From Sanctum With Love (Masters and Mercenaries Book 10) (24 page)

He stretched her as he pressed inside. Kai didn’t go slow, didn’t wait for her to catch up. He invaded. His cock ruthlessly gained ground. So long. It had been so long and the stretch felt so good. Pain and pleasure. Her cocktail.

He groaned as he fucked his way inside her. “I didn’t tell you to move your arms. You’ll pay for that later. For now, dig your nails in. Make some marks of your own.”

She let her hands run up his back, scraping along his muscles. He hissed and thrust harder.

“That’s what I want.” He pounded into her, ensuring she would feel every stretch and pull for hours.

She fought for her pleasure, the tension rising again as Kai continued to take her higher and higher. The first orgasm had been nothing compared to this. This was a wave pounding against her again and again, and it was so much better this time because she could see him getting close. His gorgeous eyes held hers. He wouldn’t let her close her eyes or look away.

“Stay with me.” He pumped into her, his pelvis grinding on her clit as he looked into her eyes.

She was so connected to him. Never before had she felt so much, and tears welled in her eyes as Kai managed to send her flying over the edge again.

Kai stiffened above her and he thrust in again and again, his orgasm heightening her own.

He dropped down on top of her, his weight pressing her into the mattress. His lips pressed to her cheek, wiping away the tears there. “We’re all right, baby. We’re okay. This is going to be good. I promise.”

Two seconds before he’d been savage. This was the man who’d marked her so well. He’d made her scream out in pure erotic pleasure and now he wrapped her up in his tenderness.

She hugged him, unwilling to let there be any space between them. “I know.”

He kissed her nose. “You don’t yet, but you will. We’re going to be good together.”

They’d already been spectacular. It wasn’t the sex that scared her. It was the fact that her heart was so full. The words had played around in her brain.

I love you. I’ll love you forever.

Morgan had nearly destroyed her and she’d never loved him. Not the way she loved Kai. If Kai ever…

Kai wasn’t Morgan. He didn’t cheat or lie. He wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for her.

She let her head rest on his chest as he shifted, rolling off her but keeping them cuddled together.

“I think I’m going to be late for work today, boss.” She curled into his warmth, her whole body languid.

“I’ll cut you some slack. I’m going to be late, too.” He kissed her forehead and they were blissfully quiet for a moment.

It didn’t last long. There was a knock on the door and then a familiar voice spoke. Jared cleared his throat. “Hey, Kai. I was hoping you could give me a ride up to McKay-Taggart. I don’t want to be late and it sounds like you’re done and stuff. Not that I was listening or anything.”

“I wasn’t listening either, but the walls are thin,” Sarah agreed from what sounded like right outside the door.

“Very thin,” Jared said. “So how did the condom work out? Held up under fire? You know I was happy to help.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Kai whispered. He’d gone the sweetest shade of pink.

She might help.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Kai pulled into the McKay-Taggart parking lot an hour later, thinking about the fact that Big Tag had completely ruined his plans to dump his brother at the soonest possible moment. He’d intended to drive Jared’s ass straight to the nearest bus stop and explain that if he wanted to play someone from Dallas, he should get used to the city’s mass transit system. He would see how Jared enjoyed that research. Maybe if Kai was lucky, he’d get lost and Kai could spend the day making his new sub scream, but no. Instead he’d been forced to drop Kori off at the office because Big Tag wanted a meeting.

Stupid meeting. He could be meeting with Kori again. The first meeting had gone spectacularly well right up until the moment his brother had knocked on the door and started asking about condoms.

“I get it, you’re mad,” Jared said. “You wanted to do the whole happy, postcoital, we-finally-did-it thing. I do get that. There was once this girl I liked a lot and she held out three days on me and when we finally did it, it was like I’d climbed Everest. But it was getting late. You’re the one who always taught me to be on time. By the way, I called Lena and she’s already been out to document the damage to Kori’s car. I called the police, but there’s no history of vandalism in the area so they’ll file a report so Kori can get insurance to cover it, but that’s about all they’ll do. Lena’s taking care of that, too. All Kori will have to do is sign the report.”

