Explosive (The Black Opals) (27 page)

He stroked her again, using her thick cream to lubricate her clitoris.
“Come when you need to, baby doll. Don’t wait for me to tell you.”

Something very close to a whimper slid off her parted lips.
He glanced up at her face in time to see her tongue peek out to wet her lips and catch her nod.

Sliding around her opening, he drew his fingertip to the tight pucker of her rectum, then dipped to her slit once more and pushed one finger inside.
The walls of her pussy clamped around his intrusion instantly, and Alyssa let out a throaty moan. He repeated the motion, adding a second finger as he pushed in deep.

She moved against his steady thrust, and Jayce watched the way her body accepted him.
The sight of her wetness on his fingers made it damn near impossible to remember this was about her needs, not his. The way she gripped him each time he slid inside her warm sheath, had him choking down his own rising hunger. But she was still waiting. Still hovering on the edge anticipating his instruction. He didn’t want to tell her. He wanted her to
take
her pleasure from him.

Withdrawing from the depths of her pussy, he tipped his fingertip to stroke her most sensitive spot.
At the same time, he reached his opposite hand beneath her and flicked her clitoris. Alyssa bucked beneath him. His cock swelled in response, and he desperately tried to ignore the wetness that trickled down his hard shaft.
Let go, baby doll. Before I come all over your back.

He repeated the motion, and Alyssa’s breath caught.
Her entire body tensed, and then with one hard pulse of her pussy, she shattered around his hand. As she came, Jayce gripped the swollen crown of his erection and held his breath to stop his body from joining hers. Through sheer force of will he managed to guide her through her orgasm with slow, easy thrusts of his fingers until she lay panting and limp beneath him.

Gradually, his own need backed off, and the throbbing in his balls became bearable once more.
He released his cock and gripped her hips in both hands. Twisting her, he rolled her over onto her back. Her gaze locked on him, still slightly dazed and unfocused. The remnants of her release shone in the flush of her cheeks.

“Better?” he asked huskily.

“Mm.” A lazy smile drifted across her lips.

Jayce bent over her, hungry for a taste of that amazing mouth.
He caught her in a kiss, forcing himself to maintain the contented languor of the night. He nibbled at her lower lip, teased the tip of his tongue along the silken seam. Then, he sank into the kiss with all the pent-up hunger raging inside him.

When Alyssa’s breathing became hard and deep, signs her desire was rising once again, Jayce pulled back and pushed her damp hair out of her face.
“I dream of this,” he confessed as he stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Of you.” He trailed his mouth over her collarbone, paused to swirl his tongue at the hollow of her neck and shoulder. “I should have come after you, tracked you down somehow.”

“Oh, Jayce,” she whispered.

She arched her back as he dipped his tongue into the crevice between her breasts and licked his way to one hard, distended nipple. “I’ve missed you so damned much,” he murmured thickly, then closed his lips around the dusky tip and sucked her in deep, erasing any chance of her reply being a disappointment. She moaned quietly, and her fingers settled into his hair. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as her hips lazily undulated beneath him.

He released her nipple, only to lick his way to the opposite breast and capture the other with the same deep suckle. Each flick and swirl of his tongue around that sensitive nub tightened the hold she maintained on his hair.
When his teeth caught around it and he tugged downward, Alyssa’s nails dug into his scalp.

She moaned his name, “Jayce.”
She lifted her hips and ground herself against his straining cock, leaving him wet with her arousal.

God, he was torturing himself.
But he wasn’t ready to bring this night to an end. He reached between their bodies and gripped his cock, stroking away some of the burning need.
Just a little longer.
A little more time to enjoy the divine pleasure of making love to Alyssa.

And that’s what he was doing, he realized as he lifted his head in search of her sweet mouth again—not fucking Alyssa, but making love to her.
Trying his damndest to awaken inside her the same insurmountable feeling that possessed him. Trying to take her back in time to when the pleasure had always been incredible, but there had been another deeper, stronger layer to physical gratification.

