Bane (10 page)

“They found Jasmine Ross.”

“Really?” she said, moving toward Bane with a feeling of excitement flowing through her. “That’s good news, right? Hopefully Jasmine will confess her part in all this and work out a plea deal or something. Maybe they’ll get her to tell them where those other two chemists are being held.”

“Unfortunately, Jasmine won’t be telling anyone anything.”

Crystal frowned. “Why?”

“Because she’s dead. She was shot in the head and dumped in a lake. A couple of fishermen came across her body a few hours ago.”

Thirteen

“H
ere. Drink this.”

Crystal’s fingers tightened on the glass Bane placed in her hand, and she fought hard to hold it steady. Jasmine was dead? Suddenly everything seemed so unreal. So unbelievable.

She glanced down into the liquid. It was alcohol, and the smell alone was so strong it had her straightening up a little in her chair. “Whoa. What is it?”

“Scotch.”

She lifted an arched brow. “Where did Scotch come from?”

“I ordered it from room service after I talked with Nick. I figured you’d need a glass.”

“I don’t drink, Bane.”

“You need to drink this. It will help with the shock of what I told you.”

Crystal nodded, took a sip and frowned. Like coffee, liquor was a taste she’d never acquired. She drew in a deep breath as her gaze flickered around the room.

“She brought it on herself, Crystal,” she heard Bane say. “Evidently, the woman didn’t have any problem setting you up. Don’t forget she placed a bugging device in a gift she gave you and a tracker inside your jacket.”

“I know, but it’s still hard to believe she’d do something like that. She was nice most of the time. At least she pretended to be,” Crystal said, leaning forward to place her glass on the desk. One sip had been enough for her. “How could she have gotten mixed up in something so devious?”

Bane shrugged. “Who knows what makes people do what they do? Unfortunately, she got in too far over her head. And the people she thought she could trust saw her as a threat instead of an asset.”

Shivers passed through Crystal, and when Bane touched her arm she nearly jumped out of her skin. “You okay?” he asked softly.

She tipped her head all the way back to gaze up at the ceiling before lowering it to look at him. “Not really. It was bad enough to know one of my coworkers was involved in heaven knows what, but then to find out she lost her life because of it is a little too much.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

She glanced at Bane. “Yes, pretty much. But I think I’ll go to bed now and try to get some sleep.”

Crystal stood up. Without saying anything else and feeling Jasmine’s death weighing her down, she moved across the room, threw back the covers and slid into bed. She turned her back to Bane so he wouldn’t be able to see her tears.

* * *

Bane came awake with a start. First there was a small whimper from the bed next to his. Then he heard a rumbled, emotional plea. “Please don’t! Don’t shoot him. Please don’t.”

It took only a second to realize Crystal was thrashing around in her bed having a bad dream. He was out of his bed in a flash and flipped on the small lamp on the nightstand, bathing the room in a soft glow. He sat on the edge of her bed, gently shaking her awake. “Crystal, it’s okay. Wake up, baby. You’re having a bad dream. Wake up.”

He watched as her eyes flew open just seconds before she threw herself into his arms. Automatically he held her tight and used his hands to gently stroke her back. “It’s okay, Crystal.”

“Bane.”

She whispered his name against his neck and the heat from her breath set off a fire in the pit of his stomach. Her arms tightened around him and he refused to let this moment pass. She needed him and he wanted to be needed.

“I’m here, baby.”

She pulled back slowly, meeting his gaze and holding it. “It was an awful dream. They came for us, and you wouldn’t let them take me. You put yourself in front of me. To protect me. And the man raised his gun to shoot. They were going to shoot you and I felt so helpless.”

He slid one hand to the back of her neck and used the other to push several strands of hair back from her face. He saw fear in her eyes, and more than anything he wanted to take that look away. “It was just a dream, Crystal. No one is here but us, and no one is going to shoot me.”

“B-but I...”

“Shh, baby. It’s okay. I’m okay. We’re okay.”

He leaned in close to kiss the corners of her lips but she tipped her head at an angle and his mouth landed over hers. Instinctively, she parted her lips at the moment of impact and he swept his tongue inside her mouth to kiss her fully.

