Until the Dawn (14 page)

Until the Dawn

wound had become infected by all the dirt they rolled around in, and it had required surgery to clean it and stitch it. The doctor insisted on keeping him for at least two days to make sure there were no complications, despite Dan’s grumbling.

At her caress, he laughed. “I think the initial dose of antibiotics took care of the fever, but please feel free to keep touching me like that.”

Not bothered by the people milling around, she leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his lips. “If no one was here I’d touch you in a few other places,” she teased. She knew their relationship was far from settled but it was going someplace. She just wasn’t sure where.

Nikki sat in the chair beside the bed, busy on her cell phone, while Caleb and two others of the four-man team leaned against the walls, rehashing the scene at the ranch.

“Okay.” Nikki snapped her phone shut. “Here’s where we stand. “First of all, breathe easily. President Hamill is out of the woods and on the mend. Vice President Tollover is still a little shaky but they’re more optimistic about him than they were before.”

“I want to know how this happened,” Maddie demanded. “Everything at the White House is so guarded and secure.”

Nikki gave an unladylike snort. “Yeah, right. When you have gate crashers at a White House party it raises the question of security. Anyway, it’s simple. Trask bribed a cook in the kitchen. A man, I might add, who is enjoying the solitude of a holding cell under the watchful eye of Secret Service.”

“Did you get the evidence to the right person?” Dan wanted to know.

Nikki nodded. “I called your boss in Langley and made him listen to me before he went over the edge. Told him you said he was to be trusted and here was his chance to prove it. I sent the plane for him, we met right on the tarmac when he landed at the private strip, and I handed everything over. After I made copies, of course,” she grinned.

“How did he take it?”

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“How do you think? Shocked. Stunned. Speechless. Having a difficult time comprehending that the Speaker of the House was planning a treasonous takeover of the government with his own private army. But he jumped on it right away and got the other necessary agencies involved. Trask was in custody before the plane took off to return him to D.C.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I’m amazed at the sheer audacity of human nature.”

“Me, too,” Maddie agreed. “I’ll bet they’ve got his offices locked up tighter than a drum, too.”

“You got that right,” Nikki agreed. Then her face sobered. “The unfortunate part is we can’t do much about any of the others except Starling, He’s the only one who actually admitted anything on tape besides Trask. But Dan, the Director said to assure you they’d be working on it.”

“Yeah, well, I know how sticky that can get. At least we know those guys will have eyes on them so they can’t slip so easily under the radar. Maybe.”

“Maddie, your father called. I had your cell so I answered. He’d like to hear from you.”

“How did he sound?”

Nikki shrugged. “Distant. Angry. Put out. Who knows.”

Maddie shook her head. “He can wait.”

“Well.” Nikki rose gracefully from the chair. “I think we’ll clear out of here and let the two of you have a little piece and quiet. Just a couple more things, though.”

“What things?” Maddie quirked an eyebrow.

“First of all, you’re out of a job now.”

“True,” Maddie agreed. “The Majority Leader is succeeding Trask and he has his own chief of staff to run things.”

Nikki crossed her arms and her dark eyes twinkled. “There you go! So I’d like to ask you to come to work at Nemesis. Maybe even as a partner.”

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Maddie’s jaw dropped. “You are kidding me.”

“Not at all. If you’re interested we can work out the details next week.” She looked at Dan. “Same offer goes for you.” She grinned. “Except for the partnership, of course.

Ladies only in that department.” The smile disappeared. “I don’t know what your options are now, so just think it over and let me know if you’re interested.” She headed for the door, motioning to her team to follow her. “Call me when you’re up to talking.

Both of you.”

Maddie stared after her, a feather of interest tickling her. First she wanted to know what was happening with her and Dan. Then she’d try to find out what was up with her father, who’d flat out told her Dan was dirty and not to look for him. Something was off the mark there and she meant to dig for answers. After that she’d talk to Nikki.

But life had certainly become very interesting all of a sudden.

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But a
coup d’etat
was no small event to the FBI or Langley, the State Department and Defense.

