Page 27 of Master of Lies

I tugged the blanket around my shivering self, but it didn’t help. Water was roaring in the bathroom, and after a few minutes, Jed came back, holding out his hand.

“I ran you a bath,” he said. “Come on.”

I took his hand as he led me into the bathroom, which was damp and warm, lit by the glow of the kerosene lantern that sat on the windowsill. I stepped into the tub, sinking into the hot water with a sigh of pleasure.

Jed climbed in, too, which brought the water level way up high. The bathtub was a big one, but there was so much of him. He was huge, those big, powerful arms spread out wide on the edge of the tub, his bare chest gleaming.

I was speechless and shy, but Jed grabbed the soap and ran his sudsy hands slowly, sensually over every part of me that was over the level of the water, massaging, caressing. Slow, sexy, skillful. Releasing tension shuddered through my body, and when I felt shaky and soft and liquid, he pulled me up onto my knees, made his hands slippery with soap again, and reached between my legs.

He knew just exactly how to touch me there. Tender, bold, sure. I grabbed the tops of his shoulders, digging in my nails, and before I knew it, my head was flung back and I was gasping, hips jerking as he coaxed yet another explosive orgasm out of me.

What the hell? I don’t know how he did it. My orgasms have always been kind of a mystery. Elusive and disappointingly shallow, ever since I started trying to have them. And my body had just randomly decided that tonight was the night to supercharge that system? While everything else in my life was going to hell at top speed?

Jed stroked his fingers inside me, a rumble of satisfied pleasure vibrating from him through me as he savored every last vibration of my climax, and then he hoisted me up, startled and dripping, to sit on the edge of the tub. My back to the wall.

Water slopped and sloshed out onto the floor, but he ignored it as he positioned himself between my legs and put his mouth to me.

Oh, he was so good. Slow and sensual, licking and sucking, flicking tenderly at my clit with the perfect tender, teasing pressure, and it wasn’t just the technique, it was him, his energy, his heat, his enormous presence, making me drunk, dizzy.

I clutched at his head, his shoulders, as the waves of sensation thundered through me, over and over, in an endless, cleansing rush.

Jed pressed his lips to my belly, kissing it. I sank back into the water.

“Have you got something to prove?” I asked him.

“Nah, not really. You just have a really sweet, delicious pussy and I’m hungry for it. Just can’t get enough.” He got up before I could think of any snappy response, water sloshing and coursing down over his gorgeous body. Still stone hard. Droplets glittered on the thatch of hair at his groin.

He lifted me to my feet and helped me out of the tub. Dried me off with a towel. Long, gentle strokes over my arms, my legs, my back. A swift glimpse of myself in the foggy mirror made me flinch at what had become of my make-up, but it’s the classic Sandee look, after all. My lips were so red, my eyes so bright. My cheeks incredibly pink. Everything so high-contrast. Extreme.

In the other room, Jed dug into a box, pulled out big black T-shirt, and tossed it to me. I put it on, and it draped off my shoulders and halfway down my thighs.

Jed opened up the bedcovers and beckoned to me. “Get some sleep,” he said.

“What about you?” I asked.

“I’ll keep watch on the monitors,” he said. “I still have some adrenaline to metabolize. I’ll crash when I crash.”

“You must be tired,” I said. “What monitors?”

He gestured at a table that was covered with the computer equipment.Shit.I’d been in such a fog of desire, I’d barely noticed all of that, and what it implied.

“Those,” he said. “To keep us safe. But I doubt anyone will be chasing us in this storm.”

In one swift glance, I saw a two big monitors, multiple camera angles. “You’ve got a whole security setup out there? Jeez, what is this place?”

He didn’t acknowledge the question. “Sleep easy,” he said. “Nothing bigger than a fox is getting near here without me knowing about it. I’ll see everything that moves.”

So he must have infrared, and motion detectors, and God knows what else.

Sleep easy, my ass. This news freshly rattled me. Whatever this operation was, it was generously funded and meticulously planned, months in advance. This was not an improvisation. He had a plan, help, resources, a huge budget. Shane’s disappearance was connected to it. And I couldn’t say a single fucking word to him about it.

All I could do was open my legs and play dumb.

CHAPTER11

Jed

“Dude, get real.” Darius Drake’s deep voice was harsh, drilling into my ear as I held up the burner phone with a half-frozen hand. “We’re still in fucking Nairobi. We won’t be stateside for another three days. It sucks about Mickey, and I’m sorry, but why guard this random girl? Why’s she relevant? What has she got to contribute?”

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