“And how are we doing the switch?” Cole asked. “Angie’s been brilliant so far, but that’s a little too much to ask of her.”
“Which is why you’ll be doing it,” Evan said. “And we’re all going in.”
“Not buying it,” Tyler said. “Why the hell would we all be there?”
“Because BAS Security is going to donate its services to the foundation for the gala,” I said, referring to the company that Evan had told me about. The three of them owned it—Black, August, Sharp—and for the most part, its operation was legitimate. But when the guys needed any sort of surveillance or hacking into an electronic system, they used the BAS resources. “It makes sense,” I continued. “Everyone knows how close you all were to Jahn. It’s the perfect cover. And it gets you into Neely’s security room.”
“We’ll set it up so that for the duration of the event their security cams are feeding to our handhelds. And when we upload the software to accomplish that, we’ll loop the security feed for thirty seconds. We can only manage thirty, though,” Evan said, looking at Cole. “Enough time?”
“If I’m all clear for those thirty,” he said.
“You will be. Angie will be on Neely, keeping him occupied talking cocktails. Tyler will be between Neely and Cole, adding additional cover as needed. Cole, you just have to make the switch. Get the notebook in and on the right page. Get the facsimile back out and stowed in your bag. And that’s it. We’re done. We’re safe. And so is Jahn’s reputation.” He looked at all three of us in turn. “Any questions?”
There were none.
“Let us know when the walk-through is confirmed,” Tyler said. He glanced at his watch, then stood up. “I’d love to stay, but I have a date with a maid.”
“I’ll get you set up to make the imprint,” Cole said, then turned to me. “As for you, for god’s sake, get the manuscript back.”
I grinned, then slid open the drawer in the living room coffee table. I reached in, then pulled out the manuscript, now safe in a clear archival box. “I may have told you guys one tiny little fib,” I said, and was relieved when they all three laughed.
We followed them to the door.
“Coming with?” Tyler asked Evan.
“Hell no,” Evan said, pulling me close. “She did good. I’m going to stay here and make sure she feels fully appreciated.”
I felt my cheeks burn, but Tyler and Cole both just grinned.
“And how exactly are you going to show your appreciation?” I asked, as soon as we were in the condo alone.
“I thought I would fuck you,” he said.
“Oh. I—good plan.”
“But not right away,” he continued, his voice rough. “First I have to make sure you want it.”
I licked my lips. I already wanted it, but I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to hear exactly what he had in mind.
“I’m going to tie you up, Lina. I’m going to tie your wrists together and use a single cord to bind them in place. Do you know why I want a single cord instead of stretching your arms wide?”
I shook my head, and shifted my weight from one foot to the other, trying to ease the building pressure between my legs.
“So I can have you on your back and close my mouth over your breasts. So I can kiss you and suckle you and trail kisses all the way down to your sweet, slick cunt.”
I swallowed. I think I may have moaned.
“And then I can flip you over, pivoting your body on that one point, and I can spank your ass until you beg me to fuck you, and then I can sink deep into you from behind, filling you until you think you can’t take any more, and then going even deeper.” He leaned closer, then nipped playfully at my earlobe before whispering. “So tell me, sweetheart. Does that sounds like a good way to show my appreciation?”
“Yes,” I said, my voice breathy with desire. My cunt was already throbbing, and my nipples were painfully tight behind the tank I wore. “Yes, please.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” he asked, as he took my hand, then bent to pick up his briefcase.
I expected him to lead me to the bedroom, but he headed for the spiral staircase. “Evan?”
“Hush,” he said, and I fell back into silence, trusting that whatever he had planned would be something I wanted.
When we reached the patio, he led me to the edge. Each pane of glass was held in place between iron bars topped with a decorative finial. “Here,” he said, moving a potted plant to give me room. “Take off your clothes.”
I met his eyes, wanting to be as bold as he was. Needing him to know just how much I wanted this, too. This moment. This man. And, yes, the adventure to come.
With slow deliberation, I stripped off my shirt, my fingers brushing over my skin before letting it drop to the ground. I removed my bra next, but not before trailing my fingers lightly over the swell of my breasts above the line of the cups.
