Public Enemy, Undercover Lover Page 19

  “You don’t believe in honor among thieves, Andrew?”

  Andrew looked at him with a smile devoid of all the distrust that used to exist between them. “I think I’m becoming a believer,” he said and turned to the bartender to order a couple shots of whiskey.

  “Drinking on the job?”

  “This is almost over. We earned it.” He paid outright and nudged the second shot glass toward Isaac.

  They clinked and tapped their glasses on the countertop before knocking them back, reminding Isaac of Christmas, when all this started.

  The whiskey burned soothingly down his throat.

  Isaac called for one more and covered the tab this time. “We can’t seem too obvious that we’re watching. If the thief’s as good as we know they are, they’ll plan to make it in and out quick, no dawdling, but they still might spot us if we don’t look like we belong.”

  “Someone just went down the hall,” Andrew hissed.

  “Jericho?” Isaac glanced over.

  “No, but definitely someone he sent. The guy had a bag and was scanning the room very carefully.”

  They downed their second shots and waited. Eventually, the man came out, sans his bag, and moved to the other end of the bar. He checked his watch but didn’t look back at the hallway.

  “He’s playing by the rules.” Isaac nodded.

  “Now what?”

  “Now, we wait and continue to blend in.”

  Andrew got a wicked grin on his face and started to bob to the music. “In that case…” He moved into Isaac’s body and slid his arms around his waist to back him onto the dance floor.

  “Not what I meant.”

  “Why not? I bet you look hot when you dance.”

  “Andrew…” he warned. The music wasn’t as loathsome as some clubs; there was actual music playing with lyrics, not mindless beats, but still. “I don’t dance.”

  “Come on,” Andrew ignored his protests, using his hands to move Isaac’s hips for him.

  Isaac wasn’t buzzed enough for this behavior, but Andrew was so adorable, grinning at him and biting his lip as he shimmied closer. His whole body rocked to the beat of the music, thigh muscles taut beneath his jeans and shirt unbuttoned enough to reveal flashes of pale skin. He turned them so he could see the hallway over Isaac’s shoulder, shifting effortlessly between focused professional and having all his attention on Isaac.

  That damn grin. That lithe, tantalizing body. Isaac couldn’t resist and fell into step with him, Andrew soon pulling their hips closer until they were grinding to the driving beat.

  The rest of the crowd fell away, men and women in various pairings. No one minded them. No one cared. For a moment, it was just them, and the music, and the brief glance of Andrew’s eyes beyond Isaac to make sure their quarry hadn’t arrived. Even that didn’t ruin the moment, that they were working, because they were always at their best in their element, and even better lately—in their element together.

  “I told Dalton everything,” Isaac said.

  Andrew’s eyes shot wide.

  “Well, not about the sex, but…he knows everything else.”

  “You’re okay with that?”

  Isaac nodded, feeling like there were several other things he should be saying, but he had no idea how to begin. Andrew looked the same, unsure what to say with the music pounding around them and so many moving bodies.

  And then he glanced over Isaac’s shoulder again, and his expression hardened.

  “Get Steve.”

  “What?” Isaac whirled around, but whoever Andrew had seen must have already slipped into the back. “I thought we were doing this together.”

  “We are, but I have to go in first. I saw who it was,” he said simply and pulled away with such fierce determination, Isaac couldn’t deny him as he dashed quickly through the crowd.

  * * * *

  Andrew couldn’t believe what he’d seen—who he’d seen—but there was no doubt once he noticed the bob of golden-brown hair, the diminutive stature, and remembered the flash of tan skin Dalton had mentioned. He followed the figure into the back, a large but mostly empty room, with only one occupant, already knelt over the bag of money.

  “And I thought that article was low,” Andrew called, watching the person stand up rigid with their back to him. “I knew you had little integrity, Liv, but I didn’t think you could be a part of something like this.”

  Her shoulders slumped, a second bag at her feet that had to contain the research she’d stolen from Dalton. And then she turned.

  “…Candace?”

  Face pinched in apology, Candace pulled the wig from her head and let it drop to the floor. “I figured better to be safe in case someone I knew was here.”

