Staking His Claim (Line of Duty #5)(23)

“You need to get off, Lucy? It wouldn’t take much, maybe a couple strokes of my thumb and you’d get relief. I’d get to complete my shift with your pleasure on my fingers.”

Lucy reached up and removed his hand from her mouth. “Please,” she whispered. “Matt, I need it.”

“Do you know how many times I came thinking about you last night?” He took a quick, angry bite of her shoulder. “Thinking about your hot, wet *?”

His words, the sting radiating from her shoulder, sent her closer to the precipice. All the while, the pressure grew and became more insistent, though he hadn’t even moved his fingers. “I-I’m sorry. Please, Matt. It hurts.”

“I thought you like the way I hurt you.” His thumb jiggled her clit until her teeth bit so hard into her lip, she was sure she drew blood. Abruptly, he stopped. “Or was that a lie, too?”

Lucy’s world tilted momentarily as his words registered. Her inner studio audience gasped in unison, one member of the front row fainting in shock. Is that why he’d come here? He was punishing her for lying? Even with a monsoon of hormones raging through her, the idea of him using her attraction against her was infuriating. Every moment they’d spent being physical had been honest. This moment was honest. She hadn’t held a single part of herself back. Matt questioning her truthfulness when it came to the pleasure they’d experienced together…it felt like a betrayal. It made it, and her, feel cheap.

Lucy didn’t know where she found the will to push his hand away and slide off his lap, but somehow she managed it. Matt tried to keep her against him, but released her when she started to struggle in earnest.

“Did you enjoy that?” she whispered furiously. “Torturing me?”

His expression was a mixture of confusion and stark arousal. “Lucy—”

“That was low, Matt.” Her voice shook. “Getting back at me…like that.”

If she hadn’t been watching him closely, she would have missed the tinge of guilt that crossed his features. She’d been right. He had been punishing her. With no intention of giving her pleasure. He’d come here for some sick form of revenge.

“I’m not that hard up.” She stood, backing away as Matt rose to his feet as well. “Don’t come near me again.”

Deciding to ditch the blanket instead of going anywhere near him, Lucy spun around and made for the street. She wasn’t surprised to feel Matt’s hand curl around her elbow before she reached the sidewalk. With a curse, he pulled her back against his chest. “You have the wrong idea. I didn’t mean to—”

“If you’re going to punish me, Matt…we both have to be on board for it. And I’m not. Not like that. I don’t like feeling manipulated.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, opened his mouth to speak.

His two-way radio on his shoulder crackled to life. A nasally female voice released a series of codes that sounded foreign to her. One thing was obvious from his expression, though. He was needed somewhere else. Matt looked like he wanted to rip the thing off his body and hurl it into the nearest garbage can.

“We’re going to talk about this,” he said gruffly.

“What’s the point?” Lucy pulled her purse higher on her shoulder and turned away. Her pride had been battered. Her body ached for something only Matt could give her. She needed to get away from him and think.

As she turned the corner toward Hayden’s big, empty town house, there was an undeniable part of her begging him to follow, but she quashed it, increasing her pace instead.





Chapter Eight


Matt stood among the flashing blue and red lights on West Forty-Second Street as the final civilian was loaded into a waiting ambulance. A downtown city bus had overturned when the driver tried to take a left turn at too high a speed, crashing through a department store window. As a sniper, there hadn’t been much for him to do in this situation besides assist rescue workers in carefully extricating the injured from the wrecked bus and blocking off the immediate area surrounding the accident. His particular skills were needed in vastly different situations, such as hostage standoffs or high-speed chases when a vehicle needed to be disabled from a distance. He spent the rest of his time on patrol, utilizing his other ESU training, as with tonight’s situation.

Now that he had nothing left to distract him, his mind went immediately back to Lucy. With the thought of her came a wave of self-disgust so powerful, he wanted to break something with his bare hands. He’d severely f*cked up tonight. Going to Bryant Park to check up on her, his intention had been to keep a safe distance, just to make sure no one bothered her. At least, that’s what he’d told himself. If he was honest for two seconds, he would admit he’d been starving for the very sight of her. Then she’d been so close, lying in the grass, nighttime falling around her. She’d looked so damn beautiful in her dress, a content smile on her lips, he’d had no choice but to get closer. As if he’d been magnetized.

She hadn’t been smiling for long, though. In typical Matt fashion, he’d found a way to ruin her night and break the trust she’d given him so freely. What he’d done to her in the park had been a form of torture, especially for a responsive, uninhibited girl like Lucy.

One look at her had rattled the chains he’d wrapped around his needs, tempting his inner demons to the surface. Demons that belonged in the past, but refused to stay there. He hadn’t been able to get a handle on them or consider the consequences before he’d twisted her dishonesty into permission to punish her. By withholding her pleasure, he’d made her feel ashamed, or worse, ridiculed. Completely inexcusable. Lucy had nothing to do with his past or what it had done to him.