“Okay. So where was I? Oh, right. You asked where Tori came from.” Alex eased onto a step and flexed his leg while he gathered his thoughts. Just like Alex, Drae thought wryly. Pull together the basic information. Sift through it. Decide which points were worth sharing, and go from there. He hadn’t been their commanding officer for no good reason. Even so, if he didn’t get on with it, Drae was going to smack him.
After a minute, Alex scrubbed his hand through already mussed hair, making it even worse. He couldn’t look any more like an absentminded professor if he tried.
“Around eighteen months ago, the agency sent some randos from the B team to do security for a beauty contest. It was good practice for our guys, herding a bunch of pageant models through a big media event. Anyway, our liaison from the pageant coordinators was a woman named Stephanie Bennett. Former beauty queen. Two months ago, she contacted us again for an upgrade consultation. I handled the technical stuff and during one of our conversations she mentioned a daughter. Do you remember that British financial scandal last year?”
Drae did remember. He’d been in Europe at the time with the heartthrob superstar kid. Staying on top of what was going on with the press had been part of his security headache. When the banks and brokerage houses scandal hit, the story had exploded in the tabloids. Those things always got ugly, and he pitied anyone who had gotten caught in the mess.
“Well, it seems that the whistleblower was none other than Tori Bennett.”
Drae blew a dramatic whistle at the shocking reveal. Searching his memory, the basics of the scandal popped up. Some rich guy’s financial house of cards had been toppled by a do-gooder, supposedly a girlfriend. Victoria was involved? That hardly seemed likely.
“I know! Right?” Alex chortled when he spied Drae’s look of astonishment. “She doesn’t seem the type but the way her mother told it, she was overwhelmed and duped by an older man who played the game very well. He was a Duke or an Earl or something. Earl of Bullshit if you ask me!”
Drae struggled to wrap his mind around what he was hearing. That diminutive lump of no-frills brown had taken down half of Europe’s financial big-wigs? Oh man, this was getting good.
“The tabloids chewed her up and spit her out according to her mom. Judging by how Tori came off when she got here, I’d say the whole thing traumatized her pretty damn good. Y’know I hate that kind of shit. Why is it the people with a moral compass are so often the ones who get run over?”
He wasn’t surprised when Alex started talking ethics and the principles of behavior. No one was more honorable or decent than Alexander Marquez. The man still carried the burdens of having been a wartime commander. People died on his watch and not just the bad guys.
“In the end, it was an enormous shit-storm. She bolted back to the states and went in to seclusion at her mother’s. To be honest, I was curious by the story so I did some checking around.”
The raised eyebrow of surprise Drae offered earned him a stern look in return. “Not the scandal, you dickhead. I was curious about the woman who single-handedly spanked so many rich and powerful people. Being an economic prodigy meant her services were in high demand. I discovered that she’d come to the attention of financial bigwigs from Wall Street to the London Stock Exchange. That’s how she wound up overseas.”
“So let me get this straight. Your new assistant is a financial Einstein who you rescued from tabloid infamy? Am I anywhere near the truth?”
“You hit it right on the mark, actually.” Alex laughed. “But do not go comparing me to Cam! This rescue most definitely isn’t going to lead to romance. I’m no knight in shining armor. She needed to start over and with her mad skills, I’d have been an idiot not to snap her up. Really, Drae. Once you get to know her you’ll see she’s fucking brilliant. She’s got a head for details and doesn’t ask stupid questions. I’d say that makes her a perfect fit for the agency.”
Conversation essentially over, the two broke apart and swam several dozen laps, churning the pool with their workout. Drae considered everything he’d learned about the woman he couldn’t dismiss from his thoughts as he pulled his body through the water. With each punch of his hands hitting the surface, his mind picked apart the information available. No matter how he tried, there was no way to realistically link the prim and proper creature he’d met last night with the very different picture Alex gave of Victoria Bennett.
Tori was in search of her boss. When Alex didn’t turn up at his usual time or text her with a change of plans, she dutifully got down to business and awaited his arrival. She’d eaten up a big chunk of time doing random nothingness until her restless frustration turned to irritation. Where the hell is he?
