Sinful Resurrection (CSA Case Files 2) (19 page)

“Relax your throat,” Jax said in a strangled voice.  “Breath through your nose.”

His fingers were now tangled in her mass of blonde hair.  To give herself leverage, Emily placed both hands on either side of his legs, which in turn gave him the leeway he needed without interference.  Pushing her head lower, Jax felt the back of her throat.  She instinctively tried to pull back, but he held tight, watching closely for signs that she couldn’t do this.  It was the guttural moan that signified her desire for more and he slowly angled her mouth to accept all of him.

His eyes rolled, although he did his damnedest to keep her in focus, as he was the one to maneuver her mouth and lips up and down over his cock.  The vision before him faded into a bright light as he felt the raptured pressure explode.  Her throat muscles continued to work their magic and his yell echoed throughout the room one more time as she swallowed his cum.

“Thank you, Sir,” Emily said with what sounded like a smile in her voice. 

He struggled to open his eyes and looked down the length of him to see her blue
eyes sparkling with confidence as well as gratification.  He knew the look well, as he felt it every time a scene was successful.  It wouldn’t do for her to feel she could top from the bottom, so keeping his hold on her hair, he dragged her up his body and claimed her lips.  Her knees were now on either side of his waist and he could feel the heat of her pussy on his abdomen.  It was only when they needed oxygen did he let her pull back, gasps falling from both of them.

“Very good, little spy of mine,” Jax murmured, finally having found some ground on which to stand.  She had an effect on him like no other woman.  “I think it’s time for your bubble bath.”

“But —” Emily’s lips went into a cute little pout.

Jax laughed, knowing his little vixen knew how close she was to breaking him down with that beautiful face.  He was also aware that he wouldn’t be the Dom she needed should he cave every time that she felt she needed something.  He was well educated and experienced in reading her tells and right now, Emily needed some down time.  A bubble bath would do wonders for her body, as well as her mind.

“It’s my job to make sure you’re safe,” Jax said, rolling over on top of her and stealing one more kiss.  “I’ll check in with Kevin one more time and then walk the perimeter.  We can never be too sure.  Then we’ll make breakfast and go over more of your soft limits and see if we can find something that you really enjoy.  I’m thinking there’s different uses for the spatula that I saw in the drawer.”

* * * *

Ryland knew what had to be done and was well aware of the consequences should he carry it out.  The driver pulled the cab to the curb at the drop off area underneath the sign of the correct airline.  He’d used the drive to contemplate how Crest had located him and didn’t like the answers he was coming up with. 

He happened to see the passenger using the side mirror on the taxi when they had turned at one of the city intersections.  A man with short black hair and aviator glasses, maybe of Cuban descent, was comfortably ensconced in the backseat of the car and talking on his phone.  Ryland recognized him immediately as one of Crest’s team members.  Connor Ortega was his name, if memory served him right from the military files he’d accessed on the flight here.

He’d only met a worthy opponent once in his life and to this day, she remained on his mind periodically.  He now reserved that spot for only her and damned if Crest or one of his men got to join her ranks.

“Don’t get out,” Ryland said to the driver, keeping his tone casual so not to alarm the man.  “We’ll be heading to the train station momentarily.  I just need to have a discussion with someone before we change our route.”

Ryland had given enough time for the other man’s taxi to pull up behind him.  He wasn’t too worried that Crest’s man would take him out immediately.  According to his research, they liked to follow rules within the law.  That was their first mistake.  Their second was thinking he would follow suit.  He glided his hand under his suit jacket, palming the Walter PPK.  It was a throwaway that he would have tossed before security, but it would execute the job he needed it to do. 

He pulled on the handle and swung the door open, taking his time unfolding his lean frame out of the vehicle.  Timing it right, Ryland was no more than five feet from where Mr. Ortega now stood.  They had similar poses, with their hand tucked into their jackets.  Ortega wasn’t as well dressed as he was, what with wearing denim and a leather jacket, but it didn’t matter to him what the man wore to his death.  But before that were to happen, this was the perfect opportunity to garner information.

