by Laina Kenney
His words were a tease, humorous, but his tone of voice held a certain resignation. Isaac didn’t like taking the second position, but he was trying to make light of it.
Carolyn reached up, nuzzled his ear, and smoothed kisses from there down to the hollow of his throat. She leaned back, letting his strength support her so that she could meet his eyes.
“You’re not second best to me, Isaac. Never think it.” She spoke softly and clearly so her words would sink in. “I was having such a hard time feeling what I felt for you and for Grange at the same time. I couldn’t choose one over the other. I love you, and I want to be your wife.”
“God, baby, I love you,” he said almost desperately. “I love you.”
Isaac pulled her up close and fastened his mouth tenderly over hers. The heat flared between them as it always did, but it was tempered with a deep, swelling emotion. They rocked together, mouths fused and clinging, until Carolyn had tears standing in her eyes and Isaac was in much the same condition himself.
“You’ll never know how much you mean to me,” he grated, pressing kisses to her eyelids, sipping the teardrops. “I’m not good with words, and there are no words big enough to cover this feeling.”
“You’re doing just fine,” Carolyn assured him softly, basking in his focused attention. This gentle and open Isaac was so different from Isaac the office clown, or Isaac the soldier, that she was utterly captivated. He was irresistible to her this way.
He smoothed his lips down her throat, nibbling and tasting, lingering over the sensitive area until her knees felt like jelly and his hard arms supported her weight completely.
He laid her down across the desk and sat in his chair, pushing his hands up her thighs to raise her skirt. Soon, the skirt was bunched around her waist. He slowly pushed her thighs apart.
Isaac sighed gustily.
“God, I love garters,” he said feelingly, and lowered his mouth to her tender thigh just above one pink lace garter. The sensation of heat made her moan in anticipation. He nipped then sucked hard, and her pussy gushed a flood of scented cream as he left his loving mark on her pale skin.
He knew it, damn him, and his fingers trailed up, brushing seductively against her hot folds, and pushing the delicate pink lace of her panties to one side so that he could explore her further, he gently investigated the wetness.
Two long fingers slid inside, and she winced a little at the soreness. It had been a long and vigorous night, and she wasn’t used to such activities.
Isaac noticed immediately and pulled his fingers out of her clinging heat, drawing moisture with him. She groaned at the friction.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice muffled slightly, his breath hot against her secret flesh. “Are you sore, baby? I should have thought. I’ll kiss it better.”
The sensation was electrifying. He licked and nuzzled the frilled seam apart, then settled in, holding her open with his big hands. He used his whole mouth, his lips, his tongue, and his teeth in a fevered, wicked assault on her scorching pussy. The man was a connoisseur of all things female, and his own obvious enjoyment of this intimate act made it that much hotter for her until she was writhing and nearly out of her mind.
He lapped and tasted, swirling his stiffened tongue around her swollen clit, flicking and pulling at it with his pursed lips, creating a maelstrom of excitement which threatened to blast apart everything she had known before.
He deliberately drew it out, constantly varying technique and tempo, torturing her with her own ungovernable response, until she couldn’t do anything but surrender to his illicit expertise. Only when Carolyn was almost frantic, pleading with him, thrashing between his restraining hands, and begging breathlessly for relief of the exquisite torment, did he fasten his mouth to her and suck strongly.
The resulting explosion was incredibly intense, flashing through her bloodstream in a blast of liquid heat, and a sharp, high scream tore from her throat as every muscle in her body clenched. Isaac kept his mouth on her, staying with her as she bucked and then gradually gentling the demand from his touch until he was simply nuzzling tenderly, petting, and seeming to enjoy the feminine flesh displayed for him.
Carolyn could distantly feel her own excessive wetness, had felt it as it pulsed out in her climax, but she couldn’t seem to dredge up the energy to feel embarrassed by it. If his reluctance to lift his face from her was any indication, Isaac wasn’t bothered by her extravagant response. If anything, he seemed quite pleased with her and with himself.
