Tex's Revenge: Military Discipline, Book Two (12 page)

“Miss Matthews, you might want to modulate your tone,” Tex suggested. “If for no other reason than the fact your captain appears to be on the edge of a disciplinary outburst. As I said but a minute ago,” he said with a significant look, not at her, but at her 'handler'. “I am one of the directors of a rather large private security firm. We do work all over the globe. Men like Captain Savage are very sought after in our organization, as are those with your talents, Miss Matthews.”

“So... mercenaries,” Zora said.

“If you like the term,” Tex said with a shrug. “It's occasionally apt.”

“Since when are you a mercenary?” She turned back to Savage. She wouldn't have thought he'd ever leave the military willingly. He was a military man through and through. Why, he'd seen fit to properly bugger her life up in the name of the big M.

“Since this is the only game in town that can keep someone like you safe,” Savage said, as if it were all her fault that everything had happened the way it did, as if it were her fault she were so good at doing bad things.

“Hey fuck you, I was an accountant, and a pretty shitty one before you made me 'someone like me',” Zora snapped. “If you'd left me the fuck alone then none of us would be here.”

“I told you to watch your mouth,” he growled.

As intimidating as he was, Zora wasn't prepared to back down on that particular fight. She stepped up to him, glaring up and wishing that she didn't have to crane her neck quite so much to meet his eyes.

“I warned you what would happen if you swore again,” he said, his voice dangerously soft.

“Lay a finger on me and I'll make you wish you were never born,” she replied. Her threat was overblown bluster, but she hoped it would save her from the consequences that were written in his eyes. Her ass would have been grass if it weren't for Tex interjecting.

“Children, children,” he said, a little mocking smile on his face. “Let's not fight.”

There was nothing but silence for a long moment as Savage's eyes slid from Zora over to the well dressed, handsome man who had stood up from his chair with a silly placating grin on his face. “Call me a child one more time and it will be the last thing you ever say,” Savage said in a low and menacing voice, turning his wrath upon his new employer.

Zora sniggered as Tex went a little pale. She didn't blame him, Savage was not given to wanton violence, he had self control beyond imagination, but he looked like the sort of man who might enjoy rending other men limb from limb. “I do apologize, force of habit,” Tex said quickly.

The matter was dropped as quickly as it had been raised. “Matthews is tired, as am I,” Savage said, taking control of the meeting. “We can continue this when everyone is rested properly.”

“Of course,” Tex agreed amicably. He didn't seem to mind Savage's authoritarian approach to everything, in fact he seemed to rather admire it. Zora wasn't sure if that was a weakness on Tex's part, or if he was simply enamored of his new toy like a boy proud of his strong new puppy. “I've arranged rooms for you two to share, rooms that don't have additional hallway ventilation,” he said pointedly.

“Very kind of you,” Savage said, looping his arm around Zora's waist in a gesture that was both possessive and comforting.

“I'll show you the way,” Tex said rather eagerly. They wound through corridors, Tex chatting the whole way about the mod-cons and satellite uplinks and the entertainment centers and how comfortable they would be. He was very clearly quite awestruck by Savage who was everything he was not.

Tex was a man of course, and quite a masculine and attractive one at that, but where Savage was built to destroy, he was built to evade. His body had a lithe quality suited only to the sinewy type of strength that favors flight over fight. Next to Savage he seemed small and slight as he moved quickly through the halls pointing out delights like a veritable Willy Wonka.

“Well, here we are,” he said, gesturing towards an open door that lead into a set of two rooms, one living room and one bedroom, bath adjoining. “I think you'll both be comfortable here.”

“Thanks,” Savage nodded after passing a cursory glance around the rooms. “These will do nicely.”

Tex made a few more remarks that neither Savage nor Zora paid any attention to then wandered off, shutting the door behind himself.

Finally alone, the couple stared at one another for a long moment, saying nothing. There was a lot Zora wanted to say, a lot of questions she wanted to ask, a lot of accusations she wanted to hurl, but when she opened her mouth to say something, nothing came out but a wail as she went and burst into tears like a complete idiot.

