“Which one is Crazwalski?”
“The one in the office you knew from the club.”
“He’s hot.” A little shorter than Jake, wiry but well-muscled, beautiful hazel eyes. Probably deadly to boot. Tia could work with this Crazwalski guy. “I can work with hot.”
“Charlotte says he has quite the range of sexual needs. She’s been his partner short-term, so she would know, not that she’d give him the time of day. You don’t want that.” My, Jake looked…jealous.
“And that would scare me away? Seriously?” Tia snorted. “Anyway, I wouldn’t plan on fucking him.”
Jake growled. “Tia. Darkest fantasy or home. Pick.”
Tia sighed. What choice did she have? Jake offered her pleasure, a proper orgasm. And though she didn’t approve of the mess he’d gotten himself into, she didn’t want him to get killed. She didn’t allow her body to vote, but if it had one, she’d definitely be outvoted. Every inch of her wanted him to fuck her senseless, and as far as her body was concerned, he could start the long weekend right now, here, in the back seat.
Yep, she had no choice. She sighed. “I know I’m going to regret this, but I’ll go.”
Chapter Four
Tia had no clue where home was, but she was headed there, with Jake. They’d each gone back to their respective apartments and grabbed what they needed, meeting again at the parking complex an hour later. She’d packed sparingly—what did one need for a weekend of sex? She made sure she included the crotchless panties and bra he loved so much. That would make for a very fun fantasy.
Jake drove, the city limits disappearing, turning suburban and then rural. He always seemed comfortable wherever he was, be it in a Parisian bar or his truck, his arm out the window, tapping his fingers to the beat of the song on the radio.
They made idle chatter, and she was surprised that he wasn’t at all what she expected. He was a Texas boy, the middle of five—all brothers—raised on a ranch outside Houston by his no-nonsense mother. Though he never said, Tia guessed his dad had passed away at some point, and all hell had broken loose. His mother had gone through countless sets of Rosary beads praying for no grandchildren and no jail time for her wild boys.
Somehow, Jake had survived childhood to go on to college. He had been a pilot in the military, decided it wasn’t for him and went the spy route instead of going the commercial airlines route when he was done. He was also considerate and very funny, and she found herself at ease. She offered little about herself. How does one explain how she went from the daughter of drunken, drugged white trash to where she was today?
How screwed up was her life? She knew more about this man in bed than she did personally. Jake got off on kink, just like she did, but he loved role-play the most, especially if the role-play involved bondage, gags, and toys. She liked Jake in bed—a lot. She liked him enough to have seen him exclusively since they met six months ago. Maybe she’d like him as a friend as well.
“I have a secret,” he said conspiratorially. “Since you’ve been a good girl, I’ll share with you.”
She arched a brow.
“My little brother is Aaron James.”
“Get out.” There wasn’t a woman under thirty, maybe even fifty who hadn’t heard the name. Aaron James was a hot, new actor. Early thirties, incredibly gorgeous, very talented. She studied Jake closer now. Jake was just as attractive, and if he went a bit darker on the hair… Tia sucked in a breath. Good lord, Jake could pass for his twin.
“He ditched the Anderson for a SAG thing. James is his middle name.”
“There might be a family resemblance.”
“Kind of you to notice,” he said with a grin. “I look more like him than his twin does.”
“There are two of Aaron?” That would mean there were three incredibly hot men in the Anderson family. It’s a wonder Texas wasn’t filled with women staking claims on the land down there, trying to snatch an Anderson. She glanced at him, sexy as hell as he drove. She didn’t want to hand out too many compliments to Jake. He knew what he looked like. And he was even hotter than his brother as far as Tia was concerned.
“Paul’s fraternal. There’s a family resemblance, but Paul looks more like my two older brothers. Only Aaron and I look alike.”
“Do people mistake you for him?”
“Not yet. I’m sure once he’s finished with this film he’s doing, I’ll have to change something. Hair, contacts. Not sure what. He’ll get me killed one of these days.”
She didn’t want that. But she did want to know more about him, so she asked, “Did you ride bulls when you lived on the ranch? Or is that a stupid question?”
“Ranches have bulls. I rode one once, at the local rodeo to impress a girl.”