She wedged one dainty palm between their torsos and slid it up his chest, her nails raking tauntingly over the barbell in his nipple.
His breath caught. Hers rushed out with a satisfied mewl, as if she had been longing to feel the way his heart banged against his ribs.

That innocent little sound robbed him of his control.
Aw, hell,
he dimly thought as he released his throbbing erection and slid his fingers into the wet folds of her pussy. He pressed his thumb to her clitoris, and Alyssa’s body jerked into his.

“Jayce.”
She tore her mouth away from his. Gasping, she begged, “Jayce, please.”

“Easy, baby,” he murmured as he grabbed for his rapidly scattering thoughts.
“Give me a minute.”

She shook her head and pressed her hips hard into his.
“I don’t want a minute.” Clasping her nails around the silver barbell, she gave it a twist that shot fire down his spine. “And I don’t want to beg.” She lifted into him and scraped her teeth over his shoulder. “I just…want you.”

There was no more fight left inside him.
With a hoarse groan, he gripped his shaft and aligned his cock with her seeping opening. Her wet heat soaked into his aching flesh, blurring his vision. He closed his eyes, and with one prolonged thrust slid into her hot, wet depths.

Alyssa’s free hand slipped from his hair, and her nails raked down his back.
A hiss of pleasure slid from between her parted lips. “Yes. Like that. More.” Her pussy clenched around him, accepting his intrusion, slowly accommodating his slow impalement.

Jayce could feel ecstasy hovering at the fringe of his mind.
Right
there
. If he grabbed for it, it would consume him. Two hard thrusts, and he’d come so hard she’d feel it in her toes. But she wasn’t ready to hit that precipice yet. She hadn’t reached the same point of desperation that threatened to choke him into oblivion.

He pushed the rise of pleasure away.
Maintaining his slow and easy tempo, he withdrew from her slick sheath, a shudder tapering through his body. As he eased back inside Alyssa, he watched her face. “I love the way you fit around me.” He pushed a little deeper, reveling in the bliss reflecting in her expression. “The way your pussy holds on tight.”

“You feel so
good,
Jayce.” She rolled her hips in tiny circles, easing herself up and down his swollen length. “More. Please, Jayce.”

He eased back, withdrawing until only the thick crown remained inside her clenching tissues.
Jayce paused again, letting tension build, swallowing it down as he battled the tight constriction of his lungs. She was almost there. Almost to that place where she was completely open and vulnerable, where the past and the present ceased to exist and they were simply one.

Holding himself off her upper body, Jayce sank deep inside her again.
Alyssa’s head thrashed on the pillow. She curled her legs around his, trying to hold onto him, to keep him buried inside her and to maintain the pressure on her clitoris. He backed off a fraction.

“No, don’t.” She whimpered, grasping for his shoulders.
Her abdomen flexed, and around his cock, her tissues fluttered.

“You’re mine, Alyssa,” he whispered, giving her one short, taunting stroke.
“You’ve always been mine.” Dragging his free hand between them, he drew his thumb over her clitoris. “Say it, baby doll.”

“Jayce,” she moaned.
Her hands dropped to the small of his back, and her nails scored into his skin.

Jayce repeated the teasing stroke, giving her just a portion of him.
Hunger raged inside him now. He was going to come, whether she admitted it or not. He couldn’t fight it any longer. “Alyssa,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

As his body surged into hers and ecstasy poured over his skin, he caught her broken whisper.

“Always.”

Something snapped inside him then, splintering deep into his heart.
He moaned with the pleasure, coiled an arm around her waist and snugged her against his body. His hips convulsed. Dimly aware of the jagged cry that broke from her throat, he pumped once. Twice. Then slammed into her hard as climax exploded through him.

