Page 76 of Meet Me In The Dark

Inhaling—this time she succeeded—she quieted her voice. “Here’s the worst part,boss.You’re doing itagain.”

“Doing what again?” he asked.

Tears threatened to choke her, but she forced the words out anyway. “Choosing for me. Taking my decisions, myagency, right out of my hands.”

“Kara, innocent girl,” he began. “You think this is what you want, now, but I promise it isn’t.”

“Innocent? Who was it, who shot a man in the dick, for threatening her with rape? Who played honeypot to lock down a target? Who deepthroated a gun as a distraction? Who the hell was forced to touch a stranger to get your location before Micah killed him?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Luke broke in, growling. “Someone made you touch them?”

“Long story, not the time,” Micah commented.

“And who fucking parachuted out of a plane, even though trying new things is terrifying, and almost died, in order to save you?”

“No one told us that part,” Luke interrupted again.

“Not. Now.” Micah said sharply.

“Sweet girl,” Conor tried again. “That’s my point. You never would have had to do those things if it weren’t for us.”

“Oh, and that’s it, huh? You only want me if I’m sweet and innocent and helpless?”

“Of course not!” Now Conor was yelling. “I want you every fucking way you are. Sweet and honest and vulnerable in my arms, tied up and helpless for my cock, fierce and brilliant as you face down an enemy. I want all of it. But?—”

“But you’re fucking terrified, because once again you’re trying to control everything,” she interrupted, glaring at him through her tears. She’d given up on trying to suppress them. God, how could angerhurtso much? “You know what, Conor? You might get to control me when it comes to sex, but you’ve gotten confused and think you control me outside of it. And until you understand thatIam in control of my own goddamned choices, and that I choose you, you won’t?—”

She was cut off by the groan of the door sliding open.

No.Not now.

Everything her anger had hidden from her reappeared, including that ticking clock.

She needed more time.

“Ah, I see there’s trouble in…well, maybe paradise isn’t quite the word,” Chris said jovially.

Kara turned her glare on him. “Did you come here to gloat?”

“No, I have an appointment with Mr. O’Connell, if you don’t mind sharing him for a bit. I promise I’ll return him the same way I found him. Well, I’ll try to, anyway.”

The fiery anger that lit her was doused by fear.

“You aren’t taking him anywhere,” she told Chris. “It’s me you want, anyway.”

“Kara!” Conor tried to struggle to his feet to block her, but was stopped by the cuff on his wrist.

“Sweetheart, stop,” Luke said urgently. To Chris, he said, “You’ve had your fun with him. Don’t you think it’s my turn?”

“Actually,” Micah drawled. “I think you and I still haven’t had a fulfilling enough…conversation. I’m sure you’re curious, aren’t you, professor?”

Two guards raised their guns in Luke’s and Micah’s faces, safeties off. Kara turned back to Chris, trying to use her body as a shield, not sure who to defend, or how.

“Don’t you dare take him anywhere,” she told Chris, the fire building back up inside her, drying up the fear. “Don’t you dare hurt any of them. Or I swear to you, Chris, I will make sure you regret every second of it. Do not doubt me.”

Chris stared back at her, and although he didn’t tell the guards to lower their guns, there was a tic in his cheek. She waited as he seemed to consider, before he said, “The melodrama doesn’t suit you, Ms. Blum. Really, you’re better than that.”

Ignoring her, the guards pushed her out of the way, unlocking Conor from the wall. He glanced around, as if considering fighting back, but the guns in his lovers’ faces must have stopped him, because he raised his arms.

---