From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(72)

She smoothed her hand across his head and kissed his forehead because it was her right now. She cuddled against him. “I didn’t mean it. And yes, I was worried you would punish me.”

“No punishments,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t want that, baby. I want to play but I don’t want to be responsible for you. Not in that way. Shit. I’m f*cking this up.”

He wasn’t. He was saying all the right things. She kissed him again. He was responsible for so many things, so many people. He needed a safe place. She could be his safe place. “I want that, too, Kai. I’ve been in a relationship where I bowed to the Master. I can’t do it again. I want to play with you but I also want to be your partner. I want you to value me and what I have to say. I want to be able to say it whether you want to hear it or not.”

He brought her free hand to his lips. “I don’t think you could be any other way, baby. As for what you said to Lena, I knew exactly what you were doing.”

“How?”

“Because I know you,” he replied. “Now cuddle with me until my next appointment. Talk to me. I want to know about the scripts you wrote.”

“You heard too much.”

He looked up at her. “If you don’t want to talk, we don’t have to.”

Didn’t he deserve to know who she’d been? And what was so wrong with who she’d been? “All right, but it’s not all pretty.”

Kai settled against her again and she began to talk.





CHAPTER NINE





Kai closed the door to his office as Case and Ethan Rush took their seats. It had been days since his last meeting with Ian and he hadn’t been looking forward to this instructional session. Not at all. He’d been kind of praying it wouldn’t have to happen.

“I assume since you’re here that you’ve been unable to tag Mia’s phone.”

Now it was Tuesday, the night he was supposed to run his “op.” There was only one reason he would still have a damn “op” in the first place.

Case had the grace to flush. “I’m sorry. I’ve tried with her. I’ve been as charming as I know how to be. We’ve had dinner twice. She never leaves her purse alone. I offered to try breaking in when I’m sure she’s gone to bed, but Adam said her security system is so high tech it isn’t even on the market yet. I guess that’s what happens when your brother is some kind of technological genius.”

Drew Lawless wasn’t merely a genius. He was a billionaire. When he’d taken his software company public a few years before, he’d become the youngest billionaire in the country. He was also known for being reclusive and mysterious. Her family had an interesting history. Their inventor father had killed himself, their mother, and according to all police reports, he’d meant the children to die in a fire he’d set. Drew had led the four siblings out of the home. He hadn’t been able to keep them together afterward. The siblings had been split up and sent into foster care. Mia, the youngest, had been adopted, but her three older brothers had lived in the system.

It looked like her older brother still cared about her. “If he’s protecting her, what makes you think you’ll be able to tag her phone without him knowing?”

“What we’re planning on uploading to her phone looks like a harmless app. Actually, it doesn’t show up on her screen in any way. He would have to physically find the program and even if he did, he couldn’t be sure it was us. This kind of malware is all over the place,” Case replied. “If he’s Collective, I’m sure he’s ready for us and the next time she does a check on her phone, she’ll find it. Even if it doesn’t work, it’s another piece to the puzzle. We’ll know more than we did before. I think we’ll have some time before she finds it. I think her brother is the one who would run that check. She fumbled with her security system the one time I managed to get into her place. I don’t think she’s particularly tech savvy.”

“Why couldn’t you do it then?”

Case groaned. “Do you think I didn’t try? She immediately put her purse in the bedroom and let me tell you, I didn’t come close to getting back there. I haven’t managed to kiss her yet. I think she’s playing me.”

Interesting. Kai would bet that frustration came from more than a job Case hadn’t been able to do. “I noted she spent all her time at Sanctum with her training Dom.”

Though he’d also noticed she stared at Case when she thought no one was looking, and the one scene Case had run with another sub had sent Mia straight to the locker room. So why would she hold Case off?

“She won’t scene with me. She claims she owes some kind of loyalty to her training Dom and that when she graduates she’ll think about it, but she’s playing me.”

“Does she question you about McKay-Taggart?”

“Not really,” Case replied. “We’ve mostly talked about baseball. She loves baseball. We’ve talked about movies and stuff. She never mentions her brothers, but she talks about her adoptive parents a lot. Her moms. She put that out there like I was supposed to freak out or something. I don’t get her. She’s not my type at all.”

And yet he was struggling with his attraction to her. That was easy to see. Kai wasn’t about to explain that often times opposites attracted because they gave each other something important that was missing. Like Kori brought him a peace he couldn’t find in a fake waterfall. And he could bring her a partner who didn’t scare away easily.