Exposed (31 page)

Her fingers dug into his scalp. “Ethan, get inside me.”

Ignoring the soft plea, he eased downward, trailing kisses across her stomach, to the soft thatch of hair between her legs. His hands curled around her thighs as he dipped his head and kissed her. Slow, soft, licking kisses that made her writhe, made his cock pound with the need for release as her taste flooded his mouth.

With both hands she pressed his face to her and rubbed against his tongue. On a low groan he took her clit between his lips and sucked, lashing it gently with his tongue. He loved this woman with everything in him and wanted to give her as much pleasure as he could.

Her long, liquid moan of pleasure filled the air. “Please. Please, I need you inside me,” she begged.

He fished a condom from his wallet on the nightstand and rolled it on. Grasping one sleek thigh, he lifted it around his waist and settled between her legs. With one thrust he seated himself fully inside her. She cried out and clenched around him, her fingers tightening in his hair.

Raw hunger roared through him. He pulled his hips back then surged deep, watching every expression that crossed her gorgeous face. Then he slipped a hand between them, his thumb seeking the swollen bud at the top of her sex.

She moaned and rolled her hips against him, her motions restless. “Harder,” she panted breathlessly. “I need it harder.”

Ethan shook his head. She didn’t need harder, she needed deeper. A better angle. “C’mere.”

Before she could say anything he withdrew and turned her over onto her stomach, then pulled her up onto all fours. Marisol looked back at him over her shoulder, her sea green eyes glazed with desire, the dark curtain of her hair spilling over the pillow.

Settling in behind her, his cock so hard it hurt, he drank in the sight of her like that. Ass up, legs parted, the slick folds of her sex exposed to him. With a low growl he grasped her hips and eased inside her. She gasped at his entry, mewled and curved her back in a way that told him this new angle was working for her.

“Oh, God,
Ethan
…”

He fucking loved that pleading note in her voice. Loved that he was the only man who would ever hear those gorgeous sounds he was pulling from her. Loved
her
and didn’t want to ever let her go.

Reaching around her, he cupped her sex, stroked the hard nub of her clit with slick fingertips as he worked her from behind. She was so tight, so wet, every glide of his cock was both torture and heaven.

Her cries took on a desperate edge, the motion of her hips growing restless, almost frantic. He could feel her tightening around his dick, her breathing erratic, muscles quivering as he drove her to the edge.

A powerful tide of possessiveness swamped him. He wanted to mark her, fucking own her, body and soul. She’d almost been taken from him yesterday and the need to imprint himself on her at the most primal level drove him to set his teeth against the edge of her neck. He nipped her, scraped his teeth against the delicate skin and felt her come undone.

She arched, her head falling back as a sob spilled from her lips, followed by a shattered cry that echoed around the room. She shuddered and bucked in his grip, and the ravenous hunger inside him snapped free. His hands dug deeper into the flesh of her hips. He knew he’d likely leave marks and part of him gloried in it.

He drove into her harder, deeper, faster, letting the lust take over. The orgasm built and built and finally burst over him, wrenching a hoarse shout from his throat.

As it faded he curved over her back and buried his damp face in the curve of her neck. His headache was gone. He felt like he was floating.

She bent forward, resting her cheek on the pillow, and sighed softly. “I
love
sex.”

A surprised laugh burst out of him.

Her lips curved in a satisfied smile, her eyes still closed. “Wait, did I say that out loud? What I meant to say was, I love the way you
make love
to me.”

Chuckling, he kissed his way across her jaw, lingered over the corner of her mouth so he could taste her smile. “I love
you
.”

“Mmm, love you back. Now spoon me while we get some sleep.”

She didn’t have to tell him twice. Still joined, he turned her onto her side and curled around her. The quiet of the room settled around them. He felt totally at peace, except for one thing.

“How are we going to make this work?” she asked, as if she’d read his mind.

“We both put in effort. And just to be clear, I want exclusivity. No seeing other people.” Just the thought of another man putting his hands on her made him go all caveman.

She snorted. “Of course, exclusive. But how are we going to make the long distance thing work? I can’t move. My job is here and so is my family. I can’t leave either of them.”

