Critical Density Page 12

  “Sounds great.” Peyton slid her hand into one of Viper’s, his touch grounding her.

  As they reached the house, Rocket walked out to meet them.

  “Tom Hernandez called back. He’s caught up in a thorny situation, but I’m set to meet with him tomorrow afternoon. He apologized but said that’s the best he can do. He understands it’s important.”

  “We’ll take him when we can get him,” Viper said. “Okay, let’s eat.”

  * * * *

  Once dinner was over, everyone packed up their stuff, preparing to leave.

  Viper walked them to the door. “So, let’s just recap. We grabbed a lot of unorganized stuff out of thin air today.”

  Eagle patted his laptop. “And I took it and pulled it together so we’d know what to follow up on. After we went through it all, we discussed who should do what and I added that, too. We’ve all got copies of the file that includes all our notes and bits of information. I’m going to dig deeper into the Lowden contracts that look like they could be the most suspicious.”

  “Good. Let’s get started early.” Viper swallowed the last of his coffee. “I have a feeling Lowden isn’t just going to hang around waiting to see if Hannah surfaces somewhere. They can mobilize an army to canvass the area around the hotel and show her picture. Give out some kind of sob story. Just our bad luck if someone remembers her, and recalls she left with Viper.”

  Blaze nodded his agreement. “You got that right. Of course, they’d have to trace who he is, and that wouldn’t be so easy.”

  “They have unlimited resources,” Eagle reminded them. “And they’ll be persistent.”

  “Okay. First thing in the morning we’ll get right back on it.” He started to walk away, then stopped. “Wait a second. Houston. Don’t we know someone there?”

  Eagle nodded. “I do. I have a cousin there. He’s a licensed investigator. Just opened his own office, as a matter of fact. And he’d be perfect for it. If anyone can blend into any environment, it’s Ed. He could do some quiet scouting for us. Want me to call him?”

  Viper nodded. “Give him the basics. Then have him give me a call in the morning.”

  “Will do. Talk to you later.”

  He reset the security system, and when he turned, he almost bumped into Hannah.

  “Oops! Sorry.” He put both hands on her arms to steady her. “And by the way, you have to be pretty damn good to sneak up on me.”

  Her mouth curved in a smile. “I’ll remember that.”

  “I was preoccupied, anyway.”

  “Excuses?” she teased.

  “Maybe.” He told her about Eagle’s cousin. “We’ll all feel a lot better if we have someone on the ground sniffing things out. A direct line to what’s going on there.”

  She turned pale. “They won’t…” Then she shook her head. “Of course whoever it is won’t give anything away. You wouldn’t work with anyone who might do that.” She blew out a breath. “Thank you.”

  “I think we need to try and forget about this for tonight. What do you think?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “And I have just the way to do it.”

  He lifted her in his arms and carried her down the hall. She wondered which room he was taking her to, remembering the pile of new clothing she’d had fun trying on with Peyton. But he passed that door and went instead to one at the end of the short hall that was obviously his. He flipped a light switch with his elbow and the nightstand lamps came on, bathing the room in a warm glow. This room was twice as large as the one where she’d tried on clothes, glass doors opened onto the same patio where they’d had lunch, and beyond was an endless view of the bay. That alone could soothe her nerves.

  Viper set her on her feet and cupped her face.

  “Last night sort of happened. It was great. No. It was fantastic. Beyond that.” He brushed his mouth over hers. “It made me want a lot more.”

  It had made her want a lot more, too. Things she’d only read about and never found anyone she could be that free with. Her pulse accelerated. “I know you’ve been with a lot of women, and—”

  “Hush.” He touched a finger to her lips, the heat in his eyes burning her to the center of her. “Forget them. I have already. You wiped it all from my mind. I want you. Right here, right now.”

  He pressed his mouth to hers again then traced the seam of her lips with his tongue. She opened for him and he slid his tongue inside, gliding it back and forth over hers. She tilted her head back and allowed him a better angle, her hands gripping the muscles of his upper arms to give herself balance.

