by Sybil Bartel
Because I was on watch when a sniper in Afghanistan took out three of the men in my unit, because I never got the fucks who blew up our Humvee, because the first leave after my Dear John letter, I didn’t even punch the asshole who’d fucked my ex-wife. Take your fucking pick. I didn’t have one reason, I had too goddamn many. The world was a shit place full of evil, and I only knew how to do two things after the Marines. Kill and fucking survive.
“Call it exacting a balance.” A balance that would never bring back my fallen brothers, but one I kept trying to fucking compensate for.
“Are you going to keep doing it?”
“Yes.” Fedorov and any of his guards who got in my way were fucking dead. After that, I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do. I’d never thought about it. I’d never had to. But now she was making me wonder just who the fuck I was doing this for, because the dead didn’t need balance.
“I didn’t mean Viktor.”
I studied her, but she wasn’t reacting at all how I’d thought she would. “I have no other contracted jobs.”
“If you did?”
If I did, and she asked me not to, I wouldn’t. “I deal in absolutes, not speculation.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Rephrase the question if you want a different answer.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “Do you do it for money?”
I smoothed the skin between her eyes with my thumb. “I used to.” I didn’t know why the fuck I did it anymore. I was losing my edge, and that would get me killed.
“Who are some of the people you’ve killed?”
I fingered a strand of her hair. It was the softest thing I’d ever felt, next to her pussy. If someone had told me a week ago that I would be talking about this shit to a woman in my bed, I would’ve shot them on principle alone. I stared at my downfall and gave her the truth. “Drug dealers, murderers, kidnappers.” I didn’t hold back. She already had enough information to get me the chair.
“What’s going to make you quit?” her voice casual, she slid the question in like a pro.
“Your stomach swollen with my son.” I was only half kidding.
A faint smile touched her lips. “Not a daughter?”
I took my first full breath since she’d asked about the ink. “That might make me kill more.”
Ethereal and soft, she laughed. “Very funny.”
For the first time since I’d gotten that fucking Dear John letter on my first deployment, I saw a future. “You think I’m joking.” I smiled.
Her face turned serious and she hesitantly touched the corner of my mouth with the tip of her finger. “I like your smile more than I should.”
“I like you more than I should.” But I needed to tell her the truth. “Irina… there is nothing safe about being with me.”
She dropped her hand. “Don’t you think it’s a little late to be warning me off?”
I added practical to the list of her traits I admired. “I’m being realistic.”
“Which means what?”
“I’m hunted. You will be too.”
“Are we talking beyond tomorrow?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
She inhaled then breathed out slow. Her gaze drifted over my shoulder to the shuttered windows. “I think you need to decide what side you’re on.”
“There are multiple ways I can interpret that statement.”
“You say you don’t do repeats then you knowingly have unprotected sex. You tell me about your… occupation, as if you trust me, then you warn me off.” She turned and gave me her colorless stare. “You can’t afford a casual relationship, and I never wanted one.”
Loving the fuck out of her honesty, I stroked her cheek. “What did you want?” Touching her was my new favorite drug.
Her face softened. “Summer nights and porch swings and little feet running through a house with a screen door.”
It sounded perfect. Too fucking perfect. “You’re missing something.” I ran my fingers through her hair then gripped the back of her neck.
“You’re right.”
She was so unyielding, the corner of my mouth tipped up. “You wanna tell me what that is?”
“Fine.” She sighed like she was put out. “But you’ve surpassed crazy.”
I grinned. “Still waiting.”
“An arrogant, alpha hit man who knows how to fuck might be on the list. As long as he isn’t off killing people the second I have my back turned.”
I sobered. “I wouldn’t do that.”
Her hands drifted to my chest. “I don’t know what you would or wouldn’t do because we don’t know each other.”
“I wouldn’t put you at risk, and you know more about me than anyone living.”
She traced the scar from an old bullet wound. “You know this isn’t normal, right? Most people don’t have the relationship conversation until they’ve been dating awhile, and they definitely don’t talk about killing.”
This conversation was already more real than anything I’d ever discussed with my ex-wife. “I dated my ex for years before we had this conversation. Time didn’t help.” She never would’ve let me fuck her like I’d fucked Irina in the kitchen. “And just to make the distinction, I’m not a hit man. Clients hire me when they’re out of options. Retrievals, hostage situations, imprisoned in foreign countries, security—I’ve had a range of assignments. I’m successful because I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.”
“Or get shot.” She traced the bullet wound on my shoulder.
“Work hazard.”
Her fingers skimmed over the burn scars on my right arm and side. Her voice dropped. “What happened to you?”
“IED in Afghanistan.” I turned her, pulled her against my chest and wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Your body is a road map of scars.”
My head was worse. “Go to sleep.”
“It’s just the two of us here. Viktor has a lot of guards. He could send someone else.”
“My security system will pick up anyone approaching the property.” I glanced at the security panel on the wall by the door. The three green lights told me everything was up and running.
“What if the power goes out?”
“It already did.” An hour ago. “The house generator kicked in.” Seamlessly, like it was supposed to. It was the Wi-Fi I was concerned about.
“You’ve thought of everything.” She yawned.
