Kingston's Captive (Kingston Security 2), page 10
Adam’s lips, teeth, and tongue showered the same attention on her other breast, licking, sucking, biting until she was almost sobbing with a need for release from that pleasurable agony.
He finally slid lower down her body to lie between her thighs, his face level with that scrap of lace covering her mound. Instead of removing it, he pulled it to one side to gently part the folds there to capture and suck and lick her clit into the moist inferno of his mouth.
Cara’s arousal spilled over in an explosion of pleasure so intense, she hadn’t even begun to come down from it when Adam’s devouring lips and tongue sent her into a second climax, this one even deeper and longer than the first.
Adam, seemingly out of patience with her thong, now ripped the lace from her body and draped her legs over his shoulders. He lowered his head to feast on the swollen lips and lubricated channel between her thighs.
Cara lost count of how many times Adam’s unrelenting mouth and hands brought her to climax, or how many more he would have given her if she hadn’t registered an on-and-off flash of red behind her closed eyelids.
She didn’t need any telling this time that it was the signal for a Code Red.
Another one.
“Fuck,” Adam muttered succinctly as he scowled up at the flashing red light. He threw back the duvet and stood.
Cara’s cheeks warmed as she looked at his complete lack of concern for the fact he was naked, his cock long and thick and jutting up toward his navel, the cockhead slick with pre-cum.
The rest of Adam’s appearance was just as disheveled. He kept his dark hair short, but it still looked slightly tousled from where her fingers had been threaded in it earlier. His cheeks were slightly flushed, and the fullness of his lips glistened with what Cara knew to be her juices.
His expression softened as he looked at her after pulling on jeans and a T-shirt. “Unfortunately—”
“I need to go down to the safe room,” she finished for him as she got out of bed and began to pull her clothes on. “Let’s hope you manage to catch someone in the act this time.”
Adam shook his head. “I think Langley is enjoying playing with us for now.”
Her eyes widened as she stood to fasten her jeans. “You think he’s doing this on purpose?”
“I’m sure of it.” Adam smiled without humor. “But we’ll go through the motions anyway.”
Adam and his cousins went through those same motions once more that night, and again the following one, and then twice more the night after that. All in the early hours of the morning, and all resulting in a failure to capture James Langley or anyone connected to him.
The men they had watching the Langley Art Gallery hadn’t seen Langley or any of his men anywhere near the apartment over the gallery where he’d lived when he kidnapped Cara.
Casper had been working day and night trying to track down a cyber footprint of where Langley and his cohorts had gone to ground. He’d finally had a breakthrough early this morning, and they now believed Langley and his men were living in a deserted building in a run-down area of London. Certainly, there had been sightings there of a man who looked like James Langley, along with several other men who fit the description of the ones working for him.
The Kingston men, Casper included, had decided it was time for them to pay Langley a visit.
Adam knew the past three days and nights had taken their toll on all of them. Constantly being woken in the night had made them all short-tempered, their faces pale, with dark shadows beneath their eyes from lack of sleep.
It was time for them to attack rather than react.
“You aren’t well enough yet to go with them,” Cara complained as she sat on the side of the bed in her bra and panties, watching him dress in black tactical gear and heavy combat boots.
The two of them had become comfortable with being naked in front of each other over the past two days and nights. Nights when they’d shared the same bed and explored and pleasured each other time and time again. Days when he only had to look at her to want to make love to her again.
Adam was the one who had shied away from having full-on penetrative sex. Knowing Cara was a virgin still, he knew that once he’d fully claimed her in that way, he wouldn’t want to ever let her leave his life.
It was going to be sheer hell anyway if Cara decided she didn’t want to be with him once this was all over. Which was always a possibility. At the moment, he represented protection and security, things Cara would no longer need once Langley wasn’t a threat. Which Adam had every intention of making happen.
Adam certainly knew he wouldn’t be able to let her go if he’d once had his cock inside her. Especially when a part of him already knew he wanted to live inside her for the rest of his life.
Cara gave him warmth and happiness, and over the past three days and nights, he’d slowly been able to relax his guard enough to be able to respond in kind. Even the thought of going back to the emptiness of his existence before she came into his life caused a cold shiver down Adam’s spine.
The sooner this situation with Langley was over, the sooner he and Cara would be able to gauge whether they had a future together.
Even the thought of the answer to that being no caused an ache in his chest.
“I’m well enough,” he now assured her gruffly as he bent to kiss her lightly on the lips.
Her hands moved up to grip his shoulders as he straightened, using that hold to help pull her to her feet. “I don’t want you to go.”
His arms moved about the slenderness of her waist. “I don’t want to leave you either, but I have to do this,” he insisted gently.
“No, you don’t, you stubborn bloody man!”
His jaw tensed. “I’m not going to let him hurt you or anyone else we care about.”
She glared at him. “If you’re injured again while you’re out there saving us all, I’m going to make your life a misery,” she added in warning.
“How?” Adam indulged her.
“Well, for one thing, there will be no sex for a month.”
