Chapter 7
SEVEN
Ash remained in the war room watching the screens until the team rolled through the gates of the mansion. At the first thump of boots, he swung to the door.
It had been a long time since he felt this flutter of nerves. It had also been a long time since he’d led a task force.
The last thing he expected was to get thrown into another leadership role, especially after what happened on the last. Con placed him in charge because he needed to put aside what happened in the past. He trusted him to carry them into the future, which left Ash with a weight in his chest.
Chickie walked through the door first, dust still clinging to his shoulders from breaching the door. Mason followed, then Steele, Sinner, Dante wearing a shit-eating grin, and finally Con.
As soon as they were all accounted for, some of the worry Ash had been carrying flowed away.
No one limped. No one bled. No one had the hollow look of a near-miss.
Ash met them halfway across the room, clasping forearms and clapping backs.
Con stepped forward last, looking over Ash the same way Ash looked over all of them—like he was checking for the wounds that came with making hard choices.
Ash gripped his commanding officer’s hand, and they yanked each other close to bump shoulders.
“All secure on base?”
“Nothing to report.”
Con studied him for a heavy beat. “You good?”
“Solid,” he responded without hesitation. “The only thing that could have gone better would be if you walked into that office and Cipher was sitting there.”
“Only a matter of timing now.” Con peeled off his comms like the rest of the team.
“I feel it in my bones. We’re closing in.”
Con’s expression was distant as he eyed him. “I trust your instincts. Don’t second-guess them.”
The words hit with a force he didn’t expect. He knew his strengths and his weaknesses too. And it had been a hell of a long time since he felt sure of himself.
Not the surface kind of sure. Or the kind he projected so his team didn’t see the cracks, but the bone-deep certainty that if he gave an order, it was the right one.
A set of footsteps passed outside the room, light and sure. He automatically turned his head, looking for Ellory.
But it was Sophie who burst in, the small crease on her forehead smoothing as soon as she set eyes on Con. Ash stepped back, giving her room to rush into Con’s arms.
He’d witnessed countless reunions between the women of Charlie team and his brothers-in-arms. But this time, it hit different.
Maybe because, for the first time, he understood what it meant to have someone waiting.
Somewhere in the mansion, Ellory was waiting for him. He didn’t know what to do with that.
He kept his head in the debrief. Did his job. But the moment it was done, his mind went straight back to her—the way her breath hitched when he’d stepped into her space, the pulse jumping at the base of her throat.
He’d seen hunger in her eyes.
And when she’d grabbed his arm before he could walk away…Christ, he almost lost it then and there.
Even though he burned to go to her, he wrapped up with Con, confirming a time for a full breakdown once Wyoming’s intel merged with New York’s. Before he walked away, he exchanged a few words with Dante about the data pull.
As he stepped into the hallway, anticipation replaced the adrenaline in his veins. Ellory wasn’t waiting for him here, but he knew where to find her.
The east corridor sitting room was rarely used this late. Yet when he’d walked past it the previous evening, he’d seen her tucked into the corner of a sofa, nose in a book and her glasses sliding down her nose.
When he found her there, she was waiting near the window, hands loosely clasped and her lips parted on a sigh.
The oxygen sucked out of the room the way it did before a blast.
In measured steps he crossed to her, gut clenching when he saw she’d changed into a simple gray T-shirt and a pair of loose gray sweats.
He didn’t know how it was possible for her to look even sexier. The way her glasses perched on her pert little nose had his cock stiffening with every step.
Her lips were pinker than usual, as if she’d been biting them instead of her glasses stem, and that only made his fists clench in an attempt to control the surge of need.
He stopped close enough that he could see the faint flush climbing her throat.
“Everything okay with the team?” Her voice held a note of concern.
He nodded. “They’re good.” He wanted to share just how damn relieved he was that they’d returned safe under his command, but now wasn’t the time for such things. If he would ever share it.
Edging closer, she tipped her head up to search his gaze. The tiny crinkle above one brow made his insides tighten. Lifting a hand, he stroked the pad of his thumb over the spot.
The crease smoothed under his touch, leaving a pink glow in its place and want burning in her eyes.
He held out a hand for her, and she placed hers in it without hesitation. Her fingers twined around his, warm and her grip certain.
