I Spy a Wicked Sin (8 page)

Again, the burden of why she was really here weighed more heavily than any assignment to date.

In truth? She had nothing and no one to call her own.

You need information, however you have to obtain it,
she reminded herself sternly.
No matter how sweet he is, this man is not your friend. He’d hate you if he knew who and what you are.

“Thanks. That’s awfully nice of you to say.”

“Call it like I see it,” he said, shrugging. Sitting up, he flashed a sunny smile. “Want me to help you with the sunscreen? You’re turning pink.”

“Go for it, sweetie,” she said, flipping onto her stomach.

She felt his weight settle on the lounger, one knee between her legs, the other foot braced on the ground. Leaning over, he squirted the cool lotion on her back and began to work it in, his touch light and efficient. His palms smoothed over the crease in her spine, her sides. Under the string of her top, to her shoulders, rubbing with more pressure.

“Wow, you’ve got some serious knots,” he said in concern. “Want me to work them out for you?”

“That’s okay—oh,” she moaned in bliss. He ignored her weak protest and began to massage the tense muscles, thumbs kneading the sore knots she hadn’t realized were there.

“There you go. Just relax and let me make it better. Are you under a lot of stress?”

“Just the usual. Moving, taking a new position, learning the ropes.”

“You’ll have it down in no time; don’t worry.”

“Mmm. Your hands are heaven. Do you treat Jude to this magical brand of stress relief?”

“Are you kidding? Every chance I get. Besides, the knots in his muscles are always bad. Painting for hours without a break wears him down.”

Through the pleasant haze, Lily became aware of Liam’s erection. It rode the back of her thigh, high and hard, his heat branding her through his trunks.

“Um, Liam? Is the pistol in your shorts for me, or
him
?” Laughing, he pressed against her back, his breath tickling her ear. “I’m sprawled across the hottest woman I’ve ever met. She’s practically naked and I haven’t had sex in days. Answer your question?”

In spite of how great he felt against her, she couldn’t resist teasing. “So I’m convenient?”

“You’re not convenient—you’re smart and attractive.” He kissed the shell of her ear, nibbled a tender spot on her neck. “We’re young, we’re consenting adults, and I’m dying to know if you taste as sweet as you smell.”

She wiggled onto her back and cupped his face, brushed a lock of black hair from his eyes. “We can’t have you expiring on top of me, can we?”

God, his weight felt so good, his scent clean and male. The encounter with Jude at lunch had merely whetted her appetite, left her aching for a man’s thick cock filling her.

Lily pulled his head down and he took her mouth, delving his tongue inside for a thorough exploration. He moaned, grinding his length into her mound, creating wonderful friction as they sampled each other. His kiss was so different from Jude’s—slow and passionate, where Jude’s was like a tornado tearing at her well-constructed walls, shaking her foundations.

Liam kissed like a lover skilled in gentle seduction, the sort that sneaks up on his partner by degrees until he or she is consumed without quite recalling how it happened.

Two different men, each devastating in his own way.

Pulling back, he kissed a path down her throat, moved lower, and grazed her nipples with his teeth through the fabric of her swimsuit top. Tiny little shocks curled her toes in pleasure and she wanted more.

Arching, she untied the string at the nape of her neck. Taking his cue from her, Liam untied the one at her back and pulled the top away, dropping it to the ground.

“Pretty,” he said reverently, dipping his head.

He flicked one rosy tip, coaxing it to attention with his clever tongue. Then he suckled, laving it, every rasp sending sparks of delight to her nerve endings. She loved how his hair fell around his face, brushed against her ribs. How his long, graceful fingers caressed her skin as though she was priceless.

Shifting, he heaped equal attention to the other breast, scraping and teasing until she writhed under him, eager. “Less clothes, more skin,” she said, voice quavering.

Releasing the nub with a pop, he gave her a grin. “Gladly.” He pushed up to stand next to the lounger and she watched hungrily as he shoved the trunks past his hips and off.

