Take Me if You Dare (Entangled Brazen) (7 page)

Chapter Ten

Ethan easily read the emotions playing across her face: doubt, hints of maybe, and something that hit him squarely in the chest …want. He’d never had to convince a woman with that look in her eyes to say yes to him, but the challenge she presented turned him on even more.

He stroked his thumb over her cheek again, that one small touch providing a window into his memories of her silky smooth skin. “Just ask yourself one question. If we could have had one more night in Miami, would you have spent it with me?”

She shook her head. “The contract I’m working on is important, Ethan. I can’t let my personal life get in the way of—”

He pressed his thumb against her lips. “We’ll always keep it professional, especially when we’re in front of people at work, and I won’t get in the way of your schedule, but you still haven’t answered my question. Do you want to spend more time with me?”

He tamped down anxiety more than once during the silence. He hadn’t even considered she might say no. Finally, she nodded.

“So, is that a yes, that you’ll officially date me for two weeks?”

She laughed. “Yes, for a whole two weeks.”

“Good.” Things were working out according to plan. He couldn’t stop the huge grin pushing up the corners of his mouth. He leaned in and she met him halfway for a kiss, but he wanted to hold her and feel her close. Even though tonight, he’d have this, and more, he couldn’t wait. Moving his hands around her waist, he urged her onto his lap, and she obliged him, kicking off her shoes and hiking up her skirt as one kiss rolled into the next. He stroked his palms up her bare thighs, and she repositioned herself over the hard-on pushing against his zipper.

Why had he said
always
when it came to them keeping things professional at work?

Groaning, he pulled a fraction away from her lips. “How much longer are you planning to work tonight?”

“Why?”

It killed him to know the promise of pleasure was just a zipper away, and from the way she smiled against his lips, she knew it. He smoothed his hands around to cup her ass and rocked his hips upward. His balls tightened, heightening his ache, and he sucked in a breath.

“I just promised not to distract you from your work, but you’re playing with fire. All that’s missing right now is a condom.”

She laid her forehead against his. “Condoms aren’t the problem. We just can’t do this here.”

He raised his brow. Maybe she just meant no sex in
her
office.

“Tab sent me these crazy condoms for my birthday, and I didn’t remember they were still in my purse until this morning. The security guards started doing random bag searches and I nearly had a heart attack.”

“Trust me, they’ve seen worse.”

“Oh, no, these are hideous. They have the words ‘Show Me Your Package’ stamped on them, and they’re in these bright neon colors. Some of them even glow in the dark.”

The thought flashed into his mind of watching his cock light up as Jasmine rolled one of those condoms on him.

Hell yeah.

In one fluid movement, he lifted her off of his lap and got up from the couch.

“Where are you going?”

“I want to see them.”

Jasmine sprang up and followed. “No—”

But by the time she made it behind the desk, he’d already found them.

“Jackpot!” He choked back a laugh as a string of condoms, one after the other, kept coming out of her purse.

“Okay, you’ve seen them, so put them back.” She went for the condoms, but he angled his body away from her.

“Hold on. I want to turn off the lights.”

“No.”

“Oh, come on.” She made a jump for them, but he held them out of reach. “Four of them are purple, and that’s my favorite color.”

“Ethan, stop.” She was trying to be serious, but her eyes gleamed with laughter.

She made another grab for the condoms, and two of the packages ripped off and sailed through the air.

Before she toppled over, he wrapped his arm around her waist. “I’ll put these back, but only if you promise not to work too late. I have to be here at five tomorrow morning. You can ride in with me.” He took in the shadows underneath her eyes. “Come on, think about it. No one will be here yet, so you’ll get lots of work done, and you’ll be fresh from a good night’s sleep.”

She stared up at him for a long moment and then lifted up on her toes to press a quick kiss to his lips. “Okay. Thirty more minutes, and then I’m out of here.”

A knock brought their attention to the door. Jasmine’s expression morphed from startled to panic, and she pointed to the condoms. Even flustered, she was so damn cute, but he resisted the urge to tease her more and handed them over. He walked back to the couch, stifling a laugh at the sight of her fumbling with the packages as she shoved them back into her purse.