“Mr. Ortega, it seems that you haven’t had time to tour the City of Love,” Ryland said, tsking at the end of his statement.  “I assure you that I am not as fascinating as the history of this wondrous place.”

“Cut the shit, Ryland,” Ortega said, not wavering his gaze.  Ryland saw that he’d removed his sunglasses, which was to his disadvantage.  Didn’t the man know that the e
yes were the window to the soul?  Ryland made sure to see as much as he could.  “I’m taking you into custody for the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Hendersen, Sergeant Major Chad Pierce, the General Counsel to the Director of the CIA, and most recently, the Attorney General.  I’m sure the list will continue to grow, but you do leave a specific mark with these murders.  Lay your weapon on the ground and kick it toward me.”

Ryland made sure that his facial expression didn’t change, although anger boiled in his bloodstream.  Those men had been his marks and he’d done his job, but over his fucking dead body had he left evidence behind that he was the one responsible for executing them.  The crime scenes had been clean and for this scum
bag of a man to suggest otherwise was repulsive.  Ortega was bluffing.

“I’m very interested as to what evidence you think you have that would tie me to those unfortunate events,” Ryland said, cocking his head to
the side as if he were studying a cockroach.  This man didn’t deserve to be on the sole of his shoe.  “I guess that will give me something to ponder as I go on my way.  Alas, it seems as if we’ve run out of time.  A shame, considering I had so many more questions for you.”

Ryland knew how this would play out and although he’d spoken the truth about regretting how short their conversation had been, he needed to use the current situation to his advantage —
and that would be the businesswoman walking up to him.  It also helped that disposing of Ortega would be one less minion he’d have to worry about.  After all, Crest seemed to have a handful at his disposal should this one not return.  It niggled in the back of his mind that he still hadn’t located the picture of the female agent and wondered if he was about to be played.  Seeing the opportunity present itself, he knew he’d have to take his chances. 

“I take
it you’re arriving?” the woman said, a black leather briefcase in her hand, gesturing toward the cab.  “I’ll —”

In an instant, Ryland had the woman against his chest and his weapon drawn.  As with all adrenaline-pumping occurrences, Ryland allowed his hearing to fade and his vision to lock in on said target.  Unfortunately, it seemed as if Ortega had foreseen his swift actions, for the man dodged to his right before the
snap shot Ryland had gotten off had a chance to catch up to him.  It would seem fate had other plans for Mr. Ortega.

Ryland disregarded the screams and shouts of the people surrounding them, hysterics having no place in this situation.  Baggage was abandoned as people tried to escape the unknown.  It was easy to spot the security officers and police as they seemed to come out of nowhere.  Seeing as he had a woman’s life in his arms, Ryland knew they wouldn’t shoot.  They didn’t have what it took to make life-altering decisions.  He didn’t have that problem.

“It seems as if our time has run out, Ortega.”  Ryland calculated his angle and knew his next shot wouldn’t come close to his target, though it would deter him from making any rash movements.  He paused and waited for the right moment.  “Please congratulate your lovely new woman on her upcoming nuptials.  I assume you’ll make an honest woman out of her.”

With that last statement, Ryland rounded off a shot near Ortega’s location the exact moment he shoved the woman away from him.  Swinging his weapon to bring her in sight, he drew the trigger back and fired a round.  The impact
on her inside left thigh had her stumble a few steps back, but he was already in the cab before the police could bring their guns to bear.  Placing the barrel to the driver’s head, the man didn’t need to be told what to do.  Ryland kept his head low, knowing Ortega wouldn’t fire at the vehicle where an innocent man might take a hit. 

The breakaway was clean.  Within a few miles, Ryland had the driver stop the cab.  The man was obviously terrified and in any other situation, Ryland would have disposed of him.  As it was, he needed this man to tell the authorities that Ryland was heading for the train station.  That would buy Ryland the time he needed to make other arrangements.  Knowing there was nothing in his overnight bag that wasn’t replaceable, he let himself be drawn into a group of tourists and swept along the city street. 

