by Mia Downing
Kate rolled her eyes. “Back to our mission to find you someone to love.”
“Fine.” Jake would indulge her. She was sick, after all.
“There isn’t a single woman at home you’ve sought out more than once? Twice? Three times?”
Yes, Tia. But Tia hadn’t made any claims on him at all, so when his birthday came up and Chase offered an evening out, he hadn’t felt guilty. Until after. Which made no sense, because if he loved Kate and only Kate, he wouldn’t feel guilty about sleeping with her…would he? “Yes, there’s one.”
Tia Richards was probably the only woman he knew that could touch Kate’s beauty. She was the exact opposite of Kate—dark hair with loose curls, exotic instead of stunning and wholesome. But Tia was intense, sometimes cold, and hardcore when it came to sex. He loved that she was wild and had no problem pushing his boundaries. She made him hot in a whole different way, a way he’d never felt before. Maybe because even though she had submissive tendencies, she also had an air about her, one that said she was beyond possession, beyond being claimed totally. His inner Dom saw that as a challenge.
Jake glanced at Kate. Maybe the opposite of Kate was exactly what he needed if he couldn’t have the real thing. He nodded, more sure this time. “Definitely one woman I can think of.”
Kate was firm in her resolve. “So when you are finally home, you call her, you say you’ve thought of nothing but her for the last month, but the office has been busy.”
“But I’ve thought of nothing but you.” Which he wasn’t so sure about, now, because he’d thought quite a bit about Tia, too. Jake ran a hand through his hair.
“You are a spy.” Kate smacked him with a pillow. “Lie. Lie through your teeth, Anderson. Because if Chase finds out—and you know it’s only a matter of time before he sees you looking at me like that—he’ll kill you. How bad do you want to die?”
“I don’t want to die, but I don’t think she’ll want to speak to me again. I sort of left her in a hurry last time.”
“Why?”
Jake sighed. That weekend had been such a mess. “Charlotte’s assignment was threatening to implode, and Chase needed me on a plane.”
“So?”
“I sorta left things unfinished.” As in, Tia in restraints, begging for him to make her come as he hastily grabbed his clothes to leave for work. He closed his eyes on the memory. Man, she had been beautiful, bound, and begging. He loved it when she begged like that. He just wished he had time to do more than uncuff her and kiss her a hasty goodbye.
“What do you mean, unfinished?”
“We were at the club?” He winced, hoping she’d get the drift without the details.
Her eyes narrowed. “How unfinished? Did you finish?”
Jake looked away, embarrassed. He’d had one hell of an orgasm, and he wasn’t necessarily proud of it, not when Tia hadn’t.
Kate sucked in a breath. “And she didn’t? Jesus, Jake. How could you do that to her?”
He shielded himself with his hands as she smacked him again, this time on the shoulder. “Chase wants us to be on the plane in under an hour when he calls. You know where I was, so you do the math. I was a half hour from the apartment in traffic, a half hour from the plane in traffic, and I didn’t have a shred of gear on me. I had to go home, and that’s fifteen right there.”
He spread his arms in front of him, palms up, in a gesture of surrender. “I’m damned good, but I can’t go back in time to make a woman come so I can board a plane on time for your fucking husband when I’m already fifteen minutes late.”
“Oh, Jake.” Kate sighed and grabbed the pillow from his lap and held it to her chest. “I have no idea how to spin that one unless you just say you’re really sorry, you’ve thought nothing of her, and you owe her three orgasms.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“And for goodness sake, do not mention me when you try to seduce her again. There’s nothing worse than a man mentioning the work wife. Don’t mention my name in any way, shape, or form, unless my name is linked with Chase’s, and then use his first. Chase and Kate. Got it?”
Jake held his head. “There are too many rules.”
“If you want to live, then you will do this. If you can’t do it for you, then do it for me.” She shoved him off the bed. “Go forth, make the pickup. When we get home you can find a woman of your own to love.”
