by Lexi Blake
And he apparently thought she was dense. “You know I wasn’t talking about you.” She turned to Adam. It had really hurt coming from him. She’d expected someone like Jake to think less of her for what she wrote, but Adam had seemed more tolerant.
“What? Me? Are you serious? How did I make fun of you?” He seemed to really struggle with the idea.
“You obviously read some of the titles of my books. Look, I get that you wouldn’t read a book like that, but I won’t listen to anyone denigrate the choices I’ve made in my lifestyle. You might not understand or accept it, but I will demand that you respect it.”
Jake actually laughed. “The little sub thinks we have problems with BDSM.”
Adam’s eyes rolled. “Yeah, uhm, you do have some problems, sweetheart. How long have you been in the lifestyle? Or are you a little tourist who likes to rage against the machine?”
“I had to take off my leathers to come here. I was at a club called Sanctum.” Jake’s face had softened a bit. “Adam knows my limits. I don’t like pretty subs spouting filth at me in anger. He has a smart mouth, but he would never ridicule you. Lightning would strike.”
Adam smiled at her. “And the earth would shake. Seriously, we don’t think that way. We’re far too odd on our own. And I haven’t read any of your books, but I would like to.”
Jake’s whole body went on wary alert. “We actually need to. From what I understand, this is about your books, correct?”
She was caught between relief and a dangerous joy. She believed them. They really didn’t care. In fact, Jake seemed to be involved in the lifestyle. She didn’t know many men outside the lifestyle who would use the term leathers when talking about a pair of pants. The thought of Jacob Dean in a pair of leathers, his cut chest on display as he nodded to the floor, silently requesting that she kneel at his feet, made her heart pound. About a million questions popped into her brain, but she forced herself to keep to the questions asked. “The man who’s doing this seems to be familiar with my books. Like I said earlier, I thought it was a woman because this person seemed to take issue with some of my plot choices, but now I think it’s a man. I don’t think he likes my books very much. At first I thought he was your run-of-the-mill creep trolling the internet, but lately he’s gotten uglier. He left me a text today.”
“On your cell?” Adam asked. “Where is it?”
“My phone is on the bar in the kitchen,” she said. The minute the words were out of her mouth, Adam took off.
She was alone with Jake.
“Now, who is this Master Storm?” The question came out on a low, ungodly sexy growl. “Is he your Dom? What the hell is he doing somewhere else when you’re in trouble?”
“He’s not my Dom. He’s someone I talk to. I needed to do a little research. We’ve been kind of feeling each other out to see if he wouldn’t mind training me.”
One of the reasons she liked Master Storm was her utter lack of attraction to the man. She wasn’t in danger of falling in love with him. If she was honest with herself, Master Storm was a bit of a puffed-up douche bag, but he did know D/s. She was looking for practical knowledge, not a man who made her heart pound in her chest—even when he wasn’t sneaking up on her.
“I don’t know this man. Where did you meet him? On the internet?”
“I’m not stupid. I met him at a munch. I found a flyer on a fetish lifestyle site, and it invited interested parties to come to a brunch at a local restaurant. First names only. I met Master Storm about two months ago. We’ve been talking on the phone about his philosophies.”
“Have you been talking about what you need?” He was in her space, his big body taking up all the room. She wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten so close. He was tall, at least six foot three, and he seemed to tower over her. His voice was still deep, but it had lost a bit of command.
It was hard to think when he was so close. She could practically feel the heat of his body. “Uhm, we haven’t really gotten around to that. He thinks we should talk about his rules first to see if I can follow them.”
“Drop him. He’s not a Dom. He’s a man who likes control but not responsibility. He’s testing you to see if you’re right for him, but he isn’t thinking about what’s right for you. That should be his first and only qualification. A Dom should find what he needs, too, but what every good Dom needs is to do right by his submissive. If he hasn’t even asked what you need, he’s wrong for you.” His eyes became hooded, and his gaze slid to the floor as though he didn’t really want to look her in the eye. “You should talk to Ian Taggart. He owns Sanctum. He makes it his business to match well-meaning subs with good Doms.”
She shook her head. The last thing she needed was to get more into Lara’s friend’s business. She’d done all right on her own so far. “Thanks, but I can handle it.”
Now his eyes came back up, narrowing. “It’s obvious to me you can’t.”
She was a little offended. He barely knew her, but he was making judgments already? “I didn’t ask your opinion, Mr. Dean. But I’m curious. It’s obvious you can’t stand me. I get that a lot. What exactly is it you don’t like?”
He crowded her just a bit, almost daring her to back away. Serena felt small and a little helpless against him. “I never said I didn’t like you. You’re a beautiful woman.”
“But you don’t seem to like me. You seem to like scaring me.” He wasn’t scaring her now. Fear wasn’t what she felt.
“I did that for your protection. You need to know how vulnerable you really are. You aren’t taking this seriously.”
He said it quietly, as though he actually cared. It brought down her resentment level. It did nothing to bring down her frustration, but still, as she spoke she found herself doing so in a polite, respectful manner. “I don’t understand. I did everything the cops told me to do. I hired a security firm to install an alarm system.”
