Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (7 page)

“So, it’s always been the four of you? That’s nice.”

“Yes, it is,” Gage said as the waiter came to take their plates away. “About my sister, I know it may not have seemed like it yesterday, but I really do love her.”

“I know. I can tell by the way you talk about her. It just sort of pissed me off the way you seemed to be ordering her home,” Mikayla explained. Somewhere during the meal he had stopped trying to hide his burn scars from her, which pleased her greatly.

Gage let out a sigh. “I know. It’s just, the vet’s a nice woman but…”

She laughed. “Enough said. Does she hit on you every time you come in or just make you feel extremely uncomfortable?”

“Every time,” Gage confirmed with a grin. He liked that he didn’t have to explain it to her, that she got what he was saying before he even finished his thought. She had done that a lot during the meal, which made him feel like she actually understood him.

Or at least part of him…

Dante came out to the table carrying two enormous pieces of tiramisu on plates dusted with cocoa powder. Mikayla groaned playfully. “You’re trying to kill me. I’m stuffed, but you just had to bring my weakness out here to tempt me.”

Dante’s laughter boomed out. “You are too skinny. Gage, you need to feed this one more.”

“I am not touching this subject with a ten foot pole,” Gage said, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

Dante nodded. “That is a wise choice. You cannot leave here without at least trying my specialty. And every good meal must end with a cup of espresso, no?”

Since Dante waited by the table, Mikayla picked up the fork and took a bite of the creamy concoction before her. Her eyes closed and she hummed in pleasure at the taste of the delicious dessert. Gage’s lips quirked and his dick twitched inside his pants as he imagined her making that very same sound in bed with him.

“If you ever say this to anyone I will lie and deny it, but this is even better than my friend’s, and that’s saying a lot. It’s absolutely wonderful.”

“Who is this friend of yours?” Dante asked, curiously.

“Bella Moretti.”

Dante let out a gasp like a dying man and gripped Mikayla’s hand in his. “You know Chef Isabella Moretti?”

Mikayla smiled. It was easy to forget that her friend Bella was famous in the culinary world since she seemed to cook dinner for all the agents so often. Bella and one of her best friends, Giovanni Cossi, were opening a restaurant together in Chicago soon with another of their friends, Jenna, working as their pastry chef.

“Bella is married to one of my bosses, Jason MacBain,” Mikayla said, causing Dante to gasp again. God, she loved expressive Italian men.

“You must introduce me if she ever comes to town! Please, Mikayla, say you will!”

She smiled. “Of course. I’ll tell her and Gio Cossi that they should come here for dinner if they’re ever in the area.”

Dante kissed her hand lavishly in thanks then left them alone to enjoy their dessert. When she turned back to Gage he was smiling at her, his dimples showing on his cheeks. Something about those marks make her want to lick him. “What?”

“You really will, won’t you? Tell your friends to come here.”

Mikayla shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I? The food was excellent and I know Bella and Gio would love to meet him too.”

“So, you work for Mac Securities with Brett?”

“Mmm hmm,” Mikayla answered around another bite of tiramisu.

“So what do you do exactly? Put together security systems for businesses and stuff?”

“And stuff,” Mikayla allowed. “Most of Mac Securities clients are large corporations. We get a few private jobs, but it depends on what they need and why.”

Gage studied her for a moment before switching subjects to something that had been nagging at him. “Can I ask why you’re using a cane? How did you hurt your leg?”

Mikayla had thought about leaving the cane back at the cabin, but put her stubborn pride aside and had brought it with her. “It was an accident at work. I’m basically on medical leave right now,” she said before sipping the espresso. A look of pure bliss crossed over her face. “Now this is good.”

“Caffeine addict?” Gage asked, amused.

“Not just caffeine. Coffee. It is the elixir of the gods and a necessity for survival. People fear speaking to me before I have my first two cups in the morning.”

“I’ll remember that,” Gage murmured. The sexual heat in his tone was unmistakable.

Mikayla set her fork down and pushed the plate away as she studied him. “You know, you can be a pretty nice guy when you aren’t being a jerk.”

“Wow, your shitty praise is going to make me blush.”

Her lips twitched as she fought a smile. God help her, she loved a smart-ass. “However,” she continued, “this only means that we can be friends without us killing each other. I still don’t want what you’re offering.”

He braced his elbows on the table, looking directly at her. “What if that offer has changed? What if I said I enjoyed spending time with you and could see us doing this again?”

“It still wouldn’t change that you don’t do relationships.”

He frowned. “You said you didn’t want one either.”

“I wasn’t looking for one, but that doesn’t mean I’d rule it out. We both know this was still a ploy to get me into bed.”

“And would that really be so bad?” Gage’s voice lowered. “Imagine it, Mikayla. Imagine how good it could be if you gave yourself over to me and let me fuck you. Imagine how good it would feel to let me play with your body, driving you crazy until you begged me to slide inside you.”

Mikayla’s pulse sped up, her blood thickening in her veins as she imagined what he was saying to her. She wanted that. Oh how she wanted to do those things with him. She wanted him touching her, her touching him until they were both mad with the need to take it further. His hand moved under the table, sliding up her left thigh slowly toward the heated flesh of her core. She could feel herself growing wet, the liquid proof spilling from her pussy, dampening her jeans with her need.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you, baby? You’d like me to fill your hot little pussy with my cock until both of us screamed in release?”

She felt herself sway toward him as he moved closer to her, their lips almost brushing, but his next words chilled the flickering flame that had begun to burn inside her.

“God Mikayla, you’d look so beautiful tied to my bed, your ass in the air while I took you from behind,” Gage breathed out.

