The Temptation (8 page)

“Hello,” came Georgina’s sultry voice.

“This is Lexi,” I said. “I need your help.”

“What can I do?” Georgina immediately replied. “Is everything all right? You’re calling from your personal phone to my personal line, so you’ve got me worried.”

“I’m at Nick’s,” I said and she made a sound of surprise. She knew the history between Nick and me. She was the only one I’d ever confided in about him. She’d been the only person I confided in at all since Nick left. “I need you to come over here as soon as you can.”

“I need to wrap up something I’m working on,” she said. “It won’t take me longer than fifteen minutes so I’ll be there in twenty-five.”

“Great.” I paused. “Thank you, Georgina. I owe you.”

“Not yet,” she added. “But you will.” Of course she was kidding. She never felt the need to hold anything over me and I felt the same way about her.

The four of us continued to lay down plans while we waited for Georgina.

“She’s a master at transformations,” I said. “She’s helped me on more ops than I can think of at the moment.”

“Lexi and I can pose as a married couple,” Nick said.

An odd sensation went through my belly at the thought of posing as husband and wife and being with him in close quarters again. I didn’t know if I could keep my hands off him. Maybe he’d be strong enough for the both of us.

Nick looked at me. “Georgina will need to perform some of her magic so that no one recognizes you.”

I nodded. “No problem.”

The four of us talked strategy until the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.” I was out of my seat before Nick could get up and I jogged down the stairs.

I looked out the peephole and saw it was Georgina. She was a good Italian Catholic girl who happened to be a very bad girl when it came to men.

When I opened the door she strode in.

“Something’s going on. What is it?” Georgina’s gorgeous runway model features were tense as she closed the door behind her. At five-ten she was a good six inches taller than me.

I took a deep breath. “Rori’s been abducted.”

“Your sister?” Georgina widened her dark eyes. “What happened?”

“I was the one who was meant to be taken.” I held my hand to my belly. “But she was in my apartment while I was out jogging and they grabbed her by mistake.”

Georgina looked horrified. “Do you know who has her?”

I nodded and explained about Bachmann as we headed up the stairs to Nick’s war room. The more I told her, the sicker I felt. I kept thinking of Rori and what she must be going through right now.

When we reached the war room, she and Nick hugged. She said hello to Zane who worked with her in the same department, and I introduced her to Ryan.

She set her purse down and took the fifth chair. She wore big gold hoop earrings, designer jeans, sandals, and a low-cut orange blouse that showed her rather generous cleavage. Her toenails were painted a matching color and she had a French manicure on her long nails.

“We need you to be a high-priced call girl,” I said as I jumped right to the point.

She nodded, clearly taking it in stride. “Fill me in.”

We caught her up to speed and ran through the basic plan that we’d put together and she interjected her own ideas as we went on. Georgina was quick and intelligent in addition to being dazzlingly beautiful. I noticed my own brother, Ryan, seemed to be caught in her spell.

When we had worked everything out, Georgina headed to her home and Ryan and Zane took off to get ready for their drive up to D.C. tonight in the van. That left Nick and me alone.

“It’s getting late and I’d bet you haven’t eaten since early this afternoon.” His blue eyes glittered in the dim light. “I’ll fix something.”

“I don’t know if I can eat anything.” I wrapped my arms around my belly as another sick feeling went through my gut.

“Hey.” He took me by the shoulders. “Since when have you refused my cooking?”

I gave him a half smile. “Since never.”

“Then come on.” He put his arm around my shoulders and it felt warm and comforting. Every touch he’d made tonight had felt that way. “I’ll make you some of those crepes that you always demand.”

“Me? Demand?” We walked together downstairs. “Never.”

He snorted. “That’s not what I remember.”

“Then your memory is faulty.” It wasn’t, of course. I loved both his breakfast and dinner crepes.

He squeezed me to him as we walked through the doors of the kitchen then released me.

As he started to get out the ingredients he’d need for dinner, I wondered what I was doing here. Why was I letting myself be close with him again?