“It’s not very good.” He’d stopped moving closer, but she felt penned in, as though he’d herded her exactly where he wanted her to go.
Serena refused to give another inch. “How am I supposed to know that? I don’t know anything about this stuff. I paid for it. I know Mojo isn’t a good guard dog, but he was so sweet, I couldn’t let them put him down. And I have a friend who comes over and walks the house and makes sure there’s no one here before I lock myself up for the night.”
“It’s not enough. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”
Humiliation washed over her. She knew what he was saying. “If you don’t believe me, you should leave. I’ll be fine on my own. I’m obviously just an attention-seeking whore.”
He grabbed her elbow. “Don’t call yourself that.”
“Why not? It’s what you were thinking. It’s what the cops think.”
He stared at her for the longest time. She stood there feeling ridiculous. Tears threatened. Why, oh why, couldn’t she be tough like Lara and Bridget? They would just spit in this man’s eyes and tell him to go to hell, but Serena stood there.
“You’re really scared, aren’t you? I require the truth.”
“Yes, some man threatened to hurt me. It scares me. But I think you scare me, too.”
His lips curved up. He wasn’t as gorgeous as Adam. There was a starkness to his features that kept him from being beautiful, but when he smiled, his face transformed. “You’re a smart girl. You keep on being scared. And when I said you were beautiful, I meant it. You’re truly lovely, Serena. The only problem is I know not to trust a beautiful woman. Now be a good girl and get ready for bed. I’m going to sleep in the living room.”
He stepped away, leaving her a little breathless—and a whole lot frustrated. She’d finally found a man who thought she was beautiful, and naturally he didn’t trust her.
Adam strode back into her bedroom like he’d done it a thousand times. He looked at Jake. “You taking first watch? One of us needs to fix the window.”
Jake nodded and without another word walked away toward the ki
Adam rubbed his hands together. “Well, sweetheart, it’s just you and me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Serena asked, pulling her robe tighter.
“It means you’re not sleeping alone tonight.” He tossed his lean body into her comfy chair. It was an overstuffed piece of furniture covered in pink and green flowers. It had been her mother’s, and though it didn’t really go with Serena’s contemporary style, she hadn’t been able to get rid of it. She could still see her mom sitting there, watching over her.
Now Adam Miles made himself comfortable in the chair where Serena read every night. He looked far too masculine for the flowery upholstery, like a sleek jaguar that was stretched out for the night.
“I’ll run a trace on the text tomorrow.” He toed off his loafers and settled into the chair, his longish hair falling over his eyes and making him look years younger.
He was all soft seduction where Jake was one hundred percent alpha male.
“You won’t find anything.” It felt weird to get into bed knowing Adam intended to stay in the room with her. She hadn’t slept with anyone in years. She and Bridget had shared rooms at conventions, but it wasn’t the same. Even that had stopped since Bridget insisted on keeping the room sub-tropical at all times. “Do you need a blanket?”
He closed his eyes. “No. I’m good. Trust me. I’ve slept in far worse places. This is practically heaven.”
“Like where?” The writer inside couldn’t let that go. According to Lara, he was former Special Forces. She would love to hear his stories.
He yawned a little. “Another time, sweetheart. Go to bed. We have a long day tomorrow. You have to meet with Lara to talk about the book launch. You owe three blogs next week, so you should really get those done, and you haven’t sent your editor back your line edits on Their Sweetheart Slave. Oh, and we have to meet with Eve. I scheduled that for the morning.”
She felt her mouth drop open a little. “You looked through my day planner?”
“Oh, yes. And we’re going to upgrade you to a PDA. Really, that day planner thing is a mess. Don’t worry. I’ll have you organized in no time at all. Consider it all part of the service.” His eyes came open. “Don’t hide anything from me, Serena. Jake and I are here to protect you. If that means violating your privacy, I’ll do it, and I won’t blink. You can choose to view it in that fashion or you can treat me like a personal assistant who also happens to know how to kill a man in two point three seconds and not leave a drop of blood. It’s all in your point of view, isn’t it?”
Adam Miles knew how to go for the throat. He might look softer than that caveman currently prowling her living room, but he was no less dangerous.
And she could keep them. For a little while.
Serena climbed into bed, certain she would never be able to sleep. She closed her eyes and for the first time in weeks fell into pleasant dreams.
Chapter Six
Jake punched the button to call the elevator, a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. Serena was quiet, her pretty face a pale white. So very different from the vivacious woman who had woken up and fixed coffee. She’d been smiling this morning, as though her natural vibrancy couldn’t be defeated by anything as inconsequential as two bodyguards in her house.
She’d made a pot of coffee, offered him a cup, and sat down to work, all that soft hair of hers tied in a knot at the top of her head. She’d been happy while she worked. She’d been a little insane. He wondered if she even realized she talked to herself. She’d muttered quietly as she wrote. Jake had found himself watching her, getting caught up in her enthusiasm, wondering exactly what was going on in that head of hers.
The morning had been oddly comfortable.
Until she’d seen her car.
Jake hadn’t even thought about it. He’d assumed she had known about the long scratch.
