Formula for Danger, page 21
part #6 of The Phoenix Agency Series
He filled two crystal goblets and, holding them carefully, stepped into the tub behind her and eased down into place. He slid his hard, muscular legs between hers so she sat again spread open, the water bubbling over her aching pussy. His rigid shaft pressed against the crease of her buttocks, the feeling so erotic the aching in her sex increased in its intensity.
“Time for wine,” he told her, nudging her to move one hand and close her fingers around the stem of the glass. When she had it in a secure grip, he touched the rim of his own goblet to hers. “To us, darlin’. To a successful experiment, and to ridding ourselves of the bad guys.”
“I wish,” she said.
“It will happen.” He placed a light kiss on her shoulder. “And to the next several hours where we think of nothing but pleasuring each other.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “I can certainly get on board with that.”
He took a deep swallow of his wine, set the glass on the ledge, and massaged her shoulders while she sipped her own drink. He knew exactly where to place his fingers and how hard to press to ease the tension that had her muscles as tight as ropes of rawhide. She sipped her champagne as her muscles began to soften and relax with his expert ministrations, only to be replaced by another kind of tension. Her clit still tingled from his touch, and the place deep inside her where her orgasm began hummed with need.
“Touch me,” she begged, pressing her thighs against his.
“I am touching you. Here.” He pressed his lips to her nape, the soft kisses like the touch of a live wire. “And here.” He skimmed his mouth over her shoulder. “And here.” He trailed his fingers down her arms.
“You know what I want.” She trembled as need and anticipation built.
“And you’ll get it. But not until you tell me.”
She leaned her head back, holding the wine out carefully. “But you’re the one who usually does all the talking.”
He lightly nipped her neck. “Maybe I want to change things up a little. So tell me, darlin’. Where do you want me to touch you?”
She took a long swallow of her wine, letting the crisp flavor burst on her tongue and the soothing effect ease through her body. Then she closed her eyes and exhaled a slow breath.
“Between my legs. I want you to touch my . . . between my legs. Please.”
“With pleasure.”
He reached his hand down between her thighs to find that throbbing button. The moment he touched it, electricity zipped through her veins and ignited her nerve endings.
“More,” she begged.
And he gave her more, rubbing and pinching and squeezing until he drove her right to the edge. Then, without warning, he shifted their bodies and positioned them so one of the jets spurted directly into her.
“Ohhh!”
The sensation was exquisite, the pressure of the water like a million fingers on her primed flesh. Cole pinched her clit hard and bit down on the tender lobe of her ear, and she exploded. Her body jerked against his, his arm banded around her the only thing holding her in place. She was breathless when the spasms subsided but still not satisfied. She wanted him inside her. She wanted his cock to fill her.
“Not yet.” His deep chuckle told her he knew exactly what she wanted.
He reached for the wine bottle to refill her glass, then plucked a strawberry from the plate and held it to her lips.
“You’re going to torture me, right?” she joked, when she’d swallowed the last bite.
“Not torture,” he told her in a husky tone of voice. “Call it extending the pleasure. When I’m done with you tonight, the last thing you’ll be thinking of is black auras and nasty, evil people.”
“Promises, promises,” she whispered.
He held her against him while she slowly drank her wine, feeding her more strawberries one small taste at a time and idly plucking at her aching nipples. Heat streaked to her core. His hard, thick cock prodding her ass made her want him even more. When her glass was empty, he took it from her fingers and set it aside.
“We’ll save the rest for later. Good sense says to limit alcohol in a spa or hot tub, and I want you primed.”
“I think I’m already primed.” She gave a breathless chuckle.
“Not yet, but you will be. I promise you.”
Shifting her from her position on his lap, he urged her forward onto her hands and knees, the warm water bubbling around her shoulders and neck. Cole’s expert massage and the two glasses of wine had definitely taken the edge off, but the orgasm had been a dual-edged sword. As much as it had satisfied her, it left her wanting more.
