Own (Command Force Alpha #1) by Katie Porter Read Free Book Online Page B

boarding school had been the safest option.
    Strict rules had been proof of the school’s safety and of her father’s love for her.
    Yup. She was bent. Beyond recovery.
    Evan gave a small nod. A blessing of permission.
    She shuddered. Kat wrapped her hands together before pushing up from the floor. She was suddenly and perfectly aware of the way the position must be putting her cleavage on display. She froze for a brief second before standing all the way up.
    “Don’t worry, Katsu.” He had a lazy drawl when he wanted to. “I already saw down your shirt. That red lace bra. It cups you perfectly. But then you wore it so I’d see it. Didn’t you?”
    She licked her lips and swallowed past the dryness in her mouth. He had to have heard that click. As if of their own accord, her hands kept stacking clothes in the drawers of the small dresser. It was an old piece, with inlay work across the front and edging in copper across the top.
    “I asked you a question. Answer me.”
    She jumped. She shouldn’t have, because she’d been expecting him to push. She’d wanted him to push. The words poured from her. “Yes. I wanted you to look. So that you’d see what you lost. And because I’ve gone up a half cup. I’m a solid C now, and I know it looks good on me.” Her voice dropped as she finished. “I wanted you to miss me.”
    Oh God.
    He wasn’t going to say anything in response to that. He was all mountain, and a mountain didn’t talk. They only waited…then erupted.
    Evan leaned forward though, resting his elbows on his knees. The look he graced her with was intensity and fire and every cliché that her brain couldn’t process fast enough. The look was blue . Blue in feeling and thought, not only in color. “I missed you already, Katsu. I miss what we had and the lightness you made me feel. I hate that I think sometimes about what we could’ve been, in some other life. But you know why there had to be space between us.”
    Her heart leapt just as her mouth twisted. Of course she knew. She’d been complicit in maintaining that distance, avoiding Evan like the plague whenever possible. Still, she put away her clothing, piece by piece, as neatly as if she were in boot camp. No, even better than that. She had years of experience, and they were all bubbling to the surface, effervescing, lifting her along the way. She was lighter than she’d been a half hour ago. She was calmer than she’d been a day ago.
    Kat lined her toiletries up on the vanity, which had a triptych mirror and a shimmering mother-of-pearl top. “I think your father’s rubbed off on you,” she said, knowing the dig was probably too far. Apparently her sudden need for order couldn’t keep her mouth from running away from her. “This place…damn.”
    He stood, looming behind her. They were both reflected in the mirror, except he was so tall that she couldn’t see his eyes. She could only make out his shoulders curving around her and the way he held his mouth—with patience. “What does that mean?”
    “You couldn’t afford it on a captain’s salary alone.”
    He gripped the edge of the vanity at either side of her hips. He wasn’t touching her, not anywhere, but she couldn’t have been more aware of him if he’d planted a rough, full kiss on her mouth. She was completely overwhelmed. Every inch of her skin knew where she’d align with him.
    “Technically, I’m not a captain anymore. Not so far as the Department of Defense cares. But no. I couldn’t afford this estate on only my salary, not even including the bennies I get working for CFA.”
    Regular combat pay. Language bonuses, because he knew French, Japanese and Russian, and by now he’d probably learned Farsi. Temporary deployment pay. Long-term deployment pay. It was possible none of that mattered now, depending on how their money person managed the books and kept the operatives’ pay as untraceable as possible. Still, add it all up and it wouldn’t be enough for a regular