Command and Control: Holding Out for a Hero, Book 2

by Shelli Stevens

  It was his fault she’d tossed and turned all night, so it was his fault there were dark circles under her eyes and her head felt like it was full of cotton. Fortunately a little cover-up helped the eyes, and the two pots of coffee were almost keeping her awake.

  She sighed and crossed the floor of her office to peek out the window. Main Street was just a few blocks to the right and up the hill to the left was the road that led to the Wyatts’ home.

  Her pulse quickened and she bit her lower lip, shaking her head. She needed to get over this. Get used to being around Trevor again—at least for the next week. Because he was going to be very much involved with all the little details of the wedding, seeing as Tyson had made him best man and she was the maid of honor.

  “Shit.” Her hands clenched around the mug in her hand and she pressed her lips tightly together to try and stop the flood of emotions threatening.

  He hadn’t touched her yesterday, but when he’d stood so close, staring down at her, the need and possessiveness in his gaze had ripped her ability to breathe away.

  It had been all she could do not to want to press herself up against him and wind her arms around his neck. To lift her mouth to his for the kiss her body and heart craved.

  But sex with Trevor was a bad idea. Maybe if she wasn’t in love with the man and she could look at it as just sex it would be okay. But this wasn’t some random guy she’d dated for a few months; this was Trevor, the man she should have married.

  The office phone rang, snapping her thoughts back to work. She returned to her desk and lifted the receiver.

  “This is Megan Asher.”

  “Meg, how are you?”

  Henry. She bit back a sigh, recognizing the man she’d been dating for almost a month now.

  “Hello, Henry. I’m all right. How are you?”

  “Great. Was just checking to see if we were still on for dinner tonight?”

  The bell above the office door jingled as someone entered the building.

  “Dinner? I—”

  Her mind went blank as Trevor closed the door behind him and crossed the room in a couple easy strides, before furling his tall body into the chair in front of her desk.

  “Meg? You still there?”

  “I’m…yes,” she said huskily, her gaze locked with Trevor’s darker one. “Dinner.”

  “So that’s a yes?” Henry asked, confusion entering his tone.

  Trevor’s mouth curved into a slight smile, but there was no humor in his eyes.

  “Henry, let me call you back in a few minutes.” She replaced the receiver before he could answer.

  Leaning back in her chair, Megan crossed one leg over another and watched Trevor calmly. Even if her heart was racing a mile a minute, she prided herself on her control. Her ability not to react. Having the upper hand was not just a benefit for her, it was a requirement.

  “Trevor,” she finally greeted cordially. “How can I help you?”

  “Now there’s a loaded question, angel,” he said softly as his gaze slid over her, lingering on the silk camisole beneath her open blazer that hugged her breasts. “I’ve got a few ideas on just exactly how you could help me.”

  Chapter Three

  Megan’s breath hitched at his not-so-subtle implication. Her breasts swelled beneath his gaze and a liquid heat seared through her body and gathered heavy between her legs.

  Keep the control, Megan. You can’t let him see how much he affects you still.

  “Perhaps you could be more specific?” She arched a brow. “And if this is legal advice, you realize I have a fee.”

  He laughed, the deep, sexy sound sending a wave of shivers down her back.

  “I’m not here for legal advice, Megan.”

  “No? Then what are you here for? Because, in case you haven’t noticed, Trevor, I’m working. And I can’t spend my time—”

  “Planning dates with a guy named Henry?”

  So he’d heard that? A flush worked its way up her neck, but she kept her expression impassive.

  “Why are you here, Trevor?” she asked again.

  “You’ll have to tell him no.”

  Megan stilled. “Excuse me?”

  “Henry boy. You’ll have to tell him that you can’t have dinner with him tonight.”

  This time she let out a slow, throaty laugh that had his eyes darkening further.

  “And why is that?” she asked.

  “Because you’re having dinner with me.”

  The hell she was. Megan let the smile on her face become a bit sympathetic.

