“Then, I did. It is true. But now they are sold.” He shrugged. “So sorry. We had no deal. Weapons were, as you say, ‘up for grabs.’”
“Son of a-” Jammer paced away from Igor, trying to control his anger, his agitated breath fogging the air. He needed those weapons to add to his shipment for Fuentes. Walking back, he said, “A deal was implied, Igor, and you know it.”
“Da, you make offer. I did not accept. Someone make better offer.”
“Who?”
“I do not let this information out of bag. Protecting clients best business. You wish this so, da?”
“Yes,” Jammer hissed.
“I have more in two weeks. Will this do?”
“No, it won’t. I need these weapons yesterday.”
Igor shrugged without sympathy. “Market is tight. You will need the good luck to get the amount of weapons you want. Igor cannot help.”
“That’s just great.”
This was a serious setback to his very short deadline. If he didn’t deliver as he’d promised, everything he’d worked for would collapse.
Three years of sacrifice would be for nothing.
And that was not acceptable.
1
JAMMER SLAMMED THE DOOR of his hotel room in Minsk, still simmering about the lost opportunity to amass the weapons that Fuentes needed for his deal with the Libertad. He smelled her exotic scent and started to turn-a little too late. Someone struck him, knocking his feet out from under him. He hit the carpet hard, the air whooshing out of his lungs. That same someone put a knee into his lower back to keep him immobile.
“Hi, honey, I’m home.”
It seemed a lifetime ago since he’d heard that soft, sexy voice. Another kind of simmering overtook him.
“Gina,” he said.
“Don’t Gina me, pal.”
He didn’t figure Gina for the woman-scorned type, but he could hear the anger in her voice. He had to wonder if he’d gotten to her as much as she’d gotten to him.
“You recovered. Your knee feels like a dagger in my back.”
“Just be glad it isn’t a real dagger. It would be a shame to mar such an amazing specimen of muscle and bone. You do have an amazing back…and…front, Jammer. Everything is quite spectacular, in fact.”
His body pulsed, remembering how ravenous they’d been for each other. He felt her relax a little. It was the opening he needed, and he took it. Using his superior strength, he pinned her to the soft carpet.
Grabbing her wrists as he rolled, he straddled her thighs, using the weight of his body to hold her down.
She didn’t fight him or look remotely alarmed. If anything, she looked…excited.
She also looked damn good and a balm to his eyes. She was all black and white, from the cap of mussed black hair with the white streak, to the black-and-white halter top and black mini, to the white stockings and short black stiletto-heeled boots she wore on her feet.
With that combo he thought she should be gracing a stage with her rocker-chick attitude and beautiful, sapphire-blue eyes that showed the world how tough she could be.
He levered his body over hers, tracing his hands down her arms to her delicate wrists. She arched up into him, causing him to swallow a groan of satisfaction as the rigid length of him came into contact with the softest part of her. He managed to find the strength to resist the urge-a primal directive-to drill his hips into hers.
Instead he brought his mouth within a whisper of her lips. “This is a backstabbing business we’re in, Gina, but since I don’t see a knife in your hand, you must be here for a different reason.”
“I am here for something, Jammer. I have an offer for you.” Her lips parted, and she moved sinuously beneath him, torturing them both.
His response was automatic and out of control. Less than ten minutes in her presence and his focus was already shot. He had no business engaging in this activity with Gina. And he didn’t give a flat damn. It seemed as if the short number of weeks they’d been apart had been years. He’d waited a long time for a woman like her. Maybe a lifetime.
Too bad it was just too late. For both of them.
His distraction cost him. She bucked her hips and used the momentum to dislodge him and flip him onto his back. This time she weaved her fingers through his, trapping his hands to the carpet.
Their gazes locked. Fused, almost. He half expected the windows to fog up, given how much heat they were generating.
“Is that so?” he said.
She pressed down against his groin, then rubbed along the hardness with abandon. He moaned softly, his eyes closing.
“What do you have to offer me?”
“What? No preliminaries first? No, ‘How have you been?’ and ‘Gee, it’s been ages since we’ve seen each other’?”
“I’d offer you a seat and some fine wine, but I’m a bit indisposed right now.”
“I’d forgotten what a charming bastard you are.” She smiled then, her eyes twinkling with the mischief he knew all too well. But he had enough brain cells still firing to realize that forgiveness with Gina came at a price. The other reason he liked being close to her was that she kept him on his toes. Even when she was keeping him on his back. An added bonus.
“Now you’ve hurt my feelings,” he said. “I’d hoped you hadn’t forgotten a single thing about me.” They slipped into their usual banter as if no time had passed. And their playful tête-à-tête was nothing new. Play, however, was something they had more than a little experience in. And playing with Gina was as intoxicating as it was dangerous.
“You, on the other hand, are a hard woman to forget,” he said. There was a slight roughness to his tone, one he knew damn well she would pick up on. Just as he knew she’d use every bit of leverage she had with him.
He wished like hell that information bothered him a bit more than it did. He had a shipment to complete and three years of work riding on it; he should bring this to an end and send her packing.
Not entangle himself once again in Gina’s very enticing web.
There wasn’t a place for her in his world right now-or ever.
“You’re not happy to see me. Why is that? Could it be because something big is in the wind?”
It was as if she could read his mind-and he wasn’t too certain she couldn’t; it would go a long way toward explaining her uncanny ability to stay one step ahead of him. He had to wonder if he had Igor’s buyer on top of him right now.
The black leather mini she wore had hiked up in their back-and-forth tussle. He could see the edge of her black garter belt and the tops of her delicate white stockings.
He disengaged his hand, slipping it between them, taking in the way her white stockings made her legs shimmer, the way the lacy band at the top hugged her thighs. Lifting his gaze back to hers, he used his imagination as he traced the garter strap with his fingers, smiled as he touched her panties and her breath quickened. He found the ties at the sides of her hips, and his groin tightened at the thought of how easy it would be to tug on them and remove that flimsy barrier between his fingers and her soft feminine flesh.
“Very, very nice,” he murmured, and withdrew his hand from beneath her skirt.
He raised his eyes to hers once more, wondering just what he was putting at risk here. Gina simply wasn’t aware of the score, despite her savvy, and that could be dangerous-to his plans and to her. But it might be even more dangerous not to find out what her game was. Besides, all work and no play…
The moment drew out to a taut wire of tension, all of it sexual.
“What is it you came here for, Gina? I tend to doubt it was me.”
She pursed her perfectly sculpted lips into a pout, which was so out of character for her it actually made him smile. “Darling,” she purred, running her thigh along his hip, “don’t sell yourself so short. I could be here for you.” Her voice was filled with the carnal knowledge she had of him, making him twitch hard inside his now snug trousers.