Big Bad Marine

by Jackie Ashenden

  Making a mental note to up her bet on the ‘When will Quinn and Duchess finally rip each other’s clothes off’ sweepstakes, Rose slipped from the desk. “Don’t worry,” she said, giving her a sister a wink. “I’ll see myself out.”

  Lily didn’t even look at her.

  Yeah, Rose probably needed to increase her bet by a couple of hundred bucks.

  Grinning to herself, she went out, shutting Lily’s office door very firmly behind her.

  2

  Later that day, West sat in his tiny office and went through all the info he had on Ian Jenkins for the umpteenth time. There wasn’t much. The guy had been keeping an irritatingly low-profile since he’d gotten out of the Marines – apart from the rumor of a little drug selling and the small matter of the assault that had gotten him arrested in the first place. He had no permanent address, but a couple of military contacts had told West that Jenkins liked to visit Vegas when he was feeling particularly flush, and spend all his cash at the tables.

  One of the guys had also mentioned to West that he’d run into Jenkins in one of the casinos a couple of days ago, and had fallen into conversation with him. Jenkins had told him he was planning on staying a week or so, taking a gaming vacation. Nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he was wanted in the state of Texas, nope, nothing at all to do with that.

  Rose, too, had done some research, turning up cellphone records and financials, all of which backed up his contact’s reports of Jenkins being in Vegas. Hence the trip. He’d been waiting for the guy to turn up for so long he would have driven all the way to New York if it meant getting his hands on the prick. Of course, putting cuffs on the guy and throwing him in jail wouldn’t change things. Carly had still been raped and she’d still gone off the rails as a result, subsequently cutting all contact from West and their father, falling into a spiral of bad men, alcohol, and an addiction to prescription pain killers.

  Nothing was going to fix that, or the broken relationship West had with his dad, who blamed him for what had happened to Carly.

  But if nothing else, not letting the asshole evade justice a second time, and perhaps punching him in the face before passing him on to the cops was going to make West feel better, and that was something, at least.

  The door to his office opened suddenly and West looked up. Sure enough, there was Rose, coming through the doorway with that hip-swinging walk, her blonde curls bouncing, blue eyes full of attitude. Totally as if she hadn’t mentioned getting a spanking not three hours earlier. To his face.

  Still, she didn’t know what got him harder than steel. She didn’t know that punishing bratty little girls in all kinds of delicious ways was one of his most private fantasies, and one he tried never to indulge in because it was all kinds of wrong.

  Women were to be protected, not punished.

  However, he had, on the odd occasion, found women who liked being punished as much as he liked dishing out punishment, but it was a side of himself he wasn’t proud of, and so he kept it locked down for the most part.

  Pity Rose tended rouse every one of those dominant instincts in him, especially lately. Good thing he was a man always in control of himself.

  West pushed away the files and settled back in his chair. “You’re ten minutes late.”

  Her big blue eyes went wide. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t know you were under a time pressure. Want me to get a tardy slip from the headmistress?”

  Fuck, she was a brat and if she knew even half the things he wanted to do to brats like her, she’d run a goddamn mile.

  Just as well she didn’t, though he’d spent the last half of the day thinking about how he could make this trip easier on himself and had come up with a few ways to handle little Miss Rosie. Ways she wasn’t going to like, but were going to make this whole thing a hell of a lot easier. For him, at least.

  Putting his hands behind his head, he linked his fingers together. “Sit down, darlin’. We’re going to have a chat.”

  Her adorable rosebud of a mouth tightened. Then she closed the door behind her and leaned against it, folding her arms and gazing at him from underneath pretty, gold-tipped lashes. “Ooh, a chat. I can’t wait.”

  She quite obviously didn’t sit down.

  West nodded toward the chair again. “Like I said. Sit down.” He didn’t ask this time, wanting to see what she’d do.

  Rose wrinkled her nose. “I’m good right here.”

