Spent, he grabbed Shadoe around the waist and rolled them both to the blanket onto their sides. It took several panting breaths for him to even attempt to breathe, let alone talk.

He drew her sweat-damped hair away from her face. “You okay?”

“Mmm.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I might be dead. Don’t talk to me right now. I need a nap.”

He snorted. “There are probably bugs all over the ground.”

“I don’t care. I’ll share the blanket with a snake. I’m exhausted.”

“Let’s go back to the hotel. I’ll run you a hot bath. Then you can take a nap.”

“Oh sure. Tease me.”

“It’s a promise. I’ll even wash your back.”

“Now this I’ve got to see. You’re on.”

They straightened up and Shadoe folded the blanket to put away on the bike.

Spence surveyed the broken-down area that he used to call the nightmare of his home.

Somehow, it no longer held the bad memories it used to.

Shadoe came up to him and laced her fingers with his. He turned to her. “Thanks.”

She tilted her head to the side and quirked a brow. “For what?”

“For banishing a few demons for me.”

She smiled and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I’ve always wanted to be someone’s knight in shining armor. Thank you for that.” She pivoted and headed toward the bike.

Spence shook his head. She really was an amazing woman.

It made him wish he was a forever kind of guy.

But he knew better.

They headed back to the hotel and, true to his word, the first thing he did was run a bath for Shadoe. He even put in those smelly bath salt things women seemed to like that made the water purple and soft. He liked that it made her smell good. Actually, he liked anything that required her to be na**d. She slid into the tub and he sat on the edge like the good servant he’d promised her he’d be, washcloth in hand.

“Are you really intending to scrub my back?” She cast him a dubious look.

He dipped the cloth into the water. “I said I was going to, didn’t I?”

“I think you should get in here with me.”

“Smelling like lavender isn’t my thing.”

“What if you smelling like lavender turns me on?”

He laughed. “Then I’d say there’s something wrong with you.”

She snorted. “Okay, maybe you can take a shower afterward. I’ll probably need to do the same, since I’m sure there’s dirt and twigs and God only knows else in my hair. So get in here with me and wash my back, slave.”

He liked playing with her. She relaxed him, and he was rarely relaxed. He stripped off his clothes and climbed into the tub with her. It was one of those oversized whirlpools, with the flowing waterfall faucet in the center. He pulled Shadoe in front of him and grabbed the cloth. She’d put her hair up with a clip, so tiny little curls escaped along the back of her neck. He wanted to kiss them.

“You’re not washing.”

“Sorry.” He rubbed the cloth along her smooth skin, kissing everywhere the cloth had been.

“Mmm, this is nice. I could get used to having a manservant.”

“Don’t get used to it. I don’t service women.”

She half turned to face him, giving him a tempting view of one breast and nipple. “Is that right? Seems to me you’ve been doing a fine job servicing me lately.”

“Is that what you think I’ve been doing?”

“Well . . . I feel pretty well serviced.”

“Maybe you should service me for a change.”

Like a quick-moving storm, her eyes changed in an instant. From playfulness to dark desire, they went from light brown to smoldering whiskey. There was such temptation in her eyes. Spence lost himself there every time he looked at them.

“You want me to service you.”

“Yes.”

She turned fully around to face him. “Tell me what you want.”

Now that was tempting, though the question was easy. What did every man want? “Suck me.”

Her smile transformed her face from temptress to sexy angel. “I’d love to. Sit on the edge of the tub.”

He grabbed the edge of the tub and hauled himself onto the ledge.

She inched across the water and laid her hands on his knees. “Now spread ’em for me.”

He did. Wide.

She stared straight ahead at his c**k and balls. She didn’t even need to touch him. Just her looking at him like that got him hard. And she kept her gaze there, watched him get that way, which made him even harder.

“You’re beautiful down here.” She smoothed her hands from his knees along his inner thighs, her hands like wet silk, water trickling off her fingertips. “Every inch of you a man.” She moved her hands inward, slid her thumb over the sac containing his balls, then swam in farther between his legs so her shoulders were cradled between his thighs.

She laid her head on one thigh, and lifted her hand, letting water drip over the top of his cock, seeming to be entranced by the stream cascading over his shaft. She watched until there was nothing but droplets, then circled him with her hand, stroking him from base to tip, covering his c**k with the satiny water and her slender hand. He leaned farther back and arched into her hand, loving the softness, so unlike his hard, calloused hand. She touched him differently than he touched himself, almost reverently, as if she was afraid she’d hurt him.

“I won’t break, Shadoe. Squeeze it, touch it any way you want to.”

She did, gripping him harder as she stroked him, moving slowly at first, then rising up on her knees. Water sluiced off her shoulders, her arms, her breasts, making her look like a goddess rising from the sea.

He wasn’t the type of guy who saw poetry in a woman’s body, but goddamn if Shadoe didn’t put him in that frame of mind. And when her lips parted and her tongue snaked out to lick along the crest of his cock, his mind emptied of everything but the sight of her pink tongue and how hot it felt on his cockhead, and how he wanted to come right then, to see it burst over her tongue, inside her mouth.

He shuddered, and her gaze met his. She closed her lips over the head, and he felt her tongue swirling over him as she sucked him into the deep recesses of her velvety mouth. He held the back of her head while she engulfed him, her hand coming up to circle his shaft, the other to cradle his balls and squeeze him gently.

He wanted to erupt, to scream out in pleasured agony. But he wanted to f**k her again. He wanted to do everything to her, with her, right now. He was torn.

She pulled back, releasing his c**k from her mouth with a loud pop. “Do it. Come for me, Spence. Let me feel it.”

Without waiting for him to answer, she gripped him in her hand again, touching him with hard, measured strokes.

