Hollowing out her cheeks, she sucks me, her tongue adding gentle pressure as she bobs up and down. With her free hand, she curls her fingers around my balls, and fuck me. It’s so much. Almost too much.
“Won’t…last…like this…” I whisper, and she firms her lips, pulling back with agonizing slowness until my crown pops free.
“You don’t have to.” Like an animal on the prowl, she crawls back up to join me. Her mouth seals over mine, mixing our tastes. And I didn’t think anything could be hotter.
I was an idiot.
Blindly, I fumble for the bedside table drawer until my fingers close around a condom. Her tongue battles with mine, asserting her dominance as easily as she acquiesced to me just minutes ago. We’re so perfectly matched, it scares me, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
When I’m sheathed, she straddles me, bracing her hands on the headboard and lowering herself onto my hard length. “Is this okay?” she asks. “I don’t mind being on the bottom…”
“Don’t you dare worry. I think I’d like you in any position you could think of.”
Wrapping my hands around her hips, I let her set the rhythm, then join in, rising to meet her thrust for thrust. She moves one hand to my uninjured shoulder, strengthening our connection, and damn if she doesn’t clench her inner walls around me with every stroke.
“Don’t look away. I want to see yer eyes until the last possible moment.” I’m so close, I’ll be lucky to last another minute, so I slide a hand between us and find her clit. The first gentle touch makes her whimper. The second sends a spasm rolling through her entire body.
Time slows, and my heart beat roars in my ears. She’s my everything. My whole world. And when I lose control, she joins me, two people once drifting and alone, who’ve found a home together.
Chapter Twenty-One
Zephyr
Loud buzzing rousesme from the best dream. Ronan and I were curled up on his couch under a blanket, watching the snow fall on Christmas Eve. Multi-colored lights on the tree—ourtree—twinkled in the corner, and he leaned in, his lips tickling my ear, and said he loved me.
It was so very real, that when I open my eyes and realize my phone is making that annoying sound, tears threaten. Iwantthat life. At least the chance for it. But until we can take the cartel down, I’ll never have it.
The number on screen shocks me fully awake. “It’s Martín,” I hiss, and Ronan rolls over with a grunt, then sits up straight as I answer the call.
“What’s the code word?” I ask before he has a chance to say anything.
“Peonies.”
“Martín. Thank God. I’ve been trying to track you down for years.” Leaning close to Ronan so he can hear both sides of the conversation, I hold my breath at the silence on the other end of the call. “Say something. Please.”
“You’re certain there’s a team in Boston?” His voice holds none of the strength and command I remember, even though I’d recognize it anywhere.
“I had a run-in with Theo yesterday. They knew about your account at Boston National and bluffed their way into getting your PO Box address. But they don’t know anything else. Yet. I only found your number by hacking into the bank’s computer system. It was in a notes field completely separate from the address.”
“Merde!I cannot stay here. In Boston. In this house. The risk is too great. I taught you not to trust anyone, Zephyr. And yet you have people you believe can help? How can I be certain they are not lying to you?”
“You taught me a lot of things,mon professeur.Including how to read people. Ronan was sent to bring me in, but he knows how to read people too, and he believed I was innocent. We have proof I was in Stockholm the day Jasper Yoden was murdered. His team found it last night, and they’re going to clear my name.”
The sound of a door closing, a zipper, and rustling carry over the line. “You are correct that I have evidence of many of the cartel’s crimes. I was never as accomplished with technology as you were,mon cher ami. It is on a thumb drive I keep with me always. I am too old and too tired for this fight. But I will give it to you before I disappear.”
“You don’t have to run,” I say, forcing each word over the desperation clogging my throat. “Tell me where to meet you. I’ll bring Ronan, and we’ll take you somewhere you’ll be safe until this is all over with. Then you can have your life back. All of it. Go back to France if you want. Or anywhere. Without fear.”
“No,” he says sharply, then sighs. “This should have been my fight years ago, Zephyr. If I had been braver, I could have saved you much pain. But I am an old man now. A heart attack almost killed me not long after I left Madrid. I never fully recovered. Then my wife…she passed six months ago, and I have suffered two more attacks since that day. I will be with her soon, and then I will find peace. Until then, I will disappear.”
“Martín…” I want to cry. To rage. To make François, Alex, all of them pay for stealing the lives of so many. “I have to see you one last time. Please.”
“I will text you my address when I have finished packing. Meet me here, and I will give you the evidence I have. I only ask one thing in return,” he says softly.
“Anything.”
Ronan drapes his arm around my shoulders, offering quiet comfort and strength without a word.
“You will not follow me or try to change my mind. I want you to be free, Zephyr.Mon cher. But I cannot be a part of your fight.”
