by Katie Reus
“Hmm,” she murmured, snuggling tighter against him. “Go to sleep.”
Wyatt could have pushed her, but there was no point. He sure as hell didn’t want to argue, he just wanted to hold the woman he loved and get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. And love her, he did. More than anything. More than all his fucking money; a knowledge that scared the shit out of him.
He’d grown up dirt poor with a father who’d blown almost every dime on alcohol. Money had been Wyatt’s way of gaining security. Now he had enough to last too many lifetimes to count. Some days he’d worried that it would never be enough.
Until Iris had strolled back into his life. Technically they’d never truly lost contact. She’d stayed in the Corps longer than him and he’d been busy trying to get rich. But after she’d gotten out, they’d been in constant contact for the last two years. While he’d always been attracted to her—since they were teenagers—becoming successful had still been his number one priority. Ending up like his father hadn’t been an option.
But he’d known he loved her a year ago when he couldn’t get in touch with her for two weeks. His entire world had shifted and he’d known without a doubt that he’d give up everything for her. Turned out she’d just been on a job and unable to communicate. But it had been a wakeup call for him. Ever since then he’d been slowly maneuvering his way into getting her to Vegas. He’d known once he got her on his turf it would only be a matter of time before he had her under him. That had happened a hell of a lot sooner than he’d planned, but once it had, he’d needed to lock her down with a ring on the most primal level. He’d needed everyone to know she was taken. By him.
Now she’d agreed to a tentative marriage and he had no fucking clue how to win her back. This was definitely unchartered territory. Iris wasn’t like other women. She was tough, sexy but didn’t flaunt it, and she sure as hell didn’t give a shit about his money. If anything it seemed to bother her. And now she was busy working as a bodyguard for him. Deep down, he didn’t know if he could handle it. The threat against him was damn real. He knew that. But he was a lot more worried about her than himself and if someone made a move against him, he knew he couldn’t let her protect him. He’d die for her before he let that happen.
Chapter 7
Wyatt stood up from his desk as the door to his office opened. No one should be in his suite except one person; Iris. As she stepped inside wearing a simple black bikini that barely covered her body, his entire body heated with the kind of need only she’d ever evoked inside him. Somehow he forced his vocal cords to work. “Did you enjoy the pool?”
“Yes, thank you.” Her dark eyes widened as her gaze landed on his growing erection.
He might be dressed but his pants did nothing to hide his reaction. Yeah, that was a permanent thing with her around. He didn’t bother trying to fight it anymore when it was just the two of them.
Before he could respond, she continued as she closed the distance between them in a few strides. “Though it was unnecessary to have the place cleared out. I was just doing laps.”
They’d been drowning themselves in sex for the past couple days and this morning he’d realized that she’d needed some alone time. So he’d had one of the hotel pools cleared so she could exercise in peace. And it had given him some down time to work and wrap his head around the fact that he and Iris were actually married. It should terrify him, but he was so damn happy he barely recognized the feeling. Wyatt raked his gaze over Iris as she stepped closer to him, a towel wrapped snugly around her trim waist. “I didn’t want anyone seeing what’s mine.”
At that, Iris rolled her eyes, but a soft smile played across her face. She was normally so reserved that he loved seeing her relaxed. Even without makeup, the woman was stunning. Reaching out, he cupped the back of her head and pressed his lips against hers. Though anxiousness to be inside her hummed through him, he forced himself to go slow. The past few days they’d been fucking like machines and this time he wanted to savor her.
She laughed lightly, the intoxicating sound rolling over him as she pulled away. “I don’t want to get you wet and it looks like you’re working.”
“I don’t care. Trust me,” he growled. And he didn’t. He’d been on the phone for the past few hours putting out fires at one of his hotels and dealing with shipping regulation bullshit at one of his warehouses. He might be successful, but sometimes it felt as if he never got a chance to breathe. Spending this time with Iris was like being given a shot of fresh oxygen. If only she’d open up to him more. She might have married him—and he still couldn’t believe she’d said yes—but she hadn’t given all of herself to him. He refused to let her hold back. Not when he wanted to claim all of her, to know she loved him the way he did her.
