Unchained (9 page)

He was tearing the robe off her quaking body. A flash fire of frenzied desire raged around them. The flimsy camisole underneath went next. Then he simply tore her panties to shreds.

“I need you,” she cried with soul-crushing anguish.

Fearing he’d lose his mind if he didn’t get inside her in a hurry, Cam barely managed to sweep the desk clear before picking her up and slamming her on her back.

Tearing open his jeans, it took mere seconds to shove the denim and his briefs down his thighs and the same length of time to push his inflamed cock into her slick heat.

She gripped his arms and held on tight as Cam completely lost control and ferociously fucked her with an astonishing rhythm and intensity. Leaning over her, he grabbed his wife by the head, and tongue fucked her at the same time.

Grunting wildly with each possessive thrust, he stopped long enough to grind against her. She whimpered and tightened the hold her thighs had around his waist.

Staring into Lacey’s deep blue eyes, he jerkily growled. “I need you to come, sweet girl. When I leave here, it’s with you all over my cock.”

“Oh my god, Cameron,” she cried huskily.

The pulsing of her orgasm started and grew with tremendous force until her pussy squeezed him to a mind-blowing climax, and he filled her as his cock jerked and throbbed.

Kissing her back to earth, he made all the promises a man forced away from his wife made. Telling her over and over of his love, he promised to make their separation a short one.

He was pulling up his jeans as she sat on the desk and slid her arms and head into the camisole. She watched him shove his come-covered cock into his briefs. Her eyes met his, and a sly smile played at the corners of her mouth.

Scooting down, she stood with an uneasy expression and reached for her robe, quickly pulling it around her. He knew the second she realized her panties were in useless tatters.

“I don’t want you anywhere near those assholes, baby.” She bit her lip and nodded. “Stay here, Ponytail. I’m going to run upstairs and grab my go-bag. I’ll come back before I leave.” Pointing at the computer, he added, “Bring up our email and the message center for the business office. When I come down, I’ll leave something for Drae.”

Lacey lasted at the St. John’s for three days. Long enough for a brief first contact with her husband and for all her bravado to wither and fall away.

He was someplace he couldn’t say. Drae said that meant he was with the dark ops people. Probably in the Middle East or possibly Africa. For a conversation lasting less than four minutes, a lot of nothing was said. He couldn’t talk, and she was so busy putting on a happy face that the whole thing was uncomfortable.

Would he be home soon? Probably not for a few weeks. It took every ounce of self-control she had not to start crying. A few weeks?
A few weeks?
Holy mother. Stephanie’s birthday was this weekend, and just weeks later, Dylan turned one.

When the secure satellite call ended, she asked Victoria to give her a moment alone with Draegyn.

Alex and Meghan were still away although at least now they were back on U.S. soil. Her husband, the father of her son, was dancing to the government’s heavy-handed tune. Drae and Tori were acting big-time strange, and unless she got some sleep soon, Lacey was afraid she’d fall apart for good.

“I’m going home,” she told him straightaway. He tried to interrupt, but she held her hand up and plowed ahead.

“Draegyn St. John, I am not a wimp. You do not have to hold my hand. I knew what I was getting into when I married Cameron. Please don’t try to change my mind, Drae. I’m tired. Cranky. Worried. Just let me do what’s best for my son and me. I want to be at home when my husband comes back. And besides, having two little ones to guard is making Raven crazy.”

She loved Draegyn like a brother. He knew Cameron better than anybody did, and it was easy to put her trust in him. He’d let her go. Kind of had to. But she also knew he’d keep a close eye on her and Dylan anyway. That unspoken bond of Justice brothers’ mojo was powerful stuff. Cameron was counting on him, but she had to bring some sort of normalcy back to her day-to-day.

Slinging an arm around her neck, he tugged her in, but instead of a hug, he went full noogie—lightly grinding his knuckles on her forehead.

“Ponytail, you’re gonna get my ass kicked, lady!”

She shoved him away with a sharp grunt and a genuine laugh. “Watch it, buster, or I’ll have to challenge you to a pole dance duel.”

He mimed a perfect imitation of his bad arrogant self—pretending to tug on his cuffs and adjust an invisible tie.

“The Justice men do not wiggle on poles, my dear.”

She giggled and slapped a hand over her mouth.

“If we want to see guys making fools of themselves, we’ll hire people to do it or find a way to trick someone.”

Lacey rushed into his arms and hugged him tight. “Draegyn. Tell me everything’s okay.”

He didn’t balk at all as he quickly answered. After a quick squeeze, he kissed her forehead and gave her a meaningful look. “Cam is the best at what he does. Whatever that is,” he joked with a sardonic smirk. “If ya ask me, they implanted a tracking chip in him or something because, honest to Christ, Lace, he finds the needle in a haystack and then uses it to pick his teeth clean without ever breaking a sweat.”

“I know,” she quickly assured. What he did didn’t bother her. It was all the secrecy and ominous men dressed in tight-ass black that worried her. This was no ordinary seek and find.

