Fascination (11 page)

“EJ seems to think you have some options. He’ll help you.”

Sage spoke softly. “What about you?”

He was quiet again, his fingers rubbing against the silk of her hair at the back of her neck. His lips fell to her forehead, his voice low.

“I think you’ll find your dreams again, Sage. Just don’t let them go, like I did.”

She tipped her head back against his hand, gazing up at him. “You didn’t let them go, you just chose different ones.”

His mouth brushed against hers. It was barely a kiss but had the heat bursting spontaneously between them. Sage hadn’t really planned on this happening when she’d decided to knock on his door—maybe she had hoped, somewhere in the corners of her mind, but she hadn’t planned it. But as his warm lips worked over hers, she was glad it was happening.

Something was deepening between them, and his touch was different now, more tender, more passionate. She snuggled close and wrapped her arms around his neck, opening to him but demanding back, as well. Landing hot kisses over the skin of her cheek and throat, his voice was hoarse with desire.

“We should be sleeping. Tomorrow…”

Drawing back, she framed his face in her hands and stared into his eyes. “Tomorrow will take care of itself. And we will sleep. After.”

Feathering her hands over the smooth, taut skin of his chest, she let her lips follow, suckling, nipping and planting wet kisses wherever she could, losing herself in his taste and his passionate response to her touch.

She sighed with delight when her palm found him hard and rigid under his lightweight pants, and she tugged at his belt.

“Time for these to go.” She smiled wickedly, yanking the leather from the loop, looking up in surprise when his hand stopped her.

“Sage, as much as I want to, I, um, we don’t have anything here. Protection.”

Sage bit her lip. Her body was humming with need
for him, and there was no way she was going back to bed without satisfying that need. She tugged the belt through the remaining loops, her voice loaded with suggestion.

“I guess we’ll just have to be creative then, won’t we?”

He moaned and released her as she delved into his naval with her tongue, simultaneously loosening the zipper of his slacks. He helped her shuck them quickly, and she stood by the side of the bed with him looking at her hungrily.

Slowly she unwrapped the robe and let it drop from her shoulders, his sharp intake of breath and the jerk of his erection egging her on. Smiling, she hooked a thumb through her thong—the only thing she had on—and rather than pulling them down, slid her hand underneath, reaching down between her thighs, finding her own hot, moist center.

“Sage…” Ian’s voice was full of delighted surprise, and she stroked herself lightly, shuddering with the pleasure of it, and it was ten times more pleasurable with him watching. But that was only the beginning—apparently he had a few surprises for her, as well. Watching him reach down and wrap his hand around himself, she gasped, equally delighted and turned on when he stroked as he watched her. After a few moments, his breath coming hard, he reached his other hand out to her.

“Come here.”

“Just a sec.” Her knees were weak as heat throbbed
through her, but she also felt ecstatically in control. She turned her back to him, hooked her fingers into the thin scrap of material she was wearing and proceeded to slip it downward, bending slightly so that he had the most erotic vantage point she could manage. His deep, masculine groan washed over her, and she turned, smiling seductively.

“Watch out, Ian. Here I come.”

I
AN WASN’T COMPLETELY
sure what to expect, but he was pretty much open to anything that included Sage naked on the bed. She walked toward him, her gait slow and sensual, and he reached down to stroke himself once more, watching her eyes follow his movements, her sexy voice urging him on.

“That’s it, Ian. Let me watch you.”

She slid up next to him, kneeling beside him on the firm mattress, sliding her hands up to her breasts while she watched, small whimpers and sighs becoming all she could utter as she saw his body, aroused and hard. The cool breeze from the window washed over her, caressing her everywhere, brushing across her stiff nipples as she reached down, seeking her own release. Ian’s hand reached out, stopping her, and she looked down, questions in her eyes.

“Come here.”

This time she obeyed the command quickly, scuttling up next to him where he had pushed himself back to rest against the headboard. He turned to his side, and she followed suit. Wordlessly he took her mouth in a
long, drugging kiss, his hands finding her breasts, massaging and pinching until she almost came with no further help at all.