“I know, and I can’t move right now either.” He kissed the top of her shoulder, breathing in the scent of shampoo and soap from the shower she’d taken last night. “Lots of people do long distance relationships. And it won’t be forever. I’ve got around twenty months or so left in my contract, but if and when I leave the HRT, I’d always planned to put in a request for a transfer to Miami. It’s home.”

She nodded, seemed to relax deeper into his embrace. “So we’ll just have to make it work in the meantime then. Fly back and forth or meet in between somewhere whenever we can.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay. Good.”

He smiled at the conviction in her voice. Case closed as far as she was concerned. They were both all in, and looking to make it work long term. He’d never felt happier about anything in his life.

Holding her close, his heart full, he tucked her head beneath his chin and let himself drop into a deep sleep.

****

Matt DeLuca stood when Marisol stepped into the boardroom with Cruz right behind her. Cruz was in full protective mode, an arm wrapped securely around her waist as he pulled her into his side, and he shot a warning look at Special Agent In Charge Winter.

“Thanks for coming in,” the agent said to Marisol, smiling a little as he pulled out a chair for her.

“No problem.” She sat and crossed her legs, shot a quelling look at Cruz and nodded at Matt before settling her bandaged forearm across her stomach.

“How are you feeling?” Matt asked.

“I’m ok—”

“She’s sore,” Cruz interrupted, “and needs to be back at the hotel resting.” He turned another hard look on Winter.

The agent nodded. “We’ll make this as quick as we can.”

Matt didn’t blame Cruz for being protective of her. Matt would be the exact same way with Briar. And speaking of his lady, she should be here any minute. He’d called her in to see if she could help identify the mystery woman.

From what Marisol had said and everything the evidence pointed to, the woman may have been trained by the military or a government agency. If anyone might know about the female unsub, it was Briar.

“We’ve already reviewed your previous statements about what happened yesterday,” Winter said. “I just wanted to question you a bit more about the woman on the boat.”

Marisol shrugged, looking tired and worn. “I already told the other agents everything I know. She said her name was Julia, and she obviously had some kind of training.” She narrowed her eyes. “You still haven’t found her, or figured out who she is?”

The agent sighed. “No, but we’re trying. We just need a few more pieces to put—” He trailed off when a knock sounded on the glass door.

Matt turned to see Briar pushing her way into the room. Pleasure flooded him. “Hey,” he said, snagging her hand to tug her close for a quick kiss. Not enough to satisfy either of them, but enough to show everyone in the room that they were together and that he was proud of it.

She gave him a secret smile that promised a lot more than a simple kiss the next time they were alone and faced Marisol. “You must be Cruz’s better half.”

“Well, I don’t know about
better
,” Marisol said, rising to take the hand Briar offered.

“I’m Briar. Matt’s better half,” she said, throwing a grin his way.

Marisol seemed to relax at that. “Nice to meet you.”

“We were just going over some details about the woman involved in the boat incident yesterday,” Winter told her.

Matt moved in behind her as Briar walked up to the desk where he had a screen displaying footage from a CCTV camera set up on the outside of a bank across the street from the Marina in South Miami. He hadn’t had a chance to send her the footage beforehand.

“We know literally nothing except her alias and that she was apparently involved with
el Santo
. For the past several months she’s been volunteering at the nursing facility where his grandmother is being kept. None of the staff knew much personal information about her, and what they did know was fake.”

Briar nodded and braced a hand on the desk. Matt moved in and curved a hand around her hip, felt the muscles contract under his hand as he leaned in to look over her shoulder. He forced his attention to the screen.

Winter played the footage showing the woman climbing off the bike and heading to the end of the dock. When she turned to face the camera from the boat, it was only a profile shot.

“Not hugely helpful,” Winter murmured, “but this is better.” He tapped a few more keys and brought up the satellite images they’d taken. “This is her.” A few more keystrokes tightened the resolution until her face was clear.

There was something familiar about her that was driving Matt nuts. He recognized her, but couldn’t put his finger on how.

