Destroyed by a Dangerous Man Read online

Keeping score of who paid the tab paled in comparison.

  The thoughts drifted away.

  “Baby.” Corbin was gently shaking me awake. “We’ve got dinner at nine.”

  I stretched on the bed and looked up into his face. A light sheen covered his brow, and a V-pattern of sweat darkened the front of his shirt. His hair was wet, too.

  He smelled like a sexy man after a hard workout. He smelled good—Corbin’s scent always triggered some primitive, animal part of me. I reached for the bottom of his shirt, but he caught my hand.

  “It’s almost eight,” he said.

  He pulled off his damp clothes as he walked away, and I couldn’t do anything but stare at the graceful rippling of his back, then his powerful ass and muscular legs.

  I rolled out of bed to put on a pretty black dress with a flowing hemline. It went perfectly with a pair of sexy heels that Corbin had bought for me. The suite had two bathrooms, so I had plenty of space to tame my curls into something resembling a French twist.

  By then Corbin was ready. He helped me into my elegant cashmere coat—another gift.

  After dinner—and a slice of the decadent chocolate Sachertorte that Vienna was famous for—Corbin and I strolled through the charming inner part of the city. The stores were all long closed, but I loved the window displays, the mix of eccentric and elegant. A hardware store beside an antique jewelry store, diamonds glittering like stars.

  “I could live here,” Corbin said so casually that for a moment, I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly.

  I looked over. Corbin’s black coat was unbuttoned, revealing his tailored suit, this one dark gray. He always looked hot dressed up. I appreciated the touch of ruggedness now that his dark hair was a little longer, a little wavy.

  And that stubble. Hot as hell.

  “Really?” I asked. My breath puffed out in a little cloud.

  “It covers everything on my list. Culture, good airport, not too crowded, plenty of green space. Sometimes I think about buying an apartment building here as an investment, and if we ever wanted to stay for six months or a year, we could. But it’s only worth doing if it would make you happy. If not here, somewhere else.”

  I melted. “I wish you’d say something jerky, because I had an interesting experience while you were in the gym.”

  We happened to be standing in front of a toy store. In the window, Corbin’s expression said he was expecting bad news.

  He laid a trail of kisses along the side of my neck, making me shiver with delight. “What did you do, baby?”

  “I’m offended that you think I did something bad!”

  He squeezed me tighter.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I know this vacation was supposed to be all play and no work—”

  “That’s not who you are,” he said carefully, pulling me away from the window. We resumed our walk.

  Critter Chomp’s missing mascot fell to the bottom of my list of priorities.

  “Maybe we’re not compatible,” I said miserably. “One of us will end up repressed, building warrior robots or flashing strangers in the mall.”

  “We’re compatible.” He stopped walking and pulled me close. He wasn’t happy with me, but he wasn’t punishing me. If the situation were reversed, I probably would have sulked about the whole thing. “We have time to figure it out.”

  “It’s not just the work. Don’t you get lonely, traveling all the time?”

  “No.”

  I sighed. “You lived all over the world as a kid, so I guess it feels normal. I spent my life within twenty minutes of where I was born. When Veronica moved a few towns away, that was a big deal.”

  “I understand, baby,” he said. He rested his chin on the top of my head. “One of these days we’re going to sit down and figure out what we want the rest of our lives to look like. What did you want to tell me?”

  Oh, that. Well, the evening’s mood was already ruined, so there was no point in breaking it to him gently. “A potential private investigation case.”

  I quickly filled him in on my conversation with Jimmy, and Critter Chomp’s problem.

  As I was finishing, I realized I didn’t have a tidy way to wrap it up. I wasn’t even sure what I was asking of him. Advice? Permission? Or maybe just understanding.

  “I was thinking, maybe this is a good way to relaunch myself as an investigator. It should be a lot easier than my first case.”

