He pressed inside her, feeling like he was coming home. She held her breath and caressed his arms, down and then back up, spreading her legs wider. The second he was all the way in, he gripped her tight and thrust hard. Then he moved inside her with deep, slow strokes, prolonging the agony for both of them.
She was here, she was his, and no way was he letting anything happen to her. He was so deep inside her that the pleasure was indescribable. He pounded harder, and the sound of flesh against flesh filled the silent night. Then he stopped.
Her eyelids flew open. “What are you doing?” she gasped.
“Getting your attention.” He might die if he didn’t start moving, but this was important.
“You’ve got it,” she said, scratching his buttocks with her nails.
He leaned down and kissed her as her internal walls caressed his dick with an insistent pull he wouldn’t be able to ignore for long. “You are not using yourself as bait.” In this most primitive of moments, the woman was going to listen to him. “Tell me you get me.”
“I’m trying, really hard, to get you.” She moaned, rubbing her breasts against his chest.
“Try harder,” he suggested, his voice so hoarse he wasn’t sure the words were clear.
Her eyes opened then, dark pools of feminine knowledge. Meeting his gaze, she tightened her grip on his cock, squeezing with internal muscles he hadn’t known existed.
His eyes almost rolled back in his head. Oh, she was dangerous. He kissed her deep, claiming her in a way he’d never be able to put into words. Then he grasped her hands and pushed them above her head, holding her in place. Tremors took her, nearly killing him, and soft gasps escaped from her pretty mouth.
She liked it when he trapped her hands. Interesting.
Yet he needed more. So much more. He stared into her eyes, looking for the answers to everything. Why was it this one woman who drove him crazy?
“I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself, Nari.” He said the words with conviction and started to move again, letting the pleasure blind him. He’d thought to fuck the fear and desperation out of both of them, but those thoughts disappeared faster than the bubbles had.
Instead he could only feel her. See her. Want her.
He thrust harder and faster, letting himself be taken over for the first time. His hands were firm on hers, and she curled her fingers through his, effectively splintering something inside him and putting the pieces back together around her.
She cried out and her fingers tightened as her body shook beneath his. The orgasm was powerful around him, and he powered into her harder, deeper, hotter until the zaps of fire licked down his spine and exploded in his balls. He dropped his head to her neck and let the passion have him.
Coming down, he struggled for breath above her. Gently, he moved his mouth along her neck to kiss her sweet mouth, releasing her hands as he did so. “In case you wondered, the answer to you using yourself as bait is a negative.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
It felt good to have the team back together. Nari chewed happily on one of Pippa’s perfect croissants at her cheerful kitchen table while the rest of the gang read through case files around her. “I still think I should be the bait,” she said, reaching for her mimosa.
“No,” Angus said absently from his position on the sofa.
Brigid looked up from across the table. “Hey. I thought I should be bait because I’m probably the easiest to get to.”
Angus nodded, again not looking up from his file folder. “Good analysis. I figured the same thing.”
Raider’s head shot up from the adjoining chair. “You think Brigid should be bait for a serial killer?”
“Hell no,” Angus said, finally lifting his gaze. “Not in a million. After you do a quick dive to investigate the HDD agents we’ve worked with to see if there’s anybody who had a chance to leak information to Lassiter, I think you should take a leave of absence or something and put yourself completely under the radar. Even though HDD is secure, you have to go to and from, and it’s not worth the risk.” He bumped knuckles with Raider.
Nari snuck Roscoe a piece of a bacon roll as Kat licked her ear from his perch on her shoulder. She patted his head. “I missed you too, sweetie.” He meowed softly.
Wolfe came in from the other room. “Kat’s in a good mood lately because it’s cold outside and I have to wear jackets. Still fits in the side pockets and roots around for old Goldfish Crackers from last year.”
Jethro finished typing on his laptop next to Brigid. “I’m ready to discuss the quoted passages in the newest notes.”
Nari sipped her mimosa. “They sounded similar to the other ones.”
The Brit pushed back his chair from the table. “They’re different. All of Lassiter’s previous passages, even the ones from years ago, dealt with death in one form or another. Self-delusional narcissistic mentions of death, dying, and being the bringer of the end.”
“What a nutjob,” Dana muttered, next to Angus on the sofa.
