Agent S5: Jaydan (6 page)

She touched Cyrus’ shoulder. “I want to go.”

“But, we haven’t exchanged numbers yet.” Hope smiled, trying to connect again.

Another guard appeared beside Cyrus. He spoke in low tones before the man rushed away to tend to his injured comrade at the bar.

Cyrus gave them a pleasant smile. “Enjoy the islands.” With a hand around Keegan’s bicep, he turned her away, his gaze still on them. “Will you be staying long?”

Jaydan’s voice rang of sound assurance. “As long as it takes.”

With a lingering, narrow-eyed glare, Cyrus steered away Keegan.

Jaydan stared after them. “That dude has sick and twisted written all over him.”

Hope sensed it too, with his possessive hold on Keegan’s arm and his obvious control over the local police. Though outwardly he’d been nothing but polite, Cyrus definitely gave her the heebee jeebees. And his interest in her mother’s bracelets put him at the top of her to-be-watched list.

Taking her hand, Jaydan steered her through the wreckage of tables. Whispers followed them as the crowd backed away to give them room. Head held high, Hope walked behind Jaydan as though he hadn’t just held two grown men in the air and thrown them several feet across the area. The two officers watched them walk past, their eyes darting to Jaydan’s armbands before bouncing to her.

Reaching the parking lot, Jaydan’s stride slowed. She pulled him up short.

“Why did you tell them we were engaged?” She backhanded him on the chest.

Ow.

She shook out her hand. “Now, she really doesn’t trust me.”

Releasing her, Jaydan stared at her with a ferocious frown. “I wanted Matheson to know that where you go, I go.”

Tilting her head, Hope gave him a deadpan stare. “I think tossing around his security guards like beach balls got the message across.”

“Good,” he said in a raised voice. “Why is it a big deal, anyway? What did you tell her?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “The truth. That you work with my brother and that we can’t stay in the same room with each other for more than two minutes without arguing.”

The anger drained from his face, his shoulders slumping. Why
did
they fight so much?

And why did it hurt her to say those words?

Storming off to the SUV in the far corner of the lot, her own anger had fled by the time she reached the door. She hated the fighting. Hated the arguing.

Turning around, she watched Jaydan approach with slow steps. He looked drained, his face pale.

The pain
.

She’d forgotten all about the pain that followed his use of strength. Her own selfishness had overruled any other thought in her head.

Rushing to him, she brushed back the hair from his face. “Are you okay?”

He shrugged away her touch. “I’m fine.”

“Obviously, you’re not.” She held out her hand. “Give me the keys. I’ll drive.”

“Hell no.” Pulling the keys from his pocket, he clicked the remote.

“Jaydan, don’t be so stubborn. Just let me do this while you re-cooperate. It’s not that far.”

His leery gaze studied her face before he dropped the keys in her palm. Opening the door, she climbed in behind the wheel and waited for him to get situated in his seat. Pressing the button to start the engine, she nodded at the seatbelt. With a sigh, he buckled in.

A loud tap sounded against Hope’s window. Whipping around, she gasped when she saw the small circle that splintered into tiny sunrays.

“
Gun it
,” Jaydan cried, as he shifted the SUV into drive. “They’re shooting at us.”

His heart took off as Hope peeled away from the parking space, tires squealing on the pavement. Taps sounded along the side of the bullet-proof vehicle as it flew through the lot. The SUV bounced off the curb and hit the street.

Dammit, he shouldn’t have let her drive.

He winced at the pain that throbbed inside his arms, his legs… his entire damned body. It wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. It had just come at an inopportune time.

“Keep it steady, Les. We want to live through this.”

Her eyes were steady on the road, her grip on the steering wheel, tight. “I got this, Rose.”

His little hellion would never admit otherwise.

Clutching at his arm, Jaydan glanced back. No one followed them. It didn’t mean there wasn’t a welcoming committee at the house.

“Prove it, Les. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Glancing over at him, she gave him the hottest damned smile he’d ever seen – before she floored it.

A car raced into the intersection from their left, cutting them off. Hope swerved, jumping up on the walk. Pedestrians scrambled as she sped down the sidewalk and into the street, knocking his head against the passenger window. She fled ahead, taking the first right, and barreled down the street.

Dumbfounded, he stared at her – before he let out a rebel yell.

Her grin made him laugh. “You’re such a redneck, Rose.”

The car rushed up into the rearview mirror, lights on high beam. She floored it. The traffic light turned red just as she hit the intersection. She rushed through, pedal to the metal. Glancing back, he saw their tail get T-boned, the car spinning like a fan blade in the middle of the intersection.

Her eyes darted back and forth between the rearview mirror and the road, shadows from passing streetlights playing along her beautiful, focused face. “Should we go back?”

