Special Forces Rendezvous (14 page)

They headed for the bathroom, where Julia stared at the miniscule shower stall before turning to the naked man beside her. “Both of us won’t fit in here.”

“Sure we will. We’ll just have to stand real close...” He wagged his eyebrows. “And our bodies will be all wet and slippery as they bump into each other. I can’t freaking wait.”

Another laugh flew out. God, the more time she spent with this man, the more she liked him. He was so magnetic, so sexy, so entertaining.

And he kept showing her new facets of his personality that she wouldn’t have ever expected to find. Like the tenderness with which he touched her—a man that big and powerful wasn’t supposed to be so gentle. And his tendency to go all Mother Hen on her—
eat, drink, get some rest.
Normally she’d be incredibly annoyed being fussed over like that, but with Sebastian, she didn’t feel pressured, or as though he had no confidence in her ability to take care of herself. She knew he thought her capable—he’d said it time and time again—but that didn’t stop him from being so protective of her.

As Sebastian leaned into the stall to turn on the water, Julia’s gaze landed on his spectacular bare butt. Her mouth actually watered, and she had to forcibly snap herself out of her lust-filled haze before she gave in to the urge to pinch that taut bottom.

She unhooked her bra and stepped out of her panties, then joined Sebastian in the shower. Hot water rushed out of the showerhead with a surprising degree of pressure, quickly filling the stall with a cloud of steam. Julia dunked her head under the spray and let the water soak her body before stepping aside to let Sebastian have a turn.

He was right—their bodies were slick, colliding and rubbing as they maneuvered around in the tiny glass stall. All that slippery contact succeeded in turning her on beyond belief, and a glance at Sebastian’s lower body confirmed that he was getting as worked up as she was.

Grabbing a bar of soap, Sebastian caught her by the waist and then his husky voice cut into the rushing water. “This is the best shower I’ve ever had, Doc.”

Her laughter bounced off the tiled walls.

With a sexy grin, he brought the soap to her body and proceeded to lather her into a whole new state of turned on. He dragged the soap over her aching breasts, letting the suds cover her nipples before he tweaked those erect buds with his fingers. His hands danced and explored, gliding over every inch of her body, and then he was suddenly on his knees, dropping the soap and letting it clatter to the shower floor.

Julia squeaked as those rough-skinned hands parted her thighs. Her gaze flew south in time to see Sebastian pressing his mouth to her core. Shock waves of pleasure hit her hard. She nearly keeled over, but he quickly planted a hand on her waist to steady her.

“Easy, Doc,” he said in a humor-tinged voice. “Don’t want you slipping and breaking a leg.”

Then he brushed his lips over her, and she realized that if she
did
slip and break a leg? She wouldn’t even care. Not as long as Sebastian drove her over that orgasmic edge first.

Her eyes fluttered closed as she lost herself in pure sensation. Her entire body was hypersensitive—nipples tingling as the lukewarm water sluiced over them, pulse hammering in her ears, sex throbbing from Sebastian’s deliberate teasing. He licked her damp folds as if he had all the time in the world, lapping her up, heating her blood, driving her absolutely crazy.

Her hips began to move in a restless rhythm, seeking deeper contact, seeking release, but each time Sebastian brought her close to the brink, he quickly retreated, until her anguished pleas echoed in the shower stall.

“Please,”
she begged.

His answering chuckle tickled her swollen flesh, but he must have heard the desperation in her voice because a second later, he gave her exactly what she wanted. Pushing one finger inside her, he latched his mouth on her sensitive bud and sucked, unleashing a climax so intense that Julia saw stars.

She’d barely crashed down to earth when she felt herself being turned around. Water from the spray splashed her face, slid down her body and ran over her mound, which was so sensitive from that explosive release that she squirmed away from the shower stream and almost giggled from the tickling sensation.

Sebastian’s strong fingers dug into her hips. He pressed his erection into her bottom, rubbing for several excruciating seconds before nudging her forward so that her palms were braced on the tiled wall, and then he plunged into her from behind, eliciting a wild cry from her lips.

The position allowed him to fill her completely, to hit a spot deep inside that had her moaning with abandon. His ragged breathing and her husky noises mingled with the rush of the water. Tightly gripping her hips, he moved inside her in fast, hard thrusts guaranteed to send them both soaring, and it wasn’t long before that happened.

Julia’s second release came without warning, robbing the breath from her lungs and sending a tornado of pleasure spinning through her body. Shortening his strokes, Sebastian’s chest sagged against her back, and then he let out a loud groan and withdrew, drawing her attention to the fact that he wasn’t wearing a condom. Warmth tickled the small of her back as he emptied his seed with a hoarse cry.

