The Undercover Playboy (Captured by Love Book 3)

by Miranda P. Charles

  The grin that Carter gave her was breathtaking. He leaned down to kiss her. When they parted, they were both panting.

  “I better go before you tempt me further,” he said gruffly.

  Oh, did he have to go? “Please take care, Carter.” Please.

  “I will, babe. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Cassie watched Carter leave the bedroom, fear and worry for him sitting in her gut like a lump of concrete. But if she wanted to be with this man, she’d have to learn to live with those undesirable feelings.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Carter couldn’t help the dismayed look on his face when he entered the popular Sydney bar with an attractive brunette wearing an indecently short dress hanging on his arm. What on earth were Lucas, Rick and Brad doing here? Hadn’t Cassie said that these three were joining her and her best friends for dinner tonight so they could do some catching up with Lucas and Jade who’d just come back from their honeymoon?

  “Everything alright, Carter?” Tilly asked.

  “Sure,” he said, smiling at the woman who could lead him to the leader of the syndicate that brought young women from Third World countries to Australia, promising them work, only to confiscate their passports and force them into prostitution.

  “Are they friends of yours?” Tilly asked, eyeing his buddies with interest.

  Carter was about to deny it when Lucas happened to look their way, and waved to him with surprised delight.

  “Oh, shall we go meet them?” Tilly said, taking his hand and walking over to the guys.

  He wasn’t surprised at Tilly’s eagerness. From the information they’d gathered so far, Tilly was a newly employed and enthusiastic “seducer” for the forced-prostitution syndicate. Since he’d indicated to Tilly that he was into orgies with girls who didn’t object to his kind of kink, Tilly probably hoped that his buddies were like him. Apparently, people like Tilly got paid incredibly well for every new client they introduced to the business.

  He walked behind Tilly and touched his lips with a forefinger, shaking his head at the three men. Their subtle nods made him relax.

  “Hey, dudes,” he greeted casually.

  “Hey,” Lucas said. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  “You three must be on a prowl,” Tilly said, angling her hips in a seductive way.

  Lucas raised his left hand and pointed to his wedding ring.

  “As if that means anything these days,” Tilly said with a laugh. “But you two are clearly not married,” she said to Rick and Brad, lifting their hands and inspecting their ring fingers.

  “Not yet. Soon,” Rick said.

  “I’m Tilly, by the way.”

  The guys introduced themselves, glancing at Carter. He could tell they were waiting for his lead.

  “Well, we better leave you to it, hey?” Carter said. “Shall we go, Tilly?”

  “Why don’t we join your friends, Carter?”

  “I think I’d rather be alone with you,” he said.

  “Aw, aren’t you sweet,” Tilly said, placing her arms around his neck.

  He tried not to roll his eyes. This woman’s dress would have no doubt hitched up from her raising her arms. The guys would be having a great view of her underwear right now.

  “I thought you like it in groups,” Tilly said softly in his ear.

  Ew. Tilly’s lips touching his lobe made him want to grimace. “Not with other guys,” he whispered back. “I want to be the only guy.”

  Tilly chuckled. “And you will be the only guy if that’s what you want. Our girls are hot and can be anything you want them to be.”

  “Anything?”

  “Anything.”

  “How many girls do you have?”

  “How many do you want?”

  “How many can I have?”

  “Well, depends on how much you can afford. They don’t do things for free, you know. But I can guarantee you you’ll be blown away,” Tilly said.

  “Hi, Carter.”

  His heart jumped, and he immediately broke into a sweat. As casually as he could—even though he really wanted to shove her away—he extricated himself from Tilly’s embrace.

  “Hey, girls,” he said, his eyes on Cassie, who was staring at him along with Erin, Lexie and Jade. They must have come from the restroom.

  “Oh, hello,” Tilly said, the disappointment in her voice obvious.

  “Hi,” Cassie responded, sitting next to Brad. “Join us.”

