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Authors: Desiree Holt

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“What if we need transportation?” Rick asked. “My truck, as
you know, was totaled.”

“Not that I expect you to be going anywhere,” Troy grinned,
“but there’s a brand-new Lincoln Navigator sitting in your garage. Try not to
wreck this one, okay?”

The first order of business was to give Xena some necessary
time in the backyard. Rick set up a procedure for them to follow. He’d kill the
alarm for a few minutes, Kelly would open the back door and let the dog out,
then close it while the animal did her thing. Both of them would wait, guns
ready, in the utility room until she called the dog back in. Then the alarm
went on again.

Before she opened the back door, Kelly whispered in the
dog’s ear.

I can’t go outside with you. Come right back.

Okay.

Look for danger. Anything smells wrong, let me know.

I won’t let anything hurt you. Either of you.

I know. I trust you. We have to take care of Rick.

Xena barked and, as soon as the door opened, she loped out
into the yard.

“Faith’s Aunt Vivi would salivate if you told her about the
mental conversations you and Xena have,” Rick told her while they waited for
the dog to finish up outside.“She’s the one who helped Faith refine her own
psychic abilities.”

“I’m going to call her while we’re here, if it’s okay.”

Rick nodded. “She’d love it. And you should call Faith and
Mia too.”

The minute they were locked up tight again alone in the
house the atmosphere changed, became more charged. Electric. As if all the
little touches and light kisses of the previous days bubbled up together. They
were in the entry hall, standing so close together she could count every
eyelash, looking at each other in a suddenly awkward silence.

Kelly cleared her throat. “Well. The trip can’t have been
too comfortable for you and it’s pretty late. Probably you should get out of
those clothes and get into bed.”

Rick moved a fraction of an inch closer, his warm hands
resting on her shoulders. “Exactly what I had in mind.”

Before she could move, his mouth came down on hers, lightly
at first, then pressing more firmly. Her arms automatically wound themselves
around his neck, pulling him closer and she relaxed against him.

“That’s it, Red,” he whispered against her mouth. “Let
yourself feel. I’ve been waiting for this all day. Getting you in my own bed.
Naked.”

His lips were warm as they brushed back and forth against
hers, his teeth nibbling gently at the corners, biting lightly on her lower
lip. When his tongue parted the seam of her mouth, she opened without a
protest, allowing his tongue to sweep inside. Sparks of lightning shot through
her, turning her legs to jelly and her blood to liquid fire. She couldn’t
remember a kiss ever affecting her like this in her life. But then, she’d never
known a man like Rick Latrobe before, either.

She could have stayed there like that forever with her body
pressed against his, feeling his erection hard against her, his hands holding
her, his tongue tantalizing her. Then her brain kicked in and she pulled her
head back enough to catch her breath. When she opened her eyes, his blue ones
were blazing into hers.

“Time for bed, pretty girl.”

“Aren’t you worried about the people out there trying to
kill you?” Even as aroused as she was, Kelly couldn’t get the thought out of
her head.

He pressed light kisses to her forehead, her nose, her chin.
“I’ll tell you what. An hour from now all that crap will still be there. Right
now we’re going up to my room where I’m going to follow your advice, take off
my clothes and get into bed. But only if you get in there with me.”

Chapter Ten

 

Tracing the rifle found beneath the dead insurgent took less
time than anyone expected. Captain Lange forwarded the information to his
commanding officer who sent it on to Central Command. From there it was easy to
link it to the Grainger Caldwell cargo that Rick Latrobe had baby-sat to Iraq.
Which was why Charlie Grainger stormed into Dan’s office late Monday morning,
his face nearly purple. Matt Caldwell, his partner, walked in silently behind
him.

Charlie, built tall and thick like a football player, had a
ruddy complexion and a smile that never quite reached his piercing blue eyes.
His thick brown hair was worn cropped close to the head, more for ease of care
than style, Dan thought. He was the front man for GC. The glad-hander. The
wheeler-dealer. Matt was equally as tall but lean and his longish auburn hair
was slightly graying. Matt handled everything behind the scenes, including the
legal aspect and the money. While Charlie was a shouter and fist-pounder, Matt
preferred to sit back and wait until everyone else had their say before
bringing out the hidden verbal knife.

