Spice Box: Sixteen Steamy Stories

by Raine Miller

  “Stay here.” He left her in the darkness. She straightened her clothes, then checked that her phone was on vibrate. She slipped it inside her skirt pocket to douse the light.

  A moment later, Jason returned. “We can’t go back, but I know another way.”

  This was going to be hard to explain to security later. Jason led Zoe down the narrow passage in the pitch dark. She was amazing, beautiful and irresistible. He couldn’t resist her back then, why should it be different now? For months he’d tried telling himself they were better off apart, she’d be safer not having him as a partner, but the truth was, he wasn’t sure if anyplace was safe. Right now, he needed to concentrate on the matter at hand. The FLC mission and the unauthorized use of this passage. Secret Service had rules to follow, and he was about to break a couple. His gut tightened. He’d have to explain his appearance on the security cameras pointed at this location.

  “My purse and car keys are in my office,” Zoe said. “Will I have a chance to go back and get them?”

  He had to smile. She was worrying about that now? “Not tonight. I’ll drive you home.”

  She groaned. “Crap.”

  “What?”

  “My keys to my house are with my car keys.”

  “Stay at my place tonight. I’ll drive you in early.”

  “Can’t. Dexter’s at home.”

  He felt a fist punch his shoulder. “Ow.” Good aim in the dark. “What was that for?”

  “You planned this,” she snapped.

  “How could I have planned this? You’re the one who went snooping. I was doing my job, checking…out the rooms.” He didn’t want to say his job had been to either check that she’d gone or make her leave. “We’ll figure out something.”

  “You came down to make sure I left so I wasn’t down here like last night. Right? Was there another sex rendezvous or secret meeting planned?”

  “This passage splits into two around this point.” Jason felt along the walls. “We don’t want to make the wrong turn. It’s a maze down here.”

  “What else could it be?” She sounded worried. She should be, and that ripped a hole in his chest.

  “Just like when we worked at Langley, the details will come when it’s appropriate for you to know. I can’t tell you more for your own protection and the program’s.”

  “So there is some program. I suspected that.” She sighed. “I know, I know, details as needed. But we’re not at Langley, and this is different. Something doesn’t sit right with me. I’m worried that the president is in danger. What if there’s a security breach? Remember the Russian double agent?” That agent had worked in their office at Langley for two years before he was discovered. He had a wife and two kids, and his family had had no idea.

  Jason stopped and took her into his arms. “Zoe, I can’t tell you right now. The president isn’t in danger. I promise you that. The world is in a very dangerous state right now, more than you know. What’s going on down here is vital for keeping the world from self-destructing.”

  “In other words, stay out of it.” She rested her head on his shoulder, and he held her tighter.

  “For now. I’ll explain it later.” How could they have brought her into this? Damn it.

  “Anything I can do to help?” she asked.

  “Right now we need to be quiet. We’ll be hitting a set of stairs soon for the first floor.”

  “Where does this come out?”

  He groaned. “You really don’t want to know.”

  Zoe walked on tiptoes in her business heels up the old wooden stairs behind Jason. The steps creaked. How someone couldn’t hear them coming a mile away, she had no idea.

  At the top of the stairs, Jason pulled out his iPhone and turned it on to illuminate the passage. A keypad and key swipe were on the wall next to a panel. No door.

  He swiped his card and punched in a six-digit code then eased the panel open a crack. “Thank God, no one’s in here. Hurry.”

  Disoriented, Zoe followed him into the dark room. She looked around. “What is this place?”

  “The president’s private study.”

  “Oh crap. Maybe we should’ve waited downstairs until that meeting was over.”

  “Not a good idea.” He took her hand. “This way before security comes.” There was an odd catch to his voice. Could he be involved in a plot against the president? She didn’t believe that Jason was capable of being a double agent or working with a criminal group.

  “Are there other secret panels like this in the White House?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Oh, come on. Is there one in the Oval Office?”

  He gripped her hand so tight it hurt. “You know nothing of these tunnels and passageways. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, and you’re hurting me.”

  He swore under his breath as he loosened his grip. “Sorry. There’s a lot going on.”

  He’d never been this nervous before as an agent, and they’d worked together on a variety of missions. On one, they did a two-man carry of documents containing underwater-weapon specifications. While they stopped for gas at a Stuckey’s in Kansas, three armed men pulled in and surrounded him while she was in the bathroom. They were after the documents. Jason had no idea how their cover had been blown, but he managed to wound two of them and subdue the third by the time she’d made it back to the parking lot. Kansas state police arrested the men. After proving their identities, Jason and Zoe had given statements and left.

  “Let’s go. I’ll take you home.” He unlocked the door and opened it, then took a step back. Three armed guards stood blocking the doorway with stern expressions.

  “Hi, guys,” Jason said calmly. “Didn’t mean to alarm you. I suspect we’d set off the motion sensors. Ms. Summers wasn’t aware of the foreign diplomats coming in this evening for a private meeting. When I saw the group coming down the hall a few moments ago, I didn’t want to compromise the delicate negotiations by our presence, so I pulled her into the closest office.”

