Raiden: A Stand Alone, Irish Mob Crime Romance (The Kent Brothers Book 2)
Page 2
Gemini and Isla cracked up.
My first meeting with the Kents was… overwhelming. Acer was more excited than a kid with a new puppy. Cruze was broody, and Raiden… all I can say about him was he was flammable. Now I understood what Isla had been saying. These men were like nothing I’d ever encountered.
“What do you think about this?” Acer asked.
“I think we need to switch that up. You know how the human trafficking works with bids? The drug business doesn’t work that way. The cartels are very suspicious of who they deal with and take their ownership seriously. We have to approach them with much more caution.”
“Cruze, what do you think?” Acer asked.
“She’s the expert on who these people are. We should do what she recommends.”
“And Raiden? What about you?” Acer liked to ask the questions.
I peered over the laptop I was typing on to see him gazing intently at me. Eyes like pools of aquamarines I could gaze at for days, a day’s or more worth of scruff on chiseled cheeks, and capped with dark hair messed to perfection. I lost myself in his expression until his lips curved into a hint of a grin.
“I’ll go with what Scottie recommends. She understands the drug world better than any of us.” Then he switched gears on me. “So how did you end up with Wolfe?”
“Uh, Gemini and I worked together on a case. The DEA hired WI for something we’d been working on. The job offer came afterward.”
“Then, Scottie Sullivan, give us what you got. Let’s see how good you really are.” His half-hooded gaze sent shivers racing over every inch of my skin. This man spelled trouble. Maybe not. Maybe I could just ride him a few times. That idea heated my core, which was not good. Mind out of the gutter and all that. I would not have dirty thoughts about this man. I’d been warned, by his sister-in-law, of all people.
No dirty thoughts, Scottie. Repeat that. It didn’t work.
We went to work, but honestly, with him by my side, it was hard to concentrate. He occasionally did this thing with his tongue where he’d poke it out and then run it across the center of his lower lip. That tiny movement sent me squirming in my seat. One time he caught me and one brow arched. My cheeks heated to the temperature of a kiln. I’d dressed entirely too warm for being near him too. Perspiration dripped down the valley between my breasts. I’d already taken off my cardigan but would have to put it on again so sweat blotches didn’t show on my shirt.
When the day was close to ending, Cruze said, “I’m calling it. I have other work to do. You guys can continue or do you want to meet tomorrow?”
“We have a lot to do yet. I say we continue tomorrow,” Acer said.
“Good idea, but I have calls in the morning so can we meet after lunch? Will that work, Scottie?” Raiden asked.
“Works for me. It’ll let me run some things at WI in the morning.” I stood and his eyes slowly dragged up my body. This intense pull settled over me and I noticed his frown. Was it my imagination or did he feel it too? Or was he not pleased with what he saw?
I stuffed all my things into my bag and headed for the door.
Raiden’s voice stopped me. “Hold up. You need an escort to get out.”
“Why? I didn’t need one to get in.”
“This is like Hotel California. You can check in, but you can’t ever leave.” A chuckle rippled out of him and the other two only shook their heads.
Acer said, “He loves to say that and we can’t figure out why.”
“It’s simple, Little Guy. You can get up here after the security desk approves you, but you need a code to get on the elevator.”
“Little Guy?” I asked.
Acer wasn’t amused. “That’s been my moniker since birth. It’s comical when you see I’m actually taller than either of these two dudes.”
He was. Not by much, but he had them there.
“True, but you’ll always be our Little Guy. Sorry, dude. It’s pure love.”
The affection between them was clear. They played around and teased each other, but it was all done with joy. I used to have that with my family until… I shoved those thoughts away.
I heard a bark and then scratching at the door. Acer opened it and a medium-sized shaggy dog ran in with tail wagging. “Scottie, meet Ruffles. She belonged to my wife, but now she’s mine too.” He bent down and scratched the dog’s belly. She was cute. After she had her fill, she ran to all the others in the room to get a belly rub. I was last on the list and new to her. First, she gave me a good sniffing, then sat against my leg and put up a paw.
“Aw, she’s precious.”
“And spoiled. Don’t let the sweet face fool you. She’ll be stealing your lunch right in front of you,” Cruze said.
“That’s okay, isn’t it, girl? You can have my lunch any day.”
Acer commented, “Only if you take her for a walk. No people food so she doesn’t become one of those super fat dogs. Like that one beagle who got up to ninety pounds.”
Raiden took my bag and asked, “You ready?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
We walked to the elevator, and he entered a code for the door to open. Then he said, “I look forward to tomorrow. Have a nice evening.”
My throat was too dry to respond. I walked inside the metal box and stared back at him until the doors wiped his appearance away. Then I sagged against the wall.
Chapter Two
Raiden
Scottie Sullivan. Smart, quick-witted, and above all, sexy as fuck—which brought me to my next point. I was so damn hard I fled to the bathroom in my office to jack off. If this would be my daily routine, I’d have to do something about it. I never mixed work and business. Many successful men and women had been destroyed by that. However, she was not my direct report, and technically, she didn’t even work for Kent Enterprises. We worked on a team together. Did that free me from any obligation I had? Maybe. I’d have to figure something out because I wanted Scottie Sullivan and when I wanted a woman, I usually got her.
