Overwhelmed

DIG Security 2

LAINA KENNEY

Copyright © 2010

Chapter 1

Carolyn shifted uncomfortably against the back wall of the conference room while the speaker switched machines. She was trying to take some of the pressure off her ankle. A bad break and four surgeries made it usable but not reliable, and certainly not pain-free. She could always predict a rainy day.

The guest speaker droned on, long past the time when the meeting should have ended, and Carolyn was starting to think longingly of pain pills and a tall glass of water.

Aside from the dull ache, her weak ankle was also a fashion nightmare, preventing her from wearing the gorgeous stiletto heels that used to be her trademark. At five feet seven, she wasn’t short by any means, but with soft blue eyes, fine red hair, and delicate features, she needed all the help she could get to hold her own against the testosterone-laden men in the security profession. Being able to stare them down eye-to-eye was something she missed on a regular basis.

A deep voice rumbled softly in her ear. “Sit down, Cara. There’s a chair free in the fourth row.”

She shivered, but shook her head to discourage him. That dark velvet voice that seduced her every night in her dreams could only belong to one man.

Grange Hamilton, co-owner of DIG Security and one of her bosses, moved up beside her. With his close-cropped black hair, icy silver eyes, and military bearing, he was the original agent, powerful, silent, and cool in a crisis. There was no reason at all why his voice should cause such a heated reaction in her treacherous body. It was all she could do to keep from rubbing her thighs together, but he would notice, damn him. He noticed every detail. It was part of what made him such an impressive agent. Add to that his towering height, his fierce intelligence, and his strong, muscular body, and Carolyn could hardly keep her hands, or her dreams, off him.

“Carolyn, sit down.”

“I’m not your dog,” she whispered fiercely, refusing to look at him.

A hard hand manacled her wrist, and she was dragged through the back doors and out into the bright hallway.

Grange swung her up into his arms, and in three long strides, they were in his office and he was kicking the door shut behind them. Before she could draw a breath to shriek at him, he tossed her onto the big leather couch.

He turned and pulled open a drawer, grabbed a small white pill bottle, and pitched it across to her. She caught it purely out of reflex. He moved to the small fridge, took out a bottle of water, and opened the cap with a harsh motion.

“Take the pain meds,” he said, handing her the water and moving across to the desk.

“Grange—”

“I’m warning you right now, baby, I’ve about had it. Take the damn meds, and don’t bother objecting.”

His voice was no longer calm, vibrating with such intensity that Carolyn sat stunned. Only when he growled and started stalking toward her again did she hurry to shake out a pill, swallow it, and guzzle cold water to chase it down—gazing at him wide-eyed the whole time.

He moved like a jungle cat, all sleek muscles and power, and she couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

At her compliance, his shoulders relaxed marginally. “I can’t stand to see you in pain,” Grange said quietly, rubbing at his short black hair with one hand.

“Grange, I—” She shook her head. “I can handle it.”

“Well, I can’t.” His voice was hard, uncompromising. “I can’t see you in pain. God, what you’ve gone through, the surgeries, the pins, the crutches and the physiotherapy—” he broke off. “Damn it!”

“I appreciate your concern,” Carolyn began, desperate to get back on a professional footing when all she really wanted was to curl up against that massive chest and whimper while he soothed her with his dark voice. It was every fantasy of hers to have him care for her that way.

“Don’t fucking
appreciate my concern
!” he nearly snarled. “Don’t shove me back and pretend we’re casual acquaintances who just met, for fuck’s sake!”

From such a controlled man, the heat of his anger was stunning. The room seemed too small to hold the force of it.

Carolyn stood up, glancing uneasily toward the closed door, and he stepped forward to block the one exit. Her heart rate accelerated.

“No,” he said. “You’re not running this time. You know me, you know I’d take a bullet for you, so you can’t possibly be afraid that I’d hurt you no matter how pissed I am. And make no mistake, baby, I’m pissed off and ready to do something about it.” He crossed his arms over his muscular chest and planted his feet. His posture stated that he wasn’t moving any time soon.

“Be sensible,” Carolyn snapped, refusing to back down. “There’s no reason for you to be angry with me. I don’t answer to you for the choices I make outside of work, and I only answer to Dash at work. Whatever the hell your problem is, I suggest you get over it.”

“Love to, baby, but you’ll have to cooperate. You are my problem, so just name the day and I’ll get over you and stay over you until you can’t remember a time when I wasn’t.”

His tone made the words a deep sexual promise. It sent shivers down her spine and into her dampening sex. His voice was a dark, velvety caress against her heightened senses. Each time he spoke it made her muscles want to melt into a puddle at his feet. His not-so-subtle dominance was pushing buttons she didn’t want to acknowledge.

“Grange, stop this.” She made her voice as firm as she could, trying to get control of the situation. If he ever knew how appealing she found him, how she fought every day to come to work and speak to him in a businesslike way, he would never back down until she was in his bed. She knew that like she knew her own name.

He shook his head slowly, his silver eyes intent on her face. “It isn’t going to stop, and I think you know it. This thing between us isn’t going away. It’s just getting stronger with time. I’ll admit it would be easier if I didn’t want you. God knows, just watching you walk by makes concentrating on work impossible some days.” His eyes swept over her, lingering with heated approval on her long legs and slender curves. “But, honey, I wouldn’t trade a minute of the time we spend together, even if it is torture.” His slow grin lit his pale eyes.