“I was going to handle that.” He’d gotten a glimpse at her car. Someone had done a number on the tires.

“You had plenty to deal with this morning and I didn’t mind. I didn’t have time for a run. I’m scheduled to work out this afternoon anyway.” His brother had hopped into the passenger seat when he’d dropped Kori off. Jared had done it quickly, slamming the door as though pleased he’d managed to make the switch.

If Kai had been faster, he could have driven away then, but no, he’d been kissing his assistant.

His assistant who also happened to now be his sub. The thought of all the nasty things he could do to her at the office played through his brain. Not that he would get to do any of it since his brother was a tick who’d dug in and wouldn’t be removed. “Three whole days. That must have been hard for you.”

Jared sighed. “I really wanted her. Naturally it turned out she taped the entire thing and tried to sell it.”

Kai felt his jaw drop. “You made a sex tape?”

This was why it worked with Kori. They were the adults of their families. They both had horrible siblings.

Jared waved it off. “Lots, but that’s the only one that almost made it out. All those celebs who claim the maid stole our sex tape and leaked it, it’s all bullshit. Sex tape is one of the first things a good publicist will tell you to do. Well, unless you’ve got a small penis.”

He thanked god he’d been given a brain and didn’t have to live in Jared’s world. “Why didn’t you let yours get out? Apparently you might have an Oscar by now.”

“I liked her. I thought she liked me. I paid a lot of money to keep it off the Internet.” His brother sounded serious for once. “Everything I’d saved up to eighteen months ago. I’m good at starting over.”

Well, it wasn’t like his brother had ever been a financial whiz. Kai parked the Jeep in the McKay-Taggart visitor slot. He couldn’t help but notice there was a limo hanging out a couple of rows down. “You’ll make it back. It seems like you’re doing pretty well. I thought you had given up limos.”

“I let the guys use it. The studio pays for a driver. It’s part of my contract.”

Kai turned the engine off. “Your entourage is here? Upstairs? With Big Tag?”

“Not sure if they’re with him, but I asked Squirrel and the guys to start taking some notes, maybe some pictures so I can get in the character’s head. Don’t worry. Everyone loves to answer questions about themselves.”

“How many actual spies have you known?” Kai opened the door and hopped out, praying he could get up there fast enough to save some lives.

Jared was right behind him as he strode to the elevator. “I played a corporate spy on a Lifetime movie once. Have you seen it?
Cyber Eyes Are Watching Her
. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds.”

It sounded spectacularly crappy. “I don’t watch a lot of TV. Or movies.” Luckily there was an elevator open. He hopped on. “You can’t treat Ian like some movie consultant. He’s the real thing.”

Someone shouted out Jared’s name. He turned before he got on the elevator, his face going movie star bright as he waved. “Yes, it’s really me.”

Kai reached out and hauled his brother inside. “No time for autographs.” He pushed the button for McKay-Taggart. They now occupied the top two floors. “I’m serious about Ian. You have to be careful. Even now he’s involved in classified stuff. The company he runs still works for the government from time to time and they take those secrets seriously.”

Like the fact that Theo Taggart was alive somewhere. If Jared threatened that mission in any way, Tag would happily bury his body.

Jared grinned. “Real spy stuff. That’s cool. And I’m sure my guys are sitting in the lobby somewhere looking at their phones. It’s kind of what they do.”

“How are you still with Squirrel? I can’t see that kid does anything real for you.”

“You always hated him. And I gave him a job because he stuck by me when no one else did.” Jared looked straight ahead, his eyes on the elevator doors. “He’s not stupid. He can run errands.”

“I thought that’s what Lena did.” Kai knew it didn’t matter, but he wanted Jared to admit that Squirrel was mooching off him. He wanted to at least get that out into the open. So often Jared looked at the bright, shiny side of everything, refusing to see anything could possibly be wrong.

