Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Tyler was sliding his way down her body. He didn’t want her to cry out. She knew the walls had to be stupid thin in the motel. Not like she wanted whoever their neighbors were to hear her yelling in ecstasy but…
He’d stripped her completely.
Her breath shuddered out.
Tyler shoved her thighs apart even more.
She bit her lower lip and whimpered as she looked down at him. This isn’t going to work. I’m not going to be able to stay silent.
He put his mouth on her.
Her body bucked against him. A hard jolt because his mouth felt so insanely good. “Tyler!” A quick pant. “Tyler, I can’t?—”
His head lifted. “I’m tasting you until you come.”
She nearly came right then and there. With those eyes of his blazing at her and with him between her spread legs…
He went back to her. His tongue licked right along her clit. Over and over. Then he thrust his wicked tongue inside of her .
Esme threw her hand over her mouth to try and muffle her own cries. Her hips were twisting and surging against him, and he was relentless. He tasted her with a stark passion. A possession that seemed to mark her very soul, and there was no stopping him. He took her with his mouth again and again.
Her body was trembling. Too close. Can’t stop. The explosion built and built and?—
He pulled away from her.
She was right on the edge. Shaking and shuddering and she just needed a little bit more to go over. She needed him.
He yanked her hand away from her mouth. His mouth crashed onto hers. He swallowed her gasps and moans even as she felt his dick push at the entrance to her body. Long, thick, hard. And behind his jeans, dammit! The jeans were in the way.
She arched against him. Her hands grabbed for his hips as she pulled him toward her. She rode him through the jeans, but it wasn’t enough. She was going mad. Her body too taut and tense as she remained trapped on the edge.
Then one strong hand worked between their bodies. He strummed her clit while he kissed her. “Got to keep that mouth of yours busy,” he rumbled against her lips. “So you don’t scream. Though, baby, I do love it when you scream for me.”
One long finger worked inside of her. A second followed.
His lips pressed hard to hers. Her whole body had gone stiff. So close. Push me over the edge. Make me come. Push me.
But he…
He pulled away.
The sound of her heaving breaths was far too loud. “Torture.” She licked her lips.
He stood on the side of the bed.
“You’re torturing me, Tyler.” Not cool.
“Never.” He ditched his jeans and boxers. His dick shoved toward her. “Just giving you something for that mouth.”
Her eyes widened.
“Scoot over, sweetheart.”
She scooted.
He sprawled out beside her.
“You get on top,” he ordered.
Okay. She started to?—
“Other way. I want you on my face, and I want my dick in your mouth.”
She almost melted. How could she get any wetter for him?
She crawled on him, as directed, her movements a little uncertain as the mattress squeaked. And then her fingers reached for the long, thick length of his dick. She stroked him first. She pumped him. He felt so good in her hand— “Tyler!”
He’d grabbed her hips in a fierce grip and hauled her onto his face. His tongue plunged right into her core, and she squeezed her eyes shut as the torrent of wild sensation slammed through her.
So good.
Too good.
So close.
Her mouth had opened because she was about to cry out, and she hurriedly closed her lips over the head of his cock.
He was licking her and thrusting his tongue against her, and she took as much of him into her mouth as she could. Her mouth was just as frantic on him as his was on her. His grip was unbreakable as he held her against him. The feelings pouring through her were too intense. Overwhelming. There was no control. No way for her to stop and?—
“Baby, get the fuck on me.”
His hands—careful—pulled her up and around. She straddled him. Dazed, her breath rushed out. His dick pushed at the entrance to her body. All she had to do was lift her hips, and she could take him inside.
All she wanted to do was lift her hips.
“Condom,” he bit out. “In my jeans…back pocket.”
She stared at him. When had he gotten a condom? At the hospital? Her heart raced so hard it shook her chest. “I’m protected. Clean bill of health.”
“I’ve never gone bare with anyone.”
Her breath shuddered. Did that mean he didn’t want to go bare right then?
“Only you. Take me the fuck inside.”
Her knees pushed into the mattress. She rose up, and then when she came down, Esme took him inside. He filled every single inch of her, and she couldn’t catch her breath, much less cry out. So intense. So powerful.
She sank down on him, then his steely grip around her waist lifted her up.
Down.
Up.
Her hands flattened on his powerful chest.
One of his hands left her waist. Rubbed her too sensitive clit even as his hips began to lift and shove in a rhythm too powerful to control. He heaved her up and down, the bed squeaked more, and, the people next door must hear them.
I don’t care.
Pleasure poured through her. A thunderous eruption that rocked every cell in her body. She would have screamed, but Tyler shot up at that moment. His mouth claimed hers. She came as he kissed her, and she felt him jetting into her at the same time. The release went on and on. Her inner muscles squeezed him as tightly as she could. He rolled with her on the bed. Put her beneath him. Just kept thrusting.
One climax ended.
Did another begin?
Because he got hard again. Stayed hard? She was dazed and desperate. Her body too sensitive and ready, and he just kept thrusting.
