A Favor Read online

  Biting the inside of my lip, I sigh, and knock again. It’s ignored and I eye the bright white truck with longing but remember what’s at stake. A home, all my own, no one could take it away from me. For that I’m willing to try, there’s no surprise when the doorknob turns and the door moves easily when I push inside. This is Texas in the middle of no where, the town probably took pride in not locking its doors.

  Pushing open the door I take in a small, surprisingly clean, foyer. The front room that looks out onto the porch is an old fashioned sitting room, used for guests. It was also clean, with just the slightest layer of dust. The door across from the sitting room is an office, maybe a better word is was. It’s been trashed, violently. Closing my eyes against the violence, I breathe deep. The room tells me that Sam needs this job as badly as we need him. I find him in the den, sprawled out on a large and long leather couch. He’s asleep on his back and I have my answer to the ignored knocks. This room is his cave, the windows are closed, there’s delivery from a local pizza place and cans and bottles of beer of varying brands are littered everywhere.

  Taking in the room I’m sad but then I step further in and look down at him. Fuck, he’s beautiful, yes the scars aren’t pretty but they did nothing to obscure a face so beautiful I couldn’t have drawn it so appealingly if I tried. His body, even foully treated is still muscular and well defined, he looks a little thinner than what seems healthy. His hair is a thick inky black and long, to the nape of his neck, most former soldiers continued with the close clipped cuts of their time in service. He has a strong face that’s surprisingly Roman in its classical features. A long straight nose is prominent below a wide brow, his jaw is heavy but his chin is clipped. He has sharp cheekbones and then he opens his eyes and I stop breathing. Eyes a deep and dark sapphire blue meet mine, so blue, so intense I feel like I’m drowning in them. Then he smiles, his mouth simply tips up and a kick of instant longing shakes me, his lips are perfectly molded not too thin not too thick. I would love to draw him but I wouldn’t do him justice.

  “Hey, there beautiful.” His voice is husky from sleep and the dark, smoky timbre slides right down my spine.

  Forcing air into my starving lungs takes a moment and words fail me, all I can do is smile back, dazed, “Hi.”

  A dark eyebrow goes up and he moves fluidly, I’ve seen the movements before, the muscles controlled and flexing with movement isn’t new to me being around so many former soldiers, what’s new is that I can’t take my eyes off of him. Standing he’s bigger than he looked lying down, while at likely an even six foot, he’s wide and broad and everything about him conjures up the word thick, his thighs ripple below the tight jeans. He’s in a skin tight white undershirt tank and all I can think is the better to see him in. He stops only a few feet away and it takes a moment to realize his eyes have been roaming over me and I’m breathless when they finally come back to my face.

  “You’re Zoe, Taylor’s secretary or assistant, right?”

  Damn it, Taylor’s name pulls me back to reality. I nod, “I’m Zoe Lawrence and I’m here to take you back to Austin with me.”

  At my words, his face shutters and his eyes darken. Without a word he turns and flings himself back on the couch. He’s sitting up, his head back, staring sightlessly at the ceiling and his voice is dull, “No, you aren’t.”

  His reaction and words sting, no, no, this isn’t happening. Lust, that’s all I’m feeling and it’s only because it has been a long since I’ve been so close to a living breathing man as beautiful as he is. I’m cold and empty and I don’t deserve love when I can’t give it back. Those were words all three of my past lovers had shouted at me. Once might have been bad luck, twice could maybe be I was picking the wrong person but three times and I’m out of the game. Because they were right, I don’t want to be empty and cold but if I was then I have no business going into a relationship knowing I can’t give back what I’m given. It isn’t fair and it isn’t right, so for three long years I’ve buried my needs and simply bought a very good vibrator. It doesn’t matter if he’s gorgeous, he’s off limits. Sam has been through enough pain in his life, I have no business adding to that. Just because I can have him, doesn’t mean I should.

