Page 56 of Don't Let Go

Collision was imminent. I could feel the stroke of his gaze over me when he glanced at my lips. Despite the lingering caress of his attention, he still didn’t move. Need splintered inside of me. I fisted both hands into his shirt. I wasn’t sure whether I dragged him down to me or pushed up to meet him. Maybe I did both. His mouth crashed into mine.

The ferocity in his kiss left me dazed. He slid an arm around my waist and lifted me. No more stress on my neck tilting it back to gaze up at him. The softness of his beard alternately teased my skin and rasped against it too.

Thrusting my tongue against his, I savored the delightful tease of dueling with him. Every move I made, McQuade mirrored. If I bit at his lip, he nibbled mine. If I swept my tongue in to taste him, he devoured me. I wanted to pull the tie from his hair, so I could sink my hands into the thickness of it.

“Sugar Bear,” he growled against my mouth. Desire pulled taut in my belly even as shivers cascaded over my skin.

“That name is growing on me,” I whispered in response. I felt more than saw his smile.

“Is that so?”

“Hmm-hmm.” Another kiss. “You need to go.”

“Yes,” he agreed, kissing me again. “I do.”

“Be safe?” It was as much a request as an order.

“You too,” he retorted. Another biting kiss and then he put me on my feet. Thankfully, I didn’t embarrass myself by stumbling on weak legs or falling on my ass. “Sugar Bear.” He winked.

I ran a finger against my mouth, still tasting him, as he went to follow the guys. Still trembling, I dropped back into my chair and retrieved the headset he’d plucked off. The sound of the car starting filled the interior, then they dropped the ramp and drove out.

The external doors were already closing, sealing with a hiss. One finger stroke brought up all exterior cameras. We were still in the clear. The SUV appeared briefly as it drove away.

Blowing out a breath, I concentrated on getting my pulse under control. No more distractions. I needed to get ahead of them. Small town or not, it had some cameras. Not everything was wired—rude on their part. The guys had some equipment to drop for me depending on the availability.

Headset on, I took a sip of coffee before punching in the code to connect to their comms.

“Patch online.”

“We’re receiving you clearly, luv,” Remy said, a smile in his voice. It was odd how comforting I found the sound. The familiarity of it settled in my bones.

“Want us to pick you up some souvenirs while we’re in town?” Locke asked.

“Hmm, not sure this place even has a gift shop.”

“Just means we need to be creative,” Locke said, there was no mistaking the suggestiveness in his voice. “I can be quite creative when required.”

I snorted.

“Focus,” McQuade said with a rumble. “Let Sugar Bear work.”

“You tell him, Sugar Lips,” I retaliated. “Though, we can multi-task, you know.”

Silence greeted my statement and I had to suppress another smile. Having all three of them on line might be normal, but having them on the same line was definitely new.

A snort of laughter finally echoed down the line as McQuade said, “So that’s how it is?”

I grinned. “Yes, that’s exactly how it is.”

“We’ll check in with you once we get to town,” Remy said, amusement salting each word.

“Understood, Patch out.” I cut the line. They could initiate the next contact. For now, I worked on getting into whatever systems Juniper had that were connected to the net.

Funnily enough, the cafe and the grocery store had the easiest to access systems. What security they had in place was utterly pitiful. Then again, their information wasn’t precisely top secret either.

The grocery store had three cameras. Unsurprisingly, two focused on the entrances located in front and back. The third on the grocery till itself. Not much appeared to be going on in the building. So I set that to one side, then brought up the cafe.

Interesting… the cafe had six cameras, including one pointed at their oversized walk in cold pantry and the freezers.

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