He ran a thumb across his index finger, rubbing the smooth skin.  Ortega would no doubt confiscate the luggage, but there would be no fingerprints.  As for knowing how he was in Paris, Ryland could only fathom they had used facial recognition software on the airport’s closed circuit system.  In which case, no amount of make-up could hide him from the cameras.  It was time to go old school.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“It’s been six days,” Emily said, shoving the coffee pot back on
to the burner.  Grabbing both cups, she turned toward the living room where Jax was putting on his jacket.  As much as she’d loved this time with Jax, she wanted more than days in a cabin.  She wanted more and the only way to obtain that was to expedite the situation.  “What are we waiting for?  Ryland could be anywhere, Aunt Beatrice has got to be going out of her mind, and Schultz has again gone MIA.  For all we know, they’ve hired another assassin who we don’t even know!  I say we stick with our original plan and broadcast this on international television.”

“No.”  Jax seized one of the mugs and
took a healthy swallow.  His clear and concise answer raised her hackles.  Now that he knew the truth and knew what her abilities were, he should be willing to listen to her opinions.  “We wait.”

“For what, Jax?” Emily asked, her voice rising.  Didn’t he see that they had been in one spot for too long?  A couple days was one thing…almost a week was another.  “For you to make another sweep of the property?  For Ryland to show up and do what he’s been paid for? 
For the NSA to get their hand in this little cat and mouse game?  Let’s face it, there’s enough people who know who could have ratted me out to my superiors.  For all we know, they’ve hired someone of their own to track me down.  You said it yourself.  It’s only a matter of time before —”

“Do you remember what you said to me the first night we arrived here?” Jax asked, raising an eyebrow in question.  He took another drink of coffee, like they weren’t having an argument over whether she lived or died.
  His calm demeanor was infuriating.  “You said you’d be my submissive in the bedroom, but you were my equal outside of it.  Now I’m not going to stand here and tell you how important it is for us to rely on my team, who has been out there every day and night trying to find the location of Ryland.  I realize that you’re used to working on your own, but now is the time to take the advantage of what you worked so hard to have…and that’s me and my team having your back.”

Emily gritted her teeth and turned back around, taking a sip of her own coffee to calm her nerves.  Today was different than the others and she knew why.  They’d gotten into a routine in the mornings with Jax creating a scene and keeping her attention on him.  But he’d gotten a call an hour ago from Kevin that said Crest was flying to Washington DC this morning and that it would be an additional three to four days before
she and Jax were to head that way.  She didn’t know if she was angry at the pause in the momentum of events or the fact that she’d been relying on Jax every morning to take her mind off of reality.  For some reason, that smacked of weakness.

“Emily,” Jax said, his hands landing on her
shoulders and tenderly squeezing.  He slowly turned her so that their faces were inches apart, his features softening and the brown flecks of his eyes seemingly reaching for her and caressing her cheek.  “I know it seems as if you’ve been running on adrenaline for the last two years, but it’s okay to take a mental break. That’s what we’re doing, but that doesn’t lessen the importance of what’s going on outside of our bubble.”

“A woman was shot for being in the wrong place and the wrong time.  She’s alive, but she will never again be the same.  And Connor almost died,” Emily whispered, searching his gaze for any resentment that she was the cause of that.  “He’s like your brother, Jax.  I know how important he is to you.  I understand that he’s your family.  It all seemed like protocol the day I walked into the CSA offices.  But now…”

“It is protocol,” Jax replied, lifting a hand and brushing away a loose strand that escaped the hair tie at the back of her neck.  “Nothing has changed that you didn’t know would happen.  Anything to do with the United Nations is paramount to being in the middle of the desert with mortars falling and making contact with the ground.  The stakes are high.  I know it, Connor knows it, and my team knows it.  Was Ryland making comments about Lauren to try and show us he can reach anyone?  Or was it a serious threat?  We don’t know, but we’ll take every precaution to make sure our loved ones are safe.”

Emily dropped her forehead against Jax’s chest, careful to hold tight to her coffee.  She closed her eyes and took the comfort he offered by stroking her hair.  She remembered coming out of college and the excitement of being recruited by the NSA.  If only she knew then what she knew now.

