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  Seeking solace between the thighs of a woman, even one as incredible as Abigail Haws, wasn’t part of his plan, and he would have to have himself under better control the next time he saw her.

  Chapter 6

  “What?” Abbie stared at Georges as he told her the news. “You have to be kidding me.” She’d stopped by the MRD offices on her way over to House Lyons’s offices for her appointment.

  “The vid said the Kerrigan Family had joined with Alexander Lyons in their opposition to the MRD and their goals. They said the group was spouting treason and should be banned. And they called for your license to practice to be revoked.” Georges was her right hand at the MRD and quite often stood at her side when they planned and worked.

  “Unbelievable! I have a meeting with House Lyons in a little while. We shall see what Roman Lyons’s opinion on this matter is.” And if he was behind it, she’d kick his ass. No matter how tasty it looked.

  She’d only gotten the barest amount of sleep. Her pill and the drink hadn’t helped much against the dreams. Stupid, so stupid. Each time she thought she’d gotten past it, something brought it up again and she wondered if she’d ever be able to throw the pills away.

  So she wasn’t in the brightest of moods as she took the lift to the soaring space where Roman Lyons ran his empire. Marcus did look handsome behind his desk, wearing a smile and sending her a flirty wink when she arrived, taking a bit of the edge off her mood.

  “Why hello! Don’t you look beautiful today?”

  “Are you trying to soften me up? Do you think I haven’t seen the vids today?”

  “Ouch. I figured you’d seen the vids; you’re an informed sort of person. And who doesn’t like to tell a woman she looks good? But softening you up would be a nice by-product. Not all Lyons are the same. Just remember that.” He said the last under his breath but she heard it just the same.

  “Is he in now? And thank you. You look quite handsome yourself. But you know that of course.”

  He fluttered his lashes at her playfully, but still very sexily, and laughed. “I commed him that you’d arrived and he’ll be out momentarily. And why do I know I look handsome?”

  “Men like you know how good they look. It’s why you’re all so appealing.” She shrugged.

  “Is that so? Do you have a man in your life, Abbie?”

  “Whyever do you ask?” How long had it been since she’d flirted? The pounding behind her eyes lessened.

  “Well, as much as I adore lovely women, I don’t poach on other men’s territory. It wouldn’t be fair.”

  “It’s funny you assume I’d be with a man.”

  He laughed. “I’d be so very disappointed if that weren’t the case.”

  “What would that be?”

  They both turned to the voice in the doorway and Roman stood there, the light behind him casting a bright glow about the edges of his body. She remembered his hands on her, the way he kissed. Roman Lyons was divine, but not like that.

  “Nothing at all, Mr. Lyons. Ms. Haws is here for your appointment.” Marcus’s lips twitched slightly.

  “I see that, Marcus. Thank you. Ms. Haws, won’t you come in?”

  She waved discreetly at Marcus as she walked past and into Roman’s office.

  “You left yesterday without saying good-bye.” He stood very close to her and shivers broke over her body.

  She cleared her throat and reined in her hormones. “Okay, we’re veering off topic here. Movement for Representative Democracy. My organization? Yes, they’re going to ask me what we discussed and I can’t very well say . . . well, I can’t say that.”

  He sat down, indicating she do the same, and she winced, noting he wasn’t behind his desk but rather in the more intimate, and closer together, chair and table set up near the windows.

  “Here, have some kava. Then tell me what exactly you can’t say.” He smirked and she pursed her lips as she thought over what to say. Did he think she was some sort of shy flower? When it came to sex, she may not get it regularly, but she wasn’t ashamed of what she liked and what she did.

  “I can’t very well tell them you fingered me to orgasm on the floor of your office. I mean, imagine what your brother and Saul Kerrigan would say about that.”

  He hesitated a moment but she didn’t miss the way his pupils enlarged or the hitch in his breath.

  “Let’s leave them out of any discussion involving my office floor and my fingers in your cunt.”