  “Uh, I think we better go,” Carter said, willing for Cassie to look at him so he could read her mood. But she’d turned to Brad and was whispering something in his ear.

  Damn, he hoped she wasn’t mad. He’d told her about this new case, and she knew he’d had to ask someone out for drinks. But she wouldn’t have expected to find him being embraced flirtatiously by a woman in a skimpy dress.

  “Yes, let’s go,” Tilly said, no longer interested in the three guys now that the four ladies had turned up to join them.

  “Hey, don’t forget about me, okay?” Brad called out.

  Carter raised an eyebrow. Had Brad just winked at Tilly? And was he giving her the eye?

  “Carter and I have always had similar tastes,” Brad said with a lopsided grin.

  “What do you mean?” Tilly asked, her interest returning.

  Brad shrugged, giving Tilly a charming smile.

  Carter glanced at Cassie. She winked at him and smiled knowingly.

  Relief and warmth filled him. She wasn’t angry and, by the looks of it, she was trying to help him with the case.

  “Wanna go for a walk with us, Brad?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Brad said, following them out.

  “So,” Tilly whispered in his ear. “Is Brad into orgies too?”

  “Yes, but he doesn’t like the kind of kink I do. He’s into something different.”

  “That can be arranged,” Tilly said with a pleased smile.

  Carter could see Tilly’s inexperience at her job. She was going to try and work Brad without doing background research on him—probably for the simple reason that Brad was his friend and she already trusted him. Well, Tilly’s lack of discretion would be to his advantage.

  “Brad,” he said when they were out on the street. “Tilly here has lots of girls for us. Wanna join an orgy?”

  A brief look of surprise crossed Brad’s face before he put on a grin. “And what do you think my answer to that will be?”

  He chuckled. Brad sure knew how to respond without painting himself into a corner.

  “So how many girls can you offer us, Tilly?”

  “How many can you guys handle by yourselves?” she asked with sultry smile.

  “Come on, don’t be a tease now,” he said. “I don’t want to be promised the world and end up being disappointed.”

  “Yeah. Me neither,” Brad said.

  “I’m not being a tease,” Tilly insisted.

  “So where can we meet these girls?” Carter asked.

  Tilly stared at him, then at Brad. “It’s a secret location.”

  “How secret is it?” Brad asked.

  “Only people with invites can enter. It’s just a plain, ordinary house from the outside, but it’s great inside. It’s quite luxurious.”

  “What do you think, bro?” he asked Brad, pretending to be unsure.

  “Can she be trusted?” Brad asked, gesturing to Tilly. “You know I have a reputation to protect.”

  He hid a smile. Brad was playing this perfectly. “So do I, bro.”

  “No one will ever know,” Tilly said.

  “How do we know that?”

  “Well, have you heard of us before?”

  “I have to admit I haven’t.”

  “There you go,” Tilly said triumphantly.

  “I suppose we can check them out,” Brad said.

  “Can we do that?” Carter asked Tilly. “Have a look around first to see if your environment and the girls are to our liking?”

  “
Sure. But you’ll need to pay a deposit.”

  “How much?”

  Carter saw Brad’s eyes go wide in disbelief at the figure Tilly mentioned, before his friend managed to revert to an impassive expression.

  “Sounds reasonable,” Brad said.

  He nodded in agreement.

  “Great!” Tilly said, clearly excited. “I’ll need your cash, then I’ll give you the address. We can arrange an exchange tomorrow.”

  “I’ll let Carter check it out first,” Brad said. “Then he can tell me if it’s worth my while.”

  “I’m sure he’ll like what he sees,” Tilly said smugly, and arranged a time and place with Carter for their meeting tomorrow.

  “So do you want to go back in for a drink, Tilly?” Carter asked.

  “You know what? How about you join your friends? I’ll just see you tomorrow.”

  “Okay.”

  He and Brad watched Tilly walk away.

  “Are you gonna follow her?” Brad asked.

