Secrets and Satin: A MacKenzie Novel (Romantic Suspense) (MacKenzie Family) (6 page)

BOOK: Secrets and Satin: A MacKenzie Novel (Romantic Suspense) (MacKenzie Family)
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His leg buckled when he got out of the car, and he bit off an oath as he had to wait for the muscles to stop seizing before he could walk. Jade kept silent and looked around the parking garage to make sure they were alone, but he could tell she was watching him from the corner of her eye to make sure he was okay.

Max wiped his thumb on his trousers to get the blood off before he could press it to the glowing blue plate next to the electronic keypad by the elevators. His thumb was scanned and the elevator doors opened with a soft whoosh. He could feel Jade’s eyes on him while he went through the same procedure to go up to their private floors.

“Tell me about the headaches,” she said. “I thought they were supposed to go away after a
while.”

“They have for the most part.” His stomach lurched as the elevator went up, and the pain in his head was so intense blurry spots were appearing in front of his eyes. “It’s the adrenaline. The headache is just part of the crash. It’s why Dec hasn’t sent me on any missions that will take an extensive period of time. He doesn’t want me to be incapacitated in a dangerous situation and have to rely on a team member to get me out. They come on strong and hurt like a son of a bitch, but I’m usually fine if I take something before it gets too bad.”

The elevator stopped on the floor to his apartment—just one level above where the offices were located. The floor of the entryway was dark gray marble streaked with white veins, and the walls were painted a dark burgundy. His door was oak, but it was reinforced with a steel core that would stop bullets or anything else short of a rocket launcher. He typed in his key code and said his name for the benefit of the voice recognition program. The door snicked open on silent hinges. 

“My apartment is similar to this,” Jade said as he flipped on the lights.

He watched as she looked around the open space with approval. The walls were painted a soft ivory and the furniture was leather and overstuffed. Colorful rugs were scattered on the hardwood floor. He wasn’t much for decorating, so his walls were bare and his shelves empty except for the worn paperbacks he enjoyed. But it was the view of the city that took her breath away. The windows were tinted so they could see out, but those in the building across the way couldn’t see in.

“I didn’t realize you’d moved,” he said.

“I decided it would be best to move out of the apartment Donovan and I shared. So the memories wouldn’t be quite so strong. It was the right thing to do.”

He didn’t know what to say, so he stood there and simply watched her as her hand trailed over the back of the couch. She was beautiful. She’d always been beautiful, but she was one of those women whose looks improved with age. What she’d been five years ago was nothing compared to what stood before him.

Black cargo pants fit her like a second skin, emphasizing the length of her legs, and a black T-shirt was tucked into them. She preferred a thigh holster for her weapon because it fit her better, and for some reason every time she strapped it on he got hard as a rock. He was hard now.

“Why are you here?” he asked
again.

Max moved into the kitchen, hunting through the cabinet for the bottle of pain pills the doctor had given him for his headaches. He poured out two in his hand and then grabbed a soda from
the fridge to wash it down with. He tossed one to Jade and she caught it one-handed.

She shrugged and popped the top on her soda.
“I told you. I’m here because those were my orders.”

Max
couldn’t read the expression on her face. Jade had gotten good at that over the years. She’d been trained as a sniper—to have patience in all things and to think through the best possible outcome. She was quiet in nature and often too serious, but he thought that might have more to do with her upbringing as an orphan more than anything. And at the moment, she was closed up tight and nothing he could do or say would get her to tell him the truth until she was damned good and ready.


The whole team is here and Declan will explain everything all at one time. We’ve got a mess on our hands.”

Max’s brows raised and then he winced as the movement pulled at the cut by his eye. “So it took direct orders for you to finally face me?”

“It just sped up the process.” She gave a secret half-smile that had his cock jumping in response. “I would have gotten here eventually. Now go take your shower and I’ll tend to the cuts on your face before everyone shows up.”

“At some point, Jade, we’re going to have a long conversation. I hope to God you’re ready for it.”

He stalked toward his bedroom, his body trembling with the fading adrenaline and his head pounding so hard he could barely see. He needed her with a ferocity that he’d never experienced before, and it had only grown stronger and wilder since their time apart. She was going to have to tell him exactly what she wanted, without other agendas or needs clouding the issue, because his control was hanging by a thread.

Chapter Three

 

 

Jade let out a slow breath when Max headed out of the room. The way he’d been looking at her had been so full of hunger and lust she’d felt the tingles of attraction sliding across her skin. Anyone would be shaking in her boots after seeing a look that hot and full of desire. 

She was glad to see Max was a creature of habit when it came to how he lived. The apartment reflected him—solid and comfortable and a little bit dominating. The first aid kit was under the kitchen sink where he always kept it, and she got everything out and ready on the kitchen table.

She started a pot of coffee for Max—he practically lived on the stuff—and she grabbed another soda for herself. She unstrapped her holster from her thigh and laid it on the countertop—the backup weapon she kept at the small of her back went next to it. More than half an hour had passed before she heard the water shut off.

Feet finally padded against the floor behind her and she smiled as familiarity settled over her. “You’ve got too much gourmet food in your fridge to fulfill the single man living alone cliché,” she said, turning around to tease. But the words died on her lips as she got a good look at him. Her mouth became dry and her heart thudded in her chest.

If his body had been a sculpture when she’d seen it nine months ago, it was a masterpiece now. Sweatpants rode low on his hips and a towel was draped around his neck to catch the droplets of water from his hair. He had to have been pushing himself in his workouts because his chest and shoulders were broader, the muscles more defined. And that was saying something, because they’d been pretty spectacular before.  

