by Lexi Blake
Alex McKay sat behind his neatly appointed desk. “Nothing of the kind. It’s a little family reunion Ten’s fiancée organized. I’m glad to hear it’s going well. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you in.”
“Especially since I’m not technically an employee.” He owned his own place. Yes, it was the building next to Sanctum and he was very slowly paying it off, but it was his. He ran a treatment center specializing in soldiers returning from war and others suffering from PTSD. Big Tag had funded him for the first year, but he was planning on paying that back, too. Now he accepted funding from military charities and private individuals.
“Yes, I know, which is why I really need you to consider doing us a favor,” Alex allowed.
Favors in the McKay-Taggart world often meant getting shot at. He was a sadist, not a masochist. A happy, happy sadist who needed to stop thinking about his assistant and her far too juicy ass. It just needed a spanking so very badly. Kori Williamson was the most tempting sub he’d ever met and the only one he couldn’t have. Because she was afraid of him.
“What do you need?”
Alex slid a thick folder across the table. “The FBI came to us yesterday asking for help. Specifically, they asked for you.”
He opened the file and grimaced. Dead girls. Shit. He really hated the bloody stuff. Fun, consensual torture was one thing. These girls hadn’t asked for what was done to them. He ran through the police files. Five women. All Caucasian. All brunettes with blue eyes. All healthy girls. They had been curvy women. “They think they have a serial.”
Serial killers tended to prefer one type of victim above all. This man obviously had a type.
“Yes,” Alex replied. “The problem is the locations of the killings. They’ve connected five murders over the past three years. Potentially there’s more, but the killer moves around a lot. We also believe he’s killed women in Eastern Europe and Australia. There are victims in both places who fit the profile and timeline.”
Kai shut the folder. “So he’s some sort of businessman or he’s in the travel industry. Alex, this is obviously an important case. Why aren’t you handing it to Eve? She’s the profiler. I can give you my assessment, but she’s the expert in this area.”
“She’s already working on a profile,” Alex stated. “We don’t need you to profile the suspects.”
“Suspects? The feds have suspects? Am I interviewing them? Again, I think Eve’s your expert.”
Alex leaned back. “Did you know that Serena sold the film rights to Soldiers and Doms?”
Kai bit back a laugh. Film rights? He’d read the first of those books. They were pretty hardcore. “That should be interesting.”
“Apparently BDSM is the new big thing. After that Fifty movie, every studio in Hollywood wants a shot. They’re filming Love After Death right here in Dallas.”
Kai felt his eyes widen. He appreciated a good train wreck as much as anyone else. “Are you serious? Isn’t that the one where the big bad Dom’s dead spy wife returns and he has to deal with her Italian mafia family? Someone really should have told Serena to cover that shit up better than she did.”
Alex laughed, the sound booming through the office. It was good to hear it again. The office had been too quiet lately. “Ian’s never read it and Charlotte vowed vengeance on anyone who told him. I’m so buying a ticket to that film. I can’t wait to see the moment when Ian realizes millions of women are madly in love with a character based on him. It’s going to be beautiful.”
“I’ll be right beside you.” He wouldn’t miss that show for the world. “But I don’t see how this plays into the case.” And then he did. It fell into his head, a neat answer to the problems. “Film crew. The feds think the killer is a member of a film crew. Lots of movie companies film in Eastern Europe and Australia these days.”
“Exactly,” Alex agreed. “All of the murders occurred during major motion picture filming. One of the girls was killed in Canada near a television show’s set.”
He knew more about the film industry than he wanted to. Not that he would ever admit it or why he knew. He tried to keep that part of his life very secret.
Of course, McKay-Taggart was good at unburying secrets. “Why me? Cut the BS, Alex. Let’s get down to what you really want.”
“Jared Johns is playing the lead in Love After Death and we have reason to believe either he or someone in his entourage is the killer. The murders have occurred during times when Johns was filming. He always travels with the same group of guys. He has since he got his first major TV role. When he jumped to film, he took those guys with him. He’s looking for a mentor, someone who will train him on how to be a Dom for the film. Ian’s already agreed to let him into Sanctum as part of the FBI investigation. I think putting you as his mentor would be perfect.”
Kai shook his head. He could barely get the words out because horror swamped his every sense. “No. I don’t think that would work at all.”
“He’s asked for you,” Alex replied. “Do you really want to tell your brother you won’t help him out?”
His brother. His international superstar, didn’t have a brain in his gorgeous head brother.
Watch out for your brother, Kai. He needs you in his life.
His mother’s dying wish. He’d promised her and then failed so very badly.
“I suppose I could offer my own services.” Alex reached for the file.
Fuck. His brother was the idiot who would hire a damn serial killer to party with him. “My brother isn’t a serial killer. It’s not him, but I’ll do it.”
He’d run from his family for as long as he could. Like it or not, he had a job to do.
