“Where the hell have you been?”
“Drinking a lot and not remembering much.”
He grunted, then held his head with a wince. “I hear that. I woke up on the fucking bathroom floor. What happened last night?”
“You mean after you got me half-naked with Hunter, then passed out?” She arched a playful brow at him.
“Fuck! I did?” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Kata. I ruined everything.”
Surprisingly, he really hadn’t. She smiled. “You had good intentions.”
He sauntered closer, a lock of his wavy brown hair brushing across his forehead. “We might have time for a quickie now. What do you say, babe? I’ll make it up to you.”
No. Her reaction was immediate and confusing. Normally, she enjoyed quickies with Ben. He was at his best when he only had a few minutes and poured everything into making it good. But she pictured Hunter’s face hovering over hers during the darkest part of the night, focused and intent, as he held her wrists above her head and drove hard inside her. She shivered.
Kata shook her head. “We’re going to be late if we don’t get out of here. I need a shower, and I still haven’t packed up.”
Ben sighed and backed away. “You’re right. Damn it. I’ll finish getting ready and arrange for a cab.”
“I’ll be ready in fifteen,” she promised, as she grabbed a pair of denim capri pants, a T-shirt, and fresh undergarments from her suitcase, then darted for the bathroom and shut the door behind her.
“Chloe, Hallie, and Mari already left for the airport. Your sister called, looking for you. You were supposed to ride with them?” Ben called through the bathroom door.
Kata winced. “Sorry. I... overslept.”
“With who? ’Cause looking at you, I have no doubt you didn’t give yourself that whisker burn on your neck.”
Turning, she peered in the mirror and pressed her lips together to stifle a shriek. Ben had looked at her as if Medusa had come through the door, because she had. Her hair was a rumpled mess, her mascara smudged, her lips incredibly swollen. Kata stripped off her clothes as if they were on fire and bit back a gasp at all the marks on her body. Whisker burns, love bites, faint bruises in the shape of Hunter’s fingers on her thighs, hips, and ass. What the hell had they done last night? And God, she was still wet just thinking about him.
“Kata . . . Who? Were you with Hunter?”
No way in hell was she answering that now. She stuck her head in the shower and flipped it on, the sound of the water running drowning out Ben’s inquiries.
Twelve minutes later, she stepped out of the bathroom with wet hair, a freshly scrubbed face, clean clothes, and sunglasses to find Ben, fully dressed, setting down the hotel room’s phone.
“Hunter is looking for you. He’s pissed that you left him.”
Against her better judgment, excitement cramped in her belly, made her ridiculously giddy. Gathering the contents of her suitcase, Kata checked herself. Yeah, they had great sex, but no way in hell was she volunteering to be with a man like that. Too bad everything about Hunter flipped her switch. It was insane but . . . she missed him already.
Speculation flitted across Ben’s face. “You fucked him. And you liked it. Gotta say, I didn’t picture you going for his tie-’em-down-fuck-’em-hard sort of thing.”
“Tie ’em down?” Her heart stuttered just asking the question.
“Yeah.” Ben crossed his arms over his chest and stared like he was looking forward to imparting news that would totally shake her. “Hunter’s a well-versed Dominant. That means he’s into BDSM. From what I understand, when he takes a submissive, he insists on taking complete control.”
Kata sucked in a breath. She’d been around enough to hear bits and pieces about people into bondage, mind games, and pain. She was no expert, but everything she’d heard scared the shit out of her.
Puzzle pieces snapped into place—Hunter’s behavior. And, God, her reaction. Did he think that he could make her some submissive plaything, willing to bend backward and inside out just to earn his approval and a smile? Likely so, because she’d stupidly given him every indication that she ate that shit up. Kata shuddered.
Ben watched her carefully. She smoothed out her expression. He was the last person with whom Kata wanted to discuss her feelings for Hunter.
“We’d better get out of here.” Before Hunter came pounding on the door, looking for her. And he would, Kata suddenly had no doubt.
With a practiced shrug, she closed up her suitcase, grabbed her purse, then reached out for Ben’s hand. “C’mon. We have a plane to catch.”
THE minute Kata hit her seat, she buckled up and closed her eyes. In the window seat on her left, Ben did the same and started snoring almost immediately. Hallie and Chloe were two rows behind her, looking every bit as hungover as she felt, but the smile on Hallie’s face told her they’d gotten lucky last night. Kata didn’t ask, though. She didn’t want to answer in turn.
What happened in Vegas . . .
Yes, it should stay here, but Hunter had proven last night that he took intense to a whole new level. He’d find her if he wanted to.
Shoving the thought aside, Kata tried to sleep, but she couldn’t nod off. She couldn’t put Hunter out of her mind.
While Kata pored through her lost memories of the previous night, something tugged at her again and again, as if she’d forgotten an important fact. But that something proved as elusive as smoke. She could only latch on to bits of things that made no sense—an overbright government office with bored clerks, flashbulbs, strangers laughing, a moonlit garden. Vividly, she recalled Hunter pressing her into an elevator and kissing hungrily on the way up to his room. He’d called her his, the word emphatic, as solemn as a bond.
Kata opened her eyes to find the flight attendant standing beside her row with the drink cart. “Something to drink, ma’am?”
“Coffee, cream and sugar.”
The fortysomething blonde nodded efficiently as she poured. “And your husband?”
Kata frowned. Why the hell would the woman think . . . Then she felt Ben’s hand, warm and big, as he tangled his fingers with hers.
“Nothing for him,” she whispered to the other woman so she didn’t wake him.
With a polite smile, the flight attendant moved away.
