by Eileen Green
Once in her room, Shane put her clothing away in the drawers and hung up what needed to be hung while Jeremy removed her walking boot. Her foot and ankle were swollen, most likely from the walking she had done. Plus, she had gone up and down the stairs at her house. She said she wasn’t in any pain, but Jeremy knew she was.
“How have you been sleeping?” he had asked her.
“I have nightmares, so I don’t sleep but a few hours at a time,” she had responded.
“Even with your pain meds?” Shane asked, his concern evident.
“I don’t take them very often. I don’t like the fuzzy feeling they give me.”
“Well, I’m just down the hall,” Shane informed her as he sat on the foot of the bed. “I asked that you be put on the same floor as me, so I’m close by if you need me. So, you need to promise, if you need anything, that you’ll call me or come to my room.”
Clara nodded, almost in defeat. Jeremy could only imagine what was going through her head right then. The evening had been eventful, especially falling into an impending relationship with two men.
Jeremy knew that his mind wouldn’t shut down once he went to bed. He had tossed and turned all night, well, the few hours he had to sleep before starting his shift.
When he was ready to leave last night, Shane had kissed him passionately, with promises of what was to come. Then, Jeremy kissed Clara with as much passion as Shane had shown him, but Jeremy was a bit gentler with her. He held her for a bit, letting her get used to him, and him wanting to show her that it wasn’t just sexual between them.
That he wasn’t jealous that Clara and Shane were so close in proximity to each other, was a lie. Jeremy thought about it all the way home, wishing he could have stayed.
He had no idea how any of this was going to work since he lived an hour away from Denver, and his job was demanding. How were they going to work around his schedule and Shane’s, and Clara’s when she went back to work? Only time would tell, but he wanted to quit his job and move to Denver.
Of course, with him in Woodland Park, over time, it would give him time to see if the relationship was one of lust only, or if they could fall in love and move into a ménage as time went by. He really hoped it was the latter.
Now, sitting on the ground as Adam finished his assessment, Jeremy had to wonder if he had done something wrong that got him hurt. Was it possible his mind wasn’t one hundred percent in the moment? No. He had seen Adam go down also.
“Are you all right?” he asked Adam.
“Yeah. Ears finally stopped buzzing, but otherwise, I’m good.” Adam removed the blood pressure cuff from Jeremy’s right arm.
Captain Blankenship was back to Jeremy and Adam. Jeremy was unaware the man had even left, but then again, Jeremy was lost in his thoughts. He really had to get his mind off Shane and Clara while working.
“Looks like it was a meth lab,” Captain Blankenship told them. “From what witnesses said, this gentleman here was walking his dog in front of the building, so he wasn’t inside. The woman over there,” he said indicating the deceased woman with the horrible burns, “apparently was inside. She took the brunt of the explosion. Adam, your guy was inside also.”
“Shit,” Adam exclaimed as he looked at his equipment.
Jeremy knew Adam was wondering if anything may have contaminated the equipment. Adam had used the same blood pressure cuff on Jeremy as he had on his victim. Jeremy was wearing a long-sleeved shirt under his uniform shirt, so he shouldn’t have had any contact with anything.
“We’ve got two more buses on the way in. We’ll get you both out of here as soon as possible. Adam can ride with the victim over there,” the captain explained.
Right then, a small white bundle of fluff came running at them, leash still attached to his collar. The dog went straight to the unconscious man to Jeremy’s left and gave a few barks. When the man didn’t react, the dog began to lick his face. Apparently, the dog must have gotten loose when the man went down due to the first explosion.
The dog continued to love on his master, giving Jeremy a slight chuckle despite the situation. “Looks like love is binding,” Jeremy said quietly.
Another ambulance pulled up, and Adam got up to inform the new arrival of the triage he had performed. Jeremy could only look on as the world went on around him.
* * * *
Clara woke to her phone chiming. She was a bit disoriented as she reached for the device on the nightstand. The bed was higher than her bed at home, so she had to reach down a bit. Opening her eyes, she looked around and the memories of the previous night flooded her.
Pressing the talk button, she grumbled, “Hello?”
“Good morning, angel,” Shane’s sexy voice greeted her.
She lay back on the bed, taking in the luxury of the mattress and the fluffy pillows. At least the hotel room he got me isn’t some run-down motel.
“Good morning, Shane,” she responded, her voice full of sleep.
“Did I wake you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered as she looked for the clock. Surprise hit her. “Is it really eleven?” She never slept this late, even on the weekends.
“I’m so sorry.” He sounded genuine. “I didn’t think about the long evening we had last night. Do you want me to call back later?”
“No. It’s fine.” Clara felt like a teenager. She didn’t know what to talk about. Finally, she asked, “How’s work going?”
“It’s good. I had a meeting this morning and another one this afternoon. We’re setting up the security for Hawk Enterprises, and we’re going to have to set up interviews. It’s going to be a big job.”
He sounded confident and passionate about his work. Being a 911 operator, Clara liked her job, but it was so stressful. Many times, calls settled in her mind so much, she had nightmares about them. She wished she could enjoy her job like Shane and Jeremy.
