It was waiting for us and had only one button inside, with the letter P on it.
“Penthouse. They sprang for it.” Vaughn chuckled.
The ride up was smooth and we were about twelve stories above the street in no time. The elevator pinged and slid open into a bright lobby with a table with flowers very artfully arranged.
We walked around it to the smoked glass doors beyond. And I stopped absolutely dead.
Both Vaughn and I stared at the words there.
MCINNIS SECURITY
“What the fuck…” I whispered.
A shadow moved across the doors, and pushed one of them open.
Nolan was standing there in a three-piece suit, looking every bit the attorney he was.
“Welcome, Miss McInnis. Mister Willard. Please come in.”
“Nolan, what the fuck is going on?” I asked.
Glancing over at Vaughn, his mouth was hanging open staring at the other man.
“Are you kidding me?” he gasped.
“No, sir, I am not. Please, come in.” He stepped back and the door stayed open.
Vaughn started laughing and took my hand. He walked us into the hall, where behind the reception desk were the words “McInnis Secuirty” again, and this time to the right was a goddamned logo.
I started crying. The logo was a crosshairs over the York Rose. The family I’d never had a chance to be a part of in England.
“What is going on?”
Nolan pointed to a room down the hall where I could hear chatter and catering sounds. Taking my arm again, Vaughn was still laughing and kissed my head. “Just wait, Birdie.”
We walked into the room and everyone was there.
Everyone, including Farida, Miles, Barbara, Theo, Nevada, Killian, Cece, Victor, Franz, Emmy, Nathaniel, and Gail. There were more people I didn’t know but I couldn’t keep my eyes from burning with tears.
“Surprise!” Everyone in there yelled the words.
“What the hell…”
Vaughn was laughing again. “These people are bastards, Bridget. Nolan and Victor started quizzing me on your dream job about three months ago, while I was still convalescing. Bastard move, gentlemen.”
“This is yours,” Killian said. “You’re wilting in Pittsburgh and we can all see it. It’s not fair that you have such wonderful skills and sit behind a desk.”
“Or fuck on it,” Emmy mumbled.
I threw her a middle finger.
Killian cleared his throat. “So, Victor and I got together with some of your associates and realized that going full legit on this would be perfect for you. Since we figured you didn’t want to really play this game against the assholes in the ‘Burgh, we opted for somewhere with a few more optics.”
I pointed numbly out the door. “But the York Rose…”
Vaughn cleared his throat. “That’s actually my fault. I remembered you telling me all about Greg and his family and I had a chat with them. I thought the rose would be a nice touch for your origins as a former agent and the people who were friends to you over there.”
I stared at him. “You…talked to Greg’s family?”
“I did.” He nodded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a long black box. “They sent me this for you. They said it was yours and it should stay yours.”
He opened the box, and it was the York Rose diamonds that Greg had proposed with, set into a necklace, with emeralds and yellow topaz in the center.
Nolan held the box while Vaughn fastened it around my neck.
I looked at it and it grew a little blurry as I stared at it. I finally looked up at him and kissed him. “Thank you. They…shouldn’t have done that.”
“From what I heard, they really, really liked you, Lady Lavarnay.”
Killian chuckled.
Narrowing my eyes, I stared at him. “Clam it, Marquis de Lavarnay.”
“What?!” Cece gasped. “You have a title and you never told me?”
“Um…” He raised an eyebrow and the air between them grew hot.
“K, enough of that,” Victor said, stepping away and into his husband. Franz chuckled and wrapped his arm around the bigger man.
“These bastards also derailed my other idea this weekend, apparently,” Vaughn said. He threw a nasty look at Killian and Nolan, but turned back to me once more.
And this time, went down on one knee.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered.
He held up a beautiful ring, a diamond set with emeralds all around. “Marry me, Bridget?”
“Vaughn…” I couldn’t speak. I finally managed a nod and croaked, “Yes.”
The End
…for now.
Welcome to McInnis Security
Staff:
Bridget McInnis – owner, CEO, coordinator
Vaughn McInnis – owner, CFO
Farida Petersen – Talent Coordinator, VP
Miles Petersen – Accountant, VP
Nolan Drescher – Staff Lawyer, VP
Barbara Petersen – receptionist
Gail Bruene – Weapons consultant, Personal Security
Theodore “Mace” Livorno – Personal Security
We are always in the market for talent in security, intelligence, technology and physical protection, especially if you’re a woman!
Welcome to the agency:
Charli Johnston
Logan Cortez
Want to know more about Killian and Cece?
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Kinbaku-bi--'the beauty of tight binding'.
Dusty Rose is well versed in the beauty of kinbaku. Trained in Japan a rope artist, there is nothing more she enjoys than the feel of the silk rope running through her fingers as she binds her willing partners in the intricate patterns of her art. Dusty loses herself there, pretending her real life as Cece Robbe doesn’t exist.