Which was exactly what he did now, taking one of the client
chairs while his partner stomped back and forth.

“Charlie, sit down,” Dan said, making his voice as mild as
possible. “You’ll have a stroke and then where will you be?”

“Out of this crap at least,” Charlie shouted. Then he took a
deep breath, visibly gathered his control and dropped into a chair facing Dan.
“I had two visitors this morning, Dan.”

“Oh?”

Dan waited for Charlie to get his breathing under control.

“They were from one of these government alphabet agencies,
of which they have so many. They had identical suits and matching badges.”

Dan’s stomach tightened. “And what did they want?”

“They wanted to know everything about the shipment Rick took
over to Iraq,” Matt said quietly. “How it was handled and what happened to it. We’d
kind of like to know the same things, Dan.”

“You know what the drill was,” Dan told him. “We picked up
the equipment as per your okay, loaded it onto the Hercules C-130J, flew it
over to Iraq and signed it off to Greg Jordan.”

“Your man,” Matt pointed out in the same low-key voice.

“Who you also approved.”

“They want to know how such a big shipment disappeared.”

“And what did you tell them?” Dan asked, watching Charlie’s
face.

“I told them they had to talk to you. And Rick. Especially
Rick. That he handled the whole thing.”

“Fine. Send them along.”

“Oh, they’ll be here,” Charlie said. “No doubt about that.
They could even be right on my tail.”

“Then we’ll take care of it. Just like we always do.” But
Dan had a feeling this wasn’t going to be as easy to fix as things usually
were.

“Where’s Latrobe?”Charlie demanded. “I want to know where
you’ve got him stashed. This is his mess. He needs to clean it up
now
.
Is he back home yet? I want to see him
now
.”

“You know Rick was nearly killed, right?” Dan pointed out.
“He came within seconds of dying. He’s in no condition to see anyone right
now.”

“He may not have a choice,” Charlie huffed. “These people
don’t take no for an answer. And I want to see him myself. No more stalling. I
want to know how he screwed this up, He’s costing me a fortune and now my
attorney says I could be tried for treason if they can prove anything.”

“Those are the key words,” Dan pointed out. “Prove anything.
And we’re a long way from that.”

“I ought to have your ass, is what I ought to do,” Grainger
told him, his face still dangerously red.

“You just about have,” Dan told him. “The fact that I’m
hanging on to any of our clients is no thanks to you.” He deliberately forced
himself to relax. He and Charlie had been at it on some level or other ever
since the debacle in Baghdad. “All right. Listen.”

“Listen?” Charlie’s voice was rising again. “Listen to what?
I want Latrobe. He’s the one whose ass should be hauled in front of this
committee. Not mine or Matt’s.”

“Let me get some coffee in here and we’ll take a good, long
look at this.” Dan made his voice as soothing as possible. “We’re not going to
leave you hanging in the wind, Charlie. We want to get to the bottom of this
even more than you do.”

“Yeah? You’re not the one who’s out millions of dollars
here.”

“No,” Dan said quietly. “We have something bigger to lose.”

“And what’s that?”

“Our reputations.”

* * * * *

They couldn’t keep him hidden forever, Greg reasoned. He
knew Rick Latrobe too well. Sooner or later he’d force them to let him out of
hiding, just as soon as he was healed enough to move around. And he was sure
the man would head straight for his own house, confident he could handle
whatever came at him.

His ego is really unbelievable, and that gives me an
advantage.

So he’d watched and waited and tonight luck had been with
him. He couldn’t believe it. He was doing his usual daily pass by Latrobe’s
house, just checking for any activity, one final check for the night just in
case. He wasn’t looking for the truck so he might have missed it altogether if
he hadn’t recognized Troy Arsenault. But who the hell was the girl with them?
And that dog. God, he’d never seen a dog like that, sniffing the air as it was
led up to the front door, then turning to look in the direction where Greg was
parked one block over. For one uncomfortable moment he was afraid the dog had
scented him but he knew that was idiotic. He was too far away.

