Raven (Kindred #1) (29 page)

“That’s what we want to know,” Art said. “You know him better than anyone at the table.”

Considering all of the business deals she’d witnessed at CI, she sipped her wine and tried to reach a conclusion. “Grant likes people who are straightforward,” she said. “He doesn’t like quiet, reticent people. He believes those kind of people have something to hide. He also doesn’t like to be embarrassed and likes to believe that he can predict the progress of a person or their company based upon his deal with them.”

“Then Sutcliffe it is,” Tuck said. “Sikorski is the most likely to embarrass him since no one can project what he would do. He could say one thing and do something else.”

Art nodded. “The Saudis are secretive and dealing with Kahlil he probably sees as beneath him.”

“What do we know about Albert Sutcliffe?” she asked, sitting back to enjoy her wine.

“Born in the UK, he moved over here with his parents when he was eight,” Art said. “He inherited his father’s company and his estate, but lost most of it through bad investments and unfavorable divorce settlements. He dabbled in politics twenty, thirty years ago, but liked women and voicing his honest opinion too much. He was seen as a radical with delusions of grandeur and lost most of his credibility after that.”

Interesting as his history was, Zara heard nothing that could be considered a motive for terrorism. “So what would he want with a—”

“He believes that geopolitical problems should be solved with tit for tat and he’s built up something of a cult following,” Art said. “When he gets the chance, he voices his dislike for the West’s response to problems in the lesser privileged parts of the world.”

“And so we should just eradicate those who disagree with us?” she asked, unable to grasp how someone could think this was a legitimate solution. None of the men disagreed with her and their expressions validated her thinking. “Ok, so we don’t want him to have the device either.”

“There is no good choice,” Art said.

“Then why didn’t we take them out?” she asked, directing this question to her lover.

“We didn’t take them out,” Brodie said, emphasizing the first word. “Because we don’t need three powerful organizations coming after us. We’re gonna wait until Grant makes his deal and lets down the unsuccessful bidders, then we wait and watch. When the handover is going down, then we take out the involved parties and destroy the device.”

That made sense because carnage at the hotel could have brought hundreds of people after them. Kahlil was a puppet and his employers wouldn’t like their man to be executed. The Russian Brotherhood wasn’t known for being understanding. And who knew how many followers Sutcliffe had.

But as sensible as that solution sounded, it left her with one question. “What about Grant?”

She knew her question wouldn’t win her any popularity contests, but she had to know what they planned to do with her former boss on the day of the handover when the Kindred planned to eradicate Game Time and its purchaser.

“Do you care?” Brodie asked. The tone in his voice wasn’t grumpy anymore. Instead, it was deep and curious.

Though it could’ve been her imagination, she was sure that all of the men leaned closer to her. “I do,” she said. “But not because I want to sleep with him or because I believe in what he’s doing. He’s been good to me. He’s your brother. You should care too.”

Brodie stood up to grab the wine bottle from beside Tuck. Dropping onto his stool again, he filled up his glass. “He stopped being my brother fifteen years ago.”

“What did he do to you?” she asked, wondering what had happened to sour the fraternal relationship when he was eighteen.

Brodie took his attention away from the group, signaling his intention to ignore her question. “We’re not going to harm Grant,” Art said, probably knowing better than to push Brodie in company.

Eating some more of her food, Zara finished her wine and thought about the night. Grant was Art’s nephew too. She didn’t know anything of their relationship, but she could understand that he wouldn’t want his nephew harmed. After Grant’s comments about family in the conference room, she doubted he’d had recent contact with any of them.

Tonight had been a learning experience. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off and the new day was coming nearer, she had to think about sleep. Sliding off her stool, she began to gather up the plates, but when she got around to Tuck, he took them away from her.

“You did the heavy lifting tonight,” Tuck said. “That gets you off dishes duty.”

A hand took hold of her neck and she was drawn backwards against Brodie’s solid form. Tilting her head to look up to him, he lowered his mouth to kiss her.

“Bed?” she asked.

“Bed,” he said, pulling her back and under his arm to lead her toward the door.

“Night,” she managed to call before the kitchen door swung shut.

Brodie kept hold of her neck and used his elbow on her shoulder to guide her through the house to the stairway.

“I love this house,” Zara said when they began to ascend the stairs. Although she wasn’t an expert yet, she was definitely beginning to recognize the route.

He wasn’t really listening. “You, what?” he mumbled.

They got to the top of the stairs and she spun around to press herself against the door before they could go through it. “I’m sorry.”

Reaching around her, Brodie got the door open an inch, but she used her weight to block him. “Sorry for what?” he said, exhaling his impatience.

Saying her piece meant something to her, she just wished he would understand the depth of what she’d gone through. “Tonight. I freaked out. I was ready to walk away and if I had—”

“We don’t leave a man behind,” he said, with his thumb on her chin, he held her face. “It’s cute that you think you had a choice.”

Spiders of awareness crept across her skin, making even the tiniest of hairs stand upright. With her eyes fixed on this man, her man, she opened herself to the possibilities of the night and the achievement she’d made.

