Page 18 of Fire and Ice

He trailed kisses back up her neck, lingering on her delicate jaw, and then cupped her face with both of his hands, looking into her eyes.

"Tell me," he said quietly.

"I don't. It never gets that far," she whispered.

He lowered his lips again to gently brush hers and then pulled her away from the pick-up and straightened her clothes.

"Sorry about your shirt," he said with a slight smirk.

"I didn't bring many clothes with me, you know," Maia replied ruefully.

"I'll make it up to you," Jack promised. "Let's get you inside."

***

She was such a slut. She let Jack McCord dry-hump her against the hood of his pick-up truck. She couldn't get any sluttier than that.

At least he didn't appear smug about it. He acted the perfect gentleman when they got into the house. Jack didn't drag her up to his bedroom to take care of his raging hard on, but instead led her to his study to offer her some fortifying spirits. It was almost the end of October and the evening temperature had dipped to a nippy 50 degrees. She was used to extreme temperature changes but after their heated encounter on the side of his truck, she felt unusually chilled and welcomed two fingers of whiskey.

Jack informed her that he had to leave early the next day for New Park City and wouldn't be back until Saturday night, which was Halloween. He walked her through her login to the MDI network and showed her how to setup the connection to AGS. He also left her all the contact information of his technical support personnel.

He walked her to her bedroom and gave her a lingering kiss at the door.

"I don't want to rush this," he murmured. "I want this." He caressed her face with the back of his fingers, his eyes inscrutable.

"Jack, this is just sex, remember?"

He smiled. "Yeah. But I still want my apple pie."

She wondered if that had a double-meaning.

Maia was not inexperienced about sex, but she wasn't a sex siren either. She only lost her virginity at twenty-one: it took her that long to get over a near-rape trauma that had happened when she was twelve.

Her father was a Russian nuclear scientist who had gotten mixed up with a bratva involved in weapons-grade plutonium trafficking. He had planned to get out, making a deal with the CIA—information about the mob's nuclear depots in exchange for safe passage to the United States—before the exchange could take place, the mob boss found out and sent thugs to find out what her father had revealed to the spy agency. Viktor's special forces team under CIA directive was responsible for her family's extraction. When the mob's death squad showed up unexpectedly, the team was told to stand down and to let everything play out. There was intel that a lieutenant in the mob's chain of command was among the death squad and could reveal invaluable information in the bugged house.

They killed her father and raped and killed her mother in front of her. Maia clenched her eyes as the memories she had buried deep within resurfaced. Then the men turned on her. The moment they dragged her to the floor, the windows to the house exploded and the special forces team moved in. Viktor had defied CIA orders and had the support of his team to storm the house and rescue the twelve-year-old girl about to be gang-raped by the Russian mob. They killed every single one of them.There had been dire consequences of course: Viktor and his men were all forced to quit their commission. Meanwhile, she was sent to an orphanage, but Viktor had tracked her down, pulled her out and installed her with her current foster parents.

Her bond with Viktor was deep. He was 27-years-old when he had rescued her. They had known each other for eighteen years and he was still the person she trusted most.

Maia had learned to cope with her trauma. For the first few years, she would not let any man touch her, but soon her hormones took over and she started necking and petting like any teenager. When she officially joined the AGS at 21, she fell in love with one of the Guardians, Steve Wilcox. There was a strict no-fraternizing rule, for obvious reasons, but they kept their relationship a secret. Steve was a gentle lover and knew about her past, so he eased her into the joys of sex. When Viktor found out, he fired Steve and put Maia on probation. Their relationship fizzled out eventually helped in no small part by Viktor deploying her out of the country, probably to keep her away from Steve.

She had decided that with her lifestyle, she didn't need a relationship. Viktor paid her well, so she could afford to take three-week vacations to exclusive beach resorts and embark on temporary affairs to pretend to be normal, enjoy no-strings-attached sex and part with no regrets.

She had met Mike Callahan during an AGS meeting two years ago. He was handsome, distinguished and smart and they were instantly attracted to each other. Viktor was developing the protective custody business of AGS and Maia was brought in to train new Guardians. Her traveling was kept to a minimum, so when Mike asked her out, she agreed. They had been together for three months when Maia went on a particularly risky mission and had to be incommunicado for two weeks. Mike went berserk and laid it thickly on Viktor, but Viktor had refused to reveal her location or get in contact with her as it would have jeopardized everyone involved. When she got back, they got into an ugly fight, in which Mike told her to quit AGS immediately.

She quit him.

Mike tried to get her back, but she knew that having a relationship with any man was not going to work.

So she was going to treat this thing with Jack like her three-week long affairs. When she moved on Reznikov, that would be the end of it.

***

Maia looked through the series of snapshots on the monitor. On a small picture window at the top right-hand corner of her screen, a very blond man, with hawkish features who looked to be in his mid-forties, was in videoconference with her—Viktor Baran.

"So you're saying Sergei Reznikov is cut-off from his bratva in Russia?" Maia asked.

"Yes, but there's something else going on," Viktor said looking very grim. A very grim Viktor was not good. "Gavlik hired us to rescue his cousin Volynski from Reznikov but it looked like Gavlik was behind the production of Rave-IX." Rave-IX was a recreational drug much like ecstasy, but was more potent. It had become very popular across dance clubs in Europe but had also been blamed for dozens of deaths due to overdose. It was highly addictive. It was also rumored to have reached the United States.

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