MARCUS (Dragon Security Book 4)

by Glenna Sinclair

  “Go home, Sammie,” I called after her. “You need to get some sleep.”

  She just waved her arm, going off down the hall. I knew where she was going. Back to her desk and the corrupted files she knew I desperately needed salvaged. Files I needed desperately enough that I didn’t continue to insist she go home.

  I should have.

  I went home, fielding phone calls from my parents and Cole, reminding me that the family was getting together this weekend for a pre-wedding family night. Starting a week from today, family would be flying in from all over the country, eager to participate in the wedding festivities.

  When I walked through my own door, it was to the sight of Dante putting the finishing touches on a candlelit dinner. The smells of garlic and butter infused the house, a beautiful steak and mound of mash potatoes waiting on each plate.

  “You’re right on time,” Dante said, brining me a long stem rose.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Making you dinner. You need to eat, right?”

  “But I thought we agreed that this was just sex.”

  “You need to eat to have the energy for sex, don’t you?”

  I groaned, but I let him tug me toward the table. I kicked off my shoes as I sat, tucking my feet up under my thighs. Dante sat across from me, this big man folding himself into a tiny chair, daintily unfolding his napkin and setting it on his lap.

  “You made all this?”

  “I did.”

  “How did you know that this is one of my favorite meals of all time?”

  “Because you live in Texas.”

  I laughed. “Touché.”

  I dug into the meal, my thoughts scattered between Sam, the wedding, and Marcus. Sam was a strong person. I’d never seen weakness in her, so these dizzy spells were beginning to frighten me. One or two could be exhaustion, but there’d been more than that. And the pale skin, the dark circles under her eyes? Was I working her too hard?

  The wedding was…I hated myself for thinking this, but it brought back too many memories of my own wedding. It was one thing helping Dominic and Amy have a decent wedding, but it was another watching my little brother get married. It was just too close to home, too full of the same things Luke and I had done in preparation of our wedding. We’d done everything—the flowers and the caterers and the baker and the dress and the tux—including the family flying in and the rehearsal dinner. That was the last time I saw him. He looked me in the eye and told me he would see me in the morning. Those were not the words of a man who knew he was in over his head and needed to step back to avoid the clenches of commitment.

  Especially not from a man who’d been with me since high school.

  It was all just bringing up way too many memories.

  “A penny for your thoughts.”

  My head jerked up a little too fast. Sometimes Dante’s voice was a little too much like Luke’s. They had this same chocolate smooth baritone that vibrated deep in my bones. I remembered distinctly when Luke’s voice matured, when it was obvious that it was going to be that deep. It was shortly before we began dating my junior year of high school. He was studying Dante’s Inferno in his English class and he came to me for help. I would have been perfectly content to sit at my family’s kitchen table and listen to him read those lines over and over again for the rest of my life.

  “You don’t want to know what I’m thinking.”

  “It’s okay for you to talk about him in front of me, Megan.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s strange. Disloyal, somehow.”

  “He’s gone.”

  “Physically. But not necessarily emotionally.”

  Dante inclined his head. “He left you. He doesn’t deserve your loyalty.”

  There was heat behind his words. It made the wall around my heart melt a little. I really didn’t want to fall for this guy, but he was making it so hard for me to keep the emotional distance I’d been struggling with for so long.

  “I need you to go to New Mexico in the morning, see if you can locate Marcus and his target.”

  He inclined his head, disappointment barely hidden by the movement.

  “In the morning,” I repeated, getting up and climbing into his lap. “Tonight, I have a few other things I’d like you to attend to.”

  “Yeah?”

  I pressed my fingers into his hair, pushing it back from his face. He looked up at me, his eyes partially hooded with desire. I kissed him, wondering if all men knew that little twirl he did with his tongue that Luke once did, that little move that touched things that you wouldn’t think would be a major turn on, but were. And the taste of him, not the garlic and butter in our meal, but the taste beneath all that, the taste that was just him…that was so familiar, too.

  Maybe I was just looking for things that I wanted to find. Maybe I was still so deeply attached to Luke that I still found him, felt him, in everything else I did. Even this.

  He picked me up and carried me to the bedroom, his hands everywhere all at once. I couldn’t catch my breath, I wanted him so badly. My last thought as he laid me on the bed, as he untucked my blouse and ran his hand underneath was that I needed to move on with my life. I had this perfectly kind, perfectly gentle man here in my bed, yet I was still pining after the one who’d abandoned me. Maybe it was time to stop pining, to accept that my forever had already come and gone. But this temporary life…it had its perks.

  Chapter 13

  Marcus

  I woke to the sound of a snowmobile engine working hard somewhere outside. There was no telling how far away it was since sound tended to travel quite easily in this kind of snowy landscape. But it was a promising sound. We might be able to get someone to give us a ride into town so that we could check in with our people back in Houston.

  I shook Cadence’s shoulder.

  “Wake up, babe.”

  She peeked at me from under her lashes. “It’s too early.”

  “Not so early. And there’re snowmobiles. We might have a way out of here.”

  She rolled over, tugging a blanket up over her shoulder. “I’m not in a hurry to go.”

