Valentine's Billionaire Bad Boys

  I could barely seem him, but their footsteps were getting closer.

  I shot a look at Hawk.

  His lean, dark face was tight, intense.

  I looked back at the gap as a shadow fell long across it.

  The only warning I had was that flash of red.

  I grabbed her and spun to the side, trusting Hawk to have my back.

  There was a struggle behind me, but for a second, I had my hands full. O slammed her head back, snarling and fighting like a demon. Her heel came down on my foot at the same time her head smacked into my nose.

  “Damn it!”

  Spinning her around, I pinned her up against me as blood started to pour. I tasted it in the back of my mouth. “It’s me, O. It’s Reaper. Adam.”

  “Reaper…Adam….” Her eyes widened, and she looked around. “Cherise…she’s got a gun.”

  Son of a bitch.

  “Stay!” I barked at her and hoped like hell she’d listen as I pressed back up against the hedge. Hawk and the bastard who’d threatened O were grappling, but it was already leaning heavily in Hawk’s direction. The man had some serious skills though. Part of me was already frozen with the knowledge of what could have happened to O.

  A wild shot had me crouching close to the ground.

  “Cherise?”

  Off to the side, a bright glare caught my eye. A cell phone. I didn’t dare look over to see what O was doing, but I’d bet my left nut she was calling the cops.

  “You might as well stop this bullshit right now,” I said, trying for a pragmatic approach. “The cops are already on their way, and they’ve been given your name.”

  “I…Cherise, it’s over.”

  My ears cataloged the voice, processed, recognized then filed the speaker away. Russel. The weasel from the board. Not a problem. Even if I hadn’t met him, I’d know he wasn’t my problem. His voice was quivery and broken, like he was struggling to hold it together.

  “Come on, Cherise. Just put the gun down and we can–”

  The words ended abruptly, cut off by another shot. But I doubted that one was quite as wild.

  I chanced another look around the hedge. Cherise stood there, almost as if the moment had been crafted by an artist, wearing a pale dress that shimmered in the light, the moon shining down on her as she studied something on the ground.

  No.

  Not something.

  A man – possibly a dead one.

  Russel, if I had to make a bet.

  She lifted her head.

  Our eyes met.

  The weapon she held came up.

  It was a big pistol, too big for her, but she was compensating by using two hands to steady it.

  It was dark, but if I had to make a guess, I’d say I was staring at a CR12 – Clarion’s answer to the Glock M17. Whether or not she could make a shot at this distance was up in the air, but I was thinking not. Her hands were shaking from the weight of the gun already, and her eyes looked half-wild.

  However, the weapon would do a decent amount of damage, and I’d rather not get shot by some crazy woman with a vendetta.

  “You don’t want to do this,” I said, glancing around to find Hawk pulling the other dude behind a large bush.

  “The hell I don’t.” She glared at me, lips trembling, eyes glittering. “You fucked up everything. Do you get that? Everything!”

  “Yeah, I’m good at that.” Nodding toward the weapon, I said, “You’ll never come close with that, heavy as it is, far away as I am. Why don’t you go ahead and lower it?”

  “Why don’t you kiss my ass?” She sneered at me, her eyes wild as she swept a quick look around.

  Too quick.

  She hadn’t seen my weapon yet, and while I could take her out easy enough, I didn’t want to kill her if I didn’t have to. Of course, the fact that she was holding a gun on me wasn’t really weighing in her favor.

  “I can take the shot,” Hawk said, his voice low.

  I gave a small shake of my head. “Come on, Cherise. Just lower your weapon. You heard Russel. It’s over. Cops are on their way. You’re in enough trouble.”

  “Me?” She laughed, the noise half-hysterical. “I didn’t do anything. You…” She licked her lips and nodded. “I’m protecting myself. The two of you…yes. You two were out to get me.”

  Well, I had to give her credit. She was definitely not willing to go down.

  “And the men you hired? What’s their story?”

