Cut and Run (20 page)

God, she was tight! Her interior muscles gripped his finger as if she didn’t want him to leave again. But Scott had other plans. He pulled his finger from her and moved north to her center of pleasure. When he found the engorged piece of flesh and stroked over it, Phoebe moaned into his mouth. He captured the intoxicating sound and felt it reverberate in his chest.

Rhythmically her pelvis ground against his hand. She rubbed herself against him, spurring him on, her chest now heaving, her breaths coming in erratic pants. But he could do better than that. He could get her even hotter, even wilder.

Severing the kiss, he slid down her body, released her sex and gripped her pants. As he slid them off her legs, she helped him by lifting her backside off the bed. Her panties followed. Finally she lay naked before him. A veritable feast for the eyes.

Scott took hold of her thighs and spread them wider, before he dropped his head to her sex.

A surprised gasp was her answer as she reared up. “Scott!”

“Shhh,” he murmured. “Just enjoy it.” Because he didn’t go down on every woman he had sex with. In fact, he rarely did. It was too intimate, something reserved for a person with whom he had a deeper connection, and not the one-night stands he had from time to time.

But it was different with Phoebe. He wanted to taste her to experience the intimacy of sensing her shudder under his mouth. He craved that closeness. If just for this one night, he wanted to feel a connection to somebody. To Phoebe.

When he swiped his tongue over her moist folds and tasted the dew that had seeped from her, his entire body coiled with excitement. Behind his shorts, his cock pressed against the mattress, and he thrust his hips as if he were thrusting into Phoebe. Already now he could feel pre-come ooze from the tip. How long he could hold back now before the need to take her would overwhelm him, he didn’t know for certain. But it wouldn’t be long.

Desperate to pleasure the woman in his arms, Scott licked her sex, teasing her center of pleasure with firm strokes of his tongue and gentle caresses with his fingers. Phoebe twisted beneath him, rubbing herself ever more rapidly against his tongue and fingers.

“Oh, yes, more, yes!”

Her words were like a chant, and he welcomed each and every one of them. Her hands dug into his shoulders as if holding on for dear life.

“Please, please!” she begged. “Scott! Please!”

He knew what she wanted, what she needed. Not letting go of her clit, he drove two fingers into her and felt her buck against him. Simultaneously, he sucked the engorged bundle of nerves into his mouth and pressed his lips together.

Phoebe erupted. He could feel the waves charging through her body physically as the vibrations reached his fingers and lips.

Fuck! He’d underestimated how intense this feeling would be. Just by feeling Phoebe climax, he was dancing on the verge of his own orgasm.

He lifted his head and removed his fingers reluctantly, but he had to hurry now. If he didn’t get inside her in the next few seconds, he wouldn’t make it.

Frantically, Scott freed himself of his shorts, glad he was going commando, and reached over to his bedside table. He pulled a condom from the drawer, opened it and slipped it over.

When he looked back at Phoebe, her eyes were on him.

“You want me?”

She reached for him, pulling him closer. “Yes.”

When she tried to touch his cock, he gripped her wrist, preventing her action. “If you touch me now, I’m gonna come.”

“We can’t have that,” she murmured seductively and lay back on the bed.

Scott moved over her, settled in the vee of her legs and braced himself on his elbows and knees. With a look into her eyes, he drove into her, seating himself to the hilt. “Fuck!”

Despite the condom that normally robbed his cock of some of its sensitivity, the feeling of being inside Phoebe was intense. And he wasn’t even moving yet. He was simply lodged deep inside her, taking steadying breaths in the hope of warding off his imminent orgasm.

“You feel good,” Phoebe said, sliding her hands onto his ass and crossing her ankles behind his thighs.

“Yeah?” He dropped his head to her face and pulled her lower lip into his mouth, swiping his tongue over it. “Are you ready for more?”

“Mmm.”

“I take that as a yes.”

