“You didn’t. You did what you should have done with the information you had.”
“Information supplied to me by the enemy.” It still stung. He’d gone over and over it. He’d been damn lucky Tag was a forgiving sort. Or perhaps Tag understood that a man who made that kind of mistake tried his damnedest not to do it again.
“You couldn’t know that. Damon should have trusted his agent. He could have told you he was bringing in McKay-Taggart. It’s Damon’s fault.”
She was huffing at the end of her declaration, her passion obvious. And that was why he was willing to gamble a few months of celibacy. It wasn’t like he was living it up as it was. He only wanted one woman. He had since the moment he’d seen her. His brother thought he was a playboy with no sense of responsibility and his cousins still saw him as a kid who needed protecting. He was a man and he wanted something beyond his useless existence. He wanted to see if it could work with her. Maybe he was a masochist at heart, but he wanted her.
“How about we leave the question of sex open? The Dominant and submissive can have sex at a mutually agreed upon time in the future if they so choose.” He flipped to the part of the contract mentioned and wrote in the lines needed. He had to wonder about her experience. She was twenty-seven years old, but he would bet she hadn’t had many boyfriends. There was an odd innocence about her that constantly battled with the blanket of weariness she wore. She was a study in contradictions.
“All right. I can handle that.” She stood up and started to pace. “Can you just skip all the bodily functions stuff?”
He gave her a little smile. He’d wondered how she would handle going over the more extreme fetishes. “I believe so.”
“It’s good to know you’re not into the seriously twisted stuff. I don’t think I can even watch blood play.”
“I’m a very staid and traditional pervert.”
The smile that lit her face made his cock tighten. “I like that.” She turned her face to the windows and stared out over the lights of Dallas at night. “It’s a weird world, but there are some things I like about it.”
“I would like for you to not be murdered by a sniper. Please come away from the window.”
She looked up as though shocked. “I…” She stepped back. “Damn it. I don’t make those mistakes. I’m not stupid. This isn’t exactly the first time this has happened.”
“It isn’t the first time someone’s tried to kill you?” He didn’t like to think about the years she’d been on the run.
“Nah. A couple of people figured out Charlotte and I were working them and they got a little pissed. A cartel. A jihadist group. You know, the usual suspects. And then dear old dad’s syndicate was always in play.”
Yes, there was a reason he didn’t like to think about it. “So the list of people trying to kill you is long.”
“Yes.” She sat back on the couch, well out of range of the windows. “You should think about that before you ask me to sign a contract.”
He sat back and watched as her arms crossed again, her walls coming up the minute she mentioned her father. “What have you found out about this particular attempt? I can’t imagine you haven’t already been out on the Internet searching.”
She had a hotspot device that went with her everywhere. If she’d had to ask him about his access, it was likely she’d already drained the battery, which meant she’d been searching.
Her gaze trailed to her computer. “I put some feelers out. I know you don’t believe me, but I really have been trying to be good. Ian gives me a lot of work. Most of it’s mindless, but it keeps me busy. He got me on with the Dallas PD as a consultant so I had a lot of fun a couple of weeks back busting kiddie porn sites.”
Because she was like an addict. She didn’t have anything else to focus on so Ian had given her a little methadone to keep her away from the hard stuff. She’d become addicted to being powerful on the web because she felt like she had so little power in real life.
“And none of these feelers have come back?”
She shook her head. “No, but these people I sent messages to have multiple addresses and they don’t necessarily check every day. It could be a while. I also set up some searches that could take a couple of hours.”
“All right. Can I discreetly call Adam in?” Adam Miles was McKay-Taggart’s resident communications specialist, and by communications they meant hacker.
Her eyes rolled. “There’s nothing Adam can do that I can’t and he’ll tell Ian.”
“I doubt that. I’m bringing Jesse in. I can assure you he won’t talk if I ask him not to.” Jesse Murdoch was loyal to the team, but Simon felt like he could trust him implicitly. “I don’t care what you say, we do need backup.”
“All right.” Her eyes came up, staring straight at him. “You know my limits, Simon. We don’t need to do a one by one listing of them. You’re avoiding getting to the bad stuff. Why don’t you tell me what you require?”
Well, she’d summed him up pretty well. He did know her limits. She didn’t like to be naked in public, but he’d managed to push that limit while they were in London. He intended to get her used to being nude in private, used to being intimate with him. He knew what she liked when it came to sensation play. He also knew she wasn’t going to like his list of must haves. “Fine. I require obedience in the field.”
She nodded as though she’d known that one was coming. “Not when we’re alone?”
“Anything having to do with this case and your protection fall under my purview and you will obey me. I’ll take your lead on all the Internet stuff, but if I feel it’s dangerous to you, I’ll shut it down. If we’re intimate then I’m in charge, though you should always know you can stop me. I’m going to ask you to give it a chance. If I ask you to be still, I’m doing it to enhance your pleasure. Do you understand?”
“Sort of. Is that all?”
“No. If I’m your Master, you’re going to join me in daily exercise. I’m going to tailor a program to suit you.”
Her face screwed up in a mask of distaste. “Why? Are you trying to say I’m pudgy?”
“No. You’re quite slender but I fear that’s from poor dietary habits and not anything healthy. I’m going to make you strong. You can handle a gun, but a gun can be taken away from you. You need to be strong mentally and physically.”