Closing the Deal (14 page)

“Bastard.”

“I thought that was kind of nice.” She moaned when he pulled out the plug and began fucking her ass with it. The sensation felt surprisingly good. Then he stilled and slapped her ass.

“He’s trying to charm you, but you’re mine.” Derrick nudged her entrance with his cock and thrust home, filling her sex with his long, thick shaft. “Oh yeah, that’s it.”

He didn’t move, lodging himself and the plug tight.

“Derrick.”

“No, now you tell me the rest. Again.”

“But—”

“Again.”

“Your mom told me how happy she is you finally found a nice girl to bring home.”

He snorted. “Doesn’t know you too well, does she?”

“Ass.”

He popped her in the butt and she jerked under him. “Try again.”

“You’re too bossy.” And it made her wet. She squirmed, under his control, needing him to move. God, she wanted to come.

“But I love you anyway. Say it.”

“But you love me anyway.” God, could it be true?

“I won’t force you to say it, Syd. But we both know you love me right back. After meeting your mom, I understand a lot more that you haven’t said.”

She groaned.

“Don’t worry, baby. You didn’t run after being in the same room with Dylan, Mom and James. So I’m sticking with you too.”

She tried to move again, but he wouldn’t let her. Those massive hands of his kept her hips still.

“Please.” She needed to come.

“Please what, Syd? Tell me, baby.” He leaned over her to nip at her ear. “Say it, the way I told you to.”

She didn’t want to, because when she did, she meant it just the way he knew she did.

“Syd.”

She swallowed hard and did as he’d prompted. “Please love me.”

He straightened up, pulled back and rammed inside her. “Oh yeah. I do love you, Sydney. And I always will. One day you’ll believe that.” He took her hard, giving her the rough release she needed.

When they finished, he untied her hands, cleaned them both up and settled her over him on the couch. They lay together, naked and replete.

“I’m always going to be here for you, Sydney. All week during your mom’s visit, during Thanksgivings, Christmases, you name it. And one day when you’re ready, we’ll get married.”

She blinked down at him, annoyed at the rush of emotion hitting her hard. “Taking a lot for granted, aren’t you?”

He stroked her hair. “Nope. I just know a good thing when I see it. Now what do I have to do to sell you this house?”

“This house?”

“Yep. It’s a nice house, over three thousand square feet, comes furnished with plenty of room for girlie furniture, like the kind at your place. Oh, and it also comes with a handsome, studly architect who’s hot for a certain redhead we both know and love.”

A tear slid down her cheek, but before she could scrub it away, he brought her face to his and kissed it. “I love you, Syd. Forever.”

“You’re a dope.”

“Who loves you.”

She laughed, wanting to say it back. She needed to believe he wouldn’t leave, that they could have a future. She knew how she felt, but she was afraid if she told him, he’d leave. Insane, but that’s what came of a life with Isabel Fields.

Good God. Did she really want to keep blaming her mother for her insecurities? A harsh helping of truth smacked her right between the eyes. “I…”

“When you’re ready, baby. I’ll be here. I promise.”

She nodded and laid her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Listening to her truth. A second passed. Then two. “I love you right back, Derrick Warren.”

Arms hugged her tighter. In as smug a voice as she’d ever heard him use, he answered, “I know.”

She snorted and smiled. “Idiot.”

About the Author

Marie Harte is an avid reader who loves all things paranormal and futuristic. Reading romances since she was twelve, she fell in love with happy endings and knew writing was her calling.

Twenty-plus years later, the Marine Corps, a foray through Information Technology, and children, her dream has finally come true. Marie lives in Oregon with her family and loves hearing from readers.

To read more about Marie, visit
www.marieharte.com
.

Look for these titles by Marie Harte

Now Available:

Cougar Falls

Rachel’s Totem

In Plain Sight

Feral Attraction

Foxy Lady

Ethereal Foes

The Dragons’ Demon

Duncan’s Descent

I Dream of Dragons Vol. 1

Westlake Enterprises

To Hunt a Sainte

Storming His Heart

A Scorching Seduction

Enjoying the Show

Sins of Summer

Closing the Deal

She’d give anything to lose control.

