Dead Shall Speak (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 10) (23 page)

He got the point.

“Have a good day, Sheriff,” she stated, heading out.

Outside, Callen laughed. “You’re totally a bitch. I am so glad you love me.”

She wouldn’t disagree with either part of that sentence. She loved her men fiercely, and she hated assholes with a passion. It brought out the crazy in her.

“Where to now, boss?” he asked, hopping behind the wheel of the Denali before he started it up.

“I want to visit the dig site. I know we pulled Tony from the assignment to work in the morgue, but I want to make sure the team there isn't running amuck. We are still responsible for them. I just picture a bunch of crazed anthropologists digging up anything they can find. I sure hope there isn't a cemetery nearby.”

He laughed as he drove. “I think there is.”

“Then we’re screwed. That’s why we’re heading there.”

God, he loved her.

“Besides,” she began, “I want to meet them. You can learn a lot about people when you talk to them.”

Callen’s body tensed. “Uh, about that.”

She glanced over at his hesitation. It was odd, because it seemed uncalled for. “What?”

“There may have been a little issue that happened before you arrived here. It was really nothing, so you shouldn’t get upset or go over the edge.”

That had her attention.

“A little issue? Like you spilled coffee on one of them? Told someone off? Or are we talking something more than a little issue?”

“Yeah, okay maybe issue isn't the word I should use. It probably was a little bigger than that. I guess that depends on how you look at it.” Even he knew he was rambling and stalling.

Shit!

This was going to suck!

“Callen James, spill it before I get riled up. It won’t end well for you.”

“I was watching the scene and one of the dig team may, or may not, have gotten up close and personal with my body.”

She didn't like that at all. The idea that someone put their hands on what she claimed as her own set her right off.

“How close and how personal are we talking here?”

Callen swallowed. “Well, um. She may have copped a feel before getting my permission.”

Immediately, her eyebrow went up. “Before? So what you’re saying is had she asked, you would have been perfectly fine with her copping a feel?”

“Wait! I didn't mean it to sound like I wouldn’t have given her the okay to do that. She grabbed a handful of ass, and I didn't know what to do about it.”

Elizabeth knew the man before her.

She understood him well enough that she could hear not only the fear in his voice, but the anxiety. Callen didn't like to be touched unless it was up to him. Reaching over, she ran her fingers over the burn scars on his arm. “I’m not upset with you.”

And she wasn’t.

He let out the breath he was holding. “I wish I could say the same thing. I’m upset.”

She knew how much that took for him to admit. “Want to talk about it?” Elizabeth asked, taking his hand in hers. Immediately, their fingers linked together.

“Therapy isn't going well. I sit there alone, and I’m ashamed. When will it go away, Lyzee?”

This was her fear. Elizabeth hated that she bailed on the man in his time of need.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been there, Cal. All I can say is that it’ll dull with time. I promise that as soon as I’m home, I’ll take care of you. I won’t leave your side, I will hold your hand, and if I have to, I’ll carry you through this.”

He nodded as he pulled into the parking lot. “I feel so empty and cold inside. I wake up each day wondering when he’s going to find me again. Then I worry if he’s going to come to you and tell you the horror stories. You know what happened, but I don’t want you to hear the details. I can’t stand the idea that he’ll tell you what I was forced to do to survive. I fear just about every day of my life. It’s like I’m still trapped, only the cage has gotten far bigger.”

“Are you going to run, Callen?” she needed to know.

He shook his head, despite the thought had crossed his mind. It was easy to bail, but he was holding on. “No. I’m going to stay and fight, but I’m so afraid I’ll fail. Will you still love me if I’m not able to do this? How long can you carry me when I’m nothing but a burden?”

Her heart ached for him. “Can you park over there where there aren’t any cars?” she asked.

It made him nervous that she didn't answer him. “Sure, angel.”

When he did what she asked, Elizabeth unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed into his lap. When her hand touched his chest, there was the kick of his heart beneath her fingers.

“I love you, Callen James. You’re worth any battle, any war, and any fight. I’d challenge the world for you. If I have to suit up and rage against the demons of your past, I will. You’re far from a burden.”

He closed his eyes. “I needed to hear that.”

It wasn’t hard to feel what else he needed. The man beneath her was hard as desire whipped through his body. What were a few minutes to take the time to heal his heart and soul?

Bringing her mouth to his, Elizabeth sought out the pain growing within him. With tenderness, love, and desire, she offered a bandage to heal his heart.

As her tongue glided across his and hands moved up his large frame, Callen couldn’t help but get lost in the moment. Here, in his lap, was the woman who was his champion.

His salvation.

“Lyzee,” he practically begged. “I don’t know if this is a good idea. I’m not going to be able to fight you off. I can’t promise I won’t do something stupid after your hands are all over me. I’m raw inside.”

That was all she needed to hear. Her job, as their protectors, was to heal what was broken.

Climbing out of his lap, she could see the look of disappointment. While his mouth said no, his body told a different tale. Immediately, she crawled into the back seat. “Callen, hurry,” she whispered. “We can’t get caught doing this.”

It excited him.

Callen couldn’t believe that she was offering up sex in a work vehicle. “Seriously?” he asked, glancing back at her from between the two seats. “This isn't something to tease me with. Sex with you, while at work, is on my bucket list.”

She laughed. “Saddle up, my sexy Native. I want to take a ride.”

His heart flipped as he awkwardly crawled into the back seat. All the while, there was a boyish grin on his face. “Use me, cowgirl.”

