Sierra Cartwright - Hawkeye 01 - Danger Zone Read online

  “Don’t you dare try it,” he’d warned Kayla.

  Still, despite the woman’s earnest efforts, Kayla and Stone had made do with cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and something frozen for dinner. She considered her sandwich gourmet when it had fancy mustard on it.

  She decided on the second glass of wine, after all. One was usually her limit. But it had been an odd day. Wasn’t often, or ever, that one man licked her from front to back while another watched and gave instructions.

  Had it really happened?

  Because the wine loosened her a bit, she was emboldened. “What happened earlier,” she said. “I enjoyed that.” She looked down.

  “Stone has that effect on people.”

  “I wasn’t talking about him. You’re a very sexy guy, Nate Davidson.”

  He shook the colander to drain the lettuce. “You’re not too bad yourself.” He grinned. Her insides melted a bit. “I liked your reactions. I think maybe I’ve been missing out, not eating you out before now.”

  What was happening here?

  That she was attracted to Stone, the enigmatic leader, wasn’t a surprise. But that she was getting sideways over two men…?

  Nate put the steaks on the grill, searing the meat. A few minutes later, Stone joined them. He picked up a glass of wine.

  “Everything okay in the Batcave?” Nate asked.

  “No more of my teammates have been caught trespassing, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “If you’d have opened the gate, we wouldn’t have had to get a helicopter.”

  “Expensive ride,” Stone said.

  “And you’re worth every penny,” she said.

  “How do you like your steak?” Nate asked. “Rare?”

  “Is there any other way?”

  “A man after my heart,” Nate said.

  “I have no interest in your heart, Davidson.”

  Nate turned and grinned. “I had hoped something else was more interesting.”

  She realized she hadn’t yet seen either of them naked. And this so wasn’t fair. It was like being given a taste of dessert, then told she couldn’t have the rest of the cake.

  Nate served the food, and they all sat at the table, Stone silently sat at the head of the table, she and Nate on either side of him.

  An appreciative Stone took a bite of his T-bone. “Maybe you can stay a bit longer.”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  “So where does that leave Ms. Fagan?” Stone said, putting down his knife and fork. “Who is here, apparently, under false pretenses?”

  The food suddenly tasted like ash in her mouth.

  “I’m trained to help with your physical therapy.” So it wasn’t, exactly, false pretenses.

  “And what else?”

  “I can shoot.”

  “Don’t let her fool you. She’s one of Hawkeye’s best. He wouldn’t send anyone less. We all know it.”

  “How’d you get involved?”

  “Long story,” she said.

  “We’ve got time,” Stone said, his tone offering no quarter. She was in his home, and in his eyes, she’d lied her way in.

  She’d barely been tolerated when he thought she was a physical therapist. Now that he knew she was assigned to protection…? She shifted. “Look, I --”

  “You don’t have to tell us anything,” Nate said. “After Los Angeles, you made a believer out of me.”

  Stone continued to sit there and regard her.

  “I was married at nineteen,” she said finally, reluctantly. “And my husband got caught in a drug deal gone bad.” She’d told few people the story. And when she did, it was without the gut-wrenching devastation that led to her own downward spiral, until a good friend and cop pointed her toward Hawkeye.

  She twirled her wineglass between her palms. “Turned out he was dealing, and I didn’t know it. I’d known he had a problem, but he said it was in the past. I believed him when he said he was clean. Tony. He was an older guy. He was twenty-two.”

  “Was?” Stone asked, missing nothing.

  “He died of multiple gunshot wounds.”

  “That’s harsh,” Nate said.

  She attempted a small smile. “And I decided to help clean up the streets.”

  “Why not law enforcement?” Nate asked.

  “Hawkeye is a bigger believer in second chances than the Chicago PD.” Let them read between the lines. She was no innocent. But she was no longer defined by her past sins.

  “So, Davidson, you trespassed to get in.”

  He shrugged.

  Then Stone looked at her. “And you lied.”

  She squirmed.