  I chuckled as I moved up close behind her. “Me, either. But there are people down in Houston who might come looking for us if we don’t check in soon.”

  She groaned. “Don’t speak logic to me right now.”

  I buried another chuckle in a kiss against her shoulder. “How about I make us some breakfast first?”

  “Slowly.”

  She nestled down against the pillows, her breathing deepening again before I even got myself off the bed. I dressed quickly, the cold boring deep into my bones before I was out of the cocoon of the blankets for more than a minute. I threw another log on the fire and then set about frying some eggs on the stove. I was in the middle of food prep when the lights suddenly flickered and came on.

  “Hey! We have electricity.”

  Cadence mumbled something, then rolled off and was still again.

  It was a good thing she was a nurse and not a teacher. She’d never make it to work on time.

  The cabin was nearly toasty by the time I was done. I carried a tray over to the bed, presenting Cadence breakfast in bed. She sat up, a wrinkle in the shape of the edge of her pillow across her face.

  “Any time.”

  We ate in silence, only the sound of the radiator popping to fill the silence. That and the tinkle of the cutlery on the plates. When she was full, Cadence got up and padded naked into the kitchen, taking her time rinsing her plate and cup before setting them in the depths of the sink.

  “For a woman who has very little experience with sexuality, you sure aren’t shy,” I said, following with my own plates.

  “What makes you think I don’t have much experience with my sexuality?”

  “The fact that a tattoo on your lower belly is the wildest thing you’ve ever done.”

  She tilted her head slightly. “Yes, but I’ve seen my share of naked bodies. And I don’t really have a problem with it
, or showing off my body.”

  “You’re proud of yourself.”

  “No. I just think that nudity is a natural thing, not a source of embarrassment.”

  “How many men have you seen naked?”

  She shrugged. “Countless. I’m a nurse, remember?”

  “How many men have you seen naked outside of your profession?”

  She shrugged. “How many women have you seen naked?”

  “Quite a few.” I watched the spark of jealousy flash in her eyes and bit back a smile. “How many men have seen you this way?”

  “Are you asking how many men I’ve taken into my bed?”

  She moved close to me, her naked body pressed against my chest. I suddenly found myself wishing I hadn’t been in such a hurry to get dressed. Who cared about warmth and health when there was the touch of a naked woman against bare skin?

  “I am,” I said softly, brushing hair from her face so I could see her expressive eyes. “How many men have you been with?”

  “Does making out in the band room count?”

  “Only actual nudity.”

  She shrugged a little. “There was the time I blew my English professor in the lecture hall.”

  My eyebrows rose. “You didn’t!”

  “No. But he asked.”

  “He better hope I never meet him.”

  She laughed. “Would you beat him up to save my honor?”

  “I would.”

  “Thank you.”

  I ran my hand slowly up the length of her bare back. “I lost my virginity when I was seventeen. In the backseat of my father’s car—as cliché as that sounds.”

  “Who was she?”

  “The head of the cheerleading squad. We were sort of a thing at the time, but we broke up like a week later.”

  “Why?”

  “The quarterback broke up with his girlfriend, and she decided he was a better catch in the long run.”

  “Smart girl.”

  I groaned, smacking her lightly on her bare ass. “Now your turn.”

  “Oh, is this a quid pro quo?”

  “Something like that.”

  “When did you meet the one who broke your heart?”

  I tilted my head back, a groan slipping from between my lips.

  “Come on,” she said, sliding her lips over my throat. “I want to know.”

  “Freshman year of college.”

  “Were there any girls in between the two?”

  “No. Kelly was my second. We were together three years.”

  “And then she cheated with Blake?”

  I ran my hand slowly over her ass, taking a handful and pulling her tight against me. She groaned softly, rubbing the corner of her hip against my quickly stiffening cock. But then she twisted away, climbing onto the edge of the counter to put some distance between us. The only problem was, even with her legs crossed, she made a perfect picture of an erotic fantasy perched there like that, her body exposed and ready for a little attention.

  “Who came after Kelly?”

  “Does it matter?” I went to her, bracing myself with my hands on either side of her petite body. “You’re making it fucking hard to concentrate.”

  “I want to know. Isn’t this what responsible lovers do? Don’t they exchange this sort of information before deciding if it’s safe to continue moving forward with the relationship?”

  “If it’s disease you’re worried about, the Marines declared me perfectly healthy and STD free just six months ago. And I haven’t been with anyone but you since.”

  “No one?”

  “Not a soul.”

  “Why not?”

  I groaned, burying my face against her shoulder for a long moment. “Are you jealous of my former lovers, or are you wondering if this is just a passing infatuation?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t quite decided yet.”

  I pulled back just enough so that we were face to face, our noses nearly touching.

  “I was heartbroken when I went into the Marines, Cadence. Broken and frustrated and disappointed in everything. I didn’t care what happened to me, didn’t care if I lived or died, if I hurt someone else as much as I was hurting. I did things I’m not incredibly proud of.”

  “You were with a lot of women,” she said, pain flashing in her eyes.

