by S. K. Lessly
No one in their family could tell when his temper was about to erupt and consume everyone around him or when he was bothered by something, enough to lock it up and keep it hidden but him. Right now, Shane was giving him nothing, not a twitch of an eye to show he was hanging on the limb of sanity. His nose wasn’t flaring; his jaw wasn’t tense. His eyes were simply empty.
Humph, that was interesting…
“Well, she needed to unwind so what better way than to make her laugh,” Shane replied in a matter of fact tone. He then took a deep breath and moved to the side of Malcolm. He opened up a folder he had in his hand and placed it on the desk. He bent over and pointed to the paperwork in front of him.
“I came in here to see if you gave any more thought about my suggestion of running your own team. I have a few candidates in mind that would be a great asset to the team and I wanted to see if you agreed. We’d have to train them, of course. Also, there are some familiar names on the list from your time with Delta. They’ve stayed sharp in the private sectors, but they’re looking to do something else meaningful and they want to come in out of the cold.”
Malcolm didn’t reply, nor did he move. He just stared at Shane. He couldn’t help it. He felt something was off with him just like Misty, but none of the signs to prove that fact was present.
Shane, realizing Malcolm wasn’t paying him any attention, stopped talking and looked up at him.
“What!?”
Malcolm blinked. “You tell me, bro.”
Shane stood and faced Malcolm. “Tell you what?”
Malcolm’s head nodded toward his door, but never shifted his eyes from Shane.
“Misty.”
“What about her?”
“Seriously, is that how you’re going to play this?”
Shane sighed finally letting his irritation flare.
“Say what you need to say, Malcolm.”
“What in the fuck is going on with you and Misty?”
Shane fixed Malcolm with a level, frigid stare; his jaw clenched his face hardening as every second ticked by.
‘There it is, fucking finally, Malcolm thought as he finally saw what he needed from Shane.
“Why do you care?” Shane asked, an edge of impatience creeping into his voice. “Is there something going on with you two?”
Malcolm frowned.
“Fuck no, and you know it.”
“Really? So what did I just walk into?”
“You didn’t walk into shit. She and are just friends. She’s like a sister to me. In fact, she’s family. Besides, you know I’m currently in a relationship and aren’t you in some messy shit with Casey?”
Shane’s breath left his body slowly as if he was doing all he could to remain calm. “If you must know, Casey and I have parted ways close to two months ago. We aren’t in any messy shit. As a matter of fact, we aren’t in any shit; messy or otherwise.”
Malcolm frowned. That was news to him. “What about the night after my party? I thought you two kissed and made up. At least that’s the impression I got from Amanda. She said you two were complicated but working it out.”
Malcolm watched his brother’s face turn cold and dangerously irate. “Yeah, well you were lied to.” He said bitterly. “Casey and I are done. We’ve been done for some time now.”
“And what about Misty?” Malcolm asked.
Shane closed the folder on the desk and tapped it, his features changing instantly to lax and even bored.
“When you get a chance, take a look at the potential candidates on the list I provided and look at their service records. Nickels also sent them an email. Let me know what you decide in the next few days.”
Shane turned to leave when Malcolm called to his back.
“And Misty?”
“That’s none of your business, Malcolm,” Shane called over his shoulder.
“Don’t fuck this up, Shane,” Malcolm countered.
As Shane’s hand circled the doorknob, he turned slightly so he could look at his brother. “I don’t intend to, Malcolm. Oh, and by the way, if you ever touch her like that again, I will break your gotdamn fingers. If you ever so much as speak to her the way you did in the meeting, I’ll beat the ever-loving shit out of you. I don’t care who’s around us. You got that?”
Malcolm didn’t reply at first. He looked into the deep dark pools of his brother’s eyes and again saw what he needed from him.
Finally, he said, “It’s like that?”
“Yeah, it’s like that.”
“Noted.” Malcolm replied. Shane started to turn to leave when Malcolm added, as an afterthought, “You know Josh is going to flip his shit.”
“Uh-huh, and the same shit will go for him too. Let me know what you think about the men in the folder in a couple of days.” Shane then opened his brother’s door and walked through leaving the door open as he strolled away.
Malcolm watched his brother turn the corner and disappear before he smiled.
“It’s about damn time,” he said before he turned, walked back around his desk and fell back into his chair. He grabbed the folder Shane left on his table and proceeded to weed through potential candidates for his new team, finally getting the distraction he needed.
11
Shane
Do not go back and beat his ass… Do not go back and beat his ass…
I walked purposefully to my office fighting the urge not to give into my dark side and beat the snot out of Malcolm. I passed a few people, including Nickels who I needed to talk to, with murder in my eyes. Nickels, apparently not getting the hint, started to head toward me. I figured he thought I was coming to talk to him. I was supposed to but right now wasn’t a good time. For his safety, I held up my hand to stop him from getting close to me.
“Not now,” I grumbled, gave him a look that could freeze over hell and kept moving.
I was pissed, fucking got damn livid, and right now, I was confused as to why. I mean I knew why, but I didn’t know why. Do you know what I mean?
