Honor Bound by Joey Hill (speld decodable readers .txt) 📕

“Yet,” she whispered.

Gray clouds could become steel in an instant, she realized, as he leaned close again, his heated breath on her face. It made her lips yearn to taste, even as she trembled at what was in his face. Something no man had ever shown her with such undeniable clarity.

Possessiveness.

“You’ll keep your head and this fine ass down, Sergeant, so it stays that way. And I haven’t forgotten those ten strikes with the switch. I’ll make sure I send you off with a reminder to obey me in that.”

She swallowed, fearing and anticipating that switching, her fingers curling into the sod above her head, even as her pussy moistened further. He went to one hip next to her, propping his head on his fist, and stroked his fingers over her clit, watching her reaction.

“Tell me your name. Your real name.”

Three

Dana Esther Smith. Her voice had been soft but strong as well, like the flow of a river current he could feel on all his extremities, and perhaps even deeper than that.

Hours later, he’d escorted her back past his table, headed for the locker area. Matt and Lucas had been holding the fort. Matt had raised his glass, giving him his blessing. If Ben had still been there, he knew the lawyer’s eyes would have lingered a little too long on Dana’s tempting backside. That was Ben, always trying to get something started. Hell, he and Ben had shared a willing submissive before. But this time the thought raised his hackles, made him glad Ben was otherwise occupied.

The whole night had been full of unexpected surprises. He normally preferred a woman with no ink, but the three she had were such tantalizing clues into her head. Despite a jaded, sophisticated world, they suggested she was up-front about her gut convictions, like him. But emotionally there was shielding, complexity. It was what made a woman so damn appealing and frustrating at once.

He’d done what he’d promised, switched her pretty butt good, though a part of him didn’t want to mark that delectable flesh with such angry red stripes. While he’d wanted to play more with her sweet tits, his focus had been getting past those shields. Afterward, he’d made her kneel, take him in her mouth, a true submissive’s favorite posture, and had her suck him back to life with that skillful, devil-blessed mouth. She’d tried to sass him a couple times when the feelings they conjured in that magical room overcame her. He’d taken care of that. Repeatedly. But he couldn’t claim to be any less shaken up. With Dana, he’d not only wanted more; he’d taken it, forced her to that brink with him.

She came toward him now, because they’d agreed to meet at the entrance before she took off. She’d changed into jeans and a snug black tee. The little tease had left off a bra, probably realizing he couldn’t keep his eyes off a woman’s breasts. The jut of her nipples and wobble of her small curves were damn distracting, but he didn’t miss that she was trying to play it cool. She’d left the purple and green mask on. Giving him a friendly but distant smile, she went to her toes and brushed his mouth with hers. “It was a great night, Captain. A once-in-a-lifetime, God’s truth.”

Astonishingly, she was pulling away, intending to head for one of the waiting taxis.

Catching her wrist, he yanked her back to him. Pushing her up against the wall, he treated himself to a rough squeezing of those curves while he kissed her hard and deep, no passing brush of lips. When he lifted his head, her eyes were glazed behind the mask, her lips parted and heart beating fast.

“Trying to play me again, Sergeant?”

She swallowed, shook her head, but he was satisfied to see he’d broken that calm exterior. “I just . . . I can’t give you more than tonight, Captain. I want to, but I’ve got to keep my head on straight. I’m only on leave. Maybe another time, another place . . . I won’t be back for a year.”

Fuck, what was he doing? He was leaving for Afghanistan next week himself. How could he demand more? Because there was a hell of a lot more there, and no man in his right mind turned his back on that much treasure. He forced himself to look past his own feelings and at her stiff body language, registering the thready pulse. It didn’t matter if she was knocked off her axis, too; Dana obviously hadn’t intended to take her Zone experience any further than this. When a woman got spooked, she needed her space, time to think. He couldn’t push her now, no matter how much he wanted to. The problem was, by the time she thought it through, he’d be on a plane, and she’d be God knew where.

Damn it, earlier he’d calmly accepted fate’s direction for his future relationships. If fate was true, he’d see her again. Right? Tonight, he had to let it go.

Releasing her reluctantly, his hands lingering, he nodded. Fought back something that made no sense, that told him to fuck fate, to keep her here with him. Always. “Take care of yourself, Sergeant.”

She hesitated, maybe because she felt that resistance from him, or maybe because he was crazy enough to think she felt it from herself. Then she nodded, her fingertips grazing his forearm. Her breasts moved in that quivering, sexy rhythm as she moved to the cab.

When he held the door for her, he noticed the slender nape of her neck still bore the faint imprint of his dog tag chain. After he shut the door, she put her hand up to the glass. He tried to meet her palm to palm, but then the cab pulled into traffic and his fingers slipped off. At last glimpse, he could tell she was taking off her mask, a shadow disappearing into the night.

It took a full five minutes of staring