Power Play Read online

  His fingers drifted lightly over my breasts, barely brushing the nipples. I gasped at the touch, a mere shadow of what I wanted. And still he watched me.

  He leaned over me, his weight resting on his knees and one hand, leaving the other free to keep touching me.

  Lowering his head, his lips and tongue traced my breast, while his hand slowly moved down between my thighs. I was wet, my body aching for him, and when his fingers slid between my folds, we both groaned.

  “God, Sage,” he rasped. “You feel like hot, wet silk.”

  I hoped he wasn’t waiting for a response because (a) what exactly do you say to that? Thank you? And (b) I was beyond the ability to form coherent sentences at this point.

  He was good, really good, and sooner than I would have believed possible, I was coming, my nails digging in to his shoulders as I gasped out his name and reiterated my fervent belief in a deity. Several times.

  Ryker kissed me, a long finger still moving inside me, and my skin felt like it was on fire. I wanted him more than it seemed I’d ever wanted anything. Ripping my mouth from his, I sucked in a lungful of air, my hands going to his jeans and tugging impatiently at the zipper.

  “Wait, Sage,” he said, grasping my hands and stilling them. “Are you sure?” His voice was a low rasp, tight with need and desire.

  “I’m sure.”

  Brushing my hands away, Ryker quickly rid himself of his jeans. I whimpered at the sight of him. Ryker fully clothed was a sight to see. Unclothed…he made my mouth water.

  His thighs were as heavily muscled as the rest of him, and his cock…well I’d say the size and breadth of it put my dildos to shame, but then I’d have to admit owning things like that. Which I totally didn’t.

  This time when he leaned over me, his dog tags slid around to hang from his neck, the metal resting between my breasts. With one hand, he moved them to his back instead. It was a gesture that struck me, and I knew I’d always remember the first time he did that.

  Wait…the first time?

  I shoved that thought away since there was plenty to focus on in the present. My thighs cradled his hips as he guided himself into me.

  “Tell me if I hurt you,” he said, which I thought was nice. Real polite.

  He took it slow, and after the first few inches, I could see why. My body took a moment to accommodate his size. I thought he was all in, but then he pushed his hips, burying himself to the hilt. For a flash of a second there was a twinge of pain, but then it was sheer bliss.

  “We fit perfect,” he murmured in my ear. “Just like I knew we would. Tight and dripping wet for me, sweetheart.”

  Ryker’s mouth found mine, our tongues tangling together as he moved. I decided then and there that I would never again say size didn’t matter, because boy, did it ever. His cock created a delicious friction against my clit—a tantalizingly slow withdrawal, then a deep thrust sliding back inside me. He didn’t rush, and I felt the slow build of another orgasm.

  I lifted my hips to meet his, my hands clutching at his ass, urging him on with my body. We were both slick with sweat when he finally gave in to my unspoken demands, moving harder and faster, until I couldn’t keep up with him.

  I came again, stars exploding behind my eyelids, and it was even better than before. A split second later, Ryker let out a shout, burying himself deep inside me. His body shuddered with the strength of his orgasm. I tightened my legs around him and held on, pleasurable aftershocks coursing through me like mini-earthquakes after The Big One.

  Ryker’s breath was hot on my neck, his weight heavy against my chest, his cock still inside me. He’d slid his arms around my back to hold me close, and I liked that. I liked that a lot.

  He was breathing hard, but he kissed me. A long, slow, deep kiss that made my toes curl, which was saying something after what we’d just done.

  I wondered what he’d do now, if he’d make an excuse and leave or not even bother with making an excuse, but he did neither. He pulled out of me, turning so he lay on his back, and pulled me to him. I rested my head on his shoulder, my arm across his chest. Lacing his fingers through mine, he gave a deep, satisfied sigh. I closed my eyes, a smile on my face.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Something was buzzing, but I was too comfortable to bother with it. After a few moments, it stopped. I sighed in my sleep, snuggling closer against Ryker. What seemed like only moments later, the buzzing began again. I frowned and made a noise, unwilling to be pulled into full wakefulness.

