Until Midnight (5 page)

surfaces of her mouth, dancing like an elusive flame. She pressed herself against him and moved her hips from side to side.

They broke the kiss only because they both needed oxygen, and stared at each

other.

“You destroy all my discipline,” he told her in a rough voice.

“Same goes,” she whispered, trying to find her balance.

“I need to go out and check the situation at your bungalow, but I think it makes

sense to let things settle a little. Maybe I can blend in with the crowd sure to be gathered in a while.”

“Okay.” If she had a coherent thought his kiss had wiped it away.

“So I suggest we take this into the bedroom right now. If I don’t get my cock inside you pretty soon I might explode. Jesus, Nicki, you’re worse than any drug.”

“Same goes,” she breathed, and let him lead her into the bedroom.

She barely had a moment to wonder where her famous discipline had disappeared

before Adam was pulling off her clothes and then his, splaying her on the bed and pressing his mouth to her very hot and wet cunt.

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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

Their first mating had been unique—and Nicki admitted to herself, far too fast.

But he knew. Knew instinctively. Must have because he donned the condom over

his dark red cock, then cupped her thighs and spread them wide as his mouth savored her with delicate, ravenous hunger. He was slow. Deliberate as he kissed her clit, then sucked at it like a connoisseur. His tongue laved the nub and once more, he had her screaming.

He growled and pushed her thighs open and down to the mattress. Tore his mouth

away to blow air on her slit. “Love your folds.” He caught the edge of one with a nip of his teeth. Made her buck. Then settled down on his elbows to trace her other folds with delicate fingers that stroked and tugged and massaged.

She moaned as he claimed her with two strong fingers hitting her G-spot and

stroking hard. “Oh, Adam. The first man.” She gasped with pleasure so rare, so

unrivaled, she could say for the first time in her life she knew ecstasy. “So well named.”

He chuckled and pulled her labia wide to lave her top to bottom, his tongue a thick, rough benediction to her swollen flesh.

She arched backward, her throat exposed, her mind gone, as she reveled in every

little movement he made. He was thorough, insatiable, loving every little inch of her pussy. Setting her on fire. Sending her up, up where she’d been only once before,

minutes ago, with him. She clutched the sheets as he never stopped. Never gave up exploring her. Petting her. Eating her like he’d never have enough.

She keened. “You’re killing me, sweetie.”

“You’re thrilling me, baby.”

She looked down to melt at the sight of his mouth wet with her and smiling at his

work. His fingers busy inside her as he elbowed his way up to haul her up his thighs.

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Until Midnight

Her pussy quivered in expectation. Her lips trembled. “Put that long red cock

inside me or I’m gonna die here.”

He slid right in.

She could not breathe. He was so huge, so rigid, so bold.

He snarled. Halted. Hung his head a minute, his nails digging into her ass cheeks.

“You just get better and better.”

“Yeah?” She meant to challenge him, but knew she just whimpered the word.

“Yeah.”

She squeezed his cock with her vaginal muscles. “Prove it to me.”

He anchored his knees deeper into the bed and seized the flesh of her hips.

“Coming up.”

He pushed into her to the hilt. Worked his hips like pistons, filling her with the hot girth she knew now she was going to have a hard time forgetting. She wiggled nearer.

Wanted him impossibly deeper, harder, stronger.

He rammed her, creating a friction, a torment she treasured and then she broke like glass. Shattering, thousands of pieces of herself flung up high to cascade around her.

Like a starburst, an explosion of a million tiny fragments of herself scattered

everywhere. Flowing down around them both. Pulsing with him, she felt her cunt

quake around him and then felt him throb with wild spurting releases of his own.

She cried out. Her cunt throbbing. Full of him. Clinging to him. Needing him as she rejoiced at the tiny explosions that made her writhe and buck, mewl and catch him to her.

He wrapped himself around her, his big, lean, hard body the force of nature that

made her life suddenly real. Made danger a reality. Made her mind blank and then, as their bodies cooled and coiled together once more, made her realize that they were crazy to lie here and love each other.

Some madman wanted her dead.

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And now, for protecting her, she was afraid the same man would want Adam dead,

as well.

She planted a kiss on Adam’s throat. “I have no words for what just happened

here.”

He arched back and smoothed her hair from her cheek. “So don’t try. I won’t. We’ll find words later. When you’re safe.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Come shower with me.”

“Is that wise?” she asked with a mixture of sexual innuendo and fear for their lives.

“For now. Quickly.” He put his hand out. “We need to go see the management

about our man.” He led her gaze to his cock, which even lax and covered in latex was impressive enough to make her bite her lower lip. “And we have to visit the resort shop for certain supplies.” His mouth tipped up in a wicked grin. “Coming?”

“I did. I will. I hope to often again.”

He pulled her up against him, his sculpted body against hers and making her think

of how soon they could find their way to a bed again. “Job one for me is saving your luscious ass so I can make this sweet pussy purr for me often.”

Their shower was filled with laughter and far too many caresses that seduced and

tempted. But they each stayed prudent, wise.

“I can’t keep my hands off you,” he swore as they dried each other off and he

kissed her nipples, one by one.

With one leg curled up around his thighs, Nicki rubbed her pussy against him one

last time and twirled away. He wasn’t going to like what she planned. “I’ve got to stop plastering myself to your skin! I’m getting addicted!”

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist to look at her reflection in the huge wall mirror. “A habit I don’t want you to break.”

She stepped out of his arms and put both palms to the top of the dressing counter.

“We have to talk about who we’re going to see. We have to do it now.”

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Until Midnight

He inhaled, his eyes going dark with the danger they now had to address.

Throwing the towels to over the rim of the whirlpool, he went to the sink and began to comb his hair. “The owner I know is not in residence.”