Sex or no sex, at least Cara would be in his life for another month. “That sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me,” he teased.
Cara gave a snort. “I’ll be denying myself as well as you.”
“Good point.” He grinned, something he’d found himself doing a lot more of during these past few days of intimacy with Cara. “I will be back, and hopefully when I am, we’ll have dealt with James Langley once and for all.”
She eyed him warily. “Please don’t do anything that will get you into trouble with the police,” she pleaded after studying his grim expression for several more seconds.
Adam’s mouth quirked. “I know somewhere to hide the body so that no one will ever find it.”
Her eyes widened. “Is that supposed to reassure me?”
His arms tightened about her as he kissed her lightly on the lips. “Once this is settled, the two of us will need to talk.”
“I seem to remember you telling me that no conversation started with that phrase ever turns out well.”
He chuckled. “You don’t look particularly scared.”
She smiled. “That’s because I now know how to distract you.” She arched her back and rubbed her half-clothed body against his.
Yep, totally distracted, Adam conceded with a groan as he claimed her lips once again.
He kissed Cara hungrily for several minutes before grasping the tops of her arms and putting her away from him. Her arms fell back to her sides. “I will come back, Cara,” he vowed fiercely when he saw the shimmer of tears in those beautiful blue-green eyes.
She reached up to cup her palm about the side of his face. “I know you’ll want to.”
Adam continued to gaze at her for several long seconds, the words “I love you” hovering on his lips. He somehow managed to stop himself from saying them. It was unfair to Cara to say those words until he had ensured her safety and they decided where, or if, they went from there.
He released her and stepped back. “I need you to do something for me while I’m gone.”
“Anything,” she instantly promised.
He smiled. “Rosie tells me that you both know how to shoot a gun, that the two of you took lessons together some years ago.”
She eyed him warily. “Yes.”
“That’s good.” He nodded as he stepped to the side of the bed and pressed one of the curlicues in the ornate headboard. A drawer beneath slid smoothly open, and Adam took out the gun he kept hidden there. He turned back to Cara. “We’re leaving six men here to keep you and Rosie safe, as well as Loki and Thor, but I still want you to keep this with you for the whole of the time I’m gone.” He held the gun out for her to take.
Cara had taken a step back the moment she saw the small gun in Adam’s hand. She now kept her hands behind her back so that Adam couldn’t give it to her. “I’ve been trained in how to shoot, but that doesn’t mean I could ever use it to injure or—or kill an actual person.”
Rosie did, a small voice reminded inside her head.
Yes, it was true that ten years ago, Rosie had managed to steal a gun and shoot one of the men who had kidnapped them and their mother. She hadn’t killed him, but she’d incapacitated him enough by shooting him in the knee that he hadn’t been able to escape when his two associates escaped the Special Forces team. He’d been the only one arrested that day, and he’d been killed in prison shortly after.
Rosie had told Cara since then that she’d turned the gun on the man in a fit of rage after the kidnappers had shot and killed their mother.
Cara was more pissed off with James than angry with him, partly because he wouldn’t just admit defeat and give up this vendetta. But another part of her understood why he felt justified in continuing to seek retribution for the death of his father. How could she not understand when she felt the same way about her mother’s death. She didn’t forgive James’s desire for vengeance, but she did understand it.
His men, however…
Cara had no doubt the attack on her and Adam as they left her home three days ago had been made under James Langley’s instruction. Even if he hadn’t been the one to actually shoot the bullet that had injured Adam.
One of James’s men had shot Adam three days ago. He could have died if Malachi hadn’t gotten to them quickly enough and airlifted them out of harm’s way.
Cara hadn’t quite forgiven Malachi for the fingers-in-Adam’s-wounds thing yet, but Sinclair was right about Malachi’s lack of visible emotion helping to keep his brothers’ and cousin’s responses equally as muted.
“You either take the gun or you’ll have to stay in the safe room until we get back,” Adam warned at her hesitation. “Personally, I’d prefer to lock you in the safe room, but Max says Rosie isn’t having any of it, and as the two of you are very alike, I assumed you would feel the same way.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You guessed correctly.”
“We’re only trying to keep the two of you safe,” he reasoned.
“You could do that by staying here and doing the job yourself. Okay, I’ll take the damned gun.” She caved when she saw his unrelenting expression. “But bear in mind I could just as easily decide to use it on you if you come back here with another bullet wound!” The gun felt heavier in her hand than the ones she’d trained with. Possibly because she’d now seen firsthand how it could be used as an object of death and destruction.
“Aggressive little thing, aren’t you,” Adam admired.
“Where you’re concerned, yes.”
“I like it.” He took her in his arms and kissed her.
Cara kissed him back just as fiercely, haunted by the thought that this might be the last time she was able to do so.
His arms remained about her waist when the kiss ended. “Stay safe for me,” he encouraged gruffly.
“Back atcha,” she murmured.
He searched her eyes for several long seconds and then released her to turn and walk toward the open doorway.
