“No. The trees on the terrace provide a pretty good screen, and we are twenty stories up. Although…” And now he grinned full-out, his dimple winked, and his gray eyes sparkled like chipped ice. “There was that one picture of me in a tabloid…I think they took it from a helicopter.” When he saw the horrified look on her face, he just laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Pretty much everyone in this town knows not to mess with me or my privacy. Besides, security usually keeps a pretty tight rein on things, the incident in the garage notwithstanding. Mr. Smith will not be back. If he’d had his eyes open, Lucy might not be dead.”
“That would be hard to live with. I hope you didn’t say that to him.”
“You’re softhearted for a cop, Kaylin. No, I didn’t need to say it. He had already figured it out for himself. And, yeah, I think it will be hard to live with. Let’s not talk about that now. How about breakfast? I can whip up a couple of omelets and coffee. I guess you have to get home to change and go to work. I’m sure Del will be looking for you this morning for a briefing.” His smile was mischievous in the extreme.
“Don’t remind me. Del is not going to be a happy camper. I do have to get home to change for work. Breakfast sounds great. Can we eat out here?”
“Absolutely. Why don’t you get your swim in. Towels are under that table. I’ll start breakfast.”
When Jack came back out with a tray loaded with omelets, toast, and big mugs of coffee, Kaylin was sitting at a table next to the roof’s edge, wrapped in a huge white towel, admiring the view while she checked messages and e-mail on her iPhone. There were three “where are you” messages from Del. “This is one hell of a view you have here, Mr. Brown.”
“It is, and I never take it for granted.” He set the tray down and served breakfast.
The ham and cheese omelets with spears of asparagus were excellent, and the coffee was fabulous. “I appreciate your letting us come into the club undercover, Jack. I hope it gives us the lead we need to close this case.”
“Kaylin, I think you know this has progressed past an undercover op, at least for me. Can I hope you feel the same way?”
“Last night was something I never expected. I’ve never felt like that before, but, Jack, the operation has to come first right now. I have to keep my eye on the ball, and not on your gorgeous butt.” She grinned.
“I presume you want to give it another try tonight. I’m not backing out of this. I want the bastard who killed Lucy to pay. She was a sweet kid, and she died needlessly in my building after leaving my club where she should have been safe. I have to live with that too.”
“Okay. We’ll work on it. We’ll address our personal issues when this is over.”
Chapter Six
Office of Central Broward Homicide Division, Broward County Sheriff’s office, Broward Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Thursday morning, July 17, 2014, 8:45 a.m.
Kaylin walked into the bullpen at BSO on Thursday morning, dropped her tote bag and purse in a drawer in her desk, and sat down. Del was glaring at her over his cup of coffee as he held the phone to his ear. He mouthed, “Where the hell were you last night?”
She glared back and mouthed, “None of your business.” Well, this looked like it was going to be a fun day. It had started out great but was steadily sliding downhill.
When he got off the phone he walked over to her desk. “The Sergeant wants a briefing in the conference room at 9:15.”
“Okay. I don’t think we have much to tell him yet. I am planning another run at The Black Iris tonight. Are you going to back me up?”
“Of course, but do you think that is a good idea given what happened last night?”
“Nothing happened last night. That’s the problem. I think we need to give it some more time. Our guy may not have been there last night. It’s too soon to call the op a bust.”
“Look, Kay…”
“Look, Del…I don’t get in your face about where you spend your nights, and I’m sure you don’t spend all your nights alone.”
“That is not the same thing at all. Jack Brown is a suspect…”
“He certainly is not a suspect. His alibi checks out one hundred percent. Right now he is a fully cooperating citizen who has opened his private club to us so we can conduct a clandestine operation. Don’t be an ass.”
Delaney was still smoldering when she got up and went back to snag a cup of rotten cop coffee. She headed to the conference room as she looked over her shoulder and gave Del the stink eye. She hoped he wasn’t going to be a pain in the butt about Jack Brown all day. She had some leads she wanted to follow up on. Then she had to go home and get ready for a stint as Jack’s sub at the club again that night—if the Sergeant didn’t pull the rug out from under them.
