Surrendering To Her Sergeant (24 page)

Her gaze darkened to the color of the
sky over Rainier before sundown. “Tait, we can’t.”

He shifted off the barstool and
reached for her again. Too slow. She’d already stepped out of
range, breathing hard against the arms she wrapped around
herself.

“Why not?” he demanded.

“Because officially, I’m still the
property of the Washington State penal system.”

“So we’re living dangerously. I’m sort
of used to that.”

“You didn’t let me get to the
unofficial part.”

It hung on the air between them,
weighted with a thousand times more meaning than what those nine
words contained. Tait watched her lips work frantically against
each other, took in the violet intensity in her eyes. The desire
there. The need.

“I’m letting you now.”

She swallowed again. Shifted from one
foot to the other. “Maybe that wouldn’t be so—”

As soon as she started the words, he
surged into action. He’d been sitting near the end of the bar, so
one swoop and a couple of steps got him behind it then seizing one
of her hands. Without a word, he stalked toward the storeroom. On
the way, he steeled himself for her sputtering protest, for some
colorful sentence strings comparing him to an ape, an asshole, or
worse, but Luna didn’t utter a peep. She actually kept pace with
him.

All those facts confirmed
an instinct that had grown over the last two minutes. The woman had
to maintain a tigress’s front for the world without a break.
Perhaps the last time she’d let everything go was the hour she’d
let him hold her in that private room at the Bastille. Now, she
definitely remembered what she craved but had lost the nerve,
perhaps even the words, to ask for it. Her vacillation was likely
worsened by the last experience she’d had with Domination. It
wasn’t Zeke’s fault. It wasn’t
her
fault. It just
was
. But now that truth would
change.

Now, it was time the tigress got
reminded how good it was to get devoured.

An affirming growl raged up his throat
as he pushed her against the walk-in cooler. A moment later, he had
her hip-to-hip and mouth-to-mouth. She moaned as he spread her lips
and thrust in his tongue, claiming her with feral intent. He kept
his grip on her hand long enough to fling it around his neck, and
guided her other arm to do the same. She tightened her hold as if
instinctively knowing, maybe begging, for what he’d do
next.

He clawed both hands into her thighs
and lifted them around his. Dear fuck, she felt good. As the apexes
of their bodies slammed together, his blood roared and his cock
surged. He groaned and grunted before sliding his grip around her
ass.

“Now what were you saying?” He gave
her the taunt as his lips hovered over hers. Yeah, that abstinence
wasn’t going to last long. Their tongues were tangled again the
next second, urgently mating as he began rocking her body against
his. Tait gulped hard and gritted his teeth as he increased the
pace, watching the ecstasy start to bloom across his flower’s
perfect features. He loved watching her brow knit. Her lips purse.
Her nostrils flare. And her lips, stung from the pounding of his
own, now pant arousal.

“We—we can’t—”

“We can.” He kissed her
again, letting another growl escape as she enhanced the pace by
engaging her hip muscles, working with him on each crash of their
bodies. “
You
can.
Yes, Luna. Yesssss.”

“Help me,” she pleaded.

He pulled back enough so that their
stares met. Her eyes were hooded, heavy pools of purple lust. “You
mean hurt you,” he said.

Her answer took three
seconds to come. “Yes.
Yes
. Make me forget…everything. Make
it hurt. Please!”

He nodded. Slowly set her down. As
soon as he was certain she could stand again, he grabbed her and
turned her toward the kitchen’s little chopping block. It smelled
like a citrus grove. This is where those fresh drink garnishes had
been prepared. How convenient that someone had left behind a whole
box of those cute toothpicks with the colored swizzle
tops.

He actually felt himself grinning as
he pushed her over the block, facedown. She writhed and sighed in
pleasure. He let her squirm in that state for close to a minute as
he paced around the block, making sure she saw him stroking the
growing mound at the center of his thighs. Only then did he spoke
again.

“Unbutton your pants, flower. Shove
them down to your knees along with your panties.” He broke the seal
on a new box of toothpicks and let the contents flow out along the
block in front of her face. “I’m going to give you what you need,
Luna. I’m going to hurt you, then I’m going to fuck you. I know
you’ve got a few issues with safe words, but it’s been a while for
you, so call that red if needed.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes,
Sir.”

He repositioned himself behind her,
stroking her spine in appreciation for this stolen, perfect moment
of time. Fuck, what a night. It had gone from crazy-good to
crazy-bad at Bella’s, then just plain crazy in the team’s meeting,
and now escalated to crazy-ecstatic.

He never should have underestimated
the power of crazy-bad.

“Laudia?”

The shout came from the old bartender,
now standing on the storeroom side of the swinging door. It was a
good thing half Tait’s brain was still in hyper response mode,
because he got Luna yanked up and turned around a second before the
guy’s gaze landed on them.

“Harvey!” Her voice was overly bright,
though Tait doubted Grandpa Simpson noticed.

“Laudia?” He shot it at her in a
teasing mutter.

“Cover name,” she whispered
back.

“Yeah, but
Laudia
? You didn’t have
time to bother with one more letter?”

