Beneath the Secrets, Part Two (Tall, Dark & Deadly)

by Lisa Renee Jones

  His deep, sexy laughter followed. It rippled down her spine and settled in low and hot in her belly. The man got to her way too easily. Oh yeah. She’d be cuffing him all right and enjoying every second of it. Then she’d slip out and find the blond girl before she ended up on some drug cartel main menu.

  ***

  Blake followed Kara up the stairs to her apartment, locking the door behind him, his blood pumping hot, adrenaline pulsing through him. He wanted this woman. Damn it to hell, he wanted her in a bad way. Bad enough that it was time for answers. Time he knew who he was climbing into bed with.

  He watched her hips sway as she headed up the stairs and followed in hot pursuit, anticipation burning through him, his cock already thick with arousal. Her long dark hair lay like silky strands down her back and he imagined it draped over his stomach with her mouth on his shaft, caressing him into the sweet bliss of escape. The instant she stepped onto the top level landing of the apartment, he had every intention of scooping her up and taking her to bed. He never got the chance.

  As if she’d plucked his fantasy from his head, she cleared the last step with him directly behind her and whirled on him, facing him, only to immediately sink to her knees at his feet. Holy shit, leave it to this woman to turn the tables on him. Her hands went to his thighs, climbing up his legs, and his dick responded, standing at attention, and pressing uncomfortably against his zipper.

  “Still want to tie me up?” she asked, stroking the thick line of his erection.

  While he’d certainly not complain about this woman’s mouth on his cock, sucking him and licking him, he saw this as what it was. Her attempt to gain control. She clearly had no idea how much he enjoyed owning it himself and how certain it was that she had no chance of claiming it as her own.

  Blake shackled her wrist and pulled her to her feet, hard against his body, all her soft, sexy curves fitted against him. “I’m not playing this game and losing, sweetheart. You won’t be needing your hands. Just mine.” He stroked her back, molding her closer, feeling the warmth of her seep through their clothing like liquid heat consuming them. “Comprende?”

  Her chin lifted defiantly. “No comprede”.

  Blake tilted his head and kissed her neck before his lips pressed to her ear and he promised, “You will when I’m done with you.” He picked her up and headed to the bed, the possessive thunder of man claiming a woman rumbling within him.

  “When you’re done with me?” she challenged, clinging to him. “When I’m done with you is more like it.”

  His muscles tensed and heated with the erotic challenge. Blake realized right then what he’d been missing, what he needed. Just being in control wasn’t enough. He liked the challenge, the sweetness of winning the battle to get Kara to submit to him. With everyone else, it had been easy to command them, practically mindless control. With Kara, nothing was easy, but it was good. Real damn good.

  He set her down at the foot of her bed, his gaze flickering over the feminine blankets, his mind imagining her naked beneath them, naked beneath him. His hands settled on her shoulders and he pinned her in a stare. “If you thought you’d seduce me into foolishness like you did back in Denver, you underestimated me.”

  “I didn’t seduce you,” she objected. “I—”

  He turned her to the bed, a sound of surprise sliding from her lips. Immediately, he shackled her legs with his and tugged her jacket down her arms, determined to get her in that naked state he was fantasizing about as quickly as possible. The instant her jacket was gone, she tried to turn. He didn’t let her, lifting her shirt up and then quickly unhooking her bra.

  Before she even knew what had happened, he’d tugged her back against him, his hands cupping her breasts, his mouth pressed to her ear. “Tonight, I own you,” he murmured, and he couldn’t believe how much he wanted that, how much he wanted her.

  “Never,” she declared, but the hoarseness of her voice told a different story. She was already sinking into the confines of desire and need, where he intended to immerse her. Where he intended to join her.

  Blake plucked at her nipples, scraping his teeth over her earlobe. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

  “Yes,” she agreed breathlessly. “I guess we will.”

  “Get on the bed.”

  “No.”

