Page 17 of Code Name: Reaper (K19 Allied Intelligence Team Two #5)

REAPER

S he was right—we shouldn’t . Not that I could stop myself.

I’d thought about the one and only kiss we’d shared so many times I began wondering if I’d imagined it.

As soon as my lips met hers and our tongues touched, then moved into battle like our words so often did, I knew I had to have more.

If we weren’t on a plane, I’d take it. Hell, I’d take it anyway.

I reached up and cupped her breast, running the pad of my thumb over her hardened nipple.

When she leaned her body closer, I knew she’d take more too.

The kiss lasted longer than the takeoff, and even then, I wasn’t ready for it to end.

When the chimes sounded, indicating we could unfasten our seat belts, I reached for hers and, when she was free of that constraint, put my arm under her and lifted her onto my lap, all without moving my mouth away from hers.

I weaved my fingers in her hair, holding her where I wanted her and thrusting my tongue into her mouth like I wanted to do with my cock in her pussy.

When she shifted so my hardness rested in the exact place I wanted it to be, we both groaned. Instead of letting her pull away, I tightened my grip on her hair, angled her face, and pressed harder against her mouth. I needed to possess it—possess her—and there was no way I’d let go now.

“Straddle me,” I said through our still-touching lips.

“Kingston—”

I gripped her neck when she tried to move away instead. “Do it,” I demanded.

The sound she made was halfway between a moan and a whine when I lifted her off my lap, spread her legs, then forced her down.

I shifted closer to the front of the seat, cursing myself for not doing this last night when all I would have had to do was tear off my clothes, get under the blanket on her bed, and turn her dream into reality.

I gripped her ass, moving her against my growing cock.

God, how I wished there weren’t layers of clothes between us.

The first thing I’d do if there weren’t, would be to switch places, spread her legs, and get a taste of the other lips I craved.

If only…if only we had a…Wait a minute—we did have a bed.

Or the plane did. Two, in fact. It wasn’t the first time I’d been on this particular aircraft, and I was certain the two doors in the cabin’s aft opened to staterooms.

Except, what would Charity think if I suggested we make use of one?

Would she think that was all I wanted from her?

A quick fuck while we were thousands of feet in the air?

Would she think I’d let loose of my control, finally giving in to the overwhelming need I had to feel her naked body against mine?

Would she think sex was all I wanted when, in reality, there was so much more?

Breaking our kiss, I wrapped my arms around her, knowing that, within seconds, she’d likely allow her insecurity to drive her actions and she’d retreat from me the way she always did.

I longed for the day when she finally didn’t. When she’d trust me enough not to raise her walls, but to let me in to stay.

She wriggled, but I wrapped a second arm around her and tightened my grip. “Let me hold you,” I practically begged.

“Hold more of me.” She removed my arm from around her and brought my hand to her breast. “Touch more of me.”

My cock surged, growing harder until it was painful.

“I need to taste you.” I captured her nipple between my fingers. “Will you let me, Charity?”

She whimpered and nodded.

I started to snake my hand up her sweater, but stopped myself. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

The way her lip quivered, I feared she was about to cry.

“Listen to me.” I grasped her nape with one hand and reached around to squeeze the cheek of her bottom with the other. “There’s a bed on this plane.”

She gasped. “There is?”

“But I don’t want you to think?—”

“Where?”

“In the aft, but?—”

She wiggled herself free of my grasp, climbed off my lap, and stepped into the aisle. “Back there?”

I chuckled when she grabbed my hand and tried to pull me from the seat. I quickly released the seat belt before it did damage to the one part of my body I needed to be in top form for the rest of the flight. At least, I prayed I did.

Except, when her steps slowed to a stop halfway to the rear, I knew I didn’t. And if she hadn’t hesitated, I also knew I would have.

Her eyes scrunched when she turned to face me, but her body melted into mine when I pulled her close.

Which one of us would say it first? Should I let her, or was she waiting for me?

I reached down, put my finger on her chin, and raised her face to look at me.

“Charity—”

She reached up and covered my mouth with her hand. “Don’t.”

