Sweet Reward (30 page)

Instead of laughing or coming back with a smart remark, she whispered, “Thank you for that.”

In his whole life, he’d never been thanked for sex. Now he was at a loss for words. He could say the same thing to her and tell her he’d never had that kind of experience, either. He could tell her how incredible he thought she was or that spending a lifetime inside her would be like heaven on earth. There were so many sweet, comforting words that most men would’ve been able to come up with. Jared had never said them … hell, he’d never felt them. So instead, he said the sensible thing: “You okay about me not using a rubber?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m on birth control and healthy.”

“My last checkup was a couple of months ago. I’m okay, too.”

She moved slightly, and he figured she was ready for some space. Not that he was lying on top of her, but they were both sweaty. And since he hadn’t used a condom, she’d probably appreciate a chance to clean up.

When he pulled away, he realized he hadn’t gotten his pants all the way down. Hell, that had never happened before. Tugging them back up, he then reached down to scoop her into his arms.

“Where are we going?”

“Bed.”

A soft sigh and her head burrowing into his chest was her only reply.

That weird tightening in his chest happened again. Determined not to question what the hell that meant, he carried her up the stairs and dropped her onto the bed. “Be right back.”

Mia collapsed onto the sheets, feeling like overcooked mush. That experience had been out of the realm of anything she’d had before. Of course, she didn’t have a lot to go on, but if that kind of sex were commonplace, people would be walking around with much bigger smiles and the world would be a happier place.

The bed moved slightly. She turned her head to see Jared on his knees beside her, holding a cloth.

“Open up.”

Before she could ask him what he was doing, he put a hand under one of her knees, pulling her legs apart, and then he performed one of the most gentle acts she’d ever experienced as he cleaned the semen from between her legs.

Emotions bubbled within her, followed by a large dose of panic. She couldn’t fall in love with this man. She couldn’t. Heartache like she’d never known before would be all she could expect. Determined to enjoy what he was giving her without needing more, Mia closed her eyes and relished these too brief moments of tenderness from a man who did everything he could to show others that he had nothing tender inside him.

When he finished, he dropped the cloth on the floor and gathered her close again. Mia snuggled against him. Reality would resume soon. They needed to talk about Ricard. She had to tell Jared she wanted to work with another operative.

Reality did return, but not in the form she expected. Without any prompting from her at all, Jared began to talk.

“My parents were killed in a car accident when I was
six. I got into a fight on the playground. They were on their way to talk to the principal when they were hit by a drunk driver.”

Afraid to speak or offer any kind of verbal sympathy, Mia did the only thing she knew to do to offer support—she reached for his hand and held it.

“Both sets of grandparents were dead, and no aunts or uncles were available to take in a precocious orphan. So I went into the foster-care system.

“I didn’t do well. I think I was in at least a dozen homes by the time I was thirteen. Then they gave up on me. No one was going to adopt a pissed-off kid with a bad stutter and a chip on his giant shoulders. I went to an orphanage for a while and then eventually ended up in a group home for troubled teens. I ran away when I was sixteen. Lived on the streets; worked some jobs. Just tried to survive.

“I went to join the army as soon as I was old enough. There was a man there … apparently he saw something in me he liked. He recruited me into another agency. One few people have heard of.”

Questions trembled on her lips, but she knew not to ask them. She’d seen Jared in action. His skills were crazy-good and lethal. And while he might have picked up some of those skills recently, he’d been working for LCR for only a little over a year. Those kinds of moves came from years of training and experience. Mia was more than aware that government agencies existed outside the public’s knowledge. Most of them were ones only a select few ever knew about. She didn’t have to hear the details to know he’d worked for the good guys. Why? Because Jared was one of the good guys.

He was silent for so long that Mia understood he had finished. Though she was loath to break the incredible intimacy they’d been sharing, reality and its ugly, dirty truth needed to be brought out and discussed.

“Something really rattled Philippe today.”

“Did you hear any of the conversation?”

