Into the Fury (BOSS, Inc. #1)(62)

Meg clenched her hands together. “I appreciate your concern, but really, I don’t need—”

One step and he was there, gripping her shoulders, cutting off her words. “You don’t need what, Meg? I saw the way you were looking at me today. Every time you bought a gift for your son, you looked at me like you wanted to cry. I know you feel something for me. More than something. And I’ve made no secret of the way I feel about you.”

Her chin went up. “You want to have sex with me. You’re a man. I’m a La Belle model. Of course that’s what you want.”

“Bullshit. I want you, yes. So bad I ache with it. But it’s more than that, and I think it’s more for you, too. Just because you have a child doesn’t mean you can’t have a man in your life.”

“You aren’t just any man, Dirk. You’re wild and you’re fierce. For heaven’s sake, you’ve got tattoos! You carry a pistol and ride around on a Harley. You’re not the kind of man who can settle down and raise a child!”

His jaw hardened. “That coming from a woman who’s traveling around the country flashing her mostly naked body in front of a million sex-starved men.”

She jerked a hand back to slap him, but Dirk didn’t give her the chance, just caught her wrist and hauled her into his arms, and his mouth slanted down over hers. Heat tore through her, and a need so fierce it made her dizzy.

Her knees went weak and her pulse shot into the triple digits. Dirk just kept kissing her, first one way and then another, soft kisses, gentle and coaxing, then hot, hard, and demanding.

Meg moaned into his mouth and gripped his hard-muscled shoulders, her body on fire for him.

“You want me,” Dirk whispered softly. “Admit it.” He kissed her again before she could deny it. “Tell me you want me the way I want you.”

She looked up at him and her throat tightened. It could never work and both of them knew it. “I want you. You know I do.”

“Yes, I do. And for both our sakes, I’m not waiting any longer.” Forcing her back till she came up against the wall, he lifted her off her feet and wrapped her long legs around his waist, pushing her pencil skirt up around her middle. Dirk found her sex and stroked her through the tiny strip of satin between her legs. She was wet and ready, aching for him to take her.

“I’ve only just found you,” he said, pressing his mouth against the side of her neck. “I’m not letting you go.” She heard the buzz of his zipper. Then he was sliding inside, driving deep, giving her what she so desperately wanted.

She cried out as he took her, her body responding, climbing toward the peak, then bursting free. Her head dropped forward onto his shoulder as she rode out the wave, then came again.

She was crying when he set her on her feet, filled with emotions she didn’t understand and didn’t dare examine. Kissing the top of her head, Dirk left her to dispose of the condom she hadn’t known he’d used.

“Don’t cry,” he said, easing her back into his arms, kissing the tears from her cheeks. “It’s going to be all right. I promise.”

But there was no way he could keep his word. He was wild and free, exactly the way he should be. She looked down at the tattoo of a dragon curling around his shoulder, climbing the side of his neck.

It wouldn’t work. And yet when he carried her to bed and started kissing her again, she didn’t try to stop him.

Where Dirk Reynolds was concerned, she didn’t have the will to say no.



The afternoon was over and Val was back in her suite. Sitting on the sofa in front of her laptop, she went over some of the study questions for the veterinary tech online surgical prep course she was taking, but she couldn’t seem to concentrate.

Watching Ethan at work on his computer, she felt as if she needed to do something to help him, something besides sitting there being protected, being a liability instead of an asset.

She fidgeted on the sofa, her gaze returning to where he sat at the dining table, head bent over his computer. She was mad for him—she couldn’t deny it. The man was sex and virility personified. She kept thinking about last night, remembering what it was like to have him make love to her. She wanted more, wanted him to take her back to bed.

Which, by his occasional hot glances, she knew he would be more than willing to do if he weren’t trying to catch a killer.

With a sigh, she gave up and turned off her laptop, found herself watching him again. He was searching the Internet for information on Byron Mahler, digging around for something, anything that would help the police find him.

Just the way the muscles across his shoulders tightened beneath his T-shirt made her feel hot and needy. It was embarrassing.

He sat back in his chair and blew out a frustrated breath. At the sound of his cell phone chiming, he dug it out of his jeans and pressed it against his ear. Val could only hear half the conversation, but from what she picked up, she figured it was his friend, Detective Ford.

“So you found him,” Ethan said. Cell in hand, he stood and paced over to the window, looked down at the traffic moving along the street below. “Exactly. Now all we have to do is figure out where he’s gone. All right, yeah. Keep me posted.” He ended the call and started walking back across the room.

“Was it Ford?”

“Yeah. They located Byron Mahler’s place of employment. Store just north of Dallas, sells Amish furniture.”