by Anya Summers
Jack shot up, the chair scraping against the wood floor. He paced into the living room and stalked back. Fury radiated from him. “And what if he does take a shot at you? What then? Are you that willing to sacrifice yourself to that madman?”
Rayna stood her ground. “How is it any different from you putting yourself on the line? I know the risks. And they are risks I’m willing to take. Whatever float I’m on, I will wear a bullet proof vest.”
“And if he shoots you in the head?” Jack snarled.
“Well then you’d better be close enough to figure out where the shot came from and catch the son of a bitch.”
“Detective, that’s enough. Sit down,” the chief commanded.
“Sir, you cannot honestly be agreeing with this plan,” Jack argued, shouting.
“I think Miss Thompson is very brave to put forth such a suggestion. It could be done. We would have to get more of my people on this, Agent Carson. The crew working on it now would not be enough to not only see to Miss Thompson’s safety but the parade-goers’ as well. We would need to use the full brunt of my police force. Many of them are already going to be there to help with traffic anyway. It’s more a need to have as many eyes searching as possible,” Chief Sheffield said.
Jack snorted with disgust and strode back into the living room. He stood at the window, staring outside, his back to her. Tension emanated from his frame. Rayna wanted to go to him, soothe him, reassure him that she would be all right.
David responded, a thoughtful expression on his face as he stared at her, “It could work. I’m sure my office would be able to add to the manpower here for an operation of this size and scope. I could even contact the Marshalls and see if they could lend a hand. Are you sure you are up for this, Rayna? It’s okay if you’re not. No one here would think less of you if you wanted to back out.”
Considering she was the one who thought this plan up, she knew she would think less of herself if she called the whole thing off. She couldn’t back out. This was the only path she could see that didn’t involve her hightailing it to some foreign country with a new name and identity where no one had ever heard of her. And if it weren’t for the angry Dom standing in the living room whom she didn’t think she could live without, she would have left Jackson Hole already. But she wanted a chance with Jack, a chance to see where they could take this relationship. However, she would never get that life she hoped for—which glimmered and whispered she should grab it with both hands and not let go—while Dominic lurked in the background, performing his cat and mouse games until she was caught in his trap.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she replied, proud of herself that her voice was firm and didn’t waver. Jack stiffened and clenched his hands into fists. She wanted to go to him, reassure him that it would be fine, but he would know that was a line. He knew better than most that even the most well-laid plans could end badly.
“Then I say we do it,” David said.
“I agree,” Chief Sheffield added with a slight nod.
Rayna stared at her angry Dom. Love for him filled her. It was because of his love that she felt like she was strong enough to carry out this plan. “Jack? I need you with me on this. I know you’re angry—”
He swirled around, eyes blazing, lips firm. “Angry doesn’t even begin to cut it. But as I have been outvoted, I will do what needs to be done.”
“Good. Then let’s get our plan put together,” the chief said, indicating that Jack should take his seat once more.
Jack did, with a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas, and a fury in his gaze that made Rayna think of smoldering flames just waiting for the opportunity to explode.
“Let’s get this over with,” Jack snapped.
Rayna squirmed in her seat. She knew he would never really hurt her. But that didn’t mean she was going to escape punishment. She could already feel the echoes of the spanking he would mete out.
The four of them sat at her kitchen table and drank enough coffee between them to sink a ship. But by the time David and Chief Sheffield left, they had their plan ironed out.
Three days, and it would all be over. One way or another.
Chapter 26
The moment his chief and Carson were out of his house, Jack strode toward Rayna. She had just locked the deadbolt. Jack’s fury knew no bounds. He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
“Jack, put me down.”
His hand landed on her rear in a hard swat. “Silence. You do not have my permission to speak.”
Rayna went rigid against him. He didn’t care if she was pissed.
Jack carried her over to the sofa and tossed her onto it. Before she could rise, he sat beside her and yanked her face-down over his lap. “You’ve earned this fucking spanking for what you just did. You should have talked to me first before you decided to put yourself in danger this way.”
He tugged her pants down to her thighs and ripped her lace thong off with a single, hard jerk.
“Jack, Sir, please listen to me.”
He leaned one arm across her lower back, holding her down, then began to wallop her bare bottom. Rayna jerked and swore under her breath, fighting him every step of the way. “If you don’t quite fussing and take your punishment, I will add another ten strokes.”
“Fine. Have it your way. But then you’re going to listen to me.”
“Silence.” He laid three hard whacks across her bum, enjoying the way her skin reddened from his palm. He proceeded to issue thirty blistering spanks to her backside until her butt cheeks flamed red from his ministrations. Some of his anger seeped out with each swat. But not all of it, not by a long shot. After surveying his handiwork, he shifted her supple form in his arms until she was cradled in his lap.
Jesus, he wanted to lock her away, hide her from Travino until the Feds caught him.
“May I speak, Sir?”
“You deserved that punishment for willingly putting yourself in harm’s way. I want to know why, after everything, after last night, you would risk yourself this way.”