  “Yeah. Sage’s phone.”

  Ryker’s sleep-roughened voice in my ear made my eyes fly open. I sat up, turning to see that the buzzing had been my cell and that Ryker had answered it. He lay on his side, facing me, the phone at his ear.

  “Hello,” he said, sounding irritated. “Anyone there?”

  “Give that to me,” I hissed, reaching for the phone. What if it was my mother? There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world that would make Thanksgiving bearable.

  “Thought it was you,” Ryker said, catching my hand in his and slotting our fingers together, which was real sweet, but so not what I wanted right now. “How’s it going, Parker?”

  I felt the blood drain from my face and my eyes went wide.

  “You must be looking for Sage. Hold on, she’s right next to me.” Ryker held the phone out. “It’s your dick of a boss, sweetheart.”

  I snatched the phone from him, not sure which emotion I felt more of at the moment: anger or mortification. Yes, Parker had seen us leave together last night, but it was quite another thing to have it spelled out in such black-and-white that I was waking up in Ryker’s bed.

  “Sorry about that, sir,” I said, breathless.

  “You call him ‘sir’?” Ryker snorted, rolling his eyes. “Don’t apologize to him.” He leaned over me and pressed his lips to my shoulder.

  I ignored him. “What is it?”

  Parker said nothing for a moment, then, “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

  I flinched. His tone was ice cold and did nothing to hide how angry he was. Not that I should care after Friday…but I did.

  “Um, no, sir.” I squeezed my eyes shut in dismay as Ryker’s mouth moved to my neck. “Did you need something?”

  “Yes, I need my secretary to come to work,” he retorted. “Or have you not looked at a clock this morning?”

  I jerked around to where my alarm clock sat on Ryker’s bedside table. I was over an hour late for work.

  “Oh, God,” I breathed.

  “Now that sounds familiar,” Ryker murmured, not at all trying to be quiet. I knew Parker had heard him because the silence on his end was deafening.

  I shoved Ryker away and scrambled to get off the bed. “I’m so sorry. I-I must have overslept,” I stammered, only now realizing that I hadn’t thought to set my alarm for this morning. Then I remembered something. “Wait. I thought you said I had today off.”

  “Since you refused to leave town, I’d like you in the office today.” Parker’s sarcasm was edged with disdain and it cut like a razor.

  “I’ll be right in.” I ended the call before Parker could say anything else and tossed the phone onto the table. I yanked open my suitcase, pulling out clean panties and a bra.

  “After this weekend, a day off isn’t a bad idea,” Ryker said.

  I glanced back at him. He was half-reclining, the sheet tangled around his legs, and the sight of his naked body in the morning sunshine had me pausing to memorize it. Late or not, it wasn’t something any woman in her right mind would just pass up the chance to view. And the way he was looking at me made a shiver dance across my skin.

  “I can’t; I’m sorry,” I said, and boy, was I ever. It appeared that Ryker was definitely a morning person. Or at least parts of him were. “I’ve got to go to work.” I rushed by him on my way to the bathroom, but he caught my hand.

  “Can’t he go one day without you?” Ryker’s scathing question was almost an accusation.

  Narrowing my eyes, I jerke
d my hand away. “I could’ve died Saturday night,” I said. “He wasn’t faking his concern for me.”

  “So his ‘concern’ is enough to make you go running when he calls?” Ryker shot back. “He’s the reason they were looking for you.”

  “You don’t know that for sure,” I said. “You’re just guessing they were there for me and not Hanna. Besides, it’s my job, and if they are using me to get to him, that only proves he’s being coerced,” I said. “Why don’t you do your job and stop them?” Suddenly, I wanted out of there. I angrily jerked on my clothes.

  “Do my job?” Now he was up out of the bed, angrily stalking toward me. I tried to ignore the fact that he was naked. “What the hell do you think I’m doing?”

  I grabbed my purse in one hand and my suitcase in the other. “You mean other than screwing me to get to Parker?”

