Six months ago, I’d found a new kind of family. One in which it didn’t matter what my background was, what parties I attended, or how much money I had. My squad mates came from the slums of Buenos Aires, the Australian outback, the stately homes of British nobility, and everywhere in between. Our bonds were forged in danger and blood. Ours was a unique, closed circle. We took care of each other and the team. When we looked at the rest of the world—the male half, at least—most of the time we were weighing up new ways to fuck or kill them. Girl talk took on a whole new meaning in the squad room.
My vendetta against Theo may not have gone quite as planned, but it was over. I was on squad time now. From this point on, I was in professional mode. Which meant my heart shouldn’t be fluttering this wildly.
“Stop thinking and just feel it.” The whisper of Theo’s breath against my cheek had me blushing all over, weakening my knees and sending the pulse in my clit into overdrive. “Feel how much you want me to fuck you senseless.”
I was already senseless. There was nothing rational about what was happening to me. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself a moment of weakness. In that instant, I could barely remember my own name let alone the deal I had with the Signora.
That one vulnerable moment was all I could afford. I wasn’t on a pleasure cruise. Tonight was meant to be a one-off hate fuck. Revenge. Pay him back for ruining my life. Maybe it hadn’t worked out the way I’d planned. There was a possibility it had been the most incredible experience of my life. That didn’t mean there was going to be a repeat performance. I wasn’t here to build a new relationship with Theo, one in which the past was wiped out and we strolled into a future that contained sunsets and birdsong.
And yet...
The job I was here to do would be a hell of a lot easier if I could do it from a position of closeness to Theo. Instantly, I questioned my own motives in thinking that way. Was I finding a way to justify having sex with him again?
As his hand crept up the inside of my thigh, I wondered why I was having this internal debate. There was no way I was not having sex with him again. Even if he hadn’t been paying me, even if I backed out of our financial agreement, I was locked in this room with him, trapped on his boat, imprisoned in a body that betrayed I was his to command.
This doesn’t change anything. You can still do the job the Signora sent you here to do. Ferran Garcia still ends up dead.
I managed that final coherent thought before Theo gripped my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye. Slowly, he rubbed his thumb back and forth across my lower lip as though testing its texture.
“Christie.” There had always been something about the way he said my name. It came from his soul and burned into mine.
I released a fluttering sigh.
“I won’t hurt you.” The smile in his eyes was as smooth and tempting as black velvet. “Not until you ask me to.”
Until? Even though it was a cliché, surely he meant unless?
I didn’t have time to explore the thought farther because he was kissing and I was melting. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to hide it, as soon as his lips touched mine, my body wanted to merge with his. He felt it too. It was there in the coiled tension of his muscles and the erection straining the expensive material of his pants. The fire and ferocity of earlier was still there, but he was taking it slower this time, savoring me. Torturing me. Not gentle, just holding back.
He lifted me like I was weightless, tipping me backward onto the bed. Everything slowed down, but became more. My senses went into overdrive. The crisp sheets rasped the back of my thighs, the lamp beside the bed threw out an arc of light that burned my eyes, and the distant whirring of the boat’s engines became the sound of those looming childhood storms.
“This time we’re not hiding behind a ten-year-old fantasy.” His weight pinned me down as his lips blazed a trail of fire down my neck. “This is about here and now.”
The words were curiously liberating. He was right. It was time to lose the pretense. One time only? If I had ever believed that was possible, I couldn’t fool myself now. Not when his teeth were grazing my collarbone and his hands were hiking my skirt up to my waist. Cool air hit my naked flesh and I shivered. Not with cold. With anticipation.
Theo’s fingertips found my clit and I cried out. Caught in the center of a storm of pleasure, I was helpless to do anything except surrender to its intensity. My back arched and I thrashed like a woman possessed. The force of my reaction powered Theo’s response.
He tore the rest of my clothes from my body, throwing them aside as his hands and lips seared my exposed flesh. There was something unbearably dirty about lying naked on a bed with a fully clothed man on top of me. When that man was Theo Ward, the heat level reached supernova proportions.
“Tell me you don’t want this.” As his fingers continued their magical exploration, his other hand came up and grasped my wrists, pinning them together above my head.
“I don’t want this.” It was true. I wanted to be back in his life on my terms. I didn’t want to be forced to feel this maddening, perfect rapture.
It was too late. Even as I said the words, his fingers were inside me and I was coming. Hard and fast, clenching in ecstasy around him as the breath left my body in a series of frenzied gasps.
“You bastard.”
He laughed. “Your pillow talk needs some work.”
He sat up, tugging his shirt over his head without unbuttoning it. His pants and boxers quickly followed. How many times had I pictured this scene? Theo and I naked on a bed. He was more beautiful than the image in my fantasies. With broad shoulders, a muscular chest, and a toned stomach. My gaze followed the trail of hair over his defined abs until it led to his cock. My eyes widened as I gazed at him. He was enormous. Powerful. Beautiful. I wanted to reach out and touch that glorious, throbbing evidence of his arousal. To stroke my hand down his length and see if he really was as iron hard as he looked. To run my fingers around his bulging rim. To flick out my tongue and taste him.
