Authors: Kathi S. Barton
“Hello.” The beautiful woman standing at his desk nearly had him reaching for his sidearm. But she smiled at him and told him it would do him no good. “I’m not there, you see. Or here—however you wish to see it. But I would prefer that you not speak. That young man out there is stupid, but he can hear quite well for a human. If you could just…I don’t know, nod when you think it’s necessary, and shake that lovely head of yours when you don’t.”
He wasn’t sure how to ask her anything, but she seemed to understand his unspoken questions. “Lauren sent me. She said that you need to purchase yourself a pick and go-phone soon. In the meantime, she has me coming back and forth. Oh, and soon I should like to taste you. Not sexually, though had she told me you were so yummy looking, I might have insisted on that as well.” He cleared his throat, never having been this embarrassed before. “Anyway. She said that you have more than likely been bugged. Not just here, but at your home as well as your cars. And Lauren said that you should learn to walk more. It’s better for your health. And that the park where she showed you how she was capable of caring for herself has a nice bench too.”
Tony nodded. He knew that place, and he picked up his coat to go there now. But before he could leave the room, his boss, Brigadier General Garth Wilson, moved into his office like he owned it. Victoria smiled at him and told him to pay attention to the man, there would be questions for him later.
“I just got off the phone with the president. He is not a happy man.” Victoria said that he wasn’t, but not for the reasons he was about to hear. “He is trying his best to get in touch with Burcher and she’s not cooperating. He wanted me to tell you to get her ass in here pronto. And that man of hers too, McCullough.”
He means Hawkins, not Colin. They are unaware of him as yet being her mate. Tell him that she’s been ill, her wounds are bothering her.
Tony told him what she said.
Very good. Now, as in an offhanded thought, tell him that you thought she was going to the company doctor today. That you think she’s not as well as she had you believe.
Tony relayed the messages, even going so far as to tell the man that he was avoiding her in the event she had some sort of flu.
“Good. Good. He can fix her right up. I have a feeling that woman is not following protocol and is fucking with the system. You know how much I hate when she does that. But you don’t have to worry about catching anything from her. I’m sure it’s just her wounds acting up. They’ll fix her right up if she’d just do as she was told.”
Tony did know how much Garth hated Lauren. He had since the very beginning of her career. He glanced at Victoria when she told him what to say next.
“Hawkins hasn’t been healing as well either. I heard from his family that they might have to amputate his arm, poor boy, and after all that he’s done for us. Did you know it was that bad?” Tony was watching Wilson’s face or he might have missed the look of joy there. When Victoria spoke this time, he had a feeling that she was talking to Lauren even as she spoke to him.
He wants them both dead for some reason. And having them go to the doctor is where Lauren thinks something is going to happen. I’m to tell you that they have no intentions of going to him, but she wanted you to see his reaction. This man is not to be trusted.
Tony said no shit before he could think that they weren’t alone.
“What was that? What did you say?” He asked Wilson what he meant and tried his best to keep his face from giving him away. “I thought you said something. Never mind. As I was saying, the president needs to talk to the two of them. Might be an honor or something in this for them. You do know that the president, he thinks the world of that woman.”
That woman. He’d called her that twice now. And when Tony looked at Victoria again, he knew that she had some information that he needed. Or that he wanted. Either way, he had to speak to her alone. And he thought the park would be the best place for it.
“I was just stepping out. I thought about heading for the park to run a few miles, clear my head. Did you want to join me?” He knew that Wilson would never run anywhere unless it was for food. The man had to weigh at the very least three hundred pounds, and he had several chins to show for it. “I’m sure I can find you some running clothes if you want to.”
“No, no. You go right ahead. I have things to see to here. You said she was going to the company doctor today, didn’t you?” He said that he’d confirm it but was sure that’s what she’d said. “Good. Okay, I have some calls to make. I’ll speak to you later. Good work on this. Very good work.”
Lauren is in the park waiting for you,
Victoria told him when they entered the elevator.