“As long as I don’t have to watch any of his films.” Saving his brother was one thing.
“Not at all,” Alex replied with a grin.
After all, there was only so much a man would do for his family.
Kai, Kori, and the entire McKay-Taggart team will return in From Sanctum with Love. As for Theo…
An island off the coast of Argentina
Theo. His name was Theo. Sometimes, it was all he could remember.
He blinked at the bright lights. So white. Everything in his room was white, from the bed to the walls and ceiling, to the cuffs that held his arms and wrists down. Everything was a stark, brutal absence of color.
“Hey, how are you doing today?” The blonde walked in. He remembered her. Yes, it was impossible to forget the woman who tortured him daily with a cocktail of drugs that made his head feel like it weighed fifty pounds, and then put him through some kind of weird therapy. He was forced to watch films. Nothing that made sense. Pictures and images and accompanying sounds, but somehow he knew he was losing himself to the combination of drugs and those films. Something was happening in his brain. A rewiring was occurring.
“You are looking so much better.” She smiled.
He was pretty sure she thought she was being sexy, but he couldn’t help but see the shark behind those perfectly made up lips.
A vision of a redhead floated across his brain. She turned her head and she wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup, but she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Her lips curved up. She was wearing a bikini, the sunshine on her face. She brushed back her hair and reached for him.
“Your vitals are all back to normal. You’ve fully recovered. I wouldn’t have thought it would happen so quickly. After all, I did perform open-heart surgery on you in pretty horrible conditions. I’m kind of a rock star.”
He’d woken up on a plane, his body horrifically scarred. He’d been sure he would die, and all he’d been able to think about was that red-haired girl.
He wished he could remember her name.
The doctor frowned at him. “Are you going to give me trouble today? You nearly killed the guard yesterday. I had to reset his leg and bring in another man. I adore you, but if you try that again, you’ll have to be punished.”
His eyes drifted over to the door. There were two guard
s there, both heavily armed, and despite what she said, he was still weak. He should have been able to take that guard easily, but it had been a fight.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re still my perfect guy, and once the training really kicks in, you’ll know it. Once you give over, everything will be easier.”
She measured out the dose and there was nothing he could do. He’d fought the few times he’d been out of the bindings, and the guards had started carrying dart guns filled with tranquilizers.
You are a Taggart and you will survive this.
There were times when he heard voices in his head. Strong, male voices that urged him to survive. They often reminded him that he was a Taggart. Theo Taggart. He tried to hold on as the drugs began to course through his veins.
After a few moments, all the voices drifted away until all he could hear was her. The blonde shark he’d been caught by.
She talked, telling him things that made no sense.
He closed his eyes and dreamed of a red-haired beauty.
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In the tradition of Masters and Mercenaries comes the next great brotherhood…
SCANDAL NEVER SLEEPS
The Perfect Gentlemen, Book 1
By Shayla Black and Lexi Blake
Coming August 18, 2015
Click here to pre-order!
They are the Perfect Gentlemen of Creighton Academy: privileged, wealthy, powerful friends with a wild side. But a deadly scandal is about to tear down their seemingly ideal lives...
Maddox Crawford’s sudden death sends Gabriel Bond reeling. Not only is he burying his best friend, he’s cleaning up Mad’s messes, including his troubled company. Grieving and restless, Gabe escapes his worries in the arms of a beautiful stranger. But his mind-blowing one-night stand is about to come back to haunt him...
Mad groomed Everly Parker to be a rising star in the executive world. Now that he’s gone, she’s sure her job will be the next thing she mourns, especially after she ends up accidentally sleeping with her new boss. If only their night together hadn’t been so incendiary—or Gabe like a fantasy come true...
As Gabe and Everly struggle to control the heated tension between them, they discover evidence that Mad’s death was no accident. Now they must bank their smoldering passions to hunt down a murderer—because Mad had secrets that someone was willing to kill for, and Gabe or Everly could be the next target...
* * * *
“I want to see you.”
Even in the low light, he noticed her breath hitch. “You want me to turn on the lights?”
“That’s not what I meant.” He never took his burning gaze from her. “I want to see you naked. Take off your dress. Show me your breasts.”
“I’ll close the curtains.” She started to turn to the windows.
He caught her elbow, gently restraining her. “Don’t. We’re high up. No one can see in. Take off your dress. Let me see you in the moonlight.”
Her gaze tangled with his, and he could see a hint of her trepidation. A gentleman might have backed down. But he knew what he wanted. She must want him too or she wouldn’t have agreed to spend the night with him. He wasn’t giving Eve the easy way out.
Finally, she turned her back to him and lifted her arms, struggling to reach the metal tab. “There’s a zipper down the back.”
He moved closer. “Let me.”
Gabe ran his hands up her spine before finding the zipper. She lifted her curls out of his way, exposing the graceful column of her neck. Her skin looked pale, almost incandescent in the low light. He couldn’t help himself. He leaned over and kissed her nape, feeling her shiver under his touch.
