“Gallagher admitted he was lying about you, Teresa. All I had to do is cheerfully suggest we’d go downstairs to the dungeon for questioning and he couldn’t stop talking. You did a good job making him afraid of me, Kyle.”
“Heh,” said Kyle. “We already knew he was lying. But that will make it easier.”
“You knew, perhaps,” said Roger. “Anyway, that’s all. You two have fun.” He backed up and shut the door.
Roger was right. That would help her sleep. She looked at Kyle, who had closed his eyes again. He looked way too peaceful. “Training?” she asked.
“Try again.”
It took her a moment to figure out what he meant. “Training, Sir?”
He smiled at her. “Yes. You have a problem with that?”
She scrunched up her nose at him. “Is there something wrong with me?”
“Nope. Nothing at all. But I like pushing you. So I will. Now go to sleep.” He pulled her back into a cuddle and closed his eyes.
I like being pushed. I like the way you tried to protect me, even when you weren’t sure what I’d done. I love you. And I want to tell you. “Sir?”
“Go to sleep. That’s an order.”
She supposed it could wait.
* * * * *
The next day she stood with Kyle, looking out the window of an unused bedroom on the second floor of the mansion. They could see the penteconter from there, its mighty oars slashing through the waves, trailed by Stegner’s yacht, from where the cameramen were taking pictures. The oars were for show, as the penteconter was being towed by another motorboat that was now out of sight. Soon the penteconter would be too, as it headed for the cove on the far end of the island.
Stegner was already at the cove, as were most of the movie crew except for Gallagher. Stegner had landed a few hours earlier and had asked Kyle and Roger to leave the set. She got the feeling Kyle would have stayed at the cove to watch the police raid if it hadn’t been for his desire to protect her and keep her out of the way. He could probably take care of himself, but in a strange way she realized she was keeping her man safe by giving him a better place to be, and that made her feel good. She didn’t want a life without risks, or she wouldn’t have chosen location scouting as a career, and she couldn’t ask that of Kyle either, but standing in the middle of a police raid if you didn’t have a good reason struck her as foolish. She suspected a few of Stegner’s men were armed. Hopefully they wouldn’t also be stupid.
The penteconter glided out of sight. She could imagine it crashing into the cove for the critical scene where the ship ran aground. Film crews would be working on the island as well as on the yacht, getting multiple angles. Despite her reservations about the quality of the movie, it made her sad to think that all that work, including hers, was going to be wasted. The film was probably never going to be finished, not with Stegner arrested.
Kyle’s phone cheeped. He looked at it. “Landed.” Roger had a satellite phone and was waiting at the landing site to give the signal to both Kyle and the police.
The police boats came over the horizon a few minutes later. They looked so obvious to her, a small flotilla of ships. And they seemed to take forever. One could see a long way on the empty ocean, she supposed, but that would also give Stegner plenty of warning. But the moment had been chosen carefully—the movie crew would be busy with the penteconter and the scenes relating to the crash, and once it landed it would be nearly impossible to move and probably wasn’t even still seaworthy. Stegner would be off his yacht, directing. The water was shallow and the tide was still coming in, so even if they tried dumping the drugs they wouldn’t be swept out to sea for a while. There would be plenty to recover.
For what seemed like a long time but was probably minutes, nothing happened.
“You’re tense,” Kyle said.
“Yes.”
“We’re safe. I’ll keep you safe. Roger can take care of himself.” He moved behind her and kissed the back of her neck. It made the small hairs on it stand up. She leaned back into him.
His hands drifted upward to cup her breasts. “I can distract you,” he said.
“I doubt it.”
But in seconds he had her nipples hard against the surface of her bra and aching for his touch. He pinched them and her pussy moistened. She pushed her bottom against him and found him hard.
“You know we aren’t going to be able to finish this, Sir.”
“I know. Sometimes I’ll leave you wanting on purpose. Consider this practice.”
“Fuck.”
He sat back on the bed and pulled her over his lap, her ass in the air.
“What’d I do?” she asked.
He swatted her, hard. The jeans she wore might have softened some of the blow, but not much. She yelped.
“You don’t give the orders around here,” he told her.
She didn’t think she had. A second swat jolted her attempt to think almost out of her mind, but somehow she managed to grasp what he meant. “That wasn’t an order, you ass, that was a swear word.”
“I know.” Even though she was in no position to see his face she knew he was smirking. “And another for not addressing me properly.” He swatted her again, and it made her pussy tingle. She felt the tension flow out of her body. It was impossible to concentrate on anything with him doing that. She stuck out her butt for more.
Then suddenly there were footsteps in the house and shouted orders. The police had arrived from the other side of the island a minute or two before the flotilla got to the cove. Men climbed the stairs. Kyle pulled her upright and put her on her feet. He kissed her. “Told you I could distract you.”
“Always, Sir.” She smiled at him.
Someone knocked.
Kyle opened the door and a young blonde policewoman in a nicely pressed uniform smiled at him. Her hat looked like a baseball cap, but it was obviously part of the uniform. “Kyle Stewart?” she asked.
“Yes. And this is Teresa Barstow.”