She did
not
just say that…

“Hell no, we’re not going back.”

Her serious, mint green gaze met his for a moment. “I thought it was your job to help people.”

He gave an adamant shake of his head. “Not people that are trying to kill me.”

Laughter started in Hope’s throat and burst from her mouth. She tossed back her head and laughed. “I can’t believe I said that.”

Jaydan ran a hand over the soft, platinum hair spread out on her shoulders. He understood it, the automatic thinking. Instinct versus the logical mind. With his enhancement, he’d had to train his mind to think logically while his system ran on adrenalin and energy. It went against his body’s natural tendencies.

He had to be stronger than himself.

Turning onto the road to the house, she sped down the street, the motor roaring in the night. Jaydan stared out the windshield, looking for bad guys.

“Pull right into the garage, got it? Don’t slow down anymore than you have to.”

Hitting the curved drive with a bump, she sped up the path. He hit the garage door opener. Pulling into the garage, she stopped with a squeak of the brakes. He pushed the button to lower the door behind them. Silence filled the cab, save for her rapid breathing.

“Are you okay?” He searched her face for signs of fear, shock, panic – anything but the relief and cool confidence that shone in her beautiful eyes.

“I’m fine.”

A slow grin blossomed on his face. “Good.”

Grabbing the back of her neck, he crushed his mouth to hers. Energy pulsed through his nerve-endings like whitewater rapids, tremulous, rough and wild. He didn’t know if it was the excitement of the chase, her sexy grin back at the intersection, or their heavy petting session that had him bordering on madness. Whatever it was, only Hope could slake it.

She moaned into his mouth, her arms wrapping around his neck. Releasing his seatbelt, it popped back and hit the shatterproof window with a crack. Climbing over the center console, he hit his knee on the storage compartment latch. Growling into her mouth, he grabbed the console in one hand and ripped it from the floor. He flung it into the back cargo area.

Climbing on top of her, he hit the lever beside her seat. It shot back against the rear bench. Popping her seatbelt, she pulled him down on top of her.

Her soft hands found his bare back, sending ripples of hunger coursing through him. His need for her collided with the energy rushing through him to explode into a reckless, untamed passion that consumed him. The agonizing heat filtered to the surface of his skin, ripe, boiling, hardening his body like molten lava.

Her palm cupped him through his shorts, her ministrations raising him to a plane of need he’d never reached before. A plane new and ripe with possibility, a plane that
would
be conquered.

Taking her hands, he folded them back over the headrest. Her dark, heavy-lidded eyes watched him, her chest heaving, her face flush with passion.

“Please…” she said in a breathless whisper.

His hands trembled as he reached for her top, ripping it in half. The pieces fell to her sides, her full, damned perfect breasts spilling out.

He claimed one with his mouth, it’s sweet fullness plump against his lips. Her gasp echoed in the close confines of the vehicle, breathless and gruff. He suckled with raw thirst, her moans hardening him beyond pain, blinding him to anything but relief.

Rising up on one hand, he lowered his zipper with hurried movements. Helping him, she tugged down his shorts, his khaki briefs following. She stared at his jutted hardness, her eyes darkening to a swirling jade.

“Oh, Jaydan…”

Flipping up her skirt, he realized only a pair of tiny, green panties stood between him and release. Her blatant, wet kiss told him she wouldn’t stop him.

“Take them.”

Ripping away the flimsy material, he thrust into her. She cried out, her rough moan resonating with his in the steamy cab. Her warmth sheathed him in intense decadence, urging him on…

Humbling him.

Here, there were no disagreements between them but mutual hunger, no fight for dominance but shared pleasure. There was no need to prove – or protect himself.

Just a need to
lose
himself in her.

He moved with wild abandon, starved for her body, craving her response, demanding her release.

Bracing a foot on the shifter, she propped the other on the doorjamb and lifted her hips. He slid deeper, to the heart of her, the pain along his nerve-endings intensifying. Pumping into her, he claimed her, marked her as his own.

Her body climaxed around him, taking its own demands, exposing a weakness his strength couldn’t overcome. His release came in a rush, the energy bursting with blinding light, hardening his body.

And, softening his heart.

Jaydan had just dozed off when Hope shifted under him on the torn, leather seat. “Jaydan, I can’t breathe.”

Shooting up, he bumped his head on the roof, denting it. Looking around, he took in her torn clothes, the split leather beneath her, the empty space where the console used to be.

A sharp, succinct curse shattered the air. He’d completely lost it. He’d allowed the energy to take over, to control him.

“Did I hurt you?”

She gave him a soft, sated smile. “No – “

“Damn, I’m sorry, Les.” Opening the door, he climbed out of the vehicle and extended his hand to her. He’d just had boiling hot, mind-blowing sex with Hope Powers. Had he completely lost his mind?