By the time they stepped out of the shower, the water had grown cold, but Julia’s body was still on fire. She’d never experienced such raw, uncontrollable passion. She’d never had sex like this before. Ever.

She was still amazed as they stepped into the main room, where she threw on an oversized T-shirt and some underwear while Sebastian donned a pair of boxers.

“Why do you look like you just struck gold?” he asked.

Julia blushed. “No reason.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Doc.” He lifted the flower-patterned bedspread and slid beneath the white sheets.

After a moment, she joined him in bed. “I was just thinking about how incredible the sex is,” she admitted. “It’s never been like this for me before.”

“Like this, how?” He leaned over to turn off the bedside lamp, then settled on his back and pulled her closer so that her head was resting on his bare chest.

“Passionate.” Her cheeks grew hot, and she was glad the room was dark so he couldn’t see her tomato face. “I’m not usually so adventurous in the bedroom. And I like being the one in control. But with you...I feel so totally out of control.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

She paused thoughtfully. “Before, I would have said yes, but now that I know how extraordinary it can be, how liberating, I think letting go is a very good thing.”

She twisted her neck to study the alarm clock on the end table, surprised to see it was almost midnight. But she wasn’t tired at all, and Sebastian didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go to sleep either.

“What’s your favorite place that you’ve ever traveled to?” he asked.

Julia pursed her lips for a moment. “Toronto.”

“Seriously? Out of all the places you’ve been, you choose a city in North America?”

“I really loved it,” she answered with a laugh. “It was so clean and pretty, and the people were so nice. I’ve always been a city person, and as far as cities go, Toronto was definitely my favorite. What about you?”

“Istanbul,” he said immediately. “I love everything about that place—the sights, the smells, the crowds. There’s so much to do there, and I like to keep busy.”

“Yet you’re hiding out on the coast, where you lie around on the beach all day,” she teased.

Sebastian snorted. “Does it look like we’re lying on a beach right now, Doc? Trust me, I’m the first to volunteer to get the hell out of that beach house. I go stir-crazy when I’m in one place for too long.”

“Me, too,” she admitted. “I commit to nine months working at one clinic, come back here for three months to regroup, and the second a new cycle begins, I’m on a plane again.” She furrowed her brows in the darkness, noting the irony of that. “I was never much of a traveler before. My sister, Mia, was the one with the traveling bug.”

“Was?”

“She died.” Julia swallowed the lump in her throat. “Mia was five years younger than me. The moment she turned eighteen, she took off to go backpacking around Europe. She wrote short travel pieces that she eventually started selling to travel websites, and she pretty much became a nomad. Three years ago—she was twenty-one by then—she went to South Africa. She was traveling in the north, wound up somewhere in the Limpopo province, where health care is lacking big-time. She fell during a hike, cut her leg pretty bad, and the wound got infected and eventually septicemia set in. There was no hospital she could go to, no antibiotics she could take, absolutely no treatment. A village doctor came by and gave her some aspirin.” Julia shook her head in dismay. “Aspirin!”

Sebastian’s arm tightened around her. “I’m sorry.”

She pictured Mia’s smiling face, then thought back to that last phone call from her sister. Mia had invested in a satellite phone, but she rarely ever used it because even a one-minute call cost an arm and a leg. The second Julia heard her sister’s tinny voice over the line, she’d known something was wrong.

But she hadn’t dreamed that they’d be saying goodbye.

“I wanted to get on the next plane out the second she called me. But she ordered me not to. She knew she was going to die, and she didn’t want me to see her like that.”

“Christ. I’m so sorry, Julia.” He hesitated. “So that’s why you went into foreign aid, huh?”

She nodded. “My sister died overseas because there was nobody there to give her proper medical treatment. That’s when I decided that I refused to let that happen to anyone else, travelers, locals, didn’t matter who. I wanted to save them.” A soft laugh slipped out. “And then, to my surprise, I discovered just how much I enjoyed the traveling lifestyle. I don’t think I could ever settle in one place nowadays.”

“Me either,” he agreed. “I love exploring new places and meeting new people.”

Do you?
she wanted to challenge. She bit her tongue at the last second, but a part of her wondered how much of Sebastian’s wanderlust had to do with a genuine thirst for adventure, and how much was about his need to avoid commitment. She’d already figured out that he was deathly afraid of getting too close. The military had been the perfect place for him, offering the opportunity for constant travel, which made it hard to put down roots in one place. She got the feeling that forming roots was something he desperately wanted to avoid.