  The one in the center frowned then gave a slight smirk. “Private meeting, huh? Foreign diplomats? I haven’t been notified of any meetings or special guests this evening, sir.”

  “The president doesn’t want these meetings publicized.”

  The guard made a grunt. “Right.” Obviously, he wasn’t buying it. They were screwed. “Well, Mr. Secret Service.” He picked up Jason’s ID badge and glanced at it, then glanced at Zoe’s. “Mr. Merritt and Ms. Summers, next time you decide to have a private meeting, do it someplace other than the president’s study.”

  “Will do,” Jason said in his humblest of tones.

  The guard made a slight tilt of his head. “Get out of here.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Melissa Tadeshi knocked on the press secretary’s door and held her breath, waiting for her boss to answer. She was used to working these late hours.

  “Come in.” Julia had a weary, apologetic tone to her no-nonsense voice. Normally, Julia’s eyes shone a hazel green that flared when she was ripping into someone. Secret Service agents or White House guards gave her a wide berth when passing her in the hall. Melissa had seen the woman poking a guard in the chest with her finger and yelling while the guard nodded like a scolded child. But Julia’s face had no fight in it tonight.

  The woman didn’t approve of Melissa’s position, barely approved of the FLC, but if the president needed this, she’d go along with it.

  “Is he here?” Melissa asked as she strutted into the room. She wore a long London Fog raincoat over her outfit.

  “Just arrived.” Julia peered down at her shoes and scrunched her nose. Melissa had on medium-heeled business pumps. “Are those the heels you’re wearing?”

  Melissa rolled her eyes and gave a snort. “Of course not. I know how to dress the part.” She opened her large leather shoulder bag and pulled out a pair of lace-up, knee-high boots. The heels on those babies were six-inch, including the platform. “I’ll put these on just before I go in.”r />
  “They’ll do. What are you wearing?”

  She unbuttoned her coat, then tossed it on a chair in front of Julia’s desk.

  “Wow,” Julia said as she leaned back in her chair. “Where the hell do you shop?”

  “At a little fetish shop in Georgetown.” Melissa wore a black leather corset with studded spikes across the breasts. A leather thong barely covered her sex. She held up a decorative mask. “I have two of these.”

  “Good. You’ll both need them. I’ll have all three cameras going. Are you nervous?”

  Melissa leaned on one foot, hands on her hips. “I was a professional Domme for six years. I can handle clients.”

  “Have you ever had one you couldn’t handle?”

  Melissa hesitated for a minute. She’d tried lying on her application for the White House job. She should’ve known better. The application had asked if there was anything in her past that might be viewed by the public as lewd or immoral. She left out her BDSM history and career. She’d always been discreet. During her interview, that was the first thing they asked about. They had dates, times and places.

  Then she was offered a position. She’d suspected they did a lousy job on the security check. They hadn’t. Shortly after she started at the White House, she was propositioned for her Domme experience.

  “I did have one bad incident. My partner is a switch. He plays both the dominant and submissive sides of a scene. Usually, he’s present, sometimes to assist, sometimes to protect me with a new client. We each have our own apartments, and we rent a third that we use as our dungeon. This particular time he was away. He’s a race car driver and travels frequently. I had a new client who was anxious.”

  “But your partner wasn’t available. Why didn’t you reschedule?”

  “The money was good, and this guy came with a recommendation.”

  “So you were a prostitute?” Julia asked, but her comment held no judgment.

  Melissa got that a lot, and it annoyed the hell out of her. “No, I was not a prostitute. I never had sex with my clients. I helped clients realize their fantasies in a safe environment. A highly intensified and dramatized fantasy, but that was my purpose and expertise.”

  “What went wrong?”

  “The client wasn’t a submissive. He was a ballbuster. He wasn’t into exploring his fantasies. He was into a royal mindfuck at my expense, and I almost got raped in the process. Fortunately, I had a knife handy. Threatened to cut off a few of his favorite body parts if I ever saw him again. If not me, then my partner would.”

  “If things get out of hand in these situations, don’t make threats of any kind. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The realization of her next scene and what she had to do sent a shiver through her. Her hands were shaking. Her hands never shook before meeting a client.

  “If they do get out of hand, raise your pinkie finger, and either the first lady or the Secret Service guard present will step in.”

  “I understand.” Melissa ran through the scenario she had planned and hoped it would satisfy her sub.

  Julia stood and took the handful of papers she had on her desk. “We can’t mess this up. So far, it’s all working well. But we’ll need to bring Zoe into the FLC sooner than expected.”

  “Why?”

  “Talks with representatives from Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan and others aren’t going well. The war continues to spread out on several fronts. The UN advisers have suggested a small reception at the White House as a sign of goodwill. Many of the delegates will be entering the country early. The schedule for our program will have to move up.”

  “I’ll talk to Jason. We’ll start her training,” Melissa assured her. “By the way, who is our target this evening? Usually, you tell me who he is and some background.”

  “I can’t say.”

  “Don’t you think I should know?” Why was this one different? A list of possible reasons raced through her head, all of them bad. A few of these targets had known connections to terrorist groups.

