Deliberate Deceptions: Hauberk Protection, Book 3 (13 page)

“Come on in.”

Andy stuck his head in, his gaze taking a long sweep down Lauren’s form that had a growl forming in Chad’s throat.

“What do you want?”

“Troy called. The setup worked. They caught Harris attempting to break into the decoy home. He ate a bullet rather than be arrested.” He tossed Lauren’s cellphone to them; Chad caught it handily. “He says Lauren’s boss wants to talk to you both.”

Chapter Thirteen

Lauren pulled the Brigade’s Humvee into the driveway of a modest two-story Colonial Chad had directed her to. It was the type they used to drive by and say
some day, we’ll own a house like that.
A massive beech tree shaded the front lawn, though its leaves now covered the lawn not the branches. She could picture Chad playing catch with a son, or daughter, beneath it. Or maybe he’d put up a hoop over the two-car garage and teach their child how to free throw. If she even dared thinking about having another child.

One hurdle at a time.

“You’re right. It’s just the type of house we used to dream about.” She pulled the keys from the ignition and pressed the button to release the trunk latch.

“I’ll get it,” he said calmly when she reached for the door handle.

Ever the gentleman, he walked around the car and held open the door for her. She took the hand he offered to help her out—it wasn’t that she needed the help. Or maybe, from the way her knees were shaking, she did.

Lauren tightened the grip on her purse and followed him in, waiting in the open doorway while he turned off the alarm. A beam of late afternoon sunlight bounced off the crystal chandelier hanging from the two-story ceiling. The oak banister gleamed as if it had just been polished, as did the matching hardwood floor. “It’s beautiful.”

“Do you want a tour?” Chad had his hands stuck in his pockets again, a sign she remembered meant he was nervous. At least she wasn’t the only one whose knees were beating a tattoo to rival a woodpecker.

She trailed him as he took her on a tour of the house. They started in the kitchen where she admired the glass-fronted units and granite counter then proceeded through the first floor—an office they could share, the living room with its marble-fronted fireplace and two-story wood-beamed ceilings.

“I hired an architect to redesign it,” he explained when they reached the top floor. “It used to be a four bedroom but I had him combine one of the smaller bedrooms with the master. You’d always said you wanted an ensuite…I thought maybe…”

That if he’d made everything perfect, she’d come back to him. The same way he’d become almost obsessive about picking up his clothes and keeping things neat. “Show me?”

He held out his hand, waiting until she’d laced their fingers together before leading her to the master suite dominated by a king-sized bed.

“I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited to show you this room. To…” He shook his head. “Never mind. One day at a time, right?”

Right about certain things. But not for what she sensed he needed. “To what? To make love to me? To tie me up and have your way with me the way we used to?”

“Yes.” Need and desire filled both his voice and his eyes.

“So what are you waiting for? I’m here. Tell me what you want me to do.”

“Take your clothes off.” A command, not a question. A shiver of anticipation ran up her spine with heated fingers.

Dropping her purse on the floor, she removed her holster and placed it on the dresser. She slipped off her blouse, then unhooked her bra and let it fall beside her purse. Her slacks hit the floor moments later followed by her thin, lacy boy shorts. Her pulse jacked into the triple digits as she stood naked while he was completely clothed. The air in the room thinned and heated at the same time, especially as his gaze raked her.

“Play with yourself. Touch yourself the way you want me to touch you.” His voice rasped over her skin, setting her nerve endings on fire as if he’d scraped her all over with sandpaper.

The way she wanted him to touch her? She let her head fall back and closed her eyes as she fondled her breasts. As she had so many times in the past, she imagined it was his fingers stroking the sensitive skin, tweaking her nipples.

“Don’t close your eyes, Lauren. Look at me while you’re pleasuring yourself.”

Her eyelids were heavy but she forced them open and found he’d moved closer. She pinched her nipples hard enough to create a sting that soon changed to heat.
This, this is what I want you to do.
She tugged and rolled them again and again, the moisture below gathering as the sensation shot to her pussy.

Not breaking her gaze, one hand slipped over her belly and between her thighs. Cream drenched her fingers as they slid through her folds.