Slowly, he eased the zipper down, his fingertips brushing her spine. Once he passed her neck, she let her hair fall free, the strawberry-blond mass tumbling well past her shoulders, gliding over her skin. Her tresses were soft, too. Not severely flat-ironed. Different, like the woman herself. Fuck, he could lose himself in Eve.
She shrugged, allowing the straps of her dress to fall past her shoulders and drop to her waist.
Her bra looked plain and white. He was used to delicate garments meant to entice a man, so he had no idea why the site of her utilitarian bra made his cock jerk. She hadn’t been seeking a man this evening, much less intending to seduce a lover. When she’d dressed, it had been for comfort. But now, she was here with him, slowly peeling away her clothes.
With practiced ease, he unhooked her bra with a twist of his hand and slid his fingers under the straps to strip them off. He closed his eyes and allowed his hands to roam across the wealth of smooth skin he’d just exposed. He drew her back against his chest and grazed his way up her abdomen until he found her breasts. Full and real, he loved the weight of them in his palms. He drew his thumbs over the nubs of her nipples and Eve rewarded him with a long intake of breath.
“That feels so good.” As she leaned back against him for support, she shuddered and thrust her breasts up like twin offerings.
He would absolutely take everything she had to give.
Gabe filled his hands with her flesh, cupping and rubbing and discovering every inch of her breasts before he grew impatient to have her totally bare and pushed the dress over the curve of her hips. It pooled on the floor at her feet.
Her underwear matched her bra. If she were his, he would buy her La Perla. He would dress her like a goddess in silk and lace and know that she wore the most come-hither lingerie for his eyes only. She could wear her ladylike dresses and cover herself with all appropriate modesty if she wanted—but only until they were alone.
As he stripped off her panties, a wild possessiveness blazed through his system. Gabe turned her to face him, well aware that he needed to slow down but utterly incapable of doing so. He took in the sight of her breasts. They looked every bit as perfect as they’d felt.
“You’re beautiful.”
“I don’t feel that way.” She tilted her face up to his, drinking him in with her stare. There was nothing coy about her expression. She looked at him with naked yearning. “Not most of the time. But you make me feel sexy.”
“You are. I want to be very clear about how beautiful I think you are.” He kissed her again, lifting her up and out of her dress, heading back to the bedroom while his mouth ate hungrily at hers.
She didn’t fight him, didn’t fidget to make him set her back on the ground. She simply wrapped her arms around his neck and let him carry her. Her fingers sank into his hair and she held tight while her tongue danced against his.
Luckily, he knew Plaza suites like the back of his hand. He maneuvered her toward the bed, his cock throbbing insistently.
He wouldn’t last long. God, he couldn’t believe he was even thinking that. Usually, he could go for hours, but Gabe knew the minute he got inside Eve, he was going to lose control. He needed to make it good for her now because he’d barely touched her and already he wanted to throw her against the wall and shove his way inside her.
As he approached the mattress, he stopped and eased her onto the luxurious comforter. She lay back on the elegant duvet, her hair fanned out and her legs spread. Wanton and yet so innocent. He pulled at his shirt, hearing a button or two pop off, but at the moment he didn’t give a shit. The need to
be skin to skin with her drove him to haste. He unbuckled his belt and shoved his pants down.
“Foreplay.” Freaking hell. He was so ready to go, he’d forgotten about that. Women liked foreplay. It tended to be necessary for them.
She shook her head. “The kissing was foreplay. We’re totally good.”
Shit. He had to slow down. He wasn’t exactly a small guy. She needed to be ready to take all of him.
Gabe took a deep breath. “Need you aroused. It’s okay. Just give me a minute.”
“Gabriel, I am as aroused as I have ever been in my life. I’m a little worried about what kind of stain I’m going to leave for the staff on this duvet. So really, can we get this train moving?”
He gripped her ankles and slid her down the bed, spreading her legs wider in the process. His cock twitched when he saw that she was right. Her pussy was wet. Juicy. He could see its slick gloss from above, even in the shadows. A little kissing, some groping, and she was ready to go. He’d never had a woman respond to him so readily. “Tell me again.”
“I’m ready,” she vowed. “I am really ready.”
“No, tell me this isn’t normal for you,” he corrected. It was stupid. She was right there, able and willing to give him the pleasure he sought—but he craved more. He needed to know that tonight was special for her. “Tell me you want me and not just sex.”
She gave him a sheepish smile. “This isn’t at all normal. I guess I’ve gone a little crazy tonight, but I don’t do one-night stands. I can count the men I’ve had sex with on one hand and I wouldn’t need all my fingers. And I’ve never, never wanted anyone as much as I want you right now. Gabriel, I don’t need foreplay, just you.”
For more information or to pre-order, click here.
ADDICT
Hunter: A Thieves Novel, Book 2