Page 60 of Ruthless Commander

Christ, I missed that sound.

Missed it more than anything. I leaned down, covered her back with my chest, and jutted my hips upwards, burying myself deep in her sweet heat. “I fucking love you.” The words just slipped free.

“I…fucking…love…you,”she gasped around my thrusts.

My balls tightened with her words, as a chill raced through me. She drove her ass against me with every unmerciful thrust, driving me deeper inside her until she threw her head backwards, gripped the desk's edge, and moaned loudly.

My body tightened a second later as I came hard, jerking inside her, releasing all the desperation inside. She dropped her head back onto my desk, the sound of her hard breaths filling my ears. I wanted to stay like this for just a second and forget the world existed for a little longer…but my phone rang once again.

“Go,” she murmured through a deep breath. “Do what you do best. Find her, Mateo…then come back to me.”

“You’re not going anywhere.” I pulled free of her and instantly felt the loss. “Never again…you understand me?” I reached down, fumbled with the pocket of my pants around my knees, and grabbed my phone free.

“Yeah?”

“About goddamn time you answered,” a low snarl echoed down the line.

I scowled. “Who is this?”

“This is Haelstrom Hale…Katerina VanHalen’s fiance.”

I stilled as those words registered, and slowly pulled away. “I wasn’t aware Ms. VanHalen had afiance.”

Xael slowly straightened, reached down to grab her jeans, and tugged them up as she cut me a look of concern. I didn’t need to meet her gaze to know that was news to her, as well.

“Well, now you do,” he answered. “I’m on board my jet now and have men in the area headed your way. I want no expense spared in bringing my…fiancee…home to me.”

But it wasn’t the word fiancee he'd wanted to say.

I knew what kind of man I spoke to now. The kind that owned, that controlled, that allowed her just enough chain to choke herself. Katerina VanHalen had contacted me a number of times to come to the island, and each time her father had shut it down…until that last call. Then he'd said yes. Now I knew why.

It was because of this man…thisHaelstrom HaIle.

“I understand,” I answered. “Believe me when I say finding Ms. VanHalen is my upmost priority.”

The sound of a jet’s engines started in the background. “Good. Then I’ll be seeing you soon, Commander, and when I do, I’ll be taking Katerina home with me.”

He hung up the call, leaving me stunned.

“Who was that?” Xael buttoned her jeans and yanked her shirt into place.

“That was Haelstrom Hale…reportedly Kat’s soon-to-be husband.”

She shook her head. “Bullshit, Kat doesn’t run like that. She doesn’t sleep around, and I’m pretty sure that after last night she’s made her intentions known.”

“Then someone needs to tell him that,” I answered, my focus narrowing in on her.

She shouldn’t be out here, she should be in her apartment…no,not her apartment, not the one she shared with the damn psycho. “I don’t want you going back to your apartment, okay? Message your bodyguard, tell him to get your things and meet you here. You can stay in my quarters until this is all over.”

“This have anything to do with Evan?” She took a step toward me, reaching up to wind her arms around my neck. I slid my hands along her arms, craving every touch like it was the most natural feeling in the world for me.

“You know about that?”

She just smiled, then jerked her head toward the door. “Let’s just say I met a new friend tonight.”

Fear coursed through me as I lowered my gaze to the guns strapped to her chest. “I forgot how incredible you were, how fucking fearless.”

“Then it’s about time I reminded you, Mateo,” she said, reaching up with one hand and, without missing a goddamn beat, pulled a gun free to press it between my legs, the slide resting against my cock. “Break my heart again and that will be the last thing you ever do, you feel me?”