The Omega Team: Spurs (Kindle Worlds Novella) (4 page)

Ryder stayed in sock feet. He didn’t plan to go outside. “I sure hope I’m up to showering alone.” He eyed her in his peripheral vision, watching her reaction. “I’m still pretty weak.”

Isbet stepped into her boots and opened the door, facing away from him, but he heard a choked sound and hoped she wasn’t angry. She still had that sticker in her sock and the gun in her boot. Finally, she turned toward him. “If you need help with your shower after our little conversation downstairs, just say so. I have decided to tell you all as much as I can about myself, and I don’t know if you’ll change your mind about wanting me around you.”

Following her into the hallway, he turned over what she’d said in his head. “I can’t imagine what you could say that would change my mind, so it’s a date.” As they approached the top of the stairs, she held her arm out to him and he linked his through it, welcoming the support. “It’s not like you’re a hired killer or anything.”

“Not exactly, no.”

He dropped her arm and grabbed the railing.
Holy shit
. “Who are you? Are you even Isbet Gutierrez?”

She shrank against the other side of the stairs, hurt in her hunched shoulders. “Of course I am. But…well, I don’t want to tell it twice, so after you, soldier.” She waved him ahead and followed. “In case you don’t like what you hear and toss me out on my keister, I want to admire the view one last time.”

He clutched the banister, putting one foot then the other on the next stair down, descending like an old man. What the hell did she mean not exactly a hired killer?

Even if she were, he thought he’d probably still want to shower with her. After an appropriate body search for deadly weapons of course.

Hired killer
.

She was kidding.

Isbet settled into the leather armchair, almost disappearing in its worn depths. So far, nobody had spoken except to determine how many fingers of whiskey went into each heavy-bottomed glass. The three men sat side by side on the couch like a panel of judges. A panel of remarkably similar justices. If not for Carson’s lighter, ash-blond hair, and his cousins’ brown, they could be triplets. Nobody could doubt they shared blood.

“So,” she said, “where do we begin?”

“In the interest of time, I already had my office research you, Isbet.” Carson tipped his glass back and took a swallow.

“And? What did they learn about me?” The Omega Team employed the best investigators. As one they contracted from time to time, she had no doubt of the skill of the others. Including the one who had vetted her before Grey and Athena ever made use of her services. And they obviously hadn’t told him she was the investigator who found his family. At least, it didn’t sound like it. “Or should I tell you what you learned?”

“Either way.” He lifted a tablet from the side table. “My results are here. Let’s see how close you get.”

He hoped she’d give away more than they had learned. “All right. Isbet Gutierrez, the daughter of Israel Gutierrez and Mary Lou Anderson-Gutierrez was born in Tampa, Florida, five years after her father fell off a raft on his way from Cuba and nearly drowned. Her mother was a guest on the pleasure boat that rescued him and a few other people.

“Isbet graduated with honors from a local high school and attended college at Stanford University, graduating summa cum laude. How am I doing so far?”

“Yes.” He smiled encouragingly at her. “I have all that. Go on.”

“Isbet went to work at a tech company in the Silicon Valley, immediately after graduation, and that is the last time she appeared anywhere until….”

“Until?” Ryder leaned forward, a hand on his good thigh.

“Until a year ago when she hung out her shingle—figuratively, an online shingle—and became a private investigator.”

“Right.” Carson drank the last of his whiskey and stood. “Anyone else?”

Ryder waved his glass.

“Not you. I don’t think you need too much booze with your system still half in shock.” While he poured, he muttered, “The least comprehensive report I’ve ever received on anyone. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Grey is holding something back for some reason. Know anything about that?”

“They were protecting my privacy.” She set her glass on the table to her left. “I work for them from time to time. Like when they wanted to see if they could find any relatives of a certain employee?”

“Son of a bitch.” Carson tossed back his drink and blew out a breath.

“I think it’s important to share that in case you all want to throw me out.”

Carson returned and sat between his cousins. “I think I can surmise some more. You were part of some government organization, some agency, and now you work for my bosses. They hired you to find my cousins. Am I close?”

She nodded.

He continued. “But what I don’t understand is why you are still here.”

She didn’t know either. But, after hearing his story, she had wanted to see the reunion. And she’d wanted to see Ryder get a little better. A lot better. “I don’t have any family, at least not in the States.”

“Your parents…?” Andrew’s mellow drawl took the edge off a subject she preferred to avoid.

