Taste Me Deadly (Sensory Ops) (2 page)

“So you do remember me.” He sounded as monotone as he could with that sexy ass accent of his, but his words were a bitter backhand.

“You’re a memorable man.” Liam Burgess. Amazing lover. FBI agent. Husband.

“Memorable, but not worth staying with.”

“No. Yes. That’s not…” She shook her head and took another step into the room. Thoughts fluttered too quickly in and out of her grasp. “Things are complicated.”

“Not really.”

Liam had been open and easy to be with in Vegas. Now that they were face-to-face he looked pissed. He wasn’t going to make their reunion easy. Stiffening her posture and resolve, Grey said, “Yeah. They are.”

He cocked his head and a dare danced in the depths of his brown eyes. “We got married, consummated said marriage, you walked. Simple.”

“We had so much to drink.”

“Not enough to forget getting married.”

“No.” No. She couldn’t say she’d forgotten getting married. Hell, she remembered every detail of the entire night, and she hadn’t suffered a hangover the next morning, so she couldn’t have indulged in that many drinks.

“You say that like it’s a bad memory.”

“It wasn’t my finest moment.”

He flinched. Though she knew he misunderstood, she didn’t want to rehash what happened two years ago over her comatose sister. She couldn’t stop her curiosity. “Why are you here? Why are you waiting for me?”

“You’re my wife, though you clearly wish you weren’t.”

“That’s not… It’s not that simple.”

“Let me keep this simple then.” Liam leaned forward and rested his elbows on his denim-covered knees. The sport jacket he wore over his pricey T-shirt strained across his shoulders. He’d sat the same way in his hotel room when he’d asked her to marry him.

Forward. Intent. Arresting.

She’d blamed the question and her answer on too many drinks in the casinos. The same intensity shone in his eyes now and she felt as weak to resist as she had then.

“I woke up two years ago to find my brand new bride gone. After looking for her, for two years, and trust me when I say I know how to find someone, imagine my surprise when I see her mirror image in a news story.”

The same one that had pulled Grey from Vegas.

“A few searches on the victim, Ruby Donovan, and I began putting some of the puzzle together.”

Grey twisted the diamond band anxiously as her heart sped. Liam’s gaze fell to her left hand. His words bled into one another as he told her about Ruby’s blog, where she searched for her sister. Her guilt grew as she listened to him recap his repeat trips to Vegas in hopes of finding her and putting Ruby’s mind to rest as well as his own.

“My surprise quadrupled when my searches resulted, finally, in a phone call a couple days ago.” Liam hesitated again, locking his gaze on hers, as if making sure he had her full attention. Not that her mind could wander. “I believe you know him as Micah.”

Grey swallowed bile. Her knees shook.

Micah had warned her that returning to Miami would have repercussions. She hadn’t imagined the undertow would be so strong. Moving farther into the room, closer to Liam, Grey leaned against the edge of Ruby’s bed. Her voice, when she found it, trembled with uncertainty. “What did he tell you?”

“Marshal Carpenter,” Liam said, impactful, “apologized for blocking my searches.”

“He shouldn’t have called.”

“He cleared me through the director first, who you will be related to as soon as my brother and his fiancée say ‘I do’.” Liam looked pointedly at Grey’s hand and sighed. The sigh seemed to soften him a little. “He said you left WitSec to come here. Then he mentioned Karl Jessup.”

Grey flinched. She’d been ashamed to tell the U.S. Marshals what had happened, and that had been a lifesaving necessity. She actually cared what Liam thought of her, so the idea of him knowing everything did not sit well.

In case he didn’t know everything she kept her guard up. “I couldn’t tell you.”

She’d lied, but she’d had zero options. At least not after she’d seen his badge.

“Because you didn’t think I’d go into WitSec with you.”

“And I couldn’t leave it to come back here with you.”

“So you vanished.”

“So I vanished. Again. And I’ve regretted it since.”

