Titanium Security Series 4 - Extinguished (23 page)

Grace Fallon.

Alex stared at it, understanding immediately what it meant. She’d taken back her maiden name. Had finally divorced that undeserving bastard.

You don’t deserve her either.

He pushed out a slow breath. It didn’t help. Pulse thudding, muscles rigid, Alex opened the message. After he’d seen that redhead at the market in Peshawar, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Grace. He’d asked one of his people in the NSA to run her name and see what they came up with. Spotting her in Pesh had seemed impossible, but he hadn’t been able to let it go.

He scanned the body of the e-mail, aware that his knuckles had turned white from clenching the phone. Christ, it was all he could do to remember to breathe.

…now working for the UN as a consultant…chemical weapons inspector…

…last credit card transaction was last night in Islamabad.

Alex stared at the screen, unblinking, made himself read the message twice so he knew he wasn’t just imagining things. Shock reverberated through him.

Grace was here in Islamabad.

He lowered the phone to his lap, unable to process the avalanche of emotions. An image of her face swam before his eyes. Then it changed to her shattered expression on that terrible night four years ago when he’d lost her. That image had haunted him ever since. It still gutted him.

No.

His heart was beating so fast it slammed against his ribs with sickening force, and his chest felt so tight he feared it might burst open. He forced himself to pull in a long, shaky breath and exhale it. Then another. Hope and anxiety careened inside him, wild and volatile. He felt light-headed, so shaky he wondered if he was about to do the unthinkable and pass out. Or puke.

Wright shot him a sideways glance. “You all right, mate?”

No.
“Fine.” Fuck, maybe he was going to lose it. Hard, jaded Alex Rycroft, about to have a total meltdown because of a woman. All this time and finally Grace was not only free, she was right here in the same city. Had been for a while and he’d never even known. It was too much to take in.

Holding the phone tightly, Alex stared through the windshield and somehow got his breathing back under control, willed his pulse to slow down. Fate was a sick, twisted bitch, but for once, he was grateful for her unpredictability. He wasn’t passing up this chance.

As soon as he finished with Hassani’s initial interrogation, he was going to find Grace and do whatever it took to fix the damage he’d inflicted four years ago. Including getting on his knees and begging for the forgiveness she’d rightly refused him before.

****

Someone pulled the black hood off him. Malik blinked at the bright overhead light as his eyes adjusted. He held his head high, refusing to let his captors see the pain and dread he was battling as they escorted him through a sliding metal door into a cell. It appeared to be nine feet by nine feet, made of concrete, with a concrete slab holding a thin mattress and a wool blanket, and a stainless steel sink and toilet set into the far corner.

Finally someone took the cuffs off his wrists and then the steel door clanged shut behind him, locking him in his cage. “They’ll come for you when it’s time for your surgery,” one of the guards muttered. An American, and not a Fed as he’d first assumed. The eyes boring into him were flat, cold. This man was hard, battle tested and experienced with handling high value target prisoners. CIA maybe, or NSA. One of Rycroft’s?

Malik ignored him and went to sit on the thin mattress, keeping his back to the door. Dismissing the men on the other side of the bars. His message was clear enough because one of them snorted in disgust before they walked away.

Alone but watched from the hidden camera he knew was there but couldn’t see, he stared down at his bandaged left hand. The pain had only marginally lessened since they’d given him some morphine at the medical center they’d taken him to. That American’s bullet had ripped through the fleshy part on the outside of his hand and exited through the center of his palm. Three of the long bones were broken, the damage severe enough to warrant surgery to pin it all back together. Even then he might never regain full function of his hand again.

Forcing his gaze away from the wad of gauze wrapped around the wound, he glanced around the gray, severe cell they’d locked him in. He didn’t know where he was because they’d kept the hood on him both to and from the medical facility, but he assumed somewhere in Islamabad, or close to it. As a former high ranking official within the ISI, he was intimately familiar with places like this. Satellite locations where high profile prisoners could be locked away in the deepest, darkest hole and no one on the outside would ever suspect.

