TheFugitivesSexyBrother (9 page)

“I’m going to lick you until my tongue aches and you’re
dripping down my chin. And then I’m going to stand up slowly and pin you tight
against the wall, and you’re still not going to be able to get away from me.
I’m going to suck each of your nipples until they’re twice as long as normal
and you’re almost ready to come just from my lips still drawing you in. You’ll
be panting so hard you won’t even be able to speak. And that’s when I’ll let
you feel just the tip of my cock, pressing
just
the tiniest bit inside
you. You’ll want more but you won’t be able to press forward and get it. You’ll
just have to wait while I give it to you slower than you’ve ever gotten it.”
Here, he fixed Neva with intense blue eyes. “But you’re going to get it all, slowly,
constantly, while I reach down between us and rub your clit until you use your
safeword because you don’t think you can survive another orgasm.”

Neva would have laughed if she hadn’t known from experience
that he was good for everything he promised and then some. Considering her
earlier disturbance with Guy, she could really use a mind-blowing encounter
like the one he described. One hand flailed behind her, looking for something
to brace herself against. She found only air. “You’re all talk, Matthew,” she
said weakly.

“You know better,” he breathed. Somehow, his face had gotten
under her skirt, his lips inches from her panties. “In case you’ve forgotten,
let me refresh your memory.”

He pressed a slow, delicate kiss to the drooling center of
her need. Neva gave a little cry and clapped one hand to the back of his head,
falling forward a little as she did. She grabbed the edge of her desk to hold
herself up and dimly remembered her surroundings. Work. Guy could walk in any
moment. Big glass windows right in front of her desk. Anybody could walk by and
see Matthew pleasuring her with his wicked, manipulating tongue.

None of it mattered enough to make her stop. Just now, she
couldn’t refuse what Matthew offered. She opened her legs even more, enough to
ride his face. His tongue darted inside her and his nose pressed against her
clit. His big, strong hands gripped her ass and lifted her, pulled her tighter
against his face than she could have managed on her own. She screamed a little
and held on to the desk for dear life.

Apparently, Matthew worked out his tongue as carefully as
every other muscle in his gym-sculpted body. It stroked every inch of Neva’s
folds, long, firm and perfectly controlled. He pushed his tongue out of his
mouth and held it still while he moved Neva against it, manhandling her entire
body in a display of strength that wound up focused in a tiny movement back and
forth across her clit. The power in his fingers alone could have gotten her
off, but Matthew wasn’t finished. Shifting his hands little by little, he
worked both his thumbs inside her, using them to hold her in the air while he
continued to lick her.

She gave in and came hard, writhing with abandon, in perfect
faith that he would not let her fall. Every gesture increased her sensation,
prolonged her orgasm. And Matthew’s tongue never stopped moving, working
against her increasingly sensitive nerves.

Neva struggled to catch her breath. “Matthew, please. God,
please.”

He chuckled, still holding her at his mercy. “Are you saying
you can’t stand it anymore, Neva?”

“God no. Please. Let me down.” Even as she spoke the
helpless words, another orgasm shattered through her, painful in its
unremitting pleasure. Her pleas devolved into a series of gasping pants.

“Shall I keep going?” Matthew asked, his voice full of
mischief.

“Put me down!”

He obliged, his hands more careful than she would have
expected from his showing off. He extended his support until Neva had surely
regained her feet, then slowly negotiated his way out from under his skirt. His
chin shone from her juices and his eyes shone with satisfaction. “What do you
think, Neva? I’m really only asking for a little bit of information. I could
wait here all day and not ask you at all. I just want you to make things a
little easier for me. And I’m going to make you feel
so
good tonight.”

Still trying to catch her breath, Neva glared at him. If
she’d had any doubt about what Matthew Lodi wanted from her, he’d made things
more than clear. This wasn’t about love for him or even real attraction. She
was a source of information for him. In exchange, he offered his incredible
body and considerable skills.

She should know better. She should be loyal to Emily. To
Guy. He’d just asked her not to let her relationship with Matthew compromise
her job. But Neva’s internal struggle was over almost before it began. She’d
been too lonely for too long. She needed relief, and Matthew seemed to be the
only one prepared to give it to her.