  He swirled his tongue inside her mouth, tasting every hot inch, scraping his teeth gently over her own delicate tongue before sucking it into his mouth. More shivers.

  He slid his hands, which he’d been using to cradle her head, down her back to cup her nicely rounded ass and pull her tight against him. God, the things he wanted to do to this body, at the same time wondering if he’d scare her off. She’d been hot as hell the other night, but he also had the feeling she wasn’t usually that unrestrained. He was well aware that a crisis would do that to people. He just wanted to make sure she knew how hot he was for her, how hungry, and not just for a quick fuck.

  Take it slow, asshole.

  But it was damn hard.

  In his checkered life, Viper had had more than his share of woman, but none of them had ever affected him like Hannah Modell. Just looking at her made the desire to taste every inch of her consume him and made his cock painfully hard. He wanted to be inside her. Now. More than the intense physical connection, however, was an unexpected, instant emotional link, shocking in its intensity. How had this happened in just twenty-four hours? He’d tried to analyze it, but realized he couldn’t pick apart something like this.

  Her mouth tasted so hot and sexy. He thought he could drink from her forever, even as he imagined her lips wrapped around his cock, maybe with her on her knees before him, her hands squeezing his balls.

  He broke the kiss to trail his lips along the soft curve of her jaw. Every place on her body tasted so good that he didn’t know where to kiss her first. He nibbled at the lobe of her ear and licked the side of her neck on the way to placing a sucking kiss at the hollow of her throat. She moaned lightly, the sound vibrating against his mouth and sending electricity straight to his dick and his balls.

  “Jesus, Hannah.” He lifted his head to look at her. “Just…Jesus!”

  The heat in her eyes dimmed a little at his words. “Is something wrong? I thought…”

  “Nothing is wrong.” Except that he was losing his mind over her. “Far from it. I just wish I could touch you everywhere at once.” He grabbed her hand and placed it over his fly. “Feel what you do to me?”

  He grabbed the hem of her blouse and tugged it upward. When she lifted her arms, he yanked the garment over her head and tossed it to the side. The upper swells of her breasts made his mouth water. Bending his head, he licked the curves, first one, then the other, before clamping his mouth over a nipple, bra and all. When he tugged on the hardened peak, she moaned, the sound inciting the lust boiling inside him even more. He bit down harder, and rather than pulling away from him, she thrust at him with even more force.

  His balls ached and erotic thoughts of what he wanted to do to her filled his brain.

  “Let’s get this out of the way,” he growled. “I don’t want anything hiding those pretty breasts of yours.”

  He couldn’t believe his hands were actually shaking as he unhooked her bra, slid the straps down and tossed the bit of silk and lace on top of her blouse. Rough-and-ready Viper felt like a high school kid about to lose his cherry. He’d had plenty of women, most of them with as much experience as he had and with similar tastes, but no one had ever affected him like this.

  Cupping her breasts, he kneaded them as he sucked hard on first one rose-colored nipple then the other. The little moans that vibrated up from her throat were some of the sexiest sounds he’d ever heard, urging him on
.

  He’d worried that last night might have been an aberration for her. That in the light of day, past the stress of the moment, she might regret what happened, although he fervently hoped not. It was some of the best sex he’d ever had. Scratch that. The best. Ever. And they’d barely touched the surface. He had things he wanted to do to her, things he hoped wouldn’t send her screaming into the night. Things that almost made him come just thinking about them.

  He was stunned by it all, with no idea what the fuck was happening to him. Oh, he’d always had it in the back of his mind that once he was out of the SEALs, he’d think about settling down. Maybe. Find the right woman who pushed every one of his buttons. But at thirty-six, he hadn’t been sure he was ready yet to think of life with just one person. Until Hannah had burst into his universe.

  Stop thinking so much. Tomorrow you can think.

  He blocked everything else from his mind and focused on the woman in his arms. Her soft flesh. Her warm body. The deliciously round breasts with their pebbled tips. He drew a line between those breasts down to the waistband of her new jeans, taking a little nip of the skin before kneeling in front of her.