“Ian…I need…”

He laughed softly against her mouth. “Me, too.” His hands left her breasts to guide her hand to his cock, closing over hers, showing her what he liked. Sage cried out when he slipped his other hand deftly between her thighs, finding her sweet spot immediately, stroking her into an almost instant orgasm. She bucked under his hand, losing track of exactly what she was doing to him, though she never stopped her own movements.

He was groaning, nudging his head into the soft space between her neck and shoulder, saying her name and pushing against her insistently. She felt him get impossibly hard and hot in her palm. He was close, and as she felt him start to quiver, he slid one finger, then two, inside her, thrusting deep, stroking in such a way as pleasure built.

Hooking a leg over his, she wound them together, locking them tightly and giving him better access. He erupted in her hand at the very moment she felt the pressure building inside her release itself, a sweet, hot pulse that shook her from head to toe.

Catching her breath, she continued massaging him, letting her head fall back against the soft pillow, her hair plastered against her damp forehead. He fluttered his fingers over her most sensitive areas, causing her to shudder once more, then he pulled her close.

She stayed in his arms for a moment. Then, feeling the swamping emotions that came along with such intimate contact, she disentangled herself, inching over a bit to the other side of the bed. Her skin was still hot, but she shivered, and he glanced at her curiously, rising to close the window before returning to the bed. Lying back down, he rolled on his side and faced her, raising a hand to push some hair back from her face, his eyes narrowing when she flinched a bit.

“Sage, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. That was great. It was…great.”

“Then why are you pulling away?”

She slid from the bed to grab the robe on the floor, tying it around her. Feeling overly exposed and confused, she spoke, hating that her voice was quavering.

“Listen, this is just sex, right? In another day or so we’ll finish this and go our separate ways.”

Ian waited a beat, then said. “I guess that’s right.”

She sighed, feeling a stab even though she’d expected him to agree.

“Right. So we had great sex. When you are so…when you hold me like that, it confuses me. I don’t like it,” she lied, her traitorous heart whispering exactly how much she liked it. Needed it, even.

Ian lay still, not bothering to cover himself or dress, regarding her silently.

“I do that for me as much as for you—it may be just sex, Sage, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be nice to each other. It doesn’t have to be harsh or unfeeling because it’s just sex.”

Her heart was pounding in her ears. If he said “just sex” one more time, she was going to scream. Because, as sure as the sun was going to rise very shortly, it was becoming more than just sex for her.

“I’m going to go back to my own room.”

“Okay.”

Turning before she made a bigger fool of herself, she walked out with as much dignity as she could muster, hoping she looked somewhat casual, though she felt nothing of the sort. Her plan to seduce Ian and keep control of the game was backfiring—her emotions were betraying her.

He’d been so good to her earlier in the day, then had shared some of the deepest moments of his past with her and had held her so gently—it was all messing with her heart, and that messed with her head, as well.

Entering her room, she closed the door quietly behind her and went over to the large mahogany bed. A cool breeze fluttered the curtains away from the window, and she frowned—she hadn’t opened any windows. Or maybe she had and forgotten. She didn’t think any more about it and crawled in between the sheets, trying to ignore how lonely she felt curling up by herself.

As she placed her head on the pillow, she heard a crackling sound, her cheek laying down on what felt like paper. Lifting her head up, she discovered a piece of notepaper. She froze, looking to the window and holding the note in her hand for several moments before swinging her legs over the side of the bed, her
heart hammering. The paper was the same as the first note from Locke. He’d been here. She opened it with shaking fingers.

Sage finally gave in to the tears that had been threatening at every turn all day. Lying back on the bed, the note falling to the floor, she met the dawn by letting herself have a good, long cry.

I
AN WAS SEATED AT THE
table with a stunning brunette when Sage walked in the next morning, and she was taken aback for a second before realizing this had to be Sarah. God, she looked like a movie star—one of those kick-ass action-adventure stars that could fight off seven guys and not have a hair out of place. Her calm blue eyes met Sage’s, and she smiled slightly before turning her attention back to Ian, who was filling her in.