He pulled back after a few moments, leaving her draped limply over his desk, still exposed to his burning gaze. With visible unwillingness, he put her clothing back in order and coaxed her onto his lap.
She could feel his hard cock pressing aggressively against her hip, but when she tried to stroke him through his trousers, he moved her hand up to his mouth to tickle her fingers with his breath.
“Isaac, what about you?” she asked, her voice warm.
“I’m happy right here, holding you in my arms.” His smile was genuine, unguarded. “Let me have this. Let me know right now that my woman is limp from the pleasure I’ve given her. It’s enough.”
Carolyn lay against him, giving up all control to him and basking in his care. He held her close and silent for a long time, sometimes stroking her back or smoothing tiny kisses into her hair, letting her just drift in the glorious aftermath. It was one of the most peaceful moments of her life.
Chapter 13
“Honey, I’m home,” Grange called as he walked into the ranch house carrying their dry cleaning. Two tuxedos and one golden silk gown clean and pressed, perfect for the charity ball they would be attending tonight, perfect for the announcement that Carolyn Winston would soon become Mrs. Granger Hamilton—and later, in a private ceremony for just a few close friends, Mrs. Isaac Marks.
Grange grinned to himself. They certainly wouldn’t be announcing that part of it at the ball. It would please him, and no doubt Isaac, very much to have their relationship with Carolyn openly acknowledged, but she was very conscious of the strictures of the society in which her parents lived, so their unorthodox home life would have to remain a closely guarded secret shared with only a few very close friends.
“Grange, you’re a bit late,” Carolyn said breathlessly as he rounded the corner into the living room. She took the golden dress from him hurriedly, but he reeled her in to plant a smacking kiss on her smiling lips. He lingered for a moment, just until she began to respond, and then he pulled back to nuzzle her fragrant throat.
“You smell great,” he said, growling playfully against her suddenly throbbing pulse. “And you look great.”
She was wearing a low-cut bustier and the tiniest scrap of gold lace panties he had ever had the pleasure of seeing. Stockings with garters completed the picture. And her hair was piled high on her head with a few artful red-gold curls hanging down.
“Hurry up and run,” he said gruffly, “because if you stand there looking edible for another five seconds, I’ll be all over you. Your beautiful hair will be wrecked, and we will all be very late for this ball.”
Carolyn laughed, flushing with pleasure at his heated teasing. She was shaking her head as she rushed away down the hall.
Damn, she looked good in their house.
Grange felt more than heard Isaac coming up behind him, and passed Isaac’s tux back to him.
“Thanks.” Isaac sounded subdued, thoughtful.
“You’ve been thinking about the security?” Grange asked, knowing well where Isaac’s thoughts would be this close to an operation.
“Yeah, and something Charlotte said has stayed with me. She said that a woman who had her eye on another woman’s man would call her names like slut.’”
“Yeah?” Grange made the connection easily. “So, is she thinking that this perp could be another woman and maybe not Martin Brent at all?”
“I think it’s worth considering.”
“Okay, I’ll update Conn. He may take it
better coming from me than he would from Charlotte. He and Charlotte are already at the Winston house.”
“What’s with Conn, anyway? He knows Charlotte is a top agent, but he shuts her down every time she has an opinion. She’s just going to stop talking to him at all, and then we’ll lose her expertise.” Isaac sounded aggravated.
“So put her on a different team for a while.” Grange had no intention of getting into Conn’s psych issues, even with Isaac. “Carolyn’s mother has assigned Conn and Charlotte rooms so they could get ready there, and be on-site when the caterers arrive. They’re wired in, of course, and you will be, too. Locke and Burgess are in the van parked at the kitchen entrance. Carolyn will be bugged so that you can pick up her comments, but not wired in. Same with me, but I’ll have my palm unit.”
