“Still not taking care of yourself,” he grumbled, carrying her to the couch. “Some things never change.”
Kinzie was too weak to protest as he laid her down and went to get a glass of water.
She was surprised at how thirsty she was.
“Easy does it,” he rasped as she gulped down the cool liquid.
“But…how…” she managed to say, her mouth still as dry as the Sahara desert. “You were dead. I was there.”
He smiled sideways, pulling up a chair to sit next to her. “I guess I was dead, Kin, clinically speaking. They resuscitated me after you left.”
Her eyes widened in recognition. It all came back to her now—the pounding of the drums, the chanting of the medicine man as she and M’Benga joined the circle of villagers, the one designed to help Chance.
“No, it was the ceremony that did it,” she said, more certain than she had ever been of anything in her life.
Chance arched a brow. “What ceremony?” He furrowed his brow, intent as she explained it, barely pausing to breathe as she related the words and actions of the medicine man.
“Tolumbo saw that you had not crossed the river and he said I was the one to help you back,” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense to my scientific training but here you are.”
“That much is true,” he agreed. “Personally I consider the universe to be a roll of the dice and whoever bets the right numbers wins. No one ever banks on a die landing on its edge and defying gravity but, hey, anything can happen every once in a gazillion times.”
Kinzie frowned. He still had a lot of explaining to do, miracles aside. “That was six months ago, Chance. Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea what I went through thinking you were dead?”
Chance sighed now, his eyes showing distance and pain. Kinzie’s heart ached for him, not to mention her loins. Oh god, did he have to look so incredibly hot in his worn jeans and golf shirt? The sleeves were nicely stretched by his biceps. The lines of his abdomen were clean and his waist was just as trim as ever.
He had a five o’clock shadow, which emphasized the strong cut of his jaw—completely masculine without being harsh.
Despite all efforts, she found herself responding, those old familiar desires returning, her nipples hardening as she longed for him to crush her breasts to his muscled chest, his hands caressing down her back all the way to her ass—the very same ass that he knew how to spank so well.
Oh how she had missed his touch—hard and soft—his loving, so completely overwhelming.
Even masturbation had been painful for her since leaving Africa. Every orgasm only served to remind her of what she had lost with Chance and what she would never have again.
And yet here he was, close enough to touch, up to his same old tricks.
Or did he have something new up his sleeve?
“If it’s another woman, do us both a favor and go now,” she said, fighting the impulse to pull him down on top of her, letting him overwhelm her body.
How long until he made her beg, one hand pinning her wrists overhead, the other playing over her tortured flesh, teasing her, building the need to an agonizing crescendo?
The accusation hardened his features. “That’s enough, Kinzie. I need you to hear me out.”
Something in his tone left her unable to come up with a snappy comeback. Against her better judgment, she obeyed.
“It’s like this,” he began. “The first thing I asked when I woke up was where you were and if you were all right. The second thing I asked was to see you. My superiors said no. I argued, threatened to resign but the people I work for aren’t exactly like a regular business, Kinzie. It’s like the military—you do what they say when they say it. Only it’s worse because they own your whole identity. No going home, hell, you aren’t allowed a home because if there’s someone you love then you can be gotten to and I agreed to all that when I signed on. I was proud to because this is my country and I would die for it—just like I would die for you.”
Kinzie swallowed. She had made inquiries of her own after seeing Chance die before her eyes. The military authorities had told her that he was a mercenary working for a group of rebel officers in the Luzumbian military, looking to overthrow Matubu.
She had been denied the right to know where he was buried or who his family was.
“So you were working for the American government the whole time you knew me?” Kinzie asked softly.
“Yes. Though I always did what I could to take care of you on the side, including taking out Matubu’s convoy before it could reach you.”
Kinzie regarded him, stunned. It was so much to absorb all at once.
“There’s one more thing you should know, Kinzie,” he said gently. “I heard every word you said to me at the crash site.”
Her heart skipped a beat. As a doctor, she should have expected that. Comatose patients showed extraordinary auditory acuity, though she had managed to convince herself that she had been spared the shame of revealing unrequited love.
“My brain held onto every last syllable,” he said, reaching out to take her hand. “I am quite sure it is what brought me back. I love you too, Kinzie. I always have.”
His declaration combined with the touch of his flesh against hers melted her completely. “You sure as hell never showed it,” she whispered.
Or had he?
He offered a slanted smile, dimples flashing. “I’m not your average greeting card kind of guy. Finding you morphine for your clinic, chasing off bandits, flying a jet fighter into a ruthless dictator—that was my way of saying it.”
Kinzie couldn’t help but laugh. “You did get me flowers though. I never could figure out where you managed to find roses in the middle of the bush.”
“I have to keep a little bit of mystery, now don’t I?”
“A little bit, yes, but I’ve changed. I really have. I can’t do the kind of relationship we had. Long distance is one thing but loving a spy is something else.”
His brow furrowed, she knew something serious was coming. “I’m not in the Agency anymore, Kinzie. It took me months of convincing but they let me go.”
She looked at him in disbelief.
“Check my car if you want. All my worldly possessions are in it. I’m here to stay, if you want me.”
