Page 34 of Beyond the Rules

“I’ve got no doubt about that. Now, if I could only get you to step down from running missions on the ground for Marksman Global, I’d feel better about your lifeexpectancy.”

I laughed at that. “Maybe next year.How’sLily?”

“She’s good, greatactually.”

Lily’s name was the only thing capable of piercing Josh’s armor and getting him to smile openly, the way he was doingrightnow.

“Still trying to get her tomarryyou?”

“She will marry me. Have no doubt about it. But don’t try evasive maneuvers on me. We were talking about you quitting MarksmanGlobal?”

“I’m thinking about it.” I’d invested early on with Josh Lane and Phoenix Prime, so I was financially sound. But the divorce had been expensive and the bulk that remained was in Fire Forged, the only part of my assets that my ex couldn’t touch. Fire Forged was a three way partnership with Aiden and Tanner, so I wasn’t gonna let Laura touch it. Which meant that, to fend off Laura, I had to keep working the Marksman Globalmissions.

“We’re getting old, man,” Josh said. “We don’t need to be running missions on the ground, getting our asseskicked.”

“Speak for yourself,” I said. “I never get my asskicked.”

“Right.” Josh scoffed. “Don’t make me have to go get you in some fucking dump ’cause you’re too proud to stop playing with your guns.Joshout.”

I stared at the blank screen, thinking of how things had changed since Josh and I first met. The wars we’d fought together. The shit we’d seen. The stuff we’d survived. It was good to have friends like him. Friends who understood. Like Aiden and Tanner, but also like Theon Riker, the head of security for Phoenix Prime and Noah Blake, my counterpart for the East Coast branch of Ulysses’ expanding crew. It was good to be part ofateam.

Nina had never had the benefit of community. She’d been so mad when I’d set her aside. Reacted so strongly. She’d been broken inside. I had to do something about that.Butwhat?

Head in the game, Zar. I started to work the Dimayev angle. I pulled up the footage that Riker had requisitioned from the convenience store across from Nina’s San Francisco apartment. We’d gotten lucky. We’d gotten some decent angles on the men who’d broken into herplace.

I homed in on the images and plugged them into Phoenix Prime’s top-of-the-line facial recognition software. It took a while, but I got names. They were hired muscle of the very expensive kind, ex-Russian Special Forces, trained men who knew the job. We were dealing with themajors.

I contacted Noah Blake and asked him if he and his team could establish a relationship between Dimayev and the thugs. It was as good a starting point as any. With the work divvied out and the hunt in progress, I ran my fingers through my hair and massaged my scalp. I had a headache again. Shit, soon enough I was gonna needglasses.

At least Nina had agreed to stay. For now. It had given me no pleasure to watch her reactions. She was both a quick thinker and a deep feeler, and her anger ate at my gut. But she needed to understand. The dangers were even greater than she’destimated.

She liked Aiden and Tanner. She didn’t like me. Could I really blame her? She’d like me even less if she knew the things I’d want to do with her. Hell, it wasn’t going to happen. I’d get a high out of tying her up and fucking her brainless, but she didn’t crave that sort of thing. There hadn’t been a single note about kink in her journal. And I’d really pissed her offtoday.

But that didn’t mean that Aiden and Tanner couldn’t go after what they wanted. They deserved whatever good came their way. Tanner had been so badly injured. The doctors had said he’d never walk again. And yet here he was, making progress every day. The stubborn son of a bitch had balls, dragging himself out of the wheelchair, fighting againsttheodds.

As for Aiden, he’d been bad when we first got back stateside. Hell, I’d found him once, playing Russian roulette with his gun. He’d scared the shit out of me. There had been meds and hospitals. His moods began to stabilize when he moved in. Before Nina got to the house, he’d been doing okay, not great, but good enough. Still, he refused to leave the property or hang out in town, and, sometimes, he spent days up in the mountains alone. I worriedabouthim.

But he’d been in a better mood since Nina arrived, engaged, interested, hopeful. And he liked what he’d seen of Nina so far, personally and professionally, which was a miracle, because Aiden didn’t like too many people these days. He and Nina were a match made in brain heaven. But what would happen to Aiden if he got his hopes up and then Ninatookoff?

Hell, I didn’t wanna think about that. PTSD wasn’t my cross to bear, but even I had to work at being positive some days. It didn’t happen often that Aiden, Tanner, and I agreed on the merits of a woman. Nina was the exception. She was someone the three of us could admire. Plus she was nice to look at, and, as her history and her diary indicated, sexy to the core. Could she be the one who could share her lifewithus?

Not you, Zar. She’s notforyou.

She might hate my guts, but for the sake of the guys, I was gonna try tobenice.

My cell rang. It was Laura again. I let it go to voice mail. I didn’t want to talk to that bitch today. I’d taken six additional missions this year—all of them rated highest risk—to satisfy her demands for money. But it wasn’t enough. The bitch wanted more. Worst part? She had me by theballs.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm the anger flushing through my system. No need to go through life a pissed off asshole. With the house secured, I marched to the kitchen and plucked two handcrafted beers from our collection. Analyzing Nina’s online purchases, we’d learned that, like us, she enjoyed a good brew. I didn’t expect she’d want to dive headfirst into my bed, but I figured that, for the sake of communal harmony, I could try to make peacewithher.

Beers in hand, I trotted upstairs. Her door was ajar. I was about to knock when the noises drifting from her bedroom stopped me dead in my tracks, an electrical buzz that echoed into the hallway and something else. I should’ve left then, but the quiet whimpers and the muted groans wrapped around my senses and tugged on me like a lasso around my neck, pulling me forward until I was peering into the bedroom through the doorcrack.

The erotic sight that greeted me captured my complete attention, challenged my willpower, and glued me to the threshold. It drew all the blood to my groin, swelled my balls and turned my cock into an aching, throbbing thing. The jerk was so hard I almost fell to myknees.

Tanner sat in the overstuffed chair with Nina reclining on his lap. His mouth drew a line of kisses along the plains of her face, his fingers wove in and out of her hair in a soft caress. They looked comfortable together, like old lovers and best friends. Nina lay with one foot perched on the armrest and the other on the floor as a Tanner slid a vibrating dildo up and down her partedpussy.

Holy shit. It wasn’t just the contrast between the black dildo and the gorgeous pink that froze me in place. It wasn’t just the sight of her pussy ajar and exposed as if for my private viewing that paralyzed me with need. It was the passion stretching her neck, stiffening her torso and arching her back, the elegance of a body that thrived on the power of her sexuality, the joy of a pair of hips that swirled and curled to maximize her pussy’spleasure.

Tanner glided the dildo up her pussy and circled the tip around her clit several times before he worked the vibrator directly over her engorged little button. Her mouth opened and her neck curved as she let out a hoarse moan that tightened my balls and had me leaking in my boxers. She swiped at Tanner’s hand as if wanting to grab the vibrator from him, but Tanner shookhishead.