by Liz Maverick
“It’s night, the target is dim, and there’s distraction everywhere. It’s hard to get off a shot.”
She pulled off a round and hit the target. “Not that hard.”
Michael slid his hand over her bare thigh, setting fire to her skin in the space between her boots and dress. But he didn’t stop there. His fingers moved around to the front and up her body, grazing the edge of her lace thong.
Vienna closed her eyes for a moment, swallowing hard. Her finger hesitated on the trigger. “Take the shot, Vienna,” Michael said, the strain in his voice telling her he wasn’t immune to all this.
Steadying herself, she took the shot, hitting the target once more. Michael was hard and wanting against the back of her skirt. Vienna could feel his cock pulsing, and she couldn’t help arching her body slightly to press back against him.
He sucked in a quick breath.
Goad him on. Break him. Make him want you.
Staring straight at the bull’s-eye, she purred, “You didn’t like it, did you?”
“Like what?”
“You hated the idea of me with Pierce. It made you feel…jealous.”
He didn’t answer her, tantalizing her instead with the slow, rhythmic pressing and sliding of his pelvis up against her ass. For a moment, the shushing of crumpling leather was the only sound between them.
“Focus on the target,” he finally whispered into her ear, biting softly on her earlobe. “Part of your brain is somewhere else. What if you’ve been drinking, wined and dined; your lover is in the room—perhaps he’s sliding his finger inside of you…” His fingers moved across the small triangle of lace between her legs. “…And you’ve still got to make the shot.”
“You mean my lover Pierce, for example?” she asked, her voice coming out in between two gasps.
Michael put his hand on Vienna’s back and pushed her down hard, bending her over the shooting counter. She nearly dropped the weapon as his fingers moved under the thin string of her thong and slipped inside her.
Closing her eyes, she cried out in sheer ecstasy as he stroked through the wet.
“Pierce, for example,” he spat out. “Let’s say he is distracting you from a shot. He wants you. You are a very beautiful girl; perhaps he can’t wait.”
Her legs trembled, and Vienna spread them wider, wanting to feel him press up against her, inside her. He’d backed off and just the sense of him so close behind her remained.
“Take the shot, Vienna,” Michael said, moving two fingers slowly inside and out of her body.
Suddenly, he pulled them away; Vienna gasped in dismay before she could stop herself. But his hands moved up to her back, unlacing the back of her dress just enough to let him slip his hands inside and cup her breasts.
“You’re not paying attention,” he said, his voice strained and demanding. “Take the shot.”
“You know I’ll make it,” she said, pressing back and grinding against him.
Michael’s groan elevated her own excitement even higher. “Make it harder,” she said, breathy with desire. “Make it harder.”
The sound of his zipper, the feel of his knuckles on the round of her ass as he moved his hand down on himself…suddenly Vienna felt like she could barely breathe much less make a shot.
An errant bullet pinged off the metal lining the seams of the booth. Vienna swore, tried again, and this time hit the target, a rivulet of sweat trickling down between her shoulder blades as Michael worked her nipples with his free hand.
Vienna lowered her weapon; she had to squeeze her eyes shut hard then open them wide to achieve any semblance of focus.
“Keep shooting, Vienna. Keep the pace.”
She raised the weapon again and started shooting, but he’d nearly won the game. A kind of desire she’d never met before had her and good; she wanted to feel what he made her feel more than she wanted to prove herself on the range.
He’s working you over. It’s just a game. He’ll stop any moment now…
Please, please, don’t stop.
She pulled the trigger over and over, the target swimming before her eyes. Against the inconsistent staccato of her gunfire, she heard the dull thud of Michael’s belt hitting the ground. A moment later she felt him skin-on-skin as he gently spread her legs even wider and rested the head of his cock against her asshole.
Her shooting went all over the place.
Do it, Michael.
She arched her back; Michael’s hands came up around her, sliding down her bare arms, his fingers curling over hers around the weapon.
“No, no, Vienna. Don’t lose your form. Arms up…and legs wide,” he whispered.
She widened her stance, running her tongue over her trembling lips.
“Make everything around you nothing but white noise or you will miss your shot.”
He ran his hand up the inside of her leg. Her form slipped again as he ran his index finger in a circle over the delicate ring of her asshole and shifted his cock to the slick, wet of her cunt underneath.
She felt the head press just barely inside her. Skin on fire, mouth going numb, head spinning with want, Vienna gasped and let herself give in a little to desire.
“Eyes on the prize,” Michael murmured into her ear. “Give everything a rhythm or make it all white, make it blank.”
Doing her best to focus on the target as he slid all the way inside, Vienna allowed herself the luxury of closing her eyes for just a moment. Pure, delicious sensation rocked her body. Clenching every muscle she had to try and still herself enough to make a shot made Michael groan with ecstasy when her body closed in even tighter around him.
And as he worked in and out of her body, she pressed the trigger hard until the ammo ran out, then just let the weapon fall over the side of the counter. It clattered to the ground, metal on pavement echoing around them with Vienna thrusting back to meet his movement with her own.
