Desired by a Dangerous Man

by Cleo Peitsche

  Finally I picked up my water and drained it in several deep gulps. The whole time, Corbin just watched me.

  “You have something to say?” he asked. He was never like this, never… confrontational. Twice I had intervened to save Henry’s life, except it hadn’t been about saving Henry.

  It had been about saving Corbin.

  “Yes, I do,” I said. “If you hurt Henry…” The rest of the threat wouldn’t come. Corbin had made it very clear that keeping me safe was his top priority. “For all you know, those guys were harassing me because of Frances.”

  “No, they weren’t. We chatted. The order isn’t coming from Henry. It’s coming from one of Henry’s friends.”

  “Maybe everyone didn’t get the memo when he called it off,” I said.

  “Do you know where Henry is right now?” Corbin asked. “On the other side of the state. But he still has people doing his dirty work. That’s going to end, and there’s only one way to ensure he’s no longer a threat.”

  Corbin’s decisive words hung in the air and echoed in my mind. One look at his face and I knew Henry’s fate was sealed. But I couldn’t think about that, about what it would mean for Corbin and for our relationship.

  “Your turn,” I said quietly. “What happened in DC?” I defiantly met his eyes. “I don’t want to hear anything about top secret and security clearances. If you get to peel back my defenses and stare at my weaknesses, then I should get to do the same to you.”

  “You’re not weak, Audrey.”

  “And that’s not an answer. What did you agree to in Washington? Why did those deputies let you go?”

  He leaned on the table. “I didn’t agree to anything,” he said. “I wouldn’t do that to you. As for the deputies, I know which names to drop, and I know how to handle myself. If they assumed I was CIA and working on something critical, that’s their fault.”

  I almost laughed. Before walking away—not that he’d walked very far—Corbin had been way beyond the level of CIA.

  “Your phone is ringing,” Corbin said.

  Grateful for an excuse to get away, I left the table. It was Rob, the one person who could always soothe my soul.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Psychic twin powers?” I asked.

  “Uh, not really. There was something wrong with that smoothie. It made me violently ill.”

  “You…” Relief crashed through me. “That’s great!”

  “Well,” Rob said, “that’s not quite the reaction I was expecting.”

  Corbin was walking into the kitchen carrying our dirty plates. “Rob got sick!” To Rob I said, “I did, too. And I thought it was something else, that… never mind.” I suddenly remembered that Rob had sucked down way more of the smoothie than I had. “Are you ok?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine now, but I thought I’d check with you.”

  “I didn’t realize…” I started, but Rob would never think that I’d forgotten to check on him. “I’m glad you’re better.”

  “See you tomorrow.”

  “Yup.” I hung up, and I couldn’t stop grinning. “Corbin.” I hurried after him. “I was sick, and I thought it was because I was having a breakdown, but it was just food poisoning.”

  I was trying too hard to pretend things were normal. Anything so I wouldn’t have to think about what Corbin planned to do to Henry.

  Corbin scraped the last bits of food into the trash. “I don’t think food poisoning makes people upset about construction and vacations to Alaska,” he said.

  “But—”

  He dropped a kiss on my forehead. “It’s not a big deal, Audrey.” He was gentle, sweet.

  He plans to kill Henry.

  My mouth turned dry, and I pivoted away. When he was calmer, we would talk about it, and I’d make him see reason.

  In the meantime, maybe a video game would help us both relax.

  I entered the living room to turn on the television. The enormous windows were open, and the evening had cooled off. I returned to the dining area for the light sweater I’d left draped on the chair, but I didn’t want to run into Corbin, so I took the long way around, which took me right by his office.

  The door was closed, which was hardly a surprise.

  The sturdy lock, however… That was new.

  I stared at it, confused. Yes, I had technically broken into Corbin’s office once, but he’d just had a basic lock on it, one he knew I could pick. Obviously I shouldn’t have done it, but…

  Corbin had acted like it wasn’t a big deal.