Admitting that patience wasn’t one of her best qualities, she tried to diffuse her annoyance with positive thoughts and failed miserably. She leaned down and scratched Alex’s big Labrador behind her ears, mumbling to her about how irritating men could be.
Finally, she decided to find out what was going on. If Alex hadn’t wanted to work today, he should have said so, dammit. She hated when things were disorganized, and she especially objected to wasted time. There were easily fifty things she could have focused on instead of where the hell her boss was.
Furiously pushing her glasses back on the bridge of her nose, Tori stood and grabbed for her cellphone while mumbling under her breath, “Heaven save me from all men! They are more damn trouble than they’re worth. Even the brilliant ones …”
Shooing Zeus from the workspace and into the doggie bed Alex kept nearby, Tori clomped her way out of the building and started her search. It hadn’t taken long to head in the right direction after she’d run in to Ben, the property manager, and he told her to check by the pool. The pool? Really? It was a workday, after all. Wasn’t it a bit early to be lounging about? Ugh!
Continuing on, she searched for the swimming area, startled when she found a long, open cabaña that was more a luxurious outdoor living room than a place to put pool loungers. The pool itself was enormous. Easily forty or fifty meters in length with a second raised platform at the end complete with spa and waterfall. The overall affect was out of this world!
What was also bang-up fantastic was the scene she’d stumbled upon. While Alex pounded out steady laps in the pool, Mr. 007 himself was standing nearby, toweling off. With his back to her she had the perfect opportunity and vantage point to survey Draegyn St. John’s, er….attributes and boy, she wasn’t disappointed.
Not every guy looked good in swim trunks. That would not be true in this case. Holy shit. Tori watched, glued to the spot as he lifted a leg to dry it off, giving her an appetizing view of the way the dark blue suit with contrasting trim molded to his body. No one had the right to look that hot! Her brain was cataloging the moment. L-A-S-C-I-V-I-O-U-S. Adjective, meaning feeling or revealing overt sexual interest. That pretty much said it all.
Next thing she knew, he put his leg down and turned to look at her. No, he wasn’t just looking. More like gaping. Yep, yep. He was gaping at her while she ate him alive with her eyes. Dammit all! She’d totally gotten caught ogling one of her bosses. Wasn’t this when the earth was supposed to crack open and swallow her alive?
Well, there was nothing to do then but slap a business-like expression on her face and pretend that she had even a shred of dignity left. Pushing at her glasses in a purely reflexive move, she strode forward as confidently as her trembling legs would allow. Brushing past him with only a nod would be rude so she slowed her pace, while he stood there watching her, a towel clutched in his hand. She wished like bloody hell that the wet bathing suit did a better job of concealing what was going on in his trunks. The closer she got, the harder it was to keep her eyes from wandering south on his torso.
“Um, good morning Mister St. John. I was searching for Alex, and it seems that I found him,” she indicated by nodding her head toward the pool. “If you’ll excuse me,” she mumbled trying to slide past him.
“I believe last night we agreed you woul
d call me Draegyn, and good morning to you as well, Victoria.” The way he said her name made warmth spread through her veins. She didn’t welcome the feeling one bit.
Shrugging and pushing at her glasses, she took a step away, biting her lip until it hurt. “Okay, uh….you’re right, Draegyn. Sorry. Please don’t let me keep you. I really should go speak to Alex.”
The smile he shot her way held a trace of icy brutishness. “You didn’t seem in that much of a hurry a moment ago.” His smirk was meant to let her know she’d been caught at what men high-five each other for doing every damn day, checking out a gorgeous piece of ass. His arrogance made her furious. She’d had enough of smug, self-centered, conceited men to last a lifetime. Screw him.
“Yes, well,” she sniped, pulling straight every inch of her five and a half foot frame. “I was blinded for a moment.” His smug reaction to her words was so damn predictable. The disparaging smile she offered in return wiped the grin from his face. “The sun must have been in my eyes.” Snap! He looked a little stunned at her obvious attempt at a putdown.