Sage ran a hand through her disheveled curls—they were impossible in the humidity, and she wished for Sarah’s sleek look. Sage knew she definitely did not look like a movie star. EJ was fussing with something at the stove, and the kitchen was filled with wonderful smells that had lured her out of the deep sleep she’d fallen into after soaking in a nice, long, self-indulgent cry. She’d felt all the better for it until she’d remembered the note and brought it downstairs. This was really going to make everyone’s morning.

EJ turned, smiling. “Morning, Sage. Grab some coffee and we’ll eat. Need a substantial breakfast when you are planning to catch a bad guy.”

Sage moved into the kitchen and then Sarah stood, and Sage’s eyebrows raised in disbelief—God, she was tall, too. Before she could react, Sarah stuck her hand out in Sage’s direction.

“Hi. I’m Sarah. It sounds like we’ll be working together.”

Sage looked at Ian and then up at Sarah. She placed her hand in Sarah’s and returned her firm grip. The two women regarded each other speculatively for a second, and Sage spoke as their hands released. “That’s what I hear. You must have just gotten in?”

“About an hour ago.”

Sage sat down and held on to a large cup of coffee, resenting how the woman could not only look great but be a bundle of energy after she’d obviously been up all night. Sarah had so much energy it practically reverberated around the kitchen.

Sage reached for the note in her pocket as EJ plopped a large platter of eggs and crab cakes down on the table, followed by a bowl filled with chunks of spicy corn bread. Sage smiled up at him.

“Millie’s right—she’s going to have a heck of a time staying thin with how you cook.”

He laughed and grabbed a piece of corn bread. “Just means there’ll be more to love.” Sage watched his gaze switch from her to Sarah, who was happily devouring everything he put in front of her.

“Can I get you anything else? You must be exhausted. And starved.”

Sarah just grinned and shook her head. “No, I’m fine, this is great.”

Sage finally got up the nerve to tell everyone about the note and jumped into the conversation.

“There’s something you all need to know. Something happened last night.”

She thought she saw a flicker of panic on Ian’s face before he spotted the paper she slid onto the table.

“What’s that?”

Sage pushed the note toward him. He opened it and swore as he threw it back down on the table, his face dark and angry.

“Dammit. He was here in the house.”

“Who?” EJ sat and took a sip of coffee, almost choking when Ian spoke again.

“Locke. He was in Sage’s room last night. He left this note.”

EJ put his hand on her arm. “Jesus, are you okay? I know I set the alarm before I went to bed.”

Sage felt heat rush up into her face. “No doubt he disarmed it. I, um, wasn’t there when he came in.”

EJ read the note and passed it to Sarah, discreetly not asking where Sage had been. Sarah read the note, her brow wrinkling.

“So what does he mean you’re sleeping with the enemy? Isn’t he the enemy?”

She looked up at the three awkward expressions on the faces of the people seated around the table and arched one cool eyebrow, her gaze drifting between
Ian and Sage, her mouth forming into a silent “Oh.” Putting the note down, she took a hearty bite of crab cake.

“Sounds like he assumes you’re, uh, doing it for, you know, good reasons. Still, pretty creepy.” Looking down, she continued eating.

Sage knew Locke must have seen her and Ian together, probably on the balcony, she realized with regret as she remembered the boats floating peacefully out on water. Now he was really going to expect her to prove her loyalty.

“He’s obviously been watching us very closely.”

“I should go to meet him alone. He’s never going to go for someone else being there. He’ll figure Sarah for another fed.”

“You are not going alone.” Ian’s voice brooked no argument, but Sage started to give him one anyway, until EJ broke in thoughtfully. “He may not have seen me come home with Sarah—he may have just broken into your room and left.”

“What if he thinks you’ve switched teams?”

Everyone looked at Sarah, perplexed. She sat back, looking at them all in amusement. “You know, as in not part of the heterosexual camp anymore? Would he be likely to leave you alone then?”

Sage shook her head. “He knows about me and Ian.”

“Sure, but you could say you were just doing what you had to do to protect yourself.”

