Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down

  He ran his fingers over her, letting her wetness coat his fingers as he imagined what was to come. Of sinking himself deep inside her.

  She moved forward. Ace leaned back as she crawled up his body.

  Rhea couldn't wait to have him inside her. She straddled his waist, then slid herself back until she felt his hard, probing tip pressing against the part of her that was aching and throbbing most for his touch.

  Ace lifted his hips and slid himself in all the way to his hilt.

  She cried out in pleasure at the fullness of him inside her. "Ace," she choked, rocking herself against him. It felt so good to have him there.

  He gripped her hips as he met her strokes and drove himself even deeper inside her.

  Ace watched her in awe as she took control of their pleasure. His little uptight agent was as wild as any woman he'd ever slept with.

  No, she was better.

  She braced her hands against his chest as she ground herself against him in time to his rapid heartbeat. Leaning his head up, he took her breast into his mouth while he continued to hold her waist.

  He licked and teased the taut peak, letting the roughness of it please his tongue.

  Rhea couldn't think straight as she felt Ace with every molecule of her body. He was so much more than she had ever thought. He touched her like a man who actually cared for her, and it had been a long, long time since she'd felt that.

  They made love furiously until her body couldn't take any more. Crying out, she fell forward onto his chest and let her release claim her. All she could hear was his heart pounding while the scent of him filled her senses.

  Ace growled at the sensation of her body grasping his. He quickened his strokes as she continued to climax until he found his own moment of pure bliss.

  His breathing ragged, he held her close to his chest where their hearts pounded together while his body spent itself inside her. In all honesty, he didn't want this moment to end.

  It was perfect.

  The feeling of her head against his chest. Her body molded to his. Her breath tickling his nipple.

  If he lived an eternity, he would never know anything better than the feeling of Rhea in his arms.

  Rhea closed her eyes as her heart finally slowed to a normal rate. The warmth of his body seeped into hers. In all her days of bantering with Ace, she'd never have guessed he would be like this. So tender and loving after sex.

  He didn't seem to be in any hurry to get up, and the floor couldn't be all that comfortable for him.

  "So what's on the menu for tomorrow?" he asked.

  She laughed at that. "I'm not sure. What are you thinking?"

  "I need more condoms."

  "Ugh!" She pushed herself up to look down at him. "Do you ever have anything else on your mind?"'

  "Food. But that only lasts about as long as it takes me to get a steak."

  She shook her head at him. "Stop playing on the bad stereotype."

  "I am a bad stereotype so long as you're lying naked on me. How on earth am I supposed to think about anything else?"

  As she started to pull away, he stopped her with a fierce, hungry kiss that set every hormone in her body on fire again. This man had a mouth that was pure magic.

  He pulled back, but left his hand buried in her hair. "Thank you, Rhea," he said sincerely, his gaze burning into hers.

  "You're very welcome."

  Reluctantly, she moved off him and headed back into the bathroom for the shower. "Want to join me?"

  He gave her a hot once-over. "Pinocchio. There's no way I can go in there and not have another round. Since there's no more condoms..."

  He was right. "Okay, I'll just be a minute."

  Turning around, she shut the door and grabbed a towel out of her cabinet.

  Rhea was still amazed that she wasn't more self-conscious around him. This wasn't like her and yet she felt so comfortable with him that it was almost terrifying.

  She showered quickly, then opened the curtain to find Ace leaning against her bathroom vanity. He was hard again.

  "Did you know you can see a perfect outline of your body when you're in there?"

  "No."

  He moved forward and nuzzled her neck before he gently licked the sensitive flesh right below her ear. "I can't believe what you do to me," he breathed in her ear, sending chills over her body.

  He kissed her cheek, gave a light grope to her breast, then released her and entered her shower as she left it.

  Rhea was so aroused that it was all she could do not to rip open the curtain and pin him to her shower wall.

  He was more tempting than any man had a right to be.

  But neither one of them needed her to get pregnant.