  “You know his preferences and his limits. It’s best that you don’t know more.”

  Melissa nodded. She opened her mouth to ask if she was in any danger then changed her mind. Of course she was in danger, they all were. Everything about the project exposed them to unforeseen hazards.

  “Do you have a question?” Julia asked as her phone rang.

  Melissa shook her head.

  Julia picked up the phone. “Yes? We’ll be down.” She hung up and stood. “They’re ready.”

  “Good.” Melissa put her coat back on and stuffed her boots and masks back in her bag. “I want to get this over with.”

  Melissa followed a guard and Julia down the stairs to the lower levels of the White House. She passed Zoe’s office and was relieved to see the door closed. The text she’d gotten from Jason several moments ago—Z out—was all she needed to know. This encounter was too important to fuck up. At the end of the hallway, three more guards stood in front of the Red Tape entrance.

  “Is he ready?” Julia asked the guard standing at the door. All three men were well above six feet tall and built like bouncers.

  He nodded. Melissa’s stomach turned sour. Never in all the years as a Domme had she felt nauseated before meeting a client. He was just a client. Dropping her bag on the floor, she kicked off her shoes and slid on the knee-high boots.

  “I need to make a quick stop,” Melissa said, pointing to the ladies’ room. Her mouth went dry, and her tongue felt two sizes too big.

  Julia made a face. “You have sixty seconds.”

  Without a word, Melissa dashed into the bathroom and turned on the faucet, splashing cold water on her face. She willed the contents of her stomach to remain where they were. Please, please, get a grip, Goddamn it. She leaned against the sink and took three deep, slow breaths. She could do this.

  After drying her face and hands, she touched up her makeup from a bag in her coat pocket, slipped on a pair of long, black gloves and donned the mask. The Mardi Gras mask, made of black satin and decorated with feathers, sequins and glitter, covered half her face. She had another one to match for her partner in crime.

  She removed her trench coat and hung it on a hook by the showers, ran her hands down the front of her corset to her hips as a way to center herself. Swinging the door open, she strutted down the corridor toward the waiting group. Julia looked about ready to burst a vein in her forehead. “Ready now?” she said without holding back her annoyance.

  Melissa had to give the three guards credit for their professionalism and training. They didn’t flinch or blink an eye when she came out in her Domme outfit. “By the time I’m through with him, he’ll be a whimpering mass of flesh. And you’ll get him to do whatever you want.”

  “All well and good. Just stick to the program.” Julia slid her ID card through the key lock, punched in the code and the door clicked open. The guard held the door as Julia stepped aside and Melissa walked through alone.

  The guard closed the door again. With a loud ripping sound, Julia pulled out a length of red duct tape and stretched it across the door, attaching it on a diagonal to the thick oak trim. Then she cut another length and did the same in the opposite diagonal, creating a giant X, as if marking the area with crime-scene tape, except this was red tape, not yellow.

  “No one leaves or enters until the first lady opens this door or Secret Service from inside cuts the tape,” she told all the guards.

  “Understood,” the one closest to her stated, standing a bit taller and taking his position in front of the X.

  Julia walked down the corridor toward the stairs. She’d wait in her office like she usually did on these nights. This would be another late and tense night.

  CHAPTER 6

  Jason couldn’t believe they’d almost had sex in the White House. What was he thinking? When it came to sex, they always went a little crazy. Working together was going to be a challenge, especially when her training began. He kept his eyes on the
road, even though the streets of Washington were pretty deserted at this hour.

  “If you stay with me tonight, we can get the key from your neighbor in the morning to take care of Dexter.”

  “No, you live too far,” Zoe said, digging through her purse. “Let’s go to my place.”

  “Without keys, can you break into your house at this hour without setting off all sorts of alarms and waking your neighbors?”

  She gave him a sideways glance. “I used to be CIA, remember?”

  He turned the car and headed in the other direction.

  “Maybe the robes, the masks, the bondage have to do with some bizarre ritual, or it’s all just kinky sex,” Zoe said, as she stared out the passenger side window. “Does it have to do with the Masons?”

  “The Masons?” Jason chuckled. Where did he start?

  She pulled out her cell phone and punched away on the keypad.

  “Who are you calling so late?” he asked.

  “No one. I’m looking up something. I knew that other room had to do with the Masons. My grandfather was a Freemason, but I never knew it until after he died and I found his ring and lodge manual. I’ve seen those strange symbols on the walls in that room.”

  “What did you find?” His chest swelled. Even though she was way off track, he admired how she took clues and managed to look at situations from all angles.

  “It’s a Chamber of Reflection. A meditation room for Masons,” she said, still staring at her phone.

  He was trying hard not to think about how hot and sexy she was just a few moments ago. She looked so good and felt so amazing. Now that they’d started, he’d never get enough of her. Would they be making a mistake by getting involved again?

  “What else did you find?”

  “A Chamber of Reflection is for serious meditations. A room to reflect upon present or future plans or decisions. Quite appropriate for the president of the United States, especially for those who were Masons. Fourteen of them were, you know.”

  “I knew George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt were. I didn’t realize there were fourteen.”