She managed to dash forward and slide past him before either of them could say anything else. It was a struggle not to look over her shoulder at his reaction. When his laughter split the air she didn’t know whether to be relieved or mortified. That man was definitely going to be trouble. She had to steer clear of him at all costs. She knew she was being prickly, but honestly, what was she supposed to do? Hadn’t the last few months been horrible enough? Some lessons were learned the hard way. This was her chance to start over. Entertaining dirty thoughts about someone she worked for was a stretch too far.
Some time later, long after the rest of the day had flown by, Drae was remembering the surprising encounter he’d had this morning with Victoria. He’d messed with her simply because he could and was shocked when she shut him down. When he discovered her lurking near the cabaña, it was as if by thinking about her that she had been conjured up out of thin air.
Of course if that had been the case, he would have materialized better clothes than what she’d been wearing. Her fashion sense was appalling. The way she dressed was like fingernails on a chalkboard for a man like Drae. Everything she wore was downright repulsive, from the god-awful clogs to the painfully dour-looking trousers that made her look like a blob.
Women were mysterious and sometimes complicated beings. Mostly, he appreciated the endless sizes, shapes, and colors that they came in. He hadn’t earned the reputation he had without finding the opposite sex appealing and challenging. Victoria Bennett simply did not fit any type or sort of female he’d previously encountered. Was she trying to make herself downright fugly? He didn’t get it. Not only that, everything about her conflicted with the image of a savvy, economic guru in the high-powered atmosphere of the financial world. Grabbing a beer from his fridge, he decided to take ride on the Internet and see for himself what he could find out about Miss Victoria Bennett. Occupational hazard? Perhaps. Being skeptical came naturally to him.
An hour and another beer later, Drae had more questions than answers, although a clearer picture was starting to form in his mind. Googling the scandal resulted in a flood of sensational tabloid reports. Typical crap, but it told him a lot. All of it amped up for maximum shock value.
She had indeed been recruited by one of the top financial firms in London. The reports made her sound like a female nerd. Head for numbers, plain Jane with a scary ability to decipher complex systems. No wonder Alex scooped her up. He couldn’t help but wonder if she was prickly and stern with everyone or if it was just him that set her off. In his view, the lady was an enigma, but Alex seemed to be having an entirely different experience with her.
From the images and news clips came other evidence. The petite, smartly styled woman in the photos didn’t much resemble the drab techie scurrying around the Justice compound. Some serious shit must have gone down. That was the only way to explain her transformation from quiet elegance to dowdy.
He tried not to be influenced by the snarky tone of the tabloid reports, preferring to come to his own conclusions, but the relentless insistence that she’d been a nobody who saw a chance to gain a title and an easy life had hit the mark. His deeply held belief that women were self-serving opportunists with an eye on the prize jaded his outlook. Was Victoria one of those types?
Slamming the empty beer bottle on the desk, Drae eased back in the suede desk chair, letting his head fall back on the rest. Why was he so damn curious about the little brown mouse? He must be bored or distracted by the lack of female companionship now that he was back in Arizona. He never brought women to his home, ever. Seducing everything that moved was one thing; doing it in his own bed was another.
The unexpected loss of control in the shower last night had more to do with a good case of sexual frustration than the woman invading his thoughts. He grinned knowing she’d probably be horrified to learn he’d been fantasizing about her as he came. Women generally didn’t find that shit amusing. When his sex started coming alive at the mere thought, he groaned like a dying man. No way was tonight going to end like last night. Mind over matter, right? Shit.
Shutting down the computer was his final thought on the matter. Victoria Bennett wasn’t the first stray soul to wind up at the Villa, nor would she be the last. The unique solitude that came from living and working in the bubble of a desert ranch had proved healing for so many. He, Alex, and Cam included. He wouldn’t begrudge the little mouse her opportunity to do the same.