As the thrum of his pulse dimmed in his ears, he collapsed against Alyssa’s limp body.
Their labored breathing rasped unsteadily through the quiet. Tingles of sensation sparked through his limbs. Deep inside her, his cock pulsed with the last of his ejaculation, and Jayce shuddered in her arms.

He let out a long, controlled exhale, then rubbed his cheek against her shoulder.
She answered with a gentle press of her hand to the side of his head, holding him tenderly in place.

There were no words needed; he’d heard everything he needed.
Maybe they still had hurdles to overcome, but he had finally dragged the truth out of her. Besides, she wouldn’t care to hear what resided on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he closed his eyes, and let the thought echo in his head.
I love you, baby doll.

T h i r t y

J
ayce awakened with his fingers tangled around Alyssa’s. He didn’t remember clasping her hand before he drifted off to sleep, but he damn sure liked waking up still linked together. He smoothed a hand over her bare belly and pressed a light kiss to her shoulder.

She turned into him with a soft smile, long lashes fluttering open.

“Good morning, baby doll.”

Her smile widened.

Jayce rolled over, guiding her beneath him. When she was firmly trapped beneath his body, he shook loose his hand and framed her face between his palms, his fingers stroking through the hair on either side of her head. “I haven’t slept that good in years.”

Alyssa slid her hands down his back.
“I like waking up to you.”

That simple phrase flowed through Jayce like warm honey.
Progress.
Something had changed last night. He was beginning to believe there might be some hope—of course, even if she did come around fully, he still had to navigate his job. More pressing, however was the realization his sister’s rehearsal dinner was tonight and he’d failed to get his tux altered.

Which meant he couldn’t languish here in Alyssa’s bed all morning, no matter how much he might like to.

He dipped his head, captured her lower lip between his teeth, and gently tugged. Twining her arms around his neck, Alyssa let out a husky laugh. Her body sighed into his. As he deepened the kiss, she ran the ball of her foot over his calf, her slow stroke matching the easy, undemanding nature of Jayce’s kiss.

But as the deeper pull of desire began to slide through Jayce’s veins, he drew the kiss to a close.
“Mm. Tempting.” He pressed a quick chaste kiss to her lips. “But I have a shit-ton of things to do this morning. Not the least of which is make sure Kane’s back here working on your security system.”

“Oh.”
Disappointment flickered across her face. “When will you be back?”

It struck him then that it would be well after midnight given the late hour of the rehearsal dinner.
His family would want to celebrate as well, and he couldn’t very well slip away early from the event of his sister’s life. He hated the idea of leaving Alyssa for so long. Not just for her safety, but his sanity as well. He needed to be around her like he needed air.

Which made the idea that popped into his head terrifying.
He glanced at Alyssa, mulled it around for all of thirty seconds, then blurted, “Come with me.”

“Come with you where?”

Snuggling deeper into her embrace, he trailed open-mouthed kisses across her collarbone, determined to make it impossible for her to refuse. She’d love Jordan—he’d always known she would. It was long past time for Jordan and Alyssa to meet.

As he answered, he punctuated each item on his to-do list with a kiss.
“I have to go check on Jordan. Kane took her out last night—I had to cancel. Then there’s this tux issue, and Jasmine’s rehearsal dinner tonight at six.”

Her hands stilled in the middle of his back.
“Meet Jordan. Meet your entire family? That’s an awful lot at once.”

Alyssa’s apprehension reflected in her wide eyes, telling Jayce the suggestion had been a bad idea, and that nagging sense of inevitable disappointment began to gnaw at his stomach.
He did his best to play the offer down. “It’s really not a big deal. Jordan’s the only one who knows anything, and she’d be thrilled to meet you, regardless.” Alyssa had shared that same desire too, once.

Alyssa turned her head toward the window.
“I’m really not ready for that, Jayce.”

Right.
Because as much as he wanted to believe last night had changed something between them, he was just deluding himself. Alyssa had no qualms about opening up in bed. But she had no intention of letting him really in.

