He was silent for long moments. Just long enough for her to grow comfortable with the sounds of summer that filled the hidden spot. Soothing, relaxing, she found comfort here more than any other place she knew of.

“Have you ever had sex in public?” he finally asked her with devilish amusement.

She glanced at him mockingly. “Of course I have. I’ve grown out of the urge to tempt a charge of public indecency, though. As you should have.”

His eyes were assessing and filled with an outright challenge.

“Hmm. Maybe.” His lips tilted into a sexually knowing grin. “But isn’t that all a part of the fun?” He lowered his arms from the bench and braced his elbows on his knees. Leaning forward as he was now, he was much too close to her; the small gazebo seemed filled with him, the sexual tension heightening unbearably.

Hard, calloused hands settled on the sides of her knees, his thumbs smoothing over the sensitive, silk-covered flesh. Tally’s gaze fell to those large, competent hands. It was much too easy to imagine them on her skin.

“I want to fuck you, Tally. So bad it’s like a hunger. You’ve flitted around and teased us for a year, determined to control every step of this little dance we’ve been involved in. Haven’t you learned yet? There’s no control here.”

Tally narrowed her eyes at the challenge. Drawing in a slow, deep breath, she leaned forward, noticing rather smugly the small flare of surprise in his gaze as her hands ran up his arms, her nails dragging over the hard, muscular flesh of his biceps. She felt him tighten, his knees shifting as he moved forward, enclosing her legs within his as she stared back at him.

“There’s always control.” She blew a soft breath over his lips as they parted, only slightly. “It all depends on the control you’re seeking.”

Her hands moved from his shoulders to the buttons of his shirt. She undid the first, then the second, spreading the material enough to allow her hands to lay flush against the heat of his chest.

The glitter of battle entered his eyes then. “You could be biting off more than you can chew, kitten,” he whispered as her nails flexed against the hard muscle beneath them. “I’m not the least bit afraid of an indecency charge.”

He wouldn’t be, she thought silently. But as she had told him, it was all in who controlled it and how.

She leaned closer, her tongue peeking out to lick her lips, but glancing his lower one instead as his gaze sharpened with sexual heat.

“Would you give up control, Devril?” she asked him as his hands moved to her waist, his fingers gripping her lightly. “Would you allow me to do whatever I wished, whenever I wished?”

All she needed was the promise. She leaned forward a bit more, her teeth catching the temptation of his lip and nipping at it gently.

His hands tightened further.

“How much pleasure can you take, Dev, before your control breaks?”

Her hands slid down his chest, nails rasping as his eyes suddenly narrowed. There was no warning. There was no teasing, no asking permission. Before she could evade him he had her across his lap, one hand tangled in the long strands of her hair, tilting her head back as his lips claimed hers.

He devoured her. His tongue pressed past her lips as the sharp flare of heat at her scalp had her gasping in pleasure. It was so decadent, the thrill she received from hard fingers gripping and pulling at her hair as his lips moved expertly, heatedly over hers.

There were kisses and then there was a conquering. This kiss conquered. His tongue opened her lips, pressed forward and claimed her mouth as though it were created for him alone. And her mouth was in ready agreement.

A moan tore from her throat as fierce, alternating sensations swept through her body; the dominance of his lips and tongue taking what he wanted, his hands, one tangled in her long hair, the other splayed against her lower back as he held her close in his grip, the heat of his chest, his cock, hard and insistent beneath her ass. She wiggled against the heavy erection, thrilling to the hard male groan that vibrated against her lips.

Had she thought he had control? Of her, perhaps, but not of his desires. His lips ravaged hers, but they didn’t mind. His tongue tangled with hers in a masterful stroke, but it had no objections. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders, hands holding tight, her nails digging into his back as she fought to maintain her own control, but she could feel her senses scattering beneath his kiss.

The hand at her back moved, swept over the curve of her ass, down her thigh to the hem of her skirt.

“Son, you go much further and we might have a problem here.”

Tally froze at the amused voice. Her eyes flew open in horror as Dev’s head raised slowly. Lust and heated demand filled his eyes, but the smug curve of his lips spoke for itself.

“Oh. You…” She jumped from his lap, slapping at his hands as they reached out to steady her when she stumbled.

Shame coursed through her as she stared at the park official standing several feet from the gazebo. He had that look of indulgence that other men gave each other. A smirk that made her want to rip their faces from their heads and feed their dicks to the dogs. Infuriating.

“Now, Tally.” The amusement in Devril’s voice was like gas to a fire.

Narrowing her eyes furiously, she ignored the guard. Leaning forward, her hand fisted in Devril’s hair, her lips lowered to his as though in a surge of lust as her knee came down between his thighs.

Her lips were a breath from his when she exerted just the right amount of pressure on the tender, sensitive scrotum just below her kneecap. His eyes widened, his face paling ever so slightly as the guard chuckled behind them.

“Uhh, Tally,” he said hesitantly. “Do you know where your knee is?”

“Ohh baby,” she drawled with seductively heat. “Of course I know where my knee is. Remember, darling, no pain, no gain. Are you sure you want to continue to tempt me in such a way?” She increased the pressure by the slightest degree, watching him swallow tightly.