I licked my lips and kept my eyes on Evan’s face. He looked like a man keeping himself in check, and when I glanced down and saw that his hands were clenched at his sides, I couldn’t help but feel immense satisfaction knowing how much he was having to fight simply so he wouldn’t reach out and touch me. Not yet, anyway.
I moved next to the bra clasp, unfastening it slowly, then using both hands to push the cups off my breasts. I shrugged out of the straps, but didn’t let it fall to the ground. Instead, I let it dangle by a strap over one crooked forefinger.
“Jesus, Lina,” he said.
I just smiled, thoroughly enjoying myself as I flipped it to him, satisfied when he caught it and held it tight in his hand. I rubbed my own hands over my breasts, then closed my eyes and gently gave my nipples a tug as I imagined it was Evan’s hands upon me, not mine. A sizzling cord of desire shot from my breasts down to my cunt, now hot and wet with desire.
I heard a moan and knew it came from me. I’d intended to get him all worked up—to turn the tables and hold control in my hands. Yet here I was, desperate for his touch. So hot I would probably come if he just leaned forward and whispered in my ear.
So much for my grand plan.
Then again, I had no complaints about the way this was working out. He looked just as desperate as I felt, and with a smug smile of satisfaction, I moved on to my jeans, slowly working open the fly, one button at a time. They were skinny jeans, and since I wasn’t actually skinny, I have to do a serious shimmy to get out of them, and I took the opportunity to put on a little show for Evan’s benefit.
I was already in bare feet, and I finally worked the jeans all the way down and toed them off, then stood in front of him in just my thong—a particularly sexy pair as I’d started paying attention to my undies since Evan had come into my life—and my bed.
I met and held his eyes, then slid my finger under the thong’s band and started to tug the panties down.
“No,” he said, his firm word halting my hand. “That’s for me.” He moved closer, the air between us humming as it always did when we were together. “Arms up,” he said, “and stand here.”
I complied, and he let out a low, slow whisper. “Good god, Lina. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”
“I only care about how beautiful I am to you.”
“Very,” he said. “Exceptionally.” He bent over to tug something from his briefcase, and when he stood, I saw that it was a strand of rope. He fastened it around my wrists, then wrapped that around the finial above me. “I’m not binding your legs,” he said. “But I expect you to keep your feet where I tell you.”
I nod. “All right.”
“Wider,” he said, and I spread my legs wider. “Beautiful.” He slid his hand down my pubic bone, gliding over the scrap of material that was now my only piece of clothing.
“Keep your feet where they are,” he ordered. “Don’t move until I tell you to.”
I nodded, then closed my eyes as he stepped closer, his fingers stroking my body. Teasing me with light caresses. Playing with my breasts, with my lips, with my fingers. And then stroking my inner thighs, the sensation so wildly sensual that I had no choice but to squirm—and had to force myself not to let my feet move.
“Turn around,” he said, and I complied. “Keep your eyes open. I want you to look at the city while I touch you. I want you to see just how high we are as I make you soar.” He pressed up behind me, and though he was still in slacks, I could feel his erection against my lower back. Then his hand stroking down—and then the violent rip as he yanked the panties off me.
My immediate reaction was to draw my arms down and cover myself, but I couldn’t. I was tied to the finial. Naked and bound, with Evan behind me, whispering in my ear. “Do you know what this is about?” he said. “Why I want you like this? What I want to do and why I want to do it?”
“I—tell me.”
“Control,” he said. “You did amazing today. You had a plan, you got what you wanted. You turned the tables on Cole and Tyler. And in some ways even on me.” He bent closer, so that his lips brushed the back of my ear when he spoke. “That’s fine for the world, baby. But when we’re alone, you’re mine. If you take control it’s because I give it to you. Do you understand?”
I nodded. I was breathless at his words. My pulse kicking up, my cunt throbbing. This was it; this was what I wanted. To surrender to pleasure. To surrender to a man that I trusted and to know with absolute, unerring certainty that he would satisfy me.
“We’re a unit,” he said. “A team. You need the rush, and I’m desperate to give it to you. You want to surrender, and I am here to catch you.”
I gasped, the clarity of his words surprising me. “How did you know?”
