Night Moves: A Shadow Force Novel (16 page)

“You’re doing all this on purpose, to keep me confused.”

“And you’re still holding something back. I’ll know what it is by the time this is all over.”

She was hot and cold at the same time. Wanting his touch. And still so very angry. “Go away.”

“Not a chance.” He paused. “You were the one who asked me for help originally. Fucked up my op. My life. You don’t get the luxury of backing out now.”

With that, he pressed her to him again and he kissed her, his mouth punishing on hers, just the way she wanted it. Her body trembled, more from anticipation, but she couldn’t deny that there was some fear there too.

She was vulnerable in so many ways. Kell had already taken her out of her comfort zone—and promised to do more of the same.

His kisses grew more insistent, and she opened for him, resistance both futile and waning fast. Her hands, which had shot forward against his chest when he’d leaned in, were trapped between them and she was helpless … and it was how she wanted it.

The responsibility of all of this was too much.

She was warm now, all over, her blood boiling as his tongue played against her, finishing the kiss that had gotten interrupted earlier. Her robe had fallen open, slipped off her shoulders, and her T-shirt had ridden up. One of his hands slid along her bare thigh
as the other splayed along her lower back to keep her pressed close to him.

She tried to close her legs, didn’t want Kell to know how wet she was for him, but his hand was insistent …

He pulled back as she kept her thighs closed. “You wet for me, baby? I can tell even if you don’t let me touch. But you’re going to let me, right?”

His head dropped and his mouth suckled a cotton-covered nipple—hard enough for her to loosen her body and grab at his head, and then she no longer cared if he knew the truth.

When his fingers found her core, she froze for an instant, and then couldn’t help but move as he circled her clit with his thumb, another finger sliding inside of her, his hand twisting and turning in order to give her the most pleasure.

He was taking none for himself.

“You were teasing me in the pool, weren’t you?”

“No,” she said, but she realized she was lying. Knowing he’d been watching her had been a heady experience and she hadn’t exactly reacted by being shy and covering up. She’d continued to swim, feeling his eyes on her. She’d even thought about letting her hand stray between her legs while doing so, letting the water cover the indiscretion.

And if she’d touched herself, she would’ve been thinking about Kell and no one else.

This was an interrogation of sorts, without the handcuffs or the harsh words. He was forcing her to open to him, to give him everything of her, and she was complying with his wishes.

“I knew you were watching me … yes,” she managed,
punctuated by a low moan of pleasure as his tongue laved a nipple and then he sucked hard, the zing going straight to her womb.

“Feel good?” he asked, surely knowing it did. He only had to feel the wet on his hands to know his skill had made her slick and ready.

He pushed her back on the bed gently so she was fully exposed to him, and he dragged the T-shirt up with his teeth to bare her breasts.

Her hips moved as if she had no control over her own body—her nipples tightened almost painfully under his tongue, and then it all gave way to pleasure as her climax came long before she wanted it to be over.

But as she crested along the contractions of her orgasm, she realized he wasn’t stopping. If anything, Kell seemed more intent than ever. He was moving down, his face between her legs, and she tried to sit up.

This act was so intimate that she’d never allowed it. She’d never had a long-term or even short-term boyfriend, and while she’d enjoyed sex, this seemed to be something to save for the right person.

Kell obviously believed he was that person—his lips met hers and she felt as if she could come again, right then and there. He spread her, took her with his mouth, and a need so raw and fierce overtook her that she surrendered to him completely. Trusted him with her body, with this act of sex—and she’d been so right about him. This man was dangerous as hell. And she knew that danger would fast become addicting.

She let the intense sensations of his tongue on her
sex wash over her. His hands reached up to tweak her nipples and she found herself clutching at his arms as her body writhed against him.

She should be embarrassed by this, by the fact that she was being put on such display. But she’d teased him and she’d wanted this—it had been building from the moment she’d pulled the gun on him.

