TrackingDesire (9 page)

“Then supper it is,” she promised him, her voice full of
untold secrets and desire just begging to be fulfilled. “Or after supper,
depending on how long Will wants this debriefing to be.”

“We should be able to move it along. Matt and Kelly probably
aren’t interested in an extended discussion or post-mortem of the evening,
either.”

Liv wrapped her arms around Julian, drew him close and
hugged him tightly, clinging to him for a moment to draw some of his strength
and patience into her body as if by osmosis. Her heart felt delicate, fragile,
and she knew she was already half in love with the man. She only hoped she
could slow her emotions down so they wouldn’t get too out of control, in case
he didn’t feel quite the same depth of attraction to her.

They quickly shared a few more kisses before Liv pulled back
and took Julian’s hand chastely in hers.

“Come on,” she said with a small smile. “Let’s get this done
so we can
really
celebrate our first job together.”

Hand in hand, they left the shadows of the jasmine bushes
and entered the apartment complex.

Julian stood in front of Liv as he unlocked the door to his
apartment. She felt that faint, happy glow that often came over her when she
had indulged in a particularly decadent and fierce orgasm. The world appeared
rosier, colors brighter, and things that had been niggling at her or worrying
her no longer seemed so dire or upsetting.

Even though she felt relaxed and limber, her clit still
throbbed with the desire for more satisfaction and her nipples remained peaked,
craving further attention and loving. With an inward smile, she thought that
she was simply lowering her arousal to a low rev, it being only a matter of
time before she once again cruised into high gear and molested the ever-loving
hell out of Julian.

Feeling cheeky and naughty, she timed herself perfectly.
Right at the moment when Julian twisted the key in the lock and opened the
front door to his apartment, she pinched the left cheek of his ass, indulging
in a decadent grope of her lover. Julian pushed opened the door but froze on
the threshold, throwing a hot, amused look at her with his warm silver-gray
eyes as he did so.

“Oh, you will pay for that later.” He spoke to her in a low
voice so the others wouldn’t be able to hear him. “I’m already as hard as a
fucking rock, and now I’m leaking pre-cum. If that’s the sort of game you’d
like to play, babe, prepare to be defeated. I’m going to get you back for that,
I promise.”

Liv tried to look innocent, but she knew her smirk and the
hot, laughing glint in her eyes would totally give her away. Julian licked his
lips and let his gaze sear through her body as it swept her up and down. Liv
could have sworn he was actually contemplating picking her up, throwing her
over his shoulder and carrying her to his bed, and to hell with Will, Matt and
Kelly and the team’s debriefing of the debacle that their mission had turned
into.

“Oh, thank Circe you’re both back safely,” Kelly said, breaking
the tense, erotically charged moment between Liv and Julian.

Julian grinned at Liv, but turned around and walked into his
apartment in a casual manner.

Liv could see that Kelly had been pacing up and down, but
now she quickly crossed the living area and enveloped Liv in a giant hug.

Eagerly, Liv hugged her friend back, pleased to see that she
and Matt had indeed arrived back perfectly safely, as she had assumed.

“Will let us all in,” Matt explained as he came over to
shake Julian’s hand. “It’s good to see you both here in one piece. When we told
Flame we were leaving, she said she hadn’t heard from you, and as the time drew
on Kelly grew a little concerned.”

When Liv pulled back, she unzipped the side pocket of her
jacket and removed the pound or so of ochre powder. Checking the seal still
remained tightly closed, she walked over to where Will stood by the window,
chewing compulsively on the end of his cigar.

With a smile, Liv handed the package over to Will.

“I hope this is what we’re after,” she began. “We were only
going to take a sample, and although we didn’t study the fume hood in detail
while we were there, neither of us noticed wires or sensors or anything of the
kind. It was almost certainly something integral to the fume hoods that was
hooked up to the silent alarm. I’m sorry we tripped it.”