The censure she deserved never came and its absence opened the floodgate that restrained pent-up tension. They may not have a future as husband and wife—she couldn’t think about that—but he was here and she could be honest for the first time in five years. Mostly.

The idea didn’t free her from the virtual tower she’d been imprisoned in, nor did it reassure her that Liam would be her prince.

Chapter Two

Answers Liam had sought for two years did little to fill the hole Greycen Craig had left in his life. Her presence made all the difference, though.

Sitting guard in Ruby’s room for twenty-nine hours had given him ample thinking time. He’d replayed waking alone in the Vegas hotel room, only he’d done it with new information that granted a new perspective. He recalled finding his badge on the bedside table, but saw it now in a new light.

He was from the town she’d been moved from, and he had a specialized skill set that made relocation challenging. He didn’t like her choice, or that she hadn’t given him one, but he understood. Understanding didn’t ease his missing her.

Liam stood and walked the few feet to where Grey sat on her sister’s bed. She tracked him with her gaze—piercing blue instead of the honey gold it’d been when he met her.

“Answer one question.” The biggest one that continued to plague him even with new understanding.

“Okay.”

“Did you regret walking or marrying me more?”

“Marrying you was an impulse I never should have indulged given my situation.” She stood and placed her hands on either side of his head. Pushing to her tiptoes she pulled him down and then pressed her lips to his forehead. She’d made the same gesture when she said yes. As it had then, her touch, sweet in its simplicity, eased the anxiety bouncing about in his chest. “I regret that I saw no other path than to treat you like a fling.”

So she didn’t regret him. The relief he’d dreamed of since that dreaded morning erased the prints of pain. Like a wave-swept beach, his heart was a clean slate. His mind still questioned: was the Grey he’d married real or an assumed identity she would shed when she was safe?

“Grey.” Liam lifted his hands, placing one on her hip and one over her left hand. His finger brushed the ring she still wore. His skin absorbed the sensation of her nearness. It was too possible she’d walk again when her business in Miami was finished. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“Yes.”

He stared into her eyes. Even with her new look, more fragile pixie than shocking seductress, his wife captivated him. Colored contacts held no power against the bravery that breathed fire into her gaze.

“First…” Trailing off, Liam wrapped his long fingers around her hand and pulled her to him. She fell against his chest with a huff.

Creamy chocolate with the slightest hint of pineapple. Sweet. Addicting. Grey’s taste was something else he’d thought about. A lot. Driven by dreams, years apart and the danger that hunted her, Liam kissed his wife.

Inhaling her deep into his lungs and soul, he kept his mouth gentle against hers. Her pliancy, moving with and against him, encouraged deeper explorations. A press of his tongue’s tip at the crease of her lips begged entrance.

“Liam.” Grey parted for him, whispered his name in a way that sounded like surrender. Surrender or relief, something had her shaking in his arms. Or, maybe it wasn’t her who shook. It quite possibly could be him.

“I wish you hadn’t left, Grey.” He reached for the collar of her sweater and tugged the fabric aside. The bare skin, pale as ivory and smooth as his gun’s metal, beckoned.

His eyelids dropped as he laid his lips against her collarbone. Cravings he’d suppressed for too long awakened.

Growing desperate, he nipped at the tender skin. She whimpered again and arched into him. His opposite in every way he could recall, she’d brought out a side of himself he hadn’t entertained since high school.

He tried to stay gentle, but there was a hunger, an urgency, in him. He returned his lips to hers, caressed her bottom one with his tongue as he shook. His erection pressed against her.

On a moan, she circled her arms around his neck. The kiss simplified the moment, but it complicated the coming hours and days even more.

Liam closed his arms around her waist. Straightening to his full height, he lifted her off the floor as if she weighed nothing. Her feet dangled in the air and images of her legs wrapped around his waist entered his mind. He carried her to the wall, braced against it and then leaned into her.

