Tempting the Fire (40 page)

Even now, her foster family believed she worked for a private 227

cryptozoological firm. ACRO had given its Crypto department legitimacy by naming it Creature Search and allowing contact with any citizen or agency.

Actually, that was how the staff got much of its information and leads.

“So was that how you found out about ACRO?”

A surge of guilt rose up in her, because she wanted to fib, to say yes, but there had already been too many lies. But what if this one last truth was the straw that broke this fragile camel’s back? Her heart began to pound as she braced herself for his reaction.

“No,” she said, forcing herself to meet his gaze steadily. “I slept with an ACRO agent. I learned about ACRO when he …”

“Came.” Logan practically spat the word. “You read him when he climaxed.” His brows lifted as a thought dawned on him. “The guy you said you worked with. That’s who you were talking about.”

She managed a nod. “Yeah.”

His fingers caught her chin, forcing her to look at him, when all she wanted to do was study those nasty jars. Or a map. Or maybe the contents of the trash can.

His gaze was fierce, flashing with jealousy. “Was it Stryker?”

“Does it really matter?” She knew it didn’t. But since he couldn’t physically lash out at her past, he needed an outlet, and he wasn’t very fond of Stryker to begin with. Gently, she pushed his hand away. “Look, I slept with that agent a long time ago, and it was the last time I had sex because I wanted to—until you. You probably don’t believe that—”

His mouth came down on hers. She gasped in surprise, and he took advantage, sinking his tongue into her mouth with predatory intent. He gentled almost immediately, using his lips and tongue to caress hers as he tugged her body against him. Desperate for his touch, she clung to him, gripping his broad shoulders as if they were the only thing holding her up.

A groan dredged up from deep in his chest, and he wedged himself tighter between her legs. His hands came up from her waist, one winding behind her back and the other cupping her breast. His thumb flicked over her stiff nipple, making it ache for more intimate contact.

She grew hotter, wetter, as his arousal swelled against her core. Heart pounding and breath coming as a searing blast in her throat, she dropped her hands between them, fumbling for his zipper—

“Sela?” Ulrika’s voice accompanied a knock on the door, and Logan leaped back, face flushed, eyes glazed with lust that surely matched hers. “Dev is on line two. He wants to know if you’ve gotten the chupacabra photographed yet.”

How did he even know she was at work? She was supposed to be on three days’ leave. She sighed. “Tell him I’ll get on it right now.”

“Will do.”

“Duty calls,” Logan said, his voice sounding a little breathless.

“Guess so.”

But she didn’t remain out of his grasp for long. “Fuck getting back to 228

work,” he murmured, pulling her close again. “It’s my turn to leave some impressions on your psychic memory.”

SELA DIDN’T REALLY PROTEST—NOT ALL THAT HARD

ANYWAY, and it was easily stifled with a kiss and a well-placed hand sliding back inside her shirt.

No, she wouldn’t be doing anything right now—except him and only him.

If Logan couldn’t erase her mind of the other men she’d been with, he’d make damned sure he was the only one she saw.

He’d make sure he was the only one who could satisfy her. He’d already started to, judging by the way she moaned his name against his mouth while he worried a nipple with his fingers.

Her hands had long stopped pushing him away and were now yanking at him, pulling him closer. He obliged, ripping her shirt completely open without finesse, the tiny buttons popping and scattering along the floor, his mouth capturing a tight pink nipple.

And even as her hands worked to pull his shirt out of his pants and run her palms over his bare skin, he wondered if she wanted to know what he was thinking. As if she couldn’t tell; but still, he knew what a relief it was for her to know she couldn’t read his current thoughts unless he let her in. It was equally satisfactory to him that he could let her in if he chose to.

All that noise in her head—he couldn’t imagine what it was like. But he did know what it was like to be different, to worry that everyone would find out your deep, dark secrets.

And he knew he could make her come so hard she’d forget all of it for a short while, and so he concentrated on giving her pleasure.

He sucked her stiff nipple harder. Her hands gripped his hair and then his shoulders as he made short work of her pants and thong. His free hand traveled between her legs to the heat of her center, a finger stroking her folds and making her shiver.

