The walk through had taken most of the day.
The man liked to talk, and the subject had eased back to Dena and her date with him more than a few times. The man didn’t know when to let it go. True, if Steve had a sister as enticing as Dena Lindsay, he’d be overprotective as hell, but Simon talked about safety more than he taught it.
One thing Steve planned to do tonight was have a long talk about self-defense. Dena needed a few lessons and he was willing to teach her everything he knew. In more ways than one.
Damn woman was already under his skin after seeing her in action. She had good old fashioned chutzpah, and her brother refused to acknowledge it. Dena Lindsay was no shrinking violet. Not in the least.
Under the sweet, sexy persona lurked a strong woman with needs her family kept her from pursuing, and as much as they tried to keep her caged, the more she struggled to be free.
He could help her with those needs.
Hell, yeah, he could help her with his needs, too. She was every bit a woman and he knew how to treat her right. He’d told Simon it was a simple date, no fooling around, nothing serious. But if she opened the door for more, so be it.
Her brothers would have to accept the fact that she was a grown woman.
Pointing the truck toward the club, he turned his thoughts to his second job. He and a couple of buddies were building a BDSM club in the local boonies. Their closest competitor was on the other side of Dallas and beginning to feel its age.
The new place, aptly named Private Delights, was a reincarnated country club, but he doubted any of the prior members would recognize more than the physical address once the doors opened. They’d gutted the building and completely remodeled every inch of the place, even going so far as to extend and rebuild the façade.
He hadn’t been to the worksite in almost a week, staying busy with the security business while Derek Lyons, his partner at G&L Security, worked the remodel. The man had a talent for construction and Steve was looking forward to seeing the progress.
* * * *
Ethan Jenkins dropped onto his ass behind an abandoned gas station and Lloyd followed suit, both trying hard to catch their breath. Lloyd had been on lookout duty, but when the job went bad, he’d taken off instead of helping John and Bill out. He’d left all three to face the consequences and for that, Ethan would make him pay.
Not now, of course. They still needed Lloyd. As an attorney, he could get Bill and John out of jail, for one thing. And his hacking skill was important, too. He’d been helping himself and his friends to all kinds of sites online without shelling out money.
Ethan got back on his feet, wound too tight to sit, and paced the small area.
As soon as Lloyd got them into the brokerage accounts and opened a few juicy company folios, they’d be set. Rather, Ethan’d be set and to hell with his cronies. Once Jenkins had the stock codes and the insider info, he could make his move. Much easier to gamble on buying shares when you knew who was about to merge and who was splitting. Once money started flowing, Lloyd was dead.
Real time, he needed to hurt. Ethan moved in close to the honorable Lloyd Evans and gave him a swift kick in the kidneys. “What happened back there?” he asked his soon to be non-friend.
“Don’t have a clue. Didn’t see her come in,” Lloyd panted. “What the fuck.”
“And you didn’t see her car in the lot?”
“No. She came out of nowhere.” Lloyd pushed to his feet and leaned against a filthy wall, still breathing hard. “I swear I would’ve let you know if I saw her come in.”
Jenkins dusted off his pants. The black jacket he’d worn into the building came off fast, and he opened the trunk of his car. Among the junk in the back, he found a bowie knife and used it to shred the evidence, so to speak, while Lloyd watched.
Yeah, the guy was eyeing the blade with some serious fear in his face. About time some of his expensive education bled through his lame brain.
“Next time, don’t leave until we all do. Got it?”
“Of course. I just got scared. I’ve never done this before.”
Ethan nodded and pitched half the armful of black cloth into the weeds behind the old building and the rest scattered to the light breeze. “I’m counting on you, Lloyd. I need you to represent John and Bill. We need to get them out of jail. Don’t disappoint me.”
He left the other man rubbing his backside and hit a drive in burger place well across town. Making an impression on the waitress was an easy alibi if anyone tried to place him at Lindsay & Associates. From there, he went to the gym to sweat out some anger about the busted job and then home. Keeping everything cool meant making sure no one tied him to the morning’s activities.
Dinner with the family was expected, a crappy hour watching mom browbeat his wimp of a father. After that, he’d hit a few clubs, maybe pick up a hot chick to get rid of whatever lingering steam he had.
At least they’d managed to copy all the files. Without the passwords, getting into each account would be damn near impossible. Hard to bet on the stock market if you didn’t have a little insider info. Lloyd sure as shit better be working on them by now.
Either way, the man was on a short list for a grave marker.
* * * *
Damn, the place was looking better every day and might actually open on time, Steve thought as he parked in the front lot. If he worked fast, he just might have someone to share it with on opening night.
Simon’s baby sister was one helluva looker with a mind of her own and an attitude and a sweet little ass in need of a spanking. Getting out of Lindsay & Associates without a boner hadn’t been easy.
He went in the front door and took a look around the lower level. Construction crews were working on detail projects but there were no signs of Mark or Derek, at least on the lower level.