A few seconds later, she blew out a breath and slammed the desk drawer shut. “Come in.”

Drew opened the door and looked between him and Jasmine. “Am I interrupting?” he asked.

Good thing she had an honest day job, because illegal activity wasn’t in her future. She looked guilty as hell.

“No, of course not, come on in.” She smoothed her hands over her hair. “Ethan stopped by to make sure I wasn’t having any more problems with my rental car, and he brought dinner.”

She started to step around the desk but a crunching sound froze her in place. Her face practically screamed out the word.

Condom!

A chuckle almost made it past Ethan’s lips before he covered it with a cough. “Hey, Drew, would you like a plate?”

Drew looked down at the food, and Ethan glanced over at Jasmine. She kicked the condoms closer to the desk before Drew looked back up.

“I wish I could.” Drew eyed the containers on the table. “But I’m on my way to Orlando for a charity dinner. With Devin out of town, I’m forced to do all the shake-and-grins this week.” He turned his attention back to Jasmine. “I stopped by because I wanted to see if you had a minute to talk about our other two facilities.”

“Of course.” She walked over to the couch and gestured for Drew to take a seat in one of the side chairs.

Fun and games aside, that was his cue to leave. Ethan got up from the couch. “I’ll get going so the two of you can talk.”

“No,” Drew said. “Take a seat. This actually involves the security contractors.”

Ethan settled back on the couch a respectable distance away from Jasmine, who was surreptitiously slipping her feet back into her pumps.

“As you know, we have a training facility in Montana,” Drew said to Jasmine, “and if all goes well, we’ll be opening another one in California. With our training facilities, the staff is minimal, and the bulk of the people in-house are only there for a few weeks or a couple of months of intense training. A standard wellness program wouldn’t apply, but I think stress management is a big concern. What do you think, Ethan?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “but for most of us, stress management is putting in time at the gym.” Wearing himself out with weights or a hard run always did the trick for him.

He caught Jasmine’s gaze drifting over him, and the unconscious gesture of her moistening her bottom lip with her tongue made him imagine her taking him into her lush, warm mouth. Well, maybe the gym wasn’t his only stress management technique.

“Which is why I want to give staff members like our security specialists more tools than just a physical activity outlet.” Drew, as usual, was full steam ahead into planning mode. “The last time I spoke with Ted, he mentioned Regency Health was interested in developing a program focused on mental well-being. Bode-Wynn might be a good fit for a pilot program.”

“What are some of the staff’s concerns?” she asked.

“With the security specialists, I’d say a big one is being in a state of high alert and staying in crisis management mode for long periods of time. Ethan can fill you in on all of that. We already have mental health professionals on our payroll to handle the more complicated issues. We also require all of our security specialists to have at least two weeks of basic duty in Montana or here after they’ve been away on an extended job. That’s why Ethan is here now. Whatever you come up with should work hand in hand with what we already have in place.”

In the midst of the conversation, Ethan got up for more water. When he bent down to reach into the refrigerator, a glow of purple caught his attention just under the desk. Smiling to himself, he picked up the condoms and stood.

They were definitely using these.

Drew’s back was toward him, but Jasmine could clearly see what was in his hands. Her eyes widened slightly before her gaze quickly moved away from him. Grinning, he tucked the condoms into the back pocket of his jeans. On his way back to the couch, he handed one of bottles to Drew and studiously avoided her gaze.

Jasmine commented on something in the conversation, and as she casually uncrossed her legs, she hit him in the ankle with sharp heel of her shoe. “Oh, sorry.” She arched her brow innocently and kept talking to Drew.

Almost thirty minutes after Drew had arrived, he finally stood to leave, and they walked him to the door.

As soon as the door shut, Jasmine moaned and dropped her head in hands. “I can’t believe how close that was.”

“I can’t believe you kicked me.”

“What? You deserved it.” She stared at him incredulously but didn’t resist when he tugged her forward by her belt. “What if Drew had caught you waving those condoms around?”

“Hey, I wasn’t the one who was playing kick the condom in the first place.” He tried to get his arms around her, but she batted his hands away.

“I wouldn’t have been playing at all if you wouldn’t have been so nosy.” She punched him in the arm, but there was mischief in her eyes.