She shook her head. “He just answered his cellphone, which I thought was strange. Most people would put it on silent during something like that luncheon. Although his ego is big enough that he probably wouldn’t think that applied to him. When he answered, he listened for a couple of seconds; then his eyes got wide and he covered the phone with his hand, said he had to take the call and he’d be back.”

“Could be that he found out about his guy’s face being caught on a surveillance camera.”

Mia sighed and sat up. “Yeah. I’m wondering if the police will find him before he turns up with a bullet in his head, like Boyd Fuller in Chicago.”

He sat up, too, and leaned against the headboard. “On the way back to your place, I stopped and picked up a few things. Wish I’d gotten them before you saw him yesterday. One is a bug you can attach to his jacket. Smallest one I’ve ever seen, almost like a piece of lint. Doesn’t have the best reception, but it’s not bad. Next time you see him, try attaching it inside the sleeve of his jacket. If we can capture his voice arranging a deal, we’ll have all the evidence we need.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” She bit her lip as she considered her next words. No matter what she said or how she said it, he wasn’t going to like it. Might as well go ahead and get it over with.

“I’m going to ask Noah to assign someone else to work this case with me.”

“No.” He said the word softly, but she heard the iron will behind it.

Sighing, she turned to face him. “It’s for the best, Jared. If I have to do this thing, I can’t have you listening. I can’t
handle that.” She didn’t add that she wasn’t sure he could handle it, either.

“You won’t be having sex with the bastard.”

“What do you mean? How am I going to get out of it?”

He shrugged. “Simple. You’re going to knock him on his ass.”

“Excuse me?”

Jared rolled out of bed and padded to the leather jacket he’d dropped onto the sofa earlier. “Something else I picked up on the way to your apartment.”

“Some more stuff from your secret friend?”

“Actually, this is LCR stuff. McCall and I talked about it. We both think it’ll work.”

Looking intrigued and hopeful, Mia asked, “What is it?”

He pulled a small velvet bag from his inside pocket and tossed it to her. She caught it easily with one hand. Withdrawing a small vial of liquid from the pouch, she said, “So I’m going to poison him?”

Hell, he wished it could be that simple. “No, you’re going to knock him out for a while. It’s an experimental drug. We haven’t used it on an op yet, but McCall saw a demonstration and was impressed with the results.”

“What does it do?”

“It’ll knock a person out for up to an hour. You’ll have to be close enough to a chair so he can collapse into it. When he wakes up, he’ll have no idea how much time has passed. He might feel a little light-headed, but that should be the only side effect.”

“Are you serious?”

“Very. Think you can search his files in an hour?”

The relief in her eyes was evident and mirrored his own feelings. The thought of that bastard’s hands on Mia was driving him crazy. And even if it didn’t work as they hoped and things got hairy, he planned to be there with her. The instant Ricard lost consciousness, he would find a way to get inside. With both of them searching together, they would find what they needed. And if they got caught, he’d make sure Mia was okay.

“What happens if I can’t find anything?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Between the two of us, if there’s anything there, we’ll find it.”

“The two of us? What are you talking about? How are you going to help search?”

“As soon as he’s out, I’ll come inside.”

“I haven’t been to his house in a while, but I’m quite sure there’s armed security at his gate, not to mention cameras and sensors everywhere. There’s no way you can get in without being seen.”

“You let me worry about that. I’ll get in.”

“No, Jared, we can’t risk that. If there’s something to be found, I’ll find it.”

“You’re not going to do this alone.”

“If I were another LCR operative, would you have a problem with it?”

“I’d do the same thing for any operative. You’re no different.”

“I see.”

Hell, he’d thought she would be pleased by that. How many times had she told him she was as good as any LCR operative? He had just confirmed that he thought she was.

She got to her feet, wrapping the sheet around herself. “I need to get home and get some sleep.”

“You can sleep here.”

“I want to go home. I can call a taxi.”

“Dammit, I’ll take you home. But we’re agreed on one thing: I’ll be there when you give him the drug. Right?”

