MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance)

by Claire Branson

  “Thunder,” he said, yawning a little.

  “Cal, there’s not a cloud in the sky.” Harper stood up, fastening her jeans before she turned full circle. “It’s getting closer. Is that a bunch of semis on the road?”

  Now Caleb could hear it too, and it made him jump to his feet and yank up his jeans. “We’ve got to get to the horses. No, baby, leave all this stuff.”

  The sound of gun shots made her eyes widen. “What is it?”

  “Stampede.” Caleb scooped her up in his arms and ran.

  Chapter Five

  When Caleb got to the edge of the pasture, Harper cried out in alarm. Both of the horses were gone, and a tsunami of cattle were rushing toward them. She remembered him telling her there were over two thousand head in the herd. Over three million pounds of frightened animal were running straight at them, and there was nowhere for them to go.

  Caleb scooped up a coil of rope that had fallen from his saddle to the ground and looked all around them. He tested a root sticking up from the ground, and peered up. “If this doesn’t work, run down to the creek where it slopes downhill, and get behind that cluster of rocks by the water.”

  She watched him testing the length with a throw on the ground. “Caleb, what are you doing?”

  “You ever play Tarzan when you were a kid?” he asked, hauling the rope back into a coil. “Never mind. Climb on my back.”

  Harper nodded and clambered up onto him, gripping his shoulders tightly. As soon as she had, he took the rope and tossed it straight up, catching a bare but sturdy branch fifty feet over their heads. Pushing the toes of his boots under a thick root extruding from the ground, he began winding the rope around his hand and elbow, bowing the branch as he pulled it down toward the ground.

  Now Harper could see what he meant to do. “We’ll be catapulted into them.”

  “Not if I get just the right amount of energy in the tension.” He grunted as he wound it two more times. “You hold onto me tight now. We only get one chance at this. I love you, Harper.”

  “I love you, too, Cowboy. But I’m not marrying you, and I’m not having babies. Unless this works. Then I might change my mind.” Harper kissed the side of his neck as she watched the wave of cattle thundering toward them.

  At the last possible moment Caleb pulled his boots out from under the anchoring root. The tree branch snapped back up into place, hauling both of them up to dangle a scant ten feet above the stampeding herd.

  Once the cattle reached the creek, the downhill slope made the front line turn back, and what had been a deadly wave turned into a huge, seething mass of confusion.

  Harper glanced down and saw bloody wounds on the flanks of some of the steers in the very back. “Someone deliberately shot into the herd. Who would do such a thing?”

  “The only person who knew you were out here besides my family,” Caleb said, his expression grim. “Brian.”

  Three riders appeared on the fringe of the herd. Ethan waded into the cattle looking all around him. “Caleb? Harper?”

  “Up here,” Caleb said, and grinned down at his relieved-looking brother. “You boys happen to bring a safety net with you?”

  #

  That night Jonah and Liam rode out with the coroner to recover the trampled body of Brian Montlake, which the Boones had discovered while taking Harper and Caleb back to the ranch house.

  “He must have thought he was safe riding into the herd on a strange horse,” Chris later theorized when they sat down at the kitchen table to talk it out. “The dumbass.”

  “When he started shooting at them to start the stampede, the horse likely spooked and threw him,” Ethan told Harper. “The real question is why? How would your death benefit him?”

  Harper thought for a moment. “Brian took out a new medical insurance policy on me right before the accidents started happening. I didn’t read the papers,” she admitted, feeling foolish now. “It was just supposed to be extra coverage, in case I got hurt. Maybe it was something else.”

  Caleb winced. “Life insurance.”

  “If he made himself the beneficiary,” Chris said, “that would be plenty of motive. Especially if you died accidentally. Most companies pay double for that.”

  “It would also explain why he wanted you to keep competing,” Caleb put in. “He must have planned to keep sabotaging your gear until it did you in. Then he could get rid of the evidence and collect on the policy.”