She opened for him, brushed her tongue against his. Liam needed no other invitation. He swiped his tongue against her, in and out, strong and gentle. She brushed her fingers over his neck and shoulders.

He’d had fun in Vegas and had laughed with her. He’d enjoyed every moment and then replayed each one on a loop for two years. Memories paled beneath the kiss of reality.

Pulling back, Grey angled her head and lightly bit at his neck. He mirrored her. “Damn,” she breathed heavily. “You taste good.”

“He must,” Aidan said from just inside the room.

Liam froze more effectively than any criminal who’d ever been told to freeze. In hopes of staying off their radar, he had told his team he needed a few days off. He’d even been doing his own searches for info on Ruby. Tyler, the team’s tech genius, would have been faster but he’d have wanted answers.

Grey tapped Liam’s shoulder when he didn’t release her. He jolted to action in his head, playing out all the ways this scene could unfold. Unfortunately, they all had the same ending. Prepared for the inevitable, Liam eased Grey to the floor. Before stepping aside, he whispered, “We’ll finish this later.”

Liam kept a hand on Grey’s waist as he turned to face Aidan.

She turned with him and gasped. “You’re a twin.”

“Yes.” No matter how many times Liam had dreamed of making this introduction it had never included these circumstances. “Grey, this is Aidan.” Liam rubbed his fingertips on Grey’s back instead of swallowing like a coward. “Aidan, this is Greycen Craig.”

“Nice to meet you, Grey.” Aidan moved close enough to shake her hand. The instant he enveloped her thin fingers with his long ones Liam wanted to pull her back. It was insane, because Aidan was nuts about his fiancée, Lana, and would never consider making a wrong move. Sanity didn’t matter against the idea of letting Grey go, if only for a minute.

“How do you know my brother?” Humor played in Aidan’s eyes as he looked at Liam. They’d clearly tracked him down through his cell signal or the searches he’d been running. Aidan, more like his journalist fiancée than he’d like to think, had already formulated a story and all that remained was proving or disproving whatever he’d concocted in his head. This had to end before Aidan said too much—like how celibate Liam had been and for how long.

“We met a few years ago in Vegas.” Grey thought the vague answer would be enough. She definitely didn’t know Aidan.

Liam captured his brother’s stare and, with a protective hold on Grey’s waist, took the plunge. “She’s my wife.”

Aidan blinked, scrubbed his left hand’s index finger over his forehead, stared. “Your what?”

Doubt surfaced in the light of Aidan’s surprise. He should have told everyone about Grey before she showed up.

The question, two stumbling words, conveyed volumes of confused irritation. It was a reaction Aidan normally had toward Lana when she got into a new story, seeming to always be drawn to the dangerous ones. Aidan wouldn’t accept the truth easily because for all his bluster, he was a traditionalist.

Protectiveness turned to defensiveness.

Flattening his hand on Grey’s back, reassuring himself more than her, he said it again. “My wife.”

“Since when are you married?”

“Since the Behavioral Analysis Conference I attended two years ago, but what’s important right now is that Grey needs my help.”

Aidan shifted his stare to Ruby, and, though he stood still as stone, Liam knew his brother was working to bite back questions. Most days Liam looked forward to swapping verbal spars with his twin. Today was not like most days.

Aidan’s shoulders lowered beneath his leather bomber jacket. When he turned his attention back to Liam and Grey he seemed more relaxed. Their mother had always said Aidan carried the hellraiser genes and Liam the peacemaker ones, but since getting engaged to Lana—hellraiser extraordinaire—Aidan was mellowing. The change was especially appreciated at the moment.

“Looks to me like Ms. Donovan’s the one who needs help.”

“Which is why I’m here.” Grey cocked her head defensively and moved to stand between Aidan and Ruby.

Pride burst in Liam’s chest. It wasn’t everyone who could stand up to Aidan when they didn’t know him, but the woman he’d impetuously married had a spine he hadn’t seen. Getting to know her could be fun.

“How are you going to help her? You a doctor?”