To Die for... Honor

NINE

NINE

THE SLIP OF HIS SLOW tongue between her lips was only a prelude to the growing urgency of his need. She’d come to talk to him. She’d snuck away from the hotel to return to the only person capable of reassuring her. The only person she could confide her doubts in. As long as Daire knew what was going on in her head, in her heart, she didn’t feel so alone.

“I didn’t come here for this,” she said as he picked her up to sit her on the counter.

“You owe me one,” he said, his hands moving down across her breasts to her waist and on to her hips. “You said you’d be n***d in my bed.”

“I would’ve been if Hugo hadn’t intercepted me.”

He kissed her again. “Now you know why I don’t carry a piece in the house. Too tempting to put a bullet in him.”

The corners of her mouth rose, though she didn’t know if the cause was his joke or the alluring promise of his kiss as it descended to hers again.

“You need his money,” she said between slow kisses.

When Daire began to gather up her skirt, she planted her hands on the counter to raise her a*s, giving him room to get the fabric out of the way.

“Need this more,” he said, his mouth still on hers.

“Baby,” she breathed, coiling both arms around his neck. “We need to talk…” His kiss teased her, “about…” felt so good, “the agenda.”

“Mm hmm,” he said, grabbing her a*s to yank her to the edge of the counter. “After.”

It was on her tongue to object when he suddenly descended to a crouch, dragging her panties down at the same time.

“Daire,” she said, sinking one hand into his hair when he kissed her inner thighs, drawing her underwear off over her feet. “Oh God…”

Squeezing her eyes closed, she didn’t rate her chances of fending him off. Her resolve became nothing when his tongue slipped into her and then up around her c**t. She definitely hadn’t come to him for that kind of special attention.

Other than when he snuck into her dreams, Tess hadn’t thought about s*x, not since they’d been so close to completing each other at the weekend. Being alone in her bed upstairs didn’t turn her on either, so she hadn’t satisfied her own needs, probably since before Danny took over that job for her.

“Daire,” she panted, gripping the counter beneath her, clinging on for dear life as he pampered and aroused her into submission.

Gritting her teeth, her breath became quick pants as she desperately tried to hold his name inside her mouth. She couldn’t scream, couldn’t yelp or beg him to keep going. They might be alone in the Beast; that didn’t mean no one else would be within earshot.

The zing of pleasure bit deep into the pressure of need building, pressing down onto her, into her. His tongue moved fast over her c**t until all she could do was hold her breath until the urge to gasp overwhelmed her. He slowed to suck it between his lips. Her nails dug into his scalp, her hips rose, pushing deeper against his mouth.

Just as she approached the edge of the precipice, he turned his head to graze his lips against the seam of her leg. “My Heart,” he whispered.

That acknowledgement of love, of their connection, sent her tipping over the peak and racing down the descent of a pounding o****m that quaked and heated all of her.

By the time she got around to opening her eyes again, he was on his feet, between her thighs, smiling down at her.

Blowing out a breath, she reached out to drop a heavy hand onto his torso. “My Heart.”

Pulling her body to his, he held her against him. “How do you feel?”

“Spent, alive… finished… happy.”

“Not thinking about agendas anymore?”

He relaxed his embrace when she pushed back to look up at him. “You did that to distract me?”

“I did that because tension increases your stress. You build everything up inside and if you don’t vent, that pressure messes with your head… Probably why you had me pegged for a double agent at the weekend.” He dipped to kiss her forehead. “And I did it because it’s been too long since I reminded your p***y who it loves most… You definitely didn’t have s*x with him, right?”

He wasn’t wrong about the tension; she just hadn’t thought about it that way before. Her stress level was practically non-existent, though her ability to move, or do anything other than breathing, was pretty much non-existent too. She’d be happy to sit there, pressed against him, for the rest of time.

“Oh, yeah,” she said, playing to his joke. “I totally forgot for a minute that I was absolutely screwing the guy I came here to freak about.”

The heat of his laugh in her hair told her he knew she was playing. Scooping her up, he carried her through the trailer, their eyes exploring each other as he laid her down on the bed.

