Once in the bedroom, however, Rachel suddenly felt unsure of herself. Standing beside the bed, she realized just how big a step she and Jacob were taking, after tonight, everything between them would change.
Jacob sensed the hesitation in her. Pulling her close he whispered in her ear. "It's ok if you've changed your mind."
Rachel shook her head no. Pushing away from him, she slid his still unbuttoned shirt off his shoulders. She tugged her t-shirt over her head.
"No, I haven't changed my mind," she said as she pressed herself against him, winding her arms around his neck.
Pulling her with him, Jacob eased Rachel onto the bed. Stretching out beside her, his lips moved to her neck and then to her shoulder. His hands caressed her breasts, removed her lacy bra. They skimmed over her belly finally coming to the waistband of her jeans. He unbuttoned and unzipped them, slipped them and her panties off of her.
Jacob sat up and shucked off his jeans. He gazed down at Rachel, his voice thick with lust. "You have the most beautiful body."
Rachel pulled him down beside her, "I want you Jacob, I want you so much." She hooked a leg over his hip, arching her hips into him.
Jacob wound a hand into Rachel's hair, holding her head to his, kissing her deeply. His tongue teasing hers; his other hand skimming over her back, her ass. Rachel groaned at the feeling of his hands on her body. Breaking off this kiss, she buried her face in his neck.
"Jacob, please, fuck me. I need you, I want you so much."
Jacob pushed Rachel onto her back and rolled on top of her. He began lightly biting and then licking her neck. As Rachel murmured with pleasure, Jacob began to move down her body.
"Tell me what you like Rachel."
From her neck, he moved to the soft skin of her shoulders. His tongue traced the line of her collarbone to the hollow at the base of her throat. He kissed his way down her chest to her breasts.
Do you like this?"
Lightly at first, then with increasing pressure, he licked her nipples. As Rachel began to squirm beneath him, he took a nipple into his mouth and gently bit down. He alternated nipping and licking her nipples and breasts until Rachel was moaning with pleasure.
"Yes, Jacob, that feels so good."
His tongue moved lower, tracing the line of muscle that ran down the center her abdomen.
"Umm, I can't believe how hard your body is, how soft your skin is."
Rachel was writhing under him, her hips arching off the bed, her hands pulling at his shoulders, her legs trying to wrap themselves around his hips.
"Come in me baby, I really need to feel you in me."
"Not yet, sweetheart."
He licked her hipbone, moving from one side of her body to another. Jacob parted her thighs, moving between them. He pulled her legs up until her knees bent. He kissed her knee and then licked his way up her leg to her thigh. He paused, his tongue tracing the scar there.
"Does this hurt?"
Rachel frantically shook her head.
"Good," Jacob whispered as his lips continued to her inner thigh. Rachel shivered in anticipation as he bit the soft skin there.
"Do you like this Rachel?" he murmured.
Rachel moaned in response.
"I'll take that as a yes."
Jacob began to lick and suck on her clit. His hands pinned her hips to the bed as she arched her back, twisting and moaning. Rachel gave herself up to the delicious sensations Jacob was creating.
Rachel could feel her climax building, could feel the tension building inside of her; could feel the muscles in her lower body contracting.
"Oh baby, I'm so close, please, come in me, I want to come with you inside me."
Jacob slid up her body, his hand taking the place of his mouth between her thighs.
"Next time, sweetheart."
Sliding one finger inside of her, his thumb massaged her clit quickly and firmly. He could feel her climax overtaking her, feel her muscles contract around his finger, hear her breath quicken and become ragged.
As her climax swept over her Rachel gasped Jacob's name. Her legs tightened around his hand and she pressed her body against his. She had barely recovered when Jacob began the assault on her senses all over again.
His lips and hands were everywhere. His kiss was demanding, his tongue exploring her mouth. He fingers, tweaking her nipples, massaging her beasts, firmly stoking her belly.
His hands moved between her thighs and Rachel moaned.
"Jacob, please."
Jacob rolled on top of her and parted her thighs with his knee. Reaching between them, Rachel grasped is cock, holding it so that his head was brushing up against her. With one quick thrust, Jacob was inside her.
"Oh, yes." Rachel moaned. "Oh god Jacob you're so hard. You feel so good."
Holding himself still, Jacob savoured the feeling of Rachel, hot and tight around his cock.
His face buried in her hair, he whispered, "you feel so good, so fucking tight."
Slowly at first, he thrust into her. As their breathing quickened, his thrusts became harder, faster. Rachel wrapped her legs around his waist, angled her hips, trying to bring him deeper inside her. He could feel her when she came, the muscles in her thighs tightening around his hips, the muscles in her vagina tightening around his cock, her voice, breathless, gasping out his name. Arching his back, he thrust into her, his cock pulsing deep inside of her.
