Until Midnight (8 page)

pharmaceutical issues from a different angle and had experience tracking it. Whether he had been successful or not before this didn’t really matter so much as the fact that he wanted to continue. Continue with her. Continue
for
her. And she needed him. His clever brain. His smart humor. Yes, she craved him. Like sunshine and rain. And for an excitement and a delight in living that she had never known until he took her in his arms and loved her with that fabulous body.

He tried to smile. His mouth didn’t work.

She rose from her chair. “Come meet two of my staff who can give us the run-down

on Abbas and Haller. Maddie and Dan are married. Recently, too. They met while Dan was on a project for the Feds and Maddie was chief of staff to the Speaker of the

House.”

57

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

“Maddie…” Adam snapped his fingers. “She worked for Paul Trask? Good god. I

read about her!”

“She helped to put him away. Dan and she saved each other from Trask’s attempt

to kill them and bury what they knew about his operations in south Texas.”

“It’ll be an honor to meet them,” Adam told her. “But why with this? What do they

bring to the table?”

“Maddie has a large network of friends and acquaintances. She uses her

connections well. To our benefit.” Nicki wiggled her brows. “And Dan has a deft hand with technology. Computers. Decoding. Analysis. He has become invaluable to us

here.”

“Which way to the newly married couple?”

Nicki threw Adam a grin and pressed a button. The wall behind her slid silently

open and there, at a large glass table, sat her old college friend, Madison, talking quietly with her new husband, tall, fit, Dan Foreman. Dan had his hand on Maddie’s cheek and the tender look in his eyes made Nicki startle.
That look
. She’d seen it on Dan. Seen it on other men’s faces. But never directed at her. Until now. When she saw it on Adam

Molloy’s face every time he kissed her or made love to her.

The shock froze her.

Love was not on her agenda. Never had been. An affair, loose and noncommittal,

sure, she could do that. An interlude, fast and hot, always a possibility, but never often.

Never an entanglement she sought. But tenderness? Love from a man she knew was so

untamed, so talented, so quick and smart? That was the biggest danger.
Wasn’t it?

Maddie and Dan turned toward her and grinned, then rose.

“Hey, Nicki!” Dan was first to put out his hand toward her. Because she was the

boss and this was the office, he was always professional here. Never hugging her in greeting.

58

Until Midnight

Maddie was more casual, more natural. Fourteen years of friendship between them

meant Maddie was going to be less formal. She came over and hugged Nicki, then held her arms to pull back and glance in her eyes. “How are you? Cat gave us headlines. But Dan and I need details!”

Nicki smiled gently. “And we’ve got lots for you both. This is Adam Molloy.”

“Adam,” Dan shook hands, his green eyes wary of the newcomer.

“Hi, Adam,” Maddie greeted him and followed Nicki’s lead to take their seats.

Nicole folded her hands on the table. “Let me tell you first that Adam happened to be in the right place for me at the right time. His ability to do that comes with his nine-to-five job.”

Dan got an astonished look on his face. “Nine to five? Yeah, right.”

“Do tell,” Maddie encouraged with a grin.

“Mossad,” Adam provided.

“No shit,” Dan muttered.

Maddie fell back in her chair. “So you were just out for a stroll on a private beach and managed to see a suspicious character about to hurt our girl, huh?”

Adam tipped his head. “You might say it like this.” Then he explained what he was

doing there, why, and how he had helped Nicki survive.

Nicki shifted in her chair. The expression on Maddie’s face told her that her friend could detect a few holes in Adam’s summary. Dan absorbed the tale with a few nods.

But Maddie’s cool blue gaze on Nicki’s face made her blush.

She swallowed hard as Adam finished. “And now we have these suspicions of the

owners of the resort.”

“And you have to track them,” Dan added. “Who are they?”

When Nicki listed the five, Maddie widened her eyes.

Dan grimaced.

“The manager of the place seems clean,” Adam told them, “but we’re not certain.”

59

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

Nicole tapped the table with her fingertips. “We need a complete dossier on all five partners who own the resort. Plus the manager.”

