The Spy (King’s Security #3)

Chapter 26

26

ZEKE

At the end of the week, I met Fiona at her desk as she was finishing for the day and greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” I announced.

She glanced at my crotch and smirked. “Hardly a surprise.”

I put my hand to my chest, affecting a wounded expression. “I’m hurt. I’m not just a one-trick pony. Although, it’s a good trick, right?”

“It’s a fabulous trick.” Her smile became mischievous. “Best trick I’ve ever seen.”

“And it’ll stay that way.” I wasn’t afraid to indulge my possessive side when it came to Fiona. It was strange, I’d never known how many caveman-like tendencies I had until I kissed her for the first time. Now, I’d cheerfully disappear anyone who had the gall to look at her sideways.

“So, what’s the surprise?” she asked, slinging her handbag over her shoulder .

“We’re going on a date.”

“We are?” Her eyebrow arched. We’d hardly left her apartment over the past few days, except to work. That was in part because we couldn’t keep our hands off each other, but it had also given her the chance to recuperate after our run-in with her ex and the subsequent shit show with the police.

“Yes,” I confirmed, taking her hand. “I can’t let you forget that we are, in fact, dating.” I smiled at her as we headed toward the exit together. “As in, you’re mine, I’m yours, and I can whisk you away on romantic dates on a whim.”

“As long as those romantic dates are romantic by both of our standards,” she warned, narrowing her eyes at me.

My lips twitched. “You’re so suspicious, honey muffin. I promise you’ll like it.”

At least, I hoped she would. There was a chance I was overstepping, but if she gave the slightest indication that was the case, I’d back off. All I wanted was for her to be happy. Well, and for her to be with me.

I stopped near the exit and released her hand so I could sift through my bag. I pulled out a pair of yoga pants, a tank top, and an old sweater.

“Change into these,” I said, gesturing at the bathrooms to the right of the door.

She frowned. “You want me to wear this on a date?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, giving nothing away.

She studied my face for a long moment, then took them and vanished into the bathroom. When she emerged, her dress was folded neatly over her arm and she’d let her hair out, so it now fell loosely around her face. The air punched out of me. God, she was gorgeous. Dressed up or down, smiling or scowling, tired or refreshed, Fiona stole my breath.

“What now?” she asked .

I led her to my car and drove us to a small studio not far from her apartment. She looked around with interest as I escorted her to the entrance. I knocked and waited. The door opened a few seconds later.

“Hello!” A petite blonde beamed at us. She opened the door wider and stepped backward. “Come in. Are you ready to have some fun?”

“Yes,” Fiona said hesitantly.

“She doesn’t know what we’re doing yet,” I explained to the blonde, Anna. “It’s a surprise.”

“Oh! How lovely.” If possible, her smile widened as she focused on Fiona. “Your man has booked a romantic couples wine and painting night. I have a lovely bouquet of flowers set up for you to paint, and there’s several different wines for you to sample, as well as a charcuterie board to snack on. I usually do a short demonstration at the beginning of the evening, but Zeke assures me you won’t need any help from me, so I’ll just show you around and get out of your way. You’ll have the room to yourselves until eight.”

Fiona’s eyes widened and she turned to me. “We’re painting?”

“If you’d like to.” My stomach tightened, and I tried to hide my nerves. “We don’t have to if you’d rather not, but you’re so talented and it seems such a shame that you don’t do something you used to love.”

She hesitated, nibbling on her lower lip. For a moment, I thought she might tell me I’d butted into something that was none of my business, but then her expression eased and she gave me a soft smile.

“You’re right,” she said. “I miss painting, and I shouldn’t let Bergen take it away from me.”

“You’ll give it a go?”

“I will.”

My insides settled. I took her hand and we followed Anna, who’d been watching our exchange with interest, through to the studio. The room had off-white walls and was awash with golden light. A bouquet of lilies stood in the center of the room with two canvases set up a few yards away. Fiona went to stand behind one of them, studying the lilies intently. I joined her, picking up a small wine glass from the edge of my easel and sipping it.

“The food and drinks are over here.” Anna gestured to a hand-carved wooden table against one wall. “I’ll be through there.” She waved toward another door. “I won’t come in unless you call for me. If you need anything, just knock.”

“Thank you,” I told her.

She smiled. “Have fun.”

I picked up a paintbrush and scanned the selection of paints. I didn’t know much about them, although I’d done enough online research to not make a total ass of myself. I watched Fiona surreptitiously as she did the same and twirled the paintbrush between her fingers. I dabbed mine into the fuchsia pink paint and made a start, hoping it would take the pressure off her. She walked over to the bouquet, circled it, and returned to her canvas. Eventually, she sighed, and turned to me.

