Love and Let Die (Masters and Mercenaries #5)(72)

“You were on an op.”

He sighed, looking past tired. “You were more important than any op. I would have turned over the op to someone else. You were my wife. I made vows to you that I never made to another woman. I won’t ever make to another woman. I would have walked away from the Agency and taken care of your problems and then I would have brought you back to the States and bought a f*cking house with soapstone and shit and I would have gotten you pregnant and we would have a couple of kids by now, and then I wouldn’t feel this hole inside me every single f*cking day of my life. I would be some dumbass dad who takes his kid to soccer practice and bitches about the coach. I would be a husband who just likes to spend time with his wife at boring barbecues and family dinners.”

The life they could have had. It played in the corners of her mind always, a dream she couldn’t quite catch. “I don’t know that we could ever have had that life, Ian. I think I made a mistake by coming back to you. I love you. I wish I’d made better choices, but in the end they’ll always come after me.”

“Can we not make decisions tonight?” Weariness had invaded his voice. “Can we just get through this crisis before we have to deal with the next one?”

Because the next crisis would come. “Yes. I’ll be good. You can untie me.”

He snorted a little and moved away from the wall, pulling his shirt over his head. “I think I’ll keep you the way you are. That way I can sleep without having to keep one eye open.”

“Ian, I promise.”

“And I promise to gag you if you don’t stop talking.”

“God, you’re such a bastard.” He made her crazy. He said the sweetest things and then left her trussed up like a piece of meat on a hook. And who the hell had hooks built into his headboard?

He got down to his boxers and then the bed moved as he tossed his body on it. “Are you cold?”

“Ian, I’m tied up. I’m not worried about the cold.”

His big hand came down on her belly, flattening over it possessively. “I’ve never had a woman in this bed.”

“Yet you have hooks in the headboard.”

He laid his head on her breasts, cuddling down like they were pillows. “I’m an optimist.”

He was a bastard, and she still loved him. And she definitely wasn’t cold.

With his arms around her, his body warming hers, she found it oddly easy to fall asleep.





Chapter Eleven

“What the f*ck are you doing with my hard drives?”

Why hadn’t he thought to have his bedroom soundproofed? Ian came awake to the shrill sounds of his sister-in-law f*cking up his very carefully laid out plans. He’d planned on waking up and easing into Charlie’s * before she’d really opened her eyes. He’d planned on starting the morning better than the way they had ended the evening.

“Keep your f*cking voice down.” Simon’s low command came through loud and clear.

“Do they have to argue in front of our room?” Charlie groaned a little and turned toward him. He’d freed her after she’d fallen asleep. He’d never really meant to leave her tied up all night. It would have done terrible things to her joints and made her awfully crabby. Sleepy eyes opened, and she laid her head on his chest.

It was simple to curl his arm around her, drawing her close. He hated the fact that her referring to the room as theirs sounded so f*cking right. But he wasn’t going to fight it anymore. Fighting it had only made him miserable.

So he was having an affair. With his wife. He wasn’t going to look past that and keeping her alive for today.

“I swear to god if you don’t give me back my hard drives, I’m going to take your balls off.”

“I would love to see you try, little girl.”

Charlie whined a little. “Make them go away, Master.”

If only he could. He gave her a squeeze and rolled off the bed, not bothering with clothes. If they wanted to throw down outside his bedroom, they could deal with the fact that he had morning wood.

He threw the door open and Simon was standing over Chelsea, his face red. Ian could practically see the steam coming out of his ears. “You two both shut the f*ck up. Where’s Damon?”

Simon stood down. “He and Baz left early this morning. They’re meeting us at the office in a few hours.”

At least they hadn’t been listening to Chelsea scream about her hard drives. “Then why the f*ck are you two standing outside my door, wrecking my morning? I had a late f*cking night what with all the killing and burying bodies and listening to Alex hand his balls over to Eve.”

Chelsea turned, her face a stubborn mask. “I want to see my sister.”

Ian wanted a lot of things that he wasn’t going to get. “I want to f*ck your sister but I can’t because the two of you won’t keep it down long enough for me to take care of business.”

There was a chuckle from behind him and then Charlie’s arm wound around his waist. Her body hugged his from behind. “You have no discretion at all.”

Sleep seemed to have done his sub a world of good. Or maybe it was the fact that he’d stopped the macho revenge bullshit. He’d halfway expected to wake up and find her missing, but instead, she’d been wrapped around him, a little smile on her face. “Discretion is useless in this case. Now, in your sister’s case, it could very likely get you killed if she keeps running around screaming about her hard drives.”