  “What—”

  “Ssh. I have to see every bit of you. In the light, so I don’t miss anything.”

  He undid the snap at her waistband and lowered the zipper, pushing them down past her hips to her ankles. Then, unable to resist the temptation, he drew his tongue across the lace band of her barely-there panties with his tongue, licking the skin as he did so. It was killing him to restrain himself, but he was determined to take it slow and bring her every ounce of pleasure he could.

  Placing his hands on her hips, he lifted her and sat her on the edge of the bed. He eased off her shoes then slid her jeans and thong down her legs. The scent of her musk was driving him nuts, so much so that he had to bury his face between her thighs and inhale deeply. God! Every nerve in his body leaped to attention, sending messages directly to his cock and his balls. He lapped the area, flattening his tongue to taste her delicious flavor.

  “I could do this forever,” he murmured, inhaling the scent of her flesh, and he meant every word. Except then he’d be neglecting the rest of her.

  Easing her back until she was lying on the bed, half off, legs spread so she was naked before him, he took a minute to drink in all that sweet, mouthwatering flesh. Then he knelt in front of her, spread her thighs and draped her legs over his shoulder, and sucked in a breath at the sight of her sex with its nicely trimmed hair framing her oh-so-wet slit. He drew a finger between the pink folds, coating it with her warm juices, then licked the finger and slowly sucked it clean. The pulse beating at her throat accelerated, so he did it again.

  God! He’d never tasted anything as sweet and intoxicating in his life.

  He ran his tongue over his lips, pressed the pink flesh open and licked a long, slow path from top to bottom. Then he did it again, pausing along the way to move it in a swirling motion over her clit. Her moans grew louder, and she clenched her hands into fists and tried to lift her hips to be closer to his mouth. The more she made those delicious little sounds, the more he worked the slick pink flesh.

  When he’d nibbled and licked, paying extra attention to her clit, he moved one hand to slide two fingers inside her. Jesus! She was soaked. His fingers glided right in, so smoothly that he added another one, working them to stretch the slick walls. The intense grip of her flesh excited him even more. He closed his eyes for a moment, centering himself and calling on all his discipline not to blow this.

  “God!” The word burst from her mouth.

  She dug her heels into his shoulder blades and squeezed him with her thighs, pushing herself to ride his hand. He tried to slow things down, but she wasn’t having any of it. She pushed hard, moving her hips faster and faster. He clamped his teeth over her clit with a light touch and bit down, and she exploded. Her inner walls clenched tight around his fingers, squeezing them again and again. He worked her swollen nub, not easing up until the spasms subsided at last and her legs relaxed, falling to the side.

  Viper rose, slid her body so it was completely on the bed, then lay on top of her, holding his weight on his forearms.

  “You look so beautiful when you come.” He touched his lips lightly to hers, smiling. “And you taste good, too.”

  “You… You’re… That was amazing.”

  “You’re the amazing one. How did I get so lucky for you to fall into my path?”

  She searched his face, relaxing at whatever she saw there. “Maybe we were both due for a little good luck.”

  He lay there with her for a long moment, staring into her eyes, trying to read the expression that flickered. The pulse at the hollow of her throat was still stuttering and the heavy beat of her heart thrummed against his chest. He hoped he wasn’t reading her wrongly, but he saw satisfaction, heat and desire. Hannah Modell was turning out to be a rare, undiscovered gem, and he silently gave thanks to whatever hand of fortune had sent her into that bar and onto the stool next to him.

  He could hardly believe that less than forty-eight hours had passed since then, or that they had connected so instantly. It might not have been his style up to now, but he wasn’t walking away from it. He was going to make sure they got her out of this so the two of them could look at a future together.

  He shifted and his very swollen, very hard cock pressed against her thigh, a painful reminder that only one of them had come yet.

  She smiled at the contact, half shy, half tease. “We should do something about that.”

  “When you catch your breath,” he agreed.

  “Maybe my breath is caught enough for this.”

