Fire and Ice (an extended epilogue) (6 page)

“
Not really.”

“
Babe, are you worried that I was
trying to manage you?”

“
Yes. Weren’t you?”

Jack sighed. “That was not my intention. I’m
trying to find ways to take care of my woman.” He looked away from
her. “There are so many aspects of your job I have no control over,
have no way to protect you.” He smiled wryly and glanced back at
her. “I’m coming to terms with the reality that you can damn well
protect yourself more than anyone else can and that includes
me.”

Her heart ached knowing how such an admission
was difficult for a proud man like Jack. Was she too selfish to
allow him to do these little things for her? Suddenly, she knew
deep inside how to give him the reassurance he needed.

She tucked her arm into his. “Jack, thanks for
calling in for me.” She rose on tiptoes to brush his lips lightly.
“I know it’s hard for you to stand by and watch me take all these
risks. Just remember, baby, that no matter how desperate the
situation looks, I will always find my way back to you.”

She was smothered in a tight embrace. “Promise
me that, Maia,” Jack said fiercely. His eyes were raw with emotion,
and she fell more deeply in love with him if that was
possible.

“
Promise, baby,” Maia whispered
before Jack sealed her words with a kiss.

CHAPTER
SIX

Two months later

Nerves. That was all it was. Maia stared at
her reflection in the big oval antique mirror. Her gown was an
elegant sheath dress of embroidered silk by Monique Lhuillier. Maia
couldn’t believe she had to argue with Jack’s mom and the wedding
planner about her choice of gown. It was her wedding after all.
They wanted her to wear a pompous affair of billowing white silk
organza, but she told them it wasn’t her.

“
But you look like a princess in
this!” Frances had wailed as she held out a heavy elaborate gown.
Maia was not about to walk down the aisle with a skirt that bobbed
ridiculously with each step. Over her dead body.

She pretty much let Frances McCord have her
way with everything else. The Ritz Carlton, the flowers, the food,
but anything that went on her body, Maia got to veto. The only
thing she and Frances enthusiastically agreed on were her
three-inch Christian Louboutin open-toed heels, which were dyed to
match her ivory gown.

“
You look beautiful, Maia,” her
foster mom, Lana Eaton, said. Maia had not seen her foster parents
in years. Because of her work, Maia rarely communicated with them,
but a wedding was definitely an exception. Lana and her foster dad,
Carl, flew in three days ago. Viktor and Carl had grown up together
and shared an enduring friendship. Maia also knew that Carl was the
one person Viktor trusted the most, which was why he entrusted a
twelve-year old Maia in their care. “I’m so happy you found
someone. Jack is so handsome!” So her fiancé and soon-to-be-husband
had charmed Lana over. “Now if we can only find someone for
Viktor.”

“
Bite your tongue, Lana,” Viktor
said as he walked into the room. Viktor was dressed in the
requisite tux. Maia knew he hated formal affairs and was
threatening to boycott the wedding if he was forced into a “monkey
suit.” Somehow Derek had convinced Viktor to give in, and for that
she was thankful.

Lana smiled affectionately and walked to the
door. “I’ll give you a minute with your girl. The wedding starts in
ten minutes. Do not make her cry and ruin her make-up!”

“
You do look beautiful, Katerina,”
Viktor said softly as he raised his hand to brush her
cheek.

“
You clean up nicely, yourself.”
Maia grinned. And she was not kidding, Viktor would have a hard
time blending into the background.

“
It’s not too late to change your
mind you know,” Viktor teased, a wicked gleam in his
eyes.

Maia laughed. “I have no doubts about marrying
Jack. I just hate walking down the aisle and being the focus of
three hundred people.”

“
Are you afraid to blow your
cover?”

“
AGS has vetted the guest list,
right?”

“
Yes. No problem there. Relax,
Katerina,” Viktor murmured.

“
Thanks for everything, Viktor,”
Maia whispered and damn it, she teared up.

“
Shit. Don’t fucking cry,” Viktor
muttered. “Lana’s gonna kill me.”

