Unmasking the Mercenary (16 page)

She shook her head, absorbed with the memory.

“You were just a kid,” Rem said.

It was more than that. “I had such a good childhood. Stable parents. Lots of friends. The first time anything bad happened to me was when my dad died of cancer eight years ago. My mother died not long after that. She had a massive stroke. It was as if she couldn’t live without him.”

“Do you have any siblings?”

“No. I was an only child. I suppose that’s why I used to have so many friends.”

“You don’t anymore?”

She smiled. “I work too much.”

He didn’t return her smile; instead, he studied her. She sensed him adding things up in his mind. That always made her uncomfortable. He saw too much about her.

“I wish I could have saved you from Iraq,” he said in a low, intimate tone.

She fell into the way he looked at her, warm emotion stirring.

“Maybe you still can,” she said, equally quiet.

As his eyes smoldered, she knew he’d caught her meaning.

The main course arrived, but she’d lost her appetite. Rem hadn’t moved to touch his, either. Just kept looking at her, heating her more and more with each second that passed. Without saying anything, he dumped money on the table and stood, moving closer to her and extending his hand, a silent invitation.

She found herself giving him her hand and he led her out of the restaurant. Her heart beat fast while he got them a cab. She climbed into the back and he sat right next to her. His thigh pressed along hers.

He slid his hand over and entwined his fingers with hers. She turned her head to see him. He leaned over and kissed her, a gentle caress. Then he just hovered his mouth over hers, parted his lips, teasing her until she couldn’t resist arching to reach him. He kissed her deeply, gave her his tongue. She lost her breath for a second as sensation tickled every nerve ending in her body.

The kiss grew in urgency. His wet lips slid against hers, slipped in an erotic caress. She freed her hand from his and twisted to loop her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her and moved her onto his lap.

Yes.

She felt his hand on the back of her head, holding her firm for his searching tongue. The cab came to a stop but she didn’t care. Rem didn’t, either, judging by the way his other hand roamed over the curve of her hip and up her ribs.

But he removed his mouth from hers. Their breaths met in the space between their mouths. Want clenched in her abdomen when she opened her eyes to the deep, dark desire in his.

Behind her back, he opened the cab door. Haley turned on his lap so she could get out, but his erection beneath the material of his jeans rubbed between her legs. Rem grunted and she stumbled as she climbed to her feet outside the cab.

Her knees felt unsteady while she waited for him to pay the driver. She didn’t want to think about what the driver had seen, much less what he thought.

Rem climbed out of the cab and took her hand, his face set with determination. She let him tug her inside the hotel. She half-trotted to keep up with him. At the bank of elevators, Rem stabbed the Up button. It seemed an eternity before the elevator doors opened. It was empty. He pulled her inside and pressed the button to close the door, then their floor number.

Haley tugged his hand as she moved to lean against the elevator wall. She wanted him against her. Rem sank his fingers into her hair and kissed her. She spread her feet apart on the elevator floor and he moved his hips in answer, swearing in French.

She smiled against his mouth and told him how good he felt in the same language.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, still in French. His hands kneaded her rear, pressing her against him.

The elevator doors opened. An old woman stood stiffly in the hall, eyes widening at the sight of them.

Haley hung her head as Rem pulled her behind him out of the elevator and down the hall. She ran her hands up his back as he opened the room door. She felt outside of herself, as if another woman was so brazenly touching this frightening man. She was going into a hotel room with him, where he would make love to her. He would penetrate her. Invade her the way she’d been told she’d been invaded in Iraq. Would it be like that? Her mind told her no, but another part of her couldn’t separate the horror from what could have with Rem.

Thinking of it in those terms stopped her. She stepped into the room only enough to allow the door to close. What was she doing?

Rem didn’t seem to notice the dose of reality that had just descended upon her. He peeled off his shirt and let it fall to the floor. The sight of his bare chest distracted her. He slid his gun from his pants and put it on the table and stepped out of his shoes. Then he just looked at her, as if waiting for her to do something.