Later they lay together, Rachel collapsed against Jacob, her head on his shoulder. She didn't want to move, or talk, or do anything but lay there enjoying the feel of Jacob's body against hers. She shivered as Jacob ran his hand up and down her arm.
"Ummm, you cold" Jacob murmured as he kissed the top of her head.
"Nope," Rachel said lazily. She tilted her head up to kiss him on the chin. "What, you've got to that look," Rachel protested as she caught sight of Jacob's face.
Jacob lips quirked up. "I thought you liked that look."
Rachel sat up, pulling the sheet up around her body. "Not when we're in bed. What are you thinking about? Besides me?"
Jacob laughed and pulled her down against his chest. "Mostly about you. I'm thinking how incredibly soft you are. I'm thinking how much I love you. I'm thinking how beautiful you are, and did I mention how much I love you?"
Rachel purred appreciatively and kissed his shoulder.
"I'm also thinking that I hope to hell you aren't pregnant...ouch" Jacob exclaimed as Rachel bit his shoulder.
"We already had that discussion," she growled.
"I know sweetheart, It's just . . ."
"You're being paranoid. I'm sure we have nothing to worry about. After all, we've had unprotected sex once? I mean what are the odds..."
Jacob snorted. "That's the kind of thinking that gets way to many teenagers in trouble. It only takes once Rachel. It all depends on where you are in your cycle. If you ovulate within the next five days you could get pregnant, from our having unprotected sex tonight."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Ummm, while a woman's egg is only viable for about a day after ovulation, sperm remain viable for as long as five days. So again, depending on your cycle, and keeping in mind that. . . "
Rachel reached up and placed her fingers against his lips silencing him. "Forget that I asked."
Jacob smiled and kissed her fingers.
"I'm also thinking about Felix."
"What?" Rachel sat up again. "You're in bed with me and thinking about Felix? I'm not sure I like where this is going."
Jacob sat up and faced her, saying seriously, "I know, we're going to lie to the Bureau about us, I mean, we have to. But, I don't know, I, just don't feel right about lying to Felix. He's not the Bureau Rachel, he's a friend."
"You're right. He's part of the team, he's one of us. It wouldn't be right for us to lie to him."
Jacob was relieved that Rachel agreed so readily to his concerns about Felix.
"Besides," Jacob admitted sheepishly, "I kinda think he suspects how I feel about you already."
In response to Rachel's raised eyebrow, Jacob continued. "I guess I, well, I missed you Rachel. I think Felix realized how often I was calling you. But its ok, I don't think Felix will sell us out to the Bureau."
"No, I don't think he would either, But Jacob," she continued gravely, "Just like we're not going to lie to Felix, we need to make it clear to him that we don't expect him to lie for us."
"What do you mean?"
"It's one thing for me to put my career on the line, I love you and you are more than worth any risk to my job. But it wouldn't be fair for us to ask Felix to put his career on the line for us. I hope he wouldn't report us, but I wouldn't blame him if he did. And I would never expect him to lie about us, if he was asked a direct question. Are you ok with that?"
Jacob thought for a few minutes and then nodded his head. "Yeah, that's the right way to do it."
He hesitated, "Rachel, I think we should have the same agreement."
"What do you mean?"
"I love you Rachel and I'm not ashamed of the way I feel about you. Yes, we need to hide what we feel from the Bureau, so they won't separate us. But if Frank, or your boss, asks us directly what our relationship is, I don't want to lie to them. What do you think?"
Rachel looked at him in silence for a few minutes, and then she nodded her head in agreement. "You're right; we have nothing to be ashamed of. It might be against the Bureau's rules for us to be in love, but that's not our fault."
"Agreed," Jacob laughed, "we might be illicit lovers, but we are not liars."
Jacob lay back down, pulling Rachel with him, settling her head back on his shoulder. For a while they lay there in silence, enjoying being together.
"Um, I think," Jacob began.
"Not again," Rachel groaned.
"Very funny, what I was going to say was that I think we should include Alex in the no lying policy."
"Of course we'll tell Alex. She's your family, and I, we; we've grown close since I've been here."
Jacob hesitated over his next question; he knew that Rachel's relationship with her father was rocky. "Umm, do you want to tell your father?"
Rachel snorted with laughter, "Are you kidding? The first thing he'd do after he hung up on me would be to call the Bureau to report me for unprofessional behaviour. No, I most definitely don't want to tell him. Besides, he already doesn't like you. I'd rather he not completely hate you."
"What do you mean he doesn't like me? He's never even met me! What have you told him about me?"