Coffee. Where’s the goddamn coffee? Tori was out of sorts and cranky as hell as she slammed around her tiny kitchen. Not even another glorious southwest day was making a bit of difference in her mood. She liked the constant sunshine, warm climate, and desert vistas she’d found in Arizona. Such a change from grey, damp England. But right now, she didn’t give a good goddamn about the weather. All she could concentrate on was mainlining some caffeine, stat!
Frustrated, she pulled handfuls of unruly hair away from her face, yanking the mess into a sloppy bun on top of her head, securing it with a clip she’d found discarded on the counter. Padding in bare feet across the cool tiles of the eat-in kitchen, she thumped a cabinet door shut then stood there, hands on hips, looking as frustrated and ragged as she felt. There was nothing like an edgy sleepless night to bring out the foulest of her moods.
After the humiliating scene with Draegyn at the pool when he’d caught her checking him out, she’d focused like a laser for the rest of the day on anything and everything that could divert her thoughts. Distracting herself from mulling over every detail of the man’s chiseled features. It hadn’t been easy.
Emotionally exhausted by the end of the day, she’d been relieved to shut the door on the outside world and retreat to her mini-apartment. Mister Secret Agent had been wreaking havoc on her senses the whole damn day. She was keyed up, restless, and fighting a good case of sexual frustration brought on by her acute awareness of Draegyn St. John’s masculine charms.
Nothing she did banished him from her mind. She tried doing mundane chores like laundry and tidying up her bathroom, but he was there with her the whole time. It had made her edgy and even more restless. In a final ditch attempt to rein in her careening senses, she’d curled up on the overstuffed sofa with a pile of books at her side. Reading was a favorite pastime. Her most secret guilty pleasure was an unabashed love for trashy romance novels. There was nothing like a good bodice-ripper.
Unfortunately, reading only made matters worse. During one particularly steamy scene from the book she’d chosen, the dashing hero had been swimming in his birthday suit when the startled heroine innocently stumbled upon the private moment. The description of Lady Abigail’s eyes tracing the drops of water falling down a firmly muscled chest, and the way the sexy Duke was described in full, sensual detail, had been like adding jet fuel to the flames simmering in her insides.
She wasn’t totally inexperienced when it came to the opposite sex. Okay, maybe more like mostly inexperienced, but
still, that had to count for something. She’d been intimate before although looking back, intimate might be using the word in a stretch. Her college boyfriend had been an uncomplicated geek who challenged her mind way more than her senses. Keith was a nice guy who hadn’t elicited much excitement between the sheets. He preferred a lights out, sex by the numbers approach that was as predictable as it was bland. She got to know his moves by heart. A little bit of awkward kissing followed by a boob grab that was more medical exam than sexy caress. Eventually, he’d put a finger inside her. Just one. He didn’t care for touchy feely stuff so touching him was a no. The actual act never lasted more than a few quick minutes and was more of the same follow-the-numbers stuff. Insert, pause, thrust, pause, and then pause some more usually followed by a minute of silent bucking before uninspiring Keith shot his load into the condom he insisted on. It was all so clinical and detached.
She had yearned for the sort of heart pounding lovemaking she’d read about in books, but alas, mild-mannered Keith wasn’t going to rise to that standard. Ever. Tori wondered if men like the titillating alpha males she was drawn to in the literary realm actually existed in real life. Wallace certainly hadn’t fit the bill either. Just thinking about him made her skin crawl and bile rise in her throat.
Where the hell was that package of coffee pods she’d just bought? Thinking of the smarmy, two-timing Earl made quickly downing a jolt of caffeine an absolute necessity. Even the slightest reminder of the way she’d been deluded by his suave, aristocratic approach got her anger up. Unfortunately, a cabinet door got the worst of it as she slammed it shut with a resounding smack.
Scuffling around the tiny kitchen, she finally located the coffee and made fast work of getting a steaming hot beverage in her hand. Would it help her think more clearly and be less of a grump? Probably not. Her sleepless night was the result of fantasizing about the yummy Draegyn St. John, not the unctuous Wallace Evingham. The two men could not have been more different.
Fixing Justice Page 4