Fire & Ice (Taming Team TEN Book Four) Read online

  “Behave,” Grant whispered in her ear.

  Jessie groaned as she wiggled on him, making him hard in seconds. He kissed her, putting everything he had into it so she felt cherished and loved. He had become gloriously addicted to her, and he would never let her go, Jessie thought as she moved a little.

  Grant ran a hand from the back of her neck to her ass, petting her backside with a tenderness that brought tears to her eyes, she felt like they were worshiping her body. He pressed on her back, and she relaxed against Jessie. They moved her slowly until his cock was buried inside of her and she sighed.

  Grant caressed her ass and squeezed her cheeks and then she felt him trace a finger around her opening. She heard the tube open and felt the coldness, as he made sure she was slick. She moaned and pushed against him, begging for more of his touch.

  “Oh yeah,” she whispered, the heat from their bodies thrilling her. She rubbed her face against Jessie’s chest, loving it when he thrust his cock into her deeper as she used her inner muscles to squeeze him.

  Grant grabbed her hips and held her still. “Not yet, sweetheart, let us do this.” She felt him move until his cock was pressed against her tight opening. He pressed slowly into her until she felt him enter.

  “Yes,” she cried. Shivers racked her body as her arousal began to grow and almost boil over. “Too much.”

  “Not enough, baby, let us take you there,” Jessie said and thrust a little so she could feel them inside her together.

  The sweet friction of their cocks drove her crazy as they pulled out and thrust into her. They set a slow pace, holding her still as they loved her. She was completely theirs and at their mercy to give her what she needed. The thought almost made her come. Brin closed her eyes and just allowed herself to feel.

  Both of their cocks stroking her loving passages as she clenched a little, let them know what she was feeling.

  “I can’t hold back,” Jessie said. Grant made a noise in response and she felt them pick up the pace.

  Brin felt her orgasm rise, grow, consume until she thought she would die. The electric shocks their cocks were making in her, was nothing short of a miracle.

  When she exploded with ecstasy, screaming from the depths of her soul her love for them, the flames engulfed the three of them. She didn’t hear their response, only the muffled thunder of her beating heart as she tried to control herself.

  As they stilled, they collapsed to the side, remaining in contact with each other.

  “Holy shit,” Jessie said.

  “Ditto,” Grant said.

  “Well said,” Brin laughed and then said, “I think I can live with this.”

  Part Three

  Leaving in Search of Answers

  "They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong."

  Ronald Reagan

  Chapter Thirteen

  Vince ran a hand through his short cut hair in frustration. Weeks he had been calling to try to find her, and weeks he had come up against dead ends. Maybe he was going about it wrong, he contacted outside sources because he hadn't wanted to draw attention to the fact he was looking for a foreign Middle Eastern woman. It could be detrimental to her since he still hadn’t come up with why he was looking for her.

  The only thing he knew was the blanket in the picture was the one he gave to a woman who at one time he had been very close to. Working with NATO, Vince had crawled up through the ranks of the political mumbo jumbo. He had taken a hard course, but one where he was certain he belonged.

  General Tobol retired as the head of the NATO Troops training. It was a position he had been good at, working with different countries to coordinate if actions were needed. During that time, he met Amani Faisal, the Ambassador of Rhutain.

  He of course then had been a lower rank, a commander, single and never married. Vince had been lonely. Amani's husband had been killed in battle, and she was just beginning her political career. They had fallen in love, but it had not been meant to be. Her country would never have allowed them to be together, and so she had been forced to find a proper husband. Their affair had burned hot and fast.

  When he had learned after her marriage of convenience that she was pregnant, it had crushed him. He sent the blanket to her through the proper channels in defiance. He wanted her to know that he felt the betrayal. Vince had been heart broken, and he buried himself in his work, met his late wife, a wonderful woman who had been a secretary of his predecessor, and went on with his life. Only seeing Amani a few times before he retired.

  He heard a noise and looked up. Tulu stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips looking pissed. “Hi,” he said stupidly.

  “Don’t you hi me, I have been waiting for you to ask me to help for a while now, and I am out of patience for this shit,” Tulu announced and swept in the room.

  Vince looked at her confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “You stubborn ass man,” Tulu said.

  When they met, Vince had been so excited; his wife had been the same way, spoken to spirits that had passed over. He had been attracted to her aura. She was amazing, reminded him of how long he had been alone.

  They had begun to become close over the last few weeks, Vince was sure they would be doing the horizontal mambo soon, something he looked forward to. Well, unless he screwed things up before that could happen.

  “You aren’t the only one with connections, dipshit,” Tulu said and picked up the phone and dialed one of the States Representatives who she had helped years ago connect with his late brother.

  It only took a few moments for him to come on the line. “Miss Tulu, how can I help you?”

  “You smooth talker, Thomas, how is the wife?” Tulu said into the phone.

  “Good, she loved the gumbo recipe you sent her, so did I,” the Senator said.

  “Great, hey can you help me?” Tulu said.

  “Of course,” the Senator replied quickly.

