Cyber Seduction: Across A Crowded Room (IATO Series Book 3)
Read Cyber Seduction: Across A Crowded Room (IATO Series Book 3) Online
Authors: Eliza March,Elizabeth Marchat
Cyber Seduction, Book 3
– Emily and Jason barely escape Monte Carlo with their identities intact after retrieving the nanotech chip, and then once again Jason distances himself from Emily. The continued plan includes enticing Mosel to follow Emily back to Washington, DC where they expect him to meet with the terrorists and their contact. The danger to her escalates but it’s imperative they uncover the mole in their agency.
The tables turn on Jason and Emily when he risks everything to get the answers he’s been looking for and is captured. Emily takes a risk and enlists Mosel’s help to save him. As the story unravels, convoluted secrets from the past surface, expose old guilt and childish misconceptions, and finally shed light on old nightmares.
Innocence Lost, Book 1
- While working with the secret International Anti-Terrorist Organization, privately referred to as IATO, agent Jason DesJardin survives the deadly explosion that seriously injures his partner, Harrison James and kills his mentor, Senior Agent Avery Holmes. After discovering evidence of a mole in the organization, Jason goes deep undercover to find the man behind the kill order. Guilt, a dark secret from his past, and the need to protect Avery’s daughter, prevents Jason from returning to Emily and exposing her to the dangerous elements of his job. Instead of being with her, he watches and guards her from a distance, refusing to accept that rejecting her hurts both of them.
Emily is ready to prove she’s stronger than Jason realizes. Accepting the man she loves is alive and avoiding her is not an option. She’s determined to finish her training with her father’s black ops organization, IATO, find the answers haunting her past, and once and for all, prove she can take care of herself. When she discovers ties between the old car bombing that killed her father and the terrorists she’s investigating, she finagles an assignment on to Jason’s team and their next IATO mission. She will get the stolen nanotech chip back from the arms dealer looking to broker the secret technology to the terrorists and investigate the contact to her father’s death.
The Monte Carlo Affair, Book 2
- The balance of world power drops into Emily’s inexperienced hands, and she is forced to play a dangerous game of seduction with Mosel Reinhardt, the notorious international arms dealer, while her team and Jason look on. Is Reinhardt peddling the nanotech chip technology, or are Emily’s instincts about him correct?
The mission heats up when Jason finds he can no longer resist her—his old friend’s daughter, the agency computer genius has gone femme fatale and she’s too hot for him to handle, and neither can Mosel. The man who’s never cared about anyone or anything actually seems to care about Emily. After years of waiting to have her again, the tables turn on Jason. He’s unwilling to share her with anyone, let alone his oldest rival, even for the mission. But will he be able to watch her seduce Mosel in order to find her father’s killer and stop the madness? Would she stop if he asked her?
Genre:
Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
CYBER SEDUCTION: IATO
ACROSS A CROWDED ROOM Book 3
Copyright © 2011 by Eliza March
First Edition Publication: March 2011
Second Edition Publication: May 2016
Cover design by Eliza March
All cover art and logo copyright © 2016
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER: WP Sevilla
DEDICATION
To anyone whose gaze once locked and connected with another’s across a crowded room, especially if the memory still brings a smile to your lips and an extra beat to your heart. This story’s for you...
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I’d like to acknowledge all my family, friends, and colleagues who supported my dream of seeing this book reach print. “Across A Crowded Room” was the first full-length manuscript I ever completed. It’s the one most authors stick under the bed, never to see the light of day. And believe me, it’s been there on and off over the years. But Jason’s and Emily’s story held a special place in my heart, and I wanted it told. I rewrote, reviled, cursed, and edited the book within an inch of my life, and twelve or more revisions later, I believe it has finally become a book any author would be proud to share with her readers. I hope when you come to the words, “The End,” you’ll agree it was well worth the read. And now the stories from International Ant-Terrorist Organization will continue.