“Daddy died when I was quite young. Mama married again, dated a lot, looked for a great guy. Finally, she got sick. Anyway, she’s gone now, too.”

Ryder opened his arms, but she shook her head and he dropped them. If he hugged her, she’d break down, and they had to deal with the immediate threat. She could cry later. Someday.

“Anyway, I think I was just what the organization wanted. No ties. No family.”

Carson watched her. “You didn’t have to join them.”

“I thought about doing something different.” She blinked back the tears every memory of her mother’s death still brought on. “But I was recruited. A man came up to me in one of the college restaurants. Told me I could make a difference in the world.”

Carson cleared his throat. “Why you? I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but what made them decide you had more to offer than any other college student?”

Now she smiled. “I guess Grey and Athena really did hold back. I have an IQ of 189 and a few other odd talents they were looking for.”

“Like?”

“A photographic memory, the ability to blend into almost any crowd, and I held several awards for sharpshooting.”

“Sounds like a perfect recipe for an assassin.”

Ryder jerked, and she shot him a look. “I have said all I can, but, no, I was not an assassin. Although it was the position they had in mind for me. I spent a lot of time undercover overseas.”

Andrew rose and walked over to the window, more ill at ease than she’d seen him. “Did you work for the FBI? CIA?”

“No. And before you ask, I cannot even name them. It’s that top secret.”

This time when Ryder held out his hand, she let him draw her to sit next to him.

Andrew tugged back the heavy drapery and peered out. “Did you bring this trouble here?”

That was his real worry, wasn’t it? “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I never had anything to do with weapons smuggling.”

The rancher dropped the drape and faced them. “I can’t help but think your arrival is coincidental.”

Ryder draped an arm over the shoulders of the woman who had saved him. Sure, maybe he wouldn’t have bled to death, but he’d have had a heck of a time getting back without her going for help. And if circumstances were slightly different, if he hadn’t been showing off with pure macho hubris, perhaps they wouldn’t have found the criminals up there at all. The fact she’d been undercover to hook them up with their cousin? With everything else going on, he couldn’t be upset about that.

“I wish you’d felt free to tell us.”

“Omega did not give me permission to share what I was doing, but I think it’s all right now.”

“Okay, then.” He refocused on the more serious matters. “Carson, Andrew, did you find anything else up in the pasture? More evidence? Signs of other stops?”

Carson shook his head. “Not a thing. All we have is the one nasty little item you picked up. The question is, what do you guys want to do with it? It’s your land.”

Andrew looked at him. The rest of those in the room had a history of one kind or another of military or at least Fed service and expected there to be criminals under every rock. Andrew just wanted to raise cattle and make his, their, business a success. They had to resolve the issue—preferably without flooding the property with military and police personnel who would probably tear up the pastures, certainly upset the stock and hands, and overall step on one another’s feet. He toyed with a lock of Isbet’s hair while trying to figure out an alternative solution. “Ten minutes after we call in the authorities, all hell will break loose. Even my commander would be obligated to report higher up and bring in a small army. So to speak.”

Carson pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted, fingers flying. He nodded and typed some more. “We can’t hide the fact these are being brought into the country.”

Ryder sighed. “My team is charged with obtaining a sample of the weapon for analysis. Once they do, they can be pulled out of the area, maybe avoid being hit by one like I was. We can’t wait any time at all before making sure this gets into the hands of the researchers. The question is, can we keep them off the ranch in the process?”

Carson read the screen and nodded. “Athena has contacts everywhere, and she has asked me to wait until the morning before taking action. She thinks she might be able to help.”

At the speed of government, while they might be swarming the place, no way would they do anything useful with the item before the next day…or the next week. “Okay. But what if they come back tonight with more of the weapons?”

“Nobody flies in and out of those mountains at night. It’s a good way to end up splattered on the cliffs. That’s why they were here in broad daylight.” Andrew smiled, but his eyes told another story.

“In case they did leave anyone behind, Carson and I decided to send a couple of hands to babysit the stock overnight. They’ll have radios—like everyone should take up there—so if they see anything, they will hide and call for help. They are pretty strong guys, but they’ve never had to deal with anyone like we are facing. We will also inform the other night hands to keep an eye out for any unusual activity.”

“I can get behind that,” Ryder said.

“It seems logical, but I’m still worried. Do you think we should get everyone off the property?” Andrew shifted uncomfortably. “Anyone who could create a weapon like that wouldn’t hesitate to kill all of us.”

