Chapter 27
“Come in!” Jace called out.
I pushed open the door I realized he seemed deep into his work. He was standing behind his desk with paperwork spread before him. He was so preoccupied with looking down at his work and back up on his monitors that he didn’t seem to register my presence for a moment.
When he looked up, I couldn’t help but notice how strikingly good he looked despite the slight dark bags under his bright blue eyes and tousled dark locks.
Poor man was burning both ends of the candle.
For a second I contemplated quickly eating with him, then leaving, forgoing my seduction plans, but then he smiled.
“Whatcha got there?”
I returned his smile. “Dinner. Should I just drop it and leave?”
I didn’t like the idea of leaving, but I didn’t want to take up more of his time than I had to.
He shouldn’t feel obligated to entertain me if he was in the weeds with work.
I realized the more time he didn’t complete his assignments the longer it would take him to get home. He needed to recharge when he could.
He began to move some paperwork to the side, clearing a space to eat. “No, I would love it if you stayed for a while. It smells amazing. Come here. Let’s eat.”
“Drake made your favorites.” I informed him before moving toward him. “Chicken marsala, garlic butter noodles, green beans, and tiramisu.”
He brought one of his extra chairs behind the desk beside him while I began to unpack our meal. “You’re amazing, beautiful. I hadn’t even realized it was dinner time or how hungry I actually am.”
I laughed before sitting down. “I can’t take all the credit. It was mainly Drake’s doing. We all see how you and Remy have been nearly working around the clock. We want to help in any way we can.”
I have already had plans to spend some time with Remy tomorrow. We only had training early in the morning because apparently, we were launching a large attack tomorrow. My plan was to keep him company while he managed his team out in the field.
Herman and Greg believed they had finally found the rest of Horatio’s top dogs.
Rumor had it they all went into hiding while Horatio decided his next moves.
His little attacks he was launching our way had only been a distraction.
We knew without a doubt he would be crippled once we captured his remaining “generals.”
For the time being Pops had no intentions of activating the guys and me.
He didn’t want to leave the twins vulnerable.
Not that we had any plans on leaving them anytime soon.
Yes, we trusted our immediate circle, but even after all our background checks and vetting, we would be foolish the trust everyone.
Jace let out a moan of contentment after taking a bite of his food. “This is amazing. So how was training?”
“It felt weird.” I admitted. “I’m so used to going to school, then lunch, and then training. With no school I’m not used to going to all these training sessions. I like the change, but it feels… different. I really want to get back into sparring, but Troy won’t let me.”
I mock pouted while Jace chuckled. “You have to remember you just had twins less than two months ago. Let your body heal a little longer before you allow other people to beat on you.”
I shot him a glare. “You don’t think I can beat on them. Am I so fragile?”
“I’m not saying that at all. I know what a bad ass you are.” He grinned placatingly at me before reaching out and tugging one of my curls. “I just think you should give your body a little more time to heal.”
I pierced a noodle with my fork and playfully scowled at him. “I know I should, but I miss the rush of it. How has your day been?”
I realized we had been talking about only me and it wasn’t fair. I knew the guys had each other to discuss the intricate parts of their jobs, but I didn’t want them to believe I couldn’t be a sounding board for them as well.
He finished his bite of food before sighing. “Long. We’re making progress, but it feels like with every two steps forward we have to take one giant step back. I’ve been playing phone tag with the Louisiana team all day and honestly the leader for that community is a bit of a prick.”
“In what way?” I asked.
Jace stood and grabbed two cans of Cherry Dr. Pepper from his mini fridge before answering.
“He’s upset that he has to continually talk to me and not Pops.
He assumes because of my age I am incapable of discussing anything of ‘importance.’ He continues to talk down to me and keeps implying that our connection is fake.
He has two connections and behaves as if we made up our connection in a ploy to gain more ‘followers.’ The last time he wanted to talk about my personal life I cut him off and told him to call me back when he’s ready to discuss the important things at hand. ”
I grabbed a green bean with my fingers before popping it in my mouth. “Why work with him if he’s so disrespectful?”
