Hunger (The Seductors Series) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations and events are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © B.L. Wilde 2014

  The right of B.L. Wilde to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, nor stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the author.

  Cover Design by Jo Matthews © 2014

  Cover image © Vasilchenko Nikita shutterstock.com

  Back Cover/Interior Image © Dmitriy Shironosov 123rf.com

  Interior Formatting by Written Elegance 2014

  ISBN-13: 978-1499501001

  ISBN-10: 1499501005

  Acknowledgments

  Firstly, I’d like to thank my editor, Jo Matthews. Your gift of friendship keeps me writing, and I’d be lost without you. You are my rock in this crazy publishing world. Thank you for everything you do.

  I want to thank my amazing pre-reading/proof support team, Liz, NeeNee, and Andrea. You ladies are the best. Thank you for taking the time to help Hunger be all that it can be.

  I’ve been blown away by the support The Seductors Series has received so far. I want to give a special mention to a few blog members that have become friends to me: The Hive Book Reviews (love ALL you ladies), Reading Renee (Renee, the first member of Team Oliver), Sizzling Pages (Cariad, my fellow Brit Chick), Halos and Horns (Tracie, you’re amazing), My Family Hearts Books (Tonya, I love you!), and Miscellaneous Thoughts of a Bookaholic (Christina, a fellow lover of the male form). Thank you for loving TSS as much as me!

  These blogs are only to name a few, and all of your support has been incredible. Thank you!

  Lastly, my readers. Your words and reviews touch my heart. I’m so happy you are on this journey with me.

  Now, let’s get on with Jade and Oliver’s story, shall we?

  Love,

  B.L.Wilde

  For Jo,

  Who is on this journey with me every step of the way.

  Lust is Desire for the body;

  Love is Hunger for the soul.

  Prologue

  “You’ve done amazingly well, Jade,” Sonia praised from her seat behind her desk. Once I’d arrived back at headquarters, she’d requested to see me.

  “I told you I’d complete this mission.”

  “I’m sorry that I ever doubted you.”

  “Oliver will try everything to find me, though. You’ll need to make sure the cleanup crew doesn’t leave anything to chance.” I had to admit I was worried. I could only imagine how he must have reacted to waking up and finding me gone. I couldn’t dwell on that, though. It would drive me insane.

  “You have nothing to worry about, Jade. You know our defenses are untouchable. Of course, you’ll be on lockdown for at least three months, just to be safe.” Three months! Great!

  “Can I help intelligence while I’m here? I need to be doing something.” I had to keep myself busy. I couldn’t let my mind wander to thoughts of him.

  “I’m sure Miles would be happy to have you,” Sonia mused, “but take a few days to regroup first. You must be exhausted.” I was—physically and emotionally. “I know it can’t have been easy for you.” I looked up at Sonia with a frown. “I’m not the heartless bitch everyone thinks I am. I know you formed a bond with Mr. Kirkham.”

  “It was a bond I was able to break, Sonia. Don’t worry about it.” She could be trying to trick me, so I wasn’t going to openly admit that I’d developed feelings for Oliver.

  “You’re one of the strongest Seductors I have. I need to make sure you won’t do anything stupid.”

  “If I’m on lockdown for three months, I can’t see myself getting into any trouble.”

  “It happens to all Seductors at some point, Jade. All you need to do is focus on your work—it will help you to let go. Hell, it might even make you more dedicated, if that’s at all possible.”

  “This won’t affect my work,” I assured. “It was just sex. Okay, it may have been great sex, but that’s still all it was.”

  Sonia eyed me carefully before she spoke again. “I will let you know once the blueprints have been received by our client. This mission will be a good payout for you. Why don’t you take a nice vacation and clear your head before you go on lockdown? We’ll just need to make sure the location is untraceable.” I nodded, but it didn’t feel right knowing I was going to be getting money by betraying Oliver. I’d never had this feeling about a mission before. “That’s all for now, thank you.”

  I walked out toward the pool to find Georgie. She was sitting in one of the lounge chairs reading a book until she spotted me.

  “How did it go?” she asked warily, getting up.

  “The mission is complete.”

  “Come here, baby girl.” She pulled me into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you. It couldn’t have been easy.”

  “It was pure torture,” I whispered into her ear, holding her tighter, “but do you know what the hardest thing is?”

  “What?”

  “Knowing that right now he’ll be trying to find me. It will destroy him when he keeps hitting dead ends. I can’t even think about what’s crossing his mind right now. We became so close on the last visit, and he told me things I never thought I’d want to hear. Oh, Georgie, the way he loved me…I can’t even explain how good it felt.” A few of the Seductors around the pool seemed to be watching my mini breakdown with interest, but I didn’t care at the moment. It was all starting to hit me—I was never going to see Oliver again.

  “Hush,” she cooed, rubbing my back comfortingly. “I know it hurts, Jade. We’ve all been there, but you’ve done the right thing. We have no other choice until our contracts end.”

