Endgame (14 page)

“Moan for me, baby. It’s all about crowd appreciation.”

“Please tell me there’s no crowd,” she panted, looking around wildly. Darkness met her, with just the twinkling of street and Christmas lights at the road and down shore. But the idea of someone watching increased the need and desire. She was a horrible bodyguard. Even worse spy, because all she wanted was to die with his fingers in her pussy.

“Just you. One. But your applause means more than anything.” He kissed her then, giving her just the tiniest bit of tongue. “Come for me, Charlotte.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Of course, you can.” He removed his fingers and fondled the folds, drawing patterns in her juices. Then his hand slid downward, to her anus. He lubricated and then slipped his thumb in.

Instant orgasm. She moaned and arched her back, her toes curling into the sand. He kept his thumb in her ass and twisted his hand so he could slip two fingers into her pussy. She shook and the contractions around his fingers multiplied.
No, not another.
But the tension climbed higher in her core. He used his nose to inch her shirt up and sucked in a nipple, biting gently as he thrust his thumb and fingers.

“Oh, God,” she moaned and shattered again, this one less intense but still as wonderful, her pussy clenching and gripping those fingers. She grabbed his hair and tugged, holding his mouth on her nipple, arching her hips to grind against his hand. The waves decreased as her damp skin hummed, his fingers still pumping, slowly.

“You want three, baby?” He stilled his hand and mouth. He took her fingers and sucked them deep into his mouth, swirling his tongue. “I can try for three.”

Three? Where in hell did he come from? He had gone from non-sex god to sex king in an afternoon. “You should be ready to shoot the moon after all that.”

“I came this morning, remember? And I admit to jacking off in the shower, too, after you blew me, because my dick couldn’t take the mental video replay.”

She wanted to be angry but was having a hard time faking it. “I don’t think I can punish you enough for all of your deeds. Jacking off without permission and Internet research. Ma’am is not pleased.”

“Two orgasms should sort of cancel out the fact that I disobeyed twice. It’s fair.” He rummaged in his pockets. He used a little bottle of disinfectant on his hands, then searched again. A moment later, he cleaned her gently with a napkin, wiping her folds free of her juices. Then he pulled her pants back up and patted his chest for her to return.

“You happy, baby? Happy enough to not kill me?”

“Don’t call me baby.” Oddly, she
was
happy. She gave a quick glance up and down the beach, then behind them. All clear. “Did you learn all that from research?”

“Yep. If I hadn’t broken the Internet rule, Ma’am wouldn’t have gotten two lovely orgasms.”

“You’re a bad boy, Aaron. Naughty.” Now that the haze of pleasure was fading, she checked in to see where she stood emotionally. Only a little sadness. Lots of satisfaction. She knew who she was with the entire time, no phasing to the past or other freaky things. Maybe she was ready to fuck him. It would be good if he paid that much attention to detail. Very good.

He nuzzled her neck. “Are you hungry yet? Could I entice you to try California pizza? Not as good as East Coast, but it will do, Ma’am.”

“Stop with the Ma’am.”

A laugh rumbled in his chest. “Let’s get pizza, stop at the store, and go home.”

“Store?” She stretched a little, liking the way her body felt after coming. So much less stress. She pursed her lips. Store. She needed shampoo.

“Let’s go, Ma’am.”

****

Not much scared Charlotte. She didn’t like spiders. Or crabs. They looked like spiders. Or mimes. She hated those fuckers with a passion. She almost killed one in Paris for trying to lock her in an imaginary box. Chase had unlocked the imaginary door and set her free before she blasted her way out.

She’d seen all sorts of action as a spy—bombs, plane jumps, fire fight, being trapped in an air duct for hours while they searched, intending to kill. The most frightened she’d been was when some guy tried to shove her out the back of a plane sans parachute. She kicked his ass and shoved him out instead. So why in hell was she scared as fuck at the thought of having sex with Aaron?

The panic built throughout the evening. She broke the bodyguard rules and made Aaron go into the store alone to buy the condoms, which to her dismay, he had not researched.

“You’ve researched everything,” she snapped. “You can’t research what goes on your dick for the big event? Go, make the purchase. Buy lubricant, too. And do not come back with something ribbed for her pleasure. I will not be pleased.”

