by T B Mann
“Holy shit!” Kailee dropped the letter on the desk. She jumped up and down, tottering on her stilettos. “You’ve made it! You’re going to his private island resort!”
Sarah couldn’t keep the smile off her face any longer. This letter was a dream come true to anyone in her business. Mr. Vodnikski’s staff knew her name even if it was in conjunction with Laguna’s. Networking was so important in publicity, so this was a coup even if it wouldn’t be widely reported. Gossip and rumours always surrounded him. And it would leak within her circles that she’d been to his private island club.
Kailee pulled her from her chair. “I’m so excited for you! Can you sneak me along? Make me your assistant. Tell them you can’t travel without me.” She tapped the side of her head. “I know. Tell them I’m your therapy animal.”
“An animal is certainly what you are.” Kai’s voice stopped Kailee mid jump as he stepped into the office.
“I probably even have bite marks to prove it.” Zale stepped around Kai, dodged Kailee’s fist, before coming to a rest, sitting on the corner of her desk.
Kailee lifted her middle finger and glared while the rest laughed.
Sarah sank into her chair. The presence of two of the men from her dream sent bolts of desire through her, but she wasn’t ready to face them. Not yet. In fact, why were they in her office? The restaurant was going to be bad enough, but at least there would have been others around. People to run interference. And if not, she could have concentrated on eating to avoid staring at their delicious bodies.
“Not that I’m not glad, but what are you two doing here? And where is your third stooge?”
“Nice to see you, too, Kailee.” Kai blew his cousin a kiss. “We’re here because we need to talk to Sarah and you about work. As for Dylan, he’ll be here shortly. He’s just with building security, downloading footage of when the letters were delivered.”
And just like that, all the excitement, the rush of joy from receiving the island invitation vanished. Someone was stalking her client, a person she considered a friend.
Zale’s shoulders stiffened under the change in emotion. Gone was the excitement and anticipation he’d walked in on. Instead, tension filled the air until it became difficult to breathe.
He watched the rapid rise and fall of Sarah’s well-formed breasts under her emerald blouse. He gave his head a tiny shake in an attempt to clear the vision from his brain. Between the way Kai and Dylan acted around her, he vowed not to be the same even as he shoved his fingers under his thighs in an attempt to keep from reaching out and pulling her into his chest.
“Wh-what is…” Her voice faded away before a look of steel pushed its way into her eyes.
Satisfaction rose inside him. Good, she wasn’t a simpering woman even if she was scared. And he didn’t blame her for being scared. Receiving letters like the ones she had would scare anyone. Or at least anyone with a sense of self preservation since it appeared like a number of the women who’d disappeared never told anyone about the letters.
She cleared her throat and threw her shoulders back. His cock jumped to attention as her breasts strained against the silky material. Fuck. This wasn’t good.
A quick glance at Kai revealed that he suffered a similar reaction. He couldn’t like her. Not when his two best friends already did. Besides, any male who was treated to that sight in close proximity would sport wood. Or at least that is what he told himself.
“I mean, why is he going for the security tapes? And what is this about your job?” Her forehead wrinkled. “I thought you all worked for the Navy or something?”
Silence filled the void left by her questions. The urge to tell her everything beat against his clamped teeth, but it wasn’t his place. Kai and Dylan were the ones assigned to tell her. He’d already completed his assignment, winning Laguna to their side with a combination of charm and good looks. The combination proved overwhelming and he’d spent most of the meeting fending off her advances. Thankfully, he’d been able to hide behind their rules of not becoming involved with clients with whom they were protecting. Not that she triggered any form of interest from him. His body recognized her as a beautiful woman, but that was it—no stirring of his cock at all. And that fact alone confused him.
The silence lengthened. Even Kailee nose scrunched as she cocked her head to the side. “Kai? What’s going on?”
Kai’s shoulders drooped. He leaned back against the wall. Defeat and resignation evident in every muscle.
