Chapter 40 Six Weeks Later #2
When my boss had gotten a moment alone with Cami and me, she’d shared that the FBI had located Riker’s accomplice.
Our team would take the lead in bringing in Riker’s buddy, and maybe we’d finally start getting somewhere.
He was the next rung up on the criminal ladder that we hoped would lead all the way to the cult leader, swindler, and all-around piece of shit Anson.
“Do you think you’ll have to go out of town soon?” Cami asked.
In the time we’d been together, our team hadn’t been sent on any operations that were very far afield, and I hadn’t been out of town for more than a couple of days out a time. I tugged her closer. “Maybe. Are you ready for that? Ready to be fully in charge of Bella?”
We both knew that wasn’t what I was asking.
She’d been worried sick about the fallout on her staff from Riker’s dangerous stunt at the clinic.
But she was the one who’d had nightmares for the first couple of weeks.
I’d been so happy to be sharing a bed with her—sometimes at her place, most of the time at mine—so I could hold her until she went back to sleep.
She’d been doing well for weeks now, helped by the fact that Gina and Darla had each had a few sessions of therapy and the three of them had even attended one as a group. And Doc and his wife were both in a facility where he’d been evaluated and had a treatment plan in place.
The caretaker had needed more care himself than anyone had realized. It wasn’t an excuse for the crimes he’d committed against the clinic staff and the abused dogs, but at least it was helping Cami make sense of it.
“I am ready,” she assured me. “But don’t stay away too long. Bella will miss you.”
I leaned against the kitchen island and pulled her against me. “And what about you, gorgeous, will you miss me?”
“I might. I might even miss staying here while you’re gone. It’s a pretty nice place, now that it’s no longer a wreck of a construction zone.”
“Hey, it was nearly finished the first time I brought you here.”
“Sure.” She traced a hand down my chest and over my belly.
My body jumped to full attention.
“But then you got a little distracted,” she said. She unbutttoned my jeans, distracting me a hell of a lot more. “If we hadn’t brought in reinforcements this week, the place wouldn’t have been ready for the party.”
I gave her a long, slow kiss, then whispered in her ear. “You know, we were working such long hours, we never got time to try out our stunt beds.”
She laughed. “My best friend is incorrigible.”
“But she’s not wrong about the ways we could use those extra rooms when we don’t have guests.
And that got me to thinking, there are ten rooms in this house, counting the three bathrooms. We’ve made love in seven of them.
Almost all the rooms that were finished when you got here.
Then we tested the dining room rug, which is now one of my favorite spots in the house. ”
“As I recall, it gave you carpet burns on your butt.”
“Worth every scratch.” I grinned as I ran my hands down her back and moved them up under her skirt to grip her luscious round ass. “And then we took a spin in the new guest bathroom tub last Monday night.”
“Oh, yeah,” she breathed against my mouth. Her pupils were blown and her eyes were half closed. “I’ve never been so dirty in a tub before.”
I picked her up and did a 180, sitting her on the island with me standing between her legs. “But we still have both guest rooms.” I nibbled side of her neck and she shivered. “And the kitchen.”
“Sounds like we still have work to do.” She eased the zipper down on my jeans and slid her hand in under the waistband of my boxer briefs, moving lower until she had me in her firm, warm grip.
I sucked in my breath. “Agent Rogers, reporting for duty, ma’am.”
She let go of my cock and I nearly groaned with disappointment. Until she pulled her sundress up over her head and dropped it onto the counter, leaving her sitting in front of me in my favorites, her pink lace panties.
I palmed her full breasts and kissed my way down the side of her neck. “Should I take this to mean you don’t need a bed this time?”
“Not this time,” she nibbled my lower lip. “But the night is young.”
“First,” I moved my hands up to her shoulders and took a few seconds to catch my breath, “there’s something I’d been meaning to ask you for days, but I do seem to get distracted.”
She looked disappointed. “Right now?”
“One question.”
“Okay.” She rested one hand at the top of my waistband. “Just leaving this right here to remind you to make it quick.”
“You and your new love of quickies,” I couldn’t help teasing. I pulled away from her and opened a drawer behind us. I took out an instruction manual and handed it to her.
She furrowed her brow. “Is this the pocket version of the Kama Sutra?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “See for yourself.”
She paged through the manual. “Instructions for the cipher lock?”
“Yes, the model that’s on the front and back doors. If you were to, say, move in here, you might want to be able to access the house without me being here. Page three explains how to position your palm, and page four—“
“Stop right there, Rogers. Did you just ask me to move in with you?”
“Yeah, I guess I did. I know you felt like a prisoner here those first couple of weeks, but—”
“No.” She pressed a finger over my lips.
“I didn’t feel like your prisoner. I only needed more normalcy than we had at the beginning.
Well, as much normalcy as a woman can have when she falls in love with a former special ops, current HEAT agent.
” She kissed me. “And now I have that. We have that. And I’m saying yes. ”
I took a deep breath, then, just to be sure, asked, “You’re saying yes to moving in?”
“I’m saying yes to moving in!”
I picked her up in my arms and twirled her around the kitchen.
“Okay, okay,” she finally said. “If you’ll recall, we were in the middle of something, and you need to save your energy. We have rooms to christen.”
“We don’t have to get to all three tonight.”
She grinned wickedly. “What’s wrong, soldier, not up for the challenge?”
I sat her back on the island and slid off her panties and my clothes in seconds. “I’m up for everything with you.”
I picked her up again and she wrapped her legs around me, and we began the blissful job of checking the kitchen off our list. By dawn, I planned to check off the guest bedrooms, the gazebo, and hell, maybe even the garage.
After all, this was her home now, too, and I wanted her to feel welcome.
Rescuing Ryan, book 3 in Elite Forces HEAT!
The whole town is talking when playboy “security specialist” Ryan Wheeler falls for the lady cop next door.
Unfortunately, they’re not talking about his new romance.
Because a string of bad luck seems to be following this flyboy everywhere he goes.