Virtually His (30 page)

“I’m going to call our liaison, Steve McMillan, for information from his CIA contacts at TIARA. He’ll get us the names of the people who requested the use of the plane at that time.”

“Do you suspect rogues or was it a sanctioned CIA operation?”

“Too early to tell. But either way, we have to deal with it. We can’t have them interfering, especially with something like this. None of the big brass are going to take it seriously when the departments are fighting over remote viewers. No VIP’s going to want to be arguing over that on record.”

Helen frowned. The other possibility of actually being spied upon by a remote viewer from the CIA was disconcerting. It was no fun being on the other end of the game. They had trained her, so why were they after her now?

There was so much she still had to learn about her newly-acquired skill. There was so much more she didn’t know. Her CIA monitor had told her that practice and time would help her achieve higher levels, even without a personal trainer. But she had Hades as her monitor now, and she had a feeling that he knew a lot more than he was telling her.

“Actually, let me talk to Nikki Harden and set up a meeting with her husband, Rick, from TIARA.” Jed McNeil spoke for the first time since the meeting started. “I don’t want Steve McMillan reporting back to Admiral Madison about this yet.”

Helen looked at him. Nikki Harden was a retired GEM operative, a legend among her sisters because of her background. On her return from her training hiatus, she’d learned that Nikki had gotten married recently, but the details were lost among a hundred other pieces of news she had to absorb.

“I’ll let her know so she expects your call, Jed,” T. said. “You know she doesn’t like to be surprised.”

Jed’s lips curled up at the corners. “Just because Diamond’s spoiling your fun, you don’t have to spoil mine, too.”

“Darling, you’re having entirely too much of that lately. Now that we’ve established that our attackers were actually one of our own agencies and not a foreign entity, what’s our next course of action?”

“We divide into two groups. One takes care of finding out the CIA culprit. The other takes care of our current operation, which is still ongoing, by the way. We need the other half of the Cummings. He isn’t to be allowed to escape or he might barter for his wife’s release with his information. Heath, you’ve interviewed the woman, what’s your take on this?”

Because it was still ongoing, Helen refrained from asking questions about the electronic key she’d retrieved. If the powers-that-be decided to test her again, she didn’t want any chance of them saying that her RV was contaminated by information.

Besides, it was more interesting watching the COS commandos. Her training had isolated her for two years. She’d forgotten how much prep there was in between operations. She was also a GEM operative, essentially trained to work alone, so working with a group of men was something new. However, she hadn’t been away from the field so long that she couldn’t sense that these were all dangerous men. They were sitting here listening to one of their own calmly dissecting the psyche of their prisoner. “Interview,” they called it. “Interrogate,” T. had said last night.

She felt a small shiver running down her back at the thought of Heath Cliffe in a room alone with the woman she saw. She’d spent last night with one of them, had practically enjoyed relinquishing control to him, and for the first time, she understood a little of these men’s training. It wasn’t all physical strength and macho stuff like the guys against whom she’d been pitted. These men were—she searched for a word—untamed. Working outside the boundaries, and given the freedom to live in the shadows like they do, would be bound to unleash a certain wildness in a man.

Yet, studying them, she saw that they were bound to some kind of duty, or at least, they appeared to be bound by responsibility because if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be here. She wondered about each of these men’s backgrounds—who they were and what brought them here to black operations. The more she learned about them, the more this world of shadows fit them well. Each of these men, sitting here looking so civilized around a table, was not quite tamed. The few times she’d been alone with one of them had shown her one thing. They disregarded rules and ethics when it fit their purpose, and their agenda, she realized, was never black and white. Not Armando’s. Not Heath’s. Not even Diamond’s. And definitely not whoever Hades was.

At that precise moment, Flyboy caught her eye and signaled to her that he’d call her later. He gave her another one of his devastating smiles. When exactly had he returned from his satellite tracking? Surely it hadn’t taken that long once he found out that the CIA used one of their own secret landing strips? She smiled back sweetly. They were her wild beasts and she would learn to train them.

CIA secret medical facility

The voices were faint but he heard them. They were discussing their next step. It always paid to pretend not to be aware of everything.

“They’ll track back to our department but I think we’re safe for now. They’re going to think it’s the RV department anyway.”

“I can’t believe she’s that good. She’s just achieved Level Two, according to the reports.”

“Yes, but don’t forget it’s her physical training that’s gotten her out of this. She beat out the rest of the candidates, you know, so she’s got to be damn good.”

“What we need is to find one of these candidates and get him to kill her for us. We can’t afford this. She’s a threat to our network in the CIA, even more so than the fucking admiral’s internal investigations and committee overviews.”

