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“We don’t exactly know where we’re going.” I pursed my lips, chewing a piece of bacon thoughtfully.
“With your expertise, we were able to narrow in on a range of coordinates. We’ll find it. We’ve got the support of both of our city states at our backs,” he replied. I couldn’t help but catch that he looked back at me with a certain wariness, as if he didn’t trust mine.
I focused on my meal so that I didn’t have to think of anything to say in return. Before I knew it, I’d finished my plate and had returned to sipping my coffee. Ryker didn’t wait nor did he listen when I offered to clean. He simply picked up the plates and started washing them in the sink.
“I can do this. You finish getting ready, Naomi. We are scheduled to take off in a little over an hour,” he commanded.
I nodded, hopping up from the table and leaving the room. I finished packing my essentials and several different changes of clothes that would be amenable to traipsing outdoors in unfamiliar terrain. I packed jeans and a few pairs of shorts, not really knowing what we were going to encounter out there. When I walked back out, Ryker glanced down at my sneakers.
“Do you have any proper hiking boots?”
I shook my head. He pulled his comm out of his pocket and slid his fingers across the surface. He typed a short message and sent it along.
“I’ll take care of it,” he murmured. I lifted an eyebrow, wanting to ask but deciding against it.
“I’m ready when you are.” I propped my bag a bit higher on my shoulder and he strode over to my side, taking it from my grasp. I protested, but he gave me a glance that said he wouldn’t hesitate to spank me again if I said anything to argue. Reflexively, my backside tightened as if it was already bare and back over his knee for another lesson I wouldn’t soon forget.
I liked that with him, a man with dark forbidden desire brewing just beneath the surface.
He said nothing about the expression on my face. Instead, he smiled coyly, cocked his head, and guided me toward the door with an innocent touch on the upper part of my back.
A chivalrous gentleman once more.
His thumb caressed the back of my neck. It was soft, but possessive and just before I reached the front door, his grip changed, and he spun me around to face him while pushing me none too gently against the wall behind me. The breath caught in the back of my throat as I stared up into the dark stormy depths of his gaze.
“Before we go, I want to make one thing very clear between you and me,” he began.
“What’s that?” I breathed anxiously.
“When we’re out there and I tell you to do something, whether it be to run or hide or just to step to the right, you are going to be a good girl and obey me,” he said firmly.
“Or else what,” I murmured defiantly. I don’t know what emboldened me to say those words, but by the time I thought them through, they were already there out in the open.
There was no taking them back.
His fingers wound around my chin, digging in only slightly, but enough to make it clear that he could overpower me in a second.
“Or else I’m going to punish you hard enough to make your belting over the couch the other night look like a gentle caress. Your well-being is paramount to me, and I won’t have you putting yourself at risk when we’re out there,” he growled.
I wanted to scream and tell him he was being a chauvinist and that I was more than capable of taking care of myself.
I did none of those things.
Underneath that threat, I could see that he genuinely cared for me. His hold on my chin lightened as his thumb grazed across my cheek.
“Do you understand me, little girl?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, my voice shaky. His leg pressed between mine. The top of his thigh brushed against my pussy, and I quivered at the unexpected touch.
“Good girl,” he praised, and my heart swelled.
He leaned down and kissed me sweetly. I was taken aback by the dichotomy of dark and light within him. One hand slid down the side of my torso, reaching back and squeezing my bottom tight.
“You should know something else,” he rumbled, and my heart raced frantically in my chest.