Maia hiccuped. “It’s just that...you saved me.
And I wouldn’t be having this life now...” And then she bawled her
eyes out while Viktor stood by helplessly.

“
Maybe I should have had this talk
with you earlier,” Viktor said in resignation.

“
You should have,” Maia sobbed and
laughed as she tried to wipe her tears with the heels of her
hands.

Carl walked in. “Lana sent me to—oh shit!” His
incredulous eyes swung to Viktor. “You made her cry? It’s two
minutes before the ceremony!”

“
I didn’t fucking do anything,”
Viktor growled.

Maia looked at her face in the mirror. Oh god.
The mascara was waterproof, but everything else was not, and her
face was splotchy.

“
What the hell happened?” Gillian
shrieked when she walked in the room. Gillian Fontaine was her
wedding planner and at this moment a very frazzled wedding planner.
She immediately barked into her radio. “We’ve got a 911 in the
bridal room. Bring the makeup-artist, stat.” Gillian glared at
Viktor and Carl. “Both of you. Out!”

*****

Jack
felt the first inkling of alarm when he saw a commotion at the back
of the church. Gillian’s team of wedding planners were in an uproar
with the women skittering around in high-heels and running from one
end of the corridor to the next. As part of tradition, he stayed
away from Maia for one day. He absolutely hated the separation.
Maybe her suggestion of marrying in City Hall and eliminating all
these nerve-wracking preparations was a good idea after all. But he
wanted this. He wanted to go through the process of marrying her:
having her walk down the aisle toward him, claiming her from Carl,
exchanging vows, kissing the bride, even cutting the fucking cake.
He wanted the entire DC, hell, the entire world to know that she
was fucking his.

He impatiently checked his watch. Ten minutes
late. What was going on?

He turned to his best man. “Derek, can you
find out what’s keeping them?”

Derek frowned and nodded. “I was about to
suggest the same thing. Hold on.”

Five minutes later his friend returned, his
eyes were filled with mirth and his lips were twitching.

“
Well?” Jack asked
impatiently.

His friend shook his head and chuckled.
“Viktor made Maia cry.”

“
What?” Jack said furiously. “What
did he say?”

“
Apparently, nothing,” Derek said.
“But Maia got all emotional because of their past and just broke
down.”

“
Fuck!”

“
Gentlemen.” The priest made his
presence known behind them.

Fuck. Jack had forgotten that the priest was
already waiting behind them.

Should he go to her? Jack was feeling helpless
standing around and doing nothing when his woman was crying. Hell,
Maia almost never cried.

“
We should have kept Baran off the
guest list,” Jack grumbled.

Suddenly, the orchestra started playing
signaling the beginning of the ceremony. His mom hired an entire
symphony to play at their wedding. He watched the endless parade of
the wedding entourage. How many flower girls and bridesmaids were
there? And they were all from his side of the family. Jack’s heart
clenched. Maia had no one save for Viktor and her foster parents.
Now she had his family, and they all loved her.

Finally, he heard the familiar bridal march
and that was when he saw her.

Holy Fuck! She—Was—Stunning. Jack’s throat
constricted as he stood transfixed by the most beautiful woman in
the world.

Derek leaned in. “Breathe, Jack.”

He didn’t realize he was holding his breath.
Talk about taking his breath away, Maia did it every single time.
As she drew closer with her foster father Carl, Jack resisted the
urge to walk up, snatch her and run away with her.

Soon enough, she was before him, her lips
curving in a serene smile. Her unusual clear blue eyes were
luminous and he felt so humbled to be loved by such an amazing
woman. His own eyes blurred as he carefully took her hand from Carl
and tucked it in the crook of his arm. Finally, she was going to be
his, and he intended to keep her forever.

*****

“
Did I mention how dashing you look?” Maia smiled up at her
husband. Jack alway cut a fine figure in a suit, but in a tux he
was devastatingly handsome. His Tom Ford tux hugged his broad
shoulders and tapered trimly at his sides conveying a lean muscular
physique that exuded power and—Maia wet her lips—unbridled sex
appeal. She was hot for this man, and she was feeling a familiar
ache between her legs.

