by C. M. Steele
Caught Breaking the Law
Book Five in the Caught Series
C.M. Steele
Copyrighted © 2016 C.M. Steele
All rights reserved. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN-13: 978-1537475387
ISBN-10: 153747538X
Cover: C.M. Steele and SK Designs
CJC Photography
www.cjc-photography.com
Models:
BT Urruela
Rachael Baltes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Chapter 1
“I’m investigating the death of Veronica Mason,” I said, showing my private investigator’s badge to the receptionist at the District Attorney’s office in Phoenix, Arizona. My friend asked for a favor, and well, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for a buddy of mine. Trent was a good, hardworking man and he needed me to do him a solid, so I said yes without hesitation. Besides, it was cold back home. Here the weather was sweet.
“I’m sorry, sir, but the DA is presently out to lunch with his intern,” she replied with a smile. I bet he was. I twisted my lips thinking he was probably a fucking sleaze ball. Hell, with what I found out took a couple of days, he had a fucking decade to figure it out but was too busy to deal with it apparently. “But if you like, I can schedule an appointment with them sometime this week.” She started looking down at a large planner. Typical bullshit. Something I didn’t have time for.
I immediately placed my hand over the planner, stopping her in her tracks. “I don’t have time for that. I have to be back in Seattle soon.” My tone wasn’t harsh or anything intimidating, but she got my point. I heard the ping of the elevator behind me and the snooty receptionist look up.
“I’ll see…oh, they just walked in.” She stood up and looked around me. I followed her gaze and fell in love on the fucking spot. Before me was a voluptuous brunette with a DA who was standing a little too close to her. I let out a low growl that I don’t think she heard, but her eyes smiled up at us. She was going to be mine. I had to bide my time until the Mason case was dealt with, but as far as I was concerned, she was my woman.
“Sir. This gentleman wants to look into the case that Lily Mason keeps calling about.” So Trent’s woman was trying to get real answers, but that was what Trent asked me to do. It was time for the professional to make things happen, and I was that guy. I had this all wrapped up and ready to gift the DA. I hoped as a reward the beauty would just fall into my lap.
“Really?” He scrunched his eyebrows at me with a suspicious gaze, then addressed me, “Give me a few minutes, we’ll take a look into it together.”
“Miranda, can you set up conference room B?” he asked my woman. I didn’t like him calling her by name.
“Yes, sir,” Miranda said, walking past me and down the hall. Tilting my head, I watched her walk away from behind. Fuck, her ass was round as hell. I wondered if she spent time in the gym or if she was naturally hot. I’d learn one way or another. Too busy ogling her curves, I forgot to scope out her ring finger. Damn it.
I heard a cough behind me. Oops, I’d forgotten the DA was standing there and that he could be hitting it. “She’s not available to you. You’re lucky I want this case solved sometime before I retire,” he grumbled at me.
“Yeah, well you looked awfully close to your intern,” I challenged, my jealousy showing.
I heard a giggle coming from the receptionist that stopped short with a glare from the DA. Then the old pervert responded, “She’s my daughter.”
I pursed my lips in a ‘oops, my bad,’ kind of way, then I apologized, “I’m sorry. It was wrong of me.” I didn’t tell him that I was leaving her be because that wasn’t going to happen, but I needed to get the case handled so I had to be on my best behavior. Normally, I wouldn’t have done a double take on any woman, but something in Miranda’s smile hit me straight in the chest.
“The conference room is ready,” Miranda said, walking into the reception area. “I pulled the file and set it up for you.” She also handed him another file and his glasses. He was lucky that she was his daughter because I wanted to be taken care of like that and it irked me that she was catering to him.
I followed behind them, hoping to get another glimpse of her ass. The damn DA was blocking my view. I tried to get my shit together. It would be okay; I would manage to control my lust. I was going to find a way to get her alone and in my arms.
“So Mr. Wyatt, what’s your role in this?”
“I was hired by Lilly Mason’s fiancé to look into the matter. He doesn’t like that she’s still living with the uncertainty and that she probably lived with her mother’s killer all these years.”
“Are you saying you believe her father had something to do with it?”
“I know he did.” I opened my satchel and tossed the case folder across the table, before turning to give Miranda a wink. DA Everett Russell opened the file and his eyes popped open in surprise. “This is information you couldn’t get without a warrant, but it’s all the proof you need to focus on him as the prime suspect.”
“We can’t use this in court,” he reminded me, sliding the file back toward me, but I just slid it back.
“No shit. I’m just telling you so you could go after Mason. Just so you know, he’s believed to have something to do with the explosion that happened at his house up north in Lake Oswego. Lily was the only one in the house at the time.” Miranda gasped, with her hand on her mouth. I reached over and patted her other hand. “Don’t worry, she wasn’t seriously injured,” I responded with a smile.
“So tell me, Mr. Wyatt. How did you get this information?” he interrupted, giving me that stare that he bestowed on me since I eyed his daughter.
