Chapter 35
LOCKE
When I finally calmed Jett down with reassurances and promises that I meant every word I said, he began to relax. But it wasn’t until I was deep inside his body, murmuring how much I loved him over and over again, that he seemed to finally let go and trust me.
“Not leaving,” I said into the side of his face as I thrust into him excruciatingly slowly. “Meant what I said. You’re fucking mine.”
“Thought you were straight,” he slurred, eyes having a hard time staying open as my cock hit a good spot.
“This feel straight to you?”
Jett’s skin was damp with sweat as he struggled not to come. “You feel so fucking good.”
“I feel incredible,” I agreed.
“Not what I m—oh fuck! Locke! Please, don’t stop. Right there.”
I picked up the pace, feeling the familiar heaviness in my balls. The idea of coming deep inside him made my stomach clench and the nerve endings sing.
Jett’s fingers dug into the skin of my back.
He still carried fear and desperation, which only made me love him more.
I could already tell that getting Jett Marian to let go of his fear and trust me would be the most incredible gift I would ever receive.
And that was worth anything. Even putting up with his unexpected career choice.
I’d meant what I’d told him. Whatever happened from now on, we’d figure it out. Together.
His body squeezed around me, hot and tight, as I moved in and out of him faster, trying to keep the same angle.
Watching his reaction, the slurred words, the glassy eyes, turned me all the fucking way on until I needed him to come before I blew.
I reached for his cock and wrapped my hand around it between us. He was rock hard and leaking. “Let go, baby. Give it to me.”
His eyes met mine, soft denim blue that would always remind me of how he looked in the Amalfi sun, with the changeable sea stretched out behind him.
One more tug of his dick, and he was mine, head back and cry escaping. The heat of his release on my hand and the tight pull of his body on my cock were enough to finish me off. I thrust inside him one final time as my orgasm hit, sending me into ecstasy only Jett could make me feel.
“Can’t believe you showed up,” Jett said when the sensations finally settled down.
I pulled out of his body and leaned up to kiss him. “Can’t believe you thought for a single moment that I wouldn’t.”
His eyes followed me to the bathroom, where I gathered a hot cloth to clean him up with. When I returned to the bed, he was still watching me.
“What do you think you know about me?”
I busied myself wiping him down, nudging his hand away when he reached for the cloth. “Well, I know that you were trying to protect me there at the end. By getting me out of the house before the authorities showed up.”
Jett nodded.
I tossed the cloth back toward the bathroom and climbed into bed next to him, pulling the covers over both of us and wrapping him in my arms.
“I know you don’t like grapefruit,” I said, intent on playing this game as long as he needed me to. “And that you would murder the single mother you don’t actually have for a lemon sorbetto.”
He couldn’t hold in a snicker. “True. I’d date you just for access to Roberto if I had to.”
I huffed out a laugh. “‘Date.’ It sounds like such a weak word for what I want with you.”
The light was back in his eyes. “What word would you use?”
“Love,” I said. “You would love me for sorbetto. And I would accept.”
He smiled. “Okay. What else do you know about me?”
I reached out to caress his face with the backs of my fingers. “I know I love you. Very much.”
His eyes were luminous. Not shiny but almost. “Locke,” he breathed.
I smiled and kissed him softly on the lips. “I know you work for ESP. That you’re an intelligence agent.”
His smile dimmed, but he kept his eyes on mine. “I guess you don’t know me as well as you thought.” He put a hand on my chest, over my heart. “Because I no longer work there.”
I covered his hand in mine, disappointment sharp and anger ready to rear its ugly head in his defense. How fucking dare they? “I’m sorry, baby. Maybe… maybe I could talk to someone for you. Try and get your job back. Or find something similar with another agency.”
His lips curved up again. “That might be kind of awkward since I’m the one who quit.”
A breath of relief whooshed out of me. “Thank fuck. But why?”
Jett moved to lie on top of me, propping his chin on his hands over my chest. “I don’t want to keep secrets from you. Ever. Never again.”
I leaned up and kissed him gently. “Same,” I promised.
“Does this mean you’re going to tell me about Paxis?”
“Yes.” Even though it would put him in danger. He was too savvy to allow me to keep secrets from him, and I was too selfish to risk losing him. “But in a way that makes sure you’re protected.”
Jett reached out and caressed my cheeks. “I’ll always be protected. My boyfriend is pretty good at taking care of me. And I’ve got skills of my own, too.”
Annoyance grumbled out of me. “Not boyfriend. That’s too… I don’t know. Too small for how I feel about you. Find something else.”
“My love is a pretty good protector,” he suggested, eyes dancing.
“Yes. That.” I pulled him close again for another kiss, but when Jett tried to deepen it into something else, a prelude for sex, I stopped him. “Tell me what you want to tell me. You’re still not here with me. Not all the way.”
Worry continued to crease his forehead and shadow his eyes. I could tell he wouldn’t be completely free of it until we’d shared more of our truths.
