Haydn (Steele Protectors 5) Read online

  Haydn’s spine arched the moment his senses were overloaded with the pleasure of being in Hailey’s mouth. That pleasure deepened as one of her hands cupped and rolled his balls in the same rhythm as she now sucked and licked his cock.

  He needed her to stop if he was going to last. For her to give him a chance to draw breath. But Hailey was having none of it, the fingers of her other hand curling about the inches of his hardness she couldn’t get into her mouth, the slick movement of her palm adding extra pressure on the up-and-down stroking of his cock.

  “Hailey—”

  “Give it to me,” she lifted her head to growl. “I want your essence, Haydn. I want it now.” She slid his cock back into the moist heat of her mouth, sucking deeply.

  Haydn dared any man to be able to deny such a demanding and sexy lover. He wasn’t even going to try!

  Even so, he managed to keep a fierce and determined control over his own release as he began to thrust his hips up in a slow and deep rhythm that was a perfect match to Hailey’s mouth moving up and down the length of his shaft. The rasp of her tongue across the tip before it delved into the slit at the top was a severe strain on that control.

  He wished he could touch her.

  He needed to touch her.

  Damn it, he was going to touch her.

  Hailey’s eyes were closed, and she was totally engrossed in pleasuring him as Haydn lifted one arm at a time to enable him to pull up her sweater. He was the one to groan when the fullness of her lips pouted her displeasure after her mouth had once again relinquished his cock long enough for him to pull the sweater over her head.

  Her long hair tumbled down onto his stomach and thighs, like a silky red curtain, caressing and teasing his sensitive flesh.

  Haydn reached out to cup and squeeze the softness of her breasts, fingers and thumb seeking and stroking the hardening of her nipples pressing against the lace.

  Hailey moved up onto her knees between his parted thighs as she lightly slapped his hands away. “I’m pleasuring you, remember?” She unfastened her bra and slipped the straps down her arms before disposing of it onto the rug beside the couch. “Look but don’t touch,” she teased as she arched her back to thrust her breasts forward, the nipples fully engorged and a deep and tempting red.

  It was the same torture Haydn had practiced on her the previous night, when his chest was bare but the rest of him still covered by his fastened jeans.

  “Dear God, I’ve released a monster,” he groaned when Hailey pushed up his polo shirt before lowering her head and sucking the hardness of his nipples, one after the other, inside her mouth.

  Her chuckle reverberated through her and consequently him when she laid her body along the length of his. She cupped her own breasts either side of his straining cock as she began to glide up and down that throbbing length.

  It felt glorious to have the steel of his cock encased in her silky velvet. “You’re trying to kill me!” he groaned.

  Her chuckle sounded decidedly evil this time. “I suppose we could test whether or not it’s possible for you to die from pleasure?” she mused.

  His eyes narrowed. “You really don’t want to do that.”

  Her eyes glittered with challenge for several seconds. “Maybe not this time,” she finally agreed, continuing to hold his gaze with hers as she once again slid the softness of cupped her breasts along the length of his straining cock. “You’re still holding back, Haydn, and I don’t like that. I want this. I want you.” She lifted up to once again take his cock to the back of her throat and suck fiercely.

  One of her hands lowered to squeeze and caress the taut sac of his balls before her fingers edged along the taint beneath and then farther back to press one finger against and then gently through the tight muscle guarding his entrance.

  Haydn’s cock hardened even more before releasing with the searing-hot fierceness of a rocket exploding. Pulse after pulse of thick, hot cum filled Hailey’s mouth, to be swallowed down eagerly before she waited for the next pulse of the creamy essence she had demanded he give her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Haydn wasn’t sure he would ever be able to move again, doubted he could when Hailey’s tongue was still lazily swirling up and down his sensitized cock. A cock that valiantly tried to rise each time that rasping tongue lingered on the upward stroke to push into the still leaking slit at the top.