“No.” Carson shook his head. “Athena and Grey said not to make any big moves to alarm them. They don’t know we’re onto them, probably. If anyone was left behind, and they see a mass exodus, they might think they needed to get rid of any possible witnesses. For tonight, we keep things business as usual and as quiet as possible. Andrew and I will stand watch, along with Sarge, in the immediate area. Ryder, you need to rest, so don’t argue.”

Ryder stood and reached a hand for Isbet. “If we’re all done here for tonight, we’re heading upstairs to shower and try to get some rest.” Towing her behind him, he hit the stairs at a faster pace than his leg called for, but he didn’t care. “You boys have a good night.”

“Ryder, slow down!” Isbet’s footfalls thudded behind him. “You’re going to tear open that wound again.”

He tightened his grip on her hand and brought her level with him on the top landing. “I don’t want to give you a chance to change your mind about showering together.” Scooping her up, he held her against his body and strode toward his bedroom and its attached bath. “Get the door, would you? My hands are full.”

“Ryder, put me down before you hurt yourself.” She looped an arm around his neck and clung to his shirt. “And I never said I’d shower with you.”

He buried his face in her hair and inhaled the faint traces of the green apple shampoo she used each morning—not that he’d noticed—along with a dusty scent from their hike. Perfume from the women who pursued him and his buddies in every town they visited could never compete. “The door? I am not putting you down until we are inside where we have a little privacy.”

After a short stalemate, during which his leg throbbed in an unpleasant rhythm, she opened the door and he stepped inside.

“Lock it behind us. We don’t want my nosy relations walking in on us again.”

This time, she obeyed without delay, and he smiled to himself. What else might he be able to convince her to do?

“I still didn’t agree to anything” Her sullen tone was belied by the hitch in her breath and the spark in her velvet-brown eyes.

No, she hadn’t agreed.

Yet.

“Baby, I won’t do anything you don’t agree to.” He let her slide down the door to her feet, giving her his most soulful look. “Will you help me get undressed and wrap my leg to keep it dry?”

Isbet tilted her head back to meet his gaze. Ryder was the tallest man she’d ever stood this close to. Her palms flattened on his chest. Every cell of her body on full alert, she nodded. “Yes,” squeaked out then cleared her throat. “I can do that.”

He rubbed his nose against hers and spoke against her mouth, lips brushing hers with his words. “Thank you.”

His first kiss took her by surprise, and her eyes fluttered closed. The whiskey they’d shared flavored his lips and, when she opened to admit his tongue, the smoky taste deepened and the velvet stroking stole her breath. Her hands were pinned between them, but she didn’t care, focused on the sensual assault.

He drew back enough to murmur, “I should have asked first…okay if I kiss you?”

God.
“I…yes.” She wasn’t even sure why she’d protested the shower except it had been a long time since she’d been in a man’s arms. She didn’t leap into bed quickly or often—it had to mean something. So, what did this mean? “Please.”

He chuckled, the vibration against her lips sending a shiver straight to her core. “Mmm.” He kissed her again, his hands on her hips, drawing her lower body tight against him, his erection firm against her lower abdomen. His heart thudded under her palms, hers pounded in her ears. What was she doing?

He’d be back with his unit soon, and she’d continue to try to make her own life while remaining a puppet to her former handler who felt he could call on her for the dirtiest, scariest jobs.

But if she could pull away from the organization…maybe she could make a life?

“You’re distracted.”

She blinked her eyes open to find him staring down at her, dissatisfaction in his expression. “No, that is I….”

Stepping back, he led her toward the bathroom door. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on you and I was teasing, but I would give a lot to get you in that shower with me. However, if you’d rather not, if you’d rather remain friends, colleagues for the duration of this operation, that’s fine.” He stopped and rested his hands on her shoulders. “I can shower all alone.”

She studied his face, finding nothing but sincerity and maybe a little dismay there. “Just a shower.”

“Baby, I cannot get into that shower naked with you and keep my hands to myself….”

“I mean, no commitments, just a shower and maybe a night in bed together blowing off steam.”

“How about just a shower and a night in bed together, blowing each other’s minds, and then we’ll take it from there?” He kissed her forehead. “I hope you won’t want to dump me then, but if you do, I’ll eat a lot of chocolate and cry for a while and get over it.”

His joke did not make her laugh. But she kissed him, a long, slow one. “You have a very dangerous job. You will likely be hurt again, and my one phobia is people I care about being hurt.”