Her ideas for the software had been spot on. Acer’s enthusiasm was a bit overboard, though. I’d have to talk with him. Human trafficking was one thing. Drugs another. He wanted to influence this as he did the former. It was fine, but her intel into drug rings was much more viable than what he brought to the table. She understood the TOR browser and its encryption, which was an enormous benefit to us. We did too, but it was great her knowledge of it was so substantial. She had more intel on it than we did. Most people, if they were smart, stayed off the dark web, but our line of work put us in the thick of it.
Cruze called me that night.
“What do you think about her?”
“Professionally?”
His laugh was so loud I had to hold the phone away from my ear. “I knew you were checking her out. But yes, professionally.”
“She’s a win. She can do things for us that we can’t do ourselves. Too bad Wolfe found her first.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Cruze sighed. “You going to hit that thing?”
“Shut up. Do you have to be so crass?”
“What? I tell it like it is. The drool was practically pooling on the table in front of you.”
“Shut it, man. I’m serious.”
“Dude, so am I. Rein it in unless you want her to figure you out.”
“And what if I do?”
“Fine with me. Just don’t let it cause issues with our work.”
“It won’t.”
“Better not. That’s always been the one thing we’ve been pristine about.”
“Cruze, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Good. Since we have that settled, do you have time to go over the Q2 reports?”
“Yeah. Let me grab my computer.”
An hour later we finished. Not really, but done for tonight. Our earnings were up by twenty-eight percent and it was because of the latest software that Acer helped develop. He’d get a hefty check from that again, which made Cruze and me happy.
After I wiped up the mess, I rolled over and fell asleep. My alarm woke me at six. I dressed for my morning workout, which began with a run, followed by weights. My trainer met me outside my house and urged me to run much harder and faster than I would ever do on my own. After we finished, we came back inside to my home gym where we worked on upper body—lats, bis, and tris. My muscles were jittery as I showered. He always pushed me to my limits, which was why I’d hired him after the Little Guy, aka Acer, had dusted me in arm wrestling. It was working. I’d slacked off on working out, but was back on full steam.
My house was only a ten-minute drive from the company headquarters. I’d done this on purpose as I didn’t want a long commute every day. Grabbing my recovery protein shake, I headed out.
Work was insane that morning. One call after the next with no breaks in between. Elena, my admin, kept the coffee rolling and by lunch a headache was brewing. I usually ate a midmorning snack, but didn’t have time today.
I was preparing to head home for some lunch when Elena stopped me.
“You have lunch today in the conference room.”
“I do? It’s not on the schedule.”
“Your brothers added it this morning. I couldn’t inform you because you were unavailable. They’re waiting for you.”
“Fine.” Instead of turning left for the elevators, I turned right for the conference room.
I opened the doors saying, “Fuck, I’m starving. The morning was brutal. I didn’t have time to—” and that’s when I noticed Scottie sitting there.
“Time to what?” Acer asked.
“Eat.”
“Sit down and grab something then. There’s a variety to choose from. And the best thing is, I ordered, so it’s healthy.” Acer was proud of himself. Cruze usually ordered junk that neither of us liked, but he did it to be funny. He ate healthy too, but it was a game we had going between us.
“Don’t you guys ever eat burgers and fries?” Scottie wanted to know. Her nose wrinkled, and it reminded me of a rabbit.
“Sometimes, when Cruze orders lunch,” Acer told her. “But we like to keep our diets clean.”
“Ugh, I need to do that, but after all those years in law enforcement, it’s hard to kick the fast food habit.”
“I bet you love the donuts Gemini brings into WI?” Acer asked.
“Oh, those are orgasmic.” Then her face turned as red as a cherry as she looked me square in the eye. A vision of her with a donut in her mouth as she came popped into my head. Hmm. I wonder if we could work that out somehow.
“I’ll buy you donuts,” I blurted out. My brothers turned to me and Acer’s mouth hung open.
He slammed it shut and said, “You never buy donuts.”
Lifting a shoulder, I casually replied, “I’m changing.”
Cruze chuckled, and it was a knowing laugh. The rat bastard.
When my attention turned back to Scottie, she was rooting around in her tofu-whatever-concoction that Acer ordered, looking busy.
“Finding anything you like in there?” I teased.
“It’s not as bad as I thought, but it’s no burger and fries either.”
She ate what was in front of her and wasn’t picky. Another positive sign. Women who complained about food or other things annoyed me. I’d dated too many women who whined about too many things. Scottie didn’t seem to be that way… yet.
After we all finished eating, we went straight to work. She’d come up with some great ideas since yesterday, and we all voted to implement them. The cost was insignificant versus what they would add to the program. It had to do with throwing in DNA profiles of the potential perps.
“How did you guys make the jump from cyber security to this?” she asked as she typed away.
