Seek and Destroy (25 page)

    He smiled, seemingly satisfied with her answer. He then lost his smile and furrowed his brow. "You sure?"

    She wanted it to happen again, more than anything. But she also knew she needed to think about her life, her career as an ICE agent. She couldn't run around sleeping with other agents. Would that be an
old
Charis or
new
Charis rule? "Yes."

    He swallowed and stared straight ahead for several torturing seconds. "Yes," he repeated, barely audible.

    He sounded as disappointed as she felt.

    Finally the elevator arrived and opened the doors to receive them. They stepped in and she pushed the button for the surface.

    "Did Weber fill you in as to why he wanted me back when you two met this morning?"

    She shook her head. Weber had been increasingly quiet about why he wanted David home. When he didn't speak, she brought her gaze up and rested it on his face. She caught him eyeing her. "Well?"

    His gaze darted to her face. "What?"

    She kept her smile to herself. It felt good to have someone admire her, even if it was only her legs.
Leg
. He wouldn't be admiring her right leg, not with all the scarring. But then again, he gawked at her like that back in the hospital. Apparently he had a thing for legs.
Leg
. She felt flattered. "Why did Special Director Weber send me to get you?"

    He shook his head, dismissing her question. "We'll find out the details at the briefing."

    "He didn't tell you?"

    "Not all the details. He gave me a piece a paper."

    "Paper?"

    He nodded. "With an address on it. The rendezvous point."

    Her smile almost hurt her cheeks it was so wide. She'd been assigned on the same op as him if he planned to bring her to the RV. On assignment with the world's sexiest Super Spy. She liked the sound of that. Even if he had the tenancy to be an ass.

    But what a fine ass.

    And they assigned David Snyder to her as her... What? Mentor? Partner? Both? It didn't matter. She was on another field assignment. Bye bye boring.

    Hello excitement.

    She looked at him. Hello excitement, indeed. "How did I luck out to draw you as a partner?"

    He shrugged. She saw how his right shoulder had stiffened up on him. He rotated it to get it to loosen. "When NASSD pairs agents to an op, they don't just pull a name out of a hat. There's careful planning, background searches. You didn't draw me." He turned and looked at her. "And I didn't ask to be paired with you."

    She felt the verbal slap smack her across the face. Her heart jolted and she lost her smile. Did he mean it the way it sounded? It didn't matter. He'd said it, and she had no choice but to let his words roll off her newly thickened skin.

    A
new
Charis rule.

    Easier said than done. She turned and faced forward as the elevator lifted them to the surface. What an ass.

    "That," he said, his tone softer, "didn't come out right."

    But it still came out. "I get it. No need to sugarcoat it for my sake."

    "No, that-"

    "I get it, David." She narrowed her eyes. "You and I are on this assignment together because NASSD, and apparently ICE, wants it that way. That's it. Nothing personal."

    He cocked a dark brow as he studied her. "You sure do take things personal though, don't you?"

    She thrust out her chin. No, she did not take things personal. But then again, she'd never had a man flat out tell her he didn't want her. "How long do we have?"

    He glanced down at his watch. "A while. Listen, Charis. It isn't that I don't want to be paired with you. But you're ICE. You aren't trained for fieldwork. When you're paired up with another agent, that agent has to be able to hold his own. And after the way you fell apart when those waves had a hold of you..." He let out a heavy sigh. "I don't think you can."

    Ouch. At least he didn't sugarcoat anything.
Tell me the way you really feel, David.
"Don't worry about me," she defended. "I'm more than ready for this."

    "I want you," he growled and gave her a once over, resting his gaze entirely too long on her still erect nipples visibly poking against her top. Blinking, he brought his gaze back up and forward. "I want you to understand we will be focused on our assignment. Our primary objective is the op, not each other."

    Too bad. She licked her lips. "What is our assignment?"

    "You'll find out at the briefing."

