Mine to Keep

Noah looked shell-shocked. “Tucker? He was setting us up, too?”

Trace nodded. Rage had twisted inside of Trace. He knew just how Noah felt.

Skye’s fingers curled around his shoulder. Some of the fury eased.

“Anna Jean wasn’t working alone then. I don’t buy for an instant that she’s working alone now.” This was the part that sealed the deal for Trace. “I saw the bodies at the morgue. Sharpe, Parker, and Sara. There were no hesitation wounds on Parker, but the killer paused when he was carving up Sharpe’s throat and when he was slicing open Sara.”

Noah cocked is head. “He paused?”

“The wounds were deep. Hard. Strong. Anna Jean is many things, but I don’t think she could’ve inflicted those wounds. The angles would’ve been wrong. The depth of entry—none of it matches up to her.” Anna Jean had been all of five foot three and one hundred and twenty pounds.

“Then Tucker’s here, too,” Drake said. He looked and sounded hollowed out. “We thought that we left them to die, but they’ve come back to kill us.”

“Revenge?” Skye asked. “If that’s what this is about, then why attack all the others? Why go after Sara?”

Trace told her the dark truth. He said, “Because lives don’t matter to Anna Jean. They never did.” She’d been willing to use anyone or anything in order to get what she wanted.

“They’re pawns in a chess game,” Drake explained. “She’s the queen on the board.”

Trace’s hands slapped down on the surface of his desk. He fucking knew how to play chess. “We need to find her damn king.”

And destroy him.

***

It was storming outside. Skye stared out at the pounding rain. Lightning lit up the sky.

Thunder roared.

“She wasn’t at the Pier,” Trace said as he came up behind her. The others had left. Noah had stormed away, no doubt headed out to search on his own. Drake had followed Noah out, but his steps had been much slower.

Was he in love with Anna Jean? There was just something about the way Drake looked each time her name was mentioned. Pain filled his eyes. Skye suspected that there was a whole lot more to Drake’s connection to Anna Jean had he wanted to confess.

Trace’s hands closed over her shoulders. “My men are talking with the vendors there. Someone had to see her. They’ll find her.”

Skye saw another flash of lightning. She waited for the thunder to rumble. “Have you told me everything?”

His fingers began to rub her shoulders. “Everything that you need to know.”

That wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear.

“Don’t tense up on me like that,” Trace said. “Baby, you don’t want to know about every battle. About every life that was lost or about how I felt when I had to pull the trigger each time.”

“I do,” Skye told him. Didn’t he understand yet? “Good and bad. Everything in between.”

He bent his head. Because the office was lit and it was so dark outside, she could easily see their reflections in the glass. He surrounded her, so big and strong.

His lips brushed over her nape. “I don’t like for that world to touch you. The more you learn about me, the more you realize you’re too good for me. That I shouldn’t even be touching you.”

He was wrong. “I like it when you touch me.”

His right hand slid down and curled around her stomach, pulling her back against him. She could feel his aroused length pressing against her.

“This nightmare is going to be over soon,” he promised her as he pressed another kiss to her throat. “Now we know we’re looking for Anna Jean. She’s not getting away. And we’ll find her partner.”

“Tucker?”

He seemed to hesitate.

And she caught that telling sign. “You don’t think Tucker is alive, do you?”

His head lifted, but his arm tightened around her. “I’m not like Drake.”

Skye waited, her heart racing.

“I didn’t hesitate at the last instant. I know my shot hit his heart.” Trace shook his head. “He didn’t get out of that frozen hell, but she did. She took the dog tags, and now she’s got some other dumb SOB doing her dirty work.”

She gazed down into the darkness of the city. “So her partner could be anyone.” Any man that Skye passed on the street. Anyone she saw. Anywhere. Any time.

“I’m running down leads right now. The guy made a mistake when he hacked into my phone system. I’ve got my techs on it, retracing his steps.”

“You said that it’s been years since that attack in Siberia. Why are they after you now? Why wait so long?”

“Some people can wait forever for the right vengeance.”

“And this Anna Jean…she and her partner want to hurt you.”

By hurting me.

He pressed another kiss to her nape.

A shiver slid over her. “I would do anything to keep you safe. You know that, don’t you?”

His muscles locked. She felt the tenseness in his hold. “I don’t want you at risk, Skye.”

“But she came looking for me. In broad daylight.” That just didn’t sound like a woman who was trying to come in for a slow, sneaky kill.

“Anna Jean is insane. You don’t want to ever get close to her.”

“I’ve been close to other insane folks.” Like my mother. “I managed okay.”

He turned her in his arms. His gaze searched hers. “I don’t like to think of you in danger. I can’t.”

His lips took hers.

She kissed him back eagerly, her lips opening beneath his. Trace lifted her up, carried her a few feet across the room. She felt the hard edge of the desk against her thighs. He sat her down there, right on top of his gleaming desk, and he slipped between her splayed legs.

“I have you, and I won’t let you go.” One of his hands rested lightly against the column of her throat, right over her frantically racing pulse. “I don’t care which asshole from my past comes calling, no one will take you from me.”

Just as she wasn’t going to let anyone take Trace from her. Not when they finally had a chance together.

He lifted up her shirt. Tossed it across the room. His eyes were lit with a bright, burning fire. Lust. Need. The same need that pulsed through her veins.

His fingers brushed aside her bra. Her nipples were tight, aching, and when he bent his head and took one sensitive peak into his mouth, she arched against him.

Yes.

But he had on too many clothes. Way, way too many. Her fingers pushed between their bodies. She caught his belt. Yanked it aside. Jerked open his fly.

So her moves weren’t as easy or seductive as his had been. Skye wasn’t in the mood for easy.

