for their needs but are at least livable.”
“What happened?” Amy asked.
“All the pipes in their building’s basement burst. All of them. Flooding up through half of the first floor. Cleanup and repair will take months.”
“Not if A-Cs did it,” I said. “Speaking of which, are NASA Base’s gates all back together?”
Christopher nodded. “Good as new. James told us they’d finished up just a couple of minutes before dinner. Though I don’t think NASA wants you to visit again any time soon.”
Before I could say, yet again, that it really wasn’t my fault, Amy spoke up. “What’s going to happen to the building the Czechs had?” I wasn’t sure if this question was asked purely out of interesoutt t or because NASA Base was now on my Don’t Ask Don’t Tell list and Amy was getting the conversation back onto a safe track. Had a sinking feeling it was the latter, which was confirmed by catching Chuckie giving Amy a little nod.
Chuckie and Amy were working together and I was out of the loop? Could this homecoming get any worse or more bizarre?
Pierre threw up his hands. “No idea. The building’s owner was practically sobbing. He had to refund all deposits to the lovely Czechs, understandably of course, but he now has no capital with which to do the repairs. A broken man, if you ask me, financially and emotionally, poor thing.”
There was general murmured consensus that plumbing issues sucked, and everyone felt bad for the building’s owner and glad it wasn’t us going through this homeowner’s nightmare.
I’d figured we’d finished with all the gossip, but I was wrong. “Pierre, what happened with the Bahraini Embassy?” Amy asked. I would have sworn she’d spent all her time since we got back to D.C. in bed with Christopher or in the debrief she couldn’t talk about in front of me, but clearly they’d spent the time reading the last four weeks’ worth of gossip columns instead of doing the deed.
“A break-in, darling. But nothing was taken. At least nothing the Bahraini Ambassador will admit to.”
“Did they catch whoever did it?” Hey, I could still ask questions.
Pierre shook his head. “Not yet. Of course, the Israelis are being blamed. But they insist they had nothing to do with it.”
“Did anyone ask my mom?” All heads turned to me and everyone gave me the “what the hell” look. Why? It seemed like an obvious question to me. “Um, she’s former Mossad. If anyone would be able to confirm Israeli guilt or innocence on this break-in matter, I’d think Mom would be the one to do it.”
“There are other suspects,” Pierre said. “Including some of the other Middle Eastern diplomatic missions. As well as the idea of a common thief.”
“I’ve seen the Embassies in that area,” Kyle said. “They’re all protected like Fort Knox.”
This was pretty much true. We were housed in the area nicknamed Embassy Row. Embassies were everywhere, interspersed among homes, businesses, hotels, and more. Half of the Embassy doorways were practically at the street. Most were architecturally pretty, some saying “look at me,” some just going for the understated look so popular with Old Money. Our general Embassy neighborhood was a friendly-feeling area.
However, the Israeli and Bahraini Embassies weren’t really in our part of town, so to speak. I thought of the section where these particular Embassies resided as The Bunker.
In The Bunker’s section of D.C., every Embassy was gated and secured, the buildings set well back from the street and no doorway was close to the gates, and the buildings weren’t nearly as pretty as the ones in our area—because they looked as though they’d been built for stolid usefulness and defensibility as opposed to architectural beauty.
“That might be why they’re thinking it’s the Israelis,” Len said. “It takes real skill to break into an Embassy set up to keep you out.”
I was going to ask if this was standard intrigue or intrigue related to what I now no longer got to know about when Jamie yawned. Widely.
“Time for someone to go to bed.” I handed her back to Jeff, who put her gently onto his shoulder. Jamie snuggled her little face right into his neck and sighed happily.
“Time for you, too, Kitty,” Tito said sternly. “You overdid it today and didn’t take the nap you were supposed to.”
Under most circumstances I would have protested, but frankly Tito was both right and ensuring that I at least had a hope of getting to see my husband outside of his clothes. “Okay, Tito, whatever you say, you’re the doctor.”
“I expected more of an argument about it,” Tito said with a grin. “But I can understand why you’re more tractable than normal.”
Jeff stood up holding Jamie with one hand while he took my hand in the other and gave it a squeeze. “I’m going to turn in, too, then. Have to take care of my girls.”
Everyone at the table gave us looks that said they knew exactly what we were going to be doing the moment the baby was in bed. I saw no reason to deny the obvious.
“So, don’t knock or call unless it’s a dire emergency.”
“And even then,” Jeff added as we headed off, “really think twice about it.”
“Long and hard about it. So to speak.”
Jeff chuckled as we left the dining room and headed for the elevator. “Long and hard’s coming, baby.”
“Promises, promises.”
Jeff waited until we were in the elevator. “Baby, you know I keep my promises. And then I improve on them.”
Then he kissed me, and my mouth was far too busy to talk.
CHAPTER 22
I
WAS IN A HAPPY GLOW
and ready to go for it by the time we reached our door.
“Bellie missed Jeff!”
Well, that put a damper on the mood. “Go take care of your girlfriend. I’ll get Jamie started.”
“You sure?”
I refrained from heaving a sigh, but it took effort. “Yes, I’m sure. Put a lid on her. She stays out of our bedrooms. Unless all you want to do is sleep while I stay awake with a Poof trained on her.”
“No. I fed Jamie before you came to dinner. Denise saidne . s L she’d just changed Jamie before I picked her up, too.” We went into the nursery and Jeff put Jamie gently into her crib, stroked her head, and gave her a soft kiss.
