He started to thrust into her, but then Drew stilled and she glanced at him. Tina’s eyes were wide and eager, her lips parted. Desire was on her face. Desire wasn’t enough.
He wanted to see her pleasure.
“No going back,” he said again. This moment would change everything for them. She needed to realize that. This wasn’t just some adrenaline-infused hook-up sex.
Tina’s hands caught his. Their fingers threaded together.
He thrust.
Too good. Drew growled out her name. He withdrew, thrust again. Her legs wrapped around his hips. The pleasure built, rushing fast and hard toward him. This wasn’t just sex. He’d had sex with plenty of other women.
This was more. So much more.
He thrust faster. Harder. His control ripped. No, shredded.
He’d wanted to show her that he could be a considerate lover.
But he was starving for her.
Her sex squeezed around him. He was staring straight into her eyes, and he saw her gaze go bright and blind with pleasure.
His climax hit him. The pleasure slammed through him, took his breath, and he held on to her as tightly as he could.
Drew kept thrusting. The pleasure wasn’t ending. His back tightened. His muscles strained. Tina whispered his name. She was so beautiful. So perfect to him.
The release crested. The surge was the most powerful climax he’d ever had.
When it ended, when the shudders stopped racking their bodies, Drew could only think—
No going back.
He always kept his promises.
* * *
IT WAS THE ringing of the phone that woke Drew hours later. The steady peal came from his phone, a weak and low sound since he had fallen asleep in Tina’s room.
In her bed.
He glanced over at her. His arm was curled around her stomach. Her lashes swept over her cheeks. She breathed easily. Slowly.
The phone kept ringing.
Drew slipped from the bed. He yanked on his jeans and padded quietly to his room. He grabbed for the phone.
He didn’t recognize the number, but in the EOD, that didn’t mean anything. Burner phones and untraceable cells were used every day. “Hello?”
“Agent...Lancaster?”
He turned away from Tina’s door and headed toward the skyline view. Darkness had fallen over the city now, but the lights from the skyscrapers still gleamed. “Who is this?”
“I believe you’ve been looking for me,” the voice said. It was a male’s voice. No accent. No inflection. “And I’ve been looking for you.”
He glanced toward the connecting door. He could still see Tina in there. Safe in bed. “I think you’ve got the wrong number.” His gut clenched and his body went on high alert.
Laughter. The cold kind. “No, I’ve got the right number, and I’ve got the right man.”
Drew strained to hear any background noise that might give the guy’s location away, but, unfortunately, he heard nothing.
“How valuable is she?” the voice asked him, still as calm and easy-as-you-please.
“Sorry, man, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His voice came out the same way. He could play this game all night long.
Devast. The big boss had actually called him. Called him on what should have been a secure line. Who was giving the guy this intel? They’d thought that the EOD had outed its traitor months back. A guy in the tech department who was now in a cold grave.
Someone else was on Devast’s side. The bombing on that plane and Devast’s access to his personal number proved it.
A sigh drifted to his ear. “Don’t waste my time, Agent Lancaster. I know exactly who you are. You know who I am. And you know what I want.”
Tina.
Fine. His cover was blown with the guy, so he could cut through the bull. “You’re not getting her.”
The laughter came again. “Why? Because it’s your job to keep her safe?” A taunt.
“Something like that.” He made sure to step away from the glass and yank the curtains closed. He was up so high that Devast shouldn’t be able to take a shot at him, but Drew had never been the type to take chances.
“I’ve learned a lot about you recently. After you killed my men, I had no choice but to learn.”
The guy spoke of death far too easily. But then, Devast had been an instrument of death for most of his life. “You sure don’t seem upset about losing them.”
“And you don’t seem upset about killing them.”
Once more, his gaze returned to Tina’s still form in that bed. She thought that she was safe right then.
She wasn’t.
Drew couldn’t track the call—he didn’t have the equipment handy—but was Devast tracking him? Right then? The HAVOC network was massive. And inside the EOD. “This call is over,” he said. He wasn’t going to risk revealing Tina’s location to—
“I want to make you an offer,” Devast said quickly. “Consider it a business deal. You give me what I want, and I’ll give you a million dollars.”
What? One million dollars was one hell of an offer.
“Like I said,” Devast continued, and now the guy sounded way too confident. “I learned a lot about you. I know that you’re a man who would once do anything for money. Lie. Cheat. Steal. And now...for Mercer...for his money, you kill.”
His back teeth had locked. “You don’t know as much about me as you seem to think.” He didn’t auction off his services to the highest bidder.
“Give me what I want,” Devast said, “and I’ll give you enough money to finally kick all of that poor Mississippi mud off your shoes.”
The bedcovers rustled softly from the other room. He turned away from the room and hunched his shoulders. “Who says there is anything wrong with that mud?”
Silence. Then... “Think about my offer. Think long hard about it. I’m giving you one chance. The money—and your life.”
For Tina’s life.
“I don’t give second chances, Agent Lancaster. This is your one opportunity. Be smart. Take it.”
The floor squeaked behind him. The scent of strawberries drifted in the air.
“Bring her to me. Forty-eight nineteen Demopolis Way. The old factory on the east end.”
Devast sure thought he’d found Drew’s price. “When?”
“Sunset. That will give you plenty of time to get her away from the other agents.”
And it would give Devast plenty of time to lay his trap. Drew was no fool.
I won’t betray her.