Iris let out an exaggerated sigh that didn’t match the mischievous grin on her face. She loosened her towel so that it pooled at her feet, then she stepped into his embrace again. At the sight of her in a tiny bikini a shudder rolled through him. He’d bought the damn thing for her but now he hated to think that anyone else in his hotel had seen her dressed like this. With her, he felt possessive on a level he’d never imagined possible.
He ordered himself to go slow, but as she grappled with his belt, he lost the battle for self control. He clasped his hands around her waist and tugged her flush against his body. She might be keeping part of herself hidden from him, but she couldn’t deny her attraction to him. Hell, neither of them could.
Sliding his hands up her waist and around her back, he tugged on the strings to her bikini top. As the flimsy material fell away from her body and slid to the floor, her nipples hardened into tight peaks. His cock ached painfully as he drank in the sight of her bare breasts. Not wanting her to undress him completely—just yet—he stilled her hands.
Iris looked up at him, her dark eyes curious until he grasped her bikini bottom and let it join her top on the floor. Without taking his gaze off her, he moved his laptop to the edge of his large desk and blindly shoved the few papers that remained to the side.
“Sit on my desk,” he ordered softly.
She hesitated for a moment and not for the first time was he struck with how vulnerable she seemed sometimes. She was always so damn strong, like she had a steel cage built around her, but when she let her guard down with him it warmed him from the inside out. Because he knew she didn’t do that for anyone else but him.
When she did as he said, sitting on the edge, her hands clasping it so hard her knuckles had turned pale, he inwardly smiled. The past couple days she’d given up complete control to him, letting him tie her up and he knew he was driving her wild with the way he took charge. She didn’t vocalize her feelings well, but the way her body reacted spoke volumes.
“Lay back and spread your legs.”
She glanced over her shoulder, as if she was afraid someone might walk in. “Wyatt…” She wrapped her arms around her full breasts. Breasts he’d sucked, licked, and teased until she was begging for more.
“No one would dare disturb us here.” While he had a home on the outskirts of the city, he used this penthouse suite as his personal living quarters and his office was off-limits to everyone. He grasped her wrists and tugged them to her sides, not wanting her to cover herself. The desire to see her body, what he was claiming as his own, was a primal need inside him. He covered her mouth with his, crushing and taking everything she’d give him.
If she wouldn’t open up to him, he’d get her so hooked on him that she wouldn’t want to leave. The woman was already like a drug. Addictive and intoxicating.
As he probed her mouth with his tongue, he slid his hand down her abdomen until he cupped her mound, feeling the slickness of her desire. Her hips rolled against him, urging him on in a silent demand.
She might be okay with giving up control to him in the bedroom but she sure as hell demanded what she wanted, sometimes with words and sometimes with just her body. He loved that she wasn’t afraid to let him know what pleased her.
Sliding his finger along her slit, he slowly pushed it inside her snug body to test her slickness. She moaned and tightened around him. He couldn’t bite back his own groan at discovering how wet she already was. Withdrawing his finger, he kept his mouth on hers and their bodies connected and leaned her back until she was flat on his desk. Clutching his shoulders, she started to wrap her legs around him, but he grasped her ankles and placed them on the edge of the desk.
Only then did he pull away to look at her stretched out—all for him. Her body was long, lean and perfectly bronzed. With Irish and Native American heritage, she had a lightly bronzed glow all year round. Her dark brown nipples tightened even harder under his gaze and with each second that passed, her breathing grew as erratic as his. His cock pressed hard against his pants, demanding he take her, but Wyatt needed to taste her. The subtle sent of her desire twined around him.
Even though he told himself to tease her, to work her up to it more, he couldn’t. Pulling her all the way to the edge of the desk so her thighs widened, he bent and covered her clit with his mouth. Sucking hard on the swollen nub, he grinned when her thighs tightened around his head. She gasped his name in a way that drove him insane. The desperate note in her voice matched his feelings for her.