  “That’s why there were no hairs at the thefts…And you went in naked to avoid fibers?”

  “It worked, didn’t it? Pretty freeing too,” she said with a wry smile.

  “How could you do this?” He surged toward her. “Especially to Dalton!”

  “I was trying to protect Dalton,” she countered. “I recognized his name right away. I didn’t know he was Ford’s son then, but if someone else had taken the job, Dalton might have gotten hurt. This way, I was able to keep an eye on him.”

  “And still make money off him. What about the other jobs? This has been going on for weeks!”

  “Because of Ford!” She darted to meet him, emphatic and pleading. “He was ruining us. We’d barely gotten off the ground, and he was ruining everything. Without some extra cash flow, we’d already be under. I just needed this one last job.”

  “You were going to frame him,” Andrew realized. “That’s why you were so against me working with Ford. You needed him to be your scapegoat.”

  “Yes. The end. No more Ford Security, no more stealing, just us, doing this like we planned.” She reached for him, but Andrew lurched out of her grasp.

  “We didn’t plan this. I wanted to do this on my own. With my best friend, but the right way, without any help from Steve, or shady dealings. You wanted to bring down Ford, but now, you’re bringing us down too.”

  “No. It doesn’t have to be like that.” She grabbed his arm anyway. “I was careful. Never anyone who was our client. Not before the theft.”

  “This is too far.”

  “Even to save us? To get rid of our enemies?”

  He pried her fingers from his arm, gently but still backing away.

  “If you let them arrest me, we’re finished. Everything we worked for—”

  “Then we’re finished.”

  “You can’t be serious!” she erupted. “For Ford? Why? Why do you keep defending him? He’s the villain! It’s us or him.”

  “You mean it’s you or him. And I’m sorry, Candace, I know you thought you were doing what you had to, that this was somehow the right answer, but if I have to choose…then it’s him.”

  “For once, I agree,” Steven’s voice carried from behind Andrew, and he turned to see him and Ford standing there with a pair of uniformed officers.

  Candace’s coldness and fury fizzled into defeat as the officers went forward to take her into custody. Steven came up to Andrew first, gripping his shoulder in sympathy, but it didn’t feel like pity this time, because he knew the last thing Steven was going to say was that there was a place for him on the force.

  Then Andrew’s eyes met Ford’s, and there was sympathy there too, but also solidarity.

  Andrew was the one going down, but a part of him was glad that Ford wouldn’t be joining him.

  * * * *

  Dalton met them at the police station. He insisted.

  So did Luke, Kathleen, Riley, and Kevin.

  Jericho’s man sang like a canary, and once Andrew and Ford were finished giving their statements, they were bringing him in too. It had been months since Andrew saw pride in some of the other officers’ faces directed at him. His best friend had been brought in as the serial robber, but he and Isaac Ford were the ones who caught her.

&nbs
p; “I still can’t believe it,” Kevin said, all of them gathered around a bench, with Andrew and Ford sitting on it and Dalton between them. “She took everything we knew and turned it against us.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Dalton said, absently rubbing his bandaged hand. “I’ll get everything back, but you’re the ones who are going to pay for it. Maybe…maybe the fallout won’t be so bad?”

  “The biggest thief since Artifice,” Andrew said, “was from the security firm owned by the detective who arrested him, and I had no idea.”

  “But you caught her!”

  “I’ll lose enough clients that it won’t matter.”

  “Don’t you dare gloat,” Kevin warned Riley.

  “I wouldn’t! At least not in front of you.” He smirked.

  “Can’t you two just go work with Dad?” Dalton said. “You already know you make a great team.”

  “Still parent-trapping?” Ford accused.

  “I’m just saying!”

  Kevin looked in horror at Riley and the idea of working with him, but while Kathleen and Luke didn’t seem opposed, Andrew shook his head.

  “The bad press would follow us, but it was a nice thought. We did make a great team.” Andrew leaned forward to look past Dalton at Ford, who met his stare.

  “Yeah. We did.”

