Tye had to mentally restrain himself to keep from spouting off something really nasty to her. She’d be good, his ass. If the opportunity arose for her to stir up trouble, she’d grab on to it and hold on tight. And he had a feeling she was geared up to do just that. When she looked past his shoulder, her eyes lit up and a devious smile popped up on her high-glossed lips.
Pride surpassed the irritation running through him when Laine simply glanced at Haven, then looked away to concentrate on what the EMT was saying to her.
“Ms. Morgan? Ms. Morgan!” Haven shouted, smiling that scheming smile and waving in her direction.
Laine continued to ignore her, which didn’t make Haven happy in the least.
“Sheriff Carter,” she huffed, planting her hands on her hips. “What’s going on here? The public has a right to know.”
The public has the right to know shit about this, was all Tye wanted to toss back to her. He stiffened, crossing his arms and lowering his chin. “Nothing is going on, Ms. Sims. I had a tire malfunction, that’s all.”
His evasiveness was worth a shot, but Haven didn’t buy his excuse for a second.
“Then why all the hoopla? With the way you two are acting, I expect to see the SWAT team roar up and helicopters hovering any minute.”
“That’s a little over the top, don’t you think?” Mac cut in.
She turned to Mac. “Not from the way you sounded on the scanner. You were panicked. I heard it in your voice.”
“Sheriff Carter is an old friend. I was concerned—”
Haven took a step closer to Mac and pointed at him with a perfectly manicured fingernail. “You were downright freaked out. First the unconfirmed reports of Ms. Morgan being attacked last week, and now this? Come on, guys,” she said, glancing between the two them. “Confession is good for the soul.”
So was beating someone bloody, namely the asshole he’d been following, with the butt-end of his gun. But that wasn’t going to happen anytime within the next fifteen minutes, either.
“You want the story I report to be factual, don’t you?” she went on. “I mean, the things I could come up with if I let my mind wander.”
“I wouldn’t—” Mac started.
“Then tell me what’s going on.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the official police report. I have no comment at this time.”
Tye couldn’t help but smirk at the put-off glare she drilled into Mac at his apathetic statement. But that smirk fell away when Haven nodded toward Matt, then called out to Laine once again. Matt hefted the camera onto his shoulder, the telltale red light on the thing screaming to Tye that the digital feed was rolling.
Miniature powder kegs blew off inside Tye, one at a time. He gritted his teeth and turned to Mac. “I think we’re done here.”
Mac tossed him a set of keys. “Take mine. I called Marcia. She’s waiting for both of you at the station. We’ll release the sketch and put out an APB as soon as you’re done.”
Tye caught the key ring and didn’t look back. He thundered toward Laine, pissed as hell at Haven, Matt and the rest of the world. Concern flashed across Laine’s face as she met his stare an instant before glancing past his shoulder. She understood then. It was time for them to get the hell out of there.
He blocked her from Haven and Matt’s view with his body. He was doing it again, taking over, taking control. He couldn’t help it. He wouldn’t help it. Not this time. This had nothing to do with any sort of decision-making on Laine’s part and had everything to do with him protecting her, whether it be from danger or just from a couple of really irritating people.
“EMT’s say I’m fine,” Laine said, stepping away from the ambulance and speaking before he could get a word out. “I might end up with a few bruises, but that’s it. I’ve got the go-ahead to get out of here. And not a moment too soon, I see.”
Tye interlaced his fingers with hers and rubbed his thumb along her knuckles. “Haven’s getting antsy, but we’re not giving her any info. She’ll be on the warpath soon enough, though. Not that it’ll do her any good. Mac’s got that ‘no comment’ thing down to a science.”
“So now what?” she asked quietly.
“Mac’s letting us use his car. He’s got a sketch artist waiting for us back at the station. Once we’re done there, we’ll head back to the ranch and regroup.”
She peeked over Tye’s shoulder again, her eyebrows drawing together and her shoulders scrunching up. “Is it bad that all I want to do is flip her off?”
Tye raised an eyebrow and stifled a smile. Hot damn, that was his girl. “If I were here in any other capacity, I would.”
“But we’re always being watched, aren’t we? Always on the job and always being judged.”
He couldn’t disagree. “By some, yes.”
“By most,” she amended.
“We chose our professions,” he said, trying to ease her concerns, even though he knew he was doing a shitty job of it.
She laid her other hand over their entwined ones and eyed him with a deep if not fatigued understanding. “We did. To do some good. To make a difference.”
“Which we’ve both done, time and again.” He shifted his body so he could move in even closer. Her scent drifted under his nose and he had to hold back from taking her in a deep kiss. “Don’t let someone like Haven Sims make you doubt yourself. Don’t give her that power.”
“It’s hard sometimes,” she huffed. “I just get so irritated. So… God. What I do outside the court system shouldn’t matter to her. It shouldn’t matter to anyone.”
He got it. Hell, he lived it too. But he was never one to hide in the shadows, and he knew Laine wasn’t that type either. “So we ignore her. No one is saying you have to sit down and do an interview with her. The more we let it go, the more she’ll let it drop. And before you know it, some other poor sap will catch her attention, and she’ll go after them just like she’s going after us now.”