A few minutes later, Ben stirred at her side. “Damn, did I miss the coffee?”
“You can have some of mine.” She offered the cup to him with her free hand.
“That’s okay, but thanks. I’ll get some when we lay over in Dallas.” He squeezed her hand affectionately.
Discomfort wound through Kata. She’d never had a problem with Ben’s touch, so why now? She still considered him a friend—hell, he’d helped Mari throw her a great birthday party—but the idea of sex with him again didn’t appeal. In fact, it turned her way off.
Ben was good in bed, but she didn’t have romantic feelings for him. Kata had long viewed that as a blessing, hoping that after all she’d seen with Mamá and Gordon over the last decade that her heart had scabbed over—and permanently put her off anything too deep.
In a few short hours, Hunter had challenged all that. The thought of blazing up the sheets with him once more . . . even allowing him to tie her up. Instant arousal. God, how was it possible that, in a single night, he’d hardwired her body to respond so thoroughly to him? Her thoughts to revolve around him?
What the hell was she going to do about her comfortable arrangement with Ben? She searched his face, lax in sleep once more. Last night’s doofus drunken behavior aside, he really was funny and kind. Attractive. Dependable. He’d make someone a great husband someday. But not her.
The pilot announced their initial descent into Dallas/Ft. Worth, where she and her friends would change planes before going on to Lafayette. She loved where she lived, but the lack of direct flights anywhere really sucked.
Carefully, she extracted her hand from Ben’s—and the streak of sunlight shimmering through the little window’s shade glinted off something unexpected. It wasn’t the eclectic silver swirl ring she always wore. The weight was similar, but . . . this was an unfamiliar, endless band of gold.
Her stomach dropped to her toes. Suddenly, the obvious smacked her in the face. She gasped.
The sound jarred Ben awake. “What?
Kata stared at the ring in horror, puzzle pieces from the night before snapping into place.
They’d gone with the strangers in the bar to the county clerk’s office because Christi and . . . what was his name? Nick, maybe. They’d wanted to get married, despite only knowing each other for two weeks. So they’d run off to Vegas. She and Hunter had tagged along, lured by the promise of a big post-wedding celebration.
At the county offices, Kata had remarked that her stepfather would freak if she married someone she’d only met two weeks ago. Hunter had sent her a sly look and asked, “Yeah, what about someone you met four hours ago?”
Since she always looked for ways to spit in Gordon’s face and hadn’t seen a reason to stop, especially with the alcohol giving her liquid courage, Hunter’s words had given her a very bad idea ... and Hunter hadn’t objected.
“Kata?” Ben’s voice shook as he stared warily at her left hand. “What is that on your finger?”
“I think it’s . . .” She closed her eyes, withdrawing from Ben’s grip. “A wedding ring.”
Oh, holy shit. She was Hunter’s wife.
THREE hours later, Hunter touched down at the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport, turned on his phone immediately, and called Kata. Voice mail—again.
His new wife had sneaked out of his room this morning. Granted, her plane had left before his, and she’d had to catch it. But he didn’t have a good feeling about the fact that they hadn’t talked since sacking out.
Would she regret last night’s hasty decision today?
Kata ought to be in Lafayette now. He tried her number again. Nothing but her recorded voice telling him to leave a message. Anxiety balled in his gut as he made his way to the nearest airline representative to change his final destination. Once he caught up with her, no doubt, he would have to do a lot of fast talking to calm her down and keep her from running scared again.
How the hell had he slept through her leaving his room? Hunter mentally kicked himself for that. A three a.m. turn in, followed by another hour of the most hedonistic, extravagant sex ever, had wiped him out. Still, failing to hear her leave had been both sloppy and lazy, and he’d never allow it again. For his fuckup, he was paying the price, being separated from Kata during what he feared was a critical time in their new marriage.
He had to do everything in his power to keep that distance from becoming permanent.
After settling his plane ticket, Hunter searched for a decent cup of coffee. He reached Kata’s voice mail once more with a curse, then he made another call he’d rather not . . . but one that might help his cause.
“Raptor,” Hunter’s pal and commanding officer, Andy Barnes, barked into the phone after the first ring. “Aren’t you on leave, Lieutenant?”
Since being promoted a few months back, Andy had become like a label-conscious shopaholic, only his addiction of choice was rank. He was still in the phase where he liked to remind himself— and everyone else—that he’d moved up to lieutenant commander, as if he was verbally pinching himself.
Hunter rolled his eyes. Andy had worked hard for the promotion, overcome his family’s less-than-stellar reputation in the navy to earn it. The promotion had first come Hunter’s way, and Andy had been completely mind-boggled when Hunter had turned it down. But desking it wasn’t his speed. He’d rather take an M-1 Tactical blade to both wrists before subjecting himself to a shitload of paperwork. “Yes, sir.”
“How’s that shoulder? Healing up?”
“Pretty well. I’m following doctor’s orders and continuing my strength training regimen.”
“Never doubted that. So why are you calling? The world isn’t falling apart without you. At least not yet.”
“Glad to hear it. I called to request permission to extend my leave, sir.”
“You don’t report until oh five hundred next Sunday.”
“I’m aware of that, but I have a situation that requires more time.”
Andy paused. “What aren’t you telling me? Shoot straight.”
Fuck. Not that it was any of Andy’s business, but if he was going to hook Kata up with all the benefits of being a SEAL’s wife, the news would come out. “I got married yesterday.”
“You got married?” He whistled. “Seriously? That’s something I thought I’d never see. You’ve been married to your team for nearly half a dozen years. Is she pregnant?”
Hunter gritted his teeth against Andy’s implication. “No.”