She said that if you had a tail, which I’m to understand she thinks you have now, then you are to go to the bench and wait for her signal. And before you ask, no, I have no idea what it might be. Very cloak and dagger, isn’t it?
It was scary was what it was. As he made his way to the park, his shoes and a T-shirt stuffed in his duffle, he thought about all the shit that had gone down in the last few weeks. Well, month he supposed now. Since the week before Lauren and Hawkins had been hurt and her team taken out.
Changing in the small room, he was a little disconcerted to have Victoria in the outer room waiting on him. He was sure that she was enjoying his discomfort much more than he thought she should, so when he came out, dressed, she looked him up and down, and he felt his cock stretch in his shorts. Christ, he needed to find a woman if an image of a vampire, albeit a beautiful one, was doing this to him.
You should come to my home tonight. We could have a very good time. I can show you things that you have never dreamed up.
He only finished tying his shoes as she continued
. Do you like it hard and fast, Anthony? I do. And if you tied me to the bed while you fucked me, I’d really make it worth your while.
He was rock hard when he left the changing area and headed to the toilets. Her soft laughter accompanied him into the stall, where he tried to reason with his cock that right now was not the time for him to be stone hard. When she appeared in the little stall with him, Tony realized that she was really there this time as soon as he felt her breath on his cheek.
“Let me help you.” He wanted to tell her no, that he had it under control, but she reached into his gym pants and wrapped her hand around him. “So thick. I bet you give as good as you get, don’t you? I’d like nothing more than to feel you giving it to me, Anthony. Hard and brutal. I bet you could make me like it gentle too, couldn’t you?”
“I have to meet Lauren.”
Victoria slid to her knees in front of him and took him deep into her mouth even as she pulled his pants down to his ankles. Christ, he nearly came when she cupped his now bare balls in her hand and sucked him hard. Fucking her talented mouth, all he could think about was coming down her throat. But the thought of fucking her right there in the stall had him jerking her up from him and picking her up.
“Strip.” She was naked before he finished the word. And when she lifted up her heavy breast and offered it to him, Tony took the morsel into his mouth as he turned them toward the door and entered her, lifting her small body up and her pussy right where he needed it. “Fuck, yes.”
She was tight, wet, and hot. He wanted it to last. Fucking this woman would be an experience that he’d never soon forget. She wrapped her ankles around his hips and held him to her as he pounded her.
“Come in me. Please, come in me, Anthony. I want to drink from you when you do.” He felt his balls tighten and his body tense for release. Make it last, he told himself, make it go on forever. But the moment she dug her nails into his back and cried out her release, he exploded inside of her. Then she pulled his throat to her mouth and bit him.
Nothing could have prepared him for the sensation of coming this way. Victoria wrapped around him, his throat being abused as his cock filled twice more and released inside of her. His body didn’t just release, he realized as he rested his head against her breast, but detonated several times in a matter of minutes. He wondered briefly if he’d survive a bedroom with her.
“Oh, honey. Oh, my dear boy. That was fucking fantastic.” He lifted his head up, not sure he could do much more than that, and looked at her. “Please tell me that you’re going home with me tonight. I’m sure that you can top this.”
“I think you killed me just now.” Her laughter rang around him and he smiled. “I have to go and see Lauren. I’m sure she’s worried about me.”
“She trusts you, and I’ll tell her that you were…delayed.” He didn’t even want to think what she might tell her. “She’s going to smell me on you. I think she might be…well, happy for us both. I know that I am. Lauren has been telling me for years that I should hook up with you. I’m glad that I got the chance today.”
“Will you be all right? I know it’s still pretty light out.” She told him she would go straight home and to bed. “If I can, I would like to see you again. Not just for sex, though that was wonderful, but Lauren told me you play chess.”
“I do. And it’s a date.” As clothing appeared on her, he pulled his own clothing back to rights. He was as relaxed as he’d ever been, and she laughed when he leaned against the wall again. “I can’t wait until tonight then. We’ll play come chess. Then you can fuck me all night, taking us both to highs we’ve never been to before. Take care, and tell Lauren that she was right about you. You are one of the good guys.”