Sage thought that over for a moment. “He might go for that. Maybe we could still play the girlfriend angle
and take the position that if you don’t get to play, I won’t either.”

“The important thing is stalling him the best you can and getting to that source computer. EJ and I will wire Sarah, as he is less likely to put his hands on her.” Ian’s eye’s became shuttered as he spoke the thought aloud, but he continued on. “And we’ll be close by. No more than a minute away if things go sour. I’ve already talked with Marty and we’ll have backup if we need it. Fast.”

“Who’s Marty?” Sarah inquired and Ian smiled a little.

“The guy you scared the crap out of in my office the day you came in to interview. He’s my boss—and yours by extension, by the way.”

Sarah looked at Ian, her eyes not giving too much away, but Ian could sense the questions bubbling underneath the surface. “My boss? I thought this was just a freelance gig.”

“Think of it more as a trial run. EJ might be the other member of the team and this is a chance to find out how we’ll all work together.”

EJ piped in, offering the last piece of corn bread around the table before claiming it for himself. “Heck of a risky experiment, Ian. There’s a lot on the line.”

Ian nodded. “It’s under control. If everyone just plays their part, we’ll have this guy behind bars while we eat breakfast tomorrow. As stings go, this is pretty straightforward. Believe me, it can get much messier.”

Sage looked up, uncertainty written plainly on her
features. “What if doesn’t work? Tomorrow is my release date. What happens if we don’t catch him?”

Ian didn’t meet her eyes when he answered. “I guess we’ll just have to take that as it comes.” He pushed away from the table. “For now, I think we need to go over the plan a few more times, and you and Sarah need to get to know each other a little better if you are going to pull this off. Locke may be a dirtbag, but he’s definitely not stupid.”

A
FTER BREAKFAST
I
AN SAT
alone in EJ’s office, staring at a file that Marty had sent over to him. Sarah’s background check. She hadn’t finished college, which he’d known, but now he knew why, and his reactions ranged from shock to disgust. She’d been put through the wringer, that’s for sure, and it was no longer a mystery why she devoted the majority of her time to busting Internet porn rings.

Apparently one of her boyfriends had gotten the bright idea to set up secret cameras in his dorm room—the girls he’d brought back there chosen particularly for their potential appeal as candidates for the porn Web site he ran off the campus servers. How it had gone undetected for so long—two years—was dumbfounding. But the damage that had been done when the site was busted and pictures of several female students—including Sarah—had gotten released on the Net was considerable.

Some of those pictures were included in the file, as well as newspaper articles and television coverage. It
was no surprise that Sarah had left the school shortly after, even though she had been a star student before that event. Ian guessed it was impossible for her to have a normal life there after the pictures and the site had become public knowledge.

He dropped the file on the desk and wasn’t sure how to handle this new information. He sympathized, but he also needed to make clear, objective decisions about who he put on the team.

Looking at his watch, he saw he’d been in the office for almost two hours. It was getting close to time for them to start preparing to meet Locke—the clues had suggested he’d be there in the early evening, when he and Sage had apparently met there many times before. Eight would be the magic hour. Ian was grateful it stayed light even past nine this time of year.

Knowing that and knowing the creep wanted her back in his bed again made Ian’s blood boil. He was glad Sarah was going along—her untried, untrained investigative skills would be a plus this time around. She wasn’t a cop—yet—and so she wouldn’t be giving off cop vibes. She’d be an easier sell.

Then again, considering her past, could she go in there and act as though she wanted to go to bed with this guy, a virtual stranger? Would she crack under the pressure? Ian wasn’t sure, but he didn’t want Sage left alone with Locke, and Sarah was on board now. A knock at the door made him jump, and he turned. EJ walked in.

“How’s it going? I think the ladies have their game
on, so we’re ready to get started.” EJ walked up to the desk, noting the concern in Ian’s expression. “Something wrong?”

Ian barked out a humorless laugh. “Just about everything. But that aside, well, I’m less than sure about sending Sarah in with Sage. I know she has computer skills, but I hope I’m making the right call sending her in on something like this.”

