Nightingale: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “It’s okay,” Tessa blushed. “If I thought you were gay a few minutes ago, I definitely don’t anymore.”

  “Good,” Craig sighed in relief. “I mean, Jamie’s a good-looking guy and all, but my pendulum definitely doesn’t swing that way.”

  “Maybe now would be a good time to stop referring to Jamie as a good-looking guy,” Alec muttered.

  “Right.”

  “So, anyway,” Jamie laughed. “These are my oldest friends.”

  “Well, it’s very nice to meet all of you,” Tessa smiled. “I know that I’ve been keeping Jamie pretty busy.”

  I had to admit, she seemed to really like meeting all of us, but that didn’t mean anything. She could be a really good actress. Jamie did a really great job of not letting on that he suspected Tessa, which I wasn’t expecting. He must have gotten good over the last year of hiding what he was thinking and feeling.

  “I bet you have,” I said, putting a big grin on my face to lessen the snark.

  “Let’s sit down,” Jamie said quickly, motioning for Tessa to go into the living room and sit. He shot me a look, but I just smirked at him and headed for my seat.

  “So, how did you meet Jamie?” I asked as I sat right next to Alec and slipped my hand into his.

  “Uh, well, that’s kind of a funny story,” she chuckled.

  “I bet it is,” I grinned, gnashing my teeth together when she slipped her hand onto his knee. This woman was rubbing me all the wrong ways. She was too good, too wholesome, and that just didn’t seem right to me. How had she been raised in money and come out so pure? I must have been letting my irritation show because Alec squeezed my hand hard.

  “I was putting gas in my car-”

  “Attempting to,” Jamie cut in.

  “Stop,” she laughed, slapping at him playfully. “Anyway, I was at the gas station and I was trying to put gas in my car.”

  “How do you try to put gas in your car?” Craig asked before I could.

  “Well, it was my first time, so I didn’t really know what I was doing.”

  I stared at her completely dumbfounded and then glanced at Jamie. He was smirking at me, I’m sure thinking the same thing I was. Either that was the best meet-cute in the world, or she was playing him hard.

  “Anyway, I couldn’t get the gas to come out and I was getting very frustrated. Jamie happened to be on the other side of the pump and heard me grumbling about it and stepped over to help me.”

  “So, what was wrong?” Craig asked, leaning forward in anticipation.

  “I didn’t lift the lever to start pumping,” she blushed. “I know, completely idiotic, but up until recently, I’ve always had drivers that do everything for me. See, my dad is sort of rich and I’ve never really had to do anything for myself.”

  “What happened that you do now?”

  “About a month before I met Jamie, I realized that I didn’t want to live my father’s life anymore. So, I packed my bags and moved out. I didn’t have a job or a place to go, but I was determined not to live under his roof anymore.”

  “That’s either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish,” Alec pointed out.

  “Well, it was both. See, had I been thinking, I would have rented an apartment before I left.”

  “So, where did you go?”

  “To a hotel,” she said.

  “With…your father’s money,” I clarified.

  “Well, like I said, I hadn’t totally thought everything out yet. But after a few weeks of living on my own, I found a job and rented an apartment.”

  “But, how did you rent the apartment without any income?” I asked, not buying this whole story.

  “Well, I had to use his money. I mean, he knew about it and didn’t stop me. But it’s been almost three months and I’m no longer using his cards and next month I’ll be paying the rent with my own money.”

  Jamie raised an eyebrow at me, waiting for me to challenge. I had to hand it to her, she was resourceful. As far as stories go, it was a good one. Nobody could have just gone out on their own after living under their father’s roof without any assistance. So, if this was really the way it happened, she had actually figured it all out, and that was commendable. On the other hand, it was more likely that she was still living off her father and was playing Jamie. Her hair was still styled just a little too perfectly for someone that was roughing it, and I found it hard to believe that she went out and found a job that paid the rent with absolutely no job experience. It was just a little too far fetched for me.

  “Where do you work now?”

  “At an art gallery. I was an art major in school. I didn’t get a chance to finish, but I guess it was enough.”

  “Well, either that or daddy’s name,” I smiled sweetly.

  Alec pinched my side and I flinched slightly, turning to him with a smile. “Down, tiger,” he muttered.

  “So, how did you two meet?” Tessa asked, switching topics.

  “We grew up together,” Alec said. “We’d been kicking each other’s asses for years-”

  “Playing basketball,” I said quickly.

  “Right, on the court. And then one day, this asshole,” he said, nudging Craig, “knocked me down hard and I smacked my head on the concrete. Florrie never left my side as I recovered. She was with me every single day, refusing to leave my side for anything.”

  “Wow,” Tessa said in amazement. “Was it a serious head injury?”

  “Well, it was serious enough that I was worried about him. See, I had this secret crush on him, and I had for a long time, but I didn’t think he saw me that way.”

  “But I had been in love with Florrie pretty much my whole life,” Alec admitted, his eyes burning into mine. My heart fluttered and I momentarily forgot that we were working a job right now. Still, it worked with our cover, so I went with it.