  He smiled into the soft floral halo of her hair, the silky strands tickling his cheek, and pressed her forward until her hands hit the mattress, forcing her to crawl on top of it. She made a frustrated sound he saw as challenge. He wanted her moaning, begging for more. Telling him what she wanted and how she wanted it.

  His hand slid over her jeans-clad backside and up her waist to unsnap her jeans. Her hand went to his, trying to stop him. He countered her action by flattening her onto the bed, framing her body with his, his cock settling against her lush backside. She rewarded him with one of those moans he craved, and her hips lifted against his.

  “I love how you smell,” he said, burying his face in her neck.

  “Sweet talk won’t get you anywhere.”

  His lips twitched. “No?” He slid his hands under her and cupped her breasts. “Where will this get me?”

  She made another soft sound of pleasure before denial whispered from her lips. “Nowhere. It gets you nowhere.”

  “It doesn’t feel like nowhere.” His palms moved downward, exploring the delicate lines of her waist and back, before he pressed his hand between their bodies again, and found her zipper, stroking lower, into the sweet V of her body. “I want you naked.”

  “You always want me naked.”

  “And that’s a problem why?”

  “You plan to use sex as a weapon.”

  He unzipped her pants. “You might find telling me your secrets comes with reward, not punishment.”

  “Just because I don’t fit some mold for a woman you have set in your mind doesn’t make my life and story fake.”

  He nipped her earlobe. “Sweetheart, I told you. Fool me once, but never again. I know you aren’t who you say you are.” He tugged her waistband down and eased her jeans down her body, and all but groaned at the sight of her panty-less, pretty little backside.

  Blake leaned away from her to free the jeans from her feet. As he expected, Kara scrambled up the bed, twisting around to face him, her high, full breasts swaying with the action. Damn, the woman had a hot little body. And yeah, he’d had his share of hot bodies, but there was just something about Kara that set him on fire.

  Blake reached in his pocket and pulled out the rubber-band cuffs he’d stuffed there, climbing onto the bed. She backed away and hit the headboard. His lips curved. The sight of her there, her creamy white skin, her dark hair draped over her bare shoulders, was pure perfection. She was exactly where he wanted her to be.

  Without a moment of hesitation, Blake straddled her, pressing his free hand to her face and twining his fingers in her hair. “You know I’m going to cuff you. It’s inevitable.”

  Chapter Four

  He was going to cuff her. It was inevitable. Kara should have known it before. Why she’d fooled herself into believing she could get the upper hand, she didn’t know. But fighting Blake wasn’t the answer. It wasn’t going to get her out of here to save that young girl Eduardo intended to turn into a sex slave of some sort. She had to succumb to him and hope he went to sleep sometime soon. It was her only hope. Drive him into that post-sex oblivion that was male slumber and pray she survived his demands for answers she couldn’t give. His hand raked over her breast, and she swallowed hard against the wonderful tingling sensation that told her she was fooling herself. She wouldn’t survive his demands. She wanted to trust him. She wanted to believe he was a good guy.

  “I guess you’re afraid to let me cuff you?” she challenged.

  “Afraid?” he asked, laughing. “Hmmm. Maybe I am.” His hand, still laced in her hair, forced her gaze to his, his eyes meeting hers. His voice softened. “In fact, Kara, you scare the shit out of me.”

  Her ches
t tightened with the raw quality to his words. “I don’t know what that means.”

  “I think you do.” He shackled her wrist and slid the cuff over it before she could stop him. “I think you completely understand.”

  “No,” she whispered, tugging on her arm when he lifted it to the bar behind her and attached it. “Don’t cuff me to the bed.” Her free hand went to his shoulder, and she meant to push but she didn’t. Damn it, why wasn’t she pushing him away? “Don’t, Blake.” He cuffed her other hand and settled back to stare at her. She swallowed hard, feeling helpless and vulnerable with her hands over her head, her breasts thrust forward. “Is this where you torture me for information I don’t have?”

  “With pleasure, sweetheart. It’ll hurt so good, I promise.” He rose up and tugged his shirt over his head.

