It was her mouth closing over his in a hot, greedy kiss that tore a groan from his chest and sent blood pounding right to his groin.
Her hands were everywhere, her mouth wet and demanding against his own. She took exactly what she wanted and didn’t give him a chance to say yes or no or anything in between. And thank the stars above for that. In seconds she had his pants undone and pushed down to his thighs as she continued to kiss him, and then all rational thought slipped from his brain when she hiked up the dress shirt she wore, straddled his hips and took him deep inside her steaming wetness.
“Kit-Kat.” He groaned and thrust up to meet her, as frantic as she was to get to him. And when they both reached the peak together moments later, he was gasping for breath like he’d just run the Chicago marathon.
She dropped her face against his neck. Pressed one hand to his shoulder. Her medal fell against his shirt, and her heart raced in time to his as he blinked up at the hall ceiling.
Now that was a homecoming.
She fisted his shirt into her hand and breathed deeply. “I’m so mad at you, Pete.”
He drew in two slow breaths and tried to regulate his heart rate. “If this is you being pissed at me, then I’m thinking we definitely need to fight more often.”
“That’s not funny,” she said against his neck.
“I don’t hear anyone laughing.”
She pushed up on the hand she had braced against the floor and looked down at him. “Oh, Pete. Please tell me this is real.”
He smiled up at her and brushed a lock of hair back from her temple. “It’s real.”
She moved off him so he could sit up, but she didn’t go far, easing back on her heels so he could pull up his slacks. “I don’t understand. What happened? I called every day. No one would tell me anything.”
“That’s because they couldn’t.” He fixed his shirt. “Two days after I was taken into custody, Maria found your necklace.”
Kat’s eyes widened. “She did?”
“It had been sent back to Greece already. And you were right. The proof was all right there on the camera card. Minyawi and Busir in the tomb that night before Minyawi went back to get you. Busir and some other guy plotting what they were going to do to you and to Shannon if you didn’t cooperate.”
When her face paled, he added, “The other guy, the third one that you said you never saw? Dr. Omar Kamil. Director of the Cairo Museum.”
Kat’s eyes grew even wider. “He’s with the SCA. No wonder my complaints never went anywhere.”
“He’s also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has links to the ELA. Ramirez—Minyawi—whatever you want to call him was his inside man. Somehow they got Latham involved—blackmail, it looks like. But together they were making a butt-load of money skimming pieces coming out of there and selling them on the black market. Latham left notes in that journal we got from his wife. Notes, Kat,” he said, still unable to believe it himself, “which prove how small time he really was. Busir was their go-to guy.”
When her eyes slid closed, he knew what she was remembering—the horror in that tomb, what she’d done in Maria’s kitchen. He closed his hand over hers in a tight grip. “It’s over, Kat.”
“Do they have Kamil?”
“They do now.”
Her eyes popped open. “What do you mean now? Why do I get the feeling—”
“The evidence on the tape was inconclusive. There was never a clear shot of Kalim’s face. But as soon as Maria saw it, she knew it was him. She had dinner with him the night we went to her apartment. He was the man we passed getting on the elevator in her building. That’s how Minyawi knew we were in New York.”
“So what happened?”
“My lawyer cut another deal.”
She eyed him warily. “I’m starting to dread your deals, Pete.”
He laughed and reached for her other hand. “It worked out, didn’t it? I’m sitting here with you now.”
“I’m still not sure how that happened. And why you couldn’t call and tell me any of this was going on. I’ve been worried sick about you.”
“I know. But I couldn’t because I’ve been in Cairo the last few days, Kat.”
“What?” Those almond-shaped eyes of hers widened again until he saw the whites all around her mocha irises.
He shrugged and tried to downplay the situation. “Turns out INTERPOL, in conjunction