  “I find it best not to go to dinner with my exes,” she murmured and pushed back her chair to stand. “Now if you’ll excuse me—”

  “Because there’s so many of them? Exes?” Trevor asked, standing as well and blocking her escape from where she’d been about to slip past him. “We were together for two years and before that, I remember you saying there was no one serious.”

  Annoyance sparked in her belly and it pricked her to realize she probably wasn’t hiding it from her eyes now. “This is all a bit irrelevant, Trevor. I’m not having dinner with you.”

  He slowly made his way around her desk, and she took a few steps backward, her pulse quickening and her mouth going dry.

  “Come on, angel, just admit it,” he said softly, advancing upon her. “The idea of dinner with Henry does nothing for you.”

  “Henry happens to be a very nice man,” she said quickly, her back literally against the wall now.

  Oh God, if he came any closer—and there, damn it he did! Their knees were nearly bumping now. She drew in a sharp breath, but it only filled her head with the scent of him. His shampoo and soap that was painfully familiar. The faint hint of his cologne. Megan had the urge to nuzzle his neck, to flick her tongue and see if he still tasted the same.

  You’re crazy, Megan, get it together.

  “Tell me about this Henry guy,” he commanded softly, his gaze sliding over her face, searching her eyes. “Does he wear starched suits and bowties?”

  “Actually, he doesn’t.” They were just regular ties.

  Her heart thumped wildly against her rib cage and the proximity of his body to hers had every tiny hair on the back of her neck lifting up in awareness. Why oh why didn’t she share an office with anyone? Most of her days were spent on the phone with clients, answering e-mails or doing paperwork, but very rarely did anyone come in.

  She was alone with Trevor unless she forced him to leave. And right now—though her brain was screaming at her to throw him out on his cocky ass—her body was begging him to stay. To stop just looking at her and to touch her. Because she missed him so much. She missed being held in his arms and kissing him. Touching him. Talking…though the talking had ended long before the kissing had.

  Every muscle in her body was coiled with tension. With need.

  “I’ve always loved you like this, Megan.” He reached out and traced the lapel of her blazer. “But you know that, don’t you? All prim and proper in your trim little suits.”

  “Trevor—”

  “Nobody could possibly know by looking at you just what a little animal you are in bed,” he muttered thickly, his fingers gliding back up her lapel and then inward, to trace the neckline of her silk camisole. “How when you come hard you can scar up a man’s back with those claws of yours.”

  His words had her biting back a throaty moan. Even as her nipples tightened and dampness gathered in her panties. She could see it in her head. Could almost feel his cock pounding into her again as the weight of his body pinned hers to the bed.

  No, sex won’t fix anything.

  “Remember that time when we first started dating, when I fucked you in this office?” he asked. “When I bent you over that desk right over there, lifted your skirt, pushed those tiny panties you love to wear aside and just took you?”

  Her sex clenched with an ache to be filled, because she did remember. But she shook her head, trying to make him stop verbalizing such a sensual memory.<
br />
  “Remember how you begged me, angel?” He smiled. “’Cause I sure do.”

  “Please…”

  “Does Henry make you feel like this? Does he know that kissing the small of your back makes you whimper like a bitch in heat?” His voice dropped an octave as his finger dipped under the neckline of her top to caress the swell of her breasts.

  Push him away. Tell him to stop. But she couldn’t. Didn’t want to.

  “Or when he’s sucking on your tits, are you biting your tongue not to call out my name?”

  “Trevor,” she pleaded huskily, arching into his touch.

  “Yeah. Just like that.” And then his head descended, his mouth slanting across hers.

  Megan couldn’t have resisted even if she’d wanted to. She cried out as his lips plundered her, as his tongue thrust fiercely against hers as if to remind her just who was kissing her. As if she could ever, ever forget.

  Trevor gathered her close, his hands sliding up her back to jerk her hard against him. Jesus, he’d missed this. Missed her. The feel of Megan in his arms. Her breasts pressed hard against him and the throaty moans coming from the back of her throat. It’d been over a year since he’d touched her like this. An entire fucking year.