  Of course. What did he expect? She’d never listened to him before and she obviously wasn’t going to listen to him now. Sadly for her, that would have to change.

  He met her gaze, letting her catch a glimpse of the hard, dangerous edge that he kept mostly locked down in civilian company. “If you don’t do as you’re told, little girl, you’re not coming to Vegas. So if I were you, I’d plant that pretty ass of yours on the chair and quit arguing with me.”

  She rolled her eyes, but he didn’t miss the rise of color in her cheeks. “Well, geez, no need to be such a dick about it. A little please and thank you wouldn’t go amiss. You catch more flies with honey not vinegar, remember?”

  He didn’t respond, watching her as she reluctantly pushed herself away from the door and came over to the chair in front of his desk. Sitting down and making a performance of it, pulling down her miniskirt and crossing her lightly tanned, slender legs. Doing a very good job of letting him know how tiresome she was finding all of this.

  It might have been amusing if she hadn’t been little Rose Hammond, whom he’d known since she was sixteen and who was the younger sister of his boss. If he hadn’t had a sudden and very vivid image of himself pulling her over the desk and into his lap, jerking up her mini skirt and baring her rounded ass, giving her a couple of swats for her lack of respect. And then—

  But no. Because she was little Rose Hammond and he had a fucking job to do that didn’t include any of the fantasies currently playing in his head.

  Hell, if he was really desperate, maybe he should call that sexy blonde barmaid for another hookup. She’d been a lot of fun in the sack and there was the added bonus of her not wanting anything beyond sex. Yeah, perhaps he’d look her up after he’d gotten back from this trip.

  On that bracing thought, he eyed the woman sitting opposite him.

  She was built on the slight side, like her sister. But unlike her sister there were a few places on Rose that were bigger. Places that he couldn’t say he hadn’t noticed, mostly because she kept shoving them in his face. She was also jiggling one leg, because Rose could never keep still, and it was setting up a vibration in those bigger places that he found…distracting.

  “Stop it,” he growled, both to Rose and his annoyingly persistent dick thoughts.

  She frowned in genuine puzzlement. “Stop what?”

  “That thing with your leg. Sit still for fuck’s sake.”

  She leaned back in the chair and lifted a finger, twining it into one of her bright gold curls, her pretty mouth curving. As if he’d given away much more than he had. As if she knew exactly why he’d told her to stop jiggling her leg. “Any particular reason you want me to stop, West?” she asked innocently.

  Shit, that had been a mistake. He was normally more onto it than to let her know he found her distracting. That was like giving a trigger happy soldier a gun and as much ammunition as they could handle.

  “No.” He kept his voice flat. Then changed the subject almost immediately. “Now, I want to get going as soon as possible, so we’ll leave tomorrow morning. Can you get your stuff together that quickly?”

  Rose’s wicked smile faded at the businesslike note in his voice; clearly she’d decided to act like the professional she would one day be, which showed she did have some self-control. In fact, there was even a sparkle of excitement in her eyes and he liked that. Been too long since he’d seen her get excited about something.

  “Yep, I can.” She sat up straighter. “I can get it all together tonight if you want to leave sooner.”

  He nearly grinned at her eage
rness. Lily hadn’t been wrong about Rose getting bored. She was a live wire who needed change and a challenge, and it was obvious she didn’t get that sitting behind a desk all day.

  Maybe it was good thing she was coming with him after all. It might give her something else to focus on other than needling him.

  “No, tomorrow’s fine.” Collecting the papers sitting on the desk into a pile, he then stuck them back in the folder. “You up with the play on our skip?”

  Rose nodded then glanced down at the folder. “Is that his file?”

  “Yeah. You want to look? You probably know everything already since most the intel we have on him is what you were able to find.”

  “Sure, but it won’t hurt for me to go over it again tonight.” She grabbed the folder, putting it on her lap, the excited sparkle in her eyes getting brighter. “Okay, so, anything else I need to know?”