  Forcing herself to dress, Rhea went to her bedroom. By the time she was dressed and had remade the bed, Ace joined her.

  "Thinking of new ways to torture me?" he asked as she unfastened the restraints.

  She opened her mouth to respond, but the sight of him wet, wearing nothing but a white towel, made all rational thoughts flee.

  "You have to stop looking at me like that, Rhea."

  "Like what?"

  "Like I'm a piece of chocolate you're dying to taste. It gives me a hard-on every time."

  She could easily see the proof of that statement. "Sorry, but it would help if you didn't parade yourself around naked in my presence."

  He indicated his clothes, which were on her dresser, as he crossed the room to stand before her. "It's not exactly my fault."

  "Oh, in that case, I better leave you alone while you put your clothes on."

  "I'd rather you not."

  She nibbled his chin before she pulled away. "If we don't stop, we're going to do something that could get us into serious trouble."

  "I know," he whispered. "Okay, time for clothes."

  Before she could leave the room, his cell phone rang. Ace picked it up and answered it.

  "Hey, Joe." Ace cast an amused look at her, then winked. "No, obviously I'm not tied up since I answered the phone.... Thanks. So what do you need?"

  Anxious as to why Joe might be calling, she moved forward, hoping to overhear something.

  "Yeah, we'll be right there." He hung up.

  "What's going on?"

  "Joe just got word that Bender's sent out a call to his clients. Apparently he's found an abandoned arsenal of old Soviet weapons, including some nuclear. We need to get to the office for a briefing."

  That succeeded in stifling her renegade passion. "I'll be waiting by the door."

  Ace nodded and reached for his pants while she left him alone. Today had been a major mistake. He knew it.

  As agents, they were supposed to stay detached, especially from each other. But after this morning, he wasn't feeling detached from Rhea.

  Then again, he'd never been detached from her.

  In fact, he was feeling extremely possessive. The thought of a bastard like Bender seeing her in that dominatrix outfit was almost enough to send him over the edge.

  He didn't want anyone to see her like that. Anyone but him.

  And how could he send her in there with a madman now?

  Oh, this wasn't good. He'd never felt like this for another woman.

  "Get a grip." He buttoned his pants, then reached for his shirt.

  The two of them had a mission and he wasn't about to let one sexual encounter ruin it.

  At least he hoped he didn't.

  Chapter Four

  "I knew it! Look at them. Did I not tell you that all that sniping was because they were seriously attracted to each other?"

  Joe looked up at Tee's words to see Rhea and Ace through the two-way mirror of his office. Damn, Tee had been right. They were making goo-goo eyes at each other.

  "Shit," he said under his breath.

  "What?" Tee asked innocently.

  "Work and play don't mix."

  Tee gave him an arched look. "Since when?"

  "Since we have to send her in practically naked to beat
information out of an arm's dealer. Given the way Ace is eyeballing her, I don't think he's going to approve."

  "What has that got to do with anything? Ace is a good enough agent to do what he has to."

  "Yeah, right."

  Tee gave Joe an angry frown. "You and I are best friends, and how many times have you sent me into danger?"

  "That's because you're the Dragon Lady. You'd take the head off anyone dumb enough to cross you."

  She cocked her head at him and spoke pointedly, "I haven't killed you yet."

  "Not from lack of trying on your part, and personally, I'd rather you kill me than make me sit down and talk to your mom. That woman hates my guts with an unfounded reasoning."

  "You keep talking like that about my mother, Joe Public, and I just might make sure that your automatic car payment gets misrouted." She looked back at Rhea and Ace. "Trust me. This'll be fine."

  Now it was Joe's turn to scoff. "The last time I trusted you, I got three bullets in my back."

  "No, you got shot because you trusted me and then you didn't listen to what I said and did your own stupid thing."

  He mocked her by screwing up his face and repeating her words back at her.

  "That's it. I'm emailing my mother to come have lunch here tomorrow."

  "No!" Joe snapped, immediately contrite. "She makes me crazy. She won't even speak English when I'm around and I know she speaks it better than I do."