She had no clue if she’d be pleased or not, because she’d never tried them. She wasn’t telling him that, though. And in the process, she didn’t get shampoo, which pissed her off more.

They had picked up two pizzas, and now Jake was staring at her over his pepperoni one, perusing her as if she’d turned rainbow-colored or something.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked as he chucked his crust end back in the box. Aaron had gone off somewhere in the house, probably to secretly stash the box of condoms he’d purchased.

She scrunched down on her stool. “Nothing.”

“Yeah, not buying it. You’ve had two bites and usually you eat at least six pieces. Usually, you are a bottomless hole when it comes to pizza.”

Aaron returned and went to the fridge.

She swallowed at the lump in her throat. “I think I’m coming down with something.”

Aaron’s hand froze in the fridge. He slowly grabbed the can of soda and narrowed his eyes at her. He shut the door, then mimed chicken wings and mouthed bawking noises. She glared. Really? Just because she couldn’t kill him, didn’t mean she wouldn’t torture him, make him scream like a girl.

Jake crooked a finger to her, and she leaned forward obediently but rolled her eyes as he felt her forehead with the back of his hand. “I don’t think you have a fever.”

“I’m fine, really.”

“Maybe you should sleep in the back bed, instead of the couch. There’s room for you.” He didn’t mean it sexually. She often slept with Jake if they were on missions, but only if she was afraid of the nightmares returning. If she was working, she couldn’t take sleeping pills. Tia knew and allowed it, especially after Charlotte had a nightmare when she was on a mission with her. Scary as hell for the other person. She never remembered.

Aaron shook his head violently and conked Jake on the back of the head with his hand. “Watch it.” He maneuvered to sit next to Jake on the stool. “She’s my girlfriend. She’s not sleeping with you, pervert. And you’re married.”

“Bodyguard,” she corrected and took a big bite of pizza for Jake’s sake. It tasted like cardboard adorned with weeds. “What are your plans tonight, Jake?

“Work.” He glanced at Aaron and changed to Russian. “You have to keep him occupied. Most of the night.”

She gagged on the bite she’d started to swallow. Both men shot to their feet in alarm, and she waved them back.

“I’m fine,” she wheezed. “Drink.” She swallowed correctly and took a sip of soda. “Why, Jake?”

“I need to go out as him. I plan on seeing…her,” Jake said, still in Russian. “You know. That’s why I wanted you to lift his wallet for me.”

He meant Celia. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Yeah, it is. Trust me. And nothing’s going to happen, so don’t you worry. She’d know it wasn’t Aaron right away, anyway, because I’m that much more of a stud.”

If only he knew…

“I just want to go to bed.”

Jake nodded. “Good. Keeping him in bed is a good way to occupy him. But you should warn him, though. He’s a chicken shit. One of your nightmares will scare him senseless.”

“No! On both accounts.” She glanced at Aaron, picking onions off his slice of pizza. He was getting used to the foreign chatter. “He doesn’t need to know, and we haven’t done
that
.”

Jake stared at her a long, long moment. “Bin-go.”

She broke out into a cold sweat and knew her eyes had to be bigger than grenades. “What? No. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Oh, yes. Tonight is date night,” Jake crowed in satisfaction. “Don’t be worried, baby doll. You’ll have a great time. He is an Anderson.”

“This is so embarrassing.” She shoved her plate away, moaned, and hid her face on her arms on the counter.

“Are you
scared
?”

She lifted her head. “Asshole.
You
should be scared, because I can take you down. I can outshoot you, and I can chuck knives at your head and make you wish your mum was changing your diapers still.”

“She’s sounding pissy, Jake,” Aaron piped up in English. “If you piss her off and then leave me alone with her for the evening, I will kick your ass to the Mississippi.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes. As if. “Don’t be a punk.”

“Aaron, can you give us a moment to talk, in private? Her threatening my life in Russian is unsettling.”

“Sure.” Aaron glanced at Charlotte, his eyes full of questions he couldn’t ask. He grabbed his plate and soda and shuffled away.

The door to his room closed, and Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “Spill.”

