by Lexi Blake
God, he’d made her feel like one.
She winced as she caught sight of his previously pristine slacks. “Oh, Derek, I am so sorry. Your pants are…”
He looked down and she was deeply surprised to hear him chuckle. There was a stain on his pants from her arousal. She’d made a hell of a wet spot. Derek always seemed so staid. She’d expected him to get angry, but he merely righted his shirt and readjusted himself. “Next time I’ll remember just how wet you get, Karina.”
The knocking became a staccato nuisance.
“Hold your freaking horses, lady. He’s coming out in a minute.” Whoever his ex was, she was rude.
Derek frowned her way. Derek didn’t do rude.
Karina shrugged as she made her way to the door. “Sorry.”
“Remember what I said about the eyes.” His voice seemed so much warmer than before. “And I’ll expect you to be waiting for me, Karina. I’ll call and get your dinner order and pick it up for us. We have work to do.”
In for a penny… “I’ll cook.”
His face twisted slightly as though he was trying not to contemplate something horrible. “You will?”
Bastard. So he didn’t think she could possibly cook. Well, she wasn’t going to defend herself. Sometimes showing was way better than telling. “Yes, I will. Dinner is at seven.”
She opened the door, expecting to see some gorgon of a woman, but the female who was pacing outside Derek’s door was petite and perfect, with a fashionably slim figure and icy blonde hair that likely never went frizzy. She wore a gorgeous suit that managed to be both business-like and deeply feminine. There was a fragility to her features that would have every man in a two-mile radius panting after her. It was easy to see this was a woman who spent an enormous amount of time on her body. She likely spent hours on her hair and makeup and the perfect nails on her gorgeous hands. A pampered woman who tried to please the men around her with her looks.
Karina didn’t bother to look at her own nails. Unless she was going to Sanctum, she didn’t bother with things like makeup and nails. Her hair was in a ponytail because her job often had her running after people or running from them.
She would bet the woman in front of her had never chased a bounty through a junk yard or gone through someone’s garbage to figure out if they were hiding a kidnapped kid in their house.
This was the woman Derek had married, his ideal. She was so far from Karina that they weren’t even playing in the same league.
He really was looking for a delicate flower he could take care of. Karina wasn’t petite and fragile. She’d been on her own for a very long time. She would never be more than a convenient good time for Derek Brighton.
“Is there a problem?” Delicate Flower asked, staring at Karina like she didn’t have a brain in her head. She’d placed a hand on her slender hip and frowned Karina’s way like she was a bit of refuse someone had forgotten to take out.
Karina shook her head. “Not at all. He’s all yours.”
The ex-Mrs. Brighton’s perfect lips curled in a Cheshire Cat grin. “He always is. You should probably know that before you go and lose your sad little cop heart to the big bad lieutenant. He has a bad habit of fucking below his station, but he always comes back to me.”
And just like that Karina’s insecurities were swept away in a tidal wave of pure pissed-off. She didn’t like mean girls. Mean girls made the world a worse place. “I’m not a cop. I’m a PI.”
Cool blue eyes rolled. “Like I care, though that’s way worse.”
She strolled into the door of Brighton’s office and slammed it in Karina’s face.
Karina suddenly knew what she would do with her afternoon. But first she had to figure out what the ex-Mrs. Brighton’s name was. It wouldn’t take much. The good news was, she was a damn fine hacker and she definitely believed that karma at times needed a good shove in the right direction.
If the delicate flower liked to play Medusa, maybe Karina could take on the role of Perseus. It was really for the good of all womankind that she slay the gorgon.
“Hey, Keller? Can I use your computer?” She walked up to the sergeant who hired her from time to time to check out his daughter’s dates. Dani Keller unfortunately had a bad-boy complex that got her in trouble every now and then. She was a sweet kid. Karina had been more than happy to help keep her that way.
“Sure. You gonna fuck with someone?” He stood up, offering her his seat.
“I would never do that,” Karina assured with a smooth smile.
She was a good liar and this would take her mind off the very dangerous door she’d almost opened with Derek.
It was a door that had to stay closed.
Chapter Three
“God, Derek, are you slumming or what? Tell me you weren’t actually doing something sexual to whatever it was that just walked out of your office.”
Just the sound of her voice made his blood go a little cold. He’d had a massive erection, but the sound of her voice was like reverse Viagra. His dick damn near curled up on itself. The Ice Princess, Queen Bitch of the World, strode into his office.
Karina hadn’t been cold. She’d almost melted his skin when he touched her. It had been a revelation. He’d expected her to tease him, to use her beauty to its best advantage by attempting to manipulate him, but there had been zero artifice in Karina’s argument. It was unexpected and utterly refreshing. There had been a sweetness in the way she’d settled herself over his lap, offering herself up to him.
He’d spanked Karina and felt more in those few moments than he had in the last several years.
“Derek? Are you listening to me?”
