Page 70 of A Touch of Treachery (Section 47 #3)

CHARLOTTE

W e spent the rest of the day dealing with the fallout of General Percy’s arrest. I showed Evelyn and Gia all the evidence I had collected connecting Percy to Henrika, while Desmond chimed in with his own memories of his father’s actions during his mother’s illness, along with the Mexico mission.

Jethro Percy might be in an interrogation cell, but his earlier words haunted me. He had a lot of friends in high places, and I doubted he would face any prolonged, severe punishment for his crimes.

Eventually, the meetings ended. Just before midnight, Desmond and I left Section headquarters and went to my apartment. We shrugged out of our coats and put our things down.

Desmond wandered over to the windows and stared out into the dark. I followed him. The calendar had flipped over to February, but this night was the coldest one yet, and only a few hard bits of snow drifted down from the sky.

As much as I wanted to hold him, comfort him, I kept my hands to myself. Desmond was the one who was hurting right now, not me, and I wanted to give him the time and space to deal with all the ugly events that had happened.

Desmond barked out a harsh laugh, breaking the silence. “I still can’t believe you were right. Even though I’ve had hours for it to sink in, I still feel like I’m watching a horror movie, and this is all happening to someone else.”

“I’m sorry it had to come to this,” I replied in a soft voice.

“I know. I’m sorry too. I hate the things my father has done, to you and your father, to me and Graham, and to everyone else at Section.”

“But?”

Desmond sighed. “But I still care about him. A small part of me always will.”

I nodded, and we both stared out the window again, watching those hard bits of snow flutter down from the sky.

Desmond turned to me. “I’m surprised you came to me. That you told me your plan to take down my father and asked me to be a part of it.”

After I’d written my report on General Percy’s connection to Henrika, I’d packed up my laptop and folders and gone to Desmond’s apartment. I’d shown him the evidence and laid out my theories.

Unlike General Percy, Desmond hadn’t done anything wrong, and he didn’t deserve to be blindsided. Even more than that, he was my partner, both inside and outside Section, and I didn’t want to keep this secret from him. I couldn’t keep it from him. Not if I wanted what we had to keep growing.

A touch of treachery had destroyed my father and General Percy, and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to us.

“I’m surprised you agreed to help me. Whatever he’s done, the General is still your father. I would have understood if you hadn’t wanted any part in my plan.”

Desmond nodded, his gaze searching mine. “So where do we go from here?”

That was the question I’d been asking myself all day, and I’d been bracing myself for this moment ever since I’d revealed the General’s crimes. “I understand if you need some time.”

Desmond’s eyebrows drew together in a quizzical look. “Time?”

“Time away from Section.” I swallowed, and my voice dropped to a ragged whisper. “Time away from me .”

Desmond stared at me, his face once again blank and unreadable. I bit my lip, bracing myself for the worst.

My father had always chosen something else over me, whether it was a Section mission or hanging out with his cleaner friends or weekend training. I’d never felt like I was enough for the great Jack Locke, no matter how smart I was or how many good grades I got or how many logic puzzles I solved.

Desmond had never made me feel like I was inadequate or lacking or simply not important.

Not for a single second. But I couldn’t help wondering if General Percy was right.

If Desmond would someday regret participating in my scheme to expose his father’s crimes.

If the storm of secrets that I’d unleashed would eventually doom us the way it had doomed our fathers.

A shadow passed over Desmond’s face. I tensed. This was it. This was the moment he was going to agree and say he did need some time away from Section and especially from me.

This was the moment Desmond was going to break my heart.

Desmond stepped even closer, and I had to tip my head back to stare up into his eyes. “I don’t have your synesthesia, but if there is one thing I know for certain, one absolute truth , it’s that I will never need time away from you, Charlotte.”

My heart soared, but I forced myself to remain calm. “Are you sure? After everything that’s happened, no one would blame you for stepping away. I wouldn’t blame you. I just destroyed your father’s life, his career, his legacy inside Section 47.”

Desmond stepped closer still, and his hands came up to cup my cheeks.

“I don’t care about the General’s legacy inside Section.

I don’t even care about my own. All I care about is building a legacy with you .

” He hesitated. “If that’s what you want too.

I would understand if you needed some time as well.