  “Ok,” he said. “Tell me more about this bear trophy—”

  “It’s not a trophy. It’s stuffed, like a toy.” I held my hand at shoulder height. “It comes up to here on me. That’s just a guess, though; it was on a platform. There was a rope around it. Not its neck. I mean around the whole platform, though that didn’t stop people from rubbing its head for luck.”

  “Why? What’s so special about it?”

  “Nothing. It’s a mascot. Symbolic.”

  We waited for a car to pass before crossing the narrow road. Corbin rubbed the side of his jaw.

  “I think you should take the job,” he said.

  “Really?”

  He shrugged. “Jimmy says everyone knows where the bear is. I can take care of it in an afternoon.”

  “You?”

  “If you want to make another bet…”

  “No,” I said, starting to feel uneasy. “If it were just a matter of waltzing into wherever and taking it back, no one would need Stroop Finders.”

  “In which case, having me around will come in handy. Unless you don’t like working together.”

  “I love working with you, but… only one of us can be in charge,” I said. “This is my job, so it should be me.”

  “Fine. You’re the boss. I have no problem with that.”

  I snorted my disbelief. Corbin Lagos was nothing if not a control freak. Not about everything, because he picked his battles carefully, but left to his own devices?

  Total control freak. I snorted again.

  “Ouch,” he said, and he sounded a little wounded.

  I glanced at him to make sure he was joking.

  To my surprise, he wasn’t.

  “But, Corbin, you’re intense. You know that, right?”

  “I can be intense,” he said. “But I’m entirely capable of stepping back.”

  “You…” Actually, he was right. But it wasn’t the kind of laid-back that translated to letting me do anything that fell under his broad definition of dangerous. “Prove it.”

  “How?”

  I thought for a moment. He wasn’t going to let me have my phone. “What about sex?”

  “Sex?”

  “Yeah. But without the dominating thing.”

  He laughed once, then stopped. But when he saw I was serious, he started laughing hard.

  “Baby,” he said. “I can do that, but you won’t like it.”

  It was the laughing that pushed me over the edge, from reasonable to annoyed. “Let’s find out.”

  3

  If Corbin’s intention was to prove that he didn’t need to be dominant, he probably shouldn’t have walked me back to the hotel so quickly that I had to trot to keep up.

  The second we were inside our suite, he hung the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.

  “I didn’t say you could do that,” I said.

  He stood in front of me, so close that I had to crane my neck to look up at him.

  “I didn’t realize we were playing Simon Says.” He started to reach for me, then pulled his hands back and crossed his arms, as if trying to keep himself from temptation.

  This was going to be fun, I realized. Corbin was genetically incapable of being even a tiny bit submissive.

  “How do you know Simon Says?” I asked as I removed my coat and unzipped my dress. It slipped partially off my shoulders.

  Corbin’s attention zeroed in on the bare skin of my neck. Then he looked into my eyes. “Every culture in the world has a version of it. I grew up playing Jacques a dit.”

  “I bet you sucked at it,” I said, letting t
he dress drop an inch.

  “Well, I’ve never met a Jacques who didn’t need to be taken down a peg.” His gaze dipped to my chest, lingered, then met mine again.

  He wasn’t even touching me, yet it was like he was in control. What had started as a tease, meant to torture him, now felt like a show for his approval.

  How the hell had that happened?

  I zipped my dress back up. Obviously a different strategy was needed here. “Take off your shirt.”

  “Should I remove my coat and jacket first?” he asked. “I don’t ever tell you to remove your bra if you’re wearing something on top of it.”

  I gave him a look, and he gave me a cocky smile as he slid out of the jacket with a smooth motion. He draped it over a nearby chair, then began working his fingers along the shirt’s buttons.

  Underneath was an undershirt. “That, too,” I said. My breath came faster at the sight of his thick biceps straining the sleeves.

  He pulled up the undershirt’s bottom, and I stared at the rigid muscles of his abs, then the flexing of his broad chest as he tugged the shirt over his head. A warm thrill ran the course of my body.

