by AliyahBurke
Brandt felt his heart stop. She couldn’t stay here. He wouldn’t be able to handle it. Before he could object, she answered his father.
“Sorry, sir. I have an assignment after this one. In fact, I need to be leaving soon. In the morning, since your new security gets here tonight.”
“What new security?” Brandt asked, inserting himself into the conversation.
“Your father got a whole new security system. Which means you get a different bodyguard.” She didn’t look at all saddened by that bit of news as she stared at him.
“I don’t want a damn bodyguard. I never wanted you,” he snapped at her. “I thought you said this would be over after the papers were signed.” He pointed at his father.
“Well, son, I just figured that we should be a little extra careful for a while yet,” Judson tried to explain.
“No! I’m not having another person following me around and messing up my life.”
“If you two will excuse me. I have some things I have to do to.” Raven walked off and Brandt’s piercing gaze was on her the entire way.
* * * *
She stopped in front of her old boss and met his gaze squarely in the muted light. “Go home, Dylan.” He arched an eyebrow at her order and crossed his arms. “Go home. I am going to get Laurie for you. I’ll bring her to you. I just want you to take my bike and my dogs with you.”
“I can’t risk it. He said that he would return her to me.”
“Do you trust me?” Raven put out the question.
“What?”
“Do you trust me?” She stared at him.
“Come on, Raven, you know the answer to that, but I can’t risk. . .”
Her voice filled with scorn, “So that’s a no.”
“Damn you, Raven. Yes. All right. Yes. I trust you. More than anyone else in the Raptors, past and present. But I can’t risk her getting hurt.”
Raven’s voice dropped all anger and disdain and actually became compassionate. She reached out her brown hand for his arm. A moment of hesitation passed before she completed her task and laid her hand on him. The tender gesture was something she wasn’t used to doing.
“Then trust me. I won’t fail.”
“You never do. I was the one who failed you.” Dylan’s other hand came up and covered hers.
“Now, take my bike and my dogs. Don’t let any harm come to them. Get them home to Seth.” There was an underlying warning in that statement and he heard it.
“I won’t.”
“Okay then. I have work to do.” Raven turned and jogged to the garage where she got her bike and rode it to the chopper. “Falcon, Talon. Get over here and put my bike in the bird.”
“Damn, girl, you just bossy as all get out now, aren’t you?” Falcon snapped at her although his eyes sparkled with good humor.
“You know damn well that with me gone, you boys didn’t have any sort of order. Come on, now. Hustle, Marine, hustle.” She snapped her fingers.
“What we do know is that we had some peace while you were gone,” Talon snapped.
She laughed, then punched him in the shoulder. “Well, good thing I came back then. Can’t have you all comfortable and such.”
Talon growled low in his throat and picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and smacked her on the butt before he tossed her in the chopper.
Comfortable laughter flowed through the group as Raven climbed back out of the chopper and whistled loud. The dogs went to her at a dead run, as if they had been in a sit-stay and had been recalled to her. All the men patted them and the dogs wagged their tails as they waited for the command to jump in the chopper.
Raven pulled two leashes from her pocket and snapped them on their collars. With the bike in the bird, she loaded the dogs. The men followed after. Each gave her the same arm clasp as they boarded.
She put her head in the door to the chopper as the blades began to spin. Each dog got a quick hug and kiss before she backed away and saluted the chopper as it took off into the night sky.
Alone in the yard, Raven turned and walked to the house. Ignoring those few people left, she entered the house and headed to her room where she began to pack and plan.
Her clothes went in quickly except for what she was going to wear tomorrow. She sat down at her computer and opened her tracking software program. The map came up and she saw the little red flashing dot.
“Got you, you bastard.” Well, now she knew where he was at. It would alert her every time he stopped. Going to Mapquest, she plotted her trip. Completely intent on her work, she didn’t even look up when the door to her room swung open.
* * * *
Try as he might, Brandt found he couldn’t stand to be away from her knowing that she was just down the hall from him. So he padded barefoot, dressed in sweats and a cutoff t-shirt, to her door. Without knocking, he just opened the door.
He saw her sitting at the table at work on her computer. Her bags were packed and they sat beside the door. One leg was up close to her chest as she typed away on the keyboard and smooth R&B music played softly in the background.
Her guns were on the tabletop beside each hand. Unable to control his anger any longer, he kicked the door shut. When the noise from the slam had stopped reverberating throughout the room, she pushed a button on the keyboard and looked up at him. Eyes blank as a wall.
“Something I can do for you, Brandt Fowler?” She didn’t even reach for a gun.
“You have some explaining to do,” he seethed.
“About what?” At least she closed the computer and made it so he could look at her without anything in between them.
Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Now he had an unobstructed view of her. Thick black hair pulled up off her neck held in place by a wooden barrette. An old worn flannel button down shirt, with the top few buttons undone, slid off one shoulder, exposing her smooth sienna skin to his gaze.