  “No. Two other detectives would be doing that.” He pulled out his work phone just as a text came through. It was his colleague confirming they were on Tilly’s tail.

  “So you can join us now?” Brad asked as they walked back into the bar.

  “Yes. Thanks for helping.”

  “No worries,” Brad said gravely. “Hope you catch them all.”

  “Yeah,” he said with a sigh and made a beeline for Cassie.

  He bent down and kissed her lips. Then he pulled her up from her chair, sat down himself, and replaced her on his lap.

  “Are you okay?” he whispered in her ear.

  She placed her arms around him. “You didn’t kiss her, did you?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then I’m okay,” she said with a smile.

  He squeezed her tightly. “Thank you for understanding.”

  “How can I not, Carter? All those girls who are being held against their will... Their captors deserve to be caught. Did that woman give you something helpful to the case?”

  “I’m meeting her in the morning to give her money in exchange for an address. I’m hoping that by this time tomorrow, we’ve saved the girls and caught the heads.”

  Cassie kissed his forehead and cuddled closer to him as they rejoined in their friends’ conversation.

  He was a lucky, lucky bastard. And he was never letting her go.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Two months later...

  Cassie became aware of the cries of a cockatoo as she woke up from sleep. She sighed, grabbing Carter’s pillow and hugging it to her.

  She missed him so. It was ridiculous to be craving his presence when he’d only been gone for three days. But it was how she felt and she couldn’t help it. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be back for another two days, until the international security and counterterrorism conference he was attending at the Gold Coast was finished.

  It hadn’t been easy dealing with the fact that her boyfriend’s job put his life at risk almost daily. But when it had hit her just how important Carter’s work was, she found herself embracing it and everything else that went with it. And now, she was a lot better at handling her fear from the dangers of Carter’s occupation.

  Two and a half months had passed since that horrible experience with Vera and Bronwyn, and she could now look back at it without her heart palpitating from the thought that Carter could have died that night. Frankly, it was more horrendous to contemplate that Vera and Bronwyn could have gotten away with what they’d concocted. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the terrible grief and shock that she and Carter’s family would have been going through right now if the two abominable women hadn’t been caught. Carter doing his job ensured there would be fewer Vera-and-Bronwyn types in the streets of Sydney. And she was proud of him.

  She also didn’t resent Carter’s occasional night or weekend shifts. Since she now worked for Gavin’s private investigation company—which was much bigger than she’d thought—they worked around Carter’s days off so they could spend as much free time together as they could.

  Gavin hadn’t minded at all when she’d asked for flexitime. She could be poring over financials at three o’clock in the morning for all Gavin cared, as long as she got the job done. And she was indeed doing a great job. She’d straightened out Gavin’s accounting department, which had been in shambles from not having the right person manage the team.

  Her phone rang and she eagerly grabbed it. “Hi, honey.”

  “Hey, babe. Did I wake you?”

  “No. I was already awake, but I’m still in bed.”

  “Mm. Bed, huh?” Carter said in a sexy voice.

  She laughed. “It’s your fault that we didn’t get to have phone sex last night. You chose to hobnob with your fellow conference-goers.”

  “I didn’t choose to, sweetheart. I had to. But how about now?” he asked, his tone lower. “You’re in bed, I’m in bed...”

  “I have to get ready soon,” she said, lying to tease him.

  “Why?”

  “Remember I’m having a get-together with the guys at Lucas and Jade’s for finishing my MBA? I still don’t know why we have to celebrate it, but they insist.”

  “Because you deserve it, babe. You did so well. But the party doesn’t start till midday so why do you have to get ready so early?”

  “’Coz I need to make myself pretty?”

  “You’re already pretty. You’re so damned beautiful.”

  Aw. “I need to be prettier. It’s my party,” she said playfully.

  “So you’d rather spend time in front of the mirror dressing for other people, than hear me say what I want to do to you?”