She sighed and closed her eyes, as if she could hide the
betrayal from herself by refusing to see it. “Guy assigned Emily another set of
jobs. Her regular ones. She’s probably already gotten going on them. She could
start making drops here as early as today.” She hesitated, then rushed forward.
Might as well go all the way with it. “I can send you a text when she calls to
say she’s on her way. If you stay close, you’ll be able to come down and meet
her while she’s doing paperwork with Guy.”

“You see, Neva, that’s no big deal, right? I’d have run into
her here pretty soon anyway.” He kissed the inside of her thigh gently, but
this time she twitched away from his touch. “I’m going to get cleaned up a
little. I look forward to your text—and to seeing you tonight.”

“Yeah,” Neva whispered. She couldn’t meet his eyes or get
her voice up to normal volume. Matthew didn’t seem to notice, whistling
jauntily on his way out the door.

Emily’s fingers drummed a celebratory pattern over her
pockets as she walked out of Guy’s Bail Bonds and back to her sedan. Turning in
the morning’s quarry had only earned her a couple of hundred dollars, but she
always felt better when she had a little cash in her wallet.

In the sedan, Javier dozed. He’d been gracious about sitting
with the quarry in the converted backseat, which she’d had reinforced and
altered to keep fugitives contained. He’d even let her put the handcuffs back
on with a minimum of flirtatious protest. He must have been tired.

She leaned forward, key in hand, to open the back door and
let him out. A firm grip on her shoulder stopped her. Emily stiffened, martial
arts instincts at the ready. A familiar scent of men’s soap prevented her from
lashing out before speaking. “Matthew? Get your hands off me. Now.”

“Emily, we need to talk.”

She whirled, shaking off his touch, eyes flashing. He was
wearing his best leather jacket and the cocky grin to match. “Do you need a
memo in the form of a restraining order? I don’t want to talk anymore. We’re
finished. Completely.”

He pursed his lips, a gesture she recognized as Matthew
deciding whether to argue with her. They’d already had too many conversations
about her choice to end things between them—a decision that wasn’t up for
discussion. She shook her head and moved toward the driver’s door. Javier could
wait to get out of the backseat until she’d escaped her ex.

Matthew caught her wrist with one firm hand. His wide,
strong palm made her own hand look childlike in comparison.

A tendril of fear curled around the pit of her stomach.
Emily practiced her fighting skills hard and prided herself on realistic
assessments of her opponents. Matthew practiced just as hard as she did, and he
had the muscle mass of a big man on his side. She didn’t want this to come to a
physical confrontation. She settled for glaring at him.

“We should talk about the Bonavita case,” Matthew said, with
the terrifying patience of a person who didn’t understand or care about a word
Emily had to say.

“Should we?” She tugged at his grip. He didn’t budge.

“We could be useful to each other.”

“You mean I could be useful to
you
.”

Matthew donned his most charming smile, which would have
made her panties melt just a few months ago. Emily remained remarkably
unaffected. Continued exposure to Javier’s considerable charisma must have
inoculated her against Matthew’s efforts. She pictured Matthew and Javier in a
charm contest and grinned.

Matthew must have taken her expression as a concession,
because he lowered his tone smoothly to what Emily thought of as his “gentle
voice”—husky and masculine but with just enough vibrato to be seen as sensitive.
In her experience, the change was calculated. “Emily. I miss working with you.”

He used his control over her wrist to pull her closer, his
lips closing for a kiss. A wave of disgust rose in Emily’s chest, overwhelming
her fear of her muscled fellow bounty hunter. A frequently drilled hapkido move
snapped her wrist from his hand and a sharp jab to his neck opened some
much-needed breathing room between them. “Are you delusional? We never
worked
together
. It might be worth talking to you if you could acknowledge that
you stole from me.”

“Emily, don’t be like this. Baby, we’ve been over and over
this. If you could just understand how much I love you…” He took hold of her
again and leaned in.

Emily took a deep breath and prepared to try to take him
down, even though he towered over her. Maybe a quick stomp to his toes would
set him off balance enough for her to gain control.

Before she could move, the back door to her sedan swung
open. Both she and Matthew froze in place as Javier stepped out, free of the
restraints she’d clapped on him herself. Emily’s jaw worked but Matthew managed
sound before her. “You’ve got Fernando Bonavita? Here? Already?”

