The Spy (King’s Security #3)

Chapter 14

14

FIONA

I gasped for breath as the water engulfed me. I sank down, down, until my survival instincts kicked in and I started to push toward the surface. It was so cold, my chest felt as if it was being squeezed. I couldn’t relax enough for the sensation to ease. My head broke through the surface and I sucked air into my lungs, filling them as much as I could, which still wasn’t enough.

Something splashed into the water beside me and I mopped the spray from my eyes. A moment later, Zeke surfaced gracefully, his recovery making mine look like a fish on a hook. Why couldn’t the damn man be bad at something?

A shiver wracked my body, and I became aware of the hulking form of the yacht behind me. The police sirens were still wailing and the lights had gotten much closer. The cops were on a boat of some variety and seemed to be trying to intercept the Claudette . Had someone tipped them off about the auction ?

“What now?” I asked, struggling to breathe enough to stop myself from getting lightheaded.

Zeke tilted his head to the left. “Swim that way.”

I kept my movements as soft as possible, afraid that someone above might hear us and look over. We’d been lucky that the police sirens had masked the sounds as we hit the water. If not for them, someone certainly would have noticed us slip overboard. Zeke and I gradually put more distance between ourselves and the yacht. The night grew darker as we left the glow of artificial light. As my eyes adjusted, I began to make out a shape emerging from the dark.

A dinghy.

Kade sat within it, his powerful arms rowing it toward us. When he drew level with us, he reached over the side, offering me his hand. Zeke boosted me from behind and I clambered over the edge, not even caring that I knocked my knee against the metal railing. I was so glad to see him. He gestured behind me and I turned to see a set of towels and a blanket.

I dried myself, shivering the whole time, and did my best to squeeze the frigid water out of my hair before huddling beneath the blanket. Meanwhile, Kade helped Zeke into the boat. I passed him a towel and he did the same as me, then gestured for me to let him join me beneath the blanket. He pressed up against my side and pulled the blanket around his shoulders. His body was surprisingly warm and, slowly, my shivers eased.

Kade continued to row until we were far enough away that the engine wouldn’t be heard, then he turned it on and steered us toward the shore. The entire time, none of us spoke.

When we reached the shore, a car was waiting for us. I wrapped the blanket around myself and Kade handed Zeke a towel, which he slung around his waist.

“What just happened?” I was bewildered.

“That wasn’t really the police,” Zeke replied, sounding a little smug. “It was a diversionary tactic so we could escape. I have an alert button on my watch and when I pressed it, Kade knew to activate the extraction plan.”

“You couldn’t have told me what to expect?” I asked as we got into the car.

“You were scared enough,” Kade said. “We didn’t want to worry you when we knew it might not come to anything. It was a simple plan and Zeke knew he could execute it without you being aware of it beforehand.”

I narrowed my eyes, suspecting that Kade had been the one who’d made that decision. He could be overprotective, especially when it came to women. I liked to think Zeke respected me enough to have told me otherwise. Of course, he could have said something even if Kade didn’t like it and he’d chosen not to.

Nope, I was angry with both of them.

“I’d have liked a say in the matter,” I said. “Besides, isn’t it illegal to impersonate the police?”

The car started moving, and the driver cranked the heat up—a fact I was grateful for.

Zeke shrugged. “Following the rules has never been my thing.”

I looked at Kade. While Zeke wasn’t the best rule-follower, Kade historically had been. At least, other than the time he’d gone rogue when Sage was in danger, and really, who could blame him for that?

Kade’s expression turned sheepish. “Sometimes there’s room for exceptions.”

Right .

“So, are we going back to the office?” I asked. I really wanted to get Zeke alone and demand some answers.

The men exchanged a glance.

“We’re going to a safe house,” Zeke said. “Just in case anyone is tracking us. It’s unlikely, but better safe than sorry.”

“Will there at least be a change of clothes for me there?” I couldn’t believe they’d organized all of this behind my back. It hurt. I’d thought we were a team, but they were acting as if I were just a child to shepherd around. I had less experience than them, but I was smart and I could be practical. They didn’t have to treat me like I was made of glass. Or as if they didn’t trust me. I’d had enough of that in my life. Nobody had trusted me after the accusations the police spread four years ago, but I’d thought these men were different.

“Yes,” Zeke said. “We had a bag packed for you.”

“Of my things or stuff from the company?”

“Your things,” he replied. “We sent one of the women on Kade’s team to do it.”

I relaxed slightly. At least it had been a woman. I hated to think of one of the big, muscled male bodyguards pawing through my underthings.

I was silent for the rest of the trip, while Zeke debriefed Kade on everything that had happened on board the Claudette . I held myself apart from them, warm enough that I didn’t need their body heat. Eventually, we pulled up outside a residential apartment building not too different from my own.

“You two head in,” Kade said. “I’ll go back to the office and update Ronan.”

“Thanks for the rescue,” I said, because however I might feel about being kept in the dark, I owed him that. If he hadn’t been so fast to scoop us out of the lake, I could have hypothermia now instead of being mildly pissed.

“No problem.” He gave me a tentative smile. “Stay safe, okay, Fi?”

“I’ll try.” I imagined that tonight was the most excitement I’d see in my life. I almost smiled. Who’d ever have expected no-nonsense Fiona to jump off the side of a French millionaire’s yacht at night? Not me, that’s for sure.

Zeke thanked Kade too, and we got out of the car. I pulled the blanket closer around myself, and he did the same with his towel. We both looked bedraggled, but fortunately, there wasn’t anyone around to stare. Zeke led me to an apartment on the ground floor and slotted a key into the lock. I hadn’t noticed Kade give it to him, but I’d also been preoccupied, so perhaps that wasn’t surprising.