She elbowed him as she gave Harvey a
smile that likely raised the man’s blood sugar by ten points.
“Sorry. You need me? I was catching up with an old friend. I’d like
you to meet…errm…Abnuss. Yes, this is my friend Abnuss.”

Grandpa gave him a brief wave. “Nice
to meet ya, Ab.” He glanced back at Luna. “Sorry to break it up but
we got a rush. Was there something goin’ on at the Bowl
tonight?”

“Likely.” She was still
more falsely cheerful than the first runner-up in a beauty pageant.
“It’s summer and they
are
the Hollywood Bowl.”

“Hmmppff.” Whether that meant the guy
agreed, disagreed, or just had bad gas, Tait couldn’t tell. After
“Laudia’s” assurance she’d be out in a second and the guy finally
left, he turned and pinned her with a playfully dark
glower.

“Abnuss?”

She smirked in feline defiance.
“That’ll teach you to hate on my cover.”

He moved in on her again with two
prowling steps. “Yeah, about covers. Or as I prefer, no ‘covers’ at
all…”

He kicked up a new grin. Just as hers
descended.

“A-actually…Harvey probably saved
us.”

He gritted against the renewed ache in
his chest. “Why does that sound like the Luna Lawrence version of
‘we need to talk’?”

She tipped her head, again regarding
him with that strange mix she’d given him out at the bar. Part
curiosity, part needy, with a giant slather of sadness on top.
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Their hands touched. She laced her
fingers into his, one by one. “You know it as well as I
do.”

He breathed hard, waiting for the pain
in his chest to explode into fury. Didn’t take long. He broke from
her clasp to grab her face with both hands, ravaging her lips with
an angry, biting kiss. He needed to brand her, make her
feel—

What
?

He jerked back, stunned by
the charge that came from a corner of his mind. What
did
he want from her?
What had he wanted from being with her tonight?

The answer burst at him immediately.
Straight from the depths of the gut she couldn’t stop wringing like
a goddamn towel in a flood plain.

He didn’t want anything.

He’d only wanted to give her what life
itself couldn’t.

Freedom.

In the depths of her mind, at the
heights of her soul, with the submission of her body. If only for a
few precious minutes…he’d wanted to set her free.

But gazing at her now, with
the shutters back over her eyes and the tension re-wrapped in her
stance, divine revelation smacked him again.
A tigress can leave her cage only if she wants
to
.

He heaved a leaden sigh. Kissed her
again, this time with gentle resignation. But he didn’t let go of
her hand. He only did that after he grabbed a pen off a nearby
clipboard and wrote the number of their hotel into the center of
her palm.

“Just in case the cage closes in on
you.”

He turned after he whispered it,
leaving the bar via the back door, treasuring the tiny gift she’d
given him to take with him. The single tear he’d just thumbed off
her cheek.

It was five a.m. and Ava’s
cell came alive with the strains of Britney Spears’s
Piece of Me
. Six months
ago, she’d linked the song to one special person as a good karma
move. The day after, her sister had packed up and moved to Las
Vegas after landing one of the most sought-after gigs in the city.
She’d been chosen as a backup dancer in the star’s sexy Planet
Hollywood Resort show.

She rolled over in bed and
scooped up the phone, almost stunned to observe that her hand
looked normal against the device. After what Ethan had done to her
body last night, she thought she’d be glowing. “Mmmm,
buenos dias
,
mi hermana
.”

For a long second, Zoe didn’t say
anything. “I think I’m going to call back and ask for the real Ava
Chestain to pick up the phone.”

“Laughing out loud…not.”

“It’s five in the morning. You’re
supposed to bitch at me that you were trying to catch ten more
minutes of sleep. Then I’m supposed to argue that this is the only
time you’ll pick up the phone. Then you’re supposed to tell me how
my diva is doing and I’m supposed to ask how yours is doing. Then
I’m supposed to tell you that I just got moved up to lead on the
dance team, and you’re supposed to—”

Ava cut her off with a joyous
shriek.

“Something like that,” Zoe finished
with a giggle.

Ava laughed in return and
lowered her voice to a rasp. “Oh, shit. Rayna’s in the guest room
with Zeke. They came home later than me, too. Bet
you’ll
become her
favorite cousin now.”

“What? I wasn’t always her
favorite?”

Ava scooted herself up and
propped against the headboard. “Wow. I’m so proud of you,
hermana
. You worked your
cute little ass off for this.”

“Awww.
Te amo
,
cariña
.”

There was a telling
pause.
Uh oh
.
Ava could feel her sister’s
assessment even through the miles that separated them. She needed
to fill the gap fast with a chit-chatty question or comment, but
nothing entered her mind except the man who’d filled this bed six
hours ago. Who’d filled
her
…made so many of her forbidden
fantasies come true in ways she never could have dreamed. In the
hands of Ethan Archer, her submissiveness had become a gift as much
for her as him. Even his abrupt departure, leaping to the call of
his team, somehow added to the magic of being with him. The way
he’d gotten dressed inside a minute, followed by his rough kiss and
a growled promise to call so they could meet again before he went
home, all imprinted his raw masculinity even deeper on her body and
psyche. Even the lingering scent of him in the sheets, musk and
midnight and pure man, made her blood sing and her body clench,
wanting more…