Shit… I don’t even know what I mean.
I finally made it to my office; thank fuck. I mumbled to my sergeant that I didn’t want to be disturbed right before I slammed my office door shut. I moved quickly to my private bathroom and splash cold water on my face. I needed to get my shit in check and fast.
The water felt good on my heated skin. I could even feel myself calming a bit. I clinched the sides of the pedestal sink, dropped my chin to my chest and closed my eyes. I took a few deep and cleansing breaths before I blindly reached for the towel hanging on the rack to my left and wiped my face.
Pushing back the frustration, I returned the towel and stared at my reflection in the mirror above the sink. Consequently, I’d come to grips with the foreign feeling gripping my chest. I was fucking jealous.
Yes, me. Jealous! Go fucking figure!
This woman was driving me fucking crazy. I had never in all my life succumbed to jealousy. I never allowed any woman to get close enough to me in order for me to get jealous of someone else. And here I was, fighting the urge to beat the shit out of my brother over a woman I knew he didn’t want. What’s even worse, I didn’t feel bad for wanting to punch him in his throat. Not in the least.
No one touched her but me, no one.
Fuck, I had it bad.
I scraped my fingers along my scalp, rested my hand on the back of my neck and puffed out a frustrated sigh. Of all the relationships I’ve been in, I’ve never felt so…protective, so…territorial. Was this how it would be with Misty? Would I find myself ready to murder anyone that touched her or treated her in a way I didn’t like? Fuck me…
I squeezed and massaged the tension from my neck before I reached down and turned off the tap.
Get your shit together, Cooper.
Taking my own advice this time, I closed my eyes and counted to ten in my head a few times while breathing in deeply. I could feel my pulse settling down. The urge to punch my brother in his smug face was evaporating. I almost felt nor
mal. Now, if only I could…
I heard someone opening my office door, the one that I had closed mind you, and rapped a knuckle against my door. I had a chaste remark ready to spill from my tight lips—irritation bubbling up inside of me all over again—when I heard her voice.
“Knock, knock.”
Shit. Now definitely wasn’t a good time.
I leaned over my sink, gripped the sides again, feeling the irritation being replaced with desire. Fuck, she sounded sexy. Her sultry-ass voice always did shit to me. Even the silky smooth way she said my name ignited a fire in me that threatened to consume my soul.
“Shane?”
There it was…
She sounded hesitant, unsure of herself and that should have made me pause. Something was wrong and I should go out there and find out what it was, but I didn’t.
She stepped inside my office and closed my door. Bad mistake King, bad mistake.
“Are you here?”
I tried to reign in my shit, really, I did. However, I couldn’t. The desperate, no the primal need to claim her as mine all over again grew with a vengeance. Not to mention the fact that she allowed another man to touch her, to touch what was mine, my own brother at that. I couldn't stomach that so…
I closed my eyes again and breathed out. Calm down, fucker. Calm down.
Apparently, she had located me and started talking to me, completely oblivious to the danger she was in.
“Hey, um… I need to talk to you. Or rather, we need to talk. Do you have a minute?” she asked.
Yeah, we did need to talk, I rumbled to myself but I guess it wasn’t low enough.
She shifted and mumbled, “Oookay. Maybe we could…”
Her voice trailed off as I straightened and looked over at her. She gasped lightly as she studied me, her eyes round with uncertainty. I knew I looked foreboding to her; I couldn’t help that. It was what she did to me.
Someone else touched what was mine! Don’t care how that sounded either. I didn’t care that it was my brother and he thought of Misty as his sister. Bottom line, I didn’t fucking like his hands touching her or his closeness to her. It was obvious Ms. King wasn’t fully aware that she belonged to me. I think she needed to be reminded who she belonged to and I was going to remind her right fucking now!
I watched, silently, as Misty squirmed under my intense gaze. “Shit,” fell softly from her now parted lips as she took in the hungry, irate and frustrated look on my face. Knowing my woman as I did, I knew she understood what was about to happen to her. She would next try to locate a swift exit instead of taking me on. She only recently stopped running and gave herself to me, but any cornered animal had flight or fight reflexes. The question was which would she choose.
I watched silently, waiting to see if she would prove me right or wrong. As expected, she looked to her left, into my empty office, then turned to the right, looked at the closed door and stared. She was probably beating herself up for closing the door, caging herself in with the wild beast. I also figured she was calculating how fast it would take her to make her exit. When she looked back at me, I saw her flight instincts all over her wary face. I guess I was right, which ironically made me smile.
Did I mention how much I loved my office? I had the room remodeled to my strict specifications. My position and rank required that I have a private space to conduct meetings and phone calls. I had clearances that others in this office didn’t have. I needed the utmost privacy and I made sure I had it.
The internal and external walls surrounding my office were heavily insulated to prevent listening devices from picking up any conversations coming from my office, whether on the floor or outside our building. The walls were also designed to withstand small and large arms fire, including RPG’s, rocket-propelled grenades.
Yeah, it was that serious.
