Burning Intensity (11 page)

James withdrew and pressed back inside her, thrusting his cock deeply into her arse like a man possessed. The burning intensity of his penetration, the overwhelming pleasure and pain at the incredible intimacy they shared was intoxicating. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe without feeling him, scenting him. He encompassed her every inch and molecule.

Fire raged over her skin and inside her body as well. She felt consumed in the literal sense, as if he were taking her over. Conquering her. For a second she resisted, some final streak of independence insisting that she hold out. But it was stupid, and useless. James Waters had crept not only under her skin but into her heart. He owned her—body and soul.

For one moment she felt fear, but then El understood that this was what love was. Real love. Honest and lasting. It was handing herself over to someone without restrictions or strings. Buoyed by that understanding, she relinquished the last of her concerns and doubts. El opened herself to this man, embraced everything he could give her.

The final small muscles within her relaxed and pleasure overrode everything else. She threw her head back, her hair falling down her spine and over her shoulders. She arched her back and thrust her hips, accepting everything James was.

As if he knew she’d finally turned herself over to him completely, James shouted and began to pound into her. His thrusts were harder, longer and filled her deeper. El stimulated her clit with a blurring speed, feeling that golden moment just shimmering on the horizon. Her lungs felt like they would burst with the need for more air, but she couldn’t suck it in fast enough. Her whole body seized up, balanced precariously on the pinnacle of ultimate satisfaction.

James tilted his hips, bringing them closer together. And as he moved back within her, his cock grazed along her inner walls, rubbing over the myriad of nerves. El shrieked, hurled over the edge as her eyes squeezed instinctively shut. Her orgasm detonated within her body, shuddering as the waves of pleasure rolled over and through her. Her back bowed, as if an electrical current ran through her.

The scream she emitted sounded unlike anything she’d heard before. Starting low, then gathering in volume and intensity, it was an animalistic, raw cry of release and bliss.

James was only a pace behind her. Wanting to watch him come, El forced her eyes open and turned her head. Caught up in his ecstasy, James looked almost in pain. His back bowed, his hips thrust forward as he pounded into her, riding through his orgasm. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut and his mouth gaped as he roared his release.

Warmth suffused her anal passage as he filled her with seed. El could feel it hot and liquid as he emptied himself in her. Deliciously sore, filled with his essence, exhaustion washed over her. Arms and legs wobbled as their physical exertions took their toll.

“Let me help you, baby. Bloody hell that was…beyond description,” James murmured softly to her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and helped her down as she lowered her body to the luscious embrace of the bed. He followed her down and spooned her, holding their bodies close together.

El closed her eyes, overwhelmed but happier and more sated than she had ever been in her life. Her arse ached and she could feel that pleasant tug of pain in many of her muscles—rather like she felt after a good, hard workout at the gym. Shifting her legs to partly turn, she felt the twinge in her upper thighs, her lower back and a few other more sensitive places—places the gym didn’t work out.

She pressed a kiss to James’ jaw, love filling her up.

“That was amazing,” she said softly. “Thank you.”

“As I said earlier, it was every inch of my pleasure,” he returned in a low tone. El wrapped her arm lightly around his waist, snuggled into the comfort of his embrace and closed her eyes.

In this golden, glowing moment she felt life was perfect and couldn’t possibly ever get better than this.

* * * *

Ravenous, El sat on the couch, picked up a half of the enormous sandwich James had made earlier and took a huge bite out of it. Tastes exploded over her tongue, filling her mouth and making it water. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed a meal more. Silence reigned between them as she and James sat comfortably close on the couch, devouring the food.

Still damp from the shower they’d both taken, El felt refreshed and re-energized. She knew when she had a full stomach she’d be able to hit the case with a new vigor. James had been right. She could be cranky and short-tempered when hungry. She all but inhaled the first half of her sandwich. Picking up the other half, she let herself relax, no longer starving. Taking a slower bite, she then consciously chewed it more thoughtfully, enjoying the mix of flavors and the act of sharing a meal with her lover.