  “I shouldn’t have let him fall in love with me. I could have played a bitch so he wouldn’t be hurting right now. I could have done this all so differently, but being with him…I…I…I just kept losing myself. I…did it all wrong.”

  “Stop that!” Georgie snapped, shaking me. “Don’t doubt your skills, Jade. There is a reason you’re the number one Seductor here. You are brilliant at what you do! It wouldn’t have mattered what character you played. He still would have fallen for you.”

  “Have you ever doubted being a Seductor?” I questioned, pulling back from her.

  “Is that what all of this is about?” Georgie looked around, knowing this conversation was becoming a little too dangerous. If anyone overheard us, they might report back to Sonia. “Come on, Jelly Bean. I need to grab something from our room,” she muttered, noticing Alicia wasn’t too far away from us with her head tilted slightly in our direction. Yeah, I knew she was trying to listen in. Alicia had always had it in for me. She hated that I made more money than her and got first pick of the top jobs. Not to mention I had to clean up her mess on a mission last year.

  Molly was out on a mission for a few days, so Georgie and I had the room to ourselves. I loved Molly, I
really did, but she was younger than Georgie and me, so she didn’t have the same life experiences.

  “What is going on in that head of yours?” Georgie had a look of fear in her eyes as she slumped down onto my bed next to me.

  “I’m not going to do anything stupid.” First Sonia, now Georgie? Jeez! What did they think I was going to do—throw myself at Oliver and beg him to take me back after everything I’d done? The truth was, if I wasn’t so ashamed of myself, and it wasn’t so dangerous for him, I might have actually considered it.

  “Good, because I couldn’t watch you being hunted down if you decided to make a run for it. Where would you even go? Back to him?” Damn, she was good. Was I that easy to read right now?

  “I’m not even thinking that,” I lied.

  “Where has this doubt suddenly come from, then?”

  “It’s not easy to let go of something you’ve never had before. I guess it’s just hard to wrap my head around the fact that it’s over.”

  “Your paths might cross one day when you leave The Seductors. Stranger things have happened.” I knew that was true. It was the main clause in the contract that made me sign over five years ago. I had the choice to be Jade Phillips again when I left, or an identity I had been previously for the Seductors. I could even be someone completely new. It was the deal of a lifetime—being able to start all over again, with no baggage to hold you down. Not that it mattered in this case. Oliver wouldn’t be available in five years, and I wasn’t delusional enough to think he would be. Some amazing woman who actually deserved him would have snatched him up by then and would be having amazing sex for the rest of her life. Plus, there was no guarantee I would even be allowed to contact him. And if I could, how would I explain a name change to him? I was sure the Seductors wouldn’t allow it anyway. Oliver was a top priority mission. It was too dangerous to go back to those.

  “That’s never going to happen. I can’t sit here thinking about that for the next five years, either. It would drive me insane. I need to forget him.”

  “And you can do that, can you?”

  “I have to,” I stressed, running my hands through my hair before getting up to pace the room. “It’s going to drive me crazy being cooped up in here for three months.”

  “How serious are these feelings you have for him, Jade? I’ve never seen you this worked up before.”

  Did I tell Georgie the truth? Damn! If I didn’t tell her, who could I tell?

  “I think I’ve fallen in love with him.” My voice was just a whisper, but saying the words out loud was like stabbing a hot dagger straight through my heart. I loved him; I really loved him.

  I couldn’t let Oliver weaken me, though. Yes, I loved him, but what did that matter now? It could never work. He wasn’t in love with me, anyway. He loved the Jade I had created for him.

  “You. Love. Him?” Georgie’s mouth hung open as she gawked at me.

  “It doesn’t matter now. I’m never going to see him again. Besides, when he discovers what I stole from him, he’ll hate me forever. It’s better this way.”

  “Jade, you’ve fallen in love with someone. You can’t just sweep this under the rug. With your past, you know how significant this is.”

  “Can we not go into my past right now?” I stressed. “This has nothing to do with that.”

  “Bullshit! It has everything to do with that.”

  “Don’t fucking start, Georgie,” I threatened. I wasn’t prepared to talk about my past right now.

  “Jade, it’s not a crime to want to be loved. That’s what makes the world go ’round.”

  “It’s a little different when the guy you love doesn’t actually know the real you.”

  “There are parts of ourselves in the characters we play. Don’t you pay attention to any of the workshops or lessons we have?” She shook her head at me. “Anyway, how do you know the real parts aren’t what he loves the most?” She really wasn’t helping, and wanting to avoid eye contact, I looked down at the floor. “You see! You can’t be sure, can you?”

  “None of this matters.”

  “If you’re thinking of leaving the Seductors, I’d say it all matters. Jade, you can’t run. They’d kill you before you were even out of St. Petersburg. You know the response team is ruthless.”

  “It’s not going to come to that. I’m not going anywhere. I just need time to adjust, that’s all.”

  “Promise you’ll call me if you need anything in the next few weeks. I hate having to leave you, but I fly out to Miami on Monday.”

