Behind Closed Doors (The Mccloud Series Book 1)

by Shannon McKenna

  He found the first bug in the ceiling fan: remote 399–030 MHz free space transmitter. There was another in the track lighting. There was a 490-mm modulated sodium optical bug in one of the overhead lightbulbs. There were four pinholes spaced out high in the wall with video cameras mounted behind the cedar paneling, impossible to get to without a hammer or an axe. He pulled a stick of gum out of his pocket, chewed it until it was soft, and plugged up the holes.

  He used the VLF probe function to test for carrier current signals, of which he found two—the clock and one of the bedside lamps. He dismantled them both. Lazar obviously believed in overkill.

  At the risk of seeming paranoid, he took out multifunction thermal imaging goggles, fitted a 99% obscuration IR filter and switched on the night vision function to scan for laser diode infrared emitters. There were two. That devious bastard.

  He dismantled those, and turned around slowly in the middle of the room for a long time, scanning the walls and ceilings. Essentially, he was feeling around with his own internal antenna, using pure instinct.

  Negative. Unless he was losing his touch, the room was clean.

  He turned back to Raine, and held out a bristling handful of dismantled surveillance gadgets. “There’s a lot you don’t know about your precious uncle, princess.”

  “Don’t call me that,” she said sharply. “You found them, right? We’ll have our privacy. So there’s no harm done.” She looked around at the dismembered lamp, the gutted clock. Her face convulsed, and she dropped it into her hands, shoulders heaving with silent laughter.

  “What’s so goddamn funny?” he demanded.

  She lifted her face. Bright spots of red glowed in her cheeks. “Everything. This place is surreal. I feel like Alice down the rabbit hole.”

  “I’m glad you’re amused,” he growled.

  Her hands dropped to her lap. “I don’t see why you’re so wound up.” There was a hysterical tremor in her voice. “Everyone’s family has a”—she choked back a giggle—“a problematic uncle.”

  “Problematic? You call this problematic?” He opened his hand and let the stuff drop, clattering across the parquet floor.

  Raine threw up her hands, shaking with helpless laughter. “I’m just trying to cope, Seth. If you’d make an effort to do the same, I would really appreciate it. Try and look on the situation as…a test.”

  He let out an ironic grunt. “Like the underground fantasy comics I used to read when I was a kid? I’m in the castle of the evil sorcerer king. If I solve the riddle, I get to fuck the beautiful princess. If I don’t, I get fed to the dragon, chunk by bloody chunk.”

  She shook her head, regal and aloof. “No, you tasteless clod. You get to marry the beautiful princess, and live happily ever after with her.”

  He stiffened, and his ears started to buzz. “Oh,” he said stupidly, staring at her. He swallowed. “So that’s how the story goes?”

  “Yes. Standard fairy-tale format. Knights errant aren’t usually crass, rude, suspicious, sexually obsessed commitment-phobes.”

  “I must’ve read the wrong comics when I was a kid.” He stared at her, hypnotized by the way the bedside lamp backlit the wisps that had finally begun to escape from her hairdo, illuminating them like a delicate golden crown. “I guess if the guy’s gone to all that trouble to slay the dragon and solve the riddle for that princess, then he’s ready to settle down in a split-level suburban home with her.”

  “Having normalcy fantasies again, Seth?” she asked sweetly.

  The rosy lamp painted her with smudgy velvet shadows. He couldn’t wait another second to lick and nuzzle every single sweet curve. “Fuck normal,” he said. “I solved the riddle and I want my prize. Get that dress off, your Highness. Let me see what I’ve won.”

  She rose to her feet and backed away. “Wait a minute, Seth.”

  He trapped her against the cedar paneling, loving the way the corset crammed her breasts together and offered them up to his eyes like luscious fruit. “Why wait? I was summoned to service you, right? Let’s play a sexy game, Raine. You get to be the beautiful, pampered niece of a shady multimillionaire, and I get to be the brainless, muscle-bound stud with a perpetually hard cock who’s been summoned to the island hideaway to fulfill her every erotic whim. What do you say?”

