Circle of Desire

by Carla Swafford

  “Dammit. Get off me.”

  His body told a different story. He arched and then followed with a thrust of his hips.

  “What fun would that be?” she whispered and groaned.

  She closed her eyes and lifted and lowered her body. How many nights had she stared at the ceiling wishing he rested between her thighs doing this?

  Not once had the thought of taking another lover into her bed crossed her mind. The man beneath her was unique and matched her perfectly. She would never be able to control him, glancing at the chains she amended that thought, except with a little help and for a short time.

  He jerked on his shackles.

  “You’re going to regret this.”

  She laughed.

  “That’s rich. I believe I said the same thing when you handcuffed me.”

  Every taut masculine muscle in his chest shifted when hers came to rest on top.

  She nipped at his ear. “My only regret is the last few months we wasted time with our hardheadedness. We could’ve been doing this.”

  Her mouth covered his. Satisfaction heated her body as his mouth responded.

  When their lips parted, he said in the soft voice that sent shivers of lust through her body, “Let me go so we can do this right.”

  Oh, she was tempted. He was the only man she’d ever made love to that she allowed to take control. Her body shivered in remembrance of their time in the cabin. Her mouth dropped to his neck and licked the place where his heartbeat pumped so strong. The tart smell and taste of Collin drove her to a frantic pace. His groan reassured her that he wanted this as bad as she did. In seconds, rolling waves of sensation pounded in every direction from where he filled her. Then Collin arched against her and moaned.

  She moved off him and the bed, stepping into the bathroom. Moments later, she returned with a warm, damp cloth. She took her time cleaning the part of him that provided so much pleasure as she ignored his angry stares.

  “Now, Olivia, release me.”

  Her nipples tightened. Was her body ever satisfied very long around him? His low, harsh voice commanding her was such a turn-on.

  “No.”

  She almost giggled when he narrowed his eyes. Maybe she should be afraid of him. He’d shown her several times how dangerous he could be, but during the last couple months she’d realized how much she missed him. He’d gotten under her skin and she wanted to prove to him how much she loved him. Every time she said that to herself, she couldn’t help but smile. Such a unique experience, loving someone else.

  Sure, he could turn her down, but she had to try to make him understand. In her business lying was expected. So she doubted he would believe her. Showing would have to do the trick. If she released him, he would only send her away. She wanted to show him all the ways she loved him.

  “This is crazy. Okay. You’ve paid me back plus some. Let me go.”

  When she continued to wipe a well-muscled thigh with special care, his cock began stretching, recovering from their little romp.

  “Dammit! Stop now.”

  She threw the cloth on the floor and swept one hand up his length. “You don’t mean it.”

  “Watch me.”

  He jerked and pulled on the chains. The metal dug red marks around his wrists.

  “Stop it! You’re hurting yourself.”

  “Then let me go!”

  “If you really wanted me to let you go, you would’ve already called out for help. Rex is down the hall and your guards are alive. I didn’t hurt any of them.” She moved her hands away and stood. “I’m only trying to make you understand that I love you.”

  His cold look told her so much. She’d been wrong. He didn’t want to hear about how much she loved him. She’d never told a living soul that before. Her greatest fear was realized, she was unlovable. Nausea bubbled up from her stomach, almost to her throat. Even when he hadn’t followed her out of that warehouse or checked on her all these weeks, months ago, she’d thought it had been only his pride. She’d thought if she put him in a position of . . . oh, Christ! Her logic was all screwed up. You don’t chain up someone you love.

  She walked over to the nightstand and pulled out the top drawer. Her hands were steady. The numbness that always fell over her as she prepared to kill someone pulled her into the near trance she hated. When she unlocked the first ring, he snapped the key out of her hand and made short work of the other manacles.

  He moved off the bed and stood in front of her, his fists clenching open and close. The fury radiating from his body popped her back to defensive mode.