Storming His Heart

© 2011 Marie Harte

A
Westlake Enterprises
Story

Storm Buchanan’s talent for mind control comes in handy as an investigator for a private agency, but it’s hell on her love life. Men bow to her every whim, so there’s no challenge. Where’s the fun in that?

Maybe that’s why she can’t trust herself around Rafe Savage. The smug, sexy,
annoying
investigator for a rival firm is the one man who seems impervious to her power. Worse, when he kisses her, she all-too-willingly slips under
his
control.

Rafe’s gift for seeing into the future doesn’t usually blindside him…until it comes to Storm. The beautiful seductress assaults his control on all fronts, and the spontaneous flashes of her life in danger have his every instinct on alert.

When attempts on both their lives escalate, Storm and Rafe must stick together to find a madman bent on vengeance. While it’s no surprise that their enforced proximity has their bodies going up in flames, neither expects lust to melt into love. Or that they’ll need every ounce of their combined skills to fight for a future that could die before it’s born.

Warning: Beware a heroine with mind control, a sexy hero with attitude, annoying siblings, smug psychics, sexualized danger, and a psychotic villain who can’t be caught.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Storming His Heart:

Storm spotted the study door and hurried. A glance at the bedside clock showed she was running out of time. She dragged her shoes with her, careful to leave no evidence of her presence behind.

Using the codes Thorne had also appropriated from Locklen’s mind, she unlocked the door and entered. The light from the bedroom illuminated the moderate space. She noted the shelves of old books, nautical charts and antiques encased in glass. And there, atop his large mahogany desk, a wrought iron statue of Captain Michael G. Locklen, founder of the family’s dynasty. That statue meant the jewels were close.

A sudden bang made her jump. Outside, the wind shrieked and blew a tree limb against the study window overlooking the back gardens. With her luck, the power would go out. Not needing more of a headache than she already had, Storm closed the heavy drapes and the study door before turning on the desk lamp. Shadows darkened the corners of an already dim room, but she didn’t dare expose herself with more lighting.

In this room, Locklen relied on simple locks to secure his valuables. His antiquated security matched the aged valuables he held dear. She made short work of his desk using a lock pick she’d hidden in the heel of her shoe. A search through his things turned up nothing. She tapped her foot in frustration.

“Where are you?” The statue was here; therefore, the jewels had to be here. She looked again around the room and noticed an antique lamp standing over a plush leather reading chair. It was hard to see since the desk light didn’t illuminate much more than the top of the desk.

Storm approached the lamp for better study. She still didn’t want to turn on the main light on the off chance one of the guards patrolling outside the house might notice. And then she saw it. A sparkling, emerald necklace atop the lampshade, right in plain sight. From a distance it had looked like part of the lampshade’s decoration. Relieved she’d finally found it, she reached for the necklace.

“Move and you’ll be very sorry,” a voice whispered in the darkness a split second before someone yanked her back against a hard frame and covered her mouth with his hand.

Storm froze. She didn’t necessarily need to see this intruder to get him to bend to her will, but eye contact always strengthened her bond. She struggled to get free.

“Don’t scream or I’ll gag you,” he threatened and released her mouth, keeping his hand close should she try to yell.

“I don’t know who you are, but I’m sure you don’t want me,” she whispered, her voice smooth, like the deceptive calm before a hurricane. She concentrated on an image of herself walking out of the study. “Why don’t you just let me go and I’ll forget you were ever here?”

The arm around her tightened—not what she’d expected. He secured her hands behind her back with a speed that betrayed expertise then turned her around. Unfortunately, she could see nothing of his face through his ski mask but brown eyes and a firm mouth.

Those eyes… Damn it. She knew those eyes. Her own widened. “You were at that bar trying to steal my witness three weeks ago,” she said, wishing she didn’t sound so breathless.

“Whose witness?” he drawled, humor in his deep voice.

“Who are
you?” But she knew. Just her luck that of all the agents she might have run into, she had to encounter the one she had nightly fantasies about. Rafe Savage—sexy asshole extraordinaire.

