Page 81 of Betrayed

“No,” he bit out, his voice sharp with exasperation. “It’s my mission, my responsibility. But damn, I can’t catch a break.”

Cap smiled tightly in sympathy. “Been there, man.”

“Give me ten minutes.”

“Take twenty. We’ll debrief in the conference room while we wait for the plane to be readied and the pilot to drive in. Flight time to Houston is about an hour, which puts our ETA at 10:30, leaving plenty of time to do what we have to do. I just wish I could give you more. It appears you were on the verge of a breakthrough.”

“That has been the story with Mari from the beginning—on the verge. But it can’t be helped.”

Cap nodded and walked away, as Arturo turned to what would soon be a very frustrated submissive. Moving in behind her, he leaned into her back and dipped his face into her neck. “I’m sorry to have to do this,minou, but I’ve been called away.”

“What?” She tensed as his hands moved to her wrists, releasing the snap hooks on her cuffs. “Now?”

“Something is happening tonight with the mission.”

“You mean you’re leaving me like this?”

Efficiently, he released her ankles next. “I’d never leave you this way unless I had no other choice. You understand.”

She nodded jerkily, conspicuously silent as she reached for her clothes. He knew what she was feeling, his cock as proportionately hard as she was wet.

“This isn’t comfortable for me, either, Mari.”

Stepping into her dress, she shimmied into the clingy fabric, jiggling in all the right places as she pulled it over her hips, making his already hard cock as rigid as iron. Her breasts swayed provocatively as she slipped her arms through the thin straps then they disappeared behind the plunging V-neck.

He frowned as she turned; the back nothing more than a skimpy swath of glimmering fabric that barely covered her ass and a series of crisscrossing straps over her naked back. Too angry to appreciate it when he came in, the dress was revealing and enticing, and couldn’t have been more alluring, except if she was naked. And he was sending her back out to the bar wearing it. Bloody hell!

“Can you get my zipper, please?” she asked coolly.

He did, swallowing hard when it reached only an inch above the small of her back.

“We’ll pick up where we left off when I return.”

“It’s fine,” she replied, although it was a blatant lie. The tightness of her lips and the rigidness of her posture told him otherwise. “I’ll just go home.”

“I don’t want you in Houston tonight.” Her eyes came to his, still glistening with unmet desire. “I’ll return to you as soon as I can. It might be late, or tomorrow. You’ll stay with Lexie. I’ll make the arrangements.”

“My mind understands why you have to go. My body, not so much. And frankly, sir, the timing of this really sucks.” She smoothed the slinky material over her hips and sucked in a deep breath. After she blew it out, she declared, “I need a drink.”

As Mari walked, or rather stomped, ahead of him, his gaze dipped to her twitching ass in the extremely short dress. The sight didn’t help his painfully hard erection one iota. Neither did the scent of her perfume as he reached around her to pull open the heavy gothic dungeon door. His forearm brushed across the hard tip of one breast as he did so, which prompted a groan from both of them.

“Maybe I’ll have a whole freakin’ pitcher,” she muttered.

He followed her through the door, pausing briefly to retrieve her shoes, while she went ahead, moving through the bar, which gave her a good lead on him. At the edge of the near-empty dance floor, the band evidently on a break, a few couples swayed to piped-in club music. A familiar R&B tune played as they entwined around each other, hips grinding to the beat, similar to how he and Mari had danced once before. She paused, watched them longingly then gazed back at him with a hint of a pout before she continued on.

A combination of sexual frustration, tension over the unresolved case that was taking him away from her, and that Seth Benson strolled by at that precise moment and his eyes shifted downward, zoning in on her ass in that cock-hardening fuck-me dress—talk about bad timing—made him see red then green as jealously rose like a tidal wave within him.

He growled as he stalked after her. Catching her at the table, his fingers curled around her arm and spun her into him, lifting her up onto her toes, as he bent so he was nose to nose with her.

“Tu m’appartiens.If you even think,que je vais te laisser danser avec cet enfoiré de Seth Benson,or anyone else, il va t’en cuire vivement.Is that clear?”

In his barely cogent state, he didn’t wait for her answer. Ignoring the negative shake of her head and her baffled expression, he buried his fingers in her glorious mane of dark hair and claimed her open mouth in a hungry, thoroughly possessive kiss.

Intent on marking as his for the likes of Benson and any other dom considering her fair game, both hands slid to her ass and dipped beneath the hem of her dress as he lifted her. Her legs wrapped around his hips, so that her pussy pressed against the large bulge in his trousers. He pressed into her hard until a low throaty cry welled up from her throat.

When he lifted his head, she was breathless.

“Who do you belong to, Mari?” he demanded.

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