  She might have lost her hearing for a moment, the words coming from him were so unexpected. His voice had changed from the smooth cadence he normally had. Instead, he said it low, rough, and her nipples hardened in response.

  “All right. But, um, back to the topic of our meeting. Let’s get this out of the way first. Do you support the ridiculous call from your brother and House Kerrigan to revoke my license to practice and to have the MRD declared a banned organization?”

  “You tell me, Ms. Haws. Are you a treasonous organization?”

  “Abbie. Ms. Haws is my mother. The MRD wants representative democracy. How is that treasonous?”

  “How do you plan to make it happen?”

  “Are you asking if I’m going to sell information to the Imperialists to fund my war against Family Rule?”

  He took a deep breath. “What is it you want, Abbie?”

  “I want real democracy, Mr. Lyons.”

  “Roman. And I’m fairly educated on forms of government over history both before the Diaspora and once we all settled throughout the Known ’Verses. From what I can tell, you enjoy democracy now.”

  “Do I? That’s an interesting perspective. When I can’t hold a job that you can, how is that democracy? I didn’t vote for you, and yet Families make all the rules I live by. Why? Because you all had the credits and therefore the power when we first came through the portals. You weren’t elected or chosen. You came through with the power and the credits and you’ve hoarded them ever since.”

  His brows lowered, annoyed. “I work hard to represent the needs of the people of Ravena and the rest of the Known ’Verses. Do you think it’s fun? This job?”

  She took a deep breath. “I’m sure you do work hard. That’s not the point. This isn’t a test of how hard you work, or what a nice guy you are. This is about the fact that the people of Ravena do not have a vote in who represents us. There’s no one on the Governing Council who understands what it is like to be unranked. Your world and ours are vastly different. Why shouldn’t we have someone who understands that voicing our needs?”

  “You have a job. A good job that pays well. You live in a nice home. All citizens of Ravena receive an excellent education and vocational training. We have health care and many, many benefits that make life better for Ranked and unranked alike. There are no differences between Ranked and unranked. Not in the way you’re insinuating!”

  “Bullshit! Stop making this about how nice you are, you self-righteous ass. Of course there are differences. Huge ones, like yesterday, when Saul Kerrigan attacked me, the guard addressed him first. Spoke to him like I wasn’t there. If I had attacked him the way he did me, I’d have been arrested immediately. No one even asked if I was interested in pursuing charges against him. Do you really, truly believe there are no differences between Ranked and unranked? Can you sit there and say such a thing without laughing?”

  “Self-righteous? I’m listening to your grievances and I’m self-righteous?”

  “The fact that it’s considered special to have a leader actually listen to grievances is self-righteous, yes. The fact that your brother, a known womanizer to the extreme, and Saul Kerrigan, a corrupt, insane and violent man, can stand up and say to the public that I should have my right to practice taken from me because I dare to say there has to be a better, fairer way says yes, there are differences. You’re telling me that your brother, with his string of mistresses broken and abandoned in his wake, is better at governing than I am? Or my brother or any other unranked citizen who actually works for
a living? All because your name is Lyons and mine isn’t?”

  He pushed to stand and she did as well.

  “You go too far. You don’t know Alexander at all.”

  His green eyes blazed with anger and something else. What it was, she didn’t know, and right then, she didn’t care. He turned and went to the window. She followed and stood next to him, staring out at the city below.

  “I know all I need to know about his type. Believe me. And that he associates with the likes of Saul Kerrigan, a man who’d put an old woman who worked for him and his family for generations into lockup rather than pay her what she’s due says quite a lot.”

  “So you’ll tear down the foundations of our society? Break it all apart because you don’t like my brother?” He turned to her as he asked.

  “You think I’ve spent the better part of my life working on creating a system of representative democracy because of your brother? Truly? Why are you making this about you? It’s not.”

  He took her by the upper arms but it wasn’t the same as it had been with Kerrigan. Not at all. Her knees turned to rubber even as she tried to be ashamed of how hot it made her when he looked at her the way he did just then.

