Dark Deception (DARC Ops Book 11) Read online

  She arched her back still more, silently offering her tight peaks in invitation. Asher finally obliged. His lips and tongue slowly caressed one breast and then the other, lapping and circling as if he were eating an ice cream cone. She gasped, wiggling against him as her hands struggled to reach his pants. She moaned as his hand once again moved downward toward her thighs, first caressing them through her jeans, and then, impatiently again, both of them shifting to unbutton and unzip. He eased a hand down into her pants and then slid beneath her underwear, teasing every nerve in her body.

  The hunger inside her flared and begged for release. Though her left hand was trapped between her side and his, her right was free, and she stroked his body with the same passion that he stroked hers. Her hand inched its way inside his jeans, and she grasped his hard cock. He groaned softly as she wrapped her hand around his warm, throbbing hardness. Her fingers curled around his balls. She squeezed gently, then returned to stroking his cock, which grew even harder with each stroke.

  Both she and Asher wiggled in tandem again, maneuvering their jeans down far enough to provide greater access. In another moment, he lay on top of her, breathing heavily as his lips once again returned to hers. His tongue swept the inside of her mouth as their tongues tangled, she moaning and he offering low, throaty grunts.

  His hand stroked her pussy, his thumb gently swirling through her dark curls as his fingers probed her increasing dampness and dipped lower, sliding along her wet pussy lips. Her body pulsed with anticipation until the moment he hesitated . . . and he reached for his pants, tucked now around his ankles. What was—oh. She watched as he plucked a small, square, brightly colored foil packet. Condom. He must have picked it up when they were at the store.

  Her gaze was glued to him as he ripped the packet with his teeth. She watched with fascination as he placed the rubber on his slick head and unrolled it down the length of his shaft.

  He looked at her then, one eyebrow lifted. A question. She nodded, spread her legs, and allowed him to nestle between them. Asher settled himself between her knees and without hesitation, punched his hips forward, thrusting deep inside her. She sucked in her breath at the feel of his length pushing inside, filling her, stretching her.

  Ellie pushed any other thoughts from her mind. She would enjoy the moment, his touch, and the incredible feelings coursing through her. With his legs nestled inside hers, she bent her knees to enable him to go even deeper. His arms wrapped around her shoulders, balancing his weight on his elbows. He thrust again, filling her up completely. Asher slowly withdrew, and she sucked in a breath at the friction, then maneuvered her hips upward, urging him back again. After several slow and teasing strokes, they settled into a steady rhythm. Each thrust filled her senses. Her breathing grew ragged, and she felt her body flush from warm, to hot, to enflamed. His speed increased, the thrusts coming harder and faster. Ellie matched him.

  She moved with him, giving as well as taking, wanting even more. Suddenly, with a blinding flash and her body pure sensation, she reached her peak. She shuddered as a white haze filled her mind. Waves of pulsing pleasure took over. Asher’s arms tightened, and he pumped harder, deeper, then slower, holding her even closer as he too reached his climax. They rode those waves together until the pleasure-filled contractions slowly ebbed.

  As they lay there, gasping for breath, their skin slick and sweaty, neither of them said a word. What to say? Thank you? Ellie was more comfortable staying silent. His strong arms wrapped around her made her feel safe for the first time in days, and in that moment, that was all she needed.

  Finally, Asher rolled to his side, lying on his back with his arms crossed beneath his head while his erection slowly ebbed and finally, his dick lay soft and flaccid. She glanced up at him. He was watching her, a grin on his face. As they made eye contact, his dick started to move again.

  She laughed and shook her head. “I’m going to take a quick shower, and then let’s get into town to see if I can get a signal.”

  He nodded, still smiling. His soft laughter followed her as she disappeared into the bathroom. Ellie glanced into the mirror. The woman staring back at her with that flushed face and dilated pupils was smiling, too.