“That’s where I come in,” Dan added. “I’ll get on it.”

“We also need,” Nicki added, “an update on their financial records. Public and

private. If you can get the private ones. We suspect they have a few little accounts in the Caymans. Just for emergencies.”

Maddie nodded. “Who doesn’t?”

Adam agreed. “But anything we can get that isn’t in the papers or the bank

accounts, that would be a bigger help.”

Maddie grinned. “Just my cup of tea. Who are we talking about?”

Adam rapped his knuckles on the table. “One of the five is an acquaintance of mine.

He, of course, would rather forget how we met. But he owes me a favor. A big one. He seems to me to be the easiest to get to.”

“Which is he?” Maddie asked.

“Henri LeClerq.”

“LeClerq. LeClerq.” Maddie frowned for a moment, then brightened. “I went to

boarding school in Geneva with his daughter, Marie. Nice man. What’s your connection to him, Adam?”

“Three years ago, I headed a team to find out who was funding the purchase of

guns and rockets to Hamas in Gaza. We soon learned it was a group in Iran, but the money made its way through Henri’s private bank in Basel. We were about to make

arrangements to close him down when it became clear he had no idea who he was

really dealing with. The money had been laundered before it got to him. We cleared him and the bank. Saved his ass. Hence, he owes me.”

Dan whistled. “Good story. He should be grateful.”

Adam nodded. “Very.”

“So you both want to get in to see LeClerq soon?” Maddie asked.

60

Until Midnight

“We do,” Adam nodded.

“I doubt that can happen.”

“Why not?” Nicki asked.

“Because,” Maddie sat forward, “Henri is on his way to Washington for a meeting

of private bankers at the World Bank. This is a big event. Bankers from the G-20

countries there to talk about the recessions in the States and Europe. Top security. He won’t be available.”

“Can you get a message to him?” Adam asked.

“I’ll try,” she replied.

“Tell him I must see him.”

Her blond brows shot high. “Adam Molloy?”

“None other,” he confirmed.

“Just checking.” She grinned. “I’d guess you’ve had a few other names over the

course of your career.”

He gave Maddie a lopsided grin. “I have. Molloy is the real thing, Maddie. Go with it.”

“I will. I’ll see what I can do,” Maddie offered.

“So,” Dan began, “What’s your next move?”

Nicki glanced at Adam. “Henderson?”

Adam got to his feet. “Henderson in the Caribbean.”

61

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

Adam looked out the window of the Nemesis private jet as it winged its way over

the blue waters of the Caribbean.

“It always looks so calm and beautiful down there,” he told Nicki, seated in the

plush chair across from him. “You’d never know the kind of crooked filth that goes on just beneath the surface.”

“That’s the damn truth.” She sipped lightly at her glass of wine.

They’d left Maddie and Dan in charge of things back at headquarters. Five minutes

after the initial briefing Dan was already busy searching for information—public,

private and hidden—on the five resort partners. He was also looking for whatever had connected them in the first place. Maddie was pulling strings and exercising her charm to get past Henri LeClerq’s considerable security to wangle an audience for Adam and Nicki.

“The car will be waiting for us when we land?” he asked.

She nodded. “That was Cat on the phone a few minutes ago. “The man we use

whenever we have to stage an op in the Caribbean will be waiting for us at the private airport with what we need. He’s also the one arranging the boat to take us to

Henderson’s island.”

“Pretty dicey owning an island so close to the international water line of Cuba.” He swallowed the rest of his drink.

“I’m sure he thinks it will keep unwanted visitors away. You can’t land without his permission and stray boats won’t know exactly the waterline of demarcation.”

“But your guy knows exactly how to take us in?”

62

Until Midnight

Nicki winked at him. “Trust me. “He took me here twice before. Anyway, you can’t

get close unless he okays it.” She looked at her watch. “We’ll have about four hours after we land to check into the hotel and get to the marina. Henderson’s still recovering from that emergency appendectomy and he’s not so young anymore.”