He caught her legs. Shoved them over his shoulders.
Kept thrusting.
She was coming. Still? Again?
Coming.
His gaze bored into hers.
He thrust and thrust.
Every single part of her felt marked by him.
Owned.
Did he feel the same way?
Sweat slickened his body.
His eyes never looked away from her.
And as pleasure broke again—impossibly, again—she stared into his eyes, and she didn’t scream, but she whispered her deepest, darkest secret, “ Je t’aime .”
I love you. She gave him that confession right before he slammed deep and came inside of her.
Kane saw the swirl of lights heading straight toward him. His hands tightened on the steering wheel of the Jeep. He knew trouble when it was rushing dead-on for him.
Especially because, as the swirl of those lights got closer, he saw that they were attached to a very familiar sheriff’s patrol car.
He kept driving.
Right until the moment the patrol car swerved into the middle of the road, blocking both lanes, blocking his path because tall trees were on either side of the old two-lane highway and going around the other vehicle wasn’t an option. Even as Kane slammed on the brakes, Clay was jumping out of the patrol car. Only Clay wasn’t alone. He had one of his junior deputies with him.
The deputy instantly pointed his gun at Kane.
Just freaking fantastic.
Clay rushed toward the driver’s side of the Jeep. He had his gun up, too. “Out of the vehicle!” Clay snarled. “And keep your hands where I can see them!”
Nodding, Kane climbed out of the vehicle. He kept his hands up and wasn’t the least bit surprised when the deputy barreled forward to pat him down. And to take Kane’s gun.
“He’s clear now,” the deputy said. Young, maybe only around twenty-one or twenty-two. With bright red hair. Nervous hands.
Kane never liked twitchy hands. They tended to accidentally fire weapons.
“Cuff him.” Clay kept his weapon pointed at Kane. Dead center on his chest. Now is that a friendly thing to do?
“You’re mad.” Kane nodded. “I did expect you to be a little pissed, considering how we parted ways. ”
“ Cuff. Him.”
The deputy grabbed Kane’s arms. Cuffed Kane’s hands behind his back.
“Good.” A grunt from Clay. “Now you take the Jeep back to town, Deputy Griffin.”
The deputy hesitated. “Aren’t we supposed to read him his rights?”
Yes, that was the typical way these sorts of situations should go.
“The jackass stole my Jeep! We caught him red-handed.”
The deputy still appeared uncertain. Maybe Kane could work with that uncertainty. “I borrowed it.” A careful clarification. “I was on my way to bring it back.” A shrug. “Friends let friends borrow their cars in emergencies.”
“Friends don’t pull fucking guns on friends!”
The deputy swallowed. His eyes could not get much bigger in size.
“Take the Jeep back to town,” Clay commanded him once more. “I’ll be right behind you with the prisoner.”
“Uh, shouldn’t I help you get him in the patrol car, at least?”
Kane’s shoulders stiffened.
“Yes.” Clay smiled at him. “Let’s put the prisoner in the back of my patrol car.”
“You’re holding a grudge.” Kane nodded. “I can respect that. I tend to be pretty vengeful myself.” Understatement of the century.
The kid deputy started shoving Kane toward the back of the patrol car. The indignity.
And there seemed to be no way out of the situation.
Fuck. They pushed him in the rear of the vehicle, behind the ancient cage because Asylum’s patrol cars were as old as dirt, and then the deputy slammed the door, sealing Kane inside.
Through the window, he watched as the deputy took the Jeep and drove it back toward Asylum. Clay stood in the middle of the road as the deputy vanished. When the deputy was no longer visible, Clay pulled out his phone and made a quick call.
Kane’s eyes narrowed. He couldn’t make out Clay’s low words. The conversation was short. Straight to the point.
Then Clay was headed for the patrol car. He climbed into the front seat. Cranked the car and got them out of the middle of the road. He didn’t drive far, though. Just turned the car…
Not in the direction of Asylum.
Instead, Clay began driving the patrol car… the way I just came.
“Never would have thought that you’d pull a gun on me,” Clay said. “Doesn’t friendship mean anything to you?”
It meant plenty. With people who were actually real friends. “You’re going the wrong way.”
“Friends don’t do that stuff. Friends look out for each other. They help each other.”
Sure. “Would it help if I said that I was coming back to apologize?”
“You were coming to check my alibi.”
That, too. He pulled against the handcuffs. Esme had sure shimmied out of her cuffs fast enough at the blast site. If only he’d gotten her to show him exactly how she pulled off that trick. “Can’t we talk about this?”
“ You pulled a gun on me. ”
“Not like I was gonna fire.”
“You think I’m guilty.” Anger seethed in his words.
Kane’s head turned as he watched the trees pass in a blur because Clay was driving far too fast. “Want to explain to me how you’re not guilty?”
“I’m helping a friend. Don’t you get that? I’m trying to protect Tyler. To save his life.”
