Page 48 of Command and Control: GHOST Operative

I'm still fucking smiling, the expression no longer feeling as foreign as it first did. "Pretty much."

Julieanne wiggles around. "It is pretty impressive." She licks her lips. "And mutually beneficial."

I squeeze the fullness of her ass, working her cheeks in my palms. "You can feel them?"

She scoffs. "Yeah. They’re metal studs going up and down your dick." Her brows pinch together. "Hasn't anyone else told you that?"

I shrug. "Never asked." Never cared, honestly.

Up until now sex was just about mutual release. If I got off, and they got off, the job was done. It was all about efficiency and necessity. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Then Julieanne’s face flashed across my computer screen, and it's been downhill ever since. I couldn't stomach the thought of touching someone else. It was ridiculous and fucking maddening. And probably explains why I fucked her against the wall the first time I laid eyes on her.

It also probably explains why my dick is considering getting hard again at the memory. I shove up from the piano bench, supporting Julieanne's weight where I grip her ass as I straighten.

She yelps, her legs locking around my waist and arms tightening against my shoulders. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to take you to my bed and fuck the hell out of you."

"I can walk." She grabs me tighter, like she thinks I might let her fall. "I'm too heavy for you to—"

Julieanne yelps again when I smack her ass, swatting it hard enough to get her attention, but not hard enough to make my palm sting. "I hope you weren't about to insult me by suggesting I can't carry you to my bedroom."

"I..." Her lips clamp shut, like she doesn't know what to say.

That's a fucking first.

I'm halfway down the hall and well past halfway hard when my phone starts to ring. Every inch of me wants to ignore it, especially the ones now pressed against Julieanne’s hot, willing cunt, but I have to keep a little of my shit together. I can't completely go off the rails, even though everyone might think I already have.

I turn and stride back into my office, but this time I drop into the chair behind my desk, depositing Julieanne on the surface in front of me before answering Amos’s call. "Make it quick."

"We got those IDs you wanted."

I lift my eyes to Julieanne, only hesitating a second before switching the phone to speaker and setting it on the desk beside her. "Go ahead."

She's quiet as Amos rattles off four names. I watch her expression, trying to see if any of them sound familiar to her, but there's not a trace of recognition in her features.

"Did you find out who they work for?"

"Not yet, but it looks like all four had connections to Nashville."

That surprises me. "Nashville? Who's in Nashville?"

I rest my hands on Julieanne’s thighs, needing to touch her. Needing to remind myself she's fine. That, in spite of my own failure, she made it out of her condo alive and unharmed.

"That’s the strange part." Amos pauses. "We didn't know there was anyone operating in Nashville."

18

THERE ARE ALWAYS OPTIONS

JULIEANNE

VINCENT’S GAZE HOLDS mine as he leans toward the phone. "I'll call you back." He releases me long enough to disconnect the call, but as soon as that's done he’s touching me again, scooting his chair closer so my thighs are spread around his chest as both hands grip my ass to pull me in. "I need you to tell me who you reached out to in Nashville."

I shake my head, opening my mouth to reply, but he cuts me off.

"I'm not asking, Jules. I'm telling you. I need to know who you reached out to in Nashville."

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