“I get that.”

“So, I can promise you tonight.”

He gave her a soft, sad smile. “The way things are going, I don’t think either of us has a written guarantee past tonight. The people who left that little barbed demon on our property have a tendency to kill those who cross them.”

She hated to see the sadness, but he had a point. “I think Andrew had it right and we should maybe clear the ranch. Get the other guests, the hands, and your brother and Sarge away.”

“Nah,” he said, toying with her hair again. “It’s a long way into town, and I am afraid the Omega bosses are correct. If we did anything big, anyone still around might react. Viciously. But we saw no signs of anyone else, and we have the hands out on the ranch, the two in the pasture, as well as the others who are always out there anyway. If they see anything strange, they’ll let us know.”

“But tomorrow?”

He grasped the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. His voice muffled in her ears, he whispered. “Let’s let tomorrow take care of itself. We’ll have plenty to deal with then.”

His hands skimmed down her sides and up her abdomen to the clasp between her breasts. The cups fell to the sides, and her breasts hung heavy in front of her. Stepping back, he palmed one and bent to press a kiss on its upper swell.

“For such a petite woman, you have more than a handful of sweetness here.”

She breathed, shallowly while he dragged his tongue over her nipple and sucked it into his mouth. Knees wobbling, Isbet rested her hands on his shoulders. He released her nipple and sucked on the other one for a long, mind-blowing moment before releasing it with a groan.

“I can’t bend like that for long. Maybe we’d better get undressed and in that warm water. I think I can get out of my clothes if you’ll help me wrap my leg?”

She shivered as the cooler breeze from the window wafted over her damp chest, but nodded. “Do you have something up here to wrap it in?” She’d never had a wound big enough to worry about while bathing.

“Saran Wrap, in the bedside table.”

She blinked at him. “The hospital didn’t send anything home with you?” The idea of using a kitchen wrap to protect such a serious injury was worrying.

He chuckled. “No, the doctor suggested a trash bag, but that’s bulky and awkward. Sarge brought up the roll of plastic. He’s dealt with enough medical emergencies to know what works best.”

“Are you sure you can manage?” She hesitated, but he waved her away.

“I think so, but if not, you’ll be right back.”

Isbet left him by the bathroom doorway and dashed over to the bed, the bra dropping to the floor along the way. She opened the top drawer in the table and rummaged through it. It held the usual array of bedside table items for a man recovering from an injury. Pain pills, tissues, the plastic water pitcher from the hospital, the plastic bracelet cut off his wrist. Why hadn’t he just thrown that away?

She found a box of gauze pads and some tape but no plastic wrap, so she shoved everything back inside and closed the overfull drawer. The one below it held a different array. Except for the roll of plastic, not one thing related to an injury.

At first glance, they were logical ranch items. Kerchiefs, a length of rope, a soft, leather-wrapped crop. A set of spurs and their leather holders, whatever those were called. Looked like he was more into the cattle business than he admitted. Some of these items could be fun in the bedroom, too, if he was willing. She’d often fantasized about a little light bondage and if the guy doing it was a real cowboy…. She shivered again, but not from cold. Lifting the box of wrap, she gaped at what she uncovered.
Why would a rancher need handcuffs?
Touching the cold steel with a fingertip, she jerked it back. Too real. Maybe he’d be the one suggesting kink.
Am I up for it?
The box of condoms and tube of flavored lube were down toward the bottom.

“Are you coming? I think I need help getting these damn jeans off.” He’d seemed far off for a moment, but the bathroom was only a few yards away. Slamming the drawer closed, Isbet grabbed the plastic and headed in his direction.

The man resting one hand on the sink was tall, tanned, and handsome, but nothing about him said kink. Of course, what had she expected? Piercings and full-sleeve tattoos? Leather pants? And with her limited experience—limited to novels, in fact—she couldn’t have told whether he was someone who belonged in a dungeon or just liked a little play in his bedroom.

In either case, she supposed she’d find out. “Be right there.”

She hurried to help him ease his pants over the injury. Isbet dropped to her knees and rolled his socks off his feet. He had long, straight toes with just a little hair on each, probably the sexiest feet she’d ever seen on a man. Especially one who spent a lot of time on them, training with his unit. Most of her team had blisters on their blisters no matter how careful they were to break in new boots. Rocking back to sit on her haunches, she waited while he kicked his jeans to the floor and eased them off.