****
Tatiana Richards had a problem, and the solution’s name was Jake Anderson. She slid her chair behind a towering potted plant in the Parisian hotel bar, just out of Jake’s view. But she was able to peer between the fronds of the plant, spying on the man she intended to seduce. Damn him, he owed her an orgasm or two, and she would get them, come hell or high water.
Jake called the bartender over, ultra confident, almost smug as he leaned against the polished wood. He ordered something in his perfectly accented French and then perused the room as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He could have been a businessman, a playboy on vacation, but Tia knew him for what he was—a spy and a man whore. And he was good at both.
Jake owned handsome. Broad shouldered, his dark blond hair barely brushing the collar of his dark jacket, the highlighted strands a little longer in the front and tousled, golden from the sun. Underneath the expensive, tailored suit he was deliciously lean and muscular in all the right places. It was oddly erotic to see him dressed, seeing she’d spent more than enough time with him naked in the past few months.
Jake glanced at his watch and then smiled at a hot blonde walking by. He didn’t check out her fine ass in her little black dress though, and Tia frowned. Maybe what she saw earlier was true. Maybe he did love the perfect, wholesome-looking blonde she had seen him with in the hotel lobby. And obviously, Blondie was late.
Tia shifted behind the plant to get a better view of Jake. If he was in love with Blondie, that would prove to be a problem, since she fully intended for him to finish what he started. His leaving her unfulfilled and bound at the club had been humiliating, though she understood the circumstances. Duty had called, and he had too much honor to blow off his responsibility. She got it. She was also a spy, for a more conservative office, though.
But it didn’t damper the confusion at the new sensations, her growing awareness of him. They’d met at the club months ago, and their mutual attraction had led to incredibly hot, erotic play sessions. Usually she didn’t think twice about a man. She didn’t want a commitment. Didn’t deserve one. But memories of Jake sparked new questions. What was he like out of the club? Was he as courteous? A good man? It didn’t matter. But she still wanted to know.
Tia watched Jake finish his drink and order another. Probably whisky and cola, if she knew him well enough. She hadn’t heard from him in a month, but she knew he was busy. His division was swamped, and his boss had actually approached her about crossing over into their office to cover some of the workload.
Tia was definitely interested. Chase’s division was more rogue, able to go deeper, harder, faster after the bad guys. No spy was on the radar, but Chase’s division was able to go where other agents couldn’t, and she wanted to be a part of that. She was just waiting to hear back about when she would start.
So she really wanted to solve her problem, now, before she started work. She didn’t fuck her co-workers. Since she was already doing Jake, she would make a concession this once. She frowned. But there was the problem of Blondie... She refused to be second best, even to get the elusive proper orgasm.
But Blondie was nowhere to be seen, and Jake was looking quite relaxed, like he owned the place and didn’t have a care in the world. A facade for sure, since he didn’t miss a thing. If she jumped him, he’d kill her without batting an eyelash. She loved that in a man.
A woman with long, deep-red hair in a deep blue dress entered the bar. Jake’s eyes lit up as she strolled up to him and whispered in his ear. He laughed, his head back, and then looked into her eyes with that devastating smile of his plastered to
his face. Ginger leaned in again, and when the bartender brought Jake another drink, he ordered one for her.
They talked for a while. Ginger leaned in again and this time the length of her body pressed into his. He grinned down at her and kissed her, his lips slow, gentle, the way Tia remembered him kissing her. Damn, could he ever kiss. Those lips of his knew how to coax, tease, and caress.
Jake’s hand slid to Ginger’s ass and squeezed. She shot him a glare and whispered in his ear. Jake laughed and his hand slid back to her waist, tugging her closer.
Ginger slipped her hand into his pants pocket, let it linger, as if she were testing what he had to offer, then she withdrew her hand and placed it on his chest. It was so smooth, if Tia hadn’t known what was happening, she’d have thought Ginger was feeling him up. But Tia knew what was happening from experience. A courier run. Ginger had dropped something into his pocket. That’s all she was to Jake—work.