“Christ.” He had no voice left, not when she closed her lips over him again, that hot, wet heat surrounding him, sucking him into a vortex of indescribable sensation and taking all his resolve with it. She released her hand, gazed into his eyes, and took him deep into her throat. That’s when he lost it and let go with a guttural cry. He held on to her head as he gave her everything he had, unable to even breathe as the orgasm ripped from every nerve ending in his body and left him shattered and drained.

Shadoe laid her head on his thigh again, stroked his other leg, a contented smile on her face. When Spence finally had his sanity back, he decided payback was only fair.

She might look the serene goddess right now, but he intended to rip away her sanity next.

“Thank you, darlin’.” He pulled her out of the water and against him and gave her a lingering kiss. When he drew away, her eyes were glazed over and her lips were plump from his kiss. She licked them.

“You’re welcome.” She started to sink back into the water, but he held her firm.

“We’re not finished yet, Shadoe.”

“We’re not?”

He shook his head. “Stand up.”

He pulled her against him. Now it was his turn to slide into the water. He rested his head against the side of the tub.

“Straddle my shoulders, babe.”

She widened her stance and placed her legs in between his arms and his the side of his chest, placing her pu**y in the perfect spot.

He looked up and grinned at her.

“Oh” was all she said, then her lips curved.

He said nothing, just grasped her butt cheeks and pulled her closer to his hungry mouth, placing it over her sex.

She smelled like the lavender bath water, her bare skin silky and wet. It made it so easy to glide his tongue over her na**d skin, to taste her sweet cream as it flowed from her. She tilted her pelvis out, held on to the wall for support, and closed her eyes, letting out a small gasp as he licked around her clit.

Oh, man, she had a pretty pussy, and when she stood like this he could really see it clearly, could play with all of her with his mouth and his fingers. He slid his tongue inside her, used his thumb to swirl over her cl*tand around her pu**y lips, and just generally enjoyed playing with her. He wanted to see what she liked, where it felt good for her, watching her reactions as he licked and sucked her.

Shadoe liked pretty much everything, but she really enjoyed it when he sucked her cl*tand tucked two fingers inside her to f**k her. Her whole body went rigid, her eyes opened, and she tilted her head down at him to watch.

He really liked it when she watched him, her golden brown eyes focused on what he did, encouraging him with her visual signals.

He licked the length of her, and her lips parted. She began to pant and he gave her laps with his tongue around her clit.

“God, Spence, that’s going to make me come.”

He gripped her ass and dug his fingers in, bringing her sex closer to his mouth, burying his face in her sweet fragrance and pressing his tongue hard against her clit. She shuddered out his name and held on to his hair, jerking and pulsing as she came until she sank into the water and crashed against him.

She soared upward, cradled his face between her hands, and pressed her lips to his in a wild, untamed kiss, before she pulled away and rested her head against his shoulders.

They lay like that for a long while, until the water got cold and Shadoe started to shiver. Only then did he pull her out of the tub and they took a quick shower together. They dried off and fell into bed together. Shadoe passed out almost immediately.

She needed the nap. He enjoyed just holding her, stroking her back and her hair, listening to the soft sounds of her breath.

Yeah, she was right. There was nothing wrong with this togetherness thing, as long as he never lost sight of the fact that it wasn’t going to last.

Love and relationships never did.

But this was the first time in his life that he almost wished it could.

THE WILD ROSE WAS PACKED AGAIN. SHADOE HAD ALREADY gone on once, and like last night, she was surrounded by admirers. Tonight she decided she’d wander around and meet people instead of being stuck at a table. That would give her a chance to mix and mingle and see faces.

There were repeaters from last night, several of the dockworkers she’d seen the day before, and even some new ones. Lots of tourists, too. Brandon told her there were always new faces coming into the club every night, and that was the tourist trade coming in. Some came back, some frequented other clubs, some might come infrequently. He told her you could never set a schedule or determine regulars at a club in the French Quarter, which made her photographic memory even more critical on this mission. And for the first time ever, she felt it would be a useful tool. No way could someone memorize faces night after night and hope they could spot the rogue agent out of thousands of faces studied in the agency’s data banks.

She would, though. She’d nab this bastard selling out to the Colombians.

She saw Pax and AJ sitting at one of the center tables—a great spot to do a little viewing of their own. Though she wasn’t sure if they were really on the job or just ogling the dancers. She went up to their table and bent down to wrap her arms around them.

“How’s it going, guys?”

AJ tilted his head up and graced her with the kind of smile that would turn any woman’s knees to jelly, his stormy gray eyes filled with trouble. “Hey, baby. You looked hot tonight, as usual.”

“You sure did, honey. Hard for a guy to concentrate on anything but watching you,” Pax said, his lips tilted in a sexy smile. Between the two of these guys, a woman didn’t stand a chance. Pax’s face was model worthy, all chiseled cheekbones and strong jaw, and just perfect, kissable lips.

She laughed. “I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”

“We usually do,” AJ said with a wink.

“So, anything happening tonight?”

Pax shook his head. “Just a lot of pretty na**d ladies and guys who want to get into their G-strings.”

“Guys like you?”

“Always,” AJ said, tipping his beer her way. “But we’ve got an inside line we’re working.”

Shadoe arched a brow. “Do you? And what might that be?”

“Hey. Are you trying to pick up my guys?”

Shadoe straightened and saw Ariele coming to a stop at the table to rest a hip against AJ’s chair. AJ slid an arm around her waist.

“Me? Not at all. Just stopping to say hello. So, these two are yours, huh?”

Ariele laughed. “Well, they are a handful, but they sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

Both? At once? Oh, my. Shadoe’s gaze flitted between AJ and Pax, who grinned back at her. “That sounds like fun.”

Ariele’s eyes sparkled with desire. “It is, Desi. You should try it sometime.”