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

No more hesitant yet tantalizing give-and-take. No more of the sweet anticipation that wasn’t waiting for a bullet to pierce his heart.
    “What?”
    “This.” He waved a hand at the dinner table, then his clothes. “And these?”
    “Just bored.”
    They locked gazes like a dare. Neither looked away for so long that Evan realized he was holding his breath.
    This is bullshit.
    “Eat a strawberry,” he said, with real authority in his voice.
    If she obeyed, if he got to watch those luscious lips wrap around a ripe strawberry… Yeah, the command wasn’t for Katsu. It was to redirect his need for control and his raging libido.
    Maybe she knew that. Katsu picked up the largest berry from the top layer of fruit. She still hadn’t backed down with her gaze. Dark eyes, dark lashes, dark intent. Her golden complexion flushed. Her lips parted, revealing those quirkily sexy front teeth and the merest hint of a smile, hewn of pure seductive power as old as Eve. She bit down. Juice trailed from one corner of her mouth. She caught it with her tongue.
    Another bite. Another crack of lust. Evan had thought these were his comfortable jeans, but he was getting hard at a record pace. The denim felt as tight as his aching lungs.
    “All gone,” she said with a slight smack of her lips. He could watch her mouth for the rest of time. “Anything else? Otherwise I’m finished.” She stood without waiting for his answer and headed back to the study.
    Evan remained seated, dazed. He saw his fists on the table as if they belonged to another man. He couldn’t move. He sure as fuck couldn’t eat, even if she’d put obvious effort into making dinner—no matter the reasons, to torture or to please.
    His cell phone rang.
    He jerked to life. He was still a jumbled knot, but he didn’t have friends who called casually. He’d blocked his parents’ numbers. The only people who called Evan were fellow operatives.
    “Sommers,” he answered.
    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kat poke her head out from the study. The desire and even the defiance in her eyes had dissolved away, replaced by one obvious question. What? What? What?
    “I understand,” he said by rote in reply to Dr. Bascombe. “Yes, she’s here. I’ll tell her.”
    He ended the call and slowly set the phone on the kitchen counter. Then he walked stiffly to the suede sectional she’d never shared with him. “Katsu, come here.”
    She did in an instant. He didn’t flatter himself this time that her obedience had anything to do with him. She wanted news and news alone. Stiffly, she sat by his side and folded her hands in her lap as she had the other night, awaiting his next words. “Dad?”
    “Yeah.”
    A swallow contorted the lovely line of her throat. “Tell me?”
    “Dr. Bascombe has induced a coma.”
    She whirled to face him. “He said a coma was unpredictable. Why would he do that?”
    “Yeah, they’re unpredictable, but there are also sound medical reasons for simulating them during recovery. The results of the third surgery haven’t gone as well as they’d hoped. Nicky needs time to shut down and heal. After that, they’ll bring him out. No problem.”
    Shaking so badly that Evan could feel it jitter through the couch cushions, she pressed unsteady fingertips to her temples. This from the young woman who admitted she had no one to hold her when things got bad.
    This was nearly rock bottom.
    Evan didn’t think. He just did.
    He pulled her into his lap and tucked her head beneath his chin. She offered no protest, only curled all four limbs into his embrace. Her face nestled at the bare base of his throat. She was so small, folded close like that. He felt powerful and helpless at the same time, especially when she began to weep. He would hold her all night if need be, right there on the couch, but Evan knew he wouldn’t catch a wink.
    “No problem?” she repeated hoarsely. “Can the doctor promise that? Can you?”
    Only when he grounded himself in the