Revenge for Hire (The Get Even Agency) (7 page)

Every time she closed her eyelids she saw him. Heard his voice.
Felt his fingertip on her lips. Ached to experience more. Which was so stupid. She
should want his balls served for breakfast at Tiffany’s to some stuck-up snob
who would chew them to small bits.

She knew he was a heartbreak waiting to happen. Just look at
Mandy Sims and Sara Brown.

“Angel, there you are. Sorry I got held up and am late.” In the
blink of an eye, the devil himself slid his arm around her, gave her dance
partner the heave-ho, and pulled her to him. “Been missing me?”

Had her thoughts conjured Jude?

She glanced from him to the guy whose name she couldn’t recall.
He stared back and forth, trying to decipher whether or not to let Jude get
away with cutting in. She refused to play into Jude’s hands. He already had too
many women doing that.

She went to pull away, but his eyes met hers and were dark and
dangerous.

Danger looked gorgeous on Jude Layman.

“No,” he said, before lowering his head. His gaze remained
locked with hers as his lips brushed across her mouth. Warm, moist, full of
heat. Soft, yet forceful.

He surprised her, caught her unprepared. She’d never seen the
danger in his eyes. Otherwise, she’d have pushed him away, told him to go to
hell. At least, that’s what she told herself. Instead, her arms slipped around
his neck. Mainly to hold on so she wouldn’t drop to the floor because her knees
had gone weak.

Wow, she thought. Jude was kissing her. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Every other thought went out of her head. Just wow.

Jude’s body--his hard body--pressed against hers. He still wore
the black jeans and button down he’d had on at work. He held her so tight his
silver belt buckle cut into her, but she didn’t care.

She’d known the shirt material would be as soft as goose down. She
ran her fingers over his shoulders, through the hair at his nape. Never had she
felt anything so silky. She’d thought it would be stiff from styling products. She’d
thought wrong. She longed to tangle her fingers in the locks so fully that
she’d be trapped forever, unable to logic her way out of his arms. A reason to
not pull away from the intoxicating strength of his masculinity.

“I’ve never wanted a woman the way I want you,” he growled into
her ear. His breath caressing her skin, causing shivers to prickle her flesh.

Avery nodded. She wanted him too. There was no use denying it. No
matter how much of a cad he was, no matter how much logic said she was too
smart to fall for a man like Jude or his lines about never wanting a woman more,
he turned her on. Perhaps the very qualities that made him a cad pushed her
buttons.

Whatever, the flutters in her belly defied logic.

“Come with me,” he demanded, staring into her eyes with sinful
blue ones.

Avery hadn’t heard correctly. Come? Here? On the dance floor? Was
he kidding?

His hand cupped her bottom, grinding her against his hardness,
then brushed up her back. With his other hand he twined their fingers.

“Come with me, Angel.” He tugged her off the dance floor and
toward the back of the bar where a faded wooden sign advertised the restrooms.

The moment they stepped into the poorly lit hallway leading
toward the bathrooms, Jude pushed her against a far wall and ground against her.
Hard.

Avery moaned, wrapped her arms around his neck and jerked his
mouth to hers with a hunger that couldn’t be denied. He consumed her and she
wanted to be consumed. Completely engulfed by Jude.

Her hands were everywhere. Over his shoulders. His arms. His
bottom which she took great pleasure in squeezing. He really did have a tight
butt that might as well have a sign on it that said “Squeeze me.”

Jude’s hands busied themselves exploring her body too. He hooked
his thumbs into her front belt loops to hike her jeans up into her crotch. The
denim rubbed against where she throbbed, making her want him to rub her there. His
hands were busy elsewhere. Gliding beneath her t-shirt, beneath her bra. He
cupped her breasts, pinched her nipples, made her feel as if they were going to
shatter they ached so.

Then he breathed hot fire into the curve of her neck. Moist
fire. The kind that burned way beneath the skin’s surface and singed her
nerve-endings. The kind that blinded and left her writhing against the thigh
that slipped between her legs. The kind that made her whimper when he pushed her
shirt out of his way to caress a straining nipple which he proceeded to set on
fire as well.

“Oh,” she moaned, throwing her head back against the wall and
wiggling against his thigh, needing more friction against her, wanting her
breast fully in his mouth. “Jude, please. Oh please.”

As if he knew what she begged for, he positioned her shirt to
where the globe of her breast peeked through the slit
vee
and his mouth closed around her.

“Oh. My.” She dug her fingers into his hair, dug her groin into
his thigh, dug the back of her head into the wall as she arched to get closer
and closer.

“You want me inside you, don’t you?” he asked. “Right here? Right
now?”

“Yes,” she admitted, not caring that he might think her easy or
that there were a hundred reasons why she should never admit the truth to this
man. A hundred reasons why she shouldn’t want sex with Jude.

He scooted her bottom to where she rested in the crick of where
his hip met his thigh and then he rocked against her, making the most fabulous
sensations shimmy through her entire body. Sensations that started at the throb
between her legs and radiated out in pulsating waves.

“Jude.”

“What Angel?” he whispered against her breast, tweaking her
nipple between his teeth, his hips rocking, rubbing.

Lights burst into colorful dots before Avery’s eyes and then
her mind went fuzzy. Warm and fuzzy and into total meltdown. Her body shattered
into a million pieces and yet amazingly stayed in one cohesive being. Wow. Oh
wow. Oh wow
wow
wow
.

“Jude Layman, is that you?” a female asked in a very New York
accent, her question having the effect of a bucket of ice water dumped over
Avery. Jude, too.

He straightened, his body blocking Avery from whoever the female
was and giving her time to adjust her shirt and bra. He stared down at her with
heavy-lidded eyes that she couldn’t read in the dim light. She didn’t need
light to know what he thought.

