Better with You: Outback Skies, Book 4 (7 page)

Was it a weakness? To be manipulated? Did it make her vulnerable? Or stronger?

“Do you think I haven’t planned for the day when my past would try and remove me from my present?”

His question—uttered with a calm detachment—made her stomach clench.

Before she could answer, he turned on his heel and crossed the room to the same chest of drawers he’d withdrawn the cable tie from, presenting his naked butt and back for her to survey.

It was an incredible back, sublime in its muscular perfection even with the numerous battle scars marring his skin. The thought of it riddled with bullet holes, or ribboned to shreds by a blade, or blistered by a blow torch…

Dani swallowed and grew still as Charlie withdrew a gut-hook blade from the open top drawer.

He turned back to her. Held the knife up. Inspected its point.

“I’m
very
prepared, Dani,” he said as he walked back to where she stood bound to the weight machine.

He raised the hook-shaped blade between them, its spotless steel glinting in the room’s light as he turned it side to side with a slow twist of his wrist.

“And I will remove any threat to me and my life here,” he murmured, as he drew the blade closer to her. “Regardless of my past with them.”

He pressed the tip of the blade to her wrist. Right over her radial and ulnar arteries. Indented her flesh.

Her heart raced. Her mind told her he hadn’t believed a word she’d said to him. Her brain calculated how long it would take to bleed out if he sliced open her wrist.

She’d bared her soul to him, her heart, and he hadn’t believed her. Had played her, like the spy he was.

Manipulated her.

And now, he was going to kill her.

“
Any
threat,” he repeated, holding her stare as he slid the tip of the blade between her wrist and the cable tie and sliced apart the plastic strip binding her to the pole.

She let out a puff of relieved air as her arm—now admittedly a little numb—fell away from the steel pole of the exercise machine.

Charlie arched an eyebrow. “Scared for a while there?”

“You have no idea.”

He cupped her jaw in a gentle hand. “What’s
hatiku
mean?”

Heat flooded her cheeks. “It’s…nothing.”

He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Tell me.”

She met his steady gaze. “It means my heart in Indonesian.”

His nostrils flared. “I won’t let the bastard harm you,
hatiku
.”

Dani’s chest tightened. Christ, she loved him. Which made her so…vulnerable.

An image of Charlie riddled in bullet holes assaulted her again. “He’s the director.”

His relaxed laugh surprised her. “I’m an Outback cop. Trust me, Dani, of the two, I know who is the toughest.”

Rubbing at her wrist, she frowned. This was spiraling out of her control. She’d come here to tell her ex-partner she loved him, to say goodbye before her life ended. She’d feared in doing so she’d put his life at risk, and yet here he was laughing?

Maybe he’d been out of the game for too long to recognise the danger of the situation?

Maybe she
did
have to get away from him. As far away as she could?

And let the director know where she was?

The man had a far-reaching grip. It didn’t matter where she went, he’d still find her. He wouldn’t stop, especially after the story broke.

Shit. She hadn’t—

“Charlie?” she said, touching her fingers to his arm. The latent strength in the muscles beneath his skin should have calmed her. “I forgot to tell you something.”

He studied her. “Which is?”

“I sent everything I had on the job to a solicitor I know. Everything. With explicit instructions to leak the intel to the media within twenty-four hours of no contact from me.”

A glint of something dark flared in Charlie’s eyes. “Does the director know that?”

She could only shrug.

“You know what we need?”

Dani frowned. “What? MP7A1s? An UZI or two? Some SR-3 Vikhrs?”

He laughed. “A shower. C’mon. Let’s get completely dirty together while getting clean.”

“Are you serious?”

Once again, he laughed. “Very. I need a shower. So do you. I need to rub up against your wet body and suck on your wet—”

“Charlie,” she cut him off, ramming her closed fist to his chest right above his heart. “You knew I was heading here, yes? Before you saw me in the pub? You knew I was on the way?”

He grew still. “I did.”

“How? A contact in the agency?”

He didn’t answer. Nor move. But his eyes grew flinty.

“How
did
your contact know?”

Without a word, he spun on his heel and strode from the room. Buck naked, gut-hook blade in hand, arse muscles bunching with coiled strength.

Dani followed, scooping up her towel on the way.

By the time she caught up with him, he was in the living room, an outdated Nokia phone pressed to his ear, his back to her.

Unprotected.

Exposed.

The perfect target.

Dani’s heart quickened at the sight. In all the years she’d known him, worked with him, killed with him, he’d never presented her his back with such unguarded calm.

Even when she’d been cable tied to the weight machine, he’d kept an eye on her.

But here he was, phone in one hand, knife in the other, attention fixed on what? The dawn sky beyond the window?

Whatever held his gaze, it wasn’t on her. It wasn’t behind him.

He trusts you.

Which made her next move all the more—

“Bruce.”