Holding up his hands, he easily defended himself from the rest of her blows. “Don’t worry. I had you covered. I was even willing to let you ruin my reputation by telling him they were mine.”

“Oh please,” she snorted. “Reputation my ass.”

“This coming from a woman who has two dozen neon-colored condoms in her purse.” He finally subdued her and got in a kiss.

Her lips twitched under his with a smile that broke into a laugh. “I only have twelve.”

“And that’s way over the legal limit of dangerous.”

“What?”

“No, really, think about it.” He leaned in and brushed kisses down her throat. “We can’t have you running around town flashing condoms everywhere.”

“Oh, yeah, that would be a real crime.” She smoothed her hands over his shoulders and around his neck.

“And because I’m such a good citizen, I’m going to help you get rid of them.”

As he captured her mouth in a kiss, he skimmed his hands up her waist to her breasts, relearning every taut line and supple curve.

She pulled back a fraction from his lips and murmured, “Well, considering I have fifteen more of them in my suitcase, I guess I do need somebody to help me out.”

He pressed the hard ridge of his erection between her legs, torturing himself with her closeness. The good news was that he had positions and places in mind for every single one of those condoms she was carrying around.

Ethan lifted his head, pleased to see desire strong as his darkening her eyes. “Consider your problem taken care of—you have me.”

Chapter Eleven

Ethan walked out of the elevator of Bode-Wynn and spotted Jasmine standing near the reception desk. He grinned. She was done by six, as promised. That left plenty of time for them to go back to her apartment and get ready for the surprise he’d been planning all week—their first real date. Actually, it was an entire weekend, but they’d start tonight with dinner in Orlando and the late-night comedy show at the Improv. After that, they’d stay the night and then on Saturday, they’d spend the day exploring. He wasn’t sure what she liked to do, but he was up for whatever she wanted.

As he walked closer, she didn’t move to join him. She met his gaze and he knew. His smile faded.

“I can’t leave.” She frowned. “I have a conference call with Ted and his boss tonight.”

Plans started to disintegrate in his mind. He switched his bag from his left hand to his right and looked at his watch. “What time?”

“In two hours.” She looked down and her high heels scraped on the tile as she shifted her weight. “Don’t wait for me. I’ll probably be here until ten or eleven.”

Ten or eleven?
A frisson of irritation heated the nape of his neck. Couldn’t she at least say she’d try to finish earlier? A comment about all their ruined plans started to come out, but he held back. Causing her to feel bad would make him into a prick. Ethan took in a breath of cool air and let it sit in his lungs a few seconds before he let it out.

Just sex…

That’s what their time together was about, and things were good between them. Sure, he was going to lose a few bucks over this, but he’d promised not to get in the way of her work.
So get over it.
He glanced around the empty lobby, preparing to leave, but uncertainty about where to go or what to do with the rest of the night rooted his boots to the spot.

Jasmine sighed. “Well, I guess I’d better head back upstairs and get ready for the inquisition.”

The sadness in her eyes completely melted through his frustration. “Hey, are you okay?

“I—” Her gaze dropped.

She reached out for his chest and he went still. Seconds ticked by and the longer her hand hovered in the air, the more it felt like he was stretching out of his skin. She was so close, he could smell the light scent of her perfume warming on the skin exposed by the open collar of her blouse, see where she was worrying away the deep red coloring from her bottom lip with her teeth. Then it registered that she was a lot closer than the usual two feet or more she seemed to require when they were at work. Something was very wrong.

“No, I’m not okay.” She stepped forward and dropped her forehead to his chest. “This is the third time this week my bosses have called for an update. I know I haven’t been a program coordinator for a while, but they’re the ones who asked me to do this.”

Without a second thought, he dropped his gear to the ground and wrapped both arms around her. He braced for resistance, but she stayed there. His heart jumped with each slow creep of her hands around his waist.

“It’s like they don’t trust me anymore.” Her voice broke and her body vibrated with a slight tremor that dug into him. “But I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong.”

A strange sensation, something close to sexual need but layered with protectiveness, made him tighten his embrace. What could he do? In his past encounters, flowers, a stuffed animal, or something chocolate usually covered it, but this wasn’t that type of a moment.

