Conquered Match Read online

  Conquered Match

  Lynne Silver

  Book two in the Coded for Love series.

  When genetically enhanced soldier Ryan Lopez learns his beloved wife Thea has betrayed his team by spilling Program secrets to the media, he takes responsibility for her punishment the only way he knows how—seducing her until she begs for release. But the more he takes control of her body, the more he tests both their limits, and realizes he’s never fully understood his wife’s dark desires. It will take every bit of Ryan’s enhanced strength to prove to them both that the woman he loves is also his conquered match.

  Conquered Match

  Lynne Silver

  Acknowledgments

  To my agent Jessica Alvarez, without whom this book literally wouldn’t be happening, and Carlene Love Flores, who reads all my rough drafts with rose-colored glasses and a digital red pen.

  Chapter One

  Thea adjusted the slide under the microscope and closed one eye to look again. Cells looked good. Strong. When implanted, they wouldn’t kill the baby. Her baby hadn’t been so lucky. Her hand idly rubbed her own lower abdomen. Her bottom shifted on the leather lab stool adjusted for her petite height. At her exam a few days ago, Doctor Wise said she was healed. Could commence normal activities. Code word for sex.

  Hah, as if that was going to happen. This was the first day she’d even been able to muster getting out of bed and coming to the lab. She’d wanted to bury herself under the covers and hide. Bury herself as she’d had to do to her dream of holding a baby with her eyes and Ryan’s smile.

  The glass slide under the microscope’s high-powered eye was suddenly seen through a blurry wet curtain she tried to blink back. Just breathe.

  A disturbance in the lab had her spinning on her stool. The leader of the Program, Shep, stalked toward her with Ryan hot on his heels. They’d found out. It had only been a matter of time. She swallowed back her apprehension, stood and plastered a smile on her bold face. The one she’d worn like a mask since the age of fourteen when she’d discovered the best way to deal with boys ogling her newly very curvy body and long black hair was to be a queen to their jester. Never let ’em see a moment of doubt.

  “Thea,” Shep roared.

  “How can I help you?”

  Ryan skidded past Shep and came to a stop in front of her. He grabbed her wrists. “Tell him you didn’t do it, Thea. Tell him.”

  His eyes were wild, desperate. An invisible fist squeezed her heart with regret at having hurt her husband. “The mere fact that I don’t need to ask to what you refer, means something.” She swiveled to Shep. “Yes. I went to the press.”

  Ryan’s hands dropped off her as if she were a pan straight from the oven. She deliberately didn’t glance his way. “Will you arrest me?”

  “If only I could,” Shep said. “But how the hell can we charge you with treason when we weren’t on any official government record book?”

  She released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Treason was punishable by death. And though there had been moments in the past few weeks after losing the baby when she’d thought death sounded easier, she wasn’t ready to get off this crazy ride yet.

  “Don’t breathe too easy, Thea. If it were up to me, I’d put you in stocks in the middle of the quad and let my soldiers have at you,” Shep said, with no inflection in his tone other than unadulterated anger.

  Her head spun to see Ryan’s reaction. Her husband was still staring at her as if he didn’t know her. And in some ways he didn’t. Hell, she barely recognized the woman who’d betrayed her military family by going to the media with their story.

  “Since public stockades are now frowned upon, I’ll have to think of something else,” Shep said. “But don’t think you’re getting off lightly.” He started to say something, but Ryan spoke up.

  “Give her to me.”

  Both Thea and Shep turned to him.

  “Leave her punishment in my hands,” Ryan said. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I will make her sorry she ever dared to expose the Program to the public.”

  Shep made a noise something like a snort. “No offense, Lopez, but how can we believe that you’ll do anything to punish your wife? Everyone knows how head over heels you are for her. She has you wrapped around her little finger.”

  “I swear, Shep. Thea’s gone too far this time. I’ll give her the consequence she deserves.”

  Something in Ryan’s expression translated to Shep, who pursed his lips then nodded. “Fine. I trust you to take care of it. I’ve got enough on my plate handling the media inquiries. Keep her out of my sight, she’s not to leave the campus for at least two weeks.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Shep walked away, and as soon as he was out of the lab, Thea stepped back to her microscope.

  “Where do you think you’re going, Thea?”

  She froze and looked at her husband, who used a tone she’d never heard from him before. Well, at least not when he was speaking to her.

  No fear. No doubts, she reminded herself. “Back to work,” she said with a toss of the long black hair Ryan loved. He spent hours after making love to her, wrapping her hair around his wrist and stroking it. His hair was nearly the same shade. If she’d managed to keep their baby alive inside her, there was no doubt their child would’ve been born with the same raven scalp.

  “Didn’t you hear Shep? You’re on lockdown.”

  She snorted. “Surely that doesn’t mean no work.”

  “That’s exactly what it means. You’re under my direct supervision as of this moment, and you go where I say you can go.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  Ryan’s black leather boots remained planted firmly on the white ceramic floor tiles. He stared her down, waiting for her to acknowledge his stance. “We’re going back to our house. Now.”

  He obviously wasn’t going to give on this. Fine, she could bend. “Just let me clean up my workstation.”

