Excerpt:

Sage focused her attention on the man before her and calmed her mind so she wouldn’t be caught by surprise.

Keeping her gaze trained on Chase, she mirrored his actions as he slowly circled her. The other four had stepped back a few paces each, creating a small, tight ring around them.

They continued to circle each other. Sage figured Chase would lose patience in a second—usually men started out using their brute strength, arrogantly assuming they could overpower her in one quick swoop.

Watching his body carefully, she tried not to admire the way his chest filled out his dark button-down shirt, or the way his hips gave way to long, leanly muscled legs. As those legs jerked minutely, the muscles bunching, she realized he was about to rush her.

Stepping back as he sprang forward, Sage let her mind go blank and her training and instincts take over. In one graceful, fluid motion she had practiced a million times, she turned, changed Chase’s center of gravity and tipped him over onto the ground.

Retaining her footing, even if she did wobble on her high heels, Sage quickly pinned Chase with her small body. They struggled silently, their breaths coming faster. With their faces only a few inches apart, Sage easily read the furious look Chase threw over his shoulder.

Sage knew Chase would make his next effort a lot more difficult for her. Still, she was quietly confident she could match him step for step.

Unwilling to relinquish her advantage, Sage strained to keep him pinned. Straddling Chase’s waist, she discovered with a breathless little laugh she actually was enjoying herself. Sage had never been one to back down from a challenge, but as she had quite a reputation for excellence amongst the Enforcers, she hadn’t needed to prove herself since her days as a fresh-faced trainee.

This was rather fun.

Her focus must have dipped because Chase, with the innate sense only a real fighter has, noticed and capitalized on it. In a swift, strong movement he almost succeeded in flipping himself—and her with him—over.

Instead, he managed to push her off him enough to turn himself onto his back. With a grunt and flexing of her thigh muscles, Sage continued to pin him after nearly losing her balance, but only barely. Now they were lying face-to-face on the grass, and Sage was startled to feel her pussy heat as she pressed herself into Chase’s thick erection.

Flush against each other, Sage straddling Chase’s hips, it was impossible for either of them to miss the way his hard cock was jutting against her inner thigh.

Sage’s eyes widened as heat seeped into her skin. Chase bucked and the intimate gesture mimicked the way he would thrust his cock deeply into her pussy. Sage couldn’t help but let her mind fly to a far more intimate embrace they could be sharing in this situation.

Their gazes met and locked. Sage lost her breath as she fell into bottomless pools of dark chocolate. Chase shifted, aligning them better and, had they been naked, he would have slipped directly inside her, wet as she had become.

Chase lifted his hips and Sage struggled against him, pinning him down. Locks of her long blonde hair fell over her face and brushed his jaw and neck. His eyes widened with surprise, heat flaring within them. Sage’s breath came faster and her heart beat furiously.

The scent of grass mingled in the air with the faint scent of his cologne. Sage felt her desire growing as they bucked with intense intimacy against each other. What had started as a struggle to prove her skills had quickly turned into a far more sensual tug-of-war. Annoyance had morphed to passion. The spark ignited between them, its intensity almost took Sage’s breath away.

She wanted him to rip her tiny thong off so she could undo his pants, take him in her hand and press his thick length deeply inside her pussy. Wet and clenching as she was, it would be a simple matter to lift herself, spread her legs just a few inches wider and—

“You owe me twenty bucks,” Matthias’ smugly pleased tone snapped her attention back to exactly where she lay. Sage looked up at her teammate and for the first time all evening was glad they were in the shadows. A blush crept over her pale skin, heating her cheeks.

Chase cleared his throat softly and her gaze snapped back down to meet his. A sly grin twitched at the corner of his mouth. The man was not only cocky, but cheeky too.

“I wasn’t expecting it either,” he said.