The few outer windows I had in my office, as well as other windows on this floor, could also stop engineered high-powered bullets from penetrating. The inside windows, such as the ones on either side of my door, were bulletproof as well and tripled paned double-glazed, which also aided in soundproofing my office. The windows also changed from two-way glass to one-way by a click of a switch, giving me the option for privacy whenever I needed.
I had these changes implemented the moment we moved into this building. For my convenience, I also had two buttons installed to trigger privacy measures in my office. One was underneath my desk and the other next to my light switch inside my bathroom. Both buttons allowed me to change the window view to privacy, create frequencies to scramble any listening devices and most importantly, it allowed me to lock my door.
So naturally, with this information running in my mind and the fact that Misty forgot that little tidbit, it was almost comical when she went for the door. I pushed the button next to the light switch as I exited the bathroom, the sound of the door locking reverberated throughout my office as I moved. She froze from the sound and stared at the windows as they changed from transparent to translucent.
Her head slowly turned to face me. A pair of now cautious eyes met mine and I fought the urge not to sneer at her. Instead, I growled and stalked towards her, eating up the distance between us in three long strides.
She started to back away from me, but she didn’t get far. I reached for her before she could escape me and pulled her to me. I wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her flush up against me. My free hand shifted to the back of her head and gripped her tight, my fingers tangled in her hair.
“Shane,” she whispered, her hands on my chest, trying to create space between us. That shit wasn’t happening. “Wait, please. We really need to talk. I have to tell you something.”
I tightened my hold on her, leaned close until my lips were inches from her ear.
“You’re right, we need to talk.” I replied, my voice dripping with need. “I’ll go first.” I informed her then trapped her face between my large hands and crashed my lips to hers.
I deepened the kiss immediately, plunging my eager, hungry tongue into her mouth. Taking. Penetrating. Demanding. I took what I needed from her, telling her with this kiss exactly what I wanted to say without any words. Just action. She didn’t fight me. She met my tongue stroke for stroke.
Our tongues danced a serious tango, her body pliant and fluid, giving herself over to me willingly. That shit right there, her submitting to me, made my dick even harder than it already was.
I tore my lips from hers on a curse and backed her against the wall. Misty had woven her fingers in my hair, still connected to me, as her back collided with the wall.
“Shane, I—” she began to say, but I cut her off with another penetrating kiss.
I took my fill of her, her sensual taste invading my taste buds, making me lose my gotdamn mind. That was the only conclusion I came to as to why I had leaned my lower body away from hers, frantically undid her belt and went for the buttons of her jeans.
Misty gasped and pulled away from my lips, her breaths coming in pants her lips swollen from my demanding kiss.
“What are you doing?” she asked me, but fuck, I didn’t answer her. Why? Because she knew exactly what I was doing.
“Shane…”
The pleading and frightened sound of her voice caused my dark eyes to look at her. I knew she could see how much I needed this, needed her. I wanted her right fucking now and the second she realized that, her panicked eyes softened.
Fuck… that right there… again…her submission…
I quickly buried my fingers inside her now opened jeans and thong and went to my knees pulling them down with me.
Her pussy was right there for me, teasing me, calling to me. I didn’t waste time; I brought my hand to her slick folds, spread her open with my fingers and licked her from her opening to her clit.
“Shane!” she cried out, her knees buckled slightly, her hands going to my head to balance herself.
I swiped my tongue again, tasting her, loving the scent of her desires, musky and wa
nting. This was my got damn woman. Mine!
I licked, sucked and pretty much devoured her against the wall. The hard floor was digging into my knees, but I didn’t give a fuck. I wanted more. I needed more.
I started yanking at her pants to get them off her leg, her sensual cries and moans feeding the desire to get her naked so that I could bury myself deep inside her.
“Boots, baby,” she cried out breathlessly, panting. “Boots. You gotta… oh yesss…take them off…”
What?
She kept mentioning boots and I couldn’t understand why until she dug her heel into my thigh.
Fuck, that’s why I couldn’t get her pants off. She had boots on.
I ran my hand up her leg until I reached the top of her boots, found the zipper, which was in the back, and roughly pulled it down. I didn’t stop my ministrations on her pussy, as I worked to free her leg. She even widened her stance for me so I had better access to her sopping wet heat.
I pulled away enough to pull her boot off, tossed it to the side and helped her free her leg from her tight as fuck jeans. Once she was free, I threw her leg over my shoulder and buried my face deeper in between her pussy lips.
“Oh shit, Shane, baby,” Misty moaned long and slow and I almost lost it. Unfortunately, for her, this wasn’t about her pleasure.
I grabbed her thigh, pushed her leg up and against her side, pinning her to the wall. It also opened her up for me, her pussy slick with her desires for me. I knew this position wouldn’t be favorable for her. She was unstable on one leg, trying to keep her balance by holding onto my head. Good! Again, this wasn’t for her pleasure, it was for mine.
“Play with your nipples, Grace,” I instructed my voice guttural and deep.
I looked up at her as she obeyed and brought her hands to her breasts. She teased and pulled at her nipples through her shirt, looking down at me unsure but yet very obedient. Fuck that was a turn on.
