Collared By The Warrior

by Daniella Wright

I ran into her two days after I’d spent the night. She was downstairs at the bar, having a drink. I sat on the stool next to her and gestured for the bartender to bring me the same. She gave me a look out of the corner of her eye but otherwise pretended not to notice me.

  “Good evening, ma’am,” I said, lifting my glass to her. She smiled despite herself but still didn’t look at me. I could tell she was blushing, even in the dim light of the bar.

  “You’re going to have to face me some time,” I said softly. “We are neighbors.”

  She looked at me then, a small smile on her lips. “What do you want?”

  “To talk,” I said, then held my hand out to her. “I never introduced myself. I’m Jett.”

  She looked tentatively at my hand and then took it to shake. I held her palm against mine for a moment, stroking the skin with my thumb. She met my eye and held it, then pulled away gently.

  “Jett,” she said, “it’s nice to meet you.”

  “The pleasure is all mine,” I said. “Unless you’d like to share it again.”

  She shook her head and laughed. “You just don’t quit, do you?”

  “Not when I meet a woman like you, no.”

  “And what is it about me that interests you so?” she asked, a playful look in her eyes.

  “Several things. Would you like me to list them?”

  “Please,” she said. The word sent a lick of electricity through my body. The next time I took her, I’d make her beg for it. I knew she would, too, just as I knew that she would give herself to me at least one more time. It was written all over her face, all over her body.

  “Well,” I said, “you know how to handle a gun.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “That’s it? That’s why you’re bothering me?”

  “Am I bothering you?” I asked, grinning. “I was under the impression you liked the attention.”

  She blushed but was smiling. “Tell me why you won’t leave me alone.”

  “Other than the obvious fact that you moan like an angel in bed,” I said, “I think you’re beautiful. And you make me laugh. Can’t pass up a woman like that.”

  She looked at me, her lips parted. My comment about her moaning had made her squirm on the stool.

  “We can be friends, right?” I asked, reaching forward to push a lock of hair out of her face. “Just friends. I swear.”

  She sighed. “Friends?”

  “Promise,” I said, “and we’ll start with dinner.”

  She laughed, then said, “maybe.”

  I downed my drink, then took her hand again. “Come up to my room.”

  “No way,” she said, shaking her head.

  “I’m not going to try to take your panties off unless you want me to. I want you to meet my brother.”

  She paused, then looked at my face. “I think that’s a bad idea,” she said, and got up.

  “It was nice meeting you, Jett.”

  And she left me there at the bar. I wasn’t confused as to why she was so hesitant to be around me. She wanted me bad, and given that her ex had betrayed her, she didn’t trust me at all. I was sure she regretted our night together, even if it had been pleasurable. Still, I wasn’t going to give up. I went upstairs and into my room, trying to think of a way to get her attention again.

  Alan broke my thoughts. “While you were down there chatting her up, I got a call from our client.”

  “Yeah?” I said. “What’s he want?”

  “He wants to know where we are. Where she is.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t tell him yet. I don’t trust him not to send someone after her.”

  “Why would he send us to protect her if he’s going to kill her off anyway?”

  “He could be using us to find her,” I pointed out. “And he could send more men than even we could handle.”

  Alan sighed. “So what do you want us to do, Jett?”

  “Wait,” I said. “She’s in that room alone. We have to get closer to her.”

  “I think you’ve been as close as you’re going to get,” he said. I laughed.

  “Not yet.”

  Chapter 3: Luna

  I ran into him often. It wasn’t that he was following me, I knew, just that he lived in the room next door to me. I’d see him when I went out to get ice or went downstairs to the restaurant for dinner. Each time, he’d shoot me a smile that made my stomach flutter. I found myself drawn to him despite myself and my need to lay low. Often, he was with his brother, so he didn’t talk to me much. When he was alone, though, he’d lean against the wall and talk to me. I was so charmed by him, so drawn to him that it almost scared me. Men had betrayed me before, and the last thing I needed was another one in my life.

  Still, he was persistent. One night he knocked at my door, and when I opened it, he was grinning down at me as usual.

  “Come to dinner with me,” he said. “Go get dressed.”

  “Excuse me?” I said, though I was tempted.

  “Let’s go to the diner where we met,” he held his hands up. “I swear I’ll be a gentleman.”

  I thought about it, then decided to give in. Despite myself, I did want to spend time with him. I had started to crave our brief moments together. He made me laugh; he also made me unbelievable aroused. The latter was dangerous, I knew, and yet I found I couldn’t resist.

  “Fine,” I said. “But you keep your hands to yourself.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, smiling. I shut the door on him and slipped into a simple dress and a pair of flat shoes. He was waiting for me when I walked out of the room.

  “Beautiful,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  At the diner, we sat across from each other in a booth. He looked at me over the top of his menu and I hid my smile. I couldn’t help my reaction to him and it drove me crazy. He made my body light up with his grin and made it squirm with his eyes.