  17

  Asher

  Asher quickly stood, took care of the condom, and then pulled on his clothes. He could have happily lain there in the afterglow holding her all day, but Ellie was right. They had work to do. He could take the time to slowly explore her body, figure out all the ways to make her come, after the assholes threatening her were taken care of.

  He stepped to the bathroom door, knocked once, and through the door, told Ellie that he was going to take a look around outside, make sure he didn’t see anything suspicious. She mumbled an okay and then turned on the shower.

  Truth was, he needed a few moments alone to collect his thoughts. What the hell was he doing? He’d crossed a line, twice now. If Jackson found out . . . Asher shook his head. He knew better! But there was something about Ellie, something he couldn’t deny, something so compelling, so attractive, he couldn’t resist.

  At first, he’d been frustrated, feeling more like a babysitter, not sure why Jackson had given him this task in the first place. However, over the past few days, he’d grown increasingly attracted to Ellie. Still, he felt helpless, and useless. He wasn’t used to running. He wasn’t used to just waiting for something to happen. He wanted to do something. He wanted to act. He wanted to be . . . well, if not exactly back at the home base with the action unfolding around him, then at least being more involved with taking the bastards down. As much as he knew it was important to stick close to Ellie, and as much as he was determined to guard her with his life, being on the periphery was beginning to drive him crazy.

  But for the first time in a long while, he was being forced to wait, to wait for information, to wait for instructions, rather than being in the thick of things, acting in the moment, for the moment. Keeping her safe was the most important thing, but he wanted to be in there, taking out those who threatened her, not sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the next strike. Asher sucked in a breath. He had to get himself under control and figure out what the hell he was doing with Ellie. Damn it, her body—and her mind—was proving impossible to resist. But any distractions now could be dangerous, for both of them.

  He moved forward, slowly walking the perimeter. His gaze swept the parking lot, the shadows alongside the buildings, and then the distance beyond, his senses on high alert, listening for a sound out of place, a smell unnatural to the environment, an image of something that didn’t belong. He paused every few steps, looking deeper into the shadows. There was no movement, no rustling of branches, no crush of pine needles or pebbles underfoot. It was quiet out there. Deceptively quiet, and that’s what concerned him. He heard no crickets, which should be usual at this time of day. No matter where you lived, no matter how populated or rural the area, you always heard damned crickets.

  He paused, standing deep in the shadows under a tree behind the motel, studying the structure. There was no access to any of the rooms from back there, no windows either. Gradually, he made his way toward the end of the building and back around to the front. He studied the cars in the parking lot, looked at their license plates; one from Vermont, another from Michigan, but none from New York or Massachusetts. It didn’t mean anything, and he knew it.

  Asher had a decision to make. Would it be safe to head back into town, find a spot where they could park and Ellie could do her stuff on the computer? Or should he take her to an all-night coffee shop, if he could find one out here in the boonies . . . though Keene was a decent-sized town, it was nothing compared to a big city, where it was incredibly easy to blend in, to disappear.

  With a sigh he returned to the room, knocked softly on the door, and waited. In a moment he heard a soft voice from the other side.

  “Who is it?”

  “Asher,” he said, then waited as she unlatched the door and opened it. He stepped inside. She turne
d immediately, avoiding his gaze. He closed the door and then placed a hand on her shoulder. Ellie froze. She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t turn around, either.

  He sighed. “Ellie, please look at me.” At first, she didn’t move, but then she turned slowly, staring first at his chest, then a quick glance up at his face, and then back down to his chest. He waited, and finally, she stiffened her shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.

  “Ellie, I just want you to know . . . I just—I want you to know . . .”

  She broke in, her voice soft though firm. “That you don’t make it a habit of seducing all the women you protect?”

  Her tone was neither accusing nor judgmental. Just a question. He shook his head. “No, Ellie, I don’t. You’re the first, ever. I can’t say I regret it, because I don’t. Could the timing be better? Sure, but it is what it is. And I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t attracted to you—”

  “Is this an adrenaline thing?” she asked, eyebrows lifted with confusion. “Like those scenarios where the victim becomes attracted to the bodyguard or vice versa because of the danger, the adrenaline? The sexual tension in the air?”

