Perfectly Exposed (Command Unit Book 1) Read online

  “Getting you covered. The outfit is sweet but you’re not wearing it unless I’m with you.” He took her hand and half dragged her back through the condo. The pounding on the door had started again. “You’re going to a friend’s house so you need to be covered,” he explained, but the words didn’t make a lot of sense.

  “A friend’s house?” she got out as Jack opened the front door.

  “Jesus, man!” Jack snapped into the grinning face of the tall Hispanic man standing in his door.

  Hailey recognized the guy. He was one of the scorching-hot men Julie Marks had introduced her too at several social events, which was how she had met Jack in the first place. She wasn’t exactly sure how they were connected. Figuring out the obviously tight relationships was murky territory since she only watched the group from the outside looking in. She didn’t have opportunity to do it very often.

  Julie was a friend from work. Supper friendly, Julie sailed though life with seeming ease. Hailey often felt swept along in her friendship but it was a sparkling kind of sweeping so she had never fought it. She had gone to the amazing parties Julie invited her too, enjoyed the beautiful people those events introduced her to and hadn’t questioned much. Questioning things would have been a smart thing to do. Sadly, that revelation, while standing in the door, looking at another smoking-hot male grin down at her, was way too late.

  “Didn’t want you to fall asleep or something.” Rico was everything dark, muscled and intense. He stepped into the condo and kicked the door shut. “Hey, little mama,” Rico greeted Hailey with warm, smiling eyes.

  Before Hailey could respond Jack let go of her hand and a thick male arm wrapped around her shoulders in a proprietary hold.

  “Ah, hi,” she got out, a little dazed at the lazy, intimate smile she was being treated to from Rico.

  The hard body beside her put pressure on her, turning her into Jack’s side. Hailey switched her attention to the man holding her. He frowned down at her but it was hot in a possessive, claiming sort of way. She didn’t have near enough time to enjoy the double bad boy hotness because Jack continued with the mind-scrambling information. As if it were making sense to her.

  “Baby, Rico is taking you to his house to keep you safe. You can’t go back to your place. Trust me, you don’t want the Russians using you to control me. It’ll only be a couple days. I’ll call you when I can.” Jack’s focus switched to Rico, and Hailey looked at Rico because Jack was. At least that was what she was using as her reason.

  Jack didn’t give Hailey a chance to ask the hundred new questions his latest blast of statements brought to mind. “Safe being the operative word, slick,” Jack stated belligerently.

  “Like a baby in la familia’s arms,” Rico responded, his liquid Latin accent making the words a caress. Hailey dragged in a breath at the smoothness.

  “No. Like my woman being guarded.” Jack leaned his upper body toward Rico, emphasizing the words in deep, rumbling staccato.

  Rico’s smile blinded, coupled with the velvety chuckle, which somehow came out of his throat with a Latin accent, Hailey forgot to breathe for a moment. Until she realized his hand reached out to wrap around her arm and pull her way from Jack.

  “Like I said, in her family’s bosom,” Rico repeated.

  Then she remembered that she didn’t know what was going on. “Wait, what are you talking about?” Hailey questioned a little loudly.

  Jack let her go, his frown aimed at Rico.

  Rico was the one to respond to her question as he guided her out of the condo. “I’ll explain in the truck. We have to get gone quick, little mama. Bad guys are distracted and cameras down, but that will not last long.” Hailey glanced back at Jack standing in the doorway.

  “A day or two, baby,” Jack repeated. “I’ll have Julie call it in if you have to be off work into next week.” Again, a whole ’nother vista exploded with questions that needed answers after those statements, but the elevator door closed.

  Chapter Three

  The mattress dipped behind Hailey and a large body slid in. A thick arm came around her middle, the big hand at her belly moved south while pressing firmly into soft flesh. Heat folded over her, blooming across her with a touch that was as familiar as it was new. The pillow beneath her head was replaced by warm flesh, his hand trailing down her out-flung arm to thread thick fingers through hers, clenching them both in a loose fist.