  “A lot. And I wasn’t always terribly kind to them.”

  She nodded, a tear slipping from each eye, falling heavy down her cheeks and dripping from her chin. She leaned in and kissed me, her teeth gathering my bottom lip between them, nibbling ever so lightly.

  “One,” she whispered against my mouth. “I’ve only been this way with one man. And it was a long time ago.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t tell me that. I don’t want to know how innocent you are.”

  “Not so innocent that I don’t understand you. That I don’t know what this is.”

  “Cadence…”

  She reached between our bodies and tugged at my jeans, deftly releasing the fly that kept my hard cock locked away. She reached inside and wrapped her small hand around my shaft, stroking me so painfully kind for a moment. And then she drew me to her, sliding her hips close to the edge of the counter as she wrapped her legs around my waist.

  “No, Cadence,” I whispered, aware of the trust that she was showing me, the insane gesture she was making. Offering me her body and her soul all in one movement—her heart. I should have pulled away, should have made her stop. But then I was inside of her and she was kissing me, tears slowly rolling down her face, flavoring our kisses.

  I didn’t know this woman, didn’t deserve to know her. And I’d hurt her. Yet, she was doing this for me, healing my heart from things she didn’t know and would likely never understand. I held her ass, pulled her so close to me, returning her kiss until I felt like I was suffocating in the sea of her touch, her essence. And then the screams came and she clung to me, refusing to let me go.

  No one had ever done that for me before. Everyone I loved let go much too easily. But she held on. It was new and beautiful and undefinable.

  Chapter 14

  Cadence

  The snowmobile motors seemed far away by the time we were dressed and ready to face the thick snow. We stepped out onto the front deck and the snow was no longer up over the steps, but it was still several feet deep. And neither of us had boots.

  “I want to check the SUV and see if there’s any possibility of getting it out of the driveway. I can’t imagine the roads are nearly this bad by now.”

  “I don’t know. They might not send plows up this high.”

  “Well, I’d like to give it a try, anyway.”

  I nodded, watching him carefully navigate the steps. I was behind him, but far enough back that he wouldn’t knock me over if he slipped. I was already wishing I could go back inside. The cold was seeping through the heavy jacket I’d bought before coming up here, chilling me clear to my bones.

  “Careful. The bottom step is pretty slick.”

  Just as he said it, my foot went out from under me. I fell on my ass, hitting my hip hard on the top step. At the same time, a chunk of wood shattered from the side of the house right where my head had been, showering me with splinters. A split second later, a huge discharge came from the direction of the woods directly across from the cabin.

  Marcus reacted so quickly that he was at my side as the splinters were still falling. He grabbed my arm and pulled me forward, forcing me down as he led the way around the corner to the carport. Another shot ricocheted through the woods, the sound like canons going off in the middle of the 1812 Overture.

  “What the hell?”

  Marcus shook his head, his eyes surveying the line of trees that were closest to the cabin.

  “We have to get out of here.”

  “And go where?”

  He turned and pushed me further under the carport. “Go in through the back door and get my gun. I’m going to see if I can get the SUV started.”

  I nodded.
r />   “Be careful. Stay away from windows. Keep your head down.”

  I nodded again. He kissed me, a quick peck, then turned and ran around the front of the Escape, using it as cover as he made his way to his SUV. I did as he said and ran around the back of the cabin and slipped in through the back door. The kitchen windows were directly across from the door. One window pane, and then another, exploded within seconds of my stepping into the cabin. I ducked, hiding behind the tall counter as I did a sort of duck walk to the chair where Marcus left his holster. I dragged it down just as the cabin was suddenly hit with dozens of bullets, glass breaking and dishes falling, light fixtures exploding and stuffing from furniture flying into the air. I did the only thing I could think of to do: I fell flat onto the floor and lay as still as I could.

  The barrage continued for a long time. It seemed like hours, but it must have been just minutes. Marcus was suddenly there, glass still shattering around him, his hands dragging me to the bathtub at the back of the room. We fell in together, our limbs tangled as they had been just a little while ago. The barrage picked up steam, almost as if the shooter had seen him come into the cabin and was pissed that he’d made it unharmed.

  When it finally stopped, Marcus’ hands were all over my face, my shoulders, my arms.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I think so.”

  He stared at me for a second longer, then he crawled out of the tub.

  “Keep your head down.”

  He led the way and we slipped out the open back door without encountering any more bullets. And then we ran, slipping and sliding through snow that was up to our hips in some places. There were no more bullets, but my skin crawled, expecting one to hit at any moment.

  We got lucky and happened on a couple of kids riding snowmobiles at the bottom of a valley, racing each other over the low hills.

  “I’ll give you fifty bucks if you’ll take us into town,” Marcus said, holding up a wad of money he’d taken from his wallet.

  The boys jumped at the chance, snatching the money and gesturing for us to climb onto the back of their vehicles. I didn’t want to be separated from Marcus, but I didn’t see how I had much choice. I found myself holding on to some stranger with all the strength I could muster, nearly falling off the thing several times as we hit swells that were just high enough to send the machine flying into the air.