“I looked,” I replied coldly. “Something your people didn’t even bother to do. All searches stopped at his bank records. If you all had dug deeper than you would have found this back in the day.”
“After his financials were cleared we didn’t think we had to dig into his company records,” he justified, clearly unhappy with their lack of conviction on the husband.
“Well, now you have it. I want this solved because there are other things I have to work on,” I said, giving Miranda another wink.
“Thanks for your time and this information. We’ll look into both this Jerry Kroll and Mason.”
“I’ll be following up with you.” I stood up and shook his hand and then reached for hers. Once she gave it to me I kissed it. My eyes made contact with hers briefly and I saw the attraction. We could burn down the building with the molten energy passing between us. If her fucking father wasn’t coughing again, I’d close the distance and pull her close enough to kiss her.
Leaving the office, I had lots of regrets. I wanted to go back in there and take her back to my hotel. I reminded myself that I was trying to help those who needed me. I couldn’t be selfish.
Going back to my hotel, I thought about how I was going to win the smart, up-and-coming lawyer. I thought about her all night,
even though I shouldn’t have. Trent was counting on me to find out the truth. I closed my eyes and with everything I had in me I pushed Miranda from my thoughts. I came up with my plan in a matter of a minute. First thing in the morning, I was going to visit Jerry. Now, I could go back to thinking about my Miranda. Damn that ass. A cold shower was calling my name, but something about her squashed that idea and I took my cock in hand, then slept like a baby.
Chapter 2
Holy shit. Six five and full of muscles. I was left breathless when Duke turned his eyes to me. I’d just been laughing at something my father said when I caught sight of him out of the corner of my eye. He stood there strong and tall as hell. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a light gray dress shirt. The sleeves rolled up just enough to give a girl a peek at those muscled forearms with just the right amount of hair to emphasize the man in him. My eyes involuntarily looked down to see how the jeans worked the front, but I caught myself and looked at my dad to break the spell. For the first time, something in my chest jumped. I was going to say it was my belly, but knew after a few minutes what it was—my heart. It was pounding and pumping blood like a raging river.
When my dad asked me to set up the conference room, I wanted to hug him. I needed to gain some distance from Mr. Wyatt. I took longer than usual to prep the conference room, despite it already to being cleaned earlier today and I knew where the file had been kept. Ms. Mason had been contacting us often. I hoped my father wouldn’t catch on. He would send Duke away no matter how valuable his information would be. My dad was like that. No man was really allowed to speak with me over the years. If any showed the slight bit of interest, he’d find a way to send them off. It was for my own good he said. Boys were trouble and would ruin everything he had planned for my future.
There were only a couple of times that I minded his interference. Once when my date for senior prom brought me back by nine o’clock because my dad threatened him and his father and now with Duke. I saw the look he gave Duke from the start. He was like that my entire life. By the time I was twenty-one, I gave up on dating until I finished law school. I was in my last semester before graduation and sitting for the bar exam. I had no doubt that I’d ace it since I’d been groomed to be a lawyer since I could talk. Now I had few months before the end and all I could think about was that I wanted to kiss Duke Wyatt on his chiseled, scruffy face.
I barely made the sentence out that everything was set up. My heart was still doing a marathon in my chest, my stomach became a freaking gold medal Olympic gymnast. Throughout our entire meeting I was trying to keep myself in check. I didn’t know how I pulled it off, but I did. I thought my dad wasn’t one to me, however, the moment Duke walked out of the building he let me hear an earful.
“Miranda Jane Russell, you will do well to remember that this isn’t a bar. You’re up for a paid internship after graduation and you’re going to blow it over some lowlife PI? That man is just another man looking for a hot, young girl. You need to focus. He was probably flirting with Ashleigh before we walked in,” he scolded me like a child. When it came to men, he acted like I had no mind of my own.
“I’m not going after some lowlife. You’ve already taught me dating was a waste of my time. Excuse me, I have to make some calls. Unless you’d like me to assist with this case,” I said coldly, trying not to flip out.
“No. I’ll give it to Peters. He can handle dealing with Mr. Wyatt.” He walked away from me grumbling, “Women and their hormones.”
I wanted to scream at him that I could handle it just fine, but I knew that it was bullshit. The fact that I wanted to scream was a dead giveaway. I was never disrespectful or emotional with him. He’d know I was too involved and that I was completely undone just from a simple meeting.
~~~~~
The next few days brought Duke back into the office. His excuse was that he was checking on the case because he needed answers. Yet the only thing he did when my father wasn’t around was flirt with me. I loved it as much as I hated it. He was the hottest man alive and he knew it.
Each day he would wear a pair of jeans that hugged the roundness of his perfect ass, but they weren’t that skinny jean fad. No, they were a man’s jean. He wore a collared shirt, but there was something different about the way the shirts melded to his form. It fit him just right. Today it was a navy blue color and it made the color of his eyes pop even more.
