Tamed (12 page)

“It’s perfect.”

She gave him her spirited grin. “Of course it is, I made it.”

Kenzie cursed Tuesday, craving her bed and wishing it were the weekend for more reasons than one. Sleeping in sounded really good. Porter’s wicked touches were an even better idea. She sighed, loathing the fact that the weekend was so far away, and she eyed Porter next to her as they sat in his parked car on the Vegas strip.

Unable to stop herself, she shivered, held captivated by his presence, making her feel like a foreigner in her own skin. Being near him always caused all types of odd reactions that just weren’t normal for her. Perhaps it was that she hadn’t spent as much time with a Dom outside of the dungeon as she had with Porter. She wondered how other submissives lived with Doms day in and day out. She was on constant fire around Porter and badly wanted him—with an odd desperation—to extinguish the flames.

She fought against the desire to jump his bones right then and there, and instead, she stared out of the windshield into the dark night, finding herself bored of watching another man. After Porter received a lead from Chloe on Adrik’s whereabouts, and once Kenzie’s evening employee arrived, they had left to gather evidence on Adrik.

Now the dipshit stood in a circle of men on the corner of one of Las Vegas’s top casinos, and he’d been there for a good half-hour. Shortly after Porter parked his car, they sat while he clicked his camera, taking pictures of the thugs across the street. Whenever a new person joined Adrik, his camera clicked again.

Kenzie peeked at Porter out of the corner of her eye, and a sizzle swept through her as she observed him doing his job. Just like when she watched him at her bookshop, he was so focused, so determined, and it was damn sexy.

“We’ll get all these people identified and then we can go from there.”

Kenzie blinked, instantly realizing he had caught her staring at him, since his eyes were a little more heated. She cleared her throat, reaching for her latte in the cup holder by the gearshift. “What will that do exactly?”

“It’ll give us more knowledge. The more we have, the better we’ll be.” He placed the camera on his lap and grabbed his coffee, taking a sip. “Chloe is researching Adrik on her end and Sawyer is doing what he can, but I want to know who he surrounds himself with. Perhaps we can get one of them to talk.”

It all seemed so simple when he said it, but she didn’t think any of this was that simple. “To give us dirt on him?”

“That’s right. Anything illegal that Adrik might be involved in. There will be something that he can’t weasel his way out of, and we need to use that to build a case against him.”

Kenzie took another sip of her latte, tasting the vanilla hints. “You don’t plan to actually get him arrested, right?” That thought didn’t appeal to her in the least. She’d seen firsthand the type of guys Adrik had working for him, and she didn’t want to be the one responsible for putting him behind bars.

Porter’s expression softened at whatever reaction crossed over her face, and he gathered her hand in his. “My worry is only about you and your store.”

She smiled, touched by that, of course she was. “You know, I gotta admit, if feels good to hunt him. All I’ve felt is hunted.”

Porter gave her hand a final squeeze before releasing it, and then he placed his coffee back in the cup holder and raised his camera, snapping more pictures. “Believe me, Adrik deserves a lot more than to simply feel hunted.” There was an edge to his voice, a possessive, deadly edge.

She wondered if that was simply because a Club Sin submissive was being threatened, or if it was because
she
was being threatened
.
The question hung on the tip of her tongue, needing to get out and finally put all this confusion to rest. Yet doubt swept through in nearly the same second. She’d already asked the few questions to see where Porter’s head space was, and he’d given her enough answers for her to conclude he helped her only because it was his duty to her as her Dom.

Duty, not love,
she reminded herself.

There was a fine line, but it was such a powerful line that a submissive couldn’t lose sight of it. And Kenzie couldn’t lose sight of it, not if she was to come out of this arrangement with her head held high.

Porter placed the camera on the backseat and then started the car. “I think we have enough for now, and it’s getting late. You must be tired.” Without waiting for her to reply, as if he simply knew the exhaustion weighing on her, he did a U-turn to avoid driving by Adrik.

A few moments passed as the loud engine roared around her before he asked, “I’ve been curious about something. How did you get into owning a bookstore?”

“The store belonged to my gran. When she died, it was left to me.”

