Lucy Monroe - Satisfaction Guaranteed

He sighed and shook his head. “Dinner? You want dinner?”

The level of disgust in his voice made her smile. “It smells good.” And it did. Some kind of pungent barbecue and cornbread. It had been making her mouth water since he opened the door. “You’ve been tantalizing me with it since I got here.”

“I’d like to tantalize you,” he said suggestively.

With a man like Ethan, a woman had to take charge, or she’d find herself doing nothing but reacting. She didn’t want it to be that way…in or out of bed.

She pushed against his chest. “Feed me.”

He stepped back, albeit with obvious reluctance. “All right, but I’m warning you…dessert is going to last a long time.”

She said nothing and followed him into the kitchen, where he had set the table to eat. She liked that they weren’t using the formal dining room. It felt warm and homey. He’d made BBQ ribs and all the trimmings and served them up, refusing her offer to help.

“How did you find time to make all this?” she asked.

“I did the ribs in the slow cooker…one of my mama’s recipes. I threw the cornbread in as soon as I got home and everything else was pretty simple. Don’t tell Mama, but the beans are canned.”

“I promise to keep your secret.” She crossed her heart.

He grinned. “Good. I’d hate to have to silence you.”

“Would you?” she teased.

His gaze settled on her lips with tactile intensity. “Maybe not.”

Oh, my. Time to deflect. If she wanted to get anything done tonight, she had to get their attention on something besides sex.

She indicated their full plates and tall glasses of sweetened iced tea beside them. “A lesson in getting to know you?”

“You could call it that.”

They ate in silence for a little while until she felt the need to say, “It’s delicious.”

“I think so. Mama’s recipes are foolproof.”

“Do you cook this kind of thing often?”

“At least a couple of times a week. It reminds me of home.”

“I’m surprised you chose to leave Texas.”

“I couldn’t have the life I wanted there.”

“Why not?” There were plenty of opportunities to be some kind of government agent in Texas.

“TGP is here.”

“And you wanted to work with high-tech?”

“It’s where I’m needed the most.”

“Even so…you could work remotely. You don’t have to live in D.C., at least not anymore.” Her father allowed certain agents to operate from bases in other locales and she knew he’d give the option to Ethan over losing him.

“I like being in the center of the action.”

“You take the hardest assignments and usually the most dangerous.”

“It seems that way sometimes.”

“This one isn’t.”

“It’s personal though.”

“But if it wasn’t, the assignment would be too tame for you, wouldn’t it?”

“I like a challenge.”

“You like danger,” she clarified. “You live for it.”

He thought about that for a second. “Living on the edge can be addictive.”

“I know.”

“Not from experience.”

“No, but I’ve seen it enough and not just in my dad.”

“Alan’s addicted to the danger lifestyle,” he guessed.

She didn’t argue, though why he kept harping back to Alan and decidedly old news, she didn’t know. “So are most of our agents. Men and women alike.”

He nodded, smiling. “I think Elle and Jayne have it the worst, if you want the truth.”

She thought about the cases the two female agents gravitated toward and had to agree. “They’re good at what they do and aren’t afraid to tackle anything. They’re true professionals.”

“My favorite kind of agent.”

“Is it going to be a major problem for you working with me on this case?”

“Have I implied that it would be?”

“I’m no Elle or Jayne. I’ve got rudimentary training in procedure and the fact is, we both know I’m doing this out of necessity.”

“I don’t expect you to be an experienced field agent. Just do what you do best…be yourself and leave the super-sleuthing up to me.”

“But you’d probably rather be doing this with Elle.” That woman was truly scary and Beth wouldn’t want to face her in even an exercise-sparring session.

“No, I wouldn’t. And you know why. We don’t have a choice on this assignment. For a lot of reasons.”

“I suppose.” But she still had her doubts.

He squeezed her shoulder. “I think you’ve got depths you never realized, Sunshine. You’re going to be great in your role. Trust me.”

She grimaced. “You’ll make sure of it, right?”

“I am the senior agent on the case. Your success is my responsibility.”

“Some might call you a control freak with an overdeveloped sense of responsibility.”

“It all comes with the territory.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You think I’m different from other agents?”

“You like being in control. A lot.”

“Usually.”

She actually snorted at that. “When don’t you?”

He leaned back in his chair in a way that would have given her mother conniptions. “You told me you fantasized about tying your lover to the bed and having your way with him.”

She tried to maintain a casual attitude, but heat bloomed in her cheeks and she wanted to strangle him. “That’s me, the closet dominatrix.”

“You’re not a dom, baby. We talked about this. You aren’t into pain. You don’t secretly want to dress in a black leather corset and wield a whip.”

Maybe a velvet whip, but he was right. She didn’t find pain a turn-on…though she wasn’t sure about a sexy spanking. She shook her head. “I think I must be depraved. I fantasize about handcuffing you to my bed and doing all sorts of sexy things to you. What does that make me?”

“Adventurous. And it makes me horny as hell.”

“So, you would let me?”

“Hell, yes.”

Very definite. Maybe he played those kind of sexy games a lot. As soon as she thought the question, she blurted it out. “Actually, I’ve never let a woman handcuff me or tie me up, but there’s a first time for most things, Sunshine. When you’ve got the courage to try them.”

“I’m surprised you want me to do that…considering how much you like being in control.”

“Me, too.” But he didn’t sound bothered by the fact.

“I want to torture you with pleasure,” she admitted and then covered her mouth with her hand as if she couldn’t believe she’d said the words.

The sane part of her mind couldn’t.

“As long as you’re the one doing it, that sounds damn fine to this ole boy.”

She loved it when he went all Texan on her and she was guessing he knew that because his drawl definitely got stronger when he was getting sexy with her.

“You’re not scared of giving up control?” she asked.

“Who says I’ll give up control? I’ve been bound in far more dire circumstances and not lost control.” Oh, he was arrogant.

“Maybe I’ll take it from you.”

He leaned forward, pushing his plate out of the way so he was practically sharing breath with her. “I’m counting on you trying.”

“You don’t think I can?” she asked in a voice that was a little too hesitant for her liking.

“We won’t know until you try.” But he didn’t believe she could do it. That much was obvious.

Instead of making her feel underconfident, his lack of belief in the more rampant side of her sensuality only made her more determined to prove him wrong. Which probably made her crazy, but there it was.

She leaned back in her own chair, ignoring the way she cringed at doing so. She needed the distance. Crossing her arms over her chest, she said, “Tell me about your uncle…the one who was an assassin.”