A small feeling of relief shot through Zale. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t the one who was going to explain to Kailee that they’d come under false pretences for this visit.
The door swung open, admitting a grim, but triumphant, Dylan, complete with open laptop. “Found them.” He strode in, not appearing to notice the tension continuing to fill the room. “It helps a little, giving us a starting point, but just adds to the questions. I’ve already sent their pictures off to the task force for backgrounds and am running them through my own programs. But I’m hoping that maybe the two of you know them since security said that they seemed familiar.”
Dylan placed the laptop on the desk and stepped back. No one answered or responded to his comments. Instead, Zale noticed that Sarah sat open mouthed while Kailee shifted her glare to each one of his teammates, including himself, in turn. A shiver worked its way up his spine. He pitied whomever Kailee ended up mated with because she had the glare that turned men to snivelling wimps down pat.
“Kai, speak fast. I like my man parts where they are.” He covered his groin with both his hands.
A soft snort behind him filled him with joy. He’d accomplished his mission of decreasing the tension if Sarah snorted.
“Well, I do. To damage them would do the world a disservice.”
This time it wasn’t only Sarah who chuckled. Kailee’s laughter joined in. Even Kai and Dylan cracked a smile.
“Again, Zale, I’m not touching nor going near your man parts.” Kailee shuddered and then gagged.
Kai pushed himself off the wall. His stance straightened, but his eyes kept a glimmer of lightness much to Zale’s relief. “To answer your earlier question, Sarah, we were in the Navy, but we retired almost a year ago. Currently we work for the Aquaterrestrial Task Force.”
As much as he was willing to let Kai and Dylan lead this show, he couldn’t resist answering Sarah’s unspoken question. “We work as investigators, like the police or the FBI in the States.”
None of them explained what Aquaterrestrial meant. Maybe later they would fill her in on the fact that they weren’t fully human, but rather human plus.
Kai jumped in, continuing to explain how they were on the case looking for some missing women and how the letters delivered to Sarah’s office matched the ones received by the others.
The longer Kai spoke, dumping information on Sarah about the women who’d been found dead and the fact that they only received between six and eight letters before disappearing, the tighter the muscles in her cheeks became. But once he smelt fresh blood—assuming she’d bit her lip—he couldn’t hold back any longer. “Enough, Kai. She doesn’t need all the details at the moment.”
Her hand landed on the dress pants covering his thigh. His eyes dropped to stare at the sight. The warmth of it burned through to his skin sending his blood south. Fuck. This can’t happen… but it feels so nice.
He lifted his eyes, meeting Kai’s searching stare. He gulped. This really wasn’t good. The last thing he wanted was for Kai to think that he was going after her as well. But what could he do? He couldn’t control his body’s reaction to her. And for some reason, whenever he looked at her, touched her, or was touched by her, his cock stood up and took notice.
Kai raised a single eyebrow and narrowed his gaze. It was a look Zale knew well and it never failed to make him sweat. Kai was losing patience and about to blow. The speed of him reaching this level surprised him. To do so, something must really be eating him. Tonight, Zale would sit him down and g
et to the bottom of it. But until then, he would do everything in his power to keep Kai from blowing. “Didn’t Dylan say that he had pictures? Maybe we should move on and see if either Sarah or Kailee recognize them? Then we can discuss more about our next steps.”
Dylan’s face puckered as his eyes narrowed with each dart between Kai and himself. Zale attempted to keep his eyes blank, but internally he pleaded with Dylan to jump in and diffuse whatever set Kai off. Without someone stepping in, Kai might make things worse, bringing up things left unsaid before Sarah and Kailee. Dylan’s fingers worked an imaginary keyboard along his thigh, and his eyes momentarily clouded over. Maybe he’d caught Zale’s message? Zale could only hope.
The whole exchange took only seconds, hardly long enough for Sarah to realize it had occurred even though Kailee’s eyes sparkled mischievously as she watched them. Fuck. All he needed now was for Kailee to get some strange idea that they all had the hots for Sarah—even if it was true-ish.
