Dirty Ties (32 page)

The helmet, however, would probably get me shot. I wasn’t just an intruder. I was an intruder wearing a notorious mask. I would have to talk fast, and with any luck, Collin didn’t sleep with a gun.

Straight ahead, the skyline twinkled through the windows beyond the sitting room. I was drawn to the magnificent view, but instead followed the diagram, turning down the hall on the right. My hands slicked with sweat in the gloves, and my muscles ached with tension as I forced my boots to move slowly and soundlessly.

This was the part I hadn’t strategized. What if I found them having sex or their naked bodies entwined in sleep? How would I stop myself from going apeshit? I hadn’t thought past the breaking-and-entering and standing-over-the-bed plan. What was I going to say?
Choose me.

I reached the open door at the end of the walkway, my heartbeat pulsing in my throat. Time to step into the dark, murky waters of risk. Risk of being turned in once I showed them my identity. Risk of Collin bludgeoning me to death for sleeping with his wife. Risk of Kaci’s rejection.

I wouldn’t have to spell it out for her. She was a brilliant woman and would understand the magnitude of what I was giving her. But was it enough? Was
I
enough?

I pulled in a deep, silent breath and flexed my fingers. Then I strode through, crossed the room, and stopped at the foot of the bed.

Blankets gathered in messy lumps, but the edge-sharpening perception of the night-vision outlined the forms of two bodies, entwined front-to-back, fit together like lovers after sex.

No amount of mental readiness could’ve prepared me for the jealously surging through my veins. Blood roared past my ears, and my hands balled into fists. I closed my eyes, seconds from yanking him out of bed and losing all sense of reason.

Man up. Power through it.

Stretching out my fingers, I opened my eyes and searched for her toned arms, the strands of her blonde hair, something familiar in the pile of bedding.

I stepped forward, locking my spine and measuring my breathing. But when my gaze landed on the pillow, the strength in my legs threatened to melt away.

Two heads lay side-by-side. Two heads with short, black hair. My vision tunneled. Two masculine jaw lines. My ribs squeezed. Two faces shadowed with whiskers.

The shock of a thousand volts slammed into my heart, electrocuting me into a state of stupefied paralysis. Unholy mother of fuck.

He was gay.

Collin Anderson.

Right-winged commenter.

Kaci’s husband.

Gay.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there. Remotely, I heard the rasp of my thinning breaths as my thoughts filtered through every interaction I’d shared with Kaci and every goddamned thing she’d said. About Collin. About love. Maybe the clues had been there all along, but Jesus, I would’ve never guessed this.

The longer I stood there, the lighter my chest felt. She loved her husband, but not in a way that would threaten her future with me. Her marriage was a ruse, one that had likely been forced on them in lieu of Trenchant’s goddamned image. God, it all made sense now.

I backed out of the room on silent feet and strode down the hall, headed toward the other bedrooms at the opposite end of the condo. Each step ladened with guilt, every breath filling with hope. Fucking hell, why hadn’t she told me? I’d treated her like a cheater. I’d judged her.
Used
her. How could she not hate me?

My gait quickened, my blood seething beneath my skin in my urgency to find her. When I pushed through the door of the second largest bedroom, the remnants of my shock fled into the stillness of the room.

The king-size bed was empty, the blankets twisted and thrown to the side. My attention caught on the couch that faced the windows, my eyes locked on the curl of blonde hair draped over the armrest.

Anticipation built in my gut. I locked the door and covered the distance, my need for her powering my strides. I needed her in my arms. I needed her to forgive me. I needed to protect her, to make her happy. My needs with her were endless and intoxicating, and I would spend the rest of my life fulfilling each and every one if she let me.

Rounding the side of the couch, I knelt before the illumination of her sleeping figure and removed my gloves. “Night-vision off.”

Her lashes fluttered but remained closed. The moonlight from the window cast a glow over her golden hair and paled the smooth skin of her long legs folded beneath the tangle of her nightshirt.

