Los Angeles
Tuesday before Thanksgiving
Macen “Hammer” Hammerman stifled the mundane conversation with his assistant, Raine Kendall, and stood, bracing his hands on the desk between them. Though his office door stood open—he wasn’t “allowed” to talk to her otherwise—they were as alone as they’d been in weeks. It was now or never. He had an important question to ask.
“Tell me something, Raine. Your period is what, five days late?”
Blood leached from her face. “Wha—I… How would you even know that?”
Because it was his business. After six years of being her mentor, caretaker, and employer, he’d recently given in to his gnawing hunger and fucked her in every way known to man. And recklessly, he’d done it without a condom. Since admitting how much he wanted her, he couldn’t seem to stop. But the elaborate collar that now dangled from her neck strangled him with one indisputable fact: She was owned. Taken. Completely off limits. Property of another.
That son of a bitch, Liam O’Neill. His former best friend.
“Kind of blows your theory that I’ve always looked through you, doesn’t it?” He smirked. “Since you came to Shadows, I’ve kept tabs on your cycle every single month. You promised you’d let me know if you were so much as a minute late. I’ve been waiting.”
She pretended to scan through the pages of her notepad. “I promised to tell you if I was pregnant. Right now, I don’t know anything. We need to finish discussing the Thanksgiving menu. I hope you bought cranberry sauce.”
“Cranberry sauce? Really?” He cocked his head, his tone a warning.
“Don’t do this, Hammer.”
He leaned closer. “In case you’ve forgotten, it was my cock riding your pussy, precious. So I’m not shutting up until I have an answer.”
A rosy flush suddenly stained her cheeks. Hammer smiled. She hadn’t forgotten the passion they’d shared any more than he had. It had haunted him, day after day, night after night…
Raine scrambled to her feet, clutching her notepad and pen. “I have enough for the menu. We’re done here.”
“We’re not,” he barked. “Sit down.”
She tossed her things on his desk and crossed her arms, glaring up at him. The swells of her pillowy breasts spilled from her V-neck tank. She looked sexy when she was mad. “So you can harass me again?”
Yes, Raine would see it that way. Christ, he needed to dial back on the confrontation, figure out how to drag information from her without distressing her even more.
“So we can finish talking. It’s not my intention to upset you,” he murmured.
She gave him a skeptical stare.
“Sit. Please.” He waited until she complied, then he sat across from her. “You know I’d normally rather fucking swallow glass than say I’m sorry, but I owe it to you to shove this apology past my pride. That night, my need to mark you as mine overwhelmed my better judgment. It was selfish and reckless. I’m sorry.”
Raine sighed, some of the starch leaving her. “You were drunk.”
“That’s even worse. I was pissed off, too. And hurt. To me, Liam’s claim on you didn’t mean shit. He messed with your mind and played you, just like he played me.”
“You don’t get to decide if my relationship with him is meaningless. I was afraid, and Liam took care of me. He still does.”
A fact Hammer hated. “Why do you think he took such a sudden interest in you?”
“Why do you care? You and I were a mistake. Move on. I have.”
No way. “I made love to you that night, Raine.”
She squirmed and looked away. “And your ‘love’ was so meaningful, you couldn’t wait the next morning to tell me that I wasn’t woman enough for you.”
Hammer reached across the desk and grabbed her chin, forcing her gaze to his. “Sixteen days, ten hours, and thirty-seven minutes ago, I heard your screams of ecstasy as I drove into your sweet little pussy. And you were so much woman that it changed me.”
Raine shivered in his grasp. She tried to act like he didn’t affect her, but he knew her way too well to believe that.
“So you don’t want a slave you chain to your bed every night anymore?”
“I’ll always want that.” In fact, he could picture her as his, collared, naked, wet, kneeling… He swallowed down a surge of arousal. Raine wasn’t built for that kind of submission, and he couldn’t expect her to change for him. “But I’ve always wanted you, too.” He reluctantly released her. “And every time you submit to Liam, I can hear that son of a bitch all over you through the thin walls. It hurts like hell, but I still listen and remember the taste of you on my tongue.”
“Stop.” The pulse picked up at Raine’s throat. She pushed out of her chair and whirled for the door, leaving her pad and pen behind.