  He was all mine, and he had to do whatever I said.

  My gaze lifted to his face. His expression nearly made my heart stop.

  Corbin was obeying, in principle, but the fire in his eyes reminded me of a wild, dangerous beast, restrained on the flimsiest of leashes.

  He looked like a predator biding his time.

  I almost took a step back, but stopped myself at the last second.

  Some people would say that Corbin was a bad, bad man who had done horrendous things. He was the most dangerous bounty I’d ever gone after. By far.

  He knew exactly how to work that angle, how to remind me of what he was without saying a single word.

  If I hadn’t known him, I would have been running for my life. But I refused to show that I was intimidated.

  “Take off your…” I was going to say pants, but the darkness in his eyes as he began to unbuckle his belt made me think better of it. He already looked lethal enough.

  Once his cock was out, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep hold of myself, let alone him.

  “Shoes,” I said. “Lose the shoes.”

  I had to turn around, to walk toward the bed so he couldn’t see my inner turmoil. Because he was right; I wanted his domination.

  But this wasn’t about sexual pleasure. It was about making a point.

  I ripped back the covers but then wasn’t sure what to do next.

  If I got into bed, he’d be looming over me. Not very submissive of him.

  If I made him get into bed, it would be like giving him control over that territory. Not all men could pull it off, but Corbin had an unnatural ability to fill up a room, to bring it under his command.

  Turning our bed into enemy territory would be a snap for him.

  “Could you order a bottle of champagne?” he asked. His voice was deep and a little rough.

  Summoning my courage, I turned to fix him with my steeliest stare. “Topping from the bottom?”

  “Hardly. Making a suggestion.”

  “Fine,” I said. Alcohol might make this easier.

  What kind of champagne? That was Corbin’s area.

  “Shall I do it?” he asked.

  “Obviously,” I snapped. “Go on, then.”

  Corbin made a breathy sound, like a choked laugh, but when I looked at him, his expression was serious.

  “You think this is funny?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “There’s nothing funny about a beautiful woman ordering bubble bath instead of champagne.” The corners of his lips twitched as he stared me down.

  “They admitted that they mixed up the order!”

  “They were being polite, baby.”

  I snatched a pillow off the bed and hurled it at him. With a swipe of his arm, he deflected it, then stalked closer.

  Without my permission.

  His arms went around me.

  My triumph was immediate and absolute. “I knew you couldn’t control yourself…”

  He leaned past me and picked up the phone sitting on the bedside table. “Excuse me, baby. You’re in the way.”

  “Don’t call me baby like that.”

  “Excuse me, Audrey,” he said in the exact same maddeningly sexual tone. “I can’t dial the phone.”

  Grudgingly, I stepped aside. He carried out a conversation in German, hung up the phone, and turned to face me.

  “What would you like now?” he asked.

  It was so much work to be the one in control. Corbin always made it look effortless. But there was a lot of thinking involved. Planning.

  “Stand over there,” I said, pointing at the chair where he’d draped his jacket.

  He sauntered over.

  “And lose the attitude. Turn around.” I had to tell him that because now he was taking everything literally. “You’re a pain in the ass,” I grumbled.

  “Now you know how it feels. You were such a bratty sub when we first met.”

  “Quiet.”

  If the situation were reversed, what would Corbin have done? Ordered me to my knees and demanded that I suck his cock until I was a submissive, docile kitten.

  But I didn’t have a cock, and he loved going down on me so much, it would have been a reward.

  Besides, I couldn’t choke him with my pussy.

  “Rub yourself through your pants,” I said. “But you’re not allowed to come.”

  Let’s see how much he liked that.

  He began rubbing himself. It was… fine. Hot, but not what I wanted.

  I fought my irritation and tried to think of an order to give him.

  “Say something sexy.”