Once inside her own place, Emily took a deep breath, leaned against the closed door, and sighed. The weariness from the tension began to set in almost immediately. She couldn’t move. Her knees were like jelly. Watching Jason check out the apartment, his gun in his hand, she wasn’t sure the weakness she experienced was a result of the evening’s events, or his effect on her. Just watching him, so unruffled, made her ache for him all over again.
Braced against the door, not sure she could accommodate the offer she was about to make, Emily asked, “So, do you want anything?”
“You better rephrase that offer if you don’t want to end up on your back, right here, right now.”
“Something to drink? Or eat?”
“Oh.” Jason had just finished checking the bedroom and small bathroom when he heard Emily’s offer. She was killing him.
Cautiously, before he turned to glance at Emily over his shoulder, he took a deep breath. Being alone with her set off all sorts of alarms in his head. This time, what would he use as an excuse? He turned and exhaled. When he saw her exhausted expression, his attitude switched from sex to concern. Emily was moments from collapse.
“Down, boy,” he thought to himself. Now wasn’t the time to jump her bones. She was dead on her feet and her dress was split to her navel. He’d done that, but he didn’t want to think about it right now. Everything except Emily could wait.
He walked over to her, slowly taking her around the waist. His first instinct was to support her, but when the sensation of her nearness and scent surrounded him, he brought his arms around her and held her for his own satisfaction. At first she shivered in his arms, and then she relaxed against him. Up to this point, she must have been operating on pure adrenaline. Running his hands over her shoulders, his face buried in her hair, Jason kept reminding himself she wasn’t used to this intrigue. Computers were her specialty, nice, safe computers.
He lifted his lips from her forehead and stared down at her, saying, “Thanks, I could use a chilled glass of wine. How about you? Just point me in the right direction. I’m capable of finding my way around your kitchen while you get cleaned up.”
“There’re several bottles in the wine cooler. Pick whatever you like.” She told him where the glasses were as he led her into the bedroom.
“A nice warm bath will do you a world of good. Go ahead, get the kinks out, and I’ll go scrounge up the food and that wine while you relax. I’ll help you get your stuff together later.”
Jason turned on the tub water and lit the rose-scented candles sitting on the ledge before he went into the kitchen to pour the wine. He returned, handed her a glass, and then left her to herself. He didn’t trust himself to let her relax. If he stayed a second longer, they’d both be in that tub, and he was sure there would be no relaxing going on.
“That bath never looked so enticing. A nice soak is all I need.” Emily dragged her hand through the bubbles and looked at the steaming tub like it was a life line.
“Enjoy the ambiance while I see to dinner.” Jason chuckled, turned without looking back, and closed the door behind him.
Emily ached all over, but mostly with desire. The very fiber of her being still reached out for him as she took the scrap of what was left of her dress from her shoulders, dropped it to the floor, and stepped into the fragrant water.
She couldn’t stop craving him, the feel of his hands, his scent, his heat. Her body screamed for more. Even though the discomfort from the evening’s adventures ran from tip to toe, she still wanted more. The hot bubbling water felt wonderful all over her sensitive skin.
She slipped farther down in the tub, realizing she had developed an insatiable sexual appetite for this man as well as rekindled her old emotional need for him. During certain moments tonight, he seemed to demonstrate similar feelings toward her. Was it possible he felt the same way?
Emily lathered the washcloth with the fragrant soap—something sandalwoodsy and rosemaryish. She giggled. Were those even words? Maybe not, but they were two conflicting scents, both invigorating and relaxing at the same time. As she scrubbed her body with the strange herbal mixture, she thought of the similarity between the fragrant soap and the vibes Jason gave off. The inner turmoil she felt began to subside a little, even though his conflicting behavior confused her.
For many years, he’d tried to play the older brother role, and he could be just as annoying as one, too. Between Jason and her father, the few times in high school when she’d tried to date, the poor guys were too intimidated to ask her out a second time. Coming to the house once was usually enough.