Savage made a soft tutting sound and pulled her into his arms. She could barely believe that he was really there, really holding her once more. Her shoulders shook as she cried uncontrollable tears that seemed to come from a hidden well inside her. He tried to calm her, but there were no words that could assuage the pain that was tumbling out all over him. “I'm sorry Zora,” he mumbled into her hair. “I'm so sorry it had to be this way.”

“I thought you were never coming back, and he, he touched me,” she cried.

“I know, I'm sorry,” Savage comforted her.

She blubbered against his chest, wetting his sweater thoroughly. “Why did you let him do that?”

Savage stalled for a little time by walking her across their shared space and drawing her down into a sitting position in the bed in the far room. “I thought it would be better than the alternatives,” he said when he had her settled on his knee. “He never laid an inappropriate hand on you, or hit you when you didn't deserve it, did he?”

She pouted. “But...”

“No buts,” he shook his head at her and pressed a light kiss to her lips. “You were a total brat sometimes.”

“No...”

“You took your clothes off in the middle of nowhere.”

“Okay maybe I was a little bratty,” she admitted with a small smile.

“Maybe nothing. You've not changed at all, Matthews,” he smiled, holding her close. “Still the same pain in the ass as always.”

“Well if I'm that bad, why'd you come get me?” The question had a lot of attitude in it, but there was more than just plain attitude, there was a yearning for reassurance that came quickly.

“Because I love you.”

Love. She'd yearned to hear that word from his lips again and hearing it made her entire being flood with joy. “I love you too,” she said softly.

“So I'm not dead to you then?” He smiled a little to let her know he was teasing, though she was sure it must have hurt him to say that.

“You'll never be dead to me, I was just, I was mad and scared and...”

“I know,” he rubbed her back soothingly. “I know. But that's over now.”

She nodded. It didn't feel over. It felt surreal. As if they'd managed to catch a brief moment of peace in a storm that had yet to blow over. “Did you organize all of this?” She waved an arm at their surroundings.

“Sort of. After I got you out, things got a little nasty at work,” he said vaguely. “I had to find a place where we could both be safe.”

“And that's with Tex?”

“Did you listen to a thing the man said?” Savage growled at her, though not too seriously. “ He has a lot of money, and a lot of power, or at least, his father does. We're safer here than anywhere else.”

“But we have to run around being mercenaries? That's not very safe is it?”

“That is a small flaw in the plan,” he admitted. “Though I do not foresee Tex sending you into any war zones.”

“No, he's too much of a gentleman for that. He'll stick me in stockings behind a desk instead,” Zora said glumly.

“Poor girl,” Savage mocked her gently.

“You're too old to be a mercenary,” she said taunted him in return. “You should be retiring.”

“Brat!” He laughed at the idea of retirement.

“I am not a brat, and you were mean to me in front of him,” she looked at him reproachfully. “Why were you so mean?”

“You need a little meanness,” he said knowingly. “Actually, I think you need a lot of meanness. You've been running amok, young lady.”

She lowered her head and smiled secretly into his chest. “Well that's not my fault, I have been abandoned and left to my own devices far far from any form of civilization.”

“Any place that has a bar is civilized enough, and you indulged in it plenty if the bar tender was to be believed,” Savage said, putting his hands around her waist and pushing her back a little so he could get a good look at her. He tutted and shook his head slightly. “I'm going to have to whip you back into shape again, I see.”

“So long as there are no actual whips,” Zora quipped.

His brow quirked at her. “With the way you've been behaving there might have to be.”

“I can behave how I want,” she asserted herself, albeit half heartedly. It was hard to pretend to be in any form of control when she was snuggled so close to the man who made her go all melty on the inside.

“No you can't.”

“Yes I damn well can.” Ordinarily speaking like that would have gotten her into some serious trouble, but she said it with a playful lilt that earned her little more than a look as he laid down and stretched languidly on the bed. “I'm back now, Zora, and I'm not going anywhere, so you can put any thoughts of getting your own way aside for the next, oh, fifty years.”

She scrambled up the bed to kneel next to him, looking down at him earnestly. “You won't leave me again?”

