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Zeke
As a base of operations, the chalet was pretty sweet. Isolation. State-of-the-art conveniences. Spectacular view.
That level of luxury had never been a part of his life, so it took some getting used to. Now that he’d become accustomed to it, it would be harder to return to a drifter-type lifestyle that required staying in fleabag rat traps, picking up work and meals where he could.
He wondered how Aggie managed to move so effortlessly between worlds. Or why she would want to if she had a place like this.
The upscale living was one more thing to secretly crave, right along with a sense of purpose, being part of a team, and Aggie Mays—or whatever she was calling herself these days.
Still, he wouldn’t have stayed there if he hadn’t thought it was his best chance of crossing paths with her again. He had hoped that after meeting with Charley, she would return to the chalet.
It was true what they said: You can’t miss what you never had. But once you had it...
Aggie was right there at the top of his list. He hadn’t known what had been missing from his life, but now it was painfully obvious. Her.
Nearly six weeks later, she remained in the breeze, and he was no closer to finding her.
That didn’t mean he’d stopped looking. He used everything he’d learned about her—her habits, her patterns, her preferences—to try to locate her. He researched and cross-referenced. He’d blown through the cash he’d earned from Charley, following up leads, paying for information.
The woman was a fucking ghost.
And far more than he’d ever given her credit for.
He was pondering that one night on the balcony, staring out at the scenic view with a glass of quality liquor in his hand. The sun set behind the mountains in a spectacular display. The sky turned deep midnight blue, holding more stars than he’d ever seen in his life.
It was stunning, and yet he felt the restlessness starting to stir. The waiting was getting to him. He wanted to be out, doing something.
“Nice night, huh?”
The familiar voice was a smooth stroke over his skin. He spun around, afraid his eyes were playing tricks on him.
“Aggie!”
“I heard you might be looking for me.”
Without conscious thought, he closed the space between them and drew her into his arms. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers, unleashing the last six weeks of worry, frustration, and regret into the kiss. She took it all.
When he pulled away, he laid his forehead against hers. “You came back. You’re okay.”
“I came back. I’m okay.”
“Listen, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“No, you listen,” she said, putting a finger to his lips. “No talking tonight, okay?”
“No talking?”
“No talking.”
“What shall we do then?”
Her hand stroked his chest, causing shivers to travel down his spine. The woman’s touch did things to him. Wiped thoughts of everything but getting her naked and moaning his name in ecstasy from his mind.
He palmed her ass and lifted, pleased when she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips. Lowering his mouth, he kissed her like a man possessed because that was exactly what he was.
She opened for him eagerly, welcoming his tongue while her nails scraped against the back of his scalp and she pulled at his hair. He thought about taking her inside, then decided against it. He backed her up against the glass and used the pressure to hold her in place while he made quick work of pulling down her stretchy leggings.
He set her on her feet only long enough to allow her to kick them off while he released and wrapped himself. Within the span of a few heartbeats, she was back in his arms, up against the glass, and he was sliding inside her. She was so hot. So wet. So ready. She moaned in pleasure, and he felt it everywhere.
Her tight sheath squeezed around him, drawing him in deeper, even as her arms and legs did the same. When he bottomed out, he paused, giving them both a moment. She needed to adjust to his intrusion. He needed to rein in the animalistic urge to fuck until they both saw stars.
It was even better than he remembered. Absolute bliss.
He began to move, her rhythmic clenching suggesting she was already close. He was right there with her. He pulled his hips back in a long, reluctant withdrawal until nothing remained inside her, except the tip. Then he pushed forward with a sudden, powerful thrust, burying himself so deep that it was impossible to tell where he left off and she began.
“Again,” she whispered huskily.
He was only too glad to oblige. Repeatedly.
“Zeke.”
His name on her lips was a desperate plea. She was looking up at him, her eyes filled with want and need and so much more—a mirror image of everything inside him. He held her gaze and buried himself deep in her body, feeling her climax almost as intensely as he felt his own.
They stayed like that, clinging to one another, hearts pounding, breaths heavy, staring into each other’s eyes.
Deep in his chest, something shifted, and he knew nothing would ever be the same.
* * *
He stroked a finger down the curve of her back, savoring the smooth silkiness of her skin and the sense of deja vu. Daylight streamed in through the window, revealing the dips and curves he’d been worshipping through the night. Her skin was lightly bronzed, as if she’d spent some time in the sun since the last time he’d seen her. The golden highlights streaking her rich brown hair further corroborated his theory.
“That feels good,” she murmured in the sated purr of a satisfied woman.
The sex had been wild and desperate at first, but as the night wore on, it had become slower, less physical, more emotional. It was new territory for him, but he wasn’t panicking like he probably should have been. He’d already accepted that this woman had gotten under his skin. Now, he just had to figure out what to do about it.
Where had she gone, and why? Did she have other hideaways like this around the country? Around the globe? Other men who had become as obsessed with her as he had?
He had so many questions. What he went with first was, “Who are you?”
She turned over and graced him with a smile before she touched her lips to his. “The woman whose world you rocked last night.”
It wasn’t the answer he wanted, but it would do for now. “You did some rocking of your own.”
Her smile widened. “What can I say? I missed you.”
“I was looking for you.”
“I know. That’s why I came.”
“What took you so long?”
“I was ... away. I didn’t know you were here until recently.”
Away where? With whom? He clamped those questions down before they made it over his lips and said instead, “I thought you might have been angry with me for delivering you to Charley.”