“Yes, agreed.” She glanced around the bedroom as if looking for something to wear.

“Your clothes are still on the floor downstairs. I’ll go get them.”

She nodded. “Thanks. I’ll be in the bathroom.”

The door closed before he could say anything else. Hell, he might as well keep his mouth shut, since every time he opened it, he said something wrong. But for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what he’d gotten wrong this time.

   Philippe woke the next morning with one goal clear in his mind: he wanted to move forward with Mia. He was a busy man; courting and seducing were too time-consuming. She knew what his intentions were … by asking her to move in with him, he’d made himself clear. They were attracted to each other, and they were of the same social status. There was no reason to delay the inevitable.

First he would get her here. He would take a long weekend, dismiss all but the most essential servants, and he would charm and entice her. And at the end of the weekend, he would propose. Some might call their romance too quick, but when Philippe saw what he wanted, he took it. He wanted Mia, and he would have her.

As he dressed, he made plans. After she accepted his proposal, they would call her parents. Though he hadn’t seen them in years, he knew they would be thrilled.

Then it would be publicly announced; an engagement party would follow … maybe in two weeks, no more than that. They would marry in early spring. The honeymoon would be somewhere warm and exotic. He wouldn’t allow
Mia clothes … he’d have her in the nude, and they could make love on the beach anytime they liked.

As he sipped his morning coffee, he was almost beside himself with excitement. Unable to wait until he finished breakfast, Philippe took his cellphone and placed the call to put his future in motion.

Mia grabbed the phone from her nightstand. Groggy and disoriented, she mumbled, “Hello.”

“My darling, Mia. Did I wake you?”

Her eyes popped open and she came awake immediately. “I can’t think of a better way to wake, Philippe. How are you?”

“I’m excellent but lonely. I’m sorry I had to cancel our plans yesterday. I want to make it up to you.”

“You seemed distracted when you left. Is everything all right?”

“Yes, just some pesky business details I had to take care of. Nothing for you to worry about. I called to see if you’d like to begin moving your things in here and spend a long, casual weekend alone with me.”

Her heart went into overdrive. This was the opportunity they’d been waiting for. And whether Jared was completely on board with it or not, she had to take the shot.

“I would love to, Philippe.”

“Excellent. I’ll have my chauffeur collect you tomorrow, around noon. Bring what you need for the weekend, and then I’ll have someone collect the rest of your things next week.”

“That sounds wonderful. See you then.”

Mia closed the phone and sprang from the bed. She needed coffee to overcome last night’s overindulgence. Incredible sex, followed by a wonderfully intimate conversation and then one single sentence that had shattered everything. Her entire body felt wrung out.

She padded to the kitchen. As she prepared the coffee, she considered how she had reacted to Jared’s comment that she was no different than any other LCR operative. The words had stung, but how could she be surprised by them? They had agreed to a no-commitment sexual relationship while they worked this case. Expecting more from him was fruitless.

In a week, maybe less, this case might well be over, the stolen babies returned to their parents. What would happen to Sandi’s baby? The young woman had no relatives to take the child. Would she get adopted or go into foster care, as Jared had? Her heart hurt when she thought about the sad little boy Jared had been. No wonder he tried to maintain that toughness as an adult. Much of his hard veneer had to do with self-protection. When you get hurt repeatedly, you do everything you can to prevent it from ever happening again.

After a quick visit with her parents in Italy, she would return to Chicago. She missed her life there … her family of pets. She missed her house. Getting back to normal would feel good. These weeks with Jared had been a once-in-a-lifetime experience that she refused to regret. She had known it was a temporary thing. But telling herself that didn’t prevent the painful tightening of her chest or the sting of tears behind her eyes.

The click of the lock told her she didn’t have to call and tell him about her weekend plans with Philippe. Mia met him in the middle of the living room. As he came closer, she tensed, realizing that any apology at all from him would probably have her hurling herself into his arms. She was that weak when it came to him.