Jace grunted opening both cans of pop and setting one in front of me.
“He has some people that are highly gifted. We originally reached out to them, but some communities aren’t like ours.
They treat their leaders like bosses. It’s a sign of disrespect if they were to assist us without talking to their representatives.
“Brock and his connections are talented and honestly it would be nice if they were to assist us, but the problem is that he asks like it’s some huge favor to us. He expects five-star treatment, forgetting that some of the people we are trying to capture have been thorns in his sides for years.
“We’re helping him as much as he’s helping us, yet coming to the bunker with the people we have selected is beneath him.
He wants us to go to him and it’s just not logical.
We have access to equipment and technology he doesn’t.
Plus, we would like to assess his people to determine which teams they would best fit in with.
It makes no sense for us to send all our operatives to him just for him to think he has more control than he does.
“At this rate, I think Pops is going have to explain the same exact thing I’ve been telling him for the last week. Unfortunately, I don’t want to give into the blowhard’s demands. I swear he’s called me at least twelve times attempting to wrest control of the situation from us.”
I began to clean up my plate, already full. “Have you talked to Pops about it? I know you’re trying to handle everything yourself, and take things off Pops’ plate, but sometimes some people aren’t worth the headache.”
Jace sighed and ran his fingers through his already tousled locks. “That’s probably what I have to do. I have so many balls in the air and I can’t and shouldn’t drop any of them.”
We talked about a few more things as we finished eating and putting the food we couldn’t eat into his mini fridge.
His office, like most of the others, was furnished with a mini fridge and microwave.
It wasn’t something he utilized often when he first moved into his space, but here lately it was a rarity to see him during mealtimes.
Once we cleaned up, we sat back down and I decided to take the opportunity to seduce him.
Hopefully, give him a little “stress-relief” before he had to return to his work.
I knew I had very little time before I had to go feed the twins and pump.
If Remy and Lincoln still had the twins they would wait for me to find them, but if Jaxson or Troy had them, they would definitely seek me out. I didn’t need them barging in mid romp.
Without preamble I got down on my knees in between his legs. I ran my fingernails over his thighs before reaching for his fastening and zipper.
“Whatcha doing?” Jace’s voice came out husky.
I looked up at him through the veil of my dark eyelashes. I licked my bottom lip and smiled at him. “I want second dessert.”
“Oh, yeah?”
He lifted his hips to help me guide his pants down. “Yeah.” I nodded before I took him into my mouth.
He sighed my name with a mixture of awe and lust. I instantly felt satisfaction and strived to make him feel even better.
I took him to the back of my throat. I swallowed around him before repeating the process over and over again.
He threaded his hands through my hair and guided me over him.
I knew he was enjoying it with every tug and tightening of his hands.
“I love watching you swallow me whole.” He groaned.
In that moment I didn’t even care if I got anything out of any of this. I just wanted to give him some relief from the constant stress he had been feeling lately. I grasped around his shaft and began to twist my hands in the way he enjoyed.
“Yeah, Blake, like that.” He encouraged me.
I felt his legs begin to shake and I knew he was moments away from orgasming, but then the door handle began to jiggle. I looked up and saw Jace’s eyes were wide and saw the unanswered question in his eyes. I shook my head and my mind scrambled on what to do.
I had no time to stand or even pretend to make myself presentable. I made the immediate decision to back up under his desk. The desk was made of solid wood and would hide me from anyone entering. Jace understood what I was doing and scooted his seat forward.
The door banged open, seconds before I heard a high pitch voice coo. “Hey, Jace, I brought us dinner!”
I tried to wrack my brain on who the voice could belong to.
No faces came up to match the voice. I figured it must be one of the newer recruits.
We had a huge influx of people join us and not all of them were operatives.
We had to hire a good number of office personnel.
Megan, Pops, Remy, Jace, Paul and some of the other administrative people needed support staff, so they had hired them from some of the communities that we were working with.
“Hey—” Jace came out thick before he cleared his throat. “Hey, Brianne. Thanks, but I already ate. Blake brought me dinner.”