  She moved so fast she startled him, pushing him to the side and rising to a kneeling position. Before he realized what she was doing, she had her slim fingers circling his throbbing dick and drew a line around the swollen head with the tip of her tongue.

  “No, wait.” He wound her hair around the fingers of one hand and tried to move her head. “Jesus, Hannah.”

  “I don’t want to wait.” She glanced sideways at him, a hungry, teasing look in her eyes. “I want to make you feel as good as you did for me.”

  She went to work on him and he reached for every bit of self-control he had. He did not want this to end too soon. While he’d really rather come inside her, her mouth was so hot and wet that he had no desire to pull away. She licked up one side of his cock and down the other before tracing the crown of flesh at the head. When she pressed the tip of her tongue into the tiny opening, electricity shot straight to his balls. She smiled against his cock, then opened her mouth and slid all the way down to the base. As she did so, she slipped one hand between his thighs and tightened her fingers around his balls. When she increased the pressure just a little bit, he sucked in his breath.

  “Hannah! Jesus! Holy mother of god.”

  She squeezed again, a gentle pressure, and began moving her mouth up and down the length of his shaft. He kept his fingers twined in her hair, guiding her, although she sure didn’t need it. Her lips were like velvet and her tongue like slick satin as it stroked him again and again. He needed her to go faster, then to slow down, then he didn’t know what the fuck he wanted, except he sure didn’t want her to stop.

  He felt the orgasm gathering low in his body and for a brief moment he thought about telling her to stop. To let him shove his dick inside her right then. But it felt so damn good this way and he was past the point of no return. In an instant he exploded, his cock throbbing as he came in her mouth. She never let up on the rhythm of her hands and mouth until she’d sucked every single drop from him. Then she lifted her head and he saw a very satisfied look on her face.

  It took him a moment to even out his breathing, but then he released his grip on her hair and smoothed it back, away from her face.

  “Come here,” he told her in soft tones, and pulled her so she was lying on top of him. “I want to feel you against me.”

  She smiled. “Was it g
ood?”

  He had to laugh. “Good is too weak a word for what happened. I hope you don’t kill me before I get enough of you.” He stroked her cheek. “Although I don’t believe that’s ever going to happen. I might never get to that point.”

  She lay against his chest, her head on his shoulder. “I hope not.”

  “Count on it.” He tilted her chin up so he could look directly into her eyes. “Hannah, I know this has been fast. It’s just been a couple of days since you tried to hide in that bar and luckily sat on the stool next to me. Maybe you think this is fast. I don’t know. But for me? In our line of work, life can be a precarious thing. You hope that one right person will come into it. There are no guarantees, but people say you’ll know it when it happens. I knew it five minutes after you sat down. I don’t know if it’s the same for you, and in this situation, I don’t want to push you.”

  She pressed a finger to his lips. “I’m almost afraid to say yes, for fear I’m reading it wrong or it might go away. But I’ve never felt like this about anybody ever in my entire life. I just want to make sure you’re…”

  “Sure about it?” His voice was husky. “Oh, count on it. And I promise we’re getting you out of this mess and taking care of the assholes who put you in it.”

  Hannah sighed. “I can’t wait for that day. And, Viper? I know you and your partners can do it. I have faith.”

  He was pretty damn positive that was the most important thing anyone had ever said to him. He’d make sure Galaxy got her problem taken care of. But in the meantime, he planned to make good use of their nights together. He was already becoming addicted to Hannah Modell. He wanted to be sure it went both ways.

  “Catch your breath, darlin’, because I’m going to fuck you so hard you’ll come like a maniac.”

  He waited for her to object, but instead she just licked her lips.

  Chapter Nine

  Diesel paced his den, on edge and trying to calm down, debating the merits of adding some bourbon to his morning orange juice. He could not figure out how things had gotten so incredibly fucked up. Hannah Modell was just a nothing female, her only skills having to do with drones. She had no close friends, no romantic relationships, and both of her parents were dead. Making her the fall guy should have been a slam dunk.