“Is that who raised you?” he asked, taking a hard left.

“She raised me since I was eleven years old.” The moment the words left her mouth, she realized her mistake.

Porter, of course, quickly caught on. “Were you with your mother and father before that?”

“Just my mother. I’ve never met my father,” she replied, quickly turning away from him with a hard lump forming in her throat. “I don’t have daddy issues or anything. He wasn’t ever around, so it’s not like I missed out.”

“I never said you had issues,” Porter muttered in a tight voice, passing through the stoplights and taking a right. “I admire that strength in you. It’s impressive how you never let something that someone else does affect you.”

She noted the hard edge in his features and the tension in his jaw. Yet she also knew what he said wasn’t quite the truth. The heartache in her past affected her all the time. But her father—how could she miss someone she had never met? “Well, it seemed like it needed to be said.”

“Okay, then, now I know.” He gave a quick smile that seemed strained before he added, “Mind if I ask what happened to your mother?”

“She passed away when I was young.”

Sadness touched Porter’s voice. “Sorry to hear that, kitten.”

“Don’t be.” She shrugged, feeling the car closing in on her and wishing he’d go a bit faster so she could get out. “Such is life.”

“Not a life any young child should have,” Porter retorted, grimly.

She couldn’t reject the notion that it was hard, of course it was. But that’s why she’d always done her best to forget it. Which she had been doing quite well, until Porter came into the picture. “My gran made life better.”

Porter paused, a muscle flexing in his jaw, yet his voice was soft. “I’m glad you had her. The store is cute, and I’m guessing it reflects your gran, since it’s not your style.”

Kenzie laughed, appreciating the topic change. “Do tell, what’s my style?” Then she sipped her latte.

“Hip. Edgy. Sweet.”

She nearly choked on her coffee. “I don’t think anyone has ever called me
sweet.
”

Porter gave her a quick look before focusing back on the road. “Maybe you’ve never let anyone see that side of you.” The corner of his mouth arched. “Maybe that’s what makes me so lucky.”

She didn’t have words to reply to that statement, and when he pulled the car over to the curb by the bookstore, Kenzie’s lips parted to say something to his declaration, but something caught her eye. Her muscles tensed in that very instant and she pointed. “That’s the guy who…”

Whatever Porter saw in her expression snapped his attention to the man striding toward her building. “Do not get out of this car.”

Her voice came out as a squeak of protest as he rushed from the car, slamming and locking the door behind him. She had thought Porter would approach danger with a cautious edge. Apparently, she was wrong. He charged toward it, ready to battle, and appearing more lethal than he ever had.

He looked like a man protecting what belonged to him.

Porter only got out “Motherfucker” and one solid punch before the large man spun on his heels, running away like the coward Porter thought he was. Porter considered chasing him down, but Kenzie was waiting in his car. He wouldn’t leave her behind. Nor would he take the chance that quite possibly it was a ploy to get Kenzie alone.

His muscles vibrated, fists clenching with the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He zeroed in on the man as he jumped into a Cadillac Escalade, and Porter spotted the license plate. Luck was on his side, as the streetlight illuminated it. Keeping the plate number in his mind, he rushed back to his car and grabbed his cell phone from his pocket.

Once he dropped into the driver’s seat, he dialed Sawyer and interrupted his greeting with “We’ve got the guy who attacked Kenzie. Run this plate.” He rattled off the number.

“Got it,” Sawyer replied. “Is Kenzie all right?”

“She’s safe.” Porter ran a hand over his face, so damn sick of all this tension burning through him. He hated knowing she had been attacked before, but he outright rejected the thought that it could happen again. “The fucker ran after I approached him.”

Humor sounded rich in Sawyer’s voice. “All you did was approach him?”

“When he looks in the mirror tomorrow, he’ll remember me.”

“Good on you,” Sawyer mused. “Let me dig a bit, and I’ll send whatever I find out to Chloe.”

“Perfect. Thanks.” Porter briskly ended the call and said to Kenzie, “We’ll know his identity soon.”

She frowned. “Great.”