  It was going to be a shame to give her a whole bunch of rules, especially when she was all so cute and excited, but he needed to set out some boundaries. And it wasn’t only because of the way she kept pushing him. It was also a safety issue. They were hunting a dangerous criminal as a team, and if one person in that team didn’t respect orders, they could put everyone else at risk.

  He hadn’t let that happen back in the Marines and he wasn’t going to let that happen now.

  West put his elbows on his desk and gave her a level look. “A couple of things. First up, I have some rules.”

  Rose blinked. “Rules? What rules?”

  “Keep quiet and I’ll tell you.”

  Her mouth opened then shut again, as if whatever she’d been going to say, she’d thought better of it. But a small blue glint of annoyance glowed in the depths of her eyes.

  Yeah, she was going to hate this, but that was too bad. He wasn’t going on this trip without her agreement on a few things.

  “Number one,” he said. “No more flirting. No wiggling that butt or glancing up at me through pretty lashes. No more suggestive comments and definitely no more panty updates. Completely apart from the fact that I’m not interested in your underwear, this is a professional operation and you need to act like a damn professional.” Rose opened her mouth again, but he held up a finger, silencing her. “Number two. I’m in charge. No questions. No arguments. No protests.”

  She blinked again at the hard note of authority in his voice, long lashes fluttering. “But I—”

  “Number three,” he went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “When I give you orders, I expect you to obey them. Again, no questions, no arguments, no protests. My first job is to keep you safe and that’s what I’m going to do whether you like it or not.”

  “West, I don’t think—”

  “Number four. If you even so much as stick your little toe over any of these lines, I’m putting you on a plane straight back to Austin so fast your head will spin. Got it?”

  Rose’s pretty mouth had flattened into a line and the excitement he’d seen in her eyes had vanished. Yeah, she did not like his rules, not at all. And he was a little bit sorry about that.

  But only a little bit.

  There was a brief silence.

  “When you say rules,” she said at last. “You mean, like, general guidelines, right?”

  Really, it was kind of sweet that she thought she could get around him.

  He gave her his officer’s stare. “Do I look like I mean general guidelines?”

  “But, I’m not going to do everything—”

  “Darlin’, we haven’t even left yet and you’re already arguing with me.”

  A mutinous look glinted in her eyes. “Don’t you ‘darlin’’ me, you ass.’

  West leaned forward on his elbows again, holding her gaze so she was very, very clear. “I’ll call you whatever the fuck I want,” he said slowly. “Because I’m the boss and I take my job very fucking seriously. And if you don’t like that…” He sat back again. “Well, then. You can stay right here, no skin off my nose.”

  There was anger in her gaze now and a part of him found that exciting. Because she wasn’t scared of him the way some people were. In fact, Rose never had been.

  Maybe that’s actually the problem. She should be a little more scared of you.

  She should. But he wasn’t going to pursue that line of thinking now.

  She stared at him, silent, her fingers drumming on the arms of the chair, and he wondered if this might be what would put her off. That she might decide not to come. And he couldn’t tell how he felt about that, not knowing how badly Duchess wanted her to go, not to mention the excitement Rose had obviously felt herself.

  But perhaps she couldn’t actually do what she was told. Perhaps it was too hard for her.

  You know how you feel about that.

  Yeah, disappointed was what he felt. Because surely she had more steel in her than that?

  “That too hard for you, Rosie?” he asked softly, deliberately using her childhood name.

  She scowled. “Don’t call me Rosie, asshole.”

  “Then give me an answer. Are you going to stick by my rules or are you staying here?”

  She scowled harder. “Can I ask for an amendment to the rules?”

  “No.”

  Her jaw was at a mutinous angle and she was radiating challenge, which was a red rag to a bull for a man like him.

  But he crushed any excitement he felt down flat and met her stare for stare. “Well what’s it to be? I want your agreement before we go, darlin’. Otherwise you’re not going anywhere but straight back to your desk.”