Kaylin and Del were glaring at each other over their coffee cups when Sergeant Kelly walked into the conference room. “Do I have to send you both to your rooms? What’s the problem here?”
Del jumped in before she could beat him to it, and Kaylin frowned. If he throws me under the bus… “Sergeant, I just don’t see how this undercover op is going to produce any results for the amount of time it’s going to eat up.”
“It’s a little soon to make that determination don’t you think, Detective? Do you have something else pressing to do with your evenings other than be a bartender in a luxurious private club?” The Sergeant grinned. “You could always be the sub, and Kaylin could be the bartender.”
“No, sir. That is not the point. I just don’t think this is a good use of department resources.”
“Department resources.” The Sergeant frowned. “That old hackneyed excuse. What’s really on your mind?”
Del sighed. “I don’t trust that Brown guy, and I think this could be dangerous for Kaylin.” Kaylin gave him the death ray stare. Del looked like he wanted to say more but left it at that.
“That’s why you are there, Del, to be sure that is not the case. Why don’t we give it a couple more days? We can’t expect results on the first night. That would have been nice, but we have to be realistic.”
Kaylin could see the words about to tumble off Del’s lips, but he held them back. “Yes, sir,” Del said with a shrug.
The Sergeant continued. “What else do you have on tap?”
Kaylin said, “I’m planning to cross-check the membership and guest list from the club against the list of personnel in the stock brokerage offices in the building, and if I have time, in the nearby buildings. I still think my stressed-out stockbroker idea has merit.”
“I’m digging a little deeper into the alibis of the members who left the club before the time of the murder, or came in after, based on the printouts of key card swipes and palm print records.”
“Good. Carry on with that. Keep me in the loop on any progress at the club.”
They went back to their desks. Kaylin picked up the computer printouts and began cross-checking them, and Del got back on the phone. They studiously ignored each other.
“Are you going to be a PIB all day, or just until lunch?”
“I was thinking about all week,” he mumbled. Great. Del in a bad mood was a serious pain in the butt.
“Come on, Delaney. I am a big girl and know what I am doing. Jack is…”
“I seriously doubt that, Kaylin. Your track record is not stellar.”
Now, that was a low blow. She probably had fewer relationships in her history than lots of women her age. But she’d had one that really sucked, and she hadn’t caught on nearly as quickly as she should have. She didn’t want to revisit that time in her life, and she didn’t appreciate Del bringing it up. “I’m not going to dignify that remark with a response.”
Kaylin’s ex-fiancé, Paul, was a dog. She had not found out that he was cheating on her with every woman he could con into his bed, up against any available wall, or the front seat of his car, until two months before the wedding. She had been devastated when she’d caught him boinking some bimbo at a club where they were drinking and dancing with friends.
He’d supposedly gone to the men’s room. Right. When he didn’t come back, she went to visit the ladies’ room and found him in a niche in the back hallway of the club pounding away. She came up behind them, gave him a punch to his kidney that he probably still felt, tossed her engagement ring—which was really not nearly big enough for her to put up with that shit—at his feet, and left the club in his car. She left his precious Porsche in long-term parking at the airport and called Del to take her home.
She had gotten tested for STDs the next day. She found that she only had a mild case of chlamydia which was treated with antibiotics. It could have been worse since Paul had been playing STD roulette for who knew how long. Cancelling all of the wedding plans at basically the last minute had been a nightmare and had cost her poor parents a load of money. She had not really given her heart to anyone since Paul had royally screwed her over. Well that was ancient history, and she tried not to let it color her life. Sometimes, though, the memories had a way of creeping in and tarnishing the moment. She firmly pushed all that out of her mind now.
