“I’ll give you everything I’ve got. No more fighting or holding back. No pretending that submitting to you doesn’t arouse me. I’ll give you total honesty sexually. In exchange, once this mission is over, you’ll walk away and never seek me out again. If those terms aren’t acceptable, I believe my stepfather is still in contact with Admiral Pierce, who can revoke your leave immediately,” she bluffed. “What’s it going to be?”
LOGAN stared at his clever little Cherry. Getting angry would be easy—and pointless. If he didn’t agree to her deal, he’d likely be back in some third world shithole by tomorrow, fighting tangos, which would pave the way for another Dom to train her.
Fuck, no.
Logan set her aside on the silken sheets and rose, scrubbing a harsh hand down his face. Talk about topping from the bottom. Either he refused her deal and gave her up now, or he took his chances and hoped that in their remaining time together, he could both teach her what she needed to know and recapture her heart. No contest.
“All right.” He grabbed her chin, forcing her gaze up to his. “But I need your complete cooperation to get this done, so I have terms of my own: if you push back even once, if you lie or fail to trust me, the deal is off.”
“Fine.” She bristled.
“Make no mistake, Cherry. If that happens, once this mission is over, I will come after you hard, with everything I’ve got.”
Tara jerked her chin from his grasp and glared, clearly trying to understand his motivation. If he hadn’t known her well, he would have missed the curiosity and confusion she tried like hell to bury. He wished she’d just ask; he’d be more than happy to tell her why he’d cut her loose years ago. He’d gladly admit that he still loved her so much that it hurt. But she didn’t trust him yet. That stunt he’d pulled with Brad earlier today hadn’t helped his cause. Logan knew that if he blurted his feelings now, she likely wouldn’t believe him. And why should she? It wasn’t like he’d been at her door every day, trying to win her back. No, he’d been trying, in his way, to move on, just as she had.
She glared, then nodded once. “All right. But I need to speak with Bocelli before it gets any later on the East Coast. I have a sparring appointment with Agent York at six, then dinner with my stepfather at seven thirty. Somewhere between all of that, I need to find a place to stay, since I moved my things out of Brad’s house.”
She’d been living with the ass**le? It probably shouldn’t have shocked Logan, but her words were a blow to his gut.
“You can stay with me.”
Tara just shook her head. “That’s not a good idea. Misty said she knew of some decent nearby motels. I’ll start there. It won’t interfere with work.”
“If that’s the way you want it. But you’re not leaving this dungeon before five today. I have something planned for you this afternoon. In fact, we’ve got a lot to cover before you’re ready, so we’ll be putting in long hours. For the rest of the week, we’ll start at oh six hundred.”
“Fine,” she bit out.
Logan let out a breath, tried to stay focused. All he could think about was picking Cherry up and throwing her in his truck, taking her to his condo, to his bed—where he’d never taken any woman—then strapping her down and getting deep inside her. So f**king deep, she’d never forget the way he filled her up.
God damn it, what irony. He’d refused a string of subs who’d assumed that giving him sex would please him. He finally found one he was dying for, and he couldn’t have her.
At least not yet.
While she spent tonight dealing with all the crap in her life, he’d get his head screwed on straight. And plan. His time with Cherry was limited, so he had to pull out all the stops to show her how he felt. He’d do his f**king best to ensure that by the end of the week there was no way she could fail on this mission—and no way she’d ever again deny that he was in her heart.
“STAND for me,” Logan commanded.
Without a word or a moment’s hesitation, Tara rose to her feet before him, hands behind her back, br**sts outthrust, defiant stare glued to his.
“Careful with your attitude,” he warned, voice silky. “Ever heard of edge play?”
“I have.” She struggled to retrieve the information from her brain with Logan’s unnerving gaze on every naked inch of her. “It can mean activities on the ‘edge’ of the safe, sane, consensual, like breathplay or cutting.”
“Right. That’s a hard limit for many, including me, so we won’t go there. I’m talking about a different sort of edge.”
Moments later, Logan punched in his security code to the dungeon door. Tara looked up to see another man saunter inside.
He was tall, with dark hair, and eyes somewhere between green and gold. Hispanic? Italian? His bronzed complexion bespoke some exotic race. When he entered, he’d looked bored. The second his eyes latched on to her, they lit up like he’d found a fascinating new toy and couldn’t wait to play.
Tara raised her arms, intent on crossing them over her chest.
“Stop,” Logan demanded, his voice low.
Body taut, she forced herself to drop her hands to her sides.
Logan nodded his praise. “This is my friend and fellow Dom, Xander.”
“What’s he doing here?”