Without a word—as if they’d done this a hundred times already—he led her up the stairs to his room. When the door closed behind them, the silence felt different than it had back in that hallway. It enveloped them in a private cocoon.
He turned to face her fully.
Neither of them spoke.
He drank her in. Strong. Intelligent. Composed. And sexy as hell.
She could dismantle financial empires piece by piece, and yet he’d seen her pulse jump for him. The woman was terrifyingly competent and unapologetically sensual. He never imagined the combination could rock him so much.
He was pulled in by the wave of her hair and the look in her eyes.
“You watched me in the war room.” His tone roughened.
“I was watching the mission.”
His lips curved slightly. “Not what I saw.”
She sucked in a breath. “I like seeing you in command. You didn’t flinch.”
He brushed that loose strand of hair back from her cheek, his knuckles grazing her skin. It was barely a touch, but her eyelids fluttered.
“You didn’t either,” he said quietly.
She brought her hands to his chest, tentative at first, then flattening her palms.
He covered them with his own. “If we do this, we’re not doing it halfway.”
She darted her tongue over her sweet bottom lip. “I don’t do anything halfway.”
He lowered his head and kissed her, taking it slow and giving her time to change her mind.
She didn’t.
Her lips parted under his with a soft moan, and the restraint he’d barely held on to all night grew threadbare. Angling his head, he deepened the kiss. The first taste stole his mind and the second pass of his tongue ripped away his control.
Sliding his hand to the small of her back, he dragged her closer until her body was flush against his. Without going another step further, he knew this was going to be bigger than just scratching an itch or a one-night stand.
She knew it too. He felt it in the hitch in her breath and the way her fingers curled into his shirt.
As he coaxed little noises from her, he walked her away from the door to the middle of the room. His quarters were sparsely furnished, but at least he wasn’t sleeping on racks anymore. Asking Ellory if she preferred the top or bottom bunk wasn’t exactly the move he had in mind.
He kissed her long and deep, forcing his hand to remain on her spine, not pushing, just letting her show him the way. She slipped closer, anchoring her hands on his chest as she stroked her tongue across his with increasing pressure.
God, this woman had threatened to wreck his control from the first moment he set eyes on her, but she was evoking something in him that he hadn’t felt in so long.
Passion.
Swaying closer, she slid her hands upward to his shoulders. As he gathered her to him, she bunched her fingers in the cloth and surged onto tiptoes.
The kiss turned wilder, tongues meeting stroke for stroke and their moans melding into one endless sound.
He walked her backward until the edge of the bed met the backs of her knees. He tore away, panting. One look at the desire etched on her beautiful face had his cock shoving against his fly like a steel battering ram.
She lowered herself slowly, eyes never leaving his.
He stepped between her knees and traced his thumb along the base of her throat just to feel her pulse trip.
When he bent to kiss her again, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down on top of her.
* * * * *
The weight of Ash pressing her into the mattress sent heat searing through every nerve ending. Ellory couldn’t think around the hard planes of his body or the way that his mouth claimed hers with an urgency that matched the thrumming in her veins.
It had finally come to this. They’d been circling each other, driven by a primal need to touch, to taste, to feel. It wasn’t something she could reason through or analyze.
It was just there, a thickening in the air whenever they were close.
In that war room, he was so calm and controlled. And God help her, it made her want to see what it would take to make him shatter.
Now, with his hips locked between her thighs and his callused fingers cupping her face, she was getting her answer.
Dark pulsations took up residence in her core, a throb that sent her closer and closer toward what she knew would be an end so good that she’d never forget it.
With a heave of his chest, he broke the kiss, his voice as rough as a river flowing over rocks. “Tell me what you want.”
The gravel in his tone made her pussy clench. “You. Now.”
His eyes darkened as his pupils blew wider.
He sat back on his heels, and she mourned the loss of his weight until he found the hem of her shirt.
Holding her stare, he dragged her top slowly up the flat of her stomach and her ribs.
As he reached the underside of her breast, his knuckles grazed the curve.
She sucked in a breath as if he’d branded her instead of just delivering a featherlight stroke through the silk of her bra. Her body arched on its own and she rasped, “More!”