  “Tell me, do I look like I need a babysitter?”

  Nate said nothing. He only took another drink of wine, leaving her to flounder.

  “Your range of motion with your shooting arm isn’t what it could be, what it should be,” she said.

  He raised a brow. “I had no trouble subduing Davidson.”

  “Because Nate isn’t hell-bent on killing you,” she fired back. “If the threat against you wasn’t credible, Stone, none of us would waste our time.”

  Nate, the coward, just sat there.

  Her anger flared. Stone knew what they did. More than anyone, he understood what it meant to go up against Rivera. The man ran a powerful cocaine drug cartel in northwest Mexico, a narco-gang. They specialized in assassinating cops and other gang members. The body count for cops was at two dozen and counting. If it hadn’t been for Stone, Fernando Garcia’s daughter would have been dead, too.

  Three years ago, Rivera had almost been brought to trial. When the prosecution’s star witness ended up dead, his head in a different Dumpster than his bullet-riddled body, the case had been dismissed.

  “You’re not stupid, Wolf. So stop acting as if you are.” She took a breath and struggled for control over her temper. “What were you telling me earlier? About trust? About honesty? If you weren’t so goddamn stubborn, you’d work with us, not against us. You’d cooperate and give us information and, who would have thought it, share intel with Hawkeye. A lot of people are putting their butts on the line for you, you…you…ungrateful bastard.” There. She’d said it. She pushed back from the table. “Thanks for the food, Nate.”

  “Sit down,” Stone said, his voice like a whiplash.

  “With all due respect,” which she didn’t mean, she said, “screw you,” which she did mean. “I’m here because I have a job to do. And I really, really believed that getting you healthy and keeping you alive was a good thing so you could heal quicker and get back to work.” And because she had, or because she used to have, a great big crush on Stone. “Turns out I really am still naive.”

  * * * * *

  “She’s right, you know. Trust is a two-way street.”

  “Not from you, too,” Stone said. What the hell did a man have to do to get some peace and quiet in his own house? All he had wanted was to be left alone, which was why he was on eight hundred acres of hostile Rocky Mountain wilderness, surrounded by barbed wire and protected with the finest electronic security system known to man.

  He hadn’t sent out a single invitation to his house. In fact, only a handful of people on the planet even knew where he lived.

  Getting himself shot had been careless, stupid. But he’d managed to carry five-year-old Mandy Garcia to safety before passing out.

  Too bad that the shot he’d taken, fired from his trusty Sig, hadn’t permanently taken out Carlos Rivera. So now the cockroach was pissed. As if Stone hadn’t had bad guys pissed at him before. “I can handle Rivera.”

  “If you were fully functional, you could. And the fully functional part would happen faster if you’d quit being so damn stubborn.” Nate took a big drink of water. “Self-reliance has its advantages,” Nate said, a little more quietly. “But working as a team does, too.”

  “While you’re here, you’re not protecting people who really need it.”

  “Now that Rivera has see
n your face, you’re the one who really needs it.”

  “Davidson --”

  “He’s off Hawkeye’s radar,” Nate said. “He hasn’t been seen in two days.”

  Stone raised a brow.

  “If you had been in contact with headquarters, you’d have known that. Teamwork,” Nate said. “We’ve got people watching Mandy Garcia and her aunt. And we want you healthy enough to be out there.” He shoved away from the table, his chair scooting along the polished hardwood floor. “Now I think you owe Ms. Fagan an apology.”

  “An apology?”

  “Yeah. Like where you say you’re sorry. And you try to make it up to her.”

  “She’s here under false pretenses.”

  “She’s here because Hawkeye sent her. You’ve been sent plenty of places where people needed you but didn’t want you.” He grabbed an empty platter. “And she does have a delicious cunt.”

  The door leading into the kitchen swung shut behind Nate.

  Well. Fuck.

  In the distance, a clock ticked off the seconds. Wind still howled and battered the house. If it were a month later, it wouldn’t be rain, it’d be snow.

  Davidson was right on most scores.