Dr. Killian McInnis has had a rough year, after saving his friend Nathaniel's life. He doggedly tried to avoid his problems by going back to the life he thought he could live without: being a Dom. It seems to be the only way to escape the social darling his family expects him to marry.
As desperate as their families are to keep Cece and Killian apart, they only succeed in driving them together. Unrequited desire hangs in the air between them, and they cling to each other desperately trying to find a way out together…
…sometimes, the knots we tie are our own.
Kinbaku is a Japanese style of bondage which involves tying up the bottom using simple yet visually intricate patterns. The aesthetic arrangement of ropes and knots on the model’s body emphasizes characteristics like sensuality, vulnerability--and strength.
About
Katherine Rhodes
Armed with a pen name, Katherine Rhodes has gird her loins and set her mind to writing erotic romances which are kinky, dirty, and fun. As a lackadaisical laundry goddess, and an expert in the profundities of bad music and awful literature-thanks to her husband-Katherine strives to find balance in the universe and time to cook dinner. An East Coast dweller, currently located in the Philadelphia Tristate area, she is the proud servants of three cats and would take a vacation in Prague over a day at the beach any time…
www.katherinerhodes.com
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Also by Katherine Rhodes
CONTEMPORARY
CLUB IMPERIAL
Consensual
Broken Bonds
Knots
Untied
Lessons
Now. Forever.
Inevitable
Club Imperial Volume 1
SILVER SOUL
Not Quite Juliet
CITY OF STEEL (THE VAULT)
Innuendo
Double Entendre
THE CLUB SERIES
The Darkest Corners
Anything for Her
Teach Me To Sin
Come Fly with Me with Isobelle Cate
Sweet Pain with Emily Walker and Jenni Moen
THE DA SILVA HEIRS
All the King’s Horses
Princess of the Plains
Empire of Dirt
STANDALONES
Captain
Acts of Contrition
Obsidian Escape
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
VAMPIRE CROWN
Queen of Gods
King of Gods
Death of Gods
Blood of Gods
War of Gods (Coming June 2020)
SAINTS AND SINNERS
Sleeper
Exchange
Filthy
Fall
THE COMPLEX
Balance Point
One Thousand Wishes, One Thousand Stars
THE JUNEAU PACKS
Taming Alaska
Frozen Alaska
Exploring Alaska
Uncovering Alaska
(Subscribe to the Pack Chronicle Newsletter!)
THE NIGHTSHIFT IN NEW YORK
Moonlight Calling
THE WITCHWOLF CHRONICLES
Passion Flames: The Demon Slayers 1
Turned: The Lastillions, Inari Council 1
THE ELEMENTAL DRAGONS (Pine Valley)
Darkwater
Skydance
Fireborn (coming 2020)
J. Rose Alexander
Katherine Rhodes under the pen name
J. Rose Alexander
Chatter box, compulsive writer, bon vivant, stunt commuter, and a ninja in her dreams, J. Rose enjoys losing herself in the capes and masks of her superheroes, finding new trouble for her witches and werewolves-- and is always on the look out for a new adventure, on the page or in real life. J. Rose write sweet, clean(ish) stories that are suited to readers 13 and up, unless she warns you otherwise...
www.jrosealexander.com
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THE ORIGIN STORIES
Penumbra: Equinox
Penumbra: Solstice
The Art of Dying
The Art of Living
THE FACTION STORIES
Apathetic Avengers
The Natural Order of Things
The Royals of Grand Island
Shadow in Glass
Family Portraits (coming 2020)
SKELETON KEY
Eunica
STANDALONES
Zenko (Woodland Creek)
Slip the Waves (Hotel Paranormal)
S.A. Sommers
Katherine also writes MM Romance
under S.A. Sommers
S.A. Sommers has ink in her blood. Sucked into the world of MM Romance by another author, she couldn’t resist dipping a toe into the genre and was swept away.
A New Jersey native, she swears like a sailor, has a terrible love for Rutt’s Hut, used to sneak into Greenwich Village as a kid and wanted nothing more than to write grand adventures of the human spirit. Living outside of Philadelphia, she swears (profusely) that you can take the girl out of Jersey, but you can’t take the Jersey out of the girl.
Married, Mother of Cats, world traveler, and expert destroyer of dinners, she believes strongly that love is love, and if you have a problem with that, [single finger Jersey salute].
(No, really. You haven’t lived until
you have had a Rutt’s Hut ripper.)
By S.A. Sommers
Aligning Stars
Marcus in Retrograde
Uriah’s Orbit Coming 1/20/2020
The Battle of Maddox (coming Mar 2020)
Plain Sight Page 24