“There’s a unit at Carolyn’s house, shift rotation every twelve hours,” Isaac added. “Also, we have two extra agents at DIG, along with Heath and Bran on the security desk, just in case we’re undervaluing the business aspect of this.”
His tone stated that the business theory wasn’t working for him. Grange agreed. This felt like a personal attack on Carolyn.
“If it is a woman behind these incidents, it would have to be someone powerfully angry with Carolyn,” Grange mused. “We need to sit down with Carolyn tomorrow and try to come up with a list of suspects, male and female.”
“First thing tomorrow,” Isaac stated. “I want this thing over. We get a team on this list and clear this case in a week.”
Grange was in complete agreement. Carolyn was in danger, and his instincts were setting up a low-level hum. From experience, he knew that things at this stage could escalate into an extreme threat very quickly.
“It’s time to go hunting,” he said grimly, and Isaac nodded sharply.
Chapter 14
Carolyn hung on to Grange’s arm and smiled so hard that her face ached. Her mother was right: the faces were the same as last year, and so were the conversations. She could have given the punch line of every joke the jovial Senator Wells told to Grange, since she was convinced that she had heard them all the year before.
She entertained herself by watching Isaac prowl through the crowded room in his tuxedo, his lean form and wavy brown hair drawing more than one interested woman’s gaze. Grange, with his inky black hair and flashing silver eyes, had a very similar effect on the female population at the ball, but after her mother had announced their engagement, the ladies had reigned in some of their fascination with Grange.
The obvious physical power and the level of testosterone rolling off these two men set them very much apart from the other businessmen here. These two men enjoyed women, appreciated their minds and bodies, and the women could somehow sense it. It drew them with an irresistible magnetism.
He’s with me, she thought more than once. They’re both with me.
The startling, delicious pleasure of that idea still felt new to her. And yet, there was something so undeniably right about it. She could hardly wait for this party to be over so that she could go home with her men and start creating that lifetime of passionate nights that they had promised her.
Carolyn craned her neck, unwittingly digging her nails into Grange’s arm. His warm hand covering hers alerted her, and she pulled back a little.
Nina was standing beside Isaac at the buffet table, running her signature red-tipped claws down his arm.
Carolyn watched with a frown. How had Nina gotten an invitation to one of the most exclusive events of the year?
The answer to that quickly became apparent as Randall Wells, her father’s current favorite, tried to retrieve his date, gently pulling her away from her open pursuit of a disdainful Isaac.
Take that, office piranha, Carolyn thought with a smug little smile.
Nina turned and looked across the room, and when her eyes settled on Carolyn, she glared before turning to Randall and draping her thin, flexible body against him. Randall smiled helplessly down at her, and Nina preened under his attention.
“Whoever that woman is, she’d like to set your hair on fire, darling. Watch your back,” her mother said quietly.
Carolyn laughed.
“Excuse me a moment,” Grange murmured politely and, moving in the direction of the buffet tables, melted into the crowd.
“That creature was falling all over Randall, and he was just eating it up,” Annalise said indignantly. “He should know better than to bring someone like that. If your father sees that, he’ll have something to say about it.”
If her father didn’t like the public image Randall’s date created, Randall would definitely get a lecture on Monday morning.
Oh, poor Randall, Carolyn thought, feeling sorry for him in spite of herself.
“Since my date has deserted me,” she said, smiling, “I think I’ll take this opportunity to freshen up.”
Her mother nodded absently and patted her arm as Carolyn passed her in the direction of the back hallway. She had no intention of standing in the inevitable long line to use the washrooms designated for public use.
Being a Winston did have its privileges, namely, escaping to the cordoned-off family section of the house to use the washroom beside her old bedroom.
Climbing the long curved staircase would have been utterly impossible in heels, and Carolyn was glad that she had worn her strappy flat sandals again. Her ankle was already protesting from all the dancing earlier and she could only imagine how much worse it would feel if she had succumbed to her own vanity and worn the glorious stilettos that were the true match to the golden silk gown.