“Can’t be helped, Liv,” Will replied as he hefted the
plastic bag in his large hand and studied it with avid interest. “These things
happen sometimes. Neither of you made a stupid error—it could have happened to
any of us. And with luck, this will pay off for the hassle we’ve all had to
endure tonight. I can’t imagine the Tiens would have placed something that
wasn’t valuable in such an obscure and well-hidden area. Not to mention the
strange intricacies of the fume hood’s silent alarm. Even if it’s not the
antidote we’re looking for, the likelihood of it being something of value to us
knowledge-wise is very good.”

Liv nodded her agreement and some of the tension crept out
of her shoulders at Will’s words. They were kind, she knew, but they appeared
genuine and well thought out. Part of Will might be saying them to make her
feel better, but Liv honestly didn’t think he was outright lying or simply
attempting to soothe her ego or placate her with rubbish.

“Let me go and wake up the laboratory analysts,” he said
with a smirk. “Get them all in on triple-time. If this is anything like Jolt,
the longer we delay, the more degraded it will become and the less useful we’ll
find the results.”

Will turned away and pulled out his cell phone, punching in
a series of numbers without even checking the keypad. After a moment his voice
boomed around the room. He seemed almost pleased to be waking some poor analyst
and ruining what remained of his night.

“Slayter, Captain Will here. You awake, man?” A slight pause
followed, but cut off whatever objection the man had begun to make.

“Don’t give me that crap—you love this shit,” Will insisted,
not unkindly. “I have your sample for you. Yes, we think it might be the
antidote, but we need you, your genius brain and however many of your equally
clever technicians to come in and verify it for us. Get your sorry ass out of
bed and go into the lab. I’ll be bringing the powder over myself and if I have
to wait for you I’ll make certain the next time a plum assignment is handed
over you’re
not
the first curious scientist I call.”

Another brief silence descended as the man spoke once more.
Yet again, Will appeared to cut him off.

“Don’t give me that. I don’t care how handsome your new
lover is. He can suck you like a vacuum for all I care, as long as it’s in your
off-time. For now, kiss him goodbye, promise him you’re earning triple-time and
will get a day off in lieu, and get your ass into that lab before I get really
crabby.” A short silence followed this and Will nodded as if Slayter could see
him on the other end. Seemingly satisfied, Will allowed the tension to seep
from his shoulders. “Okay. See you then.”

Will glared at the cell and with a hard push turned it off.

Liv had serious trouble containing the giggles that wanted
to escape. Somehow she managed, but only barely.

“Okay, we’re going to keep this short and sweet,” Will said
firmly. They remained standing in a wonky circle formation in the living room,
no one moving to take a seat, otherwise they’d get comfortable and end up
talking for far longer than necessary. That idea did not appear to appeal to
anyone present.

“Kelly, Matt—what did you guys uncover before the alarm was
raised?” Will asked, looking at them and chewing thoughtfully on his cigar.

“We spent all our time in the master bedroom,” Matt started,
then sheepishly added, “possibly too long, now we view it in hindsight. It took
us a good few minutes to work out the secret catch to open the back wall of the
en suite. Then it took us a while to assess what we found.”

“The safe encompasses the entire spare space, floor to
ceiling, of their walk-in closet. It’s shallow but extremely large,” Kelly
continued. “Originally I figured that would be the logical place to store the
drugs. For all we know, they
do
usually keep them there and had simply
moved them for the party or some other unknown reason. Aside from the usual
trinkets—jewels, bonds, cash, legal papers and the like—they have a very large
collection of Thai matrimonial masks.”

“Matrimonial masks?” Will repeated, stunned. Kelly and Matt
both nodded.

“I know—that’s what took us so long to comprehend,” Matt
agreed. “Apparently, each individual mask is worth a small fortune on the black
market. They are all unique, completely at the high end of the market and
exceedingly difficult to smuggle or even obtain.”

“They would have had to be smuggled illegally into the
country,” Kelly interjected, “not just because they’re wooden masks and
quarantine would love to get their hands on them, but because the masks
themselves are considered sacred. They’re religious artifacts of a bygone era
and inherently magical. There are at least a dozen federal laws surrounding
them. These laws specifically lay out the particulars of criminal charges for
their possession on cultural, religious, magical
and
mercenary grounds.
They are beautiful, absolutely exquisite objects, but thoroughly and completely
illegal. I can’t imagine why they have so many of them. Matt and I counted more
than two dozen in their safe alone. We can only guess how many more are
floating around in other areas of the house.”