  Rose glared at the giant jackass sitting on the other side of the desk, looking intensely forbidding which somehow only made him even hotter.

  Rules. God, she’d love to tell him where to stick his rules.

  Except, he was kind of right and that made him an even gianter jackass.

  She was a newbie and didn’t know what she was doing, and sure, all that flirting wasn’t exactly professional behavior. And it was only sensible that he be the one in charge, alas. Especially when during an operation there was no time to stand around and argue. And okay, the panty thing was stupid, too. Not to mention immature.

  Come on, you kind of like the idea of following his orders.

  What? No way. Absolutely not. She hated being told what to do. Especially by him.

  Then again, what else could she do? She either accepted that this was the way it was going to be, or else she stayed here. And she sure as shit wasn’t staying here.

  Then you know what you’re going to have to do, don’t you?

  She didn’t like it, not one bit. Then again, it was only going to be a few days, five at most, maybe a week. Not so very long. She could stick it out couldn’t she? Be a good girl for a few days. Seriously, it wasn’t as if West was anything like Lily’s asshole ex-boyfriend, Mason. Ordering her around and being controlling, then getting pissed when either she or Lily wouldn’t do what he said. Resorting to the odd bit of physical violence, because he was a fucking bully and bullies were weak.

  But West wasn’t a bully. He was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch, sure, but he didn’t use his natural authority to threaten those weaker than himself purely to bolster his own ego. He used it to get things done. Plus he never needed to shout or threaten people to get what he wanted, people obeyed because…well. It was either mysteriously in their interests to do so or because the thought of not doing what he wanted never entered their heads.

  Also, when he smiled that crooked, gorgeous smile of his, everyone wanted to lay down in front of him and let him use them as a rug.

  Though, maybe that was just her. Not that he’d given her that particular smile recently. In fact, now she thought about it, he hadn’t given her that particular smile for months.

  You haven’t given him much to smile about.

  The thought was an uncomfortable one so she ignored it, sitting back in her chair again. Her foot wanted to jig and she was half inclined to let it since it bothered him so much, but then that wasn’t e
xactly obeying his stupid rules was it? Might as well start as she meant to continue.

  “Okay,” she said, trying not to sound grudging. “You got it.”

  West’s gaze was sharper than steel. “I got what?”

  Oh damn, he really wanted her to say it didn’t he?

  Her foot twitched so she shifted, tapping one finger on the arm of the chair instead to relieve the restlessness. “I want to go. I want to come with you, not back to my desk I mean.”

  West said nothing, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head once more.

  And Rose’s mouth went dry, because she couldn’t take her eyes off the flex of his powerful biceps and shoulders, making the fabric of his T-shirt stretch tight.

  He had tattoos on his arms, the ink dark against his tanned skin. A skull with wings on one upper arm, a full sleeve of some kind of tribal design that went right down to his forearm on the other. She knew he had an eagle spread out on his chest too, because there had been times over the past couple of years where she’d seen him without his shirt.

  Good times.

  Maybe he’s got others?

  Rose ignored her short-circuiting brain and tried to concentrate on the situation at hand and not on his fantastic upper body.

  “You know what I’m waiting for,” he said in that gorgeous, syrupy drawl. “And you’re not going anywhere until I get it.”

  She shifted in her seat. Because yeah, she did know what he was waiting for. He wanted her to say those words out loud. All of them. A problem since she didn’t want to.

  Why are you making this into such a big deal? They’re just words.

  Right. And who cared if he was in charge? Lily was her sister and her boss, and Rose had no problems with that. Which meant she could handle it with West, too. She was a professional and she would prove it.

  “Okay…” Her foot moved and she had to shift yet again. “I guess..… you’re….”

  West raised one amber brow.

  “Uh….in c-charge.”

  “One sentence, darlin’. I kind of lost track with all your moving around.” He raised both brows. “Or do you need the bathroom?”