  “You promise,” she repeated, her words rasping in her dry throat as he tossed his shirt away and exposed his impressive, muscular chest. His hair fell from its clasp, in long, dark strands to brush his broad shoulders. “You promise until you decide to kill me.”

  He went completely still, his eyes steady on her face, never shifting to her naked, exposed body. “I’ve given you no reason to believe I’d kill you.”

  “You said you’d kill me if you had to.”

  “And with the way you handle a gun I’m pretty sure you’d kill me if you had to, too.”

  “With good reason.”

  “I’m no different than you, sweetheart.”

  “Ignacio would kill me for looking at him the wrong way. How do I know you aren’t the same?”

  “I didn’t kill you for drugging me.”

  “You thought about it.”

  “No,” he said solemnly. “I didn’t. I just wanted to fuck you again. You seem to have that effect on me.”

  Her skin flushed with the bold statement she knew was meant to distract her from what was important. “You work for the cartel. Problems get solved by killing people.”

  “You work for the cartel. I’m a contractor with loyalty only to my paycheck. I’d turn around after this job and help destroy Mendez if the money was right. And feel free to tell Mendez as much. I’d say that to his face.”

  Her mind was reeling, and her emotions, too, none of which made any sense to her. He made no sense to her. “Then why are you pushing me so hard?”

  “What are you so afraid of me finding out?” he asked instead of answering her question.

  “I’m not afraid.”

  “You said you were.”

  “So did you.” She tried to turn the tables. “Of me.”

  “I said you scared the shit out of me.” His eyes flickered with shadows, and she saw the torment in their depths, heard it as he spoke. “And you do. And you know why? Because I have to know whatever it is you’re hiding and I dread finding out what it is. I shouldn’t feel that way. I shouldn’t care.”

  “Because it’ll make killing me harder,” she whispered, taking only small comfort in his torment being a sign he didn’t really want to, that he actually felt this connection to her that she felt to him.

  He opened his mouth to reply and she shook her head, suddenly overwhelmed with unexplainable emotions. “Don’t answer. Please. I don’t want to know what you’ll say. We all have secrets. Mine are personal. They don’t affect you.”

  “I need to decide that.”

  “No.” Her fingers curled into her palms. “No damn it, you don’t.” Frustration filtered into her voice. “Stop pushing me.”

  “You know I can’t.”

  “You can. You say you aren’t loyal to Mendez. I’m helping you do what you were hired to do. That’s what matters. You know all you need to know.”

  He framed her face and the touch was like sweet bliss, a relief. She didn’t understand why, but she’d needed him to touch her. “I don’t know what I need to know,” he said, “until I know everything.” His thumb stroked her cheek, a soft caress that sent a shiver down her spine and tightened her nipples. “Everything, Kara. I have to know everything. I want everything.”

  The way he said the words, like he had to own her, like he did own her, shook her to the core. She’d never wanted to be owned. She never considered that any man could own her, but she feared this one could, and would, if she let him. “You can’t have everything.”

  He answered by leaning in, his mouth slanting over hers, his tongue delving past her teeth, doing a sensual slide into her mouth that sent a wave of heat through her body. “What you tell me stays with me,” he vowed. “Trust me, Kara.”

  Her chest tightened uncomfortably, emotion welling inside her. Trust him? Was he serious? And why why why did she want to? This was how people got killed in this world. They fell for this kind of man, these kinds of promises. “I barely know you.”

  He settled his cheek against hers, his lips against her ear. “You know me,” he said. “I see it in your eyes when you look at me.” He palmed her breasts and molded them together, teasing her nipples with his thumbs, and her thighs burned, the urge to clamp them around his hips impossible to suppress. “And I feel it in the way you respond to me.”

  His gaze raked her breasts, a hot stroke like his hand, before they lifted back to her face, and she felt the familiar punch of connection captivate her. He captivated her. He leaned in and kissed her again, a deep, sensual slide of his tongue against hers that seduced and drugged. And when his mouth moved to her breast, oh God, the hot suction of his mouth on her nipple was driving her crazy, driving her absolutely insane. She arched into him and his hand curved under her backside, shifting her weight, fitting the V of her body against his thick erection, the proof he wanted her as badly as she did him.

