"Contact Ely," he snapped hoarsely. "Now."
Braden nodded and left the office. The door slammed behind him, clicked and locked, sealing them safely within the office.
"Sit." Lance deposited her in the chair as he strode to his desk and hit the intercom link.
"Lenny, I'm not available until I inform you otherwise," he snapped into the desk sergeant's link. "Do you understand?"
"I figured," he grunted. "I saw that damned Jonas striding out of here grinning like a polecat. I got your back, Sheriff. No one will bother you."
It was no secret that after one of Jonas's surprise visits, Lance normally disappeared for hours to fortify his patience.
Disengaging the link, he turned back to Harmony. She was pacing now, her head lowered, auburn hair covering her face as she fought the obvious effects of the mating heat.
It was killing him too. His balls were drawn up so damned tight he swore they were going to implode. His c**k was like living steel behind the fly of his jeans and pressing painfully into the zipper.
Dealing with this was going to be impossible until the more pressing physical needs were taken care of. Namely, bending her over and f**king her past her tears and her hunger, until they could both stand to breathe without the agony of need torturing them. God help them both if she let out one of those animalistic little roars when she came, though. If she did, the entire department would know he was spending on-duty hours screwing the hell out of the little cat.
"Harmony, we'll find a way to fix this." He breathed out roughly as he moved toward her.
"Until then, baby, before we can leave this office, we have to take care of this arousal. It's killing both of us."
Her head whipped up, her expression blank with shock.
"No." She shook her head emphatically. "We can't take that risk, Lance. You know we can't."
Her hand pressed against her lower stomach as she breathed in roughly.
"We don't have a choice," he bit out. "I can't think for the remembered taste of your kiss. It's killing me. You might have the control to withstand it, but I don't." She shook her head again as he moved to the utility cabinet at the side of the room. Opening the doors, he pulled a clean ball gag from its cellophane wrapper and turned back to her.
Her eyes widened as they dropped to the device, and he grinned wickedly.
"A little present from one of my depraved cousins. She thought I should keep them here in case I wanted to play on the job."
He liked the little frown that creased her brow, the glimmer of jealousy in her eyes. Yeah, he liked that a lot. He stepped into the bathroom beside the cabinet and quickly cleaned the rubber device before drying it and moving back into the room.
"You are crazy if you think I'm going to let you gag me," she snapped.
"Would you rather my men hear you screaming?" He arched his brow curiously. "I don't care, but you will have to work here once we have a handle on this, baby."
"No."
"I could cuff you too." He pulled the old-fashioned metal cuffs from the cabinet and jangled them at her.
Her breath caught, her hand pressing tighter to her stomach.
"Oh, you like the idea of that, don't you, baby?" he crooned, as her gaze became hotter, hungrier…
Oh yeah, he could grow to like this mating shit. He had a feeling Harmony would have never let herself go enough to allow him this much control over her otherwise. He had read her file; he had seen the weapon she had built herself into. The weapon that was quickly eroding beneath the needs of the woman.
"There, little cat." He moved behind her, slowly pulling one wrist to the small of her back before capturing the other and snapping the cuffs on them.
She flinched at the sound, jerking in his embrace as a little whimper left her throat.
"You know what this gag is going to do?" He bent close to her ear as he moved her toward the dark bathroom. "It's going to trap all that sweet aphrodisiac spilling from your tongue inside your mouth. It's going to flow into your system like lava and make you hotter than hell."
He pulled her to a stop at the small sink.
"This is not a good idea," she whispered roughly as she stared up at him. "Don't do this, Lance. I can't fight you. It's not fair when I can't fight back."