“I never targeted you. You were never part of an op. ESP doesn’t know that Paxis exists, as far as I know. Definitely not as anything other than a variant of chess.”
It was a relief to hear it, even though I suspected as much. If an intelligence agency had suspicions about the council, they wouldn’t have cleared me so quickly in al-Qadiri’s death. Or they at least would have asked very different questions of me in Italy.
“Go on.”
“They didn’t know I was going to Italy. They only knew I was on vacation.” He stopped and took in a breath. “Until I called them.”
This part, I definitely didn’t know. “You called them? When?”
“After you asked me to look at the Kiel Canal. We had a team responding to a situation regarding smuggled drones. It was too much of a coincidence, and I was worried we didn’t have the full picture.
” He hesitated. “I told them there was a strangely high-powered group of people gathered and that I’d overheard mention of Kiel. But…”
“But?”
“I didn’t tell them about you. I didn’t even mention your name.”
The admission that he’d risked his job for me was significant. “Why not?”
Jett’s cheeks flushed. “I didn’t want you to get in trouble.”
He told me more about the op, about how he’d wanted to go—expected to go—because of his experience on other German missions and his fluency. Then he told me about being undercover there before we met in Amsterdam and why he’d been so broken when I’d found him.
I pulled him into my arms until he could barely breathe. He finally pulled away enough to lie side by side with me and continue sharing. “I wanted you so badly that night in Amsterdam. But you rejected me.”
“You needed coddling, not fucking,” I reminded him. “And I held you in my arms all night. I held you during your nightmares. I kissed you that night.”
“I kissed you,” he corrected.
“I went home with blue balls,” I grumbled, remembering the long flight. My anger. My fear for Jett’s safety.
He hesitated. “What’s the real purpose of your nerd herd, Locke?”
I reached out to smooth his worry away, my thumb pressing gently into the crease between his eyebrows. “World peace. De-escalation of tensions. Providing aid. Gentle disruption of terrorist plans. Prevention of mass suffering.”
My grandfather’s words moved easily out of my mouth as I passed along part of the secret to him—something I’d thought I would never do.
“It started with whispered words during regular Paxis tournaments. A dozen very powerful men began to recognize the power they held outside of any government. It was power due to immense wealth but also connections. Why depend on fickle or corrupt government leadership to act when the council could act much sooner and without the obstacles of international diplomacy and red tape?”
Jett tangled his legs in mine. “Ah, a cadre of superheroes.”
“More like a cadre of people with enough resources to make a difference. And the one thing these men had in common was a desire to do good with those resources instead of hoarding them.”
“How can you trust everyone in the group?”
“You can’t. Al-Qadiri proved that.”
I went on to explain about the insider trading, why that kind of activity was against the rules, and how the only way to protect the Paxis Council from a vengeful ex-member was to eliminate them.
“So the Paxis Council planted the bomb?”
I shook my head. “His father-in-law did. We think Liyana called her father after Saleem asked her to buy the Helvig stock. Mehmet was the one who brought Saleem onto the council. He knew it was his responsibility. Saleem’s actions shamed him.”
“Liyana betrayed her husband for the sanctity of the council?” he asked in disbelief. “How could she?”
His outrage warmed something in my chest. “You wouldn’t do the same?” I teased.
“Fuck no. Would you?”
“Of course not. But I’m not sure she loved her husband more than the game. She’d grown up around the council and felt betrayed when her father passed her over for her husband.”
Jett’s eyelids were drooping. “What if the council finds out I know the truth about everything?”
I rubbed his back slowly, in hopes of soothing him to sleep. The poor man looked wrecked. Like he’d been as upset by the past week as I had.
“First of all, they won’t,” I promised. “Because we’ll come up with a plan. Our own code. Secondly, your agency will have your back, Jett. Even if you no longer work for them.”
He snuggled closer to me. “Maybe I could be an asset for the council,” he murmured sleepily.
“Mm, maybe. Get some sleep, baby.”
“Don’t leave. Want to suck you later.”
I couldn’t hold back the laugh, and I felt his grin against my chest.
“Duly noted,” I said. “I’ll wake you for the sucking.”
Several long beats of silence passed. Enough that I thought he’d fallen asleep. Until Jett’s soft breath moved across my skin differently. “Want to introduce you to my family.”
I moved my hands up and down his back, then moved my fingertips lightly through his hair. “You won’t be embarrassed by the caveman who claimed you in front of every gay man in San Francisco?”
“No one’s ever claimed me like that before,” he admitted softly. “’S nice.”
“You’ll move in with me when we get back to the city, right?”
“Meh,” he said.
“Meh?” I asked, staring down at the side of his face. “Meh? What the fuck does that mean? Yes or no, and the answer better be yes, Jethro.”
His lips curled up, but he didn’t open his eyes.
“Some decisions are best made hungry, Johnny.”
I laughed, remembering what I’d told him when I’d made the original indecent proposal. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about. That makes no sense.”
His lips stayed curled up as he finally fell into a deep sleep, tucked safely in my arms.