  Swallowing down the soft words I want to say, is hard but necessary, Sam doesn’t need or want platitudes and murmured words of consolation. If I’m going to get a reaction, I would have to poke the bear and hope to hell he doesn’t poke back. Forcing ice into my voice, I poke. “Why the fuck not?”

  Shock has his eyes back on me, “Excuse me?”

  “I said, why the fuck not? Give me one good reason why you want to stay here in this festering wound you have going on. Why the hell won’t you come to Austin? This is a great job, work you could do in your sleep, that’s important and means something and you’ll be well paid for it. Austin is a great place to live over this humid desolate place. Why do you want to stay here?”

  Shaking his head, he runs a over his face, over his scarred left cheek and over the ear that was now barely a shell. No, is all I can think. He couldn’t possibly be hiding because of those scars, but it was clear in all the things he didn’t say.

  “I don’t have to explain myself to you. I don’t need the money and Austin is full of hippies and pretty damn humid most days too.” He’s talking to the ceiling again.

  I poke harder, “That’s a bunch of bullshit. You hiding because of your scars is also bullshit, without them yes you would be so gorgeous it would have been unfair to the competition but even with them you aren’t unattractive. You’re still very appealing.” Fuck, I sound breathless. It was his fault, he’d gone still at my words, then his eyes found mine. Trapped in his heavy gaze, my whole body is tight with need. Fear of him seeing it has me breaking contact and my eyes are down, focused on a beer bottle. I shoot for boredom and I hit it, maybe too well. “Besides, you’ll be working with a bunch of men who won’t give a damn about that.”

  I look up and his eyes are back on the ceiling, I want to yell at him, he doesn’t believe me.

  “I’m not going, take your sweet little ass back to Austin and tell Taylor you tried.”

  If I had taken the time to think about what came next, I would never have done it but the ability to think around Sam seems to have left me the moment his eyes met mine.

  Six steps are all it takes to get to him and I come down on him, straddling him. My right hand steadies me high on his chest and my left hand is caressing his scarred cheek. My lips move lightly over the tight, smooth skin. “This isn’t a good enough reason, not when even with your scars you are still beautiful.”

  He’s frozen beneath me and then he breathes again and his hot breath is against my ear. The feel of him against me, below me, is almost overwhelmingly drugging. I melt into him and then his hands are at my hips. His hands are large and burn where they touch, it’s a shock and then I feel him harden at the heart of me. My body isn’t my own, a rush of heat floods my pussy, preparing for him and desperate to have him inside me. Only the pain of my nipples so hard they ache against the wall of muscle that is his chest pulls me back into myself. Oh my fucking god runs through my frozen mind again and again and I try to pull away. Sam’s grip tightens on me and pulls me tighter, my only warning is a rush of breath against my lips and in the next instant his mouth is on mine.

  His lips are silky and soft as they flutter over mine in light, delicate touches. I open for him, without hesitation, wanting more, needing more. It isn’t enough for him and a gentle sweep of his tongue comes over my parted lips. I gasp as the touch tugs at somewhere deep inside me and open wider for him. His tongue sweeps inside me with cautious strokes of tasting and learning. He tastes sweet and shockingly minty, it’s only then that I realize he smells clean too as if he’d showered recently. My hands move into his hair, reveling in the feel of the thick, silky strands and my fingers tangle, unable to let go of him. I moan with the need for more, his kiss to be deeper. Beneath me, he grows harder and I can’t fight the nee
d to rock against him. Sam growls into my mouth and I swear I can feel the vibration of it to where he is pressing his hard cock into me. His kiss becomes hunger and fire and with greedy need I respond with the same hunger and scorching fire.

  Vaguely, the sound of my ringing phone battles past the haze of desire, it stops and I sink back into Sam, until it starts again. Damn it, the only person who did that is Taylor, sanity rears its ugly head. Taylor, fuck. Tearing my mouth from Sam’s, I roll off and away from him. Fighting my body and attempting to take in air I reach for my purse. I had dropped it onto the end of the couch, before I’d taken leave of my senses and thrown myself at Sam. Fighting to even out my breathing I refuse to look at Sam, my focus on Taylor, on the job I was sent for.