“Was she impressed?”
He shot her a shit-eating grin. “Yep. Never rode another bull, though I liked a good saddle bronc when I was younger. But I was happiest just riding the fence line. Chasing a stray. Doing chores. I loved it.” He sounded…wistful.
“Why did you leave?”
He tensed—ever so hard to detect, but Tia saw it in the corners of his mouth and the way he gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. “I turned eighteen. That’s what you do when you turn eighteen. I went to college, then into the Air Force as a pilot. We had a plane I used to fly at the ranch. My dad taught me before he died.”
“So why a spy and not a pilot of some sort?”
He shrugged, but the tension faded and he was completely at ease again. “I don’t know. I hate commercial flights, you can’t dog fight the plane next to you, and those pokey jets sure as hell can’t do any of the combative maneuvers of an F-15. But sometimes, they still let me fly, and it’s enough.”
“Yeah?” As adventurous as the man was in bed, she doubted she wanted to get into a plane of any sort with him if he were at the controls.
“I took Chase up last year. He fired me on the first barrel roll, and then his language got progressively worse until I finally got sick of it and hit enough G’s to make him pass out.”
“That’s horrible!”
“He’s a big boy.” Jake gave her a cocky smile. “You’ll figure out his mind games soon, and you’ll wish I had dumped him off over the ocean somewhere.”
“Has he ever been home with you?” She wanted to ask about Kate but didn’t dare.
“He’s been quite a few times—never Kate, though. I don’t bring women home. He’s been home to Texas with me, too. It’s fun to watch him ride, because his need for control puts him at constant war with the horse, instead of just going with the flow, you know? Poor Jessa—she’s my mare—knows way too many swears because of Uncle Chase. He likes trying to shoot off her back, though. It’s the only way I got him back on after she bucked him off.”
“You’re a horrible man.” She really didn’t think so, but it didn’t hurt for him to think her offended.
Innocence didn’t sit well in his eyes—it was way too forced to be believable. “It wasn’t my fault she bucked him off. She didn’t like how much rein he was using. I told him not to do it, but he swore like a sailor at me instead of doing as I told him, and
bam
. She dumped him.”
She had a hard time picturing Chase in these situations. She’d had sex with him, once, at the club a few years ago. He had as few limits as she did at that point, and sex with him had scared the hell out of her. Granted, she had pushed for it, and he had given her everything asked for. But he wasn’t any easier to deal with at work.
Yet somehow, Jake and Chase seemed to have hit it off, and if anyone could get a laugh out of someone as tightly wound as Chase, it would be Jake. And obviously, Jake thought Chase was the bomb as a friend. Too bad for him that friendship seemed at an end.
Tia looked at Jake. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“It’s not really polite conversation, but how did you go from being a good Catholic boy to being the club’s legend?”
“I don’t know.” He scratched his forehead and thought for a long moment. “I guess I sort of fell into it one night. I met a girl who liked kink, and it was all downhill from there.” He put on a pair of sunglasses, and she wished she could see his eyes instead of her reflection in the lenses. “You?”
“My second—boyfriend—liked it. I guess I didn’t know any better. Then it became part of the…quest.” Her cheeks grew warm. “If I couldn’t come the normal way, maybe something darker would work. It’s more than that, though. I liked kink from day one. Just because I don’t usually come, it doesn’t mean I don’t like what’s being done to me. A lot. More than most men would probably tolerate.”
“But that’s not working, is it. Walking the dark side for your quest.” It wasn’t a question.
“No.”
Jake was thoughtful for a moment. “When was the last date you had?”
“Date? You mean…movies? Dinner?”
He nodded.
“Never. Or it seems that way. This job doesn’t really bode well for dating. You?”
“Same.” Jake smiled at her. “What about vanilla sex? When was the last time for that?”
He asked the weirdest questions. He was all Dom. She loved playing bottom. Why would he even consider vanilla sex? “Oh, probably about the same as that last date.”
He ran his hand through his hair, and Tia sensed he was uncomfortable with the direction he was about to take the conversation. “I guess you’re in for a surprise, then. I neglected to tell you the house rules before you volunteered to come.”
