When one hand slipped away down to her hip, she crashed back down onto the bed and opened her arms. But his mouth came down and suckled one of her nipples, almost drawing the breast deep into his mouth. She moaned, feeling an answering impulse in her lower abdomen. He did the same for the other one, until she writhed in his arms. She reached down then, her hands sliding up and down his hips to grasp him in her hand. He shuddered, and she stroked him ever-so-gently up and then slowly down.
And suddenly that was too much for him, and he shifted her thighs wide and slid into position. She moaned as he lowered his head in a beeline from between her breasts and down to her navel and all the way to her curls. When she felt his tongue on her sensitive nub, she came off the bed, crying out. He came racing back up and lifted her hips, and, with his gaze locked on hers, he slid deep inside. She shuddered, feeling her body stretch to accept him.
When he was finally there, he whispered, “Are you okay?”
She nodded and said, “It’s been so long.”
He lowered himself over her and held her head with his hands, his fingers sliding into her hair, cupping her head. Then he started to move.
She wrapped her arms around him and hung on for the ride. With her hips completely overwhelmed at the movement, her body naturally moved. He pounded into her in a rhythm as old as time. She wrapped her legs tight around his hips and shifted her body. And there, that one spot just had her body shuddering. She cried out and arched her back, but he rode her through it and kept on driving for his own pleasure, inciting yet another wave as another orgasm built within.
She was still gasping when he shuddered above her. His own voice got her rolling deep, and she held him close and as he spilled himself into her. Her own climax sent her over the edge, and she cried out for a third time. Her body was shaking and trembling. She couldn’t even stop it. She didn’t know what was going on, but it was a reaction to so much pleasure.
He made a startled exclamation and rolled over, then pulled her tight against him and whispered, “Are you okay?”
She shuddered a few more times, then opened her eyes and whispered, “Never better. But, dear God, that was intense.”
He kissed her again, long and deep, and whispered, “We’ve probably used up all of our spare time.”
She moaned. “Now I really don’t want to go downstairs.”
“Are you embarrassed?” he asked, his brows coming together.
She snorted. “Hell no. I just want to stay here and do that all over again.”
After a quick wash and getting dressed, Nico stood beside her, still napping in bed. He kissed her gently and said, “Come down when you feel like it.”
She gave him a finger wave and said, “I’ll have a shower first.”
Nico walked down the stairs ten minutes later to see Keane sitting at the laptop.
Keane looked up, smiled, and said, “Have a good night?”
“The best,” he said with a tactical agreement between them not to mention the last hour. He was perfectly aware that her cries had been much less than muted. He walked over and said, “Are you ready for coffee?”
“Hell yes.”
He heard another man coming downstairs and assumed it was Joshua.
When Joshua entered in jeans and a T-shirt and slumped onto a kitchen chair, he said, “I’m a little lost, trying to figure out what to do in my civilian life again. I feel like I could sleep for days.”
“How long were you under this last time?”
“Two years.”
“And do you even want to go back under?” Keane asked. “It’s not the easiest of lives.”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “It’s something I’ll have to consider. It’s hard to meet anybody when you’re living a lie. Not exactly the way I would want to have a relationship.”
“No,” Nico said. “That’s the worst. And yet, when you’re doing the job, how can you not? It’s lonely already. Did you leave anybody behind?”
“I did, and she’ll be devastated.”
“And how are you feeling?”
“I’d go back in a heartbeat,” he said. “But I know that it can’t be.”
“Can you get her out?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. And I’m not sure it’s fair to her. That’s the world she knows. This would be a very different one.”
At that point, Charlotte walked in. “But, if she’s not given a choice,” she said, “you don’t know what her reaction would be.”
“True, but I don’t have that option,” Joshua said. He smiled at his sister. “You look better.”
“I feel it too,” she said brightly.
Nico studied her face, and she did look much less exhausted and almost refreshed. But then good lovemaking would do that. “I hope you don’t mind that I put on coffee.”
“Good,” she said, “because I could use a cup myself.” She sat down at the table and said, “Please tell me that somebody has a plan for today.”
“At the moment, we’re feeling a little bit at loose ends on some of it,” Keane offered.
“Not sure yet,” Nico said. “I’m waiting for a different answer too.”
She looked over at him. “Why? What answer?”
“That comment you made about the smokers last night,” he said.
“Right,” she said. “But I don’t know who that other man was.”
“And you can’t give us a description of him?”
“No,