He’d kind of hoped if he ignored her she would go away—like a dinosaur that couldn’t see you if you didn’t move. It was a pipe dream so maybe honesty would work. “No, I’m not listening to you. I’m thinking about how close I came to getting inside Karina. It’s five years after our divorce and you’re still responsible for my not getting laid.”
He sat behind his desk with a long sigh.
Maia’s eyes narrowed. “Well, it looks like she left her mark on you. Jeez, Derek. What happened to your pants?”
He couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face. Actually it felt more like the goofy grin of a teenaged boy who finally got his hands on a boob. It was stupid. She wasn’t his type, wasn’t anything close to what he wanted in a permanent submissive much less another wife, and yet the thought of her biting that lip while she decided whether or not to submit to him got his blood hot all over again. “Don’t worry about that. Why are you here?”
Maia frowned and turned to look at the closed door as though she could see through it. “You’re really fucking that low-grade PI? Derek, what the hell is wrong with you? If you’re that hard up, I will find you a date. We have some very submissive interns. I swear, there’s a pretty brunette who pees a little when you yell at her. I’m sure you could train that out of her. Her father is a circuit court judge. He can help you out enormously. She’s got nice tits and they’re totally real.”
And Maia would know because she’d very likely slept with her. Maia didn’t discriminate when it came to her sexual partners. She was an omnivore. Derek was certain she’d probably sleep with a goat if she found one attractive and it could help her career.
“I’ll take a hard pass. Why are you here besides the fact that you outed me to brass?” It didn’t look like it was actually going to cost him his job, but then she hadn’t known that, had she?
It surprised him a little since Maia was a bitch from hell, but she’d never been truly malicious with him. Yes, she’d cheated on him on a regular basis, but she’d strangely always had his back when it came to work. They’d always been a successful team. He’d just wanted so much more than to be a team member.
Well, and he’d also kind of wanted to not be cheated on with every man he knew.
Maia’s face softened as much as the Botox in it allowed as she leaned against his desk. “Brass is all a
bunch of perverts, Derek. Trust me, successful people all tend to be perverts. Unsuccessful people, too. And the ones who aren’t are fooling themselves. I have enough on the chief to ensure that you move up when you want to move up. All you have to do is say the word and I’ll make it happen.”
And that was Maia to a T. Always making a deal, always working an angle. She would likely be the Dallas District Attorney before she was forty. “I’ll handle my own career, thank you. You had no right to go to them. You should have come to me and asked me if I wanted to be involved.”
She shook her head with a long-suffering sigh. “And if I came to you with four dead girls, one of them a cop in this precinct, are you telling me you would have turned down the assignment so no one would know you like to spank subs? Should I have gone straight to Ian? I’m totally not going to do that because he’s an asshole.”
“No. I would have gone to them myself. I would have offered my services.” She was forever cutting his balls off. Even though he hadn’t touched her since long before the divorce, she was still making decisions for him, decisions that shouldn’t be hers.
“So I saved you a step. Chill out. You’re acting like I tried to kill you when all I did was give you the biggest opportunity of your career. Can’t you see how good this is going to be? For both of us?”
And just like that it all fell into place. “You’re handling the case.”
She shrugged a little. “I did put together the team. I do know the lifestyle. I outed myself, too, Derek. The DA thinks this case would best be handled by a female, and I was going to make damn sure I was the female. Besides the only other chick who can handle a case like this is Marian Greeley, and she’s sixty-five with a face like a horse. She is so not ready for TV. She would likely say the girls had it coming because she’s a dried up old prune who thinks sex is evil. It had to be me. It’s best for the victims. So, see, I didn’t shove you out alone into shark-infested waters. Consider me your life jacket.”
A life jacket that would likely strangle him in her deep need to get ahead. “You still had no right.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that. Now what’s your plan? I want you to coordinate with me. This is the rarest of cases, Derek. This is a serial case the feds haven’t taken yet. Bastards. We need to solve this and fast because at some point they will figure out how hot this case is, move in, and we’ll lose all our control. The Rangers are willing to work with us because apparently their kinks aren’t the same as ours and they’re really high on Eve St. James.”
“McKay. She remarried.”
“Hmmm, well, that’s nice. I suppose that means McKay’s on the case, too.” She grimaced a little. “Did the Rangers bring in Ian? Because he hates me.”
“You’re in luck. Big Tag’s in Europe.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god. The last time I applied for membership at Sanctum, he put me through a ton of paperwork and when he sent me the letter that would state the date I could start it simply said when hell freezes over. Jerk, though I suppose he’s loyal to you.”
He would have to send Big Tag a bottle of Scotch. The last thing he needed was to have his club invaded by Maia. “Back to the case, please?”
“Fine. So is Eve working on a profile? Tell her to come to my office when it’s done. I don’t want that profile leaking to anyone. If the feds get it they’ll swoop down and scoop up all my work and take all my glory. I hate them.”
Derek felt his eyes narrow. She only ever got truly angry over one thing. “Who turned you down?”
The slightest hint of pink hit her cheeks. “No one turns me down. Well, mostly. I might have been dating one of the SACs. He turned out to be an asshole and now he’s out for some kind of revenge.”
