by Liliana Hart
It was a family that treasured the blessings they had and truly enjoyed each other’s company. The men loved their wives openly—not only did they love them—they liked them. Her parents had been married almost forty years, and she knew they loved each other, but she couldn’t say that they liked each other enough to spend extra time with each other. And it was a shame. If you were going to spend your life with someone, the friendship was the most important thing. Friendship survived old age and sagging body parts and illness and sorrow. She realized with clarity that’s what she’d missed most after Declan had cut ties with her so abruptly. She’d lost her best friend and lover all in one fell swoop.
Declan squeezed her thigh beneath the table while he continued arguing politics with his brother Grant.
“Aw, man. You guys started the party without us.”
Sophia looked toward the entryway along with everyone else, and she was caught off guard by the men who stood in the doorway. No one had run away screaming at their intrusion, so she assumed they were part of the family. She wondered briefly if the MacKenzies were related to Lucifer himself, and she hoped to God he was on their side.
“If you’d ever show up to anything on time, we wouldn’t always start without you,” Grant called out.
The man smiled and dimples winked at the corners of his mouth, and it almost made up for the imposing picture he made. He stood tall, several inches over six feet and his shoulders were broad and muscled. A black T-shirt fit tight around his biceps and it was tucked into black cargo pants. Dog tags hung around his neck and she could partially see a scrollwork tattoo peeking from one of his sleeves. The dimples might distract at first sight, but his eyes were as dark as night and intelligent. And he didn’t look like someone you’d want to cross. Ever.
“Grab a plate and sit down, Shane,” Cat, Thomas’s wife, said. “There’s room for you and Brady both at the table. A couple of the kids have fallen asleep in their plates.”
Adjustments were made and the kids were moved into another room to bed down for the night as Shane and Brady made room for themselves at one end of the table.
“Shane MacKenzie,” he said, holding out a hand as he sat down across from her. “Nice to finally meet you. I like that mole by your mouth. Very sexy,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.
She burst into laughter at his boldness and felt an instant kinship with him. He was the youngest male in the family, and it looked like he’d been doing his best to needle his brothers and cousins in as many ways as possible over the years by the way everyone around them groaned at his outrageousness. Shane MacKenzie was a heartbreaker, plain and simple.
“The man standing patiently next to my Neanderthal brother is Brady Scott,” Declan said. “He’s Darcy’s husband’s brother, and he and Shane belong to the same SEAL team. They help us out on occasion.”
“On occasion?” Shane snorted. “We pull your asses out of a lot of situations to just be considered occasional help. You’re welcome by the way.”
“It’s not like you’re working for free,” Dec said. “If your prices keep going up I’m going to start using SEAL Team Eight out of Texas as backup. And there’d probably be less whining.”
“You get what you pay for, brother.”
“I’d like it noted that I have no objections with working more than occasionally,” Brady said. “I’ve almost got my house built and paid for.”
Shane snorted out a laugh and slapped his friend on the back. “Kiss-ass. Brady has ideas of home and hearth. I’ve never met a SEAL so bent on putting down roots. It doesn’t seem natural.”
“I think it’s wonderful,” Charlie said, handing her plate to Dane as they started clearing the table.
“Better watch it, Shane,” Cat said, laughing. “It’ll be you next. You’re the last MacKenzie standing.”
“Bite your tongue, woman. This MacKenzie is going to be footloose and carefree for a lot of years. Someone has to carry on the MacKenzie family tradition since all of you seem to enjoy being shackled a little too much for my liking.”
Sophia felt her cheeks heat as she remembered exactly how much Declan had enjoyed being shackled, and when his hand squeezed her thigh again she realized he was remembering as well.
“How’s the perimeter?” Dec asked, moving to business.
“It’s secure. You’ve done a hell of a job with the setup, so it made our jobs easier. We added a few bonus features spanning out several miles from the perimeter of the compound, but it’s ready. We’ve split up into teams of two.” Shane laid a couple of napkins out flat and picked up several utensils that were laying nearby.
“This first napkin is the original MacKenzie land. It’s a lot of space to cover, and I don’t think there will be any danger to anyone outside of your location, but I have two men set up in the hunting cabin out by the lake just to be safe.” He put a fork in the general location of the hunting cabin. “There’s more than a hundred acres that stretches between your compound and this property.”
He put another fork down where Declan had built his secured command center and his own home. “I’ve got another team of two set up at the cabin you built outside the walls on the southwest and another team of two in the cabin to the northeast. Brady will stay inside the gated perimeter and be backup for you there just in case, and I’ll monitor the nifty electronics we’ve got placed around. Everyone needs to stay clear of open land areas, because we have a few surprises in strategic locations. It shouldn’t be a problem since it’s open land anyway, but you probably want to avoid any romantic picnics in the middle of any hayfields. That would be a terrible thing to lose a vital part of your anatomy when you’re just getting to use it again.”
