Twice as Hot (39 page)

Had
there ever been?

“That
he stole memories of us, together, like that…”

Licking
my lips, I released the bar and grabbed Rome by the back of the neck. I jerked
him into me, needing him, desperate all over again. He willingly, eagerly
accepted my kiss, his chest rubbing against mine. Our teeth banded together,
our hands grasped at each other’s body, feeling, learning, pleasuring. I could
touch him forever, but it wouldn’t be enough.

Steam
wafted around us, forming a cloud. I was in a dream, a fairy tale. A nighttime
fantasy come to sizzling life. I could feel him poised at my core, waiting,
ready.

“Are
you on the pill?” His voice was deep, raw. Savage.

The
question was a reminder of what was different between us, and I felt a pang.
“Yes.”

There
was no time to wallow. The moment the word left my mouth, he was inside me, all
the way to the hilt, pounding deep and hard and so much a part of me I would
have died without him. But I arched, taking him even deeper, hungry for more.

Over
and over he pounded inside, withdrew, pounded hard. He was grunting, and I was
swallowing the sounds, savoring the taste of him, propelling higher and higher,
reaching for another climax.

“Feels
so good,” he rasped. “Too good.”

In
the end, we reached it together. He roared, shuddering inside me. I screamed,
clawing at his back.

“Belle,”
he said, panting, his voice broken. Then he stilled, his muscles jerking.

“Yes?”
Mine sounded equally savaged.

His
head dropped to my shoulder. “Catch me.”

Of
all the things
I expected Rome to do after making love to me, fainting wasn’t one of them. I
barely managed to catch him before he smacked into the tub. Slowly, I eased him
down. But he was heavy—freakishly heavy, actually, with all that muscle
mass—and I struggled to lay him back without hurting him.

Shaking,
still trying to catch my breath, I leaned forward and switched off the water.
Instantly cool air began to lick at my damp skin, making me shiver. I climbed
out and grabbed a towel, then dabbed us both dry. Concern wasn’t something I
could allow myself right now because with concern came fear, so I told myself
Rome was still recovering from captivity and the drugs The Multiplier had given
him.

Didn’t
take long until he was moaning, his eyelashes fluttering open. Total déjà vu.

Relief
speared me. I hovered over him, one hand beside his head, my body propped on
the rim of the porcelain, my wet hair spilling onto his chest. “Seriously,
Rome. How many times am I going to have to wake your lazy ass up today?”

A
moment passed before he oriented himself. When he realized where he was, his
cheeks reddened and he muttered, “Shit. I blacked out.”

“Yep.”
I settled back on my haunches.

“Too
much too fast, after that cocktail. I knew better.”

So
I’d been right. My relief intensified in a rush, sending a violent tremor
through me. That tremor drew Rome’s gaze. I’m sure it was my hardened nipples
that held his attention, though. He licked his lips, sat up slowly.

“At
least I reached the finish line before going down like a pussy.” He scrubbed a
hand down his face, smoothing away the moisture.

A
soft chuckle escaped me. “So true.” A good thing, too. It might be a while
before we had a chance to do this again. He needed to be completely healed, and
the Desert Gal case had to be closed. “Now, tell me the fall knocked some
memories back inside that thick skull, and I’ll consider this a gold star day.”

He
snorted. “I wish.”

My
grin slowly faded. Oh, well. Would Jean-Luc decide to return them? Of course he
would, I told myself then. The real question was whether or not he’d do it
without being tortured. Even though I didn’t want to torture him, still liked
him more than I should—I mean, the guy thought I deserved to be treated like a
goddess, and who could fault him for that kind of logic?—I would do whatever
was necessary. I hoped. God, I was a mess.

Rome
rested his elbows on the tub. A drop of water trickled from his eyelashes,
almost like a tear. “More than anything, I want to know the things I’ve done to
that beautiful body.” His voice was hard, angry now. Not with me, I knew, but
with Jean-Luc.

