Too Much: A Loveswept Contemporary Erotic Romance (All or Nothing) (12 page)

Copeland ignored him and remained standing. “You involved Daly. Why?”

Was it his imagination or was David sweating? Yep, that was sweat sliding down from his brother’s temple. Like his secretary, he looked anywhere but at Copeland.

“This is not the best place to discuss this, Jeremiah,” David said, and something in his tone made Copeland’s neck tighten.

He approached his brother and didn’t stop until he was in his face.

“Why did you involve Daly?” Jeremiah pursued the question once again.

“I didn’t mean to—uh, um, I mean to say, she was the best bet to get you to respond …”

Copeland crossed his arms over his chest. David was a few inches shorter than he was but equally strong, if only physically. It had always been his character that made him weaker. “To what?”

“To me,” David replied, and his eyes darted toward the door he’d entered.

“Why didn’t you just have someone else send it? Why Daly?”

David stared at him, and desperation moved in his blue eyes.
Eyes so like mine
, Copeland thought. His brother was about to lie to him.

“I didn’t think you’d listen to anyone else,” David said. There was that slick tone in his voice.
Lies.

“I came here to watch your face as you lied. You didn’t disappoint me. I know people are asking about her. Savannah Cavanaugh showed up at The Underground last night on a
tip
someone was being held against her will. The description fit Daly to a ‘T.’ This stinks to high heaven. If I find out you’re involved in this, I’ll break your neck, David. I lost her once because of you. I won’t let it happen again.”

David finally met his gaze. “I’m in trouble, Jeremiah. Big trouble. And believe it or not, I did you a favor by sending her.”

“Whatever game is being played, do not involve Daly. If you’re in trouble, and need help, come to me directly. Tell me what’s going on, right fucking now.”

“I—
can’t.
Look, I’ll tell you everything this weekend. This office isn’t safe, and I’m sure the ante has been upped just by you showing up here today. Goddamn, Jeremiah. Couldn’t you have
called
?”

“That’s not the way I work, David. You’d better have your ass at the lake house Saturday morning. I don’t want to ever have to step foot in this fucking hellhole again.”

With that, Copeland turned on his heel and walked out. He passed people with their mouths hanging open in astonishment and some who had fear tattooed across their face. They’d probably heard the last part of the conversation. Copeland didn’t care.

Fuck them all.
His hands ached to punch something, but the memory of Daly’s skin under his palms soothed him as he hit the button for the elevator.

“Keep your eyes open, Jeremiah.” David had followed him out. There was the tone again. Copeland finally recognized it as fear.

He clenched his hands to keep from turning and reaching for his brother’s throat. “You can bet your ass,” he bit out. He turned his head and let the full force of his fury blaze from his eyes. “If you’ve involved Daly in something, the fact that you’re my brother will not save your ass from me.”

David nodded and stepped back into the office. Copeland got on the elevator and rubbed
a hand down his face as the doors closed. He had no idea what trouble it was this time, but David was in deep and the threat had spilled over to involve Daly somehow. It was his worst nightmare, having her return to him and then have the past replayed. He wouldn’t allow it to happen. Until he found out what the hell the situation was, he’d be on her ass like glue.

A grin creased his face. Not the worst of propositions, to be sure.

There was a Mercedes-Benz parked in her driveway when she made it home. The car that had been following her the entire day kept going past her house, hit the cul-de-sac, and turned around. She rolled down her window. The car that was following her slowed, and Toby rolled his window down as well. She held up her middle finger. He flipped her off in return.

“It’s creepy that you’re following me,” she said.

“Oh well,” Toby singsonged, then rolled up his window and drove away.

She snorted as a smile creased her face.

She was assuming it was Jeremiah who had Toby following her. Why, she had no idea. Did it have something to do with why David had sent his ring to him? That was really something she needed to discuss with Jeremiah. Soon.

Besides, he didn’t need to worry about her. She was a former cop, for cripe’s sake. She could handle a gun and any kind of dangerous situation. Okay, probably not all situations. Maybe just most of them. That was why she’d left being a street cop. That wasn’t where her talents lay. She pulled around the Benz and into her garage, shutting off the car and lowering the door. If Toby had no issue with whoever drove the Benz, it could be nobody other than Jeremiah.

