Maddie turned and nodded. “Yeah. I’m shook up. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”
Ty reached up and cupped her cheek in his strong hand. “Well, if it’s any comfort to you at all, these are my best men, and they’d all die to protect you.”
Maddie frowned. “No, that’s no help. And I don’t want anyone to die for me and that includes you. I noticed how you covered me all the way up the stairs. I didn’t hear any shots fired, but you would have been the one who got hit… ” Her voice trailed off and she couldn’t finish that sentence. She just couldn’t. It wasn’t even the tears that filled her eyes. It was the constricted feeling in her throat at the thought of him getting hurt, or worse killed, because of her.
Ty brought Maddie to him and held her tight, rubbing a big hand up and down her back and shushing her softly. “Of course I was shielding you, Maddie. This is what I do for a living, and I never intended for you to be touched by it. I couldn’t live if you were hurt. That’s why I’m here. I’m going to take you to a safe place that no one knows about, and have people watching you round the clock. You’ll be perfectly safe.”
“And then what? You’ll go find this maniac, whoever he is? All by yourself, with your best people watching me? That definitely makes me feel better.”
“She’s got you there, Boss,” the smaller, younger man, named Doc, piped up.
Without missing a beat or even looking away from his pretty Maddie, Ty slapped him down. “Shut up and go find out what’s taking so long.”
“Aye, aye, Boss.” He didn’t seem to be very concerned about Ty’s displeasure.
He caught her chin with his fingers and answered her rhetorical questions. “Yes, then I’ll go kill the man who’s trying to kill my woman.”
Maddie’s eyebrow rose. “You seem to be conveniently forgetting that I’m no longer your woman.”
“As far as LaValle is concerned, you’re as good as my wife. He’ll kill anyone he thinks I might have feelings for to draw me out.”
“And isn’t that exactly what you’re letting him do right now? Draw you out once you tuck me safely away?”
“Maddie.” She recognized that tone from long ago, and she didn’t like it. It meant she should drop the subject, or she’d find herself heartily wishing she had. But he wouldn’t spank her in front of all of his men, would he?
After deciding that she didn’t trust him not to, especially this new side of him, Maddie ceased and desisted, although she wasn’t going to forget the subject. She was just choosing the better side of valor, which was a less spanked butt.
Ty pointed out her safety belt for the take off that they were, finally, rapidly approaching, then completely ignored his own need for one and headed up to the cockpit. She could hear the way he issued orders in that short, clipped voice, and was glad she wasn’t on the other end of them.
She looked around herself curiously. This was the first time she’d been on what appeared to be a rather expensively appointed private plane. It certainly beat the sox off of the cramped flights she’d had to take out of Logan on the squalling infant express. Everything was done in shades of white or tan – the comfortable sofas, the coffee tables, what seemed to be a wet bar, and the whole place was paneled to within an inch of its life.
He meandered back to her, though, checking with every man as he did so, his machine gun still lying casually across his back. He looked like the epitome of what any pulp fiction author would label a mercenary.
“Are you hungry? Thirsty? Need to use the bathroom?” he asked as he sat down, giving her the once over as if still looking for wounds that weren’t there.
“I’m fine, thank you,” she answered primly, as if they’d just met and he hadn’t spent more than an hour with his mouth on her clit last night. Alarmed at the way that thought had just popped into her brain unannounced; she asked the first question that came into her mind. “Where are we going?”
“Away.”
Maddie rolled her eyes at his obvious dodge. “Are you ever going to shed the tommy gun, or are we likely to get shot down at fifty thousand feet?”
His hesitation did not give her a warm fuzzy feeling, but he did put the gun down.
“I take it you’re not going to tell me where you’re taking me.” She made it as casual a statement as she could, not a question.
“No, I’m not.” He seemed to almost regret having to give her that answer, but when she met his eyes they were as hard and inscrutable as ever. “But if it helps, it’s a pretty nice place.”
She had imagined being tucked into a hole in the ground, a la Hussein’s spider hole. “It is?”
“Yeah. It’s my own cabin, and there are the usual amenities. I bought it after we split.”
Maddie asked softly, perceptively, “And how many days have you spent there since we divorced?”
His frown was enough of an answer.
Maddie’s eyebrow curved upwards. “If there’s a pool on this, I’ll take less than ten days.”
“Then you’d be wrong,” he countered smugly. “I’ve been trying to relax more. I’ve even taken a vacation and,” he added reluctantly, “that might become more of a permanent situation in the near future.”
She’d had to practically drag him on the one and only vacation they’d taken while they were together. She was amazed. “Who are you and what have you done with Ty Scanlon? Are you some kind of slacker clone?” The idea of Ty as a slacker was so patently ridiculous she couldn’t help but chuckle.
He didn’t say anything, just looked at her, with every one of his myriad, nasty desires bright in his eyes.
A shiver ran through Maddie that she tried, with absolutely no success, to suppress. He was too damned potent for her own good. Her body answered his call with absolutely no help, hell, with no consent from her either.
But he didn’t need it. He knew her better than she knew herself.
