Chapter Thirteen
Callie woke with a jolt, nearly falling out the chair, and she muttered some profanity when she realized she’d drifted off—again. It was the second time that’d happened since Nico and she had left the police station and come back to his house.
And Nico noticed that, too.
She looked over at him, seated in the chair behind his desk. Not only was his attention pinned to her, he was frowning.
“You know, there’s no law against getting some sleep,” he said. “Sleep you obviously need.”
Yes, she did. But so did he.
“Pot calling the kettle black,” Callie muttered.
They hadn’t slept much the night before, and with the hellish events of the day, her body felt wiped out. It was the reason she reached for the rest of her Coke. It was now mostly flat and far from cold, but hopefully it had enough caffeine to give her a boost.
Nico had chosen to get his boost from coffee, lots and lots of it, and he had moved the coffeepot into his office while they worked. There’d been lots and lots of work as well. Too bad those hours of pouring over reports and updates hadn’t given them any new insights into the investigation.
She checked her phone, something she’d been doing often in the three hours since they’d come back here. No calls or texts from Seth, and that was giving her some worst-case scenarios.
Well, one anyway.
That Seth was dead. That his flight from the safehouse had given The Fixer or someone else the chance to kill him. If so, then the domino effect would be a weakened case against Zed, which meant a killer for hire and his boss would likely go free.
“Were you able to find out for sure if Seth actually left witness protection?” she asked when she saw Nico’s new phone next to his laptop.
He nodded. “I got confirmation about five minutes ago. I obviously didn’t go through Yancy to get that. I messaged someone else in the Bureau. It took him a while to get the info, but this is a person I trust.”
Good. Because with Yancy being one of their suspects, it was best not to have any contact with him.
“Owen just sent an email update on the recording of Seth’s phone call,” Nico went on, his gaze flitting back to his laptop screen. “and it came from a burner.”
That wasn’t a surprise. Except in a way, it was. Because where had Seth gotten a pay as you go phone when he wasn’t supposed to have had any contact with the outside world? Then again, judging from what he’d said in the call to Nico, Seth had had spoken to Tucker and also had access to news reports since he’d known about Tucker’s death.
“Owen’s techs are now analyzing the recording to try to isolate any background noise that’ll help us pinpoint where Seth is,” Nico added. “They might get lucky.”
He didn’t sound especially hopeful about that. In fact, Nico didn’t look hopeful about, well, anything. All she saw when she looked at him was the fatigue and frustration that were taking over.
“Who would have thought that you and I would be investigating a case together,” she threw out there.
Nico managed that half smile that he did oh so well. It added even more character to a face that was drowning in character. “And investigating it while on the same side of the law.”
Now, she smiled, and it occurred to her that she was glad they were doing this together. Glad that they’d had a reset in their relationship. Of course, it was impossible to plan for the future when they weren’t even sure they’d have one.
And that made her feel two things.
Sadness and anger.
“It took me years to get over you,” she admitted, and she could tell that her confession surprised him. Not because he hadn’t suspected that already but because he likely hadn’t thought they’d be having this conversation now.
They shouldn’t be, Callie silently admitted. Not when they had so many other things to worry and stress about. But if things took a dangerous turn in this investigation, there were some things she wanted him to know.
“I bought a voodoo doll of your likeliness,” she told him. “And I stuck pins in it.”
Nico winced. Then, laughed. It was a good sound to hear, and it washed away some of the fatigue.
“I deserved that,” he muttered. “I kept one of your hair clips. The one with a crystal butterfly on it.”
She knew exactly what he was talking about. “I wondered where that went,” Callie was quick to say.
He stood, stretched and walked closer to her. “I found it on the floor next to my bed and put it in my pocket, intending to give it to you. But after you ended things, I kept it.”
That sent a nice warm fuzzy feeling through her. Then, she considered something. “Not so you could use it to put a curse or something on me?”
Nico laughed again and shook his head. “No ulterior motives. I just kept it because it reminded me of you. A sentimental attachment to you, to what we had.”
Again, that touched her, and Callie had to swallow hard before she could speak. “What happened to it? Do you still have it?”
His forehead bunched up. “I still have it, more or less. About five years ago, I ended up in a bar fight. It was part of the cover for my assignment. Anyway, the guy punched me damn hard, harder than he should have, and when I fell, the clip was in my pocket, and it broke. And the metal bit jabbed me in the right thigh. I have a scar.”