  One corner of his mouth quirked. “Lass mich wissen, wenn du genug davon hast dich mit diesem Spiel zu foltern, und ich werde dich auf’s Bett werfen und so hart ficken dass Du eine Woche lang nicht mehr richtig gehen kannst—”

  “Stop!” I buried my hands in my hair. “I never would have come here if I’d known you spoke German.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because.”

  His body shook from holding in laughter, which made me even more frustrated. I jabbed a finger into his chest.

  Mistake. His torso was as hard as a wall. Don’t think about it. “If you keep going like this, you’re going to be single the rest of your life.”

  “Look, ba—Audrey. I don’t know why you’re pissed at me right now, but I apologize.”

  “And now you’re humoring me. Real mature, Corbin.”

  He caught my finger. “If I can speak frankly…” He raised an eyebrow.

  I shook my head. “No. Take off the rest of your clothes.”

  That made him smile. He unzipped his pants and let them fall to the floor. His sleek black boxer-briefs didn’t do a damned thing to hide his impressive erection.

  “As you can see, I’m happy to submit to you,” he said, pulling off his underwear. His cock sprang free. It was thick and long and very hard.

  “You’re ‘happy’ because you’re always horny, not because you’re submitting.”

  “Haven’t I done everything you demanded?”

  “You’re not obeying the spirit of the game. Go to the bed,” I growled.

  “And so graceful, too,” he said.

  I smacked his ass as he passed. It was hard with muscle. I hadn’t managed to get the satisfying cracking sound I wanted, so I smacked him again.

  Bad angle. My fingertips stung from the impact. I rubbed them.

  How the hell was I going to get out of this without losing face? “Turn around.”

  He turned. I walked in to him, intending to knock him onto the bed. But he was too large and simply didn’t go anywhere.

  “How can I help?” he asked.

  “Get into bed.”

  He sat on the edge of the bed. “Like this?”

  I pushed on his chest, and when he fell back, he took me with him. My ma
ss of curls fell out of the twist and tumbled forward, gusting me with fragrant lemon verbena.

  He gathered my hair and held it out of our faces. His other hand pressed against my shoulders, then down my spine.

  My back arched at his touch, and I couldn’t help pressing my hips against his erection, my eyes half-closed in bliss.

  But Corbin didn’t follow up.

  I wanted him to pull my head back, to reach under my dress, yank my panties aside, and thrust his cock into me.

  I bit my lip to stop from moaning in frustration.

  “Fuck me,” I said. “But in a submissive way.”

  “You lost me,” he said. Maybe it was my imagination, but his fingers seemed to tighten a little in my hair. His voice was deep and almost a whisper. So seductive it hurt. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Fuck me, but submissively.”

  “Fucking is an active act. I can’t fuck you submissively. If you want me to lie here and twiddle my thumbs while you do all the work, I will. Is that what you want?”

  “Not exactly.” I started to sit up, and Corbin released my hair, letting the strands slip through his fingers.

  What the hell did I want?

  “Fuck me without being arrogant about it.”

  “I’m never arrogant. Do you want me to make you happy?” he asked, his eyes full of promise.

  “Yes—”

  Corbin sat up on the bed, his arms around me, his lips crushing mine.

  The movement brought his swollen length against my pussy. Just one long stroke, but it was enough to make me shudder with anticipation.

  He licked along the seam of my lips, then tasted my mouth. He didn’t demand that I open for him; he didn’t need to.

  “All I’ve ever wanted,” he murmured as he flipped me over, laying me out on the bed, “is to make you happy. You’re the love of my life, baby. Did you forget that?”

  Emotion welled up inside me, and I shook my head.

  “Good.” His expression hardened. “I can’t fuck you tonight.”

  “You’re punishing me,” I moaned as he pulled away.

  His smile flashed. “I have to prove that I can obey the spirit of the law.”

  The hotel doorbell rang. Less than a second later, my phone rang from the general direction of Corbin’s jacket.

  “You brought it to dinner?” I asked.