At Charlie’s flat snarl, a chill shot up Dani’s spine.

Bruce. The director.

Was he talking to the director?

Whoever was on the other end of the connection said something that made Charlie flick a look over his shoulder at her.

The rage in his eyes turned her blood cold. Her stomach rolled. She wished to hell she’d retrieved her jeans from the bathroom floor . She felt…vulnerable.

It wasn’t a feeling she enjoyed.

“Did you kill him?” Charlie asked into the phone.

His eyes narrowed at whatever answer came. His jaw bunched and he turned his back on her again.

Dani exhaled a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

“You know,” he went on into the phone, “I’m going to make you regret doing that, right?”

There was another pause as he listened to the response. And then he laughed.

A relaxed, carefree laugh full of genuine mirth. “In your fucking dreams, Director. See you soon.”

Dani stiffened.

Charlie was talking to the head of ASIO. The head of Australia’s security and intelligence agency—the
real
head, not the one trotted out for media and government appearances—was with Charlie’s contact?

“Did you kill him?”

Had the director found Charlie’s contact?

Killed him?

Or something—

“See you soon.”

Soon
.

Her stomach rolled. Her head roared. She stared at Charlie’s back. Watched him terminate the connection with a jab of his thumb.

Soon.

Christ, did
soon
mean what she thought it meant?

“Shower?”

She flinched at the single-word question. “What?” She flinched again when he pivoted to face her, grin on his face.

“Shower. You and me. We’re not going to get another chance for a while.”

Was he serious? After what she’d just heard? Who he’d been talking to?

Soon
.

“We just had a shower.” The ridiculous observation fell from her. Her body seemed to thrum with energy at once familiar and foreign—fear.

Why?

Charlie chuckled, tossed the old Nokia to the sofa and then stalked towards her. No matter how hard she tried not to, she couldn’t help but flick a glance over his naked body.

“No,” he said, growing closer. “We just fucked in my gym. We both got hot and sweaty. Now I want to have a shower with you before the director arrives.”

Dani swallowed, even as her body reacted to the raw animalism of him. He was erect. Horny. Hard as a pole. Her pussy constricted with eager hunger. “What are you going to do when the director gets here?” she asked, dragging her stare back up to his face.

Christ, how could she think of anything but sex with him looking like that?
Being
like that?

He stopped right in front of her, reaching up to cup her jaw with a gentle hand, the warm length of his erection nestling against her belly. “Kill him,” he murmured, before—lips tender and almost apologetic—he kissed her.

Chapter Seven

The life of a spy wasn’t what Hollywood portrayed it to be. At least, the life of an Australian spy wasn’t. It involved giving up your soul. Having no future. It required disconnecting from everything that made a person feel human.

It made a monster out of a man.

To keep Australia’s citizens living the life they did, to protect them from the horrific underbelly of global politics and the darkness of human nature, Charlie had sacrificed his soul over and over.

Had resigned himself to an empty shell of an existence.

That night in Russia four years ago, when the director ordered him to terminate the Australian ambassador in the most humiliating way possible to allow the Russian president to
feel better about his standing with the Australian prime minister
, Charlie knew his soul could no longer be sacrificed.

He’d refused a direct order. Had told the director—his one-time partner—to fuck off.

Had signed his own death warrant with an unknown date of execution.

The fact Dani hadn’t been able to kill him when ordered to do so had allowed him the last four years of life he’d lived.

He’d escaped his former life intact. Had become a new person.

When he’d relocated to Wallaby Ridge, he’d discovered he wasn’t as empty as he believed. When he’d allowed himself to form relationships with people beyond those who killed for a living and those to
be
killed, he’d discovered he liked being a human, not a monster.

When he’d found himself with three good mates he looked forward to seeing and could just be himself around, he’d realized his soul was still there and stronger than ever.

Now, knowing the one person from his old life, that
one
person who’d made the horrific things he’d done daily seem close to acceptable, loved him the way he loved her…

The soul that he’d rediscovered after four years of being Charlie Baynard burned.

For her. For this new life.

For a future he’d fantastised about when they’d worked together, but had never imagined possible.

Brushing his fingers over her cheekbone, he deepened the kiss. She didn’t stop him, even though he felt sure she thought him insane. The director was heading their way. The bastard had tortured his contact at ASIO, had murdered him, and was now out to do the same to them.

Once upon a time, Charlie would have spent the time between the discovery and the confrontation preparing. Wallaby Ridge was hours from anywhere. Hours he could spend checking weapons he already knew to be in perfect condition.

Instead, he was kissing the woman he loved.

Now, he wanted nothing more than to give Dani everything he was. Everything he’d wanted to give her when they’d been partnered. Above all else, he wanted to help her to feel.

Feel.

Something a spy rarely did.