  “Getting himself killed, trying to kill me.” Harper shook her head. “Well, I’m going to have to take a break from the circuit now to find a new manager. Although I’m not even sure I really want to, considering.”

  “I’d look for someone who knows everything about team roping,” Ethan said as he rose from the kitchen table. “He should be good at handling horses, looking after your gear and fending off the arena yahoos. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a wife-to-be waiting upstairs.” He winked at Caleb and then headed upstairs.

  “I got one them myself tucked in my mansion across town.” Chris lifted his massive arms in a lazy stretch. “You know, Harper, if I was looking for a manager I’d want someone young and unencumbered who could go anywhere I went. Good company on the road.” He grinned at Caleb before he said, “Night, you two.”

  She almost giggled once they were alone and she saw Caleb’s scowl. “Your brothers give good advice. Know any young, unencumbered team ropers who might want to manage the fastest-rising female rodeo star on the circuit?”

  “I think they’re trying to get rid of me,” he grumbled. “But yeah, I do. He can’t spend the whole year on the road with you, though. He’s got a family and strong roots. He might chafe at them now and then, but they go deep.”

  She smiled slowly. “How about half the year on the road, and half the year at the ranch?”

  His expression softened as he took her hands in his. “Shoot you a game of pool for it.”

  THE END

  The Mogul’s Fantasy

  Bound to the Alpha Billionaire

  Book 3

  (Can be read as a standalone book)

  By: Author Name

  The Mogul’s Fantasy

  Chapter One

  Jake Silvar stood at the wall of glass enclosing his penthouse office, commissioned specifically to provide dazzling views of midtown Manhattan. “How was your visit to the Bahamas?”

  “Hot,” his captive replied.

  Moving Silvatech’s headquarters to New York City had been one of Jake’s smartest decisions, as it had allowed his corporation to grow and thrive in the very hub of American commerce. Occupying the same neighborhood as some of the most famous buildings in the world also pleased him on several levels.

  Starting out as a brilliant engineering prodigy who wasn’t afraid to take chances, Jake had devoted his life to making his designs a reality. They in turn had made him wealthy, powerful, and one of the world’s leading innovators in aerotech design.

  None of that matter to him right now, either. Tonight he was on a very different mission.

  The woman sitting in front of his glass and chrome desk hadn’t spoken a word since being brought in, but Jake could feel her watching him. He could also smell her delicate scent, which seemed to curl around him like invisible tendrils. He’d had Kameko Saito investigated before he’d hired her to be his personal assistant, and he knew everything about her – or thought he had.

  They’d worked together for six months before she’d left her resignation on his desk and walked away. It might have made sense to Jake, if she hadn’t been the best assistant he’d ever hired. Every day she had worked long hours without a single complaint, creating an atmosphere of calm harmony in everything she did. She had become so adept at anticipating his wishes, he often wondered if she’d somehow been able to read his mind. To his everlasting regret, he hadn’t been able to read hers.

  Tonight he didn’t have to. Tonight he’d use other methods to find out why she had betrayed him for money.

  When Jake finall
y turned around to look at her he felt the burn of outrage in his gut. Kameko regarded him with the same serene expression she’d always put on in his presence. Slender and coolly beautiful, her exotic onyx eyes and precisely-cut, midnight hair gave her a mysterious air. That darkness also emphasized the purity of her flawless golden skin and refined features.

  At least now he knew that nothing about Kameko Saito was pure or refined.

  Jake moved to lean against the edge of his desk. “Do you know why you’re here, Ms. Saito?”

  She seemed almost amused as she tilted her head to look up at him. “You wanted me, obviously.”

  Oh, Jake wanted her – that was the other problem. Even before she’d left Silvatech he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her graceful body or her luscious mouth. The quiet need he sometimes glimpsed in her dark eyes had utterly fooled him. “What were you doing in the islands?”

  “I was on vacation.” Her lips pursed, as if she was trying to keep from laughing.

