He’d never been so turned on in his life as he was right now. With her in his shirt, covered in his scent…he wanted to cover her in his come. Which felt raw, primal and kinda fucked up but he didn’t care. He needed to mark this woman even if she could never be his. Even as he had the thoughts he cursed himself.
And started coming. There was no controlling it, not when she was pumping him with a perfect rhythm with her perfect hand. God, everything about her was perfect. As if she’d been made just for him. Which was stupid but… Pulling back, he groaned out her name as he came even harder in long jets against her hand and his stomach. His climax seemed to go on forever and for once, he had no damn control.
Shuddering as he finally came down from his high, he looked into her dark eyes, completely captivated. Yep, she owned him already, no doubt about it.
And he desperately wanted to give to her what she’d just given to him, to tease every inch of her body with his mouth and hands. God, he wished he had six hands right now. When he grasped the edge of her long shirt, ready to lift it over her head, she surprised him and placed her smaller hands over his.
“I’m not ready for more tonight.” She almost looked apologetic, which stunned him.
He wanted to get on his knees and worship her pussy but if she didn’t want more right now, that was okay too. This wasn’t over though, not by a long shot. “Okay.”
“Okay?” She seemed surprised.
“I want to taste you coming against my tongue but yeah, okay.” He sure wasn’t going to pressure her even if he felt selfish for being the only one to receive pleasure tonight. It made him feel off-balance and even more desperate to taste her. “We’ll wait until you’re ready.” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to clean up but…do you want to stay in my bed tonight?”
She nodded, her cheeks pink. And just like that he started to get hard again. Axel had a feeling that was going to be a perpetual problem around her.
*
Skye stepped back from the abandoned car, frustrated that she and Colt had found nothing. Nothing they could use anyway. And they’d come prepared to search the vehicle. They’d done a luminol test in the trunk and there was blood visible with a black light, and if she was a betting woman she’d guess it was from the guy who’d attacked Hadley.
So no sleep lost there.
But they hadn’t found any damn fingerprints. Which was flat-out wrong. So what the heck was going on? She couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Someone attacked Hadley and then someone else incapacitated the attacker. But then what, he’d killed the attacker? Disposed of the body? Why? Who was this other man? Why had he helped Hadley?
“Let’s see if we can get some of the blood and do a test on it,” Colt said quietly as he glanced around.
The marina was out of the way, not one of the major ones in Redemption Harbor. It was quiet, which was no surprise since it was two in the morning. As far as she knew no one lived in any of the boats here. If they did, no one was moving around.
She and her husband were in disguise regardless. Nodding, she let her husband do his thing, cutting a couple swatches of the rug from the back of the trunk.
Once they were back in one of their company’s vehicles—with an untraceable license plate—Colt said, “What’s really going on with you?”
She wasn’t certain what he meant as he steered out of the gravelly parking lot. “How so?”
“You’re more amped up than usual about this. Is it because we don’t have a job?”
They weren’t in a lull exactly as far as work was concerned but everyone was busy with something at the moment and they didn’t have anything pressing they needed to deal with. Which, as a former spy, she completely understood. There wasn’t always going to be action, action, action. She definitely knew that more than most. In her downtime, she simply exercised a whole lot and cleaned her weapons. A lot of that had to do with her ADHD. She needed to keep busy and stay focused on something. It was also what made her so damn good at her job.
“I’m just worried about Hadley, that’s all,” she finally said.
Colt snorted softly. “Lie to yourself, don’t lie to me.”
She let out a sigh. The man always saw through her and had right from the start. “Fine. I don’t know how to say it exactly. Before you, before us, and all of this, I never had people to worry about. Not really. And doing the job was easy.”
Because helping strangers was easy, at least for her. And part of it was selfish. Doing the right thing made her feel good and she liked protecting people. That deep-seated need was embedded in her DNA, she guessed. She had this drive to simply make things better. If it was part of her DNA, she’d come by it naturally, considering her parents had been spies too.
But now… “I’ve got people I love and care about. A lot of people. It’s weird. Because Hadley, Valencia, Mary Grace, her new baby, they’re so damn innocent and I hate to use the word fragile because that’s wrong, but I want to protect them all the time. And the world is messed up. Anything could happen to them any time of day. And I hate that I can’t stop it.”
Colt reached out and took her hand in his as he pulled up to a stop sign. “I know. I worry about them too.”
“It’s hard to compartmentalize and turn off my brain on the best of days.”
He nodded. “It’s one of the downsides to having so many people in your life. It’s worth it though.” He didn’t phrase it as a question but she got the feeling that he was asking. As if he doubted she was glad about this huge change in their lives in the last couple years.
“Yes, it is definitely worth it. It’s just made me very aware of my mortality and, okay, afraid for my friends.” And she wasn’t used to feeling afraid. She had only ever felt truly afraid when it came to Colt being in danger. Now she had all these people to worry about. It was a new, exhausting experience. She wasn’t sure how anyone had kids, ever. She’d die of exhaustion worrying about them and fighting not to let it show.
He squeezed her hand again and lifted it to his mouth. Then he pressed a soft kiss to her knuckles. “I love you,” he said.
“Right back at you.” Pushing out a breath, she found herself calming. They’d figure out this mystery soon enough.
Chapter 7
—Remember when I asked for your opinion? Yeah, me neither.—
Hadley laid her head on Axel’s chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat. Strong and steady. Seemingly like the man.
After they’d gone horseback riding, they’d basically been vegging out by her brother’s huge pool. It was kind of weird to be here without Brooks, but he’d made it abundantly clear that she should feel free to use this giant place as her own. He’d told her that he would be offended if she ever acted like a guest here, which yeah, just made her love him more. She wasn’t sure how she’d gotten so lucky having him for a brother. Right now, however, she was a little glad he wasn’t home. Because he’d probably go all overprotective crazy about Axel being with her.
It was strange not to have anything to do for a week. Heck, she’d been working since she was sixteen and normally worked over every single school break to save money. She hadn’t been sure what she was going to do with herself, and now having all this free time with Axel was kind of incredible. She was really afraid she was falling for him, which was insane. They’d barely spent a day together. But he brought out this wild, fun side of her and she felt as if he really saw her.
Obviously there was so much they didn’t know about each other but she wanted the chance to get to know everything about him.
“What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” Axel’s fingers were lazy against her back as he rubbed up and down in a rhythmic fashion.
Cuddled up against him, there was nowhere else she wanted to be. “Nothing really, just enjoying today. It’s kind of strange to be so lazy and do nothing.”
The sky overhead was blue with just a few clouds scattered around but there was more warmth in the air today. Not enough to shed their jackets yet, but spring was truly coming and she was ready for it. It had been a bitterly cold winter.