“Word has got to have reached Alekseev that the Security Council is convening for a hearing.”  Emily lifted her head and met his gaze.  “If we thought it was dangerous before, there will be no stopping him now.  I have the evidence that Kevin grabbed from the news station.  There are other routes I can take, Jax, besides putting everyone else at risk.  The risk has risen to a level that supersedes what I originally thought would happen.”

“Equals, right?” Jax asked, taking her chin in hand.  She rolled her eyes and took a deep breath, letting him know that she would listen but thought it ridiculous that he wasn’t even willing to really hear what she had to say.  “You were paid to do a job, which you did.  I’m being paid right now to do mine.  Let me do it.  And if I see you roll your eyes at me again, little spy, I’ll have you over my knee before those long lashes of yours covers those pretty blues.”

“I don’t see a bed,” Emily quipped as he stepped away to zip up his jacket.  He was right in the way of the best course of action was to wait for word on when they should head out to New York.  It just wasn’t what she wanted to hear.  But retiring back to bed for the rest of the day would pass the time.  Maybe she could convince herself that an innocent woman being shot didn’t affect her and the decisions that would have to be made going forward.  “Which means rolling of the eyes is permitted.”

Jax raised an eyebrow once more, a caution that she was crossing the line.  If her emotions weren’t in such a turmoil and so divided, she would have pushed a little farther in hopes to keep him inside the cabin with her.  As it stood, Emily brought the coffee cup to her lips and took a sip, giving him a wink.  He laughed and then kissed her on the cheek
, taking advantage of their close contact and connecting his palm with her ass.  Taking his skullcap out of his pocket, he situated it over his blonde hair and walked out the door.

Emily slowly made her way back to the kitchen, draining the rest of her coffee before she even reached the counter.  Refilling her mug, she turned back around
and leaned against the marble.  Her MOB holster dug into her back, so she turned slightly and rested against her hip.  She should have joined him on the walk around the perimeter, but knew he would have said no, regardless that she was armed. 

She took another small sip of coffee, hoping that the caffeine would help with the small headache that was starting to form in her temples.  Emily remembered that the medicine cabinet located in the bathroom only had ibuprofen, which she was allergic too.  What she needed was acetaminophen.  She wondered if Kevin would be able to stop at the pharmacy in the closest town or have
Ethan bring it when they switched shifts. 

Knowing there had to be a junk draw
er somewhere, Emily placed her coffee on the counter and started to open all of the drawers in the kitchen.  The one drawer off to the side in almost every small kitchen she’d been in that didn’t fit the normal sized silverware had what she was looking for.  Pulling out the small tablet and pen, she wrote down a couple of things that she would like in preparation of their trip back to New York.

Placing the back end of the pen against her lips, she contemplated writing down condoms.  She decided against it, thinking that Jax could be the one to ask for them.  So that just left the acetaminophen, hair color with the appropriate brand and shade, and a box of tampons.  It wasn’t something that she would have put down if it
weren’t essential and hoped Kevin or Ethan were the kind of men who weren’t squeamish about that kind of thing. 

Emily’s time of the month had to be coming up.  Things had been in such turmoil that she couldn’t remember the date, so she grabbed the tablet and her coffee as she crossed the area to the couch.  Picking up Jax’s watch that he’d left on the side table, she looked at the two littl
e white squares within the dial which displayed what day it was.  Calculating the weeks, she frowned when it didn’t add up. 

She set down her coffee, counting again.  She came up with the same date…two days prior.  Emily’s heart started to palpitate and her hands trembled.  No.  She was wrong.  She tried to steady her breathing and slowly started from the beginning.  Marking the days off on the paper, below her list, she stared at the evidence in front of her. 

Emily hadn’t lied to Jax when she said they shouldn’t have had anything to worry about when they hadn’t used protection.  She’d passed her ovulation cycle and had been coming up on the last week of her period.  It shouldn’t have been a problem.  It wasn’t a problem.  She tried to rationalize the situation.  This last month had been very stressful and hard on her body.  She’d started to have sexual relations again, which also had to contribute.  Right? 

