Free PursuedbythePrisoner by Ann Mayburn Page A

baby, how was school?”
    “Good.” Before she could have any second thoughts, she
blurted out her request. “Hey, Sean, would you pretend to be a dangerous
escaped prisoner, kidnap me and force me to do wicked things to you?”
    The mesh bag full of football helmets hit the floor with a
thud as Sean stared at her with a look of disbelief. “What? You want me to
what?”
    Mary tried to keep the encouraging smile on her face, but it
was hard with Sean looking at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Remember that
research study I told you about?” He gave her a blank stare, and she bit back
an irritated sigh. “The one Amanda told me about in our Pilates class about
female arousal? We talked about it over dinner on Tuesday.”
    He opened the door to a small coat closet and hung his
jacket. The t-shirt he wore stretched over his big muscles, revealing tattooed
arms and biceps almost as big as her thighs. “Kinda.” He bent over to take off
his shoes, giving her a nice view of his tight ass. “But what the hell does
that have to do with me pretending to be a convict?”
    She took a seat on their big brown leather couch and
smoothed her skirt around her knees. “Come sit down, and let’s talk about
this.” He gave her a weary look, and this time she didn’t try to hide her sigh.
“Just come here.”
    “How about you talk to me about it while we dig into some
Chinese?”
    She closed her eyes and counted to ten for patience.
“Because this is not a conversation I want to have with you where I have to
compete for your attention with your General Tso’s chicken.”
    He rolled his dark-green eyes but did what she asked. The
couch groaned under his weight, and he remained stiff as she cuddled closer.
Keeping her touch light, she stroked her hand over his shaved head. “We got
accepted into the study, and they want to fly us out to their research facility
in Dallas for three days.”
    “Babe, I can’t go anywhere for three days, and I doubt the
school’s going to let you go either. Doesn’t your AP science class have some
kind of robot war thing to do? And you know I can’t take off in the middle of
football season. I’d be fired.”
    “I’m not talking about either of us having to skip work.
Thanksgiving break is coming up. Instead of going to my mom’s this year, let’s
go have some really awesome sex and catch a Cowboys game.”
    Excitement warred with apprehension on his handsome face.
“You don’t fight fair.” A small grin turned up the corners of his mouth. “Sex
and football, what guy could possibly resist that?”
    Elated, she gave him a loud kiss on the lips but pulled away
before he could tug her closer. “All I need you to do is pretend to be an
escaped prisoner who kidnaps and ravishes me. I want you to tie me up and not
take no for an answer, force me to serve your wicked lust.” She tried to keep
her tone light and teasing, but as soon as she said those words he began to
shut down.
    He clapped his hands over his face and leaned his head back
against the couch. “Mary…”
    Hurt and embarrassment made her words come out sharper than
she intended. “What’s the big deal? We’ve role-played before.”
    Even as she said it, she knew what the big deal was. Despite
the fact Sean looked like a biker from the wrong side of hell with his massive
frame and tattoos, he was actually as gentle as could be. He was always careful
not to hurt anyone smaller than him, which was pretty much everyone, and
absolutely abhorred men who beat on their women. What he didn’t understand was
that every once in a while, she wanted him to be a little rough with her, not
to the point of actually hurting her, but a little slap on the ass and taking
complete control every once in a while would be nice.
    He drew in a deep breath and blew it out, still staring at the
ceiling rather than looking at her. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
    She growled and hitched up her skirt around her hips before
straddling his lap,