  “Zoe, what the hell? Why did it take so long to answer your phone? Five times, I was about to call the damn local sheriff.”

  He’d called five times? Shame and a blush flare over me. “I’m sorry, I left my purse in your truck. When I pulled up I thought he wasn’t home and I didn’t think it would take long.”

  The lie doesn’t roll off of my tongue and Taylor sounds hesitant, “So what’s going on? Are you on your way back with him or not?”

  “I’m working on that. Can I call you back?” It’s not a question and Taylor doesn’t take it as one. Running a hand through my hair I look up to find Sam in front of me. Shit, his eyes are everywhere taking in everything and I have the sinking feeling that I’ve awakened a dormant volcano. Damn it, I have well and truly poked the bear and now I have to pay for it.

  Sam reaches out and takes the phone from me. It went easily. “He’s hung up already.” He tosses it on the couch and pulls me up by a tight hand around my wrist.

  My stupid body doesn’t fight him but my mind struggles weakly to do the right thing, “No, Sam, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that when I don’t want to get involved with anyone.”

  His eyes don’t miss a thing and when he pulls me up against him, hands at my hips again, I want to curse out loud as I melt into him again. “Don’t want to get involved with anyone or me?”

  I can’t fight the shudder that runs through me at his question, and he has his answer. Eyes dark, his mouth covers mine and this time the kiss is wickedly enticing, and full of sex filled promise from the very start. My hands go up and around his neck because I’m terrified my knees won’t hold me up. Sam’s grip tightens on my hips and his hard length is burning into my stomach. Longing to know the feel of his body against me, his hard cock inside me, has me so wet my panties are wet and clinging uncomfortably to me. It shocks me, I’ve never been so wet, so needy before. The shock is enough to give me the strength to push away from him. His expression of dazed confusion tells me I only got away because I surprised him.

  A kick of fear at his intent gives my knees the strength to back up as far as I can before his confusion dissipates. From the safety of several feet away, and leaning against the door into the room for support I try again. “Look, you and me are not going to happen, I’m sorry. Saying that after what I did isn’t exactly fair and I know that and again I’m sorry. But you need to get the hell out of this place, this room.

  This job is good, not just for us but you. I’m going to lay it out for you. Taylor needs you badly, we’re down four trainers from where we need to be. Taylor looked into your history and we need you. What’s going on overseas isn’t over, you know that. The work we do is important and we need the best to train our people so they have the knowledge they need to stay alive. Why don’t you want to be a part of that?”

  Sam shakes his head, heat still in his eyes. “Taylor profits from war and sending people into danger. I pulled contractors out of too many tight spots to not know that they made no real difference in the fight. Inept as infantry could be at times, always our Special Forces came out ahead and didn’t put themselves in danger like the contractors did. Yeah, a lot of contractors are former servicemen and many Special Forces but they acted without caution and without regards to the rules of war. All they did was make messes that had to be cleaned up.”

  “Taylor has done everything to not be that. Our people run mainly JSOC ops, they are trained to the highest level of Special Forces training, both in physical training and in counterintelligence, they also don’t go over without knowing enough Dari, Pashto, and Arabic to get in and out without calling attention to themselves. Our people don’t make mistakes, we have yet to have a civilian death in the last six years. Our people don’t make messes we clean them up and we prevent them. Those that can’t learn the languages are only allowed to run security and protection for diplomats and foreign heads of states that need specialists.

  Yes, Taylor makes money but our men are paid well and have the security of knowing should anything happen to them, they and their families will be taken care of. They have life insurance policies and the support of our company to handle injuries they might incur. They have the best medical coverage that they don’t pay for. The government doesn’t offer that reassurance. Taylor also created a charity for veterans and their families and thirty five percent of the profits of the company go to that. The charity does everything from building homes to paying bills, didn’t Taylor tell you any of that?”