  Trust was a two-way street.

  Maybe he’d get better if he’d stop being stubborn.

  No man was better alone than with a team.

  And Fagan did have a nice cunt.

  Just thinking of her made his cock hard.

  She’d been under his roof for several days, and he’d wanted her since the first time he’d set eyes on her, with her prim and proper button-down blouse, pulled back hair, and lips with only the barest hint of gloss. Her black slacks had been a bit tight, and when she’d bent to pick something up, they’d stretched taut. He’d imagined his hands on her hips, imprisoning her while he filled her full of his cock.

  And then Davidson had shown up, as well.

  Two sexy specimens, both willing to do his bidding.

  Life, he supposed, could be a whole lot worse.

  He massaged the ache in his leg. It had started with his knee, but it had now traveled up his thigh. No matter what he tried to tell everyone, including himself, he wasn’t one hundred percent operational. He’d navigated the mountain earlier, but not with the sure-footedness he normally did. He’d slipped on a wet rock, and when he caught himself, raw pain had shot through him, instantly cramping the muscle. He’d swallowed three or four ibuprofen when he got back, not that he’d admit it to Davidson or Kayla.

  He went into the great room to find her there, stoking the fire. “Davidson says I should apologize.”

  She looked up from where she was crouched. “What do you think?”

  “That I should spank your ass for your dishonesty.”

  Her mouth formed a shocked, but delectable O. “I think I’d prefer the apology.”

  He laughed. “I didn’t ask what you wanted.” He took a couple of steps toward her. “And if you were honest, you’d admit that you’d really prefer the spanking.”

  “I…” She stood. “Hmm…”

  “You’ve had apologies. But you’ve probably never had a spanking.”

  “You’re right.”

  She was completely appealing in her contradictions. She wanted him to think she was prim and proper, but prim and proper ladies didn’t look him in the eye and tell him to screw off. They didn’t put on a slicker and head out into the Rocky Mountain wilderness to find a comrade. “And until this afternoon, you’d never dropped your pants in the kitchen and had one man tongue you to orgasm while another watched.”

  “Well, there is that.”

  “It’s up to you,” he said.

  “Where, theoretically, would this spanking happen?”

  “Right here.” He rolled up the sleeves of his denim shirt. “Right now.” He watched emotions play across her face. A frown of concern. Then a little twist of her lips as she contemplated his offer.

  “Over my clothes?”

  “I’ve already seen your naked butt.”

  She looked up at him. She blinked a couple of times, and, in the reflection of the firelight, her green eyes had flecks of copper. “So,” she said, “this spanking. It would be with your hand?”

  She was reading him correctly, he knew. The spanking wasn’t an end; it was the doorway to exploring her fantasies. So, the only question was, did she have the guts to really go for it?

  Hawkeye had hired her, well, Hawkeye’s HR department had. But she’d gotten through their screening processes and been interviewed by at least half a dozen people, Ms. Inamorata, Hawkeye’s right-hand person. She’d never have been assigned to sneak into his place with fake credentials if she hadn’t, at some point, come to the man’s attention. Hawkeye was a meddler, especially in Stone’s life.

  “We can work up to a belt later. And a flogger. If you think you can handle it.”

  “Was that a challenge?”

  He damn near grinned.

  “How many?” she asked, unbuttoning that top button of her jeans once again. “Spanks?”

  “Two dozen.”

  Her hand froze. “Two dozen?”

  “Unless you beg me to keep going.”

  “Close your mouth,” Nate said from the doorway. He was rubbing lotion into his hands, and he joined them in the great room. “If you ever have any hope of getting to play on his cross, you have to start somewhere.”

  “I didn’t apologize,” Stone said.

  “Spanking’s much better,” Nate agreed.

  “In that case, you’re next.”

  “I’ll be first.”

  In the fireplace, a log popped and hissed.

  “You mean… You’re not just bisexual, but you like to be spanked?”

