Unleashed: Declan & Kara (Unleashed #1-4; Beg for It #1) by Callie Harper Page B

always worked out
full-throttle, but that afternoon I had hell’s fire licking at my
heels. I worked the bag, taut muscles rippling as each fierce punch
landed.
    Why did I have so much
pent-up energy I could fuel a city grid? It didn’t make sense to be
so worked up. Kara was just a girl, like so many others. My fists
pounded the bag vicious, relentless.
    That pout when I’d
asked her why I should bail her out, her plump lips that I wanted to
bite. Those tits straining against her thin white t-shirt. The image
was burned into my brain, how round, how perfect they looked, thrust
out as if mine for the taking. But they had never really been mine
for the taking.
    I remembered how she’d
stood in front of my desk as my eyes had roamed the length of her
body. She’d stood still for me, letting me take her all in,
allowing my fantasies to play out over her curves and planes. When
I’d looked at her breasts, picturing exactly what I’d like to do,
teasing, sucking, licking, biting, her nipples had hardened. As if
she knew exactly what I was thinking and she liked it, wanted it,
maybe even needed it the way I did. So responsive, like she’d been
made for me.
    I couldn’t think at
all after she’d left. I’d paced my office like a caged wild
animal, made it through a few calls, then cancelled everything that
afternoon and hit the gym. For my second workout of the day. I gave
my punches my full body weight, pounding the bag with a series of
furious hits.
    I’d underestimated
the power of seeing Kara again. I’d told myself it wasn’t a big
deal. By the numbers, she was simply one of many girls I’d known. I
honestly figured by now she’d be married and maybe even pregnant
with some other guy’s kid. Not standing there looking hotter than
ever, defiant and strong yet also more vulnerable than I’d ever
seen her before. Needing me.
    But I didn’t do
emotions. I was always in control, stone cold, in command. I was damn
good at it, too, in all aspects of my life, personal and
professional. My ruthlessness served me well in business. And in the
bedroom, it made things simple when you never let emotions interfere.
I was always clear with any sub: what we engaged in was pure, raw,
paint-peeling sex. And nothing else. It didn’t dampen any of their
enthusiasm. It even made some of them enjoy it more, abandoning all
of their inhibitions to walk on the wild side.
    Panting, I paused to
take a swift chug from a gallon water jug. I wiped my forehead with a
towel, then stood with it dangling from my hand on my hip. Across the
room the new girl at the front desk was just about falling out of her
chair watching me. She was eye-candy, put up there near the entrance
in a short skirt and tight top to draw guys into the gym. It worked.
She was hot. I couldn’t remember her name. I gave her a nod and she
practically lit up like a Christmas tree.
    I looked away. I wasn’t
interested. I moved over to the speedbag. I needed to keep at it,
make the sweat pour off of me, punch something senseless if I had any
hope of clearing my head.
    Who ever thought I’d
be in this position now, Daddy Warbucks to Kara Brooks? The spoiled,
precious daughter of the ranch owner living high up on the hill. Out
the window of the spartan, one-room cabin where I’d spent my
summers, I could see it. To me, it had looked like a mansion.
Sometimes a light would twinkle down from her bedroom, letting me
know that the princess in her tower was still awake.
    When I’d come to work
for her dad, I’d been a lean, rangy mutt. Aged out of foster care,
already with a criminal record, I’d been bouncing around between
odd jobs, drifting through life. Some days, I hadn’t always had
enough to eat.
    Kara had seemed like a
luscious dream. Man, the way she used to look at me. I swore under my
breath. Blonde and blue-eyed, sweet and innocent, Kara saw moonbeams
in the air and rainbows in the sky. And when she looked at me, it was
all stars in her eyes.
    Her dad