“I can only imagine,” she said, again not sure what to say.
“Make sure you order something to eat,” he said, his tone indicating more of an order. Chills went through her body and straight to her pussy. She could imagine how it would affect her during sex. He continued. “I spoke with the restaurants at the hotel, and they’ll charge your room for anything you order. Just remember what I told you last night. Don’t go outside the hotel.”
She found out how quickly her body could go from a building libido to a chill rushing down her back at the thought of the danger she found herself in.
It was something she didn’t want to acknowledge, but she had to. Her life was being threatened, and she didn’t know why. Hoping to sound as if she was all right, she joked, “Yes, Sir.”
The man on the other end of the connection groaned. Her body responded to that also.
“You’ll be saying that soon, pet. Very soon,” Shane said, optimism in his voice.
A giggle escaped Clara.
Shane appeared to ignore that, for he told her, “I wanted to touch base with you, angel. I’ll leave the office by six at the latest. I thought we’d order in and get to know each other better. Is that all right?”
She shrugged, forgetting she was on the phone for a moment.
“Angel?” Shane asked, a touch of worry in his voice. “Are you there?”
“Sorry, yes. Whatever you want to do.” She was kind of at his mercy.
“We’ll talk when I get there.”
“Okay.”
“Bye, angel. Have a good day.” Shane’s deep voice had affected her again.
“Bye.”
Shane disconnected the call on his end. Clara felt giddy.
There had been men in her past. However, she never had an actual relationship with one because after the first couple of weeks, they just didn’t do anything for her. She had gotten tired of the same ol’ dating routine, so it had been a while since she had been out on a date.
Shane was different. He was all man. Masculine yet gentle. Commanding, but giving. He had shown all that to her yesterday.
Clara was surprised he was so macho, but he was bi. If she had met him at a party or something like that, she would not have pegged him as liking men. She liked him because he didn’t conform to the norm when it came to his sexuality, nor his preferred lifestyle.
Getting up, Clara took care of her morning routine. Once she was cleaned up and had changed into a brown sundress with tiny golden flowers, she grabbed her laptop out of her bag. Setting it up on the table that sat next to the window, she opened the browser to peruse BDSM information.
Shane had told her there were classes she could attend at the club, but she didn’t want to go in completely ignorant to the subject. Jeremy had experience, but the only things she knew was from what her friends Savannah and Missy had told her. She would need to get together with them and have a good discussion about what she was getting herself into.
* * * *
Clara and Jeremy had been on Shane’s mind the entire day. The meeting with Tate Hawkins was going into its third hour as they were going over all his businesses and what the needs would be. The hardest was going to be Hawk Airlines. In this day and age of Homeland Security and TSA, security had to be vetted, and in Shane’s case, each person would be investigated in depth.
Shane had talked to Clara around eleven, but Jeremy hadn’t called in like he was supposed to. Shane and Jeremy had a discussion after they had left Clara’s room, and one thing Shane had instructed Jeremy to do was call in each morning. Jeremy had already been in the lifestyle as a sub, so he had asked Shane what some of the demands Shane would enforce. Checking in every morning and evening had been one of them since Jeremy wasn’t in Denver where Shane could see him every day.
Several texts had been sent to Jeremy to see why he hadn’t checked in, but none of them were returned. Shane was getting a bit miffed.
When Shane heard his name being called, he knew he had drifted into his thoughts. This job was too big to lose, and Tate was a friend inside the Tiger’s Lair, and outside of it. Damn!
Looking over at his right-hand man, Dash, Shane saw that the man was looking at him with a smirk on his lips.
John Dasher, nicknamed Dash, was vice president of Rocky Mountain Security. He had been a Navy SEAL also, but not on the same team as Shane. Dash left the SEALs three years ago after he had been shot several times, one being right above his heart. When Shane was starting up the business, he reached out to Dash and asked him to come work for him.
“I personally don’t think we should have a job fair,” Dash said as if he was trying to answer in a way that told Shane where the conversation left off. This was why Dash was his right-hand man.
Shane blew out a breath as his brain scrambled for an answer. Finally, he spoke as he looked around the table. “I’m with Dash. A job fair will bring in all the mall cops and wanna-be guards. It’s going to take a while to vet potential employees, and Tate, I need you to understand that. This isn’t going to be easy. I would suggest you keep your detail as is right now, and we can vet them in the next week. I would say this is going to be a difficult process, but I figure we should be fully integrated within the month.”
“I know this is coming at you like a charging rhino,” Tate said from his chair at the other end of the conference table. “But I do want this done as soon as possible. Even with the security I did have at the house, that bastard got in and shot Missy and myself. I’m laying the security of my company and home at your feet, and I will feel much better when we’ve got you guys fully on board.”
Shane didn’t blame Tate for being uneasy. A lunatic serial killer had set his sights on Missy, one of Tate’s lovers. The man had already killed several women, along with his wife who he had buried in the woods near their mountain cabin.