  Chapter 14

  Isaac managed to disentangle from Andrew long enough to get the door open. Usually, this was when they’d end up against the door again and barely make it to a solid surface before they lost their clothes and any remaining inhibitions. Isaac didn’t mind that, but today, he had plans.

  As he’d been sorting through assets and client files earlier, trying to decide where to focus his time now that his team-up with Andrew had ended, Kathleen dragged him out of his office to see the news on their conference room TV, where Luke and Riley were already watching.

  Vallancourt was giving a statement.

  “Now that a second break-in has been confirmed,” a reporter was asking, “what do you have to say about the efforts of Wen and Ford Security that were said to be overhauling your systems? Do you think either of them were in on these thefts from the beginning?”

  “Nonsense,” Vallancourt said plainly. “It was Wen and Ford themselves who brought the perpetrator to the police and orchestrated everything to catch her. No, I call it providence. I’ll be continuing to work with them through the restructuring of my security, and I hope that this experience not only proves to them the effectiveness of working together, but that other companies recognize the transparency and courage in both men for seeing this through and contact them for joint services as I did.”

  She moved on to additional questions, but by then, Isaac’s mind had already drifted. With Vallancourt’s backing, Andrew might not be ruined after all, and she’d just vouched for them joining forces in front of the whole city.

  One glance at the others said they knew what he was thinking.

  “Wen isn’t too terrible,” Luke said.

  “And Lopez is pretty cute,” Kathleen added.

  “Oh no,” Riley groused, “I’m not going to be the only one not screwing someone we work with. Unless Dalton can count.” He grinned.

  Isaac still considered murdering him sometimes.

  “I’m not screwing anybody,” Luke countered.

  “I’d be amenable to that too, big man.”

  A buzzing in Isaac’s pocket stole his attention before he could witness Luke’s glare burning a hole through Riley’s forehead.

  It was Andrew.

  You see Vallancourt?

  I did.

  I’m headed your way. Meet me at the alley door.

  The rest had followed the natural progression once Isaac yanked him into the building.

  Now, crossing swiftly to his kitchen, Isaac grabbed a bowl and filled it with a handful of ice cubes.

  “What’s that for?” Andrew peered over his shoulder, molding himself to Isaac’s back.

  “Meet me in the bedroom and you’ll find out.”

  Andrew paused to lick the rim of Isaac’s ear, making him quiver, and then detached himself to walk ahead. Isaac followed at a languid pace, kicking off his shoes along the way, tearing off his jacket, and undoing his pants with one hand as he held the bowl of ice.

  By the time he’d set the ice on the dresser to pull his pants off and lifted his sweater over his head, Andrew had already disrobed and splayed across the bed, slowly stroking himself.

  Isaac slipped off his underwear and snatched the bowl again. He crawled up from the foot of the bed, Andrew’s legs parting to invite him in, but he didn’t touch him at first. He set the bowl up by the pillows and reached into the nightstand for lube and a condom that he placed beside the bowl for later. Then he plucked up an ice cube between his fingers and brought it to Andrew’s lips as his other hand gripped Andrew’s wrist.

  “Tsk, tsk…your hands remain at your sides from this point on unless I say otherwise,” Isaac ordered.

  “Is this the first time we’ve been on a bed?” Andrew set both hands palms down on the mattress, legs crooked up to cradle Isaac between them.

  “I believe it is. Better make good use of it.” Isaac pushed the ice cube past Andrew’s lips, inviting him to suck on it.

  Andrew did, pulled it in with a teasing coil of his tongue, grin firmly in place around it.

  As Isaac leaned forward, his length slid against Andrew’s propped up thigh, Andrew likewise sliding against his hip. He bent for a kiss, tongue seeking Andrew’s as well as the ice cube. They shared the cold sensation, passing the ice cube between each other’s mouths.

  When Isaac pulled away, he left the ice cube in Andrew’s mouth but ducked down to latch onto a nipple, sucking and biting playfully. Andrew gasped, unprepared for the cold, so Isaac bit down firmer, sucking the nipple and then licking unhurriedly like a soothing balm.