He wanted
her
soul to burn like his. He would do so by sharing with her the most intimate, elemental connection he could. And when she fell into a sated slumber, after he’d given her as many orgasms as he could, he would load her into Ryan’s chopper and tell his mate to fly her as far from Wallaby Ridge as he could. To not stop until they reached the farthest cattle station Ryan’s chopper would take them. And then, no matter what Dani said, refuel and not stop until they were in Perth.

Of course, he’d have to cable tie Dani’s wrists together while she was asleep, for Ryan’s safety, but of all his friends, Ryan was the one who wouldn’t raise an eyebrow about the situation. Or be fazed by it.

And truth be known, Charlie suspected Ryan was the only one of his friends who could hold his own against a bound and furious Dani. Matt and Evan wouldn’t stand a chance.

He’d make it up to the heli-musterer later.

If the director didn’t kill him, that was.

Sliding his hand down Dani’s throat, Charlie moaned into her mouth as she met his tongue with hers.

She tasted so sweet. So distinctly
her
. In the four years since she’d sunk her knife into his side, he’d never forgotten what she tasted like.

Had remembered it. Had ached for it.

Tossing the gut-hook blade he still held in his right hand away, he pressed his hips harder to hers. The curve of her sex nestled against his groin, the warm, smooth contact making his head spin and his blood pump faster.

His senses reveled in the way her body fit with his, in the way her breasts crushed to his chest and her belly flattened to his. He moaned at the slick friction of her tongue sliding over his. At the way she raked her nails over his shoulder, down his back. She squeezed his backside, pulling him closer to her. Grinding against his groin with slow rolls of her hips.

Nipping at her bottom lip, he dragged his hand from the base of her throat to her right breast, needing to experience its perfection. He kneaded it, the pebbled tip of her nipple rubbing at the centre of his palm as he did so.

There was something about the pressure, something about the contact that flooded his cock with fresh pleasure. Something that made him crave the same sensation against his tongue even as he reveled in it against his palm.

Head giddy with need and determination, he scored a line down her throat and captured the nipple of her other breast with his lips. He kneaded one glorious curve of flesh with his hand as he worshiped the other with his mouth.

Dani arched at the fierce suction, pressing her sex harder to his erection.

“Charlie…” she rasped.

Without warning, he pulled from her breast, straightened and hauled her off the floor. “Come with me,” he growled, as he hitched her to his body.

“Gladly,” she laughed, wrapping her long, strong thighs around his waist.

The head of his cock nudged her spread pussy as he began to stride for the kitchen.

He’d planned to take her to his bedroom. To lay her on the bed and make love to her. To indulge in every inch of his passion for her, his love for her. To lose himself to every inch of her exquisite body. But the moment she cinched her legs around him with that cheeky laugh, the second his cock nudged her sex, the bedroom became a futile destination.

It was too far away. Fuck waiting that long.

With every step he took toward the kitchen counter, the tip of his cock prodded with more insistence at her seam. His brain registered the moisture there, the scent of her pleasure heavy on the air, the pounding of her heart, the shallow pants of her breath.

“Always knew you were a strong bastard.” She chuckled, threading her fingers behind his neck and wriggling in his arms.

The playful movement caught him by surprise, not just because it caused his cock to penetrate her wet folds a little, but because it was a side of Dani he’d long suspected existed.

A side he’d longed to experience.

And here it was, revealed to him on the darkest of their days.

Light, love, laughter born in the threat of impending death.

It was surreal. And yet as it should be.

People like him and Dani? They were never meant for common romance revelations.

Just as you were never meant for happy every afters?

The bleak thought sheared at Charlie’s pleasure and, with a silent snarl, he deposited Dani on the edge of the counter.

Fuck his stupid mind.

If there was no happily ever after in his future, he was going to live it right now, in his present.

Before Dani could balance herself on the counter, he released her, flattened his palms to her inner thighs and shoved her legs wide.

“Whoa.” She laughed, the sound turning to a moan as he plunged his tongue into her pussy. “Oh, man, oh, fuck…” She snagged her fingers in his hair in a fierce fist.

He lapped at her clit, flicking his tongue over its tiny nub with increasing speed. Tasting not only
her
pleasure but also himself on her flesh.

“Jesus, Charlie,” Dani burst out, “I’m going to fucking come straight away if you do that.”

“Good,” he growled, sparing a second to raise his head from the seduction of her sex to fix her with a steady gaze. “I want you to.”

He returned to her pussy, holding her thighs wide with firm hands as he tormented her clit over and over.

“Fuck.” Dani writhed on the edge of the counter, balling her hand in his hair tighter. “Oh, fuck, that’s…that’s good.”

Lowering his tongue to the slit of her entry, Charlie snared her wrist and yanked her hand from his hair. Pressed her fingers to her clit.

She didn’t need him to instruct her, nor explain what he wanted.

Moaning, she worked her clit as he penetrated her pussy with his tongue.

