RE/PAIRED
Michele Zurlo
www.loose-id.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
Loose Id Titles by Michele Zurlo
Michele Zurlo
Re/Paired
Copyright © April 2013 by Michele Zurlo
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
eISBN 9781623001940
Editor: Tamzin Mitchell
Cover Artist: Fiona Jayde
Published in the United States of America
Loose Id LLC
PO Box 809
San Francisco CA 94104-0809
www.loose-id.com
This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning
This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id LLC’s e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.
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Dedication
HB: Thanks for having a devious mind.
Acknowledgments
This would not have been possible without help from my friends. Master Mike provided a great sounding board and more than a little insight into a Dom’s mind. Suzy kept me sane and helped hash out plot details. And of course, I have to thank my editor, Tamzin, who is always perceptive and positive.
Chapter One
“Keith. I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”
The small backyard had been transformed into a beach paradise. Blow-up pools of all sizes and shapes were filled with ice. Some held drinks and food that needed to stay cold. Others contained water and people.
Colorful tropical flowers littered every surface, wound around table legs, and hung from the two canopies erected for shade. Keith reflected that the setup matched the personality of the hostess very well. He smiled at the woman who had been a surrogate mother to him for the past eleven years. “Mama L, I gave you my word. Plus, I promised Kat I would give her a ride home.” Not only had she insisted on it, but he didn’t have it in him to refuse her anything.
Mama L slung a couple of leis around his neck, slapped his cheek affectionately, and headed off to greet more people.
Kat looked up at him and batted her eyelashes. He knew she meant to mock him, but she came off as sultry. “Want me to hold your hand?”
He stared at her, the first genuine smile of the day on his face. Her deep brown hair was pulled back in a short ponytail, and she gazed at him somberly, her dark chocolate eyes belying the light tone in her voice. He could drown in her depths so easily.
In the worst way. Letting his better sense prevail, he shook his head and extracted the gift she’d been holding for him. “I’m fine. Malcolm can’t start anything with me if he won’t talk to me. Where is Layla keeping the presents?”
“What did you get her?”
Knowing full well his gift would be met with groans by everybody but Layla, he grinned. “The thing she asks for every year.”
Kat narrowed her eyes, years of experience giving her reason to distrust his grin. “Naked men won’t fit in that box.”
“The other thing.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Water guns won’t win you points with anyone here. We only just got all the water balloons away from her. You might want to reconsider.”
Layla had a thing for water fights. She liked water balloons, hoses, and anything else that held water long enough for her to direct it at her target. Because she didn’t mind getting wet, meaningful retaliation proved difficult. Every year, a group of relatives took it upon themselves to search her house and remove temptation. Keith liked to fan the flames. This wasn’t the first time he had given her the latest in high-tech water guns, and it wouldn’t be the last.
He wiggled his eyebrow at Kat. “I have two more in my trunk.”
She shook her head in bemusement. Her eyes sparkled. “I think I’m glad you and Malcolm aren’t speaking. It’s never good for the rest of us when you two team up.”
KATRINA WANTED TO be mad at Keith, but she couldn’t summon the ire. In the eleven years she’d known him, she’d never before been afraid that one day he’d vanish from their lives. His close friendship with her brother Malcolm had made him a member of the family. She hoped the rift between them wouldn’t make Keith drift away from them until only the memory of his friendship was left behind.
She watched as he made his way across the yard, stopping every few feet to exchange words with family and friends. With her gaze, she traced the outline of his broad shoulders and strong back. She spent some time admiring the way his loose cargo shorts draped over his ass so that sometimes she could make out the rounded muscles there, and sometimes she couldn’t.
Naughtiness and sin dripped from every facet of his body and made up the bad boy inherent in his handsome face. And it wasn’t fake. He looked like one of those men who dated a lot of women and left them hanging, and that was just how he behaved. Malcolm said Keith distrusted women in general and those who showed an interest in him specifically. While he didn’t seem as cynical about her or her family members, Katrina hadn’t tried to push for more. She dreamed about him, but she kept those wonderful fantasies to herself.
For the next half hour, she watched Keith and Malcolm dance around each other. Darcy, her brother’s fiancée, commandeered the seat in the shade next to Katrina. Though they were both about the same height, Darcy had curves Katrina’s slender frame would never possess.
She brushed her bangs away from her eyes and smiled at Katrina. “Trina, I’m at a loss as to how to get Malcolm to speak to Keith. I’ve asked nicely, and I’ve argued passionately. The most I could get from him was a promise to not say anything nasty.”
Katrina laughed. “That explains why Mal hasn’t said a word to Keith.”
