The Dom Who Loved Me (Masters and Mercenaries #1)(16)

“I don’t think you’re looking at the same thing I am,” Sean said. “Now, relax. Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Yes,” she answered honestly. She liked being close to him far too much, but it felt so good to forget about all the reasons she shouldn’t be here and just dance.

“I’m glad. I don’t think you have enough fun, Grace.” His hand moved to cradle her head. He pressed her gently to his chest.

The music swelled around them, and Grace simply forgot about all the people watching them and let herself feel. She wanted. She’d wanted for so long.

The music changed suddenly to a faster pace. Grace reluctantly brought her head up. That hadn’t lasted nearly as long as she’d hoped. She gave Sean a smile.

He shook his head and held her hand. He winked as he twirled her around and brought her back into his arms. “I can do this all night long, Grace. Dance with me.”

Grace felt a smile spread across her face as Sean picked up the pace. The man could dance. Grace relaxed and followed his lead.





“What do you mean you didn’t go through her briefcase?” Sean asked. The words came out more harshly than he’d intended, but it had been a rough night.

He’d spent at least a full hour dancing with Grace, her lovely, curvy body pressed against his. He’d been in agony. His cock had been harder than iron, and he’d had to keep himself carefully angled away from her body. He wasn’t sure what Grace would have done had he followed through on his instinct which screamed at him to rub his cock all over her and make sure she was absolutely certain of his interest.

Adam took a long pull off his beer. The minute Grace and the others had disappeared, Adam had ordered a beer as fast as he could get the words out of his mouth. “Kayla showed up. What did you expect me to do? Tell her I’m sorry, you can’t sit with us because I have to rifle through your friend’s briefcase? God, this beer tastes so f*cking good. You suck, Jake. I will get you back for that.”

Jake laughed, his head falling back. “The look on your face was so funny.”

Sean slapped at the table to get their attention. “Both of your faces are going to look funny if I don’t get a decent explanation as to why this little mission of ours turned into a complete waste of time.”

It hadn’t been, but he wasn’t willing to admit that. He’d enjoyed Grace’s company far more than he should. She was sweet and funny and so smart. After they’d finished dancing, they’d sat with Adam and Jake and the others from the office who came in and crowded around Grace. Kayla had been there, but so had a bunch of men. Several of them had been watching Grace. She hadn’t noticed at all, but Sean had made damn sure to stare them all down.

But he hadn’t achieved what he’d come in here to do—give Adam and Jake time to go through Grace’s briefcase and potentially download the contents of her hard drive. He’d known the second would be tough. Adam was supposed to take it with him into the bathroom, and if Grace said anything, he could claim to have just been watching out for it. But Adam hadn’t gotten that far. They had sat in the bar for two hours, surrounded by co-workers. By the time Grace had declared it was time to go home, they had blown their opportunity. Sean knew exactly who to blame.

“Maybe you were just too busy hitting on the target to do your actual job.” Sean was just about ready to throw down with Adam. Adam had done his damndest to steal Grace’s attention away.

Adam slammed his beer down. “You practically f*cked her on the dance floor. What was up with that?”

“Not even close. I kept my hands to myself.” And that had been incredibly hard. All he’d wanted was to sink his fingers into her soft hair and tilt her head up for a kiss. After she’d relaxed and snuggled against him, Sean had remembered all the wonderful things about taking a submissive. Grace was wound too tight. She didn’t give herself permission to enjoy anything. He could change that for her. She needed someone, someone with her best interests at heart. Getting to know her had proven to Sean that she was a natural submissive. She wasn’t a pushover. She just placed almost everyone else’s needs before her own. She required a strong partner who could watch out for her and make sure she got what she needed.

He couldn’t be that man.

“That’s not what it looked like from where I was sitting,” Adam shot back.

Jake rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you two just beat the shit out of each and get it over with? Sean, the minute Kayla showed up, I asked her to dance. You didn’t notice that, did you? We were right beside you and Grace, but you didn’t notice, so don’t tell me we’re the only ones who f*cked this up.”

“Eric Klein from HR walked up to the table just as I was getting ready to take the briefcase with me. He asked me a question, and by the time I was finished answering him, Kayla and Jake were back.” Adam frowned as he loosened his tie. “After that, we were surrounded. You knew this wasn’t a sure thing.”

But he’d hoped. He’d hoped this would be easy and then he could step back from Grace since he seemed to be getting in over his head. But busting Jake’s balls wouldn’t help anything. Taking off Adam’s might make him feel better, though.

Jake scooted out of the booth, his beer finished. “You know what you have to do, Sean. It won’t be the first time you’ve taken one for the team. I don’t understand why you’re so reluctant. Seriously, if you don’t want to sleep with Grace, we don’t mind.”