His long cock jutted from a light nest of ebony curls and curved toward his stomach, perfectly proportioned to his body. The mushroom-shaped head leaked pre-cum, the entire length flushed dark with arousal. A yummy, blue-veined treat she couldn’t wait to devour.

Liam started to join her on the lounger again, but she sat up and grabbed his hips. “Stay where you are and spread your legs. I want some of this.”

“Take all you need, baby.”

Widening his stance, he waited for her to make her move. She wasted no time, gripping the base of his erection and licking the salty tip. His balls hung heavy below the shaft and she reached out, manipulated the velvety orbs as she swallowed him down her throat.

“Christ,” he hissed, thrusting forward in reflex. His hands fisted in her hair, guiding her deep.

She loved sucking cock. Always had, ever since she’d discovered the joys of reducing a boy to a puddle of mush. The thrill of power. As she’d grown older, she’d learned a man would do anything, promise the moon, for the decadence of a woman’s lips caressing his cock.

Liam didn’t promise anything, however. Probably because he couldn’t speak.

His dark head was thrown back, eyes closed, lips parted. He looked like a man who’d found heaven by slamming into the pearly gates. Headfirst.

Lily indulged them both, drawing him so deep the hair at his groin tickled her nose, slurping him in slow, noisy rhythm. She pulled out until only the head remained in her mouth, then in again. Out and in, feasting on his rod and glancing up occasionally to watch the bliss grow on his sexy face.

“Lily, stop.” He pulled back. “Jesus, stop or I’m going to lose it any second.”

She withdrew with a slow lick and slanted a look at him. “Thought that was the whole point.”

“Not like this.” He reached for his trunks, fished in one pocket, and yanked out a foil packet. In short order, he tore it open and covered himself. His jaw clenched as he fisted himself, eyes blazing with fire. “I want you to ride me.”

His words sounded like an order, albeit a quiet one, and cleared up a question in her mind. Although sweet- natured, Liam was no pushover when it came to sex. He’d give as good as he got, and he’d allow her only so much power over him before he reined her in. An attractive quality in a lover, and a huge turn-on for her.

She stood and shimmied out of her bikini bottoms while Liam took her place in the lounger. He sprawled on his back, feet flat on the concrete on either side of the chair, lips curved into a fetching smile.

“Come up here before my balls turn blue.”

“Poor man.”

She crawled on top of him, straddling his hips, and positioned the blunt head against her opening. He hadn’t even played with her pussy, yet she was wet with arousal, burning to have him inside. Slowly, she sank onto his cock, moaning as he stretched and filled her. Lower, until his balls were nestled against her ass and they were connected as intimately as two people could be.

“Oh, yes,” he muttered, thrusting upward. His fingers dug into her thighs. “God, fuck me, baby.”

Hands splayed on his taut stomach, she began to move, up to the tip, then down again. Drawing every sensation out like pulling a wire tight, heightening the pleasure. Over and over she impaled herself on him, drinking in the ecstasy on his beautiful face, her own desire building. Spiraling from her womb outward, making her shake.

“Faster. Fuck me harder.” He began to pump forcefully to her downstrokes, leading them in perfect rhythm.

“Yes! Give me your cock. . . . Give it to me hard!”

She bounced on his lap in wild abandon, Liam slamming into her, driving them closer, higher. . . .

Her orgasm exploded into a million shards of brilliant light. “Oh, God! Yes!”

As she rode the waves, he thrust once, twice, and stiffened with a shout. He jerked inside her for several moments, whispering things like “baby” and “fuck, yeah,” until he lay still, the only movement his chest, his breath sawing in and out of his lungs.

“Holy shit, you drained me. I don’t think I’ll be able to come again until sometime next week.” His eyes fluttered open and he peered at her from under those killer lashes. “Was I too rough?”

Sprawling on his chest, she brushed his lips with a brief kiss. “You were awesome.”

“Good enough to warrant a repeat performance?” Suddenly he seemed unsure, and she found his hesitance touching. “I’d say the chances are better than good.”

The furrow between his brows disappeared and he smiled. “I really like you, Lily. I don’t play with a person if I don’t feel a connection. I thought you should know that.”

