by Lexi Blake
He glanced her way. “Mia, do you know how many women in my life have gone to the trouble to seduce me?”
She could only guess. Thousands, likely. “A bunch, I would suspect.”
“None,” he replied. “Not a single one. I was the easy hookup who could get them off in my hometown. In the Navy, it was a parade of women who thought it would be awesome to fuck a SEAL. In the last couple of years, it’s been women I picked up at bars. I’ve had two fairly serious girlfriends in my whole life and I initiated sex every single time. So yes, I want you to go to the bathroom and change into that filmy nightgown and I want you to show me how you would have played it.”
“Those women were crazy.” The words were out of her mouth before she could think about them. But they were also true. She’d planned to seduce that big cowboy from pretty much the minute she’d laid eyes on him. Schemed and plotted and planned to be with him any way she could.
His lips curved up in a sad smile. “They just knew I was a bad bet as a potential husband and honestly, the two girlfriends were probably more submissive outside the bedroom than I would have liked. But they were easy to be around and they didn’t give me trouble.”
She was trouble. A whole lot of trouble. She couldn’t seem to help it. “I’m not like them, am I?”
He smoothed back her hair, staring down at her. “You are the opposite of every girl I’ve ever been with before. You’re a woman who lied to me, used me to further your cause, and caused me to do the one thing I swore I wouldn’t. Be the guy a girl cheats on her man with. You put me in that position.”
She felt tears well. “I’m sorry, Case.”
“It upset me more than I like to admit. I didn’t like being the guy who hit on a taken woman, but beyond that I kind of wanted to know what the hell you were thinking getting engaged to him when it was so obvious you were meant for me. So go and put on that gown and show me how you would have seduced me.”
Mia grabbed the bag he’d set down when they’d entered the room and made for the bathroom. He’d said the one thing guaranteed to get her moving.
You were meant for me.
She’d thought it the moment she’d seen him, had been sure of it the first time he’d kissed her.
For however long they had, she intended to make him understand that he’d been meant for her, too.
* * * *
Case locked the door. It should have been the first thing he’d done when they’d walked in, but his brain had been on Mia.
It was like just being near the woman tamped down his senses for anything but her. She was all he could see and hear and smell and touch. Everything else was background noise.
His cell trilled in his hand and he winced as he looked down at the phone.
Ian.
If he didn’t answer, the big guy would likely call around until he found someone who knew where he was, and that meant getting Hutch on the phone. Hutch would try to lie, but he would wilt like a hothouse flower the minute Ian barked at him, and then Case would have much bigger issues.
The key to Ian was to act like the dumbass he believed everyone to be. Case took a deep breath and connected the line. “I swear I’m going to use a condom.”
A chuckle came over the line and Case knew it was working. “I’m surprised you haven’t already gone through a box.”
The only reason he hadn’t had been the kidnapping attempt he wasn’t going to tell his brother about. “Yeah, well, she kicked me in the balls at the start of the evening. I think they’re starting to work again now.”
This time Ian’s full-throated laugh came over the line. “I knew there was a reason I liked that girl.” He sighed. “I wanted to make sure you’re okay and give you an update on Erin. She and TJ are doing great. Faith just got in this morning. She’s staying with Erin a few days while Ten’s doing god knows what. He didn’t come in with her so it’s safe to say he’s likely up to his old tricks.”
Meaning Tennessee Smith was working some angle in the intelligence world. “I thought he’d quit the Agency completely.”
“You know as well as I do no one ever completely quits the Agency. Where are you, Case?”
There was the protective older brother. The head of the family. The supreme ruler of all things Taggart. “I’m in Cartagena. Mia’s chasing down some lead. I’m chasing her. I’ve got Michael and Hutch with me. We’re cool.”
He wasn’t about to mention Ezra Fain because of the Guy factor. Ian didn’t like Ezra’s boss and his instincts would go on high alert if he heard Ferland had sent his own man in.
“That’s a lot of backup for a spontaneous op.”
The door opened and there she was. Holy fuck, yeah. His dick worked. It worked just fine and his brain didn’t work at all. His brain should remember that this was the woman who’d nearly broken his man parts, but no. His brain fucking wanted her, too.
“Ian, I’m going to have to call you back.”
“Condom. Don’t forget the condom. She’s naked, isn’t she? I can hear it in your dumbass voice. Use that condom. I can’t handle another kid right now. My life is full of poop and crying Taggart babies. Do you know how…”
Case shut the phone off because he had better things to do than listen to his brother complain about baby poop. He wasn’t going to make a baby. He was, however, going to finally get inside her.
Something had been bugging her earlier, something had made her put up a temporary wall between them, but it seemed insignificant now. She’d said he could tear her apart and there had been something about how very easy it had been for him to walk away from her.
They should talk about that. He should explain to her that it hadn’t been easy. It had been hard. He’d had to force himself not to call and when he’d been at the 4L building with Ian, he’d had to stop himself from hunting her down.
Her eyes went wide. “Oh, Case. You’re here. I…I didn’t think you would still be awake.” A charming laugh came out of her mouth and one hand went up to touch her chest as though she was trying to hide those breasts from him. “I was just coming out to grab the bottle of water I left behind.”