  She blinked, looking almost child-like. “What men?”

  “My friend has one restrained on the ground behind me. I left one hog-tied and gagged in the hedge. The other one is dead.” I kept my eyes on the weapon. “What do you think they’ll tell the police?”

  Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

  Then Cherise turned the gun toward herself.

  “No!” The shriek came from O.

  She started to dart around me, and I caught her around the waist when she would have rushed out there.

  Cherise’s eyes lit up. Hell. I should have taken the shot, I realized.

  She turned the weapon, her hands much steadier than I would have thought she was capable of, the weapon pointed at both of us.

  The crack that went through the air stole the air out of me.

  Even when Cherise crumpled, blood blossoming like an ugly rose across the front of her pale dress, I still had a hard time breathing.

  O stood frozen in my arms.

  It could only have been seconds. In reality, I knew that. But it felt like a lifetime before either of us so much as moved.

  Then I was running my hands over her, checking for injuries that didn’t exist, shaking her and shouting. “I told you to stay, damn it! Why didn’t you stay?”

  “I’m not a dog, you son of a bitch!” she shouted back even as her hands patted my shirt. “Are you hurt? Did she shoot you?”

  I didn’t bother to answer that, hauling her up against me and sealing my mouth over hers.

  O.

  That was all I could think.

  O.

  She was here.

  She was safe.

  They hadn’t hurt her.

  “Ouch!” I jerked my head back, my tongue throbbing. She’d bitten me. And not in that fun, I can’t wait to get naked way either.

  She pulled away. “We can’t do this,” she said, shaking her head. “Not now. Not here.”

  I stared at her back as she walked away on shaky legs straight toward Cherise. Hawk was already there, the gun Cherise had been holding securely under his foot.

  I wanted to haul her back against me and kiss her again. Bite her – in that sexy, I can’t wait to get you naked way.

  But she was right.

  We couldn’t do this here. Or now.

  Voices were calling for us.

  And the music had been cut off.

  Sirens were blaring instead.

  Sirens.

  Shit.

  * * *

  “They’ll pull through.”

  James sat across from us, his face gray with exhaustion.

  He’d just disconnected from a call with somebody at the hospital. I don’t know who he’d spoken with, but he had information on Cherise – and Russel.

  Russel was in surgery, but he was lucky to still be alive.

  Cherise had been lucky too. Hawk hadn’t shot to kill.

  The two men Hawk and I had dealt with had been turned over to the police, and at least one of them was already talking, and talking fast.

  The dead body…well, the cops weren’t too happy about that one, and I had already explained multiple times that the bastard had held a gun to my head.

  “If he had a gun to your head, how come he’s the one who’s dead?” they kept asking.

  And I kept looking at them like they were idiots. “He’s dead because he had a gun to my head. What was I going to do…ask him nicely to not do that shit again?”

  Eventually, somebody had come up and whispered something in the detective??
?s ear, and he grunted, walked off to talk to another detective, both of them staring at me hard.

  Since I hadn’t been told not to, I’d walked off to find O.

  That was over an hour ago, and she still wasn’t looking at me.

  Her sexy red dress was ruined, streaked with dirt and blood.

  There was a scratch on her cheek and more smudges of dirt, her normally sleek hair disheveled. Her eyes were red, and I could tell she hadn’t always managed to hold the tears back.

  “What will happen to her?” O asked, her attention focused on Cherise.

  I wanted to ask what the hell it mattered. She’d conspired to kill O. The woman should rot in jail. Granted, she’d done a miserable job of conspiring to kill O, but she didn’t deserve to be rewarded for her failure by not doing time.

  “We’ll figure that out later.” James patted her hand.

  “This is going to break the queen’s heart,” O said.

  The hoarseness in her voice hit me in the gut, and I realized suddenly why she’d rushed out when it looked like Cherise might kill herself. It was because of Elise. The woman O thought of as her own mother.

