Live Wire (3 page)

She bit her lip and let her hair tumble forward. “This was my plan. For you to take over, J-dawg. And you know it.”

Either way, at that point, he didn’t care. “Stand up.”

With a lazy, sexed-up smile, she stood, and he pulled her pants right off. After months of trying to figure out what was easiest—and Sugar insisted on maintaining her
look
in maternity wear—Jared had determined that to get his wife out of leather maternity pants in a reasonable amount of time, he needed to be part of the process.

She laughed. “Greedy.”

“Hungry.” He unfastened his belt. “For you.”

“Good.” There was nothing sexier than her flushed cheeks when Sugar was set on making him feel good.

He moved closer to the edge of his chair. “Turn around.”

“You just want to see my ass.”

Hell yeah, he did. But he wanted to wrap his arms around his woman, wanted to feel his cock deep inside her, and Sugar sitting backwards on his lap would do that for him. Jared playfully smacked her butt as she turned around. “It’s a great ass.”

She stuck it out, and he squeezed her cheeks then let his hands drift down her thighs, spreading his fingers over the silken flesh of her legs. One hand went up, running over her heavy, pregnant-with-his-child belly, and the other stopped between her thighs, finding her folds wet. One touch, and she shifted, sucking a deep breath.

“Too much?” He slowed.

“Not at all.” Sugar moved for him again, leaning her weight against his touch.

Jared stroked the delicate, sensitive area and watched how her back arched. His forefinger opened her, and she moaned. “Good, baby?”

She nodded, letting the cascade of dark hair falling down her back mesmerize him. How could his woman, so brash and biting, so sexy and sultry, simply shake her hair without looking his way and have him damn near do anything to make her happy?

Jared massaged her clit with one hand, breaching her pussy with the fingers of his other.

Her hips flexed, grinding on his palm, riding for more friction. “Please, Jared.”

That was all he needed. “Damn.” She inched and angled her body, and he slid his pants down to his boots. His erection was free and in hand. Sugar turned her head, peering at him over her shoulder.

“You ready?” he asked.

She nodded. “If you don’t hurry up—”

His woman. He would’ve spent more time trying to aggravate her, except he was dying to be inside her body. Positioning the head of his shaft and—goddamn. Jared’s molars ground down. Sugar’s tight pussy would kill him. “Shit, Baby Cakes.”

Together, their breathing caught. Sugar’s hands splayed on his desk as she inched back onto his cock, and he couldn’t handle another moment. He thrust. Her nails scratched, unable to find traction on the finished wood. “Fuck, yes. Jared.
Yes.
”

He couldn’t breathe. She leaned back, her hips moving up, down, accommodating him, and he groaned, flexing, wrangling his arms around her to hold her in place. Sugar held on to him. Her arms were a vise grip, holding on as though he were a life raft.

“Again.” Her whisper boomed to the base of his cock.

He flexed up.

“God,” she gasped.

“Good?” He grunted.

“Yes.”

“Good.” He did it again. Short. Rapid. Bursts. He possessed his wife—holding her, letting her feel every single fucking inch of his cock inside her body.

“More,” she begged.

Sugar consumed his shaft. He controlled her, owned her, moved her up and down, the silken feeling of her slickness working tighter and hungrier as he drove. The sound of their gasps commingled. Fiery electricity flowed down his spine, drawing his balls tight.

Her head went down. Her teeth—he felt them bite into him somewhere.
God
, she had his flesh between her teeth, but all he knew was that her pussy muscles rippled.

Sugar bore down on him, using his hold as a fulcrum, and her orgasm hit them both—a complete supernova, its intensity blinding. Her body milked his pulsing cock, and his hot release was an act of heaven.

Sugar went limp in his hug, kissing his arm—where apparently she had bitten him—and her chest heaved. “You sure know how to show who’s boss.”

He chortled, shaking his head languidly. “Damn, you are fun.”

“To love, to fuck, to hold,” she whispered. “To work with.”

She stood carefully and turned, and he couldn’t help but admire the pink in her cheeks that didn’t come from makeup. Her lips were pinker than her lipstick and her eyes more blue than when she’d first walked into his office. He did that to her. That left a mark of pride in his chest.

“Prove you love me, and help slide those pants back on me.” She winked. “I can’t convince you of my great plan when I’m half-naked.”

He snagged the leather pants and underwear off the floor. “You might not convince me anyway.” But that was a lie. She didn’t need to convince him, and he wouldn’t stop her.

“Like I need your permission.” She snagged the black panties and hopped as best she could from one foot to the next while he pulled up his pants and tucked himself in. “But I want it.”

That was why they worked in sync. There hadn’t been a job in a very long time that Jared hadn’t run by Sugar. She had the mind of an operator and the discerning ability to figure out how to blow shit up in a way that flat-out impressed him. And turned him on. Great combination in a wife.

“Elevator pitch. Let’s hear it.” He smoothed his shirt and adjusted his pants so that only they would know he’d just been well fucked.

“You have three wannabe new guys. Lexi and I want to be the team that does the on-the-ground observation.”

He blinked, surprised. “You want to do the surveillance?”

“Yes.”

“That’s boring as shit.” So where was the catch?

She raised an eyebrow.

Well, nothing was boring as shit when Sugar was involved. “If you do it, you have to stay out of the fray. Away from the newbies. Watch and report. That’s it.”

Kiss-swollen lips smiled as if she had her
yes
already. “We can do that.”

“From
afar
, Sugar.”

“No kidding.”

“Meaning, you can’t interact with them, babe. Read me?”

She smirked. “No shit, J-dawg.”

“You can’t bump into them.” He ticked off one finger.

“I’m not stupid.”

He ticked off another finger. “You can’t do whatever it is you’re thinking about.”