"It's not you personally he doesn't like. He just thinks my being assigned to your detail is, oh, I don't know, beneath me? He seems to think I should be doing something more important than following an absent-minded science nerd around."
"What..," Jacob began.
Rachel shifted, putting her arms around Jacob's neck and kissing him. "Stop, we are not talking about my father and his attitude toward you, me, or the Bureau. Not now, not here." Rachel kissed him again and ran her foot up his leg. "We have much more interesting things to think about."
"Quit tempting me, I mean it, we shouldn't press our luck."
Rachel mewed in protest as Jacob took hold of her wandering hands.
"I swear," he sighed, "I can't remember the last time I did so many reckless things in one day."
Rachel leaned over him to squint at the alarm clock on the bedside table. "It's after midnight, so it's a new day. Your reckless count is now officially zero. You can start being reckless all over again"
"Not funny Rachel,"
"You're overreacting. What, two, ok, three reckless acts if we count you hitting Dilworth and ditching him and Felix as separate things. And I still contend that your making love to me was not reckless. Sorry, but I don't think you classify as a wild and crazy guy."
"Actually, umm, you see, I, I kind of did a few more things before I came down here." Jacob sounded more than a little guilty.
At this point Agent Young came roaring back. Rachel sat up and firmly wrapped the sheet around her body. Glaring at Jacob with narrowed eyes, she spat out, "Hood, just what the hell did you do."
Jacob sat up and leaned against the headboard. "I meant to tell you earlier, but you distracted me," he complained. "So you can't be mad, ok? But you have no idea what it was like up there in Boston. That hospital administrator, the other doctors, Dilworth, they didn't care about the truth. They didn't care about those babies and their families. All they cared about was covering up what happened. All they wanted to do was save their own asses."
Rachel softened at the bitterness she heard in his voice. She knew how difficult he found it, dealing with liars, with those whose carelessness or selfishness cost others their lives, their health or safety.
"Ok, I'm not mad, but what did you do? I mean, I know I'm on leave, but it's still my job to protect you. Even from yourself. So, is it anything I can fix, keep away from the ears of the Bureau?"
"I don't think so Rachel, see, I, I made a few phone calls."
Rachel went cold. "You what?" she gasped. "You know that all of the work you do for the Bureau is confidential, hell most of it ends up classified. This is serious. I mean, you could get fired for this or even prosecuted."
"I could get fired? Well that would be ok, I mean, it would solve..." Jacob petered out as Rachel glared at him again.
"Focus, Hood," she barked. "Right now, the game plan is for neither one of us to get fired. Who did you call?"
Jacob looked at her thoughtfully for a few minutes. "Mostly I called other government agencies. I called a friend of mine at the NIH, he's ah, he's in charge of the department that oversees clinical trials. He, ah, he was interested in what was going on up there. We talked about maybe the NIH getting behind some legislation that would criminalize what Marchette was doing."
"Wait, it was already a crime, he murdered those babies,"
"Maybe, but we need to get the law changed; using unsuspecting people in clinical trials shouldn't just be unethical, or against regulation. It should be a crime in and of itself. We shouldn't have to rely on other laws."
"Ok, not a bad call, I can't see the Bureau getting too pissed over that, so who else did you call?"
Jacob was heartened by Rachel's reaction. Maybe things weren't as bad as he thought.
"Well, I found some indications in his notes that Marchette was getting funding from a pharmaceutical firm in Boston. That's bad, Rachel, really bad. I mean, if they knew he was conducting these trials, they're as guilty as him in those deaths. So, I called the FDA. It's their job to oversee stuff like this. I, uh, called the head of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He seemed concerned that the company might be doing illegal drug tests."
Rachel pursed her lips, "Still ok, I mean, not great, but not an agency that the Bureau might not notify anyway. Who else?"
Jacob took a deep breath. "I called the IRSandJustice."
"Beg pardon?"
"The IRS and the Justice Department, I mean, it looked like Marchette was getting money under the table from the drug company. I'll bet he wasn't declaring it on his taxes and I don't think paying bribes or for illegal research is tax deductable. The person I talked to at the Criminal Investigation division seemed to agree"
"As for Justice," Jacob shrugged. "I wasn't sure about them, but the woman I talked to from the Corporate Fraud Task Force sounded interested. Something about illegal payments and bribery in a publically traded company."
Jacob sat nervously as Rachel stared at him, chewing on her bottom lip. Finally she spoke,
"Ok, I think we can deal with this. After all, you called government agencies with a legitimate interest in what was going on at that hospital. Yeah, you violated protocol, but hell, the Director is one of your oldest friends. I'm sure if we call him early enough tomorrow to give him a heads-up, things will be ok. It's not like you called the press or anything."