  She splayed her hands against his chest, but not to push him away…more as if she wanted to assure herself that he was real. She licked her lips, her eyes glowing with catlike interest. “I’d say the setup is kind of trashy and unrealistic, but it has possibilities.”

  He stroked the tops of her breasts tenderly with his fingertips. “Sounds like the plot of an awesome porno flick.”

  Her soft mouth tightened. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t watch that kind of thing.”

  The Miss Priss tone bugged him, and he yanked the bottom of her corset again. “Oh, no? Too nasty for you, your Highness?” he crooned.

  She twisted and slapped his hands away. “Don’t,” she said sharply. “Your mean streak is showing, and it’s making me angry. Get that sleazy tone out of your voice and wipe that dirty look off your face, or I’m not playing.”

  Her words hung in the air. His hands dropped to his sides. He felt almost as abashed as he was aroused. “Weird,” he muttered.

  “What’s weird?” Her face was wary.

  “I just found out something kinky about myself. Your tough-talking bitch goddess persona really turns me on. I’m as hard as steel.” He seized her slender hand and placed it upon the aching bulge in the front of his pants. “Have pity on me,” he murmured, with a coaxing grin. “I’m desperate. I’ll be good. I’ll be nice. I’ll do anything.”

  She drew in a jerky breath, half-laughing, and measured him with her fingertips through the fabric of his pants. “That’s fortunate, considering what I have in mind.”

  “Want to play out my fantasy?” he asked eagerly.

  She slid from between him and the wall. “I’ve got a better one.”

  A huge grin took over his face. “By all means, let’s hear it.”

  “Go stand in the middle of the room,” she ordered.

  He did as he was told, curiosity and arousal building up to explosive force. She began to circle him, her gaze sweeping up and down the length of his body. He turned his head to follow her.

  “I’m a pirate queen, and I’ve conquered your vessel,” she told him.

  He spun around, astonished. With that sensual smile and that look in her eye, she was a creature he’d never seen before. Mysterious and unpredictable. His perilous princess, swathed in midnight and moonlight. “Whoa,” he breathed. “You’re really going for it, aren’t you?”

  “Oh, yes. I almost made you walk the plank, but when I looked you over, when I saw those muscles, the shape of that butt, that bulge in the front of your pants, I decided that it would be a sad waste of a prime piece of male flesh.”

  “Was I the captain of the captured ship?”

  She flung the stole onto the bed. “Does it matter?” She lifted her arms gracefully as she circled him, as if casting a spell. The movement lifted her bosom another tantalizing inch out of the bodice.

  His eyes followed her, transfixed. “It does to me,” he admitted.

  Her shoulders lifted in an indifferent shrug. “All right. Be the captain, if you like. But it makes no difference. You’re just my slave now. And the more you cling to your lost power and control, the more you will suffer. Let go, slave. Give in to your new destiny.”’

  His mouth dropped open in a soundless laugh. “Wow. Cruel, heartless pirate queen. I’m in truly deep shit now, huh?”

  “Yes, you are,” she coolly agreed. “My brawny pirate henchmen, who worship me, have dragged you down to my cabin. Your very existence now depends upon how much pleasure you give me. So get ready to exert yourself…sailor boy.”

  His grin reached around to the back of his head. “When I make you scream with pleasure, will they rush in and kill me?”

  “They have their orders,�
� she murmured coolly. “They’re used to my indulgences. Take off your clothes.”

  Raine’s voice, usually so musical and lilting, had suddenly acquired the sharp snap of authority. He leaped to obey her, fingers trembling with eagerness, and yanked off his clothes. He had a moment of doubt when she caught sight of the SIG Sauer. She blinked, but made no comment as he unbuckled the shoulder holster and placed it on the bedside table. She made an impatient gesture. He forgot about the gun and finished stripping with feverish haste, leaving his clothing in a tangled heap on the floor.

  He stood in the middle of the room, stark naked and hugely erect. She began circling him again, close enough so he could smell her delicate perfume, like a mix of warm honey and violets after a rainstorm. He felt the insubstantial kiss of her breath on his shoulders, the back of his neck. Then she was touching him, her cool fingers brushing across him, measuring, petting, teasing. Cupping his balls, gripping his cock. Sliding her soft hand with agonizing slowness. Squeezing. Oh, God, this was going to kill him.

