The Wife Assignment (Rogue Protectors Book 5)

There was no stopping to think if the moment would come back and bite me in the ass. No way was I waiting a second longer to remind Kelly she was mine.

I yanked her over the console and sealed my mouth on hers.

Her fist punched my shoulder. I wasn’t being fair, but I knew exactly what my wife wanted and how she wanted to be kissed. An all-consuming need engulfed us each time our bodies collided.

When she gasped, my opportunistic tongue slid between her lips. Her muffled resistance soon turned into a moan of overpowering need, and my dick roared up in challenge, pushing against the restrictive zipper.

I tasted her mouth. It tasted of the wine she drank with that fucker, but she was so damned sweet. After making sure I’d branded her mouth, I ended the kiss.

She thumped me on the shoulder again. “How dare you.”

“How dare I?” I’d shrug off her indignation had I not been nursing my fury all the way back from Germany. “I’m not the one who went out on a date while we’re still married.”

A chill fell between us.

I eased the vehicle out of the parking space and snaked around the crowd milling around the restaurant. After rolling onto the main road, I glanced at her briefly. “All right, that wasn’t a fair statement.”

“I’m glad you clarified that because I’ve been trying to talk to you about how to move forward and you kept brushing me off. And last time when I said maybe we should start seeing other people, you scoffed and told me to go ahead.”

“I was pissed.”

“Then you left to go on that assignment.”

I shot her a glare. “I didn’t expect you to go through with it.”

“Why? Because you’re that confident of your hooks in me?”

I didn’t reply because said confidence was taking a beating right now. I couldn’t say it didn’t serve me right. Thinking that just because I had Kelly where I wanted her in the bedroom didn’t mean I had her where I wanted her outside of it. And right now, it was outside of it that needed work. But me being me, I fucked up again last year when I went to Ukraine to rescue my friends without telling Kelly where I was going.

It seemed easier that way. Until I returned.

Kelly didn’t even ream my ass. The extremely calm way she told me to think of the girls and her not knowing how to explain why Daddy missed his weekend showed me clearly how I’d fucked up. I couldn’t come up with a good reason for her to give me another chance after that.

Silence.

I side-eyed her, but she was staring straight ahead.

I swallowed the fucking lump in my throat, my saliva drying up. “Things are good between me and the kids now. I don’t want Roth mucking up all the progress I’ve made, especially with Ash.”

“This thing with Tom is separate from what he is to Ash.”

The surrogate dad while I was off on my merc missions? A bitter taste saturated my tongue. But fair was fair. I’d been a stranger to my youngest daughter. But things were different now.

My fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “So, you’re admitting there’s a thing.”

“Hardly,” she scoffed. “I figured if I said relationship even if it’s not in the sense of romantic love, that wouldn’t go down well with you.”

“You know me so well, wife. So, moving forward,” I said. “I’ll state it clearly. I want you to give me a fair chance.”

She was already shaking her head. “I don’t know, Levi.”

“Things were going well. I already admitted I fucked up.”

“I never held your job against you,” she said. “You know that. I stuck with you when you were a SEAL. I knew what it meant to be a SEAL wife. But after what happened, you stopped communicating.”

“I’m trying. I’ve been good since the Ukraine fuck-up. I don’t up and leave.”

“Thank you for that.” There was sincerity in her tone, but it only wrapped a web of panic around my lungs. Was being a good dad all she wanted from me?

With the way she was holding herself against the door and with her exit coming up, there was no way I was getting invited into the house. Cillian and Branna had the kids, which meant Kelly had planned on staying out late with that fucker. Bile churned in my gut. In the eighteen months we’d been separated, we’d only slept with each other. It was an unspoken understanding. But again, the situation changed last October, and it was all my fault.

I didn’t know what else to say. That she came home with me and not Tom had been my sole objective for the evening. The thought that she was out with another man burned a hole of jealousy in me so deep, I didn’t know how to handle it. My default mode was to fuck her to prove my point, but that was why we never fixed our marriage. We didn’t communicate outside the bedroom.

And Tom’s words about chemistry ate through me like acid.

That motherfucker. He enjoyed watching me squirm.

The SUV made it to Kelly’s street. I didn’t want the night to end there.

“Kelly …”

“I’m not inviting you in, Levi.”

“But you’re alone … maybe we can talk.”

“I need time to think.” She glanced at me. “Since you’re back, do you want an extra weekend with the kids?”

I stared straight ahead. “You know I do.” I didn’t ask the obvious question.

“I’m not spending it with Tom. I have extra work at the studio, and the kids are staying with Nana and Gramps but I’m sure they’d love to see you.”

“Works for me.”

If I could slow the speed of the vehicle more than the crawl I was already driving it, I would. Too soon, I coasted the Escalade into her driveway. I could force the issue about having it out tonight, but I didn’t. I was aware I was navigating a razor thin line when I crashed her dinner date.

She came home with me.

Punching Tom also gave an outlet to the simmering rage that had festered since Germany. We had it out. That was what frogmen did.

“You’re not going to apologize, are you?” The tone of her voice held resignation as well as fond amusement.

“Apologize for stopping my wife from going on a date with another man? No. Apologize for my words that made you do it? Yes.” I didn’t wait for her response and unlatched my seatbelt. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she whispered.

My muscles tightened. “Why?”

