Rule Changer (Rules of Engagement)

by Sienna Snow

  “Thomas, I don’t expect you to believe me, but I had nothing to do with any of it.”

  There it was: something I knew was a deal breaker for him. After what Dad put his family through, I wouldn’t expect him to think I was innocent. Who would think the daughter of the man who stole over forty billion dollars from his clients would be anything but guilty?

  I glanced up at Thomas. His face was unmoving and emotionless.

  “Once the Boston gang gets here, we’ll decide on next steps. Can you call Stacey and Natalie over to watch the five kids?”

  I tilted my head and watched him with a bit of uncertainty.

  “That’s it? No reaction to what I just said?”

  “What do you want me to say?” Thomas took my hand in his. “You aren’t your father, Carmen. Despite what I said last year, you’re so honorable, you’d sell everything you have to return the funds you used unknowingly for the foundation.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because I trust you.”

  I tried to pull free, but Thomas’s hold on my fingers increased. “No matter how much I wish it, I can’t take back the things I accused you of doing or being. All I can say is that I was wrong and ask for your forgiveness. Please, Carm, trust me to protect you and stand by you through this if nothing else.”

  I knew “nothing else” meant my submission. That night, of all the many painful things he’d said, telling me I forced him to be something he wasn’t and that I’d faked my submission hurt me the most. I’d given him a piece of me that only he knew about. A part that solely responded to him.

  “I don’t know what to say to you.”

  “Say you’ll give us a chance.”

  I stared at him for what felt like hours and then nodded.

  He released a sigh and kissed the top of my head as he pulled me into his arms.

  “I’m scared, Thomas. This situation is bigger than I could ever imagine.” I wiped away a hot tear that slid down my cheek.

  “Let me protect all of you. It’s what I do. I’m good at it.”

  I inhaled deep and closed my eyes for a brief moment.

  Please don’t hurt me again. I don’t think I’d survive if you did.

  “Okay, I accept.”

  Thomas grunted. “As if you had a choice.”

  “Look, I’m letting you win this one, give me the illusion I made the decision.”

  “Like I let you believe that I’m not your Master.” His voice deepened on the last word, and electricity shot to my pussy.

  How does he go from serious to sensual in a matter of seconds?

  Before I could linger on the thought, he had me flat on my back on the sofa. His amber eyes looked almost black, and he licked his lips, coming down and taking my mouth.

  He pulled back for a brief moment. “I’ll call in every favor I have to keep you safe.”

  “I know.” I nodded, seeing the turmoil lingering behind the desire.

  I drew him down, kissing him with the same passion I’d tried to deny existed last night. Our tongues curled around each other, and the intoxicating taste of his embrace filled my body.

  Thomas tugged up my shirt, his palm trailing up my rib cage and cupping my breasts. I instinctively arched up as my nipples pebbled tight, needing the harder edge of bite only he could give me.

  “More.”

  “Yes, Mistress,” Thomas crooned against my lips.

  He pinched my aching bud, rolling it between his fingers. An exquisite sting tingled into the tip.

  I shifted my face to the side and allowed his skilled mouth to move down my neck. “Why do you call me that when you want to be my Master?”

  He unbuttoned my shirt and unclasped my bra, nipped the top curve of my breast, and then murmured, “One doesn’t negate the other. Until you admit the truth, you’ll never experience the freedom and exhilaration you’re known for pulling from your submissives.”

  “Why can’t it be simple?” I asked as I grabbed Thomas’s head and brought it to my sensitized nipple.

  Thomas took my not-so-subtle cue and sucked the tip into his mouth, pulling hard to a blissfully painful point and then shifted to the other side until it was in the same state as its twin. He released my swollen nub and rose above me. He unbuttoned his shirt, shrugging it off and then throwing it behind me.

  “Carmen, you aren’t a simple girl, and I’m not a simple man. Stop questioning what works between us.” He unbuttoned my pants and started tugging them off. “Now, no more talking, we need to have makeup sex.”

