Beg For Me by Sierra Cartwright

Chapter One Excerpt

Shit.

Nate Davidson opened his eyes and tried to shake away the stars that had exploded in his head and stolen his vision. It took several tries before the image of strong, tall, dark, and dangerous Wolf Stone blinked into focus. And when it did, Nate was certain he’d never seen anything better.

It’d been a long time. Too damn long.

“You’re lucky I didn’t tear your fool head off.”

Nate flexed his jaw to make sure it still worked. “Feels to me like you did.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Stone’s voice was deep and ragged, cut glass on velvet.

“You’re not glad to see me? I thought you’d start looking for a fattened calf.” Nate knew what real danger was. It had nothing to do with his battered body or the nasty storm snarling its way over the Rocky Mountains. Danger was Wolf Stone. And Nate was in the bigger, stronger man’s sights.

Nate struggled to get his elbows behind him. Damn mountains were made of rock, not the best pillow under any circumstances. Downright painful when you’d had your clock cleaned by a tank of a man. “Mind if I sit up?”

“Stay where you are.”

Lying on the ground, looking well over six feet up into Stone’s cold blue eyes left Nate at a disadvantage—or, rather, at a greater disadvantage than he usually was around Stone. “Hospitable as always, aren’t you, boss?”

“All trespassers get the same treatment.”

No matter how hard either of them tried to pretend otherwise, they both knew Nate was no ordinary trespasser.

And Stone was no ordinary property owner.

He’d commanded several missions that Nate had been assigned to. Every person selected had to meet rigorous physical standards. By any measure, Nate was a good-size man, an inch over six feet, two hundred seven pounds of lean muscle.

Still, Stone had him by two inches and at least twenty pounds. Even now, recouping from injuries, Stone had effortlessly brought Nate down. Well, that was an understatement. Stone had tossed Nate like an old magazine.

“Still waiting for an answer to my question, Davidson.”

Sometimes, only the truth would do. “When you refused protection, Hawkeye sent me.”

“You’re here,” Stone demanded incredulously, “to protect me?” He raised a dark eyebrow in a way that made grown men cower. Nate had seen it happen, and he refused to admit to himself that it made him cower as well.

“Who’d have imagined?” Ludicrous.

Stone sheathed his knife. The weapon was overkill. He only needed his hands in order to tear a strip out of someone’s hide.

“Tell Hawkeye I said thanks, but no thanks. You can find your own way off the ranch.” Stone turned.

If he hadn’t been looking for it, Nate might not have noticed Stone’s slight limp. Stubborn man. The threat against his life was real and imminent. He was the only eyewitness to the hit that had taken out Elliott and Lisa Mulgrew. Word on the street was that some lucky bastard would get a cool million dollars if Stone didn’t make it to court to testify against Michael Huffman, the murderer.

While Stone was holed up in his fortress, he was safe enough. But once he left Cold Creek Ranch, he’d need the backup.

“So,” Nate called out when Stone got about ten paces away, “you’re not interested in knowing how I breached the perimeter?”

“You got exactly nowhere before your ass was mine.” He continued on without looking back.

“Storm’s brewing, man!”

“You’ll get wet.”

Well, hell.Nate collapsed back onto the unforgiving ground. That’d gone well.

Stone disappeared over a ridge, vanishing into thick Ponderosa pines.

In a nearby tree, a hairy woodpecker—nasty little bastard—beat out a staccato that matched the throbbing headache in Nate’s temples.

Under any circumstances, he deferred to Stone. The man exuded a palpable loyalty-inspiring authority. Even now, when Stone didn’t want assistance, didn’t want to be protected, Nate had no intention of leaving. Stone was as determined as the mountains were rugged. Then again, so was Nate.

Hawkeye hadn’t recruited Nate for this job. He, plus the helicopter pilot and copilot, had volunteered. It had taken days of planning, and he refused to admit failure.

Half a dozen raindrops pelted his cheeks.

Even in the past few minutes, the storm had gathered clouds and whipped them together with wind to descend the eastern slope of the Continental Divide.

Could this get any worse?

Lightning slashed through the swollen gray sky, igniting a path of cloud-to-cloud strikes.

Yeah.It had gotten worse.

* * *

Wolf Stone, no matter how drop-dead gorgeous he was, was out of his freaking mind. And an asshole to boot. “You left Nate out there?” Kayla Fagan demanded. “Have you seen the weather?”

“He’s not made of sugar.”

“Meaning he won’t melt?”

“Exactly.”

“If this is how you treat your fellow operatives, what do you do to your enemies?”

He shrugged. “None of them left alive to tell.” He smiled, and it did nothing to soften his features. The quick curve was more wicked than anything, making his eyes darken, reminding her of those few moments of twilight before the sky devoured the sun.

He strode from the kitchen, and she followed. “Mr. Stone—”

“Wolf, or just Stone.” He didn’t slow down. “And I’m not worried about how I’ll sleep tonight.” He crouched in front of the hearth, tossing kindling into the empty fireplace grate.