She wasn’t going to touch the fact that he’d blackmailed her into coming. “House rules? Like, don’t wear shoes in the house, put the toilet seat down, toss out the empty carton of milk instead of putting it back in the fridge?”
“Sorta.” He glanced at her again, and she wanted to rip the sunglasses from his face. “When I go home, I’m not allowed to do anything I do in D.C. House rules.”
“Nothing?” What in the hell did he do at home, then?
“Nope. So up until now, there’s been a moratorium on sex at home, as well as no talk of work, no speaking any foreign language. No fast food. The only things I do that I would do in D.C. are play video games and run, because if I came home and had slacked, Chase would kick my ass.”
“And the video games?”
He shrugged. “Once a guy, always a guy. The house didn’t seem to mind video games, and again, it helps with work. We play a lot of video games during down time on a field mission. I’m not losing to Chase.”
“Boys.” Her lips curled into a smile. “How will we survive with no fast food?”
“I hope you can cook, because I can’t.” His grin faded. “But more importantly, we have to get around the no sex rule.”
She was hoping the moratorium would just be lifted. “What a pansy. It’s your house. Change the rules.”
“It doesn’t work that way—stop looking at me like that. You don’t understand. The rules are important to me. Every home has rules, and unfortunately, I need these rules to keep me sane during vacation time. Even Chase followed the house rules, though he bitched the entire time and made me eat that French junk he likes to cook.”
Tia stared at Jake for what seemed forever, and he didn’t burst out laughing or point and shout, “Fooled you.” He was serious. God damn him. “You promised me orgasms! I can’t have an orgasm if your house says we can’t have sex.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Your house sucks.”
“I’m thinking, darlin’.” He tapped the steering wheel with his thumbs for a few moments. “What I propose to get around the no sex rule is to change it to a vanilla sex rule, because we both know I’m not doing
that
in D.C.”
“Vanilla?”
“Yep. Vanilla.” He glanced at her and all she saw was her glare in the reflection of his lenses.
The fucking sunglasses had to go. “Really? I don’t even know if I know how to do that.” She scrunched up her nose. Missionary position for an entire weekend? No bondage? No anal? Shoot her now. She’d never get her proper orgasm. “What if we don’t like it?”
“Well, then we spice it up. I’m sure vanilla people can get a little kinky.” He set his jaw a little as he thought, looking more serious as he glanced at her. “When I go home, the purpose is to clear my brain. I go home when I need to be as far from what my regular life is. My life is not working. I am man enough to admit that. And for one weekend, I think we both need not to be spies, not to be adventurous, and just be…normal. That’s what going home is about. It’s about being normal.”
“Normal.” She’d never been normal. Would never be normal. But it was a tantalizing thought. What would normal be like, with Jake?
“Maybe being normal is what you need to solve your problem,” he said softly.
Maybe? She swallowed and thought of the life she had lived thus far. Wild. Adventurous. Sinful. She was definitely going to rot in hell, but at the same time, she didn’t know if she would change it. She wasn’t so sure her problem was linked to her lifestyle choices.
She glanced at him again as he removed his sunglasses. So handsome, his blond hair tousled. For the first time, his blue eyes were tired. Sad. He really did need to get away, so he could cleanse himself of Blondie, put some distance between them. Maybe being there for him wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe it was the right thing to do.
God help her, she wanted him, even though his heart belonged somewhere else. Her entire being felt alive, even just riding in the truck next to him, his hand dangerously close to her leg. Tia wet her lips. His heart might be claimed, but he wanted to be normal—with her. If she was honest, a very small part of her longed for something different in her life. She’d been searching for different for a long time, and he was right—it wasn’t working. Maybe normal was just what she needed, too.
“Normal it is, then.”
Chapter Five
The quest for normal began in the grocery store, because as Jake told Tia just after lunchtime, that’s what normal people did. They bought groceries. So she tagged along when they stopped in the same little town he lived in when he wasn’t working. His place in rural Virginia exceeded the work rule of needing to be able to be on a plane in under an hour limit, but he loved the farm too much to sell it.
Jake strolled into the grocery store like he owned the place, smiling at the pretty checkout girl, kissing one older lady’s cheek when she greeted him by name. Then he grabbed a cart and Tia’s hand and off they went.