He had no idea what time it was and didn’t care. With the blinds down and her warm, naked body curled against him he didn’t want to move. Ever.
He loved seeing this affectionate, caring side of her, couldn’t wait for that curious little hand to slip beneath him and wrap around his straining cock. The way she’d surrendered herself to him hours ago had been incredibly hot and gratifying and he recognized it for the gift it was.
“Are you awake?” she whispered against his shoulder, tongue playing gently as she curled her hand around his left hip and squeezed his ass.
“I think so. But if I’m dreaming, don’t wake me up until after the good part.”
She chuckled softly and nestled tighter against him, her breasts pressing against his back. “I’ve been lying here watching you sleep for a while now and you’re just so damn gorgeous I couldn’t keep my hands to myself anymore. Or my mouth,” she added, her teeth nipping gently at his nape before her tongue soothed the tiny sting.
Matt reached down to catch the hand on his hip and laced their fingers together as he drew them up to his mouth. He kissed her knuckles, slid his tongue between them, feeling her squirm behind him as she began to heat up.
And then the goddamn phone rang.
Briar sat up immediately and grabbed it from the nightstand, switching the lamp there to its lowest setting. As she answered he rolled over and slid an arm beneath his head, glancing at the clock. Almost ten in the morning, but they’d both needed the sleep.
Briar stared straight ahead as she listened to whoever it was, he guessed either Rycroft or Zahra. Matt let his gaze roam over her naked body as she sat there with her knees drawn up, her smooth bronze skin glowing in the lamplight. He stroked a hand down her thigh, pleased when she absently reached down to twine her fingers through his.
“I’m going to put you on speaker,” she said, then lowered the phone and hit the button. “Okay.”
“It’s Zahra. I’ve got a few updates. Nothing huge yet, but it’s a start.”
“Let’s hear it,” he said, curious as to what she’d uncovered.
“First, the situation in Lake Placid is proving harder to clean up than Alex had hoped. He’s still working on it but so far at least one person got footage of the body last night. Alex’s crew are trying like hell to downplay everything and keep it under wraps, but a local news station has broadcast it.”
“Are we in the footage?”
“No, and Alex’s sources have been doing more damage control. Your cover’s still good. Second, I found out through the grapevine what the CIA has on Briar in terms of evidence at the two murder scenes that started all of this. They’ve apparently got fingerprints on the second victim’s car, in the interior and under the hood.”
Briar frowned. “I was never in his car and never touched it.”
“Well they’ve got that plus some of your hair to provide DNA evidence.”
She scoffed. “That stuff can be planted easily enough.”
“Which is why they did it,” Zahra said. “For the guy in Baton Rouge, again, your prints were found at his place. On the doorknobs and on the balcony you supposedly pushed him from.”
Now Briar looked insulted. “As if I’m dumb enough to go in a damn door.” She sounded outraged. “So to them I’m not just a rogue agent, I’m a fucking incompetent one too?”
“Well, they’ve also got witnesses who’ve given sworn testimony that you were at both murder scenes. Both said they witnessed arguments between you and the victims. One said they saw you doing something underneath the suspect’s car before he drove away, and the other said he saw someone go out onto the balcony with the first victim, then push him over. According to them you had both motive and opportunity, so coupled with the forensics located at both scenes…yeah.”
Briar shook her head. “So they’ve paid people off to lie for them,” she said, frustration clear in her voice. “What else did you find out?”
“I’ve been pulling on the strings for those two companies we found dumping money into an account in the Caymans. Turns out there are five companies total, each with different owners and each under a different country’s jurisdiction. It’s gonna take me a while to uncover everything. The companies are in the Caymans, Gibraltar, Barbados and Bermuda, and one in Baltimore.”
Matt pushed up onto one elbow. “Can you send me the info on that one? I can go to the Baltimore field office and check things out.”
“Alex said to hold off on that for a bit. I’ll have to investigate each one of these individually to see how they’re linked and find out if there are any other connections we’ve been missing.”