Beneath the Secrets, Part Two (Tall, Dark & Deadly) (4 page)

“You might need me?”

His eyes heated and damn it, so did
her skin. “To get this theft issue under control.”

“So you thought I needed a
bodyguard?” His eyes twinkled with mischief. He was way too amused
by the direction of this conversation.

Kara grimaced. She wasn’t winning
the battle to go back inside so she’d pick one she had a shot at.
“That’s it. This conversation is over. Let’s go back to my place
and see who can cuff who first. As angry you’re making me, I’m
betting I get the upper hand.” She turned and headed to the
truck.

His deep, sexy laughter followed.
It rippled down her spine and settled in low and hot in her belly.
The man got to her way too easily. Oh yeah. She’d be cuffing him
all right and enjoying every second of it. Then she’d slip out and
find the blond girl before she ended up on some drug cartel main
menu.

***

Blake followed Kara up the stairs
to her apartment, locking the door behind him, his blood pumping
hot, adrenaline pulsing through him. He wanted this woman. Damn it
to hell, he wanted her in a bad way. Bad enough that it was time
for answers. Time he knew who he was climbing into bed
with.

He watched her hips sway as she
headed up the stairs and followed in hot pursuit, anticipation
burning through him, his cock already thick with arousal. Her long
dark hair lay like silky strands down her back and he imagined it
draped over his stomach with her mouth on his shaft, caressing him
into the sweet bliss of escape. The instant she stepped onto the
top level landing of the apartment, he had every intention of
scooping her up and taking her to bed. He never got the
chance.

As if she’d plucked his fantasy
from his head, she cleared the last step with him directly behind
her and whirled on him, facing him, only to immediately sink to her
knees at his feet. Holy shit, leave it to this woman to turn the
tables on him. Her hands went to his thighs, climbing up his legs,
and his dick responded, standing at attention, and pressing
uncomfortably against his zipper.

“Still want to tie me up?” she
asked, stroking the thick line of his erection.

While he’d certainly not complain
about this woman’s mouth on his cock, sucking him and licking him,
he saw this as what it was. Her attempt to gain control. She
clearly had no idea how much he enjoyed owning it himself and how
certain it was that she had no chance of claiming it as her
own.

Blake shackled her wrist and pulled
her to her feet, hard against his body, all her soft, sexy curves
fitted against him. “I’m not playing this game and losing,
sweetheart. You won’t be needing your hands. Just mine.” He stroked
her back, molding her closer, feeling the warmth of her seep
through their clothing like liquid heat consuming them.
“Comprende?”

Her chin lifted defiantly. “No
comprede”.

Blake tilted his head and kissed
her neck before his lips pressed to her ear and he promised, “You
will when I’m done with you.” He picked her up and headed to the
bed, the possessive thunder of man claiming a woman rumbling within
him.

“When you’re done with me?” she
challenged, clinging to him. “When
I’m
done with you is more like
it.”

His muscles tensed and heated with
the erotic challenge. Blake realized right then what he’d been
missing, what he needed. Just being in control wasn’t enough. He
liked the challenge, the sweetness of winning the battle to get
Kara to submit to him. With everyone else, it had been easy to
command them, practically mindless control. With Kara, nothing was
easy, but it was good. Real damn good.

He set her down at the foot of her
bed, his gaze flickering over the feminine blankets, his mind
imagining her naked beneath them, naked beneath
him.
His hands settled on her
shoulders and he pinned her in a stare. “If you thought you’d
seduce me into foolishness like you did back in Denver, you
underestimated me.”

“I didn’t seduce you,” she
objected. “I—”

He turned her to the bed, a sound
of surprise sliding from her lips. Immediately, he shackled her
legs with his and tugged her jacket down her arms, determined to
get her in that naked state he was fantasizing about as quickly as
possible. The instant her jacket was gone, she tried to turn. He
didn’t let her, lifting her shirt up and then quickly unhooking her
bra.

Before she even knew what had
happened, he’d tugged her back against him, his hands cupping her
breasts, his mouth pressed to her ear. “Tonight, I own you,” he
murmured, and he couldn’t believe how much he wanted that, how much
he wanted her.

“Never,” she declared, but the
hoarseness of her voice told a different story. She was already
sinking into the confines of desire and need, where he intended to
immerse her. Where he intended to join her.

Blake plucked at her nipples,
scraping his teeth over her earlobe. “We’ll see, won’t
we?”

“Yes,” she agreed breathlessly. “I
guess we will.”

“Get on the bed.”

“No.”

He smiled into the soft floral halo
of her hair, the silky strands tickling his cheek, and pressed her
forward until her hands hit the mattress, forcing her to crawl on
top of it. She made a frustrated sound he saw as challenge. He
wanted her moaning, begging for more. Telling him what she wanted
and how she wanted it.

His hand slid over her jeans-clad
backside and up her waist to unsnap her jeans. Her hand went to
his, trying to stop him. He countered her action by flattening her
onto the bed, framing her body with his, his cock settling against
her lush backside. She rewarded him with one of those moans he
craved, and her hips lifted against his.

“I love how you smell,” he said,
burying his face in her neck.

“Sweet talk won’t get you
anywhere.”

His lips twitched. “No?” He slid
his hands under her and cupped her breasts. “Where will this get
me?”

She made another soft sound of
pleasure before denial whispered from her lips. “Nowhere. It gets
you nowhere.”

“It doesn’t feel like nowhere.” His
palms moved downward, exploring the delicate lines of her waist and
back, before he pressed his hand between their bodies again, and
found her zipper, stroking lower, into the sweet V of her body. “I
want you naked.”

“You always want me
naked.”

“And that’s a problem
why?”

“You plan to use sex as a
weapon.”