Especially since your father is dead because of mine. ”

I placed my hands over his and squeezed his fingers. “Building a legacy with you is exactly what I want.”

We looked at each other a moment longer, then Desmond bent his head and kissed me.

It was a soft kiss, a gentle brush of his lips against mine, but it made me tremble all the same.

I dug my hands into the front of his vest as though the fabric was an anchor mooring him to my side and gave myself fully over to this moment.

Here, right now, this was about the way we made each other feel, instead of all the awful things our fathers had done.

Maybe it was everything we’d been through over the past few days, all the death and danger and deception, but the kiss went from sweet and gentle to hard and demanding in an instant.

Each press of his lips and stroke of his tongue against mine lit more and more fireworks of desire that exploded throughout my body

I pushed on Desmond’s shoulders, walking him backward away from the windows.

He kissed me again, his tongue plunging into my mouth, then bent down and scooped me up.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and locked my legs around his waist. The heat of his body blasted over me like a furnace, and I greedily squirmed closer to his warmth.

His erection settled into the perfect spot between my thighs, and I hummed in appreciation and rocked forward.

Desmond groaned against my mouth. “You keep that up, and we’re not even going to make it to the bedroom.”

I rocked forward again and nuzzled my nose against the golden stubble along his jaw. I drank in his scent, a clean yet heady mix of pine and soap. “I guess you’d better hurry, then.”

Desmond laughed, whirled around, and carried me into my bedroom. Like the rest of the apartment, it was sparsely furnished, with just a bed, but that was all we needed.

Desmond put my back against the wall. I slid my legs down his body and landed on my feet. He braced his hands on the wall beside me, then bent down and pressed a series of hot, hungry kisses against the sensitive skin of my neck.

I reached down, fumbling with his belt, then his zipper. As soon as I got his pants open, I plunged my hand down and wrapped my fingers around his hot, hard length.

Desmond jerked back. His gaze locked with mine, and his eyes burned a brilliant silver-blue. The overhead lights flickered in time to the quick, firm glide of my fingers as I stroked him.

“You . . . ahhh . . . Charlotte . . .” Desmond buried his face against my neck, his tongue lapping at the rapid pulse hammering in my throat.

He dropped his hands from the wall and went to work on my clothes, unzipping my pants and sliding his fingers down into my underwear. I gasped and spread my legs a little wider, giving him better access. Desmond caressed me with quick, firm motions, just as I had done to him.

My legs trembled again, and wave after wave of desire crashed through my body, each one stronger and faster, like a rip current dragging me out into an endless ocean of pleasure.

I surged forward and kissed him again, harder than before.

We were both in a frenzy now, and we spun away from the wall, our lips, tongues, and hands all over each other, kissing, licking, and stripping off clothes.

Desmond stopped long enough to grab a condom from his wallet and cover himself with it.

I took birth-control pills, but we always used extra protection.

I pushed on his shoulders, and he sat down on the edge of the bed.

His arm snaked around my waist. I straddled him, and he fell back onto the mattress, bringing my body down on top of his.

I dug my fingers into his hair and kissed him again, long and hard and deep.

Even though I was plastered against him, I couldn’t feel enough of him, and I squirmed closer.

Desmond skimmed his hand down my chest and stomach, then teased me with his fingers again. Soft and slow, then fast and hard. I sucked in breath after breath as he stroked me, and every nerve ending in my body sparked, crackled, and vibrated in time to the movements of his nimble fingers.

Desmond kept teasing me, bringing me right to the edge of an orgasm. Then he removed his fingers and thrust inside me.

My hands dug into his shoulders, and I gasped at the heady sensations spiraling through me. Desmond let me adjust to the feel of him, then placed his hands on my hips. He drew me back, then forward, thrusting into me a little deeper than before. We both gasped.

“You feel so good,” he growled against my neck.

“Not as good as you do,” I rasped back.

We both lost all sense of control, and we rocked back and forth, each motion harder and quicker than the last. I threw my head back, fully engulfed in that rip current of motion and spine-tingling sensation.

Desmond squeezed my hips and pulled me out into that ocean of heat and bright, sparking pleasure right along with him, until . . .

My body clenched around him, and an orgasm pulsed through me, intense and sharp and crackling. I cried out, and a moment later, so did he, each of us drowning in the other.