The man had blown up Missy’s vehicle that was parked in front of Tate’s home which had turned out to be a diversion. Patrick, Tate’s other lover and a police officer, had gone to check on the explosion, but the lunatic had sneaked in the house and found Tate and Missy in a closet that was supposed to act as a panic room also. He was holding them at gunpoint when Patrick shot the man. Unfortunately, the bullet went through the serial killer and struck Missy and Tate. Luckily, the latter two lived.
Tate Hawkins was a billionaire. His parents were also, but they had taught Tate that he had to work for his money. Taking some seed money his parents had given him, Tate had invested that and built up a worldwide airline and several other businesses. He had made his parents proud of him.
Not wanting to live in a penthouse apartment forever, Tate had a house built for himself in the suburbs. He met Missy and Patrick at the Tiger’s Lair, and the three hit it off immediately as Shane, Clara, and Jeremy had. Tate just hadn’t had enough security in place, but Shane was going to make sure there was going forward.
This was a large job, and Shane wasn’t going to blow it, even though he was beginning a new relationship.
“You’ve already given us the files on your current security employees. We’ll go over those, and in the meantime, we’ll put ads out on the big hiring boards instead of the newspaper. I believe if we do that, we’ll get a higher quality of applicants that are more qualified,” Shane said as Dash wrote down Shane’s instructions. “I’ll have the current guards vetted by the end of the week, and we’ll get that info over to you.”
“Sounds good to me,” Tate said as he gathered the papers he had spread out before him.
That marked the end of the meeting. The others in Tate’s and Shane’s entourage left the large conference room, leaving Tate and Shane alone.
“Trouble in paradise?” Tate asked jokingly as he moved around the table. He took a seat next to Shane.
Shrugging, Shane answered Tate without much confidence. “I believe so. I met a woman about a month ago. She was in a terrible accident and didn’t even know I was there. There was a paramedic that came to help her out, and then I had to leave because my sister was in labor.
“Yesterday, they both showed up in my office. Clara, that’s her name, came because someone is trying to kill her. Her brake line had been cut, and that’s why she had been in the accident. Jeremy, the paramedic, came because I had left my card with him at the scene and he wanted to see if there could be something between us. He lives in Woodland Park, so I told him last night to call me in the morning. He didn’t.”
“And now, you think he doesn’t want to be with you,” Tate finished for Shane. Shane nodded. “If he’s a paramedic, he might be too busy to call or text. Give him the benefit of the doubt and give him some time.”
“I suppose you’re right. But now, I feel like I should hold off on the relationship since we have all this work to do for you.”
Tate chuckled. “Sometimes, the people we are to love come into our lives at unexpected times. I was beginning to think that I was never going to find the right person, and all of a sudden, I am asked to sub for the beginner’s class. I was blindsided by Missy and Patrick, but I wouldn’t change anything. I know you can handle everything on your plate right now. But give your man a chance.”
Shane smiled. “Thanks, Tate. I’ve never felt like I do for anyone before. I think these two might be my future.”
“You do know there will be ups and downs in your relationship. Just remember, they’re people, too, and they might make mistakes. Sometimes they need more than a second chance.” Tate was fully in love with his subs by the way he talked. Shane had to hope that he would be as sure about his subs as Tate was, one day.
“I’ll remember that,” Shane promised.
Tate patted Shane’s shoulder as he stood. “We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Of course,” Shane responded as his phone rang.
Another chuckle sounded from Tate as he left the room.
Picking up his phone, Shane glanced at the screen
and took a deep breath. He knew he had to be understanding for whatever was going to be said.
“Hello, Shane. I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier, but I’m in the hosp—”
Shane was on his feet before Jeremy finished talking. “I’ll be there as quick as I can.”
Chapter Seven
Clara hated the smell and sounds of a hospital. She had seen enough of them in the past month and a half. They weren’t there for her, but she was still nervous about being there.
Shane had come by to pick her up before he headed down to Ute Pass to collect Jeremy from the emergency room. The doctors wouldn’t release Jeremy without someone who would be able to take care of him was there.
Silence filled the Yukon as they drove back to Denver, the last shreds of daylight disappearing behind the Rocky Mountains. Jeremy was dozing in the back seat while Clara looked out at the scenery. Shane had reached for her hand as they left the city limits of Woodland Park, where they stopped and grabbed a bag of clothes for Jeremy, and they had held hands since then. Occasionally she would glance back at Jeremy to make sure he was all right.
Jeremy had been on the scene of a meth lab explosion when a secondary explosion rocked the area. He had been thrown to the ground as were many others. However, when he had gone down, he had hit his forehead on the dry ground. He had been disoriented and dizzy and had a nice-sized goose egg above his right eye. He had also complained of nausea which had sent up a red flag and had him going to the hospital. He had been diagnosed with a concussion. Plus, he had dislocated his shoulder, but they had been able to put it back in place.
There was also the fact of what they had been dealing with that had Clara concerned for Jeremy. The ER doctor assured them that there was nothing to fear as of exposure since Jeremy hadn’t been inside the building.
Her day had been different than the days she had spent since the accident. Usually, she would lay around the house, doze off a few times, and die of boredom. This morning, after Shane had woken her, she had set about reading as much as she could about BDSM. She was shocked at the things she had read, and more astounded that her friends were into it, but then knowing her friends she could see it.