  He entangled his fingers in the wildness of her hair. “I think you did kill me and this must be heaven.”

  Her chuckle vibrated the length of his cock before she slowly released him. Her lips were slick with his cum as she slid up his body to lie beside him, her head resting on his shoulder. “If it is, I’m pleased to be here with you.”

  Haydn wondered, as he looked down to study Hailey from between narrowed lids, if she knew how longingly she’d said those words. If she knew how the softness of her expression, her over-bright eyes and her flushed cheeks, made her appear completely relaxed and happy.

  Something, Haydn suddenly realized, he hadn’t seen before. Not like this, with Hailey so openly content and—yes, happy.

  Possibly because she felt safe for the first time in eight years?

  Jesus, he really would have had to hunt down Randolph Snow and kill him if his wife hadn’t got to him first.

  Haydn kept his fingers entangled in Hailey’s hair. “Will you take your lenses out so I can see the true color of your eyes?” He hadn’t forgotten how those green eyes had dominated her face in the photograph taken from the school yearbook eight years ago, to appear on the front pages of the world’s newspapers only months later. “I want the real you,” he explained gruffly when she looked at him quizzically.

  Hailey leaned up on her elbow, a frown between those eyes he so longed to see without the deception of the blue-colored lenses. “You know the real me, Haydn. More than anyone else, you know me,” she added huskily.

  He now knew he also loved her more than anyone else ever had or ever could or would. He just wasn’t sure Hailey was ready to hear those words yet. Or if she ever would be. “Please.”

  “Okay.” She sat up completely to pull her sweater on over her nakedness. Haydn had pulled up his boxers and jeans by the time she returned from the kitchen after washing her hands, before she then deftly—from habit?—removed the colored lenses. She blinked a few times before lifting her lashes to look at him.

  Haydn’s breath caught in his throat as he looked into the most beautiful green eyes he’d ever seen. They weren’t just green but had a very thin, darker emerald color around the edge of the iris. It gave them a luminescent quality.

  He swallowed. “I loved the blue color, but…” He gave a shake of his head. “Your green eyes are stunning, Hailey.”

  She gave a shy smile at the compliment. “I don’t suppose there’s any reason for me to continue wearing the colored contact lenses when Ernesto obviously knows my new identity,” she acknowledged ruefully.

  Haydn’s nostrils flared. “We still need to find out how he acquired that information, because it certainly isn’t something he just happened to find on the internet. Even I couldn’t access that information.” He voiced the concern that had been gnawing away at the back of his mind these past few hours.

  It wasn’t vanity for Haydn to believe he was one of the top five computer hackers in the world. He knew he was. He also knew who the other nine top-ten hackers in the world were, and neither Ernesto nor anyone who worked for him was amongst them. Only a very adept hacker would ever have been able to hack into the WP program’s computer system. The gnawing in the back of Haydn’s mind told him that hadn’t happened. That there was a much simpler explanation, in that someone must have given that information to Ernesto.

  The list of people who were aware of Hailey’s true identity really wasn’t that long.

  Her gaze sharpened. “Do you think someone in the WP program could have been bribed or blackmailed into revealing the information?”

  God, how he appreciated and admir
ed this woman’s quick intelligence. “That’s my take on it, yes,” he confirmed cautiously. “Which is why I asked, when I destroyed your cell phone, if you had contacted anyone on it today.”

  “I was going to call my handler and let her know that I’ve picked up the new documentation but have had to put the rest of the relocation on hold for the moment. I would have telephoned and told her where I am and that I’m safe once we’d arrived here, if you hadn’t destroyed my phone.” She drew in a ragged breath. “I can’t believe Bianca would ever— If my own father could arrange to have me kidnapped solely for the ransom money, then it really doesn’t matter what I believe or think I know of human nature,” she accepted heavily. “My handler’s name is Bianca D’Angelo, and she’s based in Washington, DC.”

  “Did she supply you with your cell phones during your years of being in the program?”

