by Lissa Kasey
Okay, I was now beyond hard. If he kept talking like that, I was going to come without him getting a taste. “Fuck,” I grumbled. His grip tightened just shy of pain. When he let go, I growled at him.
He laughed. “Up, baby. Let me taste you. Please, God, let me feel you in my mouth.” His hands on my ass, he shoved me up until I was kneeling, straddling his head.
I’d like to say I lasted a while. But the second his lips closed over me and his hot mouth sucked me down, I was undone. It didn’t help that his hands gripped my asscheeks and his thumbs nudged into my hole, without lube or prep, and just enough to burn. It had been too long. I just let go and flew. My body erupted as I shook with tremors of pleasure.
“Fuck,” I grumbled at Kade. “Sorry.” I bent down, twisting and folding in half to reach his lips, which were still teasing my dick.
He let go of my cock to kiss me and groan. “Damn, you’re flexible. You could fold in half and suck your own cock. You don’t need me.” He sighed. “That is so hot.”
I laughed. “I’d much rather you suck it.” I reached back to find him growing hard again. It wasn’t common that he’d come more than once in a few hours, but I was open for more play if he was. “I’m rather fond of yours.”
He gave me a sweet smile. “Thanks, baby.”
“Nothing to thank me for,” I promised him. Proving to him that he wasn’t ugly to me was hardly a hardship. “Would you like to play a little more? Or sleep?”
His cheeks pinked. “Maybe we could….” His gaze strayed to the drawer of the bedside table on my side. That drawer held a treasure trove of adult fun we both loved.
“The vibrator or the sleeve?” I asked, fingers still massaging his cock as his kneaded my ass.
His dick twitched in my hand when he said, “The sleeve.”
I let go of him to lean forward and kiss him again. “My pleasure.”
Chapter Thirteen
MONDAY MORNING hadn’t gone as planned. I’d hoped to get to the office and put things in order before Kade returned to work. But he insisted on going to the office with me, even though he was still slightly nauseous and easily tired from moving around on crutches. Tomas had set up back-to-back appointments with us. Three new background-check clients for me to talk contracts with, two interviews for Kade and I to add one or two of Jacob’s bodyguards permanently to our roster—I protested, but Kade said it was necessary until he was fully functional again—and one cheating-spouse case.
“I have more cases I’ve put on hold or put off. Insurance stuff, a couple more CS cases, but the two guys coming in for interviews have been doing the bodyguard stuff. Duke picked them. Jacob was paying them.” Tomas sighed. “I don’t know if we’ll be paying them the same as Jacob was.”
“We don’t need them,” I said.
Kade waved away my dismissal. “I’ve already reviewed a lot of the stuff with Duke. We’re right in range, and we’ll be plenty busy as soon as everyone gets word I’m back. I was always putting off jobs because there just wasn’t enough time in a day and I’m only one guy.”
I frowned at him, since he had never said anything about it. The bodyguard side had always been his portion of the business, and as long as he gave me his hours and receipts, I didn’t bug him about it. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t know if you wanted to grow the business or keep it just us. Right now having a replacement is necessary. But if you want to keep Haven small, I’m fine with that. If you’re willing to grow, I could have a dozen guys working full-time by the end of the year. Not so much in the PI thing, but bodyguarding and some reconnaissance. I could even call a few army buddies who might need the work. Plenty of celebs who want the status of looking like they are important for a few hours. And a handful of them who actually need someone to look after them for an event, a weekend, or even a longer-term contract. We can’t compete with some of the bigger agencies in number or volume, but we do have a reputation for quality.”
I looked around the tiny office and tried to imagine a dozen guys in and out. How was it possible that for Kade the business could grow but for Nathan it had been a constant struggle? For me it had been impossible alone. There hadn’t been enough hours in the day to process all the background checks, investigate cases, and escort some wannabe famous princess to a party. Was it really all about time management?
