“One of whom?”
“Someone who can’t separate personal from professional. It’s an unhealthy lifestyle, Commander Bates.”
“Call me Jared.”
“I know what your name is,” she said as she opened the car door. “But since we’re never going to be friends, I’ll stick to the more formal, Commander Bates.”
He caught her arm and slowly drew her closer in a move that made her skin erupt with goosebumps.
“You can’t fool me, Mrs. Lee.”
“I’m stating a fact. Now, please let go.” Her ears pricked up at the sound of her own breathlessness. It was so unlike her. She bristled at the seductive brush of his thumb in the crease of her elbow.
“We might never be friends, Paxton, but one thing I can promise you.” He leaned closer until she could feel his warm breath caress her face. He took note of the tip of her tongue that gently painted a satin sheen upon her lips. The smile was no more than a twitch of his lips as he locked his gaze onto hers, paralyzing her mind with the wicked intent she read there. “You are going to submit to me. Soon.”
With those words, he pressed a lingering kiss on her mouth. She was still trying to wrap her mind around what he’d said when he was gone, leaving her to consider the effects of their briefly shared intimacy.
He readily confused her by shapeshifting from the stern commander to a forceful alpha male. She was startled to find him suddenly appear out of nowhere, staring unsmiling at her as he opened the car door. He had never looked more intimidating and powerful as he did at that moment.
“Shall we?”
She blinked and swung her legs sideways, needing the moment to gather her frayed composure. It was a first for Paxton Lee; to be caught out, unaware, for the second time, by the same man in one night.
She avoided his eyes as she slid from the seat, slapping his hand away as he tried to assist her. If she’d known where to go, she’d have stomped off to prove to him how unaffected she was by his unwanted attention.
Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that.
“This way.”
It annoyed the living daylights out of Paxton that Jared seemed unaffected by the kiss as she followed him down a pathway through the thicket. She objected to her own reaction as she locked onto the sight of the flexing musculature of his glutes. She had never been one to get wild-eyed over a chauvinistic brute like him, but somehow her libido didn’t agree, especially since he sparked it to life with a kiss.
Enough. This ends now. I’m acting like a schoolgirl with a crush on a teacher!
“Oh my, how beautiful.” Paxton said in awe as the double storied mansion, painted against the backdrop of the dark ocean, came into view. It was illuminated by nautically themed path lights and downlight sconces all around the house. A Mediterranean vacation home on the western outskirts of the Bay Area. She wanted to see the garden in daylight since the little of it that was visible caught her breath. “Who would’ve thought there could be a house here?”
“I like my privacy which is why there’s no driveway to the house, apart from a secret entrance only my family is privy to.” Her eyes gleamed as she ascended the wide staircase that led to a patio. “The stronghold is this way,” he rasped in a thick voice upon the sight of her buttocks gently swaying to the rhythm of every step. His eyes roamed over her shapely legs and back up over her curvaceous hips and full breasts that strained against the blouse she wore.
“How you manage to run in those spikes is beyond me.”
“I could ask the same about you and your big hulk,” she mumbled irritably as she descended the stairs and planted her fists on her hips when he didn’t move. “Well? Are we gonna stand out here until dawn?”
She all but fainted when he tapped a finger against her lips. “You’re way too sassy for your own good, Mrs. Lee. It’s going to be a pleasure to make you beg.”
His words in the Humvee just before he’d kissed her suddenly registered for the first time.“You are going to submit to me.”She stood agape, finally realizing what the submissive inside her already knew.He’s a Dom! No-no-no-no!
He smiled broadly at her expression but didn’t stay to savor it as he led the way around the house through another thicketed path. Paxton forced herself to focus as she watched him key in a code to open a door behind a thick curtain of ivy.
“Impressive,” she said as she followed him down a flight of stairs, furious with herself for letting her guard down and not recognizing the Dom in him before now. He had gotten an early jump on her. She was incensed by being caught out by someone who was vastly more tuned in than he led her to believe. He had long ago figured out that she was submissive.
Checkmate.
No shit, Sherlock! He’d glommed onto that fact long ago.It all clicked now. She realized as much when she recalled his actions and threats earlier.
Now, the submissive in her screamed for release to yield to the man, who, without a doubt, was all in one— a powerful Dom and black ops commander.
Chapter Two
“What the fuck do you know? You’re nothing but a brainless meathead.”