Several of the men at the table snickered and the women rolled their eyes.
“Some day some woman is going to put you in your place, and I’m going to enjoy watching it happen tremendously,” Dec said.
“When hell freezes over,” he said good-naturedly. “I’m assuming that you’ve been doing some work on your end and haven’t just been relying on the SEALs to do everything for you?”
“Whoever we’re dealing with has a pretty extensive knowledge of computers that goes beyond mere hacking. I’ve set up some cyber-bait to see how far his curiosity about Sophia goes. As far as the money goes, that’s a mystery. If Sophia had possession of accounts or the cashier’s check Kane withdrew from the bank, then they’d be hard pressed to find it in the ashes of her home. Which means they think she has passwords or whatever is needed to get the money memorized.”
“That’s not good,” Shane winced.
“Why not?” Claire asked.
“Because if they think she has the information memorized then Sophia becomes the target instead of the money itself. They’ll do whatever they can to get to her, and then they’ll do whatever it takes to get her to talk.”
“On that note, I think I want to skip dessert,” she said.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sophia had never been in a place were true darkness existed. Even out on her small piece of property without neighbors for miles around, she could still see the yellow glow of city lights in the distance.
But not here. In Surrender there was nothing in the distance but stars and a sliver of moon that looked as if it were close enough to touch.
They’d left the MacKenzie house with a bag of food and a lot of hugs. It was an odd feeling, and even when her parents had been alive, that much physical contact was rare. Declan drove them down a rutted one-way road that was more trail than road, and she bounced along in the Hummer next to him, holding onto the handle on the ceiling.
“There will be rain in the next few hours.” He pointed off to the northwest. “See how the clouds are rolling in? It looks like they’re eating the stars.”
“I’m not a fan of storms.”
“I remember. This will be a short one. Just a summer shower that will give everything a good soak, though we might be isolated tomorrow if the roads flood. This is the only on
e that leads to my property, and you can see it’s nothing but dirt.” He turned on the high beams so she could see farther out in front of them.
This area was different than the land surrounding the MacKenzie homestead, and the headlights shone on nothing but flat land and tree stumps.
“We cleared the trees out here because I wanted to be able to see incomers from all directions. The perimeter wall surrounds twenty-five acres of the property. If you’ll notice, we’ve been going uphill for the last fifteen minutes, and the altitude is a bit higher. The back of the perimeter wall backs up to a deep gorge that goes down about seventy-five feet and is nothing but rocks. I left the trees inside the perimeter because I wanted it to seem like a home, and you can’t ever see the walls from where I’ve positioned my house. There’s a small lake not too far inside the walls and there’s a large cabin that sleeps several whenever I get stuck with uncle duty and the kids come hang out.”
“Don’t you feel imprisoned behind the walls?”
“I told you, you can see them from the house, but it’s nice to know they’re there. It makes me feel like I could keep my family safe. Anyone who tried to climb those walls would be in for a rude awakening.”
The headlights hit the walls in questions and she leaned forward so she could see better. A heavy gate blocked the way inside and Dec hit a button on his watch and she watched as the gate slid open. They were barely through when it closed behind them.
It didn’t take long for the trees to cocoon them as Dec drove along a curved road that was much smoother than the one leading in. Sophia gasped at the sight as outdoor lights came on the moment Dec stopped the car. The stone house rose up out of the ground and seemed to meld with the landscape perfectly.
“It’s got two full stories above ground and another full story below,” Dec said. “The command center is about a hundred feet behind the house, but I built it with the same materials, so it looks more like a guest house than secret spy headquarters.”
She could hear the smile in his voice. “It’s beautiful here. I could just sit and look at the scenery for hours.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Sophia opened the back door of the Hummer and frowned as she saw her things were no longer there. “What the hell?” she said.
“Oh, that’s why Shane was late to dinner. He went ahead and brought all of your things to the house and put them in your room.”
“My room?” she asked. “Or your room?”
“Whose room do you want to be in, Soph? Because I’ve got to tell you, all I’ve been able to think about since I tasted you down by the lake was sliding deep inside of you until we’re both begging for mercy. So my vote is for my room.”
He grabbed his backpack and she waited while he disarmed security before following him into the house. Cool air met her flesh and sent shivers across her skin. He didn’t turn any of the lights on, but he let his backpack fall to the ground and pushed her back against the door.
Her breath caught as he caged her in and pressed his body intimately against hers. His erection was hard against her pubic bone, and when she raised up on her toes just the smallest amount the pressure to her clit had her moaning.
“You keep forgetting about my self-preservation plan.” His lips traced along her jaw and then he nipped at the sensitive skin on her neck. “I don’t think sharing a bedroom is a step in the right direction.”
“This stubbornness of yours is inconvenient.” He suckled at her neck and then trailed up and bit gently on her earlobe. “What if you wake up in the middle of the night and your pussy is soaked and needy? All I’d need to do is roll over and slide inside.”
