Street Game

CHAPTER 20

Pleasure burst through Jaimie like champagne bubbles. She felt warm and drowsy, her body coming awake inch by slow inch. She felt Mack’s body wrapped tightly around hers, his hands stroking over her skin with familiar knowledge, his mouth nuzzling her breast. She laughed softly, feeling complete. She loved waking up to him-to this. She closed her eyes and let the feeling take her, sweeping through her bloodstream on a tide of pure heat.

“You awake, baby?” Mack whispered against her bare skin, his teeth nibbling gently over the swell of her breast.

Jaimie slid her hands over his back, up to his hair. “Yes. I love waking up to you.”

“I’ve been lying here next to you most of the night thinking about us.” He pressed kisses along the valley between her breasts up to her throat. He propped himself up on one elbow, leaning over her, his dark gaze moving broodingly over her face. Her heart jumped. She’d known this was coming since the rescue of the children. Mack had to go back where he belonged. She’d gotten used to being with him, with the others. The others had left a few days earlier and she and Mack had spent days just worshipping each other’s bodies. They rarely left the bed for anything other than food and drink and to watch the ocean under a blanket of stars. She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to lose him again; it was going to tear out her heart. She made a move to roll out from under him but he moved with his incredible speed and pinned her there. His hand on her shoulder was extremely gentle, yet she felt the steel in him, reminding her of the ease with which he’d carried the teenager through the embassy grounds and then leapt the fence with him. She’d never forget the sight of Mack moving fast, the boy slung over his back, his face determined. Her heart fluttered. He’d been born a warrior. He’d been born to lead. She didn’t want to give him back, but she knew he had to go. He’d averted a nuclear war. She couldn’t keep him in her bed, tied to her.

Jaimie took a deep breath and braced herself, reluctantly meeting his eyes.

“Come back to me, Jaimie. I need you to come back,” Mack said softly. He pressed his finger over her mouth when she frowned and took a breath. “Listen to me. I laid here for hours figuring things out. You’re part of me and when I don’t have you, I can’t breathe right, let alone function. You make me whole. You keep me mellow. You’re the best person I know. I can talk about anything with you. Most of all, when I’m out there doing what I do, you’re the reason I do it. You’re the reason I know I’m going to make it back.” He brushed his mouth back and forth over hers in small, coaxing caresses. “With you, Jaimie, I’ve got everything. Without you, there isn’t much to life.”

“Mack, you said…” Jaimie’s heart was beating so hard she was afraid he could hear.

“I know what I said, Jaimie. It was bullshit. I want a home. With you. A family. You are my family. You want children, we’ll have them. I don’t give a damn how many. Maybe a dozen so you don’t think about walking out on me again.”

She knew her shock showed on her face. She’d been dreading the moment he left, knowing he would be ripping out her heart, but she hadn’t expected him to ask her to go with him. “But…” Her business. Her warehouse. Everything she’d worked for. Could she give it all up and follow him? To what? He’d be gone more than he’d be with her. But could she live, really live, without him?

“I know what I’m asking, Jaimie. I do. I want to wake up every morning to you. I want to sit in a rocking chair with you when we’re old. I want to laugh with you, cry with you. I also know what kind of life I’m offering.”

“Do you, Mack?” she asked. Because she’d shared the danger of missions with him and when he went out, she’d know exactly how bad it really was. She’d have to sit at home waiting, scared, alone. Completely alone.

His fingers bunched in her curls. “Of course I do, Jaimie. I took you for granted. I’m not going to pretend I didn’t or that it won’t happen again. And I’m bossy. I won’t pretend I don’t know the way I am. I can be jealous and stupid when it comes to you, but no one will ever love you the way I do. I detest that word. It doesn’t say half of what I feel for you. Everyone loves ice cream. You’re my world. My heart. I know what I’m asking, Jaimie. And I know you’ve built something here. I’ll help you build it again with me.”

She opened her mouth twice before anything came out. “I wasn’t expecting this, Mack. I’m not prepared.”