“I’m Sergeant Kelly, Queensland Police. May we have the key to the room where you have the suspect, please?”
She looked entirely too young and too perky to be a sergeant, thought Terry. Kyle handed her a key and she handed it to a large man who appeared behind her. There were at least three policemen in the hall beside Sergeant Kelly.
“May I come in? While all this fuss is going on, I’d like to take your statements.”
“Of course,” said Kyle with a sidelong look at Teresa. She could imagine what he was thinking. I know I wound you up. I like you that way. She shivered.
“We’ll wait for them to secure Mr. Gallagher, and then we’ll have to talk to each of you individually, of course. Is this a good place?” asked Sergeant Kelly.
“Wouldn’t the living room be better?” asked Kyle.
“Oh, we’ll be using that to question people too.”
Kyle nodded. “Then this place is as good as any, I guess. I’ll go bring in another chair.”
“We can—” began the sergeant, but Kyle was already in motion.
“Is he always that way?” the policewoman asked Teresa.
“Pretty much,” Teresa said. “He’s used to being in charge.” If only you knew how much.
“There are rumors of what goes on at this place,” said the sergeant, still standing just inside the door. “Submission Island, they call it. Owned by four handsome ex-military men who are supposed to be unbelievably sexist.”
Sexist? She didn’t think so anymore. But Kyle had never suggested that she submit because she was a woman and that was her place. He simply knew what he wanted. And she wanted the other side of it. “I don’t think they are sexist. Not Kyle, anyway. I’ve barely met Roger and haven’t met the other two at all. But Kyle knows what he wants and he doesn’t settle for less.”
Kelly looked thoughtful for a moment before asking, “And do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
Kelly smiled. “Well, that’s a good thing, then. You’re in a relations
hip, I take it?”
“Yes. I think so. Yes.” He’d asked her to stay. That was a relationship, of sorts. At least the start of one.
“And he’s the protective sort?”
“Yes.” She said it fervently, maybe too fervently. In fact, maybe she shouldn’t have said it all. Kyle was her witness, his word against Gallagher’s. The policewoman’s comments about sexism and relationships had made her forget her situation. Then she remembered that Gallagher had already recanted. She shouldn’t be a suspect anymore.
Sergeant Kelly smiled at her as naturally as if they were two friends talking about the virtues of their boyfriends.
Kyle came back with two wooden chairs. She could see Gallagher being taken down the hallway, peacefully, by a couple of the policemen she’d seen earlier.
“Where will you be—” Sergeant Kelly started to ask, but stopped because Kyle was already telling her.
“I’ll be down the hall in my room when you need me, for an hour or so anyway. Two doors down. Knock.” He put a chair down and gestured Teresa into it. She sat down. He backed away, but then paused at the door to give Teresa a grin and a thumbs-up when Sergeant Kelly had her back to him.
Teresa smiled and blew him a kiss. It was all going to be all right. At least with the police. After that, the real challenge would begin—building a relationship with Kyle. But she was looking forward to trying.
“So, then,” said Sergeant Kelly, “why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me everything you know.”
Teresa thought for a moment. She supposed the beginning was the moment she first suspected Stegner was making decisions that weren’t in the best interest of his movie. “I guess the best place to start is Colombia,” she began, and Sergeant Kelly got out a pad of paper and a pen and started taking down notes.
* * * * *
A knock on Kyle’s door made him look up from the Dorothy Sayers mystery he was reading. The genteel surroundings of the English countryside had been a good distraction from the fact that he had police running all over his home. Hopefully they would be gone soon, and the best way to accomplish that was to cooperate. A week ago he hadn’t wanted to share his island with anyone but his friends. Now he’d found someone he very much enjoyed sharing it with, so naturally the place was overrun.
He opened the door, expecting to find Sergeant Kelly, but instead he saw his friends Tom and Carter and Carter’s girlfriend Natalie. Natalie, Kyle noticed, was wearing a purple leather collar around her neck. Carter wouldn’t have collared her lightly. Then he saw the diamond ring on her finger.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Kyle asked.
“You thought we’d miss all the fun?” asked Tom.
“Actually, we’re right on schedule,” said Carter. “At least Natalie and I are. Natalie’s got a couple of weeks off from teaching and there’s only one week left.”
“But you didn’t want to be here when the scout was here.” Kyle frowned, feeling they’d left him in the lurch. Although it had turned out rather nicely.
“We came for when the actual movie was being shot,” said Carter. “We figured that’s when you’d need us most. Although I guess now they’ll all be going away?”
“I’d guess. Depends on who the police arrest and whether the right people are there to carry on. But from what Gallagher said, I think the movie’s toast.”
“Too bad. I think my little sub was looking forward to the spectacle.”
Natalie squeezed Carter’s waist, looked up at him and grinned. “It’ll be more of a vacation without them. I think we’ll find things to do.”
Carter kissed her briefly. For that small moment, Kyle realized that Tom and he didn’t exist to the couple. He’d thought of Carter as somehow ensnared, lured from a life of pleasure by his sub. But when Teresa gazed at him that way, he didn’t feel trapped at all. He’d been avoiding it all his life and now he knew it was exactly what he wanted. He just had never met the right woman before.