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to that question. Wasn’t sure at all.

Chapter 10

Soul searching

I leaned up against the counter as Nick made sautéed spinach, mushroom, and cheese crepes with some kind of creamy sauce. We fell into conversation like we always had. It was natural, as if a chasm hadn’t been opened between us.

But the topic wasn’t so easy. We talked about our last op together when we’d found Bachmann. By the time we got to what had happened today, we were sitting at his kitchen table and eating his amazing crepes.

Problem was that I was having a hard time eating because my stomach was so upset over Rori.

“All I can really think about is my sister.” I pushed food I would normally have devoured around my plate. I moved my gaze from the plate to Nick. “I can’t help but think how this wouldn’t have happened if I had chosen another career.”

“Lexi, you help people. You’ve saved countless lives.” Nick’s eyes never left mine. “Think about those girls you saved from a hell worse than death.”

“I didn’t save all of them.” I thought about the girl who’d taken her own life after killing two of her abusers. She apparently hadn’t thought life was worth living after going through what she had at the hands of the sex slavers.

Nick reached across the table and laid his hand over mine. It felt warm, secure. “You can’t save everyone.”

I set down my fork beside my partially eaten crepe. “But what about my sister?”

“We’ll find her and she’ll be okay.” His voice was low, intense. “I promise.”

I nodded. “And we’ll take out Bachmann.”

“You blame yourself for a lot of things.” He released my hand, pushed his empty plate to the side, and folded his arms on the table. “You’ve got to forgive yourself.”

With a sigh I shoved hair from my face. “You’re one to talk. You keep things as bottled up inside as much as I do.”

“Maybe it’s time we changed that.” His words caught me off guard. “It might be good for both of us.”

“I—I don’t know.” I looked away from him. “There are some things that are too painful to talk about.” I met his gaze again. “Like the people I was forced to assassinate. How do I get over that?”

In this very chair in his kitchen I’d told him about FAS and how they’d forced me to do such horrible deeds. But in the end I’d taken out every one of the bastards who’d broken me.

Could I ever be fixed?

“You know that you had no choice.” Nick pushed my plate aside then took both my hands. His grip felt steadying. “You’ve got to accept that.”

I stared at our joined hands. “A part of me knows you’re right. But another part of me sees the faces of every person I’ve ever assassinated and I wonder why I’d been ordered to take them out. What their lives had been like before I’d cut them short.”

 “Those are questions that can never be answered. What’s done is done.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand. “What you need to focus on is the good you’ve accomplished since then. And you’ve done a hell of a lot of good.”

I took a deep breath and looked from our hands to meet his eyes. “Do you really think I can let go? Do you think that’s possible?”

He gave a slow nod. “You’ve paid your dues. It’s time you accept that and move on. Look at all the good in your life. You have a lot to live for.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. Nick was right and I knew that deep inside.

“If you’re going to fully love the people around you then you have to love yourself, too,” he said softly.

Inside my soul, feelings stirred that I’d locked away. I opened my eyes and saw the depth of caring in his gaze. He wasn’t just talking about my family and friends. He was talking about us.

Instead of immediately shutting down and running scared I thought about what he said and how it applied to everyone in my life from my family and my friends.

To Nick.

“Give yourself a fresh start.” His gaze looked so intense, so serious.

“What about you?” I looked at him just as unflinchingly. “Have you reconciled yourself to the horrors that you went through?”

He didn’t look away from me. “When I started going to counseling with Kristen, I realized it was time I let go. I had to forgive myself to fully be there for her.”

I bit the inside of my lip then asked the question that had been bothering me for six months. “Why did you move to Arizona?”

“For Kristen.” He released one of my hands and pushed his fingers through his hair. “I had to get her away from here. All that’s left for her here are bad memories of the hell she went through. She has a fresh start and she’s been happier than I’d seen her since we rescued her.”

“I’ve missed you.” The words surprised me as they came out but I couldn’t take them back.

“It’s been hell without you.” He reached across the table and stroked my cheek with his fingertips. “I haven’t liked it one damned bit.”