    She nodded. "What do we do until then?"

    He smiled. "We have some down time."

    "And?"

    "We should find something to do to fill the void."

    She had a void she'd like him to fill. That thought had her peaking painfully, the surge rushing to her labia, drenching it. "You said we needed to focus on the op, not each other."

    "We aren't on the op until the briefing."

    "Hmmm." She chewed on her lower lip at the thought. A slow, lazy smile curled across her lips as she remembered how his hands pulled some pretty amazing reactions from her body.

    Without warning, David dropped his coat at his feet and swung around, stopped inches from her. Not able to deny her body the taste of him, she lifted her chin to give him access. He took it, plunging his tongue into her mouth as soon as their lips met. Charis shuddered against him, feeling the heat from his kiss center into her essence. She wanted his hands on her. Now. And she wanted to touch him, wanted him to touch her, to thrust his hard cock deep inside her and to satisfy her.

    She untucked his shirt and shoved her hands inside, feeling the hardness of his chest beneath her palms. She loved the feel of the coarse curls entwining with her fingers. Flicking one of his nipples with her thumb, knowing the reaction it drew from him the last time, he didn't disappoint when he hissed in a breath.

    He kissed her deeper. A rage of fire flooded her soul, centering into a pool of wetness surrounding her clit. Her breath hitched in her throat. He undid his pants and dropped them around his ankles. He then lifted her skirt and almost ripped her panties off. She ached with her need for him, with the need to feel him inside her. The passion between them fused their bodies together as with one thrust he plunged his iron flesh deep into her, granting her the contact she so desperately needed. He filled her so completely it had her out of control. She cried out, the pleasure so great she bit down on his shoulder.

    He threw out a sound somewhere in between a groan and a laugh. "Goddamn, woman. I think you...took…a…chunk."

    He emphasized every word by grinding deeper and deeper with every drive, every piston thrust. Grabbing her ass, he lifted her higher to gain better access. Wrapping her legs around him, pulling him in tighter, tightening the muscles of her walls to keep him inside, she held on for the ride of her life.

    And what a ride.

    He moaned and drove deeper, faster. His breath raced along her neck, sending delicious chills across her flesh. What started as a hint of spark deep in her soul grew fast until he had her begging, crying for release with each drive of his engorged cock. Her womb clenched, the coil fisting around him, pulling him deeper inside her.

    "Oh, David!" She threw her head back and cried out, his rhythm just enough for her to lose herself as she came. The feeling of her muscles clenching around him drove him over the edge. He plunged deep one last time and followed, spilling his semen deep inside her with a guttural moan. Together they rode their waves until they ebbed.

    Breathing hard, hardly breathing, David lowered her down to her feet and leaned up against her, using the wall to brace them both. He bent down and kissed her softly, gently nibbling on her lower lip before pulling away.

    Wow. She'd never had sex in an elevator. She'd never even had sex standing up. Last night didn't count since they didn't actually finish, she reasoned. Well, at least standing up. He was full of firsts for her.

    She loved the
new
Charis. She grabbed her panties and threw them back on while he righted his pants. Did this mean they were no longer considered a one-night stand?

    Did this mean anything at all?

    Thank God nobody loitered in the corridor. Somewhere in the middle of their passion play, the doors had opened. He reached over to grab his coat and walked out. She followed, her body still humming from the incredible sex they'd just experienced. In the NASSD elevator no less. She smiled.

    Talk about excitement. She really started to enjoy fieldwork.

    "Are we going to the rendezvous point?"

    "Nope. The RV won't be ready. We're going to your place."

    
Okaaay
. Apparently he wasn't done with her, yet. That didn't bother her any. Hell, what they just shared in the elevator merely whetted her appetite for more. "Why?"

    He threw her a look. "Do you have a place in Seattle or not?"

    "No. In case you weren't listening when I told you my entire life story last night, I live in Montana."