Michael pressed his hot mouth against her neck then moved her fingers to join his cock, bringing her to the point where white, blank focus was out of the question.
In an electric haze of lust, Vienna arched her back, crying out as she came hard. Michael followed her lead, emptying himself inside of her. She could have sworn she heard him say her name on a whisper but maybe she just wanted to believe this all meant something more than the mere physical act between them.
He held her for a moment longer, the heaviness of his body strangely wonderful, then he pulled away, too soon for Vienna’s taste, and quickly set himself straight.
Vienna stood upright, looked at the target sprayed liberally with stray bulletholes, and had to smile, though Michael was already all business again.
“We’re going out tomorrow night,” Michael said very suddenly.
Pulling her dress back into position, she looked over her shoulder. “Really?”
He ran his sleeve over his sweat-streaked forehead. “Yes. Don’t you want to get out of here for a little while?”
“Of course,” she said, a little startled by his wording. Did he mean something not on the job?
“Good,” he said, and she thought she could detect a smile in his voice. Without another word, Michael grabbed his belt and left the target booth, his footsteps growing faint as he walked back down the length of the building.
Vienna turned back to the target, her breathing still a bit labored. She ran her hands down the front of her leather dress to smooth it out, tossed the lace thong in the trash along with the spent bullet casings and headed out.
Maybe she shouldn’t give in to him. Maybe she was supposed to be making all of this harder. Supposed to. The supposed to in all of this was that she wasn’t supposed to like it this much.
It or him.
Michael was reeling. He didn’t walk back to the mansion so much as stumble his way back. Where had the damn line gone? The one he wasn’t supposed to cross. Where was the line? Had he gone too far with Vienna? Was she just a better actress than he’d given her credit for?
This wasn�
�t what he wanted, these emotions. Not at all.
There was something else at work here, something he had to stop denying before he made a mess of the mission and a mess of himself. What was responsible for the chemistry between two people? Chemistry was a separate component from lust. A much rarer thing. Lust was easy to conjure up between two attractive people. Chemistry was an issue of personality. Of connection.
Vienna’s looks would have fired up any man, but that spark inside of her…some sort of strange chemistry drew him to her, made him want to make love to her, hold her…be around her. Remember…she’s just part of the job. She’s an accessory of the mission. God, what he would give to take her out one evening and have it just be for the two of them, with nothing to do with ulterior motives and pretense.
The last thing he wanted to do right now was turn her over to the arms of Pierce Mackey.
“Michael!”
Michael stood fast in the middle of the hallway, just past the open doorway to Devlin’s office.
Michael knew exactly what he must look like. And he knew exactly what scent lingered around him. He knew he should keep going, head straight for his rooms and clean himself up before Devlin had any clue what was happening.
Instead, he made a choice. He turned and walked into Devlin’s office and presented himself in all of his freshly sexed-up glory, spoiling for a fight.
His brother stood with a highball glass in his hand, plenty full. “There are only two kinds of mistakes in life a man can make.”
Michael combed his fingers through his messed up hair. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“Maybe it bears repeating. One involves money. The other, women. You know the requirements of this job. You identify what they want, what they need, and you use it to shape them, to train them. Don’t forget your purpose here. You train them, and then you let go.”
“I realize that, Dev. I’m thinking about that all the time.”
“Are you?” Devlin asked coldly. “I suppose it’s helpful to have complete confidence that she’s willing to fuck on demand.”
“God,” Michael said, bewildered, disgusted by his brother.
Devlin narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you dare look at me like that.”
“I think you owe me an apology,” Michael said.
“What?” Devlin looked pissed, but he couldn’t have been more pissed than Michael.
“What’s happened to you, Dev?”
“You know exactly what happened to me,” he said. “You were there.”
Michael rubbed his eyes and forced himself to de-escalate the situation. “Are we going to let Pierce win? He sets us against each other, he wins.”
“He’s not going to win,” Devlin said through his teeth, his knuckles white around the crystal.
“Listen, we’re in this together. I want revenge as much as you do. So point your anger outside this compound, not inside.”
Devlin suddenly seemed to deflate. He downed the rest of his drink and crossed the room to pour himself another one. God only knew how many he’d had that day.
Michael took a good, long look at his brother. Finally, he shook his head a little. “I don’t think I’ve been able to see it until now. I must have been too close.”
Devlin took a swig of liquor. “See what?”
“Just how much this has destroyed you. If I think back…you were a completely different person.”
He took a drink and looked at Michael. “I’m sorry if you feel I’m taking this out on you.”
“You want to take it out on me. That’s how it’s been. And I’ve let you do it because I still feel guilty. And the thing is, you want me to feel guilty.”
“You don’t want to go there,” Devlin warned.
“Actually I do want to go there.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“Yes, you do. And you make sure that it’s always between us. You seem intent on making me pay for what happened for the rest of my life…” Michael’s voice cracked, but he went on. “I admit that I shot Julia. But, god, Dev, you know that was an accident. How many times do I have to say it? You were there. I was grappling with Pierce and it went off. I was trying to stop you two from killing each other.”