Mikayla’s hand came down on his, stilling it on her leg. Slowly she picked it up and released it as she flung it away from her like he was poisonous. She watched the confusion cloud his eyes a moment before they went hard with anger. So that was how it was. He liked his kink. She couldn’t fault him for that, but it was something that she could never be a part of. Yet again she knew they were on opposite sides of the spectrum. She willed her heart to slow. It was a struggle, but she slowly gained control of her body again and forced all expression from her gaze so it was unreadable.

“Sorry Gage, but I’ll have to take a pass on that.”

Gage’s nostrils flared with anger. “Are you going to sit there and tell me that you weren’t affected by my words? By my touch? I bet if I had touched your clit you would have come right here. Deny it, I dare you.”

Mikayla sighed. It was true. The loss of his touch left her cold. She’d been close to coming from his words alone, but her own demons were stronger than her desire for him. “I’m attracted to you, I won’t deny that. But again, I don’t want what you want which leaves us at an impasse.”

“You want me,” he accused.

Mikayla slowly nodded. She could give him that, give him the truth of her need for his touch, but not the way he wanted to give it to her. “I do want you, just not the way you want.”

His brows furrowed as he glared at her, his green eyes hot. “I could make you want it. I could make you scream my name and beg me for it.”

“You probably could, for a moment anyway. Then I’d end up hating you for it,” Mikayla said softly. “So why don’t we just leave this as a nice meal between friends and end it now.”

“No.”

Mikayla turned away from him and gestured politely to the waiter watching from the other side of the room. He hurried over. “Can I get you anything else?”

“No, thank you. We’re done.”

The waiter placed the bill on the table and Mikayla reached for it. Gage’s hand slapped down on it before she could reach it. He barely looked at it before throwing down a number of bills to cover the cost.

“Do you need change, Mr. Stark?”

“No, Billy.”

“Thank you, sir.” The waiter smiled then left them alone again.

“
We
aren’t done,” Gage hissed at her, knowing exactly why she had used those words earlier. They left the restaurant after thanking Dante with promises to come back again soon. While they had been inside rain had begun to fall, melting the surrounding snow into puddles of slush. Mikayla got into the truck after Gage held the door open for her, silently glaring at her. She must be sick if even the man’s glares had the power to turn her on. She turned in the seat to see Wulf’s head peeking out from the blankets. He licked her hand in greeting as she reached back to rub her hand over his head. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes again, content to remain where he was.

Gage started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot, turning up the heat and flicking on the seat warmers for both of them. His hands clenched the steering wheel tight in his grip, and she could see his jaw working as he stared straight ahead. She wanted to tell him he was going to wear his teeth down doing that, but knew he probably wouldn’t appreciate that so she remained quiet.

As they drove along the street she looked out at the white world beyond with a flicker of regret. She knew he didn’t understand why she had turned him down again, and she couldn’t tell him, not without telling him things about her she didn’t know if she wanted him to know. She also had suspicions why he wanted her the way he did, but it still didn’t work for her. The truth was they were two people with a shitload of baggage that didn’t work together.

“Why, Mikayla?” Gage finally growled out through clenched teeth. “Do you take some sort of fucking perverse pleasure in messing with my head? You want me, so why the fuck won’t you let me have you?”

“That’s the problem, Gage,” Mikayla replied. Fine, if he wanted to hash this out then they would. “You want to
have
me, to
take
me, and that simply doesn’t work for me. I’m not playing hard to get or fucking with your head. I’m telling you what doesn’t do it for me. I don’t need someone to control me to get me off.”

“That is bullshit and you know it. So the fuck what if I like tying my women? It doesn’t make me a pervert. I just want you to try something new. It can work for you, for us. I know it could if you let it.”

Mikayla released an impatient breath. Now he was starting to piss her off. “God, now that is a bullshit answer. Why is it that some men think that women are too stupid to know what they want? Trust me when I tell you I know exactly what I want. I don’t need some asshole telling me to try something I don’t.” She turned in her chair so she could glare at him. “Let me guess, women never say ‘no’ to you right? So you usually get to do your thing any way you want and think that they love it.”

“They do love it,” he sneered at her.

Oh, fuck him.

“I’m sure they do because these are women who simply want to fuck you any way they can have you. And that is the only way they can have you, right? Let me guess, you tie them up, get them all hot and bothered so they can barely think then fuck them silly. Do you ever let them touch you? Connect with you? Or is the only part of you that touches them your cock?”

She noticed Gage’s fists had gone white from gripping the wheel so tight. Still, her annoyance and anger had her pushing on. “I bet you tie your lovers up so they can’t touch you, so you don’t have to see them as anything more than a convenient fuck. Well, that’s not me.”

“Trust me, you are anything but convenient,” Gage snapped. “What’s wrong, baby, afraid of a little bondage? Sorry, I thought you were old enough to play with the grown-ups.”

Dear god, the man was just asking for her to kick his ass.

She actually laughed. “You stupid son of a bitch, do you really think you can insult me into giving into you? Forget it. I have nothing against bondage, but it takes trust to let a man have control of me like that, and frankly I don’t trust you. I need a connection with a man if I’m letting him in my body. The way you describe it, any woman would do as long as she bends over and takes it so why do you even need to know her name?”

“Goddamn it!” Gage roared as he jerked the wheel to the side of the deserted road. Unable to stand it, he grabbed her, jerking her to him so they were face-to-face, both of their seat belts straining under the pressure.

“I’d know exactly who you are if we were fucking, never doubt that. Do you really think I’m such an asshole that I fucking use the women who come to my bed?”

“What do you call it then?” Mikayla shot back, panting in anger just as he was. The icy calm that she prided herself for was cracking under the strain of the heat between them. “You don’t date, you just fuck. Awesome. Thanks but no thanks.”