He released her chin and moved his hand to the middle of her back, then lower to the base of her spine.
Rafe drank in the scent of her femininity. His cock surged, not from ordinary arousal, but from soul-deep recognition. Her eagerness sought the Dom in him. It took all his restraint not to press his palm against her buttocks.
Earlier he’d said she’d be thinking of him as she masturbated. The truth was, he wasn’t sure how he’d banish this memory of her—strength and suppleness in one heady package.
He plundered her mouth.
She offered more until she was panting and desperate, gripping him hard.
Instead of giving in to the driving need to rip off her clothes and fuck her, he distracted himself by tugging on her hair harder. As he’d requested, her eyes were open. So goddamn trusting. Did she have any idea how close he was to shredding the veneer of civilization that hung between them to claim her, mark her as his?
He ended the kiss while he still could. Her mouth was swollen, and he couldn’t stop staring at her lips.
Hope took tiny breaths that didn’t seem to steady her. She held on to him while she lowered her heels to the floor. Then, over a few heartbeats, she dropped her hands.
“Thank you, Rafe,” he prompted.
“Are you serious? I’m supposed to thank you?” She continued to look at him and undoubtedly saw his resolve.
Would she give him what he demanded? “Unless you want me to spank—”
“Spank?” Her chin was at a full tilt.
“Spank.” He repeated with emphasis. “Unless you want me to spank your pretty little ass so hard that you can’t sit down after you leave here.”
“That kind of behavior is unacceptable.”
“Under normal circumstances,” he agreed without hesitation. “Unless you ask me for it.” Part of him hoped she’d take him up on it. It would be a pleasure to prove she liked the feel of his hand on her bare skin. “I’ll go first.” He softened his tone, letting her glimpse his inner thoughts, a rare confession of his soul. “I enjoyed kissing you. Thank you.”
“I…” She smoothed the skirt that he wanted to rip off her body.
“Look at me.”
She followed his command. Then, with a soft and decidedly insubmissive tone, she said, “Thank you.”
“Ms. Malloy, as I said, it was my pleasure.”
Silence hung between them. Her inexperience thrilled him, and he wanted to give her another hundred firsts. Instead, he let her go. The real world—with its complex demands—was waiting. And if he wanted her at his feet, he had a lot of work to do.
“I’m not certain how much of what you said, and what we just did, is to get me to admit defeat, to quit…” She stiffened her spine.
“Maybe it started that way.” His father’s behavior had pissed Rafe off, and so had his mother’s ambush, even Hope herself. He’d wanted to shake her as badly as he’d been shaken. As he’d spoken to her, his desires had churned to the surface. Until now—until her—he had been willing to confine his kink to a club. “It didn’t end that way. That I promise you.”
“I will ask the candidates about their openness to your suggestions.”
Fuck. She wanted to retreat behind a facade of business, as if their kiss hadn’t changed something. “Requirements. Not suggestions. Requirements. Be clear about that. If I’m to be saddled with a woman that I don’t want until death do us part, there will be none of the hysteria that my family members seem to thrive on. My wife will know her place and her role, and she will meet my expectations. And to be clear, she will ask for my kiss. Like you did.” He opened the door.
Jeanine was walking toward his office with a cup of coffee, and he waved her off.
Then, voice so soft that only Hope could hear, he finished. “You have a fourteen-page interview form. I will have something similar for the women you bring to me. It will cover things such as anal play, being shared with others, edging, exhibitionism. Shall I send it to you first?”
“Please do. It will save some time in your selection process.” She started past him, and he snagged her elbow.
“And Ms. Malloy? She’ll fucking address me as Sir.” He was unaccountably furious at her rejection. At himself. “And if you come here ever again, so will you.”
Her hand trembled where she grasped her purse strap. She flicked a glance at his hand before yanking her elbow free.
TO CONTINUE READING, ONE-CLICK BILLIONAIRE’S MATCHMAKER
For incredibly sexy stories that feature Dominant men, please visit the Quarter, New Orleans’s exclusive dungeon…
HIS TO CLAIM
It was only supposed to be a weekend fling...
After a broken heart, Hannah Mills vowed never to offer more than her body to any Dom, but when she volunteers to be the prize at a slave auction benefiting charity, mysterious philanthropist and notorious playboy Mason Sullivan tests her resolve.
The moment he sees Hannah, Mason is captivated and determined to have her—at least for a weekend.
For Hannah, being claimed by Master Mason is both a dream and a nightmare. He’s devastatingly sexy, far more complicated than she imagined, and he’s relentless when it comes to scaling the fortress around her damaged heart. No matter how hard she resists, layer by layer, he manages to tear down her walls.
When their time together draws to a close, Hannah must choose between saving her soul or risking her fragile heart to a man who demands forever.
READ HIS TO CLAIM TODAY
Do you like romantic suspense combined with hot, steamy stories? If so, you’ll love the Hawkeye series.
Hawkeye protects the world’s most valuable assets—priceless artifacts, secrets, and especially people…
EXCERPT FROM COME TO ME
There's a cool million dollar bounty on the head of Hawkeye commander Wolf Stone. Nate and Kayla will do anything to protect him, but the emotional cost may destroy them all.