  “What was the balcony episode called?”

  “Angry fucking.”

  I giggled and he smiled back.

  The last time we were silly while making love felt like a lifetime ago.

  He rubbed his stubble along my stomach and over my hips, as he pulled my slacks free of my body. He pushed my knees up, settling in between and then licking the seam of my pussy through the fabric of my underwear.

  “Thomas,” I moaned, arching my body.

  “I can taste myself on you. I like it.”

  I had a fleeting moment of shock, which disappeared when I saw how it aroused him.

  “Kiss me.”

  Reaching down, I drew him to me. However, as he came over me, he captured my arms, pinning them above my head. He gazed down at me with a wicked gleam.

  I licked my lips and repeated, “Kiss me.”

  He sealed our mouths, pushing his tongue in to rub and play with mine.

  God, this man can kiss.

  The taste of him, the feel of him, overwhelmed all coherent thoughts from my mind. I shifted, trying to create friction that would relieve the painful ache pulsing in my clit. But he wasn’t having any of it and crouched over me, refusing my unspoken desire as he continued to devour me.

  I wrenched my face away, panting for air. My body was on fire. It was Thomas’s job to satisfy my needs, and my desperate, sopping pussy required his attention.

  “Give me what I want.”

  He lifted a sexy brow. “You’re in no position to demand.”

  “Is that right?” I rubbed my leg against his thigh until I hooked my calf behind his. Shifting my hips to the side, I attempted to flip him, but he anticipated my move and flipped me to the other side of the couch.

  “Tsk-tsk. That wasn’t very nice. Your black belt skills are no use here. Did you forget I’m bigger than you?”

  I snarled and bit his lip as he tried to kiss me. I drew blood but it didn’t deter him. Clasping my wrist in one hand, he fisted my hair and ravaged my mouth in a kiss that sizzled my senses. Hot need tinged with a bit of anger at my inability to control this man consumed me.

  His hand slid free of my hair and moved to cup my swollen breast. He pinched the tip and then released my mouth to cover my other nipple with his teeth in a grip that skated the line between pleasure and pain.

  I moaned, my back arching into the sweet agony.

  “More,” I called out.

  He repeated the exquisite torture on the other breast, only this time he followed by tearing my underwear and spearing his fingers inside me. He pumped his digits in a brutal pace, sending me over into a blinding orgasm.

  “Thomas!” I cried out, riding the tide of spasms his fingers ignited.

  “I love hearing my name on your lips.”

  Before I had completely come down from my climax, he jerked up to sitting, freeing his hard cock. I’d barely caught my breath when he lifted me over him and thrust deep. He stretched my tight pussy with his thickness.

  Gasping, I grabbed his shoulders and raked my nails over his bunched muscles. He shifted me onto my back and covered me, clamping my arms once more, his cock pulsing inside me. He gazed at me with so much emotion that, in this moment, there was only the two of us.

  “I won’t lose you. I can’t lose you.”

  Tears clouded my eyes.

  “Wrap your legs around me, mi amor.”

  The second I followed his instructions, he gripped my hip
and began his assault on my quickening core. His cock slid in and out of my oversensitized muscles in deep, hard strokes, pushing me past anything but the feel of him. Ripples of ecstasy trembled inside me, pushing my orgasm to erupt, pussy spasming and clamping down until stars appeared behind my eyes.

  I screamed my release, taking the pounding thrusts of his beautiful cock and demanding more until all that was left was satisfying our need. He brought me over the crest one more time before he bit the skin of my neck and poured into me.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Three hours after my mind-blowing orgasms, I settled down in the living room with a cup of coffee. The “Boston gang” as Thomas called them were about to arrive, and I knew conversations I’d rather never ever have were about to take place.

  Each of our laptops sat on my oversized coffee table, with room for the bombardment of electronics Arya would bring.

  I smiled as Thomas entered the room with his coffee. “This feels very domestic, given the circumstance,” I said.

