“Time to get ready,” he finally sighed quietly. “We leave here tomorrow night, Elizabeth. Grange returns in a week. You sure you want to do this?”

Oh, she was damned sure.

“I’m sure, Dash,” she promised him quietly. “I miss Cassie. I want it done and my daughter safe. I want it over.”

“Come on then.” He moved to his feet and pulled her up beside him. “Let’s go whip these boys into shape. We’ll let Simon’s Ladies take care of their lusts and then we’ll start planning. We’ll get him, baby, and then we’ll go home.”

Chapter Thirty-One

A week later Elizabeth was being dragged roughly into the house that had been rented in the small town she had run from two years before. Dash had a manacled grip on her wrist, his body was vibrating with fury and she wasn’t any less pissed.

Behind them, Simon and his Ladies trailed more slowly, as did several others of the group that amassed together. The rest were at logistical points around the Grange estate or working with the two guards that had been bribed from Grange’s service. She and Dash had been slipping through town, testing the determination of the men Grange had in place to catch her.

His orders to her had been precise. She knew when she slipped from the shadowed alley to be certain Grange wasn’t in the car they had been watching that he would be pissed. That he would, in no uncertain terms, let her know how displeased he was. But she hadn’t expected this. She had been so close. She had nearly been in the right position to check the identity of the two men when Dash had grabbed her, dragging her back into the alley and then to the car awaiting them on the other end. He had been chillingly silent, angrier than she had ever seen him.

“Dammit, Dash, stop dragging me around.” She tugged on his hold as he pulled her up the staircase. She was fighting tooth and nail, but it was follow him or be dragged. She wasn’t in the mood to incur any more bruises along the way.

Dash was madder than she had ever seen him. Stone-cold enraged rather than growling mad. His expression was savage, his lips pulled back in a silent snarl as he glanced back at her, his golden eyes glowing with liquid fire. She was almost trembling in fear.

When he reached their bedroom door, he opened it, jerked her inside and turned to close it with deadly silence. The snick of the lock turning caused her to flinch.

“I won’t be manhandled this way by you,” she charged him fiercely, trying to ignore the weakness in her knees as he faced her.

“Take your clothes off.”

“Why?” she snapped. “So you can show me my place? Under your body? I was safe, Dash.”

“You broke formation. You disobeyed orders. Do you know what I would have done to Jonsey, or Chase, or any of the others who so blatantly threatened not just the mission but also their own lives?”

His voice was deadly.

Elizabeth shook her head. “I was safe.”

“You were a fool. You were being tricked, Elizabeth. There was another vehicle pulling in no more than ten feet from you. You were nearly seen,” he told her quietly, the dark, harsh timber of his voice making her tremble.

“They wouldn’t have seen me,” she argued furiously. “I was being careful.”

“And if they had?” he asked her with deadly calm. “If they had managed to take you or, God forbid, just kill you and have it done with. What then?”

She blinked up at him, horror filling her. “They couldn’t,” she whispered. “I was hidden.”

“If you had moved forward so much as another inch, you would have been seen,” he said, his voice still throbbing with fury as he jerked his shirt over his head. “You risked my men, but even more, you risked my mate. Possibly my child, and everything we’ve planned for, Elizabeth. Now take off your clothes.”

“Why?” She backed away from him, the horror of what she had nearly done still vibrating through her.

“I’m sorry, Dash. I was being careful. I just thought…”

“I didn’t tell you to think on this mission unless it went to shit real fast,” he informed her coldly, his hand going to his pants. “Now take your fucking clothes off before I rip them off.”

“Not like this.” She shook her head desperately. “Not while you’re so mad at me, Dash.”

He stilled. “Mad at you?” Agony resonated in his voice now. “You think this is mad, Elizabeth? This isn’t mad, baby. If I were mad I’d be stripping the hide off your bones with every insult I could come up with. I’m not mad. You scared me out of ten years of my life. Now take those fucking clothes off.”

He didn’t stop undressing after casting her that first, incredulous look. Before her eyes, he dropped his weapons, his boots, his clothes, standing before her gloriously naked and aroused. Adrenaline was still pumping through her body, fear and remnants of anger and a sudden excitement that shocked her. He was going to take her whether she wanted him to or not. Like a traitor her body heated, her pussy clenching in hunger. She backed away from him.

“I don’t think so,” she snapped, her gaze flickering to the straining length of his cock before going back to his face.

He smirked as he inhaled deeply. “I’m going to mount you and I’m going to show you who’s boss in this little endeavor, baby. A lesson you won’t soon forget. Now take your clothes off.”

“Boss?” She lifted her brow with what she knew was haughty disdain as she watched him carefully. “I don’t think so, Dash.”

His hand had fallen to his cock, his fingers gripping the abundant flesh and stroking it lazily. The engorged head was glistening with moisture and throbbing wildly with arousal.

“You know, it was driven home relatively hard tonight that you think you can get away with anything in this relationship,” he growled. “You continually tempt my possessiveness by hugging around on my soldiers and generally babying them. Simpering and so damned sweet it’s enough to give me a toothache. But I handle it,” he stated with a vast amount of male pride. “I handle it well, I think. But I’ll be damned if you’ll be allowed to disregard my orders on a mission. Not now, not ever.”