  “I told you to stop letting your mouth fall open like that,” Nate said to her. He walked over and put his forefinger beneath her chin and pushed up. “Submissive,” he said. “I’m a sub.”

  Stone enjoyed the interplay between the two of them, and he loved seeing the apparently prim and proper Ms. Fagan shocked to her toes. He hoped she would be curious enough to really explore her own fantasies.

  The idea of having two subs to play with… He adjusted his jeans to make room for his hardening cock.

  “We probably shouldn’t let Kayla watch, if I’m first. We’ll scare her.”

  “You’ve got a hard ass,” Stone agreed. “And you’ll be starting with something a lot more substantial than my hand.”

  “I want to watch,” she said stubbornly.

  That was a start.

  Stone nodded. “Downstairs. Both of you.”

  Chapter Five

  Kayla couldn’t believe this.

  Her mouth was dry, and her palms were damp. She was going to watch Stone beat Nate. And she couldn’t be more turned on.

  Stone pushed open the door to his secret room and indicated she should precede them in.

  Now that she was inside, knowing she’d be spanked, made everything so much more real, so much more threatening.

  She would have waited for instructions, but Nate didn’t. He seemed eager to please, happy to be on with it.

  He pulled the T-shirt over his head and folded it.

  Oh, God, was he a hunk and a half. He obviously worked out, and his muscles were well-defined and honed. She’d never had a lover as sexy as him.

  His chest was bare, and he had little hair under his arms. All he needed was some oil smeared on him and he’d be good for a magazine shoot. Well, apart from the jagged scar along his ribcage. But that only made him more appealing in her books. Too much perfection wasn’t a good thing.

  She stole a glance at Stone.

  He’d crossed to the far wall, and he was taking down some sort of evil-looking leather implement.

  He was actually going to use that on Nate?

  She needed to sit down.

  There was a bench, of sorts, in the corner. It looked a bit like the weight bench she trained on at the gym. And she sat there. Neither man
seemed to notice her.

  He put the torture device back. She wondered if he’d decided on something else.

  Nate dropped his pants -- seemed he rarely wore shoes -- and he had nothing underneath. His pubic hair was trimmed, and his cock was partially aroused. He folded his borrowed jeans and placed them on top of the T-shirt.

  “You sure you’re up for this?” Stone asked.

  In response, Nate dropped to his knees.

  Was she expected to behave like that? Fat chance. There was a reason she hadn’t joined the military after college, a reason she hadn’t finished the police academy. She had little patience for chain of command, even less for fawning.

  Still, seeing strong, capable Nate on his knees did something funny to her insides.

  Tension seemed to settle over the room, and she could suddenly hear her heart beating in her ears.

  Stone rolled up his sleeves, exposing his tanned forearms. “The horse,” he commanded.

  Nate crawled there.

  The piece of equipment resembled a gymnast’s pommel horse, with a few modifications. There were several straps to secure a person’s ankles and more straps to secure wrists.

  Nate draped himself over the top, and Stone asked, “Would you like to be tied?”

  “The choice is yours.”

  Oh, she so was not going to be good at this.

  “Wrists only,” Stone said.

  Nate moved instantly, spreading his arms wide.

  “Fagan, fasten his left wrist.”

  She sat there for a second, startled, as if expecting some other Kayla to respond.

  Finally, she hurried over, and she buckled the thick strap over his wrist.

  “Give me a safe word,” Stone said.

  “Yellow.”

  “Yellow?” Stone repeated.

  “Like for a coward,” Kayla said.

  “I won’t be using it,” Nate said.

  “Spread your legs a couple more inches.”

  Her mouth was dry. Stone was a harsh Dom. But Nate didn’t protest. He just maneuvered until Stone told him to stop.

  Stone adjusted the horse a little, and Nate grunted. He was forced onto his toes, and his body was stretched a little more uncomfortably.

  His cock wasn’t as thick as it had been, she noticed.

  Stone crouched, and she saw that the motion was a little slow, a little awkward because of his injury. Fool had probably hurt himself more when he’d been on the mountainside.