When he lazily rubbed and squeezed the cheeks of her bottom, the unsatisfied urge screaming deep inside her yelled all the louder. It didn’t help when he ran the tips of his fingers up and down the length of the crease between those globes, stopping briefly each time at the small puckered opening. As his fingertips made contact with it, bolts of lust shot through her, her inner walls clenching and contracting.
“You’re driving me nuts.” She barely recognized her own voice, thick with erotic hunger.
“Good.” His voice was as rough with need as hers. “That’s the idea. Focus only on what I’m doing and forget about everything else.”
The strokes too gentle, too soft, she pushed back at him, urging him with her body to press harder, to slide his fingers inside her, but the more she silently pleaded, the more he teased.
“Cole.” Her voice shook.
“Right now, darlin’. But first I think it’s time to get out of the tub.”
He pushed the button to turn off the jets and flipped the lever for the drain with his foot. As if she were a baby, he rose with her in his arms, stepped carefully out onto the wide bath mat, and set her down long enough to wrap a thick fluffy towel around her. Very gently he dried her off, making sure he’d gotten every drop of water. He left the towel wrapped around her while he took barely seconds to dry himself off. Tossing both towels aside, he picked her up and strode with her into the bedroom. In seconds, he had the covers pulled back, the pillows bunched together, and arranged her gently on the bed.
“B-but you didn’t. . . you haven’t . . .” she stammered.
“Don’t worry. I don’t plan to miss out. But this is all about you.” He brought the wine and strawberries back into the bedroom and arranged them by the bed for easy access before climbing in beside her. “And we have plenty of time.”
They spent the afternoon in lazy hedonism, slowly drinking the crisp white wine and feeding each other the fruit. Cole played her body like a finely tuned instrument, which, by the time it began to get dark, it certainly felt like. Every nerve hummed, every pulse throbbed, and need consumed her with a raging hunger. When she was sure she couldn’t stand it one moment longer, he finally rolled on a condom, knelt between her thighs, and drove into her with one swift roll of his hips.
His thick length filled her as it always did, taking up every inch of space. He paused, locking his gaze with hers, his dark espresso eyes heated with desire.
“I love you.” The words came out in a husky voice, filled with emotion.
Without waiting for her to respond he began to move, steady strokes increasing in pace, his cock dragging against every nerve in the walls of her sex. Harder and harder he thrust into her, his eyes locked with hers. JL wrapped her legs around him to lock their bodies together.
They rode the wave together, hit the crest and tumbled down the other side. Cole’s arms tightened around her, and he buried his face in her neck, dragging air into his lungs. JL held on tightly as her heart rate finally slowed and she could relax enough to unwind her legs from him.
His breathing slowed at last, Cole looked into her eyes and smiled.
“I don’t know about you, but I think we could make good use of that unbelievable shower in there, and then order something from room service a little more substantial than the strawberries, no matter how good they are.”
“That gets my vote for sure.” She lifted her face to brush her mouth over his. “But I’m not sure I can walk to the shower.”
He laughed as he lifted her from the bed and carried her to the other room.
She hugged him, burying her face against him as he turned the shower on and adjusted the spray. “Thank you, Cole. For everything. For planning all this. For the pampering and the . . . the . . .”
“Spectacular sex?” He grinned.
“That, too.” She curved her lips in a tiny smile. “It was exactly what I needed. All of it.”
He threaded his fingers into her hair and tipped her head back. “It was entirely my pleasure.”
“I’m doing what you suggested.” JL looked up at Cole, who watched over her shoulder. “Sending emails. No phone calls.” She shuddered. “I don’t think I want to speak to any of them ever again.”
“Not even the hottie from Argentina?” He grinned. “I thought all women wanted a Latin lover.”
She twisted her lips in a gesture of disgust. “He’s not hot, and I’ve got my own lover, thank you. I want to be rid of them once and for all. Here. What do you think? I’ll personalize it but send the same message to each of them.”