  “So, after that, you were together?”

  “Secretly. I didn’t want everyone to know we were together. We’d been friends for so long, and I didn’t want everyone to be around for what happened. I mean, if it went south, it would be hard on everyone.”

  “So, when did you find out?” she asked Jamie.

  “Oh, uh, not for years after. I mean, I was busy and I was too caught up in everything to know what was going on. It was…just last year that I found out.”

  “Wow. That’s such a great love story. Just like ours,” she smiled up at Jamie.

  He smiled back and kissed her, and it pissed me off how he didn’t seem to be acting, but genuinely liked her. She was too fake for me, too good and wholesome. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Jamie with anyone, I just wanted him with the right person, and she didn’t strike me as the right person.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Alec

  “You want to tell me what that was about back there?” I asked as soon as we were through the door at our hotel room.

  “Here we go again,” Craig muttered, bringing up the rear.

  “What are you talking about?”

  I grabbed Florrie by the arm and swung her around to face me. “I’m talking about that shit with Jamie. How you were practically fawning over him.”

  She rolled her eyes at me and yanked her arm out of my grasp. “Get over yourself, Alec. I wasn’t fawning all over him. In case you didn’t notice, I was wrapping myself around you.”

  “And yet you got mad every time that woman touched him. Tell me what the fuck that was about.”

  “Look, we’re here to do a job, and I’m doing it,” she countered. “Jamie asked us to judge her and get a feel for her. That’s what I was doing, and I didn’t like her.”

  “You didn’t like her from the moment she walked through the door. The truth is, you like him and you’re judging who she is based on the fact that you don’t like her for Jamie.”

  “So what if I am? He’s a good guy and I want to be sure that she’s not screwing him over.”

  “That’s not what your job is. You can’t be thinking as his friend right now. And I won�
��t even get into how pissed that makes me.”

  “Right, because I shouldn’t have any male friends.”

  “Not ones that look at you like they want to fuck you,” I growled.

  “No other man can look at you,” Craig said in a low voice, trying to mimic me. “You can’t tell me who to be friends with,” he said, mimicking Florrie’s voice.

  “Shut up,” we both snapped.

  “Hey, I’m just saying, we never should have taken this job. Talk about bad karma. I should have told Cap to give us the job with the old lady and her puppy. At least then I wouldn’t have to listen to you two bitching at each other.”

  “Look, Alec, I like Jamie as a friend. It’s nothing more than that. He knows that too.”

  “His eyes wandering all over your body would say otherwise.”

  “He’s a friend, and that’s all it will ever be. Do you really think that I would just walk away from you, after everything we’ve been through?”

  “Then why the fuck are you getting so pissed when she kisses him? Or when she looks at him with that dreamy stare?”

  “Because I don’t think she’s good enough for him!”

  “That’s none of your fucking business. The job is to find out if she’s screwing him over with her father, not to find out if her googly eyes are real. He’s a big boy. He can take care of himself.”

  “And if one of your friends was being screwed over by a woman, you wouldn’t want to step in and say something?”

  “The difference is that I’m not looking at any of my friends like I want to fuck them.”

  She scoffed and took a step away from me. “Is that what you think? You think I want to go fuck Jamie?”

  “I don’t know if you want to or not. What I do know is that you care just a little too much about her holding his hand or kissing him. There’s some kind of jealousy there and I don’t like it.”

  “I would never do anything with him. It’s not like that.”

  “Maybe that’s true, but that’s not the vibe you’re giving off. Florrie, we’ve been down this road before. I need to know that I can trust you, and right now you’re making that really fucking difficult.”

  “I can’t believe you. You don’t trust me because I’m looking out for a friend?”

  “Alright,” Craig stepped in. “This isn’t helping anyone right now. We have a job to do, and we can’t do that if you two are fighting over your goddamn relationship.”

  “Shut the fuck up,” I growled. Craig stepped up and shoved me back, slamming me into the wall.

  “You don’t get to shove me around anymore. I’ve put up with this bullshit for way too fucking long. I know I joke about it and pretend that it’s not a big deal, but your relationship is killing this team,” he snapped. “The two of you fucking bicker about everything, and most of the time it has to do with one of you being jealous and possessive. It’s got to fucking stop. We’re here to do a job, and if the two of you can’t put aside your shit, we’re not gonna be able to do the fucking job!”

  He shoved me back against the wall and stormed off, slamming the door to the other room. I was stunned. I knew that it put extra pressure on Craig to be out on jobs with us when we started arguing, but I had no idea that it pissed him off so much. I glanced at Florrie and saw the same realization on her face.

  “Shit,” I muttered, running my hand over my face. I stared at Florrie and she stared back. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Look, we have to find a way to work this job without killing each other. Craig’s right, this can’t continue while we’re working jobs. So, I’ll keep my mouth shut about what I think is happening between you and Jamie, but you have to stop looking at him like you have any say in what happens in his life. That’s not fair to me, Florrie.”

  “And it’s not fair that you would accuse me of having any kind of relationship with Jamie.”

