Free Beneath the Secrets, Part Three (Tall, Dark & Deadly) by Lisa Renee Jones

 
    Beneath the Secrets  
    PART 3:
    ***Begins EXACTLY where Part 2 leaves off***
     
    Chapter One  
     
    I know who you are, Kara.
    Kara’s heart raced at Blake’s declaration, his strong, powerful body trapping hers against the entry wall inside her apartment and preventing her escape, his hands pressed to the surface by either side of her head. He was caging her, trying to intimidate her. Trying to get her to admit what he couldn’t know. Reassuring herself she’d covered her tracks well, she searched the hard lines of his handsome face, probing his rich brown eyes, and finding none of the passion and heat they’d held only hours before—just hard steel and anger.  
    Memories of what had passed between them before she’d left him sleeping in her bed, of hours of erotic lovemaking, of the connection they’d shared that defied him working for one of the most lethal cartels in the world, confused her and twisted her in knots. She hadn’t wanted to want him. She hadn’t wanted to leave him. “If this is about me sneaking out—”
    “ I know who you are, Kara,” he repeated, and that same hard steel from his eyes was in his voice.  
    He couldn’t know, she assured herself. It was impossible. “No matter how many times you insist otherwise, I’m still just me. I’m still Kara Tatum—”
    “Wrong answer,” he said, and there was no time for her rebuttal. In a flash, he’d grabbed her purse, with her gun nestled inside, and tossed it to the ground. Kara jerked to retrieve it at the same moment Blake lifted her and threw her over his shoulder.  
    “Blake, damn it,” Kara hissed as he started up the stairs, her long, dark hair falling like a mask over her face. She was all too aware of how he played control games and manhandling her was one of them. She was even more aware of how much he, and them, turned her on, and what dangerous territory she was in with this man.
    “Curse me all you want,” he said, as if it was the exact reaction he wanted, his hand sliding to her backside, “but you’re going to tell me what I want to know.” His fingers splayed wide on one of her cheeks, stirring the memory of his threat less than an hour before. I'm not going to kill you. Turn you over my knee and spank your pretty little ass, most likely. That I’d enjoy.
    “I know what you’re doing,” she accused, certain he was taunting her, trying to jumble her thoughts. “It won’t work.”  
    “We’ll see,” was all he said, reminding her that the threat of the spanking had been both erotic and frightening simply because he’d been furious when issuing it. Considering they were already at the top of the stairs, she needed a plan to make sure he didn’t get to act on it. Already, though, Blake was pacing forward, and the living area to her left told her he was headed straight to the bed again. The bed where she’d once dared to think she could seduce and control him. That had been a joke. Convincing herself otherwise as she almost did would be a mistake, one too easily repeated.  
    Desperate to get him talking, and keep her clothes on, she blurted, “I had to go help those girls. You have to know that.”
      “This has nothing to do with them,” he half growled, “though you can bet we’re going to talk about you sneaking out and stealing my truck.” His fingers flexed on her backside and he gave it a hard smack.
    Kara jerked in shock, heat racing from her backside through her body at what was a decidedly angry and erotic contact. “Damn you, Blake,” she ground out again, only to find herself planted in a sitting position on the mattress with Blake towering over her. “Stop trying to intimidate me. I told you. It won’t work. It’s just pissing me off.”  
    “No?” he challenged, staring down at her, looking every bit the renegade she’d found him to be, his eyes half-veiled, long strands of raven hair falling from the tie at his nape, framing his perfectly carved, handsome face.