Two sexy, dominant alpha males, suspense, and a heart-wrenching second chance at love.
“The chemistry in this is OFF THE CHARTS HOT.” Goodreads reviewer
Wolf Stone, no matter how drop-dead gorgeous he was, was out of his freaking mind. And an asshole to boot. “You left Nate out there?” Kayla Fagan demanded. “Have you seen the weather?”
“He’s not made of sugar.”
“Meaning he won’t melt?”
“Exactly.”
“If this is how you treat your fellow operatives, what do you do to your enemies?”
He shrugged. “None of them left alive to tell.” He smiled, and it did nothing to soften his features. The quick curve was more wicked than anything, making his eyes darken, reminding her of those few moments of twilight before the sky devoured the sun.
He strode from the kitchen, and she followed. “Mr. Stone—”
“Wolf, or just Stone.” He didn’t slow down. “And I’m not worried about how I’ll sleep tonight.” He crouched in front of the hearth, tossing kindling into the empty fireplace grate.
When she first heard he was holing up in a log house on a ranch, she’d pictured a remote, barely inhabitable two-room cabin.
She couldn’t have been more wrong.
Wolf Stone enjoyed luxury, and his home was the intersection of comfort and high-tech. This room, more than any other, gave a nod to his heritage. A rug, painstakingly woven by his grandmother, hung from one of the walls. Another rug, not crafted by his family, dominated the area near the fireplace.
In other rooms, he flicked a switch to ignite the gas fireplaces, but in this one, he obviously preferred to build it himself.
Even though she was stunned by his bad behavior, she couldn’t help her fascination as she watched him. His shoulders were impossibly broad. Long black hair, as wild as he was, was cinched back with a thin strip of leather. And Lord, he had the hottest ass she’d ever seen, and a cock with plenty of potential.
Not that she’d actually seen it full-length.
But at night, when
he thought she was asleep, he walked around the house in the buff.
Last night, his dick had been partially erect, and the darkened view had inspired her dreams and nearly made her forget her job.
Lucky for her, at least part of the time, she was required to have her hands on him. She just hadn’t quite figured out how to professionally get him to take off all his clothes to touch his naked body.
Thunder cracked, and she worried about Nate. “I think you should at least invite him in until the storm passes.” Even though it was summer, weather could be extreme at this elevation.
“You going to nag me?”
“Convince you to change your mind, using my excellent powers of verbal persuasion.”
“Save your breath. Hawkeye doesn’t need to squander its resources on me.”
Hawkeye Security. The company they all worked for was named after the man who’d founded it, a man she, and most others, had never met. Wolf, she’d heard, was one of his closest advisors.
With their highly trained men and women, Hawkeye provided world-renowned protection. They recruited former Special Forces operators, ex-cops and bodyguards, lots of IT people, and other brainiacs, including some who worked remotely out of small, private offices. The higher the stakes, the likelier it was that Hawkeye would be the firm of choice.
Her teammates were the best in the world. She was proud to be one of them. “Hawkeye brought me in as well,” she reminded him. “Maybe he would go to these extraordinary lengths for any one of us, but maybe he wouldn’t. All I can say is he obviously considers you important.”
Stone struck a match, filling the room with the sharpness of sulfur. “My mind is made up.”
“But—”
“I told Hawkeye not to send anyone. I meant it.”
“You can have a heart, just until the weather clears. Then you can go back to your regularly scheduled…” She stopped short of saying assholeishness. “Grumpiness.”
His mouth was set, brooking no argument. “Let it be.”
Huge splatters of rain hit the floor-to-ceiling windowpanes.
Wolf might be able to sleep at night if he left his comrade out there, but she would toss and turn with worry.
Decision made, Kayla crossed to the hallway closet, pulled open the gigantic golden oak doors, and took out a raincoat. She also grabbed her gun and checked it before tucking it into her waistband. She snatched up a pair of compact binoculars and a compass and was shoving her arms in the sleeves of the yellow slicker as she walked through the great room on the way to the back door.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Exactly what you said. I’m saving my breath.” Kayla spared him a glance. “I decided not to argue with you.”
“Stop right there.”
He spoke softly, but his voice snapped with whiplash force. Despite herself, she froze. She’d faced untold danger, but this man, unarmed, unnerved her. A funny little knot formed in the pit of her stomach.
Kindling crackled as fire gnawed its edges.
“Turn around.” His voice was terrifying in its quietness. “Look at me, Fagan.”
Struggling not to show the way she was trembling, she turned.
He stood. “I will be very clear, Ms. Fagan. You are here at my pleasure.” He took a single step toward her. “I will not be disobeyed.”
His statement was loaded with threat.
Wildly she thought of the room in the basement, the one with crops and paddles hanging from the walls. The one she’d been forbidden to enter, and the door she’d opened the first time he’d left the house.
She locked her knees so she didn’t waver. “I’ve never been much for obedience.”
“Nathaniel Davidson is far from helpless.”