He pulled his hips back and withdrew almost completely from her silken sheath before slicing back into her. Like a tight glove, she enveloped him, and he began to thrust steadily. Though he wanted to keep his tempo slow, he couldn’t. His body was dictating his actions now, and he had no control any longer. Driven by the need to find release, his body took on a mind of its own. His hips worked frantically, his pelvis slamming against hers in rapid succession, his cock sliding in and out of her without pause. His movements grew wilder and faster with each passing minute.

His torso was covered in sweat, and every time their bodies came together the sound echoed from the walls, underscoring their combined moans and sighs. Heavy breathing mingled with it. With every thrust, Phoebe arched into him.

“Yes, come with me,” he encouraged her, wanting to feel her body spasm when he climaxed, knowing it would only add to his own pleasure.

“Harder! More!” she demanded.

Scott welcomed her demand. Instinctively he’d held back, not wanting to hurt her, but now that she spurred him on to take her more ferociously, he let himself go. He braced himself on his knees, gripped her hips with both hands and tilted her pelvis upward, immobilizing her. Then he plunged into her, harder this time. Faster too. Phoebe gasped, her chest heaving, but she didn’t stop him, didn’t voice a protest. Instead, her eyes locked with his, approval and desire shining back at him.

“Yes! Scott! Yes!”

He felt his balls burn and knew there was no going back now. Gritting his teeth and clenching his jaw, he drove into her, while he used his hands to pull her pelvis to him in the same movement, doubling the impact.

Phoebe moaned, then a shudder ran through her body. Before it reached him, Scott felt his semen shoot through his cock and explode from the tip. “Fuck!”

His cock kept thrusting back and forth, his hands still holding Phoebe’s hips immobile so she couldn’t escape. Though it didn’t look like she had any intention of escaping. On the contrary, she reached for his face, pulled it to her and kissed him. His movements slowed, and after what felt like an eternity, he stilled.

“That was…wow.”

Scott pressed his forehead against hers. “Yes, wow is the right word.” He rolled off her and rid himself of the condom then pulled her back into his arms. He took a few breaths and leisurely stroked her back before sliding his hand down to her behind and resting it there.

“I hadn’t expected this,” he admitted.

Phoebe lifted her head from his chest. She looked thoroughly loved, and he had to admit, he liked the look on her.

“Expected what?”

“That you’d accept my challenge.”

“Was that what it was? A challenge?” She chuckled softly. “I had the impression you wanted to shock me with your proposition.”

“And? Did I succeed?”

“I wouldn’t be here if you had.”

Scott raised an eyebrow. “Fearless, huh?”

“You don’t strike me as somebody I should fear.”

“You have no idea.” If only she knew what he’d been, who he’d worked for, the things he’d done, and the things he was capable of. But she would never find out. Because despite the incredible sex they’d had, he wasn’t going to tell her anything about himself. She was still a reporter.

“What’s with that frown on your face?”

He shook his head. “No questions, remember?”

Phoebe rolled her eyes and started to rise.

“Where are you going?”

“Where do you think I’m going? I’m leaving.”

“Why?”

“Because you can’t even tell me why you’re frowning just after we had sex.” She swung her legs out of bed. “As if you regret it already.”

Scott sighed and reached for her. “That frown had nothing to do with you.”

Phoebe rose. Scott jumped up and wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulling her against his body. He knew he should let her leave now, but he couldn’t. He didn’t want her to think badly of him.

“I don’t regret what just happened between us. I loved every second of it. You’re an amazing woman, Phoebe. It’s just, well, it’s complicated. And I can’t talk about it.”

“Complicated? What man hasn’t said that after having sex with a woman? Let me make this easy on you. I’ll leave, and you won’t have to come up with any excuses later why you want me gone.”

She was right about so many things. He would make up an excuse eventually so she would leave. And he should take the out she was presenting him with just now. But for whatever inexplicable reason, he couldn’t.

“Phoebe, please spend the night with me. Stay here.”

She turned her head, looking at him in disbelief. “You want me to stay here? What happened to
it’s complicated
?”

Scott brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “Forget about that. It doesn’t matter tonight. Sleep here, with me, in my bed. I love having you in my arms.”

