“Come up here with me,” I said, tugging at his arm. “I want to touch you. I want to taste you.”
He immediately joined me on the bed, not needing another invitation. We kissed for a long second and then I began dropping tiny kisses down the length of his torso. I kissed his ribs and his pecs, ran my tongue around his navel and tasted everything I could find save for the one thing he desperately wanted me to taste. When I came to that, I ran my hands over his shaft, but I pressed my kisses to his inner thigh and his knees.
He groaned, suddenly grabbing my hips and pulling me up to him as he buried his face between my legs again. I cried out again, a sound that was as much about pleasure as it was laughter. I finally acquiesced then, taking his head into my mouth and making him cry out for a change.
Before Ingram, I was not the girl who liked to give oral sex. It seemed vulgar to me. Selfish in a way. But then I met Ingram and everything about him excited me. Even this. I liked the feel of his silky cock in my mouth; I liked the tingle of his precum on the tip of my tongue. I liked the taste of him, and the sound of his cries when I touched him, when I sucked him. I wanted to make him cum and this was an ideal way to do it.
But then he peeled me away because he wanted to be inside of me. He pressed me against the mattress, sliding inside of me without pause, filling me until my eyes rolled back in my head and I couldn’t stop the moans from slipping between my lips. We found a rhythm easily, as we often did, rocking together as his hands slid over my body, his fingers intertwining with mine. And we kissed. Always kissed.
I couldn’t imagine being this intimate with anyone else. I couldn’t imagine ever wanting anyone else. Ingram was everything to me, and I wanted to be everything to him. The darkness in our past—especially his past—was gone now. We’d shed a light on it and it was soon to disappear. I knew the hurts he’d suffered in his childhood would never fully disappear. But I hoped that in fatherhood, they would begin to heal.
Because this…this was what it was all about. Love. Honesty. And…
Forgiveness.
~~~
TAMING KNOX
Prologue
Knox
The Fourth of July was never really my favorite holiday. I loved when my daddy got fireworks and took us out to the ranch to shoot them off. But he stopped coming around when I was twelve, so no more fireworks. Momma and her new husband, Ed, thought fireworks were too dangerous. And Sherilynn claimed she never liked them anyway. I was the only one to enjoy them, I supposed. There was no surprise there, though. Momma, Sherilynn, and I never agreed on much of anything.
I stood off to the side and watched my coworkers and my boss enjoy their families at the company picnic. They all looked so happy. How was it possible to be that happy? I don’t think I ever looked like that when a man looked at me; I never felt the need to blush and laugh every time a man touched me or whispered some sweet nothings in my ear. In fact, I don’t think I’m capable of a blush.
I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I could have kissed Elliot for suggesting we all headed out to a bar.
The music, the booze, the hot bodies all pressed together…now that was my idea of a party! Hands on my ass, hot breath on the back of my neck. Loved it! Whiskey burning my throat and beer chasing it…whoever invented the boilermaker was a brilliant person. Had to have been a woman!
There was this guy sitting on a stool tucked into a corner of the bar, his eyes moving over the bodies on the dance floor, but his body never moving to join them. He was good looking—fairly tall, deep brown hair with these great streaks of gold and red, piercing gray eyes—I’d been to bed with uglier guys. The beard was a bit much. I’d never been into those kinds of beards that are half grown in, half not. But it didn’t look bad on him.
I wandered over, ignoring Alexander when he grabbed my arm and tried to pull me back onto the dance floor. He was busy with his new love, that client, Tierney. I didn’t understand how he could sleep with a client. Even I had standards and that seemed a little like stepping over the line. But who was I to say anything?
I slipped into an empty stool to the left of gray eyes and ordered another boilermaker.
“My dad used to drink those,” he said, his voice deep, almost gravelly.
“Yeah? You from back East?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Most of the guys I meet in bars who say that are from back East.”
He cracked a smile, his full lips parting to reveal really nice teeth. I’m a little weird that way. I like nice, even teeth that are not bleached out bone white, but white enough.
“I grew up in a small town outside Chicago.”
“How’d you end up here?”
“My wife. We met at Northwestern, and she insisted we come back here after we married.”
“Cool.”
I picked up my drink and started to walk away. Married men were always a mistake. I’d been with a few, and it’d never ended well. And I really wasn’t in the mood for any more trouble right now.
I wandered back to the table where my coworkers—Elliot, Tony, Alexander, and Ingram—were camping out, Alexander with his girl beside him and Ingram with his—surprise!—wife on his lap. Who knew he was married? Who knew that Alexander would fall for a boring, stuffy lawyer? Who knew anything about anyone?
I tossed down the whiskey and drank a heavy swallow of my beer before grabbing Elliot’s hand and dragging him out onto the dance floor. Elliot wasn’t usually one to care for close dancing. He kept everyone at arm’s length, especially in a social setting. But he was three sheets to the wind tonight and didn’t seem to mind running his hands over the small of my back. I wrapped my arms around his neck and ground my hips against him, laughing when he suddenly stiffened.