  “Oh,” Andrew said, somewhere between a moan and recognition of what the ice was for.

  “I owe you for the hot chocolate. Sound fair?”

  Andrew shuddered as Isaac leaned over him again. He nodded, still sucking on what remained of the first ice cube. Isaac dove back in for more, the ice already smaller, melting quickly from Andrew’s heat and the added friction of their combined tongues across it.

  Tucking himself into Andrew’s neck this time, Isaac sucked down to his clavicle and up again. He traced the rim of Andrew’s ear, over the cartilage, and then lightly inside with a cool breath of air making Andrew tremble and writhe, pumping up against him.

  “Ah, ah, ah…none of that either,” Isaac whispered before sucking Andrew’s earlobe into his mouth. “Stay as still as you can.”

  Andrew whined, hips stuttering as he fought to keep from moving.

  “We’ll get there,” Isaac promised.

  He returned to kiss away the ice in Andrew’s mouth, the last of it melting, so after he trailed a few promising chilled licks down to Andrew’s navel, instead of continuing his descent, he reached for a fresh ice cube. He teased it across Andrew’s lips longer this time, even as Andrew darted out his tongue to suck it in and move things along faster—but this was going to be slow torture.

  Eventually, Isaac pushed the ice past Andrew’s lips, kissed him soundly, gathering as much of the cold as he could, and ducked down between his legs. Even though he only nipped at Andrew’s inner thighs, that was enough to cause his hips to buck up from the bed. Isaac hooked his hands into the crease of Andrew’s thighs to hold him down.

  “So eager…”

  “Fo—ah!”

  Isaac flitted his tongue along Andrew’s balls, down beneath them almost to the waiting, puckered entrance, but then he trailed up, stopping when he reached the base of Andrew’s cock.

  He returned to suck on more of the ice in Andrew’s mouth.

  “Ford, please—”

  “Hush.”

  Isaac stole the ice, offering a bruising kiss, but still returned it to Andrew’s mouth before descending again. This time
he licked up the underside of Andrew’s cock, slowly, letting the coolness on his tongue linger as he transferred the feeling to the burning heat of Andrew’s length. He licked and licked, saliva building before he reached Andrew’s tip and sucked on the head.

  Andrew’s continued gasps were a lovely mantra to spur him on, but Isaac wasn’t done yet. He took the last of the second piece of ice, melted like the first, and bobbed down on Andrew deeper, faster, holding his hips in place all the while, until Andrew came with a drawn-out whimper.

  That was one. Isaac was going to give him two.

  “Want to guess what comes next?” Isaac licked his lips as he slithered up Andrew’s body and reached for another ice cube. He sucked on the tip to draw Andrew’s gaze. “If you don’t like what I do, all you have to say is stop. But I do think you’ll like this, Andrew. You’re so warm. I need to cool you down.”

  Andrew quaked and gave a slow nod. He trusted Isaac with so much that he had to admit Dalton was right—he didn’t want to let Andrew down. He certainly wouldn’t in the bedroom, not where, at times, trust was most needed.

  Isaac sucked the ice cube into his mouth and dropped down between Andrew’s legs again. He started by revisiting where he’d began before, kissing along Andrew’s inner thighs, with the cube held in his cheek. He trailed down his balls, up his length, and then down again where he licked for the first time at Andrew’s entrance.

  A moan fell from Andrew’s lips, hips instinctively arching, and Isaac allowed it, wanting him to feel comfortable now, not pinned, as he licked and teased with his tongue, keeping the chill ever present. He went in smooth, extra saliva and water built up from the ice, licking inside Andrew and feeling him tremor all over at the penetration.

  “Good?”

  “Y-Yeah…” Andrew batted heavy eyes at him, cheeks flush, lips parted, and sweat building at his temples.

  Fuck, he was gorgeous.

  Isaac plunged his tongue in again, gently stretching as he twirled it and delved in deeper, feeling Andrew open despite the cold—because of the cold. The ice cube was melting faster than before, but when he swallowed back the remaining sliver, he grabbed another and returned to his careful work, teasing around the entrance before flicking inside again.