Sheena walked out on Cory in Berlin, with no explanation other than a note that said she had to go back to work. Now a year later, imbedded into an IRA faction and working on an arms deal in California, she's at a Hollywood party where "the boys" in the group are hoping to meet willing young ladies to pass the time for a few days. Sheena is shocked to realize that Cory is playing with the band on stage and staring at her, apparently recognizing her, which endangers both of them if he unwittingly blows her cover!
She fled up the stairs, forcing herself to walk even though she wanted to run. Fortunately the door was open and she was able to quickly lock herself in. She collapsed onto the toilet seat and allowed herself to have a few minutes to panic.
Oh shit! What’s he doing here? He wasn’t on the guest list—he wasn’t on the servant list. His name wasn’t mentioned anywhere! I can’t see him now! How the hell am I going to pull this one off?
She turned to look in the mirror and was horrified to realize that her hair was the same shade it had been in Berlin, so there wasn’t much of a possibility that he didn’t recognize her. In fact, the staring he’d been doing at her pretty much clinched it.
I have to get away from this party right now!
Trying to calm herself down, she ran some cold water and splashed it into her face. She still heard the music coming from the main hall, so the band was still playing. She took some deep breaths. As long as she heard music, she had a chance to get away without having him cause a scene by confronting her, which might blow her cover and get them both killed. The boys were occupied with chasing the multitude of girls around them, so they wouldn’t care if she left early. As long as she remembered to check in daily, she could go hide out for a couple of days and lick her wounds, which suddenly were as fresh as the day she’d had to get on the plane in Berlin and leave behind the man she’d so desperately wanted to stay with.
All of the self-recriminations, the ‘hoisted by my own petard’ clichés, the irony of having fallen for a man she could never have again, washed over her with a vengeance, and she felt too stunned to even move. Having emotions of any kind was a liability in her world. Being too paralyzed with feelings to take any action was grounds for immediate termination…and not just from the job. Agents had been found dead after such disobedience made them careless. Lacing her fingers together, Sheena took deep, cleansing breaths and tried to get her racing pulse back under control.
She jumped at the sound of someone pounding on the bathroom door.
“It’s occupied!” she shouted, hoping to get them to go away.
After a short pause, the pounding started again.
“Go away! Find another bathroom!” she yelled, starting to channel her emotional upheaval into the safety of controlled anger that instantly made her feel calmer and more in charge of herself.
The pounding only got more insistent.
Anger is good. She stomped over to the door to fling it open.
“What the fuck is your problem?”
“You are,” Hickory Woods said, as he pushed her back into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.
“What are you doing up here?”
She hated the panic suddenly threatening to overwhelm her as she felt his raw anger wash over her in waves.
“Why aren’t you still on the stage? With the band?”
“Why the hell are you with him?” he yelled at her. “I thought you said you couldn’t be seen in public with celebrities like me. So in you stroll with him, the current flavor of the month, and I had to watch him groping you?”
He loomed dangerously over her as she backed away from him to find herself trapped by the wall-to-wall counter of the sink behind her.
“That’s none of your business,” she replied weakly, aware of how vulnerable her voice sounded, but not able to get it under control yet.
“Just like your leaving me in Berlin was none of my business?”
His face was dark and his voice dripped with scorn and anger.
“You never told me what your business is. At this point, I’m guessing high-class hooker. Was I a freebie, or are you just behind in your billing?”
“Cory, just let me leave and forget about me, okay?”
She tried not to sound like she was pleading. She’d spent years perfecting how to order men around, but right at this moment, she would have begged if it would get her away from this man she still wanted so much, but had hurt so badly.
His eyes were wild as he pushed forward with his hips to trap her between the sink counter and the unmistakable bulge in his pants.
“I can’t forget about you, damn it! That’s the problem! You’re in my blood! I want you so bad I can taste it!”
With that, his hands grabbed her urgently, and he ran them along her naked back, down to the cleft in her behind. He saw his hands move in the mirror behind her and shuddered. He gripped her hips and ground himself into her. With a groan, he moved one hand up to grab her hair and force her face up to accept his kiss, a punishing battering of her lips with his. She cried out from the pain of her hair being twisted around his hand, and he forced his tongue into her mouth and laid claim to her, despite her objections.
