Chapter 8

Chapter

Eight

N oah kept his eyes on Zara for most of the conference call. She’d been snarly to start with, genuinely happy to see Finn, then quiet. With most women, he might chalk up the last part to having reality sink in and fear along with it, but not Zara. She knew, or at least thought she knew, something they didn’t and had no intention of telling them. He’d let her keep her own counsel for a bit to see if she would come clean.

He hadn’t been joking when he’d said he would never hear the end of it from his team. He’d always been pretty vocal about the kind of woman he wanted—one he could go home to, take to bed, spend the evening seeing how many orgasms he could wring out of her, then kick back and have her fix him a nice meal before taking her back to bed. Well, he’d gotten the sex part right, but that was about it. He doubted Zara even knew how to cook. Zara had no intention of surrendering without a fight, but he was certain, in the end, she would. Mac was right; she was a hellion and wouldn’t easily give her heart, but Noah was determined she would be his, and he’d make her damn happy she was.

They logged off the video conference.

“That went well,” he said.

“For you. I was humiliated when you made it very clear to your boss and your buddies that you were fucking me.”

“Settle down, Zara. It wasn’t like that. My choice would never be to deliberately humiliate you.”

“What do you call making me sit in your lap?”

“A little lesson in obedience for you and yes… a declaration of sorts to them. Sweetheart, they have nothing but admiration for you. They know what a bastard I am. You need to learn to behave. I might correct you to a certain extent in front of them, but not anybody outside the family. Don’t let that give you any ideas. If I don’t discipline you in front of someone for something you did, you can be damn sure the second I get you alone, you’ll pay for it.”

“But they know…”

“Of course, they do. The same way you know about Croft and Finn. I’ll tell you a secret… Mac and Willa and John and Mandy have the same kind of relationships. And if Thom ever gets his shit together, you’ll be able to commiserate with Avery as well. All and all, you’ll never find a group of guys who have greater respect for or enjoy spending their time in the company of women.”

“You made that abundantly clear,” she said in a scathing tone.

“If Mac’s and my talking shit to each other hurt your feelings, I apologize, but, sweetheart, I don’t work with stupid people. They’d have figured it out. Better to just get it all out on the table. I find having clear and open lines of communication works best for everyone. Withholding tidbits of information in a relationship?—”

“Is that what you think we have? A relationship? Don’t flatter yourself.”

“You really are trying to push my buttons, aren’t you? If you’ve missed being spanked since Damian died?—”

“Don’t you dare mention his name to me,” she said angrily.

“Zara, I didn’t say it to upset you. What I was trying to say, in as non-threatening way as I could, was if you’re really stressed and need to be spanked, you can just tell me. You don’t need to act out.”

“You like direct communication? Good. Then hear me when I say… we have no relationship. You are my captor, and I am your hostage or prisoner. That’s all.”

“No, it isn’t. Communication is a two-way street. I’m not the bad guy here. I’m the guy who saved your life?—”

“That doesn’t give you the right to try to take it over. It sure as hell doesn’t give you the right to spank or fuck me whenever you want, and I won’t even talk about how over the line the whole figging thing was.”

He smiled. “Funny, you know what it’s called.”

“I do a lot of research in my work. I know lots of things.”

“I believe you. Fact is, I believe you know more about this whole situation than you’re letting on, but we’ll circle back to that in a minute. I know this thing between us happened fast, and neither one of us expected it?—”

“Only one of us thinks it’s more than adrenaline-fueled lust between two people who haven’t been getting laid frequently enough of late.”

“You can be a nasty, viper-tongued bitch when you try.”

“As you said, I’m a writer… I like words.”

He chuckled. “Touché, sweetheart.” Noah got up and caught her by the wrist before she could pull away. “It’s more than that… a whole helluva lot more than that, and you know it,” he said in a soothing, seductive voice. “I know you’re scared and not just of Fariq and Springer and whatever they’ve got going down, but I’ll keep you safe from them.”

“But who will keep me safe from you?” she whispered. The look on her face told him she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“You don’t need to be kept safe from me… and you don’t want to be.”

She nodded. “Yes, I do. I swore I’d never get involved with someone like you again.”

