by Meg Maguire
She went rigid against him, her body feeling cold and strangely distant even pressed tight to his. He knew this mood… Kate before she broke up with her hapless man of the month. Well goddamn, Ty must be a new record, getting the brush-off before they’d even been on a date.
“You searching for the flaw that’ll give you permission to ditch me?” he asked, wrapping his arms even tighter around her. “I can save you time, you know. For starters, I can’t cook, I have a lousy relationship with my parents, I hate getting dressed up… Oh and I ruined your life, apparently. Don’t forget that one.”
“We can’t break up if we’re not a couple, Ty.”
He freed a hand to touch her hair and sweep a lock of it behind her ear. “Funny, I always thought we were. So do a lot of strangers and most of the women I attempt to date. Half-assed attempts, mind you.”
“Lovely,” Kate said. “Nothing gets a girl going like a good old half-assed wooing. That’s another point against you.”
He let her go and sat up. He turned Kate onto her back and got above her, knees and arms braced tight against her thighs and ribs. He held her there, stared right into her face so she couldn’t ignore him.
“You want to know why I’m so crap at relationships, Kate? Why I haven’t managed to date anyone for more than a month since I moved to the States?”
Her eyes volleyed between each of his and he saw her lips narrow into a defensive line before they parted. “Enlighten me, Ty.”
He stared at her, thinking the words. Because of you. Because of guilt. Because time and time again, he’d be making love to some perfectly lovely, smart, charming, wicked woman, and then, as he came—Kate. When he was alone at night, when he touched himself—Kate. And he’d have to end it. He couldn’t feel good about being with someone if the chemistry wasn’t strong enough to banish this woman’s smirking face from his mind as he lost himself. And so far, the chemistry had never been strong enough. Not even close.
“Well?”
From her tone alone, Ty knew he wouldn’t tell her. Kate was in combat mode, poised to deflect his sincerity and honesty and make him feel like an ass for pouring his heart out. He still believed it was in her, though—a spark like the one he felt, beyond the physical. But he wouldn’t get it out of her now.
“Forget it.”
Kate sighed and turned her head to the side as if she was ready to go back to sleep. Ty wasn’t. If he couldn’t break through her armor with words, sex might do the trick. He could guess all he wanted about Kate’s feelings, but what went on between their bodies was undeniable.
“We’re good together,” he said softly, running a hand from her collarbone down between her breasts, over her belly. “In bed.”
She met his eyes. “Yeah, we are.”
Ty saw her soften a fraction and his chest loosened. “What did that mean to you?” He swallowed, scared of the answer she’d give him.
She stared over his shoulder for a little while, thoughtful and unfocused, before she replied. “It was two people getting what they wanted after a heck of a long wait. If anything, it almost made you ruining my job worth it, okay?”
He pursed his lips. It was a mean retort, a defensive move if he’d ever heard one…but if she was playing that way, she had something to hide. Ty could play that game, too.
“Almost made it worth it?” he asked.
“Yeah, almost. It was the hottest sex of my life, Ty, but that job is my life, no matter what you say.”
He huffed out a breath, frustrated. “Why do you have to be so bloody glib about this? Don’t you see how terrifying that was for me, almost losing you?”
Her nostrils flared, Kate’s patented, silent version of a withering sigh. “I don’t need your protection, Ty. I’m a grown woman. It’s the twenty-first century.”
“You think I’m patronizing you?”
“I don’t think you can help it. You’re just one of those men.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Beg pardon?” He didn’t want to be just any kind of man to her, lumped in with countless others of some uncertain ilk. He wanted to be special, the idiot that he was.
“You’re just one of those men who’s always got something to prove,” she said.
“Am I?” She was right, but that didn’t mean she had any right to say it. “What am I trying to prove?”
“Beats me, Ty. But there’s something in there.” She reached up to tap his chest with her knuckles. “Something that keeps you up nights and doesn’t let you relax unless you’re in danger of getting your neck broken or your jugular ripped out.”
