I grabbed his face with either hand and pressed my lips to his. It was rash and insane, and I was asking for things I knew he would give me. I wrapped my legs around his thick waist and held onto him for dear life.

He kissed me the way he had in the casino, like he was made to do it. But this time I wasn’t scared of him or Servario or James or for my kids; I swooned like I had wanted to the first time. His hands dug into my ass, grinding me against him, pulling me into his embrace. He was wrapped completely around me, holding me tightly. His mouth caressed mine, sucking my lower lip and rubbing his tongue against mine. My hands ran up his neck to his hair. I let him lead the way in the kiss, but I ran my fingers through his hair, tugging it slightly. He smiled against my face, "You are in so much trouble."

I nodded, barely able to breathe, "I know." My words sounded like a moan and my lips refused to stop caressing his. We were breathing each other in. Voices coming close to us were the only thing that saved us. He pulled back, giving me a passionate stare. I could almost see everything he was going to do to me in his eyes, like a movie playing on a screen.

I swallowed hard and backed up from him. I sat on the other side of the hot tub as a group of elderly came and climbed in with us. His eyes never left mine until Jules shouted for us to watch her jump off of the high board. We clapped and watched, but really we were both still living out the memory and the anticipation of what was to come.

Chapter Twenty

If this boat’s rocking, don’t come a knocking

I tucked the kids into bed and kissed them both. "I'm right next door if you need me."

They were exhausted from the hours of swimming, running, and climbing. The cruise had turned out to be a veritable floating workout room. I closed their door and slipped into our bed. He wasn’t there yet. I was a bit scared he just wasn’t coming back.

What had happened in the hot tub was crazy. We both knew it, and yet, neither of us wanted to stop.

I laid there for a while, getting less excited and more worried. My worry turned to anger when I realized he wasn’t coming back. He was sitting somewhere drinking and fighting the urge to come to the room.

I knew it.

I knew it was too good to be true. He never was going to be a relationship guy. It was all about winning for him. I closed my eyes and let the subtle movement of the boat relax me.

He stumbled into the room, flooding it with light and waking me up hours later. I sighed and rolled over. He reeked of liquor and cigars.

"Evie, we need to talk."

I lifted my middle finger up into the air. He chuckled, "I know you're pissed, but we need to talk, for real. Jack just contacted me."

I turned over, "How?"

He pulled a cell phone from his pocket, "We have to go and finish what we started."

I scowled, "What?"

He nodded, "The human-trafficking brothels. We have to go and shut them down. Commander contacted Jack, he wants it cleaned up. Us killing off the ones we did, started something. He doesn’t know where to start, and he isn’t sending us aid. He wants it on the down low as a favor to the Brits. Evie, they know it was us, somehow."

He slumped onto the bed. I shook my head, "We are on the open ocean on a cruise ship. How are we supposed to help CI right now?"

He laid down, "Whew, the room is spinning good." He looked over at me, "We should talk about earlier too."

I turned and grabbed his face. I ignored the taste of whiskey and cigars. I rolled on top of him, in my bra and panties, kissing as fast and hard as I could. I rubbed my body up and down his, sliding myself like I was riding him. He was instantly hard and more aggressive than he had been in the hot tub. He rolled us both, pulling down my bra and kissing my neck. He licked and kissed until he got to my nipple. He flicked and then sucked and swirled his tongue over half of my breast. I reached my hands down, undoing his pants and releasing him. I stroked his cock, making him moan into my nipple. I slid my hand up and down his massive shaft, rubbing the head every time I got to the top. He moaned louder. I rolled him over and sat on his erection. I wanted to put him inside of me so badly. I was dying for it, but I didn’t. He was massaging my br**sts, making me want it more, so I slammed his hands down on the bed. He nodded, "Okay, we can let you be in charge this time."

I bit my lip and rotated my hips, literally rubbing my cl*t on the head of his cock. I took a deep breath, "I really want you, Coop."

He nodded, "Me too. I mean, I want you."

I bent forward, brushing my lips against his, "But…"

He shook his head, "No buts, Evie. No buts. Just put it in. I know you're wet. I can feel it."

I smiled wide, "I can feel it too. But… no. You were right from the start, this was a mistake. It always was a mistake."

