Daniel (14 page)

“Take it off. The gun,” he growled at
her. “Please. I don’t want to accidently shoot us when I strip you down to
nothing and take you right here.”

The loud thump gave him permission. He
cupped her ass, and her legs wrapped around him. He rocked into her heat,
knowing that when they came together, it wasn’t going to be the soft love making
that he’d hoped for, but fast, dirty, and oh so sweet.

Daniel lifted her shirt and took her
nipple into his mouth before her head was free. He lifted the heavy flesh so
that her nipple slid up from her bra, and he took it as deep as he could into
his mouth. More, he needed more, much more.

Reaching to her back, careful even in
his need not to hurt her burn, he ripped the soft lace free, never letting go
of her hard peak. When she cried out, he knew it wasn’t from pain but from a
need as dark and primal as his was. Sliding his hands down the back of her
jeans, he met with hot, hard muscles.

Turning around to look where he could go,
he spotted a sturdy table. Without letting her go, he turned them both toward
it while she tore at his shirt. He wanted to tell her she was killing him. But
he couldn’t think whether he wanted her to hurry or slow down. When he sat her
ass on the table, he stepped back and looked at her.

“Christ, you’re beautiful.” And she was.
Breasts heaving, nipple hard and pink from his mouth. Her jeans were open and
he could see that she had on a pair of bright red panties. He wanted them off
of her almost as much as he wanted to see her in nothing but them. When her
foot reached out and ran up his cock, he grabbed the top of her jeans and
pulled them off her, panties and all.

She was wet; her curls glistened in the
light. Watching her face, he unsnapped his pants and slowly lowered the zipper.
His cock was hurting, but the look on her face made it so worth it.

“I’m going to fuck you right here. Then when
we’re finished, I’m going to take you again in your bed. Then your shower. Then
maybe the kitchen.” He lowered his pants and moaned when she opened her legs
for him. “You’re going to tease me? A man on the edge?”

“Fuck me, Daniel. Take me right now, and
stop fucking talking about it.” She ran her fingers over her curls and then
slowly entered her pussy. “Or I do it without you. Either way, I’m going to
come.”

He wrapped his hand around his cock and
took the two steps to her. She put her feet in his waist and then around him
when he stepped closer. There wasn’t anywhere for him to go but deep inside of
her when she pulled him to her using her feet. She cried out and lay back on
the table, spread before him like a banquet.

He didn’t move when he was seated in
her. He knew that if he did, he was a goner. He let her ride him, doing all the
work while he tried his best to regain control of himself. When she leaned up
and took his mouth, Daniel slid out to his tip, then slowly lifted her off the
table.

He lifted her up and down his cock, and every
time her breast got within reach of his mouth, he took a nip. He knew she was getting
close; her sheath was milking him hard. He put her back on the table and leaned
over her, cupping both her breasts together until her nipples were only an inch
apart. Taking them one at a time, sucking hard on them for several seconds,
then going to the other, he pumped in and out of her.

“Come for me, O’Reilly. Milk my cock and
bring me with you. Scream out my name and show me how much you love what I’m
doing to you.” Her entire body stiffened, and pain screamed along his cock,
pleasure and pain.

When she came, he showed no mercy. Pistoning
in and out of her, he felt his own climax coming quickly. Before he could tell
her to come again, she threw back her head and shouted that she loved him. Before
he could ponder whether she meant what he was doing to her or that she actually
loved him, Daniel came. Came hard, and again his entire body felt it. Then time
when he came, however, he felt the room darken around him and shift. It was
several seconds before things righted themselves for him.

Chapter
14

Jeannie tried the number again. Still
going straight to voicemail. She tossed the phone to the bed and glared at it. If
she didn’t reach her contact soon, she knew what she had to do. Kill Berto,
then come in hoping that her other end knew enough to tell everyone she was one
of the good guys.

“Ring, you stupid piece of shit.” She
nearly screamed when it did. Slowly picking it up, she didn’t say anything after
she clicked the button to start the call.

“I don’t know who this is,” said a male
voice on the other end. “I know who this phone belonged to, but he can’t come
to it. He’s been put to pasture.” Jeannie closed her eyes and dropped on the
bed. “If you’d like to leave a message now, I’ll hang up and—”

“How? How did he…who put him to
pasture?” She knew what that had meant. Her contact, after all this time, was
brought in and was now deeply hidden within some cell. Which agency had pulled
him was anyone’s guess.

“I did.” The pause was long enough that
she knew he was waiting for the right response. Her problem wasn’t that she
didn’t know what to say to him, but if she should. “I’m giving you fifteen more
seconds.”

“Undercover Agent Jeannie Whitney,
special forces, FDA. I’m working with Agent Doyle O’Donnell, Retired.” She took
a deep breath and waited. She’d either just killed herself and her contact if
he wasn’t already dead or she had her new contact.

“Are you all right, Agent Whitney?” The
question startled her. She’d been undercover for nearly three years, and she
could say with all honesty that no one had asked her that before. “Are you
coming in?”

