Vendetta (4 page)

He picked up the phone and dialed her number. He did still have to talk to her about what he found out last night. If she still planned to meet with George Marlan then he wanted to be privy to that meeting. “Yeah, good luck getting her to agree to that,” he mumbled before he heard the answering machine pick up.

“Thena, it’s Thomas. I need to talk with you—”

“Hey,” she said in a chipper, but rushed tone. “I’m sorry I was just getting out of the shower.”

He groaned thinking about her naked, wet body. “Wish I could have seen that,” he admitted. “Can you stop by before you go to work? I need to talk with you about something.” He heard the pregnant pause, as if she was already thinking the worst. Maybe he should have just told her why he wasn’t coming home every night. She would understand, but she would probably worry too and he didn’t want her walking around worrying about his safety.

“Actually, I have two clients to see today. I’m thinking of doing some charity builds, and…”

“Thena, you have enough on your plate already don’t you think?”

“I have the time,” she said. But it was what she didn’t say that spoke volumes. She had the time “now,” that was the word she hadn’t uttered. She had the time because he was MIA in the romantic relationship department.

“It’s important. I found out something that I need to tell you about.”

“Oh,” she sounded relieved. “I thought you were going to break up with me. Oh…I mean…” He could tell she didn’t mean to let those words slip out, but she had.

“Seriously?”

“Just forget it. Sure. I can come by the office. My clients aren’t coming by my office until after lunch so it shouldn’t be a problem. See you in an hour.” She hung up the phone before he could even finish speaking. She thought he was breaking up with her; where had that come from?

Chapter Three

“G
eneva, I’m home.” Drake closed and locked the front door before rearming the alarm. “Honey?” He walked through the downstairs and still no answer from her. She hadn’t bothered to pick up the phone when he called either. He knew she was home. The BMW he had bought her was still parked in the garage. “Geneva,” he took to the stairs, begrudgingly dragging his body up the massive staircase. He was too tired to fight with her. They didn’t argue often, but when they did he usually needed all his energy to survive it, and if she wasn’t waiting at the door with open arms he knew he had done something to piss her off. The last time she didn’t meet him with a kiss when she knew he was coming home was when she was angry with him for missing their anniversary. He hadn’t forgotten it; he just had to go away on assignment at the last minute and he didn’t get back in time to celebrate with her.

“Geneva, you’re going to have to talk to me at some point.” He pushed open the door ready to cut any protest she might have in two when he saw her sitting on the bed, completely naked. Her dark chocolate skin glistened beneath the overhead track ceiling lighting.

“Hello,” she nearly purred. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” His eyes roved over her naked body, stopping at her breasts. “Wow,” he said breathlessly. “Did you decide not to get dressed this morning?”

She laughed. “I was getting out the shower when I heard your message. I was too late to pick up the phone, but not too late to hear you say you were ten minutes out. I figured why bother to get dressed when you would just strip me naked once you got here anyway.”

“Geneva…wow…you look amazing.”

“Glad you like what you see. Now, can we do less talking and more exploring,” she wiggled her eyebrows. “I’m naked for a reason you know.”

“Baby, I’m tired.” He said honestly. He was tired and he wasn’t going to be much good in the bedroom department if he didn’t get any sleep.

“Tired! Are you serious?”

“I drove all night,” he said as if that should explain everything.

“You have to be kidding me. You’ve been gone for a month and you’re too tired to ravish your naked wife!” She jumped up out of the bed and grabbed her robe off the bench sitting at the foot of it. “I will be so glad when you retire. Then maybe we can have sex like normal people.” She stormed into the bathroom and shut the door—probably because she knew even while he was tired he was a force to be reckoned with. She probably knew she wasn’t going to get past him out the bedroom door.

“Open the door, Geneva.”

“No.”

“I’m tired, honey, but if I have to I’ll kick this thing down.”

She swung open the door. “I’m getting dressed.” She glared at him.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“You know; if you expect me to go a month without sex and still not get any when you get home you’re going to need to buy me a vibrator.” She started to close the door again and he placed one big hand on it to keep it open.

“I’m sorry,” he brushed his fingers over her shoulder and she moved out of his reach. She really was angry with him. “You knew my job before—”

“Oh I know that,” she snapped. “I know who you are and that you’re on a mission, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss you from time to time. It doesn’t mean I don’t need you.”

He tried to touch her again and she slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me, Drake.”

“Geneva?”

“I am so in need of some sexual satisfaction and it’s not fair for you to touch me when you know my body is aching for you. I’ve been aching for weeks now and I can’t have you touch me right now. Let me get dressed first.”

“Maybe we can—”

“Oh no. The way I feel I need you at one hundred percent for what I plan to do to you. When you rest up get naked and meet me in whatever room I’m in. I can assure you we are not going to make it back to the bedroom.”

He laughed. “I wish I wasn’t so tired now.”

She shook her head and then smiled at him. “I wish I wasn’t feeling so…on fire right now. You have that affect on me.” She gave him another one of her genuine smiles. “Don’t sweat it, Drake. I knew what I signed on for when I married you. I guess I just didn’t realize you would be gone so much. I mean it’s months and months at a time. But, not to worry; I can handle it. I’m probably just ovulating right now.” She laughed at him again. “Go get some sleep and I’ll go downstairs and find something to do until you wake up.”

She was right. He was off on more assignments lately and that wasn’t fair to her. He just hadn’t turned any of them down because he knew once this thing with Sabian came to a head he was going to have to take all of his personal time off all at once and he wanted to make sure he had as much as he could. Right now he had six months of leave still waiting for him. Maybe he should take a couple weeks to be with her at home. He just had this feeling they were close to getting Sabian this time—something in his gut told him they were. Of course he had felt that before and been wrong. But this time, he wasn’t the only one who felt like they were closer than ever before. Mike felt it; Thomas felt it and the last time he talked with Gavin, he felt it too. They couldn’t all be wrong.