“We need to lay low for a while. We have our own remote viewer, hell, a whole hospital of them, if we need more. We have our own serum. We have what we need to counter any of their moves, if they’re going to use her to spy on our activities. Don’t worry. We’ve been around for over a decade. No one’s going to dig us out that easily. Meanwhile, we have to hide him. He’s still useful. Did pretty good back there.”

“Yes, but look at him staring into space like a madman. Not going to last, man.”

“Like I said, the facility has plenty of candidates.”

He was afraid. Mad. Not that kind of mad. He wasn’t a lunatic, no matter what those fuckers think. He was pissed-off mad.

All his beautiful collection of images…gone. They were gone! Ever since his remote viewing self had bumped into that woman in the stairs, ever since that awful experience—whatever it was—he hadn’t been able to rewind. Empty. Like a blank tape. There wasn’t one image left. Empty. That other viewer had sucked it out of him somehow.

It had been what had kept him going all these months when they’d abandoned him in this stupid hospital, the images and all those feelings he’d collected from the people from whom he’d taken them. The memories of their sex lives—how he loved the glow of their lust rushing in him. And he had collected some really sexy ones this last time too, especially from that woman everyone was after, the one who had a husband. She was mighty fine and what a hot lusty kinky babe. Always wanting sex, that one…oh the lost images! He could remember them, but who the fuck cared about memories when he couldn’t rewind and taste the energy?

That woman he’d bumped into—he had to somehow find that woman and get it back. It had to be inside her still and she was probably enjoying his collection. Somehow, she’d stolen it from him. He’d heard his monitors talking about her, that she could remote view and then physically lead a team into action without her needing any downtime, so that meant she was on the serum, too, only something better. Something way stronger because she had fucking stolen his images without being in remote-viewing mode! How the fuck did she do that?

Empty. He wanted to howl, but he had to somehow behave normally after this downtime. He was just doubly depressed, that was all. He was going to convince them to give him the serum again, so he could collect some images. Then maybe he could get two doses, like before, and explore that power again. Only he had to be very careful not to let any of these fuckers know.

When he was stronger, he’d think of this woman. Find her. Take back what was his.

T
heta wavelength. First the white light. Then he appeared. A moment later, the scene appeared. He had recreated her quarters and was lounging in his perfect naked state on her bed. Bastard.

Could one blush in virtual reality? Of course, the more she thought about it, the more heated her face became.

“What’s this all about, Hades?”
Helen asked. She was never going to look at her bed the same again.

“A little teasing,”
he said, that Southern drawl she’d requested totally unsuitable now for some reason.
“Afraid?”

“I’m not afraid of an avatar,”
she sniffed.

He patted the space by his side.
“Exactly. How are you walking? Are you feeling better?”
he asked solicitously, as if nothing had happened between them.

Helen glared at him. She walked up to the bed, hands on hips.
“You crossed the line last night. There was no reason for you to come into my room and…and…”

She paused. She almost said “make love to me.” That wasn’t right; she didn’t even know who he was. But for some reason, she couldn’t say “have sex with me” or cruder still, “fuck me.” It was all her fault. How the hell did one talk to a totally naked avatar hunk that one had created out of fantasy? This was ridiculous. He had manipulated her from day one and she was blindsided by herself! It made her even madder thinking about it.

“And?”
he prompted.

She was just going to have to be smarter. Think of a way out of this.

“And take advantage of me,”
she told him.
“I wasn’t in any state to say no to you, you knew that.”

“If I hadn’t known that you’re attracted to me and would have wanted me before your condition, I wouldn’t have come to you, Elena,”
he said.

“That’s not fair either!”
she yelled. She leaned over him, wanting to wring his neck.
“You read my mind or sensed my feelings or whatever it is that we share here in VR. Those were my thoughts and you weren’t supposed to see or feel them, dammit!”

“Those were my dreams you were invading,”
he pointed out quietly.
“You weren’t supposed to see or feel them either.”

Helen opened her mouth, then shut it. He got her there. She sat down.
“Are you really having wet dreams about me?”

He smiled.
“We were both very wet in that dream.”

“How did you know I was having it, too?”

His brown eyes searched hers for a moment.
“If I told you that every time I touched myself you moaned out my name, would you believe me?”

