Jo Robertson - The Traitor

He laughed again, although his own heart was racing like a engine and his body threatened to start on its own journey. "I won't make you wait," he promised.

He pulled her blouse off her shoulders, unfastened her bra in haste, noting the shaking of his own hands as he caressed her flesh. The sleek paleness of her skin shone like alabaster against his dark fingers. She stepped out of her shoes as he scooped her up in his arms and hurried down the hall to the bedroom.

They tumbled onto the sheets and somehow she landed on top of him, her lush breasts pressing into his chest with a softness that drove him mad. She attacked his mouth with fierceness and opened her legs around his hips. "Rafe," she cried when she came up for breath.

Feeling her at the edge of her climax, he pulled back, both hands holding her head, thumbs running across her high cheekbones. "Wait, let me catch my breath. I want you to come first."

"Oh, I can't wait… I'll explode," she groaned.

He flipped her over, ripped her panties off, and opened her legs. He thumbed the thin line of hair on her pubis, dipping down until he felt the moist peak. He bent his mouth to the core of her flesh and suckled, gently at first and then with increasing intensity as she bucked against his mouth, her fingers tangled in his hair, her hands urging him against her.

He entered her with his tongue, all the while rubbing the swollen nub until he felt the first tightening surge of her muscles. He thrust harder, using his finger in simulation and roiled his tongue around her. A wash of her juices emptied onto his fingers, but he kept working her until the last spasm of her orgasm subsided and she no longer clenched his head between her thighs.

She sighed a long, releasing breath of pleasure and with a final passionate kiss between her thighs, he inched up beside her. He lay, hard and hot, against the moist coolness of her belly, and he gently kissed her nipples, working his way up to her mouth.

"I can taste myself on you," she said.

"Good," he answered. "I like the taste of you."

A flush of color crept up her neck to her cheeks. "I've never… no one's ever done that to me before."

"Good," he repeated, pleased for some foolish reason to think he was the first to pleasure her like this.

"I liked it."

He raised an eyebrow as he traced lazy circles around her nipples and under her breasts. "Liked it?"

A broad smile lightened her face, her teeth flashing white in the dim light. "I loved it," she corrected. "I loved what you did with your tongue." She kissed him hard. "And with your fingers." She pushed her tongue into his mouth, scraping over his teeth and probing the inside. "And your mouth."

"You little tease," he growled as he covered her body with his own.

"Now it's your turn," she smiled and spread herself wide to accommodate him. He growled, a throaty sound that came from deep in his chest, and pulled her close. "Come here, you." He buried his face in her hair and inhaled deeply as if he were breathing in her very soul. "You smell good."

Hours later, sated and relaxed, Bella prepared a light supper and afterward they lounged on the couch, the television tuned to a sitcom rerun, the volume turned low. Rafe took her legs and stretched them across his lap, gently rubbing her feet. She felt languid and drowsy.

"You still look beat," he said, brushing his hands over her calves.

"Emotional tiredness," she said. "All that carnage… I can't stop thinking about it. I alternate between feeling helpless and being furious."

Rafe nodded and ran his hands over her thighs, the gentle kneading relaxing and arousing at the same time.

"I promised that girl… promised Esperanza that she'd be okay. I feel like I failed her."

"No one could've anticipated what happened. We did all we could," he soothed.

"What do we do now?"

"We use your plan," he answered, squeezing her calf. "We get Santos to turn."

"But you said – "

"I know," Rafe interrupted, "but now everything's different. If we have to get in bed with a beast to catch a psychopath, then that's what we'll do."

"Who do you think it is?"

"The inside man? Besides Ruiz?"

She nodded.

"I don't know yet. But I'll find out and when I do… "

She sat up and reached for his face, tracing her fingers down the stubble on his cheeks, running them across his lips. He sighed heavily and splayed his fingers through the hair at her nape and lowered his lips to hers. A delighted thrill ran through her, tired as she was, and she opened her mouth to him.

The steady pounding of his heart rumbled through her hand on his chest, and suddenly she wanted him again, close to her, no clothes between them, his large, warm hands sliding down her body. She tugged at the tee shirt he'd slipped back on. His bare flesh beneath her fingers was warm and smooth and he smelled of the mingled scents of their sex.

He groaned as she reached his chest and played with his flat, hard nipples. "God, what you do to me." He shoved her lightly backwards onto the wide sofa and covered her body with his, pulled her robe off her shoulders and bared her breasts. He lowered his mouth and -

The portable phone jangled alarmingly on the end table right by their heads.

"Let it go," Rafe murmured, busy with her breasts and his clever tongue.

Her breath shaky, she whispered, "I can't. It might be important… about the case." She reached over her head to grab the receiver off the set and answered quietly. "Torres." No sound came out and she cleared her throat. "Torres," she repeated.

"What are you doing with the case?" Only Barrington was rude enough to call her at home at this hour of the night.

Bella pushed the speaker phone button and placed the receiver back on the handset.

"Have you worked something out with Hashemi?" Barrington demanded.

"Uh," Bella said, staring at Rafe's narrowed, dark eyes, heavy with desire. "I'm working on something with him right now."

"Good. I don't need to remind you that he's got powerful friends in high places."

"Well, maybe I should sleep with the guy then," Bella quipped, her mouth inches from Rafe's, his breath hotly sucking the air out of her. "Maybe then he'll let me in on the action."

"Do whatever you have to do," Charles said coldly. "Just don't screw this up again." He paused before he disconnected. "And don't let them take all the credit, either."

"Well, you heard him," she moaned as Rafe tongued her nipple and moved lower to her navel, tracing lazy circles down her body. "I… have to do… whatever… you want."

"Hmmm," Rafe said, sliding downward and pushing aside her panties to reach the wet, hot core of her. "It's never wise to ignore your superior's orders."

"I'm going to be there with you when you make the deal." Rafe braced himself against the bathroom door, his fingers gripping the top of the door jamb.

"No, I have to do this alone." Her face warm with insistence, Bella ran a brush through her hair. "And besides, Santos won't deal if you're there."

"He won't go for it anyway," Rafe argued, "and if I'm there at least I can add some pressure."

"No," she repeated, turning back to the mirror.

Shirtless, the pair of shorts revealing his long legs, Rafe glared at her. The flesh of his chest was burnished copper with dark tendrils of hair curling around the middle and funneling downward to disappear beneath his waistband. "He's got to know the feds will give him a better deal."

"Santos knows the feds could send him anywhere in the country," she countered, "and he won't go out of state. Besides, it's my deal to make," she insisted stubbornly.

"That's stupid, Isabella." Rafe's dark brows slashed in the middle of his forehead like sharp swords. "A man like Santos is too dangerous for you to confront alone. Don't even consider it."