“Have dinner with me,” he said. It wasn’t like a question, but he was ready to beg. He leaned on his elbows, trying to get my attention.
“No,” I said for the tenth time, not looking up from the reception desk where I was looking at the schedule and making some adjustments while Ashleigh was out sick.
“Why not?” he asked. I looked up at just as he gave me that a puppy dog stare that I was sure made women drop their panties.
“Because I don’t date people I work with and you’re just that, someone I work with.”
“Since your people haven’t done shit with the information I gave them and they’re not footing my bill, I don’t consider us working together.”
“Look. Mr. Wyatt, you’re cute and all, but I’m just not interested in a relationship.”
“I never said we had to have a relationship. Maybe we could just…” I cut him off with my hand in his face.
“Stop right there. Quit your pursuit and move along. I really don’t have time for someone like you.” I left him standing in the reception area and walked into my temporary office, slamming the door behind me. I tried to hold it together. I wanted to cry on the spot. What had he done to me? He only wanted to have sex with me. I thought that for sure after three days of flirting it was more than just sex, but I was so freaking wrong.
The instant I got home, I let the tears out. I yelled at myself for being so pathetic then I washed my face. Looking in the mirror, I realized that I was bigger than this. I could get passed Duke and live a normal life without a man like him. Not wanting to eat, I decided to go to sleep.
My phone rang just as my body hit the sheets. “Hello?”
“Hey sweetheart. I just wanted to let you know that your mother and I decided to go to Aspen for Christmas. You’re more than welcome to join us,” my dad said, inviting me to appease my mom.
“No. I don’t want to go to Aspen again. I’ll just do something else over the break.”
“Stay away from that Wyatt guy. He’s no good for you,” he warned me off. We learned that Duke was more than he pretended to be. Everything about him was honorable in my opinion. Well, almost honorable. I was just a piece of ass to him. “It doesn’t matter about his service record in the military or his number of medals. He and you aren’t fit to be together.” I was fuming. Every word he said only made me more determined to try and seduce him. I wanted to try despite my fears and misgivings.
~~~~~
The next day I was on a flight to Washington with Duke. What possessed me to agree? I think it was that third argument with my father before Duke showed up at the office. “So what made you change your mind? Mad at your dad? Looking for revenge?” he asked jokingly. It really was the reason, but I didn’t want him to know that.
“Look, my parents are away on a trip to Aspen. It’s nice and all, but we’ve been there five years in a row.”
“Yes, but you already made it clear that you don’t want to be with me,” he reminded me leaning toward me with an arched brow, questioning my motives.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to go on a trip. I like spending time with you, but I’m not going to date you,” I told him. It was what I told him when I accepted his offer. He balked when I said I’d go, knowing I hadn’t even agreed to have dinner with him.
“We’ll see, doll,” he said overconfidently. He sat back like he was a king on his throne. All bravado and confidence beaming from his movements. Hell he even had the nerve to close his eyes with a satisfied grin.
“Don’t call me that.” I didn’t want to blush. Hearing that from him did a lot to my womanly
bits and I wouldn’t let him break me, no matter how hard it was to resist.
“Why, is it sexist?” He asked, a smile still on his face
“No, it’s because that’s for people who are together and we aren’t.”
Turning to me he winked. “Whatever you say, Miss Russell.” Then he proceeded with his relax pose, like he didn’t just fuck up my world. I’m gonna have to toss these panties once I get there. They were ruined. Fucking asshole. I just might have to go commando the rest of the trip.
Chapter 3
We’d just arrived at my friend’s home in Lake Oswego to celebrate together. It was going to be the longest vacation ever if I didn’t get Miranda to see that she was mine. I knew it backfired on me when I told her I just wanted sex from her, but I didn’t know how to fix it. It was like those chicks who get mad at their guys and say the kid isn’t theirs. Her trust in my intentions was gone. I had to win her back one way or another. Within the hour, I knew I was in for a hell of a time. For a guy who had no friends in town, Trent invited a whole shit load of cocks to his house for Christmas. Many of the guys were single friends who he played poker with on occasion and every one else was a friend of a friend. There was going to be too many dicks in the place for my liking. Miranda would catch every single one of their attentions; I was sure of it. Thankfully they wouldn’t be there the entire two weeks. I tried to hide my jealousy but that shit was hard to hide, so I flirted with Miranda even more.
Trent put us up in two rooms because I couldn’t lie next to her and not want to be inside of her. There was no way I could manage that shit. Nope. No way in hell. I didn’t think I could handle being just down the hall either, but it was for the best. Once she was ready for me then I’d come running and fucking her until she couldn’t take anymore.
“Wow, your friend has a nice place,” she said looking around the library. Her hand ran across the book spines on the shelves. Her eyes widened. Once we had a house I would build her a kickass library like this one.