“They’d be remote,” Kade continued. “I know you could adapt the scheduling app you created to their phones, so we could direct them to jobs. The cheating-spouse and insurance stuff doesn’t pay as well as it could. If we went mostly to security, we’d have a stronger market stance.” He paused. “And not seeing so many cheating-spouse cases would stop messing with our heads. No one needs to see the worst of people every day of the week.”
But I’d worked so hard to become a legitimate investigator.
“Baby, talk to me,” Kade said. I’d been staring at my computer screen and one of the contracts for a while without really seeing it. “I can’t read your mind. You gotta tell me what you think of all this.” It was then that I realized Tomas was gone, probably out in the lobby area, while the door to our office was closed and Kade sat beside me at our giant desk. I rubbed my brow, trying to figure out just when we’d moved into our office instead of the lobby where I recalled being a minute ago.
“Are you getting another headache?” Kade asked.
No, just a minor blackout. Weird. I looked his way, blinking through a bit of an aura headache, which was a blast of sparkles across his face. Also odd, as usually they were off to the side of my vision. “Sorry. I was listening. You were talking about the bodyguards. Expanding or not. Focusing on security.”
Kade seemed to let out a sigh of relief. “Yeah. How do you feel about that?”
“If it’s what you want, it’s fine with me.”
He seemed to be puzzling over my face. Was something wrong with it? I looked away from him.
“You’re really okay with me shifting our focus to security? Hiring more guys?” He waited a minute, and when I didn’t answer, he continued. “I’d totally handle that side. Scheduling, networking to bring in work, scanning them all to make sure they are legit. Training. That sort of thing. It would mean more regular hours for me so I could be home with you at night, instead of running around. I just don’t want you to feel like I’m taking over.”
“It’s okay, Kade. This business is as much yours as it is mine.” And I’d been thinking about that a lot since he’d been taken from me. About a lot of things that I needed to fix. “I want to have Ty fix some stuff. Add you as a partner to the business, and to the house.”
Kade reached over and took my hand. “Baby….”
It wasn’t something we’d talked about. While legally all our stuff was given to the other upon our death, and decisions were meant to be made as a couple or if one was incapacitated, by the other, we still had a lot of separate things. But I’d asked him to share a bedroom with me and been willing to give up mine. Now I was offering him my business and my house. Nathan would have called me stupid. Sentimental. Naïve. I was too young to give myself completely over to someone. I hadn’t known or dated Kade long enough. It wouldn’t have mattered that I’d known him all my life, which was mostly true. Nathan had always been waiting for a knife in the back. Which was odd, as I’d never known of anyone who’d betrayed him that way.
“I trust you,” I told Kade. “With the business, the house, me. Am I wrong? Should I move slower? I know I love you. I want to be with you forever. Having you ripped from my arms for so long was more than enough to prove that. So I’m okay with you owning every part of my life.”
“I don’t own you, Ollie.” He leaned forward to kiss me. I accepted his lips on mine. He tangled his fingers in my hair and peppered my face with kisses. “I love you. I need you. The business and the house is just stuff.”
“Half your stuff now.”
He sighed. “Then everything that is mine is yours as well. My properties
, my stocks, everything.” He had a fairly sizable Roth IRA, which he’d started as soon as he’d begun in the military. He also had a half-dozen rental properties throughout California. He used to buy and flip them, but the market was better for rentals right now. Kade didn’t work for me because he needed the cash. He’d always said that. Though it helped. He worked for me because he needed something to do with his life that was grounding, positive, and stable.
“I don’t need your stuff,” I told Kade.
“And I don’t need yours,” he echoed back at me. “Except you.” He glanced at the edge of the desk where Newt slept in a lazy sprawl. “And your cat.” Kade massaged my scalp. “So hiring more guards is okay?”
“Yes. Whatever you need,” I promised him.
“And what do you need, baby?”
I let his lips skim mine. “You.”
He smiled against my mouth. “I mean for the business. I’m not going anywhere. Do you need someone to help you with contracts? Run the software? Format letters? We can structure the business so the two of us are mostly just managing it. That would give you more time for designing.”