  “I’m in charge. How can it not be about me?”

  “It’s about something larger than you,” she whispered.

  He gave an anguished sort of growl. “Why do you do this to me?”

  “I don’t know. I thought you were doing it to me.”

  His mouth crushed down over hers, dominating, taking, tasting. Want slid over her, took her somewhere else and she let it.

  “I want you, Abbie.” He wrenched his mouth away, nearly panting as he waited to hear her reply.

  “Please, gods, please. Touch me.”

  Like a switch going off, they set upon each other as if they simply couldn’t get what they wanted quickly enough. Their lips never left each other as hands shoved and yanked to pull clothes off in frenzied action. Her suit jacket hit the ground and he shoved her blouse up under her arms, exposing her breasts. She wanted to cry out and demand more, but before she could, he gave it.

  His mouth left hers as he pulled the cups of her bra down and teeth and tongue found her nipple.

  Her fingers sifted through his hair, holding his head to her. The tension in his muscles radiated from him, up into her body. He was holding back.

  She pushed and he moved his mouth from her. Never in her life had she seen anything so amazing and sexy. His eyes were lit with an inner fire and his shirt hung open, exposing the masculine beauty beneath. She shoved the shirt off, leaving him naked from the waist up, and looked her fill.

  His upper body was beautiful. Substantial. Not bulked, but he had a broad chest with a smattering of hair the same color as the pale-blond hair on his head.

  “You’re holding back,” she said. “Don’t. I don’t want it. I don’t need it.”

  He shuddered.

  She ran her palms over the muscles of his belly, down over his cock through his pants and he jerked forward into her grip. Squeezing just so, she kept eye contact. “What is it? Do you like it rough? I bruise easily, but it’s consensual. I’m not going to break. I’m on fertility blockers. So do it. Fuck me, Roman. Take me. I’m all yours. You can’t scare me with your desires. I can see you, beneath the skin. You’re not bad. You’re a good man.”

  “Damn it.” He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and stared at her long and hard. “Look at you there, your tits out, nipples dark and swollen from my mouth. I can smell you, Abbie. I know you want me.”

  She nodded and he bent over, his mouth on her nipples again, teeth abrading the tender flesh just hard enough to wrench a moan from her. She looked down, watching him, watching his mouth on her, and the thrill slithered through her. Somewhere in her brain she knew this was dumb but she couldn’t seem to connect with that part. There was only one part of her thinking and in control now, and it wasn’t her brain.

  Each pull of his mouth on her nipple shot straight to her clit. She shifted to try and ease the ache there, and it drew his attention to her.

  He shoved her back against the wall of windows and fell to his knees. Chest heaving, she watched as he shoved her skirt up and yanked her panties down. “A bare cunt. I should have known. I felt it yesterday, so smooth, but I didn’t get to see it. Just those red panties. Are you a bad girl beneath the suit?”

  “I’m a bad girl all over.” Was that an insult? She guessed it wasn’t, because moments later his mouth moved to her. The first long swipe and then swirl of his tongue against her sensitized clit brought a gasp from deep in her gut.

  “You taste good. Wet and creamy. Gods,” he murmured against her pussy. “I could eat this cunt for hours and hours. I might just do that. But not right now. Now I’m going make you come all over my face and then I’m going to fuck you against this window.” He brought one of her thighs up to rest on his shoulder as he licked and nibbled on her pussy like she was a delicacy.

  Two of his fingers stroked into her, fucking her mercilessly as he tongued her. She held on to his head and bit her lip to keep from speaking. That didn’t stop the deep, guttural moans and the soft sounds of pleasure from drifting out of her body.

  Pinned there between his clever, relentless mouth and the cool glass at her back, she held on and tried to keep her balance as pleasure began to burn in her muscles. Oh, seven hells, she was going to come and come hard. In his office. Again.