“I know,” she agreed, even though Tye could tell he’d only eased her irritation on the surface. Her personal volcano was just beginning to bubble, and it was only a matter of time before she’d let everything that had happened to her rise to the surface and spew out in rivers of emotional molten lava.
“Let’s go,” he said, still holding her hand and walking her around the back of the ambulance and deputy’s car to reach Mac’s vehicle. He opened the door for her, and as she climbed into the passenger seat he glanced over to Mac and Haven. She’d dropped the microphone to her side and Matt had the camera lens pointed toward the ground. Mac’s arms were crossed with that I’m not gonna budge so don’t bother trying stance he was so famous for.
Good. It was time somebody put Haven Sims in her place. And damn if Mac wasn’t just the man to do it.
Dusk was beginning to edge over the horizon as he turned away from them and the rest of the scene to settle himself behind the driver’s seat. With a quick twist, he turned the key in the ignition and looked over at Laine. “I suppose after we’re done at the station we could stop somewhere for burgers—”
“I’m not hungry,” she threw at him before he could get another word out.
“Laine. You need to—”
“Don’t. Please.”
She stared out the front windshield, her gaze steadfast and angry. So much for him easing her irritation.
“Okay, I won’t. For now.” He’d let her have her anger. In truth, maybe it was time she felt a little more of it. As long as it didn’t make her lose her focus, that was.
Because he needed her here. He needed her centered. Now that they were firsthand eyewitnesses and had a more definite vehicle description, they could possibly get a lead on a name and address, too. Just like that, the case had shifted into overdrive. Time and time again, he’d watched victims as they lost their cool when their cases came closer to a head. He wasn’t going to let that happen this time, not with Laine.
So much was out of their control, out of her control. And he damn well
knew that losing control wasn’t an option at this point, not for either one of them.
But, Lord help them both, she was hanging on to hers by a thread. The beginnings of her unraveling laid just under her surface, simmering with an annoyance she wasn’t going to be able to keep knitted together for very long.
Helplessness, fused together with her anger, reddened her cheeks. Her chin quivered and his gut tightened. For fuck’s sake, he’d do anything right about now to give her back even a fraction of the control she felt she was losing.
Anything…
An idea struck him, one that gave him an epiphanic rush. But it was also one he didn’t know if he could pull off. Because he knew, deep down, that in order to give her a taste of her control back, it would mean he was going to have to give up his.
Chapter Sixteen
Laine and Tye spent the ride back to the station in silence. She kept her arms folded over her breasts, trying to hold back the frustration and fear ricocheting around inside her, but it wasn’t working.
Someone wanted to kill her.
And she had no idea why. The man wasn’t familiar to her, but that didn’t mean anything. He could’ve been one of the hundreds of cases that had crossed her desk since she took her seat as Public Defender. Or, he could be some completely random freak who just happened to follow her out of the club that night. Either way, his hatred of her was unjustified. And that just pissed her the hell off.
As she and Tye were shown to the same interrogation room they’d been in earlier to meet with the forensic artist, her anger began to itch like poison ivy under every inch of her skin. She wanted to scratch everywhere, to claw into her muscles until the creeping prickle faded away.
Tye pulled up two chairs and they took their seats on the opposite side of the table from the artist. After quick introductions, Marcia didn’t hesitate to get down to business. She listened intently, swirling her pencil rhythmically over the paper. Slowly—eerily—the man’s face started to take shape on the page. Seeing it again, recreating the image that would forever be embedded in Laine’s brain from only her and Tye’s words, made her feel as if she’d swallowed a gallon of liquid sugar. Her heart rate went berserk. Her stomach curdled. Her palms flooded as sweat broke out over the rest of her body.
Somehow, she wasn’t exactly sure how, she made it through the next hour of constant descriptions and changes and tweaks without losing it—until Marcia held up the finished drawing for their approval.
Struggling to not embarrass herself by retching all over the place, Laine’s breaths burned as they seesawed in and out of her lungs. Tears stung at her eyes, which only made her all the more angry.
“That’s him,” she said. “God, that’s him.”
Tye reached for Laine’s hand and gripped it hard. “It is. You nailed it, Marcia.”
Marcia passed the drawing off to an officer waiting by the door. “I hope they catch him,” she said, packing up her supplies.
Laine squeezed Tye’s hand and held on tight. “Me too.”
Their goodbye was as swift as their greeting, and within moments Laine found herself alone with Tye. “Get me out of here,” she whispered.
He didn’t say anything, he only kissed her quickly, keeping hold of her hand and leading her from the room and out of the building to Mac’s car.
She remained quiet the entire drive back to the ranch, too afraid that if she tried to speak the only thing that’d come out would be an embittered scream.
The second Tye pulled into his drive and stopped in front of the barn, she shoved the passenger door open and bolted from the car. She flung open the gate to the paddock, storming across to the other side and flinging that gate open just as hard. Three steps into the pasture, she spotted Flash and Rocky. They shuffled over to her, their sinewy muscles lending to their elegant and peaceful gait.