Most days Tomas ran the software I’d built, sorted the information, and then I created the letters of information to my clients. “Is Tomas overworked?”
“No. But he’s biting at the bit to do fieldwork. I was thinking of training him in some field stuff.”
“Is that safe?” I didn’t like the idea of Tomas out where anyone could hurt him. He was harmless, and while he attended the same sort of self-defense classes I did, his flight response was faster than his fight would ever be. It wasn’t a bad thing, just sometimes there was no opportunity to run.
“Insurance stuff is mostly just taking pictures from the car. People scamming their companies for injury fraud, or whatever. And I would be with him, so he’ll be fine. But let me talk it over with him. No need to make a change with that yet. He’s young and has time. He is just eager to learn more, and I’m okay with broadening his horizon.” Kade let me go to return to puzzling out his plans for the bodyguards, interviews, and schedules. “Just….” He hesitated for a minute as if trying to format what to say. “Tell me if you feel like I’m overstepping.” He looked down at his missing leg. “There’s a lot of change going on in both of our lives right now, and if it’s too much, we can slow down on some things while we adjust to others.”
“I’m okay.” I had been managing the panic attacks better since we’d gotten him back. I could deal with anything so long as I knew he wanted me by his side. It was then that I realized that Jacob was right. Kade never treated me like I needed to be shielded from the world, but he did sometimes walk on eggshells. “I’m stronger than I look,” I told him.
And meant it. He didn’t need to baby me. I was a big boy and could pull up my big boy undies and deal with whatever life threw our way. I really had to learn to do that better. Kade was recovering in a lot of ways, not all that unlike when he had after the bomb that ended his career. I hadn’t been there to help the first time around, but now I had the opportunity to protect and take care of him.
“No kidding, babe. No fucking kidding.” Kade opened his laptop and pulled up the schedule.
I glanced back at my contract. It was a large one for a movie set that was going to be filming for the next six months here in San Francisco. There would be a lot of revolving employees. Everyone from the actors and actresses, to set builders, assistants, body doubles, and extras. Everyone needed to be scanned. Big productions like this always had trouble with minor theft or people bringing friends onto the set or even faked injuries.
While my software did the normal scan that anyone could provide of criminal and credit checks, it also looked for social media hits, possible red flags of past suspicious activity, or questionable morals. If someone worked on movie sets and regularly brought in a couple grand a year from eBay sales, there could be something fishy going on. Those were the things I researched and provided detailed information to the clients about. Those were the things negotiated in the contract. Some businesses only wanted the basics. Others, those who had a reputation that couldn’t be tarnished, wanted more.
Three new contracts would bring in a lot of business. I couldn’t imagine how complicated Kade’s side of the business was since the amount of bodyguard work I’d done had been almost nonexistent.
Tomas knocked on our door then popped his head in. “First interview is here.”
Kade grabbed his crutches and glanced at me. “Coming?”
“Nope.” There was absolutely nothing I could provide to an interview for a bodyguard. “I’m going to leave this to you. You know I trust you. I need to look over these contracts. They’re pretty substantial.” And three new contracts in one day was a lot of reviewing, negotiation, and paperwork to sign.
He looked at me for a minute as though debating on something, but after a minute, he nodded. “Okay. You’ll let me know if you need me?”
I gave him a dazzling smile. “I always need you.”
He let out a soft but contented sigh. “Ditto, babe.” After he balanced on his crutches, he leaned forward to beg for a kiss, which I granted, though it was little more than a brush of lips, and then he made his way out of our office. I heard him greet the first interview.
The day flew by in a whirl of contract negotiations, paperwork, and a few added algorithms. One of the contracts I’d turned down, as it had been for a landlord who had the habit of being sued for raising rent without warning and evicting tenants without reason. He’d grumbled some crap about suing me for not taking his business, but I pointed to the sign on the wall beside the door that read “We reserve the right to deny service to anyone.”
Kade had glared at the man, though he really didn’t know what the issue was yet, then leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. The man then began a rant about how the gays were ruining the world and denying business to straight people.
