Read an Excerpt
Chapter One"I'm here to see Rick," she told the bouncer. "He's expecting me."
A long line of hopefuls stretched out behind her, and she heard a grumble or two when she'd waltzed to the front. She could have told them you practically had to have an engraved invitation to get in. She did, in fact, but she tried not to dwell on it.
"Name?" he asked, indolently leaning against the door, arms crossed over his chest. He was tall and more beefy than muscular. A blond, blue-eyed California boy by the looks of him. Not a bad specimen, but definitely not her type.
"Nikki," she answered.
She hoped Rick filled in his door help, so she wouldn't have to use her last name or rank where so many people could overhear. The last thing she wanted or needed was for word to get out that she'd been to a sex club.
He opened the door and spoke to someone on the inside before nodding her through. Two bouncers at one door? The owner took his security seriously. The second bouncer was a carbon copy of the first, and she blinked with surprise as she realized Rick had instructed her to dress just as his employees did; in boots, jeans, and a plain black t-shirt.
She didn't get much of a chance to look around as she followed him up a narrow set of stairs near the front door and into a glass enclosed room that overlooked the club's ground floor. Her general impression of the downstairs was a large smoky room.
Three men sat facing away from her, and she hung back as the bouncer leaned down and spoke quietly to one of them.
When the man stood, she stepped around the bouncer. He was tall and lanky with short-cropped graying hair and reserved eyes.Approaching him, she held out her hand and said, "You must be Rick."
"Yes," he answered, pausing a moment before briefly clasping her fingers. "Nikki. This is a very unusual request."
"I understand," she answered. "But the guy I'm looking for is one of my best people, and I don't want to charge him with AWOL." She shrugged. "Some of his platoon buddies told me I'd find him here."
Rick nodded, the remote expression not leaving his face. She got the impression she had been judged before she even arrived, and found lacking.
She arched an eyebrow. "I don't want to be here anymore than you want me here. With any luck I can find him quickly and get out of your hair."
Curiosity overcame her better judgment, and she approached the glass wall, looking down into the club while Rick considered her words.
"Don't want to partake of our hospitality, Nikki?" The amused drawl came from one of the other men seated behind her. She stiffened in recognition. Damn. Slowly, she turned her head to look over her shoulder.
"Mack. Why am I not surprised to find you here?"
"Fate at work?" he asked in a sexy voice that skittered up her spine.
She laughed. "Oh no. This is so not my scene. You know that."
He did know that, because they'd discussed it the first time he asked her out. She was in charge of a special military investigative task force, and he was in a similar position on another team. For the last six months they'd shared office space. The proximity was making her a little crazy, and her poor vibrator had been through the ringer. He infuriated her, he made her laugh, and he sure as hell turned her on, but she wasn't about to risk her career to test an attraction for something a little risqué. In her book, dominance and submission games definitely fell into that category. If anyone ever heard about it, she'd never be taken seriously again. Uh huh, no thanks.
She had someone to find and then needed to get the hell away from the temptation that was Mack Chastain. She turned back to the glass. Maybe luck was with her tonight after all.
"There he is," she said, stepping toward the stairs.
Mack scowled at her. "You don't need to go down there. Stay here. I'll get him."
He was back in minutes, towing Whitman behind him. Whitman stood sheepishly before her, a studded collar around his neck, but otherwise unremarkably dressed. A quick once-over showed her he wasn't wearing his cell phone. She arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms.
"We've been trying to get in touch with you for two days, Whitman."
"I'm sorry, First Sergeant," he said contritely. "I don't have my cell phone with me."
She snorted. "You know better. Leave's been revoked. We have a mission next week, and everyone is to report in Monday at 0600." She paused and gave him her most severe look. "Can you manage that, or do I need to send you in now? Because it'd be a real shame to be charged with going AWOL on Monday morning, don't you think?"
He straightened to attention. "Of course, First Sergeant. I'll be there."
She nodded. "You better be, Whitman. Dismissed."
When he cleared the stairs she turned and smiled at Rick. "See? That was quick and painless. I'll just be getting out of your hair now."
She made it to her car before she realized Mack was behind her. He plucked the keys out of her hand and had her in the passenger seat before she could blink. Bemused, she watched him slide behind the wheel and turn the switch. He casually rested his hands on it and stared out the window.
"Did you want something?" she asked.
He gave her a piercing look she felt clear to her soul. "Other than you, you mean?"
She sucked in a breath. She knew he just said things like that to egg her on, but it hurt--this offer of the impossible.
She shook her head. "Why do we keep having this conversation?"
He shrugged and smiled slightly. "Because you keep pushing me away?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Then you turn around and flirt with me," he added, raising his eyebrows.
Outrageous! "I do not! I talk to you. Friends talk. We are friends, aren't we, Mack?"
He was silent a long moment, and she reached for his hand. Couldn't she at least have that much?
"Mack?"
"I don't think I can be just friends with you anymore, Nikki."
Close to tears at that bald statement, she nodded toward the door of the club.
"Well, we're at an impasse then, because I can't do that." She choked over the words, but forced them out. "And we're both adults. We both know how important a satisfying sex life is in a relationship."
"How do you know you can't? You've never tried it."
Oh, she was tempted.
"You're tempted," he said with a sexy grin, as if he knew her thoughts.
She laughed. "For the sex, sure. But I have no interest in being dominated, in having no control."
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
"That's not what it's about, Nikki," he said. "It's about you trusting me enough to let go of control. We can stop anytime you want to. I'd never push you farther than you're willing to go."
She stared out at the night, thinking about it. If she closed her eyes she could see them together. She had the sneaking suspicion it would be ten times better than her fantasies. And she had plenty of them involving giving Mack total control. A shiver ran up her spine.
"Say yes," he whispered, bringing her knuckles to his mouth and nibbling lightly. Tendrils of heat curled through her, and she stopped fighting it. She'd decided when she walked into that club tonight and saw him there.
Without turning to look at him, she slowly nodded her head. "Okay."
loading...