Adored (Masters and Mercenaries #8.5)(9)

She turned and her face was in a fierce frown. Her golden brown hair was slightly disheveled. Sex hair. It looked like she had sex hair instead of almost-got-murdered hair. “I am not going to help you do something like that. Do you know how hard I’ve worked to make this a nice place? Do you even care?” Tears shone in her eyes and she shook her head. “You don’t. You couldn’t care less that the office is beautiful now. Nothing I do matters. You know what? You can keep Sanctum. I’ll find my own place and Will is going to have to be all right with it. Hell, maybe I’ll talk to Master T and he’ll train me privately.”

She pivoted on her heels and started back up the stairs.

His gut rolled with anger. He was doing everything in order to keep her safe and she was treating him like this? “Laurel! Stop right where you are.”

She kept moving. “I don’t have to. You’re not my Dom. You’re not my boyfriend.”

“I’m your boss.”

“Not anymore. I quit. I’m not staying in a place where I work my ass off but my boss doesn’t care. You don’t want me but you won’t let anyone else have me.”

They were going to do this here? He started up after her, his blood pressure ticking up every second she didn’t turn around and fight with him. He stepped up the pace because they weren’t done. He knew even as he thought it that it was perverse. He knew he couldn’t have her, knew he should be happy that she was leaving and taking temptation out of his path. But all he could think about was the fact that if she quit, he wouldn’t have her in his life. He wouldn’t be able to watch over her. Not again. She was trouble. A lot of trouble. She didn’t search it out, but it seemed to follow her around.

He pounded up the stairs, disregarding all the alarms that were going off in his head. It was a mistake to follow her. His palm was itching, his cock threatening to take over. She was pushing all his buttons and she had been all damn day. He hadn’t missed the way she’d called him sir. She knew exactly what she was doing.

And the entire idea of her being at Sanctum both disturbed and titillated him. What if they could compartmentalize their relationship? What if they could make it work? If he put her under a contract, he could control how much influence she had on his life.

“Laurel!”

She stomped her way back to the office she’d spent six months turning into something warm and inviting. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the work she’d put into it. It was just that now all he would be able to see was her on that floor. He’d only be able to see how many different ways someone could get to her.

She held a hand up. That wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t only had a single finger sticking up. Yes. She was giving him the finger.

He had a couple of things to give to her. His blood started to thrum through his system and his good sense was beginning to seem like a far-off thing. Up ahead he could see the way her hips swayed and how perfectly she walked in those four-inch heels. It made him wonder what else she could do.

She’d almost died. Some asswipe had leveled a gun at her and pulled the trigger and only her quick movements had saved her life. She could be dead. She could be gone, her unique kindness and beauty stopped by a single bullet.

He should have been questioning himself, but it no longer mattered. She’d pushed him past thought and into action. He hadn’t had the chance to save her before. She’d been on her own in a place that should have been safe for her. But he could take action now.

She turned at the door and there was a sudden flare of fear in her eyes that sent a thrill through his system. She was finally aware of him. She wasn’t looking at him like some sad sack she could push around, but like the predator he’d always hidden from her.

He had to give her one more way out. His cock was threatening to pound out of his slacks, but he still had enough willpower and common sense to give her a shot at coming out of this whole. “If you very politely apologize, I’ll walk you to you car and you can leave, Laurel. We can talk about this in the morning like sane adults.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Don’t push me again, Laurel. I’ve had enough. You push me one more time and you’re going to see a side of me you don’t want to see.” For the second time that day, adrenaline pounded through his system.

Come on, baby. Push me again. Let me take over.

His dick was so close to getting what it wanted. All these months and it had been ruthlessly controlled, tamped down and put on a leash. Hell, since he’d met Laurel he hadn’t taken a lover, not even for a night. He didn’t want anyone else. He wanted her and if she pushed him one more time, he could chuck his morality for the night and have her. He’d given her every out. She was a smart girl and he’d given her control. All she had to do was make the sensible choice for both of them.

“Fuck you, Mitch.”

Decision made. He fell on her like a hungry lion.





Laurel’s whole body came alive when Mitch’s muscular body pressed her against the door. She could feel the wood at her back, but there was more at her front. He was hard, his cock already thick, and he didn’t hold it back. It was pressed against her belly, insistently telling her that no matter what happened, nothing was going to be the same after tonight.

“I f*cking warned you. I won’t stop this time. I won’t play the gentleman again,” he whispered before his mouth descended on hers.