Gasping, she tried to push him away, but since she didn’t want to actually hurt him, she couldn’t use any of the skills she’d honed over the years. And the truth was that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Her hands crept up along his back as she leaned into him, pressing herself against him with strength of passion equal to his own.
He groaned again as he became aware she’d stopped denying him. His lips trailed along her neck as he let go of her hair and used that hand to remove the strap of her dress on that side, then, holding her in place with his hips and his erection, he dropped the other strap down to reveal her breasts, already swollen, with reddened tips. She got a glimpse of his eyes, darkened to a swirling blackness as he put his hands on her hips and lifted her up to sit her on the counter, then his mouth fastened onto one of her nipples and she closed her eyes tightly as she squirmed and moaned from the sensation of being devoured.
Her hands moved on him then, frantic to feel his skin again as she pulled at his tee shirt. He reluctantly released her nipple to allow her to yank the shirt over his head. He then bit the other nipple and resumed the sucking that was driving her to distraction.
He was still pressing himself into her, his rock-hard erection directly on her clit, rubbing, pressing. Suddenly she stiffened and screamed as her orgasm took her by surprise.
He backed away, reached his hands up and under her dress, and tore off her lacy thong. Then he unzipped his pants, and pulled himself out. Grabbing her hips once again, he drove himself into her core with one quick push. Madness overtook them both as they ground themselves together in a frenzied attempt to melt themselves into each other. Within seconds she was screaming again, as her muscles gripped him, tightening around him as if they would never let him go. And still he pounded himself into her, the slapping of his flesh against hers making a rhythmic accompaniment to her moans. Suddenly he stiffened, then threw back his head and howled, as his release spurted into her so hard she thought she would taste it. They clung to each other as they both gasped for breath. And gradually, slowly, their hearts and lungs resumed their normal functioning.
Sheena recovered first,
“Cory, I’m sorry. This never should have happened. Just let me go and I’ll leave now. Please?”
Cory drew himself up to look into her face searchingly.
“Is that what you want to do?”
She owed him honesty.
“No, it’s what I have to do.”
He shook his head slowly.
“No, I’ll tell you what you have to do. You have to spend the night in my bed.”
Sheena began to protest, but he put his finger over her mouth.
“Lenora, you owe me an explanation. We need to talk. And I need more than just this one time from you. I haven’t touched a woman since you left me in Berlin. It’s your fault I’ve been a crazy man ever since then. You reawakened my desires, then left me with no way to satisfy them.”
“There’s always other women,” she began, but he placed his finger over her lips again.
“Not for me. Not anymore. I need you in my bed tonight. Just one night… Okay, maybe two. Or as many as it takes. But you are not getting away from me tonight.”
She shook her head in a vain attempt to dissuade him.
“So here’s how it’s going to be. I’m going downstairs to tell the band I’m leaving. They’re the musicians; I just like to jam with them. But it’s me who got them the gig, because the birthday girl wanted me here. I schmoozed with the kid and her friends a while, even kissed the birthday brat. They took lots of pictures. But no one’s going to notice or care if I’m not here anymore. So I’m going to go out back and get my Harley, and I’m going to come around to the side door, since neither of us wants the attention of being caught by the paparazzi while we’re making our escape. You’ll be out there at the service entrance to meet me in ten minutes.”
He’d been zipping up his pants as he spoke, then he pulled his shirt back on and headed for the door.
“What if I’m not? What if I do what I should have done and I leave?”
She was trying to be defiant.
“Then I’ll ride my hog right through the damn door and up and down every fucking floor in this place, yelling out your name. Do you really want to draw that much attention to us?”
He raised one eyebrow as he regarded her wryly.
She shook her head. He unlocked the door and turned back to her.
“Ten minutes, side door.”
Then he walked out through the door and down the hall.
Sheena walked slowly over to the door and locked it so she could pull herself back together again, after he had made her come so undone. The knowledge that he still wanted her, combined with the fact that she only had to make a phone call each day at noon for the next two days, made her easily able to quiet her conscience, which was busy trying to yell at her that this was the wrong thing to do. She knew that, and she also knew that she wanted him more than she ever had. And the chance to spend two whole days alone with him was too tempting to refuse.
So she picked up the torn remnants of her panties and stuffed them into her tiny purse. Then she splashed cold water on her face once again, unlocked the door, and went down the hallway to the stairs to look for the side door.