  On the other hand, I’d gotten the impression that there might be something in the office that he didn’t want me to see. I hadn’t pushed the issue… or maybe it was my luck that hadn’t needed pushing.

  I remembered how his gaze had swept over the desk and shelves. He’d been checking to see what I’d disturbed, how much I’d seen.

  Corbin, who, now that I thought about it, had evaded giving me any details about what had happened during his DC trip.

  The new lock was sturdy. I wasn’t skilled at picking locks, not by any stretch of the imagination. That was Corbin’s forte.

  But even if I could get past this one, would it really make a difference?

  Maybe, I thought, the reason I freaked out about how enmeshed our lives were becoming was because Corbin was always holding something back.

  The unknowable man.

  I hugged the sweater to my chest and hurried to the living room.

  “Everything ok?” Corbin had come from the kitchen and was holding a cup of coffee.

  You tell me, I wanted to say, but instead I pulled the sweater over my head so he couldn’t see my expression. “Video game,” I mumbled.

  “Or we could just watch a movie,” he said. “I think it’s your turn to pick.”

  It wasn’t my turn; it was his. Corbin Lagos was feeling guilty about something.

  I grabbed the remote and fell onto the couch.

  Corbin sat next to me. Close.

  “Are you up to going out? I want to take you somewhere,” he said, his voice solemn. He exhaled softly and took my hands.

  “Where?”

  He shook his head. “I need you to have faith in me.”

  “I can do that,” I said reflexively even though I wasn’t feeling very trusting. “You don’t have to ask.”

  “Maybe not, but it wasn’t so very long ago that I did need to ask. I think it’s better to err on the side of caution.”

  It was my turn to exhale softly.

  He led me back to the SUV. Twenty minutes later, I knew where we were headed. The office.

  My heart began to speed up. There was no reason for me to be apprehensive about this. It was under construction. I knew that. It was what I wanted.

  As we drew closer, my nervousness ticked higher, and by the time Corbin stopped in front of the parking lot, my veins felt like they were being fueled by a fire hydrant, one continuous rush that couldn’t possibly be good for my arteries.

  Corbin got out, and I did, too. This time I wasn’t surprised to see the scaffolding, the missing portion of wall. So that was good. On the other hand, Rob wasn’t there, cracking jokes and sounding awed.

  “Where’s the construction crew?” I asked, surprised.

  “I told them to disappear for two hours,” Corbin said. His tone turned light as he added, “It’s a paid break, and they’re already getting overtime.”

  My palms were wet with nervous sweat, and I pretended to be sliding my hands into my rear pockets, but instead I dried my palms on my jeans. Hot moisture seeped through the denim.

  Corbin flicked on a flashlight and aimed it at the ground.

  “Take my hand,” he said, stretching out his arm.

  His palm was warm and dry. My wrist felt like it was being swallowed into a black hole as Corbin closed his strong fingers around mine.

  “Come on,” he said, moving aside one of the traffic cones. His tone was gentle but firm; I had told him I trusted him, and he expec
ted me to keep my word.

  And so I did. He paid attention to where we were going, and I trusted him. In any event, knowing he would keep me physically safe had never been an issue between us. As Corbin said, he was wired to protect me.

  The front door was open, and I had a strange, unsettled feeling as we walked across the threshold. The sections of missing wall didn’t change this part of the interior… That bit of construction was farther to my right, past the bathroom.

  From our current point of view, the office could have been intact.

  Corbin’s light played over the room.

  The furniture was all gone, but deep divots in the carpet and scraped-up tiles showed where the desks had stood. Rob’s desk. My desk. Kat’s desk. Everything crowded too closely together.

  Even as Corbin led me across the empty space, I still had the urge to turn my hips to avoid banging into the sharp corners of furniture that was no longer there.

  I sucked in a long, shaky breath.

  “Are you ok?” Corbin asked.

  I nodded.