“I need a more inspiring subject,” she said. “The flowers aren’t doing it for me.”

Damn. I set my paintbrush down.

“What did you have in mind? Maybe we could use one of the wine bottles?” I suggested.

Her lips curved wickedly. “I was thinking more along the lines of you stripping off those clothes and posing for me.”

My jaw dropped. “Nude?”

I almost laughed. I sounded like a scandalized old-fashioned housewife.

“Nude,” she confirmed, her eyes sparkling with amusement .

I glanced at the door that Anna had left through. “But…”

“She said she wouldn’t come in unless we called her,” Fiona reminded me.

So she had. I chuckled. What the hell. Why not?

I kicked off my shoes, shucked off my clothes until I was in my underwear, then cast one last look at the door before peeling them down. “Where do you want me?”

She guided me to stand in front of the bouquet, using her hands to adjust me into position. She stood back to survey me, then shook her head and gripped my hips.

“Turn around,” she said. “I want you to look over your shoulder at me and give me that smolder that says you want to take my clothes off. You know the one.”

I smirked. I did know the one. I followed her orders and held still while she returned to her canvas.

“Fantastic.” She grinned, and my heart kicked in response. “Now, don’t move.”

That didn’t seem like a hard ask, but before long, I discovered that standing in one place and trying to hold the same expression wasn’t as easy as it looked.

“I have a whole new respect for models,” I grumbled.

She laughed. “It isn’t easy. I posed nude for an art class once. I had the worst crick in my neck at the end.”

My cock stirred. I really hoped Anna didn’t pop in to check on us.

“Do you have any of the paintings from the class?” I asked. I bet she’d make a stunning nude model. She’d put Rose from Titanic to shame, that was for sure.

“Nope.” She sounded gleeful. “But this one is definitely going on the wall.”

“Can I see?”

She pursed her lips and eyed it critically. “In another few minutes.”

She got back to work, and I amused myself watching the play of emotions across her face. She was an open book when she was painting, and I loved that. Finally, she put her paintbrush down.

“You can come over,” she said.

I stretched, my muscles creaking, and slowly made my way to her side. As soon as I laid eyes on the painting, I forgot how to breathe. I’d expected it to be decent—I’d seen evidence of what a good artist she was—but she was out of practice, and honestly, I’d thought she might be a little playfully teasing when it came to painting me naked.

Not so.

She’d captured me beautifully. The sunlight played across my skin in the painting, and her use of colors and contrast was exquisite. It was my face that most stunned me though. Everything I felt for her was there for anyone to see. I had no idea how she’d done it, but my love for her practically radiated off the canvas.

“Wow,” I breathed.

“It needs a lot more work,” she said self-consciously.

I took her by the shoulders and turned her to face me. “It’s amazing, Fi.”

Her lips curved slightly. “It is kind of great, isn’t it?” Her smile widened, and she laughed. “I painted, Zeke. I finally did it.” She kissed me. “Thank you for bringing me here. It was…sweet.”

A few weeks ago, “sweet” might not have been what I wanted to hear from any woman, but now, I was so glad to see Fiona happy, and the fact that I’d contributed to it was fucking amazing.

I bounced my eyebrows. “Just call me sugar.”

FION A

I was riding high as Zeke drove us home from the studio. My painting would stay there to dry—I’d positioned it facing a wall and suggested Anna may not want to look at it—and we could return to either continue working on it or take it home. Once upon a time, I would have considered it far too raw to be finished, but it was the first full image I’d managed to paint in years. I didn’t know whether it was being free of the shackles of my past, or simply Zeke’s ability to get me out of my head, but I was reluctant to change a single thing about that painting. It was perfect.

It took me a while to realize that we weren’t heading toward my apartment.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“My place.” He glanced at me, uncharacteristically hesitant. “Is that okay?”

My heart soared. “Perfect.”

The fact that he trusted me enough to take me to his home felt momentous. I’d never heard him—or anyone else—talk about it. I didn’t even know whether he lived in a condo or a house of some kind. My anticipation grew as we left the city center and entered the suburbs. He finally stopped outside a small, tidy wooden home with a pair of cane chairs on the front porch and a flower garden that was beginning to die off before winter.

“Home sweet home,” he said, and came around the car to help me out. Not that I needed it, but it was a nice gesture.

I stared at the house, unsure what to make of it. I’d expected him to either have a condo with edgy decor in a cool part of town or perhaps an architecturally designed house with a stylish interior. From the outside, this place looked… homey.

