Overwhelmed (9 page)

Carolyn was sure she felt the world spin off its axis. She looked at her mother and Grange smiling at one another, the society hostess and the former Army Ranger in perfect agreement, and said faintly, “I think I need to sit down.”

“Oh, Carolyn.” Her mother laughed. “Don’t worry about a thing. Granger, do you have a tuxedo?”

“Yes, ma’am, I do.”

“Well, that will certainly save us some time.” Annalise wore a blinding smile, clearly overjoyed with today’s developments.

Grange moved to take her mother’s hand. “Annalise, would you favor me with your company for an early lunch? We have had…an issue recently, and I’d like to discuss security with you for the ball.”

“Why, I’d be delighted.” Annalise tucked her arm in Grange’s and let him lead her to the door.

“I’ll bring him back safely, dear,” her mother said.

Carolyn watched in amazement as Grange glanced back at her and winked before escorting her mother from the room.

Chapter 12

Nearly three hours later, Carolyn walked into Isaac’s office and pulled the door shut behind her.

Isaac looked at her face and opened his arms to her. She just kept moving forward, and his arms closed around her with satisfying pressure, pulling her firmly against his broad, warm chest.

“We all have to go to the charity ball,” she mumbled petulantly into his jacket. “Grange and my mother are new best friends. It’s frightening and unnatural.”

Isaac rocked her a little, back and forth, and it soothed her on a primitive level.

“Yeah,” he said, laughing a little, “Grange messaged me to get the tuxes dry cleaned, and your gold dress, too. I took them down to the dry cleaners, but he has to pick them up Friday morning,” he groused good-naturedly.

Carolyn laughed, as he no doubt meant her to. She rubbed her cheek against him, openly savoring his heat. It amused her that these ultra-masculine men, so used to the command position, would take care of such a mundane consideration as dry cleaning.

“We’ll also be working with your mother’s security guards. Conn and Charlotte will be attending as an extra set of eyes. I realize that we won’t be able to be public about our relationship, and Grange is the one your mom thinks of as the fiancé, so I’ll try to keep the dirty dancing to a minimum.”

His words were a tease, humorous, but his tone of voice held a certain resignation. Isaac didn’t like taking the second position, but he was trying to make light of it.

Carolyn reached up, nuzzled his ear, and smoothed kisses from there down to the hollow of his throat. She leaned back, letting his strength support her so that she could meet his eyes.

“You’re not second best to me, Isaac. Never think it.” She spoke softly and clearly so her words would sink in. “I was having such a hard time feeling what I felt for you and for Grange at the same time. I couldn’t choose one over the other. I love you, and I want to be your wife.”

“God, baby, I love you,” he said almost desperately. “I love you.”

Isaac pulled her up close and fastened his mouth tenderly over hers. The heat flared between them as it always did, but it was tempered with a deep, swelling emotion. They rocked together, mouths fused and clinging, until Carolyn had tears standing in her eyes and Isaac was in much the same condition himself.

“You’ll never know how much you mean to me,” he grated, pressing kisses to her eyelids, sipping the teardrops. “I’m not good with words, and there are no words big enough to cover this feeling.”

“You’re doing just fine,” Carolyn assured him softly, basking in his focused attention. This gentle and open Isaac was so different from Isaac the office clown, or Isaac the soldier, that she was utterly captivated. He was irresistible to her this way.

He smoothed his lips down her throat, nibbling and tasting, lingering over the sensitive area until her knees felt like jelly and his hard arms supported her weight completely.

He laid her down across the desk and sat in his chair, pushing his hands up her thighs to raise her skirt. Soon, the skirt was bunched around her waist. He slowly pushed her thighs apart.

Isaac sighed gustily.

“God, I love garters,” he said feelingly, and lowered his mouth to her tender thigh just above one pink lace garter. The sensation of heat made her moan in anticipation. He nipped then sucked hard, and her pussy gushed a flood of scented cream as he left his loving mark on her pale skin.

He knew it, damn him, and his fingers trailed up, brushing seductively against her hot folds, and pushing the delicate pink lace of her panties to one side so that he could explore her further, he gently investigated the wetness.

Two long fingers slid inside, and she winced a little at the soreness. It had been a long and vigorous night, and she wasn’t used to such activities.

Isaac noticed immediately and pulled his fingers out of her clinging heat, drawing moisture with him. She groaned at the friction.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice muffled slightly, his breath hot against her secret flesh. “Are you sore, baby? I should have thought. I’ll kiss it better.”

The sensation was electrifying. He licked and nuzzled the frilled seam apart, then settled in, holding her open with his big hands. He used his whole mouth, his lips, his tongue, and his teeth in a fevered, wicked assault on her scorching pussy. The man was a connoisseur of all things female, and his own obvious enjoyment of this intimate act made it that much hotter for her until she was writhing and nearly out of her mind.

He lapped and tasted, swirling his stiffened tongue around her swollen clit, flicking and pulling at it with his pursed lips, creating a maelstrom of excitement which threatened to blast apart everything she had known before.

He deliberately drew it out, constantly varying technique and tempo, torturing her with her own ungovernable response, until she couldn’t do anything but surrender to his illicit expertise. Only when Carolyn was almost frantic, pleading with him, thrashing between his restraining hands, and begging breathlessly for relief of the exquisite torment, did he fasten his mouth to her and suck strongly.