Until now, he’d never been the one locked behind bars. He hated feeling like a caged animal, resented that they’d thrown him in such a place. And he still didn’t know what had become of Bashir.

His mind replayed all the events that had led to this moment. All the possible people who might have betrayed him. And the Americans. He knew they were the ones behind it all. How much money had they spent to make his capture possible? They may have locked him up, but they’d made a very grave mistake.

They’d let him live.

There were people in powerful places who believed in him, people who wanted to see him at the country’s helm. Even in here he wasn’t as alone as the Americans would like to think. He would see to it that they’d regret not killing him when they’d had the chance.

Power and resolve swept aside the anxiety and sense of claustrophobia that had begun to creep in on him. When he found out who had betrayed him, they would die. And Alex Rycroft? Malik settled back against the concrete wall and closed his eyes.

Every man had a weakness. Even Rycroft. Malik would find it, exploit it and use it against him.

Before he killed him, he was going to crush the man’s soul.

Blake peeled his eyelids apart when the hotel bathroom door slid open. Jordyn walked out wearing nothing but a towel she’d tucked closed between her breasts. It covered her to mid-thigh but the thin material did little to disguise her body. His interest sharpened immediately, the heavy weight of exhaustion lifting at the prospect of seeing her naked.

Her short dark hair was still damp, her cheeks flushed from the hot shower. She flipped off the bathroom light, leaving weakening rays of dying sunlight streaming through the sheer curtains pulled across the window. Her gaze swept over his exposed body down to where the sheet lay draped across his abdomen and his swelling erection.

She crossed to him, a worried frown creasing her forehead. “How’re you feeling?” The bed dipped as she sat beside him and reached down to stroke a hand over his bristled cheek.

He turned his face into her palm and kissed the center of it, breathing in the delicious clean scent of soap and vanilla. “Sore.” His whole body ached, the contusions all over him making him feel like a major leaguer had beaten him with a baseball bat. After he’d showered he’d hit the bed and crashed within moments of hitting the pillow but he couldn’t have slept more than half an hour.

“Yeah, I’ll bet.” She surveyed his chest once more, her gaze lingering on the nicks and scrapes and deep bruises blooming in various shades of blue and purple all over his skin.

Her hand trailed gently down his throat to where his HOG’s Tooth lay in the center of his chest, her slender fingers toying with the bullet. That gentle touch shivered right through him, made goosebumps break out across his skin. “I’ve wanted to be able to do this for so long, but now that I can I’m almost scared to touch you,” she said quietly.

He grabbed her hand and flattened it against his chest, the feel of it soothing something deep inside him. They hadn’t talked about what came next for them—they hadn’t had time. Though he wasn’t all that romantic and sucked with words, he planned to show her by actions exactly what she meant to him. “Don’t be.” The pain didn’t matter. He’d have to be dead before he’d pass up the opportunity to feel her hands on his body.

Her eyes flashed up to his, wide pools of deep, endless blue he could easily drown in. He caught the flare of female awareness there, that flash of heat she was trying to hide because she was afraid of causing him more pain. Then she looked down at where his hand pressed hers into his chest, right below where the tip of the hollow point round rested. “I can’t believe nothing’s broken.”

Well he certainly hurt enough to make up for that, and there was only one cure he could think of. Her.

He was already hard at the thought of touching and exploring her the way he hadn’t been able to their first time. Wanting to erase the worry he could see on her face, he reached up to cup her nape and brought her gaze up to his once more. “I’m okay, angel. Now come here and kiss it better.”

She laughed softly at that but bent down to cradle his face with her free hand and touched her lips to his. The contact was soft and gentle, too gentle, because while it calmed him deep inside, he wanted so much more. He needed to feel her up against him and hear those soft cries as she sought her pleasure, her body closing around him and holding him there as though she never wanted to let him go.

Blake slid his other hand into her hair and pulled as he kissed her harder, loving the way her lips parted to let his tongue slide inside. She made a quiet sound in the back of her throat that he echoed as he stroked the softness of her mouth. The taste of mint and Jordyn filled him, her fresh, soapy scent wrapping around him until he felt dizzy.