He cleared his throat, his green eyes watching her cautiously. “Think of all the fun you could miss out on later.”

She watched him wince as she leaned in more, knowing the pinching pressure he would be feeling now.

“There’s such a fine line between pleasure and pain,” she told him, keeping her smile intentionally innocent. “Shall we see where your line is drawn, Dev?”

Small beads of sweat stood out on his brow, but his eyes glittered with an amused knowledge of his defeat.

“I surrender.” He held his hands out from her, his thighs tight, his body drawn in anticipation of the pain to come.

She leaned down, gave that tempting, full lower lip a quick little bite before moving back from him calmly.

“You’re so easy.” She sighed regretfully. “Too bad. I had hoped for more of a challenge.”

Still ignoring the park official, she pulled the tattered remains of her pride around her. She shrugged her shoulders, adjusted her shirt and smoothed the slight creases from the silk covering her hips before she gave both men a disdainful look and marched from the gazebo.

“Tally, Lucian asked me to find out where the Gallagher file was. He was searching for it when I left.” Dev’s amused voice brought her to a halt.

She turned carefully, keeping her expression blank as she stared back at him, fighting to control the fury rising inside her.

“In hell. Where he can go,” she suggested sweetly before turning on her heel and heading back to the office.

Chapter Four

“Stay the hell out of my files!” Tally slapped the Gallagher file on Lucian’s desk, right in front of his face.

He swiveled the chair around to face her, looking up at her broodingly. His thick, almost white, blond hair fell over his brow, lust glittering in his eyes.

“Don’t you even think about it,” she warned him, unable to still the harsh anger that pulsed in her voice. “If you touch me, I promise you’ll regret it.”

He leaned back in his chair, watching her with narrowed eyes.

“This is an office,” she told him with cold disdain. “A place of business. This is not an orgy palace, nor is it your own personal fuck central. I will not be molested here on a daily basis.”

“I own the damned place,” he snarled back at her. “If I want to fuck in it, then I’ll do it on a daily basis, Tally.”

“Not with me.” She bared her teeth at him, her fists clenching with the need for the action. “I am not some weak-kneed office bimbo who’s going to spread out on your desk for your pleasure. I am a professional, Lucian, and I expect to be treated as such.”

He rose slowly to his feet. She should have felt intimidated, instead she felt enraged.

“I never act in any other manner while conducting business,” he reminded her, his soft voice in no way disguising his anger.

“While we’re in this office…”

“Tally.” He never raised his voice, but the sharp edge had her brows lowering in growing anger. “This is my office. You’re my woman. While no longer conducting business, if I want to fuck the hell out of you, then it’s my choice and my prerogative.”

“Oh, is it now?” She crossed her arms carefully beneath her breasts. “And exactly who decided I was your woman?”

He smiled slowly. “Our woman,” he said, his voice dark and confident as he leaned closer. “Don’t doubt it, Tally. I know who you just came from. I know how hot you burned in his arms and I know damned good and well you would burn the same in mine. The pain in my balls was well worth the experience. So never doubt you haven’t been claimed.”

The hard throb of ownership in his voice sent tremors of excitement racing up her spine even as a firestorm of fury raced through her blood veins. But it was his words that shocked her. He had felt that? They could sense what the other felt? That information she would use later; for now, she had Lucian’s attitude to deal with.

He was taller than her by quite a bit. Her head barely reached his upper chest, so she was forced to tilt her head back as she allowed smug disdain to fill her expression.

“Do you really think you can control me with sex, Lucian?” she asked him, her voice cold, filled with loathing. “Do I really appear to be such a twit that all you have to do is fuck me to handle me? You have another think coming.” She punctuated her words with a forceful jab of her finger into his hard, muscular chest. “No one handles me. No man controls me. Not now. Not ever.”

He glanced down at her finger. Slowly. A second later his gaze speared into hers once again.

“I’ll control you, Tally,” he told her, the tone of his voice whispering of a sexual dominance, an excitement she had only imagined before. “We’ll control you, and I promise you, when we do, you’ll beg for it.”

Her lip curled as a snarl begged to be free. In her life, she could never remember being so furious, so intent on slapping a man to his knees as she was now. And she would have. She could have. If only she could force the required words past her lips. Her repertoire of cutting phrases refused to come to mind now.

“And you’ll learn just how quickly your own arrogance will kick your ass,” she informed him coldly before spinning away and stalking to the door. “Stay the hell out of my file cabinet or do the damned filing yourself. Your choice. I won’t warn you again.”

“Tally.”

She stopped at the door, turning back to him slowly, fighting the compulsion to go to him, to give him what he needed, what they both wanted.

“You’re not fighting me, baby, or Dev. You’re fighting yourself. And I think you’re smart enough to see that.”

“You’re wrong,” she told him softly. “Now, I just left Tweedle Dee in the park with my kneecap imprinted on his balls. Keep fucking with me, and I’ll slam yours up your throat. I’m going back to work now.” She gave the information, pretending she had missed his earlier admission. Revenge was best dealt in surprise, she chuckled to herself.