Secret Eyes (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Marie Jermy

  Leia shook her head. “I simply gave Dee the confidence to face her attacker. I can’t help it that he was so shocked to be confronted by the ghost of the woman he raped and drove to suicide that he fell down a flight of stairs and killed himself before he could hand himself over to the police. I also couldn’t help it that she vaporized his ass when he returned.”

  Scott laughed. “I take it Dee’s passed to the other side?”

  “Yeah. And she went with a huge smile on her face. But enough about Dee. I’m dying to know what happened in Geneva. You refused to discuss it over the phone.”

  “And if I weren’t already dead,” Sam added, “I would say I’m also dying to know.”

  “Not here.”

  Before the words had left his mouth, Scott, Leia, and Archie stood beside his Aston Martin. A light dusting of snow covered the bonnet, windshield, and roof. Leia shivered and huddled into her coat as a gust of frigid air blew across the parking lot.

  Scott caught the keys Sam tossed at him. Sam showed his fangs in a wide grin. “One of these days, Sam,” he said, waggling his finger at him, “you’re gonna get caught.” He deactivated the car’s security system. Archie jumped into the rear seat with Sam, while Scott got in the driver’s seat and Leia snuggled in his lap.

  “Who by? A traffic cop? Nah. I’m too quick for a speeding ticket. So c’mon, spill. Are you gonna be awarded the Nobel Prize?”

  Donning the gloves Leia handed him and, turning on the heater for extra warmth, not that Sam needed it, Scott shook his head. “In a word. No. Richard Jarvis, the British Director, his ten-year-old son has been blind since birth. A hundred times the Elders combined the lasers from the healing pen and the Beretta together. And a hundred times, the result was the same.”

  “Which was?” Leia and Sam asked in unison.

  “No change. The boy was still blind. They even tried it on members who are short-sighted. But nothing.”

  “That sucks,” Leia murmured. “Oh, no offense, Sam.”

  “None taken. It does suck. What happens now? Don’t tell me nothing,” Sam said at the downward turn to Scott’s mouth.

  “There’s nothing the Elders can do. They haven’t given up, though. But for now, they’re classing Leia…” Scott entwined his gloved fingers with hers. “…as special. A miracle.”

  “Mmm, rather like my birthday present to you,” Leia said. Again, Scott gave her an odd look. To distract him, she wiggled suggestively in his lap. She smiled as she felt his cock grow beneath her. She again wiggled, then let out a gasp as something small, square and hard pressed into her right buttock cheek. “Ouch.”

  “Sorry,” Scott said. “I have something for you.” He shifted her slightly to put his hand in his pants pocket. He withdrew a solid silver box. “I know we agreed to buy your engagement ring when I returned. But…” He lifted the lid. “I saw this in the window of a little jewelry store and couldn’t resist.”

  Again, Leia gasped. This time at the deep pink stone ring surrounded by smaller sparkling diamonds set in platinum.

  “It’s a pink diamond. Very rare.”

  “It’s gorgeous. It must have cost a small fortune.”

  Scott shrugged. “If I can’t spend money on the woman I love who can I spend it on?”

  Me, Archie woofed in response.

  Scott plucked the ring from the box, removed her left glove and slipped it onto her ring finger. “A perfect fit.” His gloved hands curled around her nape and their lips met for a deep kiss that gradually fogged the windows.

  Sam shook his head. “Three’s a crowd, Archie, but four’s an orgy. And on that note, I’m off. Alice is expecting me.”

  “What, no birthday present?” Scott asked, unlocking lips, untangling tongues, heavy-lidded and short of breath.

  “I’ll buy you a beer when I’m next in town.”

  “That’ll make a change,” Scott began but Sam had already vanished from the car into the cold night air. He smiled as he moved in for another kiss. “Where were we?”

  Archie woofed.

  You make out and I’ll move into your bed. Permanently. It’ll be the Manhattan Heights all over again.

  “Don’t threaten me, Archie,” Scott warned as Leia, in a fit of laughter, moved across to the passenger seat, “or I’ll confiscate the remote control.”

  “Your place or mine?” Leia asked, despite knowing the answer. She was surprised she and Scott hadn’t grown gills with all the time they spent in her Jacuzzi. Of course, with her birthday surprise, they would, in the future, have to sell their respective apartments and move to somewhere bigger, preferably a house with a garden. Scott might have to exchange his Aston Martin for something more appropriate, too.

  Well into the early hours of the morning, Scott’s birthday over for another year, after making slow and mind-blowing orgasmic love three times, once in the Jacuzzi, once on the hallway carpet and then in bed, Leia lay in the crook of Scott’s arm, basking in the afterglow of love, warmth and happiness.

  She propped herself up on her elbow and traced her fingers across the groove to his brow. His eyes remained closed but a smile curved his firm, kissable lips. Even among the rosebuds and girly-pink of her bed covers, Scott was still every inch a hot man. His hands and feet may be cold but every other part sizzled.

  His eyes popped open. “Okay, honey, I’ve waited long enough. Unblank that beautiful mind of yours and give me your birthday present.”

  Leia slid from the bed, removed something from a drawer and padded back to Scott. He sat up and she presented him with a slim, white box wrapped with pink and blue ribbons tied into bows. “Happy belated birthday, Scott.”

  He tore the bows off and lifted the lid. His eyes widened as he held up the pregnancy testing wand. Then, in classic goldfish impersonation, he alternated between staring at her and the wand. Finally, his mouth formed words. “You’re pregnant? But how? I mean, I know how, but how? The contraception injection you have, isn’t that supposed to be almost one-hundred percent effective?”