  His face was so hard and cold, I took a step back.

  “Now you’re accusing me of fucking you because of him?” he bit out.

  “Aren’t you?” I shot back.

  “I thought that was your job.”

  His sarcasm was biting and his words stung, because it was truer than I’d wanted to admit. I didn’t trust Ryker’s interest in me, no matter the fun we’d had yesterday or how great the sex had been. And despite my wanting us sleeping together to be about us and not Parker, it felt as though he was an invisible presence between us.

  Ryker scrubbed a hand across his face in frustration. “Damn it, Sage, last night was more than just a hookup. You know that. Why are you pushing me away?”

  But I couldn’t answer, because if I acknowledged there might be more than an amazing one-night stand with Ryker, that meant I had to give up Parker.

  That thought made my chest ache in a way that told me that losing Parker would hurt a lot longer, and a lot deeper, than I’d ever really considered.

  “I have to go,” I blurted, shoving past him.

  “How are you going to go anywhere?” he asked, hurrying after me. “You don’t have a car.”

  Shit! Yeah, that was a problem.

  Spying his keys on the kitchen table, I snatched them up. “I’ll borrow yours. I’ll take good care of it. I promise.”

  “Wait! Sage!” Ryker grabbed my arm in a tight grip.

  “Let me go!” I tried to jerk my arm away, but he held on tight.

  “I’m not just letting you walk out of here,” he said. “Not until you listen to me.”

  “I don’t want to listen to you!” I was getting seriously pissed. “What do you want from me, Ryker?” I struggled against his hold, frustrated at getting nowhere.

  “I want you to stay alive!”

  We both heard the growling at the same time. I turned and saw McClane, his teeth bared and his ears laid flat against his head. A continuous low growl issued from his throat, but it wasn’t directed at me.

  He was looking at Ryker.

  Ryker froze. “Easy, McClane,” he said.

  At his name, the dog barked twice, then growled again, louder.

  I swallowed. The sight of the dog’s pointy teeth made me feel light-headed. McClane barked again and took a menacing step closer.

  Ryker let me go, then took a slow step back, away from me. “Easy,” he said again to the dog.

  Saved by the canine dropout. Huh. Who’d have thought?

  I didn’t waste time, heading out the door and to Ryker’s truck. A moment later, I was speeding away from his house.

  * * *

  I didn’t feel comfortable going back to my place, so I drove to the gym and used the locker room to shower and get ready for work. After that, there was no time for my coffee run and I was racing into work just…I glanced at my watch…two hours late.

  After the disastrous New York trip, the rejection Thursday night and argument Friday, Hanna’s murder in my own apartment—now I’d slept with Parker’s arch nemesis and was late to work.

  He was going to be in such a pissy mood.

  Out of breath, I shoved my purse into the bottom drawer of my desk and plopped my butt in my chair. The phone was ringing on two lines and I grabbed one of them as I glanced into Parker’s office.

  “Parker Anderson’s office,” I answered.

  Parker was standing at his paper-strewn desk, a sheaf of folders in his hand, and he was looking at me. His jaw was set tight, his lips pressed together, his whole body tense.

  “I’m sorry, he’s not available,” I said, reading Parker’s body language. No way would he want to deal with Peterson from Contracts right now. “May I take a message?”

  I tore my gaze from Parker’s and scrawled some words on my notepad. “Yes, sir. I’ll tell him.” I hung up.

  By now, the other call had gone to voice mail and when I dialed in, I had fourteen messages for Parker. I was in the middle of writing the last one down when I sensed someone standing in front of me. I knew without looking that it was Parker. I swallowed hard.

  The recording ended and I didn’t want to hang up the phone, but there was no sense in putting it off. Very softly, I placed the handset in its cradle, took a deep breath, and raised my eyes to meet Parker’s.

  “I need these files consolidated and sent to Accounting,” he said, handing me the stack. “And my two o’clock called to cancel. Reschedule him for tomorrow or Monday.” He continued with more instructions and I jotted them down, glad he wasn’t going to say anything else about this morning, but that relief was short-lived.