He shook his head, forcing my hands off of his wrists, "Evie, come on." He wrapped himself around me and rolled up back to him being on top. He slid a finger into the side of my panties, "You want me as much as I want you." He ran his finger up and down my pu**y. I licked my lips, "No. I'm saying no."

I felt the strength in his arm tighten, like he was about to stick his finger in anyway. I smiled wide, "No."

He moaned into my neck, "Why did you start this? I was all cooled off."

I nodded, "I know, but I wasn’t. Now we both feel like hell."

He chuckled a drunk and loose laugh, "Evie, I cooled off when Jack messaged me. We need to get our heads back in the game. That doesn’t change how I feel about you."

I lifted his face, "Back in the game isn’t drunk, idiot. How do you feel about me, Coop?"

He looked like he might lie but he didn’t, "Conflicted."

I nodded, "Until you don’t feel conflicted anymore, let’s not do this."

"You know you feel the same way I do."

I nodded, "Yeah, but it's like you said before. I fall in love too easily. I fall for every guy I do it with."

His stare turned to ice, "You don’t want to fall for me?"

I looked him in the eyes and brushed my lips against his softly, "Not like that."

He smiled, "Why do I have to be the guy you respect and shit?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. You just do." I knew the answer was because a guy like him was the most dangerous kind of guy. He was the kind I could spend my whole life with. He was a coffee-shop guy.

The next day, he took Mitch to mini golf and I took Jules to the princess shop. They did her hair, nails, and toes and made her into something that broke my heart. I wished my mom could see. I was sitting in the chair waiting when Coop and Mitch showed up. He took one look at her and turned and walked back out of the princess shop. I looked at Mitch, "What's his deal?"

He shrugged, "I beat him, he's a sore loser."

I laughed. Coop came back a couple minutes later with a disposable camera. He started taking pictures of Jules in her varying stages of princess. He tossed me a different camera, "This one is of us golfing."

Mitch smiled, "And eating the largest slices of pizza I have ever seen."

Coop pointed at him, "Best pizza ever." He continued to get Jules to smile. I actually felt bad I hadn’t even noticed there were disposable cameras on board. I hadn’t thought of savoring the memories, because I wasn’t sure if I should or not.

How sad was that?

I wanted to not think he was the sweetest person on the planet, but that was impossible. The cell phone he had rang. He answered and passed the phone to me.

I scowled, "Hello?"

It was Luce, "Hey!"

I smiled, "Hey, how's the house and the town?"

"Good. You don’t get to see it for a while longer I guess, huh? I am assuming you heard about that."

"Yeah. Is my mom okay?"

Luce laughed, "She's fine. She and Fitz have started canning. They're like the weirdest spies ever."

I laughed, "I can see that. So what's the plan?"

"I'm going to stay here with Fitz and the kids. Your mom is going with you guys, my lungs just can't take it yet."

I lowered my voice, "Why are we being chosen to do this if we're in deep?"

She lowered hers too, "We can't be traced back to CI or the US right now. The Brits are putting on a good show about the deaths. They're acting like it was some kind of terrorism but they know it was CI. As payment, they want the rest of the next job cleaned up and they can’t risk how deep this goes into their administration. They have moles. We all have moles. On the bright side, even though his boat is, Servario isn’t being linked to it. I have no idea what's going on. I just know the commander and Jack were in contact. He has asked that we do this as a favor to the Brits."

"Is it a setup?"

She sighed, "I don’t know. Your mom is going in, she's worried. I can tell. That makes me worried. Fitz thinks we should tell them all to f**k themselves and Jack is tense."

I nodded, "Okay. I don’t think we should do it either, but at the same time, I don’t like the idea that there are human-trafficking brothels. I have kids; I would kill someone if they ever touched them. Our job has always been to protect and rescue, this isn’t that different. Apart from the fact we are in deep cover and trying to save our own asses and keep my kids safe."

"I got your kids, dude. Fitz and I won't let anything happen to them."

I shook my head, "Tell Mom she has to stay. Tell her me, Jack, and Coop can do this."

"She isn’t going to listen."

I growled, "Put her on the phone."

Mom's accent was thick and sweet when she answered, "Not a chance, my darling. You are stuck with me."

I bit my lip, "If I ask Servario for help, will you stay with the kids?"

She went silent for a moment, "No, he hung you out to dry."

I sighed, "I know but he's good at this. You said it yourself. Between him, Coop, and Jack, I'll be fine."