“What did you do?” Because there was no way she was innocent.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” A little huff came from her chest. “I might have given his son a blow job. You can’t blame me for that. You should have seen him. He’s a college quarterback with the tightest ass I’ve ever seen on a man. He’d just won a bowl game. If you really think about it, I was taking one for the state of Texas. We owe the kid.”
“You’re a sexual predator, you know.” A barracuda with a vagina that sucked up all the air around it. Actually that was a much better analogy. Her vagina was a black hole from which no man escaped. Or woman.
“I refuse to apologize for my appetites.” She stood up and paced, her heels clacking against the floor. “Are you going to be difficult?”
“About the case? No. It’s important.” For many reasons, the chief one being protecting Karina, but he didn’t want to put her on Maia’s radar by mentioning that. It was irrational since Karina was every bit as tough as Maia, but he didn’t want Maia to hurt Karina. She could be brutal when she thought another woman was threatening her place. Not that she had a place with him. She simply had a delusional belief that they were still some sort of a team. It was just habit. They’d known each other since they were kids in elementary school. Sometimes he sat and talked to Maia just because she was the only one around who remembered what he’d been like before. Before adulthood. Before the war. Even before their divorce.
She sighed and moved to the chair in front of his desk. “Good, because this is the one, Derek. This is the one that moves us both up. If you can crack this case, you could move over to the Rangers if you want to, though I think you’re better off where you are. If you really want to be a bastard, tightwad asshole, we might even be able to talk to the feds about a job. They don’t all hate me.”
He was getting a headache. “I like my job, Maia. I’ll work with you on this, but I’m not doing it because I want some magical promotion. Some cops do the job because it’s the right thing to do. Some of us enjoy actually doing the work and solving the case because it brings someone justice, not because it might increase our paychecks.”
He could hear Tag complaining about how mercenary Karina was. It would be a good thing for him to remember. She might seem soft and sweet when she was in his arms, but she got every dime she could out of her clients. She wasn’t that far off from Maia and when she looked for a Dom, she would likely choose one with the most upwardly mobile potential.
“Oh, that is so very Captain America,” Maia said with a sad shake of her head. “You should be happy I look out for you.”
“I would be way happier if you completely left me alone.”
“Sure you would.” She crossed her legs seductively and gave him a wink.
She was a gorgeous woman and he had nothing for her. On the outside, she was his type. Oh, she could eat a cheeseburger or two, but she took care of herself. Her hair was perfect, her nails always a sexy red. There was something about the thought of a woman performing all those little beauty rituals that got his motor running. Maia was perfect on the outside but it was Karina he couldn’t stop thinking about.
“Are you really fucking the PI?” She leaned forward, her eyes on him.
“It’s none of your business, Maia.”
“It’s just she’s not your usual.”
“Again, not your business.”
“You’re never going to forgive me, are you?”
In a lot of ways he really had. He’d made his share of mistakes, too. No marriage was completely one sided. “You are who you are, Maia.”
“I love you more than I love almost anything, Derek.” She sat back and gave him a little smile. “I just love me way more. But I still watch your back even though I know you call me Medusa behind mine.”
“I absolutely do not. I say it to your front.” He never prevaricated with her. He didn’t have to. It was one of the reasons they’d stayed in this weird friendly enemies state. He didn’t have to pretend with Maia.
“Fine, and I’ll admit, I kind of like it. Medusa was a woman who knew how to get what she wanted. But even though you rage against me, I still love you and I still want what’s best for you and you’re never going to be happy until you get married
and have some kids. You aren’t getting any younger, Derek.”
He groaned and wished there would be some sort of tragedy to befall the city so he could get out of this conversation. “Oh, now you sound like my mother.”
“Are you the one who told her to make the sign of the cross every time she walks by me at church?”
“Who let you into a church?” Derek chuckled. His mother had a sense of humor. “I’ll get her to stop.”
Maia waved it off. “Don’t worry about it. It gives me a certain reputation I find helpful. So is the thing with the PI serious?”
She wouldn’t give up until he told her something. Maia annoyed the hell out of him, but he couldn’t forget that she’d been his high school sweetheart. She’d been the one to take care of him when he came back from Afghanistan. She’d been the one who pushed to get him on the force.
When he really thought about it, they had been a good team. They just hadn’t been good at being in love.
“It’s not. She’s part of the operation. Her name is Karina Mills.”
Maia’s mouth dropped open. “Wait. Are you talking about the girl set to get strangled next?”
He really didn’t like it being put that way. “She’s been identified as the next target. I intend to make sure she stays safe.”
“By putting your dick in her?” She held up a hand, stopping him from ordering her out of his office. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I can’t help but be a little jealous. I’m your wife after all.”
“Ex.”
“For you, maybe, but you’ll always be my husband. I’m not getting married again. We both know it’s not my gig. So you like the PI, who needs a manicure by the way. And she could use some fashion advice. She’s not your type, Derek.”
A pounding headache was starting to sink in. “Which is why it’s a good thing I’m not dating her.”