Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (14 page)

He shuddered. “How can I forget?”

“That’s living a scary movie. You want to scare the shit out of me, put on a romantic comedy. Death I get. Girls pretending they don’t like food to get the guy, terrifies me every time.” She winked at him as she twisted the cap off her beer and his.

They clinked them together.

“To slasher flicks, pizza covered with dead things, and people that you love.”

“Here here
!” Both of them chugged the first beer and then laughed as they finished at the same time.

Callen handed her pizza on a plate and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.” He didn’t need to tell her why, or what she did to fix him
. That was the best part of her being his best friend. She just always knew.

Elizabeth was going to comment when her phone rang. It was the ring for her husband, and she put it on speaker phone. “Hey baby, how are you?”

“I’m having dinner alone in my office.” There was nothing worse than being away from his wife. He wished he could hop a flight there immediately. “What are you doing?”

“I’m having dinner with your brother.”

Whitefox wanted to tease him. “Pizza and beer.”

“Damn, and here I’m having just pizza
and no beer.” He was glad his brother felt better, he was worried. “How did it go?”

Elizabeth broke it all down
and updated him. When she got to the gun to the head part, he wasn’t entertained in the least.

“
Your wife took down the sheriff deputy in two seconds, in the dark, by the swamp, and without making a sound. It was pretty impressive. I would have clapped, but I had my hands in the air and a double barrel pointed at my head.”

Elizabeth laughed. “We weren’t really dealing with master criminals. The deputy is green
and worse than Callen.”

“Hey!”
he protested.

Blackhawk laughed.

“The old lady is a witch. I’ll write this off as she used magic to sneak up on him. I had the deputy out cold and his gun in the back of my jeans before he knew what hit him. He should be ashamed of himself as a man.”

“Yes he should,” snickered her husband
.

“What’s happening there?” Elizabeth doubted he called to tell her he was eating pizza. “Why aren’t you home?”

“Dad is with CJ on the Rez at granddad’s. He’s still not feeling well, so he took our son there. I called Julian and he’s on his way here. I’m going to get him on a flight in an hour or so, and then book him with you both there. He’s going to pretend he doesn’t know you, so play along.”

“
That works for me. The bed and breakfast is pretty empty.”

“How is it?”
Ethan hoped his wife wasn’t holed up in a roach coach, or Ginny was getting an ass chewing on Monday.

Whitefox spoke, “It’s actually nice. Great view from our window,
there is a slasher movie on TV, and the bed is comfy,” he said, bouncing until the bed squeaked.

Blackhawk went silent.

“You still there?” asked Elizabeth, starting to laugh.

“Why is Callen grinning and using singular words when plural
ones should be used in their place, like windows, beds and TVs?”

Elizabeth
snickered.

“I’m in bed with your wife, Ethan.” Now
, he was teasing his brother just to get a rise out of him. “Her, me, beer and pizza on our hot date.”

“Is she wearing the lingerie that she had on under the dress today Cal? Because it was spectacular.” Now
, he rubbed it in right back, because it’s what brothers did.

“Damn it,” he muttered. “No, she’s in shorts and a t-shirt.”

“Well then, carry on.”

Elizabeth loved the men in her life. “I love you
, Ethan.”

“I love you too, baby. Be careful tomorrow, okay?” That was directed at his brother. He hoped he got the message.
Then he remembered what he needed to tell them about the mail room and what happened on the phone with Chris Leonard.

“Did you recover it?” asked Elizabeth.

“Yeah, the tech team is going over it for me, and scanning anything you need that’s pertinent. Then I’m going to courier it over to you. It should be there by Monday morning to the bed and breakfast.”

“Are we going to tell Desdemona
that we found it?” Whitefox didn’t know how he felt about her trying to circumvent her bosses and all the lies, but he didn’t know how he felt doing it right back to her.

“I think that’s going to depend on two things. What the book says and if Desdemona is willing to play by the rules. Her running around haphazardly is a bad idea.”

“I agree, Ethan.” Elizabeth sided with her husband. If Desdemona played with the team, then she’d get the information. “Can you live with that Cal?”

“Yeah. I happen to agree.”

“Okay, you two enjoy your pizza. I’m going down to the tech lab to see what they have so far.”

Elizabeth blew her husband kisses. “Ethan get some sleep tonight on your couch,” she snickered, knowing he’d remember what happened on the couch that morning.

“Oh, I will, don’t you worry about it.” There was laughter and lust in his voice as he reminisced about their office adventure. “Watch each other’s backs and call me before you go out tomorrow.”

“Will do,
Boss,” answered Whitefox. “Back to our pizza and slasher flick.”

Elizabeth thought about it. “Ethan, check your right jacket pocket. I love you.” Then she disconnected the call
, laughing.

“What’s in his pocket?”

“Part of the lingerie,” she answered honestly, and then winked at her brother-in-law.

Callen
thought about it, and figured it out pretty fast. “Lucky bastard,” he muttered, and chugged another beer trying to not dwell on it.

Elizabeth’s cell chimed and she knew what it was. Reading the text message she replied.

“He found it huh?” Whitefox inquired.

“Yep,” said Elizabeth, letting him assume that was what the text said. In actuality
, Ethan Blackhawk wanted to know how bad Desdemona Adare hurt his brother. Elizabeth told him the truth.