Porter shifted on his seat, turning to face her. She didn’t seem as rattled as he’d expected, but maybe that was because he was there and she felt safe around him. He liked that thought. “You’re not happy that we’ve found out this information?”

“That depends,” she said with a shrug. “What are you going to do with that information?”

He narrowed his eyes on her. “Kenzie, he attacked you.”

She sighed, exiting the car. The warm air brushed across him as he got out, too, watching her over the hood of his car. She looked angelic beneath the streetlight. All curls and curves. Before she got too far away, he called, “He should be arrested.”

“I know that,” she replied, heading into her bookstore.

He followed her in and she locked it behind him and then typed the code into the alarm box. Porter didn’t like how quiet Kenzie stayed as he walked through the dark store and up the stairs to her apartment. In fact, he hated it enough that when he entered the apartment, he reached for her hand and tugged her to him. “Talk to me.”

She tilted her head back with a soft expression. “I’m…”

“Scared?” he offered, knowing she’d never say that word aloud.

She shrugged again, even if fear rested heavy in the depths of her eyes. “What if we arrest him for the attack on me and then it only adds fuel to an already burning fire?”

Her sweet body pressed against his, and he liked her there.
Safe.
“I understand why that worries you, of course I do.” He trailed a finger over her cheek, not blind to how she leaned in to his hold. “But to make this go away, we need to take action against them all.”

“Can we take that action after we’ve dealt with Adrik?” Her voice cracked a little, reflecting how afraid she was. “I mean, do I need to do it right now?”

“You can’t run from any of this. It’s going to follow you.” As he said that, he wondered if that advice was something Kenzie needed to hear, not only about Adrik, but maybe about what she fought in her soul. “That said, this is your decision, kitten. Not mine. What do
you
want to do?”

“I want to wait,” she said with the conviction he was used to hearing from her. “I want to see how this all plays out. And I
really
don’t want to make anyone angrier than they already are.”

Christ,
he found himself trapped in her confident expression. Some women would be cowering with all this going on, but Kenzie took it all in stride. While he appreciated her strength, it also made him wonder how she’d become so strong. Only a person who had been through some hardships would be this determined to remain tough and not show understandable moments of weakness.

He yearned to be that source of strength for her, and to experience her letting him help her. More than anything, he ached to have her depend on him. And that one thought made him realize the depth of his feelings toward her. “Then we wait.” He moved to her fridge and grabbed two cans of soda before turning to her. “Got any munchies?”

She pointed to the cupboard by the fridge. “That’s it? No big, bad Dom arguing with me?”

He grabbed out the ketchup chips. “Yes, we’ll wait until you’re ready to go through with this all. I’m not in any rush.” As odd as it was, he had the sense he wanted to be there for the long run
.
“This is your life and your situation. But just know, if you’re in danger, that means I’m staying.”

An idea he liked. The longer this went on, the more time he had to figure her out. While he’d never say he was happy that she was in danger, he liked that he got this deeper insight into her that he wouldn’t have gotten simply playing with her on the weekends at Club Sin.

“Okay.” She smiled. “Who knew you could rein in all that testosterone.”

“You’ll find I can do many things, kitten.” The small signs of trust building between them pleased him. It brought renewed hope. “I would think you would know that by now.” The way her eyes flared sent heat rushing through him as he gestured down the hallway. “Up for some mindless television and junk food?”

All that arousal burning in her features vanished in a second. “In my bed. Together?”

He sighed. Sometimes he didn’t mind the fight. Other times, like now, especially after seeing the man who attacked her tonight, it drove him mad. He ached to be close to her, keeping her safe. Not allowing her to push him away now, he moved toward her, seeing her eyes widen at his approach. He understood her reaction—of course he did. He knew why this all unnerved her, as having a man in her bed was something that he doubted she allowed often.

Kenzie played only in the dungeon. Intimacy seemed so foreign to her.

The warmth of her body enveloped him, and he lowered his voice. “On some things we can negotiate. On other things, we can’t.” He tugged on her hair, enjoying how her breath hitched. “This is one of those things.”

“But…”

He lifted a brow. “Go to bed, kitten.”