  “Stop hiding,” he said, pulling my menu down and shutting it. “I want to see your face.”

  “I’m trying to be mysterious,” I said.

  “I’d like to know all of your secrets,” he told me. “Tell me everything. Starting with your name.”

  “My name is sunshine,” I told him teasingly, and he laughed.

  “Okay, sunshine. I thought you only liked to be called that in bed.”

  “There are other things I like to be called in bed,” I said, surprised at how easily I could flirt with him. We had only been together for a few minutes and my body was reacting to his. I had trouble sitting still in the booth.

  “I’ll have to learn them,” he said smoothly. “Next time I’ll try a few more.”

  “Oh, you think there’s going to be a next time?” I asked, cursing myself for blushing.

  “There will be,” he said. “You’re already thinking about it.”

  “Oh? How do you know?”

  He leaned across the table, laying his menu down beside him. “You’re squirming. You can’t stop thinking about the other night. You haven’t been able to since I left.”

  I stayed quiet because it was true. Blessedly, the waitress interrupted us and took our order. By the time she left, he was sitting casually again, staring at me with a serene smile.

  “You’re so cocky,” I said. “Most women don’t like that.”

  He laughed. “They do once they get to know me.”

  I rolled my eyes at him but returned his smile. The conversation between us after that was easy and relaxed. The sexual tension between us was palpable but somehow we managed to stay off the topic for a little while as we ate our food. He told me about growing up with his brother, how much trouble he used to get into when he was younger. I was not surprised that he had been a rowdy little thing. Though he was contained now, languid and smooth-talking rather than hyper, I could see who he had been as a little boy. I didn’t tell him much about myself. I thought it too dangerous. If he found out who I was, he’d be vulnerable to questioning and I didn’t need that. I wanted him, but I couldn’t trust him to keep my identity a
secret.

  Once we were finished, he leaned back in the booth.

  “Are you wet right now, sunshine?” he asked boldly, speaking quietly so that nobody could overhear us.

  “Not at all,” I said, lying through my teeth. My panties were soaked just being around him, seeing that smile, watching his hands. I remembered how he’d touched me and the only thing on my mind was letting him do it again.

  He grinned. “You’re lying.”

  “How do you know?”

  “You’re flushed,” he pointed out. “You can’t sit still. You keep staring at my hands and biting your lip. I don’t even think you notice it.”

  I hadn’t. He leaned forward again, spoke to me softly.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen,” he said. “We’re going to go home and you’re going to let me take that dress off of you.”

  My throat went dry. “You think?”

  He nodded. “And then I’m going to taste you. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that. I want to lick that pretty little flower until you come all over my face.”

  I swallowed, unable to speak.

  “After that I’m going to make you beg for me to fill you up.”

  “I won’t beg,” I said, almost breathless.

  He nodded and grinned. “Yes, you will. Now let’s go.”

  He gestured for the waitress and paid before we got up and starting walking back to the hotel. We were both quiet; I didn’t know what to say. I knew I was going to let him into my room—I was too aroused by his words to do otherwise. He knew it, too. I could tell because he walked confidently with a smile on his face. I could hardly wait to get back to the hotel at all, kept glancing at alleys and imagining him taking me up against a wall there. We were walking quickly, so we got back in just a few long minutes.

  It started in the elevator upstairs. Once the doors shut, he took me into his arms and kissed me hard on the mouth, his tongue slipping gently inside to tease my own. I melted against him as he ran his hands down my back, then pulled my hips against his so that I could feel how hot and hard he was. My response was to rub against him like a feline, to bite his lip. He smiled when the elevator door opened and took me by the hand, pulled me to my room and waited while I unlocked the door. Inside, he wasted no time in pulling my dress off and my panties down so that I was completely naked within seconds.

  “Sit,” he said, gesturing to the edge of the bed. I sat down and spread my legs without his asking, looking at his face as he gazed over my body. He knelt onto the floor and spread my thighs wide, nuzzling my inner thighs, kissing and biting them. My slit was spread open, my folds fully on display for him. He took my lower lips into his mouth and sucked on them, slipping his tongue up and down my slit, circling my sensitive bud with it. He held my thighs open even when they started to close against the pleasure, flicked his tongue against my bud quickly the moment I let a moan escape my lips. He caressed me with his tongue, brought me close to the edge before dipping it inside of my channel and curling it upward. He replaced it with his fingers and focused on my bud again, wrapping his lips around it to suck it so that my hips were grinding against his face. He took his mouth away and I groaned in disbelief. I had been so close to coming on his face. He continued to use his fingers on me, rubbing my bud with his thumb, as he moved his face up my body and kissed and licked my nipples. He bit gently into each one, causing a shock of pleasure to run through me, and I couldn’t help but to come for him then, gushing all over his fingers, my hips grinding against his thumb.

