Elite Metal-ARE-epub (69 page)

True. So in love, it was almost sickening.

“And they had loads to say about you.”

“Me?” He didn’t intend for the word to squeak the way it did.

“Yep. Apparently you helped them grow closer together. But they didn’t say how.” She gored him with a curious glance. “Just what did you do?”

Do?
Holy crap. It was way too early for those kinds of confessions. “I…ah… Not a lot. Just pointed out how right they were for each other.”

“But—”

“Wait. If you knew about Beth…why were you flirting with Ant?”

She batted her lashes and nibbled her lip, probably in an attempt to make herself look ingenuous. It didn’t work. Not really. “I was teasing you.”

He frowned. “Teasing me?” Outrage, and something else, riffled through him.

“Yes. Teasing you.”

He slipped his hand into the folds of the robe, just so he could touch her, skin to skin. It soothed him somehow. “Why were you teasing me?”

She put out a lip. “Because you weren’t acting like you were interested.”

The sound he made was a little feral. Not interested? Not fucking interested? “I’ll show you interested…” He found her breast and closed his fingers on her nipple. She sighed as he tweaked it. And then she nestled closer.

And God, he loved it.

“I am not interested in Ant in the slightest.”

He loved that too.

“Or Chrome. Or Steele. Or any of them. Just you.”

Yeah. Heat blossomed in his chest. Elsewhere. “Good.” Just fucking good. She wriggled on his lap and his cock stirred. His ardor rose, the beast awoke. He pulled back, despite his delight, and frowned at her. “You shouldn’t have teased me though,” he grumbled. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

Her brow rumpled adorably. “What?”

“It means I have to punish you.”

Her jaw dropped, her lips flapped. Her eyes glazed over. “P-p-punish me?” A squeak.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

And they had all night.

Chapter Nine

Roni awoke in a warm nest, feeling secure and absolutely complete. It took a moment for the memory of last night to rush back, but when it did, she shuddered. She opened her eyes and stared at the face on the pillow beside her. Her heart fluttered.

Last night had been…phenomenal. It had filled all the empty places within her. Solidified something. Something she now recognized. It should have frightened her, but it didn’t. It made her want to sing.

She’d never thought she was capable of letting go like that. Never thought she was capable of love.

But she was.

It was a glorious realization, made more glorious because she thought, hoped, suspected, he felt the same. It was there in the tenderness of his touch, the brush of his lips, the tremble in his voice when he whispered to her in the shadows of night.

Damn, he was handsome. In his sleep, he looked so young, so carefree. The lines around his mouth were softened and his usual frown was missing. She really liked the scruff on his cheeks. She couldn’t resist thrumming it with a thumb.

Of course, that woke him.

He turned his head and gazed at her. His eyes glimmered. A muscle bunched in his cheek. “Good morning.” His voice was rough with sleep. She loved it.

“Good morning.” She levered over to kiss him. “Did you sleep well?”

“Mmm hmm. Someone wore me out.”

She huffed a laugh, because in her estimation, she’d been the one worn out. Flogged. Flayed. It had been magnificent. She shifted closer, and winced.

His brow lowered. “Are you okay?”

She nestled deeper into his hold. “I’m fine.” She was. She was nestled. In his hold.

He tightened his arms. “Last night was amazing,” he said into her hair.

“It was.” She couldn’t wait to give it another go.

His hand skimmed down to cup her ass. “Although, I’ll need to take it easy for a couple days.” He chuckled at her frown and kissed it away. “Baby steps, sweetheart.”

She tried not to pout. She loved the light that flared in his eyes as she sought, and found, his erection. God bless him, he was ready.

“Well,” he purred. “Maybe something…gentle.”

Her nerves shimmied with anticipation as he raised her arms and snapped the cuffs back on—God, she’d missed them. She loved the way they felt, restraining her, splaying her for his delectation. He brushed back the covers and nuzzled his way to her breasts. When he scraped them with his beard, she hissed in a breath. It was amazing how quickly lust rose within her when she was tied to a bed. She’d never experienced anything like this before. So raw, so savage, so needy.

He suckled her as his hand drifted over her belly and to her slit. He stroked and she moaned. His chuckle rumbled through her. “Someone’s ready,” he said.