  She nodded. “All of them.”

  “Do you think she’s bribable?”

  Hailey’s frown was pained. “I would hope not, considering what her job is, but I’m not naïve enough to say a definitive no. If Bianca wasn’t open to a bribe, then I know she has a husband and two children who could be used as leverage to blackmail her into revealing information about me.”

  Haydn nodded abruptly. “I’ll give Logan a call and have him look into it.”

  “Is your cell phone the only means we have of communicating with the outside world?”

  “There’s an old radio system down in the basement level, in case of emergency. But I’m hoping we won’t need it. And for the record”—he turned until both their heads rested on the same cushion as they faced each other—“I hope you know enough about human nature to believe you can totally trust me.”

  She smiled wanly. “I think the past few days have shown how much I trust all the Steele family.”

  Not exactly the answer Haydn had been hoping for, but he’d take it. “I think it’s time we had something to eat, don’t you? The range should have warmed up enough to cook on by now.”

  Hailey waited until Haydn had got to his feet before also standing. “Can we go for a walk over to the lake after we’ve eaten?”

  “I don’t see why not.” Haydn finished straightening his clothes. “I doubt anyone will see us or us them. There aren’t too many people who would choose to walk the Scottish Highlands in early November.”

  An hour or so later, after they’d eaten a late lunch and prepared and left a beef stew slow-cooking in the range for dinner that evening, Hailey had every reason to pity anyone who had never walked the Scottish Highlands, in November or any other time of year. It was a little cold out, even wearing their coats, but the air was so clean, both to breathe in and to be able to enjoy a clear view of the surrounding and rugged scenery. So many major towns and cities nowadays had a layer of smog or smoke to hamper the view of the skyline and the stars above.

  “This is amazing!” Hailey held her arms out from her sides as she did a three-sixty turn, her head tilted back so she could look up at the beautiful cloudless blue sky. “I think if I had a home here, I would never want to leave.”

  Haydn eyed her quizzically. “Wouldn’t you miss the convenience of living in a city? The theaters? Restaurants?”

  “I could go to the nearest town if I wanted to visit the theater or eat in a restaurant,” she dismissed. “For obvious reasons, I don’t have any sort of profile on social media.”

  “I guess not,” Haydn accepted ruefully. “I suppose I thought, having lived most of your life in DC, that you would prefer to live in a city.”

  “I lived in DC because my parents had to live there to facilitate my father’s career in politics. We had a home in the Hamptons too, where we spent the summer months. I loved it there. It was quieter, and more often than not, my father chose to remain in DC.”

  Haydn could see from her wistful expression that she’d enjoyed those summers when she’d spent quality time with her sister and mother. He couldn’t help wondering if Hailey hadn’t already sensed something was off about her father even then, and she’d enjoyed those summers more because her father “more often than not chose to remain in DC.”

  His mouth tightened. “So what you’re saying is there’s nothing to anchor you to any particular place or person anymore?”

  Hailey wasn’t saying that at all.

  Obviously, she had Becca, but as her sister had no idea she was still alive, that was a pretty one-sided connection nowadays.

  She had thought she and Haydn had a connection after the past forty-eight hours, but perhaps Haydn didn’t feel that way about it. It could just be that he’d felt able to be intimate with her because he knew it couldn’t last and she would be on her way soon, never to be seen again.

  That didn’t quite fit in with his claim that he and his brothers would deal with Ernesto once and for all, so she could stop running.

  But it still wouldn’t be sensible of Hailey to read anything more into the recent closeness between the two of them.

  “Hailey, what—” Haydn broke off with a frown as his cell phone buzzed with an incoming call. He took it out of his jeans pocket to glance at the caller ID before looking back at Hailey. “It’s Logan.”

  She squared her shoulders as if to receive a blow as she listened to Haydn’s side of the conversation. It appeared to be mainly a lot of yeses and nos on his part.

  Meaning that perhaps Logan and the other Steele brothers had come up with the plan for trapping Ernesto?

