Game On (The Morgan Brothers Book 4) (2 page)

Lacing her fingers together before rotating her wrists and flexing her fingers, Aspen couldn’t hold back the grin spreading heat as it slid over her face. Damn, if she didn’t look forward to the times, the three of them could play together.

She’d spent the day backtracking the asshat who had taken a sudden interest in Phoenix Morgan. And, just like the previous couple of weeks, the prick had managed to stay at least a step or two ahead of her. She was getting damned tired of playing fucking tag when she always seemed to be
it
. But his stalker was getting braver, so she didn’t plan to back-off, Phoenix didn’t know it yet, but he’d acquired a guardian angel.

Aspen had been working for twelve hours straight and really should have gotten some much needed sleep before hitting the road, but now that she’d seen Phoenix and Mitch were ready to play, sleep could wait. It was time to let off some steam. There was only so much she could do to protect him without actually meeting Phoenix. Even though that pleasure was on the agenda, but it wasn’t going to happen tonight so gaming would have to do.

Her application to Mountain Mastery had been submitted. She hoped to meet him during one of his regular weekend visits to the BDSM club outside Billings that had recently become a hotspot among the Midwest’s wealthy kinksters. With personal references from Kent, Kyle, and Jax, she wasn’t worried about being accepted, but she wasn’t naïve either. The owners of the club, the Ledek brothers would call the Prairie Winds Club to verify her information when they saw she’d also listed the three men as her emergency contacts.

The Mountain Mastery application had included all the usual elements…health information and restrictions, play experience, previous experience in the lifestyle in and out of club settings along with ample space to list both hard and soft limits. But it had also included something she hadn’t been expecting—a request to write a fantasy scenario. Anticipating the leash her friends would demand Nate and Taz Ledek tie to her, Aspen had written a fantasy scenario she knew none of them would ever allow.

It was amazing how over the top her imagination could be when it was playing with a safety net. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, when she thought back on the moment, she’d hit the button sending the document to Nate’s inbox. Trying to shake off the skittishness she felt, Aspen scrubbed her hands up and down her arms. Making an effort to push the feeling of foreboding aside, she refocused on the game in front of her. “Okay, guys, let’s see how quickly I can mop the floor with you so I can get some sleep. Lots of miles to cover tomorrow, you know. Good guys to look out for and bad guys to track…I’m a busy girl, so let’s get started.”

One week later

P
hoenix shifted uncomfortably
in his padded office chair trying to relieve the unrelenting pressure of the zipper of his jeans branding his cock. At this point, he was probably going to have a permanent impression running the length of his unruly appendage. He’d spent the majority of the past year in a state of unsatisfied need with a perpetual hard-on.
I swear the damned woman is going to be the reason I start wearing sweats.

Mitch’s soft laughter had Phoenix turning around to see his friend leaning against the doorframe, sipping from a steaming cup of coffee. “Reading the fantasy portion of her application?”

“Yeah. Fuck. I’m telling you, the woman missed her calling, she should be writing kinky romance novels.”

“I’m assuming you’re thinking about how much her potential readers would benefit since we now know she doesn’t need the money.” And wasn’t that the damned truth? Once they’d traced her laptop back to DHS, it hadn’t taken long for Micah Drake at Prairie Winds to discover who they were dealing with. Oh yeah, the phone call he’d gotten from Jax McDonald had been tons of fun.
Not!
Of course, compared the similar call he’d gotten from Kent and Kyle West, his chat with Jax hadn’t seemed so bad.

None of them had minced any words when they let him know Aspen Andrews was under their protection. As Doms, both Mitch and Phoenix understood exactly what their declarations meant, and they intended to honor their claim. But it didn’t mean he wasn’t planning to turn her lovely ass a nice shade of scarlet at his first opportunity. Damn, she’d been taunting both of them far too long to let her off scot free.
The little minx needs to pay the piper
.

“I think she wrote this thinking there was no way it could ever
actually
happen. There would be a certain freedom in writing from the heart when you didn’t anticipate ever actually having to reenact the scene.” Phoenix had been playing strategy games with
Athena
for over a year, and he’d spent the past few months meticulously studying every move as he critically analyzed each word. The woman had chosen her name well, she was definitely a goddess of war strategy.

“I agree, but I also think it was written from the depths of her soul. You heard what Kyle said, she negotiated a five-year membership to the Prairie Winds Club when they pulled her off leave to help protect CeCe. She didn’t care jack-squat about the money, but the membership assured her that her friends would have her back and accept her foray into the lifestyle.” Hell, she’d been fucking fearless on that mission. Never batting an eye at anything they set in front of her. “For a woman who was used to the emotional distance of being a fighter pilot, she’d hit the ground running from the moment she joined the team. She didn’t let up until that fucking
capo
Craig Allen’s bullet dropped her like a sack of sugar.”

During the time they’d been friends, Phoenix had noticed Mitch’s Cajun childhood accent surfaced when he was upset or angry. So, his reference to Cecelia Barnes’ stalker as a
capo
or coward, told him the man was more affected by the conversation than he appeared. His facial expression had remained impassive, but his eyes were spitting fire. Phoenix leaned back against the plush black leather and crossed his arms over his chest. Giving Mitch a considering look, he asked, “I’ve only gotten bits and pieces of this story, care to fill in the blanks?”

There wasn’t any question in Phoenix’s mind that Mitch Ames would prefer to erase the memory of that day, but he was equally sure the information was important. Anything in Mitch and Aspen’s shared past that had the power to elicit such a strong response needed to be out in the open. As a Dom, Phoenix knew it was his responsibility to uncover anything that might be an emotional trigger for the submissive in his care, and this had all the hallmarks of a hell of a minefield.