“None of the agents on scene saw her leave, and after managing to take out three men, she didn’t leave any evidence behind despite the fact that she was wounded in the arm. So far she’s managed to evade all law enforcement out looking for her.”

When the woman’s face came into clear focus, Matt felt the way Briar tensed. It was subtle, but he was so attuned to her now he picked up immediately on the change in her posture, the slight hitch in her breathing. He looked at her sharply. “You recognize her?”

Briar didn’t answer, her entire body frozen as she stared at the screen. Then something like affection crossed her face and her lips curved up a fraction.

“Briar?” he prompted.

She turned to face Marisol. “What did she say her name was?”

“Julia.”

“What words did she use? Did she say, ‘My name is Julia’?”

Marisol frowned. “No… She said, ‘Call me Julia.’”

Matt frowned too. What the hell did the wording matter? But he knew better than to question Briar when she had that look on her face.

Briar made a soft humming sound. “And you say she was involved with
el Santo
?”

“Yes,” Winter answered. “They met at the nursing home, but only began seeing each other in the past week. But according to what Marisol has told us, she was emotionally invested in him.”

Marisol nodded emphatically. “She was. There’s no way she was faking that part. She was torn up by seeing him wounded and dying, and I know she would have followed through on her threat and shot me if I’d slowed the boat down.”

Briar turned back to the screen and tilted her head. “Interesting,” she murmured, and chewed her lower lip for a long moment.

Matt exchanged glances with Winter and Cruz, both of whom looked confused. “Briar,” he finally said. “Tell us what you know.”

Tossing her long, dark hair over one shoulder, she turned to face them, her arms folded across her chest. The air of authority radiating from her was sexy as fuck but Matt ordered himself not to think about that. “It’s Georgia,” she finally said.

Matt whipped his head around to stare at the screen. “The hell it is.”

“It’s her,” Briar answered calmly, her voice certain.

Georgia Juliette Randall
. He stared at the woman’s face, felt a tingle go up his spine as his brain matched the image to the ones from his memory.

A Valkyrie, like Briar.

A deadly female, government-trained assassin. He’d met her in Colorado this past winter, but she’d been blond then. And she’d also been hunting Briar.

Incredulous, he turned to look at Briar as everything clicked into place. And now he knew who had killed Garcia the other night. “Jesus. Why would she be here?”

“Wait, who’s Georgia?” Winter demanded. Cruz and Marisol were both watching Briar too.

She glanced at Winter. “Unfortunately, you’ll need to up your security clearance before I can answer that.”

The agent blinked at her and drew his head back in surprise. “What the hell?” He looked at Matt for confirmation, as if unsure whether he’d just been insulted or not.

Exhaling a hard breath, Matt nodded. “Sorry, but she’s right.” He rubbed a hand across his mouth as he tried to put the pieces together. “I’ll be damned.” He shifted his gaze back to Briar as Winter got on his phone to his supervisor and began demanding more info on their investigation.

Taking Briar by the arm, he led her toward the door. “Excuse us a minute,” he said to Cruz and Marisol on the way by.

As soon as they were outside and away from anyone’s earshot, he turned to face her. “Why do you think she was here in Miami? It wasn’t just to take out Garcia.”

Briar shook her head. “Revenge.”

The single word answer sent a tingle up the back of his neck. “For what?”

“For her former handler’s murder.”

Frank Holland. “The guy who was murdered right after…” He didn’t say Janaia’s name. He knew how hard the death of her former CIA handler still was on Briar.

“Yes.”

“How is that linked to Garcia or Villa?”

“Last I heard from Trinity, for the past five-plus months Georgia’s been tracking two men, on suspicion that they killed her handler. Enforcers like Garcia or Villa could definitely have pulled that kind of job for extra cash, or maybe Frank had been investigating something that put him on Fuentes’s hit list. Whatever she found out was enough to put them both on her hit list.”

“Okay, but if you’re right, how the hell did she get involved with
el Santo
? The Bureau has been hunting him for more than two years now and hasn’t been able to track him down once. Yet she managed to not only locate him all on her own, but get involved with him romantically to dupe him into leading her to her target? Am I understanding that theory right?”