“Baby,” Tess said, stroking him when he came down on top of her. “I’d be happy spending the rest of my life in this bed with you… But we don’t have much time and I need help.”

He kissed her once and flopped onto his side next to her. “I know we need to talk… And staying quiet while I screw you isn’t your specialty.” She socked his chest. He just laughed and caught her hand to raise it to his lips. “I just wanted to see you here… to have your scent in my sheets again.”

“Daire,” Tess murmured as he let her hand go to run his fingertips across her brows, down her temples to her cheekbones, caressing and memorizing every part of her.

“I’m not cultivating you.”

“Didn’t say you were,” she murmured. “I’m sorry if my coming here, if asking you about things… I’m sorry it’s hard for you. I don’t mean to put you in a difficult position.”

Pinching her chin between his thumb and curled forefinger, he directed her mouth up so he could kiss her. “Any position with you is fine by me.”

Even while teasing he could flatter her. His chilled, more affectionate nature could be because she’d asked for Danny. Though she liked to think he’d just missed her.

“Help me, Agent.”

“We have two options,” he said, skimming his hand down and up her body. “You play along, let him do his thing, spoiling you, and we see where it goes. Or you tell him to go to hell and we deal with the fallout.”

“I don’t want there to be any fallout because of me… I suppose that means going with the first option. I just wish I had an idea of where it would go. If he makes a physical move on me, I can deal with that—”

“Or I can,” he said and winked.

Even when her stress level began to rise again, Daire was there to bring it back down.

“What if he threatens Harry? Tells him to do something or he’ll hurt me? I might not even know.”

“I’ll know,” Daire said. “Harry has made it clear that your safety is paramount. If someone threatens that, it will be down to me to eliminate the threat. You have to know I won’t blink, Little Red…” He caught a tendril of her hair, curling it around his finger. “We’ve never talked about this, but… I’m not all s*x and pancakes.”

“Violence,” she said. “That’s what you mean. You’re capable of violence.”

“Horrific violence, baby,” he said, watching her hair coil around his finger. “Murder… I’m capable of murder… I’ve committed murder.”

“I know,” she said, rolling closer to him. “We’ve never discussed the details, but I’ve run from it my whole life. If I didn’t believe what was chasing me was capable of erasing me, I wouldn’t have run from it for so long. My mom wouldn’t have run from it for decades either.”

“It doesn’t scare you? Put you off?”

Tess snickered as she pushed herself against him. “We’re not together though, right? So we can’t be put off something we aren’t?” Although she asked the question, it was a tease, not a serious query. “I’m not afraid of you, if that’s what you mean. Not physically anyway.”

Bowing his upper body a few inches back, Daire peered down at her. “How are you afraid of me?”

“I’m afraid that I might… That something you’ll have to do for Olympus will take you away from me… I’m afraid if you ever get hurt… if you ever… I’m afraid that one day we won’t have this, that you won’t be safe and close… That maybe I won’t be enough of a something for you.”

“I’ve made it this far without a something,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “Imagine how much easier it will be now that I have my something to fight for.”

“To survive for,” she said, closing her eyes to breathe him in. “I don’t want you to die for something, I want you to live for me… forever.”

He laughed, cradling the back of her head to guide it against him. “Okay, baby.”

“I mean it,” she said, opening her eyes. “Just because I gave you to Olympus doesn’t mean I want it to use you up and spit you out.”

“Right now there’s no chance of that. We’re in limbo.”

“I hate it,” she said.

Limbo wasn’t doing their relationship any favors either. If Olympus was up and running, sending Daire out on missions, Tess would be able to see what she gave him up for. While they were just there, stuck, it got more and more difficult to remember why they weren’t supposed to be doing things like lying in bed together, talking, falling further.

“You’re not the only one,” Daire said. “The guys are getting restless. Harry’s fighting a battle to keep them in line.”

“Because they want to go after Zeus?”

“And Six.”

“But Three doesn’t,” she said having heard it from the horse’s mouth. “If he’s in contact with One, I don’t suppose he wants Six eliminated either.”