Silence settled between them. Easy. Comfortable. She’d never felt more at ease with a man before, and as she snuggled closer to his warm body, a contented sigh left her lips.

But when Sebastian spoke again, her contentment faded like an old sweater in the wash.

“This is just sex, Doc.” He cleared his throat. “We’re still clear on that, right?”

An unexpected arrow of pain sliced directly into her heart. It took her a second to find her voice, to make it sound casual and unruffled. “Of course.” Now she tried to sound teasing. “We’re not commitment people, remember? We’re globe-trotters, explorers, risk takers.”

A note of relief crept into his deep voice. “Right, that we are.” He gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before rolling them over so that he was spooning her from behind. “We should get some sleep.”

“Yeah, we probably should,” she murmured.

The motel room went silent again.

Closing her eyes, Julia listened to the sound of Sebastian’s soft, even breathing, trying desperately to ignore the little jabs of pain wreaking havoc on her chest.

This is just sex, Doc.

But it wasn’t. It wasn’t just sex for her.

Not anymore.

Chapter 13

T
he next morning, Sebastian woke up to the sound of his cell buzzing beside his head. Twelve years in the military—six of them working black ops—had given him the ability to go from a deep sleep to awake alertness in the blink of an eye. As his arm shot out to grab the phone, he slid into a sitting position without skipping a beat.

“Tell me you have some news, Captain,” he said instead of hello.

“I do,” Tate confirmed. “Not sure if it’ll pan out, though. Are you still in Arlington?”

“Yes.”

Next to him, Julia stirred in bed. She opened her eyes and glanced over at him, covering her mouth as a yawn overtook it. “What’s going on?” she murmured.

“Tate,” he mouthed, before shifting his focus back to the call.

“Eva has been burning the midnight oil for the past three days researching everyone who is currently or has ever been connected to D&M Initiative,” Tate was saying.

“The lab Dr. Harrison worked at?”

“That’s the one. Anyway, she linked a dozen individuals to Project Aries. Some scientists, an epidemiologist, a few lab techs, a research assistant. She managed to hack into one of the technicians’ files and found a digital copy of a confidentiality agreement he was asked to sign.”

Sebastian snickered. “You talk, you die?”

“Wasn’t worded quite that way, but pretty much, yeah.”

“Did she find out who hired D&M to develop the virus?”

“Nope. She’s still looking, but there’s so much red tape that it
has
to be a government contract. For now, we only know the D&M personnel who were involved in the project, and we think we know which one of them sold the virus.”

His spine stiffened. “Have you confirmed this?”

“Not yet. That’s why I called. We need you to pay the man a visit.”

“Who is he?”

“Dr. Stephen Langley. He’s a scientist at D&M. We’ve been vetting all the names and his raised a few red flags. There’s some suspicious financial activity in his bank accounts, and he was up to his eyeballs in debt up until two weeks ago. I’m talking millions in credit card bills, unpaid loans, huge sums to several loan sharks. We’re thinking he racked up the debt gambling—the man flies to Vegas at least once a month, according to his travel records.”

“And now all his debt has miraculously been erased?”

“Yep,” Tate replied. “And there’s no way his D&M salary was responsible for that. Dr. Langley got his hands on a large amount of money. Eva still hasn’t found all of it—he’s stashed it in various accounts all over the world, but each and every significant deposit or transfer occurred two weeks ago.”

“So he sold the virus to the ULF and pocketed a crapload of cash.”

“That’s what we’re thinking, but I need you to find out for sure. Langley is still employed at D&M, but it’ll be next to impossible to get to him there. It’s a highly secure research facility, and that building can’t be breached, not without a lot of careful planning that we don’t have time for. But we have his home address. I’ll text it to you after we hang up.”

Sebastian slid out from under the covers and stood up, balancing the phone on his shoulder as he grabbed his cargo pants from the chair beneath the window.

“Would this guy really be that stupid?” He couldn’t control his skepticism. “To keep working at D&M after stealing a
biological weapon
from the facility?”

“It’s actually a smart move,” Tate pointed out. “It would look suspicious if he up and quit, and then two weeks later a virus wipes out a small town in New York state. Best course of action would be to hide out in plain sight. Work at the lab for another month or two, avoid suspicion and then take off once the dust has settled.”

Sebastian zipped up his pants and fumbled for a shirt. “Good point. Okay, so I’ll pay a visit to Langley. Rough him up a bit, see if I can get him to talk.”

