Hard Target (2 page)

“You can call me Ben if I can call you Morgan.”

“Seriously
Ben
, that was really low to laugh at me.”

“I wasn’t laughing at you, but—”

A mock scowl covers her face. “If you finish that sentence by saying that you were laughing
with
me, I will punch you again.”

“Are you flirting with me,
Morgan
?”

“If you consider pain flirting, then absolutely.”

I lean in closer to her. “I absolutely want more.”

Her eyes widen and the vein at the base of her neck starts beating rapidly. “How much more?”

“I want to take you home with me.”

She squirms in her seat. Oh yes, she is most definitely wanting more as well. “To teach you to knit?”

“To fuck,” I say rather baldly.

“You want me to teach you that?” her voice squeaks as she turns a bright shade of red.

“I’m always open to learn new things.” I wink at her.

“Oh.” She turns her attention back to her beer. “I um…”

“Too much?” I’m not sorry I said it, but I am sorry that she’s not of the same mind.

“No.” She makes a face, shaking her head. “I’m in way over my head with you. I don’t think I’m what you’re really looking for in a, um, date.”

Shit. I don’t want her to leave. Covering her hand with mine, I say, “You are exactly what I want in a date.” Never mind I rarely date. Never mind that I don’t let women, or men for that matter, get too close to me. “How about you and I enjoy our beer, then see where the night takes us?”

“I’d like that,” she says with a shy smile. “And I’m glad that you don’t mind if I slow things down a bit.”

“Don’t mind at all,” I assure her.

Benjamin

M
y eyes nearly
roll to the back of my head. I can barely punch in the code to my lock while Morgan’s mouth works its way down my chest. Her clever hands plunge inside my trousers. She finds my hard cock and starts to stroke me.

My arm shoots out, steadying me while I order myself to focus.

Isn’t easy though.

Considering that I’m standing in the middle of the bloody hallway, half undressed with a woman’s hand down my pants, I’m lucky that I eventually get it right on the third try.

The door falls open and we stumble inside.

“You won’t hate me in the morning, will you?” she asks as I kick at the door. It shuts and automatically locks.

“No.” Framing her face in my hands, I bring her mouth to mine, intent upon devouring every inch of her. “I could never hate you.”

It shocks me to my very bones that there is no small voice protesting this, that the hard punch of reality is silent.

Stop reading into this
, I remind myself.
You want her. She wants you. That’s all there is.

Letting go of her face, I grab her up by her thighs and push her against the wall. She wraps her shapely legs around me, her fingers working at the small buttons of her cardigan.

“I hate this stupid thing,” she nearly growls.

“If you will allow me?”

She nods.

I take the material in my hand and rip it open.

“Holy crap.” She grabs my face, slamming her mouth to mine again. Apparently, I did a good thing. She starts grinding against me. A very,
very
good thing.

We become frantic, grabbing at one another’s clothes. More buttons fly across the room, pinging as they hit the wall and floor. My shirt tears at the seam, but I don’t give a damn.

Finally, we are skin against skin, her breasts pressed against my chest. They’re not small, but they’re not large either. I think they’re—“fucking perfect.”

“What?”

I nibble on her ear. “Your tits. They’re perfect.”

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

Leaning back a little to gaze into her pretty blue eyes, I ask, “Still sure about this?”

“One hundred percent.”

I walk us to my living room, pushing her down onto the sofa. Her ass is on the cushioned arm, practically presenting her pussy to me as a gift. I get down on my knees, spread her thighs apart and begin to kiss my way up to where she’s bare.

Apparently, Morgan is a fan of waxing while I am a fan of Morgan being a fan of waxing. Sliding my hands under her bum, I lift her to my mouth and suck her clit.

She nearly comes off the sofa, her hands going to my head. Instead of pushing me away or trying to tear my hair out, she hangs on and begins to move her hips. I drag a knuckle over her and slide in a finger. She’s warm, tight, and incredibly wet. All I want to do is sink my cock inside of her and not come out for days.

I swirl my tongue around her clit, then head north again, kissing a wet path to her breasts. The tips are hard, dark like the color of ripened apples in fall. I take one into my mouth, moving my finger deeper and adding another.

Morgan moans so loudly that I can’t help but smile in complete male satisfaction.

“I don’t know if I’m coming or going,” she says, rising on her elbows. Her eyes widen. “Watching you is…” her head drops back. “I can’t take it.”

“You can and you will.” Sliding my free hand around the back her of her neck to cup it, I fuse my mouth to hers. Something primal inside of me is roaring to be heard.

Mark her. Claim her.

I tear my mouth away and go back to eating her pussy. The taste of her is addicting. Her thighs tremble and I sweep my hands over them as I suck her clit into my mouth.

She orgasms, screaming my name while her fingers dig into my scalp. The pain only serves to heighten…
everything
. Somehow, I manage to grab a condom from the inner pocket of my suit jacket.

Preparedness is my middle name.

Tearing the foil with my teeth, I spit out the wrapper and roll the latex down my throbbing cock. Precum is already leaking out of me and if I don’t get inside this beautiful woman, I’ll end up embarrassing myself.

Her pretty blue eyes round. “This is really happening.” She sounds breathless. Excited.

“Yes.”

I watch as the wide head disappears into her tight body. Inch by bloody fucking inch, I push inside her until I’m balls deep, and I have to grit my teeth to keep from coming in that instant.

Of their own volition, my hips retreat and then plow forward, seeking what she has to offer. I pump into her, wanting everything she has to give me.

Her hips jerk, her body one beautiful arch of flesh. I wrap a hand around her neck, holding her in place while I fuck her. My fingers are loose, no need to mark her there unless she begs.