Elizabeth dove in, kissing him like he deserved. Here was a good man who would give her anything she ever desired. Maybe it was the genes, or the other jeans which made her heart skip like this. When she couldn’t kiss him any deeper, Elizabeth pulled away. “Give me a second.”

Slipping out of her clothes, she got ready to give Callen something to ease his heart. Flicking open the button on the top of his jeans, she enjoyed the way the breath hissed from between his lips.

It wasn’t lost on her that he tracked each and every motion with a lustful stare.

“Angel,” he murmured as her hand stroked him once, twice, and then was replaced with her mouth.

This was pure heaven. There was the fear of getting caught, the need to let go, and the wild woman tormenting him.

It all added up to one hell of a fantasy for Callen.

When she was done with her mouth, she glanced up into his eyes. “I just wanted to make sure you were slickery enough.”

The sound that emanated from his mouth was somewhere between a laugh and snort. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll be just fine.”

Straddling his thighs, she got ready. “I want you every second of the day, Callen James. Your strength astounds me. It catches me when I stumble, and it makes me happier than I’ve ever thought possible.”

With that, she sunk down his erection.

“Oh, God!” he muttered when her body gripped him like a satin lined glove. It was absolutely perfect.

This was exactly what he needed to reconfirm what his heart already knew.

Callen was in heaven.

“Let me give you a gift,” she purred in his ear, even as she began riding.

His large hands went to her hips, helping with the glide up and down his erection. “Angel, you are my gift,” he replied, trying to focus on the pleasure coursing through his body.

“Oh, Callen!” she nearly shouted, as he began pulling her down harder and harder. While she tried to worry that they’d get caught, there was something about the look on Callen’s face that pushed that all from her mind.

There was peace there.

It was something that she knew he’d been lacking for a while, since running into his mother’s boyfriend.

While she bounced in his lap, Callen stared deep into her eyes. On the spur of the moment, he couldn’t help himself.

‘
How could I live without you? You’re the air I breathe, the soul that nourishes me, the heart that beats in my chest. My woman, my wife, my other half—I wake to you, sleep with you, and grow old in your arms. Love hath no end when it defines what we have. You’ve given me hope. You’ve given me peace. You are my only salvation in the coldness of life.’

Elizabeth’s heart skipped in her chest, even as tears filled her eyes. Whenever Callen would whisper a poem he’d written for her, it captivated and threw her world upside down.

From battered and bruised, to healed and whole, he was so very important in her life. “Oh, Callen,” she murmured, a tear slipping down her cheek.

Releasing her hips with one hand, he wiped it away. “I love you, Elizabeth. Forever and a day.”

With that, she leaned into him, brought her mouth to his, and pushed them both from the precipice into the freefall of orgasm.

Callen fell with her, arms wrapped around her body, protectively housing the child he would love despite Charlie not being his. This was his family, and he would forever cling to it, because they would offer him solace in a turbulent life.

When the afterglow faded and sanity returned, Elizabeth lifted her head from his shoulder. “Mmmmm. I love having moments like this with you,” she offered.

Callen grinned smugly. “Not as much as I do,” he teased, running his hand down her back. “We better get moving, angel. The last thing I need is my brother doing paperwork on a report where I’m caught having sex with you in a company vehicle.”

She snorted. “He’s just as guilty.”

That made Callen grin. “Good to know. I’ll use that as leverage if this gets out.”

She paused, resting her hand over his cheek. “I’d tell the world how much you mean to me.”

For some reason, Callen didn't doubt that in the least. In that moment, the pain was gone. There was nothing like the love of a good woman.

And he had one.

“Let me help you get you dressed,” he offered.

“Always the gentleman,” she stated.

“If I play my cards right, you’ll do this more often.”

“Always the scheming hornball,” Elizabeth corrected.

He laughed, because she wasn’t far off. “I hope I don’t smell too much like your perfume,” he stated, sniffing her neck right before he nipped her flesh. When his rough cheek nuzzled hers, Elizabeth shivered.

“I hope you do smell like me,” Elizabeth stated. If Callen actually thought that she had forgotten about the woman grabbing his ass, he was mistaken.

She was pregnant, not brain dead.

Oh, she’d wanted to heal his heart, but a part of her wanted to mark her territory as well. If the woman didn't get the hint, there were other ways to make her understand.

She could beat the hell out of her, all while manically laughing.

When she actually snorted, Callen glanced over. “What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

He didn't look like he believed her.

It was best he didn't know. Why stress him out even more? This time, she’d carry the weight of this one on her shoulders.

With pleasure…

As expected, when they arrived on the dig site, the team was bored out of their minds. They weren’t allowed to root around in the dirt, since the FBI had cordoned it off. So, instead they were all hanging out in Tony Magnus’s office tent, bitching and moaning.

Well, here was a little newsflash for them. Elizabeth was accustomed to whining and moaning. Unhappy people were right up her alley. When she headed in, Elizabeth found a man sitting behind the makeshift desk.

“Can I help you?” he asked, standing.

“Yes, you can. I’m Director Elizabeth Whitefox-Blackhawk. I'm here to give you all your assignments.”

They didn't look pleased.

Oh, she knew why. The two most irritated people, were obviously the ones who thought she was the least qualified to do just that. She loved when people underestimated her.

“Where’s Doctor Magnus? Surely, he should be the one doing that. You’re really not up to speed to run a dig site.”