“This isn’t his fault, you know. He was doing his job. He made sure the bad guy got caught. I know Malcolm was worried because I was in the middle of it all, but I’m fine. Why can’t he let it go?” She frowned at Katrina.
A brief glance at Darcy’s stomach revealed a gentle swell. She only recently had begun to show an outward sign of her pregnancy. “It’s that protective instinct. And you’re carrying his child, which ju
st makes his need to keep you safe more acute.”
Darcy snorted. “It’s in the past. I’m safe. This makes no sense.”
That Darcy wasn’t a fragile woman who lacked confidence and a backbone had attracted Katrina’s older brother and made her instantly likeable to the rest of the family. “I don’t think Malcolm’s ever been that afraid before. Give it some time. I bet Keith will have him at least talking before the party’s over.”
“I hope you’re right. Your brother is one stubborn man.”
Katrina didn’t delve into the reason behind Darcy’s smile. She had no desire to know why her brother’s stubborn nature appealed to his fiancée. They chatted about other things while Layla opened presents.
She knew the moment Layla opened Keith’s gift. Her blonde curls bounced, and her pixie smile turned downright evil. She lifted the super-size squirt gun from the box and aimed it at Malcolm. “I love that you fill these up before you wrap them.”
Malcolm held up his hand and put on his most forbidding expression. “That’s not from me, and you should never point a gun at someone you’re not planning to shoot.”
Layla stood up. “I know it’s not from you, and who says I’m not planning to shoot you?” She pulled the trigger as she said “shoot” and let loose a long stream of water that hit Malcolm squarely in the chest.
All hell broke loose. The hidden water balloons suddenly materialized, and more squirt guns appeared from nowhere. Well aware that hiding would prove useless, Katrina dived into the fight. Keith came through with a gun for her, so she was set offensively, but it also painted a big neon target on her body.
By the time things wound down a good hour later, Katrina’s light blue shirt, now transparent in some places, clung to her skin, and the denim of her jean shorts chafed uncomfortably. How had she rationalized not bringing a change of clothes? Oh yeah, she’d thought Keith wouldn’t want to piss off Malcolm even more.
She found Keith behind the garage. The massive water gun in his hand was raised next to his head, and he pressed his back to the siding as if he were on a raid. Katrina admired his profile for a moment before her discomfort took over. “Hey, half the people have left, and I’m soaked. Are you about ready to go?”
He turned his head at the sound of her voice. His gaze traveled over her body, assessing the damage in a way that made her feel deliciously naked. A flame flickered in the depths of his green eyes. He opened his mouth, but before he could answer, Malcolm charged around the corner and let loose with the full wrath of the garden hose.
Keith shoved her behind his body, which stemmed the worst of the flood, but Katrina was already soaked. His chivalry only mattered because she got to press her front against his back. His heat radiated through the wet fabric separating them, and her nipples pebbled in response.
“Take that, you arrogant son of a bitch!”
If Malcolm’s declaration shocked or upset Keith, he didn’t show it. “Takes one to know one.” He emptied his gun in four long streams, and then he dived for the hose in Malcolm’s hands.
They wrestled for control until the hose went slack, and then they just wrestled with each other. Darcy stood over them as they rolled on the ground in Layla’s muddy garden. Her yellow sundress molded to her curves. At least it wasn’t see-through. “Malcolm, do you want me to get your ropes from the car?”
Both men halted and appeared to consider the idea of ropes. Then Malcolm shook his head. “Those are for you, sweetheart. Keith’s more of a masochist.”
Keith punched Malcolm in the thigh hard enough to leave a bruise. Katrina sighed at their immaturity, but since Malcolm only pounded on Keith, it meant they’d made progress. They’d exchanged words and made physical contact. They were firmly on the road to mending the rift between them.
She stuck out a hand and helped Keith to his feet. Luckily he didn’t need to use much of the paltry leverage she provided. Cold muck squished between their hands. “Yuck. You’re covered in mud.”
He grinned. “Guess I’m driving home in my underwear.”
The image of him clad only in underwear—dark blue boxer briefs, according to her fantasy—as he navigated the roads to her condo caused her knees to shake. Katrina seriously wanted to lose her shorts too, but she wasn’t about to announce that fact. “I find it hard to believe that Agent Rossetti doesn’t have a change of clothes in his trunk.”
“Laundry day. I did think ahead, though. I brought a couple of towels.”
The towels saved his leather seats from the worst of their wetness. Keith had rinsed most of the mud from his body before getting into the car, but he was still sopping wet, and dirt streaked his clothes. To Katrina, he looked like disheveled heaven. His short, blondish-brown hair was darker in some places, and stray droplets of water glinted in the afternoon light. His sodden shirt delineated every inch of his chiseled physique. In one of the spare bedrooms in his house, he had some hardcore body-conditioning machines.