With my free hand, I stroke her lithe body, wanting to map the curves and planes. Her skin is a light shade of pink, brought on by her arousal. I rub her clit and she squeezes me, her inner muscles milking my cock.

“Ben,” she chokes out. “Do that again.”

“My pleasure.” I rub her firmly, manipulating her swollen clit until she’s begging me to let her come.

“You can come whenever you want, darling. It’s all yours,” I whisper, leaning over her to capture her lips.

Her tongue plunges into my mouth while she wraps her legs wrap around my hips, the movement sending me deeper. Her fingernails sink into my ass and I’m there.

“Holy shit.”

My orgasm shoots down my spine as I ram into her for all that I’m worth. I come so hard that stars spark in my eyes. Morgan pulses around my cock. She moans my name, claws at the sofa, and writhes beneath me.

I can’t stop. No way I’ll stop until she’s satisfied.

Taking a hard nipple into my mouth, I suck hard and graze my teeth over the point.

Just keep moving. Keep moving. Holy fuck. Keep moving.

Her body bucks up against mine one final time and then she’s still.

Except for her hands. Her hands coast up and down my back. A sweet, almost loving gesture. Something that a couple would do to one another in the afterglow of making love. We are not a couple, nor have we made love, but I don’t pull away.

In fact, I do something supremely stupid, considering I have absolutely no proof of a change in policy. But I guess you can take the boy out of the
Bratva
, but not the
Bratva
out of the boy.

“Spend the entire night with me?” I ask.

Morgan nods, her blonde hair forming a silky halo against the sofa cushion. “Only if we get to do this again.”

“Promise.”

Then I lift her from the sofa and carry her into the shower.

*

Morgan is curled
up against me, one arm thrown across my chest while I stare at nothing, really. I feel at peace for once, no longer restless. It’s not something I am at all familiar with and sex can’t be the only answer. I’ve had sex before, great sex, okay sex, and blow off the top of my head sex. Tonight was definitely in the blow off the top of my head sex. Hell, it’s a step above that.

Still… peace isn’t something I ever thought I’d have in my lifetime. I’ve always been a restless sort, traveling from place to place. Even after I was given my freedom by Grandfather, I still chose to run away, I guess, moving to America, then to Spain for a while, and finally here.

The PharmGen position seemed to appear out of nowhere and since I’m not a believer of coincidences, I fully investigated them before agreeing to an interview. PharmGen is one of those companies who actually spend money on making their vaccines affordable. They devote time to charitable events.

Besides, it’s not as if the company is perfect. There were massive tax problems in the past, but the new CEO and my boss, fixed all of that when he came aboard two years before I was hired.

Morgan sighs, a sweet sound in an otherwise silent room.

She’s rather trusting, this one. Most women wouldn’t have stayed the night, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have asked them.

Perhaps it’s the company I keep. The wide circle of acquaintances that I socialize with but never really get to know, not beyond their social media pages, anyway.

An airplane making its way across a midnight sky catches my eye. My penthouse is so far above the London fog that I can see stars outside my window. When we left the pub, it was still day. But I haven’t given a thought to time or anything, only the woman in my bed.

Glancing at the time, I frown. It’s almost three in the morning and I have to be at work at seven. I haven’t slept and I haven’t eaten—two things that make me grumpy as hell—except I’m feeling mighty fine.

Thanks to Morgan.

When I was a child, I didn’t take eating or sleeping for granted, mostly because I wasn’t allowed much of either unless my caretakers were in the mood to throw me a bone.
Literally
, a bone, in some cases. There were times the dogs and I fought over it.

By the time I was taken to my grandfather’s house, I was mere skin and bones. Half afraid to talk. Fully expecting that I would be beaten for not knowing the rules. Rather ironic that the head of the
Bratva
treated me better than my mother’s sister. However, that is life. Sometime the bad guys are actually good and the good ones… well, they get theirs in the end.

Unlike my brother, Roman, I have absolutely no regret for paying them back for their
hospitality
. None at all.

Slowly, I extricate myself from Morgan’s warm, sweet embrace and put on a pair of pajama bottoms before heading to my office. The room is the coldest one in the house, but it feels rather balmy to my bare feet and chest.

The monitors flicker to life as soon as I sit down. While I grab a snack from the stash I keep on my desk, I check on the half-dozen programs I have running.

Contrary to popular belief, hackers don’t sit at their bloody desk beating their keyboards into submission while an imaginary clock counts down in order to get information. Rather we gently insert programs into the back entrances of company software.

Sexy, no?

Suddenly, there is an alert. I click on the popup. It’s another email from Dr. Clark—one that he sent minutes before his meeting with me. Only this time, he’d sent it via his mobile phone.

“Fuck me sideways,” I mutter, opening the file and scanning the contents, but it’s mostly in scientific jargon and filled with a formula that I can’t decipher. However, there are a few things that stick out.

Virus. Antidote. Meet as soon as possible.

My jaw clenches as I pick up the phone to call David Pinter. He’s the head of PharmGen and the man I always contact before we decide what to do about a breach. Usually, the breach is handled with severance package, non-disclosure agreement, and a very real threat to ruin them should they ever attempt to share our company secrets again.

“You stupid man,” I mutter. “I gave you the chance to leave with your dignity intact.”

David answers on the third ring. “Benjamin, how are you?” Music and the low din of a crowd of people talking fills the background.

Belatedly I remember that he’s at an after party for a new foundation that will focus on drinkable water wells in third world countries. However, my instructions are to notify David at any time, no matter what.

“We have a problem.”

“I trust you to take care of it. Give whoever it is the usual.”

His faith in me is more than a little humbling. I came to PharmGen as a college dropout. College was too chafing. Despite being the same age as the majority of my classmates, I’d witnessed things… done things that they’d only watched in movies. I envied everything about the comparative innocence of their lives.