  "We will finish this later," Tee snapped before she opened the door to let Ace and Rhea in.

  Ace looked a bit sheepish as he came to stand in front of Joe's desk, while Rhea took a seat in the black leather chair in front of it.

  "So how was your morning?" Tee asked as she came to lean against the side of the desk. "Did Beullah do her job?"

  Ace nodded. "Oh, yeah. They hog-tied me in a manner to make you proud, Tee."

  "Good. Pity they let you up."

  Ignoring her, Ace looked at Joe. "So what's the new information?"

  Joe shuffled through a couple of folders. "Bender's on the move. You two are going to have to head out to Germany tonight."

  Both Ace and Rhea gaped.

  "What?" Ace asked.

  "You heard him," Tee said. "I already have your flight booked."

  The news went over Ace like sandpaper. "She can't go in alone. She hasn't had time to prepare herself yet. Hell, she barely knows what she's doing."

  "Excuse me?" Rhea asked, her tone extremely offended. "I think I should have beat you harder."

  He glared at her.

  "Don't worry, Ace." Tee pulled an envelope off Joe's desk. "You're going in as Hermann the towel boy."

  "Pardon?"

  Joe tossed Ace a passport. "You and Dieter will be right outside the room, listening in case she needs backup. Retter will be on recording detail along with Dagmar. There shouldn't be any trouble you guys can't handle. God knows you've all had worse."

  Tee handed the entire file to Ace. "You two are technically on vacation for the next few days while Rhea learns her stuff over in Germany. I've ordered some training DVDs for you to study so that you can learn how to beat him black-and-blue. Bender that is, not Ace."

  Rhea nodded. "Okay."

  "We don't know when Bender is going to show up, looking for Ute," Joe said. "But according to Ute, he always gets feisty right before a big coup, and his latest find definitely qualifies. I figure you guys have three days to a week before he shows himself. What do you think, Ace? You know him better than anyone."

  "You're right," he said. "He usually books time with Ute the night before he pulls off his shit. We need to get over there and be ready."

  "Then you two go ahead. Retter is already in Germany and waiting for your orders. The rest of us will follow you over there on a later flight."

  Ace handed Rhea her passport and printout for her plane ticket, then led the way out of Joe's office.

  "You don't think they suspect anything, do you?" Rhea asked in a hushed tone as soon as they were out of hearing range.

  On the way over here, they had decided that it would be business as usual for them so that no one else in the office would know what had happened.

  God help them if any of the losers here ever learned they'd had sex. They would tease them to the point they'd have to kill someone.

  Ace glanced back over his shoulder. "Joe's pretty dense. Tee...I don't know. I swear sometimes that woman can read minds."

  "Oh, don't say that. That makes me nervous."

  "Yeah," he agreed. "So how do we handle the next few days?"

  "Well, normally we'd do deep, intrinsic training..."

  Ace couldn't stop the grin that took over his face. "I was hoping you'd say that."

  She shook her head at his enthusiasm. At times he was simply evil.

  But she was glad this was one of those times.

  Once they reached Germany, they spent night and day together. Rhea was stunned at how comfortable she became around Ace while she was completely naked. It was liberating to have no sense of being body conscious around him.

  How could she when he seemed to prefer her that way?

  "I'm supposed to be training with you tied up," she said as Ace secured her hands, which were tied together to her headboard.

  "Turnabout is fair play."

  She supposed it was.

  "What are you doing?" she asked as he took one ankle carefully in his hand.

  He kissed the sole of her foot.

  Rhea moaned as he moved to lick her toes and to torment them one by one until she was squirming.

  "I'm having my way with you, princess." He tied her foot to the bedpost.

  After he had the other leg secured, Ace stood back. He'd never thought about tying someone up as being particularly sexy, but he had to admit the sight of her tied and waiting for him turned him on a lot more than he would ever have guessed.

  He slid his briefs off, then pouted slightly. "I should have tied you down on your back."

  "Too late."