She tilted her head back in a clear invitation, her lips parted, her lids lowered halfway.

“Thank you,” he murmured. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“How?”

“Give me a few minutes to recover, and I’ll show you.”

And a few minutes was all it would take before he was ready to make love to her again.

10

Scott raced toward the building, but his feet didn’t want to comply. The faster he ran, the farther away he seemed to find himself. As if he were running in reverse. He reached out his arms, wanting to grasp what was in front of him, but his fingers touched nothing. His lungs burned from exhaustion but he couldn’t stop, knew he had to continue, because the fate of so many people depended on him.

But he wouldn’t make it. He knew it instinctively. When he saw the six Marines carry the coffin from the cargo hold of the plane, he knew he would be too late. The American flag draped over the coffin fluttered in the breeze as the six walked stoically toward their doom.

Scott tried to scream, to warn them to take cover, to find shelter, though he knew even if they did, they couldn’t save themselves.

The explosion knocked him off his feet. The shockwave that followed slammed him against a wall. Then there were only flames and fire so hot it was coming from hell itself.

Scott felt his skin melt. The pain rendered him immobile. He couldn’t even scream, because the fire was burning away his face, until only one thought remained: the Phoenix had failed in their ultimate mission.

Phoenix down.

At the command, Scott shot up to sit. He was in his bedroom. The fiery inferno was gone and he was alive. He rubbed his hand over his face, instinctively checking that he was all right.

It was the same nightmare he’d had many times before, though he knew it wasn’t a true nightmare. It was a premonition, even though this particular one seemed to only hit him when he was asleep, while most of his other visions came over him when he was awake.

But just like the other nights he’d had this premonition, he hadn’t glimpsed enough information to allow him to figure out where and when this disaster would take place. There was no indication as to the location, though the six Marines in his vision seemed to suggest the inferno would take place on U.S. soil.

Scott had no idea what was causing the explosion or how large it was, but from the shockwave he always felt hitting his body, he had to assume it was of massive proportions. Not just one building blowing up, or even one city block, but something on an even larger scale.

There was however one thing that he knew wasn’t part of the premonition: the command, which always signaled the end of the vision.
Phoenix down
.

He’d received it three years ago. It had come from his father and mentor, Henry Sheppard. And Scott had known immediately what it meant: the program had been compromised. The protocol for such an event had been drilled into him ever since Sheppard had started the Phoenix program.

“You hear that command, you leave everything behind, son, you hear me?” Sheppard had urged him. “Assume you’re on your own. They’ll hunt you down for what you are, for what you’re capable of. But you have to live. Do you understand that?”

Scott had nodded reluctantly. “And you? Won’t they hunt you too? You have the same skills as I do.”

Sheppard had squeezed his hand. “When you get that command, my life will already be forfeit. Don’t look for me. Assume I’m dead, because most likely I will be.”

Scott shook off the painful memories when he heard a sound next to him. He wasn’t alone, and only now he remembered that Phoebe was still in his bed. Sleeping soundly.

Quietly, not wanting to wake her, he pulled back the thin blanket and swung his legs out of bed. He reached for his shorts and put them on, then walked into the living room, easing the door to the bedroom shut soundlessly behind him.

Still shaken from the premonition, he walked to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of water. He gulped it down and felt the refreshing liquid cool his body from the inside.

He knew he couldn’t sleep any longer. His mind was racing again, reliving every moment of his vision in the hope that he remembered something that would help him decipher the secret hiding in his premonition. So he could prevent the disaster. Because that had been the reason his father had started the top secret program within the CIA. To foresee and prevent disastrous events. Until somebody had decided that having agents who could see the future was a liability and a danger in itself. Until that somebody had killed Sheppard and thus made the members of the Phoenix program go underground.

Scott had no idea how many had made it out, how many were alive. The program had operated in such secrecy that not even Scott knew which of the agents he’d met during his training at The Farm had been selected for the Phoenix program, or which were going to enter regular CIA field work. However, he’d always sensed there were others like him and his father, others with the same skill.