Except her. I never fucking considered having a woman here. But this one had somehow crawled under my skin in a matter of hours, and I didn’t want to let her go. I kissed the top of her head. “Sleep, beautiful.”
“Fine.” She drew her legs up and snaked her hands around the arm I had under her head. Holding on to me, she settled in. “But stop calling me pet names.”
For the third time tonight, she made me smile. “Good night, sweetheart.”
“I hate you.” She snuggled closer.
I chuckled. “I’ll try and remember that.”
She didn’t answer, and within two minutes, her breathing evened out.
Hunter jumped on the bed and lay at her feet. Panting, he eyed me.
“Traitor,” I whispered.
He gave me a look that said he didn’t give a fuck.
I smiled. Then, for the first time since I was eighteen years old, I fell asleep with a woman in my arms.
I woke with a hundred-pound mutt on my legs.
I glanced behind me, but I already knew he was gone because I’d felt his absence before I opened my eyes. I looked down at the dog.
Big, brown, sad eyes stared at me.
“Are you going to bite me?
He put his head on my leg.
“What do you want?”
He nudged me with his muzzle.
“Now you’re talking to me?”
His tail thumped.
Stupid dog. “You’re supposed to be an attack dog, not a tail wagger.”
“I told you he won’t at
tack unless he’s given the command.” Dane’s deep voice rumbled through the quiet bedroom.
My heart leapt and a shiver ran up my spine. I looked over my shoulder. Standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame, he held a coffee mug. Sharp jawline, perfectly cut features, more muscles than three of Viktor’s guards, he didn’t look like a man who’d pulled me into his arms and held me until I fell asleep. He looked like a formidable warrior.
“Good morning.” He winked then took a sip of coffee.
Suddenly self-conscious, I pulled the covers up. “Good morning.”
His biceps straining the sleeves of his T-shirt, his cargo pants bulging with his huge cock, he pushed off the frame with his good arm. “Sleep okay?”
Better than okay. Better than I had in five years. “Yes, thank you.” He looked even more beautiful than last night. I reached for something to change the subject. “It’s quiet.”
“The storm passed.” His lazy stride toward the bed didn’t fool me. Every move he made was calculated.
“Why is your dog on top of me?”
“He wouldn’t leave you when I got up.”
I didn’t even hear him get up. I never slept through the night, let alone any movement in Viktor’s house. Every little noise always woke me. But last night, this warrior of a man had pulled me into his arms and I hadn’t been able to keep my eyes open. I didn’t even want to.
I smoothed a hand over my hair. “What time is it?”
“Almost noon.” He stood over me. “Don’t be self-conscious. You look beautiful.”
Drawing my lips into my mouth, I closed my eyes and inhaled. “Dane—”
“Coffee?”
I looked up at him and my stomach fluttered. “Viktor is going to—”
“Be my problem.” He stroked my cheek with the back of his fingers. “How do you feel? You sore?”
My instinct was to pull away from Dane’s touch. Viktor was never nice to me without there being an ulterior motive. I forced myself to be still as I glanced at Dane’s ribs. I couldn’t see an outline of any kind of bandage. “I should be asking you that.” Putting staples in him had made my stomach turn.
“I’m fine.”
He was more than fine. I nodded and pulled the sheet with me as I stood. “I’m going to shower.” Used to a different kind of man, my tone came out more abrasive than I intended.
Dane caught my arm. “You don’t have to be defensive with me.”
“I’m not.” I was.
With his impenetrable stare, he studied me, but he didn’t say anything.
I pulled the sheet tighter. “What?”
“Which part bothered you, when I touched you or asked how you were?”
I turned away. “Neither,” I lied, wanting to find a way to be okay.
“You’re pulling away.”
I ignored him. I may never be okay. “I need to shower.” I didn’t want to face today.
“You’re scared.”
It wasn’t a question, but even if it was, I couldn’t answer it. I wasn’t scared. I was resigned and sad and confused, and all of it was masking anger I’d pushed so deep for so long, it was a part of my every breath. But I wasn’t scared. Scared would mean I had something to lose, and Dane wasn’t mine to lose. One night didn’t mean I owned a right to him.
I pulled out of his grasp. “What am I doing while you confront Viktor?”
I heard his deep inhale. I felt the tension in the air coil around us. I smelled the clean, sharp scent of his soap and shampoo, but I didn’t move. Not one inch. Viktor had taught me more than resilience, he’d taught me the art of not showing emotion.
But those lessons were no match for Dane.
He cupped my face as his stormy gaze held me captive, then he let me know he saw right through me. “I will never touch you in anger. I will never force you to do anything. When I hold you, it’s because I want to. When I ask after you, it’s because I want to know how you are. Everything is going to be fine today, and you’re going to be a safe distance away.”
I stopped pretending to hide my fears. “Don’t leave me here.”
“I won’t. I have a condo in Miami Beach. You’re going to wait there.”
“Do I have a choice?” Viktor would know about any places Dane owned. That’s who he was. He looked into people and found their weaknesses.
“If you prefer, you can wait at Luna’s office. It’s secure and his men will protect you.”
My stomach knotted. “What does he do?”
