Hard As Ice (Fortis Series 1) (8 page)

“Oh God,” groaned Nia, holding his gaze. She now clutched his shoulders.

“Yeah,” Evan urged.

He increased the speed, narrowed the circle, worked his fingers deeper.

“Yes, like that . . . That’s it . . .” she stammered.

He wanted to kiss her so badly, but was held captive by their visual link. Her beautiful face was flushed with passion. She now bit her bottom lip, attempting to suppress a litany of soft, kitteny moans. It was the sexiest sound he’d ever heard. He was throbbing with need. Damn, he wanted her.

“Evan,” Nia whispered urgently.

Her eyes widened with surprise and her body tightened. Then, she fell apart in his arms, her deep moans echoing around the room. Her hot sheath clenched around his thrusting fingers as her body shuttered uncontrollably. Evan read every sensation in her eyes. It was so intense, yet deeply humbling. He hardly remembered to breathe in case he missed a moment of it.

“So beautiful,” he murmured in a deep, husky voice, stroking her slick flesh as she descended from the peak with tiny shivers.

Finally, she closed her eyes, throwing her head back with a deep sigh. Evan lowered his head to kiss and suck on her neck. There was a strong urge to mark her skin, tag her with his brand. But he resisted. It was too crazy.

“Well. That was unexpected,” she finally stated in a low, lazy voice.

He smiled. She really did have a great sense of humor. But it did very little to cool his raging arousal. Only distance and time could do that.

Evan continued to run his lips teasingly along her neck and shoulders as he slowly straightened her underwear and pulled down her dress. As much as he wanted to bury himself inside her sweetness, it wasn’t the right timing. Tonight needed to be about her. Anything else was too soon.

“I’m not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment,” he replied quietly.

She shrugged, refusing to stroke his ego. Evan laughed out loud, then covered her mouth in a long, deep kiss, but pulled back before he lost his head again.

“I guess I should quit while I’m ahead. Good night, Nia,” he stated. “Sweet dreams.”

He left through her apartment door before she could respond.

Feeling frustrated and conflicted, Evan called Lucas on his way to the hotel from Nia’s place.

“I’m on my way back to the control room,” he had told his friend through the Bluetooth phone connection. His tone was calm and controlled, with no hint of the sexual frustration churning in his stomach.

“How did it go?” Lucas asked.

“As planned, more or less. She’s pretty tight-lipped and guarded, but I made some progress in the romance,” Evan told him honestly. “Anything new on that St. Clair character?”

“Yeah, we sent Raymond more info. They’ve been in touch, sporadically over the last three years. He has a girlfriend who he lives with in Watertown. But there is no doubt that the history between him and James goes back to Detroit,” explained Lucas. “There’s also something odd about his release from prison. His attempted murder conviction was reduced to only three years as part of a plea-bargain deal.”

“For snitching?” asked Evan. It was common enough in prison for inmates to provide valuable info to the D.A.’s office in exchange for a reduced sentence.

“Maybe. The team is looking into it.”

“Anything underground on the heist?”

“Nothing concrete, but Tony’s got a bite from an Interpol contact in New York. Don’t know if it’s connected, but I think we should send him there tomorrow to check it out.”

“Okay, I’ll confirm with the team at our debrief,” Evan agreed. “Then we’ll need to land on a plan of attack for the weekend.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I got close to James tonight. I think we should continue the momentum. I’m going to take her away for the weekend,” suggested Evan, the idea taking shape as he spoke. “The Clements are having a charity event on Saturday night in the Vineyard.”

“As in your ex-fiancée’s parents, the Clements? Is that a good idea?” quizzed Lucas.

“You know Mikayla and I parted on good terms. It won’t be a problem,” Evan dismissed. “At the very least, it will cement my cover. Mikayla and her parents only know me as an executive for DaCosta Solutions, and the new CEO.”

“Do you think James will go?” asked Lucas with skepticism. “There’s a lot going on in her life right now. From how you and the team have described her, she hardly sounds like the type to take off in the middle of it all.”

“But it might be exactly what she needs. Between the Fortis investigation and the police looking into Flannigan’s murder, a weekend out of town could be enticing. It might even get her to relax her guard and reach out to her contacts.”

“And you’d be close enough to witness every move she makes,” continued Lucas.

“Exactly,” Evan confirmed, but with more certainty than he felt.