Her juices seeped from her and he licked them from her soft flesh. She tasted like sin and life and everything he’d ever wanted. As she rubbed at her clit, he grazed his teeth over the skin of her inner thigh, first the right and then the left. With each bite, he sank his teeth a little less gently into her flesh until she was whimpering and writhing and begging him to fuck her. To be inside her.

“P-please.” She shifted on the counter, clawing at his back even as she continued to work the button of her clit with rapid strokes. “I’m going…to come and I want…you inside…”

With one last sucking bite high on her inner thigh, Charlie snared her hips and yanked her spread pussy hard to his stomach. Denying her his cock no matter how much he wanted to bury it inside her.

He tangled a hand in her hair and crushed her mouth with his, wanting her to taste their combined juices on his lips, his tongue.

She moaned into the kiss, threading her hands into his hair as she met his wild passion.

When she shifted enough on the counter’s edge to align the head of his cock with her sodden sex, when she locked her legs around his hips and rolled her own, trying to impale herself on his length, he tore his mouth from hers.

“Uh-uh.”

She glared at him, eyes ablaze with pleasure and frustration. “Prick.”

He laughed. “Yeah.”

She returned his low chuckle and then let out a whimper as he returned his head between her thighs to worship her clit again.

“I’ve wanted this—” she grabbed at his hair again, “—since the moment I met you. Until you came along… oh God…” For a second, only hitching cries fell from her as Charlie slipped a finger into her heat and stroked her G-spot, laving her clit the whole time. Those cries made Charlie’s head swim with raw need. His cock ached. His balls did the same. His control on his body was fraying fast.

“Until you came along…” she repeated, the words barely more than rasping breaths as she ground her sex to his face, “all that made sense…to me was the job…”

Her confession, the significance behind it, flooded Charlie’s body with something more than pleasure.

Rapture? Joy?

Contentment?

Was he truly capable of experiencing such emotions? Yes, with Dani he was. Fuck, she’d changed everything. For that, he would love her until the day he died. And he would do whatever it took to make sure that day wasn’t today.

Lifting his head a little, he gazed up at her. “Until you came along, Aanjay,” he murmured, refusing to use her ASIO-assigned name, “I didn’t understand what living meant. How precious life was.”

Her lips curled in a slow smile. “Aren’t we a couple of romantics?” she murmured.

Charlie chuckled. “Fucking oath.”

She shifted, pushing her upper body closer to his. Held his gaze with hers. “Come with me,
hatiku
? Now? Be inside me?”

Sexually exhausted, remember? Make her orgasm so many times she’s so drained she falls asleep. You can’t risk—

She touched his jaw, an emotion he couldn’t decipher burning in her eyes. “Please?”

It was the
please
that undid him.

That unraveled his plan.

He would render her unconscious another way. He had a stash of Rohypnol in the bathroom. Hidden amongst his toiletries in the cabin.

It wasn’t how he’d wanted to do it, but he couldn’t deny her. Her one request of him. The last one he may ever be able to grant her.

“Please?” she whispered, raw need etching her face.

“Okay,” he answered, his voice a husky rasp before he gripped her hips with brutal pressure, rolled his hips until his cock nudged her spread folds and slammed into her heat.

“Yes,” she cried. “Fuck, yes.”

He drove into her, over and over, on the brink of insanity at the sheer intensity of their connection. His thrusts were wild, savage. Her nails on his shoulders, his back, were the same.

And yet, at some point, the savagery turned to something else. Something far more powerful, more honest.

They moved together, no longer animalistic but synchronistic. They held each other’s gazes. Their breaths mingled, their lips brushed, their teeth clicked, their tongues twined, mated. Made love.

Their hands explored each other’s bodies, tender, slow, thorough.

Charlie stroked in and out of Dani, each penetration propelling him closer to release. And closer to a fear he couldn’t deny.

He wouldn’t let the director kill her. He couldn’t live without her. She’d given him hope. She’d given him life. She’d mended his broken soul.

Body thrumming, skin slicked with sweat, he sank into her deeper and deeper, lost himself to her over and over.

When he knew he couldn’t last any longer, when he knew he was about to rupture, he captured her lips with his and surrendered to the taste of her.

One last kiss…

One last…

A shudder wracked through her and, tearing her lips from his, she arched into a stiff bow and threw back her head. “Oh God, Charlie, oh God…”

Her inner muscles contracted around his. Gripped him. Squeezed him.

“Oh God, Charlie, I love you,” she moaned, her sex pulsing around his thrust. “I love you.”

The pleasure in her face, in her voice, pushed Charlie over the edge.

Teeth gritted, hands clawing at her hips, her back, he came. Filled her. Burying his face into the side of her neck, unable to bear what she would see if she looked into his eyes, he gave himself over to their mutual orgasm.

Surrendered to it.