Emily growled in disgust, dearly wishing she could spit a
triumphant “yes” back at him. “Would I be standing her wasting time with you if
I had?”

Javier closed the car door and stepped closer to her, and
she didn’t miss the way he angled his body, aligning himself so he could easily
slip between herself and Matthew. “I’m Javier Bonavita, not Fernando,” he told
Matthew. “I’m helping Emily track down my brother.”

Emily stared. Matthew spluttered. “Why?” Matthew said.

Javier smiled but didn’t answer the question. “I know Emily
could knock you or anyone else on his ass if she wanted to. What’s the problem,
Emily? Are you worried about hurting this guy’s feelings?”

Emily grinned. He hadn’t been kidding about his confidence
in her physical abilities. “Matthew was just leaving. He had a business offer
to make but I’ve rejected it.”

Javier leaned back against the car, brushing a possessive
touch against Emily’s side before folding his arms behind his head. “A business
offer? That didn’t look like the only thing getting rejected.”

Matthew’s face turned red. “Emily, are you sleeping with
this clown?”

She drew herself to her full height, even if that still
didn’t bring her eye level with his chest. Javier’s support renewed her
confidence. She appreciated that he hadn’t tried to take over, despite his
obvious enjoyment of Matthew’s humiliation. “Matthew, that’s none of your business.
The only fact that concerns you is that I’m not sleeping with
you
, and
so you will never again have access to my work and my leads.”

Before he could respond, she touched Javier’s elbow. “Let’s
get out of here.”

Matthew remained standing in the same spot while they got
into the car, maneuvered out of the parking lot and drove away. Emily nodded
toward his still, shocked figure and shared a smile with Javier. “Thank you,”
she said.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“That’s what I’m thanking you for. I like a man who can keep
his cool.”

“Well, he had enough misguided testosterone for half a dozen
macho monkeys.”

“You can say that again.”

“I prefer to save
my
testosterone for what really
matters.” Javier waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Emily groaned. “Your nap in the back of the car apparently
left you feeling refreshed.”

“I’ll be here all night.”

Emily steered the car back onto the main road, heading
toward her place. “About that…” She glanced pointedly at Javier’s freed hands.
“Want to tell me how that happened? And how you got out of my backseat?”

“I grabbed this off your desk this morning.” He displayed a
straightened paperclip. “And I felt the time was right.”

“Are you saying you could have taken off those handcuffs any
time you wanted?”

“Do you want me to answer that?”

Emily sighed. “I guess not.”

“Are you going to put them back on?”

“Why? Do you want me to?”

He laughed. “Trust issues, you know. I thought you might
feel more comfortable.”

“Oh yeah, nothing makes me more comfortable than keeping a
man captive using restraints he’s proven don’t keep him restrained at all.” The
truth in the joke bothered her a little. Really, she still had no reason to
trust Javier. He’d put on a good show for her ex, sure, but he’d also shown
Emily that he had plenty of skills she didn’t know about. It would be terribly
naïve to think he’d put the interest of a woman he barely knew above his own
brother. No matter how tempting the idea was.

Javier didn’t drop his easy grin. “Any time you want to
switch, I could pretend to pin you while you laugh at my pathetic effort.”

“You were laughing at me?”

“Chuckling, maybe.”

Another shared moment. Emily wanted to give in and enjoy the
flirtation—and maybe a whole lot more. She forced herself to keep at him with
uncomfortable questions. “That program we used to find my guy today—you can do
that with any cell number?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Your brother’s included?”

The mood in the car shifted abruptly. “No.”

“Can’t for him or won’t?”

“Can’t.” Javier sighed and leaned his head back against the
seat. “I’ve put a lot of work into identifying possible attacks and protecting
him from them. There’s not a single trick I know that would work on him—by
definition.”

“Why go to all the trouble? No bounty hunter or skiptracer
I’ve ever met is on your level. Not even close.”

“Do you go into a fight assuming the other guy doesn’t know
what he’s doing?”

“Never.”

“Right. I don’t believe in underestimating the enemy. I’ve
been underestimated myself one too many times.”

She glanced at him. Despite the personal opening his
sentence suggested, his face had closed off. She prodded him. “I don’t see
how
you could get underestimated that way. You’re handsome, in great shape,
obviously smart. You carry yourself with confidence. I don’t see how a person
could fail to notice you.”

