From Sanctum with Love
Masters and Mercenaries, Book 10
By Lexi Blake
Coming February 23, 2015
Psychologist
Kai Ferguson has had his eye on Kori Williamson for a long time. His assistant
is everything he’s ever wanted in a partner—smart, caring, witty, and a bit of
a masochist. More than a little, actually, but that’s the problem. Kori won’t
admit her own desires. She’s afraid of him and what he has to offer. Luckily
for her, helping patients face their fears is one of his specialties.
Kori
knows she wants Kai. Her boss is the most amazing man she’s ever met. She’s
also smart enough to stay away from him. Having been down this road before, she
knows it only leads to heartache. She’s just found a place where she can
belong. Another failed relationship is the last thing she needs. It’s better to
guard her heart and let Kai think she’s frightened of his dark, dominant nature.
When
Kai is recruited for an operation with McKay-Taggart, everything is turned
upside down. Kai’s brother, international superstar Jared Johns, is in town and
Kai must juggle his family issues along with a desperate hunt for a serial
killer. The investigation throws Kori and Kai together, and they quickly
discover the chemistry between them is undeniable. But even if their newfound
love can survive his secrets and her lies, it may not be enough to save them both
from a killer’s twisted obsession.
Kori ran back to her room and gave serious
consideration to locking the door behind her. She could live here now. Sarah
could stuff protein bars under the door and she could live off tap water. This
could be her home for many years. As long as it took for that wicked look to
get out of Kai’s eyes.
Or he would find a way inside anyway and then her
ass was grass because that man looked serious.
She should have told him about the tires. She’d
made that promise a long time before. In her attempts to avoid him the previous
evening she’d decided that calling and telling him her car had been viciously
attacked was counter productive to the whole point of avoiding him. Now with a
whole night’s wisdom behind her, she could see that it might have been a
mistake.
Locking him out of her room would probably be
another mistake.
She turned on him. Maybe she could get out of this.
“Hey, you know in all the craziness of last night I totally forgot to mention
that my tires got messed up. Maybe that was a manufacturer defect or something.
It’s hard to tell in the dark.”
He stood in the doorway to her bedroom. Past him,
she could still hear a lot of talking since it seemed her normally quiet house
had been invaded. It didn’t matter. They could talk all they liked because all Kori
could see or really hear was Kai. “Are you certain that’s the tactic you want
to take with me?”
“Nope. I’m not certain at all.” She wasn’t certain
of anything. When she’d woken and realized he wasn’t still in bed with her,
she’d been disappointed. She’d reached out and his side of the bed had been
cold, and for a second she’d felt tears cloud her eyes. Then she’d decided it
was a good thing. He’d done what she wanted him to do. He’d snuck out and
avoided embarrassing morning-after stuff. Except he hadn’t. Apparently he’d
invited friends over to witness the embarrassing morning-after stuff. “What are
you still doing here?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What am I
still doing here? I was making you and your friends some breakfast. I was
attempting to be a good…houseguest.”
She was almost certain houseguest wasn’t what he’d
meant to say. What other words would he have used? Boyfriend? Dom? Master?
Every single one of them got her heart racing. Was she thinking of trying with
Kai? Could her heart handle that? “How did everyone else get here?”
“My brother seems to be stalking me and Case came
over because he was worried about you. Apparently he knew about someone
vandalizing your car.”
That was news to her. “He did? I didn’t tell him.”
“Who did you tell?” The question came out with an
edge of irritation.
“Sarah and Mia. I decided to wait until this
morning to call someone because it was late last night.” And I’d been trying to avoid you only to end up having the best sleep
of my life because I was wrapped around you. Yeah, she wasn’t going to say
that.
“How about the police? Were you going to call them?
If you’re going to make an insurance claim, you’ll need a police report. Or are
you going to claim that your tires died of natural causes?”
She held her hands up, attempting to placate him.
Why did her room seem so much smaller when he was in it? It was a good-sized
room, but Kai took up all the space. “You’re right. I should have called last
night, but I was tired and I wanted to get home and get in bed.”
His gorgeous eyes narrowed. “You weren’t in bed.
You were sitting up with your friends drinking wine. Try again.”
“Kai, what’s going on here? It’s a couple of
tires.”
“You were supposed to call me if you got in
trouble.”
“I wasn’t really in…” What was she doing? Before
yesterday, she would never have lied to Kai. Not right to his face. “I was
nervous about seeing you after the scene.”
“Finally some honesty. I’ll handle it. I’ll deal
with the police and get you what you need for your insurance. The boys from
McKay-Taggart will set up some discreet surveillance cameras around our parking
lot.”
There was a reason they didn’t have that. “I
thought you didn’t want the patients to feel like they were walking into a
secure zone.”
Some of them had serious issues with people
watching them. They dealt with a lot of PTSD patients.
“I will deal with them. Your safety is more
important. Now turn around, pull your pants down, and place your palms flat on
the bed. It’s a count of thirty.”
She could actually feel her womb spasm. “What?”
Nothing about his face or stance told he was
anything but dead serious. “This was a condition of your employment. It has
been from the beginning.”
If she wasn’t careful her damn jaw was going to hit
the floor. “I remember the conditions of my employment. Are you saying if I’d
been late and hadn’t called, you would have spanked me?”
“I suppose we should be happy you’re a very prompt
girl. And you tend to be good about calling. We’ll never know. What I do know
is that after last night, I will definitely spank you and you’ll enjoy it. You
might start showing up late just so you can walk into my office and present
that juicy ass to me.” He moved in front of her, staring down at her with heat
in his eyes. “I want you to think before you tell me no. I want you to question
which side of the Kori I know is going to win this battle. Is it the funny,
happy, brave Kori who never stands down from a challenge, or the one who’s
denied herself for years because some idiot asshole Dom made her feel small. I
won’t ever make you feel small. My job in life will be to lift you up, to help
you be strong.”
His words cut through her. “What are you saying,
Kai? Is this about you being my boss or acting as my play partner?”
She thought they’d worked it out last night.
His hands cupped her cheeks, forcing her to look up at him. "I'm acting as your Dom, Kori, and you know it. You can pretend all you like. You can call it whatever you want to , but you know how this ends. This ends with you and me."
NY
Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her
husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing
at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn't until she
started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her
heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy
endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.
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