“Wet for me,” he murmured against her breast.

Her response was to grip him even more tightly. Moaning in satisfaction, he lifed her onto the desk and trailed his tongue downward and buried his face in her sex.

God, he loved the way she tasted, would stay down here happily for a long time, swirling his tongue over the nub of her clit—until she nearly screamed, then caught herself with a hand over her mouth.

Good thing, because the last thing they needed was Logan’s security escort barging in to check on Sela.

Hey, at least her back was to the door. Fuck security.

Her heels dug into his back as he continued to suckle and lave, to take her with his tongue and his fingers until she came in a shuddering rush against his 229

mouth.

He was only vaguely aware that she was murmuring something—moaning a little—because the blood was pounding between his ears and his legs and he couldn’t wait a second longer. Had to have her.

He stood.

“Sela …” It was all he could say. It was all he needed to.

When he entered her, she gasped and then wound her body around his as though she’d never let go. He remained still while she adjusted to him, waited for her to begin moving against him, his face buried against her shoulder.

And then she did move. Slowly, exquisitely, she began to grind against him, a rhythm that threatened to drive him out of his mind as her tight pussy milked him slowly.

He needed faster. Harder. He grabbed her hips and pulled her into him, pistoning his cock into her in a way that made her bite his neck and hold him tighter.

He was close, but she was closer, and when her orgasm hit, she pulled him along for the ride, contracting around him until he came in hot spurts inside her, a loud groan drumming up from the back of his throat.

It might’ve been mere seconds, or minutes, or longer, when he felt her stir.

But he didn’t want to return from orgasm-land, didn’t want to come back down from where his mind had floated.

Mostly he didn’t want to let her go. Now. Ever. It was that simple—and for the past four years, nothing in his life had been that simple.

Damn, it felt good.

“Sela?” The voice on the intercom made them both jump. He pushed back and allowed her to get herself dressed again while he pulled his pants up.

Sela pushed a button on her desk. “Yes.”

“Dev wants to speak with you ASAP about Chance. He said it’s urgent to put the plans in motion.”

“Tell him I’m on my way.” She clicked the intercom off and looked at Logan.

They stood there, an awkward silence stretching between them. Logan cleared his throat. “Do you know where Chance is? No one has told me anything.”

“He’s at medical,” she said, straightening her top, more for something to do with her hands than because it was disheveled. Which it was. Half the buttons were missing—she’d have to wear a coat until she could get home to change.

“They’re working on a cure for him.”

“What about Marlena?”

Sela blinked. “What about her?”

“Has she been to see him? Or was he just a job to her?”

Sela ground her teeth. “Are we back to that?”

“I get why I was a target,” he said gruffly. “But Chance wasn’t part of GWC.”

230

“That’s not what happened.”

“No?”

She breathed out, resigning herself to answering his questions about this.

He was a damned pit bull when he grabbed onto something. “You were there. You know he bonded with her without her consent. She’d had no intention of getting close to him.”

“So what’s going to happen with them?”

“I have no idea,” she said honestly. “Why is this so important to you anyway?”

“He’s in this mess because of my company. Then we treated him like shit. I have a lot of apologizing to do. I want to make sure he’s treated well here and that Marlena isn’t going to fuck with him.”

God, he was such a good man, and it had taken her far too long to see it.

“Trust me, he’ll be treated very well. Haven’t you been?”

“Yes,” he hedged, “but your boss has been pretty vague about a few things.”

Dev was vague about everything, but she wondered what Logan was talking about. “Like what?”

“Like what’s going to happen to me and my dad.”

“Oh.” Sela wasn’t sure what role Richard would play in the GWC/ACRO

deal, but she knew what Dev had planned otherwise, and it must have shown on her face.

“Sela? What aren’t you telling me?”

Panic squeezed her chest. Dev had asked her not to tell Logan anything about his plans for Caroline, either because Dev wanted to talk with Logan about it, or because he intended to go ahead with his plan and tell Logan afterward.

“Nothing,” she said, turning to rearrange the papers on her desk.