  He set the flashlight down on the floor, pointing it at a wall, where some of the light reflected back. I was aware of the utter darkness behind us, around us, and I began to shiver.

  “Do you know why I brought you here?” he asked.

  “No,” I said truthfully.

  “When you came to Paris, you knew the building would look different by the time you returned. You were prepared for that. But earlier today, you weren’t expecting it. So I managed to surprise you, which was my intention, but it was supposed to be a good surprise.”

  “It’s ok,” I said.

  “I brought you here for closure,” Corbin said. “Look around.”

  Frowning because it was so shadowy other than the wedge of flashlight, I stared into the nothingness. “I don’t see anything,” I said.

  “Look harder.”

  My eyes were adjusting, and I could make out the door to Dad’s office. And the bathroom.

  Then I could almost see filing cabinets, chairs, desks, Erin’s station. I could see all the employees over the years, a parade of them coming into the office. The previous secretaries, the previous part-time bounty hunters—Dad’s drinking buddies—who had either retired, suffered heart attacks, or gone into other businesses. I saw my Mom, before the divorce.

  I saw Rob and me, coming in after school, practically dragging our book bags and coats because we wanted to be hanging out with our friends, not sitting around with a bunch of old people—or at least what we considered old people, which was anyone over fifteen.

  And then I saw him.

  Zachary. The man who had attacked me.

  I began to shiver, and Corbin wrapped his body around mine. He was just holding me, but I felt like I was strapped into a roller coaster chair at an amusement park—far more protection than I would ever need. It didn’t feel confining. It felt… safe.

  My mind replayed that night.

  At the time, Corbin was still undercover. So deep undercover that it didn’t matter. So deep that if he’d gotten caught, he would have been left hanging out to dry.

  Dad had hired a friend to follow me and Rob around. He’d been looking for proof of our readiness, or lack thereof, to take over the business, to run things on our own.

  Instead, he’d misconstrued things. He’d taken photos of Rob at a strip club, talking to the girlfriend of a man we were tracking. The tip had panned out, but Dad had said Rob was enjoying himself a little too much while on the clock.

  And Dad had photos of me, too. I’d been on a stakeout, Corbin with me.

  The existence of those photos was dangerous. Henry knew Corbin as the pinnacle atop the Most Wanted list. Leaving those photos in Dad’s possession was like asking for trouble.

  So I’d come to recover them, but because I’d quit, Dad had changed the alarm. I hadn’t disabled it quickly enough.

  And Henry had sent Zak to investigate.

  My breathing began to slow, and my senses seemed to sharpen.

  Zak had grabbed me. He’d been rough. He’d assumed that because I was a petite woman, alone, and because no one knew I was there, and because I was clearly sneaking around, he could do whatever he wanted.

  I’d gotten free, but later he lunged for me again, and I instinctively jumped aside while pushing his hand away. It had thrown him off balance.

  I flinched as I remembered the crack of his neck as his head slammed into the desk.

  If Zak hadn’t put all of his weight behind that attack, if he hadn’t been such an asshole, he might have gotten up with nothing but a headache and a cracked tooth or two.

  Instead, he’d collapsed to the floor, dead.

  As for me… I’d had what could only be described as a mental breakdown.

  Then Corbin had come and cleaned it up. He’d fixed everything.

  And I’d learned just how morally flexible I could be when push came to shove. It had been… eye opening.

  I’d also learned that there wasn’t much Corbin wouldn’t do for me. Not that I could get that flattered about an experienced assassin disposing of a body. After all, it was what Corbin did.

  But still.

  And then in the following days, he’d put me back together, too, and it had taken a lot more than a bit of tape and glue. I’d been horrible to him, but he hadn’t given up on me.

  We stood together in quietness, in stillness, and I let all the memories, good and bad, wash over me. There would be more memories here, even if here looked different. Good memories. Most of the time, Dad had called the shots. Now I was in control of my own destiny.

  And I knew what I wanted my new life to be.

  “Corbin?” I whispered.