It had been a really rough day. Her body still ached from last night, and the tightrope she’d been walking for over a week was exhausting her. But she’d dropped Carrie off in Gainesville and was feeling pretty good about the girl’s chances now that she’d hooked into Candace’s network.

Sometimes Daly’s work paid off. Today had been one of those days. She opened the door and entered the mudroom off the kitchen. Before she could kick her shoes off she noticed he was there.

She wasn’t startled, but rather overwhelmed. He leaned against the doorjamb looking way too sexy for her peace of mind.

“How did you get in this time? I had the locks changed Saturday.” She had indeed—the locksmith she’d contacted had barely beaten the one Jeremiah sent. They’d arrived at nearly the same time and she’d sent Jeremiah’s packing.

He smiled. She frowned.

“That’s breaking and entering, Jeremiah,” she said waspishly.

The aroma coming from her kitchen made her stomach grumble and one of his eyebrows rose. Daly pushed past him, burning where their bodies met but becoming angrier by the second.
She stopped in the foyer and dropped her briefcase on the steps.

“It’s not B and E if you have a key,” he said at her back.

“You don’t have a key; therefore B and E.”

He held a key in front of her and she rolled her eyes. “Oh, my bad. Theft by taking. How did you get my key, Jeremiah Copeland?”

He pressed against her and rocked his hips against her ass. She hissed in a breath as lava rolled through her veins. He made her want so quickly. From zero to sixty, so fast it made her head spin. She sank into his heat.

“I took it,” he whispered at her neck.

His breath slid along her throat. The heat of his tongue touched her skin and skittered away. He groaned. She moaned. It was madness.

“Thief,” she responded breathlessly.

“I’m whatever I need to be, baby,” he said. His lips tickled her ear as his voice sank into her bones.

“Why are you here?”

He licked her earlobe. “I told you I was bringing supper.”

“No, Jeremiah,” she whispered as her hand reached up to tangle in his black hair. “Why are you
here
?”

“Because you are.”

Such a simple answer, and yet within it the reason she would never have been able to maintain distance from him once he reentered her life. He completed the whole of her. Without Jeremiah she wasn’t the person she could be.

The past remained between them, yet the weight of it lifted when he was near. She couldn’t ignore it, but neither did she want to deal with it right now. Daly turned and lifted her chin. He took what she offered, his lips caressing hers, his hands grabbing her ass and lifting her so he could wedge himself between her thighs. So hot.

Both hands tangled in his hair and all she knew was him. She breathed in, and it was cedar and sex. She swallowed, and it was spice and lust. “Please,” she said around another moan.

“Yes,” he answered and started upstairs.

“Here,” she demanded when she pulled her lips away.

Jeremiah stopped and stared down at her. His cheeks were ruddy and his normally blue-gray eyes were almost black. She did this to him.

“It will take too long and my body misses yours. Here. Now.” She pulled at the buttons of his shirt, delighting when they popped and allowed her to push it off his shoulders.

He set her down and just watched her.

“Take off your clothes,” he said in a hard voice.

His dominance settled over her like a silken cloak. Her knees weakened at his command. She undid her shirt and shrugged it off. She untied her skirt and dropped it to the floor. Daly was wearing garters for her stockings but no underwear, and his gaze riveted on her bare flesh.

“The bra.” His voice was infinitely deep with need.

She obeyed and then pressed her palms against her engorged nipples.

“Drop your hands. I didn’t say you could ease their pain. That’s for me alone.”

She did as he asked but tweaked her nipples before she dropped them completely. His eyes blazed.

“That’s one,” he said with a tight smile. “And you know I keep count very well. Lower your gaze, little sub.”

She did as he’d commanded.

“Take off my clothes,” he directed.

Her breath stilled in her chest. She raised her hands slowly, not really knowing where to start. His body was a feast for her senses. Since his shirt was already halfway off, she began there. Sliding the fabric down his arms, she made sure not to touch him any more than necessary.