  “Go ahead and get Rex, you crazy bastard. I love you and I refuse to force any man to love me! Go ahead and kill me. But you’ll always wonder what you missed out on.”

  Not caring if she was about to die or not, she stood and reached for her blouse at the end of the bed. Collin snatched it from her hand and threw it on the floor. More thunder shook the walls, rattling the window.

  “It was driving me nuts, not being able to touch you as I’ve dreamed about for so many nights.” He kissed her. The power of the kiss left no doubt in her mind what he had on his. “I love you, you crazy bitch.” His hands roamed all over her body until he cupped her butt and lifted, throwing her on the bed. “Now it’s time for me to do what I’ve wanted for a long time.”

  Her breath was short and she barely asked, “What’s that?”

  “Fuck your brains out!”

  She wrapped her arms and legs around him. Her laughter bounced off the walls as Rex and the guards probably heard Collin’s every word. Her soft-spoken man had expressed his and her feelings plainly and loudly.

  “Finally,” she whispered in his ear.

  “I don’t care how many times you suck my dick, I’ll talk with him when I damn well feel like it.”

  From where Olivia kneeled at his feet, she watched as he tucked his semi-hard cock tenderly back into his pants with shaky hands. She loved flustering him.

  Two days earlier, she’d found out from Rex that Arthur had left a message for Collin to call him back. Rex had shaken his head in disgust. “He’s being hardheaded and won’t tell me when he plans to return the call.”

  They hadn’t heard from Collin’s brother in four months, not since he walked out of the warehouse after killing Theo. Rumors trickled into the OS that The Circle had moved its headquarters into the mountains of east Tennessee where no one could find them and besides a few Circle missions that had gone sour, nothing else had been heard from the large and dangerous organization. Collin believed they were regrouping, getting used to the new order of things. Still, it worried her.

  She grinned. “Am I so predictable now?”

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his arms. “You’re many things, but never predictable.”

  “How old were you when your parents died?” she asked the question before thinking it through. In their time together, they rarely spoke of the past.

  “Ten.”

  “Poor baby.” She smoothed his hair and kissed his cheek. A muscle near his mouth twitched. Was he trying not to smile or was he bothered by her compassion? Even after all this time, she still couldn’t read him. Maybe that was why they were so good together. They didn’t take each other for granted.

  “You’d told me once there were nine months between you and your brother. So he was around eleven. That had to be a horrible time.”

  She unbuttoned his shirt a couple of notches and slipped her hand inside. The feel of his hard chest and the sprinkling of hair against her hand sent a tingling through her body. Touching him was such a turn-on.

  “Dammit, Olivia. I’m not your scratching post.” He pulled away from her and walked back to his desk and sat.

  “Oh, but you like this little pussy cat so much.”

  She purred and laughed when his eyes flared amber. Seeing that look in his eyes always reassured her he was still fascinated. Not since that stormy night together had he told her he loved her again. But she understood he wasn’t the ty
pe to say it often, if at all. That one time would have to be enough.

  One side of his mouth arched up. Oh, yeah. There was that smile she rarely saw but loved so much.

  “You got me there.” He typed on the keyboard as he stared into the monitor. “Be a good little kitten and come over here and look at this.”

  “You sure you want me that close to you during your working hours?” The last two words she emphasized by doing air quotation marks. After a year together, he’d set ground rules that she must behave herself during certain hours of the day. Otherwise, she shot his concentration to hell and back.

  “Yeah. You know you’d better behave.”

  “But I love it when you get all manly and try to boss me around.” She moved behind him and looked over his shoulder. An aerial view of buildings surrounded by razor wire and towering trees appeared on the monitor. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “The new Circle’s headquarters.”

  “It’s huge. No way could he build all of that in four months.” From what she could see, parts of it literally spilled out of mountain and the mountain sat in the middle of ten thousand acres.

  “We’ve learned Theo had started building it a few years ago. His plan was to move into it next year.”