“Does it bother you to be working both sides of the fence this time?” El asked after she’d swallowed. James shot her a perplexed look, his mouth full. She chuckled and explained. “We’re looking for a stolen painting, hoping to outsmart the bad guys and unravel the intricate web they’ve laid out. Hell, if we get really lucky, we can even poke out an explanation as to why this particular painting is so important and even understand who else wants it and stop them. Usually you’re on the other end, plotting to avoid the cops—or whoever—and outsmart the security systems and match wits with the supposed experts.”

“You know it’s not usually that black and white,” James chided.

El nodded, completely accepting his point.

“Absolutely. I’ve recently seen first-hand how manipulative and easily tempted the supposed good guys can be and turn to their own selfish need and profit. I’m not poking you here. Often people turn to stealing or working against the establishment not for greed or personal gain, but to right wrongs when their hands are otherwise tied. That wasn’t my point—it was you’re completely on the other end here. You aren’t breaking in or trying to get into a system, you’re trying to recover something already stolen, trace back the steps and piece together what happened after it was taken. It surely is a different perspective for you.”

“In some ways, sure.” James shrugged and took another bite of food. After he’d swallowed he continued, “I’m not sure I’ve told you, but recently I’ve expanded my horizons into consulting. I did a lot of soul searching once I realized you weren’t necessarily coming back. I’ve only dabbled in smaller projects for a few years now, taken what I consider jobs that have more…altruistic or perhaps noble causes. That was already changing before we even met. You’ve had a profound effect on me, whether you realize it or not, Eleanor. I’ve been helping people who need to break systems and learn how to unwind those knots and webs you just described.”

El dropped her jaw open. She scanned James’ face, trying to see if he was pulling her leg or just trying to bamboozle her. He seemed serious.

“You’re helping others crack systems? To steal? You’re…what, training them? James… You can’t possibly control what they do with that knowledge. I’ve always understood you’re an inherently good man—you’d never go in somewhere, guns blazing, and kill innocents, or rob people who couldn’t afford it or be…well, nasty like that. But if you’re training others, that’s out of your control. I don’t understand.”

“People can use that knowledge for good,” James insisted calmly. He seemed unfazed by her concern. “Take your own co-workers, for example. I’m sure you have some remarkably talented people, but you surely have more cases than experts. Neither you nor Robert know how to hack—how do you approach your work when that is called for?”

“That’s completely different,” she protested. “We have consultants, experts who are suitably aware of the importance of the work we do and know our need for secrecy. We rarely give them all the pertinent details, but explain the system we need to hack or the type of problem we’re facing and they help us without needing to know every detail of the case itself. They’re separate, but well used contacts the Agency has— Oh.”

El paused mid-tirade. James’ eyes were filled with laughter, the grin spreading across his face as he struggled to contain it. Her brain put the pieces together quickly. She widened her eyes in surprise.

“You’re kidding me?” she choked out. “You’ve become a consultant? For us? That’s… Well, not impossible, obviously. But how can I have not run across you in the office or during briefings? How long have you been doing this? What level clearance do you have?”

Her hunger forgotten, she placed the partly eaten food onto the plate and peppered him eagerly with questions, her curiosity brimming over. James continued to eat, a smug look in his eyes. He kept silent, a smile hovering. In that moment he appeared as secretive as a naughty schoolboy.

“So much for your bad boy appeal,” she finished, teasing him.

“Don’t get too excited, darling,” he said after swallowing the last of his meal. “Trust me, you haven’t reformed me. Not by a long shot. I’ve kept my hand in. I look at this as broadening my horizons. I get to charge an outrageous amount to prove where the holes are in various systems. Every now and then I even get to go out into the field and crack them. Much as it shames me to admit it, I’ve enjoyed a few very robust arguments with other contractors and have proven my point by showing them exactly what I mean in person. I’m still dabbling and freelancing once in a while too—though I’d appreciate if you didn’t spread that far and wide. I’m straddling the line between respectable and disreputable quite well, even if I do say so myself.”

