Chapter 24
Humming with excitement, Viviana’s hands shook as she wrestled the key into her condominium lock. As she stepped inside, exulting in her earthshaking discoveries, it took her a long moment to grasp the unmistakable odor of cigar smoke. The smell and what it likely telegraphed was a blast of ice water soaking her soaring emotions. It was a grim reminder that she hadn’t talked to Jax today. Frankly, since he abruptly dismissed her from their early morning face-off, she hadn’t thought much about him. Turning the corner, she stood in the entrance to her living room, trying to come to grips with the challenging sight awaiting her. Jax was sitting in an armchair across the room, one knee casually draped over the other. He was holding a lit cigar between his fingers and a half-empty bottle of Jameson was on the table beside him. Seeing the danger exuding off his powerful presence, Viviana couldn’t suppress the shiver that shook her. Summoning every bit of courage that she had and doing her damnedest to keep her voice from shaking, she demanded, “What are you doing here?”
Seeing her genuine surprise, which quickly morphed into defensive hostility, Jax managed not to smile. For no other reason than there was nothing funny, at least for her, about what was about to happen. Jax admitted that after he’d left her last night and handled the emergency Mac had called him to address, he had seriously questioned whether he and Viviana had a future. After all, he could only threaten her so often, and as much as he enjoyed spanking the hell out of her, he admitted that he much preferred it to be an erotic tool, not an actual punishment.
But seeing her unbelievable chutzpah this morning, when she flagrantly blew him and Greg off and lied to their faces, he changed his mind. He admitted he was hooked. There was no getting around it. Viviana had buried herself so deeply in his psyche there was no way he could rid himself of her without destroying everything that made his life worth living. He’d taken heart in her surprised reaction when he summarily dismissed her. Obviously she didn’t grasp the depth of his anger at her continuing refusal to confide in him, even though they both knew she was up to her neck in a dangerous situation. Apparently the little minx thought he would take her on in front of Greg—which would have been bad form to say the least. Given that when he did confront her, as he intended to do at this moment, privacy was essential. After all, no one except him would be allowed to see his gorgeous lover naked, begging for mercy.
Gratified by her hostile question, which only made her fate more inevitable, he held her gaze for a long moment, then said, “Hmm, what am I doing here? What do you think I’m doing, Viviana? I’m waiting for you.”
Apparently deciding to take the offensive, she tipped up her chin and said with a glare, “That’s obvious, Jax, but doesn’t answer my question.”
He pressed his lips together. “What question is that, Viviana?”
Raising her chin another notch, she said, “What makes you think you can come in my house without my permission and . . . and take over?”
He snorted softly, gratified that her bluster had faltered in the face of his steely gaze. He tapped the burned end of his cigar against the edge of the ashtray and rested the expensive Maduro in the tray. Steepling his fingers, he narrowed his gaze and let the silence between them stand for a moment. Seeing her preparing to respond, he shook his head and held up his hand, stopping her.
“Uh-uh. Tonight is not about words, Viviana. No, sweetheart, tonight is going to be much more basic than that. We’re not going to discuss what happened this morning or the fact that you haven’t answered any of the five telephone messages I left for you today. It’s clear you aren’t willing to trust me with your work. I’ll be dealing with the issue of your continuing insubordination in the appropriate arena. The professional arena where I am your police chief and you are one of the officers in my charge.” He allowed his lips to curl in an ominous smile. “I don’t need to tell you, Viviana, in that arena, the cards are stacked against you.”
Taking a hearty sip of Jameson, he added coolly, “But that confrontation will come tomorrow or at the latest, the next day. Tonight we’re going to deal with you and me. You, as the feisty woman who has decided to take me on in every possible way. Me, as the man who has reached the limits of his forbearance. Take note, sweetheart, I’m done talking. Tonight is about us meeting on a different plane, a physical plane.” He took a long drag on his cigar, then narrowing his gaze further, he blew the smoke into the air. Continuing to study her, he nodded as if coming to a conclusion. “Honey, the problem for you is that on this physical plane, size matters. Meaning, my challenging woman, you are severely compromised. Regarding the alpha male of any species, the lion in the jungle, the panther in the forest, or in this case, me, size matters.”