“More disappointed than angry, but I get it.”
“You do?”
“Yes. You’re a man of your word. You told me your intentions up front and never wavered. I respect that even if I didn’t like it.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing much, honestly. We talked. I walked. It was all very anticlimactic.”
“And now?”
“Now, I’m ready to take care of unfinished business.”
“What unfinished business?” he asked, narrowing his eyes and wondering if he was the unfinished business.
“I want to go back to Parryville and get some answers, and I want you to help me.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Because you’re the best. And you offered, remember?”
His lips curled wryly at the memory of that conversation. “If I recall, you said you couldn’t afford my help.”
“That was before.”
“Before what?”
“Before you spent six weeks and fifty thousand dollars trying to find me. Why did you do that, Zeke?” she asked softly. “Why didn’t you just take the money and go?”
His jaw tightened. He didn’t have a good answer for that, at least not one he was willing to speak aloud. “I don’t know.”
“Admit it. I grew on you, didn’t I?”
He grunted. Her eyes glittered.
“Ah, I missed that sound. Come on. I need coffee and probably a shower.”
He wasn’t opposed to either of those things. “Coffee’s on you. I haven’t been able to figure out how to use that damn machine.”
“I’ll show you. That way, you can bring me coffee and breakfast in bed tomorrow morning.”
“Who says I’m going to be here in the morning?” he grumbled. Of course he was going to be there in the morning. He was going to be wherever she was until he figured out whatever this was between them.
She laughed. The sound was like a balm to his soul. He pushed aside the doubts and decided to live in the moment.
The lesson in expensive coffee machine operation took a while. He kept getting distracted, and when he did, he distracted her as well. She didn’t seem to mind.
“So, what’s your deal?” Zeke asked later, once they’d managed to make coffee, take a shower, and sit down to breakfast. “How does a socially conscious hacker who rents condemned apartments and works in bars afford a place like this?”
“Who says it’s mine?”
“Isn’t it?”
She smiled serenely and sipped her coffee. Instead of answering, she asked a question of her own. “Why is a highly skilled former special operative drifting across the country, working as a tattooist and moonlighting as a mercenary?”
When he said nothing, she said, “I guess we both have our secrets, don’t we?”
Well, she had him there.
“Tell me why you want to go back to Parryville.”
“I wasn’t the only one looking into the paper mill’s illegal activities. Apparently, the FBI was too. Same general topic—illegal toxic dumping—but from a different angle. They were investigating allegations of ties to organized crime, particularly in the area of waste disposal.”
It seemed like one hell of a coincidence that the FBI just happened to be in Parryville at the same time as the elusive Robin Hood, but that was him. He didn’t believe in coincidences, and he sure as hell didn’t trust the feds.
Aggie continued. “A second-shift supervisor by the name of Sam Higgins was tapped as an informant to aid in the investigation, but something went wrong. Sam disappeared the night I was abducted.”
He frowned. “You think your abduction had something to do with that?”
“It doesn’t make sense otherwise. If the FBI was working with Sam and keeping an eye on him, then they know the last time Sam was seen was when he walked me home that night.”
An uncomfortable feeling tightened his chest. “You and Higgins. You had a thing?”
He tried to keep his voice level, so he didn’t sound like a jealous, possessive asshole. Judging by the way her eyes flashed, he hadn’t pulled it off.
“No. We went out a few times, but it was nothing serious. I was very clear that I wasn’t looking for anything other than a friend.”
Zeke snorted. “Yeah? What was he looking for?”
She smiled, as if his reaction pleased her. “Sometimes, he came into the bar after his shift, looking like he carried the world on his shoulders. I lent a sympathetic—and somewhat opportunistic—ear.”
“He gave you inside intel on what was going on at the mill,” he guessed.
She nodded. “Unintentionally, yes.”
It was as if a lightbulb had gone on in his head. He’d been racking his brain, trying to figure out why a woman who could afford a place like this would choose to continually reinvent herself and live like a pauper.
“That’s why you do it. The shitty apartments, the minimum wage jobs. For the inside intel.”
“In part,” she agreed. “Online research can get me pretty far, but it doesn’t always tell the whole story. Only people can do that. The people who are involved, and the people who are affected.”
“In part, you said. What’s the rest of it?”
“Restless person syndrome,” she said with a slight curl of her lips. “This chalet is my anchor. My home base, if you will. But I can’t stay here for more than a couple of weeks without feeling suffocated. I can’t be just one person, doing just one thing day in and day out. I need to travel to different places, and have new experiences.”
That was something he understood completely. “You have a nomadic soul.”
“Nomadic soul. I like that. It sounds better than RPS.”
Did her “anchor” analogy include people she returned to or just places? Again, he wondered where she’d been and who she’d been with. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask, but he refrained. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer. She was asking him to return to Parryville with her and tie off some loose ends. That would have to be enough—for now.
“All right, you’ve got yourself a mercenary.”
“Excellent.”
Her smile lit off a series of fireworks in his chest.
“When do you want to leave?”
“Tomorrow, after you bring me coffee and breakfast in bed.”
He stood and walked around to her side of the breakfast bar. He remained standing, leaned back against the granite so that he faced her, and crossed his arms. “Shouldn’t we discuss my fee?”
Her gaze lowered from his eyes and worked its way downward slowly, then back up again. It was like a blatant stroke to his cock, and his cock responded accordingly. She pushed back from the counter and tugged her robe open.
“Yes, let’s.”