“You’re apologizing for making love with me?” Her eyes swirled with hurt and anger as she climbed out to stand in front of him. Her top hung open, exposing her cleavage, her hair a white-gold mess. She moved to shove it out of her eyes, the diamond bracelets sparkling in the garage’s dim nightlight.

He’d told her cowboys knew how to treat a lady. She stood before him in threads.

He’d told her father he’d look out for her. Yeah, he’d seen just about every square inch.

He’d let down everyone. Again. And all at Hope’s expense.

“My acceleration was running high after you came onto me and…” Glancing down at her exposed cleavage, he cursed again.

Damn, did he really just say that?

“Came onto you?” She clutched her top in a tight fist to cover herself. “At the bar, you kissed me
first
.”

God, she was right.  “To keep you focused.”

“Keep
me
focused?” She pointed at herself. “I
was
focused. On Keegan. You were the one pulling macho bullshit with the red-headed hottie.”

Did she really call another man a hottie after they’d just had sex?

Anger rushed through him like a tidal wave. “Maybe you should’ve had sex with the redheaded hottie then.”

The color drained from her face before she swallowed hard.

Damn, he was a major asshole.

“Look, I was out of line,” he said. “Out of control with this system. I’m sorry.”

Hurt clouded her eyes like a whirling thunderstorm, making him wince. The last thing he’d wanted to do was hurt her. No matter how much they fought, Hope didn’t deserve to be hurt.

With a hand clutched to her chest, she wrapped the other around her middle. “I’m going to bed.” Passing him, she said, “And, for the record, I’m sorry it happened, too.”

***

“Damn, Mitchell. It wasn’t like I asked those guards to come at me. I had to protect Hope.”

Jaydan stared at his boss on the computer screen in the small operations room behind the library bookcases. Just yesterday, he’d bragged about keeping his enhancement a secret by crushing the truck driver’s phone.

He blew that all to hell tonight at the luau.

“You and Saint should have your own freaking video channel. You could probably earn a second income on advertising, with all of the hits you’ve had.”

Rose wasn’t in the mood for Mitchell’s griping. He had enough of that going on in his own head.

Hope’s parting shot had stung more than his pride. Why was she sorry? He’d felt her climax around him. Her pleasure had brought on his release.

“What do you have on my intel?”

“A whole shitload of questions, Rose. You two have stepped into a hornet’s nest. I think its best you get Hope back to San Diego. I’ll put Aidan and Saint on it.”

Oh, hell no. Forget telling him they’d taken fire tonight.

“Mitchell, Hope connected with Keegan. I think she can gain us an
in
we might otherwise lose.”

Shit, he had to be out of his mind. After what they’d been through tonight, he’d be wise to follow Mitchell’s advice. He’d promised Luke he’d look out for her. He was depending on him to keep her safe.

“Besides, there’s no way I’m backing out now,” he said. “I owe this to Saint.”

“Your brother’s wedding is in two days,” Mitchell said. “Something tells me Cyrus Matheson won’t break for intermission while you fly to Texas.”

Jaydan’s gut churned at Mitchell’s choice of words. “Won’t break from what?”

“That’s what I’m hoping you’ll find out. If he’s anything like his grandfather, it can’t be good.”

Taking a bite out of a pear, Jaydan leaned back his chair on two legs. “Okay, I’ll bite. Who’s his grandfather?”

“His grandfather
was
Clay Matheson, a business associate of Hope’s grandfather, Seth Powers.”

“Powers? The bastard that paid Naylor to send away Riordan?”

His boss nodded. “One in the same. Among the crimes he and his old cronies evaded, Matheson was once suspected of child slave trafficking.”

Damn, he’d been right about that sick and twisted side of Matheson. He’d inherited it.

“What happened?”

“The D.A.’s office could never get a conviction. Care to wager who the prosecutor was on the case?”

“No clue.”

“A young, up and coming attorney named Dan Meeks.”

His chair legs hit the floor with a thump. “You’re freaking kidding me?”

Jaydan’s mind whirled with confusion. “And they could never tie Keegan’s kidnapping to Matheson? It’s right there in front of our eyes. How could they not see it?”

Mitchell said, “Based on my information, he was a prime suspect but they could never find any evidence that he was involved. Of course, they didn’t have DNA tracking back then.”

The sound of Hope’s shower turning on drew his attention. The image of water sluicing over her lush breasts, down her flat stomach to her body’s haven, made his system kick start again.

“You have to get inside the compound, Rose.”

He harrumphed. “Easier said than done with Hope around.”

“I didn’t spend billions on your system to have you tell me you can’t do it. Are you saying I can’t depend on you to get the job done?”

Anger suffused his body in blistering heat, his jaw clenched to the point of nearly cracking his teeth.

“I’ll get in.”