Her orgasm gripped her, shuddering through her like a storm out of control and she was pretty sure she called out, but had no idea what she’d said. She was lost in the hot throb, where her pulse seemed to be inside her sex, and Kell was still there, laving and sucking, albeit with less pressure. Everything became highly sensitized and her thighs had small tremors she couldn’t control.

When he finally pulled back, there was a predator’s gleam in his eye. He looked so damned … satisfied. So very in charge, and she wanted to slap him and kiss him at the same time.

He stood and she pulled her shirt down to cover herself, because his hot gaze still licked her like fire and she was afraid she would beg him for more if she opened her mouth.

So she didn’t.

“We’re not through, Teddie. Not by a long shot,” he told her, his voice raw. He left the light on when he walked out, not closing the door behind him.

She wondered why he hadn’t tried anything further. He’d obviously been aroused, as any man in that position would be, she supposed, and the thought that he hadn’t wanted her enough twisted her gut.

A day ago, she’d wanted nothing to do with this
man and now she was wondering why he didn’t want her.

She was far more messed up than she’d thought. Maybe the isolation over the past year had done a number on her. But tonight, with Kell and her orgasms, she’d felt freer than she had when she was traveling the world, doing her photography.

K
ell left the room, dick hard, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand—and he saw Reid waiting at the top of the stairs.

His friend was pissed off, and all of this was too long in coming.

He was angry that Reid had pulled him back to the team. Angry that Teddie was pulling at him too.

Mostly, he was angry with himself. “I told you I was better off alone.”

“Then you should’ve stayed gone,” Reid said bitterly.

“You called. You asked. You knew I wouldn’t refuse you.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’ll take that blame, Kell. I was trying to pull you back from that goddamned cliff you were hovering over for too damned long.”

“The mission.”

“It started before the mission,” he said, a sharp edge to his tone that stopped Kell cold. “You were becoming a machine.”

“I liked it that way.” And he had. It was much easier to retreat inside that familiar shell of coldness than to feel. And he’d started to feel way too much—it ate at him, came up hard at odd times, made him unable
to sleep or eat, and maybe his parents had the right idea.

Life was a hell of a lot easier when you didn’t give a shit about anyone but yourself.

“Good for you. Then you should go,” Reid said furiously. “I’ll finish up here and you go do whatever it is you need to.”

The pain in his friend’s eyes … Reid was hurting as much as he was and Kell was helpless to stop it. Everything he did made it worse. “I won’t abandon you in the middle of a mission.”

“You were never here to begin with.”

“Reid—”

“Go. It wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order.”

“I don’t take those from you,” Kell told him.

“I said, go. Right now. Walk away, like you want to. I’m not helping you with this woman if you’re head’s not in it. I’ll deal with her.”

That made Kell snap to. He’d been fighting himself for so long it was almost a relief to transfer his anger onto someone else, no matter how misplaced.

They’d fought like this only once before. When they were seventeen and Kell had attempted to leave the foster home for good without Reid.

Now he rammed into Reid, his head down like a charging bull, pushing his friend against the wall in the hallway. Reid didn’t let Kell keep the upper hand for long, used the momentum to propel himself at Kell. They both went tumbling to the ground, arms swinging, fists pounding. There were grunts and curses, months of pent-up anger and frustration behind every hit.

At some point, they rolled into a bedroom. Reid
brought a small table down on Kell and Kell in turn used the leg to hold Reid in place by the neck. Reid drove his leg up into Kell’s kidney, and he howled in pain, hit the wall where Reid practically threw him.

“Son of a bitch,” he cursed, and Reid went at him.

“That’s you, not me.” Reid landed a blow and Kell attempted to stand. Reid pulled him back down again and rolled with him until Kell was under him, pinned.

“Please stop.”

Teddie’s voice barely registered at first, not when his hand was locked across Reid’s throat. Reid had him in a similar hold and their free hands were alternately blocking and punching. Reid was still on top of him, but Kell brought up a sharp elbow directly to Reid’s side.

It was Reid’s turn to go down in an angry howl of pain. Kell shifted to grab him again but Teddie moved between them, shoving herself in the small space that separated the men.

