Page 24 of The Truths that Deceive

Right now, it’s a living nightmare.

But I slide my tongue up her throat anyway, loving how she arches for me, an offering and a submissive move that makes my blood burn.

Everything about her is hedonistic. “Withholding’s treason.”

“You’re no longer part of the government.”

“Neither are you. Not since you ran. Also treason, by the way.”

She shudders a breath and her fingers close on my lapels. I’m not sure if she’s clinging or trying to push me away, or if it even matters. What I do know is she’ll be wet if I head down south.

I stay above the border of her because we’re not even close to finished.

“You’re taking me in. So why not just do it?”

I lift my head, rubbing a thumb over her mouth and she shudders, the tip of her tongue touching my flesh. “Before that message today, you weren’t in a rush, and now you are.”

I slip my thumb into her mouth, and her lips close around me. She licks and sucks and makes me harder than I’ve ever been, something I didn’t think was possible.

“I just?—”

I press down, cutting off her words, opening her mouth and pushing in deep. Her eyes are a wild storm.

“Think hard about what you’re going to say.”

In and out, in and out. I thrust slow and deep into the wet,sucking depths of her mouth, basking in the way her tongue slides against my invading thumb.

“Because here’s the thing. And we’ve touched on it, but it bears repeating,” I say. Something made her not want to go back, and I’ve got to fucking say, a place like Gitmo is not high on my list of tourist attractions. “In all honesty, I don’t care what you did or why. Curious, but not really a burning need to find out the truth. Money’s my motivation. And that makes me dangerous for you to cross. I’m not a zealot, I don’t have an agenda, and there’s no one I’m loyal to.”

I move in and dip my tongue into her mouth. She trembles.

“You’re selling secrets? You’ll pay. You’re working with some group for other reasons? You’ll pay for that, too. But we’re going to this fucking event because someone was watching you. I don’t care if it’s the Germans or Russians—you’ll do better in their hands than you will some unstable new country or with a rich fuck who wants to rule the world.”

I bite her, just at her ear, and place my mouth at the canal’s opening. “You’re lucky that you being handed over means I get paid. So we’ll work together. We’ll look like the Hunts, father and daughter. I’ll do my business, and then we’ll get the fuck out and back on US soil. Behave and your brother lives.”

Releasing her mouth, I raise my head.

Truth and lies.

Manipulation and temptation.

I tell her just enough. But this event will give me insight about what I’m up against. That’s the “business” I’ll be conducting. Reconnaissance. Even with her wig and new passport, things can still go very wrong. It all depends on who’s lurking. And how much she wants to run.

“Let me go.”

“You and I will get along a lot better if you play nice. The Collectors?”

Calista goes still, then she turns, her movements jerky. “I don’t know them. Just… I’ve seen the name show up.”

“In the papers?”

Her eyes flick to me as she moves around the room and gets herself a drink. She wants out more than she wants that drink. But I let that slide. “Chatter. Just… chatter, and then that text message I received.”

I know from what I’ve read that her agent was deep undercover because his identity and his handler’s identity are redacted from the case file. Everything except Calista’s name.

There’s something not right about this whole thing. Maybe it’s how her role is so redacted on paper or the crimes of her youth. Or else it’s just my nose for trouble warning me.

“Wouldn’t be enough. You’re CIA and you got scared enough or suspicious enough to run when you knew how it would make you look.”

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