He lifted his mouth away from hers, feeling every bit a fool.
“I see.” Bracing his weight on his hands, he eased off her body and rose to his feet. He glanced around her room in search of his clothing, then remembered he’d undressed beside the bathtub last night. Heading for the door, he called as casually as he could, “I’ve got to get a move on then.”

“Jayce.”
The tone of her voice reprimanded his abrupt departure.

He stopped at the door, turned to look at her.
Despite his determination to play it cool, a hard edge crept into his response. “What?”

“Don’t be that way.
Please.”

Jayce shrugged.
“I’m not being any way. You don’t want to go. I have things to do.” He held her gaze, waiting,
hoping
, she’d tell him he was wrong, that she’d changed her mind. But he knew she wouldn’t. Her silence was telling enough. He refused to acknowledge the stabbing pain that shot through his heart and opened the door. “I’ll see you later, Alyssa.”

“When will you be back?” she asked quietly.

“When I don’t have things to do.”

Entering the hall, he shut the door on whatever she might have said—not that he expected her to say anything further.
What a damned fool he was. She’d probably met McTavish’s family. Hell, she was probably as close as family herself. But she had no desire to meet his.

Why couldn’t he stop barreling down this path of self-destruction?
This was the kind of shit that got operatives killed. Senseless, reactive, impulsive shit.

He opened the bathroom door with more force than necessary and sent it thumping into the wall.
The sound only gave him a half-second pause, then he stalked across the room and swiped up his clothing, dressing as he grabbed each garment. When he finished with all but his suit jacket, he checked the gun in his holster and slid into the custom-tailored coat. He needed to pull his head out of his ass, focus on getting her security system, and then get the hell out of Dodge for the last time. If Jordan wanted to get together, she’d have to fly out to see him. Jayce damn sure wasn’t coming back to Boulder once he drove out of town.

Taking the stairs two at a time, he descended to the living room, where McTavish sat on the couch, toying with his phone.
As Jayce entered, McTavish snapped the phone shut. With the hasty, jerky actions of a kid caught with a forbidden cookie, he stuffed the cell in his pocket.

Jayce paused, suspicion ringing faint in his mind.

“Morning,” McTavish quipped a bit too enthusiastically.

Jayce tipped his head a fraction and answered warily, “Morning to you.
Late night?”

McTavish ran his hands down the tops of his thighs and stood.
“Kinda.”

There was something about the way he moved to the mantle and began fiddling with a picture frame that lifted the hair on the nape of Jayce’s neck.
Was he nervous? What the hell for?

“Something wrong?”

“No.” His smile came a bit too quickly, a bit too forced. “No, I’m fine. Just thinking about mowing the lawn.”

Jayce dragged his gaze down McTavish’s back, taking in a pressed dress shirt, casual khaki pants, and expensive suede loafers.
He narrowed his stare on the back of McTavish’s head. “Dressed for the job too, I see. What gives?”

Eyes wide like saucers, McTavish turned fully around.
“Nothing gives. I just got in. I-I haven’t—”

“Cut the bullshit.”
Folding his arms over his chest, Jayce cocked an eyebrow. “What the hell’s under your skin?”

Like the many sewer rats Jayce’s time in the Opals exposed him to, McTavish’s expression washed ghost white for a nanosecond.
Then the false surprise drained away, replaced by begrudging acceptance.

McTavish blew out a hard breath.
“I guess there’s no reason to keep it from you.”

“Keep
what
from me?”

Motioning Jayce to follow, McTavish shouldered around Jayce and struck off down the hall toward Alyssa’s office.
He pushed the door open. Inside, Jayce glimpsed more disarray than what littered the ground the first time he’d set foot within. It hadn’t been ransacked, but someone sure as hell had been here.

McTavish cut a bee-line to Alyssa’s desk and punched a button on her business phone.
“This.”