Carolyn almost sagged with the relief. He was a big man, but she didn’t fear him physically. She knew to her soul that he would never raise a hand to hurt her, or any woman, but his anger was powerful, intimidating.

He noticed the change in her immediately, and his silver gaze softened, brightened. “Cara,” he breathed. “Come here, honey.”

She was moving before she had time to consider, and he wrapped her up in his warm arms and pulled her against his chest. He tucked her head under his chin and just rocked her.

Grange held her very close. In his arms, she felt small and treasured as he rubbed his hands soothingly up and down her back. Each long stroke pressed her closer to him until she was leaning her full weight on him. He nuzzled his nose into her soft red-gold hair and inhaled deeply.

“You’re sniffing me again,” Carolyn murmured. He always seemed to stand close to her, and several times, she had caught him leaning toward her and inhaling.

“I dream of your scent,” he said and inhaled again. “I dreamed of your soft clean scent for years in some of the worst, reeking hellholes on this planet.” His voice was low, and she strained to hear. “You will never know how that saved me. It made me want to live when other men just wanted to die.”

His arms tightened around her for a moment before he straightened and began to draw away. Instantly, Carolyn wrapped her own arms around his back and held him to her, refusing to allow him to escape from his own revealing words. She had known of his years with the Army Rangers, but she didn’t know any of the darker details of his life before he became a partner with his fellow Rangers, Dash and Isaac, to form DIG Security. The idea of such a strong man feeling such hopeless desperation shocked her.

“I’m glad you wanted to live. I’m glad you lived,” she whispered fiercely to him, uncaring of her own vulnerability in the face of his.

Grange leaned down and captured her mouth savagely with his. His tongue pushed between her lips as she gasped, and the incredible taste of him made her knees feel weak. One big hand grasped the back of her head, tunneled in her hair, and held her in place for his marauding mouth. Her heart was suddenly racing, and it was difficult to draw breath.

His kiss was no gentle exploration. It was a blatant sex act. It was overwhelming, and it was glorious.

Carolyn’s thoughts spun and whirled to a halt as she was dragged down with him into a world of pure feeling. Her nipples beaded, scraping against the lace of her bra as he moved her back and forth against his hard chest. She moaned helplessly around his tongue, and he pulled away long enough to murmur something dark and seductive before returning to lick deeply into her mouth once more. It was too much sensation, and she sagged into his powerful arms, whimpering in pleasure and despair.

Supporting her weight and never lifting his mouth from its deep conquest of hers, he turned, pressed her back against the door, and held her there with the full weight of his body between her parted thighs. The sudden heat and hardness against her most sensitive area made her body release a trickle of heated fluid. She writhed against his hot body, riding the ridge of his thick penis through their clothes. His hips took up a firm counter-rhythm, and the delicious rise of sensation caused them both to groan with pleasure.

Still possessing her mouth in an endless kiss, Grange pushed one hand under her bottom and tilted her hips to the perfect angle, rubbing his hard cock against her hot flesh in a faster, harder tempo. The motion was intense, shocking, shooting bolts of sensation through her bloodstream. Carolyn’s whole body clenched, and her wild cry as she climaxed was caught in his mouth.

“God, baby, you burn me up,” he growled against her lips. He turned with her still in his arms and was moving toward the big leather sofa, when there was a knock on the door followed by a rattle of the doorknob.

“Grange, did you know your door is locked? I can’t get in.”

The sickly sweet Southern voice on the other side caused Carolyn to stiffen in Grange’s embrace, and he cursed under his breath as he felt it.

Carolyn tried to struggle out of his arms, and she felt her feet touch the floor, but Grange took a firmer grip to keep her in his arms. “No way are you escaping now, not after this,” he stated, face flushed and still breathing heavily. “We’ll just wait for her to go away, and then you and I will finish—”

“Grange, I know you’re in there. Aren’t you going to let me in, darling?” The female voice outside the door was Nina, the former model so famous that she had been known internationally at the age of fourteen by her first name alone, was definitely not going away. Carolyn privately thought of her as the office piranha.

“Yes, Grange,
darling
, aren’t you going to let Nina in?” Carolyn hissed as she increased her efforts to get out of his embrace. “I’m sure she would be happy to help you
finish
!”

“No damn way,” he said, easily controlling her struggles by clamping her against him until she could hardly draw breath. Outmaneuvered for the moment, she subsided. “I want more of you, and none of that venomous—”

“Granger? Let me in.” The doorknob rattled, but the lock held.

“Nina,” a male voice called from down the hall, “have you got the interim report for Mr. Jamieson’s reps? I’m meeting with them in a few minutes, and I can’t find it.”

“I don’t have it,” her frustrated voice replied.

“But I gave it to you this morning for approval and—”

“Fine! I’ll get it!”

Carolyn could hear her heels clacking down the hall toward the bank of printers. Grange heaved a sigh that sounded like relief and leaned his forehead against hers.

“She’s gone,” he murmured, “but she’ll likely be back. She must have seen us come in here.”

“Seen you drag me in here, you mean.” Carolyn’s voice was sharp with the humiliation of coming apart in his arms with almost no stimulation. He would certainly think she was easy after that shameful display.

“Easy!” He snorted. It made her realize that she had spoken her fears aloud. She could feel her face flushing, and mentally cursed at having a redhead’s fair complexion.

“Baby, I’ve been at your heels for a solid year, and I wanted you long before that. I’ve waited and held back until I thought I would go mad, first because you were too young and then because of your live-in boyfriend.”