One
of our phones beeped, and we both stiffened.

No
longer could we pretend we were the only two people in the world. Trying to
push his sweet words from my mind, I rose and stalked to mine. Nothing. I
strode around the room, searching for his. The beeping grew louder as I
approached the desk. And then there it was, underneath his wallet. Frowning, I
flipped it open and gasped. Not a call. A picture. There, on the screen, was a
photo of Desert Gal—as pretty as she’d been before, damn her—and Cody.

They
were in the lobby of this motel. I recognized the giant fake plant beside the
reception counter.

“Rome,”
I called. “We’ve got company.”

He
was inside the room a second later, snatching up his clothes, dressing despite
his weakness.

I
did the same. How had they tracked us down yet again? Jean-Luc? Surely not.
Cody, with another mysterious “plan”? Again, surely not. He didn’t know our
location. But why was he here, rather than guarding Sherridan and Lexis? Could
Reese, Desert Gal’s former informant, be the culprit? No, wait. He was
currently indisposed.

The
Multiplier, maybe? If one of the brothers had managed to escape PSI without
anyone’s knowledge, follow us…but that seemed implausible.

A
tracker? That seemed the most likely. But where would it be? We hadn’t taken
anything from that first motel room—except the picture of the girls, I
recalled, eyes widening. I’d stuffed it in my purse. Could one of those
tracking chips Rome mentioned be glued to it?

Dressed
now, I swiped up my purse, fished out the photo and held it to the light. What
looked to be a piece of clear tape rested on the upper left corner. Damn it!
This was my fault. I scowled and dropped the Polaroid on the floor.

I
tugged on my shoes, hopping on one foot as I entered the bathroom and scooped
up all my knives. My Taser already rested in my back pocket. “We staying here
to fight or running?”

“Normally
I’d want to stay and fight, but they always seem to be one step ahead of us and
we’re both at the end of our strength. I don’t want to leave, though.” His eyes
moved to the ceiling as he quickly weighed the pros and cons. “We’re leaving.
Safest thing for us. If Cody wanted to bring us in, he should have contacted me
to ensure I played along.”

“Truth.”
As Tanner would say.

“We’ve
got a few minutes before they reach us, so go into the hall and start knocking
on doors until someone answers. First person who does, get inside their room.”

Somehow
I’d known he would say that. Though unsure about what he was doing, remaining
here, I left our haven and did as he’d commanded without argument. Took me four
tries, but someone finally opened their door. A middle-aged woman in sweats and
a T-shirt, sleep clinging to her eyes.

I
must have woken her up.

I
opened my mouth to say…what? I didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. Rome jogged
out of our room, spotted me and closed the distance.

“Sorry,
ma’am,” he said, moving past her and into her room without permission.

“I’m
so sorry,” I echoed. I pushed her back inside, shut and locked the door.

She
gasped, shock covering her plain features. Poor woman. I’d been there. This
would forever change her, ruin the safe world she’d thought she lived in.

“We’re
not going to hurt you,” I vowed, holding a hand up as though I were swearing on
a Bible. “We’re in trouble, being chased by dangerous people. We’re just going
to…what?” I asked, looking to Rome.

He
was at the window, prying it open. I rushed to his side, ready to jump through
at a moment’s notice—even though I could see only a thin ledge, a fifty-foot
drop and cars in the parking lot. “We’re leaving,” I said over my shoulder. The
woman hadn’t run out, was still standing there, frozen by her fear. Oops. A
good agent wouldn’t have turned her back. A mistake I wouldn’t make again.
“Please don’t tell anyone you saw us. Please. They’ll take you in, question
you, maybe hurt you.”

“Not
maybe.” Rome’s voice was cold, hard. “They will.”

She
swallowed audibly. Found her feet and backed herself into the wall, edging
closer and closer to the door. But she stopped, hand fluttering to her throat.
Her skin was so pale I feared she would faint. I didn’t think I could handle
another unconscious person today.

