Fire (A Special Agent Novel Book 4) Read online

  “Just get it over with, Miriam, before I get someone to shove the stuff into you.” Alain glared at her, and this time she steeled herself to grab a hold of my forearm. I began to try and shake the chair again, but now there were three sets of hands holding it down, and it barely moved. I was screwed. Looking towards Lois, who was my last lifeline, I saw she was being held firmly between two guards. She wasn’t coming to my rescue either. As the tip of the needle pierced my skin, I stared into Lois’s pale grey eyes and found them filled with rage. They were also filled with tears, and she tried her best to blink them away now that she was under my gaze.

  I’ve never wanted to fuck a woman so badly in my life before, but they can fill me with all the drugs in the world, and it won’t change a thing. I will not put her life at risk. She means too much to me. I can’t lose her.

  “Don’t worry,” I mouthed at her, as the plunger on the syringe went down. “We’ll get through this.” She nodded her head back at me, and swallowed, as one solitary tear dribbled down her cheek. It nearly killed me.

  I felt like my insides were being torn apart. I will not put a death sentence around her neck tonight. There is no way I will let that happen because I won’t be able to live with the consequences.

  Everything around me then slowed down. Miriam capped the needle and placed it carefully back in her pocket, as most of the guards filed out of the room. Alain stood behind those that remained.

  “Take off the robe, Lois,” he ordered.

  Lois shook her head. “No.”

  “You want me to shoot you up, too? Some heroin, perhaps? Miriam, can you get…” Alain is cut off before Miriam comes rushing to do his bidding.

  “Fine, I’ll take it off,” Lois whispered miserably, letting the robe slip down her shoulders. Alain caught it as it fell and folded it up neatly in his hands.

  Lois stood there, looking like a goddess, in a pair of red stilettos and a black fishnet body stocking, with all the appropriate cut-outs. It covers every inch of her in black, crisscrossing lines except for her tits, cunt, and ass. They have left those exposed for easy access. I have never seen something so utterly beautiful, and yet horribly poisonous at the same time.

  “Untie him and strip him. Make sure the clothes and towels are removed, get rid of the sheets, and take the door off the bathroom. I want nothing left in this room that could be used to cover or tie someone up,” Alain yelled.

  The remaining guards scurried off to do his bidding and the cable ties holding me were cut one by one. My chair was then yanked away from me, so I had to stand up, and the robe was roughly torn from my body. I didn’t bother putting up a fight. My head was spinning. Standing on two feet was an effort right now.

  “It’s about time you had some fun, James. You enjoy yourself this evening, old chap. I’ll look forward to speaking with you in the morning.” Alain gave me a cheery wave and pushed Lois forward towards me. She tottered in her high heels for a second, before lurching sideways, and I put out my arms to catch her. She landed softly in my embrace and I pressed her close into my chest to steady her.

  I could hear Alain’s laughter all the way down the hall, even after the door had closed quietly behind him.

  Chapter Eight - Lois

  James’s heart is pounding in his chest, when he slowly releases me. When I pull away from him, he holds me tighter, so I settle back down again. I’m not afraid of him. Even though they’ve pumped him full of God knows what - he won’t hurt me. The worst that can happen tonight is that we have sex, and no matter which way I see it - I can’t look on that as punishment. If it happens, we’ll get through it somehow. I accepted this assignment, knowing that the chances of survival were slim. Although I don’t want to die under Alain’s knives with James watching, if that’s my fate - I will accept it. That doesn’t mean I won’t do everything in my power to try and avoid it, though.

  “I’m not an animal, Lois. I’m not going to force you.” James’s voice is rough in my ear. It sounds strained, and I’m not surprised.

  “I know you won’t, James. I’d trust you with my life.” As soon as I’ve said it, I realise it’s the wrong choice of words, and I know James is wincing behind me. This time when I try to pull away, he lets me. Turning to look at him, I cup my hands around his face.

  “Whatever happens here tonight, I will not hold it against you. One way or another Alain is going to get what he wants, so it might be kinder just to get the deed over with,” I whisper.