****Copyright 2011, Fiona McGier
Excerpt: Undercover Lovers
Ex-spy Ameena is now a choreographer for music videos. While at work she gets a call from a man from her past, when she was an agent, telling her that he needs to talk to her. She tells him to meet her at work. Exasperated, she finally decides she needs to show the dancers what she wants them to do. It's also the first time the two agents see who they will be protecting.
“Haven't any of you ever learned how to belly dance? You all know how to jump around and shimmy, but you don't know how to move your hips to this kind of music? It's a world-music kind of beat--it has Arabic influences and some salsa and meringue overtones. You can't just hop around like you're doing jumping jacks in gym class! You do know how and why belly dancing was invented as an art form, right?”
As she looked around, she realized that no one seemed to know what she was talking about. She let out a heavy sigh.
“Don't they teach you anything about dances from other cultures anymore? Belly dancing was invented way before the people of the western world had gotten around to becoming civilized. Harem girls had to find some way to convince their master that he was still capable of performing as a man, long after he was too old to do so. They‟d dance around, simulating the motions of sex, then climb on top of his chubby aging body, and by their movements convince him and the eunuchs who were watching that he was having sex with them.”
Ameena looked around at the assembled listeners, meeting the eyes of many of them in turn.
“Now do you understand? You‟re having sex with an imaginary lover onstage, with everyone watching you. If you weren't an exhibitionist you wouldn't be a dancer. Now watch me while I show you what the hell I've been trying to explain to you!”
She shaded her eyes to look up at the sound crew sitting beyond the lights.
“George? Start the music from where it changes to that heavy rolling rhythm.”
She turned to the dancers as the music started to blare from the speakers.
“Now watch what I do, and remember that this is supposed to be a seduction song. Think hot sex. Think horizontal moves.”
With that she thrust her hands over her head and began to wiggle her hips. She moved them from side-to-side, then back and forth, then in a circle. As she moved her lower torso, she walked slowly, each footstep emphasized by the corresponding hip thrust that made it appear that even her bones were flexible. The music continued to inspire her, as she closed her eyes and seemed to be lost in it, her entire body in fluid motion.
No one could look away. No one even noticed that three men had entered the room. They strode purposefully in then stopped, as the woman dancing in the center of the soundstage captivated their attention as completely as she had everyone else's.
Ameena really was lost in the music, and for a time it was the only thing that existed for her. She was using the moves she'd learned as a young girl, enhanced by years of experience seducing men all over the world. She was doing the sequences she‟d been trying to teach the dancers, but also embellishing it as she went along. With a flourish, she ended up collapsing on the floor as the music ended abruptly. There was silence for a moment. As she began to pick herself up off of the floor the room exploded in applause.
She smiled as she looked around the room.
“Now do you understand what I want? What I've been trying to get you to do?”
The trainers nodded enthusiastically, and the dancers appeared energized. Conversations were raging all over the dance area, so it was impossible for her to listen to just one, or to speak loudly enough for everyone to hear her. As she glanced around, she noticed the three visitors and was glad no one was watching her, since she was sure her face momentarily reflected her anxiety when she saw them. Decisively she clapped her hands.
“Okay, I think you know what I want. Break time. Everyone take twenty. See you back here after that. Let's get this thing done, people!”
She walked quickly over to greet the tall black man who was so impeccably dressed that he appeared either totally out of place on a soundstage for a music video, or as if he was one of the financial backers. The two men with him were dressed more casually, but Ameena didn't notice much about either of them at first. She didn't speak until she was close enough for them to hear her, and she glanced around to be sure that no one else was paying attention to them before she said anything.
“Malcolm. Good to see you.” She smiled as she approached him, and he opened his arms to give her a quick hug. She nodded briefly at the other two men and inclined her head.
“There's an office area over that way. We can talk in there.”
All three men followed her into the office and watched as she carefully shut the door behind them. She turned to see that Malcolm had turned a chair backwards and was sitting on it, leaning on the back of the chair. The blond man leaned against the wall behind Malcolm and the other man perched on the edge of one of the desks. Ameena walked over to the other desk and leaned against it as she spoke.
“So, what's going on, Malcolm? It's not that I‟m not happy to see you, but I'm wondering what's the reason for this visit. It's not a social call, is it? If it was, you wouldn't have brought muscle with you.”
Malcolm nodded gravely.
