Adored: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella (1001 Dark Nights) (16 page)

“God, you feel so good. You can’t know how good it feels to fuck you. I want you to come back to work for me, baby. I’ll call you in when I want you. I’ll fuck you on my desk, on your desk, in the break room, in the fucking lobby. There won’t be a single inch of that office I don’t fuck you in.”

She couldn’t breathe. He was holding himself still and she was trying to adjust. No amount of taking the plug could prepare her for the feel of hot flesh inside her, burning inside and making her want to move, to see what else he could give her. “I don’t think that would be conducive to performance.”

He rubbed her clit in rhythmic circles. “It would for me. I’d have you sit at my feet and when I finish what I need to, I’d have you suck my dick long and hard. A treat for staying on task because I never stay on task any more. I’m always thinking about you, always wondering what you’re doing and where you are and if you’re safe and happy.”

That finger circling her made her forget all about the fact that she was stretched to overflowing. Her pussy was humming with his rhythm. “I’m safe, Master. I’m careful.”

He started to move, tiny thrusts and retreats, as though his hips couldn’t stay still. “I know you are, baby. When I’m not thinking about your safety, I’m daydreaming about fucking you. You’re always there. Always in my head.”

He dragged back, a long stroke from inside, and her body lit with sensation. She couldn’t help it. She tried to stop the moan that came from her throat but it filled the room.

“Yes,” he said as he filled her again. “Yes, that’s what I want. I want you to crave my cock. I want you to take me anytime, anywhere. I want you addicted to this because I sure as hell am.”

He fucked into her again, but this time was easier and she breathed into the sensation. His finger moved on her clit and she felt lit up from within. He pressed down hard and she went over the edge.

It seemed to let him off the leash. He stroked in and out, faster and faster. The heat, the pressure, the pleasure, all swamped her senses as she came again, this time harder than the last. It seemed to never end and then she felt him come. His movements lost their rhythm as he fucked her hard and then held himself against her, giving her everything he had.

He fell on her, cradling her and pulling her into the side of his body as he shifted on the bed. “Never think you aren’t the most beautiful creature in the world.”

In that moment, she could almost believe him.

Chapter Eight

“It’s a dog and an orangutan. I don’t see why that makes her cry. Really cry. She was sobbing over a commercial about animals that would eat each other in the wild. I make one comment about the fact that the tiger and the bear would totally go at it for dominance and she tells me I’m the world’s worst human being and won’t talk to me for thirty minutes. How am I supposed to respond to that? I can’t punish her. She’s already crying.” Mitch sat back in his office and looked at Liam O’Donnell, Kai Ferguson, and Ian Taggart. Though to be honest, he was pretty sure Big Tag was asleep. Oh, he was sitting upright, but his eyes were behind mirrored aviators and his breathing was perfectly even. It had been six weeks since Laurel had moved in with him, since she’d become his submissive, and every night seemed like a new whirl on the roller coaster.

Since the night in the club, they’d found a happy rhythm to their lives, but every now and then he felt like he was stepping into a minefield.

Kai shook his head. “This is why signing a contract with her at this stage is a horrible idea. It’s too much change for you and for her as well. This is a good time to take a step back and reassess both of your needs.”

Li groaned. “There’s no stepping back now, Kai. You want to make this some sort of an intellectual thing, but you can’t. Laurel’s pregnant. There’s no way she’s going to be logical, not with all those hormones running through her system. Do you want to know how to handle her, Bradford?”

Kai leaned forward. “The way to handle her is to treat her like a partner. You two got into this because you weren’t thinking. You didn’t have a solid contract in place when you started your sexual relationship and it looks like you’re treating the one you have now with indifference. This isn’t the way to start a relationship, much less one that I know she hopes is going to end in marriage.”

“Says the perpetually single sadist,” Li cracked back. “Love ain’t got nothing to do with logic.”

Li was right about Kai. And Mitch was beginning to think there was nothing logical or rational about his sub at this point in her life. Laurel seemed to be running on pure emotion and he had no idea how to handle that. “I’m going with Irish on this one, Kai. How do I handle Laurel?”