She shifted in her chair a bit so Cole had a better view of her computer screen.
Thank you so much for your interest in my current project. I enjoyed lunching with you and discussing your possible involvement, but I am going to have to refuse your most generous offer. At this time, I have no intention of changing my situation. I have made a commitment to the Cattlemen’s Association, and I am a person who honors my commitments. I’m sure you can understand the importance of that.
I appreciate your interest, and I’m sure the association will be in touch with you when the project is complete and we have a product for sale.
Again, thank you for your interest.
J. L. Mitchell
“Polite, brief, and to the point,” Cole said. “I have a feeling, however, this won’t be the last we’re hearing from them.”
Her stomach knotted. “You don’t think they’ll give up?”
He snorted. “Not even a little. I don’t know as much about Thiago Cervantes as I do about Cass Grigsby and Damon Horner, but he fits right in with them. These are not nice people, sweetheart. They’re used to getting their way, and they don’t like being told no.”
She slumped back in the chair. “You’re right. I’ve never seen so much black around people in my life.”
“I’m going to call Dan and ask him to have the company that set the security here come out and check it again. And I want to talk to the guards. Let them know we might be in for some trouble.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You think they’ll actually try to break in here?”
Cole shrugged. “I wouldn’t put anything past these people. It never hurts to be on the alert.”
“Well, then.” She copied and pasted the message into three separate emails. When she’d hit Send on the last one, she turned back to Cole. “Now what?”
“Now we do everything possible to protect you and the lab. And I put Andy on the trail of the three assholes and see if they do anything the Dragon can track.”
“Andy? Isn’t some of the stuff he does illegal?”
Cole laughed. “Not nearly as illegal as what these jackasses might do. Come on. Let’s shut down for a while. Miles’s gone to lunch. We should do the same.”
The emails arrived simultaneously in all three in-boxes, eliciting similar reactions.
“Fucking shit,” Horner swore as he stared at the screen. “Goddamn fucking shit.”
Leo Guerra studied his boss. “I gather the news isn’t good.”
“A fucking understatement.” He swiveled in his chair and picked up a cigar. “That goddamn bitch. She won’t get away with this.”
Guerra snorted. “What do you plan to do? Shooting her won’t accomplish anything. You’d be killing the goose that can lay the golden egg. Locking her up until she changes her mind ought to work just as well.”
“Shut up. I need to think about this a minute. I’ll tell you this: if we can’t get that formula, no one else is going to have it, either.”
“Damon.” Leo tamped down his anxiety. He had never seen his boss this anxious, or this desperate. Yes, that was the word for it. Desperate.
“Hold your water. We have a lot of options here. I need to be careful to choose the right one.” Horner narrowed his eyes at the other man. “Tell me again about your flyover.”
Guerra shrugged. “I told you before. The ranch is very large. The steel building is at the farthest corner of the spread. I think they may be bringing in aircraft because there’s a fresh runway that’s been laid down. And they’re working on something at the very edge of that acreage. Maybe a shooting range? Still too soon to tell.”
“Fuck. Damn fuck.”
“What?” Guerra lifted an eyebrow.
“That’s going to turn into a bigger operation than I thought at first. These Phoenix people are dangerous.” He gave Guerra a sly smile. “But not more dangerous than I am. I’ve gotten around people like them before.”
“Don’t underestimate them, Damon. That could come back to hurt you.”
Horner snapped the cigar between his thick fingers and tossed the remains in the wastebasket in disgust. “I need to think. Get out of here for now. I’ll call you when I decide what to do. But be ready for whatever I need.”
Cassandra Grigsby tightened her graceful hands into fists as she read the email for the third time. Then, in a fit of rage, she picked up the crystal paperweight from her desk and threw it across the room. It banged against the door as it opened, nearly beaning Gene Dempsey. He ducked, then bent to pick up the object and carried it back to her.
“You chipped it,” he told her.
“I wish it was that bitch’s head.”
