You Only Love Twice by Lexi Blake

see one. Well, when I stop thinking with my dick, I do.
You bastards. You’re why we were taken. Do you think I don’t know that?”
    “What?”
    He huffed a little, like he didn’t believe her question.
“Sure, you didn’t know.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    His lips curled just slightly. It was the cruelest look
she’d ever seen on his sweet face, and her heart ached because she’d been the
one to put it there. “They targeted my unit, Phoebe. It wasn’t random. They
were looking for an operative code named ‘the spider.’ The Agency was embedding
operatives into troops.”
    Her stomach dropped. “No. That’s not true.”
    No one could have known. No one would have told. Jamie had
been caught in a random act of terrorism. It hadn’t been their fault. No way.
    Ten would have told her.
    She’d been the one to come up with the concept. Ten had
argued against it. Violently. He’d told her it would put the soldiers in the
unit in danger, but Jamie had liked the idea. He’d been the one to talk Ten in
to trying it, and it had failed spectacularly.
    Was she the real reason Jesse Murdoch had spent all those
months being tortured, his soul being ripped apart?
    “Phoebe? Baby, are you going to pass out?” He immediately
dropped the tough guy act and his arms went around her just as her knees went
weak.
    She hadn’t eaten all day and the drugs were making her
loopy. No. She was fooling herself. The guilt was making her sick. Had she done
this to both Jamie and Jesse? She felt herself being hauled into strong arms.
    “Do I need to get a doctor?” He pulled her close and it felt
so good to be in his arms.
    She wanted to pretend the last several hours hadn’t
happened. She let her head drift to his shoulder just as she heard the sound of
a helicopter. Distant at first, and then she watched in utter horror as it
dropped into view, blocking the sight of the Dallas skyline.
    Her eyes widened as she saw a tall, lean man standing on the
foot rail, a SIG in his free hand and a grim look on his face. He nodded and
the chopper rose again, likely to set down on the roof.
    “What the hell?” Jesse turned. He had caught a glimpse of
the chopper before it rose. “Was that a traffic copter? I don’ t think they’re
supposed to get that close to the building.”
    She shook her head. “No. You need to tell Taggart to let me
go and lock the doors. If he lets me go, I think everyone will be safe.”
    She clung to Jesse for one second longer because her time
was up.
    Ten was here.

CHAPTER FIVE

     
    Jesse kicked his office door open. He didn’t even think
about letting Phoebe down. He couldn’t risk it. He believed her that something
was about to happen and it was going to be bad, but the last thing he was going
to do was put her out in the hallway and lock the doors behind her. He wasn’t
going to leave her out there like some sacrifice.
    He wasn’t ready to give her up. He was supposed to have more
time. He knew it couldn’t work, but he’d planned to get inside her and have
that one memory. She would have let him do it, too. She’d been so hot when
she’d spread her legs and let him bring her to orgasm. He’d felt her tighten
around him and imagined it was his dick instead of his fingers, getting
squeezed from all sides while she milked him dry.
    Yeah, it had taken everything he had not to come then and
there.
    And then he’d been an asshole because he couldn’t say what
he’d wanted to say. So he’d struck out and he’d hated the hurt look that had
come over her face.
    “Jesse, the party’s starting.” Li walked out of his office,
holding Avery’s hand. Her hair was mussed and she had a glow about her that
told Jesse something had been going on in that office. He guessed a couple with
a kid took whatever time they could get. “Grace just called and said all the
rug rats are happy and fed and she wants pictures before we start.”
    Avery took a deep breath. “And I can smell the appetizers
Sean