  She thought this was funny, did she? “So you didn’t go there to sell the designs for the new CloudWatch satellite?” When she showed no reaction he added, “Where are they?”

  A flicker of hurt passed over her face. “I don’t know.”

  “The design schematics for the prototype disappeared on the same day you quit working for me. The only two people who had access to the computer where they were stored were you, and me.” He straightened. “I have no reason to steal my own designs.”

  “Neither did I,” she said, still looking slightly wounded.

  “On the contrary. They’re worth billions.” He bent down, clamping his hands on the armrests of her chair to keep from grabbing her. “I also know a bit more about you now that you didn’t include in your C.V., such as your very interesting personal life. To whom did you sell my work, Ms. Saito?”

  “No one. I didn’t take your design schematics.” She turned her face away from his. “If that’s all, I’d like to go now.”

  “Did you think I had you abducted and brought here for my own amusement?” Jake gripped the short chain of the steel handcuffs binding her wrists. “Until I get some answers, you’re not going anywhere.”

  #

  After being grabbed, cuffed, and dragged to a private landing strip, Kameko Saito had prepared herself for the worst. The extensive training she’d been given by British intelligence included how to cope with capture, interrogation and torture. She knew how to endure pain and provide convincing but false information. Her instructors had even shown her ways to kill herself if the ordeal proved too much.

  Nothing prepared her for the moment when her kidnappers had forced her to board the very same private jet she had flown on while working for Jake Silvar.

  It had been less than two weeks since she’d resigned as Jake’s personal assistant, and still she couldn’t keep her eyes off her former boss. Jake kept his copper-red hair trimmed close to his skull, and with his craggy features and broad, powerful build looked more like a gladiator than an engineer. People who didn’t know him assumed he was a bodyguard or a brawler, not one of the most brilliant men in his field.

  Kameko hadn’t made that mistake. From the first time she gazed into his sea-colored eyes she’d sensed his enormous intelligence, and ruthless focus. In the end she knew she couldn’t go on deceiving him for much longer, which had been one of the reasons she’d abandoned her assignment to watch over him.

  As for the other reason she’d run from Jake Silvar, not even torture would make her admit it – even to herself.

  “Kidnapping and false imprisonment are serious felonies in this country,” she told him, breathing through her mouth to avoid being aroused by the hot, dark scent of his skin. “However, I realize this must be simply a terrible misunderstanding. If you’ll release me, right now, I won’t pursue charges.”

  “Perhaps I wasn’t clear.” Jake used his grip on the handcuffs to haul her to her feet. “You will tell me who you really are, and what you did with those schematics. Tonight.”

  Resisting him while she was restrained didn’t seem wise, so Kameko allowed him to march her out of his office. Jake took her down the hall to the luxury apartment he used when he worked too late to make the commute to his home in the Hamptons. As soon as they stepped inside, Kameko noted everything she could use in the room to disable him. As soon he freed her hands, she’d knock him out and be boarding a plane to London before he regained consciousness.

  Jake didn’t uncuff her, but guided her back into the bedroom and switched on the lights. Kameko froze as she saw that the room had been renovated from top to bottom, and most of the furniture replaced with far more exotic equipment.

  In the center of the room stood a black padded X-frame fitted with side extensions, buckled straps, hooks and looped lengths of narrow leather and glittering silver chain. On the walls racks of pleasure toys had been hung, ranging from feathered teasers to leather-tressed crops. Glass cases on pedestals held more intimate implements of pain and delight. Even the king-size bed now sported black silk restraints tied to the headboard, and matching satin sheets.

  “It took some time, and a lot of money, but I found out why you never had a boyfriend when you worked for me,” Jake told her as he led her to the platform. “You’re a professional sexual submissive.”

  So he knew. Of course he did; since he believed she was a thief, he’d probably had her background rechecked with a microscope.