His words had gotten stuck in his throat. Seeing that steady gaze of hers placed on him, he couldn’t talk. All his emotions had taken a backseat to his desire to love this woman.
“About what?” She repeated her question.
Well that did it. The anger and betrayal came back in a flood. Poured new life into his stationery body. Fists clenched, he stepped towards her.
“What the hell is going on with you and Talon?” The words were clipped and full of fury.
“That is none of your business.” Her tone dropped to a dangerous level that he heard and reacted to.
“The hell it isn’t. You went straight from my bed into his arms. After what we had? And then to say that you couldn’t possibly want a man like me when you had one like him. You truly are a cold-hearted bitch. Didn’t you have the balls to tell me to my face?” He moved over, put his hands down on the table, and stared her in the eyes.
“What difference does it make? You know now. And you are right, I am a cold-hearted bitch, don’t ever forget it.” Her tone was scathing and it just made his blood boil over.
“Very well. How much?” He stood up, crossed his thick arms over his muscular chest, and glared at her.
A furrow appeared. “How much, what?”
“Does it cost?”
Raven cocked her head to the side as she looked at him. “What are you talking about?”
“How much did my father pay you?”
“A lot.”
“Did you get extra for sleeping with me?”
* * * *
His eyes were daggers of cold fire.
She lost her grip on controlling her temper. Raven put her hands on the table and rose slowly. The fires of rage had begun to broil deep within her. This is what she had been missing; this was the cork popping off the bottle that had kept her emotions buried.
Two years of restraining emotions towards other people had finally come to a halt. No more people getting angry at her without retaliation.
“No, that was included in the base price.”
He shook his head with disgust. “So do you s
leep with all your assignments?”
“Not all.”
“How do I know you didn’t give me something?”
“I could ask you the same thing. Fourteen different women in sixteen days.”
“I didn’t sleep with them. I just wanted you to think I did.” He stopped and narrowed his eyes, “How much?”
Raven’s eyes narrowed. “That is the second time you have asked that. Since I have answered that I didn’t get paid extra to sleep with you, what are you asking?”
“How much do you cost?”
“Excuse me?” There was actual shock in her voice. Had she heard him right?
“The way I see it, you are nothing more than a hooker. Well, a very expensive hooker. So how much does it cost?”
Whatever it took had finally come back to bite her in the butt.
She licked her lips. “Let me get this straight, you want to buy my services?”
“I want you in my bed. It seems that money does it, so yes, I want to buy your services. How much?”
* * * *
“Fifty thousand,” she said without blinking.
His eyes widened at her pronouncement. “Fifty thousand? For one night?”
Her eyes were once again the blank slate that he hated so much. “Yep. Cash or check.”
“You’d take a check from me?” He couldn’t believe that he was doing this, he wanted nothing more than to love her. But here he was making a deal with her like she was a street corner hooker.
“Put up or shut up. I don’t have the time for this, Brandt Fowler.”
He turned and stomped out of the room, jerking the door shut behind him.
* * * *
Limbs trembling, Raven sat back down on the chair and fought to regain her breath. God, this was not working well at all. When he had stood there in front of her, all that crossed through her mind was how his body felt against hers. His masculine scent and the feel his callused hands on her softer form.
Not even five minutes had passed when her door was kicked open. Brandt stood there once again in the doorway with a fierce glower on his face.
“Fifty thousand? What woman is worth that?”
He entered and shoved the door closed behind him with one bare foot. His hands raked through his hair, making it look so tousled and perfectly him.
Raven looked up at the black-haired man that stood incensed and ready to do battle in her room. “Beats me, but that is what I said.”
His body stood rigid with anger and something else. Disgust, maybe at himself. Perhaps her. Raven’s gaze took in the exposed six-pack under the cutoff shirt he wore. How she wanted to run her tongue over those muscles, taste the saltiness of his skin.
“What, think you are that good in bed? I could buy a lot of women for that amount.”
“No one is stopping you from leaving the room, Brandt Fowler.” Even though her words were delivered in that cold heartless way, her eyes ate up every bit of essence that came off this man.
“What happened, I thought it was supposed to be whatever it took?”
“My assignment is over.”
“What do you offer for fifty thousand?”
“Don’t know. Never done it before.” She was stunned at the knowledge of what she was about to attempt with this man.
“But that is what it would cost me? So it must be me? What is it about me that makes you do this?”
He wasn’t the only one battling anger at the moment. Serenity was the emotional one. Not Raven. Never Raven.
With a slow blink, she looked up through thick black lashes at the man that filled her senses. The rage still built inside her and he was her outlet.
Unhurriedly she unfolded her body and stood. Fingers dragging lazily, almost lover-like, across the mahogany desktop, she moved her figure so the table was no longer between them.
His ultramarine gaze met hers. The second she met his stare her hands clenched into quick fists before they relaxed.
Her voice came out lower and huskier than usual. “What are you telling me, Brandt Fowler, that I have nothing to tempt you with?” She reached up and unpinned her hair. “And here I thought you liked me, well, at least my body.”