I did none of those things. If I interacted with him, I was lost. So I lay still and watched him as he rolled a condom down his length and stroked himself. Watched as he pulsed and grew beneath his own hand.
Kneeling between my legs, he rubbed his head back and forth over my clit and I jerked as if he’d just applied electrodes to my still-throbbing nerve endings.
I was lost to everything except him. To everything except the way that glorious cock slid against me. It was the most addicting, thrilling sensation in the world. The look on his face told me he knew exactly what he was doing to me. Knew another few strokes would have me begging him to...just, for God’s sake put it in me!
“I’m going to fuck you so fast and so hard you won’t know whether to come or beg me for mercy.” That wicked smile touched his lips as he pushed into me. “But you’ll do both more than once before tonight is over.”
Chapter Eight
Theo
She was like heaven wrapped around me, searing and consuming me. Balls deep inside her hot, tight cunt was where I wanted to stay. Forever. No way was I letting go of this. Of her.
It didn’t matter what she said to the contrary. What the look in her eyes told me. What obscenities left her lips each time I made her come.
She was mine. And it went deeper than that. I was hers. By coming here, she had brought me back to life, rescued me from the brink of a living hell.
When she arched up to meet me, my demons dispersed. With her lips on mine, the darkness in my mind began to fade. If I’d known this sweet oblivion existed, would I have done things differently? Instead of waiting for her to come to me, would I have gone to her? That question, like so many things in the wasteland I called a life, wasn’t worth spending time on. I had her now, that was what mattered. And that knowledge meant things had changed. There was no going back from
this moment. Even though the timing sucked so hard it was like a master fucking vampire.
I had no idea what Christie’s agenda was. All I knew for sure was that she was lying to me. She expected me to believe she had turned up after ten years because she wanted to screw me out of her system? I dealt in lying and cheating every day of my life. There are people who will tell you they always know when someone is lying. Those people are bullshitters. I could tell when most people were lying. But I had encountered enough sociopaths in my life to know there would always be those who were better at lying than I was at reading them.
Christie had changed. The girl I’d known all those years ago had been open and honest. I couldn’t remember a single occasion back then when she hadn’t been truthful. That was what had made things so hard. Every time I’d looked into her eyes, I’d known how much she wanted me. She may have gotten good at lying, but I didn’t think she was a sociopath. Even now, her lips told me one thing, but her eyes told me another. Christie was here for a reason. Fucking me may be a part of it, but it wasn’t all of it. Maybe Paolo’s detailed search of her cabin—something he did with everyone who came on board The Dark Side. Given what I did for a living, I couldn’t be too careful—would reveal more about her motives.
Every other thought disappeared as I drove into her again. I’d lost count of how many times we’d fucked during the night. It didn’t matter. It would never be enough. For either of us. She might be determined to keep up this pretense that she didn’t want to be in this bed with me, that it had all been about one time, that anything more was against her will. Her body was more honest than the words that came out of her mouth.
As if to prove it, her hands clawed at my shoulders as she ground her pelvis tight against mine. I raised my head to stare into her eyes. “Yes. Like that. Scratch me. Mark me.” The sting of her nails piercing my flesh heightened the pleasure.
I pulled out slowly and she made a tiny mewling sound of displeasure. When I pushed back in, I relished the feeling of her tight muscles adjusting to me. She was custom made for me.
With my lips on hers, I thrust hard. So hard, she jerked up from the mattress and cried out. I kept up the new pace, slamming my hips, grinding my pelvis, pounding my cock into her. Over and over. Fucking her like we were animals in the wild, urgency building and becoming frenzy. Showing her with my body what this meant to me. That being inside her was more important than breathing. I reached between us and stroked her clit. The feel of her slippery wetness against my fingers sent new sparks shimmering through me. I rubbed a series of circles over the tiny bud, feeling her body tense.
The pressure was building inside me. Filling the space between us. Spiraling higher, sucking the air out of the room, until it felt like something was about to burst.
And it did.
Christie cried out, arching her back and pressing her breasts tight to my chest. The first convulsions were enough. As she squeezed my cock, I was gone.
Orgasm tore through me as I continued to fuck her furiously. I slammed into her as a pleasure so wild it was agony gripped my balls with an iron hand, sending darts of fire shooting up my spine. The pressure that had been building erupted like a volcano, almost taking the top off my skull as it powered through me.
How much money had I paid over the years for the privilege of saying her name as I came inside some anonymous look-alike?
Nothing matched the reality of this. Of looking into her eyes as I ground out the single word that had haunted me for so long.
“Christie.”
I pressed my face into the curve of her neck and shuddered to a standstill.
She lay still beneath me as if she was boneless. As if I had fucked her into helplessness. But the true reality of the situation hit me in that instant. Despite all my promises about where this was going, all my macho posturing about keeping her, I was the one who was vulnerable. One fucking night and I already needed her so much it was an ache in my chest and a furnace in my balls.