“Is that what you want me to do to you?”

“Yes.”

He crowded her, so close the heat from his body warmed her over-sensitized skin. “My mouth or my fingers?”

“Either. Both.” While her one hand continued to play with her breasts, her hips rotated, pressing her clit against her palm. She quickened her pace then needing more, plunged one finger, then another inside her. Each breath grew harder to draw. “Oh God, Chad, I want you inside me. Your fingers, your cock, I don’t care. I need…”

Before she could push herself over the edge and climax, Chad grabbed her hand from between her legs. He lifted it to his mouth, sucking first one finger then the other. Once they were clean, he bent his head and captured one of her taut nipples with his teeth while his other hand ventured where hers had been.

Lauren moaned as he plunged his fingers inside her at the same time he nipped at her breast. The stinging caused by his teeth combined with the pleasure of his fingers until she had to hang onto his shoulders to remain upright. He varied the speed and the depth of his penetration, bringing her close to climax at least twice before he withdrew.

As much as she wanted to moan her complaint, to beg him to let her come, she kept her mouth shut. He took great pride in making her come multiple times, so whatever he had planned, she was prepared to wait him out.

“Kneel on the bed with your ass in the air.”

She did as he bid, turning her head to watch him methodically strip. He removed his gun from its holster and placed it in the bedside table. Leaving her waiting was part of his plan she decided as he opened the closet and hung his suit jacket. Like at the farm, he folded his shirt and placed it in the hamper. She used the time to watch the play of muscles on his back and abdomen as he stripped his trousers and hung them on a press. When he was finally naked, his cock was still fully erect. Instead of returning to her, he headed into the bathroom.

She didn’t have to ask what he was looking for—she’d known as soon as he’d turned her onto her stomach what he’d want. He returned a few moments later, his erection hard and tall against his belly.

Her eyes widened at the items he carried upon his return. The butt plug he placed on the mattress beside her was at least the same size as his cock so she wasn’t too worried about it, but her pulse raced at the riding crop he set beside her.

He knelt behind her and murmured, “Spread your legs wider, babe.”

She shuffled until her knees were the distance apart he’d indicated. As soon as she stopped moving, he picked up the bottle of lube and applied a generous dollop to the anal plug and coated it with his fingers. “Relax.”

It was easier for him to say than for her to do, especially when he squirted lube over her behind. And even tougher when he pressed the hard tip of the plug against her opening. As he pressed it inward, his other hand toyed with her clit. Before she knew it, her hips were rotating against his fingers, her ass pressed against the plug and it popped past the ring of muscles. “Stand up, Lauren.”

She carefully pushed herself to a stand. His features, normally so carefully controlled, were unguarded, the lust and desire filling his eyes, hardening his lips. He wanted her like this. He needed her. As much as she needed him.

She stayed still as he fixed the harness to the plug and around her hips.

“Get back on the bed the way you were before. Grab hold of the headboard.”

She bit her lip to keep herself from moaning and hurried to position herself the way he’d ordered. He’d not fastened the second cuff around her wrist securing her to the headboard, and she was already trembling in anticipation.

After laying a kiss on her shoulder, he set to work massaging her shoulders and working down her back with the skill of a trained masseuse. By the time he’d reached her hips, she’d forgotten about the restraints. Hell, her body had forgotten it had bones, she was so relaxed. If she’d been a cat, she’d have been purring.

He shifted his weight, parting her legs so he could kneel between them. His fingers trailed over the globes of her cheeks and down to her pussy. She just about purred when he dipped them into her opening and filled her. Between his thumb on her clit and his two fingers deep inside, he soon had her pressing back, her body heating as her second orgasm overtook her.

Until he picked up the riding crop she’d forgotten. He’d spanked her on occasion, a light tap on her behind, and she’d enjoyed it, but this…this was different. This would hurt.

He leaned over her, stroking the leather strip of the crop down her spine. Her body tensed, tightening around the butt plug until it felt massive.

“You either trust me.” His fingers parted her folds and unerringly found her clit, toying with it until she was ready to agree to anything. Then he withdrew. “Or you don’t.”