He picked up his camera with the long-range lens on it and
snapped a succession of photos. When he left here he’d do some research. Find
out who she was. From his laptop he could tap into any number of databases.

After everyone was inside, he allowed himself only one more
pass by the house. Not too slowly, not enough to raise anyone’s eyebrows if
someone happened to be looking out the window. No, now that he knew where
Latrobe was again, he needed to get the hell out of there and make plans.

He knew Latrobe would have a high-tech security system but
seeing the dog had given him an idea. If the animal was staying with him, at
least twice a day they’d have to turn off the system temporarily. All he needed
to do was wait for his opportunity. And find a place to watch from.

Meanwhile he needed to call Zarife and tell him he was
temporarily off the hook. Once this job was done he had to get the hell out and
he didn’t want to leave any dangling threads. He wondered how much trouble it
would cause if he took out the engineer too. Zarife al-Dulami was a loose end
he couldn’t leave dangling.

* * * * *

Rick’s bed was big and wide, with a thick mattress.
Eminently more comfortable than the bed at Dogwood House.

“Plenty of room to play,” he joked, pulling her down next to
him.

She winced at the sight of the puckered scars on his chest,
fading but still an angry red.

“Rick.”

“Hey. Don’t wimp out on me now. I’m in much better shape
than I was that first night.” He rolled until she was beneath him. “And I can
take much better care of you.”

He found the spot behind her ear that was so sensitive and
traced it with his tongue then licked a path down the column of her neck. Up
and across her jawline. Then his mouth was on hers, hot and urgent. Hungry.
Greedy. His tongue thrust inside and glided over every surface, a whisper of
flame igniting every nerve.

Kelly threaded her fingers through his hair, holding his
head while he fed from her mouth. His big, swollen cock pressed against her
thigh, branding it with its heat and she was instantly dripping wet. She
pressed herself up against him, loving the feel of his chest hair against her
breasts and the muscular strength of his legs twined with hers.

He lifted his mouth from hers and placed a row of kisses
down her throat to the slope of her breasts, finding her nipple and pulling one
into his mouth. Electricity jolted straight to her cunt, igniting the simmering
heat and desire.

He took his time with her nipples, sucking and pulling on
each one, grazing them with his teeth then biting down so she rode the sharp
edge of pleasure-pain.

“Rick,” she breathed, her hands stroking the hard muscles of
his sleek back, her hips urging him to do more, more, more. When she tried to
reach down to take him in her hand he brushed her arm away.

“This is my feast tonight,” he told her. “My bed. My rules.
And I’m going to taste every inch of your body.”

He proceeded to do exactly that, sliding his mouth down to
place light kisses on her tummy then shifting so he was giving attention to her
ankles, her calves, the inside of her thighs. He nipped at the sensitive skin,
then licked each place, soothing the tiny bite marks. She desperately wanted
him to get down to business, to get to her throbbing pussy, but he seemed just
as determined to torment her. Make her wait.

His thumbs pressed into the crease where hip and thigh
joined, and finally, finally, she felt him press an open-mouthed kiss right
there
at the very center of her cunt.

Oh god!

She tried to wrap her legs around his neck to hold him in
place, but he pressed them outward with his broad shoulders, keeping her
exposed to his marauding mouth. That very wicked tongue licked and lapped and
tasted every inch of her pussy, tracing her slit from top to bottom and back
again over and over.

Inside!
she wanted to shriek.
I want you inside!

But he was intent on savoring her pussy, tasting every inch
of it, teasing it with his tongue. Lick, lick, lick. When his mouth finally
closed over her throbbing clit she bucked upwards, thrusting at his mouth. He
tugged at her clit with his teeth, grazing it again and again until she
couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Please,” she begged. “Please, please, please.”

“Please what?” he asked, his mouth still on her hot, wet
cunt.

“Please…fuck me.”

Oh god. She’d never said that to a man before. Never used
those words. But Rick Latrobe drove her into a sensual, erotic whirlpool unlike
anything she’d ever experienced. And with him she apparently lost all
inhibitions.

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