“Over my dead body I won't leave your side.” His gaze was intense and sweet. “You're mine, Matthews, and I won't let you go again.”

She collapsed against him, feeling his strength and hoping against hope that fate and circumstances wouldn't make a liar out of him. In her heart of hearts she knew he'd always tried to do the right thing, but doing the right thing was hard in a world where people had bullets and weren't afraid to use them on you. She ran her fingers over his sweater clad torso, feeling the ridges of muscle underneath the fine woolen fabric. “Are they going to come after us?”

“I don't think so. Tex managed to come to a deal, he's quite the businessman.”

“I bet he is,” Zora said. Tex was smooth and slick and ruthless when he wanted something. She could just imagine him taking a shine to Savage and then picking her up as part of the package deal too. “But they don't need money, do they? They're the military, after all.”

“The military doesn't need money, but Hurtzwald loves his new yacht,” Savage winked.

She snorted, taken aback at how easily problems could be solved if only you had enough money. “So that's the price of a man? A yacht.”

“It is a rather nice yacht,” Savage said dryly.

“And me? What did I cost?”

His lips twisted wryly. “You he got for free. You weren't strictly part of the deal.”

She wrinkled her nose. “So I'm not, like, worth a life jacket or a dingy or something?”

“A rubber duckie maybe,” Savage chuckled.

“Hey!” She slapped his chest.

He caught her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “Careful now Matthews.”

She was off and arguing again before his affectionate warning could sink in. “So why do I have to work if I'm free. Doesn't that make me a slave?”

“Yes, it makes you my slave,” Savage winked. “My little wench to trade.”

She smiled at the joke as she laid down properly and nuzzled his chest. Everything was perfect and right when he was there. Everything was better. She could almost push away the niggling feeling in the corner of her mind that told her this was all too easy, that the people who wanted her months ago still wanted her now and that she and Savage might have not only leaped from the frying pan into the fire, but done a deal with the devil on the way down.

“Hey,” he said suddenly, tipping her chin up toward him. “We're going to be alright. I promise.”

Zora wished her smile didn't feel so weak and doubtful.

“Matthews,” he said in a low growl. “What did I say?”

“You said we're going to be alright.”

“And we are,” he said, tapping the tip of her nose lightly with his forefinger. “Now you cheer up before I spank you into a better mood.”

“You would do that too,” she complained. “Cruelty, that's what it is.”

He chuckled darkly. “I've yet to be cruel with you, young lady, and well you know it.”

“Is that supposed to scare me?” She lapsed into playful taunts, letting her concerns over their precarious situation slip away. She wouldn't waste this time with him worrying about what might happen tomorrow or the next day. Maybe there wouldn't even be a tomorrow or a next day. Maybe they only had tonight. Maybe she only had five more minutes to soak in his essence, to feel his body, to smell his scent. She'd waited too damn long for this moment to stop and think about something as nebulous and uncertain as the future.

“Oh yes,” he growled in sexy tones. “It's meant to scare you silly.” He rolled over and caught her body under his own, pressing his lips against hers in a kiss that began sweetly but soon blossomed into something passionate and deeply intense as his tongue slipped inside her mouth, possessing her as she so desperately needed to be possessed.

When he broke the kiss she was breathless and limp in his arms. “I missed you, Zora Matthews,” he said softly, lowering his head to place a kiss on her collarbone. “My sweet little bank robbing brat.”

“It was one bank once,” she groaned at the ceiling as his lips and tongue set to work at the sensitive parts of her neck. “You rob one silly little bank and that's all anyone ever talks about.”

“It's so unfair,” he agreed, albeit in sarcastic tones as his hands drifted lower to lift her top up over her head. Left in little more than a bra and the silly skirt she'd been wearing since that morning, Zora was completely open and vulnerable to his touch, and touch her he did. Not a single part of her body escaped his attentions as he reacquainted himself with her curves and lines. Her remaining clothing melted away and soon she was completely naked, but he was still clothed.

“Not fair,” she said, nipping his lower lip lightly.

“Very fair,” he growled, reaching down to his zipper. “We only need a little bit of me naked for what I want to do to you.”