  “Very nice. Big and strong and vigorous looking,” she murmured. “I haven’t seen such a fine specimen in a long time.”

  He tried not to groan. “Seen a lot of them, hmm?”

  “Oh, more than you can imagine.” Her hands were getting warm as they brushed over his ass, gripping the hard muscle with an approving sigh. “All colors and shapes and sizes. I’m insatiable, you see. I keep them for as long as they arouse me. It’s in your best interests to try very hard to please me, if you wish to stave off that inevitable day that you bore me, and I decide to make you walk the plank after all.”

  “I’ll do my very best,” he promised.

  “Wise lad,” she murmured, her cool hands sliding tenderly over his chest, feeling every bump and hollow. “Lie down on the bed.”

  Grinning seemed out of place in her fantasy scenario, but he had no control over his face. He didn’t care, though. He had abandoned his brain, he was in free fall. She could do anything she liked with him. He spread-eagled himself on the bed, and grinned up at her like an idiot.

  Raine sauntered up to the bed, reaching back to unhook her skirt. “Do I need to tie you, or are you going to be a good boy?”

  He was almost tempted. His eye fell upon the SIG on the bedside table. A tiny crumb of sanity returned, just in time. Bondage games in Victor Lazar’s lair were a little too dangerous even for him to contemplate.

  “I’ll be good for now,” he said. “I can’t speak for later.”

  He groaned, almost in pain, when she let the skirt drift to the ground. It billowed and crumpled like a parachute. She kicked it away, and he stared, openmouthed, at her pale, perfect thighs, the deep blue stockings, the barely-there panties made of midnight colored lace. It all matched the outrageous blue corset thing that must have given a raging hard-on to every man at that dining table tonight.

  She turned around and leaned over to unbuckle her stiletto heeled shoes. Deliberately giving him a long, mind-blowing look at her round, rosy buttocks, tenderly framed by the cock-teasing scrap of lace. She flung them away, straightened up and slowly hooked her thumbs into the panties. She tugged them down, inch by inch, until they cleared the curve of her thigh and dropped, revealing the soft puff of blond ringlets. She seized the bottom of the corset thing, paused and gave him a slow, sultry smile. She tugged it down until her taut pink nipples popped over the edge.

  It was the look on her face, more than anything, that dazzled him. Fey, potent sexual magic. It made her radiant. She was a she-wolf in the moonlight; a wild, beautiful animal discovering the full extent of her power over him. She climbed up onto the bed and curled her legs under herself, trailing her fingers across his body.

  He reached for her, and she slapped down his hand. “Ah, ah, ah,” she purred. “Don’t presume, slave. Do as you’re bid.”

  “Next time, I get to conquer your vessel,” he told her.

  She slapped his hand away again. “You’re always conquering my vessel, you big bully. Behave yourself. Or do I have to summon my brawny pirate henchmen to subdue you?”

  “You’re driving me nuts, Raine,” he groaned.

  “Good nuts, or bad nuts?”

  He shook his head, helpless, and she laughed. “It’s high time you knew how it felt,” she whispered. Her fingertip trailed down the steely, throbbing length of his penis. “My pirate henchmen love it when I torture my love slaves. Sometimes, when they’re very good…I let them watch.”

  “What the hell?” He surged up into the sitting position.

  She shoved him back down. “Ah, ah, ah. Careful, slave.”

  “You hot little bitch.” A feverish red flush suffused his face. “I’m going to make you pay for this.”

  “Really?” she taunted. “Does the image bother you?” She seized his penis, murmuring in approval at his involuntary gasp. She stroked him, squeezing gently, and shocked a helpless groan out of him. “Hmm. Well, it doesn’t seem to bother you,” she said, in mock puzzlement. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think that it really…excited you.”

  “I thought you said you weren’t an exhibitionist.”

  She laughed at him softly. “I’m not, you idiot. This is just a fantasy.” She swung her thigh over his neck and straddled him, lowering her sex to his mouth. “Now shut up, sailor boy, and put your tongue to better use.”