Tony left the stall and noticed that there were several men in the room with him. When none of them said anything about what they might have heard, he washed his face and hands and made his way out. Talking to Lauren was going to give him so much, he just knew it. But Christ almighty, he hadn’t felt this good in decades.
~~~
It had taken a little time getting used to being able to hear everything. She looked at the man and woman jogging toward her, and heard him telling the woman that he was worried that his wife was catching onto their affair. The second man was singing softly. The head jacks in his ears were blasting music to his head, and Lauren wondered if he had a hearing problem. Plus, he was singing the wrong words to a very popular song. And off key.
She saw Tony as he jogged toward her, or at least the bench she was near. There wasn’t any way that he’d know it was her unless she let him because of the costume she had on; a dress of Bea’s, a hat that belonged to a long dead aunt, and shoes that made her feet look ten feet long. When he sat down, testing his pulse at his throat, she noticed the bite mark and laughed. He glanced at her, then did a double take. She guessed that he could smell it was her before he could recognize her.
“You’re a cat now, congratulations.” She smiled at him, sat down beside him, and opened her purse that had all the things in it he’d need. “Victoria said that you needed to talk to me. Are you all right?”
“Yes. I have a phone for you to use. And the numbers are all programed in it. Mine now, as well as Hawkins’s and Colin’s. Don’t call him unless you have to.” He leaned over and retied his shoes while she continued. “I think Wilson is in on this. So is the president.”
Tony snapped his shoelace in half, and she had to laugh. When he looked at her, she nodded once as he leaned back. She was as sure as shit that they were both doing this, but how to prove it was going to be tricky.
“Now what happens? Do we blow this out of the water or do you have a plan?” She told him she did, but stood up and dumped her purse out. He bent to pick her things up when she did, and she stuffed a thumb drive in his sock and handed him an earpiece as well as the burner phone.
“Hawkins is coming. Put in the earpiece and listen to what he has to say.” As she walked away, she watched as Hawkins came toward her. As he passed her, she knew that he was going to be all right; she just hoped that Tony would be. He was about to be told things that would not be easy to take. Or maybe they would be. He had more than likely already read the file she’d passed to him this morning.
Lauren watched the area so that neither man was followed. She’d seen the two men that had come in with Tony peel off when he started to run. That was the nice thing about this area. If you didn’t jog or roller blade, you stuck out like a sore thumb. She knew the exact moment that Hawkins told Tony a little of what they’d found out. His small stumble might have been funny had it not been so scary.
The president.
Who would have thought it
? she wondered. He’d been a good man on the surface, they’d found out. There wasn’t a time when he’d been in trouble that anyone could pinpoint on him. Some even thought he was a loving and kind husband and father. But all of that, every part of the man’s life, had been a well-fabricated lie, and had been helped to be perfect by the one person she would never have pegged as a traitor to his country.
President Joe Irwin and his sidekick, Brigadier General Garth Williams, were in together so deep she wondered who was the first to approach the other in this thing. And the reason she was being targeted—she and Hawkins—was because they’d been in the White House a little too early and had thwarted Joe’s plans to have his wife and son killed for the sympathy vote this coming election.
Sex and war never are far apart.
She smiled at the voice in her head. Victoria had been a great deal of help this time, and Lauren was going to thank her again when she saw her in person.
That man, the one you had me go see, he’s not married or anything, is he? I just had the most cardinal sin good time with him if he is.
No. He’s widowed, but I don’t think they were very happy together anyway. She never understood his need to be in the service, and he couldn’t understand her need to fuck whoever she could while he was gone. I think she died in the arms of a lover when his wife found out about them. And please don’t tell me any details.
Victoria laughed.
He’s a good man. And one that is going to need someone when this is over. He’s going to take a lot of heat from the press when this falls out.