  “I’ll be fine. What trouble am I going to get into here?”

  “Please don’t keep your feelings inside, Jade. I’ll only be a phone call away. If I’m busy, I will call you back as soon as I can.”

  “I know.” I was lucky to have Georgie as my friend. She may be blunt and take no shit from anyone, but she had such a big heart.

  “It will get better, Jelly Bean. Trust me.” I had to have faith in her words. Besides, right now it couldn’t get much worse. The only way to go when you’d hit rock bottom was up.

  I held my tongue and counted to ten.

  “Did you hear me, Jade?” Alicia questioned while my back was to her. How could I not have heard her? She was right behind me!

  “Your paperwork is almost ready. We just need to run a few more checks and get clearance for your new passport.”

  “I leave tomorrow morning. This is a big case, so you better tell Miles to hurry up.”

  “He’s going as fast as he can!” I fumed. “Believe it or not, Alicia, your mission isn’t the only one we have to prepare for. It will be done. Has Miles ever been late?”

  “You’re extra bitchy today. Is the lockdown finally getting to you?” Taking a deep breath, I was able to maintain my composure. I wasn’t going to stoop to her level and retaliate. Yes, I had been on lockdown for almost four months, but it was for my own safety.

  The lengths Oliver had gone to in trying to find me were unbelievable. I don’t think a target had ever gotten as close to the Seductors as he had, but the organization was too secure to penetrate. Miles was always one step ahead, and even after four months of searching for me, it seemed Oliver wasn’t going to admit defeat. Hence me still being on lockdown.

  I had no idea if he had learned about the stolen blueprints yet or not. Being trapped at headquarters meant I didn’t have much access to the outside world.

  “Are you going to speak to Miles, then?” Alicia snapped, flicking her dark hair over her shoulder, snapping me from my thoughts.

  “You’ll get it in plenty of time. Why don’t you go and jump on Mario’s dick one last time while you wait? You won’t see him for a while, after all,” I joked. I had noticed that her paperwork for the new mission spanned six months. It must have been a top assignment for it to be that long. If I hadn’t still been on lockdown, I suspected it would have been mine to undertake, but Alicia was running all the large assignments for the time being.

  “Fuck you, Jade.” Yeah, that was her usual tone toward me.

  “I don’t have to be nice to you when you’re acting like such a bitch, Alicia. I’m just helping Miles out.”

  “You think you’re so special, don’t you? Well, I have news for you—I’ve been assigned the largest mission in Seductor history. It’s time you were knocked off the pedestal that Sonia put you on.” Alicia had a gleam in her eye as she smirked at me.

  “I can guarantee if I wasn’t on lockdown, things would be different.”

  “I’m not so sure about that.” Something in her tone made me think she was hiding something—something that involved me. I had always been good at reading people, and Alicia was no different. “Just make sure the paperwork is done.” With that, she strutted off, tossing her horsetail hair in my face as she went.

  “Argh,” I moaned, walking back into the intelligence office.

  “What’s up?” Miles called from his computer. He was your typical computer geek, with dark curly hair and big thick glasses. I kept te
lling him the glasses were too big for his face and hid his pretty blue eyes, but he always played it off. I had the feeling I made him a little nervous. He ran the intelligence center here with his team and was a genius.

  “Alicia,” I snarled. “She is such a bitch.”

  “What actually went on with you two last year?”

  “It’s a long story. We’d be here all day.”

  “Well, you’re not going anywhere for awhile, are you? You can tell me about it tomorrow. We could even have lunch somewhere low key,” Miles suggested. Did he really just ask me out to lunch? I wasn’t allowed off these grounds.

  “Alicia asked if her paperwork could all be ready first thing in the morning.”

  “Wow, you really don’t want to talk about it, do you?”

  “Nope. Is this mission of hers really the biggest in Seductor history? ”

  “Where did you hear that?” He looked up in alarm from his computer screen.

  “Alicia told me.”

  “She shouldn’t be shouting her mouth off like that. It will get her into trouble one day.”

  “Where is she flying out to tomorrow?” I don’t know why I was asking. It wasn’t allowed and I knew that, but something was beginning to worry me. I was probably just being paranoid, but Alicia had been deliberately goading me earlier. Why? What did she know that I didn’t?

  “Why are you asking?”

  “I was just curious.”

  “You know the rules, Jade. You shouldn’t pry into other cases. You’re becoming as bad as Molly. Why don’t you start uploading those files into the database for me? Mandy said she’d be in a little later today to finish them off.”

  “I don’t care about the mission. I’m only curious where she is flying out to.”

  “New York!” He snapped. “Can I concentrate now? I have thirteen threats on our databases right now, seven fake accounts to create, four prototypes to check, and my mother to call. It’s her birthday today. It’s not easy running a team of ten people who all think they are science geniuses in these small conditions!” New York? I was thinking too much into it. Oliver wasn’t the only person who lived in New York. Just because Alicia was going there, that didn’t mean he was her target.