“Not straight people,” I assured him. “Just assholes.”
Steven Yarghton, one of the two new bodyguards Kade had just hired, escorted the man forcibly out. This new guard was ex-military like Kade, though Kade said they’d never worked together, nor had they been in the same division. Apparently Steven had been Navy Seal to Kade’s Marine Special Ops. The other guard, James Rantoff, who I had yet to meet, had never served but had almost twenty years’ experience as a bodyguard. He wanted something more subdued and stable than guarding rock stars who traveled the world. Kade liked him, and that was a stamp of positive in my book.
Tomas was nearly bouncing in his chair. “Are we going now?” he asked Kade.
I looked back and forth at them both. “Going where?”
“I’m going to sit with Kade—well, drive him really—as he handles this cheating-spouse case.” Tomas’s enthusiasm was barely contained.
Sadly, there was a rise of jealousy that churned in my gut at the idea of Kade spending time with Tomas instead of me. “Is that safe?” I asked instead of acting like a jealous shrew and demanding Kade take me instead. I had no desire to follow another possible scumbag as they cheated on someone.
“It’s a pretty straightforward case. Tomas can drive. Neither one of us will confront the spouse. Just some pictures, and hopefully this will be over quick.”
“What would Ty think about this?” I tried, knowing how protective Ty could be.
Tomas glared at me. “Ty is my boyfriend, not my keeper. I’m safe with Kade. You used to do this on your own. So can I.”
And I had. Only that entire time, my friends had treated me like I was an invalid, doing the dumbest of things. Kade never had, and now he was giving Tomas the same freedom. I had no reason to be angry or jealous, yet I couldn’t stop the emotions from rising anyway.
Kade pulled me into his arms and hugged me. “It shouldn’t take long.” It was already after four in the afternoon. We’d be closing the office soon anyway. “Steven’s got a job to get to. James will be starting later in the week. The day is almost o
ver, so shutting the phones down early isn’t a big deal.” He snuffled his nose against my ear, breathing deeply like he was savoring my scent. “Go get something to eat, and go home. You’re tired.”
“You are too,” I pointed out.
“I’m not going to be doing anything but riding around in a car and giving instructions. Take Newt, and go home. I won’t be long.”
I sighed but complied, packing up my bag and coaxing Newt onto my shoulders. Steven held the door for me as I headed to my car. Apparently they’d be using Tomas’s car, which was actually one of Ty’s, for their stakeout. I don’t know why it bothered me. Yes, there were little things that Tomas did that said he was attracted to Kade. No one could miss the moon-eyes he made sometimes. But he was also loyal to Ty, and Kade loved me. Kade wasn’t the horniest of men either. He loved sex and was always up to play if I nudged him in that direction, but he would rather have hours of cuddles and one big climax than a quick fuck in the back seat of his SUV. Probably because his childhood had been wrought with coldness and a lack of intimacy with his family.
The thought made me recall the personal email I’d received several hours ago. I hadn’t done more than glance at it since I’d been buried in work. However, it was a reply from Kade’s sister, Ashlyn. I sat in the car and opened the attached document from my tablet. The list was long, impressively detailed, and horrifying. Things Kade had supposedly done. Everything from killing animals to raping a girl who supposedly had his child and his family was still paying child support to.
This was surreal. If Kade had done these things, he’d have to be some sort of sociopath. And while Kade was good with people, could often predict their reaction and mirror his own to calm or incite them, I didn’t believe for one minute he was the psycho his family was making him out to be.
I sent a quick email back to Ashlyn that I would investigate and get back to her with what I found, no matter the results, then set the tablet aside and looked up to wave at Tomas and Kade, who were getting in Tomas’s car. Well Tomas was. Kade was looking at me with concern on his face. I gave him a forced smile, put my seat belt on, and backed out of the parking spot. He didn’t need to know I was looking into his past. I made my way home to begin digging into all the secrets he and his family didn’t seem to want to unearth.