“It won’t happen again.” But she knew it likely would. She wasn’t stupid. She was used to being in control, not following someone else. “You can fuck me after you’ve calmed down.”

He smiled slowly, rather coldly. “No.”

He began to stalk her then. The bedroom was large, but it wasn’t that damned large. She didn’t have a hope of escaping him. The thought of that sent her pussy convulsing, spilling the thick cream along the plump curves and preparing her for his penetration.

She moved to the edge of the room, her eyes darting anxiously from side to side as she tried to find an escape route. There weren’t any, and Dash was getting closer by the second. As he neared her, she jumped to move. His hands hooked in her shirt, ripping it from her body. She turned on him furiously.

“I’m tired of you tearing my clothes off me.”

“Then undress.” He was calm, determined. “Do it now. Take your punishment like a good girl, baby.”

Her eyes narrowed on him. “I don’t think so.”

He shrugged easily. “Then I’ll tear every shred of cloth off your body and buy you more when you need them.”

Elizabeth gritted her teeth in fury. She was closer to the door now, her only chance. She turned and ran for it. Unfortunately, Dash was faster. Before she could escape he was on her. Hooking his arm around her waist, he dragged her to the bed, threw her on it then followed her. Rolling to her stomach, she had every intention of escaping. Before she could do more than come to her knees, he had her again. Fighting, twisting, she fought him with every breath as he curled his fingers in the waistband of her leggings and tugged them over her hips.

Screaming out in frustration she kicked back at him. He rewarded her with a chuckle as he pushed the material to her knees and left them there. She was twisting against him when his hand suddenly landed on the rounded curve of her bottom. Shocked, she stilled for a second. In the next she was reaching back, clawing at him, cursing him until he caught her hands in one of his and held them to the middle of her back.

Struggling was getting her nowhere. But worse, it was making her hotter, making her pussy cream furiously as his hand landed on her rump again. She jerked in amazement.

“Are you spanking me?” she screamed out furiously. “Son of a bitch, I’ll kill you when I get up.”

“Then maybe I won’t let you up.” His hand landed again.

It wasn’t a hard smack, but enough to warm her ass, to make her wiggle in protest. It was making her pussy blaze. Her breasts were swollen with arousal now, her nipples hard little points that brushed against the sheet, sensitizing further with each move against the material.

“Dash, I swear, you’ll pay for this.” She meant to sound tough, threatening; instead it came out more like a moan, a sound of hunger.

The small, hot smacks to her ass were making her crazy. Being pinned beneath him, helpless, on fire, was destroying her. Both half moon curves were attended to, his hand striking her, burning her until she was writhing beneath him, but whether in pain or pleasure even she couldn’t say for certain. She gasped as his hand pushed between her thighs, his fingers smoothing over the syrupy slickness of her bald cunt. Every nerve in the swollen flesh pulsed to life. Her clit throbbed in impatient demand as she whimpered against the small caresses he stroked around it. Pulling his hand back, he gathered the slick essence, smoothing it back along her pussy to the cleft of her buttocks. Elizabeth flinched as his fingers pressed against her anal opening, pushing the silken natural lubrication into the tiny hole.

“Dash.” An incredible flare of aroused pleasure streaked through her as the tip of his finger pierced the little opening and muffled her small protest.

It felt too good. The tip of his finger moved gently inside her, stroking deeper and deeper until the full length of it was buried in her backside. Elizabeth was shocked. She had never been touched there, never caressed or penetrated in such a manner. She moved back tentatively, trying to hold back the groan of pleasure as his finger slid out, then back in, tunneling inside her with carnal intent.

“Elizabeth.” She tensed; his voice was crooning, deliberately gentle. That was never a good sign.

“What?” She was gasping as another finger joined the first. She was raised perfectly for him now, her shoulders flat to the bed, her butt elevated for his decadent exploration as he held her hands secured at the small of her back.

“I’m going to fuck your ass, baby,” he told her, shocking her, heating her blood with the sensual promise. “Hard and deep, Elizabeth. I’m going to show you what happens when you rouse the animal inside me. I’ll show you, baby, not to ever put yourself in danger like that again.”

Her eyes widened as she trembled.

“Don’t hurt me, Dash.” Was he going to punish her with pain now?

His fingers slid free of the tight channel. A second later a resounding crack to her ass had her jerking furiously.

“Have I ever hurt you?” he snapped as he shifted behind her. “Have I, Elizabeth?”

“No.” She moaned, feeling his cock slide along the cleft of her ass. He was thick and full and she knew there wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to manage to work it inside her. It wasn’t possible. His fingers returned to their previous work, sliding through the juices easing from her vagina and spreading them back to her anal entrance as he worked his fingers slowly inside her.

“Damn. You’re tight here,” he whispered as she clenched on him. “I bet, Elizabeth, that when my cock shoots that lubrication up your sweet ass, I’ll slide right in. You’ll be all nice and hot and so tight around my dick I’ll go crazy with it.”