  Hands on his hips, he shrugs. “Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. I don’t really know. I wasn’t paying much attention to him. Only two minutes in the door, he said security contractors and I tuned him out.”

  I know I had his whole attention from the beginning because he wants me but gradually the fire has died from his eyes and he seems to be really thinking about it. He sighs and a hand went to the back of his neck. Turning away from me, he walks to the window across the room and parts the heavy drapes. Through them I can see the edge of one of the long low buildings that is a mix of metal and wood. The rest of the view is flat dirt but in the distance there are white, tall, windmills turning. Clinging to the doorframe I want so badly to go to him, he looks so alone but I can’t. To do so would only send more mixed signals than what I had already have, melting into him and then telling him no. So I do the only thing I can, I wait.

  The drape drops and he turns back to me. “I’ll go and talk to Taylor, no promises on what I’ll do but if you really want me to go then you’ll need to make it worth it.”

  He stalks me across the room and fear of my desire for him has me backing up and away from him. My back comes up against the wall in the hallway and I shake my head. “Sam, I meant it, no.”

  A wicked grin spreads across his face, and instantly my nipples are hard. Stopping only inches away, his hands come up on each side of me, caging me in with his body. “Oh, Zoe, I would almost believe you if I didn’t smell your pussy wet for me. If you didn’t tremble when you looked at me and if your eyes didn’t beg me to touch you and fuck you hard and fast. I would believe you but I don’t. So if you want me to get into that truck with you then you’ll have to pay for your sweet little lies.” Leaning down his breath feathers against my ear and the vibration of his voice shot right to my pussy. “One kiss, and if after that you still keep saying no then I’ll back off.”

  I’m fighting to be flippant, but it doesn’t quite work when I’m so breathless. “Sam, don’t you think talking dirty is just a bit too forward, especially when I’ve told you no?”

  “Baby, I say what’s on my mind and I know what’s on yours. Dirty, you think that was dirty? You have now idea how dirty I can get and it will make you even wetter than you are now.”

  Swimming in the smell and heat of him, I never see it coming. One moment his hands are up and the next a thick finger is tracing the wet line along my panties where I’m just as wet as he accused me of being.

  “Sam,” His name, a gasp of sound, is pulled from me.

  “That’s what I’ve been wanting to hear, my name on your lips soaked with as much desire as your pussy. Say it again, Zoe.”

  It’s an order and I’ve always hated orders so it gets through to me where his soft tones hadn’t. “No, damn it, S
am. Please, stop this.”

  “Are you pleading with me because you don’t trust me or yourself? It’s your turn, you give me one good reason why.” His finger continues to caress me along the seam of my pussy through the now soaked panties. I want to die from embarrassment as I grow wetter for him and my body trembles with need.

  “I’m not good at relationships. I’m really, really bad. I end up hurting the other person when I can’t be what they want, apparently I’m cold and empty inside. It isn’t something I try to be but I guess I am and I can’t control that but I can control me not hurting someone else. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Sam laughs and an odd feathering sensation runs over my stomach to hear it. “Ah, sweetheart, that’s kind of you to care but I don’t need you to care about me. I just want to fuck you long and hard until we both have scratched this itch and you itch don’t you, baby? Your pussy is so wet you want me inside you buried deep to soothe that and I can. I’ll have you begging for it and I’ll have you screaming when you come. I’ll take care of your body and you’ll take care of mine, that’s all the care you need to be concerned with.

  Also, it might have escaped your attention but I’m a big boy and I can take care of myself.” He removes his finger and presses his thick, large cock against me, making it clear he isn’t talking about age. “I’m large but I’ll make it good for you. The only thing I’m wondering about is if your sweet little mouth can take me as deep as I want. Do you know when you clench your pussy deep inside with longing the sweet lips of your pussy tremble? You want me in your mouth too, baby? I like knowing that, I won’t lie, I want to fuck your mouth deep but I’m not greedy, if you can’t take me deep, your tongue will do. Jesus, did you just come?”