  “Do you think Ryker is treating Marie okay? She did help us.” Olivia had been surprised to learn the young girl’s true age was twenty-one. When Marie was sold to Theo by her parents, she been small for her age, probably from malnutrition, and looked nine. In actuality she’d been twelve, almost thirteen. Olivia had been right. Marie was a good actress to hide her real age from Theo. He would’ve killed her for lying.

  “He’s not the brother I remember when we were kids.”

  Olivia fingered a few strands of his hair. She didn’t like hearing the sad tone in his voice.

  “What now? You don’t intend to blow up your brother.”

  She wanted to feel confident he wouldn’t kill Ryker, but one thing she’d learned about Collin, he did whatever was necessary to protect the OS and his people.

  “No. When I spoke with Arthur yesterday, he was having trouble with someone killing women in his area.”

  She punched his arm. “You sneaky bastard. You wanted those blow jobs.” When she hit him again, hard, he pulled her into his lap.

  “You’re so good at it,” he whispered as he held her face and stared deep into her eyes. How could she complain when he looked at her like that?

  A wiggle of her butt brought an answering hardness in his lap. She closed her eyes and rested a cheek in the crook of his neck. Never had she’d been so content. She felt like she lived in a beautiful erotic dream now. With a sigh she squeezed him around the waist and he returned the sentiment.

  “Collin, are you sure—” Nic stopped in mid-sentence as she walked into the room. She lifted her gaze from the papers in her hands, her eyes widened as she stared at the pair cuddling behind the desk.

  Olivia worked hard at getting along with the dark-haired woman. In fact, she avoided her whenever possible. At first, she’d tried to be friendly, but Nic refused all overtures of friendship. Just as well, as A. J.—she could never get use to calling her Abby—told her the woman followed Rex around like a little puppy. And like most men, he didn’t see it. A. J. tried to ignore Nic as she struggled with Rex’s never-ending questions about her life in The Circle. Olivia had pointed out she needed to talk to him, that she had nothing to be ashamed of. She had done what was necessary to survive because she’d believed Rex was dead and he’d believed the same of her. What A. J. had done with Jack, Rex’s brother, was over and done years ago. A. J. ignored her advice, as she did Nic’s crush on Rex.

  “Sure of what?” Collin pressed Nic, pulling Olivia out of her thoughts.

  The woman blushed and cleared her throat. “Ah, that Ryker believed it was someone in the OS?”

  He nodded with one eyebrow lifted.

  Olivia stiffened as her face flushed and then she twisted, turning her back to Nic and shooting Collin a look he couldn’t misinterpret. Anger didn’t cover how she felt. He’d told Nic before telling her he’d called his brother. Hurt churned her stomach. No matter what his intentions were, good, bad, or sexual, she should be first. She pushed off his chest to stand and he grabbed her wrists, stopping as he gave her a cold stare.

  “Let go of me,” she whispered. He was boss and she refused to embarrass him in front of one of his people.

  “Nic, I’ll talk to you later.” He cut his eyes over to the other woman without releasing Olivia.

  “Sure. If you don’t mind, I’ll leave these over here for you to look at.”

  Nic slid the stack of papers onto one of the empty chairs in front of the desk. With a wrinkled brow, she took one last glance and then closed the door behind her.

  Tremors started at Olivia’s chest and traveled down until her hands shook like a person in twenty degree weather without a parka. She kept telling herself she was overreacting. It didn’t mean he suspected her of betraying the OS.

  “Olivia, do you have something you want to tell me?” His hands dropped from her wrists.

  Before he could grab her fingers, she slapped him. As his cheek turned red, she understood her anger was more from jealousy than anything to do with his distrust. This business rarely allowed anyone to be naïve for long and it had been years since she trusted anyone until she met Collin. Just because she trusted him didn’t mean he returned the sentiment.

  His eyes flared amber as he captured her hands, stopping her from doing more damage.

  “So, you didn’t have anything to do with sabotaging The Circle’s missions,” he said more as a statement of fact than a question.

