Force of Nature Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4) (42 page)

Biting her lip, she pulled on her pants. She was zipping them up when she answered, hoping what she said would be enough to satisfy him. She didn’t think she could hold him off for long, but it was worth a shot.

“He’s a client. Someone that I have to…he has something I need, and this is the only way I can get it. It should take me a few hours so if you wanted to leave, I can talk to you tomorrow.” She held her breath, hoping he’d say okay. “Then we can have a talk then.”

“What sort of client? He doesn’t strike me as the buyer type. I’m not sure what you’re selling, but whatever it is, he’s more of the taking sort of guy.” Holly closed her eyes on how true his words were. “What’s his name?”

“Jasper Clayton. And he is a buyer. I just need to get some information from him for someone else. But he’s proving to be stubborn about it.” She opened the door and nearly fell into Phil’s arms. “You should just go on back home. I’ll be home in a few days.”

“No. What is he buying from you?” He was using compulsion and she could feel the need to answer him…overwhelmingly so. She tried to move away from him, but he pulled her tighter. “Answer me, Holly.”

She leaned her head on his chest, suddenly very tired. She’d been working like this, at this same job, since she’d gotten out of high school and had taken those stupid tests to apply for a job with The Office. Little had she known that she’d be working at doing something like this all these years later.

“I can’t tell you.” When he stiffened, she hurried on. “I can’t. Not now. I…damn it, Phil, do you have any idea how much trouble I can get into if someone knew I told you? They could have me….” She looked up at him. “Who told you I was here?”

“Gordon. He said he knows where you are every time you leave. He doesn’t know what you’re doing, but he always knows where you are.” He moved back when she did. “What are you not telling me? I can protect you, Holly. I need to. You’re my mate. I can’t let anything happen to you.”

Coming to a decision, she nodded at him. “All right. When I get back. If you’re still here, I’ll tell you…I’ll tell you everything. Then afterwards, if you want to leave, I’ll understand.” She tried to straighten her shoulders to show him that it mattered little to her if he stayed or not, but she could see that he knew she was bluffing.

“And do I get something to help me know if I stay or go? Something that I can…I don’t know, give me a hint as to why I’d want to leave the only woman I’m ever going to love?”

“I work as an undercover agent for the Central Intelligence Agency as a hired assassin.” She smiled at the look on his face. “And the man downstairs is someone I have to get information from before I have to put a bullet between his eyes.”

Holly walked out the door and to the elevator. She stepped in just as Phil came out of her room and leaned against the doorjamb. She held open the door knowing that he was going to tell her goodbye. She should have known better.

“I’ll be here when you get back. And for the record….”

She waited for him to continue before letting go of the door.

“When you kill him, I’m going to be there with you.”

Chapter 2

The target moved into the bar about ten minutes later than he thought she might. There wasn’t any time frame tonight that he knew of, only that she had to be dead by this time tomorrow. He watched her walk across the floor and wondered how anything so sexy could be so deadly. She moved to his contact, and he sat back to watch him try and handle her.

She’d bested him last night. Frank had seen her take him down and still laughed about it. He sat up in his chair, hoping to see another show tonight. She was way out of Clayton’s league. Hell, if he really wanted to be honest, she might even be out of his. He looked down at the folder that was open in front of him.

Holly Force: age unknown. Address: unknown. Place of birth: unknown. He smiled at the one bit of information that they did have. Place of employment: agent. They weren’t even sure which agency she worked for. But they knew for a fact that it wasn’t for them. They’d have kept her under lock and key if she had been.

Frank McGuire wanted to bring her in alive and see what they could find out about the beautiful woman, but his boss said no. They were better off with her dead and forgotten rather than bringing her in and trying to convert her. Frank didn’t want to convert her; he wanted to fuck her.

When Holly followed Clayton to the table, he adjusted the microphone in his ear. He could now hear everything that was being said at the little table in the corner, and the men on the other side of their table—on the other side of the wall, really—were recording everything he might miss. Frank had all the bases covered. He listened to what Clayton said and hoped they’d get the answers they needed. If not, he would let her kill this man—he was growing more useless all the time—and then he’d follow her back to her room, fuck her brains out, then kill her as well. All good in his book.

“Heather, you’ve no idea how sorry I am about last night. I don’t know what came over me. You’re so lovely and I’d had too much to drink that I just…well, I just forgot myself.” Frank wanted to gag at Clayton’s tone of voice, too sweet and syrupy for his taste. “You have the loveliest eyes.”

Looking down at the photo of her that lay on top of her dossier, he agreed with Clayton’s assessment of her eyes. They were the most brilliant shade of gold he’d ever seen.

“Look, big boy, we’re here to have dinner together, and you had something to tell me. Tell me so that I can decide if I stay another day or I move on back to where I came from.”