The sight of her curled in the corner of the couch wrapped a painful fist around my heart. It also magnified the significance of her loneliness.

She wouldn’t be alone anymore.
She belongs to me.

I drank in every detail of her body, from her delicate bone structure and soft breaths to the curl of her fingers beneath her cheek. A steady, calm pulse of peacefulness floated through me, filling me with euphoria. I didn’t want the moment to end, but I couldn’t stop my hands from sliding over either side of her face. “Kaci. Wake up.”

She stirred, her breath hitching and her eyes blinking away sleep. I held her face as she straightened her head and stared at my visor, her hands lifting to wrap around my wrists.

There was no surprise or fear in her gaze, her silence passing long and deep with the whisper of the vent in the ceiling. Finally, she licked her lips and released a heavy breath. “I’m not dreaming?”

I shook my head.

Her eyes widened. “You said my name.”

I nodded.

She moved her hands from mine to hook a finger beneath the collar of my leather jacket. “I love the ties, but this—” Her other hand slid over the side of my helmet as her face transformed into a breathtaking smile. “This is you.”

“You knew.”

His synthesized voice hummed over my skin, caressing every nerve-ending in my body. Not even shock or the dregs of sleep could dull his effect on me.

Logan.
A man who didn’t have hairy moles, a unibrow, or bucked teeth. Maybe I was shallow, but God, I wanted
him
to be the man under that helmet so damned badly.

How many times had I imagined his thick, low timbre beneath the distortion, his golden-green eyes behind the black visor, and the sculptured body I knew so intimately stretching the seams of those leathers?

I slid to the edge of the couch, my knees bracketing his hard thighs, and gripped the sides of his helmet. “I hoped.”

With his huge hands cupping my face and all his imposing strength kneeling between my legs, I couldn’t stop the shiver of hopeful excitement. He was here. Damn all the consequences that would follow. He’d come for me, and Trenchant didn’t seem to be on the agenda. At least not at that moment.

I only wore a t-shirt and panties. Yet the surrounding air rose in temperature, fleeing the space between us as an invisible line pulled us together. His hips rolled into the
V
of my thighs, grinding in a slow circle. He pressed me into the couch, and his jacket creaked with the movement. A tremor quaked over his body, all that leather rubbing against my t-shirt and hardening my nipples beneath the thin fabric.

My breath quickened, and his followed, faster, louder. That sound,
his need
, surged a tingling up my legs as my brain dizzily grabbed hold of reality. The commanding suit and tie, the powerfully-built muscles, the aggression exuded on a bike and in a boardroom, every masculine tool that held me captive was all wrapped-up in one destructively-sexy, badass package. And all of it was right here, vibrating between my legs, burning for me.

A spasm convulsed through my inner walls, and my thighs opened wantonly. I slid my thumbs along the seal of his visor, trying and failing to unlock it from its closed position. “I need to see you.”

Bathed in the glimmer from the lights beyond the windows, he released my face and unbuckled the chin strap. His hips shifted with the movement, whispering cool air over the damp crotch of my panties. I wanted him there, and the thought produced a torrent of clenching inside me. “Hurry.”

My lungs filled with air as the slow lift of his helmet revealed the cords of his neck, his strong whiskered jawline and, my God, those lips.

I launched at him before the chin guard cleared his eyes. Grabbing his wide shoulders, I captured his mouth and stole his surprised exhale. The helmet thumped somewhere behind him as his fingers shoved through my hair and his tongue curled through my mouth, claiming and fighting and claiming again.

His stubble scratched a trail of fire around my lips. Zaps of electricity ricocheted through my body. My mouth closed over his, pulled back, and attacked again, over and over, filling the room with the wet smacking sounds of our hunger.

The aggressive press of his jaw controlled the movement of mine, and the toe-curling stroke of his tongue spiraled more wet heat between my legs.