Chapter Five:
Deliberately breaking eye contact with him, she tried to marshall her runaway libido and crossed her legs against the deep ache between them. Suddenly, he got up and grabbed her hand, tugging her down a long hallway and through a door, into what looked like a bedroom in a hotel suite. It was gorgeous, king sized bed and all, done in earth tones with maroon accents and lots of wood that reflected the paneling in the rest of the plane.
Maddie turned and glared at Ty. “Why, exactly, did you bring me back here?” she asked, her back up defensively as she crossed her arms over her chest.
He closed the door behind them and gave her an evil, if laconic, smile. “Why, Maddie,” he drawled in a Southern accent he knew turned her on incredibly, even though he wasn’t from the South, “are you implying that I brought you back here,” he advanced on her very slowly, trapping her with depressing ease against the wall of the plane and putting a hand on either side of her head to keep her there, “with less than honorable intentions?”
Their bodies weren’t touching anywhere. He made sure of that. But that was almost worse, and Ty knew it. He could smell her heat, smell that particular scent of hers that was all his Maddie’s, and he wanted to revel in it. Her smell triggered several of his baser instincts, beyond protection. She smelled like home. He’d been more at home with Maddie than he’d ever been with another human being in his life. Well, as open as he could be in his line of work. More settled.
Unfortunately, when they were together the first time, settled wasn’t as appealing as it should have been to him, and he’d been an ass taking too many assignments and spending entirely too much time away from his gorgeous wife.
Well, that was no longer going to be a problem, and he wanted his wife back. And he intended to have her.
She had that wary look in her eyes again, and he was tiring of seeing it. At least last night when he’d hooked up with her on the dance floor she’d been too relaxed from the alcohol to be wary of him. He didn’t like that look at all. She had nothing to be afraid of from him, he thought, if you discounted psycho killers on a v
endetta. But he’d certainly never hurt her. Hell, he’d throw down his life for hers in a heartbeat, hadn’t he just shown her that?
But there she was, looking up at him with that edge of caution causing crinkle lines around those beautiful baby blues of hers, and he just had to kiss it away.
Maddie watched him come closer and closer, knowing he was going to kiss her and powerless to stop it, powerless to hide her desires from him. She wanted him to kiss her more than she wanted to take her next breath, and that was entirely unacceptable. But when their lips met and he slanted his mouth across hers, taking the access that she knew he firmly believed was his, dueling with her tongue, nipping it in soft rebuke, then plundering further as he lay his body against hers, shoulder to knees.
He fit between her legs perfectly, as he always had. It was his home. She had no choice but to splay her legs some to accommodate her size, and Ty reached down casually to fit them around his waist, hot, willing crotch to hot willing crotch.
She could feel the size and heat of him behind the zipper of his jeans. She knew how big he was first hand, how slow he would usually go to make sure she had no problems accommodating him, driving her crazy by entering her in deliberately torturous increments that sometimes had her climaxing around him before he was fully seated within her.
Usually he took it very slowly, treated her as if she was so fragile she might shatter into a thousand pieces beneath him if he but moved too quickly or harshly.
Other times, especially if he’d been gone a while, he’d nearly taken her on the hard Italian tile of the kitchen, but even then he had his head on straight enough that he wouldn’t risk hurting her that way, and he’d lift her onto the big oak farmer’s kitchen table and let loose with everything he had, slamming himself up into her without so much as a by your leave. And he’d never once misjudged her receptiveness, either. She’d always been more than wet and ready for him. Ty loved her guttural moans as he sank himself inside her all at once, till she couldn’t physically accept any more of him then drew out and began plunging hard.
He had her. He had her wrapped around that solid wall of flesh that was always raring to go. Even now, after so many years, she was still as much his as she’d ever been when they were together. And he knew it, the snot.
He’d kept his hands to himself, at least. They were both still planted on the wall beside her shoulders, but Maddie knew that if she made a move to get away, they’d be all over her. So she kissed him, kissed him well and good, until the both of them were panting and moaning as if they were filming an X rated movie in here. Maddie’s face flamed what she knew was an unbecoming bright red. She could imagine what his friends were thinking and saying about the noises coming from this end of the plane.
They were probably just outside the door, cheering him on.
That was the impetus she needed to steel her resolve. Maddie slunk her lips out from under his, despite the fact that her body completely rebelled at the mere idea of detaching herself from him; The ache that had bloomed at his nearness and their necking become just that much sharper and harder to bear when she moved her face to the side of his, refusing to let him capture her lips again.
“No. No, Ty, we have to stop. We have to.”
Suddenly, she felt her back on the bed. “No, we don’t.” Maddie remembered that raw, guttural tone from so many long hours spent trying to sate themselves in their big bed. They had never quite managed to satisfy their desire for one another, just top it off for a while.
“But they’ll hear!” she whispered fervently.
Ty levered just the top half of his body away from her just a bit on the bed, while the rest of him was settling down onto all too familiar territory. He knew just how much of a favorite this position was for Maddie. Although she would only admit it in the dark of night, and he was smart enough never to demand otherwise, she loved feeling submissive to him, and there was no other lovemaking position that more completely reinforced a male’s dominance over his female than the good old-fashioned missionary position.