“It would be good to see if they recognize the men, Kai. That way I can disseminate the information before we pay them each a visit.”
An expectant hush filled the room. Come on, Kai. Let whatever it is go. Put the mission first. He watched as the muscles in Kai’s face relaxed and then became all business. A sigh of relief escaped, and he took what amounted to his first unencumbered breath since Kai had begun speaking.
A quick nod from Kai toward Dylan had Dylan turning towards his laptop. “I have the three people who appear to have dropped off the letters. One letter was delivered while all the cameras around the building were mysteriously down. Under the guise of being a tech auditor for the security company, I’ve pushed for them to do an in-depth examination of the code during that time.”
He watched Sarah bite her lip again as Dylan continued to talk. Not always able to pick up on social cues, Dylan dove into the nuts and bolts about what each finding could possibly mean. Each statement sounded worse and scarier than the information Kai delivered. Even though she wasn’t the focus of the letters, to know that the person wanted her friend and employer, putting her inadvertently in the line of fire, must have been daunting. But to find out that the person may have infiltrated her work, had enough computer skills to take down an entire security system, and most likely stalked her to get close to her friend, had to freak her out. Yet as he watched despite the biting and the occasional whitening of her clenched fingers, she showed no fear.
And then Dylan turned the computer, showing the faces to Sarah and Kailee. Twin gasps met their ears.
Shit. They knew them.
“Sarah, isn’t that the guy who runs the hot dog cart down the street?” Kailee pointed at the picture on the left of the screen. “And that one”—she pointed to the far right—“the flower delivery guy?”
“Yes. And the third one…” Sarah’s shoulders shook, and her voice quivered. A deep breath appeared to steady her, but he noticed her fingers gripped the edge of the desk. Thankfully, she wasn’t a shifter or any other supernatural. Otherwise, her desk would have needed to have been replaced. “The third one has delivered food to my apartment many times.”
“What?” The word rang out from various mouths, including his own. While Kailee’s came out horrified, the ones that emanated from the male mouths were all ferocious growls.
“Until we’ve spoken to and are assured that he’s not involved, you’re not staying at your place.”
Sarah’s eyebrows rose at Kai’s command and while he understood her reluctance to follow a command from someone she’d just met, he fully agreed with Kai. Until they knew more, she couldn’t be left alone. Even though the man in the picture looked young, hardly older than a teen, it didn’t mean anything. Supernaturals tended to age slower than humans. And with the added strength many of their species possessed, it would be nothing to deliver food one night, abduct her, and use her to snag who they really wanted. That would not be allowed to happen on their watch.
“My building is secure. I know how to protect myself.” Her voice was soft, but with an underlying core of steel. Sarah may have remained seated at her desk, but the picture of her standing, hands on hips, going toe-to-toe with Kai filled his mind. A sight he found himself wishing to happen although it left him shifting on the desk in an attempt to hide another erection.
“I don’t care. This man still gained access to you and delivered a threatening letter. You could be used as bait to capture Laguna. Do you want that?”
Zale nodded along with Dylan at Kai’s words. Her attitude was understandable, but they had the experience. They knew what this man or group was capable of. And although both Kai and Dylan had given some horrible examples that appeared to have scared her, neither of them told the whole story. In this, he believed she needed to bow to their directions.
She pushed her chair back from the desk and crossed her arms over her chest. “Look, I understand that this is your job. And that you probably know things you haven’t shared, but I’ve been dealing with this for weeks. Sure, I didn’t know that my food guy dropped off one of the letters, but he’s been nothing but nice to me.”
The two glared at each other. Tension mounted until it was almost a visible entity between them. Zale opened and shut his mouth numerous times along with Dylan but could never figure what he could say that might ease the tension.
“Sarah, I know you and I know my cousin. These letters have freaked you out.” Sarah’s gaze flashed to Kailee’s, a frown on her face at her words. “Don’t even try to deny it. Even Kai knows the truth since he saw the aftermath yesterday.”