Rome
finally got the glued seal unstuck and pushed the window open. Cool air wafted
inside, followed by the sound of night birds and crickets. He looked back at
the woman, who now had tears streaming down her cheeks. I’d never scared an
innocent so badly, and I hated myself for it. She didn’t know whether to trust
us or not, didn’t know whether a painful death waited in here or out there.

“You’re
going to be okay,” I told her. “I’ll—”

Rome
stealthily placed something cold and thin in my hand. I didn’t have to look to
know it was a syringe filled with that night-night cocktail of his. He carried
it everywhere. Though after what The Multiplier had done to him, I would have
expected him to rethink that strategy.

I
moistened my suddenly dry lips. I’d never done something like this to an
innocent, and hadn’t ever wanted to. But she would have freaked if Rome
approached her.

You’re
an agent. Act like one for once.
I needed to tattoo those words on my wrist
or something.
You can do this.

Pasting
what I hoped was a sincere smile on my face, I slowly moved toward her, careful
to keep the syringe behind me. “You’re going to be okay,” I repeated. “I
promise.”

She
blanched, turned and finally ran to the door, hand reaching for the knob. A cry
curled from her lips the moment I grabbed her. She swung back, trying to bat me
away. I ducked and jabbed the needle up and into her arm. Her cry instantly
ceased, her muscles jerking in reaction. As the drug instantaneously broke the
blood/brain barrier, she slid to the floor, immobilized at my feet.

I
stayed there, staring down at her. I had done that to her. Me.

“Belle,
come on!” Rome said in a fierce whisper. He even waved me over.

I
jolted into motion, whipping around and running to him. He wrapped an arm
around my waist and ushered me onto the ledge.

“She
gonna be okay?” I knew she would be, had promised her she would, but I needed
to hear it confirmed.

“Look
at it this way, baby. You woke her up by banging on her door. The least you
could do was help her fall back asleep. She’ll be up and at ’em in a few hours.
I’m proof of that,” he added with clear self-deprecation. “She might not even
remember what happened.”

Hopefully
she wouldn’t. I didn’t want to be forever branded a villain in her mind.

Who
knew I’d ever be pro-memory loss?

“What
if someone’s waiting for us on the ground?” I asked.

“They
probably are. That’s why we’re going up.”

Up?
Dear God. Though I was trying valiantly to numb my emotions, I couldn’t stop a
wave of fear from crashing through me, chilling me inside and out. Ice branched
from my fingers, making the ledge I was holding, as well as the one my feet
were braced upon, slick.

“Calm
down, Belle,” Rome commanded.

“So
easy to say, so hard to do.” I could fall. He could fall. We could die. Oh,
God, oh, God, oh, God. Faster and faster the frost spread from me.

“You’re
going to get us both killed.”

“Not
helping!”

Even
as I spoke, I felt his mind probing mine, snatching up my emotions, dulling
them slightly. Without Tanner, he didn’t know how much to filter. The fact that
he was filtering anything at all, though, thrilled me despite the
circumstances.

He
moved behind me, his body heat enveloping me. Warm breath trekked over my neck,
caressing, lifting my hair and dancing it over my skin. “Move with me.” He
crept to the right, and I followed. He reached up and hefted himself a few
inches higher, and I followed. “I’ve got you. That’s my girl.”

That’s
right. I was. Up, up we continued to move, but soon my arms and legs were
burning from the strain. I held on tight, though, Rome’s big, hard body
anchoring me despite the small patches of ice I’d created.

“I
want to get us into a shadowed corner on the roof, all right? Then I’ll take
care of the rest. You won’t have to do anything but hang on. And just so you
know, no one’s on the ground watching us. I checked. We’re fine. We’re safe.”
He kept up the steady chatter in hopes of distracting me, I knew. “You’re
breathing too hard. Tell me about the wedding you’ve been planning.”