Born to Be Bad Read online

  Growling deep in his throat, he ran his tongue along the edge so that he could taste her before he rose up and entered her body again.

  They cried out in unison.

  Sam reached out and clutched the headboard as Jason returned to thrusting against her. Each stroke seemed to go even deeper than the last. And when he moved his hand to stroke her while he thrust, she moaned so deeply that it left her hoarse.

  The pleasure of him behind and inside her was more than she could stand. Her body burst apart into ribbons of ecstasy.

  Jason smiled as he felt her come for him. He moved faster until as his own climax built, and when he exploded, he could swear he saw stars.

  Sated to an unbelievable level, he kissed her gently on the shoulder before he collapsed by her side.

  Sam snuggled up so that she could rest her head against his chest. "That was nice."

  "Nice?" he asked with a laugh. "I personally don't think it gets much better."

  Honestly, neither did she.

  But before she could pursue that, the phone started ringing. She frowned at Jason.

  "You expecting anyone?" he asked.

  "Maybe it's the hotel staff." She reached for the phone and answered it.

  "What the hell happened last night?"

  Her scowl deepened at Retter's angry tone. "What are you talking about?"

  "What am I talking about? Renate called me a few minutes ago to say that you two were no longer staying with her and that she laid waste to four men early this morning who had entered her home with murder on their minds."

  Sam detected a note of amusement under his anger. No doubt Renate had told him exactly how much she'd enjoyed their little midnight adventure. "Oh, yeah, you missed the fireworks. But we're all okay, including Renate. She's something else, by the way."

  "You have no idea. Are the two of you still breathing?"

  "Since I'm talking, I would have to say yes. Hard to talk without it."

  "Good. I have a chartered car headed your way with all the paperwork you two need to jump the country. I want you both on a plane out of here within the hour. You got it?"

  "Aye, aye, Captain."

  He hung up.

  "What was all that?" Jason asked as she set her phone back on the hook.

  "We're heading home."

  His frown matched her earlier one. "When?"

  "Now. Retter has a car on the way."

  She saw the deep reluctance in his green eyes. "What about Ariston?"

  "I'm going to assume that Retter has it covered. Besides, that's not my mission. Getting you home is."

  Jason looked like he wanted to argue.

  Sam brushed the hair back from his face. "I know it sucks to have to leave an assignment unfinished, But there's nothing we can do. Sometimes it just happens."

  "Yeah, but it's never happened to me before."

  She kissed his forehead. "C'mon, baby. We need to shower and get dressed."

  Jason nodded, but as he got out of bed and he felt the tug of the stitch on his ass, a thought occurred to him.

  "Holy shit," he breathed as his mind whirled with a whole new thought.

  "What?"

  "Ariston . . . How many other people has he tagged besides me?"

  She shrugged. "No telling. Why?"

  Jason darted past her to the bathroom. "C'mon. We have something to do before we leave."

  Sam and Jason showered, then dressed quickly. By the time they reached the lobby, their car was already there, waiting on them.

  She frowned as Jason refused to leave. Instead, he headed to the front desk, where a large black-haired woman stood wearing a black suit. "Is there a computer here for guest use?"

  "Ja, there is a business office just over there." She pointed to a small room next to the door.

  Jason headed for it.

  Sam followed after him, confused by his odd actions. "What are you doing, Jason?"

  "I'm finishing business," he said in a low tone. "Didn't you use to do a lot of hacking in the FBI?"

  "It wasn't hacking," she said defensively. "It was all done with court orders. Why?"

  "Because I want you to hack into Dr. Berg's files and get a list of everyone he's given flu shots to in the last year."

  A slow smile spread across her face as she suddenly understood what he wanted done. "You want to see who else he tagged, huh?"

  He nodded.

  Her blood rushed through her veins as she followed him into the office. If he was right, this would be a great way to find out who Ariston dealt with...and where they were.

  Luckily, there was no one else using the room; there wasn't even a staff member present. Sam grabbed the closest computer and started searching for the doctor's office.

  Jason tapped his thumb against his thigh as he watched Sam navigate through the German medical files. Luckily they had a unified system that allowed her access to all of Berg's clients, along with their addresses and names.

  "There are several Bergs listed here."

  "Franz-Josef Berg, with a hyphen."

  "Got him."

  Jason leaned over her shoulder as she pulled up the records. He pointed to a line in their billing system that didn't make sense to him. "What's that?"

  "Gold," she breathed as she matched the strange billing code against the key in Berg's system. She pulled up Jason's chart under his alias to show him. "Here," she said, pointing to the line. "See where your account was charged. There's another code that you didn't see that was billed to Herr Ariston."