She wondered if he used any of them for bondage. Though she knew he had a dungeon in his basement, she’d never been inside that locked room, and she’d never broached the subject in a serious manner. Teasing and joking masked her curiosity. She hoped.
The ride from Layla’s place to Katrina’s condo took less than ten minutes. She shifted in her seat and regarded him with a long look. “Well, it appears that Malcolm is talking to you again.”
Keith’s shoulder lifted and fell. “He’s not giving me the silent treatment, but he’s not going to ask me to come over tomorrow and watch some preseason Lions.”
Her heart went out to him at the vulnerability he tried to hide. She reached over and squeezed his wrist. “You can come watch it with me, but I doubt it’ll be the same.”
“Can we eat junk, yell at the TV, talk about sex, and scratch our balls?” He glanced over briefly, throwing a deviant smile in with the question.
“I don’t have balls, but if it’ll make you feel better, I could scratch my crotch.” She tried to match his smile, but the tingly sensation traveling up and down her spine made her nipples hard and distracted her from doing a good job. Scratching wouldn’t salve the itch she had for Keith. “I can even do you one better. I have NFL Network. I bet there’s a game on right now.”
He pulled into the visitor parking spot across from the carport where her car waited. “If you let me use your shower and loan me something masculine to wear while I throw my clothes in the washer, you got a deal. Oh, and I’m hungry.”
She laughed so suddenly that she snorted. “You’re so high maintenance.”
He pulled the towels from the seats and followed her around to the door that led to her condo. “I said I’d wash my clothes. I didn’t say you had to do it. And I’ll order pizza. You won’t have to make anything for me.”
“And I get the first shower.” She threw that caveat over her shoulder as she inserted the key to unlock her door. The bolt didn’t make a noise to indicate it had disengaged, so she turned the knob and pushed. It opened. “I swear I locked it. I always lock it.”
Keith held out his hand for the keys. “May I?”
The question was a formality. He used his Special Agent Voice and wore his Official Frown. Wordlessly she handed over the keys. He closed the door and turned the key to lock and unlock it several times. The frown didn’t go away.
“I’ll go in first. You stay out here.”
He disappeared inside. His demeanor scared Katrina more than anything else. Perhaps she had forgotten to lock it after all. She went through the same routine every time she left her house. It was conceivable that she only thought she’d locked it.
Keith appeared in the doorway. His frown had disappeared. “I want you to look around to make sure, but I think maybe you just forgot to lock up when you left.”
Her door opened to a landing. A set of stairs went up to her condo, and the other set, protected by a door, went down to the basement. She jiggled the handle to the basement door and found it locked. Heading up the stairs, she
noted nothing different. In her condo, she found nothing out of place. Still, she shivered.
Keith put his arms around her and pulled her close, a concerned, brotherly gesture even though she wished it were more. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “I’ll stay the night if you want.”
Only if you sleep naked and in my bed.
“Thanks, but I think it was just a dumb move on my part. My parents were in a rush when they picked me up, but I can’t believe I forgot to lock the door. Next thing you know, I’ll be leaving the stove turned on or the water faucet running.” She shivered again. Though she wanted to stay in his arms, she forced herself to give up that warmth and comfort. “I’m going to jump in and do a quick rinse. Why don’t you order the pizza, and then you can take a shower. I have an old pair of M.J.’s sweats around here somewhere.”
* * * *
M.J.’s sweats hung low on his hips, though they weren’t meant to sag. Besides being too wide for his slim hips, the elastic in the waist was shot, and the cuffs didn’t quite make the trek to his ankles. She’d seen him look worse, though; that was for sure.
The doorbell rang. He ran her comb through his short hair and exited the bathroom. The issue with her front door being unlocked had unleashed his protective nature. Kat wasn’t usually the kind of woman who forgot basic safety precautions, but his years of training and instinct screamed at him to let it go. She was currently juggling more than her share of cases while trying to distinguish herself enough for the higher-ups to take notice of her skills. People who were tired and overworked sometimes forgot to do habitual things.
Kat came up the stairs leading to the front door as he made it to the kitchen. She’d changed from wet shorts and a transparent tank top to light sweats and one of those T-shirts made for women that showed every curve. The scooped neck highlighted her pert breasts nicely. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and he could imagine just how perfectly her breasts would fit in his hands. And the things he wanted to do with her nipples right now. He could bind her arms behind her and torment those wondrous buds until she begged for release.
Re/Paired Page 1