    He didn't seem pleased with that answer. "We need to find somewhere to go, to get out of the public's eye."

    My God, did he want her so bad he had to drag her to the nearest bed? "What's going on?"

    "Not here," he replied shortly. He scowled, which didn't do his handsome features justice. If he wanted privacy, they couldn't get much more private than in the belly of HQ. Why go offsite?

    "Why can't we go to your place?" she asked.

    "We did that last night."

    What did he and the director talk about in that room after she left? He didn't enter the room grumpy. Was he channeling Special Director Weber? This mood was more his style, not David's.

    "What's wrong?"

    "Nothing."

    She doubted that. "What-"

    "Charis?"

    "Hmmm?"

    "Stop talking," he ordered, the scowl on his face deepening.

    She did, but only for a moment. "I like the way you kiss, by the way."

    He groaned and raised his eyes to the ceiling of the long corridor, muttering something about how silence was golden.

    

    

    God help him, he was going to lose his mind if she kept talking to him in that damn sexy voice of hers. His mind refused to think straight, and he didn't need her constantly invading his thoughts any more than she already had. He couldn't control his raging hormones, let alone keep his pants on.

    After the elevator incident, he knew they were in some deep shit. Add that to the slight complication that he'd been ID'd and they were in some
seriously
deep shit.

    He'd been ID'd, and by a man who was supposed to be dead. He needed to think, to sort things out. Weber wanted them to meet up at the address he gave him, saying even the corridors within NASSD weren't safe.

    Sure as hell sounded like a mole to him. But then again, Surreal didn't need any help breaking into computer systems all across the globe. Maybe Weber thought Surreal had tapped into NASSD's security monitors? They carried both audio and visual, which would give him, yet again, the upper hand.

    If he had tapped into NASSD, then he already knew David had come back. Hell, he knew Charis would be working with him to track the crazy son-of-a-bitch. He knew Weber had assigned him as point on the op to bring him in. They'd blown the only thing they had going for them-the element of surprise.

    No wonder Weber wanted the RV off site. Surreal had the know-how to hack into any system. No doubt the meeting would be somewhere outside of the known system.

    He shoved his free hand deep into his coat pocket, confirming the location of the note and to stop him from reaching out to touch her, kiss her soundly, if for no other reason than to shut her up.

    What was that noise? He didn't remember NASSD piping music through the corridors. He tuned in behind him. It didn't surprise him to realize the noises were coming from Charis.

    "I asked you to be quiet."

    "No, you asked me to stop talking."

    "You're humming."

    "That isn't talking," she pointed out. He stopped his deliberate march down the long corridor and turned back to her. Damn it. She smiled up at him in a poor attempt at innocence. "I'm not even saying any of the words."

    He couldn't win no matter what he did, so he spun back around and continued his task of getting the hell out of the building without going ape shit.

    She caught up to him, and damn if she hadn't started humming again. "What song is that anyway?"

    "
Past the Point of No Return
. It's from
Phantom of the Opera
. Ever heard of it?"

    "I've been in Maui, Charis. Not a cave."

    Christ. What was he doing? She didn't do anything wrong. So she had a way of getting under his skin? So what? He didn't need to be such an ass.

    Damn it. He told himself not to touch her. Hell, he ordered himself to not even look at her. For the most part, he'd succeeded. But then he had her alone in that elevator.

    Had her in every sense of the word. He'd never done anything so primal in his life. What she must think of him now. He didn't want to know. Although she seemed a willing participant, he didn't ask permission as he ripped her panties off and fucked her like a sex-starved fool.

    He had to get his mind on the mission. His life, as well as the life of the NASSD agency, was at stake. He couldn't afford any distractions. Feeling better now that he'd somewhat centered his focus, he thought about his next move.

    Move? He allowed a growl passed his lips. He didn't even have a car. For all he knew, the taxi driver who dropped him off worked for Surreal. He needed to get out of the public eye. And now.