“What can I say? I’m a man who likes to eat.”

The predatory look in his eyes when he said those words had her imagination going wild, and the thought of becoming his main course had her squeezing her thighs together to relieve some of the pressure there.

“Let me look at those cuts.” She somehow managed to get the words past her frozen vocal cords. He sat in one of the hardback chairs, and she could tell by the little half smile on his face he was more than enjoying her reaction to him.

He spread his knees so she could get in close and get a better look at the cuts. The heat of his body felt like a warm blanket and the space between them was so charged with energy it was like she could feel him sliding his hands across her body.

This didn’t feel like the last time—when she’d been so desperate—so full of hurt and rage and longing. This time the chemistry wasn’t a figment of her imagination. And she had a decision to make. It was obvious he wanted her. He’d said he’d wanted her for years, and she’d never even realized. 

He wouldn’t have said or done anything while Donovan was still alive because Max was an honorable man, but it amazed her she’d never noticed. Usually a woman could sense when a man was attracted to her, but Max had marked himself as friend and had never once crossed the line. She knew this mission was about to change that.

The question was: W
ould they be able to go back to how things were when it ended? Because there was no doubt in her mind it would end. Max didn’t exactly have the best track record when it came to his relationships. Not to mention with his background and who his family was, he’d eventually need someone who could continue the Devlin legacy and uphold the name. And that person wasn’t her.

She’d already made the promise to herself that she would never marry again—never give her heart and soul to one person the way she had with Donovan. That kind of love hurt too much, and she wasn’t strong enough to take it again.

“How’s your headache?” she asked.

“The medication is kicking in. Though I’ve found something better than drugs to ease the pain.”

Even she couldn’t miss the innuendo there. She’d spent months wondering if he’d really wanted her as he’d said. Wondering if he’d turned her down because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Her experience with men wasn’t vast. Donovan had been her first and only lover. She wasn’t good at reading subtleties or playing the dating game. She was blunt and preferred when others were the same because it was what she understood.

If he’d been so overcome by the sight and feel of her, then he wouldn’t have been able to stop.
Would he?
But she couldn’t be imagining the interest she saw in his eyes now. And there was nothing in the world that could’ve hidden the erection tenting the front of his sweatpants. She could go into an affair with her eyes open this time, without the guilt plaguing her or the anger making her do things she normally wouldn’t. This would be a healthy coupling between two people who knew what they were getting into, and when the mission was over, they could go back to the way things were before she’d screwed them up.

Jade couldn’t, and wouldn’t, expect anything more from him than a casual affair.
Max deserved to have a woman who was whole, who could give him a home and children and hold up the traditions of the Devlin name. She could no longer offer that to any man. Not to mention his grandparents would probably go into apoplexy if he brought home a mixed-race orphan girl from Louisiana. Her future was in her work, and that would have to be enough to fulfill her. 

“Y
ou’ve still got some splinters embedded in the skin,” she said, touching around the deepest cut near his eye.

She grabbed the tweezers and got to work, taking out the thin slivers of wood as the wounds bled sluggishly. He didn’t flinch and he stayed perfectly still, but his gaze never left her face. His eyes were heavy lidded, and the brown contacts were gone so the brilliant blue blazed with hunger.

Her breasts grew heavy and her nipples spiked against the thin material of her bra. Warmth spread through her body and it felt as if some invisible thread was binding them closer, though their bodies weren’t touching. She stood between his open thighs, basking in his heat and enjoying the feel of him beneath her fingers.

“You said you were here for a couple of reasons.” His voice was seductive and low, and she finally found the courage to meet that endless blue gaze. “The first
is the mission. But you haven’t told me what the second reason was.”

“That was careless of me,” she whispered.

They stared into each other’s eyes, completely lost to anything else around them. It was a stare that lasted too long and saw too much. A stare that heightened the senses and changed how each breath was drawn, so they were completely in sync with one another. It was like being caught in a spell, so body and mind were no longer theirs to command.

Jade drew in a shuddering breath and glanced down at his sensual lips, ripe and full and so tempting she could have spent hours there, but then she remembered he was waiting patiently for her to see to his cuts and heat rushed to her face at how easily she’d been distracted. Only he could do this to her—only when he was near was her ability to focus on the job at hand sorely tested. 

The splinters were gone and she wiped the cuts with an antiseptic pad before placing a couple of butterfly bandages over the deeper ones. She froze when she felt his hands on either side of her knees. His touch was molten through the fabric of her pants, and he squeezed once before gliding his hands higher up her thighs and around so they rested just below her rear.

“You didn’t answer me, Jade. What was the other reason for coming here?”

She couldn’t keep herself from touching him, from feeling the coarseness of his stubble beneath her hand. Her thumb skimmed across his bottom lip and his nostrils flared at the boldness of her touch. 

“Answer me, dammit.”

Impatience simmered inside him, and his fingers flexed against her backside. He reminded her of a big golden tiger locked in a cage, waiting for the opportunity to pounce on whoever opened the door.

“You told me before—” she licked her lips and ran her fingers through his damp hair, massaging the back of his skull. “You told me to come find you when I was ready to live for real.”

“And?” he asked.

“It looks like I found you. Now what are you going to do about it?”

Chapter Four

 

 

Jade could see the surprise in his eyes, and the way her challenge affected him. His hands cupped her ass and he pulled her closer, so her breasts were only a whisper away from his mouth. She leaned down boldly and took his bottom lip between her teeth, sucking it into her mouth before letting it go with an audible pop.

BOOK: Secrets and Satin: A MacKenzie Novel (Romantic Suspense) (MacKenzie Family)
7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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