  “Lastly,” he said, and his change of tone had me glancing up. “What you do in your personal time is your business.” Oh really? Since when? “I just ask that it not interfere with your work. Being late because you…slept in”—his tone plainly said what he believed I’d been doing this morning, and it wasn’t sleeping—“is unacceptable. Am I making myself clear?”

  Okay, now I was getting pissed. Yes, I’d been late, but it wasn’t like I made a habit of it and he had given me the day off. And considering the weekend I’d had, he was way out of line.

  “Yes, sir,” I bit out, just this side of polite. “I won’t be late again.”

  Our eyes were locked and after a moment, he nodded. He turned away and headed for his office. Just before he stepped inside, he turned back to me.

  “Don’t call me ‘sir’ anymore,” he said. The door drifted shut behind him.

  I watched him through the glass as he sat behind his desk, but he didn’t look up, instead turning his attention to his computer.

  Well, okay then.

  It wasn’t as if I called him sir all the time, just when the situation seemed to call for it. Like when he was in a bad mood or pissed, both of which he had been this morning.

  Whatever. I didn’t have time to dwell on it or any of the other confusing things that had happened between us, including the kissing, which we apparently weren’t going to talk about—fine with me. I had work to do.

  By the time lunch rolled around, I was starving, but I didn’t dare take a break. Parker left for a meeting with a client at a restaurant a few blocks away, and I could practically smell the expensive entrées on his suit when he came back two hours later.

  He caught me at his desk, leaving a stack of month-end reports sent from the managers who worked underneath him. I’d printed them and arranged them in the order Parker preferred. I scooted out from behind his desk as he slid into his seat.

  His phone rang and I reached out to snag it as I rounded the desk. “Parker Anderson’s office.”

  There was a pause; then a man’s voice asked, “Sage? Is that you, my dear?”

  I froze, my gaze flying to Parker’s. I knew that voice.

  Viktor, I mouthed to him. So much for him knowing I wasn’t dead. Guess that particular cat was out of the bag. I hadn’t even thought to not answer Parker’s phone.

  “Would you like to speak to Parker?” I asked stiffly.

  “Yes, if you would, and may I say I’m glad to see that you’re in such perfect…health.”

  And that put the nail in t
he coffin of who’d killed Hanna and why.

  I handed the phone over to Parker, who looked grim, then went back to my desk. I watched through the glass until he hung up the phone; then he beckoned me back in.

  “What did he want?” I asked.

  “He’s decided to come here himself and oversee everything, make sure the deal goes through the way he wants.”

  I frowned. Parker hated clients who micromanaged rather than just letting him do his job.

  “Is he coming in to the office?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I’m meeting him later tonight at his hotel.”

  “By yourself?”

  Parker glanced at me, one eyebrow raised. “Who else would I take?”

  I ignored his sarcasm. “I don’t trust him. Can’t you take Mark or Jason?” They were a couple of senior managers who worked for Parker. But he just shook his head again.

  “They’ve been holding down my current contracts while I’ve been dealing with this. I’m not going to ask them to tag along on this, too.”

  I was disappointed, and worried; then something occurred to me. “Wait, you’re not keeping them out of it just because you’d have to give them a percentage, are you?” The question just popped out and I remembered with vivid clarity how Ryker was so certain Parker knew exactly what these people did and were capable of.

  Parker looked at me. Didn’t reply. His jaw was clenched and his mouth was set in a thin line.

  Belatedly, I tried to backtrack. “I’m sorry, that was inappropriate—”

  “My reasons for not including other members of this firm are my own,” Parker interrupted, and his voice was icy steel. “You may go.”

  “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “I said you’re dismissed.”

  I didn’t have the guts to say anything else and I scurried out of the office, my face burning. God, it seemed I couldn’t do anything right today. Tears stung my eyes and I knew what part of my problem was. I’d been trying not to think about Hanna all day, but she was there, in the back of my mind. All I could see were those bloodstained sheets.