Not now, but another time, when we weren’t on the verge of doing something neither of us was ready for, we were going to have a long talk about her use of that word.

“There’s something I need to say.”

She tried to look away, but I wouldn’t let her.

“Do you know why we’re not going into that stateroom?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure you do, and I need you to.”

“I understand,” she said so softly I could barely hear her.

“You do?”

“I promise.”

The plane was configured with sofa-like seats near the center of the cabin, so I pulled her over to one, then down with me when I sat.

I nestled her in my arms. “I’m glad you understand, because it’s important to me that you’re clear on exactly how much I want to take you into that room, strip off every inch of your clothes, and feel your naked skin on mine.”

Her eyes opened wide.

“How much I want to get to know every inch of your body, every curve and hollow. Take my time learning what makes you writhe beneath me, what it takes to make you gasp, and beg, and fall apart in my arms when I use my mouth, hands, and cock to bring you pleasure.”

She shuddered, her cheeks flushed, and she tried to turn away. “Don’t,” I heard her whisper a second time.

“Hey.” I sank to my knees in front of her. “Don’t what?”

She turned her head more in an effort not to look at me.

I put my hands on either side of her waist. “I need you to talk to me. I need to understand what I did wrong. Please, Charity.”

“I talked, didn’t I?”

“Talked? You lost me, babe.”

When she flinched, I wished I could unsay the word that was never meant to hurt her. Someday, I hoped she’d realize that.

“You said you heard me when I was dreaming.”

“I did. You said my name.”

“But that wasn’t all, was it?”

I couldn’t stop smiling. “I swear you didn’t say anything else. As much as I wanted you to.”

She turned to me. “Then, how did you know?”

My fingers stroked her skin where her sweater had ridden up. “Know what?”

“My dream. All of it.”

I leaned up and brought her closer to me. “I’m pretty sure it’s because I had the same dream.”

“Every curve and hollow? What it takes to make me writhe and beg?”

“Is that what you dreamed I said?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to make you a promise. Two actually. First, there will come a day, soon I hope, when I do all of those things—and more. Second, I would never do or say something to intentionally hurt you. I’d especially never use your words to humiliate you.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks, which she quickly brushed away.

“I promise you that, Charity. On my life.” I waited, but she didn’t say anything. “Do you believe me?”

“I do.”

“And do you know why I didn’t take you into that stateroom?”

“The same reason I didn’t.”

“And why’s that?”

She half chuckled, then the smile left her face and she looked away. “Don’t make me say it.”

“I want more with you,” I whispered so quietly I was unsure if she’d heard me. Whether or not she did, we’d both stopped ourselves before we went further than either of us was ready for. Both of us. And that meant something.

I sat on the couch beside her and pulled her into my arms. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a nap.”

“You said there’s a bed?”

“Two, actually. You wanna take one, and I’ll take the other?”

“Sure.”

We stood, and I led her the rest of the way to the plane’s aft, opened the first door, and motioned for her to go inside.

“Sweet dreams.” I winked, opened the other door, then shut it behind me.

I lay on the stateroom bed, trying to think of anything other than how much I wished Charity was in here with me. No matter how hard I tried to distract myself, my mind kept returning to her, to how much I wanted to feel her body against mine, but also to how much I’d hurt her.

Her fragility shouldn’t be unexpected. Most people who wore armor as thick as hers did it for a reason.

Like my brother had said, “She’s lost everyone who mattered to her.

Parents, grandparents, now her mentor. Do you think maybe she’s protecting herself from caring about someone else who might vanish?

” That part, I understood. It was the depth of her insecurity that baffled me.

While she was right for the wrong reasons, at least in part, why would she have thought I wouldn’t want my parents to meet her?

For all intents and purposes, we were two operatives working an investigation.

Until I confessed how much I desired her, hadn’t she thought of us the same way?

Hadn’t she compartmentalized when the situation called for it?

There were so many things I didn’t understand about Charity Beaudoin, but I was learning. What I had to remind myself was that, as we got to know each other better, I needed to tread lightly on subjects like family and working environments and especially intimacy.

