Chapter 1
Noah Taylor shook his head; he just couldn’t seem to catch a break. It had been a while since he’d enjoyed the intimate company of a woman and even longer since he and Croft had gone to Leathers, a club they enjoyed in Scottsdale that specialized in offering those with a dominant or submissive bent an opportunity to find a partner for a scene, a brief liaison, or something more permanent. Instead, he had to grab his go-bag and get on the company jet to London.
Why couldn’t Croft’s woman have waited a few days to bolt? If she had, Noah would have had a chance to take care of business at Leathers, which would have put him in a much better mood. It was all Croft’s fault. He’d been assigned to help Finlay Reid locate her missing brother and promptly fallen for her—fallen hard—not that he blamed Croft. Finn was beautiful. She was also reckless and stubborn, with a strong penchant for misbehaving. He didn’t envy Croft losing his heart to her—Finn would be one wild filly to tame.
Or maybe it was Finn’s fault. She’d lied about her motive for finding her brother. Ostensibly, she was worried since she hadn’t heard from him. The truth was, Christian Reid had run afoul of the notorious international arms dealer, Fariq Abdal. Reid had info on Fariq’s organization on a flash drive he’d hidden with Finn. Croft proposed trading Reid for the flash drive—a simple exchange that had gone horribly wrong.
Finn had ended up a hostage, and the team had rescued Croft’s girl. Noah smiled. That wasn’t technically accurate—Finn had rescued herself. That should have been the end of it… especially for Noah. Croft should have gotten his happily ever after, and Noah should have been at Leathers for some heavy sexual downtime.
Now that he thought about it, his perennially semi-aroused state was definitely Finn’s fault. Maybe he’d talk to Croft about adding a welt or two to the spanking she better have coming. According to Croft, Finn had been struggling with the whole D/s aspect of their relationship and bolted to London, which had landed her in the crosshairs of an internal power struggle in Fariq’s organization. So, now they were off to London, so Croft could bring his woman home, and the firm could ensure she hadn’t endangered her friend, Zara Hughes, the beautiful investigative journalist.
Noah had been assigned to watch over Hughes. Normally, that wouldn’t be a hardship—Hughes was gorgeous, the stuff fantasies were made of—but it had been far too long since he got laid. Maybe he’d follow Croft’s lead and fall for the subject of his assignment. Oh, hell no! He didn’t want a woman like Finn or Hughes. Noah knew what he wanted—a nice, quiet girl who submitted to him in all things, greeting him in the classic submissive pose at the end of the day—kneeling, legs spread, pussy on display, and ready to fuck.
Not that he was one of those wannabe Doms who saw the D/s relationship as a one-way street. For the right woman, he’d be her other half—a steadfast, faithful lover and husband who was her shelter in the storm, took care of all her needs and provided all the things she needed to make her dreams come true. Jesus, when had he gotten to be as much of an incurable romantic as the guys he worked with? He really needed to get laid.
He heard the company jet land and taxi up to the office building. Grabbing his gear, he jogged up the stairs and onto the plane.
“Hey, Noah,” Avery, the firm’s pilot and operations coordinator, called from the cockpit.
“Hiya, gorgeous,” he called back.
Avery responded, snorting a laugh. Stowing his gear, Noah took his usual spot on the plane. He found it amusing they all seemed to have their spots, even when they were the only ones on the plane. Croft was usually right across from and facing him. Noah watched as Croft secured his bag and joined him. Noah could tell his best friend was agitated. He wasn’t sure which was troubling him more, Finn being gone or Finn being in possible danger.
Once they were airborne, Croft turned to him. “You sound like you know this friend of Finn’s.”
“Not personally, but by reputation, and frankly, I’m a fan. She’s a lot like your Finn—tenacious and fearless. Reid’s right, they’ve teamed up together to bring down a couple of nasty regimes and exposed more than one dictator and terrorist organization.”
Croft smiled. “Pretty?”
“Hughes? Hell, yeah. Stunning. Beautiful features, a smokin’ hot body, and legs that go on forever.”
Croft laughed. “Hmm, sounds to me like watching over this woman isn’t going to be your idea of a difficult assignment.”
Noah smiled. “No, I’m a fan from afar. She’s way too feisty for me. I want an easy girl, someone who makes Mandy look like a spitfire.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” teased Croft.
“Not on a plane headed to London because she’s being a pain in the ass.”
“True enough,” groaned Croft.
They briefly discussed Croft’s relationship with Finn. It was obvious Croft was pissed at Finn on a variety of levels. While a secret part of Noah envied his friend finding the woman he was meant to be with, he didn’t fancy hooking up with a girl he’d have to keep his thumb on. He didn’t think much of Finn’s chances of not ending up facedown over Croft’s knee, getting her ass spanked for this latest bit of nonsense. She’d have to learn Croft meant to be the dominant partner.
Noah chuckled. “I can’t imagine waking up, wanting my woman, and finding her gone. That can’t be a good thing.”
“It isn’t. I plan to get things resolved with her. I was trying to give her some time and space to reconcile it for herself, but that was an enormous failure, so I’ll get it settled for her.”
“Like I said, you and Mac can have the complicated ones. I just want a nice, simple girl who wants to follow my lead, understands the consequences of misbehaving, and chooses to behave more often than not.”
“What can I tell you, Noah? The heart wants what the heart wants, and I think I wanted Finn from the beginning. Funny thing is, you’d think I would have had this great epiphany after we’d made love, but I didn’t.” He laughed. “About midway through the first time I had her over my knee, it was all over but the shouting… for both of us.”
“Until she decided to convince herself differently…”
Croft shook his head. “Yeah, right up until then.”
They talked a bit more before both opted to catch some shuteye for the remainder of the flight. Noah was fairly certain Croft wouldn’t get much rest, but Noah opted to head to the back of the plane where he could stretch out comfortably.
Noah didn’t dream; if he did, he never remembered what the dreams were about. When he first got involved with special ops, he’d lost a lot of sleep, reliving missions or worrying about missions to come. He’d schooled himself to fall quickly into a deep and restful slumber, so his body and mind could recuperate.
He hadn’t yet reached a state of REM sleep when the dream started. The fact he knew it was a dream told him that much. Usually, he’d shut down that part of his brain and move past the beginning of any dream, pushing it from his mind.
“Coward,” a feminine voice taunted with a hint of amusement.
Turning, he found himself face-to-face with Zara Hughes. He’d recognize her anywhere—tall with cascading dark-brown hair, delicate features, and luminous blue eyes. Those eyes were laughing… at him.