  Having a whole weekend too alternately freak or sink into a fog of remembering erotic happenings brought a girl to this, it seemed. What little Rico shared about Jack’s reasons for putting her into a safe environment only freaked her out. Being assured Jack was on the respectable side of the law, but not being allowed to know any more about that was not really a relief. When she remembered the things Jack had said to her, in detail, it turned her on, freaked her out—and it must be repeated—turned her on.

  The fact that Rico took her cell phone as part of the safe house experience meant no ability to call Trina and freak with a girlfriend, which would have helped her figure this out. Dreaming of the hard body sliding under the sheets with her was so good and not really unexpected.

  His hand nudged up her T-shirt and pushed under the waistband of her panties, cupping intimate flesh. Hailey moaned. Fingers stroked to her core then up to lightly circle at her clit. And again, gathering moisture and drawing it up. Oh God, the firm stroking fingers parting private folds felt so good. Her hips moved with his touch, seeking more, but he didn’t give it to her. Teasing her into liquid need, his touch remained light. Lifting her leg over his thigh behind her to give him access was a mindless request.

  This dream, this waking to Jack claiming her body, she’d had it so many times, so many frustrating times. Tonight it was intense. The mouth at her neck, nuzzling through her hair, as below thick fingers slowly pressed into her. That was new. Mewing in pleasure, Hailey tilted her hips to get more of the invading pleasure.

  “Good girl,” rumbled in her ear.

  Hailey’s eyes snapped open. Rolling to her back, he accommodated her, his weight dropping onto her but the fingers buried deep in her body remained, moving slowly. Those fingers curled slightly, increasing pressure deep within her body for just a second, causing her hips to jerk when pleasure so intense the burn shot up her body, as she looked up at the dark man leaning over her.

  “Jack?” gasped out of her.

  “Only. Ever.”

  He took her mouth. The kiss was dark, demanding, taking them straight to carnal, passing foreplay with not even a nod at teasing. Then Hailey discovered that panties could actually melt off a girl’s body because they were gone when he broke the kiss to rip the T-shirt up her arms and over her head. It was flung behind him and then there was just naked. Naked lust, naked need, and a man who knew exactly what to do with naked. A callused hand cupped her breast, holding it like an offering for his ravenous appetite. Taking that offering in, he sucked deep and hard. Shocking sensations rioted through her body as the man at her breast took his fill. Her breast slid out of his mouth until he had the nipple tugged taut, holding it gently with teeth, his tongue rasping over it in relentless swipes.

  His other hand somehow gathered both of hers above her head, holding them firmly to the pillow. Hailey’s upper back came off the bed. Arching, she offered herself to the mouth drawing her soul out of her body. He wasn’t satisfied with that offering. She knew this because he repeated the soul-destroying attention on her other breast.

  Taking his time, he sucked, he licked, he nipped inflamed flesh. Hailey’s head thrashed on the pillow as he fed at her, her hips bucking up into the ripped abdomen over her, his long body caging her. His legs bracketed hers, holding hers together when she needed to move them apart, wanted so desperately to wrap them around his hips and get the friction she craved. But no, his mouth remained at her breasts, working them to tender, swollen madness.

  “Jack, please,” Hailey begged as he drew her deep again. He slowly let her breast slide from his mouth. />
  “Please what?” he whispered into the underside of her breast, nipping lightly.

  Panting, burning up and unable to move, Hailey needed more in a way that made pleasure a living hunger. “I need you,” she pleaded. He licked where he’d just nipped her.

  “I’ve waited so long for my woman to need,” he murmured into the sensitive curve of the other breast. His body above hers, most of his weight on his knees and elbows, easily holding her nearly immobile under him, put the hard length of him in the crease of her thighs, so close to where she craved him. His hips stroked his cock along her thighs but didn’t allow her to spread for it. Hot, thick and long, he tortured her with the promise but wouldn’t permit her to touch him in any way.

  His head left her breasts and she felt him shift up her body. “Look at me, little one,” he demanded quietly.

  Hailey pushed heavy lids up, her body shifting uncontrollably under him, pressing against him, pushing at the restraints of his legs.