  “Would you really be opposed to making this permanent? I meant what I said. I want to marry you.”

  I want to marry you, too, but I’m scared.

  “I want to take this slow. Make sure we’re doing it for the right reasons, not because of Leo and Simon or the fear of what’s happening with Christof and the embezzlement.”

  He remained quiet for a few moments. “What’s it going to take for you to trust me?”

  “I do trust you.”

  “No.” He shook his head, setting his cup on the table, and turned to me. “You trust me with the boys and your safety, but nothing else. I want you to trust me with you heart and with our future.”

  What if he hurt me again? I couldn’t deny my feelings for him. They remained the same as they’d been over a year and a half ago. He was the one, the man I wanted to marry, but I wasn’t ready to risk it. Maybe once all the chaos settled, I’d revisit the possibility.

  “I’m trying, Thomas.”

  He sighed. “Try harder.” He reached out to cup my face, grazing his lips against mine.

  The doorbell rang, signaling the beginning of bedlam. Natalie and Stacey came out of the nursery and headed down the hall, ready to take on three more hellions. They walked past us with the children in tow before the parents had the chance to turn the corner into the living area.

  “Wow. They’re awesome,” Arya said. She unbuttoned her coat, throwing it over the back of the sofa. “Set the bags over there. We’ll handle the rest.”

  Three of my personal security detail carried in four shoulder bags apiece with Max behind them with a large box.

  “Are you planning on moving in?”

  “You would think it looking at all the shit she insisted on bringing.” Max set the box on the floor and walked over to the bar in the back of the living room. “I hope you realize how great a brother I am for flying back and forth from Boston in a matter of hours to help your ass.”

  “Yes, you’re the best big brother a girl can ask for. It’s such a hard life flying thirty minutes to and from your private estate to this building’s helipad.”

  He poured two glasses of scotch, then walked over, handing one tumbler to Thomas. “You’ll need this. These ladies tend to get into messes that drive their men to drink.”

  “Believe me, I know.” Thomas lifted the glass in a toast of brotherhood.

  Both Arya and I frowned, and then she grabbed a bag by her feet and started digging inside.

  “I’m the one who needs the cocktail. I spent the last few hours chasing after two toddlers who won’t stop running and getting into everything, while I packed for this visit.” She pulled out three fifteen-inch monitors, setting them on the coffee table. “And for the record, this is the security shield for when we log into the server. This place is going to be harder to hack than Fort Knox.”

  I glanced at Max, who shrugged and took a deep swallow of his drink.

  Arya was entering her general persona, and that meant either we helped her or became collateral damage from her tech insanity.

  I looked behind her. “I thought Mil and Lex came with you.”

  “Mil’s on a call, and with all the craziness, Lex is making good on his threat to stick to her no matter where she goes.”

  “I guess great minds think alike. I said something in the same realm.” Thomas glanced at me over the rim of his glass and smiled. “Wouldn’t you agree, Carm?”

  I lifted a brow, then couldn’t help myself and smiled back at him. In our case, he was angry as hell with his cock buried deep inside me when he’d uttered similar words.

  It was incredible how far we’d come in the last few weeks, hell, in the last twenty-four hours. My anger at him for the past was easing. Although my emotions were still all over the place, especially when it came to thinking about the future. One minute I wanted to jump in headfirst and the next I couldn’t tell if I wanted him in my life or not.

  This was why taking things slow was the best thing.

  It’s not going slow if you’re banging each other every chance you get.

  Thomas leaned toward me, tucking a stray hair behind my ear. “Remember that thought.”

  At that moment, Milla and Lex came around the corner of the hallway leading from the entryway.

  “Good, everyone is here. Help me set this shit up.” Arya continued her electronic invasion of my home, setting out cords and components. “I found something on the flight here that might connect everything together, but I’m not going to open anything until I know no one will track us.”

  “If you’d said this from the beginning, I wouldn’t have taken the call.”