  He shook his head and locked a hand on to her upper arm. “Your colleagues can take care of that.” At his mention of colleagues, Thea glanced around to see her three lab mates studiously peering into microscopes or computer monitors, pretending to ignore the drama in their normally boring lab. The news would be all over campus by the end of the day. Thea Lopez was the traitor who told the media about the Program. Shep confronted her in the lab.

  “But…”

  “Now, Thea.”

  Looking around, she weighed her options. In one corner she had her coworkers, all loyal to the Program and now possibly seeing her as a traitor. In the other, her husband, practically blowing steam from his nostrils he was so pissed. And, ding ding, angry husband for the win. She put on a good show of annoyance at having to leave.

  She huffed and walked with him to the exit. All the while, his hand guided her arm like an immovable cuff. They emerged from the air-conditioned building out into the steamy sunshine of Maryland in June. Thea sneezed. She always did after moving from manmade light into God’s blinding light. Ryan usually snickered and blessed her, but today he said nothing, just kept marching toward their house. Their home of the last four years that they’d hoped to raise their child in.

  The idea of being locked in the confines of the brick walls for an extended amount of time made her want to bolt. Now that she’d finally gained the energy to leave their bed, she didn’t want to remain in the home where she’d already started shifting furniture in the second bedroom to make room for a crib.

  “Ryan,” she said, looking over at her beloved husband. “I’m sorry.”

  He didn’t respond. His resolute profile remained locked, staring straight ahead.

  For the first time since going to the press, doubt crept into her belly, causing an uncomfortable lurch t
hat threatened to come up her esophagus. “I am sorry, I swear.”

  Finally, he slowed his gait and looked down at her. “Are you? Or are you sorry you were caught?”

  Ouch. Okay, she probably deserved that. By going to the press, she’d betrayed not only her husband, but his team and everything he’d spent his whole life working toward. But she’d had her reasons, if only he’d give her a chance. She could explain. An unfamiliar lump formed in her throat and tears welled in her eyes. If only she could go back a few days and talk to Ryan before talking to the press. But she’d been sad, so sad, and Ryan had treated her as if she were made of porcelain, too scared to talk about their loss.

  Would she go back if given the choice? If she could reverse time, surely she’d go back five weeks to the day she miscarried and do something different. Stay in bed with her legs elevated or remember to take her prenatal vitamin, maybe. But that was crazy thinking. The doctors had assured her it was nothing she’d done. Her body had simply seen the genetically enhanced baby as a virus and expunged it. No, not it. Her. It had been a girl. Against Ryan’s concerns, she’d begged to know the gender of their dead child.

  “What are you going to do to me? Feed me bread and water? Lock me up? Beat me?” she asked as they stepped into their tiny two-bedroom house on the compound.

  He turned with a look she’d only seen once before on his face, the day she’d finally agreed to marry him after leading him on a merry one-year chase.

  Desperation and dominance. A scary combination.

  “Don’t tempt me. I’ve never hit a woman, and I certainly won’t start with you.” The small foyer’s creamy yellow walls seemed to squeeze in on her husband’s wide shoulders.

  She released a breath. She hadn’t truly believed Ryan would ever lay a hand on her in anger, but she’d pushed him to the edge of control. Given that he was a genetically enhanced soldier, he’d probably kill her if he ever lost his physical temper with her.

  Ryan stalked away from her, and then spun to face her. “They all laugh at me, Thea. My friends. They think I’m a wuss and let you wear the pants in the family. And I’ve been able to shrug it off, because I know how it is between us. You like to think you’re in charge and I’ve been content to let the illusion stand, because where it counts we have an equal partnership.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but shut it after his eyes glinted dangerously.

  “But I’m done.”

  She nearly vomited. What did he mean done? Was he done with her? She’d never be done with him. It would kill her if he left her. She’d known it was a possibility when she’d told a reporter all about her life in the Program, America’s top-secret military compound for breeding enhanced soldiers, but she’d been in a grief-fueled rage, uncaring about anything other than her own agenda. With a few weeks’ distance, she owned her mistakes and alienating her husband had been the biggest one.

  “I’m done letting you have the power in the relationship. From now on I decide.” His palm slammed the wall, missing a wood-framed wedding portrait by inches.

  She stared at him, not sure how to handle this. Ryan had always left decisions up to her. Whenever she asked his opinion about movies or dinner, he shrugged and told her it was her choice. So she’d stopped asking. “I knew you wanted pizza last night. Why didn’t you say something? I didn’t need Chinese takeout that badly,” she burst out, unable to keep silent. It went against her nature to not talk.

  “You think I care about dinner last night?” he asked with narrowed eyes. “Jesus, Thea. I don’t give a shit about food. You can eat shrimp lo mein every night of the week for all I care.”

  “Then what…”

  “I was talking about sex, and our careers and our living situation, but mostly about sex, dammit.”

  Oh.

  “When we were first matched, I was so happy to be done playing games. No more lying to strange women about my job or excuses of why I could never stay the night or invite them to my place. I was happy to have a woman who knew what I was and where I worked. But no, you had me panting after you for a year, sneaking into my apartment at night, like I was your dirty little secret.”