“Lighten up, Elliot! I’m not going to rape you right here on the dance floor!”
“You’re drunk, Knox.”
“I am. And I plan on getting much drunker.”
I pulled away from him and began dancing to a tune in my head, beyond the need to listen to the live band that was playing. After a moment, I felt a body come up behind me, hands sliding over my hips. I leaned back, liking the masculine scent of my new partner’s cologne, liking the warmth of his body against mine. We moved like that for a moment, grinding against each other as we found our own rhythm that was separate from what everyone else in the room seemed to be listening to. It was hot. Sexy. His hands slipped over my belly, my hips, his fingers disappearing under the hem of my thin blouse. I turned, anxious to see whom these erotic hands belonged to, and was surprised to find myself looking up into gray eyes.
“Sorry,” I said, instantly stepping away. “I don’t waste time on married men.”
He grabbed my arm before I could get very far.
“I’m not married anymore.”
It could have been a line. It could have been a lie to get what he wanted. It could have been the truth. At the moment, I didn’t much care.
I could see Alexander making his way through the crowd, coming toward us with a determined look on his face. For some reason, Alexander had appointed himself my personal guardian. He and Ingram both, but Ingram was a little too involved in the presence of his wife to much care about me tonight. I half wished that Alexander was that involved in his pretty new girlfriend.
“You want to get out of here?” I asked.
Gray eyes smiled, showing off those perfect pearly whites again.
“Your place or mine?”
We ended up at a no-tell motel just up the road, slipping out of the bar before anyone could say anything to us. He wasn’t cheap—he rented the room himself. You’d be surprised—I often was—at how many guys wanted to get lucky, but they didn’t want to spend a dime to do it.
He came back to the car and pulled around to the back of the place, not speaking as he did. He came around and helped me out of the car—a fairly generic Ford Taurus—holding my hand as he made the way to the door. That was different, too. Most guys didn’t want to hol
d hands. They rarely kissed either. They usually just wanted to jump into bed and get down to the dirty stuff. But not this guy.
He opened the door and pulled me inside. He pressed me up against the closed door and ran his hand slowly over my throat.
“You’re beautiful,” he said.
I don’t remember the last time anyone had called me beautiful.
And then he tugged at the elastic that held my long, red hair back from my face. It tumbled loose, and he studied it, as if he’d never seen a woman with hair like mine before. It was beginning to make me uncomfortable when he finally leaned in and brushed his lips against mine.
I didn’t know what to do with that, either.
I hesitated, kissing him back as if I’d never made out with a guy before. The truth was, it had been a while. The last time I made out with someone…it had been with Alexander. But it was nice. He was gentle. And he knew what he was doing.
I opened to him, sliding my arms up around his neck, tugging him a little closer to me. It was nice, the feel of him, the taste of him. And when he lifted me up, carrying me over to the bed, I could almost forget that this was a bar hookup and I was…well, I was me.
His hands were warm on my skin, as he slid them carefully under my blouse. He was gentle…so gentle. It’d been a long time since someone had touched me with anything other than urgency or impatience. He unbuttoned my blouse, rather than tugging it open, taking the time to work each button individually. And then his teeth tugged at my nipples, pulling on them through the material of my bra. There was something about the feel of all that cotton between his teeth and my flesh that made it even more exciting. I arched my back, and he sighed, his hot breath burning my skin. His hand slipped down over my belly, coming to rest on the top button of my shorts. I ached in my lower belly in a way I don’t think I’d done before, wanting him to release that simple lock between my body and his.
I pulled at his shirt, tugging it over his head, creating a trail of hot kisses along his pecs, his ribs, loving the smell of him, the taste of him. And when he sighed again…there was power in the little noises I made him make.
We kissed again as he worked the back of my bra, popping it loose and letting my full breasts fall free. He cupped one breast, his palm doing incredible things as he sort of rolled my nipple in that big hand of his, sending shivers of pleasure up and down my spine. And then he was kissing my throat, his mouth working its way slowly down the length of my body. He tugged away my shorts, and I watched him, aching for his touch. He slid his hand over the soft cotton of my panties, cupping my cunt in his hand, and I knew he could feel my wetness. I watched his face, watched the excitement burn in his eyes. He wanted me.
I knew logically that this was just about the sex, but there was something about the way he looked at me that reminded me of the way Drake had once looked at me. Like I was the only woman on the face of the earth that he would ever look at again.
He tugged my panties away. I did a little shimmy, helping him out. And then he lifted my hips, pulling me up to him as he dipped his head low, his tongue once again doing things that short circuited my thoughts. This man knew what he was doing. The woman who let him go was a fool!
I almost forgot the condoms in my pocket, so lost was I in the feel of his tongue dancing around my clit, the sharp pain of his teeth nibbling at my lips. When he undid his pants, these alarm bells began going off in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite hear them, or didn’t quite remember what they meant. And then…he pulled a condom out of his back pocket, and it suddenly all came back.
Yeah. That’s kind of important.