  “I have no idea,” he replied honestly. “This is new territory for me, too. I just want you to know that it means something to me. It’s not just about sex or getting my rocks off. I know the timing could have been better, but then again, how can it be? Until I was . . . if this wasn’t happening, we would have never crossed paths. So, however you want to define it, or whatever name you want to give it, I just want you to know that I don’t take what we did lightly.”

  Damn, he was rambling. Asher shut his mouth before he stuck his foot in it even more. He just hadn’t wanted her to think he was using her. Taking advantage of her vulnerability. Her next words prompted a smile.

  “And just so you know, Asher, I’m not one of those women who look to men for protection. So maybe I should tell you that if you had stepped into the shower just now, if I didn’t want you to, you’d have known it.”

  He grinned. He could always count on her snark. Even at her most vulnerable, her most scared, Ellie always came out fighting. “Okay, now that we got that out of the way, get the laptop. We’ll go back into town, see if you can pick up the signal somewhere. Preferably someplace where we don’t have to go inside. Can you do that?”

  She nodded. “Ready when you are.”

  In a matter of minutes, they were back in the Jeep, winding their way along empty, dark roads, the headlights illuminating growths of trees right down to the asphalt. He spied birch and beech trees, spruce, and an occasional larch. The undergrowth was thick with shrubbery, the forest occasionally broken by steep ravines, gullies, or hundred-foot drops down sheer rock on tight S-curves.

  Asher drove carefully, occasionally glancing at Ellie, who sat quietly, hands in her lap, staring out the passenger-side window. He could imagine that, for Ellie’s part, her primary goal was to find out who was after her, get rid of them, and get on with her life. He thought about trying to start a conversation, to break the awkward silence looming between them, but he couldn’t think where to start. He wanted more with Ellie, more than a few stolen moments while on the run, but once this was all over, she’d want to go back to her life. How could she not?

  Just as he completed an S-curve and straightened out, heading down a long, sloping straightaway before the landscape rose again, headlights appeared in his rearview mirror. Coming fast and out of nowhere. Were they just a local who knew every curve, every dip, every bump in the highway? He slowed down a bit and moved toward the right shoulder, if you could call it that, expecting the car to zoom past. In seconds, the headlights illuminated the interior of the Jeep. Ellie jolted out of her reverie and glanced over her shoulder with a frown.

  “What a jerk!”

  Asher muttered agreement, then slowed down a little more, alarm bells ringing in his head. The sedan pulled into the opposite lane and shot past them. He shook his head, his pulse calming as the car passed them. Even out here in the middle of nowhere, you’d find idiots.

  “It’s people like that who get innocent people killed,” Ellie said, staring after the quickly disappearing rear lights of the car that passed them. “I don’t know why—”

  An additional pair of headlights appeared in the rearview mirror. Ellie saw them, too, in her side view mirror. “Are we getting close to Keene?”

  Asher shook his head. According to the roadside sign he’d seen a couple miles back, Keene was still ten miles away. “You buckled up?”

  “Of course,” she said. “Why would you—” she broke off suddenly, then glanced at her side view mirror again, then at Asher. “You don’t think . . .”

  “I’m not thinking anything at the moment, other than the coincidence, but then again, I don’t know these parts. Could be perfectly normal, someone working late, travelers, who the hell knows?”

  Even though he spoke calmly, he kept one eye on the road, every few seconds casting a glance in the rearview and side mirrors. The car approaching wasn’t driving as fast as the car that had just passed them, but crept ever closer. He couldn’t tell exactly what type of car it was in the dark, but it was big. An F-150 or something, due to the height of its headlights off the pavement. The miles ticked past, but whoever was behind them kept a steady distance, and Asher finally began to relax. He turned to Ellie, who was still watching out her side mirror. As if sensing his gaze, she turned to him.

  “What do you think?”

