COUNTERPLAY (Romantic Suspense) COMPLETED

CHAPTER TEN

Jack arrived to find the condo quiet and dark. Hell, he hadn't called anything home since he was a teenager right before he left for boot camp. He checked his watch. After ten. Where the hell had she gone?

"Coryn." He walked down the hallway to their bedrooms. The door to her room was ajar. He stopped at the threshold and listened. He let his eyes adjust to the dark. Her bed was still made and the connecting bathroom empty and dark.

He took out his cell and began keying in a text and walked back to the living room and looked for a note or any other sign she'd been home.

He heard a scrape on the deadbolt. The sound echoed in the sparsely furnished room. He took three large steps to reach the front door before it opened, rolled to the right of it and palmed his gun. When he had been surveilling Coryn, she'd always entered through the garage.

He slowed his breathing and waited as the person on the other side of the door found success with the lock. He waited until the door had opened fully before he thrust his hand around and grabbed the wrist of the intruder.

In a move he'd conducted too many times to count, he swung the intruder into his body and placed the gun at his temple.

Problem was it wasn't whom Jack had anticipated. He'd miscalculated his prey. A perfume he'd become quite fond of drifted towards his nose. He inhaled deep. Coryn

***

Coryn knew it was Jack the moment she was pressed into a hard chest. But why was he hiding behind her front door and holding her at gunpoint? She'd been dreaming about his chest since she spotted him in the doorway of the guest room the first night he was here.

Standing with his shirt off, they'd had a standoff of sorts, and Coryn had blinked first. The grin he'd flashed haunted her, and she felt her blood pressure rise at the memory. Her nipples pebbled at the contact with the mercenary for hire who'd turned her op and her world upside down.

But she wasn't going to let him seduce her into forgiving him for jumping her as she entered her own home. So Coryn elbowed Jack in the ribs, grasped the arm he held his gun in and kicked her spiked heel into his shin.

Twisting her body, she managed to throw him off balance to get his legs out from under him. He fell hard. She kneeled down and slammed his wrist against the floor in an attempt to knock the gun free. She'd excelled at hand-to-hand when she was in the academy, but Jack used his weight against her. He twisted his large frame and flipped her onto her back. Winded, she debated her next move.

He must have realized it was her as soon as he made contact otherwise she was sure she'd be knocked out by now or at least in severe pain. He shocked her further by scooping her into his arms, stood up and tossed her onto the couch. How the hell ...

Before she had a chance to scramble away, he pinned her down into the cushions and left no doubt who was in control. Lord, he was massive. She felt every hard inch of his body as he molded his form to hers.

She attempted to knee him, but she could barely move let alone lift her leg. He set his gun on the end table and placed his forehead on hers and let his body go lax. "Where the hell did you go?'

She ignored his question and pushed against him for all she was worth. He didn't budge. Instead, he pushed deeper into her body until she forgot her own name.

"Damn, those heels are lethal," Jack growled.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Coryn demanded. "Get off me." She wiggled to loosen his grip and came against something hard and tempting. Very tempting.