Caught With Casanova
By
Seraphina Donavan
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses, and incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a descriptive capacity.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form (electronic or print) without permission from the author, except in the embodiment of reviews.
Editor: Leanore Elliott
Cover Art provided
By
Wicked Muse Covers
©June, 2013; Seraphina Donavan
To my wonderful friend, Bonnie Lea. Thank you for supporting me, for helping me, for cheering me on, and for being there to pick me up and dust me off when it all fell apart. I couldn’t do this without you, chick.
CHAPTER ONE
Gavin McBray eyed the woman sleeping peacefully in his bed, rocked by just how right it felt to have her there. The adrenaline rush of nearly being killed, followed by the perfection of finally making Liberty Jones his, had left him restless and unsettled.
Standing before the French doors that led to the balcony outside his bedroom, he used his phone to briefly scan the major news outlets. What he saw was less than reassuring. He was a trending topic and so was his mysterious redhead. Libby wasn’t safe out there.
She sighed in her sleep and rolled over onto her stomach, the covers slipping down to reveal the supple skin of her gorgeous behind, the deep indention of her waist and the swell of one hip.
He wanted her again, desperately. His body ached with the need for her, but they had other things they needed to focus on first. Stepping back into the room, he placed his phone on the dresser and strode toward the bed. Sitting down next to her, he tugged the covers back Sleeping in wasn’t a luxury they could afford, no matter how appealing it was.
She stirred as he lifted the covers, her eyes blinking at him in confusion.
Libby, he thought, was obviously not one of those people who would wake instantly. For her it would be a process. He could live with that. Imagining long, lingering mornings in bed where he would wake her slowly and make love to her at a leisurely pace, far different from their desperate passion of the previous night, he decided that would work for him just fine. “Good morning, sunshine,” he teased. “Time for breakfast.”
She glared at him. “Why are you so chipper?”
“Maybe because I spent the night exploring the delights of your body and because as soon as we can get the difficult parts of today behind us, I plan to do so again” he promised.
“Well, in that case, I’m awake now. Why don’t you come back to bed?”
“Because, first we have to go watch endless hours of security footage, and for that, you’re going to need caffeine.” Tugging the blankets away from her completely, he smiled at the sight of her wearing only one of his shirts. A midnight raid of the kitchen had prompted her to ask for clothing as he’d torn her only blouse. Recalling it made his mouth water. He wanted her naked again, immediately. It also brought to mind other issues. She had nothing to wear. “We need to get you something to wear. I’ll make some calls.”
~*~*~
Libby watched him walk away. He wore only a pair of white pants, undone at the waist and cuffed at the bottom. A walking, talking ad for some posh cologne, she thought. With his hair still damp from the shower and his bare chest, he looked like he belonged on the glossy pages of Vogue, or considering their present location, maybe Vanity Fair.
Feeling acutely uncomfortable, she managed to pull herself to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. She was never at her best in the mornings, but on a morning after truly amazing sex, with a man she hardly knew, whose annual earnings surpassed the budgets of most states, well, she was definitely not in Kansas anymore. Still, she didn’t feel uncomfortable with him, only with who he was to the world at large.
Liberty was on her feet by the time he returned, retrieving the horribly wrinkled skirt. Her stockings were a lost cause and her shoes were at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Recalling that, the events of the last twenty-four hours came crashing down on her and she immediately sank back onto the bed, her knees shaking and her fingers trembling so that the skirt once again, fell to the floor.
As if he’d sensed her distress, Gavin appeared before her, kneeling so that they were nearly eye to eye. “What’s wrong?”
“I just realized where my shoes are,” she said shakily. “Gavin, we almost died!”
“But we didn’t. I’ll keep you safe, Liberty. Trust me on that.”
She did, she realized. Trusting him with her life was the easy part, but it would be far too easy to fall head over heels for a man like Gavin McBray. Trusting him with her heart was a far riskier prospect. “So, who wants you dead?”
He chuckled. “A lot of people want me dead, Libby. Very few people have both the desire and the means to pull it off. What happened yesterday was a fairly sophisticated attack, which says to me that it’s business and not personal.”
“You mentioned the Hypernion Project. What is it?” she demanded.
“It’s basically GPS on steroids. The most accurate global positioning software on the planet. It has many uses, for search and rescue missions, for law enforcement officials in the field, as a way for people to essentially lojack their kids and keep them safe, but also for weapons applications. That’s where this element of danger is coming from. There are people who don’t want the government to have access to this software, and there are people who are terrified of what it could mean for other countries to have access to it.”
“Why would you invent something like that?”
He shrugged, but the casual gesture didn’t match the guarded expression on his face. “I lost someone once...when I was a kid. Just lost. They didn’t die, they didn’t leave. She just vanished without a trace. It tore everyone apart. This could change that dramatically—not for her, but for others like her.”
“So, finishing the project, releasing it, would theoretically end the threat.”