  "Not necessarily." Grinning at her, Ace slid himself slowly up under her.

  Rhea hissed at the feeling of him there. She was completely open and exposed to his every desire.

  She dipped her head down to kiss him while he slid his hands down her back to gently cup her butt and press her hips to his. She could feel him growing hard against her stomach.

  "Hmmm," he breathed, rubbing himself against her. "What have I found?"

  Rhea sucked her breath in sharply as his rough fingers gently prodded her clit.

  "You do know, I'm getting entirely too attached to you, Ace?"

  "Yeah," he said as he slid one long, lean finger inside her. "And I know that I should get up, get dressed, and go to my room."

  But he didn't move to get up and that thrilled her most of all.

  "Why aren't you leaving?" she asked.

  "Honestly?"

  She nodded.

  "I'm desperate for you, Rhea." He pulled his hand away from her, then brushed the hair back from her face so that he could look at her. "I've been desperate to taste your body since the day you first came into the office, stumbled, and fell, flashing me those little pink panties you had on under your skirt."

  Her face flushed with heat. "You saw that?"

  "Oh, yeah, and I've dreamed of nothing but peeling those pink panties off of you ever since."

  "And now that you have?"

  "I want the right to keep peeling them off you anytime you make me hot."

  She rolled her eyes at him. "That is without a doubt the most unromantic thing I have ever heard, and if I wasn't tied down, I'd leave."

  He laughed low in his throat as his hand returned to stroke her between her legs. "Then it's a good thing I tied you down first, huh?"

  It was hard to think straight while he touched her like this. While his fingers stroked and circled her.

  "Tell me what you want, Rhea."

  "I want you inside me."

  Ace gave her a fierce kiss, then moved
his lips slowly down her body to her breasts, where he took his time teasing her. Then lower and lower while her body burned for him. He licked his way to her thigh, then nipped her hip as he slid completely out from under her.

  Rhea tried to look over her shoulder but couldn't see anything.

  She felt the bed dip with his weight as he moved to lean over her.

  He brushed the hair back from her neck before he nibbled at her earlobe. She shook all over as his tongue teased her ear. His breath scorched her.

  He slid his hand around her hip, to sink it deep in her fold before he entered her.

  Rhea gasped as pleasure assaulted her.

  Ace was blinded by the sensation of her warm, wet heat. He could lose himself inside her forever.

  But today was their last day to play. Tomorrow Bender would show himself.

  One of them could die. It wasn't something agents gave much thought to, but as he rode her slowly, that fear finally found him.

  What if something went wrong?

  "Ace? Are you okay?"

  He placed a kiss to her cheek. "I'm fine, baby."

  Rhea moaned as his fingers stroked her while he thrust deep inside her. Still, she could tell something was different about him in spite of what he said. There was a hesitancy to his touch. A reservation.

  But she didn't have long to contemplate that before her orgasm claimed her.

  Ace held her tight, his fingers working their magic until the very last tremor had been coaxed out of her.

  A few heartbeats later she felt him tense as he too joined her in bliss.

  Rhea lay there with his weight pleasantly crushing her while he untied her hands.

  "I'm going to miss our 'training' sessions."

  "I'll bet you will," she said with a laugh.

  He moved to the side of her so that she could roll over and snuggle close.

  Tenderly, he brushed the hair back from her face.

  Rhea sighed. "I wish we could go back and do the last few days over."

  "Yeah, me too. But you know, this doesn't have to end...does it?"

  Rhea swallowed at his question. "I don't know, Ace. A relationship is hard enough. But between two agents..."

  "Dagmar and Dieter make it work."

  That was true. The two of them were married, and to Rhea's knowledge they'd never had so much as a hiccup in their relationship.

  He took her hand in his and moved it to his lips so that he could nibble her palm. "Can we at least try?"

  She smiled at him. What woman could say no to that look? "Okay."

  Ace returned her smile before he kissed her on the brow. But in the back of his mind, he couldn't shake the sensation that something was going to go seriously wrong tomorrow.