She placed her palm on his cheek, moisture glistening in her eyes. “It’s because of you that I’m doing this. If it weren’t for you, I would already be gone, half a world away and starting over again. I’m doing this because I want a chance for there to be an us. That won’t happen with Dominic coming after me this way. He always finds me. Always.”
“But you don’t trust me to keep you safe, or you wouldn’t be doing this,” Jack snarled, his anger and fear seeping through.
“Is that what you truly think? Jack, I trust you with my life. It’s Dominic I don’t trust. With good reason. Do you want to know why I don’t have a guard dog like you suggested as we hashed out the plan?”
He didn’t, but he nodded. “Go on.”
“When I first entered witness protection and assumed the name Sally Eaton, I adopted a German Shephard. Sadie and I went through a training program together, where she learned to protect me. I loved her. She was fierce and gave me such peace of mind. And when Dominic found me, found us, he shot her right in front of me. It wasn’t a kill shot, either. He shot her in the belly and let her bleed out. I loved her so much. She was the only friend I had. And Dominic wouldn’t even let me go to her. He dragged me into the other room and beat me. Sadie died alone and in pain because I wasn’t strong enough. He will never let me have a normal life. Just my being here, being friends with everyone here, put you all in danger.” Tears leaked down her beautiful face.
Jack wished he could take away all the pain she had been through. “Jesus, I’m so sorry.” He held her close. “I don’t like you risking yourself this way. I’m not okay with it.”
“I know. And a part of me wishes that I didn’t have to do it. But can you honestly tell me there is another sure-fire way to draw him out into the open so we can end it?”
Honestly. God dammit. “No. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
She placed her palm against his cheek and looked up. “I don’t like it either, but
the other choice is for me to run.”
“I could go with you. Be there to protect your back. We could leave in the morning.” As much as he loved his friends, he wanted Rayna in his life, safe and protected. If that meant they had to leave Jackson, he had to leave the life he had always known, so be it.
“You would do that? Go with me?”
“Yes. In a heartbeat. When are you going to realize that I’m all the way in? I love you. You belong to me, with me, for however long we might have. This,” he palmed her sex and found her wet from her spanking, “is mine. You are mine. If we need to run away to the ends of the Earth, then that’s what we’ll do.”
“Jack,” she whispered, teary-eyed.
He caught the glimmer of tears before he lowered his mouth over hers and kissed her, showing her with his actions that he meant everything he had said. After everything that had transpired, he wanted to imprint himself on her; needed to show his love for her in the most elemental way.
He gripped her hair, tilted her head back, and ate at her mouth. She moaned, and the sound traveled all the way inside him to spur his own need. The hand palming her mound delved between her folds, finding her slick and ready. He teased her clit, rubbing his fingers against the nub, causing it to swell.
She mewled into his mouth and he took the kiss invariably deeper then, without preamble, penetrated her pussy with two digits. Her walls clasped his fingers with greedy abandon, trying to suck him deeper inside. Rayna rocked her hips to meet his thrusts.
Jack needed her. Now.
He lifted his mouth from hers. She whimpered as he withdrew his fingers from her sweet cunt. Her lids fluttered open as he brought his fingers, coated with her cream, up to his mouth and licked them clean. Her pupils were dilated. Her pulse fluttered.
“I need you,” he said with a growl, then helped maneuver her body and laid her back on the couch. After toeing off his shoes, he knelt between her spread thighs and shoved his jeans and boxers down to his knees, freeing his erection. He helped her remove her shorts and positioned himself between her thighs.
Gripping his shaft, he drew it through her puffy pink folds, teasing her hole, dipping the tip in and out. Rayna let out an exasperated growl.
With his cock at her entrance, he said, “Who does this pussy belong to?”
“You, Sir. Only you.” She canted her hips, trying to take him inside, but he held her steady.
With that, he plunged inside her with a roll of his hips until he was buried balls deep. It was like coming home. Every time. She was meant to be his. His hands clasped her hips as he thrust. There was no foreplay, no languid lovemaking. He wanted, needed, to fuck her. Hard. Fast. And brutal.
Jack pounded his cock inside her grasping sheath, hearing her mewls. It was a storm inside him that he unleashed, his fear for her mingling with love, his desire to protect her and make her his for all time. He poured himself into every ramming thrust, every rock of his pelvis.
He leaned over her and his hands trailed beneath the hem of her shirt, up to cup her tits. He pulled them out of the lace cups, gripping them in his palms. He ground his hips, pumping his shaft in hard, brutal strokes.
“Jack,” she moaned with a breathy whisper.
He went downright feral, slamming his hips, driving his cock in deep again and again. Rayna keened, “Jack.” Her pussy tautened and quaked around his plunging staff. She trembled in his arms, moaning, her hands digging in to his back as she came undone beneath him.
Her climax set his off. His dick lengthened, swelling. His balls tightened. It started at the base of his spine and he exploded. Hot jets of cum poured into her channel and he thrust over and over as he strained, groaning deep in his throat.
He rocked his hips, her pussy fluttering around his cock, until every last drop of semen had been expelled and his shaft began to soften. He stilled, collapsed against her, and held her close.