  She bit her lip at Carter’s seductive tone. She had missed him last night. And frankly, Carter didn’t need to do much to arouse her. Just a couple of suggestive words here and there, or a heated look, and she’d get horny. “So what exactly do you want to do to me?” she asked.

  Carter let out a low, sexy laugh. “First, I want you to tell me exactly what you’re wearing.”

  “Who says I’m wearing anything?” she asked, putting the phone on speaker and getting out of her pyjamas and undies.

  “Ooh, so have you been playing with yourself without waiting for me?”

  She giggled. “No, I haven’t started. It’s much more fun when you talk dirty to me.”

  “Naughty girl,” Carter said approvingly. “Now I want to know what you want me to do to you.”

  She ran her hand up and down her inner thigh. “I wish you were home to kiss me.”

  “Where?”

  “On the lips,” she said with a little laugh.

  “Mm. Love your mouth, babe. Love it when our tongues tease each other. It gets me hot,” Carter said in an almost-whisper.

  She pouted. She really did wish he was home.

  “And I’m dying to tease your nipples with my tongue,” Carter continued.

  Her hand went to her breast and she tweaked a bud.

  “But you know what I love teasing the most, don’t you?”

  “Why don’t you tell me?” she said, her breathing shallowing.

  “I love running my tongue on your pussy, tasting you and licking your clit over and over.”

  She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes and running her other hand down her body.

  “Are you wet, baby?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “How wet?”

  She didn’t have to check to know, but she did anyway, moaning a little. “Very.”

  Carter groaned.

  “Are you hard?” she asked.

  “Fuck, yeah,” he answered, breathless.

  She could imagine him with his hand around his rod and stroking it. She squirmed, more moisture rushing to her centre. “I wanna see you.”

  “Okay.”

  She grabbed her phone and tapped the button to activate FaceTime. It rang. And rang. Why wasn’t he answering?

  The bedroom door opened, making her jump.

&n
bsp; “Here I am,” Carter said, completely undressed and sporting a raging hard-on and a loony grin.

  With a little shriek of delight, she scrambled out of bed and launched herself at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I live here, remember?” he said gruffly, nuzzling her face as he squeezed her tight, his erection digging on her belly.

  “I thought you’re not back for another two days.”

  Carter pulled back to look at her. “The rest of the conference wasn’t relevant to me, so I came home. Why should I waste my time there when I could be spending it with you?” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “Besides, I don’t want to miss your party. I don’t want everyone else celebrating with you except me.”

  She beamed. “I’m so glad.”

  “Yes, I know why you’re glad,” he murmured, kissing her lips. “You want my mouth rather than your fingers.”

  She slapped his naked butt. “I’m just glad you’re home, mouth or no mouth.”

  He chuckled. “Fortunately, my mouth is not detachable. It always comes with me.”

  “Or unfortunately, it’s not detachable. Otherwise, you could leave it home when you have to go away.”

  Carter laughed out loud. “You wish, huh?”

  She sighed, cupping his face. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too, babe. Next time I have to fly somewhere, come with me. We’ll work it out with Gavin.”

  “I don’t want Gavin to think I’m abusing his kindness.”

  “He won’t mind which hours you work and where you work as long as you do the equivalent of full-time. He himself doesn’t have regular working hours. But enough of that for now,” he said, his tone changing as he walked her to the bed. “Let’s get back to what you were doing while we were on the phone.”

  “What did you think I was doing?” she said teasingly, pulling him down with her on the mattress. “For all you know, I was just humouring you.”

  “Really, now? I guess I’m gonna have to check for myself.” He kissed her neck before making his way to her breasts. He palmed one and laved a hardened bud with his tongue.

  “No fair,” she said breathlessly. “By the time you’re done, I’ll be wet anyway.”

  His throat rumbled with a low laugh as he crawled down and pushed her thighs up her chest, parting them wide. “Ah, you weren’t lying,” he said, pleased. He ran his tongue on her moist slit before setting it loose on her sensitised nub.