  “Okay, let’s do that.” Haydn glanced across at her. “I’ll have Hailey phone her handler after this call. Call me when you know for certain. You stay safe too, bro.” He ended the call. “Logan and the brothers have tracked Silva to a small hotel in the East End of London. He’s apparently holed up there for the moment. One of the brothers is always watching him.”

  She breathed out a sigh of relief. “At least we now know he isn’t anywhere near here.”

  Haydn nodded. “But the brothers have also come to the same conclusion we have, that in all probability your WP handler, or someone who works for or with her, has to be involved in this, voluntarily or otherwise.”

  Hailey winced. “I had a feeling you might say that.”

  He looked grim. “The plan now is for you to call her from here and tell her exactly where you are. If, after the call, Silva starts making enquiries about arrangements to leave London with the intention of coming to Scotland any time soon, then we probably have our security leak regarding your new identity and Silva knowing where to find you. Don’t worry, Hailey.” He touched her arm lightly when she continued to frown. “We aren’t going to let Silva come within ten feet of you ever again.”

  Hailey had no doubt that the Steele brothers would do everything within their power to ensure Ernesto didn’t hurt her. That wasn’t the reason she was frowning. No, that was completely because the plan to entrap Ernesto, and possibly Bianca or someone who worked with her, meant the time she would spend here alone with Haydn was limited.

  Very limited.

  Which meant she had to make the most of every minute rather than every hour.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “You could have warned me you’re a total shark when it comes to board games!”

  Hailey smiled her triumph after beating Haydn at the third board game in a row. “Becca and I played a variety of them every summer. There wasn’t a lot else to do in the Hamptons if it rained.” She shrugged.

  Hailey wasn’t stupid. She knew after she’d made her call to Bianca in the States that Haydn had come up with different ways to exhaust her body and keep her mind occupied. Unfortunately, the former had involved a two-hour walk through the mountains and valleys rather than being in bed together. But she’d totally kicked ass after they’d eaten their dinner and Haydn went to get some of the board games from downstairs.

  “What were you doing downstairs earlier?” There had been several loud thumps after Haydn went down to the basement to get the games. Hailey had thought about going to in
vestigate, but Haydn had returned before her curiosity became too great, and then she was distracted—as she was meant to be?—by his setting out one of the games.

  He shrugged broad shoulders. “One of the water pipes wasn’t working properly and needed a kick.”

  Hailey studied him for several seconds. “Now tell me what you were really doing.” She wasn’t fooled for a moment, well aware of the way in which his gaze wasn’t quite meeting hers.

  His smile was rueful. “How much of a law-abiding citizen are you?”

  Her brows rose. “As I don’t really exist, I couldn’t say.”

  “Oh, I can personally vouch for the fact you definitely exist,” he murmured appreciatively. “Talking of which… Is it nearly bedtime?”

  Her gaze was reproving. “Stop trying to change the subject, Haydn, and tell me what you were really doing in the basement earlier.”

  He gave a heavy sigh at her persistence. “My father keeps a stash of guns down there.”

  Her eyes were wide as she rose slowly to her feet. “What the hell…? Isn’t that highly dangerous when the place is obviously left empty most of the time?”

  Haydn looked unconcerned. “They’re hidden beneath the concrete floor under the snooker table. Where I very much doubt anyone would ever look for hidden guns. I had to take a hammer to the concrete earlier so I could get to them.”

  Hailey’s stomach felt as if it had just done a complete somersault. Her heart was definitely pounding too loudly and much too fast. “What sort of guns are we actually talking about?”

  “An assault and sniper rifles. A couple of handguns. And the ammo for all of them, of course. Plus half a dozen grenades.”

  “Half a dozen…” Hailey felt as if all the blood had drained downward, leaving her extremely light-headed. “Was your father an agent for the Secret Intelligence Service?”

  Haydn chuckled. “He might have been.”