She put her head in her hands thinking about tonight. “Brotherly?” Definitely not tonight. That “brother” thing ended long ago. It had never worked for her, anyway. She spent night after night and year after year mooning over him like a star-struck teenager. Hell, she was a teenager then, what was her excuse now? She thought back to when he came home the weekend before his graduation from Annapolis, dressed up in his white Naval uniform. Even thinking back now, she felt a tingle of warmth flowing through her. She was so thrilled when he admitted he’d missed her and he spun her around in his arms. Jason wasn’t usually that demonstrative. In fact, he even seemed surprised at himself that day. He was out of the country a lot after that.
Lazing back in the tub, Emily couldn’t keep a smile off her lips. Ah, the
coup de gras.
Her best friends in high school, Liz and Amy, lived off the encounter of Jason kissing her smack on the mouth for a week. And she lived off it for years.
She considered the reason for her inability to gauge him. Too many times, he’d acted like a complete jerk, as if being in her presence was unbearable. So typically male, he remained aloof, almost cold to her in the presence of others. As she got older, there was no time for the old wrestling, hugging, or touching. The hug and buss in front of her friends was the last time they touched. Well, until the night she seduced him.
His arrogant, distant attitude stopped when he asked her to join this mission. He treated her in a professional, respectful manner at all times while they investigated the possibility of infiltrating the complex she robbed today. She was part of a team, his team. A year of groundwork had been laid for tonight’s heist before he’d brought her on board.
The knock on the door brought Emily back to the present. She jumped at the sound of his voice.
“Isn’t that water cooling off?” Without hesitating, Jason stepped into the bathroom, holding the huge bath sheet out for her. He wrapped her in his arms as he enveloped her in the towel, and she sank into the security of his embrace with a sense of being home at last, even if only for a moment.
He briefly brushed his lips across her forehead, his voice rough again. “Hungry?”
“Mmm, starved.”
“Come on, I’ll feed you.”
Jason had transformed the dining room area into what appeared to be an intimate setting. The small table was set, and her sterile looking dining area looked completely altered into a warm bistro. Candles provided a muted light, dancing over and enhancing the colors of the plants she had scattered around the room. “Wow!”
“Champagne?” Jason asked, handing her a fluted glass.
Emily stood dumbfounded, puzzled. “Where did this come from? How long was I asleep in the tub? I feel like Rip Van Winkle.” She glanced down at her hands to confirm her statement. “If I was in there that long, as long as all this should have taken to prepare, I would be more waterlogged than I am.” She eyed him suspiciously. “I know I didn’t have champagne in this apartment when I left this evening.”
Jason kept moving around her kitchen, bringing things into the dining area as he moved from one room to the other. “I sent Harrison for a few things.
“Well, I’m starving and, whatever this is, it smells heavenly.” Emily moved to sit down at the table. The towel Jason had wrapped her in was still in her one hand, the champagne glass in the other. She dropped the towel to the floor and placed the fluted glass on the table so she could adjust the robe she threw on, on the way out of the bathroom.
Then she picked at the plate in front of her, stabbing a small piece of food from the top. The sauce covering what appeared to be some sort of seafood crepe was delicious. Emily inspected the other food with interest. As she investigated, she waited for Jason to sit. When he didn’t, she looked up. He stood staring, watching her lick the sauce from her finger. He had the champagne bottle gripped by the neck, his knuckles white with pressure, a dark, hungry look on his face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he grumbled, turning his back to her.
“Spit it out.”
“You’re killing me here,” he admitted.
She raised a brow at him.
“I want you so much.” He shrugged. “I have a lot to make up for, including my earlier bumbling attempt at making love to you. You should have a soft mattress to lie on. I want you naked beneath me without the bugs, dirt, and spectators.”
She frowned. “Right, the spectators. I sure could have done without them.”
“But you’re hungry and tense and exhausted, and I’m such a bastard.” Jason shook his head as if to clear it. Only after his speech did he chance glancing back at her. His concentration refocused on her mouth, and she finished seductively licking her fingers.