  James yanks my hands away from his face and looks aghast. “You don’t mean that, Lois. This is your life we’re talking about. I cannot have your death on my conscience. It will kill me just as surely as it will kill you, but there’s no way out for me.”

  What James is trying to say is that his fate will be as bad, if not worse than mine if he goes ahead and fucks me. I understand that pain. I’m already broken. I carry it inside me all the time. If this goes down the way Alain plans, I get death to look forward to, but James won’t be granted the same liberation.

  “You’re not killing me this time around, James. It’s the second time that will kill me. This time is not important.” It’s a statement of fact. Tonight is one step closer towards that, but he hasn’t buried me six foot under yet.

  “It’s one step too close, Lois. I’m not going to risk it. I already care for you far more than I should.”

  The admission should shock me, but it doesn’t. Every time I’ve tried to get close to James he’s pulled away or pushed me into the arms of Adie. At the time, I thought he didn’t give a damn, but after Alain’s revelation I now know the real reason behind the cold, inhuman façade. It’s a mask he wears to make sure no one gets close to him. I’d do the same thing if I was in his shoes.

  “I care about you, too,” I whisper.

  “I know.” He gives me a wicked smile. The James I know and love is still in there. Shit. Crap, what have I just said? Those three words echo in my head and I wonder if I’ve said them out loud. My face crumples.

  “Lois? Talk to me, Lois.” I haven’t. Jesus Christ. The relief is immediate. Thankfully, James isn’t looking at me. Moving over to the bed, he lies down, and I know why he’s doing it. He wants to slow the movement of the drug through his system. The more active he is, the faster it will be in his bloodstream. He’s trying to buy us some time.

  “I’m sorry for everything, James. I’m sorry for dragging you back here, and I’m sorry for digging up your past demons. I wish you’d have talked to me before I went in.” There was no way I was about to tell him I loved him. He didn’t need that on top of everything else he’d had to go through this week.

  James put his hands behind his head and looked thoughtful. “Would it have stopped you if I had?”

  “Probably not,” I replied. “Alain has his twisted little tendrils in me, too. I can’t risk any more lives, either. I know you know what that feels like,” I whisper. Sitting down on the upholstered chair in front of the little table, I stared at the unopened bottle of wine in front of me. It has little rivers of condensation running down from the neck, and I’m tempted to put the glass to my cheek to cool myself down.

  “He killed your partner, didn’t he?” I don’t answer that question, but the hooded gaze that I give him says it all. He nods. He’s seen that kind of pain before because he’s gone through it himself.

  “Do you ever think you’ll be able to put yourself back together?” I know he’s as broken as I am. He hides it better than me, but now I know what’s lurking beneath the surface, I realise that he’s in the same hell I face every day.

  “Honestly? I have no idea. Some days are better than others. People keep telling me that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but I’m beginning to wonder. There’s a crack in me a mile wide, and there’s not enough cement in the world to fill it.” His voice is far away, and it’s clear he’s lost in memories. I’m lost in mine, too, and all I can see right now is Kiel’s face flashing before me. His eyes haunt me on a daily basis, an
d I wonder if I’ll ever be able to put his ghost to rest.

  “And you?” James fires the question at me, pulling me back into the here and now.

  Chewing on my bottom lip, I take a moment to think how I want to answer this. “I don’t know. The pain is too raw. It sucks me under. When I’m on assignment, and my mind is occupied, I can just about cope. Otherwise, I’m useless. It’s a waiting game, or so I’ve been told.”

  He nods. I want to say the pain is different, and that I was in love with the person who died, but I don’t. James has been living under Alain Dumortier’s thumb for years, and that has to be worse than any hell imaginable. I’ve probably had it easy, when I consider what he’s had to witness in his time - and that’s saying something.

  “Did they give you anything?” James looks at me through narrowed eyes and his pale blue irises have darkened. I’m worried about him. He looks awful, and the drugs they’ve given him will overload his system. What he needs is a decent meal, and I’m sitting at the remains of what he’s tried to eat, and it isn’t much.