“Sexy, tough, ruggedly handsome, and hung?” he teased.

“All of those and chauvinistic, dominant, and arrogant. Someone who truly believes men are far superior to women, and we need to be kept safe and cherished. I won’t have it. I won’t live that way again. I’m damn good at what I do.”

Noah sat back but didn’t relinquish his hold on her.

“I’ll give you dominant, but I’m neither chauvinistic nor arrogant. Fact is, in most ways, I think women are far superior to men. In general, you’re every bit as tough, if not tougher, far more intelligent, and you’re one hell of a lot sexier. Am I opinionated? Yes. I think there’s a natural order to things, and the best relationships I know are the ones where the men are dominant, but that doesn’t mean their women are submissive to everybody and his brother. I don’t want a submissive woman. You were right. I’d be bored in a month.”

“I never said anything like that to you,” she accused softly.

He grinned. “Yes, you did.

“No, I didn’t. I only just met you, and I haven’t forgotten anything either of us has said.”

“It was in a dream,” Noah admitted.

“You dreamed about me?”

“On more than one occasion. You are the kind of woman who can kickstart a lot of male fantasies. You were a pain in the ass in the latest, a helluva good fuck, but in my face from the get-go.” He reached up and stroked her face with his finger. “You should know even in my dreams, you didn’t want to yield… but you did.”

She rolled her eyes.

“In the last one, you called me a coward and nailed me on the type of woman I thought I wanted, but even then, my soul knew you were the one. We can take it slow on the relationship part. You need to fight me before you capitulate? I can deal with that for a while. But know that, at some point, I’ll make you tell me everything I want to hear.”

“So, you’re saying you aren’t going to touch me again?”

He laughed. “Oh, hell no. I have no intention of not availing myself of your sexy body whenever I want.” He drew her closer and ran his hand down her back, slipping inside the sweatpants and tracing his finger along the crack of her ass. “And I’ll take any hole I want and spank this sweet of ass of yours when you need it, but if you want to tell yourself for a while longer, we aren’t in a committed relationship, I can let you have that little victory… for now. But never, ever doubt for a minute, you will surrender everything to me in the end.”

Noah pulled her into his arms. She was already so much a part of him. Her body pressed close to his, especially when he had his cock buried in her, was the most perfect thing he would ever experience, and they both damn well knew it. He was just willing to admit it. She’d need to get over that, and if she couldn’t do it on her own, he’d help her—one way or another.

He stood and took her face in his hands before kissing her deeply, letting his mastery over her senses remind her she was his, and she could entrust herself to his keeping. Her resistance was brief and futile. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she melted into him, sighing and giving herself over to the kiss.

Noah raised his head and was surprised to see tears welling in her eyes. He kissed both of them, and she closed her lids as if afraid to let him see into her soul.

“It’ll be all right, Zara. It’s a really nice day. Why don’t we take advantage and go for a walk? The beach is private, and maybe the salt air and stretching your legs will help.”

“What’s it going to help? The situation with Fariq? Discovering Springer’s real end game?”

“Could be. Sometimes, a walk can give your brain the space it needs to process, but I was talking about helping you settle into the idea of us.”

“There is no us.”

“There is, but you just don’t want to admit it… yet, but you will.”

Noah took her by the hand and led her out to the beach. Several times, she tried to pull away, but once he showed her he had no intention of letting go of her hand, she relaxed and ended up actually holding onto his. They walked quietly and companionably along the beach, listening to the waves crash and gulls cry overhead.

“You don’t think Springer wants to take over Fariq’s operation?”

“No, I think he wants that. I just don’t think that’s his end game. I think it’s a step toward his real goal. I suspect he wants the money to fund other things.”

“You could be right. We’ve been able to piece together that the Springer brothers seemed to have had their own right-wing, fascist agenda. Do you think he needs Fariq’s operation to fund that?”

“If Springer wants to conduct terrorist operations on a global level, he’ll need access to that kind of money. The fact the money will come from ammunition and arms he needs just makes it a better option for him.”

“That makes sense, but is Springer intelligent enough to pull that off?”