  He needed no further urging. She could reach inside him and drive him to a screaming frenzy every time, without even trying. But he had tricks of his own. He was going to use every last one of them.

  Seth trapped her hips in his hands and pressed his face against her delicious cunt, wallowing in her, lapping at her with tender ferocity. He could never get enough of the sweet-salt flavor of her labia, the damp blond ringlets that shielded it, the tender, swollen little bud of her clit. Her slender, strong body flexed and arched above him, her hips jerked. She cried out wildly as she exploded, shuddering as waves of pleasure rocked through her.

  He caught her, and lay her gently on her side. The fierce, conquering energy that had sustained the pirate queen’s personality had been rendered down like molten gold in the forge of pleasure. She was liquid, helpless. Her hair was breaking loose of its moorings, and he plucked out the pins, combing through it carefully with his fingers until he’d found them all. They’d done something to her hair to take the curl out. He hoped it wasn’t permanent. It was still beautiful, but he liked the long ringlets better than this too perfect, satin-smooth floss.

  He got up, rummaging quietly through his bag until he found the box of condoms. Raine was curled on her side on the bed, one stocking on, one off, breasts still spilling seductively out over the top of her corset. He sheathed his throbbing cock in the condom. Whatever she had in mind, he wanted to be ready for it. And if she had no further ideas, no problem. He had plenty of ideas of his own.

  Raine smiled with misty pleasure, eyes still closed, when she felt his fingers at her back unhooking the tight bodice. She breathed a sigh of relief when it came loose. The thing did great things for her figure, but it was not the most comfortable garment she’d ever worn.

  He rolled her onto her back, parting her legs and peeling off the remaining stocking. His callused fingertips rasped tenderly up the length of her legs in a long, appreciative caress. She stretched like a pampered kitten, arching and wiggling with voluptuous pleasure even before his fingers brushed across her damp sex.

  “Did I pass?” he asked.

  “Hmm?”

  “Will the sexpot pirate queen let me live to love another day?”

  She reached out to caress the jut of his erection, already conveniently sheathed in latex, she noted with interest. “It depends on your stamina,” she said sternly. “You didn’t think that the pirate queen would be satisfied with one little orgasm, did you?”

  “That orgasm was not little. It went on and on.” He lifted her up until she straddled him. “Show me who’s boss, pirate queen. Ride me.”

  Raine was still shaky f
rom the aftermath of her last orgasm, and she braced herself against him, splaying her hands across his hard chest. The unfamiliar position made her feel clumsy and uncertain.

  Seth took control smoothly, lifting her up and nudging himself inside her. It was always a shock, the heat and solid hardness of him pushing, forging his way in. But she was relaxed, her sheath soft and moist from his tender skill. She enveloped him easily, with a shuddering moan of pleasure. She touched his face and found it hot and damp with sweat. The unguarded look in his eyes moved her, and she collapsed across his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  In that moment all their power games, playful or otherwise, were revealed to her for exactly what they were. Superficial games, to distract them from the strength of their feelings. She didn’t feel conquering, or conquered. She felt unveiled. She knew herself better in that moment than she ever had before, her fears and her hunger and her loneliness. All of it was brilliantly lit, out in the open for them both to see.

  She saw him, too, in an infinity of poignant details: the mole on his shoulder, the sweeping winged pattern of his heavy eyebrows, the seams carved around his wide mouth. The sharp-cut line of his full, sensual lips. Seth’s dark eyes were full of the terrible knowledge of their mutual vulnerability, just as her own must be.

  It filled her with tenderness, a burning ache. She hid her face against his shoulder and lost herself in the surging, voluptuous tempo of his body beneath her. It wasn’t power she surrendered to as she clenched herself around him. It was wonder. Breathless, knocked flat, heart-swelling wonder, leaving her soft and helpless.

  He wound his fingers through her hair and gently tugged until she lifted her head. The dark intensity of his gaze reached inside her and saw everything she was. Accepting it, wanting it.

  “Hey.” He rolled her onto her back, still joined, pressing her into the crumpled sheets. “You never told me the rest of the story.”

  Raine clutched his shoulders and arched, opening herself to accept more of him. “What? What story?”