Once at the top of the main staircase, the sound of loud voices keyed him to the location of his partners. From the mixture of laugher and profanity, Derek was pissed about something and Mark was egging him on. Not surprising.
Derek Lyons was easy to provoke these days. Before his wife was killed in a car wreck, he’d been a hardcore Dom with an easy temperament outside the clubs. The last three years had been tough for all three of them. For Derek, because he’d lost the only love he’d ever known. For Steve and Mark, it meant watching a dear friend retreat into himself. Mark’s suggestion that they build their own BDSM club had seemed a godsend to Steve. He and Derek had formed G&L Security five years ago and the business was thriving, but outside of work, Derek was still isolated.
Mark Harrison was the entrepreneur of the group, born into an oil field heritage and money. Raised by a grandfather, he’d learned early to work hard and play harder. And he had a tendency to hit pay dirt on a regular schedule.
Derek was acting as general contractor for the new club while Mark handled all the general business decisions.
Steve and Mark hoped the new venue would push Derek to move past his loss. Hadn’t happened yet, but they had faith he’d move on with his life and find another woman to love.
Fun times ahead, once the place finally opened.
“What’d I miss?” Steve sailed into the room and flopped on the new sofa, waiting for the next explosion.
Mark settled on the matching chair. “Derek’s training the new staff submissive we hired.”
“Sweet job. Why all the yelling?” When Derek didn’t reply, Steve turned to Mark. More silence and a lifted brow.
So it was about Mary.
And he was no fucking counselor.
“She wouldn’t want you to be alone.” Fuck it, but Derek needed to get his shit together and Steve was damned tired of keeping his mouth closed.
Anger and pain poured out of his friend, and an unvoiced question. How do you know?
“She loved you. Mary never hid her feelings around us like she did on the floor. You were her husband and her lover and her Dom. We were her friends.”
Derek sagged into the other upholstered
chair and stretched his legs out into the open space between the furniture. “Where have you been all day?”
Okay. Better to change the subject than argue about a dead woman with the man who wouldn’t let go. “I worked a bid at Lindsay & Associates. One of us has to make some money.” He and Derek were the owners of G&L Security, business partners and best friends.
Derek leaned back and popped his neck before answering, and he still didn’t meet either’s gaze. “Forgot about that. How’d it go?”
“We’re in.”
“What, no squabbling about the cost?”
Good. A decent response along with a change of subject.
Mark spilled his two bits, even though he wasn’t part of their security business. “I remember Simon Lindsay from school. He was head of the debate team. Can’t imagine he just rolled over and took the first offer.”
“Helps when I show up in time to stop a robbery and rescue the little sister.” Yeah, he was gloating, but the altercation with the bad guys had gotten his blood pumping, and so had the meet and greet with the lady. Letting them stew on that little bit of information, he got up and looked around the room. “Where the hell did you put the fridge?”
Mark laughed. “The new cabinets were installed this morning. Open the one on the far left.”
“Damn, I keep forgetting you like to hide stuff. All this fancy ass furniture confuses me.” Steve pulled out a cold bottle of water and offered it to Derek while the other two laughed, then tossed it to him and grabbed another. Mark shook his head, so Steve closed the door and went back to his chair.
“Did you stage a break-in to get the contract?” Derek asked.
More laughs all around, then Steve told them the whole story. ”And the little sister is all mine.”
“Somehow I doubt Simon will allow you to drag his sister to a BDSM club, no matter how nice the facilities are,” Mark replied. “I know for a fact he’s as straight-laced as they come.”
“Yeah, maybe, but she’s a grown woman and makes her own decisions.”
“You’re delusional. She’s got three older brothers. Three overprotective older brothers. Give it up.”
They were right, but he didn’t give up easily.
A knock on the office door interrupted his retort, and Mark’s assistant, Mildred stepped inside.
“Mr. Harrison, the carpet is here.”
“Finally.” Mark stood and stretched. “We have work to do.”
“We’re not laying carpet, are we? Didn’t they bring people to do that?” Steve asked. Hell, all he knew about carpet was that it was something to walk on. He could build and wire a security system, or create internet barriers, or act as a human shield, dammit, but he didn’t do carpet.
“Don’t be a baby.” Mark shoved his shoulder. “We’re moving the already delivered furniture out of the way in each room, then putting it back.”
Derek opened the door and ushered them out. “A little exercise will be good for us, blow off a little tension.”
Mark laughed. “Still got that hard on?”
“What else did I miss?” Steve asked, following them down the hall.
* * * *
Dena shut off the faucet and turned on the jets, then sat on the side of the tub while steam and bubbles rose. There were a few bruises to catalog, and her wrist still hurt, but her heart was light.
Slipping into the hot water, she let the motion of the bubbles ease her mind while the jets soothed her sore muscles and she decided what to wear to dinner. She’d already called her friends to cancel the bar hop. They’d been sympathetic about her attack and awed at the description of the hot and handsome Steve Gladston.
She’d wanted an adventure, and now she’d have her own personal white knight.