  "Yeah. For what?"

  "A colonoscopy."

  Jason gaped. "I beg your pardon? No one stuck nothing near my rear entry. That is sacred."

  She shook her head at him. "Since he's a general practitioner, I figured as much. Apparently our doctor has a sense of humor. My guess is he's disguising the implant charge as that one."

  "'Cause he was shafting me."

  "Yup."

  Jason gave a short laugh. "Who else did he shaft?"

  She pulled up a quick list of names. "A short enough list that it shouldn't take us too long to run them all down."

  Jason kissed her. "I knew you were brilliant."

  "Not me, baby. You're the one who thought of it."

  "Yeah, but I couldn't have hacked the system without you."

  Sam loved the fact that he wasn't trying to take all the credit. She printed out the list and quickly backed out of the system. Once they had it, she took a few minutes to call Retter with the news.

  "I'll meet you guys at the airport. You can hand it to me then, and I'll get started on the colonoscopy retrievals."

  "You got it."

  She hung up the pay phone, then made her way out to the car with Jason.

  Jason kept his attention solely focused on Sam as they rode to the airport. He was still amazed at how everything had turned out--at least, until he remembered something.

  "Ah, no."

  "What?" Sam asked.

  "I just remembered that everything I own is in London."

  "Don't worry. We'll get someone to pack it up for you. I'm sure Hunter would be glad to personally take charge of seeing it all packed up and returned to the U.S."

  He snorted at that. "Why don't I find that knowledge comforting?"

  She laughed. "Probably because he wants you dead for scaring him."

  Jason shook his head. Unlike her, he didn't find that amusing, but he had other things to think about than Hunter and his vendetta. "So what happens to me now? I've been in Europe so long, it'll be hard getting used to a new place...a new person."

  Sam felt for him. That was the hardest part about being an undercover agent. You were constantly responsible for reinventing yourself. She reached over and squeezed his hand.

  They remained silent until they reached the airport, where their chartered flight was waiting. They found Retter in one of the seats on board the plane.

  Tall and well muscled, he had long black hair and was dressed in a tan sweater, black coat, and
jeans. He had at least three days' growth of whiskers, and his piercing eyes were covered by a pair of dark sunglasses.

  "Bonnie and Clyde," he drawled. "Nice of you to make it."

  "Shut up, Rupert," Jason said.

  Retter went completely still before he spoke. "The only people who call me that are all female. Now unless you want me to make you one of them, I suggest you revert to my more tolerated name."

  Jason held his hands up in mock surrender. "Fine."

  "Here's the list," Sam said as she handed it to Retter, then took a seat beside Jason.

  Retter's face was grim as he skimmed the names. "This is a nice tidbit. Thanks." He got up and headed for the exit. But before he left the plane, he turned around to look at them. "You two do know that Joe will shit when you get back to Nashville, right?"

  Sam frowned. "What do you mean?"

  "Well, he sent Dagmar and Dieter out together and they got married. Then there was Rhea and Ace. If one more set of agents hooks up, I'm sure we'll all get a memo about it."

  "Who said we were hooking up?" Sam asked.

  Retter's gaze dropped to where her hand was resting on Jason's knee.

  Sam immediately pulled it away.

  Jason put it back.

  "Yeah," Retter said. "Thanks for clogging my inbox with more Joe hysteria." He ducked out to the plane and left them alone.

  Sam gave Jason a withering stare. "What was that about?"

  "I was just claiming my woman."

  "Claiming your woman? What century is this?"

  "The twenty-first."

  "Then why--"

  He broke her words off with a kiss. Sam sighed at the taste of him. When he pulled back, his eyes warmed her. "I'm not asking you to marry me . . . yet. I'm just asking you for a chance to see where this relationship might take us. So what do you say, Sam?"

  She smiled at him. "I say, let's see about making Joe a little bit crazier."

  Epilogue

  Jason sat in Joe's office while his boss debriefed him. It'd been a long flight in, and frankly, he was looking forward to just sleeping for about ten to twelve hours. "Jason?"

  He blinked at Joe's sharp tone. "Yeah?" Joe rolled his eyes. "Go on, get the hell out of here before I shoot you."

  Stifling a yawn, Jason got up and passed Tee in the doorway. He paused as she entered the office with Joe. "Tee?" he asked, holding the door open. "Where did you make my reservations?"