Viviana flushed a bright rosy red, then sniffed dismissively. “Humph. Are you threatening me, Jax? Should I be scared?”
He tossed her a quizzical glance, considering her, then nodded. “If you were smart and maybe a thousand percent less cocky than you are? Yeah, honey, you would be scared.”
Crushing the remainder of his cigar in the ashtray, Jax rose to his feet. In seconds he closed the distance between them. He grabbed her arms and pulled her hard up against him. At her startled gasp, his voice dropped dangerously low. “But you aren’t afraid, right, darling?” His laugh was anything but humorous. He drawled, “But something tells me you will be.” He added with a snort, “Even you aren’t so brazenly unaware, Viviana, that you don’t know when you have met your Waterloo.”
Viviana had known when she walked in the door and saw him sitting in her living room, a grave expression on his face, that she was in trouble. Of course Jax was angry, how could he not be? Even she admitted that she had thrown his concerns in his face, in front of Greg Bannon, no less. But she was too close to solving the hideous case she was working to bring him into it now. While her near-breakdown at the FBI office had compromised her in ways she hadn’t allowed herself to experience in the past, it was worth the body blow considering the information she’d gathered. Seeing Jax studying her, sizing her up like a predatory animal regarding his prey, she wished for a fleeting moment that she’d confided in him as Francis had begged her to. But the sheer power of his presence confirmed that her moment for compromise had passed. She’d pushed him to a point that she could no longer control his response. Seeing his implacable anger, made all the more frightening given the sinister smile curving his lips, a surge of unaccustomed fear shook her.
She prepared to flee, but he was on her before she could back away. In seconds he threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her outraged shrieks, and marched down the hallway into her bedroom. As he threw her onto the bed, she saw out of the corner of her eye some unexpected accoutrements spread across the bed and nightstand. Before she could fully appreciate what he was doing, he crawled on top of her and clipped a set of cuffs on her wrists. In seconds he’d spread-eagled her flat on her back, her arms and legs securely fastened to the bedposts. Jax had restrained her before in their lovemaking, but something was different this time. The intense anger she’d felt from him as well as seen when she first saw him contorted his expression. It made his claim that “size matters” a scary reality.
Before she could spew another stream of expletive-laced invectives, he covered her mouth with a gag, thoroughly muffling her irate shrieks. For a second she panicked, convinced she couldn’t breathe. She tried frantically to meet his gaze, to let him know that not only was he hurting her, he was frightening her. To her horror, he cut off her only means of appealing to him by tying a long scarf over her eyes, blindfolding her. Her muffled cries intensified, as did her frantic efforts to free herself. As close to a panic attack as she’d ever had, she struggled to breathe.
She felt him stretch out beside her. Rubbing her cheek with a calloused finger, his voice was calm, conciliatory. “Hang in there, baby. You know I won’t hurt you.” He added with an amused chuckle, “Except in a good way, that is. Believe it or not, I’m betting that the chances are reasonably good that you will enjoy what I’m about to do to you. And while I want to thoroughly intimidate you, I don’t want to scare you. For that reason, I’m going to take off this blindfold so you can see what I’m about to do each step of the way.” Shaking his head at her muffled shrieks, he said, “Uh-uh. I won’t remove the gag. As I indicated, Viviana, tonight is about actions, not words. At least not your words. I’ve listened to all of your lies that I’m going to. And who knows, perhaps after tonight you’ll be less inclined to lie to me.”
Seeing the resolve in his rigid expression, Viviana fought wildly against the restraints. He shrugged and, ignoring her, began to undress her. In the event that she might think he was softening his attack, he reached for a pair of scissors and began cutting off her clothes. Horrified that he was ruining an expensive cashmere sweater and a pair of Redemption Metallic jeans, she writhed fiercely, trying to stop him. He merely smiled as he lifted her body to free the scraps of her expensive clothing. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Remember you’ve got a closetful of cock-teasing outfits in your closet. You’ll never be without your sartorial weapons to bring men to their knees.” Surveying her nearly naked body, he shook his head in regret, then quickly sliced open the front of her black lace bra, baring her breasts. Fighting to resist him, Viviana gave in and lay back when he snipped at the miniscule ties on her thong, completely stripping her.