Cara wanted to call out and ask him not to go. To beg if necessary. To tell him how much she loved him.
Instead, she bit down so hard on her bottom lip, she was able to feel the sting of pain as the skin split and she tasted the metallic tang of her own blood.
Because she knew that asking Adam not to go with his cousins in search of James Langley, to beg him to stay here with her where it was safe, to use her love for him in that way, was not only wrong, it would be asking Adam to deny his own nature. Above all else, Adam was a protector. Of his family. Of the innocent. Now of her.
Whether Adam returned to her or not, she could never ask him to be anything less than what made him the natural protector he was and the man she loved.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Adam felt as if a part of him was being wrenched from his chest as he and his six cousins sat in the two black SUVs waiting for the metal security gates of the Kingston estate to open.
Probably because it was, Adam acknowledged. Cara didn’t just own his heart, she was his heart, and he was leaving her and it behind with no guarantee of when or if he would ever see her again. He’d never been in this position until today. Never had a woman in his life to care whether or not he came back alive from a mission.
Cara cared.
Whether that was because she was in love with him too, he had no idea. He knew she must like him for the two of them to have such amazing sex, but did that qualify as love, or was he just seeing what he wanted—ached—to see?
Fuck it, he was almost as hopeless at reading other people’s emotions as Malachi.
“We’ll be back,” Max said lightly.
Adam frowned at his cousin as he sat behind the wheel of the first SUV, Darius and Felix seated behind them. Malachi drove the second vehicle, Sinclair beside him, Casper sitting in the back and busy checking information on his laptop.
Max waited until he’d driven out onto the public road to speak again. “I told Rosie we would be, and believe me, you never want to go back on your word to a Ferrari-Smythe woman,” he murmured self-derisively. “They use methods of punishment that aren’t in the rulebook,” he added dryly.
“Like the possibility of the denial of sex for a month?” Adam guessed.
His cousin chuckled. “Exactly like that.” He shrugged as he glanced at Adam. “As their father is a fucking waste of time and space and I’m shortly to be Cara’s brother-in-law, and since the two of you have been sharing a bed for the past three nights, I think you should tell me if your intentions toward Cara are honorable.”
Adam gave a scathing snort. “You aren’t her brother-in-law yet, and even when you are, Cara will be the first to know what my intentions are, not you.”
Max winced. “Rosie has kept her silence on the subject for the past few days, mainly because she says she’s never seen Cara as happy as she is with you. But if I know anything about my woman, and I do, that amnesty isn’t going to last for much longer.”
Adam was completely aware of how close the two sisters were. A bond that had been strong before they were kidnapped ten years ago, but which had been forged in steel since then as the two of them clung together to survive the trauma of seeing their mother murdered in front of their eyes. As Max said, Richard Smythe was a useless father.
Despite, or because of, how weak their father was, the Ferrari-Smythe sisters were two of the strongest women Adam had ever met. He knew Max thought the same.
“Fair enough.” Adam nodded.
Max’s brows rose. “Fair enough?”
He gave his cousin a grin, somehow feeling lighter for having had this conversation. “If she’ll have me.”
If being the relevant question.
Whatever the outcome, Adam was through denying himself at least the chance of a life with the woman he loved.
“Hello, Cara.”
Cara almost dropped her cell phone at the sound of that familiar voice. She hadn’t recognized the number, but she’d thought perhaps it was Adam calling her on a secure phone.
It hadn’t even entered her head that this man would ever dare to speak to her again. “James,” she returned coolly. She put up a hand to soothe Rosie’s obvious wide-eyed alarm as her sister sat on the other side of the table in the breakfast area.
With nothing else to do but wait for news, the two women had been sitting drinking coffee together for the hour since the men left. Neither of them was actually saying much, both too consumed with worry at the outcome of the Kingston men having decided it was time they went in search of their quarry.
Except that quarry had just calmly put through a call to Cara’s cell phone.
“You don’t sound pleased to hear from me,” James grated.
“Probably because I’m not.”
“You seemed to like me well enough while we were dating,” he taunted.
Cara resented his implication the two of them had ever been intimate. They hadn’t shared anything beyond a few kisses. “That was until I realized you were as much of a psychopath as your father!”
James made a hissing sound on the other end of the line. “You’ll pay for that remark,” he finally bit out, all humor gone from his voice.
“I’m not frightened of you, James,” she assured calmly.
“I wonder if you’ll still feel the same way once I’ve eliminated the Kingston family.”
Cara felt a tightness in her chest at the threat. A threat that could never become a reality. Could it? “What have you done?” she asked shakily.
“Well, I must admit it’s been a little tedious waiting these past three days for the Kingstons to leave the security of their lair, despite the provocation, but now that they have, my plan is all falling into place.”
Cara could barely breathe. “What have you done?”
“You sound upset, Cara.”
“Tell me what you’ve done, or get off the fucking phone.” If nothing else, she needed to call Adam and warn him that it had been James Langley’s intention all along for him and his brothers to leave the estate.