“It's good to see you too, Ameena, but you're right. We have a situation, and you need to be informed. And you might as well meet the boys now, because one or the other is going to be your shadow for the near future. Until this whole thing plays out.”
He waved at the tall blond man.
“That's Tomás Escobedo. Don‟t let the earring and the fatuous look of boredom fool you. Nothing escapes him. He's very good at what he does.”
Ameena nodded at the man, managing a tight grin in response to his seductive smile.
“That was some dancing you were doing out there…” He began in a low drawl with just a hint of a Hispanic accent of some kind. “If I didn't know better I‟d think you were a Latina, based on your dancing. I'd love to see more of your moves.”
Ameena's smile widened just a little bit. “I'm sure you would. And I can tell what your assignments usually involve already. Don't waste your time, honey. It takes one to know one, and we're two of a kind.”
He blatantly looked her up and down, smiling at what he saw. She shook her head and turned back to Malcolm.
He waved toward the other man, who'd been staring at her while she wasn't looking at him, and now blushed when her eyebrows rose as she realized he'd been studying her.
“And that's Adam DeLaine—details are his specialty, planning is his game.”
He smiled almost shyly at her and nodded.
Ameena appraised him more closely and decided she liked what she saw as she nodded. She turned back to Malcolm again, to speak impatiently.
“Okay, fine, you‟ve brought a couple of new boys around. But why? Why do I need shadows? What's going on?”
Malcolm got up to stand in front of her and spoke quietly.
“I'm sorry, Ameena, but there's no easy way to tell you this. The Executioner has escaped. And I'm afraid that he's going to come after you.”
Her face twisted in disbelief and she exploded.
“What? How the hell could that happen? He was in maximum security, doing life! They were supposed to put him into a deep, dark hole in a cage, and lock it, then eat the key for breakfast! You told me it was guaranteed that he'd never see the light of day again!”
Malcolm nodded and reached out to take her hands which were shaking as she wrung them in front of her.
“I don't know how he did it. No one does. They found a dead guard in his cell and he's gone, that's all I know. And we have to assume he's going to want to finish what he started with you, because you're the only one who ever lived through his hospitality. You testified against him and put him away. And you, more than anyone else, know he's a vindictive son of a bitch.”
She shrugged off Malcolm‟s hands and walked over to stand facing away from him, her hands on her own upper arms, as if she was hugging herself. Suddenly she whirled on Malcolm and her anger was palpable.
“You told me he'd never get out! I wanted you to kill him, but you said he'd never get out! Now what? Do I run and hide? There's nowhere I could go that he won't find me. Do I spend the rest of my life holding my breath, waiting for him to decide it's time?”
The dark-haired man cleared his throat.
“That's why I suggested that we lay a trap for him...”
She whirled on him, sparks of anger shooting from her eyes. “And I'm the bait! I'll never know when he's going to appear, but I'm just supposed to...what? Live my life as if nothing's different? How? Do you have any idea what that twisted fuck is capable of doing?”
She suddenly ripped off her flowing short-sleeved jacket and turned around, wearing only her cammi. The sudden intakes of breath from behind her came from the two men who hadn't seen her scars before. Malcolm approached her and held her jacket up for her to slip it back on, gently rubbing her shoulders and her arms.
“That's why we are never going to leave you alone. You will have one of them with you at all times.”
“What's that going to accomplish? He'll never make a move if he sees any of you! He knows how the agency operates! He'll just head underground and wait as long as it takes for me to get complacent. He knows that eventually the agency will pull you all off of me. Then what?”
“That's what I said...”
The dark-haired man spoke quietly and she turned to him and nodded, taking deep breaths. She reached into her jeans pocket and got out her container of cigarettes and lit one, then leaned back against the desk again.
“So talk to me, plan-man. What do you think I should do?”
He cleared his throat before he continued. “Don't you mean what should we do?”
He inclined his head at the blond man and nodded at Malcolm.
“We both volunteered for this assignment."
***Copyright 2011, Fiona McGier
Now available as a 2-in 1 eBook, on sale for only $3.99 for two complete novels!
http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/torrid/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=760
*****Contest*****
Leave a comment here telling me what you think about the heroines being the agents, as opposed to being the civilians who need to be protected by the hero agents. Does this idea interest you? I'll choose one commenter at random (I use numbers in a paper bag and one of my kids draws the winner) and that lucky reader will get a free copy of my 2-in-1 eBook with both spy novels! Good luck!