  “Everyone knew we were a match,” she protested. “It was hardly a secret.”

  “And yet you kept me craving you, chasing you, doling out your favors when you decided you wanted sex. I thought things would be different when we married, but nothing’s changed. I’m still never sure where I stand with you.”

  “What are you saying? You’re going to take me whether I want you or not. That’s rape.” The look on his face actually had her stepping back and mentally measuring the short distance to the door.

  “Screw you, Thea.”

  She tossed her head with a carelessness that was at total odds with her actual emotions. “What then?”

  There was a long pause. She bit her lip, waiting for his sentencing. “I’m using the only option open to me. You’re going to have to beg, Thea.”

  She swallowed.

  “Turn around.”

  She stared at him a beat before obeying. In a deft move, reiterating he was a highly trained special ops warrior, he slid plastic zip ties around her wrists, binding them behind her back. Not tight enough to hurt, but enough that her breasts were thrust forward by her arm position.

  “Thea Lopez…” His husky whisper tickled her ear. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you.”

  A wild laugh looked as though it were about to bubble out of her plump lips, but he glared at her, trying to convey he meant business. She’d gone too far and he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to fully trust her again. God knew all his friends and colleagues viewed her with suspicion and hostility.

  He was in the awkward position of protecting her, when he really wanted to lash out at her also. How could she have betrayed him like this? But then he looked at her. Really looked at her and saw what no one else bothered to see. They saw the bold, daring woman. He saw through the façade to the woman who needed to prove herself, who challenged herself to always win.

  “Walk to the bed,” he said. He held his breath, sure he’d have to carry her to the bed, but she surprised him by toeing off her shoes and walking into the bedroom. He stepped to the kitchen and grabbed what he needed and then made his way to the bedroom.

  When he entered, she was facing the doorway, the backs of her thighs inches away from the bed. Without a word, he stalked to her and cut her blouse off, straight down the middle with the kitchen shears he’d grabbed. Her bra went next.

  He cut carefully and specifically so the clothes fell off her body, not getting caught on her bound wrists.

  He didn’t dare look her in the eye while he was cutting, but when he was finished and she stood topless in front of him, he chanced a glance to see how she was handling it.

  Fire practically danced in her eyes. Still defiant, thank goodness. If there’d been tears, if she’d broken too soon, he didn’t know what he would’ve done. Broken too, most likely. But he couldn’t. He owed it to his wife, their marriage, to give Thea what she needed, what she deserved. She deserved a strong man to love her, but one who would push back when she went too far. And going to the press to spill his secrets was miles outside of far.

  He reached to unhook the metal loop on her narrow charcoal pants and pushed them off her hips, taking her panties with them. “Sit,” he ordered.

  When she was perched on the bed, he knelt and pulled each pant leg off, taking a minute to caress her ankles and arches of her feet.

  She raised an eyebrow but remained silent. He took a breath. His wife was handcuffed and naked on their bed. He’d fantasized about this since the day he’d met Thea four years ago. His cock woke up and made its presence felt.

  “Scoot back,” he said and waited until her back rested against the royal-blue nest of pillows. Her legs crossed at the ankles. He’d remedy that. With a quick turn, he headed to the closet and pulled out a box he’d bought long ago, b
ut never thought he’d have the opportunity to use. He dug through it to unwrap the black restraints, which strapped easily to the bed. He left the nipple clamps and butt plug. For now.

  “What is that?”

  He was pleased there was a slight quaver in her voice. He was getting to her. Little Miss In-Charge was going to get a deserved dose of her own medicine.

  He stalked to the bed, tossing his booty on the mattress. Quickly he sliced through the plastic zip tie that held her wrists and replaced it with the softer black nylon restraint then secured it to the bed. He repeated the process on her other wrist. Her legs lashed out, but he dodged with speed, attesting to his athleticism. Thea could never best him physically and he’d never before used his superior strength and speed against her, but he was going to need every advantage to deal with his hotheaded wife.

  He held her ankle still and waited until she’d settled down. No matter how mad she was, he’d never do anything to her body without consent. “Ready? I’m going to do your ankles now.” The silence in the room was tangible and heavy as they both waited for her answer. Finally, she nodded and relaxed her leg, allowing him to tug it to the corner of the bed. He didn’t have to ask for the other leg. She stretched it to the opposite corner.

  “What will you do to me?” she asked.

  He leaned over her belly to lick a path from her navel to one nipple. He bit gently. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

  “I had no idea you were into bondage.”

  “I never was before. You make me want to dominate you. You’re the first woman to present a challenge.” And he was pissed as hell at her. It was going to take all his self-control not to lash out in anger. It was about the sex, he reminded himself. Sex and domination. And maybe a lot of punishment.

  “How long have you had that little box of surprises hidden in your closet?” Thea asked.

  He shrugged. “A few months. I’d planned on surprising you, but…” He didn’t want to mention the elephant in the room quite yet. He’d never tied her up or dominated her because she’d been pregnant. He’d worried it could harm the baby. Joke was on him, because he’d treated her as if she were made of glass for the too-short four months of her pregnancy.