He unzipped her pants. “You might
find telling me your secrets comes with reward, not
punishment.”

“Just because I don’t fit some mold
for a woman you have set in your mind doesn’t make my life and
story fake.”

He nipped her earlobe. “Sweetheart,
I told you. Fool me once, but never again. I know you aren’t who
you say you are.” He tugged her waistband down and eased her jeans
down her body, and all but groaned at the sight of her panty-less,
pretty little backside.

Blake leaned away from her to free
the jeans from her feet. As he expected, Kara scrambled up the bed,
twisting around to face him, her high, full breasts swaying with
the action. Damn, the woman had a hot little body. And yeah, he’d
had his share of hot bodies, but there was just something about
Kara that set him on fire.

Blake reached in his pocket and
pulled out the rubber-band cuffs he’d stuffed there, climbing onto
the bed. She backed away and hit the headboard. His lips curved.
The sight of her there, her creamy white skin, her dark hair draped
over her bare shoulders, was pure perfection. She was exactly where
he wanted her to be.

Without a moment of hesitation,
Blake straddled her, pressing his free hand to her face and twining
his fingers in her hair. “You know I’m going to cuff you. It’s
inevitable.”

Chapter Four

He was going to cuff her. It was
inevitable. Kara should have known it before. Why she’d fooled
herself into believing she could get the upper hand, she didn’t
know. But fighting Blake wasn’t the answer. It wasn’t going to get
her out of here to save that young girl Eduardo intended to turn
into a sex slave of some sort. She had to succumb to him and hope
he went to sleep sometime soon. It was her only hope. Drive him
into that post-sex oblivion that was male slumber and pray she
survived his demands for answers she couldn’t give. His hand raked
over her breast, and she swallowed hard against the wonderful
tingling sensation that told her she was fooling herself. She
wouldn’t survive his demands. She wanted to trust him. She wanted
to believe he was a good guy.

“I guess you’re afraid to
let
me
cuff
you
?” she
challenged.

“Afraid?” he asked, laughing.
“Hmmm. Maybe I am.” His hand, still laced in her hair, forced her
gaze to his, his eyes meeting hers. His voice softened. “In fact,
Kara, you scare the shit out of me.”

Her chest tightened with the raw
quality to his words. “I don’t know what that means.”

“I think you do.” He shackled her
wrist and slid the cuff over it before she could stop him. “I think
you completely understand.”

“No,” she whispered, tugging on her
arm when he lifted it to the bar behind her and attached it. “Don’t
cuff me to the bed.” Her free hand went to his shoulder, and she
meant to push but she didn’t. Damn it, why wasn’t she pushing him
away? “Don’t, Blake.” He cuffed her other hand and settled back to
stare at her. She swallowed hard, feeling helpless and vulnerable
with her hands over her head, her breasts thrust forward. “Is this
where you torture me for information I don’t have?”

“With pleasure, sweetheart. It’ll
hurt so good, I promise.” He rose up and tugged his shirt over his
head.

“You promise,” she repeated, her
words rasping in her dry throat as he tossed his shirt away and
exposed his impressive, muscular chest. His hair fell from its
clasp, in long, dark strands to brush his broad shoulders. “You
promise until you decide to kill me.”

He went completely still, his eyes
steady on her face, never shifting to her naked, exposed body.
“I’ve given you no reason to believe I’d kill you.”

“You said you’d kill me if you had
to.”

“And with the way you handle a gun
I’m pretty sure you’d kill me if you had to, too.”

“With good reason.”

“I’m no different than you,
sweetheart.”

“Ignacio would kill me for looking
at him the wrong way. How do I know you aren’t the
same?”

“I didn’t kill you for drugging
me.”

“You thought about it.”

“No,” he said solemnly. “I didn’t.
I just wanted to fuck you again. You seem to have that effect on
me.”

Her skin flushed with the bold
statement she knew was meant to distract her from what was
important. “You work for the cartel. Problems get solved by killing
people.”

“You work for the cartel. I’m a
contractor with loyalty only to my paycheck. I’d turn around after
this job and help destroy Mendez if the money was right. And feel
free to tell Mendez as much. I’d say that to his face.”

Her mind was reeling, and her
emotions, too, none of which made any sense to her. He made no
sense to her. “Then why are you pushing me so hard?”

“What are you so afraid of me
finding out?” he asked instead of answering her
question.

“I’m not afraid.”

“You said you were.”

“So did you.” She tried to turn the
tables. “Of me.”

“I said you scared the shit out of
me.” His eyes flickered with shadows, and she saw the torment in
their depths, heard it as he spoke. “And you do. And you know why?
Because I have to know whatever it is you’re hiding and I dread
finding out what it is. I shouldn’t feel that way. I shouldn’t
care.”

“Because it’ll make killing me
harder,” she whispered, taking only small comfort in his torment
being a sign he didn’t really want to, that he actually felt this
connection to her that she felt to him.

He opened his mouth to reply and
she shook her head, suddenly overwhelmed with unexplainable
emotions. “Don’t answer. Please. I don’t want to know what you’ll
say. We all have secrets. Mine are personal. They don’t affect
you.”

“I need to decide that.”

“No.” Her fingers curled into her
palms. “No damn it, you don’t.” Frustration filtered into her
voice. “Stop pushing me.”

“You know I can’t.”

“You can. You say you aren’t loyal
to Mendez. I’m helping you do what you were hired to do. That’s
what matters. You know all you need to know.”

He framed her face and the touch
was like sweet bliss, a relief. She didn’t understand why, but
she’d needed him to touch her. “I don’t know what I need to know,”
he said, “until I know everything.” His thumb stroked her cheek, a
soft caress that sent a shiver down her spine and tightened her
nipples. “Everything, Kara. I have to know everything. I want
everything.”