There was a long pause. “Yeah, I don’t know if that’ll be an effective approach.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Langley was a research scientist for the CIA for two years before he moved to the private sector. They recruited him right out of college, which means he was CIA-trained.”

“Which means the concept of keeping his mouth shut was drilled into him in very painful ways.”

“If Langley really sold out his country, I’m fairly certain he won’t own up to it. Not unless you present him with evidence of his guilt. And even then, he won’t talk without trying to strike up some kind of immunity deal.”

Sebastian mulled that over. “Fine.” A grin stretched across his mouth. “Then let’s give him immunity.”

* * *

“This is the craziest plan
ever,
” Julia hissed nearly ten hours later. She followed Sebastian to the front stoop of Stephen Langley’s Georgetown brownstone, feeling incredibly ill at ease in her sleek black pantsuit. She adjusted the collar of her white shirt, then smoothed a hand over her hair, which was pulled back in a tight chignon. She felt like a total fraud in the getup, and the newly procured fake ID, clipped to her front pocket, felt like a big, scarlet
L
burning a hole into her breasts.
L
for
liar.

She couldn’t believe they were actually doing this.

Scratch that—she couldn’t believe Sebastian actually thought they could pull it off.

“Just follow my lead,” he said in a voice so calm she resisted the urge to smack him. How did absolutely
nothing
daunt this man?

This entire day had been one long worry fest for Julia. She’d worried while they waited for her latest false ID, which they’d needed to match the one Sebastian already had on him. She’d worried when they’d left the motel to purchase their snazzy black suits, then at the office depot where they’d printed out the files Eva had emailed. She’d worried as they’d watched Stephen Langley park his silver Mercedes in his driveway and amble into his home.

And now she was in full-blown panic mode, because although she was many things, an actress she was not.

Sebastian rang the doorbell, then rapped his knuckles on the front door, which was a dark-stained oak.

From the corner of her eye, Julia studied his clean-shaven face, a shocking change from his usual stubble-covered look. He appeared younger without all the scruff, but at the same time, far more lethal. The angular lines of his chiseled face were more pronounced, lending him a dangerously sexy vibe. And the man looked incredible in a suit, that was for sure.

Footsteps thudded from the interior of the townhouse. A moment later, the door opened and a short man with brown hair and a slight potbelly appeared in the doorway. “What do you want?” he demanded, narrowing his eyes at them.

“Dr. Stephen Langley?” Sebastian said pleasantly.

“Who wants to know?”

In one swift motion, Sebastian unclipped his ID card from his breast pocket and flashed it at the scientist. “Agent Shane Swanson, Department of Homeland Security. This is my partner, Agent Francis.”

Keeping her expression cool, Julia flashed her own card. Her heart was beating so loudly she was surprised Langley didn’t comment on it.

“Forgive me if I request a closer look,” Langley said snidely. He held out his hand.

They promptly dropped their IDs in his open palms. He examined them for so long that Julia was convinced he knew they were fake, but Sebastian had assured her that the badges were flawless. They even contained an actual DHS contact chip that was apparently linked to a real file for both “agents.” Earlier, when Sebastian had revealed how much those IDs cost, she’d almost passed out.

As usual, Sebastian remained composed as Langley’s perusal dragged on. Just when Julia thought the scientist would call them out as liars, the man’s lips thinned in distaste and he handed them back the IDs.

“What can I do for you, Agents?” he asked in a clipped tone.

“We’d like to come in and ask you a couple of questions,” Sebastian replied, equally terse.

Langley frowned. “May I ask what this is pertaining to?”

“Have you been watching the news today?”

“A terrorist group is holding a gun to our country’s head. What the hell do you think?”

“Good, so you’re aware that in thirty-six hours, a very deadly virus might potentially be released in one of our fine cities.” Sebastian’s mouth tightened. “Our questions pertain to
that,
Dr. Langley. So you can either let us in, or we can bring you back to DHS headquarters. It’s your choice.”

Without a word, Langley opened the door wider and gestured for them to enter.

Julia released the breath she’d been holding. She was so impressed with Sebastian’s superior acting skills that it took all her willpower not to high-five him.

They followed Langley down a spacious corridor with wood-paneled walls. The stocky man no longer wore the blazer he’d had on when he’d come home; he’d changed into a blue cable-knit sweater that was a little too snug for him, outlining the paunch of his stomach.