It was a stupid move, and a brave one.

“Stop it—you’re killing each other,” she said, a hand on both men as if she could keep them apart like that. Reid was looking up at her, his face bloodied, his eyes still glittering with a fierce anger.

“Move,” he told her. “Or I will move you.”

“Try it,” she snapped back, pushed at him a little. And he did, went to pick her up by the hips and physically move her out of the way, but Kell stopped him by holding up his hands as if surrendering.

Reid dropped Teddie and stumbled out of the room, muttering. Kell turned away from Teddie and made it to the bed before collapsing.

He knew she’d be there when he opened his eyes,
and so he did, sooner rather than later, surveyed the damage to the wall, the table. Felt it on his face and body and fists.

“Christ,” he mumbled, wondered if Reid would accept his apology now and then realized he wasn’t ready to give it yet.

Fucker. And he was right about everything. Always had been, and that was the most unnerving thing about the man.

“Want to tell me what that’s about?” Teddie asked.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“I understand anger all too well,” she said. Left him for a second and came back with a wet washcloth, proceeded to wipe his face where he’d been cut and bruised.

Reid was a hard opponent, as fierce as he was. If they’d wanted to, they could’ve done some real damage to each other. “We haven’t fought like that since we were kids.”

“How long have you known him?”

“Since we were sixteen.” He shifted, winced. He’d still been sore from the fight in the alley. Reid’s beating on top of it just served to remind him that he was being an asshole. Pulling away from the very men who always had his back.

For good reason. You’re responsible for fucking them up
. “Reid’s still pissed at me for leaving,” Kell explained. “It’s a long story—a lot of shit I can’t tell you. And some I just won’t.”

Would it be that way between them forever? And why was he thinking forever with Teddie when he’d long ago trained himself to think only about today—
that minute, that house, only thinking ahead so far as a mission required him to.

But he couldn’t stop seeing Teddie there, with him. “I assassinated men from DMH—a terrorist organization. I hunted them down one by one. I felt like no one could stop me, and no one did. Instead, they got four men from my team. And they tortured them. Killed one of them. The three that survived will never be the same. And Reid’s one of those three.”

The kindness in Teddie’s eyes nearly killed him, but he didn’t turn away, not even when she said, “But they don’t blame you.”

“Reid’s angry. I left him when he needed me to just be there, the way I’ve always been. But seeing him … seeing all of them like that …” He shook his head. “I took off without waiting for orders from my CO.”

He’d spent a month or two turning every rock, rattling every cage, the panic growing to a point where there was only one way to stuff it down. He let the cold, calculating part of him seep back in—just a little, he told himself—and it had worked. He focused. Killed anyone who’d gotten in his way. “It wasn’t good enough. If I’d been faster, more careful …”

“You found them.”

“One of them died because I wasn’t quick enough.”

“The God complex is not a good look for you.” The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them and she was sure they would turn Kell angry and cold. Instead, he looked at her, an animal awakened, savage—and yes, she could see the pain there. Wanted to smooth it away with a word, a touch, a kiss … all the while knowing it could never be that easy.

Or could it?

She leaned in and touched her lips to his. He responded instantly—hungrily—reached for her. Pulled her close as blood coursed hot through her, a rush like a sudden fever, a clawing, all-consuming need. It didn’t seem to matter to him that, minutes earlier, he’d been fighting.

It was as if that had brought his blood to boil, but she didn’t care what did it. She felt as if a wall had been broken, as if she suddenly understood him.

She wanted to know everything about him and she wasn’t sure how or why it happened, but it was too late to stop it.

“You want to fix me, don’t you?” he whispered against her neck, and she nodded.

“You want to fix me too,” she whispered, and he snorted a little, kissed his way up her neck as his hands wound around her waist. And then he just stopped, like he knew she had more to say. “I’ve turned into someone I don’t recognize. I hurt, all the time, and when I’m not thinking about the people I’ve lost, I’m thinking about revenge.” She paused. “I guess you understand.”