Maddie closed her front door more than three weeks later as the last of her Bureau escorts left her for the final time at her home in Georgetown. She sank against the wood and sighed. What she knew, how she’d learned about Speaker of the House Paul Trask’s attempt to destroy the central government was a labyrinth of lies that he had built over the three decades he’d been in office. He’d hidden his efforts, his conspirators and his resources so skillfully that only one agent—Dan—had detected one odd bit of information about undocumented shipments across the Mexican border into Texas. One incident. One clue. One intelligent man.

She shut her eyes. Dan.
How are you, sweetie? Where are you? Where did the boys from
Langley take you to debrief? Back to the Rio Grande?

She missed him. And she had heard nothing from him since he’d been discharged from the hospital and one agent each from the Bureau, Langley and the National Security Administration had escorted him, as they said, “to locations unknown for the immediate and unforeseeable future”.

Dammit, she missed him more than she had any man, any one, ever.

Waiting for him to come back to Washington had been hell. She was used to his presence. His laughter and his kisses. His loving. His concern. And his protection? Even when he had been wounded and in pain, he had extracted her from Trask’s clutches and rushed to Carstairs’ ranch. She could not even imagine how much willpower it had taken Dan to do that. But he had.

And in the doing, as she relived the days she had spent with him, she realized she loved him for that. For his devotion. To find a man like Dan was rare. For her, 108

Until the Dawn

phenomenal. She who had always known she had a tough time trusting men. But now, she just pined to have him back with her.

Enough mooning over him!

She toed off her shoes, unbuttoned her blouse and headed up the stairs to her bedroom. She had to clear her mind, get out of these clothes and submerge neck deep into a huge mound of frothy bubbles.

Dropping her slacks on the carpet of her bedroom, she unhooked her bra and wiggled out of her panties. The sound of music froze her in her tracks.

The volume rose. Flooded the room.

Heart pounding, she ran to the hall. Bracing herself on the doorjamb, she blinked and wondered where the hell she’d put her gun.

The volume increased again and she realized what she heard was a love song of Stevie Wonder’s.
For Once in My Life
drifted through her house from her own bathroom.

She took the two steps to her bathroom and noted the door was ajar. With two fingers, she pushed it open.

A wonderful baritone singing the lyrics flowed out to her.

She stepped inside.

There, in her big circular white tub with giant bubbles churned up by the Jacuzzi sat a beautifully tanned, toned and fit Daniel Foreman.

His grin was generous and his words, inviting, as he shot a hand up to grab her wrist. “Hey, there, baby. Finally home from the wars, huh? I thought you would need a good way to relax.” His green eyes danced with mischief. “Care to join lonely old me?”

How he had gotten in was irrelevant. When he got in would be nice to know. But that he was here made her quake with delight.

So she wasn’t certain if she shrieked or groaned, but she did lean over, cup his jaw and kiss him. Hard, fast and more than once.

He tasted of need and joy.

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“Lucky me. Naked already.” He put an arm around her waist and dragged her forward. “Get in here now and show me how you really feel.”

She climbed right in, no second invitation necessary. Bracing herself on her knees, she pressed herself against his torso, wound her arms around his shoulders and kissed him again. But she jumped away! “Your arm!”

“Good enough to hold you, sweetheart. Come back and kiss me again, Maddie,” he whispered. “I’ve been so lonely for you.”

His words stripped her of all awareness. Suddenly, she was clutching him, her lips to his throat and tears were dribbling down her cheeks.

“Hey, hey, baby. None of that!” He drew her away from him. He held her face, brushed her cheeks with two thumbs and smiled at her. “I’m fine. Better. See?” He lifted his left arm and circled it in the air. She could see the scar, still healing, and she drifted down into his embrace again, his body as warm as the water and deliciously firm.

“I missed you so,” she told him as he began to stroke her back with one of her bath sponges. She sighed in release of her tension. “I wondered where you were. How you were. Wondered when you’d come back.” She kissed his chest.

He ran his splayed fingers up into her hair. “But you knew I would.”