Unable to wait any longer to touch her the way he needed, he released her hand on his chest to grip the front of the towel and yanked it away. She gasped into his mouth as the soft material fell away, revealing her naked body to him. She was all soft, pale skin and slender curves.
His.

He growled into her mouth and cupped a firm, tight breast in his hand, rubbing his thumb against the hardened center. Jordyn arched her back and grabbed his hand to hold him to her, her breathing turning choppy.

His blood raced through his veins as he nipped his way down her chin and throat to the tender flesh he cradled. He’d spent far too much time wondering what color her nipples were. Last time he’d been too distracted to pay attention to the details because he’d been so focused on getting inside her as fast as possible.

Admiring those sweet candy pink centers now, he couldn’t wait to taste her. He let his teeth nip the soft curve of her breast gently before closing his lips around the distended peak and sucking. Jordyn cupped the back of his head and moaned as she got to her knees facing him.

That moan shot right through him, pushed the excitement and hunger higher. His blood pulsed in his ears. God he loved her, loved knowing he could make her feel so good. And if the ache inside her was even half as painful as what he felt right now, he was the luckiest bastard alive to have her need him so much.

Her fingers stroked over his hair almost reverently. She shifted closer as he lavished attention first on one breast, then the other. Each time his lips or tongue tugged on that tight flesh she made a low sound of need that arrowed through him. His cock pulsed in silent demand against the sheet, but he ignored it. Their first time had been fast and rough. He’d wanted to mark her, brand her as his. He still wanted that now—would probably always want that—but this time he was going to make sure he loved her properly.

He let one hand drift down her ribcage, following those gorgeous lean curves to where the indentation of her waist flared into her hip. His fingers locked around her flesh, holding her in a firm grip as he released her nipple and tugged her toward him. “Come here, need to taste you,” he rasped out, that primal need overriding everything else.

He almost groaned in relief and gratitude when she didn’t balk or even hesitate at his command, but swung a thigh over his face to straddle his shoulders. As she braced her hands on the headboard his eyes locked on the delicate pink folds between her legs, now exposed to his gaze.

She was already wet, glistening, the rasp of her excited breaths the only sound in the room. His cock was so hard it was throbbing painfully. Holding both her hips in his hands, he guided her down and lifted his head until his lips brushed her softest flesh. Jordyn sucked in a breath and tensed beneath his hands, making a plaintive noise in the back of her throat. As if she was dying for more.

Oh
, Christ
yeah
.

When he trailed his tongue across her softness and he got his first real taste of her he closed his eyes and groaned. The rich, tangy-sweet flavor of her arousal already had his head swimming and he’d barely gotten started. He lapped at her over and over, cherishing and worshipping her with his tongue. She squirmed in his hold, one hand going to his head to anchor him there.

So hot and ready for him. He slid his tongue deep inside her then caressed the length of her slit up to the swollen nub at the top where he sucked lightly.

Her fingers tightened against his head. “Oh my God, don’t stop,” she panted, her thighs beginning to quiver under his hands. He squeezed her hips tighter, demanding she let go of her control, and repeated the caresses with his tongue. With single-minded focus he savored her, teased her until she was whimpering and straining against his mouth with a gasped, “I’m close—want you inside me.”

While part of him was loathe to stop what he was doing, he allowed her to scramble off him and struggled to get his breathing under control as she wrenched the sheet down over his thighs. His cock pulsed hot and heavy against his belly, the ache made a hundred times worse when she stared at him and licked her lips as though she couldn’t wait to taste him in turn.

Before he could do more than reach up to touch her hair she gripped him in one cool fist and took the head of him into her mouth.

His whole body jolted, the incredible feel of her hot little mouth closing over him completely eclipsing the pain the movement caused. She sucked him slowly, eagerly, letting her gaze drift up to find his. The raw desire and enjoyment on her face nearly destroyed him.