  “You want me inside you?” he demanded against her mouth.

  Yes. Please. “I want out of these cuffs,” she panted instead. “I hate not being able to move.”

  ”I like you in them,” he countered. “I like me in you.”

  Yes, she thought again. Him inside her. He wouldn’t be asking questions. He wouldn’t be teasing her. “Then what are you waiting for?”

  “Your secrets, baby.” He moved then, dragging his palms down her sides in a seductive path over her ribs, to her hips, until he pressed his mouth to her stomach, his hair tickling her breasts, her skin. And when his chocolate brown eyes lifted to hers, he didn’t push her, or torment her like she thought he was going to. He took his declaration someplace completely unexpected and erotic. “I want to discover them all, every sweet spot you own.”

  His fingers slid between her thighs, and she gasped as he delved into the wet, sensitive flesh, his shoulders pressing her thighs apart, his breath a hot tease, promising all kinds of pleasures to follow. And then his fingers were inside her, and his mouth closed down over her swollen, sensitive clit.

  Her eyes fell shut, every nerve ending in her body alive with the feel of his mouth, his fingers, his tongue…oh God, his tongue…he was licking her now, driving her crazy. Licking and pumping his fingers. She jerked against the cuffs, trying to reach for him, frustrated when she couldn’t. Her legs lifted, and she wrapped his shoulders, trying to hold him in place, trying to make sure he didn’t stop too soon. She was close. So very close to release.

  “Not yet,” he said, and his mouth was gone from where she wanted him most, his fingers too, his lips trailing up her inner thigh.

  She glowered at him, the ache between her thighs and in her nipples, too much to take. “You’re killing me. You know you’re killing me.”

  A wicked smile touched his lips and he licked her clit and then slid up her body and kissed her. “Killing you with pleasure. Remember that.”

  He pushed off the bed, reaching for his boots, and Kara quickly scooted away from him, sitting up and leaning against the bed, her knees to her chest. Protecting herself from another attack of pleasure turned to pain. But there was no protecting her from the impact of him sliding down his jeans and boxers, his erection jutting forward, thick with his desire and with the promise of the sat
isfaction he’d denied her.

  He tugged a condom from his pocket but didn’t put it on. She wanted him to put it on, she wanted him inside her, and yet, she wanted to escape before she did something foolish and trusted this man.

  His knees hit the mattress and he crawled toward her, and she had the impression of a wild, wicked beast in pursuit of what was his. Right then, she wanted to be his. She wanted everything else not to matter, to just disappear. The hunger in him washed over her, the possessiveness, and her body responded, the slick heat of arousal glossing her thighs. His hands came down on her knees. He kissed one and then the other.

  “Open for me, Kara.” And his eyes met hers and she saw what was there, the demand she give him more than her body. The certainty she would if she wasn’t careful, if she didn’t do something to stop where this was going. She couldn’t afford to be weak. She couldn’t let herself give into the temptation to trust him.

  “No,” she whispered. “I can’t.”

  “You can.”

  She wished she could touch him, that her hands were free. “You want too much.”

  “I want everything. I told you that.”

  “Everything is too much.”

  He reached for her legs, easing them down, and pulling her beneath him. And she let him. She didn’t have it in her to fight what she felt for him, not like this, naked and pressed close to him. Not with his cock thick between her legs, and him hard everywhere she was soft, right where everything else felt wrong.

  He stroked hair from her face, staring down at her, and she saw that raw vulnerability in him she’d first seen in Denver, that pain he lived with, that made her ache with him. That she somehow knew he let few people see, but he let her. He surprised her then, reaching up and releasing one cuff and then the next, then cupping her face. “Everything is definitely not too much.”

  The way he said those words reached inside her and grabbed hold. She was falling for this man and falling hard and in that moment she couldn’t seem to care why that was so wrong. “Blake,” she whispered; a plea for some invisible perfection only he could give her.