“You’ve obviously never been in a room with Fernando.
Everything else disappears when he’s around. It’s always been that way.”

Emily raised an eyebrow. “I get that he’s your big brother,
but I seriously doubt he’d steal my attention from you.”

“I hope not, because I’d have to hit him.” He winked just in
time to keep the conversation lighthearted, but she had to wonder what stood
between the brothers. For all Javier’s loyalty, she sensed a bitter
undercurrent.

She smiled nervously. Somehow she’d gotten back into a
conversation about their attraction to each other. She refocused on her
uncomfortable questions. “Even if you’ve protected your brother from hacking,
I’m sure you know how to get in touch with him.”

“Emily, I said I was helping you track down my brother, but
that was just to piss that guy off.”

“Right. I know.”

“No, I don’t think you do. I like you, Emily. I
want
you. There’s nothing fake about either of those things. I enjoyed helping you
with your other job. And I don’t know what I think about my brother right now.
I’d rather stay with you than deal with that. But…” He trailed off for so long
that she thought he wouldn’t continue. “None of this means I’m going to betray
Fernando. In any way. Not now. Not ever.”

“Then how long is it before you contact him behind my back?
Isn’t
not
getting in touch with him as much of a betrayal as anything
else? I think you need to make a decision, Javier.”

She checked on him with a sidelong glance. He’d turned away
from her, staring out the window. She empathized with the anguish he must be
feeling. She hadn’t given much thought to what it must be like to
be
Fernando Bonavita’s brother, but little glimpses she got from Javier told her
plenty. He obviously loved his brother, respected him even. But Javier gave no
sign of being a criminal like Fernando. She hesitated, then asked another
question.

“Is all your hacking to protect him?”

“I did some for you this morning.” He sounded testy. She
tried a reassuring smile.

“I mean, if you can break into databases, you could be
stealing people’s identities, setting yourself up with plenty of money, right?
It seems like you’re pretty good.”

He sucked in his cheeks, distaste clear on his face. “I do
look for and find plenty of bugs that I can’t use to protect Fernando. I would
never exploit them for personal gain. I don’t take advantage of people’s
mistakes like that.”

“Really? So do you help fix the problems you find?”

“What?”

Emily sighed. “Do you have a real job? Or do you just work
for Fernando?”

Javier winced. “You know, the last woman I dated used to ask
me that all the time.” He fingered the diamond stud he wore in his right ear.
“She asked so often that I cut ties with my brother for a few months and tried
to ‘go straight’. Turns out people don’t really want to hire you for lucrative
positions when you never got a high school diploma. I worked as a bag boy and
found out she cared about getting taken out with Fernando’s money a lot more
than she cared about my moral integrity.”

“I’m sorry.”

He didn’t seem to hear her. Words continued to rush out of
him. “So, yes, I just work for Fernando. Because there’s nothing else. Because
he’s the only one who cares about me.”

“I’m sorry,” Emily said, more vehemently. “I was just trying
to figure out how you spend your time.”

“I don’t spend my spare time stealing people’s credit cards,
if that’s what you’re asking.”

She shrugged, hoping to calm the conversation down by
playing it cool. “I get it. It’s damn hard to make a living, especially these
days. It just seems like you should be able to do something else with your
hacking skills.”

“Are you
suggesting
I steal credit cards?”

She sighed. At least she had a strong answer on whether
Javier operated by the lights of a moral compass. “I just thought you could
help fix the bugs. When I was first working as a bounty hunter, I was looking
things up online and saw something about ‘bug bounties’. I guess some companies
pay people to catch problems with their software the same way I get paid to
catch fugitives.”

“I could never make a living doing that. They only pay good
money for really big bugs, like in a browser itself, not just on a website.”

“Sometimes, I think I can’t make a living catching
fugitives. But you just have to go for the right quarry.” Emily caught the
irony of her own words and smiled. “I’m hoping, anyway.”

She glanced at him again and found she had his full
attention. Javier wore an appreciative expression that sent answering thrills
through her body. She basked in its glow for a minute, and the sense of
intimacy that came with it. Damn, he’d gotten to her. It wasn’t just flirtation
anymore. The more she learned about him, the more she genuinely wanted him. And
he looked good enough that, under any other circumstances, she’d already have
taken him up on everything his kisses had offered.