She let him go and backed up, clearly forcing a smile. “Maybe we can watch a movie or something when I get back to my apartment. I’ll have to stay up late anyway. I have a ton of laundry to do.”

A sense of uselessness washed over him. He couldn’t just stand there like an idiot and not say anything. He had to do something.

“Hold on a minute.” He reached for her hand and stopped her from walking away. “Do you have to go upstairs right away?”

“No.” She gave him a perplexed look. “Why?”

He picked up his gear, the idea still coming to light in his mind. He looked to the security guard at the desk. “Danny, can you put this in the chief’s office?”

“Sure thing, Ethan.”

After giving his bag to the guard, he led Jasmine to a corridor at the other end of the lobby.

She still looked puzzled. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

They walked to a door at the end of the hall where he punched his security code into a keypad on the wall.

“But they told me I couldn’t go into any high-security areas.”

“You’re not allowed into where I work, but where we’re going, it’s okay as long as you’re with me.”

With a short beep, the lock disengaged, and he pushed open the entrance to one of his sanctuaries…the indoor gun range.

“Ethan?” She gave him a dubious look as she followed him over to the check-in desk. Except for the attendant, the place was empty.

“Stay here a sec. I’ll be right back.” Taking advantage of her bewilderment, he stole a quick kiss before going into the locker area to retrieve the case that held his gun.

After he secured a station along with protective gear at the desk, he led her over to one of the lanes.

“Here, put these on.” He handed her a pair of thick clear glasses and earmuffs.

She put them on and said, “I don’t understand. You brought me here to watch you shoot?”

He put on his own protective gear and took his pistol out of the case. “No, you are.”

“Me?” Her brow rose with a hint of excitement. “What do I get to shoot?”

“A target.” He reached over to a dial in the station and turned up the light, which better illuminated the paper silhouette of a man’s torso at the end of the lane.

“But I’ve never shot a gun before.”

“I’ll teach you,” he said, gesturing for Jasmine to stand beside him. He picked up the gun and slapped the magazine into place. “This is a Glock 17. Right now, I just want you to get used to the weight. The safety’s on, but you still need to keep the business end pointed downrange toward the target.”

She held still as he transferred the gun into her hands. “It’s not as heavy as I thought it would be.”

“Good. Now let’s get you some confidence in handling it.” He showed her how to hold the Glock in firing position with her right hand, while supporting the weight of it with her left. Then he went through the basics of breathing and lining up the sights, before he had her cock the weapon and take off the safety.

“Okay. You’re almost ready.” As he stepped closely behind her, the scent of her perfume muted the lingering smells of gunpowder, oil, and heated metal.

Taking hold of her hips, he adjusted her stance to square her off with the target, and the feel of her soft flesh beneath the fabric of her dark slacks flooded his mind with the memory of what she was wearing underneath. Scraps of red lace that barely managed to pass as underwear. He nudged her feet a little wider apart with his foot, and when she wiggled her hips, her butt brushed against him. His shaft instantly hardened.

“Is this where I should be?” She pushed back against him.

He nearly drew blood from his bottom lip as he stifled a groan. “Yeah, that’s perfect.”

“Handling a pistol is a whole lot easier than I thought.”

Ethan glanced down just in time to see Jasmine’s lips twitch. He tapped her firmly on the butt. “Cut it out.”

She giggled. “Ooh, do that again, baby.”

He leaned down and brushed his lips near her ear. “If I had my way, I’d bend you over this counter, sink my cock into you, and make it so good, you’d beg me not to stop, but there’s a video camera behind us, and I don’t want to give the attendant a show.”

The pulse in her neck ticked harder. “Oh, come on.” A slightly mischievous smile played on her lips. “Make his day and give the guy a little free porn.”

“Jasmine, be serious. You’ve got a loaded gun in your hand.”

She snickered. “In my hand? Then what’s that on my—”

“Jasmine…” he warned, curling his fingers into her hips to keep her still.

“All right, I’ll stop, but give a girl a break and back up.”

Chuckling, he gave her some room. “Now remember what I told you. Let out a nice calm breath, sight the weapon, and then slowly squeeze the trigger.”

