Free Keep (Command #2) by Karyn Lawrence

compensated for taking that risk.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    He brushed a hand over his face in a contemplative gesture. “I’ll try to show them that this was an isolated incident. If they’re not satisfied, I suppose I’ll walk. I’m not interested in renegotiating million-dollar contracts because a few trucks went missing.”
    Her eyebrows lifted. “A few trucks? Maybe your head of security should look into that.”
    “Believe me, he is.” His expression morphed to one of concern, signaling he was about to change the subject. “I’m struggling to understand why your place was trashed. I don’t know which I find more worrisome.”
    Her breath caught. “Meaning?”
    “The man with the knife showed up five minutes after we did, and you arrived hours earlier than you were supposed to. The only way he knew we were there was if he was watching your place.” His brown eyes pinned hers. “That, on its own, is bad, but from what you told me it sounds like he was watching because he expected Juric to be there. Why?”
    Her throat closed up. She struggled with the same question. “Can we… not? Let’s find something else to talk about.” She wasn’t ready to think about it.
    The corner of his mouth lifted.
    Oh, no. When she took that discussion away from him, it was like she’d punched the “GO” button on his desire to pursue her. “Very well. How exactly were you and Paul incompatible?”
    She swallowed hard. “It’s none of your business.”
    “I disagree.” His determined expression made her pulse jump. “Tell me. I want to know.”
    “Paul and I wanted different things.”
    Her hopefully generic answer only opened the door for him. “What did you want that he didn’t?”
    She had wanted to feel desired. For there to be a different goal than the one Paul always had. In the end, it had become so routine he didn’t notice that she wasn’t mentally there beneath him. A hand abruptly was warm on her knee, just where her skirt ended, and Shawn’s action forced a response.
    “He didn’t like to touch me.”
    His eyes widened, giving her a great view of the circle of warm brown that hung at the edge of his irises. “How is that possible? I can’t keep my fucking hands off of you.”
    “I’ve noticed.” It was meant to sound strong, but it didn’t. The hand inched upwards.
    “What else did you want that he wouldn’t give you?” Shawn leaned over, his lips brushing the shell of her ear. “Tell me, so that I can.”
    The shudder seized her whole body. The hand crept up further, buried beneath her skirt. “He…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it, but the pads of Shawn’s fingers were on her inner thigh now. His power was too great. “Paul didn’t like when I enjoyed it. It made it difficult to continue if I got too loud.”
    His hand tightened on her skin while his mouth dropped open. There was only her rapid breathing between them.
    Shawn’s face soured. “What the fuck was wrong with him, to think giving a woman pleasure is a turnoff?” The blacks of his eyes dilated and slowly filled with desire. “You know he has that backward, yes?”
    She didn’t have a response. Her focus was on his hand and the look he gave her, the one that made her insides melt.
    “Let me show you how wrong he was,” he said.

    Kara flushed that gorgeous red again, the one that matched her “fuck me” shoes. That’s exactly what I have in mind.
    She climbed from the couch, taking a few wobbly steps away from him, her nervous hand pushing a strand of blond hair behind her ear. It, like this room, was the same honey shade as his beer. He wanted that hair in his hands. In his face as she rode him. Spread out on his bare chest afterward.
    He came up off the couch to stand, awaiting her answer with held breath, her icy gaze trapping his.
    “Okay,” she said on a whisper.
    He had expected a no. In his excitement, he surged forward, even when she stumbled backwards, running from him. He