“I don’t need to relive it, thanks very much,” Devlin said.
“I’ve always been on your side. I’ve always been loyal to you. I deserve better than to have you hold this over my head for the rest of my life. Just remember that it was Julia and Pierce who were disloyal to you, who were disloyal to our family. I may have pulled the trigger, but by rights Julia should have already been dead to you.”
Devlin winced, but Michael held his ground. After a weighty silence Devlin finally said, “I want to let you off the hook, Mick. I swear I do. But I just can’t get past it until this thing is done. And that brings us back to Vienna. You’re going to have to give her to him eventually.”
Michael looked away.
“Better do it before you get too attached. Get her out on the mission and then maybe we can get on with the rest of our lives.”
Devlin left the room without waiting for an answer and Michael just stood there staring at the crystal decanter still open on the bar. Deep inside, maybe his brother wasn’t that much different than he was—they just expressed it differently.
You both want too much. You both care too much. And in the end, the woman will make love to the man only to turn around and betray his trust. On call. On request. Just like you tell her to. Just like Julia.
Five
Opening night at the theater was always a major event on the Center City social calendar. Pierce would be there. Which meant that Michael and Vienna would be there. They’d rented a box for the night, one close to center for maximum visibility. The objective for the evening: see, be seen, and this time, make contact.
The arrangement was to have Michael fawning over her in the box during the entertainment. It went off without a hitch, Michael touching her, pulling her chair closer to him, kissing her neck. And Vienna was supposed to look like she wasn’t quite enjoying it. The irony, of course, was that she was. And when she looked over at Pierce Mackey’s box even as Michael pressed his mouth hot against her hair and slipped his hand into her bodice to brush over her nipple, she had to work hard at looking bored. Not easy to do while fantasizing about Michael pulling her onto his lap, moving the folds of her ball gown over his legs and working his cock into her from behind.
Intermission came too soon. Vienna fanned herself with the program, sitting almost chastely by Michael’s side while she exchanged glances full of innuendo and curiosity with his nemesis.
She turned and whispered in Michael’s ear, “I suppose now is the time?”
He nodded, and Vienna slipped out of the box and into the intermission crowd. She found a spot by the windows overlooking the boulevard below and pressed her cheek against the cool glass.
“What’s your name?” a voice said from behind.
She knew who it was. She turned to face Pierce Mackey, the sight of him this close sending a jolt of adrenaline through her system. She smiled. “I’m Vienna.”
“Well, Vienna,” he said. “What can I do to get you in my box for the second half. Will you join me?”
Vienna blurted out a laugh of disbelief. “Of course not. You know who I’m with. People will see.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s your primary objection? ‘People will see’?”
“You know what I mean. I know who you are,” she said. “I asked about you after that big fund-raiser.”
“I’m flattered.”
She leaned back on the window. “Of course, I asked about everyone after that party. This is pretty much new for me.”
“You’re not from around here,” he said, more a question, really.
“I’m not even in the same social strata,” Vienna said, tugging awkwardly at the shimmering baby blue fabric of her heavy ballskirt.
Pierce’s gaze followed her hand before moving slowly up to her face. “You�
��re very beautiful,” he said.
The sadness in his eyes stunned her. If he was thinking what the Kingstons thought, that she was a dead ringer for Julia, then whatever he’d done to take her away from Devlin, perhaps he’d done it for love. Not that it mattered.
He seemed to collect himself, smiling again with a cocky arch in the set of his lips. “Where are you from?”
“Bordertown.”
His eyebrow flew up. “Interesting.”
“I think so. You know it well. So do Michael and his brother.”
Pierce studied her face, and she knew he was making his analysis, trying to divine whether she was a plant for some kind of setup or if she were really nothing more than a Kingston prize for the stealing. She watched as his hand went absently up to the sparkling blue ring swinging from the thin chain around his neck.
She turned and stared out the window, knowing her apparent indifference would pique his curiosity that much more.
“How long have you been in Center City?” he asked.
“A month or so.”
“What brings you here?”
“Michael,” she said, lowering her lashes. “I’m just here with him.”
“He’s an old friend.”
Vienna turned back to him, rolling her eyes. “You’re not friends,” she said. “I know all about you.”
“Then why are you talking to me?” he asked softly.
She raised her chin. “I can talk to anyone I want.”
“Michael will be pissed.”
“Michael doesn’t own me!”
“Ah. Is all not well in paradise? So soon? Did you think you’d hit the jackpot, the poor beautiful girl plucked from the squalor of Bordertown? Except money doesn’t buy everything, does it?” He leaned his arm against the glass and moved in close, blowing a breath of hot air slowly into her ear. “I don’t keep my leash as tight as the Kingston boys do. Life…and love…they don’t have to be a prison, Vienna. You can debate the point with Devlin some time.”
Does he know who I really am? Vienna took a step back. “You stole Julia from him. I’ve heard.”