“Doubtful,” she said. “But he’s smart enough to be right-hand to someone who is.”

“Someone other than Fariq…”

“Absolutely.”

Noah nodded, and they returned to silence. Making their way back to the cottage, they stopped by the outbuilding that housed the escape vehicle.

“Listen, Zara, can you ride a bike?”

“You mean a bicycle or a motorcycle? Actually, it doesn’t matter. I can ride both.”

“Good. I think we’re safe here, probably for the duration, but I don’t like staying in one place for too long. If something happens, and we get compromised, I need to know if I tell you to hightail it away from me, you will.”

“Leave you to die? I’d prefer to watch…”

“As I said, viper-tongued…”

“I wouldn’t leave you, Noah. It’s not in my nature. As you like to point out, you saved my life, for which I am grateful. There’s no way I wouldn’t do the same for you… for anyone.”

“I don’t want you to do it for anyone. I don’t even want you to do it for me. What I want is for you to follow my orders. If I tell you to run, you get to this motorcycle and head straight over the hill. You’ll find a burial mound. Take the bike past the barriers, and you’ll find a locked entrance. The storage compartment on the motorcycle has the key. Take the bike inside and wait. If I’m not there within the hour, go to the other side of the mound and let yourself out. You’ll find a really old crofter’s hutch. There’s a Range Rover in there with the keys under the driver’s side mat. Get in and use the comm system to call for help and backup. Then you drive to the airport at Cardiff. By the time you get there, a ticket will be waiting. Get on the plane, and someone from Wild Mustang Security will pick you up.”

“I may hate you…”

“You don’t,” he teased.

“I do,” she assured, “but I wouldn’t leave anyone to die for me.”

“Not to be overly dramatic, but that’s what I signed up for—and not just as a member of the Wild Mustang team. I’d do that for any client, but I’d damn sure do it for my woman. And make no mistake, you are mine.”

“I’m going to assume you don’t want me to lie to you. If you don’t want me to get killed, then you’d damn well better stay close enough to make sure it doesn’t happen. There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell I would leave you behind to die for me. I might end up killing you myself, but that’s a reward I reserve for me and me alone.”

“Then, if I tell you to bolt, and you don’t? You’d better hope we go out in a blaze of glory because if we don’t, I’ll take my belt to your backside amid the carnage and leave welts that will last a week.”

She shivered, and he smiled. Zara might say she didn’t want to be his—hell, she probably even believed it—but all he had to do was talk about it, and she responded.

Z ara watched him. Somewhere on their beach walk, she had lost her wariness with him. She needed to guard against that. Noah Taylor was not the type of man she wanted in her life, nor was he one to trifle with. Yes, she had loved Damian, and yes, he had been dominant with her, but in a far less invasive manner than Noah. Mostly, Damian had been dominant in the bedroom and where her safety was concerned. Noah meant to be dominant in all aspects of her life. He would make her submit whether she wanted to or not. Submission just wasn’t something she had within herself to give. She’d never given it to Damian… thus the reason they’d fought the way they had. Zara had never stopped vying for control.

Although she hated to admit it, Noah was far more dominant than Damian had ever been. She wondered at the difference. She remembered reading once, not all dominant men are alphas, but that all alpha males were dominant. Perhaps that was the difference. Perhaps, while dominant, Damian had never been an alpha personality. The fact was, she had always been able to hold a part of herself aloof from Damian. Zara couldn’t seem to do that with Noah. He had a way of latching onto her being at its most fundamental core, making her feel what he wanted and yield to his demands.

Zara smiled to herself. Her orgasmic response to each man was different and was handled differently. Damian would keep her right on the edge of a climax. He would get her there and then not let her have it. When she pushed through and achieved it anyway, he would often punish her for her willfulness. Noah seemed to enjoy feeling her come, seemed to revel in the way her pussy would quiver along his length. He was intent on seeing how many orgasms he could exact from her, even when she believed herself to be spent. She had experienced more climaxes at his hands, mouth, and cock than she’d ever believed possible. It was interesting how each man sought to hold the upper hand.