“Agree with everything she says. She thinks bears and tigers can be best friends, so do you. Absolutely, my love. Let’s go buy two. Trust me, by the time you get around to finding that exotic pet shop she’s moved on to worrying about something else. Avery cried pretty much every single day of her first three months. And then there were three lovely months where we fucked like rabbits, and I hid for the last three. That’s pregnancy in a nutshell.”

“Which is why this is a horrible time to begin a relationship,” Kai pointed out. “Laurel isn’t capable of thinking properly when she’s so emotional and has a ton of stress on her. And starting a D/s relationship is even more risky. I applaud you for taking responsibility for the child, but you might take a step back and concentrate on becoming a father and then later, after the baby is born, then you can work on your relationship with Laurel.”

That sent Li into a fit of laughter. “Oh, yeah, you’ll have so much time for that after the baby’s born. You got no idea what you’re talking about, Kai. I know you’ve got some fancy degree and all, but you have zero idea how the whole marriage and parenting thing works. There’s no logic to you. Look at the big guy there. His wife gave birth and the poor sap ain’t had a decent night’s sleep since. Do you honestly believe he’s capable of logic?”

Kai rolled his eyes. “Big Tag is only capable of sarcasm and sitting perfectly upright while he naps. That’s actually impressive, but not my point. Look, Mitch, you asked my opinion.”

“No. I really didn’t. I asked if you were ready to sign the paperwork on the office space and I got a lecture on how I’m screwing up with Laurel. And you know, aside from the whole crying at commercials thing, we’re doing pretty good.” Better than good. They’d had one fight in the six weeks they’d been together and apparently that was more about her hormones than his being a truly evil person who liked neither animals nor friendship. Her words, not his. After he’d gotten her some mint chocolate chip ice cream and rubbed her feet and watched some horrid show about doctors saving lives in between screwing each other in tiny rooms—she’d cried during that, too—she’d settled down and been the loving, affectionate sub he was crazy about.

They’d found a nice routine, one he’d come to crave. They had breakfast together every morning. He was used to grabbing something on his way into the office, but Laurel preferred to cook. He was getting used to egg white omelets and steel cut oatmeal, but he’d put his foot down when she’d tried to buy turkey bacon. Bacon came from pigs and no one was going to tell him otherwise. After breakfast, they went to work. She came to his office or he went to hers for lunch when they could. And she was always waiting for him when he came home. He would open the door and enter the living room and his gorgeous sub would be waiting there for him on her knees. Most of the time he had her right then and there, but a few nights had come that he could tell how tired she was, and he’d scooped her up and cuddled on the couch with her and ordered takeout so she wouldn’t have to cook.

It was the times when he felt almost compelled to change the routine that scared him the most.

Li shook his head. “Kai’s being pissy because his house exploded and there’s no good place at the new Sanctum for him to live.”

“I am not pissy,” Kai shot back. “I’m annoyed because the place I lived and worked at exploded in a fiery hell ball and took everything with it, including most of my patient notes. I’m having to reestablish everything and I can’t do that without office space. I’m tired of working out of McKay-Taggart. Do you have any idea how not peaceful that office is?”

Li shrugged. “Big Tag wouldn’t let him put in a waterfall or some shit.”

“It’s a reflection pool and it’s very peaceful and calming for my patients, all of whom have been through hell. I also would like to make myself clear on how wrong it is to bring the entire club in on one of your missions, Tag. Look what happened the last time and you were hiding Jesse and Phoebe at Sanctum. The club blew up. Letting Tennessee Smith work an op at Sanctum is going to cause trouble. But is Tag listening to me? No. He’s asleep. That dude can sleep through anything.”

At least Mitch could solve one issue. “Well, I got the paperwork for your new office so you can add all kinds of reflecting pools and stuff and still be close to the club. The building next door came up for sale. It’s industrial, so you’ll have to do some renovations.”

The building next door had already been quietly purchased by Big Tag and his brother-in-law, Simon Weston. They’d come to Mitch with the plan to sell to Kai for a fraction of the price. What Kai didn’t know was his loan had also been secured via Weston’s relatives, the Malones. A whole bunch of very wealthy people were backing Kai’s efforts to help soldiers with PTSD reintegrate into the civilian world. They weren’t telling Kai, who was on a “stand on his own feet” kick after the club exploded.