He leaned in and kissed her, not above bribing her or seducing her if it worked. Her mouth was magic, warm and soft and filled with passion, with fire, with everything Jaimie. His mouth left hers reluctantly. He pressed his forehead against hers. “Come back to me, baby.”

“I don’t know if I can,” she whispered, terrified of losing him, of losing herself. She’d fought hard to be her own person. “People establish patterns and we fell into one that wasn’t so good. What makes you think it will be different this time?”

He kissed her chin, the corners of her mouth. His teeth tugged on her lower lip and he brushed kisses there too. “Because I’m different. So are you. I know we’re good together. I’m better with you than on my own.”

Jaimie sat up, needing to put space between them. She couldn’t think when he was holding her, when his body was wrapped so strong and protectively around hers. When she felt their energies connected, as if they shared the same skin with one heart beating between them. Not when he was saying words she’d always dreamt he’d say to her. She slid out of bed and paced a couple of steps away, the only safe way to say what needed saying.

Jaimie looked at his face. The hard angles and planes. His firm mouth and strong jaw. Everything she needed was right there. But he was born for something far more and he loved what he did. Loved it. He wasn’t going to stop and he shouldn’t. But she didn’t fit into that world. Tears clogged her throat, burned together into a lump she couldn’t swallow.

She fought to keep her voice even. “You know I can’t. I built a business here, Mack. I work for Sergeant Major, but he leaves me alone. If I went back…” She trailed off, her voice trembling.

Mack dropped his head in his hands and stayed there for a long moment, bracing himself. He knew, in the end, it would come to this. This was going to hurt bad-very bad. He just hadn’t expected such a wrench. She’d sacrificed for him once and he’d thrown it away. He could see her point. He straightened, his eyes meeting hers. “Then I’ll quit.”

She blinked. Shock registered. She actually took a step backward. “Mack. Don’t be crazy. You can’t quit.” Comprehension dawned. Her trembling mouth firmed.

“They won’t let you quit. You know that, but I appreciate the gesture.”

“It’s no gesture, Jaimie. From the moment I woke up on Whitney’s table and realized all of us had not only been psychically enhanced, but genetically altered as well, I knew we had to plan for a future. I’ve been doing that and the boys have all joined with me. It’s a little earlier than I’d planned for, but we can disappear if we need to.”

“How?” she demanded. “I thought I was out, and look what happened. They manipulated me from the moment I left our house. Every contract, every person I came into contact with. I’m still working for them. And they sent Joe. It was an elaborate babysitting operation. I’m not even certain what’s going to happen now. I doubt they’ll leave me completely alone ever, not as long as I’m useful to them.”

“They won’t,” Mack agreed. “But if you’re certain that’s what you want, we have a plan, and the money to do it.”

Shivering, she picked up her robe and wrapped herself in it. “How would you get the money, Mack? It would take a lot of money. And we’d always be on the run.”

“Not necessarily. We’re privy to information others might not have. Javier can invest and play the stock market for us when we know we’re about to hit something that will affect the market. It’s not exactly kosher, but we’ve pooled our money. Team Two, the SEAL team, has a fortress in the mountains. They’ve banded together and have a training center right there. We can do something similar. The boys have been researching places if we want to settle and stay in, but also possible retirement areas we can defend.”

Jaimie shook her head. “Mack, you would never be happy in retirement. You know you wouldn’t.”

“What do I have without you, Jaimie?” He looked up at her. “I’m serious. How many times can I go out and come back to nothing? After a while you lose your incentive.”

She turned away from him and looked down at her hands. She was trembling. With fear. She wanted Mack, but did she want him to give up everything he was for her? Was that the price she wanted him to pay because he’d hurt her? She detested that she’d put him in this position. “Mack.” Her voice was gentle. Aching. “You’d grow to hate me. You live for this.”

“I live for you. I love being in Force Recon in the GhostWalker unit. That word you always want me to say to you. I love what I do. The missions. The action. The ability to make a difference in the world. I love that, Jaimie. But you’re my other half. You’re everything. I don’t know how else to say it to you. There are no words for the way I feel about you. I hurt you, I know I did. I wanted to be your everything, more than love. I didn’t want to believe you could walk away from me and I let pride get in the way. I wanted you to come back to me on your own.”