She’d already become used to looking up at him, but from her position on the cold tiles, he loomed over her like a naked god. Nobody could be that gorgeous and be human. His ankles were as fine bones as a race horse’s, but the muscles rising from there were perfectly defined, each rising into the next. Light hair covered his legs leading to a neat nest in his groin.

He turned toward the shower and twisted the handles. “It can warm up while you do my leg. Takes plenty of time for the ancient pipes to send hot water our way.”

He faced her again, and she remained in position until he handed her the roll of plastic wrap. “I just roll this around your thigh?”

“Right. Six or seven times, kind of tight so the bandage stays dry.”

Isbet rose on her knees again, trying to ignore the fact that, as she bent close to bring the box around his leg, his very-happy-to-see-her erection brushed her nose. She wrapped around and around until the plastic covered his thigh for several inches above and below the gauze, and she felt sure no water would get through.

When she finished and wrangled the end over the steel teeth of the cutting blade, sweat trickled into her eyes, and she blinked at the sting and stared at his cock. A crystal bead of pre-cum glittered on its broad, dark-pink head, the shaft swollen with prominent veins. She’d never truly appreciated the beauty of the male reproductive organ before.

“Water’s warm.” He took her hand and drew her to her feet. On the way up, she admired his narrow waist and muscular chest. “If you’re quite done, it’s my turn.”

“What?” Startled, she met his gaze.

“You’ve had plenty of time to look me over—more than my brother would spend on stock he was bidding on in fact—so now it’s my turn. Take it all off, baby.”

The insecurity she never experienced while in the field held her in place. Topless, sure, but no matter how in shape she was, her body was a little curvier than had been fashionable in the last century. She’d almost not been accepted by the recruiter when her weight better suited a woman a couple of inches taller than the five-foot-two that nature determined to be her final height.

His smile encouraged her, and she toed off her socks and set aside the weapons then stripped away her jeans and panties.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said in a hushed tone. “Will you turn around so I can see all of you?”

Licking her dry lips, she obeyed, pivoting in a slow circle, encouraged by his words but knowing he’d see all her flaws. No man who paid as much attention to caring for his body as he did, who had not an ounce of visible fat, could fail to notice her junk in the trunk.

“I can’t believe I never tried to get you into bed before today.”

Isbet giggled at his ridiculous remark, and her tense shoulders relaxed. “You never even noticed me before today. Even though I’ve been hanging around the place for a couple of weeks. Maybe I should be crushed.”

In the wordplay, her spirits rose even more.

“I wasn’t downstairs much, myself, remember? Mostly just lying around trying to heal.

She sobered at the reminder. “Maybe we shouldn’t do anything. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Taking her hand, he led her under the warm spray. “The day I can’t show a pretty woman a good time in the shower is the day I…. Well, I don’t know what I’d do, but it would be a sad day.”

“But we’ll be careful,” she said, a hitch in her voice. “So we don’t increase your pain or healing time.”

“Yes, Nurse Isbet.” He drew her into his arms under the shower head. “So I probably shouldn’t do this, either.” Taking her lips, he devoured her mouth, plunging his tongue inside along with stray droplets to moisten their kiss. “Or this.” While she focused on the tangle of their tongues, he slid his hands down to cup her bottom and lifted her.”

She wanted to protest, she really did, but when she wrapped her legs around his body for balance, the head of his cock butted against her opening and her traitorous body welcomed him in, slick and hot and so ready for love.

Dammit!

Did he have to make it so easy to like him? To want him deeper? She threw her head back and moaned.

“You are going to hurt yourself.”

He buried his face in her neck and licked at the water droplets there. “It hurts now.”

Isbet planted her hands on his shoulders and pushed. “Then put me down. I…. Oh God, don’t stop!”

He chuckled. “Make up your mind.” Rocking his hips, he drove deeper, like fucking a tight, satin fist. “Because I prefer option B. Where I fuck you until we both come screaming in the shower.”

“Ohh, I….”

He drove in to the hilt and started a rhythm, their wet flesh slapping together, grunts and moans providing syncopations. It had been a while since he’d been with a woman but not long enough to explain his desire to hold her close. Make her see she never needed to leave.

That they could have a future.

God, sex made him insane.

Tonight, tonight only.

He absorbed everything about her. Her panting breaths against his shoulder, curly hair plastered to her flushed cheeks, the shudders that began in her core and rippled around his cock until his balls boiled and his cum shot straight out the top and into her tight, sweet cunt.

Bareback. Oh man….