Kinzie sat up, lightheaded. “What would you do in a place like this?”
“Be with you.”
She sucked at her lower lip. He said it as if it were enough, the answer to everything. “I don’t know, Chance. I have a lot to think about.”
His eyes darkened just a little. “Let’s think about it in bed.”
Kinzie felt a zap between her thighs, instant heat and moisture. “Give me a break. The last thing you and I would do in bed is think.”
“I want you, angel.” He leaned forward, his voice a rasp. She shivered as he brushed his fingers over her cheek. Was this it, the rebirth the ceremony was supposed to bring? “I was brought back to this earth to love you and I have waited too goddamn long already.”
Her breathing had gone shallow, never a good sign. “Can I have twenty-four hours to…think?”
Now she was negotiating—another bad sign.
Chance homed in like a lion to its prey. “No, baby, no thinking. It has to be tonight. Your sweet body is going to be mine. I have a room at the Sleep Away Motel. The bed is nice, just right for laying you down naked. I even put in a few surprises.”
BDSM surprises, no doubt.
“It’s been a long time for me,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Not since the last time with you.”
“Same for me but I think it will come back to us quick, don’t you?” The question was rhetorical.
“Yes,” she said as he pulled her to her feet. A strange calm settled over her body though her brain was in full panic mode.
* * * * *
It was all Chance could do to keep his hands off Kinzie on the way to the motel. He would have loved to play with her as they drove, teas
ing her to the point of explosion, but this was a small town and even under the cover of dark few things would be missed.
By morning everyone would know he had taken the good doctor to his room. By lunch they would know something else too—that they were going to be married.
The proposal would be made and accepted before dawn. That was the mission, the secret one he’d yet to reveal to Kinzie. Chance was good with missions. He had yet to bungle one and he was not going to start now.
“So do I get the cook’s tour?” she quipped as he closed and locked the door behind him.
“Later,” he said, sweeping her into his arms. “Once I am done having my way with you on every last surface in this room.”
“Oh Chance,” she sighed. “I’ve dreamed of this so many times, you don’t know.”
“I do know.” He kissed her mouth, feeling the heat of her lips. They molded instantly, remembering every bit of lost passion. “But this isn’t a dream.”
He saw the hesitancy in her eyes. Had he gone far enough to convince her it was going to be different? “Reach in my pocket,” he said.
She smirked. “That’s a cheap ploy to get me to feel you up, mister.”
“I don’t need ploys, angel,” he rasped. “When I want your hand on my cock I will tell you in no uncertain terms. Right now I want you to take out my wallet.”
“Your wallet?”
“I want you to open it, look at my license.”
She did so, tugging. “Harrison Collins,” she whispered as she unfolded the leather. “Is that really you?”
“Yep. You can see why I liked Chance better.”
“Harrison is beautiful.” She stood on tiptoe to shower him with sweet little kisses all over his cheeks. “Harrison, Harrison, Harrison. I love you, Harrison Collins.”
Chance chuckled. “I love you too, Kinzie Leigh Sanders.”
Her next kiss was more earnest, hungry and all too telling of her sexual needs. “Thank you,” she breathed as she released his lips.
“For what?”
“For believing in me enough to tell me the truth.”
“I’ve always believed in you,” he said, his hands cupping her face. “You are the most incredible person I’ve ever met.”
Tears dotted her eyes. “I was such a fool. All those times you left on a moment’s notice…”
“I was under orders. But I don’t want to hear you calling yourself a fool. Any reasonable person would have reacted as you did. I put you in a hell of a position. It was goddamn unfair, leading you on, leaving you wanting more. I was selfish, Kin. Can you forgive me?”
She smiled through the tears. “Given that you’re here now, yes. Just don’t you disappear again.”
“Are you kidding me?” he rasped. “Not even death could keep me from you.”
She rolled her eyes. “You just can’t help but brag, can you?”
“It’s not bragging when you can back it up.” Chance lifted her into his arms, cradling her. She laid her head against his chest, breathing soft and warm as he carried her to bed.
He laid her down ever-so gently on top of the covers.
“Aren’t you going to order me to take off my clothes?” she teased.
“Not this time. I am reserving that honor for myself.”
* * * * *
Kinzie sighed deeply, a combination of anticipation and absolute relief. Chance—Harrison—was about to take command of her body for good. There would be no turning back.
“I’m yours,” she whispered.
“We belong to each other,” he replied, pulling her T-shirt from the waistband of her jeans. She sat up and lifted her arms, allowing him to slip the garment over her head.
“Stay like that,” he commanded.
A shiver passed down her spine. She could almost feel the chains holding her in place, keeping her hands aloft, helpless, his. Chance kissed her, angling his lips to meet hers. She melted into him, allowing her lips to communicate her deep, raw need. She needed to be fucked, taken with all the savagery he could muster.
But the pace was his, the rules too.
“Have you missed me, angel? Have you burned for my touch?”
“Oh yes, every minute,” she whispered.
“Good girl.” He ran his fingertips over her nipples. They swelled beneath the bra cups, straining to meet him.