“It was a gradual thing,” Cruze began. “We established this business in college with one software program and when we finished school, we entered the cyber security side of things. That was the time the software need exploded. Then we expanded that into software for large corporations, such as banks. We continued our growth and expansion, staying in that line of work. We entered the international market and before we knew it, our software became a household name. We have the hackers to thank for helping us. Identity theft made us who we are today.”
“That’s fascinating, not to mention impressive.”
Her warm glance made me want to strut around the table. No doubt, this woman must end up in my bed. She just had to. I was on Mission Scottie. And I wasn’t referring to the missionary one, but I certainly wouldn’t turn that down.
Chapter Three
Scottie
The weeks I’d spent working with the Kents was exciting… and frustrating as hell. Sexually frustrating. My usual MO was to stay clear of men in the workplace, but Raiden Kent was sending me signals that were hard to ignore. The intense glances he would cast toward me was one thing, but his physical appearance was overwhelming. He was the most attractive man I’d ever laid eyes on. Striking. Commanding. Authoritative. Brilliant. And arousing. The deep sound of his voice turned me on, which made working with him very difficult. It was hard to pay attention to what I was doing when all I could envision was him fucking me.
It had been entirely too long since I’d been laid. I needed to buy a new vibrator. I’d worn my old one out and threw it away before I moved. Never expecting to meet someone like Raiden, I could use a good battery-operated boyfriend right now. If I didn’t get one soon, I’d end up with carpal tunnel syndrome. My poor hand was getting a workout it didn’t deserve.
Watching him eat was pure seduction, and he was completely unaware. The fork sliding through his lips, and his tongue following through, had me headed to the bathroom so I’d stop squirming and squeezing my thighs together. It was quite a quad and glute strengthener, but one I didn’t need in the workplace. I’d never masturbated in a public bathroom before. It was borderline obscene, not to mention ridiculous.
We worked through the afternoon and I was proud there were no more bathroom trips. Every time I felt myself getting aroused, I’d pinch my thigh. It would resemble an eggplant by the time the day was over, but it was the only way to manage the situation.
Raiden escorted me to the elevator when the day ended, which he usually did, and we struck up a conversation about the weekend. It was Friday, and he began by asking, “Any exciting plans for tonight?”
Other than putting on my jammies and binge-watching Netflix, like I did every weekend, there was zilch on the calendar.
“Not tonight, I don’t.”
“Does that mean you have plans for tomorrow night?”
I cast him a glance and asked, “Are you just curious or you asking for a particular reason?”
“Yeah, I thought if you were free, maybe we could grab some dinner tonight.”
I paused. Not wanting to sound like an eager pup, I answered, “Hmm. Can I get back to you on that?”
“What’s there to think about?”
“You’re not going to take me to one of those places that only serves sprouts and tofu, are you?”
He cocked his head and guffawed. It was contagious and soon I was laughing too.
“Not a sprouts and tofu fan, huh?”
“Not that there’s anything wrong with them because I’ll eat just about anything, but after that healthy lunch, I need to score some meat.”
That didn’t come out exactly like I’d planned, and he smirked. Oh, Lordy, was he sexy when he did that.
“Score some meat, huh? That can definitely be arranged, Ms. Sullivan.”
&nb
sp; Jesus, my face was on fire. What the hell had I been thinking?
“Uh, I was thinking more along the lines of a burger or steak.”
His hand moved over his chest. “What a disappointment. My hopes were raised for nothing.”
“Oh, stop it. I’m sure you have women falling at your feet.”
“Falling at my feet, huh?”
“Yeah. Snap your fingers and they come running.”
“I can’t deny there’s not a shortage of them, but there’s one problem.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
The elevator dinged, and the doors whooshed open. He bent his head and whispered, “None of them are you.” His warm breath fanned over my neck and I shivered. I wanted to imagine his breath over the most intimate bits of me. Next, he said, “Hand me your phone.”
“My phone?”
“Yes. I want to text you my number.”
I unlocked it and handed it to him, allowing him to do as he asked. He gave it back but grabbed my hand when he did. “I’ll pick you up at seven. Text me your address. And Scottie?”
“Yes?”
“Be prepared for meat.”
I swallowed the brick of desire in my throat as the elevator doors closed. Holy hotness. Was I in store for a good fucking tonight or was that my wildly overactive imagination?
Regardless, I rushed home, took a long shower, shaved so I was as smooth as a baby’s butt all over, and began to get ready. Then I remembered I didn’t text him my address. When I did, I asked him what to wear.
I prefer you naked, but casual is fine.
He certainly was forward. Wait, maybe that was a joke.
I texted him back. Pretty sure the restaurant wouldn’t lol.
My phone immediately dinged.
Ms. Sullivan, if I picked you up, and you were naked, rest assured, we would not be going to a restaurant. We would head straight for your bed.
He wasn’t joking. I bit my lip as I thought about how to handle this. Putting on my brave panties, I texted back: Forget the restaurant. Come to my place and we’ll order in.