  Asher shrugged, not wanting to jump the gun, but not taking anything for granted, either. “I think I’ll be keeping my eye on that vehicle behind us until we get into town.” He had no sooner completed his sentence before the truck behind them seemed to speed up, closing the distance. Asher frowned, and his hands tightened on the steering wheel. They were coming close to the rise. He gave the Jeep some gas, more impetus to get up that long, slow rise. The vehicle behind them, yes, a truck, was closing distance.

  “I hope they’re not planning on passing us on a hill,” Ellie muttered. “I thought the drivers in Boston were nuts, but this is ridiculous.”

  Asher nodded in agreement, but his attentions were elsewhere. He stepped lightly on the accelerator, growing increasingly concerned as the truck closed yet more distance between them. Then, unexpectedly, a row of spotlights lit up on the top of the truck cab, the glare in his mirrors causing him to swear as he squinted, nearly blinded by the bright lights.

  “What the hell!” Ellie cried, turning to glance out the rear window, lifting a hand to shade her eyes. “Asher, he’s closing! Watch out—”

  The driver of the truck behind them revved loudly and closed the distance still more. He was maybe twenty yards behind the Jeep as he veered into the opposite lane, the roar of his engine loud and unmistakable.

  Asher swore, reaching for the gun tucked into his waistband with his right hand, his left hand still on the wheel, trying to keep an eye on the road and the approaching truck at the same time. Fuck!

  “Asher! Watch out!”

  Up ahead, a car pulled out into his lane from a side road at the top of the slope. Not just any car. The car that had passed them only minutes ago. He saw it too late, just in time to notice the car was empty as his headlights swept over the vehicle. It was stopped, sitting perpendicular in his lane on the highway. The truck behind picked up speed, closed in on Asher’s side, engine revving, as if not caring, or perhaps knowing there was no oncoming traffic. Asher had nowhere to go. He couldn’t swerve to the right . . . nowhere to go! Woods closed in close to the highway.

  “Hold on, Ellie!” he shouted, his own engine revving as he sharply turned the wheel, tried to broadside the truck, but it was wasn’t a Ford-150, it was a 250, much bigger and heavier than the Jeep. All he managed to do was rip off his side view mirror.

  “Ellie! Get down! Get—”

  The passenger side window shattered, and Asher slammed on the brakes. The Jeep started to spin, its rear end wavering back and forth across the
highway. The truck beside him also slowed, but veered into his left front fender, knocking the Jeep sideways, spinning it clockwise. “Hold on, Ellie!”

  The sound of crashing metal, grinding, tearing, and crunching filled the cab of the Jeep as the truck shot past him and the parked car while the left side of the Jeep slammed broadside into the car. Asher’s head made contact with the metal rim of the window. The airbags deployed. Ellie’s short-lived scream cut off abruptly as her airbag exploded in her face, muffling her cry, her left hand reaching for Asher. Through the daze, he heard four or five short popping sounds. The windshield shattered. Something hard grazed his head. Shots fired! He tried to reach for his gun, but his hands were trapped by the airbag, his vision distorted by the blood running into his eyes. Heart pounding, he tried to push the airbag out of the way.

  Too late. Three more shots fired, a yelp from Ellie, and then he felt something hard pierce his shoulder. The hot bloom of heat, then the sensation of blood. He struggled desperately to reach his gun, blackness creeping in around the edges of his vision, his breathing growing harsh as he struggled to move. Asher tried to force himself to clear his head even as he felt his grip on consciousness ebbing. He had to move, he had to save Ellie. The blackness swept over and around him, enveloping him in an unbreakable embrace as it carried him away.

  18

  Ellie

  Ellie was stunned. She was immobilized by the airbag that had deployed, smashing against her face, propelling her hands back up by her shoulders. She sat for several seconds, heart pounding, senses alert. Her ears rang, and she felt dizzy and sick to her stomach as she realized immediately what had happened. They’d been set up, trapped, easy pickings. Like shooting fish in a barrel, as her father used to say.