Mitch understood Phoenix’s
need to know all the details of what had taken place in St. Maarten because there was little doubt it had shaped who Aspen Andrew’s was today. Hell, it led directly to the creation of her on-line persona as Athena.

He had always regretted the fact he hadn’t been able to stay in St. Maarten long enough to explore their mutual attraction. But, that didn’t mean he hadn’t carefully tracked her recovery. She’d made remarkable progress, but some of the damage had been irreversible. Everybody but Aspen had known her career as a fighter pilot was over as soon as Craig Allen’s bullet pierced her side. Scrubbing his hand over his face, Mitch tried, once again, unsuccessfully to purge the picture from his memory.

Seeing Aspen lying lifeless on the ground, knowing his own shot, the one ending the threat to Cecelia, had come a split second too late, continued to haunt him. It didn’t matter how many times he reviewed the tape or how many people applauded what was always referred to as
the shot of a lifetime.
All he saw was Aspen’s body jerk to the side from the impact before she crumpled to the ground. Pushing away from the doorframe in hopes changing his physical position would push the picture from his mind, Mitch settled in one of the other office chairs and leaned back.

“Long story short, Aspen was tapped to help protect Dr. Cecelia Barnes. Micah Drake at Prairie Winds, doing what he does best, knew Aspen was on leave in New York City which put her exactly where we needed her. She helped gather intel and was the first to spot our target before flying to St. Maarten. Once there, she made sure their paths crossed at the airport. Hell, she even snowed him into thinking he’d picked her up. After agreeing to spend a few days with him on his yacht, she slipped him a mickey and searched the yacht—the woman was fucking fearless.” It had been her greatest advantage and her downfall.

“Allen hadn’t been aiming at Aspen, he’d taken a bead on Dr. Barnes. His shot would have gone straight through Cecelia’s heart. Aspen saw him and knew instinctively what was going to happen. She didn’t even hesitate before putting herself between the bullet and the woman she was supposed to be protecting.”

“I can’t imagine St. Maarten having the best medical facilities for that sort of injury.” Hell, Phoenix doubted there was more than a handful of islands in the region with well-equipped trauma units.

“Ordinarily you’d have been right. But Cecelia’s husband had recently started rebuilding the local clinic into a state of the art facility in the hope he could convince her to move her practice to the island. Not all of the equipment had been updated, and the truth is, it Cecelia Barnes’ iron will and skill that saved Aspen’s life.

The clinic she owns in Houston still draws patients from all over, but then it’s well known that she’s one of the best pediatric surgeons in the world. Her innovative techniques have changed the face of surgery not only for her young patients, but her methods have impacted procedures for adults as well.”

There wasn’t a doctor in the entire world Mitch respected more than Cecelia Barnes. The miracle she’d pulled off that day was just one in a long line of incredible medical feats on her resume. Shaking his head, Mitch couldn’t hold back his laughter. “CeCe insists Cam, her husband, and Dom is the real hero because he had all the tools in place. But, those tools would have been completely useless in anyone else’s hands.”

“Tell me about her injury.” The bits and pieces Phoenix picked up from the reports he’d read hadn’t detailed much beyond the fact her survival had been nothing short of a miracle.

“The bullet caused slivering of a couple of ribs. Those slivers making one projectile fracture and become thirty. The bone chards sliced, diced, and punctured everything in their path. If CeCe hadn’t been on her game, Aspen wouldn’t have even made it to the clinic.” Every person associated with the mission had been damned impressed watching her transformation from the terrified target into the take charge physician. Mitch had seen battle hardened medics fold under less pressure.

“Unfortunately, the damage to her lungs was significant enough for Uncle Sam to end her career as a pilot. It would have been little more than a blip on the radar for a civilian pilot.” Every man there had gone to the wall for her, but in the end, Captain Aspen Andrews lost the job she loved.

“So how did she end up working for DHS?” Mitch assumed Phoenix new more than he was letting on, but he understood his friend’s need for confirmation. They’d been tracking Athena for longer than either of them had anticipated it would take, and now that they had her in their sights, neither of them wanted to make a misstep and send her scampering out of reach again.

“Cameron Barnes never fully retired—despite appearances to the contrary. The truth is, he was so deep for so long I doubt Uncle Sam will ever completely let him go—at least not until he is too old to be of any use. He doesn’t take many missions, but he is the intelligence officer and strategic specialist far more often than anyone realizes. The man is a relentless enemy, but he’s a damn loyal friend. Saving his beloved wife’s life wasn’t an act he looked upon lightly. CeCe isn’t just Cam’s wife and submissive—she’s his entire world. He readily admits she and their daughter are his reason for existing.”

“So Cameron Barnes was responsible for Aspen landing the DHS job, but how did she end up as Athena?”

Mitch laughed. “You already know you were her first assignment. What better way to get inside your head than to play against you? Personally, I think she enjoyed the games so much she continued even after she’d filed her report.”

“From what I’ve been able to learn, she originally thought I was playing as myself and as Cajun Warrior.” Mitch had the same impression, he’d used the name as a shield to prevent anyone from linking him to the character he played in the games. Anyone trying to fly under the radar as a black ops operative didn’t need to give the bad guys any additional information about how their mind worked. The real question was why she’d kept playing after she’d figured out he and Phoenix were two different people?

“That is an interesting twist, isn’t it? But I think she’s discovered an outlet for the part of her who will always be Captain Andrews, Air Force pilot. Soldiers may retire, but a part of their soul is always poised and ready just at the fringe of battle-ready mode. Of course, this explains her affinity for the piloting portion of your games.” Mitch knew he’d practically growled the last sentence, but damn, the woman had mopped the floor with both of them more times than he could remember.