The biggest challenge of my life was approaching, and I was fucked.
Chapter Nine
Christie
“The best time to kill a man is not during sex.”
Seduction Squad classes had been totally unlike any other lectures I had ever attended. Jake’s voice, with its singsong Zimbabwean accent, came back to me now.
“It may be tempting, because I can guarantee he will be distracted.” There had been a ripple of nervous laughter among the new recruits at the words. “But, take my word for it, you do not want a dead, erect penis inside you.” The laughter had instantly stopped at the gruesome image.
“The best time to kill him is immediately after he has orgasmed. Still distracted, but not going to require medical intervention to separate you from the corpse.”
I’d have listened more carefully at university if Jake had been one of my professors. Or maybe it was the subject matter that held my attention.
I watched Theo as he slept and thought about all the ways I could do it, considering and discarding different options. Poison? A painful, lingering death? Too slow. A bullet to the brain? I liked the idea of forcing him to his knees and making him plead for his life before I pulled the trigger. Stabbing? Garroting? All of them had their merits. The lack of a weapon here in this room was something of a drawback. Although Jake had taught us some creative methods, I was a novice. I didn’t want my first kill to involve using street fighting moves on a man I knew so well. Would I be able to bring my foot down and stomp on Theo’s head to deliver the death blow? Six months of training had taught me the answer to that question should be “yes” no matter who the target was. One night of devastating sex, and I was no longer sure.
I argued that it wouldn’t matter what method I used. If he died while I was locked in here with him, then I would be the only suspect. My getaway would be seriously hampered because...well, this was a boat. And my Seduction Squad mission would be aborted. I would fail the Signora and be off the squad. It would be so much worse than that. No way would she tolerate that sort of insurgence.
Well, you see, once I got on board The Dark Side, I had a change of plan. I know you sent me there to assassinate Ferran Garcia, but I ignored your wishes and murdered Theo Ward instead. No hard feelings?
There wouldn’t be a corner of hell dark enough for me to hide in.
Theo was still the most beautiful man I had ever seen. Long lashes fanned his cheeks and some of the tension had left his features in sleep. A sharp pain pierced my chest. How could I feel so conflicted when I looked at him? I could try telling myself I was here against my will. That would be a good starting point. But I’d never knowingly been a liar. Theo had derailed my plans. I had wanted to pay him back for that humiliating encounter on my eighteenth birthday. The phrase “get the fuck out of here” had been imprinted on my mind ever since. I seriously hadn’t considered what would happen if he wanted more. The recruiter’s instructions had been clear.
The client will choose one woman from the group each night. The rest of you will be dismissed. If you’ve been chosen once, you won’t be needed again.
I should have spent the night back in my cabin, planning how I was going to kill Ferran Garcia, the charismatic young Columbian who was widely tipped to win his country’s forthcoming election.
Instead of focusing on my target, I had been wrapped in Theo. And, no matter how hard I tried to pretend otherwise, everything else faded to black in comparison to him. He had been responsible for the twin ruling passions in my life. The hatred toward Theo that gripped me when my father died was as intense as the love I had once felt for him. The line between them was too blurred. Maybe that was why I was on fire every time he touched me. My body still hadn’t learned the difference.
And that was why I wasn’t going to kill him. Yet. Not because I had no weapon. Not because there was no escape. Not because I owed t
he Signora and I was determined to see my mission through. Every time I remembered the phrase “get the fuck out of here,” I also remembered the golden retriever puppy with the big, pink bow around her neck. I couldn’t kill him because I didn’t know which conflicting emotion was blazing through me. Until I sorted out my head, it was probably a good idea to keep him alive.
Could I love and hate Theo Ward at the same time? It felt like a possibility. I couldn’t think rationally about him. It was as if he had taken possession of my soul as effectively as he owned my body. His own unique form of demonic possession.
Theo was a drug and, ten years ago, I’d become addicted at my first dose. I didn’t know it, but I’d been living a half life since then, craving my fix. Now I was hooked all over again. Maybe my rehabilitation would take the form of a bullet, after all. But would I fire that shot into Theo’s brain because I hated him and this monstrous hold he had over me?
Or would the best solution be to turn the gun on myself because I was stupid enough to still love him?
Chapter Ten
Theo
I left Christie doing an okay job of pretending to sleep. As I turned the key in the lock, I examined the realization that during the last twelve hours, I had become a kidnapper. I was holding a woman against her will and using her for sex. Felt pretty good too.
I shed my clothes as I made my way through to the bathroom in my master suite. Standing under hot, piercing jets of water, I reviewed the events of the previous night with a smile and a raging hard-on. Even after hours of relentless, nonstop fucking, my desire for Christie continued to storm out of control. My horniness was a demon that wasn’t going away any time soon. No matter how inconvenient, it felt incredible.
Emerging from the shower and toweling myself dry, I had just finished dressing in faded jeans and a plain white T-shirt when Paolo knocked on the cabin door.
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