  Her growing anger burst free when she broke from his hold and jumped to her feet. He followed in a synchronized move as his big body covered hers, pressing her back to the wall. He clasped her wrists into one hand and slammed them over her head.

  “Let go of me,” she hissed.

  “You’re fucking hot when you’re mad.” He nipped her earlobe.

  “You said that just to make me lose my temper.” Frustrated but happy to know he still trusted her. She wiggled, showing her willingness to play along.

  “And you’re more dangerous than any firearm you love so much. You’re my sniper rifle. I would let you slap and beat me every day of the week as long as you return the favor.”

  “Let me beat you?” she asked.

  He never acted like pain was his forte before and it sure wasn’t hers. She might enjoy having it rough on occasion, but never for the pain. Olivia shifted her hip. His hard cock pulsed against her groin and she melted into him. No man ever made her feel like this. Soft and feminine.

  “No. Let me love you.” His mouth took hers.

  She moaned and sank into the kiss. She loved this man who wasn’t afraid to let her be herself. Leaning her head away, she touched his cheek.

  “What about your brother and The Circle?” she asked.

  He gave her a crooked grin.

  “Let him get his own woman.”

  She giggled.

  “Do you want to get the handcuffs or should I?”

  Acknowledgments

  I’m a fortunate person to have so many people who have been a mentor, critique partner, or cheerleader and sometimes all three rolled inside friendship. Special thanks to Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christy Reece, Jennifer Echols, Lexi George, Paula Graves, Diane Richmond, and JoAnn Weatherly. Diane and JoAnn, I will never forget celebrating together with champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries. They never tasted so good.

  And a huge thanks to my editor, Wendy Lee. I’m so happy it was YOU who found me in that slush pile.

  I’m lucky to have two of the greatest beta readers! Terri Nguyen and Candice Moody. Thanks, ladies.

  Thanks to my dad and sister for believing I could do it. Thank you, Mom, for the beautiful flowers in celebration of my first sale. Thanks to my brother and his wife for being truly happy for me.

  I fin
ally did it, girls! Love and hugs to Candi and Audie. Well, Steve, all the hard work on that office you built paid off. Thank you.

  The story of The Circle continues . . .

  After four local women are found dead from a new designer drug, Arthur Ryker orders his mercenary organization, The Circle, to find the source, a mysterious figure called the Wizard.

  As a child, Marie Beltane was sold for drugs by her parents to a madman. Now that he’s dead, she’s determined to prove she’s worthy of more and goes on assignment to stop the killings. But things go wrong when she’s injected with the same drug.

  Scarred inside and out, Ryker struggles with his failure to protect Marie from the world as well as himself. He becomes reckless during his search for the antidote and is captured by a new evil. Now he must become the monster he always feared to save the woman he always loved.

  Read on for a sneak peek at

  Circle of Danger, the thrilling sequel to Circle of Desire, coming soon from Avon Impulse!

  Arthur Ryker sprang out of bed and immediately stood at attention, feet apart, his scarred hands in the ready position at waist level. One hand cupped by the other, restrained but prepared to kill. He shook his head and sighed. Just once he wanted to leave his bed like a regular person and not like a trained monkey.

  “A bad dream?” a deep voice asked from the bedroom entrance. With one pierced black eyebrow lifted, Jack Drago leaned against the door jamb.

  Ignoring the question, Ryker walked naked into the bathroom. When he returned to grab some clothes out of the closet, Jack hadn’t moved but his gaze had most likely inspected every inch of the room. There wasn’t much to see. A king-sized bed sat in a corner, while a mirror-less dresser was centered against one wall, no pictures or the usual bric-a-brac to give away the occupant’s personality. Then again maybe it did. Rather stark for a man who owned enough properties and businesses to keep his organization in the best covert weapons money could buy. He didn’t care what Jack thought about his bedroom. Except for a few hours of sleep and a shower and shave, Ryker rarely spent time in the room.