  “Miriam had her fun with me before I came in, yes.” That’s why I didn’t argue when they threatened to pump me with heroin. I’d have been virtually catatonic, and I needed to be awake through this.

  “Do you know what it was?” James’s eyes have darkened further, and it was clear the thought angered him.

  I shook my head. “I have no idea.” I don’t say that I’m already aroused to hell, and that my pussy is dripping wet, thinking of having him inside me. I want to tell him, but I don’t let the words past my lips. My inhibitions are already being broken down, and it scares me. I don’t want to be spilling all my secrets to James this evening.

  “What are you thinking?” His eyes narrow and I swear that man can read my mind.

  “Trust me, you don’t want to know.” My fingers strum on the shiny wood veneer that covers the desk. The sound is soothing, and it gives me something to do.

  “Lois,” he says warningly.

  “Leave it,” I say sharply. “It will just torture us both.”

  “Oh.” He sounds surprised but nods his head in understanding. I wonder if he is thinking the same thing. As his eyes then dip to my chest, I know that he is. Crossing my arms over my boobs, I give him a look.

  “Hey, you can’t blame a guy for dreaming. You look fucking amazing in that getup.” His eyes devour me, even though most of my body is hidden behind the desk. That’s the first sign that James’s control is slipping. He’s normally very careful not to look at me.

  “So, should we just get this over with? You and I both know that whatever happens here tonight, Alain will have a plan ‘B.’ We’ll be doing this whether we want to or not.” I can already feel the net closing in around me, and if James can’t then he’s got his head stuck in the sand.

  James’s face jolts upwards and he looks at me incredulously. “Lois. This isn’t happening. Alain can’t force me to sleep with you. I don’t care what he’s pumped into me - it won’t turn me into some kind of monster that takes women against their will.”

  “Fine, if that’s the way you want to play it, so be it.” James is kidding himself though. Even if we don’t do this tonight, Alain will come back again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next until the deed is done. He knows I’m the weak link in this chain, so his next stop will be working out how to manipulate me. “What now?”

  My eyes are drawn to James’s abs and they meander slowly down his bronzed body, towards his cock. At the moment it’s at half mast, but as soon as he catches my eyes on him, it begins to grow. I find myself licking my lips as the beast between his legs rises and the sound of my blood rushing around my body feels like it’s almost audible in my head.

  “Lois,” James growls in warning. Turning my head away, I take a deep, shaky breath. My clit is now throbbing painfully, and I desperately want to touch myself. If I feel like this now, within just a few minutes of being drugged, what the hell am I going to feel like in an hour’s time?

  “He’s given us Viagra, hasn’t he?” I didn’t really need an answer to that question. It would be one of the most obvious drugs to use, and it would keep us up all night.

  “Among other things, yes.” James does not look amused.

  Putting the heel of my left hand to my forehead, I settled it against the bridge of my nose. Could I cope with being horny as hell all evening? Tonight would feel like an eternity if I had to sit here and watch James in all of his naked glory, while not even being able to touch him. I’m beginning to wonder if Alain and his knives wouldn’t have been the better bet. I couldn’t help a snigger.

  “See something amusing, Lois?” James’s voice has now deepened into a sultry purr, and it sends tingles of desire up my spine. My nipples harden to sharp points and I can feel James’s eyes on them, without looking.

  “I was just thinking I’d rather have Alain’s knives upon me than this kind of torture. I’m not sure I can stare at your naked body all night without being able to lay a finger on you.”

  James groaned. “You’re not helping, Lois. Try to think of something else, anything else.” He then rolled onto his stomach, so he didn’t have to look at me. I did my best to take it as a compliment.

  “God, my head’s feeling fuzzy.” In my case, it’s definitely not from lack of food, so I know that this is the drugs talking. At the moment, I feel drunk. If I stand up, I’ll stagger about and giggle. I wonder if James is feeling the same way. While he might be much bigger than I am, they haven’t fed him properly in days.