Tread carefully. But Kane had never really been the careful type. He was more of a bulldozer. “You have no alibi, do you?”
No answer.
Hell. “Who did you just call on the phone, Clay?”
“Tyler is going to be all right. I made sure of it. He’ll be clear. She was the problem.”
His eyes closed. “You went back to gambling, didn’t you? Hard.” Gambling had always been Clay’s addiction of choice. No matter how much help they’d given him, Clay had gone back to the games again and again. He’d never seemed to get that some games could completely screw your world to hell and back.
“You don’t know what my life is like! Don’t you judge me.”
“Did Vanessa find out? Did she dump you because she couldn’t handle what you were doing?” He’d picked up whispers of gossip about them in town. About how Clay kept wanting to make things official, but Vanessa was delaying.
“Vanessa doesn’t know. Leave her out of this.”
Clay slowed a bit—finally—but just so he could turn the vehicle. To the right. The tires still screeched. Kane tensed. How had Clay known to take this path?
“I’m a sheriff, dumbass. You think I didn’t have my own car secured? That I couldn’t track it every moment? I could see exactly where you took my ride. I knew when you stopped long enough to let Tyler and Esme out. I know where they are. ”
Kane strained against the cuffs. “You already gave up their location.” That had been what the short and sweet phone call was about.
“We’re going to be met at their motel. Esme will be taken into custody.”
“Custody?” What bullshit! “She’s already in the custody of a U.S. Marshal! She’s in Tyler’s custody!” He twisted and strained and couldn’t get out of the freaking cuffs.
“Tyler is compromised. I could see it when he looked at her. She has him under her spell.”
“She isn’t a fucking witch!”
“He will do whatever she says. Believe any lies she tells him.” Clay’s voice deepened. “I can’t let her spread those lies. I was just doing what I was supposed to do.”
Kane stopped struggling. “When?”
“Everything will be all right. Tyler’s safety has been guaranteed. It’s just Esme who needs to vanish.”
“When were you doing what you were supposed to do? Now? You’re following orders now? Or did you do something in the past?”
No response.
“You did,” Kane charged. “You’ve been on the take for a long time, haven’t you?”
“I was following orders. Just like you. When our team had a mission, we completed that mission. Collateral damage happens.”
Ice poured through his veins. “You were in Paris.” The day that haunted Kane.
“We were all in Paris.”
“You didn’t run into the café with us.” He remembered this. At the time, he’d just thought that Clay had been shell-shocked because Clay had never seen a detonation up close. He just made things explode from a distance. But the things that were supposed to explode? Not people. Munitions stockpiles. Stolen vehicles. Even a tank once. They had never, ever sent Clay out with a target on a person. Those hadn’t been the type of orders they received.
Unless Clay had been getting different orders.
A heavy stillness stole over Kane. “You blew up that café, didn’t you?”
“There was a CIA double-agent inside. If he’d gotten away, a lot of people would have died.”
He surged toward the cage. “People did die that day! And you didn’t help! You stayed outside while I ran in with Tyler. You watched! ”
“I had to make sure he didn’t get out. Louis Turner was a very dangerous man. I was supposed to watch the front to make sure he didn’t get out— and he never came out the front! ”
I’m staring at a very dangerous man. “Who did you talk to on the phone? Who did you call, Clay?”
No response.
“Your boss? The same person who told you to blow that café to hell and back?”
“I didn’t set that bomb in Paris—” Clay stopped. “You don’t understand.”
Then make me understand.
Clay made another turn. The SOB knew exactly where to go. “I came home after Paris. I was promised that my past would be erased. No one would ever know…But there are some things you can’t forget. I would see that scene in my head, over and over.”
“Yet you just tried to blow up one of your closest friends! You tried to kill Tyler, so don’t give me that BS and act like you’re some traumatized victim! ”
Clay slammed on the brakes. The patrol car screeched to a halt. He whipped around and glared through the old cage. “I was trying to get the evidence back.”
What evidence?
“I couldn’t find it. I didn’t have time to search longer, so I blew up the safe house.” He snapped his fingers. “Evidence destroyed, just like that. And I made sure Tyler got out of the house. I waited until I saw him running on the porch before I detonated. I knew he’d come busting out of the home as soon as he saw the wreckage I’d left during my search. He was never in danger. Never. I wouldn’t kill a friend.”
But you would kill plenty of other people, wouldn’t you? “What about Esme? Would you kill her?”
“I won’t be the one who pulls the trigger.” Clay turned back around to face the front of the vehicle.
No, you just plan to deliver her to the highest bidder. “Seven million dollars can buy a whole lot of things, can’t it?”
Clay was driving again. “Yes. It can even buy a person a brand-new life.”
And, in the process, it could absolutely destroy someone else’s life. “Hey, Clay?”
“Yeah?”
“Hate to break this to you, but we’re not fucking friends anymore.”
A low laugh. “Figured that out…right when you pointed a gun at me.”