Rising to his full height beside the bed, he gazed down at her naked body. His voice was gruff, tight with emotion as he began stripping off his clothes. When he was naked, a tall, strong powerful male animal, he shook his head and muttered, “Goddammit, Viviana, if only you weren’t so fucking beautiful.” Pressing his lips in a hard, straight line, he added, “But you are, aren’t you, my love?”
To her surprise he reached behind him and tossed several ominous-looking tubes of ointment on the bed beside her. He met her startled gaze with a nonchalant shrug. “Yeah, darling, I know I told you that I wouldn’t take your virgin ass when I was angry with you. But I’ve come to understand that not being angry with you isn’t likely to happen, at least any time soon. You see, my irascible woman, I was dead serious when I said that I’ve reached the end of my patience with you. I’ll make that clear when I deal with you as your police chief and you as my subordinate, but tonight is about you as my woman. I plan to claim you, Viviana. In the most potent way possible. To make you understand what it means to be my lover and, more important, my woman.”
To her shock, Jax loosened the tie on one of her ankles, then crawled up beside her. Bending her knee, he rolled her slightly to the side, enough to expose her bare bottom to his hands and gaze. Frantically struggling against him, she fought to keep him from touching her, but it was to no avail. He held her hip firmly with one hand and with the other began stroking her naked bottom. Crooning in her ear, he urged her to relax, to give in. “Yeah, sweetheart, I would be lying to you if I told you that this wasn’t going to hurt, because truthfully I know it will, especially this first time.”
At her frantic attempts to break away from him, he frowned and smacked her hard on one bare cheek. Rubbing the sore spot, he murmured in her ear, “I promise you, Viviana, that even though you don’t believe me now, you are going to love what I’m about to do to you. Do you know how I know that? Because you are the most sensuous, passionate woman I’ve ever known. And buried beneath that cock-teasing exterior is a woman who is begging to be taken, but not by just anyone. Oh no, sweetheart. Only by the man who is powerful enough to claim you, all of you. Which is what I’m going to do now. And sweetheart, while I won’t deny that it will hurt, you can make it hurt less if for once you don’t fight me. If you listen to me and do what I tell you to do.”
To her shock, he separated her ass cheeks, then squirted a dollop of the oily substance against her anus. He began circling the tight hole with one long finger, easing it deeper and deeper into the nerve-rich opening. Helpless to stop him, she shuddered when he inserted another lubed digit and then a third into her anus, stretching her impossibly bigger. His low, crooning words sent showers of fiery sensations across her screaming nerve endings as he told her to give in, to feel what was happening, not only to her but to him. She didn’t know when she realized that he’d rubbed the oily substance on his staff and that the unforgiving pressure she was feeling against her ass was the flared end of his aroused, lubricated penis.
In a gruff voice contorted with a mix of lust and anger, he said, “I’m going to untie you, baby. I need you up on your hands and knees. And, sweetheart, I’m going to remove the gag. I need both of us to hear you begging me not to stop. Beseeching me to take you in a way that you never knew you could be taken.” Loosening the restraints, Jax rolled her onto her stomach and then raised her hips high in the air. As he crawled up over her, his voice was brusque, harsh against her ear, thick with passion. “Listen to me, baby, and do what I tell you to. No, sweetheart, don’t fight me. When I press up against you like this, I need you to press back.” He groaned a deep, tortured male sound. “That’s the way, darling. Damn, Viviana, you are so fucking tight. Keep pushing, love, like that.” His voice escalated to an exultant roar. “Christ yes, Viviana, just like that!”
Long after their passionate cries had quieted and he’d held her next to him, praising her for her passion and willingness to give in to him, Jax carried her into the shower and gently washed them both. Drying her off, he scooped her up in his arms and laid her shivering body on the bed, then crawled in beside her. As they lay together, he stroked her quaking body and whispered sweet words of praise in her ears until they gave in to their exhaustion and blessedly fell asleep in each other’s arms.