“Possibly, or it could just piss them off more,” he offered the less then helpful interpretation.
Libby shook off the nerves that were getting to her and stood, moving towards the bathroom where a quick shower and the opportunity to brush her teeth helped to restore her equilibrium. Returning to the bedroom, she asked, “So what do we do first?”
“Security footage, and then you need clothes. Women look too damned good in men’s shirts and I frankly, don’t want my security team speculating on what happened to your own shirt.”
She didn’t really want that either. “If anyone asks, it was red wine.”
He was still chuckling when he took her hand. “Okay! I’ll lie if it will make you happy.”
“I don’t know...Ronan is pretty hot,” she shot back. “Maybe I want him to speculate.”
~*~*~
Gavin frowned as he followed Libby from the bedroom. He didn’t routinely evaluate the attractiveness of other men, but he supposed that if women liked the big, rugged, silent type, and he wasn’t nearly foolish enough to imagine that women didn’t go for that, then Ronan was definitely a threat. It would have been nice to be certain that Libby was only kidding. A part of him recognized the humor in her tone, but another part of him was taken aback. She’d run from him once, an experience with women that he’d never before been subjected to. Rejection wasn’t a new concept for him, but it was one that he hadn’t faced in a very long time.
<
br /> As they approached the large room on the first floor where the monitors had been set up, Gavin felt a perverse need to stake his claim again. Just outside the door, he gripped her arms and spun her around, pressing her back against the wall. “Make no mistake about it, Liberty, you’re mine! Don’t test me on this...I’ve never been a jealous man, but you’ve woken the beast now and I won’t be responsible for what I do.”
He didn’t give her an opportunity to answer, just slanted his mouth over hers, kissing her with a ferocity that left them both shaken. He invaded her mouth with his tongue, sweeping inside and tangling with hers in a battle for supremacy. With one hand fisted in her hair and the other cupping her ass, he pressed himself tightly against her, letting her feel the hard length of him against her, even as his teeth scraped over her bottom lip, the gesture skating along that knife blade edge between pleasure and pain.
She drove him to things he thought he’d never feel. He’d been obsessed with her since that party, scouring the city for anyone who knew who she was or how to find her. That she’d wound up being employed by his own company was a sign that they were meant to be. Fate had put her back in his path and he had no intent of letting her go. Breaking the kiss, he pulled back from her. “Mine.”
She looked shell-shocked, her eyes wide and her lips still parted from his kiss. “I was only teasing.” Her reply was breathless, a sure sign that the kiss had affected her as much as it had him.
“I know that. But even jesting about you and another man is not okay with me. I don’t know what this is between us—but I do know I’ve never felt it before.”
“Let’s get this over with, okay? I don’t want to be in a room full of people.”
“Where do you want to be?” As he asked the question he was tracing delicate circles on her neck with his tongue.
“Alone with you, in your bed. Naked. Feeling your hands sliding over my skin—and your cock inside me,” she whispered hotly.
Gavin groaned. Suddenly, he didn’t care that there was a room full of people waiting for them. He didn’t care that there were a dozen men just on the other side of that door. He wanted to wrap her legs around him and drive into the slick, welcoming heat of her right there. “You are a wicked woman.”
“I thought you were this smooth Casanova,” she quipped. “Been there, done that, seen it all. Surely, a little dirty talk from me isn’t all that shocking.”
He grinned at her. “It’s a whole package kind of thing, Liberty. You could read the phone book to me and it’d be hot. Now let’s go review this footage, so we can get to tall those other wonderful things you mentioned.”
CHAPTER TWO
Hours later, eyes blurring and her back aching from sitting in one spot for far too long, Libby rose to her feet and stretched. “I think we’re going about this wrong.”
Ronan shrugged, Gavin sitting beside him rubbing his own eyes as the video feed was paused. “I’m open to suggestions if you have a good one.”
“Well, we’ve been looking through this footage chronologically, but we have facial recognition software. Why not match the footage of people entering the building with the footage of them leaving the building and focus on the ones who left empty handed.”
Gavin nodded. “I think that’s an excellent plan and Ronan is going to take care of all that while you and I take a break.”
Ronan looked at him nonplussed. “With all due respect, sir, you’re the tech genius who could alter the parameters of the facial recognition program to do just that.”
“I thought you worked for me, but clearly I’ve misinterpreted the power structure of our relationship,” Gavin replied before turning to Libby. “There’s a delivery for you, Ms. Jones. It’s in the music room. Down the hall to the left.”
Libby groaned. “What have you done?”
“You didn’t have the option of packing a bag first, so I had a few of the local shops send things over for you. Keep what you like and send anything else back, but do try to keep some of the naughtier pieces. Black lace…ruffles. Also, I’m available to give you an honest and completely unbiased opinion of how amazing you look in each one of them, if you’re inclined to model them for me.”
