Seduced by the Storm (16 page)

Nevertheless,
he was as close as he could get, and she could keep him in this mildly orgasmic
state for several moments. She’d discovered that going too long would
eventually lead to a full release, but until then, he would be at her mercy,
his body coming but his cock and balls not quite there.

After
a slow count to ten, she released her electric charge and took him fully into
her mouth.

"Annika…"

She
smiled around his cock. This was her favorite part, right before climax, when
he moaned her name, grasped her head and started pumping because he couldn’t
control himself anymore.

Deep-throating
him, she grabbed his hips and let him go. His piercing tickled the back of her
tongue on every stroke. She applied strong suction and used her tongue to lash
at the underside of his shaft. The wet sound of him fucking her mouth had her
squeezing her thighs together to ease her own arousal, and yeah, she’d have to
either masturbate or make Creed do it for her after this.

With
an explosion of breath, he went taut and released, and she swallowed everything
he had. She loved the way he tasted, loved the sounds he made, loved him…even
though she hadn’t said it out loud. Neither had he, and it irked the shit out
of her.

"Damn,
Ani," he panted, as she licked him clean and then tucked him into his
pants. "Where did you learn that?"

"Adam."

"What?"
Creed had dropped his hands to her shoulders, and
they tightened into claws.

"Adam
Yates. You know him. The Seducer? Ow. Your fingers—"

She
found herself hauled to her feet so fast she barely had time to plant them on
the floor. Creed’s nearly black eyes burned like coal, were practically
smoking. Right…he hadn’t really wanted an answer to where she’d learned how to
blow a guy. Rhetorical question and all that. God, she was always making stupid
missteps when it came to personal relationships. Probably because before Creed
she’d never had one.

"When?"
His voice matched his expression, filled with rage and raw possession. It was
kinda hot, and a little scary.

"I
had sessions with him a long time ago. I needed to learn to seduce guys for
assignments. He taught me to kiss and touch a guy and give blow jobs and do
that thing with my tongue and your—"

"Stop.
Jesus Christ,
stop.
"

"You
asked," she muttered, and stepped back, out of his grip, which had been
digging into the tendons between her neck and shoulder. "It was a job,
Creed. He was teaching me and I was learning. Most of it happened in a damned
classroom."

"Trust
me, for him it was no job."

She
rolled her eyes. "What’s your deal? I have a past. You have a past. I
don’t flip out when we run into all the skanks you’ve screwed and they look at
you like you’re a steak and they’re a lion. And there are a
lot
of
them."

No,
she always let him handle it when they smiled and drooled, or when they
approached him the second Annika turned her back. Of course, she hunted them
down later and made it clear that if they so much as looked at him again, she’d
pull a Viking and rip their lungs out of their chests, flip them over their
shoulders and turn them into wings. Usually, the skanks needed a change of
underwear after that.

She
didn’t blame Creed for the ungodly number of women he’d slept with, though…Kat
had never let him sleep with any woman more than once or twice. As a result,
he’d gone through women like most people went through paper towels. It wasn’t
until he and Annika had hooked up that he’d been able to settle down a
little—and the ghostly bitch had made it difficult for them as well.

"It’s
a guy thing," he said between clenched teeth. "Every fucking time I
talk to Adam, he’s secretly laughing his ass off at how he’s seen the top of
your head on a regular basis, and I’m a fucking clueless jackass."
Wheeling around, he grabbed his jacket and keys.

"What
are you doing?" She grabbed his forearm, but he jerked away.

"I’m
going to have a chat with Adam."

This
time when she grabbed him, he didn’t get away. She planted her feet in front of
him and refused to budge. "You’re acting crazy. Besides, Dev already took
care of it. Poor Adam won’t even be in the same room with me anymore. The other
day I snuck up on him and tapped his shoulder, and I thought he was going to
pass out. I have no idea what Dev did—"

"Dev.
Of course. Leave it to Dev to handle it so I can’t."

"I
still don’t know what there is to handle!" Criminy, men were dumb.

"You,
Dev and Adam all know Adam’s had you, and I’m the idiot in the dark."

"Adam
didn’t
have
me."

"Right.
He only had his cock in your mouth. That’s better how? Because, baby, when it
comes to sucking dick, you’re a pro. Are there others at ACRO I should know
about?"

Her
mouth worked soundlessly for a few seconds, before she was finally able to
whisper, "You bastard."

Wetness
filled her eyes, and she spun around so Creed wouldn’t see. She’d been such an
emotional wreck lately, crying all the time, losing her temper…she’d taken a
pregnancy test just to make sure she wasn’t knocked up, and thank God that had
turned out negative. Desperate, she’d finally paid a rare visit to one of
ACRO’s psychologists, who said that all of her emotional suppression during her
CIA years had caused a backup, and by opening herself up to Creed she’d opened
a floodgate.

No
word on when it would all even out so she could feel normal again.

"Ah,
shit. Ani, I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry." His boots thumped on the floor
and then his arms came around her. She turned into his embrace and settled her
forehead on his broad chest.

"It’s
okay."

"No,
it’s not. I’m a jealous asshole." He pressed a kiss to the top of her
head, his lips warm and comforting. "I guess I figured all the guys
you’ve, um, been with, have been assignments and I’d never have to see
them."

She
ran her hands up his back, loving how his muscles rippled beneath her palms.
"It was years ago. And it didn’t mean anything."

Creed
let out a low, rumbling sound, something between a growl and a purr. Whatever
it was, it vibrated into her soul, leaving her feeling…marked, weird as that
sounded. "I’m tired of sharing you, Ani."