When she hesitated to go to Shere, even as we were facing an imminent threat, I should’ve paid more attention to her reasoning.

She’d said working with a team meant oversight and compromise, and that meant risk.

Then, when we’d arrived at the estate that served as the coalition’s headquarters, her behavior felt more like fear than uncertainty.

Yet I’d seen her interact with Wren and Nemesis, and she appeared comfortable in their collaboration.

But meeting my parents seemed like something she wanted to do.

I heard the door across the aisle open and shut. Maybe like me, as much as she wanted to rest, she couldn’t. I rolled off the bed and returned to the main cabin, where Charity was taking out her laptop.

“Couldn’t sleep, either?”

She shook her head. “I can’t shut my brain off.”

I understood, but something told me she wasn’t thinking about the same things I was. “What’s on your mind?”

“Prism being from Newport News, coupled with the fact that Edmonds, who gave no indication whatsoever that he knew me when I introduced myself, knew that I was too.”

“Maybe he can give us answers about more than Briggs,” I suggested.

She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it.

“What?” I asked.

“Your parents. Well, your father.”

“What about him?”

“I overheard Blackjack say he is chief technical officer at the Cerberus Group.”

“Was. He retired a couple of years ago but still sits on their board.”

“I also heard him suggest he might have valuable insight about what was happening in the industry when Briggs was being investigated.”

“I agree.”

“But you don’t want to risk asking?”

I sat in the nearest seat and scrubbed my face with my hand. “I’m warming up to the idea.”

“Can you tell me about them?”

“My father’s brilliant—the kind of guy who can look at a technical spec and immediately spot what’s wrong or what’s missing. His career spanned over thirty years.”

“Impressive,” she commented.

“He started out as an engineer and worked his way to the top.”

“And your mother?”

“She was a foreign service diplomat when they met. Most of her early career was spent in Latin America. She’s…formidable. In the best way. I think you’d like her.”

Amaryllis’ cheeks flushed. “Yeah?”

“And she’d definitely like you. She has the same way of cutting through bullshit and getting to the heart of things.” I paused. “She taught us that honesty mattered more than diplomacy, even in her line of work.”

“That explains a few things about you.”

I smiled. “Both of their backgrounds do. Dad’s methodical approach, Mom’s bluntness. Blackjack got more of her personality—he’s never met a problem he couldn’t charm his way through. I got more of our father’s analytical side.”

“How much do they know about what you and Blackjack do?”

“They both have security clearances close to ours, so they’re aware.

” I paused, realizing I hadn’t given much thought to how they felt about what we did until now.

“I’m sure they worry. I can’t speak for Blackjack, although I suspect they reacted to his career choice as much as they did when I let them know I’d gotten a job with the agency. ”

“How was that?”

“Hesitantly proud is the best way I can describe it.”

“For the same reason you didn’t want to involve them.”

“Yeah, but they get it. My mom even more so than my dad.”

“She was a foreign diplomat, right? That makes what Romanov is doing hit closer to home.”

She was right, although in the same way I hadn’t thought about their feelings in regard to what my brother and I did for a living, I hadn’t made the obvious connection between my mother’s career and Romanov’s trafficking of people like her.

“I can’t help but think it’s all connected.”

“Do you mean Romanov and Avalon?”

“And Argead. I mean that Ed Fisk was CIA director and tried to stop Prism from pursuing her investigation makes it somewhat obvious.”

“True,” I said, feeling more like a green agent than one with years of experience. Why wasn’t I piecing all of this together in the same way she was? Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Or that I spent the majority of my time thinking more about her than work.

“I would’ve liked to be in on the conversation Nemesis plans to have with Irish.”

“You could have your own meeting with him,” I suggested. “Get his take on it.”

“Good idea.” She covered her mouth when she yawned.

“Getting tired enough to try sleeping again?”

“Are you?”

“My brain won’t shut off, either.”

“Maybe…”

I waited for her to continue, but after several seconds of silence, I grew impatient. “Maybe what?”

“We could try sleeping together. And, to clarify, I do mean sleeping .”

“Worth a try.” I only hoped that being in bed, next to her, wouldn’t make it harder. Me harder.