As soon as we were inside, Zeke flicked the lock into place and pulled his wet top off over his head. I turned to face him and put my hand on my hip.

“Why couldn’t we have stayed on the yacht a few more minutes, just to try to set eyes on Daisies ?”

ZEKE

Fiona looked like a water sprite. The water had darkened her hair to the color of blood, and her skin was pale except for the soft pinkness of her mouth and the freckles that stood out starkly across her nose. I’d never seen her more beautiful.

“What Bergen said about the police made me think he was up to something,” I said. It hadn’t only been that. I’d gotten a vibe from the guy that I couldn’t quite explain. “ Whether it was getting the security footage to implicate you, or whether that was just a distraction while he told Laurent there were uninvited guests aboard his yacht, I’m not sure. I didn’t want to run the risk of giving him the time to make a move.”

I’d never have been able to live with myself if Fiona and I had been captured and she’d suffered as a result. Perhaps I’d been overly cautious, but I’d gambled with my safety in the past and lost. While I’d survived, it certainly hadn’t been without scars, and I wanted better for Fiona.

“I…” I trailed off and cupped her face in my palm. She looked up at me, her eyes luminous. “I couldn’t take the chance that anything might happen to you.”

I had no idea how she would react to my confession. I’d never been so vulnerable with her before. I didn’t expect her to grab my shoulders, pull me in, and kiss the crap out of me, but that’s exactly what she did. Without any warning, her lips were on mine. They were cool and yielded where our mouths met.

“You sweet, aggravating man,” she gasped as we separated. “You drive me insane, but then you go and say something like that.”

I gathered her into my arms, needing another taste of her. My tongue delved into her mouth, exploring her, and she pressed against the planes of my body, somehow both soft and strong at the same time.

“Thank you.” She pulled back and nuzzled the side of my neck. “I’m pissed that you didn’t tell me the whole plan, but thank you for having my back.”

My heart warmed. “If it helps, we didn’t tell Ronan either, so he has plausible deniability if we get into any trouble.”

She shook her head. “You’re a surprisingly decent man. ”

“Surprisingly?” I arched a brow, my tone teasing. “Didn’t you always know I was wonderful?”

She rolled her eyes. “And so humble.”

“You know it.” Despite the flippant words, my heart was pounding wildly, and I had no doubt she could feel it through the thin blanket that separated us.

“I’m going to have a shower,” she said, drawing away.

I swallowed my disappointment. I’d thought something was happening between us, but perhaps not. “Sure. I’ll go after you.”

“Or,” she said pointedly, “you could join me.”

“ Oh .” Yeah, that sounded much more like it. I grinned. “You have such good ideas.”

She grabbed my hand and dragged me to the two doors that came off the open-plan living area. Behind one was a bedroom with two full-size beds, and the other had a tiled floor and an open shower with a toilet hidden in the back corner.

“Perfect.” She dropped the blanket and started the shower, then turned to face me wearing nothing but her panties and a bra. My jaw dropped. She’d stripped earlier, but I hadn’t been able to appreciate the view. Now, there was nothing to stop my eyes from lingering on her narrow waist, high breasts, and slender thighs. Holy crap, she took my breath away. As I watched, she peeled down the panties, revealing a smooth pussy that made my mouth water.

“Let me help you with that.” I stepped forward and flicked the hooks of her bra open, sliding my hands around to cup her flesh and toy with her nipples. She whimpered and leaned back against me. My cock throbbed, already hard and ready to join the party. After taking a dip in chilly Lake Michigan, I was afraid my balls might have climbed up inside me permanently, but it seemed like I needn’t have worried .

I rubbed my thumbs over the sensitive tips of her nipples, forming them into stiff peaks. She turned in my arms, wriggled her tight little ass against my cock and made a soft sound of approval. I tilted her head to the side and kissed the length of her neck, sucking a mark onto the creamy skin at the crook of her shoulder. She turned in my arms and pushed both the towel and my briefs down over my hips. My cock slapped against my lower abdomen and stood at attention.

“Oh, my God.” Her lips parted and her pupils dilated as she stared down at my cock. “It’s pierced.”

“So it is.”

She reached toward it, then paused. “Can I?”

“Go ahead.”

She traced her finger along the curved Prince Albert piercing, her eyes growing wider every second. “Didn’t that hurt?”

I shrugged. “Only for a while.”

At the time, I’d had other things on my mind, so a little pain in my cock head had hardly registered.

“How does it feel… inside?” The question emerged in a breathy whisper.

I grinned. “It hasn’t been inside me, so I don’t know. There’s only one way to find out.”

She raised her eyes to mine, and they burned with naughty promise. “I intend to.”

She plastered herself against me, but just as her lips were about to touch mine, I experienced a pang of conscience.

“Wait.” I held her close but angled my face down, my forehead still against hers, so I’d be less tempted to kiss her. “You’re hopped up on adrenaline.”

I didn’t want anything that happened between us to be something she’d regret later .

With two of her fingers, she tilted my chin up. Her mouth hovered over mine, and then her teeth sank into my lower lip. When she pulled away, she was smiling with satisfaction.

“That’s what you get for implying I don’t know what I want,” she snarked. “If you don’t want me, just say it, but if you’re pulling some kind of weird, last-minute gentleman act, stop it. I don’t want you to be a gentleman. I want you to do filthy things to me.”

Despite my shock, I smiled. Who the hell would turn down an offer like that?