While he had no doubt he could do the job impartially, the sharp attraction he felt for Nia James made him uneasy. It was not something he’d dealt with before in the many CIA operations in his career. Would more contact and intimacy make it better or worse?

“We don’t have the luxury of time, so it’s our best option,” agreed Lucas. “I’ll give Worthington what we have so far tomorrow, which may satisfy him. We have lots of circumstantial stuff, but we need a solid lead within a few days or we’ll have missed a critical window.”

“Agreed. I’ll give you an update on our plan in the morning,” Evan stated.

The two men hung up as Evan reached the hotel parking garage. Upstairs, he went to his suite rather than join the team in the other room. His body was still humming with pent up sexual tension that he hoped could be cured by a cold shower. Fifteen minutes later, under the spray of chilling water, he was still hard and aching. It didn’t help that the sight of Nia James coming in his arms was vividly burned in his brain, interfering with all other rational thought. Evan cursed out loud, and finally shut off the shower tap. He needed to get his head out of his ass, and fast, he thought while toweling off and dressing in worn jeans and a T-shirt.

It was close to eleven o’clock before he went through to the control room, feeling slightly more in charge of his mind and body. The team needed to debrief for the day and finalize the short-term game plan.

After a restless night, Nia started the day feeling pretty optimistic about life. It could have been the relaxing night out, or the aftermath of a heart-stopping orgasm. Either way, she chose not to analyze it too much. Considering everything going on at work, and the precarious situation she was in, the diversion felt too good not to just ride with it.

As usual during most days of the week, she was up by six o’clock in the morning, at the gym before seven, then showered and dressed after kickboxing class by eight-fifteen. It was a short subway ride into downtown, and she was at the gallery about twenty minutes later.

By midmorning, Nia was knee-deep in work with only the occasional thought of when or if she would next hear from Evan DaCosta. Her cell phone rang, and she immediately thought it might be him.

“Hey, little girl.”

Nia felt a small pang of disappointment when she immediately recognized the voice of her stepbrother, Nigel. Then she remembered why he was calling. It was because of her e-mail.

“Hey, Nigel. Everything okay?” she asked. “How is life in the suburbs?”

“It’s all right. I just finished my shift at work,” he explained. “What’s going on, Nee?”

Nia looked around her office. The door was already closed but she swung around in her chair so her back faced the entrance, and lowered her voice.

“I need your help, Nigel,” she whispered.

“What’s wrong?”

“I know it’s been a long time since you were inside, and we both cut ourselves off from some of the people we grew up with. But, do you know anyone who’s still in the game?”

“What exactly are we talking about here, Nee?”

She looked around again.

“I can’t go into too much detail. But there was a robbery in our warehouse. It was professional, Nigel. I mean, clean. They got away with millions in jewels.”

“Shit!” he muttered.

“I know. But it gets worse. The security guard on duty that night was shot dead in Dorchester yesterday. And I was the only one with the combo to the safe, other than my boss.”

“Damn it, Nee. Are they looking at you for it?” he asked. They both knew the way these things worked.

“Yeah, as much as they can without real proof. But only because my boss is more interested in getting the stuff back than calling the cops. But if they don’t find who’s really responsible soon, it’s all going to point in my direction,” she explained. “I can’t just wait around for that to happen, Nigel. I didn’t go through everything in my life and come so far to be falsely accused, again. Not going to happen!”

The words hung between them, heavy and choking with truth.

“Okay. Let me see what I can find out. But, Nee, I don’t want you to call anyone else about this, okay? This is not the time to be reacquainting with anyone from the old hood.”

“I know. I won’t. I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” she muttered. “I just wish I didn’t have to involve you, but I don’t know what else to do.”

“I’d be pissed if you hadn’t, little girl.”

Nia smiled at the protective affection in his voice.

“How’s Angie?”

Angela was his girlfriend, a schoolteacher working in their town.

“She’s good. She asked about you the other day,” Nigel revealed.

“Sure she did. Making sure you wouldn’t see me anytime soon, I bet.”

He chuckled, unable to deny there was some truth to the statement.

“It’s not that bad anymore, Nee. She’ll come round eventually.”

Nia barked out a sarcastic laugh.

“When’s that exactly? It’s been over three years since she convinced you to move to another area code, and she still thinks we’re secretly in love. It’s ridiculous. We barely talk anymore.”