His throat closed and he cleared it, pressing his fingers to his stinging eyes. “I could never have walked away from you. I still can’t. The thought never once entered my mind. We were supposed to be together always. Always. Through everything, no matter how bad it got. It was always going to be us.”

“You said there was no future.”

“That’s what you heard, Jaimie; that’s not what I said. You were so upset over the mission. Three of my men-our brothers-men depending on me were hurt. We’d walked into an ambush. It really hit home where I’d led everyone. Most of the boys wouldn’t have joined the GhostWalker program if I hadn’t encouraged them. I probably could have stopped them all. I was wallowing in self-pity, not throwing you away. I needed you right then. More than anything, I needed you.”

He held up his hand before she could reply. “I realize you needed me right then too. In any case, Jaimie, all that matters now is what we decide to do about this. You have to make up your mind how important I am to you. If you decide you’re going to be with me, it’s forever. You can’t have one foot out the door because I’m an idiot and say or do the wrong thing. You’ve got to hit me over the head and tell me to straighten up.” He looked up at her, his dark eyes twin pools of emotion. “Say it, Jaimie. Say you choose me no matter what happens.”

He held his breath. Every cell in his body went on alert, much the same way it did on a mission. He was aware of the breath moving in and out of her body, of the way shadows chased across her face and the moonlight bathed the room in silver. Her lips parted.

His heart pounded. Say it. A whisper in her mind. A plea when he never pleaded.

“There will never be anyone else, Mack,” she said, her eyes going liquid.

He didn’t dare move. He didn’t know whether thunder cracked outside or whether it was his heart. Say it. He was rigid. His jaw set, every muscle locked, his gut coiled tight.

“I choose you forever, Mack. Forever.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist, under her silk robe, and dragged her to him, pressing his face against her soft belly. A shudder went through his body. His hands trembled. “That’s your word, Jaimie. You’re giving me your word.”

She cradled his head to her, just holding him, her fingers brushing small caresses through his hair. “Yes. And just so you know, we’re not going to run away from them. You just stopped a war before it even got started, Mack. I’m not so selfish that I’m going to try to keep you to myself. We can save our money and keep investing. Maybe I can help with that end. If we find a good place, we can all settle there and put in a first-class training facility like Team Two, but in the meantime, I’m going to be taking a big hit on my business.”

“Not necessarily.” He pressed kisses along the line from her belly button to the top of the tiny black curls, feeling the bunching of her muscles in response. “The government’s been giving you contracts because they know the caliber of the work you do and you have a high security clearance. Just indicate to Sergeant Major that you’re willing to come back full-time for analyzing and programming, but only parttime on fieldwork. You’ll have to train with us all the time, but we’ll only use you when we need your particular skill.”

“I don’t know, Mack,” she hesitated. It was so hard to think when he touched her so possessively, when his breathing changed to that harsh rasp, almost as if he was desperate to taste her. His hands were strong, moving over her body as if she belonged to him and no one else, as if every inch of her was his alone. She bit her lip, trying to puzzle things out when her brain was slowly turning cloudy. She couldn’t say she hadn’t been exhilarated rescuing the two children, but not a shot had been fired. Things might have been a lot different if they’d had to use live rounds. As it was, she, like the others-particularly Kane-had spent a couple of days recouping from using psychic talent. “I’d be afraid of endangering all of you.”

She tried to ignore the way her nipples beaded beneath the thin silk, the way his hands shoved her robe aside, bunching the material out of the way. She heard his low growl, a sound that rocked her. She looked down at him and saw his face, the stark, raw hunger as he focused completely on her. She realized the intensity of his hunger was the way he showed her what she meant to him. Every touch, every claim and demand he made, he was telling her how much he loved her.