They’d kissed a couple of times over the past twenty-four hours, but nothing like this. There had been a hunger, but tonight this was about taking care of an ache. He deepened the kiss to taste her more fully as desire quickened inside him. She whimpered, and the sound was so unlike the one that had awakened him earlier. This one sent sensations jolting through him, filling him with the awareness of a sexual need that he felt all over.

And when she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck it became the kind of kiss that curled a man’s toes and made his entire body get hard. She tangled her tongue with his in a way that made every cell in his body come alive and he could only moan out loud.

A swirl of heat combined with a heavy dose of want overtook him as he continued to ply her mouth with hungry, languorous strokes of his tongue. There was only so much of her he could take without craving more, and his desire for more was nearly eating him alive, driving him insane.

And he didn’t want to just kiss her. He wanted to make love to her the way a husband would want to make love to his wife. He wanted to taste her all over. Feel his hands touching every inch of her. And reacquaint himself with being inside her.

Exploring her mouth this way was making his already aroused body that much more unrestrained. It was hard to remain in his good-guy lane and stay in control. Especially when she was returning his kiss with just as much bone-melting fire as he was putting into it. Explosive chemistry was something they’d always shared. Nothing had changed. The taste of her was incredibly pleasurable as always. To his way of thinking, even more so.

Unable to take any more, he broke off the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers while releasing pent-up breath from deep in his lungs. “Crystal.” He wasn’t sure why he needed to whisper her name at that particular moment, but he did.

“I’m here, Bane.”

Yes, she most certainly was, he thought, breathing hard. He briefly considered giving her another kiss before tucking her under the covers and returning to his bed, but for some reason he couldn’t do that. He wanted to continue holding her in his arms, so she would know she was safe here with him.

Bane shifted their bodies so they were stretched out together in the bed, and as they lay there beside each other, he wrapped his arms around her. “Sleep now,” he whispered softly, trying to ignore how the angle of her backside was smacked up against his groin. He had a hard-on and there was no way she couldn’t feel it.

She began writhing around in the bed trying to get comfortable, and each time she did so he felt his engorged erection get that much harder. Finally, after gritting his teeth a few times, he reached out and cupped a firm hold to her thigh. “I wouldn’t do that too often if I were you,” he warned.

“Why? Because you want me?”

With a guttural hiss, he positioned her body so that she was lying flat on her back. He loomed over her and looked down into her eyes. “What do you think?”

She broke eye contact with him for a mere second before returning his gaze. “I think I might not be as good with that as I used to be.”

“Why would you think that?”

“It’s been a while. Five years.”

A smile curved his lips. “Are you saying that because you think that I might not be as good as I used to be, as well?”

Surprise leaped into her eyes and she exhaled sharply. “No. That never crossed my mind.”

“Good. And just for the record, the thought that you’re not as good as you used to be never crossed mine, either.”

“Not even once?”

He stared at her in the lamplight. Her features were beautiful, the look in her eyes intense as she waited on his answer. “Not even once,” he said, meaning every word. “But I have been wondering about something, though,” he added, breathing her scent deep into his nostrils.

She lifted a brow. “What?”

“Can my tongue still make you come?”

* * *

Bane’s words caused Crystal to squeeze her eyes shut as sensations, namely memories of him doing that very thing, assailed her. She always thought Bane’s mouth should be outlawed. And it didn’t take much to recall everything he used to do, while licking her from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, paying close attention to those areas in between.

Especially those areas in between
.

“Open your eyes, sweetheart.”

She did and her gaze met his. Held it. She felt the sexual tension mounting between them, easing them into a comfortable and mutual existence where memories were surrounding them in ways they couldn’t ignore or deny. And at the exact moment his fingers shifted from her thigh to settle between her legs, she knew just what he’d found.

A woman who was hot and ready.

Crystal wasn’t exactly sure when the amount of time they’d been apart no longer mattered to her. The only thing that mattered was that he still wanted her after so long. That he hadn’t been with another woman just like she hadn’t been with another man. It was as if her body was his and his was hers. They had known it, accepted it and endured the loneliness. She hadn’t wanted any other man but him, and now her body was demanding to have what it had gone without for quite some time.