A lump formed in her throat. “I really like you, too.” That made having to deceive this man even more difficult.

“Is something wrong?”

“Not at all. I was just wondering if you’d take a swim with me.”

“It’s a plan. Let’s go!”

She climbed off him and he discarded the condom, hiding it on his chair under the edge of his towel to toss out later. Grabbing her hand, he tugged her toward the pool.

“No suits?” she asked.

“Who needs them? We have total privacy and even if someone dropped by . . . well, our crowd isn’t exactly on the prude side.”

“Good point.”

He took off at a dead run for the deep end, not letting go of her hand. She squealed as they jumped together, hitting the water in a noisy cannonball, and thought,
I could get used to this.

Not good at all.

 

 

Jude froze half in and half out of the patio door, the sounds of fucking, the cries of pleasure, ringing in his ears long after they faded. His heart clenched, a wave of loneliness sweeping over him despite his efforts to stave it off.

But not because his closest friend and his sexy new PA were doing what came naturally. No, his views on sex were liberal and would never change. What got to him, for some strange reason, was the joyful noise of the couple splashing and shouting in the pool.

Ridiculous to let that, of all things, bother him. Especially when he knew without a single doubt they’d welcome him with the same enthusiasm should he join them.

He had no clue. He should strip off his clothing and head out there, have some fun.

But the longer he remained in place, unnoticed, the more like an outsider he felt. Confused by the turmoil inside him, he retreated and carefully made his way back in the direction from which he’d come.

At least he had tonight to look forward to.

Even if the prospect of his liaison with Tamara no longer seemed quite as exciting as before.

L
ily stepped out of the shower and toweled off her hair, humming. The afternoon delight with a certain hot chef had done wonders for her mood. It had been liberating to ditch her cold, calculating alter ego, if only for a while.

Maybe she didn’t have to be “on” every single second. What would it hurt to loosen up some, see things from a different perspective? What if Jude wasn’t—

The soft tune vibrating her cell phone dispersed the thought before it could form, and she crossed to the dresser and flipped it open. She didn’t need three guesses as to who would be on the other end.

“You don’t waste much time,” she said by way of greeting SHADO’s interim boss.

“We don’t have any to piss away, Agent Vale,” Dietz answered with deceptive calm. “Stay focused and locate those remaining two missing files before they wind up in the wrong hands. The last thing we need is the press getting a whiff of one of our best men going bad, stealing a weapon of mass destruction, and selling it to our enemy. SHADO will be roasted in the news and the government will go up our asses and around the corner.”

She frowned and sat on the edge of the bed. “I still don’t understand why St. Laurent would send out six worms containing damaging evidence of his own guilt. I mean, he had to know we’d eventually be able to trace the route back to him as the source.”

“He
did
know,” Dietz reminded her. “He’d already completed his dirty deal and the weapon is gone. Terrorists love to grand-stand, Vale, and publicity is as great a weapon as the weapon itself. The majority of them don’t care about capture, death, or anything but their cause. They don’t do it for the money. Tell me I’m wrong.”

She couldn’t. St. Laurent certainly didn’t need the extra millions in the bank. But something kept nagging her. “Then what is the root of his motivation? What would turn a man so completely against his country?”

“Lily,” he sighed, dropping the formalities. His voice became sad, as though the world rested on his shoulders. “When your upbringing is as pathetic and hardscrabble as St. Laurent’s, it can damage a man. Sometimes to the point of no return. I can only imagine that his resentment simmered and grew year by year as he clawed his way to the top, obsessed with someday being in the position to do exactly what he did.”

“Stick it to everyone who failed him, in the most spectacular way,” she said, drawing the conclusion. “I know he refused to cooperate, even under torture, so why did you bother with the mind sweep instead of just putting him down?”

This was the longest conversation they’d ever had, and she took the opportunity to continue asking him the questions that had been bothering her. Usually, he simply relayed the information and barked the next orders. Today, he seemed uncharacteristically patient, as though making a concentrated effort to be more like Michael.