Steve had all the makings of a great lover. Instead of a playful pretty-boy face and a trust fund, he had ruggedly handsome features and a sensual intensity that made her knees weak. From what she recalled of when he held her, there were muscles under those nice clothes he wore, and not the kind from a gym. His came from physical labor and were used for more than primping for women.
He was a flirt, too.
And good at it.
The dark hair made his blue eyes sparkle. A hint of a smile, like he knew a secret and wanted to share it with her, made her giddy.
The fact that he was friends with her brothers was an added perk. If they could back off enough for her to date Steve, she could convince them to stay out of her life after their little affair ended.
And it would. She had no illusions. Commitment had nothing to do with this date for either of them. Steve Gladston wasn’t the marrying kind, and she didn’t expect him to change for her. He was the wild fling, the man who taught her about sex and decadence. He was her affair to remember when she was an old woman.
She said that word out loud, affair, listened to it echo in the tiled room, and laughed. At twenty-five, she’d yet to have a long term relationship, largely because her brothers interfered constantly. Sex, yes. But not anything memorable, since one of her brothers managed to alienate the boyfriend and ended up in the guy’s face. She couldn’t prove it, but she thought they drew straws to see whose turn it was to harass the man she was dating.
Hunky Steve Gladston wouldn’t put up with it and didn’t look the type to back off from a fight, even with one of her brothers. He had too much pride to back off. Her brothers, especially Simon, wouldn’t be able to stop her from dating him.
When the water cooled, Dena pulled the plug and wrapped a bath sheet around her body. The aches had eased and her wrist barely hurt when she moved it. She stepped into the custom closet she’d had installed and paged through her dresses.
Something sexy but not overly provocative would do. Most of what she had looked more like business attire and she had no desire to look like she was on a job interview.
When her hand landed on the dark blue sheath she’d bought last fall, she stopped.
Perfect.
It clung to her body in all the right places and the scooped neckline would highlight her attributes. They weren’t huge, but decently proportioned and all she had.
Dammit. She was acting like a giddy schoolgirl before prom.
Exchanging the bath sheet for a robe, she went into the kitchen and opened a can of soup. She’d skipped lunch in favor of talking to the police a second time, and then her friends, before she left the office.
Simon had insisted she spend the next three days recovering from her ordeal, treating her like the proverbial helpless baby sister. Sure, she’d recover, but in her own way, and what her big brother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
She checked messages on her phone while her afternoon snack heated, then sat at the bar to eat the tomato bisque with some crackers. Lost in her own thoughts, she jumped when the doorbell rang. Her damn brothers were going to push her into moving out of state if they didn’t back off a little. Every step toward the door built up steam for her reminder that she was a grown woman.
She started talking before the door fully opened and had to break off in mid-sentence.
Sara held up a hand and laughed. “Surprised?”
“Sorry,” Dena said, waving her inside. “I thought you were—”
“One of the boys?” Sara finished.
“I hate it when they hover.”
Sara walked past her and dropped her purse on a chair. “I should’ve called, I know, but I wanted to hear the whole story first hand so I could tell everyone tonight.” She grinned. “I don’t want you to leave any detail out. So, spill.”
Sara Henley was her best friend and pushy should have been her middle name. Instead, it was Denise, a middle name she shared with Susan, her twin sister. They were fraternal instead of identical, which helped a lot, since they were very different women.
“I went to work early this morning so I could leave in time to meet you at the club tonight. Some guys broke in through the back—”
“Stop right there,” Sara said. “I don
’t want those details. Tell me about the guy, you know, the hot one who asked you out.”
With a laugh, Dena went back to the bar and Sara followed, sliding a cracker off of Dena’s plate. “Oh, come on. Don’t make me wait.”
“He saved me.”
“Got that. What else? What does he look like?”
Dena made her wait for a few minutes. “He’s a grown man, not a college boy, and he rescued me. He tied up the guys that hit me and then, after he saw my bruises…” Dena brushed her fingers over the puffy red marks on her cheek. “…he went back over to them and punched them in the ribs.”
“You mean, after they were subdued? That’s illegal.”
“He’s not a cop, and he was—I guess he was mad because they hurt me.”
Sara’s prelaw education jumped in. “Still, they were restrained. He could be charged with assault.”
With a shrug, Dena said, “Who’s the jury going to believe? A couple of men who beat me up or the only witness—me?”
A long stare later, Sara shook her head. “You’ve got it bad and you haven’t been on the first date yet. Are you planning to roll over and spread your legs for this guy?”
Dena answered with a quick no but knew the hot blush on her face gave away her intentions.
“Dena, you don’t know him. Don’t give it away.”
Shocked wasn’t a look she saw much on Sara’s face, and Dena grinned. “He went to school with Simon, so he can’t be too dangerous. And that makes him twenty-nine, pushing thirty and old enough to know how to give a girl a really good time.”
“There’s really no way to tell if that’s true until you give him a try.” Sara giggled. “I find that keeping my expectations low and being surprised by greatness is the best way to go.”
Take a Chance Page 2