“No, I wouldn’t,”
Helen said. She looked at the part of him that he could only have been touching. It was still gloriously big. She really, really had to do something about that because after last night…looking at it made her hot all over.
“You…oh man, I can’t believe I’m asking this, you were…I mean…”
She coughed, trying not to think about his hand around that part.
“Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

“But it affected you and you were already in a very aroused state, which is another thing we have to discuss.”
He shifted slightly, turning toward her.
“I don’t think it’s the ring that caused your problem. It had to be a combination of things. Why do you think the serum affected you that way?”

“I don’t know,”
she said, and added reluctantly,
“Armando Chang suggested it might be because I hadn’t had sex for a long time.”

“And with the serum’s dissipation, the body and brain overcompensated,”
Hades murmured.
“How long is a long time?”

Helen pursed her lips.
“I’m not going to tell you anything about my sex life,”
she told him.
“And you can stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

Like he was going to make love to her all over again on the bed. She had never been so aware of a man in her life. She wanted to turn and touch him the way he had touched her. She wanted to use her mouth.

“I would like that very much,”
he told her.

She gritted her teeth and growled.
“You see? You weren’t supposed to know what I’m thinking!”

“Actually, it’s more an impression. I told you, I can’t read your mind. But your feelings come through very clearly to me.”
His hand reached out for her fisted one and gently uncurled her fingers.
“It’s going to be all right.”

“Easy for you to say,”
she said. He wasn’t the one thinking lustful thoughts about a make-believe persona.
“You aren’t suffering from chemical overcompensation.”

“But as your monitor, I do somewhat feel it, especially when you’re thinking about it.”
His brown eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
“It’s still there. It feels similar to the surge of adrenaline after doing something dangerous and exciting.”

He tugged her closer and his hand slowly caressed her arm, his thumb drawing circles, sending little tendrils of pleasure up and down her spine. It wasn’t as bad as yesterday and for some reason, she didn’t mind that he was doing it to her. Yesterday, she hadn’t wanted anyone touching her at all.

His eyes closed and he added,
“No wonder you didn’t want anyone to touch you. Even at this mild stage, I can feel it. It feels like a man would feel when he gets aroused. And it being ten times worse yesterday, I’d say it probably felt like my avatar with a hard-on all day, with no release in sight.”

Helen watched him lying on “her” bed. It occurred to her that he had deliberately chosen this scene to make her uncomfortable enough so that he could “read” her feelings. He had guessed that she wouldn’t tell him, so he’d set out to find out his own way. The mind behind the avatar was calculating and devious and he knew her too well.

“Yeah, well, now I know what it feels like to walk around with a big dick,”
she said sarcastically.
“Happy now?”

He laughed and pulled her on top of him.
“I’m happier if you feel the dick inside you actually,”
he said with an evil gleam in his eye.
“It seems that you still need more therapy. Maybe I’ll come by again tonight.”

“I won’t be surprised a second time,”
she warned.

“Maybe you’ll take the pill willingly,”
he teased.

“Maybe pigs could fly. You’re just afraid that if I touch you, I’ll know exactly who you are.”

She liked being on top of him, except this wasn’t real. Her brain was telling her that but her body didn’t seem to care one bit. He felt real, almost as real as last night.

“Of course,”
he acknowledged, “
but I also liked having you totally helpless. It’s exciting.”

“That’s because you’re also a controlling bastard. You’re probably into dominant and submissive sex games.”
Her eyes narrowed. Didn’t T. hint last night that Heath liked that kind of thing?
“Are you?”

His lips quirked.
“You’ll just have to find out.”

“We can’t do this all the time,”
she said.
“I’m not going to let it happen.”

“But if I was really a dominant, you’d have no say in the matter, would you?”
he asked, amused.
“I’ll just take you where I want, however I please.”

It was just a stupid conversation in virtual reality but his words sounded like a promise. She should be pissed off with him but how do you get angry at something that was making you excited?

“Besides,”
he added,
“we can’t have you walking around feeling agitated and craving sex, can we? There are at least seven men out there who are too willing to take you to bed, Elena, if you ask them. Do you really want to do that because you suspect one of them is me?”

“Of course not! And I’m not walking around craving sex either! This thing’s going to go away and I’ll be fine when it’s over. You’re crazy if you think I was going to have sex with any guy just because I’m feeling this way.”

“But temptation can grow and yesterday, without control or understanding of why you felt the way you did, who knows? If I were walking around with a hard-on all day, I’d look for a woman.”

“But not just any woman, I hope?”
She was going to put a fist in his nice flat stomach any moment now.