If he’d wanted to seek revenge from her, wouldn’t he have done that back at the farm?

“Lauren?”

You either trust me or you don’t.
It was a test. She closed her eyes and nodded. “I trust you, Chad.”

She’d barely finished speaking when the crop whistled across her left butt cheek. A second stroke followed the first, this one over the right buttock. While it initially stung, it didn’t hurt. He struck each cheek twice more, then smoothed the sting with his hand. Once she realized it wouldn’t hurt, he continued until her ass was on fire and her pussy dripped with her arousal.

He settled beneath her thighs, using his tongue on her clit, his fingers scissoring into her tight passage. Alternating between licking her clit and tugging on it with his lips, he took her to the brink of orgasm. She couldn’t stop herself from crying out when he let her fly, her body clenching around his fingers and the plug, pulsing in ecstasy.

Her pussy hadn’t stopped pulsing when he withdrew the plug leaving her feeling emptier than she could ever remember. Without giving her any warning, he thrust in hard, stretching her, the burning pain mixing with an unending pleasure of the remains of her last orgasm. Only he’d known what she liked, how she liked.

He tangled his fingers in her hair, pulling it until her head arched back. He withdrew and slammed back in again until she shuddered around him. “Do you feel how much I want you?”

“Yessss…” As much as she wanted him.

“Do you know I’ve never taken another woman here? That I’ve never wanted to?”

Realizing it was important to him, she found the breath to speak. “No one else has been there either.”

At her confession, he slowed his thrusts with a groan. Moving ever so slowly he withdrew then returned.

She pressed her hips back against him, tightening her muscles, holding him in. His fingers dug into her hips as he gave into the pleasure. When he began a series of frenzied thrusts that pushed her closer and closer to the edge of her third orgasm, she buried her face in the sheets. God, how bland the last decade had been without the fire he’d brought to her, the strength of her orgasm rippled through her.

Moments later, Chad’s cock pulsed deep inside her, his come heating her passage until every inch of her felt aflame. The sensation paled to the heat of his breath on her shoulder or his gasped “love you”.

As soon as he fell on the mattress beside her, Lauren attempted to roll to him, to hold him only to be stopped by the bonds holding her in place.

Still breathing heavily, Chad cracked open an eye at her curses. “Hang on a sec.”

He reached up and loosened the bindings, but not before he’d taken her breath away again with another deep kiss. Once she was free, he gathered her in his arms. Lauren would have been content to lie there for the rest of the night, to hold him and be held. Instead Chad slipped a hand beneath her knees and lifted her. “Come on, let’s get cleaned up.”

The ensuite bathroom he’d had designed was a work of art. Where he’d taken charge in the bedroom, she pressed him against the tiles and picked up a bar of soap. The room filled with steam from the multiple showerheads and the occasional soft murmur as they cleaned up. They both seemed to sense there was no need for words, simply being in the same room together again was enough. The last of the lather swirling down the drain, Lauren wrapped her arms around Chad’s waist and rested her head on his shoulder. “I love you too.”

His “hmm” of satisfaction turned into a chuckle when her stomach growled loudly enough to be heard over the water. “Do you want to go out for dinner tonight or order in?”

“In.” Preferably something they could eat while sprawled naked on the bed.

He grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around her, and tucked the end into her cleavage. Before he could wrap his towel around his hip, Lauren took it from him. She lingered over her task, patting every single part of him dry. The sun had long since set when they finally walked back into the bedroom. Chad flicked on the light. Before she could step around him, he’d shoved her behind him but she hit the doorframe with an oomph.

“Stay where you are, Mr. Miller.” Shit, there was a man in their bedroom.

Chad held out his hands and adopted the reasonable tone they’d been taught during their hostage negotiation training at Quantico. “Tom? Put the gun down and let’s talk about what you’re doing here.”

Gun. Her empty holster lay on the bed. Aw fuck. It was her own gun that Tom Whoever was using.

“I don’t think so. I know you’re hiding a whore behind you. You tell her to come out where I can see her.” Lauren didn’t recognize the voice, but being called a whore had her balling her fists.