Tia sighed in relief. Now she just had to solve the mystery of Blondie. Blondie had looked sickly in the lobby, and Jake had been all kinds of concerned, with a look on his face Tia had never seen before. It had to be love. And then Blondie flipped her hand, and Tia had seen a huge engagement ring. One that didn’t just claim but screamed she was taken, along with a very expensive wedding band.
Tia had a hard time believing Jake had settled down in a month, but weirder things had happened. Of course, he could have married her before, and then screwed Tia for fun, on the side. She frowned. Jake didn’t seem the type. Maybe Blondie was another assignment, on the side of a courier run. But Tia doubted it. Jake looked too smitten.
Jake paid the bar tab, kissed Ginger goodbye, and left. Tia followed at a safe distance, taking the second elevator back to his floor. She caught a glimpse of him going into his room. Then a moment later he came back out into the hallway, still looking concerned. She had reserved a room on this floor earlier when she had seen him, hoping to hook up—she didn’t want him in her personal room—and now she faked leaving, jiggling the door handle, and he looked up.
“Hey.” Jake knew better than to call her by name. You never knew when an agent was under an alias. He looked at her with surprise and interest, his hands in his pockets, his gaze drinking in her silver evening gown. Meeting him half way down the hall, Tia knew she looked good, but seeing the appreciation reflected in his hungry blue eyes gave her a shiver of pleasure.
He pulled a hand from his pocket and gestured to her. “What brings you to Paris—business or pleasure?”
“Business, but I’ve completed that.”
“Same here.” His smile was slow, sensual. “Can I buy you a drink, since business isn’t pressing?”
“Maybe.” In four-inch heels she was almost his six feet, and it was nice to be just shy of looking him in the eye. “I’m a little pissed at you. You didn’t leave me very satisfied with our last encounter.”
His smile was sheepish. “I realize that. I apologize. I’ve thought of nothing but you in the last month, but I’ve been travelling a lot, on business. I haven’t had more than a night home here or there.”
Tia knew his office was busy. That’s why Chase was trying to recruit a new agent. But she didn’t know if Jake was playing her or if he really felt bad for leaving. Needing to be on a plane in an hour for an assignment was excusable, especially if your boss was as much of a hard-ass as Chase Sanders. “Apology accepted.”
“I could go back to your room with you. Give you the orgasm you didn’t get before.” He glanced at the door to his room, and an odd expression crossed his face. She wondered if he was growing a conscience about Blondie as he offered to entertain her, and decided then and there to abort her mission.
“I think you owe me more than one orgasm.” Oh, yes, Jake did owe her more than one. Tia inhaled his scent—masculine, clean, intoxicating, but void of the note of leather that usually surrounded him. She frowned, missing that. “But not tonight. Sorry, Tex.”
“Two?” His smile was devilish, and his blue eyes darkened.
“Not tonight, thanks.” He owed her more than two, but she didn’t want to be the other woman. Oh, her body wanted to be the other woman. Her skin tingled with the anticipation of what he offered. But she couldn’t, not when he had looked at Blondie like that. “You don’t have something more pressing to do?”
“Don’t be so eager to leave, darlin’.” Jake put a hand on the small of her back, and the heat of his palm ignited a flame in her belly. “Where’s your room?”
“Back that way.” She pointed down the hall. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Jake turned her slightly, her back to the wall. He drew closer, one arm leaning on the wall over her head, close but not touching her with any part of his lean form except the hot palm on her bare back. His eyes were intense, deep blue, and he gave her another slow smile that promised whatever he did would definitely be a good idea.
She drew in a breath, afraid to exhale. He smelled so good. Would he taste as delicious tonight? No, she couldn’t go there. If he touched her, she’d ignite. If he kissed her…she’d be second best again.
“Just go,” she whispered. “I can’t do this with you. Not anymore.”
“I know I screwed this up. I promise work won’t call this time. Let me love you.”
Let me love you… She opened her mouth to ask about Blondie, and he closed the distance. He kissed her, his lips gentle, persuasive. His tongue touched her lips, and against her better judgment she parted, allowing him in. The fire that had threatened to ignite flared, deep within her belly. Her panties grew damp, the moisture gathering, preparing her for a torrid night of sex she couldn’t accept.