This night was a watershed, her acceptance into the team, and she’d done it. She had been useful to the mission, followed orders, kept her cool. All of those stimulants bombarded together in an upsurge of sensation that exploded in her gut and shimmered to each of her extremities.

The sight of him may arouse her. The way he looked at her certainly did. As did the entitlement of his touch, the scent of his skin, and the sound of his husky voice. It all worked for her. Now that she had it, had him, he had become a part of her soul and she didn’t want to live without him.

Brodie was a man to be revered. Modest as he may be about his skills, he had kept her alive tonight and valued her above everything else. That kind of control was intoxicating. Being a priority for a man like Brodie gave her authority and while it was a power she wouldn’t dream of abusing, it was liberating to have the kind of security that only a man like Brodie could offer.

She had influence over him, but whether that clout extended to anything beyond their sexual connection, she couldn’t yet be sure. Resigning herself to existing in the now, Zara lifted her chin and emphasized her bosom with her posture.

He didn’t want to get serious tonight, and forcing him into any admissions or denials would lessen the legitimacy of whatever he said. So to prove her dedication, she chose to needle him with the ultimate ambition of satisfying them both.

“Art said you were attracted to me when you first came to check me out,” she teased, drawing her fingernail up his arm and across his chest to pinch the fabric on his sternum.

“You’d rather I thought you were a dog? I notice women I want to fuck.”

With the goal of rousing him to a state of frenzy similar to that which was taking her over, she pushed on with her tease and let her eyes wander down his body, playing it coy. “The way he said it was like it was unusual, like I was different. I think maybe Art was worried.”

“Like you were trouble?” he asked and pushed her. With a thump, her back hit the wall and the air leaving her lungs made her gasp. In the same breath, he came down to her level for a brief tongue kiss. “He’s a smart guy. He gave me some amount of grief when I spent the night at your place.”

Pleased that she was getting his attention, she toyed with his tee shirt some more. “He told you to leave me that morning, didn’t he? Is that why you were on the phone for so long?”

Keeping his mouth close to hers, Brodie ducked to keep them parallel. With his face so near, she couldn’t leave the trap of his ensnaring eyes. “At first, of course he did, ‘cause you’re a liability,” he said, opening his hands to rub them down her sides and up over her breasts in a coarse perusal of what he was about to gain full authority over. “Women are messy.”

“Sex is messy,” she said. Digging her nails into him, she sucked her lip into her mouth in an attempt to lessen the volume of her shorter breaths. “What you’re talking about are relationships and that’s not what we have, is it?”

It wasn’t clear to her if he understood the importance of this conversation. He seemed preoccupied by her body and the vision of her mouth. But maybe the distraction would aid her in getting to the truth. “You are…”

“I’m what?” she asked when he didn’t finish.

“Hell if I know,” he said and she couldn’t blame him for losing his train of thought because her rational mind was in disarray, jumbled by the tsunami of emotions she’d endured on that night. “You were off limits from the first day, keeping a clear head is the best way to ensure an op goes down without a hitch.”

“I’m part of the team,” she said, touching the corner of his jaw with a fingertip and curving her body into his emboldening touch.

“Part of the team for this mission, you said. I told you that my inner circle was small… no one’s ever been…”

“Excommunicated,” she said, struggling to even out her breathing. “So what will you do with me when this mission is over?”

The more relevant point was what he planned to do with her in the present. They were still in a shared hallway, but her body was prepared for a much more private event. “When this mission is over…” he said, kissing her and trailing his lips along the length of her jaw. “It’s dangerous to make plans beyond tomorrow, baby. Stick with me and you’ll learn that.”

In a brief moment of clarity, her features contorted with the unsettling reality he was presenting. “Does that mean that one day… you don’t plan to come back?”

Opening his hand over her intimate core, he massaged her through her dress and she gratefully forgot about her concern and surrendered to the insistence of his libido. He wanted her ready and she was already there, but that didn’t stop him from urging her closer to the edge. Dragging his hand up her body, he held her chin to lock their focuses on each other.

“Everyone’s headed for that one day,” he said. “All of us have to accept that one day there won’t be any coming back.”

“You’ve lived your life with these clean lines,” she said, watching her fingers play on his chest, tracing the lines of the muscles beneath the material of his tee shirt. “Bad guys and good guys, right and wrong.”

“If you think it’s clean then you haven’t been paying attention. Alliances are flimsy and allegiances spin on a dime. Why do you think I keep my circle small? I can count on one hand the number of fuckers I trust.”

In need of his validation, she tried to kiss him, but he slanted back out of her reach. “Am I on that list?”

“You’re in my house, aren’t you?”

“What does that mean? Taking a woman into your bed doesn’t mean you trust her.”

“No, it doesn’t,” he said. One of his hands snaked down to her hip. He compelled her along the door to force her against the frame while the other hand clamped around the back of her neck to pull her mouth to his. His fingers dug in and his strength made her submit, but she’d learned that getting rough was safe with him and her favorite way to play.

“Do you trust me?” she asked, but his patience for talking was wearing out. He swooped down to kiss her neck and her lips curled in their own surrender.