* * * *
Kaylin left BSO at five o’clock, went home, grabbed some leftovers from her fridge for a quick dinner, and then dressed in another one of Chloe’s short, tight dresses. This one was deep purple, strapless, with a zipper that ran from under her armpit to the hem. It seemed easy removal was a recurring theme with these clothes. She fluffed her hair out to a halo around her head, did her makeup, and then chose a pair of high heels that were not as extreme as the ones she had worn the night before. If she had to be standing on tiptoes all night cuffed to the ceiling, she thought maybe she should try to be a bit more comfortable. Plus, she needed to be able to move quickly without breaking an ankle if the need arose.
Jack had given her a key card the night before, and when she arrived in the foyer of the club, he was waiting for her. Obviously, security had given him a heads-up. He stepped up and took her into his arms for a deep kiss before he whispered, “We’re onstage, babe. Relax and act like you’re happy to see me.”
She whispered back, “I actually am happy to see you, but we have work to do. So, lead on, Macduff. Take me to my doom.”
“Oh, baby, you have no idea what doom is yet.” He smiled through the scary words before he continued. “Chill, Kaylin. I’m just kidding. Dungeon—doom? Where is your sense of the macabre, your sense of humor? That’s all part of the fun.”
“Hmm…fun…why am I not feeling the glow?”
“Oh, you will, babe. I promise you will feel the glow.”
* * * *
The evening passed like the one before, with Kaylin at Jack’s heels as they walked through the dungeon and he schmoozed the crowd of members and guests, a stint on the St. Andrew’s cross that ended with another stunning orgasm, a trip to the private theme room to come down, and then back to Jack’s apartment. She had felt Jack shielding her naked body from view with his own as much as he could while she was on the cross with her back to the room. She appreciated what small bit of privacy he had been able to afford her.
Jack had not made love to her in the dungeon although she had seen one or two other couples taking their scenes that far. She thought most of them took the sex into the private theme rooms. They had spent some time in the Dom/sub conversation area off to the side of the club. Kaylin had knelt at Jack’s feet while he sat in a comfortable leather armchair roughly the size of a throne. It might as well have been a throne for all the deference shown him there. He really was the Master Dom. She had to admit that grated just a bit, but it did give her an opportunity to speak quietly with some of the subs who were in the same position—kneeling at their Masters’ feet. She had to be careful what questions she asked and how she asked them. She didn’t want to blow her cover. Unfortunately, while some of the subs knew Lucy, none of them had anything useful to offer. Kaylin had felt eyes on her all night, but she didn’t know if that was just a by-product of being Jack Dalton Brown’s date in the dungeon, or if she had caught someone’s attention. Nonetheless, it was unnerving.
When they returned to the apartment, they went out on the rooftop terrace to enjoy a glass of wine and the stunning view of the city lights spread out below them like a blanket. The other tall buildings running down the boulevard were all lit up like Christmas trees. They stood at the wall topped by a steel railing and Jack said, “Kaylin, will you spend the night with me again? I’d really like you to.” He reached for her glass of wine and put it down on top of the wall next to his own. He pulled her into his arms. He combed his long fingers though her hair, tossed by the breeze, before he brought his warm mouth down to hers. His lips teased hers open, and his tongue slipped into her mouth for a leisurely exploration. She fell into the kiss with enthusiasm.
When he released her mouth she said, “I would like to stay, Jack, but I think it would be better if I went home. I need to keep a little bit of professional distance.”
“You have to know I’m not going to let you keep any distance between us, Kaylin.”
“Jack, I can’t let our personal relationship overshadow the case. As I expected, Del was not happy that I stayed with you last night. I thought he was going to rat me out to the Sergeant, but he didn’t.” She took a sip of her wine. “We aren’t making much progress although I did feel like I was being watched tonight. It made my skin crawl.”
“I understand. I don’t agree, but I understand. I also felt like we were being watched tonight—not the ‘in the spotlight’ feeling that a person gets enacting a scene in the main dungeon. It was more a ‘watched from the shadows’ feeling. I didn’t like it. I wish you would reconsider staying here tonight.”