  “You are mine,” he informed her. “I have waited five years to make that so. I know you’re on the Pill,” he continued, and Hailey’s eyes came fully open, staring up at him and coming out of the desperate sex fog a little bit. His cock aligned with her mound and he pressed down, stroking the length over her as he continued. “Six months ago you had a full checkup and haven’t dated since. What you have to trust me on is I’m clean, too. I have never taken a woman without a condom.”

  He paused.

  Hailey dragged in a gasp, “Jack…”

  His hips over hers lifted and then her legs were free. Sorta. Pushing her knees wide, he dropped between them, the head of his penis burning at the entrance to her body. It felt like a brand, pushing at her but not entering. Her arms extended over her head, his hand holding both of her wrists, he squeezed gently and let go, the nonverbal command to stay, clear.

  “I will have my woman bareback. I will have all of her in every way. Give me that, baby. Give me this body.” The deep rumble of his demands stroked down her belly along with one of his hands. And then he touched her right where she had needed it for so long. Hailey’s head jerked back on the pillow and her eyes closed in the exquisite fire of his thumb on her clit at last.

  “Jack…ah…I’m…”

  “Shhhh. That’s it, baby, take what you need. Give me what I want,” he crooned, leaning into her, his breath mingled with hers. “Give it to me now.” His fingers didn’t let up. The burning head of his penis stroked but didn’t enter. A new level of heat ripped through her as his lips brushed hers, the fingers between her legs worked the mind-numbing magic with excellent results. “All I want to know is what does my girl need? Tell me. Ask for it, baby.”

  “Please, please, I need you,” Hailey managed, her hips pressing down onto the elusive heat of him. “But…”

  “No, baby, nothing but this, us. Say the words, little one,” Jack encouraged. “My girl asks for what she needs. Shows me what she wants with her beautiful body.”

  “Fuck me. I need you to fuck me,” Hailey pleaded, her pelvis tipped up, offering herself in every way she could. “But you should…”

  He thrust into her, thick and hard, driving to the root of him. It was more than she expected, longer, thicker, more and yet so perfect she screamed and drove her hips up, taking, demanding what he gave her.

  Pleasure consumed her in shattering intensity. The really important thing she had been trying to tell him evaporated in the white-hot blaze. His powerful body bowed over her, pounding into her, covering her in the most basic way possible. Hailey arched into every thrust, knees high, heels at the small of his back.

  Her hands restrained over her head by his command, her body taken but only after she had pleaded with him to complete his possession. Hailey hadn’t known a man could take her mind as deeply as he took her body. Intensely intimate and so damn hot.

  Hailey’s mouth opened in gasping, pleading, moaning want. It was bearing down on her, the power of the orgasm building in her body so massive it felt like it might tear her apart. The growing intensity with every thrust of his body into her, she had no tools to deal with it, even if she had the will to do so. He was a force of nature, driving the pleasure that devoured her until there was almost nothing left of her. His thumb at her clit was devastating what little of her remained separate from him. When it rushed over her, it melted her into his body, no longer a separate being. It felt like life itself depended on his will to make it so.

  Hailey came in a screaming, driving, thrusting, burning rush. Sweat and tears, all of it mingled in the sweeping fire that seized her body with shattering, endless contractions. Sinking her teeth into his shoulder, she held on, and he took her, his arms suddenly behind her knees, stretching her wider, higher, holding her open, ramming the source of her pleasure into the depths of her while she melted into molten, Hailey-shaped lava. Letting his shoulder go, her head dropped to the pillow.

  His roar of completion opened her eyes. She watched the tendons up his neck strain in acute relief as he slammed in, grinding his hips into her, wringing another shuddering contraction from her as he emptied into her body. His body bowed back and he looked like what he was. An immensely powerful male, savagely beautiful with every muscle defined in release.

  Sinking down on her, he released her legs. Both his hands came up to frame her face, his elbows taking most of his weight as they looked at each other. Her legs straightened down the outside of his hips, but he didn’t lift away from her. His lazy, satisfied gaze moved over her face as he held her, controlling her still.