With his face buried against her neck, he said, “When this is all over, I want to do a collaring ceremony at the club.”
She shifted beneath him and he raised his head up. “We can do that as long as you promise me…”
“Promise you what?” He would give her whatever she needed, whatever was within his power to do.
She searched his eyes. “That you won’t play the hero. That you won’t take a bullet that’s meant for me.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “I can’t do that. My job is to protect you.”
“No, your job is to love me. I can’t do this, go into this if I’m worried that you are going to try and do something heroic.”
“All I can say is that I will promise to be cautious and not do anything stupid. But your safety comes first. I won’t argue about that. If you try to argue with me, I will put you on lockdown and this whole plan can go to hell. I’m not going to let him get you, I promise,” he swore. He would do it, too. If he had to take her into the back country, armed to the teeth, he would do it. There were plenty of places they could go deeper into the wilds where Travino would never find her. He’d make sure of it. And Jack had camped enough that he had the survival skills needed to persevere.
“Now, as for the loving you part…” He nipped at her bottom lip as his cock lengthened inside her sweet cunt.
“Again?” she sighed with a hitch in her breath as he rolled his hips, gliding his shaft in and out of her swollen sheath.
“Always. I want you always. There’s no place I would rather be.”
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and challenged him with a sexy grin. “Show me what you’ve got, Sir.”
And he did. More than once. Until they were limp and sated, and he carted her up to his bedroom and held her until the morning light filtered in through the windows, more resolved than ever before that he would protect her. He’d do whatever it took to ensure she survived the coming fight.
Chapter 27
The following morning, Jack got on the horn and contacted the main crew of Doms from the club. He arranged for them to meet at Spencer’s apartment above the Teton Cowboy. Part of the upcoming plan was having as many eyes in the crowd as possible. If Travino was having them followed, he would think they were going to lunch, and it would keep the bastard away from his friends’ homes.
Rayna wore a frilly, mint-green sundress with large yellow flowers that fell to her knees. She had left her hair down around her slim shoulders. The dark chocolate waves fell to her cleavage. She took his breath away with her casual beauty.
“You don’t have to go with me. I can have my partner come sit with you while I go,” Jack offered, wanting to save her as much involvement as possible.
“No. If they are going to risk themselves for me, they need to hear the story from me.”
“Are you sure?” She was a fucking warrior and awed him with her courage.
“Yep. We should get going or we will be late,” she said, picking up her purse.
Jack escorted her outside. He had his gun waist belt hidden beneath his black tee shirt. Once in his truck, he slipped his sunglasses on and sensed her tension.
“It will be all right.”
She snorted and shook her head. “I’m about to tell people I’ve known for almost two years that I’ve been lying to them. That will go over really well.”
“Rayna, you had a reason, a valid one. I think they will surprise you. Besides, Spencer already knows.” Jack tried to imagine what it would be like, to put himself in her shoes. To be forced to keep your true identity hidden from people, only to have to reveal everything to them and hope that they wouldn’t cast you out. It was part of what made her such a warrior in his eyes. She had strength he admired.
She blew out a shaky breath. “I know. And I know I can trust them. It’s just, I’ve held on to this secret for so long. It feels weird having people know who I am, who I really am.”
He threaded his fingers through hers. “They already know the real you. Everything else is just gravy.”
Rayna wished she had Jack’s confide
nce. For all her bravado yesterday and last night regarding her plan to bring Dominic into the open, she wasn’t as confident as she appeared. Especially about bringing in people she had begun to care for over the last two years.
She absorbed as much of Jack’s strength as possible on the drive into town. They were meeting in Spencer’s apartment above the Teton Cowboy. That way, if Dominic or any of his goons were tracking them, it would look like they were going to eat at the restaurant.
Jack parked his truck in the employee parking lot, and they entered through the employee entrance in back. But instead of going down to the club or out into the restaurant on the main floor, they climbed a set of stairs. The door at the top was propped open.
Spencer and Carter were already present. Spencer wore dark gray dress slacks and a crisp white linen dress shirt. He must be working at the restaurant today when they were finished here. Carter was one of the few guys Rayna didn’t know as well. The large cowboy was in jeans and a white, short-sleeved shirt with some beer brand splashed across the front. He wore a black Stetson and pair of black boots. Jenna’s husband was quite the beefcake.
Spencer approached when he spied them. “Jack, Rayna. How are you holding up?” he asked.
She pasted a smile on her lips. “As well as can be expected.”
“Can I get you anything to drink? A glass of wine? Soda, perhaps?”
“I would love a glass of wine.” The liquid courage would serve her well for the upcoming conversation.
“Have a seat in the living room and I will get it for you,” Spencer said, being a consummate host.
Jack propelled her into the living room. Carter stood and shook first Jack’s hand and then hers. “Good to see you both,” Carter said.
Spencer handed her a glass of white wine just as Garrett, Mason, Cole, and Alex arrived. Spencer shut the door behind them and handed each of them a beer. They were going to need it for what she was about to tell them. They were all similarly dressed in tee shirts and jeans, looking for all the world like they were having a competition on who had the biggest belt buckle.
