Liquid heat climbed through him, and he growled out all the pleasure she gave him. She angled her hips, and he sank even deeper.
“Oh hell… Rose, you feel so goddamn good around me. Feel my cock stretching you?”
“Yesss.”
He pulled out and thrust home again. She bit into his shoulder, stifling a scream. When he cupped her breast and stroked her hard nipple, she gulped back another cry. The darkness of all the acts he’d performed in his life came to light—and her bright rays of goodness burned them away.
I seek confession.
The confession of a member of the Church held a totally different meaning to this one. When the wild jerks of their hips and the slapping of their bodies turned to a frenzy of need, everything bad flowed away.
He pumped his hips. Her pussy clamped down. Their gazes locked, and then she closed her eyes on the wave of pleasure hitting her. His own orgasm slammed him.
Chapter Seven
“Why, hello, Father. We heard you had some fun.” North’s joking tone was exactly what Oz needed right now. He needed a reminder of his roots to ground him and let him regroup after what just passed between him and Rose.
He’d left her sleeping in the other room and didn’t want to think about why he stood at the bedside so long, just staring down at her.
“Not much fun. Just a short altercation.”
“Which you handled,” North responded.
“Yeah. So I’m guessing you and Sister have some information about the assailants.”
“You’d be right. We’ve got a Joseph R Lang, born and bred in Louisville. Served with the 121st infantry in Afghanistan. Caught with an illegal substance and given dishonorable discharge.”
“I figured you’d find they all had pasts. Tell me about the others.”
While he listened to North’s accounting, he kept an ear trained on the bedroom. He couldn’t allow Rose to overhear anything that might compromise her.
After North closed the topic, Oz said, “Find all the buddies of those men. Anyone who served with them or got in trouble with them since. We need to know every single man to hit.”
“Got it, boss.”
“And what have you heard about Lars?” He held a tight rein on his frustration over the matter of Lars.
“He’s still in the wind. Hasn’t surfaced yet.”
“If anybody knows how to bury himself, it’s Lars.”
“He’s found a way around the tracking device,” North said.
Hell, he might be gone for years before The Guard got a bead on him again. Oz had trained him to be the best, and he fucking was.
“Oz…we found something else in connection to Lars.”
“Tell me.” The command in his voice came out with a harder edge.
“A snippet of a call that took place. It was spoken in code, but you know Madeline and code.”
“What did it say?”
“She translated it to Russian and then to English, and there’s only a few words, but—”
“What the fuck did it say?” he demanded.
“Meet St. Petersburg. Show the falcon.”
“The falcon,” he repeated in a flat voice.
“Yes, you remember the—”
“I fucking remember what the falcon is and what it means to us.” Goddammit, Lars. What did you do? Showing the falcon meant revealing more than any of them ever had in order to make a deal.
“Isn’t that enough for you, Oz?”
“I’m not putting a contract out on him yet, goddammit.”
“Then when?”
“I’ll call the shot if it comes to that. Just keep me updated about any other transmissions.”
“We will.”
“Seems odd, though…that we don’t hear anything from Lars for weeks and then this comes through. Almost as if he let it slip so we would hear it.” Oz stared at the doorway leading to the room where Rose slept. Suddenly, exhaustion bore down on him. Maybe he was getting too old for this shit.
“You could be right, Oz. But you could be wrong.” North, prosaic as always, brought a rueful chuckle to Oz’s lips. “There’s only two sides of the fence you can ride.”
Oz clenched his jaw. “That’s where you’re wrong, North. Have I taught you nothing? We know the lines are blurred into gray all the damn time. Now tell me about Gilly. Was he avenged?”
North rolled with the change of topic. “Frisco and some of the others took out four who confessed to killing him.”
Christ. Four. He’d never guessed four men waited for them on that dock.
From the other room, he heard a step on the floor.
“I expect the bastards got justice.”
“They did.”
“Good. Now I need you to cover every move I make, you understand?”
“Got your back, Daddy.”
Since he couldn’t glare at his man, Oz hesitated for full effect.
“Father,” North corrected. “Man, is there ever a moment when you aren’t a complete hard ass?”
Rose appeared in the doorway, looking refreshed and beautiful even in the jeans she’d managed to snag from that closet. Oz kept his gaze trained on her when he said, “Yes. Quite a few moments, actually. You know what else I need concerning my ward.”
“Shelter.”
“Yes. Find the best fucking men we have to watch over her while I end this. Got it?”
“We will.”
“Watch your six. I’ll be in touch.” Oz hung up without a word of farewell.
Rose stopped in the doorway and met his gaze. “Am I interrupting?”
“I’m finished.”
“Finished with what?”
He shot her a crooked smile. “You know damn well I can’t answer that.”
“Was worth a try.” She smiled back and came toward him.
Christ…she couldn’t stay in his life. Yet after spending a couple days with her, she was all he wanted.
She slipped her arms around his shoulders and pressed a kiss to his neck. One simple kiss that fucking impacted his heart like a missile capable of wiping a whole damn country off the map. And that rough, needy sex they’d just shared exorcised him of more demons than he ever knew he carried inside him.
He drew her close and brushed a kiss across her forehead.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he absorbed the pain of having touched her again. And connecting with her hurt more than any injury sustained in his career.
Sometimes a guard must become a hunter. In this case… Hell, it was best that he walk away.
Soon he would have a place to take her—a place to keep her safe not only from what he was about to do, but safe from him.
* * * * *
Rose stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. The plush terrycloth felt good against her skin. She had to hand it to Oz and whatever organization he worked for—so far he’d provided some good living quarters. So good, in fact, it was easy for her to forget her reason for being here with him.
She toweled the water from her hair and wrapped the fabric around her head, then reached for the garments she had to wear. The previous night she’d washed out her underwear and hung them on the shower door to dry, and she slipped them on along with her own sports bra. The jeans she’d taken from the closet back in the…hotel or whatever it was. As well as a loose T-shirt and hoodie she’d been thankful for against the chilly nights on the coast.