  He didn’t wait for me to catch my breath before he captured my mouth in a hot, delicious kiss. I undressed him while our mouths were locked, pulled out his shaft and ran my hand up and down its silky length. He stepped out of his jeans and gestured with his finger for me to turn over.

  I did so, got on hands and knees at the edge of the bed. I felt vulnerable and wildly sexy in this position. I felt him behind me, felt him caress the globes of my ass for a moment.

  “You want me inside you?” he asked in a low voice.

  “Yes,” I said breathlessly. It was all I wanted, the sensation of being filled by him. He aimed his shaft inside of my channel but did not push in, instead pushing along the outside of my folds to bump against my bud with the head of his shaft. He simply rubbed back and forth against the sensitive lips, soaking his length, teasing me with the tip of him. Every once in a while he would push inside me just about an inch, just so that I could feel him. I wanted him deeper, wanted him to cut the bullshit and fill me up. I was getting so frustrated that I was throwing my hips back every time he aimed inside of me, but when I did, he pulled away. I heard him laugh when I let out a sigh of frustration. I looked over my shoulder at him, narrowing my eyes. My flower was dripping wet, soaking my thighs.

  “Stop teasing me,” I growled, as I had once before.

  “But it’s the best part. You know what you have to do if you want it, sunshine. Just say please.”

  I bit my lip, tried a couple more times to take him inside of me, but each time he moved away. It was when he reached around to rub my bud with his fingertips that I finally gave in. I needed him to stretch me out and fill me up, needed it worse than anything.

  “Fine. Please,” I breathed.

  “You can do better than that,” he said, taking my bud between his thumb and forefinger and pinching it in the softest way that drove me crazy.

  “Jett, please,” I moaned. “Please. I want you inside me.”

  He continued his ministrations between my legs with one hand while he finally guided himself inside of me with the other. He moved slowly at first, going deep and hard but taking his time. I sighed and squirmed back against him, loving the feeling of his filling me up, moving my hips backward to meet his forward thrusts so that he hit the back of my channel with a force that almost made me lose my breath. With his free hand, he reached around to palm one of my breasts, to play with my nipple between his fingers as he rode me from behind. He sped his hips up then and was pushing into me faster and faster, until I was bouncing on the bed. My arms had collapsed and my face was against the mattress and I was moaning with effort and pleasure. His hand found my hair and caressed it, then pulled it pleasurably by the roots, pulling my head up and arching my back.

  “Do you like that?” he asked, stroking the bud between my legs even faster now. I whimpered a yes, then another as my pleasure grew to its peak. I pushed myself back against him, moving almost involuntarily as I came all over his shaft. He pumped into me through it, gently petting between my legs as not to overwhelm my body, and when I collapsed on the bed he came inside of me and I felt the heat of his seed warm my insides.

  He laid me down softly and flipped me over onto my back, then stared down at my flushed body with a smile on his face. He stroked my skin with his hands, my breasts, my mound, and my thighs.

  “You’re a good girl,” he said softly.

  My eyelashes fluttered as I watched him back. He was so handsome, glistening with sweat, his smile so charming I couldn’t help but to return it. He laid down next to me and propped himself up on his elbow, let me catch my breath as he traced down my abdomen with one fingertip. I watched his face adoringly, taking in every feature.

  “You’re so pretty,” I said, and he laughed, then leaned down to kiss me.

  “I was thinking the same about you.”

  “I think I’m gonna fall asleep now,” I said, yawning. He leaned down to kiss me again and then helped me under the covers.

  “Good night, sunshine,” he said softly, kissing my forehead.

  “Good night,” I said, and was out like a light.

  Chapter 4: Jett

  I found myself falling for her quickly. We spent each night together, locked in passion, unable to stay away from each other even if we wanted to. Neither of us wanted to, either. On the rare night I would go back to my hotel room with Alan, she would knock on the door just an hour or so later and kiss me when I opened it, press her body against mine so t
hat I knew what she wanted before she even spoke. She never told me again that we were no-strings-attached, though sometimes when we were talking I sensed her hesitation to open up to me too much. She still hadn’t told me her real name and said little about her life without prompting. But I did prompt her each time we were together, relished in the little tidbits she afforded me. She told me nothing of her profession but did tell me about what her life was like growing up, what she liked to do when she wasn’t working, who she spent her time with. She even told me about her ex-husband and how neglectful he was, how he had betrayed her, though of course she didn’t go into detail.

  At night when I did stay I would hold her. Her scent was so enticing, her laugh addictive. I found that the more time passed, the more I wanted to make her smile. The only thing that kept me from confessing how I felt about her was the fact that I knew she would withdraw if I did so. She didn’t trust men and rightfully so, not after what her husband had done to her. The thought of it made me angry, though the anger didn’t last long once I saw her. I felt nothing but peace, happiness, and desire when she was near.