“He’s a fellow member of Hawkeye. I’m not allowed to leave him out there. And I won’t.” She met his gaze and ignored the fury blazing there. “Really, Mr. Stone, I don’t care if it gets me fired.” Or worse. She pivoted and walked away.
The wind whipped at the door, nearly snatching it from her hand.
She turned up the collar of her ineffective raincoat. There was never anything friendly about a Rocky Mountain storm.
She’d grown up in Tucson where torrential rains were common during the monsoon season. They cooled the weather to bearable seventy-degree temperatures, but this—it was freaking like winter.
Fortunately, she didn’t have far to trudge. From her conversations with headquarters, she had a pretty good idea of where the insertion was supposed to happen. And in less than fifteen minutes, the ground beneath her sizzling with electrical ferociousness, she saw a streak of orange.
She grinned.
Members of her team were smart. Nate had donned a reflective safety vest. That would, at least, stop friendly fire.
“Davidson!” When she got no response, she called out a second time.
He started toward her. “Come to rescue me, have you?” he shouted above the roar of the wind. “Bet Stone told you to come.”
“He sends his regards and invites you to sit next to the fire while he pours you a cognac.”
Nate laughed. “How much trouble are you in for coming after me?”
“He didn’t threaten to flay the skin from my hide.”
“Doesn’t mean he won’t.”
“Thanks. That’s a comforting thought.”
“He doesn’t know?”
“Who I am? No.” She shook her head. “He thinks Hawkeye sent him a physical therapist.”
Nate grinned. “Do you know enough about that to do no harm, doc?”
“Uh… I watched a special on the internet.”
Thunder crashed.
“I ought to write both of you up.”
Wolf. Her breath threatened to choke her. How much had he overheard? It shouldn’t have surprised her that he’d followed, that he’d effortlessly covered the same ground she had in far less time. The man was in shape, and he kept himself sharp, the same way he had when he led American troops in the Middle East.
Over the lash of the summer storm, his voice laden with command, he said, “Both of you, back to the house.”
The wind snatched a few strands of hair and whipped them against cheekbones that could have been sculptured from granite. His jaw was set in an uncompromising line. Out here, in the unforgiving elements, he appeared even more formidable than he had in the house.
Nate glanced at her. “Maybe I will get a cognac after all.”
“No fucking chance,” Stone fired back.
Cheerfully, as if he couldn’t have been happier, Nate whistled and gamely started down the mountainside. No one should be happy about this kind of reception.
“Move it, Fagan,” Stone instructed, leaning forward so he could issue his command directly into her ear.
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you say something?”
She blinked innocently.
His arched brow told her he hadn’t bought it.
Steps short but sure, she followed Nate, leaving Stone to bring up the rear.
Minutes later, the mean-looking sky unleashed a torrent. Earth became mud. Rocks became as slick as ice.
She lost her balance, and Stone was there, wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her up and back, flush against the solidness of his body.
The sensation zinging through her was from him, not the streak of lightning. “I’m good. Fine.”
He held her for a couple of seconds, his warm breath fanning across her ear. What would happen if she leaned back for just a bit longer and allowed herself to be protected in his strong arms? To feel his cock against her? To surrender to the fantasies that kept her awake at night and her pussy damp, even now?
And what fantasies they were.
Last night’s sight of his semierect dick had driven her mad.
After he returned to his own room, she’d thought of the crops and paddles in his downstairs room. She’d pictured him using them on her while she gasped and strained, and ultimately
surrendered to the inevitable. Turned on and needy, she’d pulled up her sleep shirt and parted her labia to find her clit already hardened.
She’d come with a quiet little mew and wanted nothing more than to scream the house down as his cock pounded her.
What was wrong with her? She couldn’t afford thoughts like this with any man, particularly one she was sent to protect. Because of the risk inherent in working for Hawkeye Security, many employees were fueled by adrenaline, and affairs were common. But everyone knew the rules. No commitments. No emotions were allowed to get in the way of the job. But the way he held her was an invitation she wanted to accept. “You can let me go. It’s you who needs to be careful. Otherwise we’ll be spending the next week undoing the damage.”
“So speaks my physical therapist.”
Did he know who she was?
Before she had a chance to reply, he added, “I want you out of the storm.”
He released her, and the chill crept under her jacket. This time, being more careful, she followed Nate’s path.
The trip up had taken maybe about fifteen minutes. Down took half an hour. And by the time they reached the home’s patio with its outdoor kitchen and oversize hot tub, the sky was spitting out pieces of ice in the form of hail.
Very polite country, this.
Minding her manners, she took off her shoes and left them on a rubber mat, then hung the slicker on a peg.
Kayla told herself two lies. First, that she wasn’t stalling. Second, that her fingers were shaking because of the cold weather.
Stone unlocked the back door and indicated she should precede both men into the kitchen.
Nate followed her, and then Stone relocked the door behind them.
“You.” Stone pointed a finger at Nate. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Nate took a step back for self-preservation.
Both men dripped water and tracked mud. Neither seemed to care. And neither seemed to notice she was even there.
“Hawkeye didn’t assign you,” Stone surmised.
Scandalous Billionaire (Titans Book 5) Page 13