  The tiny Vietnamese-American agent stared blankly at him. "What reservations?" His stomach sank. "For me to crash?" She snorted at him. "You don't need reservations." Jason gaped at her. Granted, Tee could be unforgiving and downright cruel at times, but damn, he hadn't done anything to his knowledge to piss her off. "Where am I supposed to sleep?"

  Someone cleared their throat.

  Jason turned to find Sam standing a few feet away, looking about as tired as he felt--though it looked a lot better on her than him. He was stunned that she'd hung around while Joe gave him the third degree and threatened sanctions against him for blowing up Hunter's car.

  She unfolded her arms to show him a pair of handcuffs. "I'm taking you into custody," she said with a playful wink.

  Jason smiled as his heart pounded. He definitely liked the sound of that. "I thought you went home."

  "I was waiting for you."

  Crossing the distance between them, he draped his arm over her shoulders and kissed her lightly on the head.

  Joe stood in the doorway beside Tee as he watched the two of them leaving with their arms wrapped around each other. He made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat.

  "Oh, knock it off, Joe," Tee said as she pushed him back into the office.

  "Knock it off? C'mon, Tee. You and I both know that love and work never cohabitate well."

  She said something to him in Vietnamese.

  He grimaced at her as she put a folder on her desk. "I hate it when you do that. What did you just call me?"

  "Fuddy-duddy."

  It sounded better in Vietnamese. "Fuddy-duddy I may be, but how the hell are we supposed to guard national security when I can't even keep my agents' pants on?"

  Tee glared at him. "Relax, Joe. It's nine o'clock at night. Go home."

  He was tired, but she didn't look like she was anywhere near leaving. "What about you?"

  Tee sat at her desk. "The bad guys never sleep--"

  "So why should I," he said, finishing her favorite line. He knew Tee was more than capable of handling herself in any given situation, but he wasn't about to leave her up here alone. Anything could happen. Not to mention, the office was really lonely when you were by yourself.

  "It's okay. I've got some work I need to do too."

  Joe returned to his desk and sat down to review the list that Jason had given to Retter. He'd assigned a new agent the job of surveying two men on the list they knew were aligned with extremist groups. If they were lucky, the RFID chips could be used for the good side as well.

  But as he started to pull up the files on the computer for the men, his gaze caught a glimpse of Tee as she bent over to retrieve a fallen pen from the floor. Her butt came off her chair, gifting him with a perfect view of her attributes. He hardened instantly.

  Grinding his teeth, he looked away before she caught him ogling her. There were things in the world that were a lot more important than his rampant lust for his co-director. Although at that moment he was having a difficult time remembering what they were exactly.

  "You hungry?" Tee asked as she straightened up.

  "Always."

  She shook her head. "I knew you'd say that. Want to eat Off the Grill tonight?"

  "Sure."

  "Your usual?"

  "Yeah."

  Tee looked up the number on her PDA, then dialed it. "Hi Dave, this is Tee again. I'd like to get the rib eye steak medium rare with a baked potato and cheese, no butter or sour cream..."

  Joe forced himself not to smile as Tee ordered his food to perfection. She really did know him.

  Except she didn't know the most important thing where he was concerned, and that was just how much she meant to him.

  It was the one thing he could never let her know.

  "So did Joe chew your entire butt off?" Sam asked as she drove him from their office in the Bell South tower from downtown Nashville toward her apartment in Franklin.

  "I don't know--I think someone needs to check and see."

  Sam slid a sideways look at him. She had to admit that even exhausted, he was acute and able with a comeback. "You do know that I'm not used to having a boyfriend, right?"

  "It's okay, I'm not either."

  Sam groaned at his joke. "I'm trying to be serious here, Jason."

  "I know, Sam. It's, uh ... it's going to be interesting. Most agents who try to have a relationship end up hating each other."

  "True."

  "But since you started out hating me, hopefully we've put that behind us." He winked at her.

  Sam smiled at him. He was right. When she'd headed off to Germany, her intent had been to kill him, not bring him home to her apartment. Her mother always said that life was big on surprises.

  Nothing had surprised her more than finding Jason so delightful or enticing.

  "Don't look so fretful, Sam. I can find my own place to live tomorrow, and I won't impose myself on your life until you're ready for it."

  And that was what she liked most about him. He really was perceptive. As she drove down 1-65, she felt something she'd never felt before ... a sense of excitement about having someone to come home to.

  "You know, if it takes you a little while to find that place to live, I'm okay with it."

  He reached over to brush her hair back from her cheek. "Good. But if I start to wear out my welcome--"

  "I'll shoot you."

  --The End--

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