“Jake—”

“Just talk, Charlotte. You can’t spend your life alternating between not talking and threatening my life. You haven’t learned a damned thing since Brussels except instead of fuck you, you offer to chuck knives at my head. So talk. Please.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But her heart pounded faster. Too close, too close.

He frowned, his jaw firm, looking like a scary version of Aaron. “Bullshit. What are you afraid of? Answer me.”

She sighed. Jake didn’t like to talk, either, but when he up and decided it was high time for talking, she was screwed into spilling her guts. And because he’d used the Dom voice, the one thing she’d been too afraid even to think popped out of her mouth. “Being weak.”

He snorted. “No one who has spent ten seconds with you will ever make that assumption, Dragon Queen.” One of the other agents had labeled her that after an extremely trying mission. “You want to know what I think you’re afraid of?”

“No.”

“Living. You’ve spent five years on this asinine endgame crap of yours. Train and kill so you can win. You pass up opportunities because you’re afraid to live. Friendships. Sex. Anything that might have any lasting touch on your soul because God forbid you’re not ready at the end.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is. You know it, too.” He learned forward on the stool. “You know what? You are letting them win. They own you, because you’re waiting for them to call the shots. So maybe you’re ready, but when
is
the end? What if it never comes? Are you going to die alone in some nursing home because you were afraid to live?”

How mean. And rude. And…right. “But living means it will hurt someone when it ends. It will hurt me when it ends.”

“So you’ll die heartless, mean, and alone. No one but Chase and I will mourn what a wonderful person you were if we don’t die first. Is that what you want? You haven’t even made steps toward making friends with Kate and Tia, though they try like hell. Let them in. Let Aaron in. Live, sweetheart. Please. Don’t make me regret every day that I saved you, because half the time, I swear you’re nothing more than a walking dead woman anyway.”

“You don’t think that!”

“I do.”

She fought the welling of emotions and searched desperately for the dragon in her but came up with uneasy and unsure. If Jake felt this way… “What does Chase think?”

“He wants you to be happy, too. He wouldn’t approve of Aaron because of the exposure aspect. He would rather you find someone in some little town that knows nothing and stays quiet. Aaron is too much of a chance, even for me. We’ve already started talking options, because I look too much like him. I can fudge it with facial hair and other things, but you, on his arm every day…someone is going to notice.”

She tossed her hands in the air. “Then why bother?”

“You’re not going to fall in love with him in a weekend. Or a week. But the last twenty-four hours…this is the most alive you’ve been in the past five years. Yeah, you look a little ill now, but you’ve been glowing because he’s interested. You’re beautiful and alive, and I am just so proud. So please, just go live.”

She ducked her head from his knowing blue eyes, so much like Aaron’s. “Sex with him won’t work. You know what I like. I don’t think he’ll go there.”

“Tell him what you need, sweetheart. If I know him, he’ll run out and research everything about your submissiveness and come back with twice as much as you need.”

He knew Aaron well. “I guess.”

“What you need for submission will be different than what you needed before. You’re a different person. You’re not Abigail anymore, and she was a bit of a doormat. Charlotte is no doormat, and I bet she’ll be surprised at what she finds exciting.”

But still, she couldn’t help think he was wrong. “He won’t think I’m weak?”

Jake gave her the sweetest smile, all Jake, not a touch of Aaron. “Trust me, if you knelt at my feet and wanted me to love you, I wouldn’t think you weak. I’d think I was damned lucky you’d show me that side of you. I’d also make sure I didn’t fuck it up, so you didn’t feel the need to kill me.” Jake rounded the corner of the breakfast bar and folded her into his arms, against his chest. “Please, sweetheart. Live.”

He smelled like a soapy clean pizza, one spicy note away from like Aaron. She never realized how she came across to others. She was a bitch, prided herself in owning the term. But now…God, she was so selfish. “Do Kate and Tia think I don’t like them?”

“Sweetheart, no.” Jake smoothed her hair. “They respect your baggage, as you like to say.” He pushed her away to look down into her eyes. “But something has changed you, for the better, since you’ve been involved in this case. So you need to make a choice. Do you want to go back to feeling nothing, or is it nice to be back in the land of the living?”

Damn him, she hated that he was right. “It’s nice to feel things. I guess.”