  “I am looking for someone who worked with an embassy a long time ago. A current client wants to connect with her again. Her late husband is haunting him with a message. How would you go about finding her now, you know, without going through official channels?”

  “I could poke around a little, if you have a name? I know how hard it is when someone is bugging you,” the Senator said. And he did, his brother, God rest his soul, had tried to contact him for years, turning off and on the lights in his bedroom in the middle of the night until his wife insisted on him figuring out what was going on. It had taken Tulu fifteen minutes to determine his brother wanted to apologize to him for wrecking his car in the accident that had taken his life.

  “Name?” Tulu said to Vince.

  “Amani Faisal,” Vincent said.

  "Did you get that?" Tulu asked.

  “Yes, I will call when I have something,” the Senator said.

  “Thank you,” Tulu said and put the phone down. “See, a little lie and you don’t have to tell your sordid story to the world.”

  Vince chuckled. “Maybe we should let the women take care of the investigating, you seem better at it than we do.”

  “Damn right, now dinner, then I will let you walk me to my room and if you are good, come in for a nightcap,” Tulu said and walked out of the room.

  What a woman, Vince thought and followed.

  Dinner was a loud affair, with the men joking and laughing with each other and the women rolling their eyes perpetually. Somehow, the conversation took a wrong turn, and there was no one to pull it back.

  “Hey, we need to get some soundproofing down if we are going to be staying together at the ranch,” Drake grumbled.

  “Jealous?” Jessie laughed and slapped his friend on the back.

  “Well yeah, I am having nightmares now, ‘oh Alex, oh Jessie’, dude, it is just wrong,” Drake said and glared at his friends.

  Mason looked at Arden and grinned, “Looks like we are gonna have to step it up a notch, can't have them beating me.”

 
; David grinned, “Us too, though Jolie has learned to be quiet because of Sammi. After waking her up a few times, a ball gag was requested.”

  The room laughed. “Watch out, or you are all gonna be sleeping on the couch.” Sable laughed.

  “Baby, you wouldn’t do that,” Slone said slyly. “You can’t sleep without us relaxing you a little.”

  “Relaxing my ass,” Sable growled.

  “I can do that,” Alex said and raised his hand and slapped her ass when she stood up. Sable glared at him good-naturedly and then kissed him.

  “Bad boy.” Sable laughed.

  That set off a round of the catch song from the TV show COPS. The women were laughing so hard when they were done, they had tears in their eyes. Especially when the guys decided to try to dance suggestively to the catchy tune.

  Timothy and Vince shook their heads. “Looks like you boys need a lesson in romance,” Timothy said.

  Lou laughed. “And what are you gonna be showing these young men?”

  “How to keep their women satisfied.” Timothy laughed and slapped Lou’s ass.

  The conversation went downhill from there until the phone rang. Alex got up to answer it, and when they heard the tense tone he had after a second, they all fell silent. Reality had crashed back into their little world.

  “Joel’s ATM was accessed a few hours ago. The tape showed a man in his thirties taking out the max. By the time the cops got there, he was gone,” Alex said grimly.

  Drake stood and slammed his fist into the door as he stormed out of the room. “I got him,” Thane said as he stood and followed their frustrated teammate.

  “They are also sending a new round of Intel, we need to look it over, and apparently some of the chatter has to do with us,” Alex said.

  The men all stood and walked out of the kitchen, the good mood forgotten. Sable stood and started to clean up the table. The rest of them stood silently and began to help.

  Brin walked into the small alcove, looking down at her son who was asleep and looking peaceful. She hoped when all this was over, they would be able to truly have a family night, with everyone present.

  “Okay once again,” Thane said and leaned against the wall, “let’s run down what we know.”

  Jessie sighed and stood. “If we go by the way the items were arranged in the room it makes no sense. They are random things that could mean anything. But see, the way we received the pictures is not how they were laid out. The blanket was in the front, I would assume because it was the first in chronological order, since it has something to do with Vince.”

  “Why is the blanket so important?” Drake growled.

  “It is who it belonged to I think,” Jessie said.

  “The kid?” West said. “Makes sense, he would be what, thirty? But what does that have to do with the other things?”

  “The second one is the piece of the building. It is from somewhere in the Middle East, again a pattern because of the woman who Vince gave the blanket to is Middle Eastern,” Alex said and pointed. “We haven’t been able to get much of the small picture here, so far, we have narrowed it down to three countries we were in.”

  “The bullet,” Gage said taking over, “is one from our sniper rifles. It has the same markings we used for only a few missions. Each box of ammo the TEN used was different. We spelled it backwards for only the year I have written up on the board.”

  “During that time we were in all three countries we narrowed down,” Alex said. “So no clues there. And the blanket is from a completely different place.”

  “The M16 is from a batch we think was stolen from the US and smuggled into the Middle East. Basically they could have gone anywhere, but on mission seven we were on, we blew up a weapons cache,” Mason said. “Once again, in the same three countries.”

  “The keys to the scooter match ones that can be rented all over the Middle East. We have used them on thirteen missions all in the three countries in question,” Drake said.