Kai’s chest puffed. Zale wanted to smack him on the back of his head. A rookie move if he’d ever seen one. Taking pride that Kailee suggested he was right wouldn’t endear Sarah to him.
And when her eyes swung back to Kai and narrowed, shooting daggers, Zale knew he’d been correct.
“So. That just means I need to take some extra precautions. More than I’ve already been taking since the letters arrived.” Sarah uncrossed her arms, reached under her desk, and pulled up her purse. “See.” She pulled out two bottles of hairspray along with a tube sock that looked to be weighted.
His confusion was matched by his brothers-in-arms while Kailee nodded in glee.
“Smart. Did you make the sock?” At Sarah’s nod, she continued. “What did you put in it?”
A smirk lit up Sarah’s face. “A couple of rolls of toonies. Extra money and a great weapon.”
Kai shook his head as if to clear it. His face looked as if he’d sucked on a lemon. “What?”
The girls laughed while he and Dylan shrugged in response.
“Canada doesn’t allow mace to be carried, so Sarah is carrying hair spray. Ever get hairspray in your eyes? It’s just as effective. And toonies are our two dollar coins. She can swing the sock weighted with the coins and do some real damage, allowing her to get away.” Kailee held out her hand and fist bumped her friend.
Kai’s shoulders slumped in defeat, and while Zale admired her ingenuity, neither he nor his friends—from what he could tell—were happy that she felt these measures were enough. He took the sock from her, giving it a slight swing, impressed with the weight and feel of the improvised weapon. A quick glance at both Dylan and Kai revealed that both were still worked up. “Maybe a compromise?”
Sarah’s eyes twinkled, and her face appeared as if she found something funny about what he’d said even as she crossed her arms over her chest. He momentarily lost his train of thought as her breasts poked against her blouse, spilling her cleavage up into the slightly open V-neck.
“Compromise,” her sweet voice prodded.
He licked his lips. “Um, yeah. Since we have to work closely in order to protect Laguna, how about one of us spending the evening at your place in order to update you on what we’ve found and you can share scheduling information with us. Once you head to bed, we can ensure the building is secure and leave.”
She chewed on her lip for a moment while her gaze travelled from ma
n to man to man, finally landing back on his. “I think I can live with that. The last thing I want is for Laguna to be a victim.”
“Good.” He couldn’t resist putting a large, relieved smile on his face. “Now that that’s settled, care to tell us what had you and Kailee so excited when we first walked in?”
“Well…”
Dylan shut the lid on his laptop, pushed it across the table, and then relaxed back into the comfortable sofa. The shower ran in Sarah’s bathroom, sending all sorts of erotic images into his head.
This past week had been difficult. They’d amassed a huge amount of information on the delivery people, but nothing that seemed to tie them together. In-person interviews hadn’t gone as planned since none of them could be found. While Sarah had breathed a sigh of initial relief, she then morphed into concern for her “nice, food delivery guy” and worried that something had happened to him.
The shower shut off, filling his mind with visions of Sarah rubbing the towel all over her body, drying it. She’d lift each of her heavy and perfectly formed breasts to dry the skin underneath. He could see it. Except maybe in this dream, it was his hands holding the towel. The backs of his fingers sliding over the underside of her breasts, encouraging her nipples to stand on end. He’d lick his lips and stare hungrily at them until he couldn’t hold back any longer.
Then and only then, when her lungs shook with each attempt to breathe, would he suck one of them into his mouth. The sweet flavour of her skin would burst over his taste buds, wrenching a deep moan of desire from him. He’d flick the little nub with the tip of his tongue until she dug her fingernails into his arms. He’d pull off, letting her think he was going to stop before he’d devour her other nipple until she cried out. By then, her pussy would be begging for him. She’d be begging for him. But instead of filling her with his rock-hard cock, he’d drop to his knees, using his shirt to dry the area between her breasts and pussy.
