Crazy Enough

Crazy Enough: Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Bye, Alex..."

Alex opened his eyes and lifted his head when the door clicked. The morning sun had already peeked over the horizon. Corkie was gone. He pretended to sleep for the last hour, wondering when she'd make her move...because she would. He never doubted that. Then, about five minutes ago, he felt her roll off the bed, heard her tiptoe around the room...and leave.

With a heavy sigh, he dropped his head and eyed the belt knotted around his wrists, his mouth twitching in remembrance of her tying him to the bedframe that last round of sex. He couldn't recall how she managed to persuade his permission for that, but during the time, he gave it freely. Tackling the loose knot, Alex's mind drifted backward. The second he kissed her in the shower, they forgot just about everything but each other. Seventeen hours, they explored the boundaries of their bodies.

God, had it really been that long? It seemed just minutes ago he heard her say she wanted him. Alex smiled. His nińa had been a very naughty girl throughout the night. There were scratches on his back, bite marks on his shoulder and thighs. And he swore there was even a hickey or two where his Adam's apple bobbed in his throat. She wasn't shy, that's for damn sure. He took her over and over on the bed. She brought him to his knees in front of the window. He hiked her up on the small table. And she demonstrated just how flexible she could be when clinging to the curtains. She didn't seem to care about taste, texture or decency. When provoked, she was a woman guided by her lust, and Alex admired her adventurous nature. She was a woman he could love—

"Don't even go there," he told himself. None of last night had anything to do with...that word. It had been pure, triple-x-rated sex...plain and simple.

Well...not simple. Nothing that lasted seventeen hours could be described as simple. Sure, they took breaks...bathroom, water, even ordered some food from a place down the street. But they were rarely not on top of one another throughout the afternoon and night. At times, he passed out, his body unable to move, but his little snoozes never lasted long. She would start with that tongue of hers, and he was right back to full-blown glory and readiness. After the third time she did that, he figured out what she was doing, why she wanted him to stay awake and active, but he had that fake camera card and was only too happy to follow along.

And looking back, he knew that the one thing he enjoyed most from the night...was her laugh. She told him stories about her childhood while he struggled to catch his breath, and she laughed. She teased him relentlessly with her wicked tongue, and she laughed. He tickled her ribs and inner thighs with his whiskers, and she laughed. God, when she wasn't breathless or screaming his name, she was laughing, a joyous, sexy sound that kept him from succumbing to exhaustion, just to hear it one more time...and then again... and again...

And now, he'd never hear that laugh again. They were done. With a weary, exhausted breath, he pushed himself from the bed, looked out the window to see Corkie climb into Ivan's truck with a triumphant grin, and thought, She's finally going home, she'll be safe, and I have a job to finish.

Alex quickly got dressed, retrieved her camera card from under the bathroom sink where he wedged it into a crack, and left the hotel room to trot the two miles to the border and make absolutely sure Corkie got back into America. A couple hours later, he met his covert extraction team on the outskirts of town and caught a little sleep as they transported him back to base.

That night, he sat across a table from Colonel Davenport, the legend himself, as he relayed the events of his three-day scouting assignment, disclosed everything relevant to his mission, and showed the pictures that Corkie had taken. Afterward, Alex sat back to watch the man's face twitch.