She narrowed her gaze. “Yes, I can.”

“God, woman.” He closed his fist, not bothering to count off the dozens of other things she shouldn’t do. “You give me heartburn.”

“No. Those are orgasms I give you, baby.”

Jared dropped his head back and roared. “Damn straight, pretty mama. You do what you need to.” But he sobered and rubbed a hand over his face, feeling the strain of laughter in his cheeks. “But no shit, Sugar. You, Asal, and this baby? My world. You’ve never asked me to change; I’ll never ask you to either. If you need to get out there, go. If something makes you feel uncomfortable, don’t for a moment hesitate to flag for help because you’re worried I’ll be pissed you’re in the field. You read me?”

“I do.”

“Unconditional trust.”

Her eyes went watery. “Fucking hormones.”

“So you read me?” he said again, quieter this time.

“Loud and clear, Boss Man.” She leaned forward and placed a sweetly gentle kiss on his lips. “And I love you too.”

CHAPTER THREE

The house was quiet as Parker and Lexi sat around their dining-room table, three recruit folders spread in front of them.

Bishop O’Kane. Jax Riddle. Locke Oliver.

“They’re all insanely…” Lexi gestured, staring at the screen of her laptop. “Deadly?”

Parker didn’t look up from his screen. “That’s a good thing, babe.”

“Right. And they’re clean enough.”

He nodded. The records showed skirmishes here and there—nothing that couldn’t be expected from men who operated at the caliber of Titan’s people.

“Your ice cream’s melting,” she said. “And I need another beer if we’re going to stare at the same data all night.”

“No.” He pushed his chair from the table and stretched as he stood. “Come on. We’re done.”

“Jax and Locke are too far away.”

“Right,” he agreed. Locke worked private ops in London, and Jax was on the West Coast. Titan could drop someone in to do the recon on them in person. No need for the Sugar-Lexi road trip to go trans-Atlantic or cross-country.

“So Bishop’s our guy.”

Parker wrapped his arms around her chest, pressing her back to him, leading her to the couch. “Bishop’s your guy. Be easy on him.” He kissed her cheek. “And by
be easy
, I mean don’t do anything.”

“I know. But still, this is exciting.”

He plopped them both down, and Lexi curled into his arms while he surfed the channels for something sports related. With a football-classics channel on in the background, he tied her hair around his finger and watched her smoky eyes flutter open and closed. “So exciting, you’re falling asleep.”

“Stop it.” She turned in the crook of his arm. “You get to play cops and robbers all the time. Sugar does. Everyone does. I think it’s neat even if I just get to sit in a car and listen to my girl babble about her spot-on gut feeling. It’s something different.”

Parker pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Just be careful.”

“How much trouble can we get into watching a guy grocery shop or whatever?”

His rumbling laugh met hers. With Sugar, they both knew the answer.

“Alright. Of course we’ll be careful.”

“Good.” He let go of a piece of her platinum-blond hair. “Go to sleep, and I’ll carry you to bed.”

Lexi turned over on her chest. “Why am I going to sleep?”

“Uh… sports? Because your eyes are shut?”

“I’m a full-fledged spy girl now.”

“Alright, spy girl. You don’t need to sleep.”

“Maybe I do. Either way, I know this isn’t technically how you guys scout your new team members. But really, Sugar was going stir-crazy. She needed to feel as though she was still important to your team.”

“Of course she is.”

“I just kind of
know
that there’s something unexplainable about being pregnant and having folks handle you with kid gloves. It has to be a first for her.”

He cackled. “No one’s treating her any different.”

“Bull. Even Sugar’s treating herself different.”

Parker squeezed Lexi tight. “We take care of our own.”

As she snuggled into his chest, her previous life seemed a thousand miles away, yet she knew he was dead serious. “I love you, and I love being part of your world.”

“It’s not just this job, Lex. Or what you do for Jared behind a computer screen.” He kissed the top of her head. “You are our world. Once you’re in, you’re in. Titan for life.”

***

Parker and Jared had their arms crossed over their chests as Sugar inspected the last bag they’d packed into her Range Rover. “Alrighty, boys. Don’t worry.”

“Famous last words,” Jared grumbled.

“Do you feel like all we’ve been saying and hearing is
Don’t worry
?” Parker added, eyeing Jared and, from Sugar’s vantage point, possibly antagonizing him on purpose.

“Seriously.” Sugar gave Parker the stink eye then raised her eyebrow at her husband. “You’re acting like I can’t do anything because I’m pregnant.”

Jared took a boot-cladded step forward. “No.”

“Yes.”

“Kind of,” Lexi said. “Super-protective, alpha-to-the-max Jared. We get it. But—”

“I’ve literally packed gummy bears to snack on.” Sugar matched Jared’s step forward. “No extra ammo—”

“You’ve packed
any
ammo?” He took another step forward as though he was ready to search her Range Rover.

“No. Well, other than what I’d obviously conceal and carry.”

His eyes narrowed. “Do you have anything high-powered or automatic in there?”

God, he was fun to torque. Sugar popped a bubble of gum. “Define high-powered.”

“Christ, Sugar.”

“I’m kidding. Calm down. No C4. No AKs. We’re fine.” She turned for the driver’s door, listening to the grumbling, cursing man of steel behind her. “Come on, Lex. Let’s rock and roll.”

“Woman.” Jared growled. “Get your sweet ass over here and kiss me good-bye.”

That was what Sugar was waiting for. She all but skipped over to Jared and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you. I promise I won’t do anything that gets us into a pickle.”

“I know.” His hand rested on her stomach. Even when he was sour and scratchy, Jared was the epitome of soft—until provoked—when it came to their children. “You and this baby stay safe. Hear me?”