by Taylor Lee
Gray regarded his friend coolly, refusing to rise to the bait. “Okay. Truth-telling. I have to admit, her great ass no doubt influenced my intention. But my epiphany came when I acknowledged the courage it took for Maya first to conceive and then find the determination to implement her crazy plan.”
At that moment, his phone vibrated. Seeing the name on the caller I.D. he shrugged and put the call on speaker.
“What’s up, Boss Man?”
Ian’s voice was uncharacteristically strained. “I just spoke with Maya.”
Gray responded, “I assumed she would call you. Even though I warned her not to use her telephone.” He sighed then added, “Apparently she thinks she is going to find another group of ‘cock jocks,’ as she calls us, to help her.”
“So she told me—before she said she never wanted to speak to me again.”
“Yeah, Boss Man, she is on a bit of a tear.”
Gray let the silence stand, forcing his boss to make the next move. He was surprised and gratified when he did.
“Gray, I conceded and made you the commander of the operation.”
Gray was non-committal. “Yeah, Boss Man, you did. At my insistence.”
Ian’s voice was harsh with an overlay of anguish. “Then command, dammit. And get my fucking niece under control.”
Gray huffed a harsh laugh. “Copy that, Boss Man. I hear you. Loud and clear.”
He hung up and turned to the four people who were regarding him intently.
He asked almost flippantly, “How about it, team, are you with me or agin me?”
Jase answered for the group, a sly smile quirking his lips. “We wondered if you’d ever ask—asshole.”
~~~
Gray tried the bedroom door and wasn’t surprised to find it locked. Driving his elbow against the door jamb, he broke the lock. Topaz looked up, startled. Taking in the scene, Gray’s anger hardened. Maya was sitting on the floor in front of a half-filled suitcase, a stack of folded clothes next to it. When she saw him, she grabbed for her phone and began hurriedly punching in numbers. It didn’t take his eagle eye vision to see that she was calling Ian.
Walking over to her, he snatched the phone from her hand. Ignoring her protesting shriek, he hit the off button then headed to the bathroom. Understanding flashed in her eyes and she chased after him. Too late she grabbed his arm as he tossed the phone into the toilet.
She let out a fierce shriek and began pounding on his chest.
“Damn you, Gray! How dare you? You… you asshole! That’s my only phone. First you break down my door and then you destroy my phone? I… I hate you!!!”
He grabbed both of her hands in one of his and pinned Topaz’s flailing arms firmly against her chest. Tipping her head back, he gazed at her then gave a nonchalant shrug.
“Why are you surprised, Topaz? You should know by now that, unlike you, I don’t make threats I don’t intend to keep. I told you not to lock your door OR to use your telephone. Apparently it took you all of a minute to disobey me twice. First to lock the door and then to call Ian. Hence the broken lock and the loss of your telephone.”
He held her squirming body tighter, drinking in the heady fragrance of her sweaty body, knowing that he had less than a minute of his quickly depleting self-control left before he laid her out on the floor. Intent on provoking her, he pulled her up against him and murmured in her ear.
“As I recall, Topaz, the only thing left to make good on my warnings is to spank your ass, which I’m about to do.”
Chapter 14
Topaz’s eyes widened in horror. Her shaky voice betrayed her fear.
“You… you wouldn’t dare.”
She hesitated indicating that she knew what his response was going to be.
“I… I’m going to tell Ian that you are threatening me.”
Gray shrugged. “My understanding is that you are no longer talking to Ian.” He paused as if considering then said with a sly smile, “Which means that you will have to rely on me to protect you. But don’t worry, Princess. I have a bigger issue to discuss with you. One that we’re going to deal with now. ”
Gray jerked Topaz up against him and gave into the need to press his aching cock between her thighs. Her startled cry was his reward. He couldn’t hold back a responding groan. Christ, she felt good, soft, malleable. He cautioned himself. He had to go slow, take his time. Oh yeah, he planned to make love to her. No doubt about that. He was going to show her what it was like to be truly loved by a man. A man who couldn’t get enough of her beautiful body. An experienced man, one who knew a woman’s body. A man who knew what drove women crazy with desire. What made them cry out for more all the while begging him to stop because the pleasure was so intense.