The resulting explosion was incredibly intense, flashing through her bloodstream in a blast of liquid heat, and a sharp, high scream tore from her throat as every muscle in her body clenched. Isaac kept his mouth on her, staying with her as she bucked and then gradually gentling the demand from his touch until he was simply nuzzling tenderly, petting, and seeming to enjoy the feminine flesh displayed for him.

Carolyn could distantly feel her own excessive wetness, had felt it as it pulsed out in her climax, but she couldn’t seem to dredge up the energy to feel embarrassed by it. If his reluctance to lift his face from her was any indication, Isaac wasn’t bothered by her extravagant response. If anything, he seemed quite pleased with her and with himself.

He pulled back after a few moments, leaving her draped limply over his desk, still exposed to his burning gaze. With visible unwillingness, he put her clothing back in order and coaxed her onto his lap.

She could feel his hard cock pressing aggressively against her hip, but when she tried to stroke him through his trousers, he moved her hand up to his mouth to tickle her fingers with his breath.

“Isaac, what about you?” she asked, her voice warm.

“I’m happy right here, holding you in my arms.” His smile was genuine, unguarded. “Let me have this. Let me know right now that my woman is limp from the pleasure I’ve given her. It’s enough.”

Carolyn lay against him, giving up all control to him and basking in his care. He held her close and silent for a long time, sometimes stroking her back or smoothing tiny kisses into her hair, letting her just drift in the glorious aftermath. It was one of the most peaceful moments of her life.

Chapter 13

“Honey, I’m home,” Grange called as he walked into the ranch house carrying their dry cleaning. Two tuxedos and one golden silk gown clean and pressed, perfect for the charity ball they would be attending tonight, perfect for the announcement that Carolyn Winston would soon become Mrs. Granger Hamilton—and later, in a private ceremony for just a few close friends, Mrs. Isaac Marks.

Grange grinned to himself. They certainly wouldn’t be announcing
that
part of it at the ball. It would please him, and no doubt Isaac, very much to have their relationship with Carolyn openly acknowledged, but she was very conscious of the strictures of the society in which her parents lived, so their unorthodox home life would have to remain a closely guarded secret shared with only a few very close friends.

“Grange, you’re a bit late,” Carolyn said breathlessly as he rounded the corner into the living room. She took the golden dress from him hurriedly, but he reeled her in to plant a smacking kiss on her smiling lips. He lingered for a moment, just until she began to respond, and then he pulled back to nuzzle her fragrant throat.

“You smell great,” he said, growling playfully against her suddenly throbbing pulse. “And you look great.”

She was wearing a low-cut bustier and the tiniest scrap of gold lace panties he had ever had the pleasure of seeing. Stockings with garters completed the picture. And her hair was piled high on her head with a few artful red-gold curls hanging down.

“Hurry up and run,” he said gruffly, “because if you stand there looking edible for another five seconds, I’ll be all over you. Your beautiful hair will be wrecked, and we will all be very late for this ball.”

Carolyn laughed, flushing with pleasure at his heated teasing. She was shaking her head as she rushed away down the hall.

Damn, she looked good in their house.

Grange felt more than heard Isaac coming up behind him, and passed Isaac’s tux back to him.

“Thanks.” Isaac sounded subdued, thoughtful.

“You’ve been thinking about the security?” Grange asked, knowing well where Isaac’s thoughts would be this close to an operation.

“Yeah, and something Charlotte said has stayed with me. She said that a woman who had her eye on another woman’s man would call her names like slut.’”

“Yeah?” Grange made the connection easily. “So, is she thinking that this perp could be another woman and maybe not Martin Brent at all?”

“I think it’s worth considering.”

“Okay, I’ll update Conn. He may take it better coming from me than he would from Charlotte. He and Charlotte are already at the Winston house.”

“What’s with Conn, anyway? He knows Charlotte is a top agent, but he shuts her down every time she has an opinion. She’s just going to stop talking to him at all, and then we’ll lose her expertise.” Isaac sounded aggravated.

“So put her on a different team for a while.” Grange had no intention of getting into Conn’s psych issues, even with Isaac. “Carolyn’s mother has assigned Conn and Charlotte rooms so they could get ready there, and be on-site when the caterers arrive. They’re wired in, of course, and you will be, too. Locke and Burgess are in the van parked at the kitchen entrance. Carolyn will be bugged so that you can pick up her comments, but not wired in. Same with me, but I’ll have my palm unit.”

“There’s a unit at Carolyn’s house, shift rotation every twelve hours,” Isaac added. “Also, we have two extra agents at DIG, along with Heath and Bran on the security desk, just in case we’re undervaluing the business aspect of this.”

His tone stated that the business theory wasn’t working for him. Grange agreed. This felt like a personal attack on Carolyn.

“If it is a woman behind these incidents, it would have to be someone powerfully angry with Carolyn,” Grange mused. “We need to sit down with Carolyn tomorrow and try to come up with a list of suspects, male and female.”

“First thing tomorrow,” Isaac stated. “I want this thing over. We get a team on this list and clear this case in a week.”

Grange was in complete agreement. Carolyn was in danger, and his instincts were setting up a low-level hum. From experience, he knew that things at this stage could escalate into an extreme threat very quickly.

“It’s time to go hunting,” he said grimly, and Isaac nodded sharply.

Chapter 14

Carolyn hung on to Grange’s arm and smiled so hard that her face ached. Her mother was right: the faces were the same as last year, and so were the conversations. She could have given the punch line of every joke the jovial Senator Wells told to Grange, since she was convinced that she had heard them all the year before.