“Bullshit.” Logan brushed by her to tear open the door, but he paused, didn’t look at her as he said, “I’m sick of secrets and lies, Sela. I can’t live this way. So I’ll let you make a decision. Tell me what you know … or don’t.”

A chill slid from her scalp to her feet. This was about Caroline. Well, it was, but it was about far more than that. It was about trust. Tell him what he wanted to know, and they started on new footing. Lie to him, or keep silent, and she’d be telling him that secrets and lies were okay … and he couldn’t live with that. Any hope for a relationship with him would die.

And the truth was, he deserved to know. Dev had given her an order, but he didn’t know Logan like she did. Her boss also owed her.

Which wouldn’t keep him from royally chewing her ass out.

Taking a deep breath, she said, “Dev plans to have Caroline’s memories wiped.”

Logan’s head snapped back. “He what?”

“Listen,” she said, taking his hand, more to keep him from storming out of there than anything. Though it did feel good to be touching him again. “It’s for her 231

own good. She’s been pretty traumatized—”

“She’s strong. She can handle it. Your boss has no right to fuck with her head.”

“Logan, trust me. The less she knows about ACRO and Itor, the safer she is. If she has all those memories in her head, she’s fair game for them to grab her again.”

Logan closed his eyes. “Fuck.”

“She won’t be harmed. I promise.”

His eyes flew open, and he stared at her for a long moment. “I believe you,”

he said softly. He turned back to the door. “But I’m going to go make sure she’s okay.”

“And what about us? I know you can’t trust me, but—”

“That’s the thing,” he broke in. “I do trust you. I know why you did what you did.”

“But?”

“But I need to think about the rest. Your job, my job … it’s all a jumble.

Give me some time, distance. Can you do that?”

Yeah, she could do that. But she knew from experience that distance didn’t always make things clearer. Sometimes, you got so far away from the situation, it all became a blur.

“YOU’RE IN SUCH FUCKING TROUBLE” HAD BEEN ENDER’S

LONE words before he had escorted Gabe from the tarmac to his quarters. His only others had been “I heard you saved Annika. Nice job” as he slammed the door in Gabe’s face, locking him in his room.

All Gabe could do was report to his bunk and wait there until Devlin called him in for a debriefing.

The jet ride home had been from hell. With Akbar’s death, grief and loss permeated the air. Stryker looked both stricken and stoic as he sat across from Gabe for the long flight.

“You did good, kid. Devlin’s still going to kill you, but I’ll put in a good word,” he’d promised Gabe.

It was more than Gabe could ask for. More than he deserved. And although he might’ve proven himself to Stryker—and maybe even slightly to Annika—

there would still be hell to pay.

Would you have done anything differently, knowing what you know now?

He stared at the ceiling and realized he wouldn’t have. Amazing how a single trip to the Amazon could make him grow up in a way nothing else in his life ever had.

He just wished it hadn’t taken an agent’s death to do so.

He rolled to his side and checked the clock. Hours had passed since he’d deplaned and walked past Devlin, who’d merely ordered Ender to take Gabe to his 232

quarters and then walked away. It was well beyond midnight and even though Devlin worked late into the night, Gabe knew the daily debriefings were over.

Now it was a matter of figuring out what punishment best fit Gabe’s crimes.

Maybe Devlin was even considering making him leave ACRO.

Ironic that that’s all he’d wanted to do when he first arrived at ACRO. To leave. Now he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

Devlin. He pictured the man’s face—chiseled and perfect. Strong arms.

Hands that had touched every part of Gabe, right down to his soul—and fuck, this hurt.

He wondered if Dev was even thinking of him. Maybe he was engrossed in Akbar’s death—maybe his lover was in pain. Hurting, upset. All Gabe wanted to do was comfort him.

He called to Devlin in his mind, hoping his lover was using his CRV to look at Gabe, to see what he was doing.

Devlin, please, don’t shut me out. I fucked up … but I’ve learned my lesson. I get it now. I get it.

Nothing. Except for the treadmill of his own thoughts, there was silence in Gabe’s mind. Sighing, he opened his eyes—and froze.

He was no longer on his utilitarian bunk in his room on the ACRO

compound.