  Her hands slid up the back of his neck, over his closely shaved head and triumph surged through him. He wanted to wipe out any thought of another man from her mind, shake the visual from his own head of anyone but him touching her.

  Damn it, Megan was his. How had he ever been stupid enough to let her walk away? To give up on this? To give up on them?

  With a growl low in his throat, he deepened the kiss, tasting her thoroughly. Unable to get enough of her, Trevor slid his hands over her hips and pulled them flush together, loving the softness of her belly against his cock.

  And then it wasn’t enough. He needed to touch her everywhere. Feel the most intimate part of her that couldn’t lie about how much she wanted him.

  Trevor moved his hands lower again, catching the edge of her suit skirt and dragging it up to her hips. He slid his hand between her legs, finding the soaked lace covering her pussy.

  The whimper Megan let out was the exact one he’d been waiting to hear. Too long.

  He tugged aside the silky panties she wore and brushed his knuckles over the wet, swollen folds of her pussy. His cock lurched against his jeans and he hissed out a breath between clenched teeth, trying to keep himself from just taking her here and now. She deserved more than that.

  Megan’s mouth slid from his, her head falling back as she gasped, and her hips thrusting into his touch.

  Trevor’s gaze slid to the pulse in her throat that pounded with arousal. The furious beating mimicked the blood raging through his veins. With a groan, he lowered his head to the curve of her neck and shoulders and flicked his tongue over her, tasting her sweet flesh.

  Megan, Megan, Megan.

  He pressed a finger slowly into her heat, felt the wet grip of her pussy around him and just about came on the spot.

  Megan did come. She let out a choked scream, her nails dragging down the back of his neck as her body jerked against him.

  Trevor’s mouth curved in a small smile of dismay as he buried his face into the curve of her breasts above her top, breathing in her perfume and perspiration as she continued to tremble.

  She’d always been so damn responsive, but she’d never come that fast. Usually she needed her clit played with, liked lots of foreplay before she climaxed.

  Part of him hoped like hell she’d been saving it all up for him. That the tension had been building and not just anybody could’ve made her orgasm like this.

  But what were the chances she hadn’t slept with anyone in a year? He cursed himself again for ever letting her go in the first place.

  Trevor gradually became aware of the tension that seeped into Megan’s body. She wasn’t clinging to him anymore, but it almost seemed like she was trying to sink through the wall behind her.

  Lifting his head, he stared down at her and his heart clenched at the dismay and regret in her eyes. Then her thick, black lashes swept down, shielding her gaze.

  “Could you please move off me,” she asked tightly, her tone void of expression.

  Fuck. She hid it well, but Megan’s emotional retreat was as methodical and rapid as any unit backing out of an ambush.

  Trevor bit back a sigh and pulled her panties back into place, lowering her skirt again. Disappointment clogged thick in his throat as his cock throbbed against the denim of his jeans.

  He wouldn’t be sleeping with Megan. Not today anyway. But he would have her again. The way she’d melted into him just a few moments ago lit a small spark of hope in his heart. Fragile, but strong enough that he knew he had to fight like hell to get her back.

  Stepping away from her, he shook his head. “I didn’t mean for it to get that out of hand, angel.”

  Her lashes swept up, the anger in them brilliant. “The hell you didn’t. You knew exactly what you intended the moment you walked in here, Trevor Wyatt.”

  Maybe he had. But he hadn’t let himself hope for one moment she’d be that responsive.

  “I won’t apologize, Megan,” he said quietly. “I can’t. Not for something that’s so right.”

  “It’s not right anymore, Trevor. Don’t you get that?” she almost shouted, frustration causing her brows to draw together. “You don’t have a right to touch me. I stopped being your fiancée last year.”

  “Maybe I want you back.”

  Megan went rigid, the shock in her eyes twice what it had been a minute ago.