Thorne’s rumor had turned out to be true. Westlake was definitely involved.

Buchanan Investigations was one of two firms of its like—a top-notch investigative service whose investigators possessed psychic abilities. Though their paranormal talents remained fairly secret, the success of the firm did not. The only fly in the ointment was the equal success of their competitor, Westlake Enterprises. It just figured the only man Storm found even remotely interesting worked for the enemy.

“Maybe I should be asking you that question,” he rumbled in a low voice. “You stole my witness, started a bar fight I had to clean up and left before we could be properly introduced. Now you’re here in the middle of my business once again.”

Oh man, Savage was even bigger and faster than she remembered. And just as sexy, something she had no business thinking about with the job on the line.

Now how to distract him until she could collect the jewels?

“I can almost hear you plotting.” He pushed her into the leather chair, forcing her to sit with her hands behind her back, and turned on the antique light. Removing his mask, he studied her as she squinted under the light’s glare. Dark brown hair cropped a face filled with hard planes and a granite jaw, to say nothing of his lethal stare. No two ways about it, Savage was not only tough but incredibly handsome.
And he works for Westlake.

It was disgusting how often she had to remind herself of that fact.

“Storm Buchanan. In the flesh. So many times we’ve run into each other, but this takes the cake. You look different tonight.” He ran a gloved finger over her collarbone, eliciting an involuntary shiver.

Storm tried to shrug off the arousing intensity of his touch, both thrilled and unnerved he knew exactly who she was. He’d never before called her by name. “Don’t you want to let me go?” She tried again to command him and had no luck. Strong-willed bastard. She couldn’t see well under the dim light. Was he looking at her face or her figure in the slim-fitting dress? At his appreciative whistle, she bet on the dress.

“Oh no you don’t, sweetheart.” He grabbed something out of his back pocket and bent down in front of her. His lips quirked into a surprising grin. “Much as I’d like to gag you with this, I think it’d do better as a blindfold.”

Blindfold? Shit. He knew about her ability, or at least, he thought he did. Storm didn’t need to see her opponents to manipulate them, but the eye contact helped. To give her an edge, her uncle had insisted they plant evidence to the contrary. She’d always wondered how deep Westlake’s information ran. Now she knew. How to play this off…? “Come on, you don’t need to blindfold me. I already know what you look like. It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone you were in here. If I’m found in here, I’m in big trouble.”

“I know.” He finished tying her blindfold and stood. “The earrings, bracelet and ring are fixed to the underside of the lamp, in case you were wondering.”

“Gee, thanks.”
Smug bastard.

“You know, I really didn’t come here for this. But then, I wasn’t expecting to run into you again anytime soon, and what do you know? Fate’s smiling on me tonight.”

She could hear a large smile in his voice, mocking them both.

He continued, “The last time we met, you stole my witness.”

“And the time before that, you left with the files
I’d
been sent to collect. We’re even.”

Warm breath fanned her cheek and she clenched her thighs, alarmed to feel herself respond.

“Even? I don’t think so. You have a bad habit of turning up in the wrong places, sweetheart.”

Controlling a shiver, she shot back, “Well,
sweetheart
, maybe you’re the one with the bad habits. Be a good boy and go home. Locklen is mine.”

He chuckled. “You sure you want him? Hell, you can have him. But I’m not leaving until I get what I came for.”

With her eyesight blocked, her other senses were magnified. Storm could smell the sexy maleness of him standing so close, could feel his gaze moving over her body like a lover’s hands. She did her best to deny her attraction, but she couldn’t. For some reason, Savage got to her the way no one ever had. She wanted to strangle him at the same time she wanted to kiss him blind. “Well, why are you here? What do you want?” she snapped.

“What do I want? Hmm, let’s see. I have a beautiful woman all tied up and helpless before me. I also have a bag full of jewels easily worth a cool million. What to do, what to do?”

She gritted her teeth and tried to manage a bit of room between her wrists, made all the more uncomfortable because she couldn’t stop flaunting herself. Every time she shifted, she inadvertently thrust her breasts toward him. Damn it. What had he used to bind her? Would it have been too much to ask for simple rope?