  “Yes. When you have it on time, that is. I had mine two weeks late because the clinic was busy and I couldn’t get an appointment.” She bit her bottom lip. “You’re not angry or disappointed, are you?”

  He again did the goldfish impersonation. “Angry? Disappointed? Definitely not.” He beamed. “Happy is too tame a word. I’m ecstatic. Come here, honey.” Gathering Leia into his arms, he laid her back against the pillows and tenderly kissed her. “When did you find out?”

  “Today. It’s not like me to be sick, but I was this morning. Three times. I couldn’t keep anything down. I knew something wasn’t right, so I went out and bought the test.”

  Scott shifted down Leia’s body and, almost reverently, splayed his cold fingers over her belly. “A baby? I can’t believe it. What with her age obviously Laura and I couldn’t have children of our own, but I would like to think that we would have adopted or fostered.”

  “We can do that as well, Scott. There are a lot of kids out there who need a loving home. And we can provide that.”

  “You are an amazing woman, Leia Howard. What did I do to deserve you?”

  From behind the closed bedroom door came a series of woofs.

  Showered her with a caramel macchiato!

  Scott and Leia laughed, then he lowered his head and rained hot kisses between his splayed fingers. Her toes curled as he flicked his tongue in her belly button. She felt the smile on his lips.

  “I’ve heard that pregnant women get very horny.”

  “We also get very tired.”

  “And which one are you?” His fingers slid up to tease her nipples. They immediately hardened into tight pebbles. “Ah, horny.”

  “You and your one-track mind, Scott. What am I going to do with you?”

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

  Leia’s smile was soft and sexy as Scott moved up her body, the rigid length of his cock brushing her inner thigh. Yes, she definitely could think of something. M
ake love with me.

  Now?

  Now.

  * * * *

  Inserting one of the keys he had made from the set he’d stolen from his sister into the lock, Anakin Howard unlocked the door and entered the Magnum Investigations office. He hadn’t wanted to steal from Leia, but she had become secretive and had lied to him and he was hell-bent on finding out why.

  He flicked the lights on and started his search at the reception desk. Finding nothing of interest in the drawers or on the Braille laptop that Leia still used despite being able to see, he crossed the floor space and unlocked the door to the office on his right.

  Jessica Anderson’s office.

  A thorough search through the filing cabinets produced nothing of note either, other than detailed files of client cases, which were mainly husbands wanting proof of their wives cheating, and vice versa. Anakin snorted. Why marry somebody if you were going to cheat on them?

  From the third cabinet, he pulled the file labeled “Professor Rogers.” Now that was interesting. It was empty. He knew the circumstances of the Rogers’ case. The professor had been the target of blackmail by at least two sickos at the Manhattan Heights Hotel who had, by way of hidden cameras installed in the room, recorded the professor’s failure of keeping his dick in his pants with a woman other than his wife.

  It was also the case that culminated with the restoration of his sister’s sight.

  And that was why he’d stolen the keys to the office—to discover the truth.

  Scott’s version, and indeed Leia’s, held about as much water as a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Anakin again snorted. His future brother-in-law was even more secretive than Leia. Returning the empty and utterly useless file to the cabinet, he left Jessica’s office and went across to Scott’s.

  The moment he entered, he shuddered. Yes, Scott suffered with Raynaud’s, a circulation problem that gave him quite a chilly air, but why was his office as cold as a polar bear’s balls in January? He didn’t like the atmosphere, either. There was more cheer in a cemetery.

  With another shudder, Anakin took a seat in the leather chair behind the desk and looked through the drawers. Jeez, even Scott’s drawers that contained a pen and pencil, an eraser and pencil sharpener, one pad of lined paper, and a pile of napkins gave nothing away.

  Taking the pencil, he began to shade over the top page of the pad of paper, but stopped upon discovering it obviously hadn’t been used. Another dead end. He tore the paper from the pad, crumpled it into a ball and shoved it into his jeans pocket. Movement in the doorway then caught his eye.

  Anakin looked up.

  And felt his whole world tilt on its axis.

  The hair was as black as ebony, the lips as red as a red, red rose, and the skin was white as snow. Okay, so that described Disney’s Snow White, but jeez, the woman who stood in the doorway was an absolute stunner.

  “Are you Scott Rafferty?”

  Her voice was earthy, husky…suggestive. So suggestive his cock rose and saluted her. The word “no” formed on Anakin’s lips, but what came out was the exact opposite. “Yes.”

  “Oh, I’m so glad. My name’s California Trent. And I need your help.”

  Those red, red lips curved into an equally suggestive smile. And for the second time in as many minutes, Anakin felt his whole world tilt on its axis.

  For California Trent’s sexy smile displayed a set of even white teeth and two pointy fangs.

  The fangs of a vampire.

  THE END

  www.bookstrand.com/marie-jermy

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Hmm, let’s see. Well, I was born on August 1, 1972, which makes me a Leo. So am I a lioness? Yes, although I only show my claws when provoked. I am married to Richard and have three children, collectively and affectionately known as “The A-Team,” so called because their first names start with an “A.” I would consider myself to be quite crafty, a trait inherited from my father, and clever (well, I like to think so!). I also have a sarcastic, sometimes dirty sense of humor, and because of my time employed by the police, I am completely unshockable. When I’m not writing or looking after the kids, I can be found with my nose stuck between the pages of a romance novel or a book on the Titanic.

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com