Guarding Mr. Fine is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Loveswept Ebook Original
Copyright © 2017 by HelenKay Dimon
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Loveswept, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
LOVESWEPT is a registered trademark and the LOVESWEPT colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Ebook ISBN 9780399180415
Cover design: Okay Creations
Cover photograph: somamix1/iStock
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Dedication
By Helenkay Dimon
About the Author
Chapter 1
Seth Lang wanted out of Berlin. He had the itch to get back in the field. Focus on planning, waiting and executing.
None of that was going to happen. He could also forget going to the States or heading to Paris, his usual blow-off-steam spot. He’d pulled a crap assignment. The kind members of the special ops division of the CIA dreaded—babysitting a diplomat. In this case, the new U.S. consul general to Munich, Germany.
Boring shit. He’d almost rather take a vacation. He hadn’t had one of those in four years unless you counted that time he was in a coma. His boss insisted it absolutely did not count. Seth wasn’t convinced.
This was a mandatory stand-down. After helping to uncover and disband an international crime dynasty during his last op, his superiors handed him an easy draw, one where he wouldn’t get shot at every single minute. For some reason they viewed that as a reward. He didn’t. He despised soft assignments.
The idea of playing bodyguard made him want to punch things. Not that he had a choice. So, shadowing some newbie foreign service officer was it for now…unless he died of boredom. He was pretty sure that was a thing. He’d find out in three days when he started the new job.
Until then, he needed to escape the hotel room and get some air, which was why he landed in this club ten minutes go. Two marines at the embassy had told him about it. Insisted he could get a drink and relax. They even invited him to come out with a group, but he passed. Waited until he thought they’d be gone for the night to check it out. Now he was.
He grabbed his beer and turned away from the bar to survey the noisy club. He could sum it up as stone walls, dark furniture and a shiny glass bar. People lingered in every corner, every inch. Standing, sitting, swaying to the music that blared loud enough to make him want to scream get off my lawn. Not that he’d ever had one of those. He’d been on the move ever since joining the CIA’s Special Activities Division, or SAD.
He’d managed to date the same woman for four months, a record for him, but it ended months ago when she couldn’t separate the idea of him being attracted to all genders from the possibility of him cheating. She didn’t care that he got shot at for a living or that he wallowed in danger. Nope, his bisexuality scared her.
That shit got old fast.
He wasn’t looking for anyone or anything tonight, but he wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to get his heartbeat racing. If he couldn’t burn off the excess energy working, he’d burn it off the horizontal way.
He glanced around as he sipped his beer. The layout of the building turned out to be pretty simple. A space for dancing and eating upstairs. A slightly quieter section of darkened rooms at the bottom of the stairs. Not exactly secure in terms of having a quick exit, but he was off duty so he limited himself to a cursory check.
The prickly sensation caught him by surprise. He’d know the feeling anywhere. Being stared at, but this time it came without the usual promise of pain and brutality. The energy suggested interest, not attack.
His gaze zipped around the room and landed on the man in the corner. Seth had spied him when he did his usual informal surveillance upon entering a space. The guy’s head had been down then as he studied his phone, but not now. No, the guy was fully engaged and openly staring.
Seth liked a man who knew what he wanted.
He also liked what he saw. Short dark hair. This one had skipped the clean-shaven routine and went with a touch of hair around his mouth and chin. He possessed a laser-like stare. Add to that the kick of interest he didn’t bother hiding and he had Seth’s full attention.
This guy had the whole sexy-nerd-with-broad-shoulders look down. Buttoned-up dress shirt with a tie. The dark glasses. The combination seemed to be kicking Seth’s ass.
And smoldering. Yeah, the guy had that down, too. Drank his beer and watched Seth while he did it. Didn’t break eye contact. Didn’t play games. An unblinking stare. Long fingers loosening his tie. Bend the guy over a table and Seth would have sworn he’d fallen into the live-action version of one of his fantasies.
Apologies to Berlin. Apparently he was looking for something tonight, and he’d found it.
Seth didn’t debate the pros and cons of walking over and checking him out up close. He was definitely going in.
He pushed off from the bar and stalked his way through the groups of people who moved in and out, temporarily breaking his line of sight on this guy. The crowd cleared as Seth reached the table. It fit a large group, yet this guy sat alone. Weird, but Seth had done weird. That didn’t dissuade him.
The room thumped from the music playing upstairs. The beat and the talking merged into a loud crescendo. It amounted to nothing more than a rumble in Seth’s head as the stranger looked him up and down. Looked, then nodded to the seat across from him.
Seth took in the rest of the table as he sat down. Crumpled napkins and empty glasses. Six, maybe seven had been here, but now Mr. Blue Eyes was alone. Alone and hopefully horny.