More than anything he loved hearing his name on her lips. Stroking and teasing, he increased his pressure on her clit as he slid a finger inside her tight body. As he added another, her hips jerked against his face, her rhythm frantic.
One of her hands slid into his hair. She grabbed his head rougher than he’d expected, ratcheting up his own hunger. “Quit teasing.” Her words came out as a desperate plea.
Flicking his tongue harder over her sensitive bundle of nerves, his entire body tightened when he felt her inner walls clench around his fingers. She was so close he could feel it with each stroke of his fingers. But he wanted to be inside her when she came. Wanted to feel her milking his cock as he found his own release. Though he hated to pull away from her and her sweet taste, he lifted his head.
Breathing hard, she propped up on her elbows and stared at him. She opened her mouth, surprise clear on her face that he’d stopped. But she paused when he quickly tore off his shirt. He snagged and ripped a few buttons off, but he didn’t care. Then he grasped the belt she’d started to undo earlier. Before shoving his pants down he grabbed a condom from his back pocket. With Iris in his life, he’d decided to be prepared at all times until her birth control kicked in.
As he started to open it, she took it from him. Smiling wickedly, Iris set it on the desk beside her. She grasped the edges of his boxer briefs and too fucking slowly pushed them down his legs until he kicked them away.
With her dark gaze still on him, she took her time opening the packet then stroked his cock with one hand—slowly, torturously. She caressed him once, twice, three times…he lost count of her long, even strokes. He gritted his teeth, about to beg her to stop when she decided to have mercy on him. With slightly shaking hands she rolled the condom over his hard length. He jerked under her touch, unable to control himself.
What she did next surprised him. He was ready to take her on the desk but she pointed behind him in the direction of his chair.
“Sit,” she said softly.
With his cock jutting out, painfully hard, he did as she said. The leather was cool against his ass but she quickly slid off the desk and his entire body almost went up in flames.
Straddling him, she didn’t pause or tease before impaling herself on him in one long stroke. Her slick, tight sheath molded perfectly around him.
“Fuck,” he growled, pumping into her once before he grasped her hips hard and held her still. He just wanted to savor the feel of her pulsing around his cock.
Her dark eyes were heavy lidded as she watched him, hunger clear in her expression. Reaching up, he cupped one of her breasts and rubbed his thumb over her brown nipple. It was already hard, but it beaded tighter as he flicked it. And each time he tweaked it, her pussy clamped tighter around him.
“Take me in your mouth,” Iris whispered, need clear in her voice.
Normally he liked to dominate, but he loved it when she got a little demanding. Wyatt didn’t have to be told twice. Covering the short distance to her other breast, he sucked her nipple between his teeth, tugging gently.
As he did, she began to ride him in a steady rhythm. Swiping his tongue around her areola, he savored the way she shuddered and moaned above him. Though he wanted to draw this out longer, he desperately wanted to feel her coming around him. With his free hand, he found her clit and began rubbing it. She nearly vaulted off his lap at the contact. Yeah, he knew exactly how to push her over the edge.
She let out a strangled shout and threw her head back as her orgasm punched through her. As she let go, he finally allowed himself to. He’d been holding back ever since she’d began stroking him with her hand. His climax was harsh and unsteady as he pounded into her. Even when his orgasm had ebbed, his hips still blindly jerked against hers until he got control of his body.
Iris wrapped her arms tighter around him, burying her head against his neck and shoulder as she pressed her breasts against his chest. “You’re so perfect,” she murmured, the words sounding almost like an accusation.
He returned her embrace, holding her tight. Finding any coherent thought right now was impossible. The only thing he knew was that there was no way he was letting this woman walk out of his life…
Wyatt’s eyes snapped open as Iris’s phone alarm went off. His arms were wrapped tightly around her, but they weren’t in Vegas anymore. They were in Miami and he was still fighting to hold onto her. At least metaphorically.