“I don’t know shit about art, let alone Thai matrimonial
head masks,” Matt concluded wryly. “But even to my heathen eyes, they’re
stunning creations. And I could sense the magic in them—they have a definite
signature, enough of one that I could possibly Track it myself. I hesitate to
call them sentient, but they had such a vivid and vibrant signature, an essence
close to that of an animal or a knowing being. Trackers aren’t supposed to be
able to find enough of a readable signature in inanimate objects. Hell, more
than half of known Trackers can’t even track animals, only people. But I can
tell you, if I pushed myself hard enough, I might be able to make an educated
guess at Tracking those objects. What I’m trying to convey is that these things
have
power
.”

Will seemed to mull this over very carefully for a moment,
but finally shook his head.

“Tempting as it is, I think I would prefer to report this
later,
after
we’ve closed the case we’re currently working on. I agree
that the Enforcers should be made aware of these items, but I don’t want
anything to muddy the waters on our current case. I think we have even odds on
the Tiens taking the initiative after tonight and getting rid of the masks, but
reporting them to customs would be the equivalent of burying the knowledge.
Customs won’t be able to touch them and certainly won’t be able to stop them or
punish them. I think we have a better chance of justice being served with the
Enforcers, and for that I believe we need to wait until our own case is at a
stage where we can leave the wheels of justice to grind by themselves.”

“Do you really think the Enforcers are going to be happy
when we tell them we broke into the Tiens’ personal vault during a charity
dinner
they
were supposed to be protecting?” Liv asked slightly
disbelievingly.

Will snorted and waved his hand.

“I’m learning to be a pro at this,” he replied blithely.
“I’ll do the usual bullshit line of ‘sources have brought to my attention’ and
deny all knowledge. That’s another reason why waiting a week or two until after
the frustration has died down and we’ve closed this Jolt matter out will work
for everyone.”

Liv took a deep breath and grinned, unable to find fault
with his logic. Kelly yawned and Liv remembered how very much energy her friend
expended during these heists. Keeping one’s senses jacked up for extended
periods of time really caused burnouts and problems. She looked utterly wiped.

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked Kelly, worry tingeing
her tone.

Kelly nodded and smiled faintly at her.

“I’m fine—I just need to crash. Matt will get me back home,
don’t worry.”

Will looked at his watch and slapped his palm on his thigh.

“You’ve all done an amazing job,” he congratulated them.
“Stay contactable. I’ll let you know what the lab comes up with. I’m ordering
testing to proceed around the clock until we either discover this stuff isn’t
the antidote and won’t degrade on us, or until we’ve done every conceivable
test on the sample we have. I’ll call as soon as I have something to update you
all with. Well done, guys.”

With that, Will shook each of their hands and headed toward
the door. Julian followed to let them out. Kelly crossed over to where Liv
stood and hugged her tightly.

“You and Julian look made for each other,” Kelly said softly
in her ear so none of the men could hear. “Give him a chance. I don’t think
you’ll regret it.”

Liv nodded as she hugged her friend back just as firmly.
“I’m going to,” she said. “You go home and rest—I’m going to stay the night
here, I think.”

Kelly pulled back and beamed at her as if she’d said she’d
just won a million dollars. After kissing each other’s cheeks, the two women
separated and Matt waved to Liv as he wrapped his arm around Kelly and led her
out of the apartment.

Julian shut the door behind them and leaned against it for a
moment.

Liv watched her lover hungrily, her pussy already wet with
wanting him. She craved this man so much that it worried her on a deep level.
But not even that worry and resistance within her soul could stop the
overpowering desire she felt for him. She grinned naughtily at him and shucked
her jacket. With infinite slowness, she undid the buttons of her shirt, baring
the paleness of her chest and breasts inch by agonizingly slow inch.