“Neither is the one I know.”
Scott Henderson is recuperating from an emergency
appendectomy on his Caribbean island. I’ll bet at his age that surgery wasn’t a lot of fun.
“So that means we find out if the other two are here.”

“No. Neither one,” he shot back. “I know. I checked before I came.”

She accepted that, as Mossad, Adam knew things other mortals—even she—would

never think to ask before arriving. “But?”

He gave her a small wink. “The assistant manager is here. In fact, I called him to make my reservation. I met him years ago. In Ramallah.”

“A Mossad agent goes to the West Bank capital?”

“Honey, we go anywhere we want.”

She grimaced playfully. “I will never again doubt how true that is. So what is this manager doing here? In Mexico? At an ultra lux resort?”

“He’s a Palestinian, true. But no radical. Not in politics, either. And when I met him?”

She nodded. “Yes?”

“He was squeaky clean. Educated. Harvard. Business degree. Class of ’01. From a

prominent family of very rich Palestinians who are in real estate development.

Christian, too. In fact, they originally came from Jerusalem and were forced from their homes in 1967 when our army marched in. They say their family had lived in the Old City so long that they were there to greet Jesus when he came for Passover.”

“So you are telling me he is a friend of yours?”

“No. I’m telling you I trust him to tell us the truth. Or as much of it as he can.”

She considered that a moment and strode away into his bedroom to get her clothes.

When Adam followed, he got dressed as quickly.

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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

“What are you cooking in that mind of yours?” he asked.

“What’s the manager’s name?”

“Muhammed Abbas.”

“And why is he the assistant manager here? Any ideas?”

“His family owns a minor share of the business and he’s in training to run one of

their new facilities solo. They’re building a new one outside Santa Fe in the States.”

“Good to know.” She headed for the hall. “See you later.”

“Hey!”

She heard him jog after her.

“Wait a minute, lady!” He took her elbow and stopped her. “You are not going

alone.”

She looked Adam squarely in the eye. “I know I am.”

“And why is that logical?” he challenged her.

“You think this man is safe. Uninvolved in the attempt on my life. Innocent about

blowing up my bungalow. But I want to see how he plays it out for me. I don’t want his explanation clouded by niceties to you about old acquaintances not being forgotten. I want to see the whites of his eyes when he talks to me. I want to read his body

language.”

Adam raised the palms of his hands in the air. “You’re right. And then there is the other factor—”

“Yes.” She smiled, drew close to Adam and curled her fingers into the wonderful

wet black hair at his nape. “If he’s involved and distressed I still walk the earth, then the fact that you are somewhere out there able to rescue me is a big plus.”

“Great minds,” he whispered as he gave her a hot hard kiss, “think alike.”

* * * * *

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Until Midnight

Nicole never made it to the manager’s office, but saw the confusion of resort staff aiming fire extinguishers at the rubble of her bungalow. Among the shouting men and women stood one tall, olive-skinned man who shouted orders to his staff and into his cell phone.

She picked her way across the debris to look up into the anxious face of

Muhammed Abbas. A square-jawed, deeply attractive man with the blue eyes of the

Mediterranean Sea, he spoke unaccented American English and Spanish with an ease

that astonished her.

“Señor Abbas,” she greeted him and put out her hand, “I am Nicole Welles.”

“Miss Welles,” he said as he immediately closed out his conversation on his phone,

“I wondered where you were! Our staff did not know if you might be in your rooms!”

He did look relieved as he examined her. “You are well. My god. So good to see you out here! Where were you?”

“Out walking. I saw it happen from far down the beach.” She shaded her eyes with

one hand in order to see him better. A handsome man. Utterly shaken.
Good.

“I am very sorry about this. I will, of course, make compensation to you for any

items you have lost.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.” She tipped her chin toward the mess. “My personal

items are replaceable. I’m concerned with who set this.”

“Set it?” His winged brows shot upward. “I am at a loss—“

“I’m not.” She let her she-wolf come out for a bite of him, always the best way to push a man into confusion “Are you used to having your facilities erupt in explosions?”

“Explosions? No. Never!” He was defensive, but also inquisitive. “We take pride in our maintenance and our supervision of our grounds. You think this was an

explosion?”

“I know one when I see one.”

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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

“So do I,” he said softly, realizing he couldn’t con her. He eyed her with a new

respect before he turned to examine the small fires scattered over the blackened earth where her little house once stood. “I never thought there could be any here.” His voice drifted off into the mist of his own private memories.

The West Bank, she knew, could be a violent place as Israeli settlers and

Palestinians fought for the same land with fists and guns and C4. “I understand. But other things have happened here to me.”

He swiveled toward her, shock draining his features of reason. “What do you

mean?”

“May we adjourn to your office?”

He scowled. “Certainly.” He took her elbow as he called over one of his male staff and gave instructions to call him when the fire trucks arrived. “My first priority is your safety and happiness.”

Nicki gave a fleeting thought to persuading Muhammed to remain and to call for

the police. But she wondered how effective the locals would be in forensics for

explosives. This part of Mexico was one that had quite a few exotic resorts, but it was also listed on Interpol’s list of most dangerous criminally controlled areas. The

relationship between the drug cartels, law enforcement agencies and government was close and rife with corruption. Someone local had executed this job. And quite a few someones had knowledge of it.

If Calderon and the Campeche cartel were truly the ones after her here, Nicole had to learn how they had gotten inside this compound and who had helped them. Then

she might be able to look beyond Calderon and Campeche to finger the linchpin who

had given the order to destroy her.

She hurried beside Muhammed as he led her toward the main building sequestered

among the huge palm trees and pink bougainvillea. Inside the cool, dark stucco

building, he showed her toward his office. Appointed in caramel-colored Saltillo tiles 40

Until Midnight