El shifted, kneeling up on the couch, then straddled James, settling comfortably in his lap. Resting her hands lightly on his shoulders, she then kissed him with a brief, chaste press of lips. She enjoyed tasting the pickles from his meal along with the other flavors beneath.

“I find the thought of you still being a bit naughty, not completely turned to the side of good, yet still working with us and dabbling on the side, extremely appealing,” she said with brutal honesty. “It’s rather hot, thinking of you working for us, but still with the stealthy thief lurking underneath. It’s like a delicious secret we share between us and don’t let anyone else in on.”

James grinned. “Well now, it’s not a
secret
secret, but far be it for me to dampen anything that makes you hot. We can share telling glances when we’re in the same briefing. That could prove fun as well as distracting.”

El kissed him, pulling away only as he dipped his hands into the waistband of her pants and cupped her arse.

“I’m really motivated now,” she said. “Let’s go back to the start, go over the basics. Bet you anything we find a few points we’ve missed earlier. “

James stared at her. It took her a moment to realize why he looked perplexed. She’d managed to switch gears and barely blink. It took him a minute longer to catch up. Leaning forward, she got her balance, then pressed a hot kiss against his lips and tried to smother her laugh.

“Adrenaline surge,” she explained. “Right now I’d love nothing more than to fuck you blind right here, but we’ve got work to do.”

El swung a leg around, lifted herself up and settled next to him on the couch. With quick fingers she booted up the laptop again, pulling up the files from the network.

“Does your printer have Wi-Fi?” she asked, not even looking up from the screen. James rose and crossed to where a small desk sat in the far corner of the room. Glancing quickly, she saw him switch a printer on, the small green light blinking as it warmed up.

Her mind was busy. She clicked on the icon and started selecting files to load onto the printer, so she could share the load with James. Trusting him fully, she printed everything she and Rob had been given and collected themselves on the case.

Chapter Seven

El sipped at her mug of tea, her brain whirling as she re-accumulated all the data. As usually happened with the cases, some data was old, some updated and a few interim reports had been submitted over the last few hours. Everything was uploaded onto the network to be easily accessed by everyone working the case.

While some of the finer details were still sketchy—laboratory tests often took hours or even days to come to fruition—she believed that every piece helped show more of the larger picture. Revisiting the caseload as a whole was always a good idea. Things that didn’t appear connected when viewed by themselves often could snap together when reviewed as a whole, one after the other.

Carefully lowering her mug to the coaster James had provided, El then picked up a highlighter and flicked through the report on Luke’s flat. Realizing there was only one page to the report, she turned the sheet of paper over, then checked on the laptop that there wasn’t more that she’d missed.

No dice.

The report of the search of Luke’s flat only had one page to it. Almost nothing at all had been found. No laptop, no diagrams, no plans, no schematics of the Gallery. Nada.

“That can’t be right,” El murmured to herself. Her instincts stirred, insisted there would be some evidence of the heist. Months of planning didn’t just vaporize without a trace.

Intrigued, she scrounged through some papers until she found the sheet that listed the items Luke had been taken into custody with—wallet, keys, phone, a few pounds worth of coins, a couple of euros, a memory stick. El snapped to attention, stopping at the USB.

“What are the chances you’d have a data storage device, say a USB, on your person if you didn’t have a laptop or some means of reading it? A laptop, or computer somewhere?” she asked, turning to James.

He lifted his head, blinked his eyes as he thought for a moment.

“It’s possible, but not very logical. Why?”

“The search of Luke’s apartment, a lot of the lab analysis—hair, fibers and the like—isn’t in, but the physical inventory is practically empty. No laptop, desktop, plans, there’s nothing useful found.”

“Maybe he had everything stashed elsewhere?”

“I don’t think so.” El shook her head and pulled out another sheet of paper, handing it to James. “Look, the warehouse had some stuff, but Chelsea and David explained that had been cleaned out. There’s no sense to Luke having two residences here. Between the warehouse and his flat, that was plenty for him. So where is the evidence that will lock him away?”