When she first heard he was holing up in a log house on a ranch, she’d pictured a remote, barely inhabitable two-room cabin.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Wolf Stone enjoyed luxury, and his home was the intersection of comfort and high-tech. This room, more than any other, gave a nod to his heritage. A rug, painstakingly woven by his grandmother, hung from one of the walls. Another rug, not crafted by his family, dominated the area near the fireplace.

In other rooms, he flicked a switch to ignite the gas fireplaces, but in this one, he obviously preferred to build it himself.

Even though she was stunned by his bad behavior, she couldn’t help her fascination as she watched him. His shoulders were impossibly broad. Long black hair, as wild as he was, was cinched back with a thin strip of leather. And Lord, he had the hottest ass she’d ever seen, and a cock with plenty of potential.

Not that she’d actually seen it full-length.

But at night, when he thought she was asleep, he walked around the house in the buff.

Last night, his dick had been partially erect, and the darkened view had inspired her dreams and nearly made her forget her job.

Lucky for her, at least part of the time, she was required to have her hands on him. She just hadn’t quite figured out how to professionally get him to take off all his clothes to touch his naked body.

Thunder cracked, and she worried about Nate. “I think you should at least invite him in until the storm passes.” Even though it was summer, weather could be extreme at this elevation.

“You going to nag me?”

“Convince you to change your mind, using my excellent powers of verbal persuasion.”

“Save your breath. Hawkeye doesn’t need to squander its resources on me.”

Hawkeye Security. The company they all worked for was named after the man who’d founded it, a man she, and most others, had never met. Wolf, she’d heard, was one of his closest advisors.

With their highly trained men and women, Hawkeye provided world-renowned protection. They recruited former Special Forces operators, ex-cops, bodyguards, lots of IT people, and other brainiacs, including some who worked remotely out of small, private offices. The higher the stakes, the likelier it was that Hawkeye would be the firm of choice.

Her teammates were the best in the world. She was proud to be one of them. “Hawkeye brought me in as well,” she reminded him. “Maybe he would go to these extraordinary lengths for any one of us, but maybe he wouldn’t. All I can say is he obviously considers you important.”

Stone struck a match, filling the room with the sharpness of sulfur. “My mind is made up.”

“But—”

“I told Hawkeye not to send anyone. I meant it.”

“You can have a heart, just until the weather clears. Then you can go back to your regularly scheduled…” She stopped short of saying assholeishness. “Grumpiness.”

His mouth was set, brooking no argument. “Let it be.”

Huge splatters of rain hit the floor-to-ceiling windowpanes.

Wolf might be able to sleep at night if he left his comrade out there, but she would toss and turn with worry.

Decision made, Kayla crossed to the hallway closet, pulled open the gigantic golden oak doors, and took out a raincoat. She also grabbed her gun and checked it before tucking it into her waistband. She snatched up a pair of compact binoculars and a compass and was shoving her arms in the sleeves of the yellow slicker as she walked through the great room on the way to the back door.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Exactly what you said. I’m saving my breath.” Kayla spared him a glance. “I decided not to argue with you.”

“Stop right there.”

He spoke softly, but his voice snapped with whiplash force. Despite herself, she froze. She’d faced untold danger, but this man, unarmed, unnerved her. A funny little knot formed in the pit of her stomach.

Kindling crackled as fire gnawed its edges.

“Turn around.” His voice was terrifying in its quietness. “Look at me, Fagan.”

Struggling not to show the way she was trembling, she turned.

He stood. “I will be very clear, Ms. Fagan. You are here at my pleasure.” He took a single step toward her. “I will not be disobeyed.”

His statement was loaded with threat.

Wildly she thought of the room in the basement, the one with crops and paddles hanging from the walls. The one she’d been forbidden to enter, and the door she’d opened the first time he’d left the house.

She locked her knees so she didn’t waver. “I’ve never been much for obedience.”

“Nathaniel Davidson is far from helpless.”

“He’s a fellow member of Hawkeye. I’m not allowed to leave him out there. And I won’t.” She met his gaze and ignored the fury blazing there. “Really, Mr. Stone, I don’t care if it gets me fired.” Or worse. She pivoted and walked away.

The wind whipped at the door, nearly snatching it from her hand.

She turned up the collar of her ineffective raincoat. There was never anything friendly about a Rocky Mountain storm.

She’d grown up in Tucson where torrential rains were common during the monsoon season. They cooled the weather to bearable seventy-degree temperatures, but this—it was freaking like winter.

Fortunately, she didn’t have far to trudge. From her conversations with headquarters, she had a pretty good idea of where the insertion was supposed to happen. And in less than fifteen minutes, the ground beneath her sizzling with electrical ferociousness, she saw a streak of orange.

She grinned.

Members of her team were smart. Nate had donned a reflective safety vest. That would, at least, stop friendly fire.

“Davidson!” When she got no response, she called out a second time.

He started toward her. “Come to rescue me, have you?” he shouted above the roar of the wind. “Bet Stone told you to come.”