He broke the kiss, and his gaze lifted, searching my eyes. The dark blond strands of his hair stood up every which way, a delicious contrast to the clean-cut, gelled look in the office. Pale flickers of light danced over his perfectly straight nose, the etched planes of his chiseled cheekbones, and the moisture glistening on his parted lips.

I couldn’t look away from those lips, and as they tilted into a gentle smile, months of anxiety and loneliness tumbled off my shoulders and scattered into the dark. Why did that smile have such an effect on me? I loved his broody, lopsided brow, but his smile? It held conviction and healing, a promise that this beaten-down connection between us would survive, despite the lies and betrayal.

He unzipped his jacket and shrugged it off. As he yanked off his shirt, his bare shoulders and biceps played and flexed beneath his smooth skin, his eyes never leaving mine. “We have shit to hash out, and we will. I’m not going anywhere.” He glanced at the door and back to me. “I locked the door. I know what’s going on down the hall.”

I straightened, my mind piecing together his meaning and the implications. “You saw them?”

“They were asleep.” His attention lowered to my lap. “Widen your legs.” He leaned over me, a twitch jumping in the carved bricks of his nude chest. “Wider.”

My body obeyed as my protectiveness of Collin held onto the conversation. “It’s
his
secret, Logan.”

He nodded, gripped my ankles, and stretched them farther apart, propping my feet on the edges of the cushion. I held breathlessly still, lost in the stroke of his knuckles as they slid along my legs, from my knees to the edge of my panties.

“Fuck, Kaci, I’ve missed you.” He flattened his hands on my inner thighs, framing the triangle of my white panties. His thumbs traced just outside the edges of the lace, caressing the sensitive skin. “So soft here. Like silk.”

I jerked my hips, my clit pulsing against the piercing and my pussy quivering to be stretched and filled.

He leaned into me, his brow resting against mine as he hooked a finger in the crotch of my panties. “What would Collin do if he walked in right now?”

I tried to form a coherent thought, but sweet fucking hell, that finger. He worked it through my folds, teasing the edges of my opening, around and around without entering. “Logan, please.”

He shifted closer, his chest pressing me into the corner of the armrest, all his hard, heated flesh enveloping my senses. His mouth opened to accommodate his staggering breaths, and his hips rocked with the sudden thrust of his finger.

Shock waves trembled through my insides. His mouth closed on mine, his tongue a gentle lick compared to the violent drive of his finger. One commanding thrust followed by another, and I was completely at his mercy. Wet and needy, I melted like butter, falling helplessly, shamelessly, under his spell.

He brushed his lips over my cheek, my eyelids, my nose, returning to my mouth and kissing me again, deeper, harder. His hips rolled in a seductive grind, rocking his torso with the pace of his finger. The position of his body put his groin at the edge of the couch, and I wondered if he was rubbing his cock against the cushion to assuage the ache.

“Does he have a key to your bedroom?” His finger circled my piercing, his mouth moving against mine. “Anything I need to worry about if he finds Evader here? Or finds me
as
Evader?”

I dug my nails into his shoulder blades and bucked against his touch. “He’d knock before using the key.” I licked my lips, my heartbeat elevating with my need for relief. “He’s not possessive or conniving. Not— Oh God, right there.”

He shoved two fingers inside me, his head falling to my shoulder as he pumped in and out. “Not what?”

I grabbed his hair and held him against me as I flexed my hips, clenching my muscles and fucking his hand. “He’s not a bad man, Logan. I
know
him.”

He pulled his hand away and brought it to his mouth. “Not what I’m asking.” He wrapped his lips around his wet fingers and sucked, his eyes closing. His nostrils flared, and a low moan rumbled deep in his throat.

I shuddered, mesmerized, as he opened his eyes and returned his hand between my legs.

“You need to understand…” He thrust his fingers inside, sparking a tremble along my thighs. “If Collin does anything that forces me to run,
we
are running. You and me.”