“I can’t, Jack. Maybe I can stay over the weekend—that is if we are still running the op and you want me to. I hope we’ll have a break in the case by then. The longer the delay, the less likely we are to get a good lead.”
“Yeah. I’ll want you to spend the weekend. But the op has nothing to do with it.” He didn’t look happy at her refusal to spend the night. He slid his hands down her back and over her butt before he pulled her into his hard-on and ground into her. She had at least been able to snag her dress and shoes before they’d left the dungeon this time. Before she knew it, he was sliding the zipper of her dress down and slipping it off. She found herself standing on the terrace in a lacy black strapless bra and matching thong. The stiff breeze blew across her skin leaving a slight chill behind. She snuggled up closer to his chest.
“I can stay for a while, if you like.”
He didn’t answer. He just bore her down to the double-wide chaise lounge and continued his fevered kisses and touches in a horizontal position. Her bra and thong were history in seconds. He stood up, dropped his leather vest on the ground, then stepped out of his signature black jeans and kicked off his socks and cowboy boots. He joined her back on the chaise.
“This is going to be fast and hard. I’ve been waiting for you for hours. It feels like my balls are going to explode.”
“Okay.” She took him at his word and flipped him until she was straddling his thighs. The surprised look on his face was priceless. She bet not many women were able to flip Mr. Brown onto his back like a turtle, not to mention take him by surprise. She wondered how he would react if she cuffed him. That thought brought a grin to her face before she laid herself down and rubbed her aching nipples on his naked chest. She ran her hands over his sculpted pecs and down over his ripped abs until they surrounded his very erect dick. Oh, he was delicious. Her lips grazed slowly down over his chest until she reached her destination—the crown jewels of the Kingdom Brown. Her busy hands took possession of his explosive balls while she took his cock into her mouth. She applied suction and then slowly retracted her mouth as her busy tongue played along the prominent veins mapping his erection. She knew she couldn’t do this for long or that wonderful explosion was going to be wasted.
Kaylin quickly reached down to find his jeans lying on the terrace and searched his pockets for a condom. When she had one
in her hand she ripped the packet open and efficiently rolled it down over him. She sat back and positioned herself over Jack’s straining cock. They were staring into each other’s eyes. Very slowly she lowered herself onto him until he was completely sheathed in her hot, quivering pussy. It felt like heaven. But she didn’t know what heaven was until she started to move. She fell on his straining shaft as he rose to meet her strokes. He held her waist tightly to steady her. She gradually increased the speed, depth, and strength of her strokes as a strong breeze blew through her hair and over her naked body. Oh, God. It feels like I’m flying. It was the most beautiful, incredible, sexual experience of her life—flying with Jack Dalton Brown twenty stories up in the sky under a canopy of sparkling stars.
Jack had been more than ready when she’d started this exercise, and it didn’t take long to finish it as they both came within strokes of each other. Jack had been right. He had been ready to explode. She collapsed on him, and he hugged her tightly to his chest. His big, strong hands ran up and down over her back and butt bringing their warmth to her chilled skin. That felt like heaven, too. They lay there catching their breath.
“Oh, baby, that was incredible. You are incredible.” Kaylin basked in his praise and the afterglow of the best sex of her life. She had never known it could be like this. Her previous experiences, while pleasant and even sometimes hot, had never been like this. Her soul had taken flight.
“If I can’t talk you into staying, how about a nice hot shower before you leave?”
“That sounds wonderful. I’m really getting cold. Who would have thought you could get cold making love outside in July?”
“It’s the wind,” he said as he helped her up off the chaise. “It steals your body heat.” They walked over to the glass door that opened into the master bedroom. He opened it for her and swatted her bare butt as she walked through in front of him. She squealed. He’d really made contact with that one. He pulled her up short against his chest and lightly bit her ear. “I meant what I said before. You are incredible.”
Kaylin's Pursuit [The Black Iris Club 1] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) Page 6