  “And finally the bastard who killed our friends, the last mission. No one but us would know what he looked like. So sending it is like waving a red flag, telling us whoever is behind this wants us to know he is responsible for our friends dying,” Thane said quietly.

  Alex cleared his throat and looked around the room. They were all here again. Mason, Jessie, and Gage all stared at their friends with sadness. Seeing them again while they were talking about this sucked. “They are here.”

  “We know,” Thane said. “They should be.”

  Jessie watched as the fallen men looked at the board silently. Taking in each and every piece of information they had laid out. Mark turned and looked at Jessie.

  “There has to be a common denominator,” Mark said.

  “If there is we can't find it,” Jessie whispered.

  Ted stepped up and looked at Gage, “The message says you have to be sorry for something. But what?”

  “If I knew that, we wouldn’t be sitting here,” Gage muttered.

  Frank looked at Alex, “Why is the kid so important?”

  Alex shrugged. “Because he is the one we are looking for?”

  John shook his head and looked at Mason. “This team has been on a lot of missions, just like the rest of them. Why this team, why now?”

  Mason looked at the pictures. “Because we know something important. Something we don't think was important.”

  Mark laughed and clapped his hands. “You are missing the point. The letter says you have to apologize for something and these are all clues for something you have to be sorry for. So why would you have to be sorry for a kid, a building blowing up, a shot taken, a gun destroyed, keys for a transport, and a prick who killed himself. What clue is not here?”

  “Well shit,” Jessie said and looked at the stuff. “Can’t you just tell us, 'cause I have to say, this is confusing as hell.”

  “You aren’t looking at the right things in the reports,” Mark said quietly.

  “Why?” Jessie frowned.

  “You are looking at what you did,” Mark said.

  “Not who we affected,” Jessie said slamming his hand down on the table. “We need to call the Commander. We need the Intel on the missions, not the missions themselves. We need to see if any of the missions gained us Intel for another mission.”

  The men swore and pulled out their phones, fighting on who was calling to admit they were idiots to the Commander.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “We need to make a decision,” Thane said in the living room the next morning.

  All of them were gathered together. The women filled in on what they had discovered so far. Brin dreaded this meeting. She knew they were going to tell her something she didn’t want to hear.

  “About?” Sable asked softly.

  “Some of us are going to have to go to San Diego. We don’t have a choice anymore. The information is there. And Joel Lipit, Brian’s brother is in trouble. We need to find him,” Thane said softly.

  “Okay,” Jolie said and looked around the room at the men’s faces. “So what you are saying is Alex, Gage, Mason, Jessie, Drake, and you Thane, all need to go?”

  Thane sighed and nodded his head. “We have to.”

  Brin felt the tears already gathering. “Why?”

  Jessie turned to her and put a hand on her cheek. “We have to finish this. For them.”

  Tulu stood and nodded to Vince. “Vince is going as well, somehow he is involved. Before they go though, the boys want to talk to you—all together.” The women looked up in surprise but Jolie was the one who said.

  “Can you do that?”

  “Kinda, with a little help,” Tulu said and nodded. Vince stood and walked around the room. “I need the men who can already see them to stand around in a circle. Each of you need to make sure you are within an arm's length from each other.”

  They nodded and did as she asked.

  “The rest need to sit closer together, I will stand in the middle with Bea. Together we are going to try to
channel them. Don’t yell and freak out though. Scares the shit out of me.”

  They laughed and nodded.

  “I know this is like weird and shit. But trust me, go in with an open mind and it will work.”

  Once again they nodded but relaxed. Once they were in place, Brin looked around and waited. She was not sure about this, but she trusted them all. It seemed to take hours, but was only minutes until she felt a breeze. There were no windows open so she looked around. Outside of the circle stood the men she knew to be dead.

  Her eyes saw Frank grinning, Brian looking seriously at Drake, Ted and his wife, Marie, holding hands and smiling down at their daughter who was in Jolie’s lap, Sam who looked pissed, John holding a sandwich and laughing, and there was her brother, standing tall and nodding at her. She choked a sob at the sight of him. He looked so alive, even though she knew it wasn’t true.

  Thane and Drake looked around, they had not seen their fallen friend’s before and Brin knew they were worried about how this was going to go. Who wouldn’t be? Seeing someone you felt responsible for—dead—had to be hard.

  “Brian and Sam are not talking yet,” Frank said quietly. “Sorry, it is not time for them, but soon, guys. Sam won't speak at all for now, but Brian will be allowed to speak a small amount, just not yet.”

  “Damn rules,” John said. “But seriously, we wanted to talk to you for a few reasons. We are nearing the end of our time here, guys. And to be honest, none of us know where we are gonna be after tonight, or if we are going to be able to talk to the girls again. We have to stay with you. Arden, stop blaming yourself, or I am gonna have to haunt your ass.”

  Arden rolled her eyes and nodded with tears running down her cheeks.

  Frank looked at his sister, then leaned over and ran a hand over her stomach and smiled. “I told you I would be with you, don’t forget that.”

  Sable nodded and smiled. “I know, I can feel you.”