“So…” Seth brushed his hand over the table in front of him then leaned his elbows on it. “Ich spreche nur ein wenig Deutsch.”
“Well, if you only speak a bit of German, let’s go with English.”
Seth didn’t pick up an obvious accent, so probably an American. “What’s your name?”
Blue Eyes laughed. “Does it matter?”
“Not a bit.” Good, this guy knew the drill. Seth was really starting to like the club or bar or whatever the hell it was. “You want another beer?”
The guy shook his near-empty glass. “You offering to buy me a drink?”
Deep voice. Wasn’t staring at a photo of his mother or wearing snowman pajamas. All good so far, so Seth pushed forward. “It seemed like a better line than asking you what you’re doing here, drinking alone.”
Blue Eyes glanced around at the empty chairs. “I was with people but they headed out for another club. I passed.”
“Not a follower then.” Seth liked that, too.
He did a quick visual assessment. The guy didn’t appear drunk. If he had a weapon, he hid it well because his hands were folded on the table in front of him and the white dress shirt fit nice and snug over that chest. No room to hide anything under there, but Seth was happy to pat him down to double-check.
He ran through his mental checklist to see if this guy ticked a memory or raised a flag. Nothing.
“I’m in the city for a few days before heading out. The idea of hitting a bunch of clubs struck me as…” Blue Eyes winced, as if searching for the right word.
Seth had one. “Desperate?”
That’s how he saw his own visit. He figured it might apply to this guy as well.
Blue Eyes didn’t appear offended. His crooked smile and the intelligence written on that face didn’t fade. “Speaking of which, why are you here, drinking alone?”
“I wasn’t really looking for a party.” Seth hadn’t been looking for much of anything other than a way to burn off a few mindless hours. Drinking sounded better than reading the thin file about his next assignment. He had a few days for that.
Blue Eyes wrapped his fingers around his glass. “What were you looking for?”
No wedding ring. No telltale mark of one he’d removed. Seth leaned back in his chair. He could almost hear the green light click in his head.
Now he needed to know that the interest ran more than one way across the table. “I figured I’d know when I found it.”
“Ah.”
Not quite the response Seth hoped for, but he didn’t scare off easily. He also didn’t mind taking the lead…in fact, he preferred being in charge. “I’m thinking you might be it.”
Blue Eyes leaned in. He didn’t say anything for several beats. The strange stillness winding around them had Seth wondering if he’d miscalculated about the mutual attraction part. The noise of the room and argument of two guys behind him faded into the background as seconds ticked by.
Finally Blue Eyes shot him a smile tinged with a bit of heat. “You should ask me nicely.”
Fuck yeah. Not that Seth planned to beg or look eager. No, there was a rhythm to these things. He’d used back rooms and empty bathrooms more than once for sex. It beat bringing an unknown into his personal space, even if that space amounted to a crappy hotel room.
Sex in small places—right there in public where the danger of detection was at its highest—had become a thing for him. That was one of those pieces of information he planned to keep to himself. His boss wouldn’t care, but some of the more conservative folks higher up in the Special Activities Division frowned on that sort of thing. They thought they could unleash danger and adrenaline junkies on the world and still control them.
Idiots.
“Have you seen the back rooms here…” That was the problem with going nameless, but Seth had a solution. “I could call you Mike or Joe.”
“You could call me sir.”
This guy got hotter by the second.
Heat surged. It hit Seth out of nowhere and set him on fire from the inside out. “I like your style.”
In Seth’s head he’d continue to think of the guy as Blue Eyes because that fit and who needed a real name on the other side of a one-night stand, and that’s exactly what Seth was starting to hope this would be. Fast, hard. Dirty.
Blue Eyes shoved his beer aside. “I wouldn’t mind a tour.”
Energy whipped through Seth. He had to clamp it down to keep from lunging over the table and stripping the crisp white shirt off this guy. “Are your friends coming back?”
Those blue eyes narrowed. “I’m not into group…tours.”
Good to know. Seth liked one-on-one just fine. And lucky for both of them, he’d staked out every room on this floor before ordering his drink. It paid to keep his security skills sharp.
“I was making sure no one would come banging on the door, looking for you during our tour.” He had no intention of getting caught with his pants down or having to stop touching this guy to reach for his gun.
Blue Eyes’s smile came roaring back. “Very considerate of you.”
“You’re about to see how giving I can be.” Seth almost crushed the glass in his hand. He shoved his chair out instead. “Ready?”
“You lead. I’ll follow.”
Seth had to laugh at that. “You bet your ass you will.”
Chapter 2
This was fucking stupid.