She
stiffened in his arms. "This isn’t about Adam, is it? It’s about Dev.
Again." Creed couldn’t let loose his anger on Dev, so he was lashing out
at a Seducer who hadn’t so much as looked at her in years. "You’re both
important to me. You know that. And you know I’m not sleeping with Dev."

His
bark of laughter startled her out of his embrace. "Tell me, Annika, when
you’re upset, angry, hurt, where do you go?"

To
Dev’s.
Shit. She’d gone to him the
second she’d returned from Greece. Had gone straight from the plane to his
office. She’d been thrilled to learn that his sight had returned, so thrilled
she hadn’t cared that he’d dressed her down like a green military recruit for
the Greece thing. Of course, she’d done the same right back, asking why the
hell he’d disappeared for so long, why he’d shut her out of his life and let Oz
take over ACRO.

What
he’d told her had left her stunned and shaken.

"Remember
last fall when I sent you and Creed to my parents’ mansion to check out the
ghost living there?" At her nod, he said, "Well, it got out. It was
the spirit of a former Itor agent named Darius. He tried to possess me."

"Why?"

"He
wanted revenge. Itor’s director, Alek, tortured him to death for helping Alek’s
pregnant girlfriend escape Itor."

Annika
leveled a suspicious stare at him. "That’s sad and all, but why would he
want to use you for revenge?"

"Because
Darius figured I’d want revenge too. Turns out Alek not only killed my parents,
but he’s also my father. My parents took me in after Alek’s girlfriend gave
birth."

Yeah,
that had been a holy-shit revelation if ever there was one. Dev had gone on to
explain that Oz had banished Darius but that Dev’s mind—and ACRO’s secrets—had
been left wide open to Alek, thanks to a fun father-son mental link, so Dev’s
absence had been about keeping him isolated from everyone except the psychics
who had maintained a mental shield on him twenty-four hours a day.

Annika
realized Creed was staring at her, arms crossed as he waited patiently for her
to answer his question about where she went when she was upset and emotional
and crap like that.

"Creed,
I’m trying. I answered all your questions on the plane ride back, and I even
promised to go with you to that crazy monster-truck thing next weekend—barring
a natural disaster. But I can’t…I can’t choose. Please don’t ask me to."

Shaking
his head, he sighed. "I’m not. I just want you to need me."

"I
do need you," she said quietly. "Especially now. With everything
going on, it’s you I need."

In a
heartbeat, she was in Creed’s arms and she knew, for the first time in their
relationship, that she’d finally said the right thing.

Wyatt’s
time with Faith had been the furthest thing from a joke he could think of—she
was the first woman he’d ever admitted anything to about his family, the first
woman he’d admitted any kind of weakness to. And now she’d seen him beaten,
physically, seen his mental drain as well…and still she’d laid her hands on him
and healed him.

With
what barely seemed an effort, she’d held his entire two-twenty-pound body to
the table, so hard he couldn’t move a finger, let alone a muscle.

The
only thing given free rein to move had been his cock—and it still ached from
her touch. Longing for that touch was what propelled him off the table and onto
the floor after he took out with the cat-o’-nine the security cameras located
in all four corners of the room. He had two missions now—the weather machine
and finding out if Faith Black could be trusted with his life…and possibly with
his heart.

He
figured he had maybe ten seconds before the goons came back in, felt his body
flex with readiness as he grabbed a loosened line of chain that had held him to
the rack and wrapped it around both fists.

The
first man got a box to the ears, the second had his neck broken with a quick
wrap of the chain. The third and fourth got equal punches to the nose, which
took them out.

He
killed the three unconscious men quickly, with the phrase
it’s them or me
running through his head. Speaking of running, it was time to get his ass out
of there.

He
had keys, one of the dead men’s talkabouts, clothing and his chains. The Chelbi
helo was parked on the landing pad on the other side of the rig—that was his
best and fastest option off this place. With the weather machine. And with
Faith.

He
knew that Sean wouldn’t let Faith off this platform alive, not after what she’d
done to help Wyatt…not after sleeping with him either.

Enough.

Find
Faith.

Get
out of Dodge.

He
slipped out of the room that had been his prison and moved swiftly down the
narrow hallway lined with sheet metal. At a corner, he slowed, eased his head
around and smiled when he spotted his quarry ahead, near a door. Faith was
standing there, her forehead braced against the wall.

With
the pumalike quietness he’d perfected, he sprang on her, immobilizing her arms
by her sides, and placed a hand over her mouth. "You make a sound and
we’re both dead. You try to throw me across the room and we’re both dead—right
now your best choice is to just come along for the ride," he growled in
her ear.

He
didn’t wait for an answer, simply lifted her and pulled them both into the
small room that housed the boiler, even as he slowly shifted the security
camera slightly to the left with his mind so they had a clear hiding place in
the corner. A good hiding place for now, until the chaos died down.

"What
the fuck, Faith? Who do you work for?"

"Who
do
you
work for? I think a little truth from your end for the woman who
saved your life is in order." As she spoke, he could easily see that she
was an agent—the calm, cool and collected vibe of a seasoned operative, at
that. How the hell he had missed it the first night was above and beyond him,
but he was done missing things.

"You’re
the one who nearly got me killed in the first place." He put a hand above
her head, leaned against the wall and into her, and even here, with the danger
surrounding them, he wanted her with a force he could barely contain.

"We’re
not out of danger yet."

He
cocked an eyebrow at her, especially as her hands wrapped around his waist to
pull at him, tug him closer to her body. "When did we become a
we
?"

"When
you told me you didn’t want another man touching me. Or was that just a joke
too?"