Emily snatched her mug and took a drink of coffee, only to spit it back in the mug.  What if she was pregnant?  Drinking caffeine wasn’t a good idea.  But she wasn’t pregnant.  She wasn’t.

* * * *

After spending every seco
nd of every minute of every day for the past two weeks in Emily’s presence, Jax was relatively sure that he was in tune with her mental health.  When he’d left her this morning, she’d been riddled with anxiety over what had transpired in Paris, as well as the instructions from Crest that they stay in place a while longer.  By nightfall, it was like she was off in a different world all her own.

“Emily.”

“Yeah?” 

Emily gave the right response and even managed to stop staring at the fire he’d just started.  He place
d the poker back into the stand but stayed sitting on the hearth.  He rested his elbows on his knees, wanting to give her the space she obviously needed.  But they’d agreed that they were in this together and she didn’t get the right to shut him out.  That was one of his hard limits.

“Talk to me.  If this is about that woman, she’s fine,” Jax said, wanting to reassure her that Crest was going above and beyond in paying for anything the woman might need.  “She’s back home and —”

“I had a headache this morning and realized we didn’t have any acetaminophen.  I thought maybe we could give a list to Kevin or Ethan, so I wrote one up.  I needed tampons.”

Jax waited for her to continue and when she didn’t, he stared at her for a moment longer.  She’d spoken past tense, but maybe he was mistaken.  A mixed set of emotions started to boil up inside of him, bringing him to his feet.  His mind struggled to comprehend then and now.

“You said —”

“I know what I said, Jax,” Emily said, the frustration evident in her voice.  He didn’t want her upset, but he did need to verify whether or not she really was…fuck.  He ran a hand through his hair as he thought of the implications.  Emily tossed the blanket aside and sat forward on the couch.  “I don’t know that I’m pregnant.  I knew I was close to my time of the month, so the window of that happening should have passed.  I was due t
wo days ago, but in all reality I’m late because of stress.”

Jax zeroed in the on the word
pregnant
.  Regardless of the timing, whether it made sense or not, a shot of joy ran through his system.  It was similar to the adrenaline rush he got when going on an overseas mission, knowing that his life could change at the toss of a dime.  He was honest enough with himself to know that he longed for the family he never had, yet was also aware that he was delving into deep waters that he had no idea how to navigate.  The conflicting feelings were hard to undertake and while he normally would have called Connor immediately, he knew this was something he would have to deal with on his own.  Jax looked at Emily as she stood in front of him…really looked at her.  He wasn’t alone anymore, was he?

“We’ll, um, I’ll have Kevin or Ethan make a run into town,” Jax said, knowing the words sounded disjointed.  He still needed time to let this soak in.  “I’ll put on my jacket, check out the perimeter again, and then talk to
Ethan and have him radio it in.  They’ll pick up whatever you need and drop it off at shift change.”

Jax smiled at her, hoping it didn’t come across as fake.  Another thought resurfaced from a week ago, when he recognized that the reason he’d made love to her without a condom was because maybe he wanted fate to take over.  Had he?  Jax started for the door and had even managed to pick up his jacket before she spoke.

“I said this once before, but don’t you dare walk out that fucking door, Jax Christensen,” Emily whispered, her voice unsteady.  For how low her tone was, it still seemed to echo throughout the room.  The fear in her voice was evident and squeezed his heart as if it were in a vise.  He’d told her just last week that they needed to start fresh, get to know one another again, and take things slow.  This was the polar opposite and faster than his preferred round of .45 caliber ACP 230 grain hydra-shock when he pulled the trigger.  “I’m scared and have dealt with too much on my own.  I need you with me on this.”

Jax looked down at the jacket in his hand, shaking his head at how easily she was now sharing her feelings with him.  Wasn’t this what he wanted?  Hadn’t their first scene been to drive home how vita
l honesty was in a relationship?  Hell, add on the Dominant/submissive part of the relationship and it became even more essential.  He slowly hung his jacket back on the coat rack and then turned to face her.