          “
PRETTY DAMN BAD .”

~Chapter Four~

Saturday Morning

It was the soft whisper of lips moving across his body that woke him. They were slowly exploring every inch of his torso. The sensation heated his blood and hardened him to the point of pain. The lips were now joined with tongue and teeth, and it was driving him mad and crazy to the point he never wanted it to stop.

Callen
was confused as to who was waking him up this way, so lovingly, so delicately and completely. The technique didn’t feel familiar, meaning it couldn’t be Desdemona. This was completely different sensation, and immediately his heart began hammering in his chest and ears. Praying, he opened his eyes to see the familiar black curls sliding across his body erotically, and he knew he was screwed.

“Lyzee,” he muttered, unsure if the woman had lost her damn mind. “What are you doing?” he asked, tensing as she stroked his erection with her fingertips.

“Waking you up, Callen,” she answered simply, and continued her exploration with hands and mouth.

“We can’t do this,” he begged,
but the words fell on deaf ears, as she took him in her mouth.
Oh God, her very warm mouth!
With just that simple motion, his body bowed, wanting more.

Callen
was hard to begin with, but now he was forged in complete steel. Never had he felt anything like it in his whole life. His heart just opened. The two parts of physical love and emotional love slammed together as the woman who he loved, more than anything in the whole world, gave him the only thing he ever wanted.

Her.

She released him from her mouth and worked her way back up his body and every inch of him burned on fire. “Elizabeth!” His hands knotted in the sheets, as she slid up his body, moving to his throat and neck. In his ear she whispered erotic things that he’d only dreamed of doing, and here she was promising them to him.

He was completely lost
to anyone but her.

The scent.

The feel
.

Everything at that point was
hers and hers alone, as she was now straddling his body and ready to slide him home.

“Ready
, Callen?”

Jesus Christ was he ever
! Words wouldn’t come from his lips; they were tangled in his mind and locked in his throat. All he could manage was to nod, like some sex starved teen on his first sexual encounter.

He watched the juncture of their bodies
, and as they came together, the warmth shot through his body and threatened to make him lose it right then.

Slowly she rode him, and it was deliciously smooth. The way she fit around
him was unbelievable. Elizabeth sheathed him completely to the hilt, and caressed him like silk, and all he wanted was it never to stop.

Please
God, don’t ever let it stop. The woman he loved more than life was waking him and taking him.

He bowed against the sensation of her squeezing him, intimately. Watching her
, he couldn’t believe what was happening. Her body was just like he thought it would be- lush breasts, slim waist and absolute perfection.

God, she was
fluidity in motion.

Callen
wanted to call her name, wanted to beg for more, but he couldn’t. She was riding him with such tenderness it was undoing him, and now her mouth was joined with his and making love to him there too.

The kiss was heaven and hell. Heaven because he’d never believed he’d feel this while kissing a woman. Before
, he would be planning his next strategic move, but now this woman was in control and taking everything from him. There wasn’t pain or sorrow anymore. All he felt was love and belonging.

So this was what c
omplete love felt like. Never in his life had he’d felt like this, and he never wanted it to stop.

Then came the hell.
Wait, it couldn’t ever happen again, and he knew it.

Whitefox felt her constrict around him as she shattered into pieces,
shouting his name. Instead of following her into the colors, he focused on his brother.

He couldn’t betray his brother. Whitefox promised Ethan Blackhawk this wouldn’t ever happen
, and here he just betrayed him- AGAIN!

The
warmth shimmered as he controlled the need in him. The dream wavered, and he began pulling away from the calm and warmth and back into the cold hard reality of his life. He took a deep breath and refocused on his body and the room around him.

Callen
pulled completely from the dream and realized he didn’t betray his brother by sleeping with Elizabeth. There was both relief and disappointment. For now he held onto the fact that he kept his promise, even though his body was tight and ready to explode.

As he pulled from the slumber
, his mind recanted the previous night. He and Elizabeth had pizza, kicked a six pack and then watched a scary movie with the lights off in the room. They laughed at the gore and killing, knowing that to the untrained it may look real, but to people who waded through it and lived it daily, it was comical.

T
hat was the last thing that he remembered next to the most amazing dream of his life.

Then there was a
larm, because he didn’t remember going back to his bed last night. Relaxing he could feel the sensation of someone lying against his body, and it was far from unpleasant. His first instinct was to look down, but he didn’t need to. The scent of shampoo was vastly different than Desdemona’s and he knew right away who slept beside him. Callen had woken from a great sex dream and fallen head first into reality.

Shit
!

Sometime last night he fell asleep in bed with Elizabeth. He knew he teased his brother, but this was beyond teasing and this was going to cause big problems between them.
The dream part he could keep a secret, but this wasn’t going to be something they could hide. Keeping his eyes closed, he just took a second to enjoy the feel of Elizabeth beside him. Since he was going to die regardless, he might as well enjoy it for the last day he was going to live.

First the dream and now this.

Okay Death. Come and get him.

During the night the TV was shut off, and the pizza box placed on the table. He was pretty sure that he
didn’t do it, but then who did? Now, he looked down his body. Elizabeth was lying on his shoulder, and her hand was across his stomach, dangerously close to things that would make Ethan take killing to a whole new level of pain. Oh Christ, her leg was across his too.