“She seems to be tough, smart. Clearly a woman who can handle herself and most anyone else she comes across.”

“True. And I guess it’s too late for second-guessing now. We’ll just have to be sharp—if anything seems like it’s going down wrong, we’re in there.”

“I’m ready.”

Ian eyed his friend, noting the energy that zinged through his usual calm demeanor, the spark in his eye, and smiled. He had no doubt EJ would find a way to join the team—he loved this stuff.

“Good.”

“Sarah’s background file?” EJ nodded to the file on the desk and grinned. “Gonna have me worked up, as well?”

“You I know about. But, yeah, for purposes of keeping the process equal, I’ll be checking out all your dirty little secrets, as well.”

“Happy reading.”

“Where’s Millie tonight?”

EJ visibly tensed. “She’s staying at her sister’s. I sort of mentioned something was going on, and she
doesn’t like it, so she did what she usually does—avoids anything that disrupts the way she wants life to be.”

“Nice if you can do it.”

“Some folks can afford to.”

“I take it she’s not a huge supporter of your return to law enforcement then?”

“Haven’t brought it up to her. Just said I was helping you out.”

“She likes me, but she never did approve of me—I’ve been a bad influence on you.” Ian laughed but sobered when EJ didn’t. EJ fell into a deep chair across from Ian, elbows planted on his knees, and dropped his head into his hands, obviously struggling with some serious decisions.

“Yeah, when this is over, I think…shit.”

“What?” Ian knew what was next but let the conversation spin out on its own.

“I just think…I don’t know, maybe we should call it off. I haven’t told her about the HotWires thing, but I know she will side with my family when I tell them I’m quitting.”

Ian perked up. “You are?”

EJ nodded. “As soon as I figure out how. But Millie has her heart set on a certain kind of life, and I’ve never been sure it’s the life I want. And we just don’t have as much…heat between us as we used to. She’s a wonderful friend, and when we were young I thought she was it for me, but…Hell. I don’t know.”

“Things change. If the magic’s not there, EJ, you’re doing her as much a favor as you’re doing yourself
cutting it off before you have bigger problems and a ring on your finger, a couple of kids in tow.”

EJ nodded, looking up, quirking a tense smile. “Ha. You’re biased. You want me in this job.”

“I want you happy. I think we’ve been friends the longest of anyone I’ve known since we moved here. Millie’s great, but, well, you know. I just always wondered if you were in it with her because you wanted to be or because you were expected to be.”

EJ exhaled heavily, his eyes resigned. “You’re a very perceptive man. It’s going to hurt her, though.”

Ian stood, slapping him on the shoulder supportively. “You’ll find a way. Life’s too short, Ethan. You’ve done right by everyone for a long time. It’s time for you to start following your own path.”

EJ sighed. “Things have suddenly gotten very complicated.”

“That’s what makes life interesting, huh?”

EJ laughed, as well, standing. “Yeah, something like that. So let’s get the show on the road.”

S
AGE SET HER JAW AND
assumed a gunslinger stance, gearing up for her next “rehearsal” with Sarah, who collapsed in laughter as she watched Sage’s antics.

“Hey, that’s not fair. We’re supposed to be being sexy.”

“You don’t find cowboys sexy?”

Sarah groaned and made a “bring it on” gesture with her hands. “C’mon, show me how sexy you are,
girlfriend.”

They were having a great time. Though it had been awkward at first—they were strangers trying to act like they were more than friends—Sarah’s no-nonsense, get-things-done demeanor had taken over, and soon they were brainstorming and role-playing so that they could appear “very close” in front of Locke.

Sage was having fun and felt more at ease with Sarah than she did even with her own sister. Sarah was just a little bit older than she was, closer to thirty, but she was cool. They joked and chatted in between the role-playing, and soon they were having fun hamming it up as a lesbian version of Thelma and Louise.

They heard the library door close and Ian’s and EJ’s voices in the hall. Sarah’s eyes suddenly sparkled with mischief, and she darted a look toward the hall, then back at Sage.