“He’s my friend. Just drop it, Kai,” Jared said in a stubborn tone. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I wouldn’t understand friendship?” They were good at falling back into old patterns. Kai would come out accusing his brother of acting like an idiot and then Jared would say Kai never understood. Nothing had changed in fifteen years.

“Not really. How many friends do you still have from childhood?”

It was a decent point, but he had one of his own. “I didn’t have a lot of them. I was too busy taking care of you.”

“Fine. Blame me. How about from the Army? Have many friends from those times?”

He didn’t. He had some guys from his unit he called from time to time to check in on them. “They live in different parts of the country and most of them are at different stages in life. And I’ve made a lot of friends here.”

“Well, when they’ve been around for ten years or so, get back to me.”

There was something deeper going on in his brother’s head, but at that moment, Kai didn’t care. His inner therapist voice was only a whisper really, telling him his normally sunny brother was hiding something. Jared didn’t push this way. But right then, Kai didn’t give a shit. “Just because I don’t pay a group of people to stay around me all the time because I can’t stand to be alone with myself doesn’t mean I have a problem making friends.”

Jared turned and his eyes were lit with an anger Kai had rarely seen in his younger brother. “I wasn’t talking about making them. You’re good at that. Everyone wants to be your friend. I was talking about keeping them. Is anyone good enough for you? Is there anyone in your life who measures up to the Great Kaiser Ferguson’s standards? Or do they all end up being stupid and human and flawed like me?”

“Flawed? You call sleeping with my fiancée a flaw?”

Jared shook his head. “You hated me long before that.”

Hate was a strong word and not one he used often. “I don’t hate you.”

“Bullshit.”

He took a deep breath and realized maybe he had issues with Jared, but Kori was right. He needed to face them. He had to stop getting surly every time the chance to deal with Jared came up. “I don’t hate you. I might not have fully forgiven you for what happened with Hannah, but I don’t hate you.”

“You don’t even know what happened with Hannah. You have no fucking idea what happened to me while you were gone. You left me behind.”

“I went into the Army so I could help support you, you asshole.” How did his brother do this to him? With anyone else he would brush off the accusations and try to find the heart of the matter. He was trained to do this. He’d been called every name in the book by his patients, who often mistook anger at the world for anger at him. He could handle it. In some ways, it was part of the healing process. But the minute his brother walked in, Kai was right back, standing in that living room where his brother had betrayed him utterly.

God, maybe he did hate Jared a little.

“I didn’t need money,” his brother ground out. “I needed someone who gave a shit whether I lived or died. Hell, I didn’t even see any money.”

“What is that supposed to mean? I sent it to you every month. It’s not my fault you spent it on hair gel or whatever the hell you spent it on.”

His brother’s eyes widened. “Are you fucking kidding me? The great and mighty Kai has no idea. Well, that’s rich, brother. I guess you don’t know everything.”

What had happened? “I sent the money, Jared.”

The elevator doors opened and Lena was standing there. She was dressed in what looked almost like a copy of the dress she’d worn the day before, though this was a slightly different shade of black.

“Thank god. This place is horrible,” Lena complained as Jared stepped off the elevator. “Everything about this particular movie is simply awful and you need to think about that proposal I sent you. You’re better than this.”

Jared gave her a smile, but Kai was starting to realize that Jared smiled at everything and everyone and in every circumstance. There was a difference though. This smile was tight and didn’t come anywhere close to Jared’s eyes. “It looks pretty nice to me.”

“Ugh, they have babies and everything. It’s like a suburban nightmare in there. And they could use a decorator.” Lena looked down at her phone. “I’ve already gone by and done all the stuff for the police report and Ms. Williamson will find I’ve filled out all the insurance forms as well. Someone is coming at one this afternoon to pick up the car and she’ll have it back by four. The tires will all be top of the line, but there’s nothing I can do about the fact that the car itself is pathetic and sad.”