If the opportunity ever presented itself, Zara intended to show Noah he wasn’t the only one who would control their sexual encounters. She could easily imagine enticing him to get comfortable on his back while she sucked his dick. The fact was, she liked performing oral sex on men. They were so enamored of a woman who was willing to do it, most would give up any and all control. Damian had always enjoyed when she sucked him until he was hard before lowering herself onto his staff and riding him until they both came. Noah would be no different. Maybe that was the way—lure him into thinking she believed they were in a relationship and get him well enough laid, he would sleep soundly while she slipped away.

She needed to get to Morocco and hook up with her contacts who might be able to give her a lead on exactly what was at stake for Gerold Springer and whoever he represented. She also wanted to talk to those still loyal to Fariq to get their thoughts. In a perfect world, she’d talk to Fariq himself, but she knew either Noah would catch up to her before then, or his buddies would catch her, and she’d be locked down in Mesa until Noah arrived.

Zara didn’t even want to think about his reaction. She had no doubt his threat to welt her ass wasn’t idle. His hand had been bad enough, leaving her poor ass swollen and painful. She’d often wondered how something that hurt that much could evoke such a pronounced state of arousal.

While Zara didn’t relive every strike of his hand, she could certainly recall in vivid detail each caress, stroke of his cock, pleasured groan, and especially the feeling of his cock pumping his seed into her, bathing the walls of her ravaged pussy and filling her with its warmth. It had felt better than anything in her life, and she was going to miss feeling him mount and possess her. When he had softened and withdrew, her entire body had been bereft at the loss.

“What are you thinking?” he said, breaking her reverie.

“I was thinking about how much I’d like to suck your cock.”

He laughed. “You were, were you?”

“Yes,” she said, rubbing against him, cupping his jeans-covered package. “Right before I mount you and ride you until I’ve made you fill me with your cum.”

“That’s a nice little fantasy, but it won’t happen. I give you any control in our bed, and you’ll give yourself all kinds of silly notions about us being equals. We aren’t. If and when you suck my cock, it’ll be because I want you to, and you won’t suck me off, sweetheart. I’ll fuck your mouth. When I’m done with you, I’ll be the one doing the mounting, and I’ll make you scream my name before I pin you down and fill you with my seed.”

Every nerve ending in her body came alive. Damn the man. He had a way of speaking to the very core of who she was. When he touched her, not only did the place he was touching respond to him, but her entire being lit up like Christmas. There was something about him that made her rational mind go into neutral and her raging libido go into overdrive.

“Well, so much for my wanting to give you a blowjob,” she said with more than a little spite as she tried to turn away.

Noah held fast. Zara had expected him to be annoyed with her or even demand she drop to her knees and service him, but he just laughed.

“Don’t look so disappointed, Zara. I’m sure we’ll get around to that. The fact is, before we’re done, I will have fucked all of your holes.”

She snorted. “You really are the most annoying man I’ve ever had the misfortune to have anything to do with. Let go of me.”

“Kiss me.”

“No.”

He shook his head. “If I’m the most annoying man in your life, you are the single most obstinate, aggravating person I’ve ever met, but you’re intelligent and tactile as all get-out. At some point, you’ll decide it’s just easier to admit the inevitable and yield to me.”

“Don’t hold your breath.” She tried to pull away again. “Let go!”

“Kiss me,” he said, calmly but with a steely determination underlining every word.

He showed no signs of relinquishing her arm, and Zara knew she couldn’t overpower him. She took the half step she needed and brushed his lips with a drive-by kiss.

“Good girl,” he said, seemingly satisfied with her half-assed effort. He scanned her face before saying, “It wasn’t about the kiss, sweetheart. It was about doing what I told you to do.”

It was all she could do not to screech at him, but he turned her loose, and she went back into the house, looking to put some kind of distance between them. She tried to sit down on the bed, but the pain was intense, and she sprang to her feet. Taking two of the fluffy pillows, she placed them on the bed and sat back down with her back to the door, a death grip on her thighs to keep from bursting into tears. The man was quite possibly the most maddening human being she’d ever come across. The fact she was rapidly losing her will to resist him was terrifying. She’d far rather face a horde of assassins than lose her heart to Noah Taylor.