  Baby…

  Unable to stay away any longer, I went to the small sofa and sat down next to her. She stiffened but didn’t pull away. “Something tells me your queen is made of sterner stuff than that.” I stroked a hand down her back and leaned in to rest my chin on her head.

  She turned her face into my chest, a shaky sigh escaping her.

  Reaction slid over me, and I locked it down. I could have lost her.

  I was just starting to realize what I’d found, and I’d come this close to losing her.

  Another shaky sigh.

  “I think I’ll take myself off to bed,” James murmured.

  O didn’t seem to notice.

  James met my eyes. “Both of you should rest as well. Tomorrow…” He shook his head and looked at his watch. “Well, today will come soon enough.”

  I’d already noticed the time.

  It was pushing two in the morning.

  We’d have to be up and deal with the fall-out from this.

  “Yeah.”

  I had a room where I could sleep, assuming I could.

  O had a room of her own as well.

  The party had been held at an old, elegant home perched on the banks of the Ohio. Once a private home, the place was now rented out for parties and stuff – and the entire house could be included in the package.

  That was what O had arranged, knowing James would be too tired after the party for the drive home.

  I hadn’t planned on staying.

  But now…

  She shifted against me again, and this time, when she made that soft, gasping little breath, it was almost like a sob.

  I pulled her onto my lap and kissed her cheek. “Don’t cry.”

  “I’m not.”

  I could taste her tears. “Good.” I kissed them away and said it again, “Don’t cry.”

  She curled her arms around my neck and cuddled in closer. “I’m not crying.”

  She pressed her mouth to mine, and the steely grip I’d had around my control crumbled to dust. She was definitely not crying.

  Surging upright, holding O clamped against me, we left the room. Her bedroom was upstairs and too far away. Mine was down here on the lower left, in the…west wing? Left wing? Whichever one, too far.

  We ended up in another bedroom, one that had been set aside in case anybody over did it with the free booze and needed to sleep it off. Nobody had needed the room, which was good because I might have kicked them out.

  Half stumbling into the room, I tossed O onto the bed and came down on her, desperation all but burning me alive.

  I felt like if I didn’t get my hands on her, if we weren’t touching, skin to skin, within the next few seconds, something devastating would happen.

  “You sure you’re okay?” I asked as I studied her eyes.

  She held my gaze. “Please…make me forget.”

  Grabbing the hem of her dress, I worked it up as I caught her lower lip and tugged, licked, bit…

  She moaned against my mouth, her hands kneading my waist.

  I broke away to peel the dress off her, tossing it into the corner. I wanted to burn the damn thing. It was filthy, ruined, a reminder of what could have happened. Focusing back on her, I levered my weight back up and settled on my heels, looking down at her.

  The strapless black bra and panties gleamed against pale, smooth skin. That skin was marred with bruises now, and when I eased my hands down her thighs, she winced at the touch of my left thumb on her knees.

  The torn, discolored flesh enraged me. But I throttled it down and shifted until I could bend and press my mouth to the unmarred skin just above the small injury. There were other marks, other bruises.

  But she was whole. It could have been so much worse. Moving my mouth higher, I traced the edge of her panties. O pushed her hands into my hair. “Please,” she whispered.

  I nuzzled her through the silk. She was already wet.

  The light caress had her arching up, pushing herself against me, demanding more and I took that demand – happily. Through the material, I licked and touched and when she went to shove her panties down, swearing in frustration, I caught her wrists, pinning them to the bed by her hips.

  “Not yet,” I said roughly. “Once I get you naked, it’s all over.”

  “Adam, please.”

  But I continued, stroking her lightly through her clothing. My cock was iron-hard, and the thought of feeling her wet cunt around me had my balls drawing tight. She jerked against the hold I had on her wrists. “If you don’t fuck me right now,” she said, voice breaking, “I’ll…I swear I’ll…”

  Her clit was a hard bud, stiff, and even through her panties, I could feel it pulsing. With slow, deliberate pressure, I scraped my teeth over it.

