Kingston inclined her silver head, "MacLaren here is actually one of our most clever hackers, Mr. Nezzar. But isn't she lovely?"
James leaned in, smoothly changing the subject to the last time the man was in town, starting a story that included a brothel, a wayward limousine and too much champagne. Everyone was laughing by the end, except for Maura, who managed a polite smile. She'd been watching James and Platinum sit together from the corner of her eye, angry with herself for the powerful surge of jealousy when the blonde ran her long nails down his muscled thigh.Really?she scolded herself,Just yesterday you were telling him how much you hated him. Remember who you really work for?
Suddenly, everyone was rising to their feet, with the exception of Kingston, a couple of their guests, and some bodyguards. Fassell grinned at her maliciously, "Come MacLaren, we're taking our guests down to dance."
"Sounds lovely," Maura replied, pushing her hair behind one ear with the hand he was trying to grab. Walking to the stairs, they stepped aside for another Algerian guest who'd clearly made a cocaine pit stop. Accompanying him was Yagura with a look of boredom on his handsome face. His expression didn't change when he spotted Maura being dragged down the stairs, but his brown eyes narrowed.
The next thirty minutes were some of the most unpleasant of Maura's life.And that's saying something,she thought bitterly, remembering the gunshot wound in her thigh from her first mission, and the constantly high - and constantly naked - drug lord she was required to guard on her second. Maura's defense training with weaving, bobbing and dipping came in handy, spinning to avoid the hands of the drunken Algerians and the sharp pinching ones of a drunken Fassell. She angrily refused to look to James for help, though she knew he was watching her.
Getting around her spin, one of their guests drunkenly grabbed Maura by the waist, grinding his pelvis hard into her and trying to find her lips with his wet, rubbery ones. "Come now, whore, time to earn your pay-" Maura made it look like she just stumbled awkwardly, driving the spiked heel of the other shoe into the sensitive top of the Algerian's foot.
"Agh!Sharmuta!"His hand raised to slap her, and suddenly James was between them, smoothly deflecting the man.
"Now, Abbas, no need to make a scene. Flower, why don't you and Dot take our guest back upstairs?" Flower, Maura noted, was James’s ‘date’ and not happy about being sloughed off. Fixing Maura with a displeased eye, James said coldly, "You've done enough damage for one night, MacLaren. You must leave now while I go tend to Mr. Abbas and his crushed instep."
"I agree," Fassell chimed in smoothly. "I'll take her."
I'll stab you first, you bastard,thought Maura wildly. Even though she didn't hang around the Corporation's brothel, every employee knew what happened to a girl when Fassell took her home.
She watched with a bit of admiration as James fixed his partner with his most contemptuous glare. "Really? You're going to leave our important guests to drop off anemployee?"Fassell flushed at the ridicule and he finished smoothly, "Oh, you, Yagura. Put MacLaren in a cab, we still have a great deal to do tonight." Without looking at her again, they went back to the rest of their group.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Yagura was livid.
"Not my choice, Yagura!" she gritted her teeth, "I was here with some girlfriends and Fassell caught me. He wouldn't let me leave."
He called an Uber for her. "Did you at least learn anything useful?"
Her shoulders slumped. "Not unless you count that Fassell is a vicious, pinching bastard, no."
Staring out the window, Maura couldn't help wondering if James would fuck Platinum (what was her name? Flower?) tonight. This set off a tsunami of anxiety within her that she tried to disguise as concern for her health. Would he wear a condom? He'd never worn one with her, never asked if she was clean or on birth control- but based on his almost supernatural ability to find her any time he liked, Maura shrewdly guessed he knew she'd passed her physical at the Corporation with flying colors and had a twice-yearly contraceptive shot. Knowing the man as she did, there was no doubt in MacLaren's mind about whether he'd recklessly put his sexual health at risk.
But the thought of him inside that Flower upset her more than the alarming look of interest and arousal she saw in that weirdo Fassell’s grey eyes tonight, even though she knew that could only mean trouble. Frustrated and exhausted by the thoughts swirling through her brain, Maura double-checked the locks, showered, and dropped into bed.
Early that morning, she jolted awake to the unmistakable rustling that meant someone was inside the houseboat. Visions of Fassell coming for her filled her foggy brain, and she pulled a wickedly sharp blade from between the mattress and box spring. As the door to her bedroom opened, Maura swung viciously, only to jerk the swing to the left as an arm shot up to block the knife.
"James!" she gasped, horrified, "I- I thought it was- oh, bloody hell, your arm!" Blood was trickling from a tear in his impeccable jacket where the knife had nicked him. Not even seeming to notice, he took her face in his hands, restlessly searching her face, then running those big, warm palms over her neck and chest, running down her arms. Going to his knees, he examined her legs.
"Did he hurt you?"
His voice was guttural, angry. Maura shook her head, confused if he meant the Algerian or Fassell. "No. No, I'm fine."
Her cold and impersonal boss heaved a sigh of relief, burying his face into the smooth skin of her stomach. Without thinking, Maura's hands rose to rub through his silky curls, stroking them gently.
"I'm fine. Truly."
Suddenly, his energy changed and James pressed his patrician nose to her panties, breathing in deeply, growling low in his throat.Oh, my God,she thought feverishly,is hesniffingme?
***
James couldn't explain himself if he tried, but his hands kept a death grip on Maura's slim hips as he buried his nose in her stomach, as if trying to tell if another man mounted what was his. He had never felt so feral before, but the rage of watching her in peril between his twisted partner and those soused arseholes made him half insane. And again, just as in the boardroom as she was beaten, she refused to look to him for help, as if she'd been taught in life that none would be coming.
Standing up again, his hands rose to cup her face, kissing her over and over, savoring her sweet tongue and lips. Astonished, Maura allowed him to kiss her, his strange desperation was clear. And when he yanked his trousers open and pulled aside her silk slip, she wrapped one long leg around his hips to open herself to him. James actually moaned as he slid into her, his relief at finding her alone and unharmed rendering him speechless.
It must have hurt as he desperately pushed inside her with no preparation, but his lover wrapped her arms around his shoulders, silent except for a gasp when he finally hit the top of the inside of her. They moved together feverishly, desperately trying to hold off the end but unable to, stiffening in pleasure with each other, barely breathing as he sent spurt after spurt of heat inside her. Picking her up, He carried her to the bed, putting her down carefully before pulling himself from inside her. Maura's eyes suddenly widened to see a stain of red across her chest and arms. "James! You're bleeding! Let me bandage the cut..."
Her boss and lover ignored her, carefully smearing the come from them both across her soft lower lips and thighs, rubbing it in as if to mark his scent on her for good.
Chapter 9: Darling, You're Cross. Go to Bed.