“I’m…is Doyle all right? I didn’t hear
from him, and I…. No, I’m not coming in yet. My target is moving in on the
woman. She has something he wants. A ledger, I think. Not sure what it has in
it, but I hear things when I’m with him.” She didn’t have to tell him it was
pillow talk; he had to know who she was and her jacket.

“I have the ledger. I’m not…let’s just
say that you’re going to be safer with that sadist than coming in right now. O’Donnell
was shot two nights ago. I had been going to meet him at his home when someone
sprayed his house with bullets. Had I not been as close as I was he’d be in the
pasture, not out to it.”

“You think it was inside.” Not a
question, but he answered anyway that he did. “It had to be someone higher up,
I’m thinking. He told me the last time we talked that he thought it was Snot-ass…Snodgrass,
Agent Patrick Snodgrass” She closed her eyes when he laughed. So much for being
PC.

“I know about him. Doyle told me he
thought he would try to take him out soon. We just didn’t know it would be that
night.” She heard him sigh. “You tell me what you need and it’s yours. But this
is the only phone I want you to use. If Carver is aware of you at any time, you
drop and roll, understand?”

She was to disappear. Simply drop
whatever she was doing and hide. But she had news for him, she was going to
take the bastard out if it was the last thing she did. She agreed, but she
thought he knew what she was planning.

“Don’t go to the house. If you have a
safe house, go there, but keep this phone with you. I’ll need to bring you in
when things go south.” She hoped she could come in, but if Snot-ass knew about
her, she wondered if Carver might as well. The man on the other end of the line
answered her question before she could voice it. “Snot-ass, as you call him,
believes you to be dead. I think Doyle had something to do with that. He made
sure there are no pictures of you or any prints on file. I have that as well.
I’ve got your ass.”

“You’d better.” She told him when she
realized how much this guy actually knew. “If you don’t, I’m going to find your
ass and give you a new orifice to shit from.” His laughter did nothing to ease
her anger. “You think I’m kidding, big boy?”

“Nope,” he told her with humor. “I was
just thinking I can’t wait to meet you. Keep it high and tight girl, and we’ll
get through this.”

The line went dead, and she closed the
phone. High and tight? What the fuck was that supposed to mean? And then she
laughed. She had no idea who she’d just been assigned to.

Jeannie went to her “insurance” and pulled
it out. There was more than enough money there to get her a fresh start, and
she was tempted to just say fuck it all and do it. Putting the bag back under
the floorboard, along with the phone that she plugged into the hidden outlet,
she knew she couldn’t do it. She was in too deep and had lost way too much.

Jeannie had been put into this position
because she had the right looks, the right qualifications, as well as the balls
to tell them she could do it. Now all this time later she was still in, scarred
more than she’d ever thought possible, and she was pretty sure that she’d be
finished when they did manage to bring her in. As an agent, she knew that time
out like she had been was not good on the old noggin. She’d been under longer
than she’d been an agent, and would more than likely have to be retrained or
killed.

She lay on the bed and thought of her
next move. Carver was in the same town as the girl. Jeannie was only a few
miles from them both in either direction. She was tempted to go to the girl and
help her stand her ground. But if Carver got through and he found out what she
had been doing, her entire life would be spent looking over her shoulder to see
if he’d finally found her.

When her phone rang next to her bed, she
let it ring once more before switching on the recorder and picking up the
receiver. She put as much sleepiness in her voice as she could. Jeannie knew
who it was. Carver and Micky were the only two with this number and Micky,
thanks to her, wasn’t going to be calling her anytime soon.

“What did you find out about Micky? Is
he a stiff, or was it not your long lost brother?” She heard a car horn honk
and then the hum of a window. He was riding somewhere.

“It was him. I tried to reach you to let
you know, but it went to voice. I don’t do voice for anything.” She’d told him
that before, and it was a lie. She just didn’t leave voicemail for him because
she knew it irritated him. “You getting some on the side?”

She hoped so. Christ, she hated that
part of her job. She’d love to meet somebody someday who wanted to have normal
everyday kind of sex. Not the type where if blood was shed, all the better. As
soon as this was over, she was going to take a bath for a week and scrub him
off her.

“No, I was not. I’ve been tracking that
girl. That potter has her tightened up so much I’m beginning to think there is
no girl. And did you know there was a kid? She can’t be as young as we thought if
she has a kid in high school.”

Fuck,
he knows about the boy
.
Not, apparently, that it was his son, but he would only have to see the kid to
figure that out. She didn’t comment on the kid but snorted her answer. She had
to get word to someone that he knew about the boy so they’d be extra careful about
him being out. Not that Harlequin wasn’t already doing enough of that, Jeannie
thought. She’d done a hell of a job keeping him under wraps so far. His
snapping made her realize that she’d missed something.

“Are you fucking sleeping again? Mother
fuck. When I get my hands on—”

“I’m here. Damn it, I’ve been sick. I
told you that I was seeing a doc about my back.” Micky had returned fire and
had nicked her in the shoulder. “What the fuck am I supposed to do when the
pain shit makes me like a zombie?”