She didn’t want to need him, wanted to resist him. It took every ounce of her control not to slide her hands up his chest, to his broad shoulders, to his nape. She grabbed the material of her evening gown and held it tight, her knuckles hurting.
“Don’t you want to come for me?” he whispered, his mouth against her ear. His right hand pressed to the small of her back until her hips met his, his hard cock brushing her belly. He rocked once against her and her pussy pulsed, echoing his need. He’d never seduced her like this before. There’d never been any reason. But now he pulled out all the stops, and the charm oozed out. She’d never wanted a man more.
“Please?” he whispered against the corner of her mouth. “I need this. I need you.”
“What about the blonde I saw you with earlier?”
He stiffened ever so slightly, but then his lips continued on their path, along her jaw, down to her throat. “That’s the work wife. She wants nothing to do with me, so I’m all yours.”
Oh, Jake. Bad, bad move to fall for your partner. “I’ll warn you right now, you’re going to regret this.”
He pulled away, his hand still on her back as he frowned. “She’s married. She doesn’t care.”
Even worse to fall for a married work wife. Tia touched his cheek, feeling sorry for him. “No, you’re going to regret what I have planned for you.” What the hell. She might as well go through with it. But what she had planned he’d never agree to. He was too much Dom to submit to her.
His smile echoed of something—sadness maybe? “If it makes me forget the evening I’ve had, then bring your most twisted.”
“Is that your consent?”
“Like I said, bring it.”
Desperation mingled with need and banded together, making it impossible to resist him any longer. He wanted her most twisted? He was about to experience it. She just hoped he didn’t hate her too badly when it was over.
She took his hand and squared her shoulders with resolve. They walked the few steps to her room, and she gained access with her key card. The room was the exact clone of hers, two floors up. Except there was nothing personal here. Just a few things she’d brought down to make the evening…special.
He turned to her, hands in his pockets, his eyes still dark with lust. “Do you want me to order anything from room service? Chase’s tre
at.”
“That would be very nice. What does Chase want to buy us?”
“He’s a lightweight. You’d get bottled water from him.” Jake grinned, the smug set to his lips giving her a chill of desire. “But from me, champagne.”
“Sure.” Tia waited until he turned to the phone, and then she hit him, just so on the back of the neck. He crumpled, all six feet of him slumping onto the bed.
She removed the black bondage tape from her bag and stared at him longingly. “Sorry, Jake. You said to bring my most twisted. It’s game time.”
Chapter Two
Jake woke, disoriented, his neck and head hurting like hell. He shook his head to clear it and looked up at the ceiling, then lifted his head, his spy senses on full alert. Tia stood before him, leaning against the wall, her black hair cascading over her shoulders in loose curls. Her long fingers paged through a magazine, which was a strange contrast to how she was dressed.
She had stripped down to a bra, panties, and black thigh-high stockings. So beautiful, those long legs, that creamy few inches of bare skin between her stockings and panties calling to him like a siren’s song. The bra and panties were black, gauzy things that revealed as much as they hid. Her firm breasts thrust forward as she drew in a deep sigh, the nipples pert, ready for his mouth or clamps.
He went to say something and realized he couldn’t. His mouth wouldn’t open. What the hell? He then tried to move his arm to see to whatever was wrong with his mouth and realized she had him bound to her bed and gagged—probably tape. He hated tape. He wished she’d thought ahead and used a ball gag instead. Not that he’d ever tried one. He usually did the gagging. The binding.
He wiggled his wrists—more tape. No way was he escaping this easily. But did he want to?
He glanced down. A cool breeze over his thighs told him he was naked, and a test of one foot revealed she’d bound his legs, too. He broke out into a cold sweat. The idea of being made to submit scared the hell out of him but also excited his wildest dark side. His cock went from flaccid to semi-hard in a nanosecond, and it would just be moments before she had him fully aroused. She had said he would regret what she had planned. He’d soon find out if he did or if he wanted more. Right now, he wanted every twisted thing she had to give him.