  I sighed and walked over to her. Neither of us was going to win this battle right now. “Let’s both agree to set this shit aside for right now. We can’t afford for us to be fighting with Craig. It’s not working.”

  “Alec, this is never going to work with us. We’ve known that for a long time.”

  “What are you saying?” I asked, taking a step back.

  “Relax. I’m talking about us working on the same team. We’re going to have to talk to Cap about this when we get back. This isn’t fair to Craig.”

  “You’re right, it’s not. But where does that leave the team?”

  “I don’t know. That’s something we have to discuss with Craig. I don’t want to break up the team, but realistically, this just doesn’t work. We’ve been fooling ourselves into thinking that we could do this because we worked out our personal issues,” she said. “But the truth is, we’re both always going to behave the same way, and Craig is always going to be caught in the middle.”

  I didn’t want either of them to feel like they had to choose. I didn’t want to leave the team, but the thought of either of them having to decide to take a step back wasn’t right. Besides, I was the team leader and I had to do what was best for the team, even if that included removing myself.

  “I’ll talk to Cap about leaving.”

  “Alec-”

  “No, this is the right thing to do. It’s my team and my decision. I don’t want you and Craig to have to make the decision. Besides, I’m sure we could talk to Cap about making the change with Coop’s team. They haven’t been together that long, so we could make the transition easily enough, if they’re up to it.”

  “And if they don’t want to break up their team?” she asked.

  I shook my head, because I didn’t have an answer for her right now. “I don’t know. We’ll figure it out.”

  I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. I hated that this was what it was coming to, but the change was coming. It was only a matter of time. The door to Craig’s room flew open and he stepped out, his mouth open like he was ready to start yelling.

  “What? Now you’re making up?” he asked after a few seconds.

  “Let’s just say we called a stalemate until we get home,” I answered.

  “Good,” he nodded. “You know, because I was ready to come out here and kick some ass.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “Damn, you look sexy,” I said, wrapping my arms around Florrie from behind. She had on a killer black dress with a plunging neckline and an open back. I wasn’t sure I could handle her going to this gala dressed like she was. I knew I was going to kill any fucker that stared at her for more than one second.

  “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

  “I hate this suit,” I grumbled, nibbling at her ear. “Where are you hiding your weapons?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” she smirked.

  “I think I need to search you properly. You know, just to be sure that nothing is being exposed.”

  I slid my hand down her waist to the slit in her dress over her right thigh. Slipping my hand under her dress, I groaned when I felt the velcro holding her holster in place. God, it was so fucking sexy. I felt the cool metal of the gun and then felt a similar velcro piece on her other leg.

  “Knife?”

  “Just a small one. You never know when you’ll need one.”

  I pressed my growing erection into her back, needing her to know how hard she was making me. It wasn’t just the dress. It was just Florrie being herself, and she was so fucking sexy.

  I slid my hand back up into the front of her dress, pulling at the double-sided tape so that I could palm her breast. Her nipple hardened under my touch and I ached to slip the tight bud into my mouth and suck on it.

  “Alec, Craig’s going to be out in a minute.”

  “That might be all I need,” I groaned, slipping my hand back down under her dress and into her panties. She was already soaked for me, her panties barely holding in her arousal. “I’m not sure there’s any point in you wearing these anymore.”

/>   I ripped at the thin material until it tore into shreds. She gasped, letting her eyes slide closed as I slid my finger inside her tight pussy. Her juices coated my finger, making me harder than ever as I thought of fucking her hard up against the wall in this dress.

  “Alec,” she moaned, wrapping her hand around my neck as she rested her head on my shoulder. I pushed another finger inside her, pumping in and out as her legs started to shake from my touch. Her sensitive nub was swollen and ready. Just a flick of my thumb against it would send her shooting off and coming all over my hand.

  “Fuck, I want you right now.”

  Her body quivered and her nails dug into my neck. She was right on the edge. All she needed was a little push and I’d have her creaming all over me. I slid my thumb up over her clit and kissed her hard, swallowing her cries as she came on me. I pumped into her harder and harder as her orgasm took over and left her a shaking mess in my arms. When she finally came down, she was shivering and clinging to me.

  “Alright, guys-” My head shot up and I shoved Florrie behind me, shielding her from Craig as much as possible. “What the fuck? Seriously? I was in there for five minutes. You couldn’t keep your hands to yourself for that long?”

  “It was ten minutes,” I clarified. “And if you had stayed away longer, I wouldn’t have blue balls right now.”

  “Oh, would you like me to leave the room again?”

  “That would be nice,” I said, adjusting myself, trying to ease the ache.

  “Maybe I should just go out for a coffee while I’m at it. Maybe pick you up a scone.”

  “Why don’t you be a pal and make it two?” I snapped.

  “I could bring back a menu for you. Maybe you want to order something special while you’re at it.”

  “You could just text me the menu. Then you’d be gone even longer.”

  “Boys!” Florrie shouted. She stepped out from behind me, fully covered and not at all how I wanted to see her. She was in work mode now, and that meant that I wasn’t getting laid, even if I managed to convince Craig to leave us alone.