Gray admitted it. He loved women. He loved the way they smelled. The fragrances they sprayed on themselves, and the headier fragrance that was hidden in the creases and folds of their secret places. He loved their softness and the surprising strength of their muscles as they clasped him with their thighs and, most surprisingly, how they milked his cock with their snug pussies. He loved them one at a time and he loved them in pairs or even three or four if he had another accomplished lover like Noah or Jase to help him drive them to ecstasy.
The problem was that Topaz wasn’t just any woman. She wasn’t one of the countless women he’d known during his years of decidedly pleasurable, erotic entanglements. No, this was Topaz, the woman who had captured his interest, and apparently his heart. Unfortunately, Gray had a sinking feeling that the last man who had her was Dante Torres. Which made making love to Topaz a hell of a lot more complicated. If he was right, his task tonight was to erase years of tangled memories that most assuredly involved violence and fear intermingled with passion. And worse, what had to be guilt. Guilt because of what the bastard had done to her, to her family, to thousands of other people, but the guilt that the bastard had also awakened her sexual soul. Gray couldn’t hold back a groan at the magnitude of the task he was facing.
Her shaky question brought him back to the moment.
“What… what issue, Gray?”
Gratified that her voice spoke to passion as well as concern, he held her tighter. Pressing his lips against her neck, he nuzzled her then nipped at the tender skin below her ear. When she whimpered, he blew on the tiny hurt sending shivers of what he hoped were desire over her. She cried out then pressed against him.
He chuckled, a low erotic sound that made her tremble.
“The issue we’re gonna address is that you dared to say that you don’t know how to attract a man.”
His voice darkened and he growled in her ear.
“Tell me, Princess. Am I a man?”
When she didn’t answer, just pressed harder up against him, he took her hand her and put it on his cock. She started and tried to pull back, but he held her hand tighter, stroking it over his throbbing staff.
“Can you feel what you do to me, Princess? How hard I am? Christ, honey, we’ve got all our clothes on and my prick is about to break through my zipper.” He nipped at her neck and added, “Ruby told me what Diamond said to you. That you don’t have the ‘vibe.’ That unlike all the rest of the LOTN agents, the message you send to men is that you are unavailable, an Ice Queen. Hell, even frigid.”
At her gasp and attempt to pull away, he shook his head. “Uh uh, baby. You don’t get to pull away from me. You see, Diamond is right. You do send that message. You put up a wall that says to the assholes sniffing around you, ‘get lost buddy, you’re not welcome to stick your stinger into this little honey pot.’”
“I… I don’t mean to do that… at least not always. It’s just that because I look the way that I do, men keep looking at me—like they think I’m easy… or something.”
“No, honey, that’s not the problem.” He rubbed her cheek then held her chin so that she couldn’t look away. “The problem is that you are so fucking beautiful men can’t stop looking at you. And that contempt you show them—quite purposefully, I might
add—just makes them want you more.”
When she shook her head in disagreement, he said, “Admit it, baby. Think about the way you looked at me when we met. The disdain in your ‘vibe’ was palpable. You kicked me to the curb, Princess, and walked off as if you couldn’t get far enough away from me, fast enough.”
Topaz lifted her chin freeing herself from his grip and scowled.
“If you agree with Diamond that I’m a frigid bitch, why are you here, Gray? Because you enjoy badgering me?”
“Uh uh, Princess. Not so fast. I agree that you quite intentionally send the message that you are unavailable. But, honey, to the man who is wise enough to see past the anti-nuclear missile defensive system you’ve built around yourself, the last thing you are is frigid.”
She stepped back and said with an annoyed sniff, “And you are the man wise enough to know that, Gray? To discern what mere mortal men are incapable of seeing?”
Gray raised a cocky brow and reached for her.