“Because …” she huffed. “You’re going to kiss me, and then we’re going to have sex.”

Exasperated, I shoved out of the SUV, and glanced over my shoulder. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

“Bossy,” she sassed as she exited the vehicle.

“You like bossy,” I called after her strutting figure. Didn’t she know better than to run from a hunter? The thin fabric of her dress hugged her shapely ass and hit the middle of her thighs. It wouldn’t take much to shove the skirt above her waist, push her panties to the side, lift her against the wall, and thrust into her.

Fuck. The visual made my erection uncomfortable even in the relaxed-fitting pants. Red edged my vision when my thoughts rambled onto a different track. What if she did go home with Tom? What if they made out in his car? It would’ve been easy for him to snake his fingers up her thigh.

Kelly whipped around. “Did you just growl?”

I stepped right into her, took her keys, unlocked the door, and crowded her into the foyer.

“Levi!” she snapped.

I slammed the door, grabbed her purse and tossed it on the couch. Then I spun her around and caged her against the door.

“Yes, I did,” I muttered against her lips. “I was thinking how short your dress was, and how you were out on a date.”

Her breathing hitched.

“Have you fucked him?”

“No!”

Truth.

“Have you kissed him?”

Her chin dipped. I tipped it back up. “Have you?”

“You expect me to answer with you looking at me that way?”

I leaned back, brows furrowing. “You know I would never physically hurt you, right?” That was our dominance play. Kelly sassed me all she wanted outside the bedroom, but when it came to our sexual proclivities, she loved being bossed around.

“I’m not afraid for me,” she retorted. “After what you did to Tom, you expect me to answer that?”

“He tackled me.”

“After you punched him, but I’m not taking his side either. You both were morons.”

“Agreed. But you haven’t answered me.”

“There may have been a kiss.”

A rumble rose in my throat.

“No tongue.”

“I suppose,” I said finally. “That’s a bit better.” Kelly averted her face. “Right?”

She nodded vigorously.

“Why can’t you look at me?”

“Don’t be mad.”

“Babe, mad is if you don’t tell me what the fuck’s going on with your obvious evasion.”

She sighed and mumbled something.

“I didn’t hear you.”

“I thought the kiss was nice and I felt a tingle.”

I did not like the sound of this tingle. It came back to what Tom said about chemistry. To keep from roaring at her, I flattened my mouth.

She sneaked a look at me again. “Are you mad I told you the truth?”

“I’m not happy,” I said. “I’m not pissed at you, Kelly, but I’m not denying if Tom was in front of us right now, I’d want him to see this.”

Her eyes widened. “What?” The way her husky voice washed over me made me hard all over.

“Chemistry.” Then I kissed her, pressing her into the door with my body as my hands snaked down her sides. She moaned and opened her mouth, allowing my tongue to invade and conquer. Fuck, it didn’t take much for her to turn me on. But throw in some competition, and the green-eyed monster threatened to consume me.

A warning in the back of my head told me to rein it in and not maul my wife, making this another desperate attempt to connect with each other through sex. That cycle had to stop. Still, I needed to know if she was wet. She was. I could smell her arousal, but I wanted her to admit it was for me.

I was a needy fucker.

While still devouring her mouth, my fingers gripped the edges of her skirt and shoved it up. I answered her moan with a gratified grunt and let my fingers stroke between her legs finding her drenched. I tore my mouth away, but kept it a scant breadth away. “This better be for me, beautiful.”

“You know it is,” she said.

Our breaths mingled, thick and heavy with the want between us.

I gave her a quick kiss before sinking to my knees, inhaling her through the fabric of her panties. I tugged them down exposing her pussy. Her skin was smooth as silk there and I gave it a tongue lashing, feeling her fingers dig into my hair.

“We shouldn’t do this.” She moaned from above me.

I clenched my jaw. She was right. Though we hadn’t fucked for six months, it was mostly because I was avoiding the talk about how we were taking our separation to the next level—meaning divorce.

Kelly definitely pushed me to face that inevitability.

But, plot twist, babe, I was never letting you go.

I slid her panties all the way down, but she refused to lift her stilettoed foot and let me have them. “I’m stopping, but I’m keeping these.”

She emitted a brief laugh that was laced with annoyance and amusement. “What is this … spoils of war?”

“Battle.” I told her. I hadn’t won the war yet. She lifted her foot and finally awarded me possession of her panties. I stuffed them in my pocket.

I rose to my feet and cupped her face. “Ask me to stay.”

She shook her head. “I told you, we shouldn’t do this.”

“No sex.”

She raised a brow. “After that display, you think we’ll have self-control?”

“You’re admitting you can’t resist me?”

“I don’t want to hurt your feelings if I succeed.”

I barked a laugh. “Oh, beautiful.” I kissed her again out of fondness, but she moaned and again, I had to remind myself of the long game.

I reluctantly pulled away. “Just so you know … Tom knows dick about chemistry.”

“He has a point about—”

A change in my stare had her clamping her mouth shut. Good.

Fuck Tom Roth. He wasn’t stealing my wife.

I planted a kiss on her forehead. “You think about whatever is bothering you tonight, but this limbo between us has gone on long enough. I’ll pick up the girls tomorrow.”

I eased her from the door and opened it. Oxygen rushed into my lungs and cleared my head. I strode to the SUV without looking back.