A computer-generated voice announced the incoming call’s time as seven-thirty, shortly after Jayce and Alyssa arrived at the restaurant.
Then another voice, one just as electronicized but certainly not carrier-backed, vibrated through the speaker.

“You’ve got something that doesn’t belong to you. Maybe you’ll change your mind about cooperating if you get a taste of what will happen to you.”

As the voice faded, a click resonated through the line. Jayce tensed, the sound somehow vaguely familiar. What came next snapped memories of time and location into place. As a muffled, tinny
boom
echoed in the distance, a vision of two separate incidents exploded through his mind. The long-ago training with pressure-sensitive landmines in his earliest days with the Opals combined with the detonation chamber at headquarters. Something blew up on the other end of that phone. Something contained inside something hollow and metal. Large enough to produce the threatening sound effect. Small enough not to injure whoever set off the device, given the short expanse of time between the
click
and the explosion.

A threat, nothing more.
But a ballsy one that made it clear whoever had Alyssa in their sights wasn’t playing small games. Parker and Delfranco were behind bars. Who the hell was threatening her?

Jayce’s gaze snapped from the phone to McTavish’s ashen expression.
“Were you here?”

“Fuck no.
I was—” McTavish snapped his mouth shut.

“You were what?”
Alarms blared in Jayce’s ears. Instinctive, reflexive defenses that screamed McTavish was hiding something.

“I was at the gym.”

Jayce took two strides to the desk, reached across it, and grabbed McTavish by the collar. “What the fuck is going on, McTavish?”

McTavish shoved against Jayce’s chest, freeing himself.
He backed up a step. “Get your damned hands off me. I don’t know shit. I only played it back for you so you’d hurry up with this security system.”

Jayce wasn’t buying the story, but enough legitimate fear shone in McTavish’s eyes to thwart Jayce’s anger.
He braced his hands on the desk and took care to keep his voice low. “What is she mixed up in? What does she have, exactly, that they want? I want—”

The sound of footsteps on the stairs silenced Jayce.
He narrowed his gaze on McTavish, warning him silently that this discussion wasn’t over yet. He would get answers one way or the other, and he was starting to suspect one, or perhaps both of them, knew precisely who was behind these break-ins and exactly what they wanted. McTavish might not know specifics, but Jayce wouldn’t put it past him to cover for Alyssa.

“Jayce?” she called from the bottom of the stairs.

“Coming.” He shoved away from the desk and gestured at the phone. “Get rid of it before she hears. Tape it off for the detectives first.”

At McTavish’s over-eager nod, Jayce left the room, only to nearly run Alyssa over as she approached the door.
He caught her by the shoulders as she tottered backward. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were there.”

She recovered with a dismissive shake of her head.
“I don’t want you to leave angry.”

“I’m not angry.”
Not with her. At least not over the reasons she assumed. Her unwillingness to meet Jordan and the rest of his family had taken a backseat to his more immediate concern over the significant threat that had been placed on her head.

“You are too.
It’s all over your face.”

Jayce gritted his teeth and slowly uncurled his fingers from her shoulders.
Forcing himself to relax, he summoned an attitude of indifference. “It’s really not important, Alyssa.”
Lie some more—it’s what you do best.
“I’ll call you later.”

He leaned forward, placed a chaste kiss on her cheek, then took off down the hall.
Connecting with Kane had just taken priority over any wishful longings of his heart.

* * *

Alyssa stood rooted in the hall, watching Jayce leave as if he couldn’t stand the idea of being near her any longer. Before she could recover from the startling way he went from furious to cool and collected, Brice edged past her like someone had lit a fire under his heels.

“Brice?” she called, bewildered.

He skidded to a stop in front of his bedroom door. “Yeah?”

“What’s going on?”

“Not much.” He flashed her a grin. “Certainly nothing as eventful as your night, I imagine. Jayce here, two mornings in a row. What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing,” she murmured.
Nothing at all, if she didn’t sort through the crap in her head.