His tongue swirled around her belly button, chased her goose bumps down to the junction between her legs. She shuddered against him, clinging as her legs went weak. His hands shaped her bottom, slid to her hips, and gripped her hard.

“Then we’ll practice together until we’re so strong nothing can get through the shield I build around you before you ever go out on another mission. You’re not ever going to endanger us. Unless it’s spontaneous combustion, because right now, Jaimie, I think I might go up in flames.” His tongue dipped into her heat, lingered for a moment, and then found her inner thigh.

She jumped when his teeth nipped her. He laughed softly out of sheer joy. “I want to get married immediately.” He plunged his tongue into her wet heat.

“What?” The word came out a strangled gasp. She closed her eyes and held on to him for her sanity. He licked at her, long savoring licks as if he could feed from her forever. The sounds he was making vibrated through her body, adding to the waves of pleasure his mouth created.

Mack never stopped devouring her, his mouth clamped over her wet, slick entrance as he turned his body slightly, enough to give him leverage so he could force her back down on the bed. She spilled onto the comforter, her legs splayed, so he could slide down onto the floor, dragging her hips nearly off the bed, assaulting her with his hungry mouth.

She cried out and he reveled in the sound of her voice, the way he could take her up so fast, the way she always responded to his touch. He lifted his head, his tongue licking at the flavor of her on his lips. “I love the way you taste, Jaimie. I swear I could eat you for breakfast every damn morning.”

“Inside me. Right now, Mack. I can’t wait.” She tugged at his hair to try to force him to blanket her.

“I love to torture you,” he whispered, his fingers moving inside her, stretching her, finding that secret erotic button that had her writhing on the bed, her hips bucking, and her feminine muscles squeezing tightly. He watched her eyes widen and glaze, the flush spread over her body. Her stomach rippled and her breasts lifted.

“Again, baby, this time go all the way,” he ordered and replaced his fingers with his mouth. His tongue speared her and she bucked against him hard, her breath exploding out of her aching lungs. She heard herself sob as the fire streaked through her. Her body thrashed, but he held her firmly, his tongue teasing and stroking, insisting on his way. That fast she flew apart, an explosion of her senses ripping through her body like a hurricane.

Before she could catch her breath, he pulled her thighs apart and stood over her, his cock in his hand, poised at her pulsing entrance. He waited until her eyes locked with his and then he plunged deep, driving through her tight, sensitive folds. Fiery hot. Velvet tight. His body reacted, the scorching heat rushing through his veins like a drug. Addicting. Real. His.

He held her still, open to his invasion as he plunged deep over and over, savoring the grasping, viselike grip of her muscles surrounding him with fire. She made him hot. She made him wild. She made him forget everything ugly in the world. There was only Jaimie with her body and her love surrounding him with such mindnumbing pleasure he sometimes thought he might not survive it. He could feel flames licking over his skin, surrounding his cock, streaking through his body, down his thighs, up into his belly to settle into a rolling ball of fire. “Damn, baby, you’re so fucking tight. So hot.” Another low growl rumbled in his chest, a sound so animalistic it shocked even him. Nothing mattered but the fire building. Her muscles tightened around him, locking down, imprisoning him in a velvet inferno. “Don’t. Baby, you’ve got to stop or I’m never going to hold on.” He wanted to be there forever. Live there. Just stay locked inside of her where fire purified them both. Streaks of flames blazed through his cock, teased his thighs, and raced down his legs to his toes.

He plunged deep into that scalding heat and she writhed again. His breath hissed out, a harsh, rough demand. “Stay still, Jaimie.”

Pure need rode him now, a thousand demons intent on prolonging the ecstasy. He set his teeth and gripped her legs, jerking them over his arms as he levered over her, thrusting hard over and over while her soft mewling cries accompanied the frantic, harsh rhythm he set. The tension grew and stretched in him. He felt the boiling in his balls, as they drew tighter and tighter. He didn’t take his eyes from her face, watching her every inflection, every transparent expression, each nuance. Every time her breath hitched or she arched her body, or thrashed her head, he slammed home, driving deeper, claiming all of her, taking her body for his own.