“In a word, Princess, yes, not only am I man enough to breach your defenses, I’m the man who is going to have you begging me for more. In fact, Darlin’, you may think you know how to tease a man, taunt him to distraction with your Ice Queen shtick, but, sweetheart, you have more than met your match.”
Topaz gave an outraged snort and darted for the door, managing to evade his grasp. She would have escaped him if Gray’s arms weren’t as long as they were, or as strong. He caught her with one huge hand as she flew by. Before she could cry out he’d thrown her over his shoulder and headed toward the bed. She shrieked and began pounding on his back.
“Put me down, Gray! Now! I mean it. I… I don’t like this!”
He laughed. “You may not, Princess, but I do.”
Reaching up, he rubbed her backside. “Damn, honey, I might have to rearrange my planned itinerary. I intended to have you begging me to undress you before I paddled your ass. But given the proximity….” He smacked one upright cheek. At her outraged squeal, he smacked the other rounded globe, hard.
Topaz cried out, “Damn you, Gray. That hurt. Put me down, now!”
She started pounding him on his back with her fists, and wildly kicking her legs.
At the side of the bed, he tossed her down. She landed on her back and rolled over, trying to scramble across the bed. Again, he was too fast and too big for her to escape him. Catching her ankle, he pulled her back into the center of the bed. Before she could jerk loose, he crawled up on top of her, straddling her hips with his strong thighs. Peering down at her, he breathed a deep sigh.
“Ah, Darlin’, you’ve done it now. Tell me, Princess, did you really think that you could get away from me? Or more to the point, that you wanted to get away?”
Topaz glared up at him and twisted beneath him raising her hips in an attempt to bump him off of her. Her voice was shrill. “Let me go, Gray. I… I mean it. I don’t want to do this!”
Gray chuckled and lowered himself so that his pelvis pushed up against hers.
“What don’t you want to do, Topaz?” He asked rubbing his crotch against her thighs. “Or is this what you don’t want me to do to you?”
He leaned down and captured her lips with his. For a moment he merely played with them. He licked across the seam reveling in the taste of her puffy lips then began nipping at the corners. Her soft moan was his reward. Gratified at her reaction to his taking control, Gray forged ahead, pressing her mouth open with his tongue. When she resisted, he reached for her chin.
“Uh uh, Princess. Open to me. Let me inside of you where I want to be, where you want me to be.”
When she tentatively opened her mouth, he gave an appreciative grunt and pressed his advantage. Within seconds their teeth clashed. An instant later they tangled with each other’s tongues in a fierce erotic battle as if they couldn’t get enough of each other. With a harsh cry, Topaz reached up and wove her fingers into the tousled hair at the nape of his neck. When she tugged at the strands hard enough to hurt, crossing the line where pain met passion, Gray knew it would require everything he had to keep from taking her fast and furiously. He didn’t know when his cock had been this hard. It was literally pounding against his jeans. The thought of spreading her legs and thrusting deep inside of her almost overcame his certain knowledge that if ever he needed to control the situation, this was it.
Grasping her hands, Gray unwound her fingers from his hair and pressed her hands over her head against the bed.
“Ahh, Princess. What are you doing to me? What happened to your claim that you are frigid? Is this the way a frigid Ice Queen behaves? Not only kissing me back, but also virtually attacking me?”
She thrashed against the bed, trying to escape his hold.
“Damn you, Gray! Let me up. I know you’re teasing me. Trying to prove a point. Fine, you did it. You proved that you can even make the frigid bitch respond. You’ve made your point. I concede. You’re an amazing lover. Now let me up!”
“Ah, baby, do you really think it is going to be that easy? That one little kiss is going to satisfy me or you? And that’s the end of it?” He stared down at her. “Not a chance, sweetheart. As for this frigid shit, honey? We’re going to deal with that here and now. The last thing you are, baby, is frigid. But you’ve got that tape so deeply buried in your enormous brain that it is going to take me a lot longer, and feasting on your beautiful body in many more places, to ensure that you never buy into that treacherous belief again.”