“Just how long have you spent analyzing me?”
“I probably spend a quarter of my time, awake and asleep, within twenty feet of you,” she said. “I have opinions. I notice things. I know you.”
“Do you?”
“Sure.”
Again, she was right. Maybe not the details, but she got him. It was maddening. “What do you know about me, Kate?”
“Lots of things.”
“Such as?”
Kate glanced around for a moment and shrugged. “I know you wouldn’t flinch if a bear charged you, but when somebody calls you by your first name, you grimace like they’re raking their nails across a chalkboard.”
Ty’s heart beat harder and he prayed she wouldn’t say it…hearing his first name brought back the worst moment of his whole life in a flash. Almost worse, it brought back the months of hearing his mother saying it, trying to get his attention, to ask him if he was all right, day after day. He swallowed and met Kate’s eyes. “Do you reckon you understand me?”
“No,” she said. “Not even close. But I know you. That’s my job. I know your ways, if not the reasons behind them. That’s all I’ve needed to know, as your PA.”
“You’re not just my PA anymore.”
She shrugged again and looked away.
“You’re my lover now,” Ty said. He got onto his side, pulled her back against his chest and put his mouth close to her ear, his hand on her hip. He felt her body tense against him. “Did you already know how I’d be, before I finally took you?”
“Sure,” she said, and her tone was infuriating—apathetic cockiness with no affection underscoring it.
“I see.”
“Don’t worry—you were better than I’d dreamed. But I knew how you’d be, Ty. You’re predictable to me now.”
“Oh?”
“Sorry. Maybe no one else can even read the language you’re written in, Dominic, but you’re an open book to me.”
He flinched, prayed she hadn’t felt it. The trap she was setting was one he couldn’t help but fall into. She wanted him angry, wanted the upper hand, and she did know him, including how to push his buttons. He moved, releasing her so she came to lie on her stomach on the sleeping bag. Straddling her again, Ty covered her with the length of his body, his arms locked on either side of hers. His pulse quickened from the conflict and the contact in equal measures. Harmless bickering had been their foreplay for two and a half years and for better or worse it still got Ty ludicrously hot.
“Did you know how I’d feel, inside you?” he murmured against her neck.
“Pretty much.”
“Did you know how I’d sound?” He felt himself growing heavy and rigid against her bare bottom.
“Yeah.”
“Did you know how I’d taste when you finally got your lips around me, Kate?”
She tightened beneath him.
“Did you know how I’d taste?”
“Yes.”
Hearing the arousal in her voice, he shifted so she’d feel how hard he’d become. “And I bet you knew I’d make you come first, didn’t you?”
“Of course,” she said, her cockiness returning in full bloom.
“I can be selfish, too, Katie.”
She snorted. “I doubt that.”
“Do you?”
She turned her head to meet his eyes. “Yeah. Like I said, it’s always about proving something with you.”
>
Damn, if she wasn’t going to pay for that. “You don’t think I can be selfish?”
“Nope,” she said. “With the exception of wrecking my beauty sleep, you always put yourself last. Three days without food and you always wait for me to take a bite first.”
“Fine… But I want you right now. Worse than I’ve ever wanted a steak or a beer.”
“And you’ll never be able to come until you’ve gotten me off. In fact, I bet that’s the one dare you’d fail at.”
“Don’t sound so bloody sure.”
“I’d put money on it. Go ahead.” She rose to her elbows and knees, forcing him to kneel, offering herself. “Show me how greedy you are. Prove me wrong. I dare you.”
He glowered at her, but the wager was one he didn’t intend to pass up, or lose. With one rough hand he grabbed hold of her slim waist, reaching around and slipping two fingers between her legs with the other to get her ready. He let his fingers glide in and out of her for a minute, rocking her hips with his, listening as her breath grew ragged, studying the shape of her body as it awaited his demands.