She nudged her knee against his groin. “Someone is…”

The chime of his doorbell was an irritation.

Sterling stilled. “Fuck.”

Roni wiggled, just a little. “Ignore it,” she said.

Thank God he nodded and went back to work, teasing and taunting her nipples, stroking her clit.

He stilled when someone pounded on the door. Pounded.
Fuck!

Raising his head, he shot her a repentant glance. “I should see who it is.”

She glared at him. “Seriously?”

“It could be work.”

How annoying was it that he stood and yanked on his robe and left the room? Roni gusted a frustrated breath and dropped her head on the pillow, staring at the ceiling.
Damn. Damn, damn, damn.

She heard the door open, heard Sterling’s growl. “Steele.”

“Yeah,” Steele grunted. “Good morning to you too. I need to talk to Roni.”

“She’s, um, tied up right now.”

Roni winced. Poor choice of words. Or not.

Steele blew out a breath. “Well, fucking untie her. We need to talk.”

“What happened?”

“Another message from Morrow. She needs to respond. Now.”

Silence resounded. Roni tried to calm her churning gut. She’d known this was coming, she’d known at some point she had to reconnect with Marcus. She just hadn’t expected it to be so soon.

Sterling returned to the bedroom and closed the door behind him. “You heard?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She wiggled her wrists. “Undo me.”

He seemed reluctant, but hell, so was she. He made his way over and unlocked the cuffs, massaging her wrists, although they hardly hurt. Hell. They hadn’t even begun. Damn.

“Later,” he promised as he took in her petulance. “Let’s get dressed.”

He pulled her suitcase from his closet and laid it on the bed. She riffled through it, picked out a fresh outfit and dressed quickly. He dressed as well.

When she made her way into the living room, it was tough meeting Steele’s gaze, but she did. Thankfully, there wasn’t a hint of judgment or humor or snark in it. If there had been, she might have smacked him.

He slid a Styrofoam cup toward her. “Thought you could use this,” he said.

She took a sip and gusted a sigh. Coffee. Hot and rich. “Thank you.”

“Donuts too.” He handed her a paper bag.

“Well, you do come prepared, don’t you?” She attempted a joke and Steele grinned.

“This early in the morning, it’s always a good idea to bring sustenance.” He handed over her phone. “Check your messages. Morrow’s been getting antsy.”

Roni did, quickly flicking through the increasingly demanding texts. The last one read:
Where the fuck are you?
She set the phone down and set her focus on Steele, though it was difficult when Sterling slid onto the sofa beside her. He was warm and hard and smelled wonderful. “What-what do you want me to do?”

For some reason, Steele glanced at Sterling. “He wants you to come in.”

She flinched. Sterling’s hold on her tightened. “Okay.”

“We, ah, were thinking you and Ant would go in together. We thought you could tell Morrow the reason you disappeared was, ahem, you met a guy.”

Sterling bristled, and Roni nibbled at her smile. She had. She
had
met a guy. But… “Ant?”

“He’s our best tech guy. He can fit the clone into Morrow’s laptop in minutes. All you need to do is get Morrow out of the room. Give Ant some time with the laptop.”

“How do I do that?”

“Morrow has a soundproofed conference room, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure, judging from those texts, he’s going to want to talk to you in private. If not, you can tell him you have a juicy story for him. We can feed you something from our files. Something to get him hooked. Keep him in the conference room for a minimum of three minutes. By then, Ant will have worked his magic and the two of you bail.”

“What about my sister?”

“We’re working on that. Don’t worry.”

Don’t worry? Was he fucking insane?
That was all she ever did. It was all she had ever done, since Mom died and Annabelle ended up in a wheelchair. In Marcus’ clutches. The fucker wouldn’t even get her the surgery she needed to repair the damage to her spine.

Her recalcitrance must have been plain on her face, because Steele firmed his jaw. “We have a very high-powered lawyer on it.”

“How high-powered?”

“Very. He’s never lost a case. Trust us, Roni. We’ll get her back. But in the meantime, you need to let Morrow believe you’re still on the team. We need you to feed him stories for us.”