She didn’t. Couldn’t.

Finally, he noticed the change in her. He moved toward her, those long, strong legs striding cautiously.

Haley couldn’t get enough air. She felt more and more suffocated as he approached. When he stopped right in front of her, she had an inclination to turn and run from the room.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” she managed to say.

He put his fingers under her chin and coaxed her to lift her head higher. She met the softness of his eyes. That open window she was starting to think very few people ever saw.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I won’t hurt you.”

And she melted. The sound of his raspy voice trickled through her nerves. Real trust stole over her.

He touched his lips to hers. Gentle. Soft. His eyes were still open, watching her, assessing, gauging. He lifted one of her hands and put it on his chest. She flattened her palm there, feeling a rekindled spark ignite. She put her other hand next to it. His skin was smooth and lightly haired.

Leaning closer, she bent her head and pressed her mouth on his chest between her hands, breathing him in, kissing her way up his neck, along his jaw, until she found his mouth again.

He slid his hands around her waist, drawing her with him away from the door. Turning her, he backed her up until he had her closer to the bed.

Taking the hem of her dress in his hands, he pulled it up her body, moving slow, as though knowing anything too fast would spook her into withdrawing. He couldn’t know how right he was. Her heart pounded from more than desire as he lifted the dress over her head and dropped it to the side of the bed. She hadn’t worn a bra, so the only things left were her underwear and sandals.

Wrapping his arm around her, he knelt on the bed, lowering her gently to the mattress. Sliding her up the bed so that they both fit on it, he kissed her. Soft, quick touches. Sometimes lingering. She drifted into a fine eddy, let herself get lost in the feelings that came with it.

He moved down her neck, leaving a trail of fireworks along the way. His hands roamed down her waist and over her hips to her thighs. He reached her breasts and bestowed each with tender kisses, taking one of her nipples into his mouth and circling it with his tongue.

Haley bracketed his head with her hands, wanting that mouth back on hers. He obliged her, kissing her harder now. Kissing her endlessly. Until finally he seemed to have to break away. Breathless, he rose up onto his knees, straddling one of her legs as he reached for the button of his jeans. He looked his fill of her lying on the bed, those light blue eyes taking in every inch of her body. Instead of frightening her, it intrigued her and heated her blood.

The zipper went down and he pushed the jeans over his hips. His underwear went down, too. Working his way out of the rest of his clothes, he positioned himself between her legs, watching her again.

He stopped, kneeling over her. Hesitant. Mindful of her needs. Her fears. Intrigue won over fear. Intrigue. And trust. The impact of that bathed her senses. Trust. Did she trust him?

Yes.
On the most intimate level.

Rolling onto her hip, she let him know what she wanted. He lay on his back, a soft grin pushing up his mouth as she climbed on top of him. He put his hands on her hips and glided them around to her back as she leaned forward. Her hair fell like a curtain beside their faces. She kissed his grinning mouth. She moved on to his throat and reached his chest, hearing and seeing his excited breathing. His stomach muscles tightened as she kissed her way down his body. He put his hands on her shoulders, curving over the joints. Ready to stop her if it got too torturous.

She ran her tongue over his warm flesh, loving the texture and the way he responded. He wanted her. She marveled over that, over the way he made her yearn to give him as much pleasure as he would give her. She wanted him to know this act of love would not be forgotten. Not by her.

Kissing her way back up his torso, she toyed with his chest, all the while gliding her hands over him, his sides, his arms.

Then she lowered her body onto his. Their nakedness generated warmth and the intimate contact made her press her hips more firmly to his, moving over his erection, the only barrier her underwear.

He swore in French again, this time sounding rough and unsteady. The idea of Rem unsteady gave her a triumphant sense of gladness. That she could render him that way with only her mouth. A man like Rem…

She touched her mouth to his for a sweet kiss, but he’d taken all he could of her attention. With a smooth roll, he had her underneath him again.