“I told you, you’re a natural,” he said and when she resolved herself to him being evasive, she exhaled and drove her nails into his shoulders to jump into his arms. Endorphins commanded their priorities, in times like these a person would struggle to get, or give, a reasonable answer. Zara wasn’t even sure what she wanted him to say, but she knew what he made her feel.

“It’s invigorating,” she said, squeezing her thighs around him while the width of her smile made her cheeks ache. Trying to decipher her mood and meaning, Brodie’s gaze darkened. “It’s like… the danger, the things that could have happened tonight…” Maybe it was inspiration from the wine, but she opened her fingers in his hair and dipped forward to suck his earlobe into her mouth. “I’m ready to be safe now, beau.”

“On your back and under me,” he said, opening the door and carrying her toward the bedroom. “The safest place on earth.”

“On home turf,” she said, rummaging between their compressed bodies to loosen his jeans.

“Desperate to get me naked, baby?” he asked, dropping her onto her feet and crowding her against the bedroom door as he pressed his thumbprint onto the handle.

Her skin fizzed with anticipation, the weight of him pressing her into the door made her wriggle in search of extra stimulation. “You’ve got to catch up, baby. It’s time for the panty check.”

Being part of a gang intent on protecting what was right aroused her. Now that she had recovered from the initial shock, she could replay the evening and comprehend how lucky she was to be alive. The thrumming pulse of renewed life worked her heart and her blood through her veins at an invigorating pace. Relishing this thirst, she dragged her teeth on his jaw. That contact provoked his appetite enough that he grabbed her neck in a vice grip and opened the door.

“Get in there,” he said, propelling her forward into the bedroom. She was still trying to regain her balance when the door slammed and he came over to snatch her again. “I’ve tried to be gentle with you, Zar. I really have.”

Using his clamp on her neck, he bent her over the end of the bed and wrenched up her dress. Tearing away the fabric he found concealing her, he rubbed the length of his fingers through the seam of her until she relaxed enough that the digits could wheedle their way inside.

Curling and straightening the two fingers he had working her lust, he kept stirring them until she was panting. “You’re wet already,” he snapped, withdrawing his hand from her, he brought it to her lips. “What does that taste like?”

Still bent over under the force of his hand on the back of her neck, she parted her lips and he rammed his fingers through her teeth. “Suck,” he demanded and she did. “You know what that is? That’s a dirty, horny girl. You could’ve gotten yourself killed tonight and that got you off!”

Twisting her head away to empty her mouth, she gasped. “I was never in danger.”

“You think those fuckers wouldn’t have taken you out?”

“They might have tried,” she panted. “But they never would’ve succeeded.”

“Tough girl, are you?” he sneered, tracing his fingertips around her mouth. “You couldn’t take guys like that on.”

“You could,” she spat out, groping to the side until her palm hit his torso. “You would never have let them hurt me.”

“So sure of yourself?”

“So sure of you,” she said, massaging the hard muscle under her hand. “It’s such a turn on to have you out there, watching me. You held my life tonight. The only one who could’ve hurt me, was you.”

Swiping her hand away, he curled down around her. She arched her ass into the ridge of his erection, but he ignored that act to growl in her ear. “The night isn’t over yet.”

With his grip tightening, she was crushed further down causing her to fight for breath. The quest for oxygen distracted her so much that she missed the unbuckling of his belt. The next thing she knew, he was fucking her.

“You want to get rough with bad boys? Then they’re gonna get rough with you. You’re not tough,” he said, pulling out and slamming into her. “You’re so fucking wet. You been thinking about my cock all night? Huh? Is this what you wanted? To be bent over and fucked like the naughty girl you are? You want me to teach you a lesson about what you’re best at?”

Withdrawing, he pulled her upright only to then force her onto her knees. Her mouth was already open before he had a hold of himself. But he shoved himself into her mouth and maintained his previous pace. “That pretty pout is good for this right here. I’m gonna fuck your face until you learn that the only time you open it is for this. My cock. You hear me?”

She nodded and he pulled out to haul her up again as she was gasping. The ferocity of his glare made her grab for his arm to steady herself but he whipped her around to bend her over and went back to screwing her. This time he kept her hips and yanked them back every time he surged forward.

“Fucking this pussy deep is the only way to teach you,” he panted out. “You think of this when you go waving my fucking assets around to other guys. The only man you open your legs for is me. Let that tight cunt worship my cock and she better be dripping before you disappoint my dick.”

“Oh, God,” she called. The deep-seated ache in her loins exploded in a tight pinch that made her scream out in a frenzy of pleasure and pain.

This man, this incredible man, owned her exactly as she wanted to be owned. He knew how to play with her, how to take what he wanted. And the pleasure his body got from hers was what got her off.

“That’s all you want,” he said, taking himself all the way back so the throbbing head of his cock was stretching the threshold of her body. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it, Zar? You wanted my cock to take what it wanted. You wanted me to fill that cunt. I get whatever I want from you, don’t I? You’ll let me use you for this, as a fuck toy, because you’re desperate to please me… is that right?”

“Oh, God, yes, Brodie,” she said, trying to wriggle back to take more of him. But he held steady and grabbed the back of her neck to keep her face down and immobile.