As she passed her old room, she heard a muffled thump. She stopped and carefully pressed her ear to the door, but the sound wasn’t repeated. She waited another minute, then two. Nothing.
Curious, she began to slowly turn the doorknob. She knew exactly how to turn it to avoid any sound thanks to the numerous times she had surreptitiously left this very room in the middle of the night to sneak a treat from the kitchen. Just as she started to open the door, she was shoved from behind. She gasped as she twisted her good ankle and fell heavily to the floor to land beside the prone body of Charlotte Morse.
Turning to her back quickly, she was shocked to see Nina leaning against the closed door. She was smiling, so cool and malicious as she held a tiny gun on Carolyn.
Carolyn sat up and checked Charlotte’s pulse. Weak. She was unconscious, but still alive.
“What is this?” Carolyn demanded. “What did you do to Charlotte? This is my bedroom, and Charlotte’s out cold on the floor.”
“Charlotte will live, which is more than I can say for you,” Nina said sharply.
Carolyn made a move to get up, but Nina pointed the gun at her face and motioned her back down.
“Nina, I think you’d better explain yourself.” Carolyn used her most commanding voice, wanting to make sure that every word was picked up by the receiver she was wearing in her bustier. She had also tapped Charlotte’s ear wire when she checked for a pulse, giving the emergency signal. By now, Burgess would be alerting Grange, Isaac, and Conn that there was a situation. Carolyn just had to keep Nina talking long enough to give the guys an opportunity to get to her.
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know!” Nina snarled. “You know exactly what this is about!”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
Nina kept the gun pointed right into her face.
“You stole my men. You and Sara. Dash, Isaac, and Grange were mine long before Sara even came here, and I’ll have them again. I’ll be the one to console Isaac and Grange when you commit suicide tonight in your old room.”
Nina was nodding and smiling, congratulating herself on her plan.
“Nina, no one will believe that I would commit suicide tonight,” Carolyn said mockingly. “And Charlotte certainly wouldn’t commit suicide in my old room. Your plan is total crap, Nina. How are you going to get out of this?”
She kept saying Nina’s name, wanting there to be no mistake in iden
tification—just in case.
Chapter 15
Grange headed through the crowded ballroom as fast as he could without causing a panic. He had to get to Isaac, to alert the team that he was beginning to suspect that Nina had something to do with the threat to Carolyn. When Annalise had pointed out that Carolyn should watch her back around Nina, something had just clicked in his mind.
Nina had access to Carolyn’s office and would know her home address as well. Nina was still chasing both Grange and Isaac, and she had known that Grange dragged Carolyn from their meeting and into his locked office. If Nina had managed to catch a glimpse of Carolyn when she left his office, it would have been more than obvious that something had happened between them.
Nina always painted her long nails bright red, and the brick that sailed through Carolyn’s window had been painted with insults in a shining scarlet red.
Nina disliked Carolyn’s pet bird.
It was a frighteningly good fit.
The instinct that had kept him alive in some of the most dangerous places the Army could think of to send him was clamoring, pounding with every beat of his heart. He picked up speed without realizing it.
Conn intercepted him halfway. Talking on his own com system already, he dragged out another ear wire and slipped it over Grange’s ear. He keyed it to activate.
Isaac was beside them suddenly, and then they were out the side door and on the back stairs, three former soldiers with hard eyes and a shared purpose.
Grange’s heart stopped in his chest then started hammering when his ear wire picked up Carolyn’s voice.
“Nina, no one will believe that I would commit suicide tonight, and Charlotte certainly wouldn’t commit suicide in my old room. Your plan is total crap, Nina. How are you going to get out of this?”
“Don’t antagonize the crazy woman, for Christ’s sake,” Isaac muttered as they raced up the stairs together. His face was stony, but his eyes were feral.