Frank snickered at her tone. She was one ballsy bitch.

He looked down again at the folder. He wasn’t sure why the men upstairs thought she was a hired gun. To him she looked like every wet dream every male from the age of fifteen on up had had about a beautiful woman. Big eyes, bigger boobs, and an ass that you could bounce a quarter off and have it land in your beer a table away.

“And where is that? Hum? You’ve never told me anything about you. Where you’re from? What you do?”

Frank waited, holding his breath.

“We’ve known each other for all of five hours, so when is it exactly that I was supposed to share with you?” She snorted. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. What is it you wanted to tell me?”

“Tell you? Oh yeah, the big news.” He leaned toward her and Frank had the sudden urge to go over and pound Clayton’s head against the table. Several times. Hard. “I’m going to come into some big money soon.”

They were working on the angle that she might follow Clayton back to his room, on the assumption that she was a money hungry bitch. Personally, Frank didn’t think it would fly, but he was only there as support and not calling the shots. He glanced up when a tall man moved to the bar, then promptly dismissed him. He had bigger fish to kill.

“Big money? How big, and—” Even from across the room, he could see her stiffen. He wondered about it for all of a few seconds until she started talking again. “Where did you get all your big money?”

“I’ve been working. On this deal, see, and it’s about to pay off.” Clayton reached over and touched her shoulder, and Frank heard a low growl like a wild beast was in the room. He looked around when Clayton did, wondering if he’d heard it too. “Did you hear that? It sounded like a tiger or something.”

“Or something. What did you do for a living that would only just now begin to pay off?” She looked nervous now and kept glancing around the room. Frank was suddenly very nervous himself and started to call his men in.

It happened fast. He’d swear that no one moved when the police questioned him later that night, but the blood said otherwise. When he felt the first warm splash hit him in the face, he didn’t even wipe it away. He felt like a man in a dream, a horrific colorful dream where nothing would ever be right again.

Clayton was dead. That much did register to him immediately afterwards. He hadn’t seen his actual death, but he had seen the aftermath. Clapping his hand over his mouth, he looked away. Yes, he hadn’t liked the guy, but this….

“Christ,” he muttered.

“You gonna be all right? You’re sort of looking a little green there.” Frank looked over at the cop sitting across from him to avoid looking at what was left of the men he’d come there with, who were strewn all over the room. “You said you didn’t see anything. I was asking you how that was possible. There’s a lot of mess here for no one to have seen it.”

Frank had to agree, but that’s exactly what had happened. Four of his men were dead, murdered in the most heinous way possible, and yet, here he sat. And another thing that bothered him was the woman. Where the hell had she gone?

Looking down to try and think what to tell the officer that was demanding answers, Frank knew that he had none to give him. That was when he noticed that the file was missing too. He knew it had been there when everything went bad, because a perfect outline of it was there on the table with blood all around where it had not been. He tried to think if he or the officer had moved it, and knew without much of a doubt that whoever had killed the men had also taken the woman and the file.

