At His Command Read Online Free Page A

eyes flared at her terse tone. “Just assign someone else.”
    “I can’t!” She clenched her fists, her outburst startling even her.
    “Yes, you can. You just want to strong-arm me. It’s always about your precious control. Well, I’m on this case, so get used to it.”
    It certainly had everything to do with control now. She’d given up her control to him six years ago. Fallen into such passion and heat, she’d barely been able to remember her name. Now standing so close to him, she felt the same damn pull, so overwhelming, so uncontrollable. He looked like the jets he used to fly: sleek, fast and dangerous.
    He smelled way too good, musky and male, a combination as potent as a stiff belt of whiskey straight into the bloodstream. But she couldn’t back up now and show any weakness. Chris would know he had the upper hand and that wouldn’t be a good thing.
    She laid it out bluntly, not seeing any reason to sugarcoat anything. “You’re being stubborn because of what happened in our past. Is this payback, Chris?”
    His face hardened. “Either do your job or pass it on to someone else, Commander Soto.”
    He hadn’t taken the bait, and Sia realized she wasn’t going to make him angry enough to walk away from the investigation. “I intend to do my job. Just without you involved.”
    He laughed then, without mirth. “It would be in your best interest to let someone else handle it.”
    She stiffened at his chiding tone. “You’re alluding to the investigation into Master Chief Steven Walker’s death?”
    He folded his arms across his chest, the movement tightening up his chest muscles and arms, pulling the jacket away from the gun clipped to his waist. “The Navy doesn’t just casually investigate someone. You’re the one who is under scrutiny.”
    “At the time I handled the investigation, I did it as thoroughly and diligently as I normally do.” But in the back of her mind doubts assailed her. What if she had been too distracted by past memories and the fresh mourning of her brother’s death? What if she had missed something?
    “Is that where you got those bruises? Why your arm is in a sling?”
    “Yes. Walker tried to kill me.”
    He shook his head. “Stupid man. What happened?”
    “He took a header over the sponson and died from the fall. They fished his body up just after he went over.”
    “Really, in that vast of an ocean late at night?”
    “He was wearing a life vest. A vest he denied me because I was supposed to be the one dead.”
    “Let me guess. They didn’t find any evidence you helped him over?”
    Weary from the day’s events, she walked to the conference table and settled into one of the chairs. “No, because I dodged his attempt to throw me over. My hands were tied. It’s the biggest indication the events happened exactly as I said they did. I didn’t tie my own hands or wrench my own shoulder or give myself this black eye. The investigation is really just routine and to close the loop.” She thrust out her good hand and showed him the bruises on her wrist.
    He walked over and set his backside on the conference table. Taking her hand gently in his, he studied the black-and-blue marks. “That may be true, but it’s the difference between us now. You have to follow the Navy’s rules. I don’t.”
    His hand was warm, his palm smooth. Her heart fluttering, she pulled her hand from his hold. “Surely in your job you’re required to follow rules.”
    He smiled. “When it suits me, but as a civilian investigator, I have a lot more leeway than you do.”
    The smile lighting up his eyes made her remember the potency he wielded with his irresistible charm, all the more reason not to work with him. The other big reason was he’d been directly responsible for her brother’s death and the destruction of her family.
    It was as if he’d been waiting for her to think that very thought. His eyes changed, got a little harder, a little darker. “I didn’t come here to dredge up