“Now the undershirt,” he ordered.

She lifted the soft cotton and inhaled deeply as his stomach and chest were revealed. His nipple rings were prominent against the undershirt and she wanted to take one in her mouth and suckle it, to tug at the titanium circle until his breath hissed and his hips arched against her.

“Do not,” he said in a gravelly voice as he lifted the undershirt over his head.

She smiled. His hands fisted.

“Now the pants.”

She started at his buckle, slowly undoing the leather belt and then unsnapping his dress pants. Once she’d lowered the zipper, she pushed them down his hips and waited for him to step out. This put her on her knees directly in front of his boxer-brief-covered penis.

She licked her lips and he buried one of his hands in her hair, removing the ponytail holder and sifting through the strands.

“You want to taste me again? Did you not get enough the other night, little sub?”

He’d not given her permission to speak. The roles were so clearly defined, so definitively remembered, that she fell into their play easily. He had to grant her permission for all things. He knew what she wanted, what she needed, and when she needed it. Her mind, body, and soul reveled in his control.

He tapped her lips with his finger. “Tell me.”

“I could never have enough, Sir.”

“Even here in the middle of your foyer, with the lights on and knowing anyone could walk up, you’d take my cock in your mouth and bring me to release?”

“And I’d love every minute of it, Sir.”

He stroked along her jaw. “So would I. But tonight, I think it’s my turn to feast.”

She must have made a sound of denial because he said, “That’s two. The count is rising. I wonder if you do it on purpose because you want the feel of my paddle on your ass.”

Several moments of silence descended, heavy with things unsaid. Her mouth watered for him even as her ass flexed in anticipation of his pleasure.

“The flush on your cheeks and across your breasts tells me how much you want to suck me. Give me your hand and look at me, little sub.”

Surprise flickered through Daly. This was new. But she did as he’d ordered.

He lowered his briefs over his cock and placed her hand on the hard ridge of flesh. He tapped her chin and she remembered to look up. She lost herself in his gaze. Simply forgot to breathe and think.

He took her will so easily.

“This is all for you. No other woman has ever made me want with the ferocity you do—want the things you make me want. I don’t know the why of it, but you came back to me and I’ll not let you leave this time.”

She saw the truth of what he was saying in his eyes.

“Stand up and go sit on the couch,” he said with a sigh as he pulled his briefs back up.

Daly released him and did as he’d instructed. He’d built a fire in her tiny fireplace. It threw shadows in her living room.

“Lie back against the couch and spread your legs. Put your hands at your side,” Jeremiah ordered as he walked to stand behind the couch.

She did everything he told her to. Though the fire wasn’t meant to warm the house, she felt its heat on her exposed pussy. Her legs, still encased in her stockings, moved easily on the leather couch but her butt didn’t, the flesh warm and moist. She knew she was dripping onto the pretty black leather but just couldn’t seem to care.

“Good little sub,” he murmured as he stroked her hair. “I’m going to blindfold you. I can’t watch your eyes as you come because I’ll fuck you too soon, and tonight, Daly? Tonight I want this to last a long time.”

She inhaled slowly, deeply, and tried to let the breath calm her fraying nerves. He was intense tonight. There was no hint of playfulness in his demeanor and his words resounded with purpose. He was going to master her and she didn’t know if she could handle it.

“I don’t want you to speak. You will nod or shake your head unless you safe word or I give you permission.”

She nodded.

He stroked down her shoulder, grabbing her hand and lifting it to his lips. He kissed her
knuckles then, setting it down gently on her thigh.

She felt the silk unfurl along her breasts and then he lifted it, placing it over her eyes. It was probably red. He loved her in red. He pulled her hair behind her and let it flow over the back of the couch.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Daly. I’ve missed you,” he said, and his voice was harsh.

She wanted to sob, but held it in.

“I don’t know if you missed me too, but I know your body did,” he said at her ear. She shivered and he chuckled, the sound moving through her with wicked heat.

Her hips arched, and he pinched a nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

“I did not tell you to move,” he reminded her as he released her flesh and then softly stroked the offended area. “That’s three infractions.”