Before the pair reached her, Tye strode up behind her. He didn’t touch her, he didn’t utter a single word. He just stood there, silent and strong. She thought about leaning back into him, about him wrapping his arms around her and squeezing this aggravation out of her, but her fury stopped her.
“He told me he was going to end me like the whore I am.”
This time, he reached for her, but she stepped away before he could touch her.
“You’re not a whore, Laine. And I’ll kill him before he ever gets close to you. I’ll kill him just for saying that.”
When she faced him, her breath caught at the power in his eyes. “I know you would. And I know I’m not a whore. I’m a woman who, after years of holding back, has finally found what she wants. I finally found you.” He stepped toward her, but she held up her hand to hold him back. “But all of this, it’s too much. Too much to deal with. Too much—”
“Out of your control.”
“Yes.” Absolutely, yes.
“You have to take it back.”
She huffed out a laugh that held no humor behind it. “Just like that?”
“In this instance, yes. You have to take it back before you lose it. Before he burrows so far into your head that you can’t find it anymore.”
“It can’t be that easy,” she said. “At this point, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“With me.” He closed the space between them and grasped her hand, bringing it to his chest and holding it gently. “Let me give some of your control back to you.”
Her anger began to melt away at not only his touch, but his words as well. “You? How?”
She could’ve sworn his eyes darkened as he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Let me show you.”
He kept hold of her hand and led her through the pasture, paddock and up the front stairs into the house. Once they made their way into his bedroom, he moved for the closet. He opened the oak bi-fold doors, exposing a set of built-in drawers.
“Tye?”
“Come here,” he said, drawing her into his arms. His hands shook slightly, whether from need or from something else, she didn’t know. He kissed her then, blowing her mind, stealing her reason and heating her body from the inside out. Just when she thought she’d pass out from holding her breath, he pulled away and reached for the top drawer.
Inside laid a variety of BDSM toys. Her heart thundered as she took in the ball gag, the black, fur-lined handcuffs, the gloves he’d used with her the other night and all the rest. God, he even had silk ribbon ties in there. Her gaze shot to his, and she was instantly taken aback by the heat swimming in his eyes.
“Take control, Laine. Use what you want. Use it on me.”
Her mind reeled as a tingle zigzagged through her body. “Wait. What?”
He gentled his expression, easing the tenseness between his eyes, which only served to make his gaze appear all the more sleepy. Dreamy. Hell, downright lust-filled. “A switch, Laine.”
“Hold on a minute. You want me to…”
She didn’t finish spelling it out, but she didn’t have to. She understood. He was offering her the chance to switch up which one of them held the control. He was giving her an opportunity to control him. He was letting her take the lead and do what she wanted with him. To him. Question was, why?
“But your control. You said to give it up would—”
“I know what I said. This is different.” He looked from her to the drawer filled with toys and then back again. He swallowed, roughly. “This is about you. This is about me doing whatever I can to help you through this. And right now, you need to feel that control a hell of a lot more than I do.”
She shook her head. He couldn’t be serious. “I can’t.” Could she?
A smile piqued at the edge of his lips as he feathered a light touch across her jaw and down her throat. “Yes, you can.” He said the words easily enough, but then clenched his jaw as he moved his fingers to caress her collarbone. “Just let go of everything around you. Draw from that place deep inside and do what your heart tells you.”
Her breasts grew heavy and her nipples tightened with each stroke of his
hand, with each word he spoke. She watched him, intently, allowing a slew of erotic images to fly through her brain. Ones of him secured to the bed with those silk ties, others of him under her complete control. For him to offer this, for him to suppress what came so naturally to him, and for him to do it just for her…
The mere idea made her crave him that much more, made her wet and ready and, God, so drawn to him that she wasn’t sure she could even speak. Still, she couldn’t help but sense a hesitation in him. Giving up the one thing that so clearly defined him couldn’t be so easy as just saying it out loud. For her to accept this, for her to let her imagination take over, he had to want it, too.
“You’re sure?”
He stilled his hand mid-touch and pierced her with a look so confident that it completely negated all the physical signs he was giving off about being uncertain. “Absolutely. I’ve never wanted to give something to somebody as much as I want to give this to you.”
It was her turn to swallow hard. “I’m not sure I know what to do.”
“You know. It’s there inside you, Laine. It’s always been there inside you.”
Maybe he was right. The images she pictured just moments ago told her he was. The thrill blossoming over her and electrifying her sex solidified her acceptance a hundred times over.
She could do this. Oh God, she wanted to do this.
She glanced at the drawer and the silk ribbons, gently lifting one from its coiled home. She let the ends slip through her fingers and met his fiery gaze, feeling bolder than she ever had before.
“Undress,” was all she said.
Her blood ricocheted through her veins as he took one step back and lifted his t-shirt over his head. His stare caught hers again as his hands went for the button on his jeans. He didn’t look away when he lowered the zipper, nor when he shoved the pants over his ass and down his thighs. He toed his boots off and kicked his jeans and boxers the rest of the way down his legs. He made quick work of his socks, and he did it all without ever once breaking their stare.
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