  “Get out,” she whispered. “Get the hell out of my office and don’t come back.”

  Trevor’s jaw clenched. What the fuck had made him make that declaration aloud, without any finesse or plan in his head? Megan had every right to be livid.

  “I should go,” he agreed with a nod and headed toward the door. “I’ll see you tonight at dinner.”

  “I am not having dinner with you!”

  “Yes, Megan, you are. With me and with the rest of my family. So you’d better call that Henry guy back and tell him your date is off.” He stopped at the entrance and turned to give her a tight smile. “Ellie asked me to drop by and remind you. She thought you might’ve forgotten. Guess it’s a good thing I stopped by. For more reasons than one.”

  “Oh, you son of a—”

  Trevor slipped out the door, shutting it again before he could hear the rest of her curse. Amusement slid through him, and for the first time in a while he felt a genuine smile slip across his face. Megan had always been sexy as hell when she got pissed.

  He strode past the window, feeling her glare on him until he disappeared to where his car was parked on the corner.

  He climbed into his truck and slammed the door, let his head fall back against the headrest. His dick was hard as a rock, but he felt better than he had all year.

  Tyson was right. He needed to try and get Megan back. Because a lifetime was just too long to live with the regrets if he didn’t.

  Chapter Four

  Megan stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel folded neatly on the toilet.

  She’d been in there for almost a half hour, trying to scrub away the smoldering encounter with Trevor this afternoon. Good God, how had she lost all control around him? How was it that he simply had to decide he wanted her again and she was a puddle at his feet?

  It was like Pavlov’s dog. Only she wasn’t a dog and there was no damn bell. Just a sexy soldier who would always have her heart.

  Which made her wonder how she was going to ever get through this week. Having to finalize the details of Tyson and Ellie’s wedding with Trevor standing by? But she had to get through. Had to keep her head on straight and not get involved with Trevor again. It had been over a year since they’d broken up, and she was finally making steps to get over him.

  Tears stung her eyes as she brutally scrubbed her body dry with the towel.

  She wanted Trevor to
be happy, really she did. She’d been praying for his heart, mind and body to heal since that day she’d received that horrific call from Afghanistan that he’d been hurt.

  Just thinking about it now had the ability to make her stomach contents roll and her head spin with terror. She dropped the towel and gripped the counter, shaking her head as she sucked in a great big lungful of air.

  Trevor’s body had eventually healed, but his heart and mind had never seemed to fully recover. They’d never kept secrets from each other before. But when he’d returned, everything about him had been different. There’d been nothing but secrets. And even though the sex between them had still been incredible, she’d always felt like he was holding back. That he was fighting demons while making love to her.

  She’d begged him to open up. Begged him to get help. Because they hadn’t been a couple anymore, they’d become two people who only came together to have sex. But he’d refused to seek help, to even talk about it. He’d even stopped any planning of their wedding. Retreating more into himself until that chasm between them became so great that not even amazing sex could bridge it. And that’s when she’d left. Because staying would’ve only destroyed her and the love she’d always hold for him.

  Megan crossed the bathroom that was still full of steam, and reached for her dress hanging on the door. She slipped into it and then her heels, then made quick time drying her hair and putting on makeup.

  When she finally climbed into the convertible, there wasn’t enough time to appreciate the summer sun beating down. How the hell had she forgotten about dinner tonight? She’d promised Ellie last week she’d be there.

  It was Trevor. He’d returned to town and thrown her entire life for a loop. She wasn’t stupid, she knew why he’d tried to seduce her today. The phenomenal sex and chemistry between them had always offered him that brief distraction, moments of happiness where he could just forget. But the price to her heart and own sanity was just too expensive…

  By the time she arrived at the local Italian restaurant, the Wyatt clan was already there.

  Megan strode to the back of the dim restaurant, inhaling the delicious smell of garlic and olive oil. She kept her head high and avoided looking at Trevor, who sat with the small group of people at the table. Though she knew exactly where his muscled frame was furled into a chair in the back corner.