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CARTER
present day
This was not the time to be thinking about that night a year ago. The first night I spent with Matteo Moretti. The first time I’d let him fuck me and I’d loved it. He’d had me ready to beg for more.
We’d stayed at the seedy motel until nearly dawn, lying on the hard floor since we didn’t trust the mattress, then going at each other again and again. It had been heaven once I’d stopped listening to the cautious voice in my head. I’d known then that things would never work out, I just hadn’t known how fast or how badly they’d go downhill.
I hadn’t known Matteo would betray us all.
And now, after the cartel he worked for had failed in their attempt to take down my friends and me, Matteo was my prisoner.
I could do anything I wanted to him, and no one would come after me.
If Matteo was never seen again, my friends might wonder how much of a monster I’d become in the SEALs, but they would never reveal anything they knew or suspected.
I took a deep breath before opening the door to the building where he was held. After that, I could hardly force any air into my lungs as I walked down to the basement and along the hallway that ended in a sizable cell.
He hadn’t regained consciousness yet. I stood, watching him, not making a sound, needing some time to take in the fact that even bruised from his fall he was as gorgeous as ever. His hair was much longer, and the dark silky strands had come free from his hair tie and now fell across his face. Clearly, he hadn’t let his workout regimen go. In a hand-to-hand fight, it would be a toss-up which of us would win, but he was secured, and he’d be groggy as hell when he woke. He was completely at my mercy.
I owed him for the pain I still felt daily in my shoulder, for our SEAL platoon who’d had to evacuate and barely made it out, for my career that ended, and for hurting me like he did. Why the hell had he acted like there could be something real between us when the whole time he was working with the enemy? He’d made a fool out of me, and that hurt worse than anything. There’d been a while as I was recovering that I wondered if it would have been better if he had just killed me.
My hands shook as I stared at him. Did I have the stomach to make him pay?
I knew so many ways to hurt him, but right now, unconscious, head lolled back, he looked just like had when he he’d fallen asleep after we’d fucked like animals. I fucking hated him for still affecting me.
He stirred and I tensed. I wanted to be right in front of him when he woke. I shoved the key into the lock, entered his cell, then closed the door behind me. I had personally tied up Matteo. He wasn’t getting free, but even if he somehow did, he would have to go through me to get out.
He twitched again, trying to move his arms this time, and realizing he couldn’t. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and saw me. After a few failed attempts to speak, he said, “I didn’t think we’d meet again like this.”
“You thought it would be me tied up?”
The bastard smiled. “You’d like that.”
I wanted to hit him, but I didn’t. He was getting to me, and that was dangerous. I needed information, I had to remember that was my primary mission. I needed to know what the fucking cartel was up to, and I needed to know why Matteo had betrayed me and our team.
“Did you come for me deliberately or was my presence a bonus?” I asked.
He shook his head, then winced.
“Aww, does your head hurt?”
He scowled. “I didn’t know you’d take part in…all that shit.”
I raised my brows. “You mean the takedown of some of the men you turned traitor for?”
“Once I realized you were there, I tried not to….” His words faded and the haunted look on his face almost made me sympathetic.
“You tried not to what? You’d already betrayed your team, your country, anything you might have stood for.”
“You knew I wasn’t the goody-goody you were. I was never in it for that.”
“No, you were in it to sell us out to the enemy.”
“Is that really what bothers you, or are you just mad your fuck buddy turned out to be a traitor?”
I gave in to my need to punch him. His head snapped back, and blood trickled down his face from where I’d split his lip.
He turned and spat onto the floor. “I guess I deserved that.”