While he got the Poof Condos and moved them back into the nursery, I covered Jamie with her blanket. She still had her special Poof with her, and it snuggled next to her side. Several of the other Poofs joined them in the crib, as did the cats, with Sugarfoot at her head and Candy and Kane at her feet. Much purring ensued. Put her half of the baby monitor into her crib, and as Jeff closed the door softly, I put our half onto the nightstand.
Jeff had left one Poof Condo in our room, and Harlie, Poofikins, and several other Poofs were in it, snoozing away. The dogs were in their beds, looking happy. “Who’s taken care of the dogs and cats while I was gone?”
“Walter assigned some of the Operations Team to do it. They’ve had no issues.”
I didn’t like this answer, but Bellie was squawking. “Seriously, get that bird shut up so I can sleep.” There was no need to mention that if I could hear the bird, we weren’t having sex. I wasn’t going to let him touch me if I could hear the bird. Why he’d left the door open so I could hear the bird at all was beyond me.
Jeff nodded and hypersped to his beloved, thankfully closing the door behind him so I didn’t have to hear him make out with Bellie before he came back to me. I had to figure the dogs and cats hated the bird easily as much as I did, since they loved Jeff and wanted his attention. It occurred to me that the Poofs might have stayed in D.C. because of the bird, too.
Whatever Jeff did worked and he was back fairly quickly. “She’s all set. I have her cage covered.”
“With what? Her ‘cage’ fills our entire living room.”
He mumbled something.
“Sorry, missed that.”
“I had a special covering made.”
This surprised me not at all. Chose not to fight about it. “Whatever, as long as she goes to sleep and shuts the hell up, not necessarily in that order.”
“She will.” He fiddled around with the iPod dock.
“What’re you doing?”
“I made a special play list for whenever you finally came home.”
“You make it sound like I’d run off to the far reaches of the earth.”
Jeff pulled me into his arms as “Sea of Sin” by Depeche Mode came on. “It felt like it.”
“Love the song choice. Looking forward to the whole mix. However, will the music wake your bird up?”
“No. I’d have to have the volume turned up to full for Jamie to hear it through the walls, let alone Bellie. She’ll stay asleep. You, however, will not be sleeping any time soon.”
“So you claim.”
His eyelids drooped just a bit and he got the sexy “jungle cat about to eat me” look on his face. I loved that look. I was also made pretty tractable by that look, to sort of quote sot a Tito. “So I know.”
We started kissing, slowly at first. Well, slowly for about a second. In the next second we were ripping the clothes off each other. Five seconds after that we were in bed.
Jeff buried his face in my breasts. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed these.”
“They’ve missed you, too,” I gasped out, as his tongue swirled around one nipple and then the other. He took each one between his teeth in turn and toyed with them until I was howling. The first orgasm he’d ever given me had been at second base, and even with no practice for a month, he’d lost no skills whatsoever.
The soundproofing in the Embassy was excellent, which was good because I didn’t want to wake Jamie, Bellie, the pets, the Poofs, or anyone else. The animals in the room with us had gotten over the novelty and chose to remain asleep. No one else seemed to notice my yowling. This was, so far, the only place where my sounding like a cat in heat was only shared with Jeff. It made for a nice change.
Jeff made for a nice change, too, and headed his mouth southward. As he licked and nipped, my hips started bucking. I grabbed his head as his hands slid up and fondled my breasts. The music switched to “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Clearly Jeff had been on a Depeche Mode kick. Not that I could argue with his musical choices—I could never get enough of this.
It didn’t take much more to cause another orgasm to crash. In between howling I managed to convey that foreplay was still great, but the real thing was, I sincerely hoped, still better.
Jeff slid up onto his knees, picked me up by my waist, and slid me onto him, so that I was kneeling, too. He wrapped his arms around my back as mine went around my neck, then kissed me deeply while pressing me down so that he went deeper into me, too.
I ran my hands through his hair while we thrust together. My movements were frantic, at first. But Jeff slowed me down, as he stroked my skin with his fingertips.
He moved his mouth to my neck and the real screaming started. My neck was one of my main erogenous zones and Jeff knew exactly where to kiss, lick, nip, or bite to get a full orchestral experience out of me.
“I missed you so much, baby,” he whispered in my ear. “I’m going to show you how much, all night long.”
I moaned. I wasn’t really able to talk much when he had me this far over the edge. Happily, being with the galaxy’s strongest empath meant he knew exactly how I felt, even if I couldn’t tell him.
Going more slowly like this was sexy and romantic. Jeff was the world’s best kisser as well as the world’s best everything else. Rubbing against his body, feeling the hair on his chest against my breasts while we moved together and his tongue twined around mine, was erotic and loving, and I never wanted it to end.
However, when Jeff shifted me just a little and I felt another climax start to build, I wasn’t going to argue. I mean, romance was great, but orgasms were better.
We started moving faster, with me rocking my hips forward and him pressing me back and down. My skin tingled anywhere it touched his and, as he went deeper still, I screamed my orgasm against his neck as he roared as he erupted inside me.tedng m
As our bodies shuddered, I kissed my way up his neck to his ear
. I nibbled his earlobe and felt him start to harden inside me. “I missed you, too,” I whispered as I ran my tongue along his ear and he growled softly. “I missed everything you do and how you do it. And no one does it better than you.”
I took his head in my hands and kissed him strongly. He purred and flipped us so I was on my back, but we were still in the same position, with my knees bent and up by his waist and his knees bent and under my butt.
Jeff grinned as “Master and Servant” came on. “Baby, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