“There’s been talk of doing it off the books,” he said, stroking her hair and kissing her head once more before rolling away to vault off the bed.

“Where are you going?” she asked, tucking her hands under her cheek. “I was comfortable.”

“Too comfortable,” he said, stretching his back then going over to open the bathroom door.

“Is there such a thing when we’re in bed?”

“Yes,” he called from the bathroom.

She heard the water and then a moment later, he came out wiping his face with a towel. Water dripped to his tee-shirt and dampened the hair around his face. His yumminess factor only grew with every second that passed between them.

“Baby…” she teased, sliding her feet flat up the bed, widening the space between her legs, presenting herself to him.

“The only threat to me these days is you, Temptress,” he said, reaching into the bathroom to hang up the towel again. “Seriously, baby, I only have so much self-control.”

As he closed the bathroom door, he adjusted his pants.

“I can do that for you,” she said, springing onto her knees to shuffle down the bed and grab for his pocket. When she gave it a yank, he did come closer, but he caught her little finger with his when she reached for his fly. In question, Tess’s head tilted. “No?”

“No,” he said, his eyes flaring while hers narrowed.

“You got up because you were thinking about having s*x with me.”

“I’m always thinking about having s*x with you,” he said and groaned. “You were sent here to destroy me.”

She smiled. “I wasn’t sent here, I was lured here… by you.”

“I keep thinking about what Harry would do,” he said, driving his fingers into her hair to clear it from her face. “Falling for a woman is one thing…”

“That’s against the rules?”

He nodded, still combing his fingers through her hair. “The fact that you’re his daughter… It would undermine his authority with the guys… cause friction in the ranks and between us. The guys might think you were whispering in his ear or that I was whispering in yours.”

“Harry’s more likely to listen to your opinion than he is to mine.”

“I’m not so sure about that. He doesn’t know how to…”

“Talk about his feelings?” she asked without hiding her smirk. “I don’t think any of us get a medal for that.”

“Now with Three in the mix… Harry’s pretty damn sure there’s something romantic going on between the two of you.”

That truth was curious. “But you’re not.”

“Why would you be here if you were getting what you needed from him?”

She shrugged. “Maybe you’re better in bed, maybe I’m using him for his money.”

“I have skills,” he said, unhooking her hand from his pocket to saunter down the trailer. “I was thinking about it… ‘bout Money Bags and how he can give you so much… If I wanted to compete, I could get you money.”

“I already used you for your money today,” Tess said. “There is so much more to life than money. So it has to be the sex.”

“ ‘Cept you didn’t come here for s*x either,” he said, swiping her panties from the floor.

Instead of giving them back, he opened the closet to put them inside.

She leaped off the bed to hurry down to the closet and grab the door. “Uh, I’ll need those back.”

“Nope,” he said, pulling the door from her hand to close it.

Knowing he wanted some intimate part of her to stay in his home wasn’t something to resist. “How do you know I didn’t come here for s*x?”

“Because you’d have stripped n***d and forced me to comply if you wanted it.”

“Forced?” she asked on a laugh. “I never forced you to have s*x with me.”

“You forced me to have s*x with you all the time. That’s what happens when you swing your sweet a*s in front of me, or wear those dresses that…” Leaning forward, he hooked a finger into her neckline to pull it out and look down her cleavage, “put ideas in my head.”

“That’s forcing you?”

“You being hot, tempting me, forces me to go against my better judgment. Knowing your consent is a given…? Guy doesn’t have a choice.”

He went to the opposite end of the space and sank into his favorite corner recliner.

“Uh, you were the one who offered to rev my engine, Danny Boy,” she said, slinking down the trailer toward him. “The day we met.”

“Mm hmm,” he said, checking her out. “ ‘Cause you put ideas in my head.”

“Daire…” she said, stopping between his parted knees. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. “For what?”

“I was freaking out when I came in here… just being around you makes everything better… You make me better.”

“You have a support system,” he said. “You don’t know it because I can’t be to you everything I want to be… But I would kill for you, Little Red. I would die for you… You will not fade away. I won’t let it happen.”