He kissed her long and deep while his hand ran over her breast and down her side. He hooked her underwear with his fingers and slid them down. She kicked them free of her legs, but she still had on her sandals.

Rem must have known it all along, because now he moved down one of her legs, brushing kisses along her inner thigh as though he’d planned it all along. Down her knee. Her lower leg. She barely noticed when he peeled off her sandals. They landed one after the other with soft thuds on the floor.

Now he crawled back up toward her, between her legs, spreading them wider as he moved. At the juncture of her thighs, he stopped, looking up at her with dark desire humming in his eyes. The first touch of his tongue made her put her head back onto the bed and shut her eyes. He was excruciatingly gentle, each brush sending shards of sensation spinning outward from where he touched. He slid his stubbly chin against her softness. The sensations intensified. A sound erupted from her, one she had no control over.

He didn’t stop. He kept strumming her nerve endings, always, always…relentlessly gentle. Just when she thought she was going to explode, he withdrew.

“Don’t stop,” she breathed, only then aware of how audible her breathing was.

Taking her mouth into a long, wet kiss, he maneuvered the tip of his erection where his mouth had been.

The invasion made her stiffen. He kissed her cheek and then the skin near her ear.

“It’s me doing this to you,” he told her, pushing himself a little deeper. “It’s me.”

Rem. It was Rem filling her. No one else. She gripped his arms, digging her fingers into his hard-muscled skin.

He lifted his head to look at her. “Haley.”

She wondered if she looked as vulnerable as she felt.

He pulled back and pushed in again, going deeper than before. Pressure stretched her inner walls. He pushed in more. More. Until he lodged himself all the way in.

Haley broke into a cold sweat. But instead of enduring him pounding her, she ended up waiting. He didn’t move. He went still inside her, letting her grow accustomed to him.

She began to relax. Her legs trembled again as tension eased from her muscles. She began to see the way he was looking at her. Really see it. Intent on giving her pleasure. Intent on obliterating Iraq from her mind.

“Rem,” she whispered.

With a satisfied groan, he moved. Each thrust touched off incredible feelings that radiated and burst. He moved faster. Sensation intensified. She came hard on him, squeezing his rigid flesh, pulling another groan from him.

He did pound her then, but it wasn’t long before he reached his own release. As he lay on her, she knew she’d never felt more alive in her life. Complete. Healed. Herself again.

She sighed, long and content.
Welcome back.

Chapter 10

H
aley woke with a long stretch and a moan. She blinked her eyes open, feeling a delicious fatigue. Sunlight poured through the window. The room was quiet.

She rolled onto her back and looked beside her. Rem was gone. She put her hand on the sheets where he’d been. No longer warm from his body heat.

She sat upright. The blankets fell away and cool air brushed bare skin. He was nowhere in the room. She heard no sounds from the bathroom, either. Where was he? A stab of disappointment gripped her. Couldn’t he have waited for her to wake up? Why had he sneaked away like this? Again.

She knew, of course. He’d gone to the second
hawaladar
.

Pulling the covers aside, she rose from the bed. She dressed in jeans and a white short-sleeved T-shirt, wondering what she should do. Wait for him? She’d all but gone crazy the last time she’d tried that. Maybe she’d go down for some coffee and breakfast. If anything it would kill some time. She found her wallet in Rem’s duffel bag and paused in the bathroom to put her hair up before leaving the room.

On the main level, she headed for the brasserie. Growing aware of a presence behind her, she glanced over her shoulder. A man walked a few paces back, a cell phone to his ear. He saw her and looked away. But something in the way he spoke into the phone alerted her. Too quiet. Too discreet.

Heart springing into faster beats, she faced forward and walked faster. Should she try to go back to the room? She’d have to turn around to do that, and then she’d have to get past the man. Maybe she was overreacting.

She searched the lobby. It was nearly empty of people this morning. She spotted the front entrance. There were two cabs parked in front. She headed there.

Outside, she looked behind her. The man had put away his cell and was still following her. Again, he looked away when he caught her glance.