MY BOSS, Lucy Tentrite calls me at work the next morning. Her voice is tight. “Jasmine, I heard you called Director Scape.”
“Yes, ma’am, that’s true. It was for a personal matter.”“Yes, your father’s death. Listen, I’m going to level with you as your boss and as a friend. I don’t know what you’re poking into, but between you and me, they don’t like it. I’m giving you a direct order—drop the investigation. Are we clear?”“Wow. Okay.”“You know the business we’re in. We trade in secrets. There’s some secret there, and it’s above your pay grade. It doesn’t matter if it involved your father. They don’t want you to see it.”I don’t say anything because really… what do you say to that?“You’ve been searching internal records—ones you shouldn’t have had access to. I could have yourI DRIVE BACK to California and go to my small apartment.The mountains are calling me. I had the urge to shift and run in Tucson but held it together. I was on a job. Now, with nothing to fill my time, I can’t stop thinking about it.It’s either that or beat down agent Jasmine Gray’s door because I can’t seem to get her scent out of my nostrils or the dirty thoughts out of my mind.Fuck. I have to get myself under control.My phone blinks with an incoming call. Jasmine’s burner phone. “Dune speaking.”“Tom?” Jasmine sounds breathless, frightened.Immediately, my senses go haywire—adrenaline spiking, heat flushing through. My cells try to rearrange like my body wants to shift to wolf form. I suck in a deep breath and force the urge back down.“Jasmine? Where are you?” She has trackers on me which I already shut off because the mission was aborted, but I don’t have
THE ROOM SPINS. I’m lightheaded from the orgasm or maybe from the heat—I can’t tell. Fortunately, Tom doesn’t let me go. He keeps me pinned against the wall, his cock still filling me as we both pant to recover our breaths.His eyes look blue again although there’s no sunlight hitting them now.I don’t feel guilty I just had sex while my sister and nephew are missing. Hell, if anything, I can rationalize I did this for them. I couldn’t think before, I was so wracked with fear. I needed this.And if I were the conniving type, which I’m not, I would say it was a good move to bond Tom and further gain his sympathy. But that’s not why I did it.I don’t know why he did it, but I don’t care. I’m not going to ask anything more of him. Not going to expect a relationship—which he could never deliver. I just needed this human contact. Just needed to feel his support in this visceral, cathar
THERE’S a guy fifty yards away, scanning the parking lot. I kiss Bryce for cover, right when Jasmine arrives.For the record, they may be sisters, but Bryce neither tastes nor smells like Jasmine. My body doesn’t have the animalistic reaction I have to Jasmine. Which means the lust I feel for her isn’t just the emergent wolf in me. There’s something more to this attraction.While I work the kiss, I hold an electric lock opening device up to the door lock of the Lexus SUV we’re leaned up against. We can’t drive the truck out of here if we hope to escape unfollowed.I break the kiss when the door beeps and pull the door open. “Get in,” I order in the same low, calm voice I use for every command under pressure.I take the driver’s seat because, this time, we really need to lose any tail we pick up. Plus, I don’t think I’ll need to fire a gun. Hell, I’d better not have to fire a gun aroun
TOM GETS quiet as he drives us up a dirt road winding up the mountain. Or maybe he’s always this quiet. It seems strange that I don’t know. I feel so close to him, and yet we haven’t spent that much time together—very brief snippets over the past few years as his handler, and now, today, that’s it.The moon is half full, peeking through the trees as we wind higher. We arrive at a tiny, solitary cabin, tucked away from everything. It appears old and rustic, but there’s a satellite on the roof and inside is simple but comfortable. Johnson and I walk around, taking in the place. The cupboards are already stocked with enough non-perishables to last a month. Tom stopped at a convenience store on the way up to pick up basics like milk, eggs, fruit, and bread.A desk is against the wall of the living room, wired with the latest high tech, government-issue equipment.There’s only one bedroom.“I’ll take the couch,&r
JOHNSON’S UP almost as early as I am, padding into the kitchen at the first light of dawn. I’ll bet that drives his mom nuts.“You hungry?” I ask.He shrugs.“I’m gonna take that as a yes.” I set a box of Golden Grahams on the table with a bowl. “Have some cereal.”He seems to like that and tears open the box. The cereal spills on the table, but I don’t say anything, just pour milk into his bowl and drop a spoon into it. “Have at it.”He shovels a bite into his mouth. “Thanks.”Bryce comes out next, but Jasmine hits the shower. I get itchy thinking about her being naked with just a thin door between us. Last night, I had to leave the cabin because the desire to open that bedroom door and throw Jasmine over my shoulder was too strong.I shifted and hunted most of the night. I’m just glad I found my way back and was able to change back to human form before
TOM TURNS me around again and fists the hair at the top of my head. He uses it to tip my chin up and kisses me thoroughly. No, it’s less a kiss and more a devouring. He takes my mouth, drags his lips along my jaw, down my neck. He bites my shoulder.“Fuck, Jasmine. I’ve never felt this way with anyone before.”Tears pop into my eyes at that. The rough admission seems so out of character for the secret agent who never shows his cards.I’ve never felt this way with anyone before either. I’ve never even experience one-tenth of this much passion. Tom is rough but so self-assured. Yeah, I was scared to try anal, but I trusted him. He’s good at everything he does. And he was definitely expert in that respect.My pussy and anus throb a bit, but it a delicious, well-used sort of way. I certainly received as much pleasure as he took—maybe more.He pulls back and just stares down at me, still holding me captive b
“YOU OKAY WITH DOING THIS?” I ask as Jasmine seats herself in front of the laptop and cracks her knuckles. She told me she thought of a way to hack the LIL that would be untraceable.“Hacking our employer? We’re not going to hurt anything. If there’s a cover-up here, I wanna know.”Her lower lip juts out a little. My brave, beautiful girl.Except she’s not mine. I can’t have her, can’t keep her. I clear my throat. “All right. Show me your father’s file.”“Your wish is my command.” She quirks a pert little grin. “You really like giving orders, don’t you?”“You have no idea,” I murmur, distracted by her fingers dancing over the keyboard, slender and graceful. If I told her to turn around and touch me instead, they’d feel so…“Tom?”I search my memory for the echo of what she just said. “No, I haven&rsquo
“THIS IS JUST like when we were teenagers.” I grin up at Bryce, who scowls because I moved. She has a pair of scissors in one hand and a lock of my hair in the other, and she’s thinning the edges like a professional hairstylist.I’ve bleached my hair to a respectable housewife blond, and now, Bryce’s giving me a shoulder-length layered ‘do. “Remember when you shaved the sideof my head and dyed the bangs purple?”Bryce laughs. “We were so sure mom would freak out, but she didn’t say a word.”“Yeah, I think she actually got the last laugh on that one.”We both sober, grief from our mother’s death still present after two years. My sister sifts her fingers through my hair. “This is pretty extreme.” “You don’t think it looks good?”“No... it’s just hard to think of my baby sister dyeing her hair and going undercover.&rdqu