  Hailey felt it, the control. He had her trapped under him, would not permit her to even look away from him. Semi-erect, he filled her, powerful above her, in her, over her. He was watching her and not hiding the fact that he searched her face. Moments passed as he did that and she got a grip on what had just happened.

  “My girl is scared,” he stated softly.

  “Yes. No. Okay, yes. What was that?” Her hands gripped the iron bulge of his upper arms. Warm flesh over moving metal was what he felt like. Even relaxed, he was relentless power. Touching him, holding on to him, comforting and frightening all rolled into one confusing mass of emotions.

  He smiled, the warmth transforming chiseled features in to bone-melting beauty. “That was us, baby. How we are.”

  “We hardly know each other. This is crazy,” Hailey whispered as the reality of unprotected sex crashed over her.

  His head tilted a fraction, making handsome even more overwhelming. “Hailey, we’ve been in each other’s business for five years.”

  “No. No we haven’t. I mean, not really.”

  “Yes we were, but maybe you didn’t know, little one. You were mine the first time I saw you laugh. Way too young, so I had to wait.” Jack dropped a kiss on her nose and slowly pulled out of her body, rolling to the side but not releasing her as he continued. “Wait. I’ll be right back.”

  He rose from the bed, and even though it was dark she could see the smooth glide of muscles and bones in perfect, delicious proportion as he sauntered into the bathroom. The light came on but he didn’t close the door. Hence Hailey didn’t move as it took every bit of her concentration to keep breathing while she watched him take a washcloth to himself, rinse it out and turn back into the bedroom with a fresh, damp cloth.

  Wasting time pondering how sweet that was meant he was sliding back onto the bed, propped on an elbow and the warm, damp cloth was stroking down her belly before Hailey had managed to cover anything with the tangled sheet.

  “Spread, baby,” he commanded.

  Oh my. Swallowing the rush of saliva brought on by watching a naked Jack, she supposed there was nothing for it. Hailey reluctantly inched her legs apart.

  “Knees up, feet to the sheets, and spread,” Jack clarified, his eyes cut up to hers and a line appeared between his brows.

  The look did it. Knees bent, she did as ordered, opening to his hand.

  “Good girl,” he rewarded her, his attention between her l
egs as he gently wiped away the remains. Folding the cloth in half, he did it again.

  Tossing the cloth toward the bathroom, Jack turned her into him so they were facing each other on their sides, his arms around her. Her head on his thick arm again, that elbow cocked so his fingers could trail through her hair.

  “Hailey, this is not a game. I know you don’t understand how dangerous things were when you entered my world Friday night.”

  She nodded in agreement.

  “Even though the timing sucked we have been getting to this place for a long time. The way you entered my world took us from step one to ten in about two seconds. I could not let you pay the price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was on me. So I took the only other option available and claimed you.”

  “I’ve apologized,” Hailey said quietly, her eyes sliding away from him.

  “It should be me apologizing.”

  His statement brought her gaze back to him with a surprised jerk. He could easily see it in the dim light slashed across them from the bathroom door.

  Jesus, she was so beautiful, lying there with kiss-swollen lips and sex-wild hair, and still she looked innocent and vulnerable in a way that made him want to gather her into his body. This gorgeous woman was confused that he had claimed her, as if it was a shock he’d want to do that. Well, if that was the case, good thing he was going gentle with this. She probably wasn’t ready to hear how deeply he considered her his.

  “Why,” Hailey breathed, big eyes a little wary.

  “If I had made you mine nine months ago, you would not have been in that club,” he explained softly. “That fact gets you out of trouble for actually prancing your butt in there. But by doing it, you gave me the right to make sure that sort of thing never happens again. And, baby, it will not.”

  He leaned into her, unable to keep his mouth off the softly parted lips below him. Gentle, he repeated in his head as he took the kiss. Gentle, soft, cautious. She was already his woman, but getting her to understand the details of that fact required a bit of finesse. Hopefully he had managed to scrape some together since the club incident.