  “They might have given one of us Rohypnol.” That thought sobers me up. If I woke up tomorrow morning with no knowledge of what I’d done, that was going to be scary.

  James shakes his head. “He won’t give you that. He’ll want you to remember. This way, if one of us steps out of line, he’ll just threaten to throw the two of us together again. If we give him tonight, we give him the means to control us.” His hands reached for the hair on the top of his head, and he pulled at it in frustration.

  “What about Adie?” I asked. “Will he go back to work for his father?” The thought is abhorrent. I have first-hand knowledge of what they do to those poor girls, and it isn’t pretty.

  “He’ll have to if he’s given no other choice. It all depends on whether or not he wants to save our necks.” James finally lets go of his hair and thumps his wrists into the mattress.

  “Did you…” he cuts himself of.

  “Did I what?” I question.

  “Forget I asked.”

  “James,” I groaned. “You can’t do that to a girl. My curiosity gene is now on red alert. You’ve just poured gasoline on a lit barbeque. Did I what?”

  “I let your question go. You need to let mine go.” James then buried his head in the mattress as if to prevent further outbursts. A moment ago, that might have worked, but I was now feeling rather happy, confident, and excited. It was an interesting combination, but I was going with it.

  “If you don’t tell me, Leveritt. I’ll hop on the bed and spank your ass.” I was already imagining my hand slamming down onto his smooth, tanned flesh, and I have to say, I had a taste for the idea.

  “Lois, this is exactly what Alain wants to happen. Fight it.” His words made me snicker. Somewhere inside my brain, something is trying to tell me that what James is saying makes sense. Elsewhere inside that same brain, I’ve been hit by a truck which had given me super-powers enabling me to conquer the world. Both sides war for a second, but the truck side comes out on top. Straightening my feet out from under the desk, I flip my heels off, hearing them thud to the floor beneath. I’ve been wanting to have fun with James for ages, and this seems like too good an opportunity to miss.

  Sauntering over to the bed, I climb up and straddle myself on either side of James’s legs, so his butt is right below me. Lowering my body down, I gently scrape my fingernails down the length of his back.

  “Lois, if you test me this evening, I will spank your ass red raw and make
sure you won’t be able to walk for a week.” James sounds all frowny and cross, but I don’t let that deter me.

  “You’ll have to catch me first,” I murmur, as my hands wander down to his buttocks. They are firm, muscled, and taut, and they have me in raptures. I spank one lightly, just for the hell of it, and it barely moves. This man’s body should be X-rated, and this evening it’s mine - all mine.

  “Lois,” James says warningly, “this is the last time I’ll ask. If you don’t get off me this instant and go back to your chair, I’ll bend you over my knee and I won’t stop until you’re sorry.” His voice has that dangerous, lethal quality that I so adore. It literally lights up every nerve ending in my body and turns me on even more than I am already. If he thinks I’m scared of his hand swatting my ass, he’s much mistaken.

  “Promises, promises,” I purr. There’s then a charged silence as both of us wait to see what the other will do. James lays very still, trying to coax me into doing the right thing. I already know what I’m going to do, but I’m still enjoying the feel of James’s skin under my fingertips. Leaning forward I breathe him in, inhaling the soft scent of lavender shower gel as I move back up his body. When my hand gets to his neck, my fingers tangle in a small lock of dark hair, and I tug it lightly. He growls, but the move isn’t enough to spur him into action. I know what will, though. Pressing my hands into his back, splaying my fingertips, I work my body back upwards again, and stare longingly at his two pert buttocks. I have an insane urge to dig my teeth into one, but I put a lid on it. I’ll save my vampiric tendencies for later. Right now, I want to send him from nought to DEFCON1 in a split second, and I know exactly how to go about it.

  Pulling my hand back hard, I whip it forward and let it fly. It feels good - too good. It slams into James’s backside with a loud crack, and stings like crazy. So, this is what spanking feels like. I could totally get into this. Bringing my hand back to go for another shot, my world then tips upside down.