Frank was suddenly glad he was retiring after this one. He’d not thought about it before, but now seemed like a really good time; hell, a great time to get out. He had money saved and his eye on a piece of property he was going to buy in the islands just as soon as this ass let him go.

~~~

Phil opened the door to his room and shoved her inside. He was covered in blood and so was she. He sniffed the air and could find nothing more than the woman who’d come in to clean while he’d been gone today. He held Holly still, afraid that one of them would fall apart. And he was terrified that it was going to be him.

“I can’t breathe.” He loosened his grip on her but didn’t let her go. “Phil, are you all right?”

“Yes. No.” He took a deep breath. “I fucking have no idea. Just let me hold you a bit longer. I don’t…I’m still trying to figure out what happened down there.”

She pulled away and looked up at him. “That wasn’t you?” He looked down at her and frowned. “You didn’t kill those people?”

“No. I don’t know…it was something else. Someone else. I don’t…. Christ, all I could think about was getting you safe. Did you get any sense of who it was?”

“I don’t know. I was having a conversation with my target when all of the sudden he—” She shivered in his arms. “All of the sudden, he was just gone.”

Gone. A good word for what had happened. The man had been torn apart. His head had landed near his chair and his arm on the table next to him before Phil had moved to get Holly out of harm’s way. He had only seen the file that he still had in his hand at the other man’s table by chance. He tucked it into the back of his pants, not sure what it said, but knew that they had enough to deal with right now.

“The other people, did you know they were there too?” She shook her head then nodded. “Which is it, love? Did you know or not?” He smiled and knew that it was as strained-looking as it felt. Humor, he thought, wasn’t really coming off right now. He pulled her head back to his chest. She snuggled into his neck and he tightened his grip on her. Christ, he wanted her.

“I could smell them. Not see…they were all over my target, their smell, I mean. Then I could smell someone else. Not you, I could see you, but this person wasn’t there. I think that the people that I couldn’t see were already dead when we—I need a shower. Do you think it would be all right if I took one?”

She pulled away and he let her. When she went to the bath and closed the door behind her, he moved to the chair and sat down hard. When the door clicked behind him a few minutes later, he turned to look at her, steam billowing out behind her.

“Will you come and shower with me, Phil?” He didn’t move as she continued. “Please? I need you to come and shower with me right now.”

“If I do, Holly, I won’t…I think you might be better off taking one alone. I will be here when you come out. I promise you, baby, I’m not going anywhere.” His breath caught when she stepped out of the doorway naked. “Holly, please, honey. You’re killing me, love. I want you too badly to—”

“Come to me, Phil. I know what I’m asking you. I want you to make love to me. I want you to take me. Please? I need to…I want you to make me feel alive again.” She took a few steps toward him and he stood up. “Please? Please come and make love to me.”

He walked toward her like a man in a trance. When he took her outstretched hand into his, he kissed it. He began unbuttoning his shirt one handed as he walked her backwards toward the door.

The bathroom was large. When he’d checked in earlier that morning, his first thought after seeing it was how much fun he and Holly could have in the biggest shower he’d ever seen. He cupped the back of her neck now and brought her mouth to his.

She tasted of sweet wine. The glass she’d had in front of her had been a ruby red in the bar, and he now knew that it had been a chateau…a warm, dark red. But it was the flavor beneath that he was savoring.

Her tongue slid along his and he lifted her up and sat her on the counter. Her small hands moved down the buttons on his silk shirt until he felt her hands skim along his chest. When she touched his nipple, he pulled his mouth away to watch what she was doing to him.

“Your skin is warm. I didn’t…I’m sorry, I thought you’d be cold.” He grinned at her when she flushed. “You must think I’m so stupid.”

“No. No, I don’t. I think you’re beautiful.” He moaned when she licked at his areola and hissed through his teeth when she bit him. “My skin is getting a lot hotter too.”

He desperately wanted her to touch him everywhere, but he needed to slow her down. If she kept this up, he’d be inside of her sooner than he wanted. Well, sooner than she would be ready for him.

“Lay back on the counter for me. I want to taste you.” She looked up at him with glazed eyes and his fangs burst through his gums. “Holly, I’m going to eat your pussy, lay back for me.”

He opened her legs as he got down on his knees before her. He could smell her scent and it called to him. Licking her thigh to just where her leg met her hip, he slid his hand up to her trimmed soft nether lips.

“Have you ever had a man eat you before?” She shook her head at his question. “Good. I’m going to drink from you, lick you, and drink your nectar when you come. Then when you’re ready, I’m going to slide my cock deep into you and take you. Do you know what that means?”

“You’re going to bite me and then drink my blood. Will I be your mate then?” Her voice made his cock jump in his jeans. “Will I be able to bite you too, Phil?”

“Yes,” he told her. “When you come with me, I’m going to give you my wrist and you’ll drink from me while I take from your throat. Holly, if this isn’t what you want, now is the time to tell me.”

He waited for her to speak, waited for her answer. He’d never want her to feel that she had no choice. And he’d never forgive himself if she thought she didn’t. He didn’t touch her again as he watched her; emotions ran across her face quickly.

“I don’t know. I want you, but I don’t know if…I don’t want you to think I’m only teasing you.” He nearly whimpered at her when she leaned back again. “I want you to make love to me, but I’m…I don’t think I’m ready for anything more right now. Understand?”

In answer, he slid his finger deep inside of her and watched her face. When her eyes fluttered closed, he let them. As much as he wanted to see her eyes change when she came, he didn’t want her to see how much she was hurting him. Lowering his head to where his fingers were dancing inside of her, Phil took his first taste of paradise.

She came within seconds; his small bit of compulsion when he told her to come was all it took. He took his fill of her cum as it poured from her body. Over and over he drank from her until she sobbed for him to stop. He thought she’d come at least half a dozen times and he still wanted to give her more. Standing now, he tore his pants open and freed his cock.

“Please. I want to feel you deep inside of me. Please, Phil. I want to feel you deep.” He wanted to give her what she wanted, but knew that if he took her now he’d bite, and as much as he wanted to come deep inside of her heat, he didn’t want to taste her without permission. “Please.”

“I can’t, baby. I want to come on you. I want to—mother fuck.” She pushed him to the floor. Before he could try to ascertain what had happened, she had straddled him and his cock was at her entrance. “Holly, don’t. If you do that, you’re mine. I’ll be your mate and—”