“Trace.” His name came from her as a sensual demand. “I want you. Now.”

His head lifted. His gaze met hers.

“Now,” Skye said again. And, seeing that hot lust in his gaze, she told him, “I want you to fuck me hard, Trace. No control. No limits.”

His hands gripped the edge of the desk. “Skye, baby—”

“Everything, Trace. That’s what I want.”

What she’d have.

Lightning flashed beyond the windows.

Skye kicked off her shoes. She slid off the desk, her body brushing against Trace’s. Staring into his eyes, she stripped off the rest of her clothes. Her pants fell. Her panties—she threw those at him.

He caught them in a tight fist. “I never want to hurt you.”

She stood before him, naked. “The first time I came to see you in this office, I was terrified.”

His eyes blazed an even brighter blue. “The first time you came to see me, I wanted to strip you and fuck you on my desk.”

Her hands tapped on said desk. “Right here?”

“Yes.” A hard growl.

“Then I guess you’re about to get your wish, aren’t you?” She smiled at him and she touched herself, letting her hands slide down her stomach. Down to—

Trace grabbed her. He spun her around, turning her toward that desk. Her hands flew out and this time, her palms hit against the hard surface.

He was behind her. Fully erect, the head of his cock thrust toward her. She spread her legs. She arched against him.

He held her easily. Didn’t enter her yet, damn him. Just let her feel him, all around her. “If I get too rough,” he rasped out, “tell me to stop.”

“I’ll scream it,” she promised, her own breath panting.

His fingers stroked her. Pressed against her clit. Drove her insane.

“Trace!”

He plunged into her, slamming balls deep. Yes! He withdrew. Plunged deep again. Harder. The thud of flesh hitting flesh seemed to fill the room. Again and again.

She was so wet for him. So eager.

Thunder rumbled.

Deeper, deeper. She pushed back against each thrust, trying to take as much of him as she could. Her orgasm beat down on her. Her muscles tightened. So close. Just right—

“Ah, baby, you didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” Trace whispered against her ear. He stilled.

Her sex clenched tightly around him, holding him in a desperate grip.

His mouth slid to her neck. He licked. He kissed.

His teeth pressed against her in a sensual bite. “Now,” he rasped against her skin. “You’re going to give me everything.”

He withdrew. She cried out. “No, Trace—”

In a flash, he had rolled Skye onto her back. The wood of the desk pressed into her. Her legs hung over the edge of the desk. Her legs were open, her sex desperate for him.

“Remember…tell me…” Trace gritted out.

That was all he said. Because as she stared up into his eyes, she could see his control break. The blue turned wild in its brilliance.

He thrust into her. Deep.

His hands caught hers. He locked them to the desk, holding them on either side of her. He held her, controlled her completely, and all Skye could do was take the pleasure that he gave to her.

Helpless, trapped.

Again and again, he drove into her body. She’d thought that was she was slick before. Now—“Trace!”

He yanked her closer to the edge of the desk. Her legs lifted and locked around his hips. The orgasm was there, the pleasure already starting to crest through her.

Trace kissed her. His mouth was hot. Open.

She came around him, exploding on a release so powerful that she shuddered.

But he didn’t stop.

His thrusts came faster. They were even harder, lifting her body. She tightened her hold around him, trying to catch her breath.

“You’re not done, Skye.” He locked both of her wrists in one of his. Kept them secured above her head. His left hand slipped between their bodies. He stroked her clit again. Pushed her and pushed her until she screamed.

But she didn’t scream for him to stop.

She screamed Trace’s name.

He came, surging into her with a hot release that had him shuddering.

Only he didn’t stop.

He kept thrusting. His release made her even more sensitive to him, and his cock stretched, filling her, sliding over flesh that was desperate for more.

Insatiable.

Only for him. Only for—

He lifted her off the desk. Held her in his arms. Lifted her easily. She’d always known he was strong. But this—

“Squeeze me. As hard and tight as you can.”

Her inner muscles clamped around him.

“Yes!” His eyes were still wild. “Want…more…want…all…”

He took her against the wall then. Her shoulders hit the surface, but she didn’t care. He’d freed her hands, and her nails scratched down his back.

He was holding her hips now, lifting her up again and again. Forcing her to match his rhythm, forcing her to take and take.

She didn’t have the breath to scream when the release hit her this time. She shuddered and trembled in his arms. Then she fell against him, limp, as her heart raced.

He still wasn’t done.

Trace kept thrusting. A fast, hard tempo that she couldn’t match. The tender lover was gone. She looked up and saw that his face was cut in hard lines of need. Primitive lust. Her arms wrapped around him, and that was pretty much all her exhausted body could manage.

His cock was so full. Big and thick, filling every inch of her. Her sex was swollen from her orgasms. With every thrust, she was on the brink of more pleasure…or pain?

The line was there, so hard to determine. Because the feelings coursing through her were so strong. So dark and powerful.

He erupted. “Skye!” His orgasm went on and on, and she was lost as she seemed to fall into the abyss.

Not pain.

Only pleasure.

Only…Trace.

***

Navy Pier. The place was normally a tourist’s dream, but, in the middle of a night-time thunderstorm, the place was deserted.

Drake stood at the end of the dock, staring out at the glistening water. Lightning flashed in the dark sky. Bright strobes that lit the waves.

Anna Jean.

She’d been his worst mistake.

And he hadn’t even managed to kill her.

Drake turned away from the water, hunching his shoulders against the rain that continued to fall in heavy blasts from the dark sky. He’d screwed up back then—when he’d screwed her. But he’d never met another woman like Anna Jean.

She’d had a walk of pure temptation. Eyes that made him think constantly of sex and the pleasures found between lovers. She’d belonged to Tucker. He knew it, and he’d done his best to keep his hands off her.