“While you’re talking to Eve, we’re going to run a few things through our system.” Adam had been the one to hold her while she cried over her car. Jake had held himself apart, preferring to spend his time on the phone with the police. Not preferring, exactly, but he had forced himself to stay away. “After we take a few pictures of the car and check for prints, I promise I’m going to make sure your car gets fixed. And we’ll park it in the garage tonight.”
She sniffled, the sound doing strange things to Jake’s gut. “He’ll just do it again. It’s not really about the car. I mean, it is, but it isn’t.”
Adam reached out and touched her. Damn, Jake envied Adam’s ability to just do what felt good to him. “It symbolizes something, doesn’t it?”
She nodded, proving Adam, as always, was right on target when it came to reading a woman. “It was the first thing I bought after I really started selling books. You have to understand, my husband had divorced me. My parents are dead so I don’t have support there. I had friends who sided with Doyle. They couldn’t believe I would write a book like that. They didn’t actually read it, just saw the cover. My first couple of checks were small. I managed to pay off my portion of Doyle’s debt because, yay, we split that. And then after my fifth book came out, I got a check that was free and clear, and I bought the car of my dreams.”
“It’s a gorgeous car.” Adam smiled at Serena, but his eyes sought out Jake’s. Jake knew it was his cue to say something, anything.
“I like it. It’s got a great engine. 3 liter V6.” Yeah. That sounded good. He was really fucking smooth.
She turned to him, her eyes finally lighting up a little. “I wasn’t thinking about the engine. I was thinking about the fact that Doyle never let me buy anything but a crappy sedan. We only had the one car. I had to take the bus to work. I had to take the bus everywhere.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. The bus could be dangerous. He would never let his sub take a bus if he wasn’t there to make sure she was all right. And his wife? God, he couldn’t imagine driving off in a car when his wife was forced to take a bus. What the hell kind of man did that?
The elevator finally dinged, and she started to walk in. Adam’s eyes widened in a way that told Jake he wasn’t doing something right. He leaned in.
“Escort her. Treat her like a lady.” Adam’s words were low, meant only for Jake’s ears.
Jake wasn’t exactly sure how he was supposed to escort her to the elevator. But he could make more of an effort. He’d sat up for what had felt like forever looking through her house. He’d found a stack of trade paperbacks she’d written. He’d picked up the first Texas Sweethearts book. He hadn’t put it back down.
Serena wrote ménage, and not some crazy sex book where the woman simply slept with a bunch of men. She wrote about love. She wrote about love between one woman and two men who couldn’t seem to live without each other. For the first time in his life, he’d read a book and seen a piece of himself.
He was dying to ask her if she’d been in the center of a ménage before. He just couldn’t figure out a way to ask the question without seeming like a freak. Or a pervert. He’d already scared the crap out of her. He’d been a little surprised when she’d put a cup of coffee in front of him with a smile on her face.
“Uhm, what floor do you want?” That was polite, right?
Adam snorted but Serena smiled, a wide grin on her face. “I think it’s the fifteenth floor. But you’re the one who works here, so you might know better than me.”
God, he was a dumbass. He was so much better when he was just killing something. He jabbed the button for his floor. “Sorry.”
She pushed her glasses up. They made her look like a supercute librarian. “It’s okay. I forget stuff all the time. And I’m sorry I made such a big deal about the car. I know it can be fixed. And that car has gotten me in trouble before. It’s kind of why Doyle decided to sue my ass.”
The elevator started to rise. He could smell her shampoo. Citrus. He loved that smell. He hadn’t realized how much he loved the smell of citrus. “How did it get you in trouble?”
Adam beamed his way as though Jake was a toddler who’d just learned to say please. Jake was going to kick his ass later.
Her nose wrinkled as she confessed. “Bridget and I might have driven the car off the lot and gone straight to Doyle’s place. We might have stopped in front of his mailbox where he was standing talking to some of his stuffy friends from the college. I might have shot him the finger and yelled that he made a huge mistake.”
Jake couldn’t help but smile. He totally understood the impulse. There were plenty of assholes he would love to shoot the bird at.
“He probably wouldn’t have figured out I was making so much money if I had just left well enough alone. I kind of told him he was a dumbass for walking away from a slot machine just before it paid out.”
“Yes, you probably should have left well enough alone,” Adam said with a frown on his face.
But some things were worth doing. Jake understood that. “I bet it felt good.”
The smile on her face heated his blood. She was getting under his skin. “Yes. It felt good. I would do it again. No matter what it cost.”
“The cost could be half your income,” Adam grumbled.
She seemed to shrink a bit. “It won’t. My lawyer says it’s just a ploy. He’s being irritating on the off chance that I’ll pay him to go away. My lawyer doesn’t think he has a leg to stand on in court.”
Jake thought about slapping Adam upside the head. She’d had a smile on her face, and now she’d shut down again. He glared his partner’s way. Adam’s eyes flared. Jake tilted his head.
What? Those wide eyes told Jake that Adam was going to be obtuse.
Stop fucking this up.
“Wow, you two are having a whole conversation with a series of small tics. That is deeply interesting.” Serena watched them with wide eyes.
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