“I’m just being selfish.” His voice went gravelly, but a hopeful expression crossed his face.
The statement sent every thought of food from her mind when she saw the expression on his face. She sucked on her finger and thought of tasting him. The smoldering look Jason gave her quickly took her mind off the table and set her body on fire.
She ran her tongue over her lips, stood up, and dropped the robe from her shoulders as she approached him slowly. “I’m not that hungry right now, for food, that is. It’s you I want to dine on.” She wiggled her finger in his direction. “Come here, I’m naked.” She looked around. “Now, where’s that bed?”
Jason devoured her naked body with his eyes. When she got close enough, he moved up against her so he could resort to using his hands and mouth. “How did my skinny little angel turn into this?” he asked, and handed her the bottle of champagne.
She squealed when the cold pressed against her breast, and he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, whispering in her ear, “It would be a shame to let the champagne go flat. We’ll have plenty of uses for it tonight.”
She was so hot by the time he dripped some of the chilled bubbling liquid over her breasts, she only gasped from relief, imagining the steam rising from her body as it dripped down her breasts. His mouth and tongue soon followed, but she wanted to see him, touch him. “Take off your clothes, now. I want to look at you, it’s my turn.”
Jason shook his head and held her wrists, stilling her roaming hands. “Not this time. I want this to last, and if you touch me it’ll be over way too fast.” A sound like a low growl rumbled from his chest. “No control around you. Remember? Do it my way now, then we’ll try your way, later, okay?”
She wasn’t having it all his way. “Jason, please take your clothes off before I rip them off you.”
Emily felt out of control, and Jason still had both her hands pinned over her head pressed into the pillow. The sensation of his rough clothes against her sensitive skin felt arousing and sensuous.
“Okay,” he relented. “But don’t move.”
Emily acquiesced, unable to breathe while she watched him peel the clothes away, layer by layer, down to his tan flesh. Rippling muscles and broad, thick shoulders flexed as he moved. Her gaze followed each movement and then slipped lower, tracing a faint darkened line of hair leading to his groin, and his jutting cock.
Oh, wow!
She’d never seen him naked before, not fully anyway. He’d bulked up into a man in three years. Her imagination had never pictured anything like this. He was a vision, magnificent in all his powerful male beauty as he climbed on the bed and straddled her.
Jason smoothed her hair around her face, spreading it over the pillow. The tenderness made her tremble with expectation. Then he took her right hand and brought it to her breast, positioning her thumb and forefinger at her own nipple. She did as he directed, unable to move, and then she smiled, not daring to remove her hands from where he had placed them on her body. She wouldn’t chance ending this too soon as she examined his completely aroused body.
He manipulated her fingers in his as he brought his mouth down to her other breast and licked. She arched her back, reaching toward him, shuddering as he teased her nipple. In her stimulated state she probably would have preferred taking this hard and fast, but he seemed content to drive her crazy with a slow deliberate assault. She twitched.
“No, don’t move. You agreed. Stay right where I put you.” And then he touched her knees, gently separating them until she opened to his view.
Oh, God.
She should be embarrassed, but she wanted him to see what he did to her, see how she craved him.
He cupped her, slipping two fingers inside her to test her reaction. Her engorged pink nub swelled at his soft touch. The sensation made her want to beg for more. But it wasn’t necessary. He bent down over her mound, parted her curls, and then he lowered his face to nuzzle her. His lips brushed over her sensitive nub and kissed her there. Nothing had ever felt so good, and then he whipped his tongue over the throbbing tissue emerging from between her swollen, throbbing lips, and she felt the liquid heat pour through her body and pool inside her sex. A sensation like an electric shock shot up her spine, and she screamed. He held her down, exploring her entrance with his tongue, and when he suckled her clitoris once more, she screamed. He licked, suckled, nipped. She reached for him again, this time digging her fingers into his shoulders. He stilled her by holding her hips in place and feasted on her until she was frantic, thrashing uncontrollably beneath his mouth and begging, begging for anything.