He stood, still gripping one of my hands, and he helped me to my feet. “You need sleep.”

“What about the mess?” I glanced at the table.

“I’ll take care of it.” He gripped my hand and led me from the kitchen to the stairs.

I felt a twisting sensation in my belly as he led me into his bedroom. When we stood by the bed he took my face in his hands and kissed me. His mouth moved over mine in a kiss like I couldn’t remember experiencing before. Gentle, soft, searching. He slid his hands from my face into my hair and my scalp tingled from his delicate touch.

He raised his head and his eyes searched mine as if he was on a quest for answers. Answers I wasn’t ready to give.

I touched his stubbled jaws with my fingertips then brushed my thumb over his moist lips. Had we ever been so gentle with one another?

He maneuvered me so that I was sitting on the side of the bed and he took one of my feet and removed my shoe and sock then took my other foot and did the same. He grasped the bottom of my T-shirt and pulled it over my head and tossed it.

Goose bumps prickled over my skin that was bared and not covered by the black bra I wore. He knelt in front of me and reached for the button of my jeans. I braced my hands on the bed as he tugged down the zipper then pulled my jeans over my hips, down my thighs, and then set them aside.

When I was left only in my panties and bra, he captured my mouth with his in another amazing kiss.

He drew away. “I should let you sleep now.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and drew him closer so that he was kneeling between my thighs. “I need you.” I needed him to take me away. Needed him to make me believe that everything was all right.

“I need you more than you can know, Lexi,” he said, his gaze searching mine. Most of the time I couldn’t read his expression but this time there was so much in his gaze that it astounded me.

I closed my eyes. I had missed him so much… The way he felt with his arms around me…the way he touched me…his scent… I’d missed everything about him.

He pushed aside the strap of my bra and lowered his head and nuzzled the soft skin of my shoulder and I opened my eyes. I shivered as he kissed his way to my throat and moved his lips down my breastbone to my breasts. He reached behind me and unfastened my bra and let it slide away.

When he had set my bra aside, he cupped my breasts and lowered his head and caught a nipple in his mouth. I gasped as he sucked and licked it, sending thrills straight to my core. He moved his lips down the curve of my breast and I felt cool air on my moist nipple. He captured the other nipple lightly between his teeth and flicked his tongue over it. He moved down and teased the diamond in my bellybutton with his tongue then ran his lips over the dragon symbol.

I slid my fingers into his hair and clenched the soft strands. He moved me onto my back and removed my black panties.

He tugged his T-shirt over his head and set it aside before toeing off his athletic shoes and removing his socks. Hunger for him filled me as he shoved down his jeans and boxer briefs, leaving him naked.

For a long moment we looked at each other and I drank him in. The dark hair over his brow, the blue of his eyes, his broad shoulders and muscular build.

He eased onto the bed and moved between my thighs and I spread them wide for him. He placed his cock to my core and slowly slid inside me as his gaze held mine.

I gasped as he stretched me, filled me. It felt like it had been forever since we’d been together. I didn’t know how I’d forgotten the incredible way he made me feel when he was inside me.

And now I felt… Complete.

He moved inside me at a slow, even pace and I cried out as his thrusts grew more and more powerful. The beginnings of an orgasm stirred inside me and grew stronger and stronger until I knew I couldn’t hold on much longer.

We never looked away from each other as he took me. His expression was intense, his jaw tight, and I knew he was close to coming, too.

My mind started to spin with the oncoming climax and I could barely speak when I told him, “Come with me, Nick. Please come with me.”

He thrust into me harder as we looked into each other’s eyes. And then my orgasm exploded inside me and I felt myself fly as I cried out.

His shout was even more powerful than my own. He throbbed inside me as my core pulsed.

Gradually I came down from that place I’d been with him. He took me into his arms as he rolled onto his side and held me with my head tucked under his chin.

The fact that I had given myself to Nick when I was consumed with worry surprised me. He had the ability to stop time and help me through tough times.