“I suggest you stop taking it and pay
attention. I want you to scare her out. The girl or the boy, I don’t care
which. Because I figure like most ‘mommies’ she’s going to come running when
he’s been snatched up. Then bring the bitch to me and I’ll get my shit and
leave this God forsaken fucking town.”

She told him that she’d have him
something by noon tomorrow. She hung up her phone and thought about what she
needed to do. The girl was safe where she was, but it wouldn’t take him long to
figure out that she went out to the school at the Foundation once a day. It had
been much too easy to get her schedule and know where she was going to be at
all times. Jeannie got up and pulled out a few sheets of paper. Time to make
plans. She just hoped that they weren’t going to be the last ones she ever
made.

~~~

Reilly walked around the huge classroom
and watched each of the students she had try to center a pot. All of them had
had some basics before coming here, but not many of them had actually been at a
wheel. She’d been having a few problems with this one particular girl. Nothing
she couldn’t handle, but it was getting on her last nerve. Reilly glanced over
at the door when someone knocked and walked in. Great. Another Hunter.

Mrs. Hunter the elder wasn’t too bad.
She had a sharp tongue and a sharper mind. Reilly doubted much got by her,
especially concerning her sons. Reilly had learned earlier that morning that
talking straight with the older woman threw her off her game, and she didn’t
hang around much. When she sat at the small table they’d used to weigh up clay
balls, she looked over at Benny and he winked.

He’d been over the moon this morning
when Daniel and he had been in the kitchen when she’d come down. Reilly hadn’t
gotten much sleep the night before and flushed when she thought of why she
hadn’t.

Daniel had kept his word on making love
to her in all the places he’d said. Well, they’d missed the kitchen, but the
shower and the bed had worked well for them. Better than well. She’d come so
many times that she’d slept like a baby. She looked over at his mom and
wondered if she knew that he’d spent the night with her. Then there was the
fact that she’d said she loved him.

She hadn’t meant to. It had been one
thing to just realize it, but another all together to scream it at the top of
her lungs. And then the fact that he hadn’t mentioned it last night or this
morning made her think that he really didn’t care. She turned her back to the
class and looked out the window. Of course it wasn’t his fault that she had
done the really stupid thing her heart had been warned about and fallen for the
ass. But he could have said something, right?

Class ended an hour later. She didn’t
have to do much to clean up. Kasey had told her that she’d simply have to make
sure that everything that needed to be saved was put into the cabinet and the
cleaning crew would take care of the rest. Benny helped her carry most of the
projects over, and Mrs. Hunter drifted from one wheel to the next seemingly at
random.

“I wonder if you would have dinner with
me this evening. I think Daniel is taking Benny to his house for some male
bonding or some such, and it could be just you, me, and the girls.” Her smile
was genuine, but Reilly still didn’t trust it. “We could even talk about your
upcoming show.”

“No thanks.” Benny was no longer going
to get close to these people any more than she was. Daniel had made it
perfectly clear that he was only in this for the short time, and she was going
to start now breaking them of the habit of being around these people.

“I don’t think you understand, Reilly.
We want to get to know you better. Don’t you want to get to know us?” Her voice
sounded so hopeful that Reilly found herself wanting to do just that. “We’re
not all that bad a lot.”

“I’m sure you’re not, Mrs. Hunter, but
as I’m sure you know, just because Daniel and I are having sex together, it
doesn’t really mean anything. Neither of us is looking for long ties, nor do I
want my son hurt. So….” She picked up her bag and tried not to see the hurt in
Benny’s face. “I’ll see you tomorrow if you stop by. Have a good night.”

She hurried to her car and waited with
the thing running for Benny to get himself situated before she left. She didn’t
want any of them to come to her and see what the fuck was wrong, and she
certainly didn’t want them to know that she had lied. She hated liars more than
anything.

“I was supposed to have fun with Daniel
tonight. Him and his brother Curtis was going to show me how to hit a ball.” She
glanced over at his stubborn face and then out the window again. “Just ‘cause
you don’t like him doesn’t mean I can’t like him.”

“And what happens when he’s had enough
of me? You going to still like him? Daniel told me that he doesn’t want a
family and he doesn’t want to get married. I need…I’d like to have some long-term
in my life. And in doing that, I have to be sure that the guy I choose is
willing to commit to you as well. Not that he doesn’t like you. I’m sure he
does, but it’s not really fair to him or us that we can’t think of this as
something that may lead to more.”

He looked out the window, and she could
see tears on his lashes. She hurt for him and wondered before he’d come to live
with her if there had ever been a man in his life that had made any positive
mark on his life. She doubted it. Meagen wouldn’t have been able to bring
anyone into the home for fear of Carver finding out, and even he wasn’t all
that great of a person.

“Is it because of me that he won’t marry
you?” She nearly jerked them off the road at his question. “It is, isn’t it? I’m
not ever going to be his kid, and he thinks he’d have to raise another man’s
bastard, and it’s not worth it.”