Thinking about Mike made him wonder how Zenya was taking things. Mike was officially retired—on paper anyway. Yet he had found himself going back overseas on a joint mission with him. He wondered if Zenya was angry about it. Mike had told him she took it well, but then again, Zenya was pregnant and there was a chance her hormones were just out of whack that day. While Drake had managed to get home, Mike was still in New York. At least he was stateside, but that didn’t make a difference when he wasn’t in Texas with his wife. Some things couldn’t be helped. Both women had to understand that.

He stripped off his shoes and shirt and crawled into bed. He smiled to himself. “Baby when I wake up I’m going to shower and then I’m going to come get you,” he mumbled. He was going to give her everything she had been craving and more—much more.

Geneva exhaled slowly as she looked out at their backyard. Of course she knew the man Drake was when she married him. She knew his job, his dedication to it and to his friends. What she hadn’t known was that she would spend months at a time alone. He had been gone for a solid month with no visits, no emails, and only the short, occasional call to let her know he was still alive. Before this he had been home for less than two hours from another month long mission before leaving once again. She was starting to feel as if she weren’t married at all. They were like roommates, or worse, because at least if they were roommates she would stand a better chance of seeing him for more than a split second. She missed the man who listened when she talked with him, the man who made her laugh, and the man who made her entire body tingle with just one kiss.

When she heard his message, that he was on his way home, she was so excited. She was ready to forget the three back to back month long missions he had taken. She was willing to forget the fact that he had missed her birthday—again, and this time he didn’t even remember missing it. She was willing to forget that he missed the family reunion he promised to attend with her in South Carolina. But she wasn’t willing to forget the fact that he showed up after an entire month of being away, too tired to even kiss her hello.

She smiled, just thinking about the man upstairs in the bed. “Not as if you haven’t gone without sex before,” she admonished herself. “The man is tired, but at least he made it home alive.” At least part of her was willing to cut him a break even if the other part of her wanted to stay angry. “He works hard,” she told herself. “But…” she frowned. “He didn’t even bother to wish me a happy birthday.” She snorted. It would have been a belated happy birthday, but he could have at least said it sometime within the two minutes he was home before going off on yet another month long mission. The fact that his last break home was so short made her realize even more how long it had been since they had made love. “Over two months technically,” she said. His last two hour stop over hadn’t been enough time for them to do anything other than hug, have a hello and goodbye kiss and that was it. Did he not miss her? Was he so over her body that he could go two months without being with her and not even miss it?

She shook her head no, not willing to believe he was tired of her already. “That’s not the kind of man he is,” she assured herself. “He’s just tired,” she told herself. He was not her ex, and she was not going to compare him to that jerk. She hoped Drake wasn’t scheduled to go on another mission anytime soon. If he was planning to leave and stay gone like before she was going to use his credit card to buy herself a vibrator. She laughed. “That should send him a message,” she giggled again. She didn’t have any plans to use a vibrator, not unless he went MIA in the bedroom for another two months in which case all bets would be off, but just buying it might remind him that he was needed at home in more ways than one.

She slapped her hand to her forehead. They had missed out on so many conversations, but the one she really wanted to have with him was the one that would share some fabulously good news that she was proud of…and a lot of her good fortune was because once upon a time he stood beside her, edging her toward her goals. Her album, her solo opera endeavor had gone platinum. She would have loved to share that with him. She would have loved to tell him that she now had music executives calling her to do her next album with them as opposed to her having to go it alone. She had reached the top, and she wanted to stand up there with the man she loved. He didn’t know any of that, because he hadn’t been home for her to tell him.

She would put one of those countdown to retirement clocks up on the wall except she didn’t have an exact time for Drake’s retirement. He had told her he was staying in until they finished their mission. He couldn’t retire, like the others had, until Sabian was a non issue. She frowned. “I hate you Victor Sabian, and I don’t even know you.” She sat down in the oversized leather chair, pulled her feet up beneath her, and waited for her man to wake up.

“You wanted to see me,” Thena walked inside his office and closed the door.

“Lock it,” he said and she did. “I have two reasons for wanting, and needing, to see you.” Thomas stood and walked toward her. When he reached her he took her elbow in his hand and guided her toward the desk. “I think we need to talk about why you thought I was going to break up with you.”

“Oh…well…it’s nothing really.” She waved her hand dismissingly.

“It’s something to me,” he said with measured anger. The more he thought about her words the angrier he became. They were too good at talking with each other for her to have those thoughts and not say something sooner.

“Well, you’ve been away a lot. I know it’s work, but you don’t really call either. I wasn’t sure.”

“This case is dangerous and I’m trying not to bring it home with me. Sabian’s dangerous too,” he said. “I guess after what happened with that bomb in Eve’s apartment complex I just realized I didn’t want to bring the baggage home to you. I realized I needed to take more precautions whenever I got a feeling like something could be fatal for you. That’s why I didn’t want commitment before I finished this thing with Sabian. And this case…I guess it just has me thinking so much about what could happen that I’m trying to keep you safe by staying away for a little while.”

“Oh,” she shook her head. She knew he didn’t want to get married because of his quest to get Sabian, but they loved each other—at least he said he loved her and on some level that was a commitment. Now it was as if he were telling her he didn’t want that either. How much was too much? Maybe she didn’t really want to know. “So what else was there that you needed to see me about?”