“You’re already losing, Ty,” she said, husky voice betraying her.
“This is all for me, sweetheart. I want you nice and wet for me first—things are going to get rough after I take you.”
She made a doubtful noise and Ty upped the speed of the caress. He closed the space between them, brushing the backs of her thighs with the fronts of his, letting his dick rest along the cleft of her sweet, round ass. He bit his tongue, so close to asking if she was ready. It took a concerted effort not to give a damn, but she needn’t know that. He drew his hips back and guided himself to that warm, wet, welcoming place.
As he slid in the first inch, she craned her neck, meeting his eyes.
“This is all for me, Katie,” he said again, grasping her hips, driving in deeper.
She gasped softly.
“Damn, you know what?” he said, halting his thrusts. He pulled out, leaving her on her hands and knees as he stood from the bed. “Something’s missing.”
KATE SAT BACK ON HER HAUNCHES, her body humming with impatience as she watched Ty busying himself across the room in the shadows. “What are you doing?”
When he turned back, the little red light came with him.
“God, Ty.” She shook her head, pretending to be exasperated.
He smiled at her, wicked, and propped the camera on the mantel above the stove, pointing the lens at the bed, checking the shot in the viewfinder. He came back and joined her, the mattress sinking under his weight. Kate let him push her shoulders back down. He took her roughly again with a loud groan that both thrilled and shocked her. Damn, he was big.
“You feel so good, sweetheart.”
Not half as good as you.
His hands clamped tightly around her waist, matching each of his thrusts with a hard tug. “This is all for me, now. But when you get home, it’ll be for you, too,” he drawled, presumably meaning the video.
“You’re hedging your bets,” Kate said, voice unsteady from the impact, eager to egg him on. She liked him this way…. When Ty had a point he needed to prove it did something to him, lit something up in his eyes. Too bad she couldn’t see them. Behind her he was growing more aggressive by the moment, hammering her hard. She could feel him sliding not just in and out, but against the sensitive skin between her inner thighs, and she reveled in the hard slap of his hips against her backside. She wanted to watch him—his stomach and chest and God, those arms. She craned her neck again for a glimpse of that power.
“You want to see me, sweetheart?” His voice was heavy and dark, sinister.
“Yes.”
He grinned, merciless. “Too bad.” With a firm hand between her shoulder blades he pushed her down farther, the angle of her body deepening until her elbows slid forward and she had to grasp the metal tubing of the headboard. He wrapped his hands around the fronts of her thighs and pounded himself into her. For the second time, Kate realized how damn good it felt to give up control.
“Ty.”
“God, you’re wet, Katie. Wet and tight and hot, for me. I only wish I could shoot inside you, sweetheart.”
Kate’s own excitement mounted with an alarming momentum. “Ty.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You wish I could come inside you.”
She groaned as he sped up.
“Yeah, you do.” Ty stopped abruptly and pulled out. Kate assumed for a second he was coming, but instead he flipped her over to face him. He knelt, and as he wrapped her legs around his waist and rammed himself back inside her, she registered with a primal rush just how strong he was. He sealed them together upright, chest to chest, slippery with sweat.
“Make me come, Katie.” His broad hands showed her the motion he wanted from her hips and she obeyed, excited and intimidated by the dark quality in his voice, the glimmer in his eyes, the size of him between her legs. Boss or not, Ty in control was taboo. Letting anyone dominate her like this felt forbidden and darkly thrilling. Kate suspected he was the only man she’d ever allow to be that way with her.
“Faster, sweetheart. Nice and rough.”
“Ty.”
“Good. Say my name.”
“Ty.”
“Keep it up. Just like that. I know how much you love to be in charge. Make me feel good, sweetheart. Make me come.”
“I will.” Her voice had turned shaky and breathless, the dynamic between them like a drug.
“You feel how hard you make me?”
“Yes.”
“And how big? Tell me nobody’s ever taken you this deep before.”