She fired the gun, and the recoil made her take an involuntary step back. She grinned. “I hit it.”

He looked downrange and winced at the bullet hole at crotch level on the silhouette. “Let’s see if we can get your rounds a little higher on the target.”

Once she’d emptied the magazine, he reeled in the silhouette. “Not bad for your first try.” He unclipped the sheet and handed it to her.

“Yeah, but none of my shots are in the middle.”

He set up a new target sheet and sent it back down the lane. “It takes practice.”

In a flow of movements that he’d done more times than he could count, Ethan slammed the magazine into the weapon, cocked it, and fired ten rapid shots, dead center, into the target.

He looked at Jasmine.

Her mouth was shaped into a small O. “Wow,” she breathed out. “I guess it’s safe to say you’ve had lots of practice.”

Yeah, he’d wanted to impress her, but he also had a point. After placing the gun safely on the counter in the stall, he went over to her. “Yeah, I have, and it’s a part of me that will never go away. If I didn’t pick up a gun for a year, I’d still know what I’m doing, just like you know what you’re doing on this project.”

Jasmine offered him a rueful smile. “Tell that to my bosses.”

“No, you tell them.” He lightly gripped her shoulders. “Sure, you haven’t been a project coordinator for a year, but it’s still a part of you, otherwise you would have never been able to convince Drew to give your company a second chance. If you want your bosses to trust you, you have to stop doubting yourself.”

She grazed her bottom lip with her teeth. “But it’s just not about me getting my old job back. I have to make sure Drew gets the type of program he wants.”

“You will, and when it happens, the only thing Ted and his boss will ask you is what color to paint your corner office.”

She gave him a soft smile and stared up into his eyes. “That’s easy…blue.”

Ethan leaned in, but the flashing red light on the video camera made him stop short. He pointedly dropped his gaze to her lips. “When you get home, we can sample a few things just to be sure.”

She started to laugh but her knowing smile froze woodenly on her face. He followed her gaze over his shoulder to the big man walking toward them.

Larson, one of the newest security specialists, was all shoulders and hard muscle. He gave Ethan a curt nod and kept walking past their station.

“Whoa, he’s scary,” Jasmine whispered.

“Yeah, he’s a big guy.”

“I’m not talking about his size.” She shivered. “I mean the look in his eyes. What’s wrong with him?

Larson was a man who’d seen a lot, done too much, and didn’t want to talk about it, but Jasmine wouldn’t understand. Ethan dropped his hands from her shoulders and turned back to the counter. “He’s a former Navy SEAL. He’s gone through a lot.”

“But you have, too, right?”

Ethan stared down the lane at the paper silhouette with the perfect cluster of bullet holes. Over the years, he’d become a master of diversionary tactics. Whenever a woman he was seeing tried to tread into this territory, he’d always let other parts of him do the talking, but he’d opened the door to this when he’d made the choice of bringing her in here…a place he’d never shared with a woman, until now.

Making up his mind, he faced her. “We all handle it differently.”

“But if you guys have seen bad things, doesn’t being a security specialist make it worse? The other day, you mentioned going into countries to assess the political climate. A lot of those places are where you went on missions in the military. That has to have an effect on you.”

At the time he’d shared that little insight with her, she’d had her legs wrapped around his waist while he was on his own private mission of sinking into her balls-deep. He didn’t know if he should be hurt or impressed she’d even heard a word he’d said.

Shrugging off some of the tension building in his shoulders, he debated his response. “When you come back, you don’t see the world the same way anymore. Some people choose this job because they can’t function doing anything else. For others, it’s about accepting the reality of a fucked-up world and using what they know to keep people safe.”

He braced for more questions, but instead, Jasmine rose up on her toes and kissed him softly on the lips.

Surprise drained through him. “What’s that for?”

“For wanting to keep me safe.”

He exhaled against the tightness in his chest. He’d given her two reasons for doing the job, and without hesitation, she’d thought of him and chosen the second.

“How do you know that’s why I do this?”

He hadn’t realized he’d asked the question aloud until she looked up at him and curved her hand against his cheek. “Because when I look into your eyes, Ethan, I don’t see what you’ve been through. I just see you.”