They were certainly adventurous in bed and tried and liked a handful of other positions. Sex between them was always explosive and rocked the both of them to their foundation. It was never routine, never perfunctory in any way.
But one night while they were both awake, still trying to recover, spooning sweatily, breath still heaving, he posed the question, just out of pure curiosity, and she confessed how much she adored it when he was on top of her, deep within her, and he’d never forgotten it. He’d catalogued and categorized every sexual response she’d ever had, making sure not to repeat those touches or licks or plunges that received a less than enthusiastic response and remembering those that did.
Before he’d even set her on the surprisingly big bed, he’d already maneuvered himself between her legs, so that when he very carefully lowered her to it, all he had to do was lie gently on top of her, his own size consolidating his position and naturally, physically accentuating the air of dominance that had been a part of him since he could remember.
At first, her eyes had closed, and he’d heard that small, almost relieved sigh. But then she’d opened them again, to stare straight up into his eyes. “Ty.”
He wanted her just about as badly as he had last night, even though it had been less than twenty four hours since he’d had her in this exact same position. Maddie’s small hand landed on his shoulder and he growled, low and deep in his throat. It was one of the few times he’d ever really wished he had absolutely no honor, so that he could tell her that he knew that this room was sound proofed and they could go ahead and make each other scream.
But he didn’t know that. In fact, knowing the stodgy man who owned this plane, he highly doubted it.
Ty wasn’t about to let her up that easily, though. He gathered her legs over his arms, forcing her to spread even further for him, watching her eyes grow large as saucers and making her ball her fists in his shirt in protest, even as his mouth descended on a nipple that might as well have been bare, considering how intent he was on his goal of encouraging it to peak and add to the ache that might make her change her mind.
He highly doubted it, despite the fact that she’d thrown back her head as soon as he began to suckle avidly through two layers of fabric. Dear God, he loved to watch her in pleasure! That was one of the best things about Maddie. She’d responded to him with complete and utter abandon from the very beginning, and it made him want to lose himself in her the way she lost herself in him, each and every time.
Eventually, long, hot moments later, he slid off her, finding his footing at the end of the bed and just standing there, not offering her help up as would be the norm for his sometimes hyper gentlemanly tendencies. Instead, he stood there looking down at her, the breadth of his thighs keeping her legs still spread.
When she tried to sit up, he bent down and cupped her breasts almost less than gently, squeezing her nipples tightly, making her catch her breath with sweet pain as he laid her back down. “Stay still for a moment.” His whispered command was no less forceful.
Maddie knew she should get up. She should roll to the side, careful not to kick him in the head, of course, and just get right off the bed. Now. She should be doing it right now.
But she was caught. Ty had always had the ability to get her to do what he wanted through more than just spanking. The sheer force of his will was a palpable thing, and, although she was loathe to admit it, she adored submitting to that will. She did as she was told, lying there with him watching her, fully clothed but feeling incredibly bare under his knowing eyes.
As his hands reinforced his claim of her, moving slowly over her thighs, up over her hips and back to cup her breasts as if he still had a right to, his eyes never left hers, and his voice hypnotized her with that strong, soft rhythm she knew so well. “When we get to my house, I’m not going to take no for an answer, Maddie.”
She wanted to object, if only on general principles, to his high handed manner, but she knew tha
t anything she said would be a lie that he would see right through, especially since his hands had switched to climbing up the insides of her thighs, and no amount of denim was going to save her from the way he cupped the seat of her desires, rubbing the nub of the inseam against her own nub strongly, making her legs come up automatically in an awkwardly pleasurable spasm.
Maddie tried to close her eyes, but he wouldn’t have that, either. “Look at me, Maddie. I want you, and I know you want me. And about three hours from now, I’m going to carry you into my bedroom and we’re going to singe the sheets again, like we did last night. Only this time,” he bent and pressed his mouth to the cloth over her crotch, blowing his hot breath onto her privates, then rising again and offering his hand to help her up. “This time,” he repeated, grabbing her to him, plastering them together from stem to stern, “you’re going to remember every single second of it, every moan, every whimper, every contraction.” His teeth nibbled her ear lobe greedily, then the spot on her neck just beneath it, and then he turned her loose.
She nearly dissolved, noodle kneed, back onto the bed, but then his strong arm looped around her waist to support her, and guide her back out to the couch in the living area of the plane. She refused to look at the other men, knowing what they must’ve been thinking the two of them were doing back there.
Ty stayed close to her, but not so close as to crowd her. He obviously had other things to do than to babysit her during this flight, and he did them, but she knew that he always had a watchful eye out on her. All of the other men were very solicitous. Kaz got her something to eat mid-flight, and Doc produced a hand held video game that kept her occupied for much longer than it should have. Dead a thousand times over because she had less than no natural abilities with that type of thing, but occupied for a while at least.
But eventually she grew sick of endlessly killing poor Crash Bandicoot, and simply sat there, watching but not seeing the activity around her. She was too wrapped up in what he’d said to her in the bedroom, to achy from what he’d done and what he said he was going to do. More importantly, what she was going to let him do to her.
To Trust Her Heart Page 5