“I’m not sure it was a good idea to let him know we’re coming,” Adam mused. “He

could have his helicopter pick him up and move him someplace else before we get to his island.”

She shook her head. “He owes me big-time. If he runs out on me, I’ll be after his ass and he’s very aware of it.”

“Your call.” His grin held a glint of the devil. “That means we have to occupy

ourselves while we’re waiting. Did you have something in mind?”

“Oh,” she drawled, “I think we can come up with something intriguing.”

* * * * *

Great Exuma Cay was an oven, the hot sun burning everything in sight, the air so

moist and thick it was nearly suffocating. But it was mild compared to the heat sizzling in the hotel room where Adam and Nicki stood facing each other. They’d practically torn their clothes off the moment the door locked behind them but now it seemed they wanted to hit the Pause button and slow things down.

The ceiling fan turned lazily overhead, creating a soft breeze on her naked skin but it did little to lower Nicki’s body temperature as Adam’s hot gaze raked over her.

“Jesus, you’re a wet dream walking.” His voice was low and guttural with arousal.

“I’m going to have to figure out how to control myself in public. I don’t think I want to walk into Henderson’s house with a raging hard-on poking through my jeans.”

Nicki’s laugh was throaty and warm. “Then I guess we’d better do something about

it.”

She dropped gracefully to her knees in front of him and wrapped her slim fingers

around his thickly swollen cock. One tiny bead of moisture sat temptingly at the slit on 63

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

the plum-colored head. She lapped it gently with her tongue, making a low humming

noise in the back of her throat. Adam sucked in his breath, a hissing sound that cut through the air.

He held himself rigid, hands at his sides, but when Nicki opened her mouth and

slowly slid her lips down the length of his shaft he tunneled his fingers through her hair and gripped her head.

“Oh, fuck,” he growled. “Oh, shit, Nicki. Your mouth is…incredible.”

She made that little humming noise again and began to slide her mouth up and

down, swirling her tongue around his cock with each movement. Every muscle in his

body was rigid, taut with anticipation as she sucked and lapped and pulled on him.

When she slipped one hand between his thighs to cup his sac, fire shot through his groin and a growl roared up from his chest.

The harder she sucked, the tighter he gripped her head. Almost unconsciously he

rocked his hips, fucking her mouth as her tongue danced along his turgid flesh. He’d had a lot of women in his life—far too many, some might say—but no one had ever

given him the pleasure that Nicole Welles did, or reached inside him to something he’d thought lost long ago.

He rocked in rhythm with the movement of her mouth, her fingers rolling his balls

in a gentle motion that sent heat lightning through his body. He felt the familiar tightening in his groin and the icy tingle at the base of his spine that signaled the rush of his climax. And then it rocketed through him, gripping him and shaking him like a

giant fist. He spurted into Nicki’s mouth again and again, his hips thrusting forward with each spasm.

She never eased her motion, swallowing every bit of his cum while her fingers

continued to stroke him and her tongue lapped at his shaft. One final shudder and he was spent, leaning weakly over her, still gripping her head, now as much for support as anything else.

64

Until Midnight

One final lick and Nicki rose to her feet. She wrapped her arms around him and

kissed him, the flavor of his cum still on her lips. The impact made his now soft cock twitch threatening to harden again.

Drawing in a long breath, he exhaled slowly, turned with Nicki in his arms and

carried them both down to the bed.

“What’s good for one is good for the other,” he murmured in her ear before

plunging his tongue into her mouth.

She was like liquid fire, branding him with the tongue that moments ago had given

him so much pleasure. He tore his mouth away from hers to trail it down her body, pausing to nip at each taut nipple. The soft little moans she made were like matches lighting his nerves and he moved his mouth at once to her nearly naked cunt.

“You shaved,” he murmured, running his tongue over the newly bared skin. She’d

left only a thin strip of curls covering the outer lips.

“The better to feel you with.” The words were teasing but the tension in her voiced betrayed her instantly rising heat.