  “Oh my . . . yesssss,” she burst out as orgasm claimed her with a shock of electric sensation.

  He stood quickly, mouth finding hers again and she heard his belt slither off and his pants slide down. She tossed a thigh over his hip as he thrust his cock deep and hard into her cunt. Her taste was sharp on her lips as he continued to kiss her.

  “Damn it, you’re so hot,” he mumbled as he thrust, hard and fast. “Your cunt is tight and wet. I like that.”

  “I like it too, almost as much as that gorgeous cock,” she said as he pinched and rolled a nipple.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

  “Thank gods you are.”

  He stopped a moment and then laughed, thrusting again. “My cock belongs deep inside you.”

  Oh dear gods, she loved dirty talk. Real dirty talk done by someone who felt it. Logan sounded ridiculous when he tried it, but deep inside, Roman Lyons was a very dirty man, and because he owned the words, they worked. Straight down to her toes.

  “Does it? Mmmm. I’m not complaining, that’s for sure.” She leaned forward and grabbed his earlobe between her teeth and he groaned.

  “Maybe if I keep you stuffed with cock you’ll be too busy to make trouble for me.”

  “While your cock is talented, not to mention your mouth, my pussy is in charge right now. I’m still going to make you listen to our demands when we’re done.”

  “I was afraid of that,” he said and she laughed.

  “Afraid enough to stop fucking me?”

  “Hells no. I’m going to come inside you not very long from now.” He turned to catch her mouth for a brief kiss. “I’m still a gentleman, so you will come, too.” Reaching around her thigh, past his cock, the tips of his fingers found her clit and he flicked over it with a featherlight but fast rhythm that found her rolling her hips to grind into them and his cock.

  So close to her last orgasm she didn’t think she had another in her, but she was wrong. She gasped as her body seized up, clamping down on his cock.

  “Yes, that’s it. Give me another one.”

  She did, biting into the muscle of his shoulder to keep from crying out and bringing security in.

  His eyes closed and he dropped his head to her shoulder as he pumped into her over and over so hard the vase on the table nearby began to rock back and forth. When he came, his head shot back as he thrust one last time, so deep the head of his cock bumped into her cervix.

  A few moments later he opened his eyes and looked at her. “I can’t believe that just happened.”


  Did he regret it?

  Her fear passed when he smiled and kissed her softly, as he pulled out gently and dragged her into the adjoining bathroom.

  He picked her up easily and placed her on the counter before pulling her bra back into place and smoothing her blouse down. Using a washcloth, he cleaned her up and then himself as she watched.

  “I guess I’ll have to call you Abbie now for sure. We’re most definitely past the formal address stage.”

  His attraction to Abbie befuddled him. Not that he didn’t understand what made him look twice. She was beautiful, small but lush. Big eyes, juicy lips, tits that made his mouth water and an ass that made his cock twitch. Physically, Abbie Haws was a very nice package. Certainly she was intelligent and well-spoken, but in the past that was not what he’d been attracted to. He liked his women very soft, women who liked him to make the decisions. Abbie was not that woman at all.

  And yet, she coursed through his veins just then. Her laugh made him smile just thinking on it. The way her eyes lit up when she argued, the strident tone of her voice, she was a tough woman and she’d be a worthy adversary should things get that far.

  Get that far? Had he not just spewed all the dirty thoughts in his head as he fucked her, standing up, against the wall of windows in his office? He’d never done anything approaching that carelessness, but he’d do it again if he got the chance.

  The question was whether he should avoid having a chance at all. This was dangerous ground. But knowing he couldn’t have her in the long term didn’t meter his desire to know her. However unlike him it was to actually throw caution out the window and follow a course he knew had a dead end, he didn’t know if he could stop.

  “You’re very quiet.”

  He looked back at her. She’d hopped down from the counter and her hair was back in the complicated knot she wore at the base of her neck. Even all tucked in and buttoned up, she still looked like she’d been well fucked. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks flushed.