When her hair had fallen she’d noticed the flair of desire in his eyes burning with a ferocity that almost staggered her. He did want her. A lot more than he wanted her to know. Her fingers moved to the buttons on her shirt and, one after another, she separated them from the fabric they held closed.
The flannel shirt dropped open to revel a dark green lace bra that cupped her breasts. “Tell me, Brandt. I know you want me, what are you willing to pay? No,” she said as he moved forward, “you don’t think I am worth fifty G’s. So you can’t touch me. If you do, then I get the money.”
“What?” His voice was all gruff. He pulled out a single sheet of paper from his sweatpants pocket and walked forward to set it on the table. His eyes never left her body.
“Well, you sounded skeptical about what I could possibly offer you that was worth that much money.” She slid the shirt off her body. It fell to the floor as she walked backward to the bed. As if on an invisible thread, Brandt followed but stayed the same distance away.
Raven stepped out of her socks and kicked them away. “Tell me something then. What would you expect for that amount of money?” Her ivory pants slid down, leaving her in matching bra and panties.
“Never mind. I don’t want to know.” Her hands moved up to run over her own full breasts, cupping them as her head fell back and her teeth captured her lower lip.
With a quick motion, she flicked open the clasp that held her breasts so tenderly. She allowed that to slide from her shoulders and that left her in nothing but a dark green lace thong.
Brandt took another step towards her. She shook her head at him.
“Uh uh. You are not allowed to touch me.” She put her hands back under her full breasts and cupped them as if to offer them up to his mouth for suckling.
“Tell me, what would you pay to touch me right now?” Her hands moved down, caressing her stomach before her thumbs slipped into the thin band of material that she wore. “To be able to put your hands on my skin and feel what I am feeling right now?”
Brandt groaned and took two more steps towards her.
“No, tell me. It seems that right now, Brandt, you want to touch me. Is that true?”
The thong slipped down a little more, allowing him to see the ebony curls that rested above her pussy.
“Yes. I want to touch you.”
“How much am I worth to you right now?” The fabric stopped.
“Everything,” he ground out as he approached her, movements determined.
“How much?” The panties dropped another few millimeters, earning another growl of appreciation and frustration from Brandt.
“As much as you want.” He reached for her and she stopped him with her words.
“How much, Ice?”
“All you want.”
“So if you touch me, I get the money?”
“Yes,” he rumbled.
“Tell me how much.”
“Fifty thousand.”
“Would I be worth it?”
“A hundred times over,” he swore in a timbre that was deeper than she remembered as his control broke and he swept her into his arms. He pressed her almost naked form against his.
“You’re damn right,” was all she got out before she was dominated by his kiss.
* * * *
The kiss was not a gentle one. He demanded and she gave. He conquered she yielded. Tongues dueled, mated, and danced with one another. Brandt broke the kiss to yank off his shirt before he tumbled them both onto the bedspread.
His sweats had disappeared somewhere along the line and, with a snap, he ripped off her thong, leaving her completely naked.
His hands roved all over her body. Teasing, feeling, caressing, stimulating. He moved his mouth down to her breasts and laved attention on them. He kept up his attack until she alternated bet
ween moans and whimpers.
“You will cry out my name tonight, sweetling. I’ll be the one you never forget. I’m going to make the others fade into nothing. It will be me that you crave. My touch. Mine,” he murmured to her as he licked a path down to her navel. She had begun to squirm on the bed under the intensity of his assault.
“It already is, Brandt. It already is.”
He slipped two long, callused fingers between her wet curls to delve into her heated depths. That action brought Raven’s hips up off the bed and a loud moan from her throat.
Back and forth his fingers moved, never once giving her a chance to rest. His broad shoulders settled themselves in between her legs and spread them wide. Brandt slid his other hand under her butt and lifted her body up off the bed to his waiting mouth.
His tongue slid around her moist nub and elicited a much louder cry than before. It wasn’t what he wanted, however, so he began to piston his fingers in and out of her core and flicked his tongue over her pleasure point.
Licks alternated with sucks as Raven’s cries grew louder and louder. Her internal muscles began to tighten around his fingers, and Brandt knew she was almost there.
He took her clit in his mouth and began to suck on it as his tongue rolled it inside the warmth of his mouth. He moved his fingers relentlessly, and when the moans came shorter and faster he pulled his fingers out of her and replaced them with his mouth.
Deep within her, his tongue swept as his fingers rotated the shiny pebble. She came hard right into his waiting mouth. Brandt didn’t stop until she shook on the bed, emitting small whimpers.
With one smooth motion, he rose over her and slid into her velvety warmth. Her whimpers became groans of pleasure.
Brandt let his need take over and he began to pound into her. Her undulations urged him on faster and faster. She pulled him closer to her.
Her arms circled his back and she scored his skin. He didn’t care. They were almost animal like in their ferocity. His thrusts came faster and deeper.
Her body began to bow and he knew that she was about to crest over the mountain and take him with her. Sure enough. Brandt spilled himself deep within her body.