And then he was inside of me, leaning down so that he could share the taste of my body with me. We kissed slowly, gently, our tongues doing a slow waltz as he thrust against me, slow rolls that touched parts of me that I was pretty sure had never been touched before. I clung to him, tugging at his hips to pull him ever closer to me. And when the waves came, crashing over me, I couldn’t quite stop the little moans that escaped my lips.
I was not a screamer. I’d never been a moaner. But this…I just couldn’t help myself.
And that was just the beginning of the night we spent together.
Maybe my opinion of the Fourth of July was a little off. Maybe it wasn’t such a terrible holiday after all.
Chapter 1
At the Compound
Kipling McKay walked around the conference room, setting out the documents Annie had copied, collated, and stapled for him early this morning. David Grayson, head of Gray Wolf Security 2, watched, wondering what his operatives were going to think of the new procedures.
Kipling was a consultant, and he was here to help David find a way to organize the non-technology sections of the business. David was a computer geek. He loved computers and could do just about anything with a computer, from designing software to building hardware. He’d designed the security systems that Gray Wolf Security 2 used with their clients, and his wife was currently working on a body camera that they were hoping their operatives could wear in the field for safety measures. He was more comfortable in front of a computer.
Sending operatives out into the field to possibly end up dead? That wasn’t really his area of expertise. That was his brother, Ash’s, field. Ash was retired Army, a former Green Beret. Ash began Gray Wolf in Santa Monica several years ago to give friends of his from the military a way to put their need for adrenaline to good use. The business grew bigger and faster than anyone expected it to, spurring David to suggest opening this second branch. He thought it would be a cinch to run it because he’d watched Ash do it. But it wasn’t as easy as it had seemed.
“What if they put up resistance?”
Kipling glanced at David. “They aren’t children. If they don’t like it, they know where the door is.”
“That’s not how we do things around here. We’re family. We take care of each other.”
“That’s great when someone’s in trouble. But that’s not the way to approach a business, and that, in the end, is what this is.”
“But I’ve made promises to these people.”
“Then that’s your mistake.”
Resentment burned in David’s chest. It was bad enough that his brother didn’t believe in him, but to have this stranger come and point out every mistake he’d ever made…it frustrated him.
But this was what Ash wanted. And everyone always bent over backwards to make sure Ash got what he wanted.
The staff began to file in for the morning meeting. Ricki, David’s wife, moved up behind him and touched his back lightly.
“One step at a time,” she whispered near his ear.
He smiled down at her, touching her cheek with all the affection that displaced the resentment. Ricki had announced just three weeks ago at their Fourth of July picnic that she was expecting their second child. The morning sickness set in just before that and had yet to loosen its grip on her. She was a little pale from the morning’s struggle, but he could already see a little color coming back.
He kissed her cheek lightly and gestured for her to take a seat.
Once everyone was around the table—Elliot, Alexander, Ingram, Tony, and Knox, their operators, as well as their background check girls and office manager, Annie—David took his place at the head of the table.
“Morning, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, picking up one of the packets Kipling had worked on. “As you can see, we have some info packets for everyone. If you could take a look at them for me, I’d appreciate it.”
“These are new rules and regulations to be followed by all members of the operations team,” Kipling announced from his position against the far wall. “You won’t just take a look at them. You will read through them, memorize them, and abide by them from today forward.”
A few groans sounded around the room. If it weren’t for the fact that he was the boss and he was supposed to pretend that all this was his idea, David might have chimed in, too.
He glanced at Kipling t
o make sure he was done, then he turned back to his people.
“Elliot? You want to give us a rundown of your current case?”
Elliot stood like a schoolboy about to recite his alphabet. “I’m working bodyguard services to a group of businessmen in town for a convention. It’ll be two days work, hopefully uneventful.”
“And Tony’s working it with you?”
Elliot glanced across the table at his white-haired partner. There was some tension there that David had noticed before, but he wasn’t quite sure of the source.
“He is,” was all Elliot had to say.
“Ingram?”
Ingram stood, shooting a wink across the table at Knox. She smiled, one of those smiles that sometimes came from a child who felt long ignored by a favorite parent.
“I’m about to head out on a stalking case. An assistant to the governor thinks her ex-boyfriend is the source behind some strange events going on around her—notes left on her car, a break in at her apartment. We’ve been hired to stick close to her until the ex can be located and cleared or arrested.”
Ingram reclaimed his seat and gestured to Alexander. Alex stood and crossed his arms over his chest.
“I have a stalker, too. A former patient harassing his psychiatrist. The police have already been notified and we’re hoping to have this one wrapped up fairly quickly.”
Pleased with everything he’d heard, David picked up the packet again.
“Review this information. As Kipling said, this is new policy and it is being implemented today. Ignorance will not be an acceptable excuse to ignoring anything written in it, understood?”
There were more groans, but not as many as David had expected. In fact, Knox and Ingram were already reading through the material.
“Alright, go start your day. And don’t get dead.”
He watched them file out of the room, hoping this went as well as Ash and Kipling thought it would.
Chapter 2
GRAY WOLF SECURITY, Texas: The Complete 6-Books Series Page 30