He led them into a large den that smelled of leather, firewood and cigars. The Burberry carpet beneath their feet and the expensive artwork on the walls revealed that Langley liked his surroundings fancy. According to the file Eva had compiled, the microbiologist also owned a villa in Greece, a racehorse he stabled in Kentucky and a yacht that had almost been repossessed before he’d cleared his debts.

Julia wondered if he’d paid for all these luxuries with the money he made from gambling, or if he’d started gambling to support his life of luxury. She suspected it was the latter.

“Look,” Langley said as he flopped down in a leather armchair adjacent to a stone fireplace, “the Pentagon already contacted our lab yesterday morning after the Dixie attacks. The director of D&M briefed us about it, and blood samples from the Dixie victims are already being analyzed in our facility. We’ve been working around the clock to learn as much as we can about what killed those people.”

Smirking, Sebastian settled on the brown leather couch opposite Langley’s chair. “Around the clock, huh?” He checked his watch. “Huh. Seems to me it’s only seven in the evening, and you’re here at home rather than at the lab.”

Langley’s brown eyes flashed with indignation. “I had dinner plans I couldn’t reschedule.”

Julia sat next to her “partner” and raised a brow at Langley. “And I’m sure the fact that your facility happens to be the lab that engineered the virus also reduces some of the urgency,” she added graciously. “After all, you and your colleagues already know everything there is to know about the Meridian virus.”

As expected, Langley pretended to look outraged. “That is categorically
untrue,
” he snapped. “D&M had nothing to do with the manufacturing of this virus.”

“Of course not.” Chuckling, Sebastian leaned over to unsnap the leather briefcase he’d brought with him. He extracted a heavy stack of papers, peeled off the first few sheets, and placed them on the oak table between the couch and the armchair.

Suspicion clouded the scientist’s eyes. “What’s this?”

“Take a quick peek.”

Langley gingerly picked up the papers as if they were laced with anthrax. When he glanced at the first page, his eyes widened for a moment before growing shuttered. “What’s this?” he asked, feigning ignorance.

“That’s a log of all the researchers involved in Project Aries. As you already know, Project Aries was the code name for the development of this biological weapon.” Sebastian paused. “The same biological weapon you sold to a terrorist group two weeks ago.”

The scientist recoiled, his face going white as a sheet, but he recovered quickly. “You’re accusing me of conducting business with terrorists?”

“It’s not an accusation. It’s a fact.” Sebastian gestured to the stack on the table. “It’s all there, Langley. The financial trail that led us straight to you. We’ve also got photographs of your rendezvous with the man you gave the virus to.”

Julia held her breath again as the bluff hung in the air. It was the only piece of information Langley could actually call them on, but they’d needed to make him think they had more than just his shady financial dealings. They’d tried to keep their claim as vague as possible, deducing that Langley would have had to meet
someone
from Escobar’s militant group and chances were that contact would be male.

When Langley flinched, she knew they’d hit the nail on the head. So he
had
met with a member of the ULF.

“Now here’s the thing.” Sebastian hurried on before Langley demanded to see said photos. “Our boss doesn’t take kindly to traitors, Doctor. Neither does our boss’s boss—who happens to be the
President
of the United States.”

There was a brief silence, and then Langley moistened his lips. “I want a lawyer.”

Julia and Sebastian exchanged amused looks.

“Uh-huh,” Sebastian said good-naturedly. “Of course you do. But you see, when a scumbag American scientist sells a deadly biological weapon to a terrorist cell, there’s no such thing as
lawyers.
Or
rights,
if you feel like tossing
that
word around. If you don’t cooperate, you’ll be detained at a government facility where lawyers and basic human rights don’t exist. You’re former CIA, so you know exactly what kind of facility I’m referring to, don’t you, Langley?”

There was no mistaking the flicker of panic that lit the man’s eyes. “Screw you,” he hissed out.

“Now, now,” Sebastian chided. “We’re trying to help you here.”

“Help me?” Langley’s mouth twisted in a bitter scowl. “It sounds like you’re trying to railroad me.”

“We’re giving you a chance to make this right,” Julia spoke up in a soft tone.

“I’m not doing a damn thing,” Langley muttered. “I’m no fool, Agent
Swanson.
” He glared at Sebastian. “If I really did what you’re accusing me of—and I’m not admitting to a goddamn thing—then we both know I’ll be executed for those crimes. There is no making it right. Your boss, and your boss’s boss—” sarcasm poured from his voice “—will have my head for this. So lock me up in one of your little torture facilities. You won’t be getting a confession from me. You won’t be getting cooperation from me either. Not unless I’m fully protected.”