She liked that, that conciliatory tone. They needed her. She glanced at Sterling and smiled. “Do you need me?” she quipped.

His hold on her tightened. His nostrils flared. “Baby,” he growled. “You have no idea.”

All the way to LA, Sterling’s gut was in a wad. The thought of Roni going in, being exposed, being vulnerable, ate at him. He’d insisted on coming. Insisted on being a spotter for this mission. Although Steele hadn’t agreed to let him have a rifle.

Probably too worried Sterling might give in to the urge to pop Morrow if he started behaving like an ass or something. Or Ant, if he got too friendly. Which he well might.

The jet landed at the Burbank airport and rolled into a private hangar. As they all collected their gear and moved into the van, they went over the plan again. And again.

Roni and Ant would visit the office of the
Snoop
together, both wired for sound with full covert coms. Steele and Sterling would be stationed in a building across the street with a clear line of sight into Morrow’s office. They’d be able to see and hear everything, and chirp into Ant’s and Roni’s earpieces if necessary. Chrome would monitor everything from the mobile unit in the van. If the mission went sideways, he’d be the closest. And he was, without a doubt, the best.

She was as safe as she could be. Protected.

Still, Sterling was in a wad. It was up to Ant to drop the clone and then get Roni the hell out of there. If any shit went down, the rest of the team would be too far away to intervene. Sterling would have preferred a more reliable plan. Like him going in too, but Steele insisted Roni having
two
new boyfriends stretched the credibility of their backstory a little too far.

Sterling tried to maintain a confident façade though, because he didn’t want to worry Roni. This was her first live op, and hopefully her last. They’d prepped her as best they could and she was damn competent.

But, yeah. He was in a wad.

“Are you ready?” he asked as the van pulled up next to the
Snoop’s
office building. It was hardly as impressive as one would think. Four stories with a wall of windows. They’d be camped out in the insurance building across the street.

Roni glanced up at him, chin wobbling, but she nodded.

“You got your mic on?”

“Yep. I’m wired.”

“Don’t forget. We’ll be watching your every move.”

“Such a relief.”

Though he liked her sarcasm, that hint she wasn’t cowed, he affected a frown. “Don’t be a brat.”

She waggled her brows. “I thought you liked it when I was a brat,” she murmured, so none of the others could hear. But they probably heard. Judging from their snickers.

It was all he could do not to growl.

He pulled her closer and kissed her, just because, and then he turned to Ant. “How about you? All ready?”

His buddy shot him a smug grin. “Ready and raring to go.”

He fixed Ant with a fierce glower. “I’m counting on you,” he said in a meaningful tone. Ant’s grin widened. It made Sterling want to throttle him or something; to Ant, this was fun.

Fun!

This was the woman he cared about, going into the lion’s den. The woman he—

Sterling’s thoughts derailed and his nostrils flared as the fucker dropped an arm around Roni’s shoulders and tugged her closer.

“This is going to be awesome, isn’t it,
sugar lamb
?” he cooed.

Fucking cooed.

Fuck. They should have picked some cover other than this. Any cover other than this. Sterling didn’t think he could bear to watch Ant and Roni play boyfriend and girlfriend. Not even through a telephoto lens.

Ant noticed his bristling and clapped him on the shoulder. “Chill, dude. I’ve got this. Believe me, I understand.” He waggled his brows. “I’ll keep the groping to the outside of her shirt.”

Yeah. Not helpful.

“Okay. Everyone set?” Steele clipped.

“Good to go,” rounded the van.

“Let’s head out. We’ll move up into position. Ant, wait for our
go
before you launch.” Steele turned to Roni. “You’ll be fine,” he said.

Her smile was brave, but Sterling saw the worry beneath it. “Don’t worry. I’ll be watching.”

His nerves pinged as he left her, making his way to the building across the street with Steele. They were both dressed in bland suits with briefcases that held their equipment. No one even batted a lash as they made their way to the empty office on the third floor. Once in the room, Sterling whipped out his gear and trained his scope on Morrow’s office. The bastard was at his desk on the phone.

Sterling assessed his physical features; he was not impressed. Morrow was an overweight, middle-aged man with a receding hairline and a weak chin. His eyes had a piggish look.