Gene lifted his shoulders in a casual shrug. “I take it she called and gave you a polite ‘thanks, but no thanks’?”
“She didn’t even bother to call,” Cassandra spat out. “Just sent me an email that basically says go away and don’t bother me.” She glared at him. “I’ll ruin her.”
He laughed. “Cass, if you do, she won’t be able to finish working on her formula. What good would that do?”
“I know, I know. You’re right. But she makes me so damn mad.” She looked across the desk at Gene. “I want that formula. And even more, I don’t want Damon Horner or anyone else to get it.”
“And exactly how do you plan to accomplish that? You’ve done about all you can do short of kidnapping her and forcing her to work at gunpoint.”
She grunted. “Don’t tempt me.” She tapped her carefully manicured nails on the top of her desk, looking at Gene but not really seeing him. Her brain worked at warp speed.
“I need another plan,” she said at last.
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Like—I’m not ready to say anything yet.” Tap, tap, tap. “But I have a couple of ideas. How dirty are you willing to get your hands to grab this pot of gold?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think I’d like going to jail. Why?”
“Go on back to your office while I figure this out. But I’m telling you, this battle is far from over.”
In his hotel room, Thiago was not faring much better.
“Tomas, I did everything we discussed,” he protested. “This woman does not budge. Period.”
“Then you will have to find a way around her.” Tomas’s voice was laced with rage. “I will not lose out on this.”
Thiago gripped his cell phone tightly. His brother’s wrath was not to be taken lightly. “You would not have been able to get a different result, I promise you.”
“Bullshit!” The word exploded across the connection. “I knew I should have come myself.”
“And done what?” Thiago’s own temper rose. “Forced her to agree at gunpoint? Kidnapped her and held her prisoner until she agreed to work for us?”
“I am positive I could have done a better job of convincing her of the advantages of working with us.”
“Then maybe you should get on a plane and do exactly that.” Thiago’s patience thinned. “Let’s see what you can do.”
An uncomfortable silence hummed across the connection.
“Tomas?”
“I agree you’ve done all you can do,” his brother said at last. “I’ll take it from here.”
The line went dead. Thiago shoved his phone back in his pocket, his stomach clenched as unease gripped his body. Whatever Tomas planned, it would not be good.
The sun had long ago set, and darkness had pulled its shroud over the town of Clayton. Like other similar small towns in cattle country, with the fading of daylight, most of the activity died. Feed Me, the last spot of activity on Main Street, had finally closed for the night. With everything shut up tight, there were also no cars or trucks anywhere on the street. The artistic streetlights gave off a faint amber glow, barely enough to illuminate anything. And there were none on the side streets.
Leo Guerra gave silent thanks for that. He didn’t want to be here to begin with. Horner’s idea was so wild-ass crazy it could get them all in trouble. But he owed the man a lot, so he’d agreed to this stupidity. Maybe he’d be lucky enough to pull it off.
Yeah, and maybe I’ll inherit a million bucks.
Once off the main thoroughfare, nothing would give away his presence. He cruised down Main Street one more time to check for idiots taking a stroll this late at night. They were all in bed, or at least in their homes. It was midnight, for fuck’s sake. With the town empty, there was no one to pay any attention as he turned onto a side street and coasted to a stop. An alley ran behind a row of six businesses separated by a parking area from the lab where J. L. Mitchell worked her magic, pissing Damon Horner off.
Guerra turned off his lights and forced himself to sit still in the cab of his truck, counting off five minutes to be sure no one popped out unexpectedly. He’d learned a long time ago surprises weren’t necessarily good.
About to open the door of the truck cab, he saw another vehicle, an SUV, head down Main Street, moving nearly as slowly as he had. What dumb shit was out cruising this late at night? He again forced himself to wait until he saw the car turn and the lights disappear. He lifted his binoculars to see whether he could catch anything past the lab, but wherever the vehicle headed, it wasn’t here. He hoped.