“It’s just that it scares me when he leaves the country. It’s dangerous on the other side of the world. Anything can happen.”

Drae leaned against a counter and scrubbed a hand through his hair with a heavy sigh. “The world’s a fucked-up place, honey. Anything can happen right here too.”

She said what she thought when her husband told her he’d be gone for a few weeks. “It’ll kill him if he misses his son’s birthday.”

Substitute Big Daddy puffed up like he was entrusted with a sacred burden and told her gravely, “Don’t you worry about a thing, Mrs. Cameron. I know what Cam wants for Dylan’s big day. He’ll be here, honey. But just in case he parachutes in at the last moment, I’m on top of things.”

Remembering what Tori told her about the comical Dad-inspired rivalry springing up between the two close friends, she grinned and pretended to fan herself.

“Oh, thank sweet baby Jesus. Po’ lil ol’ me couldn’t possibly plan a one-year-old’s party without professional help.”

Drae roared at her dead-on impersonation of his Southern Belle mother-in-law.

“Oh, and by the way, shugah? I think the ladies need to challenge you boys to a pole dance-off. Time to find out how deep that alpha nonsense goes.”

S
OMETHING ABOUT AN
East Coast sunset hypnotized Alex. Maybe it was because of the city they were in and the centuries of history all around or maybe it was as simple as just knowing they were back on U.S. soil and heading home soon.

Leaning against the balcony doors, he levered off and shut them to prevent the air conditioning from escaping. Where the summer weather was concerned, D.C. was one brutal city. Hot, muggy, and still—the place always reminded him of a sauna. He never understood how Parker put up with it for so many years. For Alex, give him the dry and sometimes brutally hot heat of the desert and he was good.

Pouring two shorties, one Glenfiddich and one Jameson, he took them to the piano and set them aside. Meghan was still on the phone with her folks, and he didn’t want to rush their good-byes, so he whiled away his wait by giving his fingers a keyboard workout.

Obsessed with a piano composition called “When We Met,” he worked out the fingering to the Ryan Stewart song whenever he had a moment. Knowing his wife’s predilection for a good piano tune, he fixated on this one after finding her one afternoon, lazing in a hammock at their Spanish finca, staring dreamily at nothing while this song came up on a playlist.

There was something about the look on her face. Meghan didn’t just listen to music. She absorbed it. Seeing her far-off expression, he knew in his gut she remembered how they met and all the twists and turns they took along the way to get them where they were. Losing himself in the melody, Alex’s spirit filled as his fingers moved across the keys.

He became the man he always wanted to be during their extended honeymoon. She’d changed him. No doubt about it.

Didn’t matter how much pain and suffering he’d overcome after the bomb blast that nearly ended his life. Or how successful he was. None of it made a difference because he was little more than an empty husk of a man. Not even halfway living, mind-numbing data streams and a level of technology that would make anyone else’s face melt filled his days.

That was his life. He was everyone’s favorite nerd king, yeah. But he rattled around the Villa with no particular enthusiasm or with any sort of a future in mind. He was among the living, but he hadn’t been … living. Not for a very long time.

And then a vivacious redhead with a dreamy ass and a set of bodacious knockers that rendered him stupid came to his door and showed him just what he was missing.

As the last remnant of that thought faded from his mind, he felt a soft, warm hand caress his neck and slide back and forth across his shoulder. Tranquility spread through his body. This was what he meant by her changing him. Alex never knew what serenity was. He was a trained warrior. As a wartime commanding officer, he’d sent good men into desperate situations. Not all of them came back, and some came back in pieces. He’d live the rest of his life seeking personal redemption for the actions his oath of honor led to.

But if Meghan was near? When she touched him? Alex was sure the contented peace of mind she brought to his world saved his life. In many ways, he’d found a good portion of the recompense he sought with his Irish wife and her open, giving heart.

She kept her hand on him as he played. They were really, really good at silent communication. Being connected as they were, each of them only needed to come close, and an unspoken conversation began.

When the final notes played, his hands lifted off the keys as the melody hung in the air before eventually fading away.

“What the hell did I do to earn a hot husband with rock-hard biceps who’s nice enough to pour his wife a drink and then serenade her fat ass with a beautiful song?”

Fat ass. Oh, my god. When she taunted him this way, it was all he could do not to haul her fantastically curvy derrière over his knee for a sexy whacking. He snickered.
Probably why she said it, you stupid fuck.

Alex swung around on the bench and wrapped his arms around her waist as she stepped between his open thighs. Staring up into her beautiful face, he thanked his lucky stars for the millionth time for bringing this magnificent, gorgeous big-hearted woman into his life.

“The folks get off all right? Wish they would’ve let me fly them home.”

“Oh, don’t grumble,” she teased. “Ma loves the train, and you know my dad. He loves anything she does.”

“I know, but come on,” he continued to gripe. “What good is it to be a big-time CEO with an agency jet if I can’t use it to impress the in-laws?”