  “You offer your services to men and women, often for a hefty fee.” He sounded more detached than disgusted, but she heard the edge of anger clipping his words. “You allow them to abuse, humiliate and stimulate you. While you draw the line at having actual sex, you let them do whatever else they want to you.” Jake tossed a file filled with pictures on the X-frame.

  Kameko stared down at the grainy photos someone had lifted from a security video. She remembered the op at the BDSM club, where she had allowed Simon Denning, another agent, to spank her bare bottom in front of an important cartel chief. They’d managed to gain his trust, which had led to them successfully shutting down a notorious drug route.

  All Jake saw was her draped over Simon’s lap and being beaten in public, naturally. It was embarrassing, but it meant that the second layer of Kameko’s phony identity remained intact. A relief, and a curse, for now he thought she was a whore as well as a thief.

  Jake grabbed up the photos and held them in front of her nose. “You’re going to explain this to me, damn it.”

  “Am I?” Kameko wished she could. “Why is my personal life any of your business?”

  “Fine. Then tell me what you did with my designs.” Jake jerked her closer. “Or tonight you’ll be submitting to me.”

  Chapter Two

  Jake watched tiny beads of sweat pop out on Kameko’s face. Her fear filled the air between them like a shivering phantom, and yet when she spoke she sounded bored.

  “Mr. Silvar, I'm not your submissive. I'm your former employee, and currently your captive.” She held up her cuffed wrists. “I don’t intend to cooperate, either, so you’ll have to rape me.” She smiled. “And you’re not a rapist.”

  “You’re right, I’m not.” Jake took out the key to release the handcuffs, which he pocketed as he watched her rub her wrists. “How does a quiet, reserved woman like you end up selling herself to be abused by kinky perverts?”

  She lifted one shoulder. “Perhaps I’m not as reserved as you think.”

  He heard the blasé tone to her voice, but her body language told him the complete opposite – and he could almost feel the waves of anger coming off her now. If she kept lying to him his own simmering temper would snap, and then God only knew what would happen. “You never wanted me to find out, did you?”

  Her smile turned ironic. “On the contrary. I should have included it on my resume. I had no idea you’d take such an interest in my personal life.”

  “Maybe I should have. Every time I touched you or smelled you or heard your voice, you got under m
y skin. I always wondered what gave you pleasure.” Jake reached out to touch a piece of her hair, which felt gossamer-soft. The contact sent a bolt of hot blood into his groin, where his cock swelled. The arousal only made him more furious with her – and himself. “I never once imagined it would be public spankings.”

  “That’s only foreplay,” Kameko told him. “The real pleasure comes later, when they use restraints and whips.”

  “I don’t believe you.” He fingered her hair. “It’s all a lie, isn’t it? To hide what you really are under all those masks you wear.”

  Kameko turned her back on him the way another woman might slam a door. “You should call the police. Have me arrested.”

  “Nervous? You should be.” Jake rested his hands on her shoulders. “How long has it been since a man undressed you, and touched that lovely golden skin of yours? What did he do to make you tremble for him?”

  “Nothing like that,” she muttered. “I’m a submissive whore, remember?”

  Jake heard the break in her voice and knew he was wearing her down. “Did you ever wonder about me? I think you did. Those nights we worked late, sometimes I’d catch you watching me. All that loneliness and longing in your pretty eyes.”

  Kameko hung her head and tightened her hands into fists. “Stop it.”

  “It was the same for me.” He ran his hands down her arms and gripped her wrists. “I’d jerk off at night, fantasizing about you. Imagining you in my bed, or bending over my desk. How you would want me to take you: hard, slow, easy, fast . . . or deep.” He drew her back against him so that their bodies touched. “You would want me hard and deep, wouldn’t you, Kameko?”

  She shuddered. “Please don’t do this to me, Jacob. Please.”

  She called him Jacob. No one did, except his mother. Jake should have found that disturbing, but instead it made something twist in his chest. That she was trying to play him again also pissed him off beyond belief.