“He sends his regards and invites you to sit next to the fire while he pours you a cognac.”

Nate laughed. “How much trouble are you in for coming after me?”

“He didn’t threaten to flay the skin from my hide.”

“Doesn’t mean he won’t.”

“Thanks. That’s a comforting thought.”

“He doesn’t know?”

“Who I am? No.” She shook her head. “He thinks Hawkeye sent him a physical therapist.”

Nate grinned. “Do you know enough about that to do no harm, doc?”

“Uh… I watched a special on the internet.”

Thunder crashed.

“I ought to write both of you up.”

Wolf.Her breath threatened to choke her. How much had he overheard? It shouldn’t have surprised her that he’d followed, that he’d effortlessly covered the same ground she had in far less time. The man was in shape, and he kept himself sharp, the same way he had when he led American troops in the Middle East.

Over the lash of the summer storm, his voice laden with command, he said, “Both of you, back to the house.”

The wind snatched a few strands of hair and whipped them against cheekbones that could have been sculptured from granite. His jaw was set in an uncompromising line. Out here, in the unforgiving elements, he appeared even more formidable than he had in the house.

Nate glanced at her. “Maybe I will get a cognac after all.”

“No fucking chance,” Stone fired back.

Cheerfully, as if he couldn’t have been happier, Nate whistled and gamely started down the mountainside. No one should be happy about this kind of reception.

“Move it, Fagan,” Stone instructed, leaning forward so he could issue his command directly into her ear.

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you say something?”

She blinked innocently.

His arched brow told her he hadn’t bought it.

Steps short but sure, she followed Nate, leaving Stone to bring up the rear.

Minutes later, the mean-looking sky unleashed a torrent. Earth became mud. Rocks became as slick as ice.

She lost her balance, and Stone was there, wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her up and back, flush against the solidness of his body.

The sensation zinging through her was from him, not the streak of lightning. “I’m good. Fine.”

He held her for a couple of seconds, his warm breath fanning across her ear. What would happen if she leaned back for just a bit longer and allowed herself to be protected in his strong arms? To feel his cock against her? To surrender to the fantasies that kept her awake at night and her pussy damp, even now?

And what fantasies they were.

Last night’s sight of his semierect dick had driven her mad.

After he returned to his own room, she’d thought of the crops and paddles in his downstairs room. She’d pictured him using them on her while she gasped and strained, and ultimately surrendered to the inevitable. Turned on and needy, she’d pulled up her sleep shirt and parted her labia to find her clit already hardened.

She’d come with a quiet little mew and wanted nothing more than to scream the house down as his cock pounded her.

What was wrong with her? She couldn’t afford thoughts like this with any man, particularly one she was sent to protect. Because of the risk inherent in working for Hawkeye Security, many employees were fueled by adrenaline, and affairs were common. But everyone knew the rules. No commitments. No emotions were allowed to get in the way of the job. But the way he held her was an invitation she wanted to accept. “You can let me go. It’s you who needs to be careful. Otherwise we’ll be spending the next week undoing the damage.”

“So speaks my physical therapist.”

Did he know who she was?

Before she had a chance to reply, he added, “I want you out of the storm.”

He released her, and the chill crept under her jacket. This time, being more careful, she followed Nate’s path.

The trip up had taken maybe about fifteen minutes. Down took half an hour. And by the time they reached the home’s patio with its outdoor kitchen and oversize hot tub, the sky was spitting out pieces of ice in the form of hail.

Very polite country, this.

Minding her manners, she took off her shoes and left them on a rubber mat, then hung the slicker on a peg.

Kayla told herself two lies. First, that she wasn’t stalling. Second, that her fingers were shaking because of the cold weather.

Stone unlocked the back door and indicated she should precede both men into the kitchen.

Nate followed her, and then Stone relocked the door behind them.

“You.” Stone pointed a finger at Nate. “What the hell were you thinking?”

Nate took a step back for self-preservation.

Both men dripped water and tracked mud. Neither seemed to care. And neither seemed to notice she was even there.

“Hawkeye didn’t assign you,” Stone surmised.

“No,” Nate said.

“Which means you volunteered.” The storm hadn’t remained outside. It had gathered force around Wolf and its heat threatened to consume them all.

Nate’s retreat was brought up short when he backed into the countertop. “So? What of it?”

“You knew I wouldn’t invite you here.”

Nate shrugged. “You don’t want anyone. Because you’re a fool.”

“A fool?”

“For always thinking you can do it alone. And you damn well know it.”

The men were a study in contrast. Fair to dark. Alpha to beta.

“Fuck your ego, Stone. There’s no place I’d rather be.” Nate’s tone was flat, as if that explained everything.

Kayla sucked in a breath when Wolf devoured the distance to pin Nate against the counter. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

“Wolf,” she said, licking her lower lip.

“You.” He shot Kayla a frightening glance. “I will deal with you directly.”

Her stomach plummeted to her toes. She was watching two magnificent warriors spar, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d be collateral damage.

Read more of Come to Me.