“You have a garden,” I said, like an idiot .

He flashed me a grin. “Flowers in the front, vegetables and fruit trees in the back.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

He snagged my hand and led me to the front door. “What? You didn’t expect me to have a green thumb?”

“Honestly, no.”

He slotted his key into the lock and pushed the door open. We stepped into a short hallway, with a shoe rack to one side. I slid my shoes off and placed them on the rack. Zeke did the same.

“Would you like the grand tour?” he asked.

“Yes, please.” I was eager to see more.

“This is the spare bedroom.” He opened the door to the left, revealing a small room with a neatly made bed in the center, a bookshelf against one wall, and an array of knickknacks along the top of the shelf.

“The master bedroom is across the hall.”

His own bedroom was nothing like I’d pictured. As in the spare room, there was an overflowing bookshelf covered with a random array of items, a nightstand with a lamp, and pillows piled high on the bed.

The living room also took me by surprise. There was a throw on the sofa, giving it a cozy feel, and a well-used coffee table with a candle placed in its center. The kitchen was clean, with a bowl of fruit on the counter. The whole place felt like a home, and being inside it was like receiving a warm hug.

“I love it,” I told Zeke.

He smiled. “I’m glad. I never got to have much of a home when I worked for the agency because I had to move a lot, and I was often undercover. I bought this house as soon as I started working with Ronan. It’s my favorite place to be.”

Emotion swelled within me. “Thank you for sharing it with me. ”

He drew me into his arms and kissed me. “Thank you for making me want to.”

I buried my face in his chest. This whole situation, while lovely, was getting a little too sappy for either of us.

“How about you show me the bedroom again?” I suggested.

“Absolutely.”

We hurried back to the bedroom, shedding our clothes along the way. I draped myself over his pillows and ran my hands over my breasts, toying with my nipples, then dipping lower. His eyes darkened as they tracked my movements. He climbed onto the bed beside me and worked his strong leg between my thighs, the hairs rasping against my sensitive skin. I gasped and arched against him.

He licked his fingers and rubbed them over my pussy, teasing my clit and slipping into my wet heat. My hips rocked instinctively as he petted me, moving slowly as if he had all the time in the world. I rolled my body, thrusting my nipples toward him, hoping he’d get the memo and hurry up, but instead, he stopped touching my pussy and smoothed his palm over my inner thighs. Back and forth, skirting the edge of the burning flesh I so badly wanted him to touch.

I reached for his erection and wrapped my hand around it, loving the way he hardened even further in my grip. I worked my hand along his length and teased him with my thumb, stroking his slit, flicking the piercing, and smoothing the precum over his velvety head.

“You play dirty,” he murmured against my lips before capturing them in a filthy kiss full of tongue and panted breaths.

“You haven’t seen anything yet.”

I straddled him and licked his cock from root to tip, then took it inside my mouth .

“Fuck!” He thrust, lodging himself in my throat. My eyes watered, and the sensation of having the Prince Albert piercing so deep was strange, but I swallowed around him, loving the way he twitched inside my mouth. His hands fisted at his sides and his jaw clenched. Damn, he was sexy.

I pulled back and caught my breath, then set to work driving him as close to the edge as possible without letting him tip over. Every time his breathing became ragged and his hips started to roll helplessly, I stopped.

“Enough teasing,” he groaned. “You’ve had your fun.”

“I have,” I agreed with a wicked grin. I crawled up his body and rubbed my sex against his cock, pleased when he gripped my hips and forced me to be still. Having this man be so close to losing it because of me was such a power trip.

I encircled his cock with my fingers and positioned it beneath me, then slowly sank onto him. He felt different inside me than anyone else ever had—and not only because of the piercing or because he was bare. Just by being him , it was different. Making love with Zeke was the most wonderful and intimate experience of my life.

“That’s it, baby,” he urged. “Ride me.”

I rose up and my head fell back as I dropped onto him again. I cupped my breasts, knowing he loved to see me touch them, and found a rhythm that worked me higher and tighter. I looked down at him, and his near-black eyes stared fiercely into mine. They made me feel sexy. Loved.

Adored.

“I love you,” I whispered, dropping my hands from my chest.

He reached for one of them, kissed my fingers, and nipped at the fingertips. “I love you too.”

My orgasm washed over me like a wave crashing on the shore, and left me shuddering with the aftershocks. Zeke thrust up into me a couple more times before he came with a growl. I lay against his chest, wishing with my whole heart that I could stay in the moment forever. I’d never felt so utterly happy to exist in the present. But if Zeke was my future, I was sure it wouldn’t be the last time I felt that way.

I couldn’t wait.