Her gaze flew to that part of his body. Which, of course, was right next to his zipper. And what was beneath the zipper.
“But I had the clip fixed,” he added a heartbeat later, and now I keep it my go-bag.” He paused again. And grinned. “You want to see the scar, don’t you?”
She did. Mercy, did she. And Callie wanted all the things that went with seeing it. Getting him naked. Kissing him. Making love with him. But the timing was all wrong for that.
Wasn’t it?
Callie realized her brain hadn’t asked that question. Another part of her had. And that part shouldn’t be in on the decision-making process.
Nico, though, blew logic and reason right out of the proverbial water when he leaned in and touched his mouth to hers. He immediately pulled back, maybe gauging her reaction.
And she had a reaction all right.
Her breath stalled in her throat. Her heart began to gallop. And the punch of need slid through her body. A punch that made all the doubts vanish.
He reached for her as she reached for him. They couldn’t move fast enough or hard enough. The kiss had to happen now.
It did.
Their mouths met in an urgent, hungry frenzy. She suddenly couldn’t get enough of him. Couldn’t catch her breath either. Couldn’t hear because of her pulse pounding in her ears. But she could feel.
Yes, the feelings were all there.
The heat, the lust. The need. So very much need, and with that kiss, Callie tried to soothe some of the ache that was spreading through her.
Of course, the kiss didn’t cure anything, especially when Nico deepened it and snapped her body against his. Nope, no cure. That only amped up the urgency even more.
“You want to see that scar,” he muttered when they broke for air.
She managed to laugh. “I really do,” she assured him. She wanted to see it and every inch of inch of him.
Callie was still smiling when his mouth came back to hers, and he kissed her again. And again. Until she felt herself floating. Then, sinking lower. That’s when she realized he was lowering them to the floor.
The moment her back landed against the rug, Nico took his mouth to her neck. To the spot that instantly lit a hot fire in her. He heated her up even more by touching her, by shoving up her top and lowering the cups of her bra.
Then, he kissed her there. On her breasts. Her nipples. Yeah, he remembered all of her hot spots.
And she remembered his.
She flicked her tongue over his earlobe and added a lot of breath that hit against his ear and neck. He made a hitching sound of pleasure. Pleasure that drove him to move things along even faster.
Nico rid her of her top and bra and reacquainted her body with exactly what his clever mouth could do. And what it could do was make her wild with pleasure. It made her want more. A lot more.
She turned the tables on him, literally, by flipping him on his back and yanking off his shirt. He’d always been ripped, but was even more so now, and Callie dropped some kisses on his neck. His pecs. His stomach.
Then, lower.
Despite the fact his erection was straining against his zipper, she managed to lower it. She did the same to his boxers.
And she saw the scar on his right thigh.
She kissed it, too, touched that he’d carried that hair clip with him all that time. All that time when she had thought it was over between them for good. But it definitely wasn’t over.
Callie moved her mouth from the scar and to his erection, and she heard that growl of pleasure he made. She kissed him more, using her tongue, and enjoyed every second of his torture.
Nico, however, put an end to it by reversing their positions and flipping her onto her back. “Turnabout is fair play,” he muttered, stripping off her shoes, jeans.
Then, her panties.
Callie tried to get him naked, too, but she failed. Failed because he robbed her of every ounce of her breath when he went down on her and gave her a kiss that nearly caused her to climax. She wanted that climax. Wanted it more than she wanted her breath back. But she didn’t want to do this solo.
“You’d better have a condom,” she said, and that was the only warning she gave him before she put him on his back and began to pull off his jeans and boxers.
“In my wallet,” he let her know, and he snatched it out before she tossed the jeans on the floor.
Nico didn’t waste any time getting on the condom. And then putting it to good use. He reversed their positions again, and the moment he was on top of her, he slid inside her.
And robbed her of her breath a second time.
She didn’t care. Breath seemed optional at the moment. The only thing that felt like a necessity was Nico. Him, thrusting into her. Giving her slam after slam of pleasure.
So much pleasure.
So much heat.
Those thrusts drove her higher, hotter. They drove her until she could take no more. Callie felt the climax ripple through her. Felt it claim her entire body. She was helpless to slow it down and well beyond the point of stopping.
She just let it come.
Let it send her flying. And moments later, Nico gathered her into his arms and let it claim him, too.