Libby glanced at Ronan who for all intents and purposes, other than his bright pink ears, appeared not to be listening. “Gavin, that’s too much.”
“Nonsense. You’re a guest and you should be comfortable.” He ushered her to the door. “Go, try them on, and then once I’ve tweaked this damned program, I’ll join you.”
Libby nodded. “A few outfits, just enough until we can get this mess straightened out and I can get back to my apartment.”
He made a noncommittal sound in reply as he ushered her toward the door.
“Gavin, I mean it. I’m not comfortable taking expensive gifts from you.”
“Darling, I’m a billionaire. If I’m giving gifts that aren’t expensive, then we have a much bigger problem than just someone trying to kill me.”
Libby would’ve made some scathing response, but the door closed smartly in her face. Affronted she let out a loud harrumph. “It would serve him right if I kept every damn piece!”
“Do that! It’s fine,” he called from the other side of the door.
She could all but hear the laughter in his voice. It made her want to strangle him, but it also made her want to do something so shocking, so wickedly dirty, that it would wipe the smirk right off his handsome face. Black lace and ruffles, she thought. She’d find something that would make his jaw drop.
Entering the music room, she stopped dead in her tracks. Racks of clothes had been set up like her own private shop and the Dragon Lady, Gavin’s personal assistant from the office was there, overseeing everything.
“Ms. Jones,” she said, and if there was any censure in her voice, it was veiled by her typical tone of superiority. “A selection of items in your size has already been placed behind the screen. If something doesn’t work, just set it aside.”
Libby nodded and headed toward the folding screen that had been set up. The piece was hundreds of years old, intricately carved and painted. Please, don’t let me knock it over, she prayed. Being naked in the same room with the Dragon Lady was bad enough, but it paled in comparison to the agony she would feel if she damaged a priceless antique.
Once behind the screen, Libby removed Gavin’s shirt and her hopelessly rumpled skirt. She hadn’t put her underwear back on, preferring to go without rather than put on the pair from the previous day.
Hanging from a rack behind the screen was a selection of dresses, skirts and blouses, along with pants and layering pieces. There was also underwear; thong panties that bore no similarity to the granny panties she’d had on the day before. The matching bras, which were mysteriously her size, were works of art.
She didn’t want to know how they knew her sizes. It was more than a little disconcerting. Selecting a set of the lingerie, she noted that the tags had all been removed. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the undies she’d just put on were probably equivalent to a month’s rent on her crappy apartment. Just thinking about it made her uncomfortable. Not as uncomfortable as the idea of continuing to go without underwear altogether though.
Each outfit that she tried on left her feeling more and more out of her depth. After accumulating a week’s worth of clothes and underwear which would have probably equaled or even outpaced her yearly salary, she called a halt. “This is more than enough. I can’t take any more of these clothes,” she said, facing off against the Dragon Lady.
“Mr. McBray has insisted that you be properly outfitted, Ms. Jones.”
“I am. I promise. This is more than enough.”
The Dragon Lady appeared to blush. “You have no nightclothes, Ms. Jones. Mr. McBray was quite insistent that you select what he termed ‘appropriate’ nightwear.”
“Well, I doubt these shops carry anything that’s crotchless, so he’ll just have to live with the disappointment!” Liberty retorted.
/> “I have your sizes,” Dragon Lady stated primly. “I’ll just order a selection.”
“You do that. Maybe some handcuffs and a flogger. Someone needs to learn a lesson.”
“Those items most assuredly are not carried by these merchants, Ms. Jones. But I can make inquiries.”
Libby drew a steadying breath. “It was a joke. I don’t want handcuffs and a flogger.”
“Why ever not?”
Libby looked up to see Gavin leaning nonchalantly in the doorway, looking sinfully handsome and far too full of himself. “Because you’re obviously a total pervert and would get off on it.
~*~*~
Gavin smiled, enjoying Libby’s pique. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips parted in annoyance and he knew that her red hair was accompanied by the requisite temper. “I think I need to feed you. You’ve gotten cranky.”
“I told you this makes me uncomfortable. I don’t live under a rock, Gavin. Just because I don’t routinely purchase these brands doesn’t mean I’m oblivious to the cost of them. I can’t accept all this.”
Gavin noted her protest, but even more, he noted the wounded pride that lay underneath it all. “Mrs. Williams, please see to the remainder of the clothing, and the selection of thoroughly inappropriate and completely sinful lingerie that I requested for Liberty. She and I are going for a short walk.”Taking Libby’s arm, Gavin led her through the French doors and onto the terrace.
There was a set of steps leading down to the beach and he maneuvered her toward them. Guards were posted at either end of the beach and others on the roof, who would be able to spot any approaching boats. It wasn’t entirely safe, but it was as safe as he could make it. “It’s my fault you’re in danger and it’s my fault that you’re here without any of your own things. The least you can do is allow me to make amends to you in the only way I can. You deserve to have lovely things and I have the ability to give them to you.”
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