He smiled.
“No, not just any woman. Just as you didn’t go for just any man. You fought it. I can feel you still fighting it, but it’s not going away because it isn’t a rash, sweetheart. It isn’t something a pill can fix. And if that’s the side effect from the serum each time you use it…”

Helen stared at him, speechless for a few seconds.
“No,”
she finally said.
“If the overcompensating theory is true, then at some point, I’d have had enough sex that I…uh…stop smiling like that!”

He had cleverly manipulated the conversation again. If it was true, then she was going to need to have sex to offset this…effect…her body was creating, and he was pointing out that she could either go out and find herself a lover or just have him. The idea of going out to find a lover just because she needed to have sex was totally out of the question. Tasteless. So like a man. Ugh.

“It wouldn’t be just sex with me,”
he said softly.
“We aren’t strangers. In fact, you have access to me that few people do. And when this need of yours is over, you won’t have to say any awkward goodbye to your lover because I’m just an avatar in a program. You just have to make sure you have enough sex from then on, of course.”

Helen began to laugh helplessly.
“This is the most ridiculous proposition I’ve ever had in my life.”
Virtual reality was going to drive her into the nuthouse. A naked man she’d created in a program was telling her how to run her love life.
“You’re just very lucky it wasn’t a lack of PMS my body’s overcompensating or you’re going to have the biggest bitch walking around in virtual reality.”

Her dream avatar actually shuddered.
“Thank the gods for blessing me with your problem, then,”
he said.

Without warning, he twisted her onto her back. She looked up at him in surprise. Surely not here. Not now—

“Your quarters are all gray. Perfect for a remote viewing session. I need you to find Mr. Cummings. I know it’s difficult to locate a person, but perhaps you can describe the surroundings like before and I can recognize the place.”

Helen gasped as she felt his legs spreading hers apart. She felt heated flesh against hers and looked down. She was naked! How was that possible?

“It’s my virtual reality, too,”
he murmured,
“and I know how you feel under me now. I know how you taste. What it’s like to be inside you. How your breast really feels in my hand.”

She hadn’t thought of it that way. It had always been her virtual reality. He had allowed her to control that for long enough that she hadn’t thought about what he could do to her, that she was his avatar here.

“Wait…”
she said.

But he was familiar with her body, and he knew that she was still sensitive. Worse, he knew how she liked to be touched and he was doing it all over again, his fingers readying her as his head dipped down to nibble the side of her breast. His tongue traced a sensuous pattern up the slope before leisurely licking her nipple.

Even worse, this time she could move, and she didn’t push him away or beat him to a pulp. Instead, she did what she wanted to do last night. She ran her hands through his hair, pulling his head closer.

He kissed his way up her neck as his fingers searched for a more intimate part of her, found it, and began a rhythmic caress that had her squirming.

He kissed her earlobe, bit it, and whispered,
“Checkered flag, sweet Elena. I promise to finish this when you get back.”

“You…are…such a bas…tard,”
she managed to gasp out. He had set off her remote view trigger code.

She opened her eyes. She was in her race car, going into the ether. The feel of him, the thought of him, the need for him. It was his link into her consciousness and he’d deliberately set it all up. She could feel him with her as she zoomed into the ether. She had been sexually imprinted and there was nothing she could do about it. She was virtually his.

Helen looked around her apartment restlessly. She had a few days off. She should be taking advantage of the free time to do the stuff she enjoyed, like gardening and reading. Marlena, one of her GEM sisters, was in town and called to ask whether she wanted to go out shopping and do some catching-up.

Helen would love a girls’ day out; Marlena was great company and had tons to tell her. The fact that Nikki was pregnant, for one. Helen made a note to buy something for the baby shower. Marlena also commiserated with her about working in a team, especially with that team.

“Alex Diamond’s a horrible man. Manipulative and ruthless,” she sniffed over the phone.

Helen smiled. Alex Diamond? Horrible? That meant Marlena had had a run-in of sorts with the man and had lost. One had to read between the lines with M. “What about the others? Tell me what you know.”

“I haven’t dealt with too many of them, just mostly a few minutes here and there. Ask T. and Vivi about Armando Chang. They’re sort of buddies with him. Shahrukh is a good guy, if there’s such a thing when it comes to these commandos. He’s always polite to me, anyway. Flyboy’s a flirt, but you’d know that by now. Heath…well…hmm, Heath. Let’s just say Stash doesn’t like Heath because Heath always stands too close to me.”

Helen had yet to meet Stash, the man who had snared her friend. She had to admit that she was curious about him, too. Finding out that M. was married had shocked her. Marlena was about as elusive as T. when it came to relationships. “When will I get to meet this Stash? I’m sorry I missed your wedding. I have a gift and I feel bad that I can’t see you today to give it to you.”