  O’s cry broke over me – and she broke under me, shaking and shuddering, jerking against my hands as she rocked her hips feverishly. Her climax was the end of me. Shoving upright, I grabbed her panties and jerked at them. They didn’t peel away as easily as I wanted so I just tore them off. If my damn trousers would have cooperated, I would have torn them off as well, but they were more resistant, and I had to wait long enough to shove them down.

  She was still gasping, her body shuddering from the climax when I grabbed her left knee, hooked it over my elbow, opening her fully.

  I thrust in, past the tight resistance of her pussy, gritting my teeth as she milked me, clenching around me like a fist. Her eyes went blind, and I felt it, another orgasm building inside her.

  I withdrew slightly, feeling the drag of her tissues rasping over me and it was one the best damn things I’d ever felt in my life. But not enough. She fisted her hands against my chest, shoving against me slightly, her eyes wide, mouth open as she gasped for air.

  I kissed her, stealing that breath into myself as I worked deeper and deeper into her cunt.

  A moan shimmered out of her on the next thrust, while those intense, unending little pulses continued to ripple around my cock. If she didn’t stop coming…

  Hell.

  I didn’t want it to stop – didn’t want her to stop. It might kill me, the pleasure, all this craziness I felt for her raging inside me, dying to get out. But it would be one hell of a way to go.

  She pulled her mouth from mine, her head falling back. The long line of her neck exposed, I bent my head and scraped the arch with my teeth and gave one final nudge of my hips. Finally, I was balls-deep inside her, she’d already come twice, and if she moved or breathed a certain way, I was going to come right there.

  Gritting my teeth, I wedged a forearm under her and rolled, pulling her up on top of me.

  “Oh….” The sound came out of her like a purr, and she rolled her hips against mine.

  “Shit.”

  She smiled down at me as she placed her hands on her torso, dragging them upward. As she cupped her small breas
ts, I gripped her hips and arched up, although I couldn’t get any deeper inside her unless I crawled into her soul.

  “Again,” she whispered her lashes drifting down. So was one of her hands.

  I locked on the sight of that hand, heart pounding. When she reached the neat nest of curls between her thighs and started to stroke, I cursed.

  “Do it again,” she said, rotating her hips once more.

  A flex of my buttocks had me arching up.

  Her lashes lifted, and she held my eyes as she fell forward, bracing her weight on her hands. The slow, teasing pace had my dick going on red alert. Tightening my grip on her hips, I warned her. “I won’t last.”

  “That’s fine. I didn’t.” She bent down and bit my lip.

  At the same time, she tightened those inner muscles – deliberately this time – and squeezed my cock.

  “O…”

  She swayed again, clenched around me again.

  “Damn it!”

  I surged upward, fisting a hand in her short hair and flipping us once more. Once I had her beneath me, I caught her thighs behind the knees and pushed them to her shoulders. “Take it,” I said. “Take it…you feel what you do to me?”

  “Adam…”

  “You’re breaking me, O.” And that’s what happened – I fell apart, coming so hard, so intensely , everything went numb. So intensely I broke.

  Dimly, I was aware that she was coming too – those sweet, silken pulses that were like a hundred little caresses all up and down my cock. I heard her saying my name. Heard the low moan, then the soft weak gasps for air that slowly took over.

  Afraid I’d crush her, I pulled off. Her hands caught me and held on. “Don’t go,” she said.

  “I won’t.”

  “Hold me…all night, okay?”

  Nodding, I pulled her up against me. Another shudder went through her body.

  Please don’t cry…

  She didn’t.

  Slowly, she slid into sleep.

  My mind was too chaotic to let me follow.

  I knew why. I was still on a hairpin trigger from everything that had happened. The adrenaline crash might have drained a lot of people, but I’d spent too much of my life riding that adrenaline edge, knowing that if I crashed before it was safe, it wouldn’t just be my ass in trouble, but my whole team.

  I was fine with not being able to shut down just yet.