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He leans over and kisses me lightly while still doing six different tasks. He pulls away, but feeling lighter than I have since before we left Minnesota, and armed with a plan for a future that includes Eli, I want him right now.
I recapture his lips and use my hips to push him back onto the table. “Jeb, I’m working and Johnny is on speakerphone,” he says in a scandalized hiss, though his legs go around my hips and pull me in closer.
I nip on the sensitive spot just underneath his collar bone to distract him as my hand wildly searches for Eli’s phone. The last thing I need while trying to make love to Eli is to hear Johnny Devon droning on in the background.Got it. I fumble with the phone until I hit the right button, and the room is silent.
With my hands finally free, I’m able to make good use of them by hurriedly taking off Eli’s clothes. “I told you,” I playfully scold him. “I don’t think you should bother getting dressed when you’re staying inside the hotel room all day.” I drag his pants off. “It’s such a waste of time. I could be inside of you already if it weren’t for these damned clothes.”
He opens his mouth and I can tell he’s trying to come up with a rational reply that lists all the benefits of wearing clothes while working, but I don’t want rational Eli right now. As much as I think he’s sexy when he’s fuzzy and quoting an encyclopedia’s worth of facts, right now I want claws at my back, begging for me to fuck him harder, Eli.
And I know just how to get him.
I lean down and bite his nipple while thrusting up against him. “Jeb,” he wails.I move my head up,while letting my fingers take over pinching his nipple. “What do you want, Eli?” I demand.
His blown pupils give me the answer before he manages to answer me in a rough, raspy voice. “More,” he responds, and I travel down his body and give him what he asked for.
* * *
I’m floating in a fucked-out bliss, Eli laying boneless on top of me as I lightly rub circles on his back.
How could I have ever thought I could leave this behind—leave him behind?
What if I hadn’t answered Cash’s phone call when he’d asked me to come join his crew? I would have missed having Eli like this. I would have missed loving him.
The idea makes me tighten my arms around him. He looks up at me and lazily arches his back in a stretch, reminding me of a contented cat. “You okay?” he almost purrs.
“Couldn’t be better.” I answer truthfully, and because I’m me, and I’ve never met a plan I could stick to, I decide to tell Eli how I feel about him right now, and ask him to keep me as his partner. And if he wants, maybe he could start calling me his boyfriend.
The old me would have laughed at the term, but the possessive, moon-eyed for Eli version of me almost comes again from the fantasy of him introducing me as his boyfriend.
“Summer is pretty much over,” I begin.
I feel Eli’s muscles tense. “I was hoping that you and—”
Eli’s phone rings. He jumps off me and hurriedly gets dressed before I can stop him.
“I’m just going to take them off of you again,” I call out to him.
Eli’s forehead creases when he sees who is calling. “It’s Archie Hendrix.”
Shit.This can’t be good news.Eli and Archie usually communicate over a secure, data encrypted messaging system.
Eli accepts the call and listens intently for a few moments. “When did this happen?” Eli asks, his voice sharp and agitated.
I rise from the table, throw my clothes back on, and go stand by Eli. “What timeline are we working with here?” he asks.
Eli listens intently at the answer and then looks over at me for a long moment. A sad look crosses over his face for a brief second before vanishing as his face returns to a grumpy frown.
“We have enough evidence,” Eli says. “I’ll contact Cash, Johnny, and Daisy immediately and set up an exact time to infiltrate Banks’ compound in the next forty-eight hours.”
A few more details and Eli hangs up. “It’s time to move on Banks,” he says, his face is carefully neutral. “Our road trip is officially over. It’s time to go and make sure Leland Banks spends the rest of his life in prison.”
“Any particular reason why Archie is calling it now?” I ask, wishing we had just a few more days in Austin for me to convince Eli that what we have together should be a long term… No, fuckthat. It should be a forever thing.
“It seems Banks contacted one of Archie’s undercover agents about setting up fake identities and for help to facilitate a move to non-extradition country. The operative is stalling him, but it’s best we neutralize him now and keep him from pulling whatever incendiary event he’s planning now.”
“Why?” I ask. “As far as Banks knows, other than the hits to Patriots Now’s operations, nothing has changed. We’ve been a pain in his ass, but he’s clueless to the fact that we’re setting him up.”
“Archie thinks he’s frustrated and just acting out. We’ve neutralized his plans at every turn and he’s ready to jumpstart his revolution, even if it means fleeing the United States and hiding out while he pulls the strings from another country.”