  “Shut up, Mil, and start working.”

  I shrugged and went to help a very agitated Arya before she bit my head off, too.

  Fifteen minutes later, my large, spacious, and homey living room looked like a computer lab exploded inside it. Arya typed away with Thomas by her side discussing the software he developed while Milla and I sorted through who or what entity originated the accounts.

  So far, every single one had my name or one of my privately held enterprises linked to it with conservatorship given to Dad. Some were opened around the time of Dad’s murder, but the majority dated back almost twenty years, making me a freshman in high school.

  None of this made sense. Why would Dad do this?

  “Shit, everything we’re finding leads to more questions. And I’m unhappy to report I am worth over forty billion in someone else’s money.” Just saying it made my stomach roll. All I could think about was the people whose worlds crumbled when they lost all their money.

  One way or the other, I would get the money back to the right hands.

  “Carm, don’t freak out.” Milla placed her hand over my knee. “We have agents at the CIA, MI6, and INTERPOL aware of what’s happening.”

  My eyes nearly bugged out. “Have you lost your mind? All the evidence points to me.”

  “It’s okay. I promise. Lex and Thomas convinced them you were the only person who could get the funds back for them without exposing the issues within financial institutions across the world.”

  “What issue?” How the hell was I going to expose issues?

  Thomas answered. “That a well-programmed virus infiltrated entire banking networks to cloak accounts from detection.”

  “You should have heard him, Carm.” Milla’s eyes lit up. “He used all of these big tech words and made things seem a hundred times worse than they were. He pulled a signature Arya Rey move.”

  “Dane,” Max interjected, making me shake my head. Arya still went by her maiden name in business dealings, and it annoyed Max to no end. Arya’s excuse was that too many things had the Dane name, and she liked the one she was born with.

  Not paying attention to Max, I glanced at Thomas, who stared at me.

  Someone who’ll believe in you and fight for you.

  He’d defended me, protected me.

  I wanted to get up and kiss him but stayed where
I sat. “Thank you,” I said.

  He inclined his head, holding my gaze for a few more minutes before he frowned at Arya.

  “If I get arrested for this, you’re paying for every cent of my defense. I can’t believe you, of all people, didn’t let me know you were using this program. Do you know how much trouble we’d be in if you hacked the wrong person?” Thomas looked toward Max, who was reading something on his phone. “I hope you paddle her ass for this.”

  A grin cut across Max’s face. “You could say that. I took a play from Lex’s book. Arya’s going to remember what happens when she doesn’t take care of what belongs to me.”

  “If you’re done discussing my private life, I’d like to continue this search.” She continued typing, but a red flush grazed her cheeks.

  I returned to studying my spreadsheets and documents, and I said, “Don’t get any ideas, Thomas.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. Then again, you may enjoy it.” There was amusement in his tone.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” Max got up. “I don’t want to hear about my baby sister’s sex life.”

  “You’re one to talk. Who’s the one who converted my old homeschooling room into a sex dungeon?”

  Max ignored me, scowling at Arya when she smirked.

  “Here it is. I found a file hidden under a lot of encryption. Let’s hope it’s something substantial, otherwise I’m back to square one.”

  All of us gathered behind Arya and Thomas. They took turns inputting code, and after a minute, the document opened.

  “Oh dear God. This is bad,” Milla whispered.

  Files containing all my private information appeared: fingerprints, social security number, passport, medical records, and pictures of Thomas, the boys, and me. It was everything needed to either steal my identity or open new accounts in my name or…Christof’s words from the gala came to mind.

  “Would you sacrifice your safety and reputation for your sons?”

  A lump formed in my throat, and my skin felt cold and clammy. I rubbed my arms, trying to warm them up. I moved to the bar, made myself a shot of B&B, and swallowed it in one gulp. Then I turned back to Arya and Milla, who looked as bad as I felt.

  Thomas stood, running a hand through his short, wavy hair.