“You two look beautiful together.”
Carter didn’t hide his surprise well. “Thanks,” he managed.
“How’d you get past the police?”
“They knew we were coming, and they can’t keep us from our home unless they have a good reason,” said Tom. “And Roger has connections. They let us ride in right behind them, but they wouldn’t let us come into the house until they had the ‘perimeter secured’. It’s actually kind of amusing watching a bunch of civilians secure a building, but they did okay.”
“The police aren’t exactly civilians,” objected Carter, who had been a military policeman and investigator.
“They aren’t exactly not,” replied Tom, the ex-Navy SEAL.
“I don’t think Stegner and crew are exactly going to run a guerilla war here,” replied Kyle drily. “Anyway. It’s good to see you guys.”
“Yeah.” Tom pulled him into a firm hug, and then Carter did the same. And even Natalie had a hug for him. He could have sworn the girl had been petrified of him when they had last met, but she didn’t seem to be so now.
Sergeant Kelly opened the door down the hall and walked toward him. “Ah, they let your friends up.” Teresa was right behind her.
“Yep.”
Kelly seemed to lock eyes with Tom for a moment and then turned back to Kyle. Was there a hint of a blush on her face?
He’d have to get the story from Tom later, if there was anything to it. “May we wait a moment before you question me? I’d like to introduce Teresa rather than leave her all alone.”
“Yeah, we want to meet the girl who’s captured Kyle’s heart,” Tom said.
Kyle resisted the temptation to growl. Roger had been talking seriously out of turn. Come to think of it, why had they all stayed away while Teresa was on the island, only to show up as she was supposed to leave according to the original plan? Watching the movie being made was a plausible reason, but it wasn’t the most likely reason. Roger had left him on the island alone with her—of course he hadn’t known about Gallagher—on purpose. Roger had waited, then come back to the island to see how things were going, and then had decided to give Tom and Carter the all clear.
I’ve been set up.
It was hard to be angry about the result, however.
“I’d rather you wait, sir,” said Sergeant Kelly. “Teresa, you said you had a room of your own?”
Carter and Tom instantly looked at him and tensed up. What do they think I’m going to do? A week ago maybe he would have insisted. The idea of anyone—even a cop—telling him what to do on his own island would have ticked him off. It still annoyed him. But he’d put up with it to make sure Teresa was beyond suspicion. She smiled at him from behind the sergeant, and that was enough communication to get him by. He gave Carter and Tom an annoyed look, and then turned back to the sergeant.
“Where do you wish to talk?”
“In the same room, please.”
He followed her to the room, touching Teresa’s hand briefly as they passed each other.
It might, he thought, be the last time he had any woman other than Teresa alone with him in a bedroom. The thought should have scared the hell out of him. Instead, it made him smile.
Chapter Twelve
It seemed like ages before the police were finally done questioning Kyle, but Teresa wasn’t worried. Sergeant Kelly hadn’t been too bad. The sergeant had a way of getting her to talk, but she had nothing to hide and she didn’t regret anything she said. In other circumstances, Teresa thought they might have even been friends—of course, that might be all part of the act, but Teresa thought she could spot fakes. She’d been around the professionals.
Kyle knocked on her door. She knew it was him from the sound, although she couldn’t have described how or why. She opened it and hugged him tight. He wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed possessively.
“They’re finishing up in the house,” said Kyle. “They decided to do the interrogations back in Cairns, so they’re transporting all the movie
people off the island.”
“So the police are leaving?”
“Just the house. They’re still quite busy down at the cove. Sergeant Kelly’s gone there to take Roger’s statement. Come on. There are people I want you to meet.”
“Your friends.”
“Yes.”
She took his hand and walked down with him. His friends were down at the pool. Two good-looking men wearing swim trunks lounged back on the chairs at poolside. One was blond and buff. The other was more slender, with short black hair. Both had been in the photo on Kyle’s dresser, although the blond had shorter hair then. The brunette woman she’d seen earlier in the hall was on a cushion next to the black-haired one, leaning against his thigh. She wore a collar and a short, tight dress and looked at peace. Possibly she was even asleep. The men were talking as if they hadn’t seen each other in a while either.
When Kyle opened the door all eyes turned to look at her. The dark-haired man ruffled the hair of the sleeping woman and she woke up to look as well. Teresa hadn’t thought Kyle being with a woman was that big a deal—certainly he wasn’t exactly celibate. What made her so interesting?
“Everyone, this is Teresa. Teresa? Master Tom. Master Carter. Natalie.”
“Pleased to meet you,” said Carter. Tom got up and shook her hand.
Natalie waved. “Hi there. Nice to have another woman here.”
Teresa had remembered how she’d been dreading the arrival of Stella Munro, for fear she would catch Kyle’s eye. Now that she was being transported back to Cairns, that wasn’t a worry. Natalie looked very attached. And now that she thought about it, Teresa didn’t feel she had to be concerned anyway. Kyle might have had lovers in the past, and she didn’t know for sure what their future had in store, but he was clearly at least interested in figuring it out, and she didn’t think he’d be distracted by another woman until they did. Teresa smiled. “Thank you.”
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