  “Right here,” he said. His lips brushed my neck.

  “I want to marry you.”

  My pulse was going so fast I couldn’t count the individual beats, like my heart had exploded.

  “Is that a proposal?” he asked.

  I couldn’t guess what he was thinking.

  “Maybe it is,” I said. Even if my words didn’t sound like I was certain, my tone certainly did. So why wasn’t he answering? “What do you think?”

  He turned me in his arms. “Baby,” he said, and there was so much love in that one word, but it sounded like there was quite a bit of regret, too.

  I wouldn’t backpedal, though. It had taken me a long time to get to this place, and if he wasn’t there, he wasn’t there.

  “Corbin?” I asked. My voice didn’t shake, but my body was trembling slightly, and Corbin had to have noticed that.

  His blue-green eyes drilled into mine.

  “If and when we decide to get married,” he said, his deep voice slow and measured, “nobody is going to be using the word maybe.”

  “I—”

  “Let me think on it.”

  Chapter 17

  Before I could fully process the fact that he’d just rejected me—or at the very least, put me off—Corbin covered my mouth with his.

  He slowly and softly licked the very tip of his tongue between the seam of my lips. I relaxed for him, a little moan forming low in my throat.

  His hands cupped my head, fingers tightening in my hair as his arms locked around my upper body. “I’m going to fuck you. Right here and now,” he said.

  It was a promise, or maybe a warning.

  Either way, my body responded with hot, wet enthusiasm.

  Corbin’s muscular thighs thrust between mine as he spread my legs apart. He rocked his hips toward me, and the swollen bulge of his cock dragged across my pussy.

  If only we were naked.

  But we weren’t. Dry humping was the next best thing, though, and even though I could barely move, at least I knew I wasn’t in danger of losing my balance and falling over.

  Desperately, I pumped my hips toward him as I greedily stole every centimeter of contact that I could. I wanted to shove him on the floor. I wanted to fuck him.

  As long as he wanted to fuck me, I co
uld survive the humiliation of what had just happened.

  Corbin released my head, fought a quick battle with my jeans. The denim was tight, but my jeans lost.

  Then they were around my knees.

  Corbin didn’t even wait to pull down my panties. He roughly fell to the floor, dragging me with him.

  I was more in the light then he was, I realized, and that was probably by design. All I really needed was to feel him, his hot, pulsing body, to smell his familiar scent, to trace my tongue against his skin, which tasted like a mix of coffee and raw, masculine power.

  Sliding my hands up under his shirt, I dug my nails into his skin and tried to pull him toward me. He resisted, and there wasn’t anything I could do about that.

  “Baby, you are so insanely hot,” he said, his voice a growl.

  Maybe, if I weren’t lit while he wasn’t, I might have taken the compliment a little better. Or maybe if he hadn’t avoided answering my impromptu marriage proposal…

  But I felt heat spreading across my face, a blush that Corbin could probably see. “I’m not,” I said.

  Corbin became still, and when I tried to pulse my hips toward him, he pressed a large hand on my lower belly, making me still.

  “Arguing with your dom during sex? That’s asking for trouble. Begging for it.”

  “We’re not having sex,” I pointed out.

  “Oh, we’re not? In that case, I suppose I’ll wait outside. After all, you don’t need me here.”

  Groaning, I tried to dig my nails into him again, but the best I could do was to catch up fistfuls of his cotton T-shirt.

  “Careful, Audrey,” he warned. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world. Contradict me all you want, but it doesn’t change that.”

  “It’s just your opinion,” I murmured.

  He pulled away, flipped me over, and I found the side of my face pressed into the floor, my weight resting on my shoulders and upper chest, as well as my knees.

  My ass, though, was in the air.

  Corbin wound my hair around his fingers. “Don’t contradict me. I’m the expert on women’s bodies. You’re hot.” His other hand caressed my ass. “This, right here, is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. When you’re not around, I fantasize about fucking you from behind. It makes my cock so stiff.”