"Well, actually…" Jacob seemed pained, he knew she wouldn't like what he was about to say.
Rachel's mouth hung open. "No. Do not tell me you called the press."
Jacob looked at her stonily. "I had to. All the rest of them, all those agencies, they might do something to the hospital and to that drug company, but they'd try to keep it quiet. Those families, Rachel, they deserved to know what happened to their children. They deserve the truth. They shouldn't have to live the rest of their lives wondering why their children had to die. So I called the Health and Science editor at the Boston Globe. He was thrilled to get my call, promised me he'd get some reporters right on the story."
Rachel sat there stunned, shaking her head. Then something occurred to her. "How in the hell did you get in touch with all these people? I mean, it was after 7:00 p.m. when you called me from the airport. I'll grant you the guy from the NIH; he's a friend of yours. But the others? How did you manage to get in touch with them on a Tuesday night?"
Jacob looked at her in surprise. "Rachel, I told you once before, the Bureau has its resources. I called the switchboard and explained what I wanted. They put me through to the research people Felix calls all the time. They got me the names and numbers I needed. Most of the people were kind of surprised to get my call, but once I explained who I was and what I had to say, they were more than happy to talk to me."
Rachel looked at him in amazement, and then suddenly Agent Young disappeared, as Rachel collapsed against his chest laughing helplessly. "I can't believe it, you, you" she gasped.
"What, what's so funny,"
"Oh Jacob, only you would call the Bureau for help when you were on the run from the Bureau."
"So," Jacob asked, as he slid the two of them back down onto the bed, "not mad at me?"
"I guess not. But you know there is going to be hell to pay in the morning, don't you."
Jacob yawned, "Yeah, I guess. But right now, I'm too sleepy to keep talking. Let's deal with this then, ok?"
Rachel snuggled into his side, and murmured her agreement. A few seconds later, Jacob nudged her.
"Umm, Rachel. I almost forgot, I made one other call."
"Nooo," Rachel moaned softly. "Who?"
"Well, I don't know if I told you, but that hospital in Boston? It was a Catholic one. So I figured I owed the Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Boston a call, sort of a courtesy call. I mean, I thought I remember reading about them having some problems there a few years ago. Thought he should know he had some more problems to deal with. He was nice about it, thanked me for calling."
Rachel just shook her head. "Only you Jacob, only you."
Jacob smiled and kissed her. "Night Rachel, love you."
"Night Jacob, love you too."
Rachel settled down next to Jacob, ready to slip into sleep, when suddenly her eyes flew open. She shot up in the bed. "Oh no, no, no, no! Jacob, wake up, wake up now!"
Jacob opened his eyes and glared at her. "What, I thought we agreed, we'd deal with all this crap in the morning. I'm tired, sweetheart. Let's get some sleep." He tried to pull her back down against him.
"No," Rachel said swatting at his hands. "You can't sleep here. You need to get up right now, get dressed, and get yourself upstairs into the guest bedroom."
"Damnit Rachel, what's the matter with you? Why do I have to move upstairs? What's going on?"
"Owen is going on, that's what going on."
Jacob laughed and tried once again to pull her down on the bed. "What's the problem with Owen? Afraid he's going to snitch on us to the Bureau?"
"Jacob, I am not joking. Owen was thrilled to hear you were coming and disappointed when I said he couldn't wait up for you. If I know him, he'll be up at the crack of dawn looking for you. And if you aren't in the guest bedroom, what do you think he'll do?"
"What?"
"He'll come looking for you. Do you really want to have to explain to your eight year old nephew what you're doing in bed with me? With. No. Clothes. On."
Jacob laughed at the expression on Rachel's face. "So we put some clothes on. He's eight, I don't think he's going to be asking any embarrassing questions"
"That's what you think! Unless of course you want to be the one to explain to Owen exactly how babies are made?"
Jacob was beginning to look a little uneasy. "Oh, come on Rachel, you're exaggerating, I mean he's eight, we can lock the door…"
Rachel interrupted. "I mean it Jacob. I owe Alex a lot, I'm not going to repay her hospitality by, well let's just say I don't think Alex would appreciate her son finding us in bed together."
Her expression softened. "Look at it this way, we have to learn to be discreet. We can practice on Owen."
Jacob sighed. He knew a losing battle when he saw one. He slowly got out of bed and fished his jeans out of the pile of clothes on the floor. He slipped into them and gathered up the rest.
"Ok, I'm leaving, but for the record, I think this time you're the one being paranoid.
Rachel knelt on the bed and gave him a hug. "Thank you. I promise, I'll make it up to you."
He kissed her lightly and headed out the door. "Night, Rachel, I'll see you in the morning."
"Night, Jacob," Rachel whispered. "Love you."