“Do you know how many times I lay in bed at night and envisioned touching you this way, Crystal?” Bane whispered.

He shifted his hand and his fingers began moving, sliding inside her, and automatically her thighs eased apart. “No, how many?” she asked, loving how the tip of his fingers stroked up and down her clit.

“Too many. Those were the times I had to take matters into my own hands. Literally. That’s how I kept from going insane. But I like this better,” he said as he continued working his fingers inside her, causing a deep ache to spread through her. “The real thing. No holds barred.”

No holds barred
. As he stroked the juncture between her thighs, Crystal couldn’t recall the last time she had felt so electrified. For so long, she had mostly ignored her body’s demands, except for those rare occasions when she couldn’t and had resorted to self-pleasure the way he had.

But Bane’s fingers were not toys. They were real, and what they were doing to her was as real as it could get. The sensations being generated inside her were so intense she actually felt air being ripped right out of her lungs with every breath she took. Her heart rate had picked up, and she felt as if she was being driven off the edge, falling headfirst into one powerful wave of pleasure.

“You like this?”

Before she could answer, he reached down, sliding his free hand beneath her shirt and settling it on the center of her stomach. She felt the heat radiating from his touch and began writhing. “Hey, it’s okay, baby. It’s just me and my touch. I want to put my imprint on you everywhere,” he whispered.

Did he think his imprint wasn’t already there? She was convinced his fingertips had burned into her skin years ago. And when he pushed her T-shirt up, she felt a whoosh of air touch her skin, especially her breasts. She wasn’t wearing a bra and could feel the heat of his gaze as he stared down at the twin globes.

“Hmm, beautiful. Just as I remembered. Do you have any idea how much I used to enjoy sucking these?”

Yes, she had an idea because he used to do so all the time. At one point she’d been convinced his mouth was made just for her nipples. And now, when he used his tongue to lick his lips just moments before lowering his head toward her breasts, she could actually feel a fire ignite inside her. She felt her nipples harden even more. And all it took was one look into his eyes to know he was about to devour her alive.

He buried his face in her chest and took her nipple easily between his lips. Then he began sucking hard. She wasn’t sure if it was his fingers working inside her below or his mouth torturing her nipples that would do her in first. When it happened, she had a feeling it was both.

“Bane!”

An orgasm tore through her immediately and she couldn’t hold back the scream. But he was there, capturing her mouth with his, smothering her deep moans with his kiss. Still, he didn’t let up, his fingers continuing to work her, rebuilding a degree of passion within her that she could not contain. And when he released her mouth, he began licking her skin from the base of her chin, all over her breasts, down past her stomach all the way to where his mouth met his fingers. He pulled his fingers out of her only to lift her hips to bring the essence of her toward his mouth. The moment his tongue slid inside her she shuddered, filled to the rim with flames of erotic desire.

She pushed on his shoulders but he wasn’t letting up. It was as if he was a hungry beast who intended to get his fill, and when another orgasm ripped through her, she cried out his name again. For a fraction of a second, she was convinced she had died and gone to heaven.

But she was quickly snatched back to earth when she felt him lower her hips and remove his mouth from her. Then she watched through languid eyes as he stood and began stripping off his clothes before reaching down to practically tear off hers. A raw, primitive need was overtaking him. It stirred the air, and she could see it in the passion-glazed eyes staring down at her. She felt the heat in every part of her body.

“That was just the beginning,” he whispered as he slid a condom on his engorged erection. “Just the beginning.”

And then he was back, spreading her thighs, looming over her, and when their gazes met, she saw what she’d always seen when he’d made love to her. Love. Pure, unadulterated love. Bane still loved her and she knew at that moment that no matter what they’d gone through and what they were going through now, she still loved him, as well.

She reached out and slid her hands up his back, feeling the deep cords of his muscles and flinching when she came to several scars that hadn’t been there before. But before she could even imagine what story those scars told, he was taking her mouth again, pulling her in and consuming her with a need that was demanding her full concentration. On them. On this. Never had she been filled with such overwhelming desire, need and passion. She wanted him. Her husband. The man who had been her first and only best friend. The man who’d always had her back and had defied anyone who’d tried keeping them apart.