Cherished (Masters and Mercenaries #7.5)(6)

Mitch held his hands up in obvious surrender. “All right. I’ll say no if she asks. Will, you’ve got a serious problem. You look insane right now.”

So he wasn’t good at hiding his feelings. He sucked at it. He took a deep breath, schooling his expression. “Sorry. I would rather you didn’t go out with Bridget.”

“Yes, I can plainly see that you would rather kill me than let that happen.” Mitch’s expression turned thoughtful. “You only want to hook up with her, right?”

“Hook up” was a stupid term. He liked the old ways. “I wouldn’t mind having a short-term affair. Nothing serious. Very casual.”

Mitch’s head nodded but in that way that let Will know he was indulging the crazy. “Yeah, I can see that.”

“You’re an *.” He had also pretty much become Will’s best friend. Over the weeks he’d been at Sanctum, he’d come to depend on Mitch, despite the fact that they had utterly different backgrounds. Mitch had proven to be the kind of man who didn’t care that a person hadn’t come from money. He respected the hell out of any man who could pull himself up. Will had been forced to pull his own ass up from the muck more than once, and he’d supported three sisters while he was doing it. Didn’t the universe owe him a little pleasure? Didn’t it owe him a couple of nights with the world’s hottest brat? “I’m going to make sure she has nowhere else to go.”

Mitch’s lips curled up. “Really? You’re going to talk to every Dom in the place and scare them off?”

He shrugged. “Scare them. Bribe them. Blackmail them. I don’t care as long as she comes to me at the end of it.”

“Well, you know I love a good takedown as much as the next guy. Try to make sure she doesn’t get hurt. How can I help?”

She wouldn’t get hurt. He knew the type. Bridget Slaten likely wasn’t capable of really being hurt by someone like him. She would never see him as a suitable mate, so all he could ever tempt her into was an affair. Maybe even a D/s affair. The thought of dominating her made his dick jump. “Let’s make a list of our own and start working our way through. By the time we’re done, she’ll know she has one option and one option only.”

She caught his eye as she stepped out of the locker room now dressed in her usual armor of jeans and a black T-shirt and a pair of comfortable sandals. He’d noted that she never wore heels unless she was in the club. Her raven black hair flowed in tresses around her shoulders and he wondered what kind of shampoo she used and how it would feel to have all that hair spread out on his chest as he held her close.

She turned slightly and their eyes met, hers widening in a startled-doe look before turning distinctly arrogant and bratty as she turned her nose up and walked away.

Yeah, she was aware of him. And soon she would realize there was no escape.





Chapter Two





Bridget took a deep breath as she contemplated the hallway in front of her. She would have to walk by his place, and it looked like he’d left his door open. On this floor there were only four units, but naturally he’d taken the one right across from hers. Normally she could sneak in or out without ever seeing him because he kept weird hours. He was a whiz-kid surgeon, so he got called in at all hours of the day or night. She often wondered if the harem got bored when he worked long hours.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t ask him. She had to find another way. She couldn’t ask a man who kept three women on his string to escort her to her sister’s wedding. Certainly not when they would be expected to sleep in the same room. His other girlfriends would likely object.

As if thinking about them conjured one of them up, a slender brunette stepped out of Will’s condo, turning and going up on her toes as Will appeared in the doorway. Great. She got to watch the “good-bye for now, lover” kiss.

The brunette leaned over and kissed Will’s cheek. “Give it another twenty minutes and it should be ready. I feel better knowing you have dinner. You don’t eat enough.”

Poor girl. She was obviously in love, and that was a bad place to be when a dude had two other chicks. She realized she probably looked stupid standing there and started to make her way down the hall. She would ignore all of it and get inside and start looking on Craigslist for a date/potential serial killer. She wondered if the serial killer would let her interview him before her attempted murder.

“Bridget,” Will called out.

Damn it. It would be rude not to say anything, but then she was kind of known for being rude. She managed to get to her door, but she hadn’t pulled out the key.

“Bridget.” He barked her name this time and she couldn’t help but respond. The minute he turned that rich, deep baritone on her she was putty.

She forced a smile on her face and turned to see the happy couple. Will had put an arm around the woman who looked to be maybe twenty years old. Will was in his mid-thirties. Pervert. “Hey, I didn’t see you there.”

“Sure, you didn’t. Lisa, this is my neighbor, Bridget,” he said.

Lovely Lisa’s perfect lips quirked up. “Yeah, I think I know who she is.” She stepped away from Will and her perfectly manicured hand came out. “My brother might have mentioned you on more than one occasion.”

What? “Your brother?”