“I need you…inside me,” she confessed, her voice shaky and thin.
“Of course you do,” he rasped, nibbling the soft pink lobe of her ear. “It’s where I belong.”
“Yes.”
Chance undid the closure on the front of her bra, letting it fall open. Sliding his palm down her belly, hot enough to scorch, he said, “Marry me, Kin.”
Talk about timing. “Harrison, I…”
“Don’t answer now. Later.” Chance unbuttoned her jeans and pulled down the zipper. She expected him to take them off but again, he left the job half done.
He seized her mouth instead, his tongue pushing in so deep and fast that her whole body exhaled into his. She did everything in her power to bring them together—her breasts grinding against his chest, her hip rubbing his thigh.
“I will,” she gasped when he released her at last. “I will marry you.”
He regarded her coolly, sitting beside her on the bed, calm as day. “I said later. You really don’t listen well, do you?”
She sucked at her lower lip. She had seen that look before.
“On your belly,” he ordered.
“Chance, wait.”
He didn’t. She knew what was coming as he flipped her into position and delivered a firm, sensual crack against her denim-clad ass but she yelped nonetheless. It wasn’t a particularly hard spank but she was overwrought, her body on pins and needles from the erotic anticipation.
After all, she had been waiting a lifetime…a second lifetime.
Chance smacked her again, his palm falling lovingly and possessively on the fleshy part of her ass. “Learned your lesson?”
“Uh-huh.”
He laughed. “Not by a long shot.”
She whimpered as he tugged down her pants to just above her thighs. His hand caressed her panty-clad cheeks. “You know what it will be like between us, don’t you? Outside of bed, we will be equals. I expect you to more than hold your own. But in bed…”
The whimper turned to a moan as his finger slipped under the waistband and found her pussy. He barely grazed her clit, but it was enough to send jolts of sheer, hot liquid need through her flesh.
She would do anything, be anything, to have his cock.
“In bed, you will continue to be my little sex slave, won’t you?”
“Yes…”
Chance delivered a sharp blow through her panties, the heat of his hand sweetly molding her skin, a perfect fit. “Yes Sir.”
“Yes Sir,” she said, her voice quivering.
“Let’s get you a little more naked, shall we?” Chance rolled her over onto her back, took off her sneakers and pulled off her jeans and panties. She was left in nothing but her open bra.
“I think you need more punishment,” he decided.
“Yes?” She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.
Chance nodded, looking down on her, maddeningly cool and calm and collected. “Arch your neck.”
He wanted her lips. The kiss was hard and hot and dry. It made her need to touch him everywhere, to be touched by him. It made her need his cock inside her and absolute, complete domination.
He made her wait, imperiously.
That was the punishment.
“Spread your legs, slave,” he said, his voice deceptively gentle.
Kinzie opened her thighs, her breath coming in short stabs. What was he going to do next? It wasn’t fair, how he claimed all the power, but she didn’t want it fair, did she? She wanted him in charge because he could make her body feel and do so much more than she could ever manage on her own.
“Are you going to give me any more trouble?” he asked.
/> Kinzie’s eyes were on his hand. She cringed as he moved to touch her inner thigh. Nothing stopped her from closing her legs—nothing but his will…and her desire.
“I’ll be good,” she promised.
Chance slid his fingertips to the lips of her pussy. Studying her, gauging her, he pressed them inside her.
She groaned as he found her clitoris, working her to fever pitch in seconds. It wasn’t fair, not by a long shot.
He took hold of her hair, which was once more long enough for him to ball up in his fist. The pressure was enough to ratchet up the pleasure with just a dash of pain. “Did you grow this back for me?”
She nodded, hesitant to ask if he liked it.
“It suits you. You’ll keep it this way.”
“Yes Sir, whatever you say.” His calm assertion of control mixed with the praise turned her on like nothing else. “Oh god, please, make love to me.”
“You’ll feel my cock inside you when you are properly restrained. Put your hands on the pillow above your head.”
Kinzie did as she was told. Chance had the rope already prepared and tied to the head of the bed. It was a velvet cord with a slipknot at the end for her wrists. She sighed as he drew it snug, luxurious and soft and deliciously restrictive.
Mesmerized, she watched him undress. She clenched her fists as he pulled the shirt over his head, baring his magnificent chest. She remembered those muscles so well, saw the contours in her dreams, could still taste the smooth skin on her lips and tongue.
She would never have forgotten him, ever. And here he was, unzipping his jeans, pulling them down over his muscular thighs. She cried out softly as his cock sprang into view—hard and pulsing, full of blood.
“Oh darling,” she whispered.
Chance smiled, as content as she had ever seen him. And as relaxed.
“I love you, Kinzie Leigh.”
“I love you, Harrison.”
“Marry me?” he asked for the second time.
“In a heartbeat,” she replied.
Slowly, very slowly he descended upon her, his mouth alternating between breasts, suckling, teasing, nibbling, his teeth and tongue playing over her nipples, driving her mad with need.
She groaned as he made her wait, pressing his rock-hard cock against her thigh, letting her feel its throbbing heat. She wanted it inside her, she could not exist without it.
Chance's Rule Page 7