He knew he’d struck a chord when she cried out begging him to let her up. At her agonized plea, he rolled off of her allowing her to sit up, but didn’t release his hold. The anguish on her face broke his heart. Her voice shook, contorted with a combination of pain and determination.
“You have no idea what kind of a woman I am, Gray. How hard it is for me to do this. How much I want to resist you. You think you know me, Gray? You don’t. I’m not the passionate woman you think I am. I wish I were. I would give anything to be that for you, but… I can’t.”
Tears flooded her gleaming bronze eyes.
“I… I’m damaged, Gray. I never got over what happened to me. I lied about it. It was worse than I said it was. It’s better you know that now.” Her voice trailed into a sob. “Please, Gray. Don’t make it harder than it is already. Diamond was right. I’m everything bad that she said I am, only worse. I can never be what you want me to be. Now, please, let me go. At least give me the dignity of leaving gracefully.”
Gray studied her for a long moment then slowly shook his head.
“Sorry, Princess. Dignity isn’t my strong suit. And yeah, honey, I know I have my work cut out for me. And given that we have a team meeting at 8 a.m. to plan how we’re all gonna take down that son of a bitch, Dante Torres, you and I best get started.”
He brushed the tear off Maya’s cheek with his thumb and smiled. Reaching for her, he said, “It’s high time we get these clothes off of you, Princess. I’ve waited more than long enough to feast on your beautiful breasts.”
Chapter 15
Topaz gazed at Gray in shock not believing what he’d said. She’d just told him—or at least come close to telling him her ugly secret. Instead of pushing her away, he’d reached for her with a smile and was casually unbuttoning her blouse. Before she could stop him, he stripped it off of her. His face lit with wonder when he gazed at her lace clad breasts. Thankful that the lingerie Gods had her choose to wear one of her sexiest bras today, Topaz held her breath when he pressed her back down on the bed.
“I don’t want to freak you out, Princess, but it’s only fair to tell you what I’m going to do to you. And, honey, this isn’t about adding notches to my belt. I’ve got a record number of those. What I don’t have, but will by the time this night is over, is an experience I’ve never had. That is making love to a woman that I seem to have fallen in love with.”
Ignoring her shocked gasp he added, “That said, Princess. Please take off your bra and present those alluring breasts to me.”
; Topaz stood up and backed away from the bed, too shocked to respond. She’d never shown her breasts to anyone, much less Gray. Except of course for that long ago nightmare. But then, Dante had stripped her, and let the girls laugh at her barely budding breasts. Thank God they’d filled out since then—but to present them? To Gray? Dear God, was he teasing her the way that Dante and his followers had, or….?
Gray cut her machinations short. He rose to his feet and stood beside her.
The solemn expression on his face confirmed that he was serious—as did his voice.
“Now, Princess. You’ve tormented me long enough. This is a two-way street, baby. To my amazement, I’ve confessed that I’m in love with you. The least you can do is to show me your beautiful breasts.”
Topaz tried to ignore the fact that her nipples had contracted into hard buds at his peremptory command. Good grief, what did it say about her that she got hot when he told her what to do, make that ordered her to do? She sighed, acknowledging how smart he was, how intuitive. By commanding her, Gray took the decision away from her. At some level he—and she—knew that it would have been impossible for her to do what he asked on her own. But for God’s sake? Why the hell did her nipples have to give her away? Seeing the frown cross his face, confirming that he expected her to obey, Topaz took a deep breath, reached behind herself and unhooked her bra. When she opened her eyes and saw the glazed expression on his face, she was glad she’d obeyed his command, hard nipples and all.
Obviously not willing to let her off easy, Gray motioned to her breasts, his lush lips curving in a seductive smile.
“Gorgeous, Darlin’. Now do as I told you to. Present those beauties to me.”
Managing to choke out a hard sigh, she held his gaze, then took a deep breath and lifted her breasts to him. Not willing to totally concede the outrageousness to him, she did what she’d only done secretly in the privacy of her midnight room. She reached up and tugged on her aching nipples, stretching them out in front of her in stiff, pebbled peaks.