“I see you, Lina. I’ve always seen you.”
“Will you—”
“What?”
“Never mind.” I’d been going to ask if he would touch me. But I knew that he would, and as I waited my nipples peaked and my cunt throbbed. I was wet and wanting and the building need was delicious. The explosion, when it came, would knock me into the heavens.
He was behind me, but I heard the rustle of clothes as he stripped. Then I felt the tease of his erection against my rear. His hands curved over the globes of my rear, and his fingers slipped down, then eased inside me before sliding back up, wet with my own desire, to press against the tight muscle of my ass.
“Evan …”
“Shhh.”
He moved away, and a moment later I felt that pressure there again, only this time it wasn’t his finger. Something hard and lubed, and Evan’s voice was telling me to relax, to trust him, to surrender, and I breathed deep and let him slide the thing inside me. “Have you ever had a plug before?”
“No.”
“It will feel amazing when I fuck you. And pretty damn intense when I spank you, too.”
I closed my eyes and bent over in unconscious invitation.
Evan’s gentle laughter brushed over me. “You like that,” he said, as I felt my cheeks heat with a blush.
“I like everything you do to me,” I said, because it was the truth, and I didn’t want him to hold back. Not now. Not ever.
“Bend over more,” he said. “As far as you can with your hands tied.”
I complied, then held my breath as something hard and flat smacked my rear once, then again, then one more time before Evan stopped and pressed his hands to my flesh, rubbing at the sting, soothing it, turning the pain into pleasure, and the pleasure into the intensity of a need made all the more piquant by the addition of the plug, which, with each spank, seemed to tease me that much more.
“Oh, baby,” he said. “I don’t want to stop.”
“Then don’t.”
“I have to. I can’t wait. I have to have you. You’re pink and wet and ready, and I can see how much you want it. I do, too. I have to fuck you, Lina. I don’t think I can go another minute without being inside you.”
I felt dizzy from his words, only barely aware of him behind me telling me to spread my legs. My ass tingled, and that only added to the sensation as he moved closer behind me. One hand cupped my breast, then spread me wide so that he could thrust inside me, deeper and deeper as I bent over, looking down at the city lights below as Evan lost himself inside me.
He slid his hand around and teased my clit, mimicking the rhythm of his thrusts, and as I looked out over the city below—as I felt every tiny particle that made up Angelina Raine spin and buzz and fire—I knew that I was nothing more than sensation. Nothing other than the embodiment of surrender. Whatever he wanted from me, he could have, if only he would give me this sensation, this joy. This permission to surrender in absolute safety and protection.
Because there was nowhere else for me than Evan’s arms.
And as I exploded out over the Chicago lights, I knew that no matter what happened, I would always belong to this man.
The walk-through with Neely was scheduled for Saturday, and I spent that entire morning alternating between fear and excitement. I had to change shirts twice because I was sweating so much under my arms, and I finally dragged Evan into the shower and made him fuck me blind, just so that I could get what was coming off my mind.
It worked, but only until we were dressed again.
“Thank goodness the appointment’s early,” I said, glancing at the time on my phone. “If we had to wait until this afternoon, I don’t think I could stand it.” I glared at Evan. “How are you so calm, anyway?”
“Years of practice,” he said. “And I only look calm. A little bit of nervous energy is good before a job. It keeps you careful.”
“Then I’m the most careful person on the planet right now.”
He pulled me close and kissed me deep. “It’s going to go fine. Remember, you’re working with a very experienced team.”
“Which makes me the weak link.”
“Which makes you the energetic new blood.” His phone dinged, and he glanced at it. “They’re in front of the building,” he said. “Let’s go.”
We met Cole and Tyler in the BAS Security van, and drove together to Victor Neely’s Winnetka house. He greeted us at the door, gushed in a too-polite, too-obsequious way over what a wonderful man my uncle was, and led us up to the gallery.
I caught Evan’s eye as we climbed the stairs and saw that his reaction was the same as mine—neither one of us liked the guy, and for a second I wished we could just blow this whole thing off. After all, if this thing went as planned, he’d end up with the real Creature Notebook and we’d have a fake.