Jack grinned down at her. “Yes, you’ve
mentioned it a couple of times. I’m wondering if I should take the
hint and whisk you off to our room.”

“
Am I that obvious?” Maia
pouted.

Jack chuckled. “Yes. You are. But we’re only
on our first dance, and I’d hate to have Mom’s efforts go to waste
by having the bride and groom disappear so early.”

Maia pressed her body intimately into Jack’s
and was gratified when she heard him hiss. She loved feeling the
hardness of his chest scraping against her breasts, her lower body
teased the front of his trousers.

“
Maia,” Jack groaned. “You’re not
making it easy, babe.”

“
Think of it as foreplay.” Maia
pulled away, grinning mischievously.

“
You know you’re asking for it,”
Jack warned. His eyes were glittering with a promise of retribution
later.

Jack swirled her around the exquisitely
appointed ballroom of the Ritz Carlton. The mood lighting was
expertly choreographed with each segment of the program. The theme
was vintage Parisian chic. A string of Swarovski crystals accented
the elaborate centerpieces of out-of-season flowers and must have
cost a fortune, but Maia didn’t have the heart to say no to
Frances. Their eight-tier wedding cake—hand painted in a stained
glass design—was an architectural work of art; she told Gillian it
would be a shame to cut it, to which her wedding planner simply
shrugged. The menu was an eight-course French cuisine extravaganza
supervised by a well-known chef. Their parting favors were French
macarons flown in direct from Paris and matched their wedding
colors of teal, ivory, and antique gold.

Yes, it would indeed be a shame for her and
Jack to disappear too early.

A few hours later...

“
Where did she go?” Jack asked
Derek, returning to the ballroom after getting pulled away by a
couple of his ex-Navy SEAL buddies. They were giving him a hard
time about being such a lucky bastard to have landed a woman like
Maia. His chest puffed with pride even as he felt a surge of
overwhelming possessiveness.

“
I think she’s with her AGS buds,”
his friend replied, picking up a fresh drink from the
bar.

Jack’s eyes continued searching the crowd
until he finally spotted Nathan Stark who had his fiancée, Lucy
Cortez, perched on his lap. Viktor and Edmunds were also at the
table looking extremely bored. But where was Maia?

“
Three o’ clock,” Derek murmured,
taking a sip of his scotch. Jack’s eyes swung to the right and saw
Maia stumble in from the open balcony doors with Connelly and
Manning. She was laughing and holding a flute of
champagne.

“
What the fuck?” Jack muttered as
he made a move to walk over.

“
Jack,” Derek cautioned. “It’s
your wedding night. Do not overreact.”

Jack paused. His friend was right. Maia
belonged to him now. He had a ring and piece of paper to prove it.
He fingered his wedding band, and he suddenly felt better. He was
smiling broadly by the time he reached his beautiful
bride.

“
Hey, handsome,” Maia called out
as she fell into him and giggled. His beautiful, drunk bride. His
cock twitched at the thought of drunk sex.

“
Sweetheart,” Jack whispered in
her ear. “Gillian gave me the OK to disappear. Are you with
me?”

Maia’s eyes widened before her gaze dropped to
his crotch, and she bit her lower lip. Fuck. He was
semi-erect.

*****

“
I want to
fuck you in nothing but your heels,” Jack said thickly as he
carefully undressed his wife. His wife. He wouldn’t get tired of
saying those words. Jack was frustrated with the fastenings of her
gown, and he couldn’t figure out how to take it off. Maia wouldn’t
let him tear it off either, so he patiently worked the front hooks
of the lace overcoat.

“
Stop growling, Jack” Maia said
with a slight slur to her words. “You’re getting there.” She
giggled. Finally, he peeled the first layer off her body. He pushed
her against the wall and caught her lips in an urgent kiss as his
hands worked on the zipper on the back. The thing was stuck. He
jerked it down and heard a rip. Oops.