“I’ll take it. I need some quiet and I can’t get it in that office. I swear I don’t know how Eve does it. I can’t have sessions because someone is always knocking on my door. And damn but there are a lot of babies up there now. Cute little things but…there is one hallway you don’t want to walk down.”

“He’s right about that. The babies can make quite a stink when they want to,” Li explained. “Now, do you want to know what I found out about your case or not? I came down here to give you a report. These two latched on. Kai wanted to nag you and Tag wants lunch at Top. I’m not going to wake him up until someone can shove a forkful of food in his mouth.”

“How are you going to get him to Top if you don’t wake him up?”

“Oh, he’ll sleep walk for ya. You gotta point him in the right direction and he walks fine. And that’s why you have to work all this out with your girl before the baby gets here.” He pointed to Taggart, who didn’t move an inch. “Because this is what you’ll be like after. Ain’t that right, Tag?”

Taggart made some kind of huffing sound and then went still again.

He didn’t even think about what would happen after the baby got here. He tried not to think past the now. Making plans would only screw up a good thing. He passed Kai the documents and all the information on the building he was going to buy. While Kai went over his paperwork, Mitch turned back to Liam.

“Okay, can you tell me what’s going on?”

“I’ve had surveillance on both the Dixon brothers for the last six weeks.”

That didn’t sound right. “I told you I was only interested in what Harvey Dixon did when he got out of rehab.”

Li shook his head. “You did, but I changed up the plan. Look, I have more experience at these things than you do. There’s always a bloody twist. So I’ve been watching both brothers and I did a thorough assessment of Dixon Technologies. The name sounds impressive, and in some ways it is. Harvey was the idea man while Patrick handled the money and the actual business operations. The company itself and the patents they hold are worth roughly three million dollars, but it turns out Patrick is a brilliant investor. He diversified the company a few years ago and now they have assets in excess of nine million. The trouble is there are three siblings involved. Patrick has a twin. Her name is Frances Dixon, and apparently she tends to side with Harvey against Patrick.”

“Good for them. None of this explains why I’m getting my ass kicked regularly.” The phone calls had started two weeks before. He got robocalls at all hours of the night. They began at precisely ten p.m. and went on until six a.m. He’d turned off his phone after the first few and then changed his number.

“Adam traced the calls back to a computer, but it was at a public library. Someone got on the system and upgraded the thing, so to speak. That’s why you only got the calls late a night. They were set up to turn on after the library closed and everyone was gone. Obviously this is something a man of Harvey Dixon’s brilliance can do, but it’s also something most hackers can handle. I’ve also used surveillance footage and found the kid who’s been vandalizing the building and your car. His name’s Austin Hunt. Seventeen. Juvie record about a mile long. I took everything to Brighton and he sent his men out to bring the bugger in for questioning, but the kid’s in the wind.”

He looked down at the picture Liam placed in front of him. He was a kid, but he was a kid who had fired a gun at Laurel. “So you think Dixon hired this kid.”

“I think one of the Dixons hired this kid. The question is which one.”

“The real question I have is why any of them would bug me. I’m just the damn lawyer. I’m representing a company that made it to market first. I’m not responsible for the invention. If I drop the case, someone else will pick it up. They can’t stop this from happening.”

Liam sat back. “No, at the end of the day, there’s nothing any of them can do, so I have to either come up with a logical reason for this to be happening or accept that Patrick Dixon is telling the truth and this is all Harvey. Harvey could be paying the kid. According to Derek, Austin Hunt is known for hiring himself out. He’s already worked for a couple of area drug dealers and his father had mob ties.”

But Liam was suspicious, and everyone who knew the McKay-Taggart boys knew Liam O’Donnell was the one with an almost sixth sense when it came to crime. “You want to dig deeper?”

“I do. I know you want this to be cut and dry, but I don’t think it is. I think there’s more here and I need to find some kind of money trail. Whether it leads from Harvey Dixon to Austin Hunt or somewhere else, my every instinct is telling me to find the money. It’s buried deep, but it’s here. In the meantime, you’ve got the new security system both here and at the house. If it escalates, we’ll put someone on you twenty-four seven.”