Her fingers massaged the back of his neck and she brought her leg up so it wrapped around his hip. “That does sound more convenient,” she moaned as he pushed against her.
“But I wouldn’t want to interfere with your ability to make a logical decision based on your self-preservation theory.” He pulled away and she tightened her leg around him to keep him close, but he untangled himself from her grasp easily and then bent down to grab his backpack. “You probably want to unpack some of your things and get a shower after the long couple of days we’ve had.”
“Really?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips and narrowing her eyes. “We could be rolling around on the floor screaming right now, but you’re going to show me to my room?”
“It’s all part of my master plan.”
He started up the stairs and she had no choice but to follow. The upstairs was wide and open—a large den area that split off into what she assumed were different bedrooms. If she’d been less frustrated, she would’ve taken the time to look around, but as it was she was having a difficult time not jumping on his back and taking him to the ground.
“A master plan of no sex? That doesn’t sound like you.”
“No,” he said, his lips twitching. She swore if he laughed then he deserved a punch right to the nose for leaving her in such an aroused condition. “I figure if you end up coming to me then you can’t blame me when you decide to forget about your self-preservation idea. So you’ll have to move your things to my room if you want that middle of the night satisfaction. The master suite is in the basement by the way.”
“You son of a bitch,” she growled.
“That’s not very nice,” he said. “My mother is a lovely woman. As long as you’re on her good side. Otherwise, bad things happen. That woman knows how to deliver a swat that stings.”
He opened the first door on the left and ushered her in. “Here are all your things. I’m going to go grab my own shower and answer some email. If you need to find me I’ll be up on the roof. Just take the stairs through that door there,” he said, pointing to what looked like a closet door. “Make yourself at home, Soph.”
He closed the door in her surprised face and before she could think twice her shoe hit the door after him. She liked to think she’d only imagined his laughter as he left her alone.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Declan brought the bottle of beer to his lips and drank deeply as he watched the last of the stars fade through the storm clouds. Thunder echoed in the distance, but there was still time until the rain hit.
On a clear night he’d sit up on the roof and stare at the stars for hours. It was completely glassed in, and he supposed it was a good place to entertain, but he’d always considered it his private space. The only furniture he’d moved up there was a double-size chaise lounge, and it sat lonely in the middle of the large space.
He’d built it for her. Because the image of how wild and carefree they’d been that afternoon at the planetarium was burned in his brain. The way she’d rubbed against him casually as they made their way through the darkened rooms or the way her hand had trailed up his thigh and cupped the erection he had no hope of hiding. The place had been all but deserted and the little sundress she wore had his imagination going wild.
Then they’d come into a room that was nothing but stars and black sky and she lifted up the skirt of her sundress so just the bottom of the round globes of her ass could be seen, and she’d pushed down the tiny panties she wore so they dropped to her feet. He’d gone crazy with wanting her, and he pushed her to the wall, anchoring her hands above her head while he freed his cock.
He’d fucked her like an animal, and the whole thing had only lasted a couple of minutes at best, just enough to take the edge off until they were home again. But that day had always stayed with him, and even now, the remembrance had him hard enough he was glad he’d pulled on sweats after his shower.
Dec took another sip of beer and then went to lay down on the chaise. He was tired, and they’d both need to get several solid hours of sleep. It was probably best for both to retreat to their own corners for the night. She needed time to think. It was obvious she still had reservations even though she was willing to share her body with him. But trust had to be earned and he’d have to give her the time she needed to come to terms with her own wants.
“I found this on top of my clothes,” Sophia said, tossing something hard and square onto his stomach. He almost laughed when he looked down and saw the box of condoms. A 48-pack. “It seems Shane wanted us to be prepared.”
“That’s the MacKenzie family motto. At least one of them. Darcy left an identical box for me back in D.C.”
Declan tossed the condoms aside and finally looked at her. His bottle dropped the remaining couple of inches to the ground with a clank when he saw what she was wearing.
“I take it Darcy packed that for you too?” he asked, trying hard not to swallow his tongue. “Remind me to let her have the company credit card more often.”
The nightgown shimmered in bold ruby and was the sheerest, most delicate lace he’d ever seen. It flowed against her skin from breast to mid-thigh, and he could just make out the dark rose of her nipples beneath. She’d left her hair down how he liked it and her toes were painted scarlet to match the gown. He didn’t know why that little detail turned him on, but he found himself longing to start kissing at her toes and work his way up.
“I was just thinking about the planetarium, replaying the way you pushed your panties down over that sweet bottom and let them drop to the floor. It drove me fucking insane when you did that.”
“Like this?” she asked, arching a brow.
She turned so her back faced him, and he stopped breathing as her fingers skimmed up her thighs, catching on the gown and bringing it up higher and higher—teasing him—tempting him with sweet glimpses of flesh. Her thumbs hooked in the strings of the tiny matching thong she wore and she brought them down slowly until she finally released them and they fell to the ground.