“I know. Maybe if you gained fifty pounds and lost your hair, she’d feel better about our relationship,” he quipped. It was an old topic of debate between them.

“Yeah, well, she’s going to be waiting forever.”

She could tell he was smiling. At times like this, she really missed his friendship.

“Look, give me a couple of days to do some digging. I’ll get back to you on Monday or Tuesday.”

“Okay, but don’t send anything to my work e-mail. Just call me on my cell phone. I can’t be too careful around here.”

“You got it, little girl.”

“Thanks, Nigel.”

“Anytime.”

Nia hung up, then spent a few minutes indulging in memories. Though she had always thought of Nigel as her stepbrother, he really wasn’t. Like many other times through her childhood, her mom had hooked up with his dad for a few years when Nia was around eleven. Nigel grew up with his mom in Boston, but he had spent several summers with them in Detroit. She remembered the first time he’d shown up at their doorstep on a Friday evening, with a duffel bag over his shoulder after a long string of train rides. Their parents were out at a party for the night, so only Nia was there to greet him. At sixteen, Nigel St. Clair had seemed so big and mature to her. Like the older brother she had always wanted. The image was magnified by how pissed he was that Nia had been left alone for the night, in a pretty rough, crime-ridden neighborhood.

Nigel had spent four summers with them, and the bond between him and Nia became stronger each time. Then, by the end of that last visit, their parents were broken up, and Nia’s life was about to be altered forever. The only person who had cared at that time was Nigel, and it had cost him three years upstate.

Her musings were interrupted by Adam as he opened her office door to poke his head in.

“Do you have a sec, boss?” he asked.

“Sure, what’s up?”

Nia took the opportunity to stretch her legs. She stood up from her office chair and walked across the room.

“I’m working with Nancy on the engagement activities through June, and I want to add that new DaCosta contract. Do you have any more details?” he asked.

“Nothing confirmed yet. Mr. DaCosta didn’t mention a specific timetable. But let’s go through what’s booked already and I can propose some times to him.”

“Okay,” Adam agreed as they walked through the office toward his cubicle. “His stuff is in Virginia, right? So we’ll need a local appraiser? Or will one of us be doing it?”

“We’ll see. I think you and I can probably do the cataloging. Then we can decide on the appraiser once we know what we’re dealing with. Mr. DaCosta said his dad dabbled in a lot of different things.”

Adam did a poor job of hiding his smirk. Nia only had to raise a questioning brow. He immediately cleared his throat and straightened his expression. But he didn’t divulge what exactly he had found so funny.

“What?” she finally demanded.

“Nothing,” he quickly replied, trying hard to look innocent. “It’s just that Emma mentioned that you had gone out on a date with Mr. DaCosta yesterday.”

“And?” Nia questioned, not bothering to deny it. With the speed that news traveled in the office, even the temporary warehouse staff were probably already talking about it.

“Uhmm, nothing.” There was a pause. “It’s just that it’s so unusual for you to accept a date with a client, that’s all. From anyone, actually. I don’t think you’ve ever even mentioned a boyfriend.”

Nia let Adam ramble. He was only asking what others would, though probably not to her directly. That would defeat the purpose of juicy gossip.

“Anyway, according to Emma, he’s pretty good-looking. Evan DaCosta, I mean. In which case, good for you!”

Her patient silence and blank facial expression finally got through to him. Adam let out a deep sigh of frustration and turned back to his computer.

“What does your schedule look like for the next few weeks?” she continued, as though the topic of her dating life had never been introduced.

They spent the next thirty minutes looking at their current client commitments in order to determine when the team could complete the cataloging and appraisals for Evan. It was pretty clear that the only viable window for her to travel to Virginia would be in the next two weeks. Otherwise, it would have to wait until later in the summer. Or someone else on the team would need to manage it.

Nia went back to her office knowing that she would have to call Evan today and discuss the options. After last night, it felt strange for their first conversation to be business-related. It was even more awkward that she had to be the one to call. Would it look like she was chasing him, eager for a repeat performance, using work as an excuse?

This
was why she never dated anyone related to work. Too many added complications.

By late afternoon, she couldn’t procrastinate any longer. Nia picked up her desk phone and started dialing, but paused as her cell phone also rang. Hoping it was Evan, she quickly answered. Instead, it was her best friend, Lianne Bloom.