“Ty…” She was in trouble now, in danger of winning their bet. The thrusts he demanded were brushing her clit against his pubic bone, driving her toward climax.
“Why are you getting so tight, Katie?” He drew his head back and stared hard at her, but his hands kept her riding him.
“Ty.”
“Don’t you dare,” he said in threatening whisper, but he was smiling like a madman.
“I’m not.”
She was.
“You are,” he groaned. He tipped them over, rocking her onto her back and pounding fast and hard, his body dripping sweat, powerful arms braced at her shoulders. Between Kate’s legs the dam was crumbling. She couldn’t help herself—she reached a hand between them to tease her clit and just like that, she was gone, lost in free fall, crashing into him and finding no respite from his hammering body.
“You cheater,” he seethed, but he was unmistakably triumphant. He ignored her sensitized body’s twitches of protest and continued his assault. “You’ll pay for that.”
“God, Ty—”
“I hope I ruin you for any man who tries to come after me,” he hissed, staring her down, thrusts frantic and aggressive.
“You’re the only one,” she said, sounding maniacal from his impact and the adrenaline and the truth of what she was saying.
“I hope this keeps you up at night. I hope you lose sleep, thinking about this. Look at me,” he ordered, and she snapped her eyes to between their bodies, to where his thick cock was surging in and out of her. “I won’t let you forget this,” he moaned, and she heard his surrender behind the words. Just a handful of beats later he was reduced to grunting, gasping, losing himself. With a groan of disbelief he withdrew, his fist holding his cock tight as he came, his release lashing her belly in long spurts until he finally stilled.
In the wake of passion, as both their bodies relaxed into the relative silence of this remote place, Kate was shocked to realize how much she’d enjoyed what had just happened. And more shocked still to realize she’d orchestrated it herself.
Challenging Ty was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. That was no revelation, but the fact that she’d done it, that she’d intentionally invited him—no, commanded him—to be the one in charge… Well, that was unexpected indeed. She had no doubt that such a phenomenon could never translate over to real life, but the nove
lty was nonetheless noteworthy. Kate Somersby, happy to be bossed around. Who’d have guessed?
“You. Cheater,” Ty mumbled again as he recovered. He stood from the bed to pull a spare handkerchief from the pack and tossed it in Kate’s direction.
“You still win,” she said, tidying herself up. “I was wrong.”
“Pardon me? You were what?” His chest rose and fell deeply.
“Wrong.”
“Well, well…I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard those words come out of your mouth. Good thing the camera’s captured it all for posterity.”
“And a better thing that that video is mine,” Kate said.
“Bugger, I should have made that the price of the wager. You will invite me over for the world premier screening, won’t you?” He switched the camera off and poked a few more branches into the stove to fuel the waning fire.
“Once we get back to L.A., I’m not your assistant anymore,” Kate said. “Not on the crappy terms you’re offering, anyhow.”
“Meaning we can screw anytime we want without it being a conflict of interest?”
“Meaning I’m going to be so unbelievably pissed that you’ll be lucky if I return your calls.”
“What is with you, anyhow?” Ty asked as he sat, the question sounding like one he’d wanted to pose for a long time. “Why are you like this? Why are you so adamant about everything?” He pulled her down by the shoulders and spooned her, as if holding her hostage in his arms might make her relent. Fat frigging chance.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I grew up with a lot of siblings and not much money. You have to fight for stuff.” She resisted the urge to squirm, to give away any sign of how uncomfortable this topic made her.
“How come I haven’t ever met your family? Any of them? Any of your hundreds of brothers and sisters or your parents?”
“Why would you?” she asked.
“You’ve met mine.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Because we did an episode in Australia. You want to do a show about surviving in Boston and maybe you’ll meet mine.”
“Tell me about yourself, Kate.” His voice was soft in her ear. “Tell me something I don’t know about you. Something horrible.”