Her cries crescendoed as the tension wound tighter and tighter and the fire built into an all-consuming blaze. This was the moment, this tightening of her body to the point of pain around his cock, strangling, gripping, drawing thick jets of seed from him so that ecstasy tore through him, taking him soaring. She screamed, the music he’d been waiting for, and he caught her flailing hands, anchoring her as her body rippled and pulsed, milking his.

He collapsed over her, his hair damp, a fine sheen of sweat glistening over his skin while the aftershocks rippled and danced around him, her muscles tightening and releasing, taking the last of his seed from his body.

Mack pressed kisses over her belly and between her breasts and then rolled over and stared at the ceiling so that both of them lay half on and half off the bed. “You know one of the things I missed most?” Besides her sense of humor. Her brain. The way she looked at him as if he was the best man in the world. He turned his head to look at her. “The way you always woke me up in the morning.”

He couldn’t imagine the feeling her mouth created, that warm, amazing pleasure, the moment of complete awareness; there was only reality or nothing. Fantasy didn’t cut it, not when he’d had the real thing. She paid attention to detail. She always had. What turned him on. What made him hard as a rock. What made him lose his mind and thrust helplessly into her silken mouth. Jaimie always made him feel as though she loved every part of him, as though bringing him pleasure was her pleasure.

“I missed it too,” she admitted. She touched her fingers against his until he tangled them together. “I love making you happy, Mack. I always have.”

He rolled onto his side and propped himself up, pushing damp curls from her face.

“I need you to tell me the truth, baby. Can you live with what I do? I swear to you, I’ll leave it for you. We’ll find something else.”

She shook her head. “I know what you need in your life, Mack. I’ve always been about making you happy. I like keeping your house, and cooking for you. I love waking you up in the morning and meeting every need you have. I’ve always loved being yours. I needed to know what we have isn’t all about sex and I’ve learned that. We’re so hot together, so wild and out of control sometimes, that I needed to know there were feelings involved.”

“See, honey.” He leaned in to kiss her. “I just don’t get that. How could you not have known?”

She smiled at him. “I guess women need the words sometimes, Mack.”

His teeth flashed at her. “You’re going to be getting words, honey. We’ve got to get you packed before they call me. You know it will be soon.”

“I’m going to work, not just stay home naked waiting for you.”

“I know you will. You always have. And you want a baby, we’ll have a baby.”

“Do you?” Her gaze remained steady on his.

A slow smile warmed her. “If I’d thought about it before, I’d have realized having you tied down with children only helps my cause. Sure. I can handle a few kids.”

“That boy, Dae-sub, he was an amazingly stoic teenager. He was tortured.”

“He’s his father’s son. And he protected Mi-cha as best he could. I have to say, honey, I didn’t feel too sorry for Armstice thinking about him in the hands of Daesub’s father.”

“Sergeant Major said the Special Ops team drove them right to the front gate of the Korean embassy, got out, and walked away, and just left the car.”

“A guard was waiting. He drove the car onto the embassy grounds and they were all officially taken into custody. The great part was, they had no idea what happened or how they got there. The only one to escape us was Blaine. He was outside the embassy, waiting to call reporters and film the kid’s death. If North Korea or China manages to pick him up, all to the good.”

She sat up, trying in vain to tame her disheveled curls. “I hope the general can figure out who paid Armstice to kidnap those children.”

“Believe me, they’ll find out,” he said grimly. “And did you read the newspaper report on Jefferson? They gave him a wonderful burial. A heart attack. Very sad. A good man cut down in his prime.” He glanced at his watch. “We’d better get moving. We’ve got a lot of packing to do. I’m not going without you and if they call…”

“You’ve got to go.”

“And you’ll be coming without all of your fancy equipment.”

Jaimie straddled his body, settling over his hips, her knees on either side of his thighs. “Are you absolutely certain we have to go right this minute?”

He reached up to wrap a hand around the nape of her head, slowly pulling her down to him. “I guess we’ve got a little time.” He fastened his mouth to hers and just let himself drown.