He wanted her. He knew she wanted him. He expected it, accepted
her want as a given and was quite smug in the knowledge that he’d just made her
come in the back hallway of a downtown public bar.

They’d gotten caught. Had that been his intention all along? To
give her the thrill of knowing someone could walk into the back hallway any
moment? That someone would eventually catch them and bring whatever they
started to a halt?

Randi, Courtney, or Cassidy could have caught them.

What would she have said? That this was part of her making him
fall for her plan?

She lifted her chin. That was what this was, so, of course,
that’s what she would have said. Right? So why did she feel so off kilter?

Jude gave Avery a wry grin, then turned to face the interrupter.
“As usual, you’re timing sucks, Joy.”

“I knew that was you. No surprise that you’re back here making
out with some babe.” The woman peeped around Jude to wave at Avery. “Hi, this
week’s babe.”

That summed it up. This week’s babe.

That’s really all she was.

No, she wasn’t even that. She was an agent here on assignment
to tear Jude’s world apart. Instead, he’d just rocked the foundation of her
world.

“Excuse me,” she said and pushed past him. If she’d been smart,
she’d have headed toward the ladies room. But thinking left the building
somewhere around the time Jude kissed her.

It took a few seconds to spot Randi and Cassidy on the dance
floor, each with hunky guys. Courtney was at a booth talking to some guy. Avery
strained her eyes. Not some guy. The guy who’d picked Jude up to carry him to
the doctor’s office yesterday. His best friend Marcus.

Great.

She headed to the table, determined to grab Courtney and for
them to get out of Dodge.

“Let’s go,” she said the moment she stepped up to the booth.

Courtney’s eyes widened. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing. Let’s go.”

“No can do. I’m talking with Marcus and he’s telling me ways we
can decrease liability for the temp service.”

Avery wanted to whine her friend’s name, but didn’t know what
name Courtney had given to Marcus so she couldn’t. The temp service didn’t need
decreased liability. Although the business turned a nice profit, it was mainly
just a cover for TGEA. A way to get inside places where they needed an in. Besides,
she hadn’t used their temp agency’s name when securing this job. She never did.
When she walked away from Jude there would be no way for him to trace her.

She would walk. Like she wanted to walk right at this moment.

Instead she sat down next to Courtney and pouted. At least she
figured she was pouting because her arms were crossed and her lower lip felt
heavy.

Of course that might be because her nipples still stung with
awareness and her mouth was kiss-swollen and,
ohmigosh
,
she’d
orgasmed
in a bar hallway.

Nah, pouting worked for her.

Courtney and Marcus talked. Avery sat ignored except for the
curious looks they kept giving her. Fine, let them look. They couldn’t see her high
beams. Not with her arms crossed over them.

Jude stood next to the table. Avery refused to look. Unfortunately
his standing at the end of the table put that silver buckle of his right into her
peripheral vision and that made her think of what that buckle covered.

She swallowed and hugged her arms tighter over her breasts,
afraid at any minute her nipples were going to pop and announce she was horny.

“We need to talk.”

She pretended not to hear him.

“Angel,” he started, but then the woman who’d interrupted them
stepped up. What had he called her? Joy? Was she one of his girlfriends? She
didn’t look his usual fare, but what did Avery know? Three months ago she’d
never heard of Jude Layman.

“My, my, my, isn’t this just a cozy picture?”

Avery might have been focused on her own issues, but she’d have
had to be deaf, blind, and mute not to notice the pale man sitting across from
her.

“Joy,” Marcus said.

“Joy?” Apparently the name rang a bell with Courtney because
she looked at the woman disapprovingly. “This is your ex-wife?”

Marcus nodded, dumbfounded.

Avery’s forehead knotted. How had he just gone from a brilliant
conversationalist with Courtney to a tongue-tied, moon-eyed cow at the
appearance of his ex?

“I thought you said she was pretty?” Courtney asked, getting a
slam in on the woman. Courtney was great at getting in digs. Apparently
something Marcus said made Courtney protective of him. Which was pretty rare
indeed, because in general, TGEA sided with the woman.

Courtney glared, her hackles definitely up, which could only
spell trouble for Joy.

“Who’s she?” the
ex asked
.

“The woman keeping your old spot in bed warm,” Courtney smugly
announced, making everyone at the table glance at her. “Not that it was ever
warm to begin with, not from a cold fish like you. Let’s just say the sheets
have scorch marks on them these days so you don’t have to worry about Marcus
getting chilly at night.”

“I thought you said you were waiting for me?” The woman’s hands
went on her bony hips. “That you knew this was just a phase I was going through
and that you’d be there for me when I wanted to come back?” she mimicked words
Marcus must have told her at some point.

“I am,” Marcus said, looking back and forth between Courtney,
who openly bristled, to Joy, who looked pissed.

The woman snorted. “Sure looks it.”

Randi chose that moment to walk up, probably to see what all
the commotion was about. Always one to take charge of a situation and make it
go from explosive to
kaboom
, she sidled up to where
Marcus sat, grabbed hold of his shirt collar and tugged him to his feet before
he could sound a single protest.

“Dance with me,
loverboy
,” she stage
whispered, then jerked him to her and planted a wet one on his lips. Avery gave
her friend credit, Randi made the kiss look good.

She also reminded that Avery had been swapping spit with Jude
not five minutes before. What had she been thinking?

“Patrice,” Marcus sputtered, pulling back from her. “What are
you doing?”

Randi smiled, cat-like. “Ah, honey. I know that’s not where you
like my mouth, but you’ll have to wait until later for that.”

Every non-TGEA mouth fell open, Joy Long’s included.