Rick Fine knew refusing protection to go off and have sex with a random stranger likely qualified as troubling job behavior. But he hadn’t taken over the office yet and tonight was just for him. Him and the guy with a face that had more than one person in the room—male and female—turning around to catch a second look.
That’s exactly what Rick had noticed first. That face with the firm chin. Followed quickly by the impressive body anchored by those shoulders. The outline of the stomach muscles that actually showed through his long-sleeved T-shirt. How was that even possible?
This guy had the Tall, Dark and Lethal look down. Coal black hair and black eyes. It was a deadly hot combination. So was his walk. Determined and sure. The guy oozed self-assurance.
Having someone else make the first move always turned Rick on. This time was no different. And when the guy looked like this one, rough and ready for action, Rick was in.
Whatever grabbed his attention, Rick wasn’t questioning it. The punch of attraction made it tough for him to focus on anything but this guy. That was the only explanation Rick had for how quickly he put down the beer and got up from the table once the guy started talking about fake building tours. For why he followed him down a long hall right now.
After a few feet, the stranger put his hand on a door marked “private” and turned the knob. Rick half expected someone to jump out or start yelling. Neither happened.
With the door open, Rick could see inside. A windowless room no bigger than a janitor’s closet with a small desk. No papers, not even a pen. No decoration except three filing cabinets lining the wall. Sterile seemed like the right word.
“You stopping for a reason?” The stranger asked the question from inside the room.
It wasn’t until that point that Rick realized he’d been hovering in the hall. If the guy took it as a sign of ambivalence or disinterest, he was dead fucking wrong. “Is this your office?”
“Hell no.” The guy’s gaze traveled around the room, stopping on the filing cabinets, but only for a second. “I think it’s for the accountant or whatever.”
“But we’re alone?”
“We are now, but if you stand there long enough we probably won’t be.”
That was the nudge Rick needed. He slipped inside and closed and locked the door behind him. He was about to say something he hoped would be clever when the stranger pinned him against the back of the door with a hand on either side of his head.
Their mouths met, hot and searching. The guy’s tongue swept over Rick’s, teasing and enticing, as their bodies rubbed together. A punch of heat hit him as their mouths crossed again and again.
Holy shit, this guy could kiss. He reeled Rick in with nothing more than his lips. That was a hell of a gift. It made Rick pretty hot to find out what other skills he possessed.
His hands went to the stranger’s waist. Hard muscles greeted him. Raw grumbling sounds coming from the back of the guy’s throat had Rick pressing in tighter. Frantic now, Rick pulled at the guy’s tee then tugged it up and out of the waistband. His fingers went to the belt, opening the buckle and letting the metal clank as he reached for the zipper.
The tearing sound ripped through the quiet room. It still buzzed in his head as he slipped his hand inside the man’s jeans, down under the elastic band of his briefs until he hit warm skin. Long and thick and the guy kept growing in Rick’s palm.
Rick wrapped his fingers around the stranger’s dick. That was enough for the guy to break off the kiss, but he didn’t pull back. If anything, he moved closer, cutting off the small bit of air moving betwe
en them.
Leaning in, he balanced his forehead against Rick’s. His hands stayed flat against the wall, taking most of his weight as he stared down at Rick’s closed fist. Watched the hand move up and down on him.
Hot breath brushed across Rick’s cheek and the sound of their labored breathing filled the room. Still, Rick cupped and caressed. He stopped only long enough to run his thumb over the tip, back and forth, until a tremor ran through the guy. Satisfied with the reaction, Rick did it a second time.
A second later, the man caught Rick’s mouth with his again. Rick’s hand stopped moving as the kiss seared through him. Lips crossing over lips. Demanding, almost bruising in intensity.
Screw waiting, Rick wanted the stranger in his mouth. He reached up and with a hand on the back of the guy’s neck, Rick deepened the kiss one last time. When he finally pulled back, the guy grabbed for him. But Rick had already started sliding down, skimming the wall until his knees hit the hard floor.
He barely felt the impact. His body was primed and ready. So was the stranger’s, but Rick refused to skip this step.
He shoved the stranger’s jeans down low on his hips and ran his tongue along his length. The stranger swore under his breath as his hands slid down the wall. He was rock hard. Need practically pulsed off him.
But Rick would not be denied. He lowered his head and brought the guy into his mouth. At first, just the tip, sucking and licking, then deeper. His mouth worked and his hand slipped up and down along the base of the guy’s dick. Cupped his balls.
He fought for breath as he took the guy in, swallowing almost all of him before lifting his head again. His hand pumped as he squeezed. Back and forth it went, his mouth and his hand. He used both until the stranger’s hips dipped forward and his knees started to bend.
Guarding Mr. Fine (Tough Love #2) Page 1