Yes, there was his sneaky, gorgeous, manipulative Mia. If he’d thought he liked the sweet girl who’d comforted him that day so long ago, he didn’t even know what to call what he felt for the aggressive goddess she was now. He craved her. She rocked his world in a way that other girls couldn’t.
In a way no woman ever had.
So he let go of all the things he knew he should do. He didn’t want to talk to Mia. He wanted to play with her. He wanted to play hard.
“Is that right?” Case heard his voice going deep. Maybe it was simply natural to slip into his Dom role the minute she walked in a room. It would be a fight because she wouldn’t allow him to top her outside the bedroom. She was far too wild for that. He’d snagged a couple of bottles of water from the plane and shoved them in his duffel. Hutch would find a few cases for them before dinner, but this would do for now. He reached in and grabbed one, wanting to play along. He didn’t want a seriously good manipulation to go to waste.
“You mean this one?”
She managed to blush so prettily. She’d let her hair down and the blonde tresses caressed the tops of her breasts. The gown she wore was white and clung to her every curve. “Yes. I’m sorry to bother you. I always take a bottle to bed with me.”
Oh, that bottle of water wasn’t the only thing she was taking to bed with her today. No. He held it out and watched as she moved toward him. She bit her bottom lip as though trying to look like a soft little fawn worried about taking something from the hand of the big bad wolf.
He handed it over. “There you go, princess.”
He winked her way and then picked up his duffel and moved to the one dresser. He placed the duffel on it and grabbed the small bag he kept of adapter plugs. He would need to keep his cell charged.
“Thank you,” she said in a small voice. “I guess I should say good-night.”
He could practically hear her f
rustration. Maybe it made him a bastard, but it brought a little smile to his face. One he absolutely wouldn’t show to Mia because she was known to hurt a man. “Good-night. I hope you sleep well.”
Besides, his girl didn’t give up.
He felt a hand on his back as Mia moved in. “I can see you’re going to be a hard sell, Taggart.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to think I’m easy.” He glanced up. There was a mirror and he watched as her hand snaked around his waist and rested possessively over his belt buckle. He could barely see the top of her head over his shoulder.
“Those were my best seductive moves,” she admitted. “Again, I was kind of counting on letting the girls work their magic on you, but I can see I’m going to have to up my game with you, Sir. The trouble is I don’t know what you want. We’ve never played together before. I suppose if we were still on the airplane, I would have made up some excuse to sit with you and talk to you and flirt with you. But we’re not there and honestly, I don’t think I want to manipulate you. So how about I tell you that I want to play with you, Case. I want you to top me in the bedroom but don’t ever think that it’s an act of indulgence on my part. Submitting to you isn’t about hoping that you’ll hold me afterward or praying you might come to care for me. I’ll handle that on my own. Playing with you means I want you so badly I haven’t been able to look at another man since I saw you. I want to play with you because my body comes alive the minute you walk in a room and I can’t imagine what it’s going to do when you finally spread my legs and push that big cock of yours inside.”
And she knew exactly when to stop the role-playing and get real with him. He reached for her hand, pulling it off so he could turn.
Mia was staring up at him, paler than she’d been before. She took a step back.
Shit. She thought he was rejecting her. It was so easy to forget that underneath all that gorgeous bluster and bravado she was just a woman who could get her feelings hurt. “I wanted to turn around so I could look you in the eyes when I tell you yes.”
Her lips curved in a gorgeous smile. “Yes?”
He hadn’t said that word to her nearly enough. He reached out and smoothed back her hair. “Yes, I’ll top you. Yes, I’ll be your Dom, and yes, we will absolutely play. Take off my shirt.”
He wanted her hands on him, wanted her to be the one who touched him first. He would still be in control, but he’d had his time to explore her on the plane.
She stepped up and her hands immediately went to the hem of his T-shirt and she dragged it up. Case raised his arms and let her pull it off his body. It was good to start with his chest. Only a couple of nasty scars there. He watched her carefully as she took him in, her eyes roaming across his exposed flesh.
“I want to touch you, Sir.”
He needed to make something very plain to her. He caught her hand in his and brought it right to his chest, forcing himself not to freaking purr at the feel of her small palm against his flesh. “Unless I’ve tied you up or given you explicit instructions, you are never to ask to touch me again. Know that I always want your hands on me. When we’re sitting together, I want you to touch me so I remember you want me. I’ll do the same. The discipline portion is for play only, princess. Any spanking I give you is to enhance your pleasure because you’re wired that way and I’m wired to dominate you, but never think for a single second I don’t want you because I withhold something during sex.”
“I’ll probably pout if you withhold orgasms.” She let her hands run over his pecs, brushing over the nipples.
Yeah that felt good. “I look forward to it, but don’t expect it tonight. I want to make you come all night long and by night I mean day because it’s flipping nine a.m. I’m going to fuck you hard and then you’ll get some sleep and be ready for whatever comes our way this evening.”
She stopped at the nasty knife scar that ran over the left side of his chest.