As she groaned and slid out of bed, he grudgingly let her go. Hell, he needed to get up in the next fifteen minutes anyway. “I want you on my personal detail today, not patrolling the grounds.” His voice was raspy with sleep. He shifted against the sheet and cursed the feel of it dragging over his erection. With the dream he’d just had and the feel of holding her all night he wasn’t surprised to wake up in this state.
She turned and thanks to the morning sun streaming in from the open bathroom door he got a clear view of her expression. Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Good morning to you too, Mr. Bossy. I will be on your detail, but not because you’re ordering me to do so.”
“You like it when I order you around,” he murmured as he shoved the covers off and stretched out. He wanted to ask her to join him in a shower before she had to go to work, but knew neither of them would make it out in time. She had to meet with her team and he had an early morning conference call.
Her gaze briefly strayed down his body, desire evident in her eyes, but she shook herself as if she needed to clear her head. “Only in the bedroom…don’t you forget it.” At that, she turned and practically sprinted from the room.
Wyatt scrubbed a hand over his face and sat up. After a night of simply holding her—and dreaming about how good things could be between them—now he was faced with a day of meetings with Iris by his side in professional mode. Just fucking great.
* * * * *
Iris glanced at Vincent who was sitting in the driver’s seat of their SUV. Wyatt was in the back seat sitting between Kell and Jay. Sitting behind them in the long palm-tree-lined driveway was another SUV with four Red Stone personnel. Unfortunately, Wyatt was only permitted to bring two people of his choosing into the actual meeting. Since Keibler—her number one suspect—was going to be in attendance, Iris was edgy.
Henry Forest, the eccentric millionaire who was hosting this get-together, was paranoid about his privacy and didn’t want too many people in his home. Of course he didn’t need to have the meeting here, but a year ago he’d been attacked in public at a well-known Miami restaurant and hadn’t left his home since. So if anyone wanted to do business with Forest, they had to come to him.
“I don’t like this,” Vincent murmured to her, though the others in the vehicle could clearly hear.
“Me neither, but…”
Iris trailed off and watched as an unfamiliar SUV pulled up beside them. They didn’t exactly have a choice. Wyatt needed to attend this meeting. He’d explained to her that Forest was selling a company that Wyatt was determined to purchase. Not because of the company, but because he wanted one of the employees and couldn’t get him any other way. Some young genius.
From a tactical point of view, the secured meeting spot made their job less complicated because any attackers would be easier to filter out, but Iris didn’t like bringing Wyatt anywhere public at this point. And she didn’t like leaving her team outside. Well, technically she could leave two of her men in the foyer at the front of the house, but for the actual meeting itself, just she and Jay would be inside.
They were ten minutes early and she wanted to wait until her main suspect arrived before she let Wyatt out of the vehicle. She kept an eye on the extended cab SUV next to them. The driver’s door opened and a man with a simple black suit and tie exited. He opened the back door and two men and a woman slid out. She recognized the two men from one of the files she’d recently obtained on Wyatt’s competitors. Zac Thorton of Thorton Enterprises, and his new business partner, Mark Keibler. Thorton was tall with blond hair and a blinding white smile she got to witness when he said something to the petite woman on Keibler’s arm.
Keibler had a similar all-American look about him. She guessed he was six feet tall, his dark hair was cut close to his head, he had an easy smile for the woman next to him and the security people he was talking to. He glanced at the darkly tinted SUV Iris was in, but didn’t seem to realize it was occupied. He wiped off an imaginary piece of lint from his double-breasted suit jacket and Iris was under the impression he just wanted to look at his reflection.
“Who’s the woman?” Iris asked as she scanned the female with clearly Asian ancestry next. The woman wasn’t in the file she’d read and Iris knew a lot of security people from the other companies around Miami. It was a niche industry. Naturally she didn’t know everyone, but the two men in suits that had rounded the vehicle to join the trio were employees from a company she’d worked with before.