“He owns a personal security firm.”
A bunch of men who wouldn’t let me leave even if I wanted to. I fought to keep from recoiling and letting my body language give me away. “The condo.”
He nodded. “We’ll leave in thirty minutes.”
“Okay.”
He didn’t let go of me. His eyes intent on mine, his thumb brushed across my lower lip and he lowered his voice “You never answered my question.”
Viktor didn’t condition only my psyche. I wasn’t sore. I was aching and needy, and if Dane so much as breathed on my clit, I would come. As if all of my sexual training and conditioning by Viktor just switched to another vice, I wanted Dane. I wanted him like I’d never wanted another man, but I didn’t give him that truth. “I’m not sore.”
His thumb stroking my lip like I wanted him to stroke my clit, his eyes darkened and he issued a quiet command. “Turn around.”
Desire raced up my spine and spread across my body like liquid fire. I didn’t just turn. I dropped the sheet and crawled on the bed on all fours.
If this was going to be my last taste of Dane Marek, I wanted it to count.
Sexy as fuck, submissive as hell and right for all the wrong reasons, she crawled on my bed.
Ass up, head down, her cunt was wet with need.
My dick throbbed, but I knew what she was doing.
I leaned over her back and brought my lips to her neck. “This isn’t the last time you’re going to have me inside you.”
She rocked against my dick and let out a small groan.
I rubbed a firm hand over her ass. “You like offering yourself up to me?” I ran my thumb through her wet pussy.
“Yes,” she hissed.
“Good.” I unbuckled my belt and unzipped my pants. “Because I’m going to want a hell of lot more of this.” Fisting myself, I dragged the head of my cock through her heat. “You want my cum inside you, sweetheart?”
“Don’t—” She pushed back into me with a grunt. “—call me that.”
Holding her hip firm, I gripped a handful of her hair. “What would you rather I call you, love?”
“Stop it.” She rocked against my hold. “Just fuck me.”
I sank into her. One torturous inch at a time. When I bottomed out, I leaned over her. “I’m going to fuck you.” I nipped her ear. “And I’m going to come inside you so hard, you feel me all day.” I sucked her neck then I grasped her chin. “But later tonight, I’m going to make love to you for hours.” I thrust my tongue into her mouth.
Moaning around my kiss, her cunt slicked with desire, she rocked against me.
Fuck yes. I stroked my tongue through her sweet mouth once more then spoke against her lips. “That’s it, baby. Show me how good it feels.”
“Dane,” she cried as I hit the wall of her womb on a thrust.
“Goddamn, I love how you take all of me.” Fuck, I loved it.
“Don’t stop.” Her pussy already starting to clench around me, she grasped two handfuls of the sheets.
I leaned back, took her hips and ground into her. “Never.”
“Oh my God, I’m coming.” She slammed her hips back into me. Her tight cunt constricted and she started to pulse.
I maintained control. Always. I could fuck for hours. But seeing her drop the sheet and crawl on my bed, her ass in the air as she offered it up to me, her willing submission, and now her cunt milking my dick like it was made for me—fuck.
I couldn’t hold back.
; I let go and pumped inside her.
My legs locked as I held her hips against mine. I came so fucking deep, visions of her knocked up fucked with my head.
A small sound escaped her throat and aftershocks shook her body.
Jesus fuck, she would be so goddamn beautiful swollen with my kid. I ran my hand down her narrow back. “You okay?” She was so fucking small.
“Yeah.” She didn’t move.
My cell vibrated in my pocket. Goddamn it, I didn’t want to pull out yet. “Hold on.” Still buried deep, I pulled my phone out and answered without saying shit. Years ago I’d made a crucial mistake assuming it was a client when I’d answered a call from their number. I’d given out information, but it’d turned out to be the mark on the other end of the line. I never made that mistake again.
“You there?” Luna asked.
I ran my hand over her perfect ass. “Yeah.”
“I’ve got movement. Two SUVs left Fedorov’s two minutes ago.”
Damn it. My hand stilled. “You’re doing surveillance?” He’d spot Luna’s man.
“I know what you’re thinking. My guy wasn’t made. He’s in a cable truck a block over.”
The tremors in her legs stopped, and I eased out an inch. “Direction?”
“Not north.”
The restaurant was north of Fedorov’s place. Where the fuck was he going? “Copy. Intel?” I eased all the way out and she flinched.
“None. I gave the order not to follow, so I don’t know what he’s up to.” He paused. “Something’s up, amigo. You should bring her here. I’ve got seven men on site right now.”
“Negative.” She’d been scared as fuck when I’d offered it.
“Where are you keeping her?”
“Penthouse.” My seed dripped down her leg.
“I’ll put Tyler on her.”
Running two fingers up her thigh, and through my cum, I shoved my seed back into her.
She softly moaned.
“Negative.” I didn’t want Tyler or any other fucking asshole around her.
Luna exhaled. “I think that’s a mistake, bro.”
Everything I’d done since I’d walked into my house last night was a mistake. “Noted.” I just didn’t give a fuck anymore. I wanted her, and I wanted her all for myself. I didn’t have a fucking explanation why. “We good?”