Yes, she was staring at his scars and that didn’t feel good. He was covered in them. She’d seen a few briefly when she’d walked in on him getting dressed, but she might change her mind when she saw just how damaged he was. “You should know there’s a lot more where that came from. My back isn’t pretty.”
He didn’t like to think about how he’d come by those scars. His Humvee had hit an IED and flipped and Case had taken a shit ton of shrapnel in the initial wreck and two bullets in the fight that happened afterward, but he’d survived and none of his men had been taken in. He would take the scars.
Would she? Mia had likely been surrounded by college boys all her life. College boys and hyper-ambitious lawyer types who had never taken a knife to the gut.
“Can I do whatever I want to them?” Her voice was a hushed whisper. Her eyes were staring at the scar.
Was she going to gently kiss it? Try to make it better? She was a sweet girl. “Of course.”
Mia leaned over and dragged her tongue right over the place where an insurgent had tried to slice him open. Her small little butterfly tongue that would feel so fucking good on his dick ran over him. He hissed and had to force himself to stand still. She licked him, making sure she didn’t miss a spot.
If he let her, she would end up controlling everything, and that wasn’t what either of them needed. He was sure she’d gone through a procession of men who took her crazy-hot sexuality for granted, letting her lead the way without ever giving her what she needed. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake.
He put a hand in her hair, tangling his fingers in the soft stuff and gently pulling her head back so she had to look at him. Apparently she was very enamored with his battle-scarred body and he would need to make sure she paid attention to his brain from time to time. “Do you know how much you please me?”
Her smile was brilliant. “I thought I just annoyed you.”
Oh, she annoyed him. Annoyed him. Unsettled him. Infuriated him. Made him so fucking hot he couldn’t stand another minute. “I can be annoyed and still want you. Take off the gown. I want to see you.”
He wanted her naked. He’d briefly seen her breasts, but he’d only touched her pussy and he hadn’t smacked that ass yet. It was very much time for that. She would get the full gamut of D/s tonight. Punishment and pleasure. She would have both.
She stepped back, her hands going to the straps of her gown. “I don’t have scars, but I’m also not tiny, Case. I like my body. I think I’m pretty. I like my boobs and my hips. I know they’re not the ideal beauty standard, but they’re good enough for me. I hope they’re good enough for you.”
She pushed the straps off and the gown fell to the floor revealing her perfectly formed body. He had no idea what standard of beauty she was talking about because she was fucking incredible. An hourglass figure. Curvy hips, luscious breasts with pink-tipped nipples. She was perfect.
“You are simply the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Turn around.” His voice was dark, deep.
“Yes, Sir.”
She turned, showing him her back. Blonde hair brushed halfway down her spine. It led his eyes to her waist and the curve of her hips. And her ass. So round and lush. He stepped in, unwilling to be a mere observer a second longer.
It was time to truly take over.
He stepped around so he could see her face. “Mia, do you understand that you were under our verbal contract for the entire flight today?”
She frowned and took her time in replying. “Yes, but this seems like a trap.”
It was. “I believe we agreed that you would obey me in the field. That plane was the field. I put you in a safe place, a place I was very certain I would find you in after I’d dealt with the problem. You did not stay where I put you.”
“I couldn’t, Sir. They were going to kill the rest of the team.”
“No. They threatened to kill the rest of the team. They wouldn’t have done a damn thing until they’d figured out what happened to their man. They only had two hostages. They needed them both. There was no way they would have actually killed
one of them. I was getting in position to handle the situation.”
“I didn’t know that. All I knew was they were in danger.”
“You knew what I wanted you to do.” He wasn’t letting her off so easily. “You knew what you promised me you would do. I’m not saying that you weren’t brave, princess. Not at all. There’s zero question that you’ll play the sacrificial lamb. I told you not to because I can’t properly do my job if I know you’re in danger.”
Her cheeks went pink and her eyes widened as she looked up at him. “You can’t expect me to hide when people I care about are in danger.”
“You barely know Hutch and Michael. You met Fain about ten hours ago.”
She sniffled a little, obviously emotional. “All right. You can’t expect me to hide when people you care about are in danger.”
There was the sweet girl that mixed with crazy bitch in a way guaranteed to make him insane. He couldn’t help it. He leaned over and brushed his lips against hers, the moment far more sweet than he would have expected. He’d thought when he’d gotten on the plane that he could fuck her and get her out of his system, but it turned out there was no way out of this woman’s trap. It had been custom made to catch him and keep him…maybe for life. “I respect that. You can’t know how much, but I have to get you to understand that nothing is more important than your life. Walk to the bed and place your palms flat on it. Legs spread wide.”
Her hands had found his waist, her lips turned up to tempt him. “I get spanked for being brave?”
Such a brat. He kissed her again, briefly, before moving up and kissing her nose and that place between her brows and her forehead. “Yes. You get spanked by your Dom for putting something very precious to him in danger. You’ll always get spanked for it. Every single time. Go and do what I asked. And Mia, pick a safe word.”
A shiver went through her body, but he rather thought that was all about arousal and not fear. Her pupils had gone big, her shoulders relaxing. Not the signs of a woman who was afraid.
She wanted it, wanted the discipline, the stimulation.