She smiled against his throat.

He pulled her up again so that he could see her face. His was full of fear. “You did, didn’t you?”

She gave him a joyful grin. “I did. I knew because you’ve always come back for me no matter the odds. I have trusted you from the beginning. I will ’til the end of time.”

“Madison Sommers,” he whispered as he brushed his lips over hers, “you are so right. I am always coming home to you. Know why?”

She shook her head, speechless.

“Because I love you.”

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She caught her breath and kissed him back with all the ardor and all the pent up craziness of the last five weeks. “I love you, too, Dan. I never thought I would ever say that to a man. Never thought I’d find anyone I could trust. Or love.”

He crushed her close, one arm wrapped around her back, one hand skimming her breast, her belly and caressing her pussy. “Oh, honey. You are the sweetest thing I’ve ever known. The wisest. The wettest—” He shifted her so that his fingers sank up inside her cunt.

“And you,” she managed as she found his hot girth and stroked him, “are the best lover an Ice Goddess ever had!”

He sputtered in laughter. “Who knew I could melt you down?” Then he pushed her aside and rose, the water rippling down the planes and hollows of his body, sluicing all his tempting muscles with glistening refractions of light. He put out his hand. “Let me make you do it again.”

She stepped out after him, letting him dry her off and pulling her to him to walk her backward into her bedroom.

He sat her on the edge, reached over and threw pillows this way and that, then came back to her to peel the towel off her body. “Know what I love about you?” he said, his voice vague and dreamy.

Lost in him, she drifted in a haze as he massaged her hair and kissed her forehead.

“I want to hear.”

He spread her legs wide and nestled his hot, damp torso between them. “I love your brains.”

She guffawed. “Thanks!”

He pulled her hair at her nape so that she looked up at him. “No joke. You are one smart cookie.” He blessed her eyelids and her nose with his mouth. “I told the boys that, over and over.”

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“The boys?” It was about all she could manage with the way his thumbs had found her nipples and rubbed them from side to side.

“Mm. My boys. Frank and Len. And Jared, too.” He ran his lips over the ridge of her jaw.

“The three musketeers?” she pursued his line of thinking as he bit her earlobe and made her shiver.

“From the alphabet soup agencies.” He put one hand to her ass and sank his fingers between her cleft to tap her darkest orifice.

That was a new adventure for her. One she’d have only with him. “Dan, I—”

“Shh, baby. I’m talking here.” He leaned down and took one nipple into his mouth and sucked her hard so that she arched up. “I love your gorgeous breasts. These,” he crooned as he slipped to the other and played with the areola with the tip of his tongue.

“I love how pink they are. And as soft as silk.” He nipped her. “But hard for me.”

She fought for breath.

He pushed her to her back, her legs dangling over the edge of the mattress as he widened her thighs. “I love your big toes!”

She yelped as he pinched both of them. She cuffed him. “My toes?“

“Sure!” He fell forward over her to rub his chest on hers as he squeezed her knees.

And his hard, hot beautiful cock teased at the entrance to her pussy. “Feel what a turn-on your toes are for me!”

“You are nuts, Foreman!” She was gasping with laughter. “You are making me crazy with lust!”

“Precisely!” He dropped a kiss to her navel. “And am I ever grateful.” He put both hands to the juncture of her thighs, his thumbs to her labia. “Want me to prove how grateful?”

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“I do! Ohh, how I do!” She was giggling, groaning and counting the milliseconds until he possessed her. On a whimper, she pleaded, “Now, honey, now. Dan, I’ve waited so long for you.”

“I waited to find you too, baby. You are so smart, so tough, so honest.”

She ran a hand over his hair. “Dan, darling.”

He made some wild sound then as he sank to spread her wide and put his mouth to her needy little cunt. His kiss on her clit was brief. His tongue on her labia was hot. His devotion to every little inch of her was long and succulent and sweetly maddening.

“You know,” he murmured against her sensitive flesh, “the reason we have such good sex is because you and I knew who each other was long before we ever hooked up in that stairwell.”