The Ultimate Romantic Suspense Set (8 romantic suspense novels from 8 bestselling authors for 99c)

by Lee Taylor

  The creases on Dameon’s brow deepened.

  “You need to understand, Jesse. Most of the kids on the team would be in jail now. Not because they belong there, but because that was where they were headed until this team gave them a chance to be who they really are, accomplished athletes. That’s something both you and your ex need to know. What’s his name? The asshole? Garrett? Or, on second thought, maybe he doesn’t need to know.”

  Jesse agreed.

  “I just hope Trey can muster enough confidence to stand up to his father when Garrett says he doesn’t want him to do it.”

  Dameon’s lips twitched. “I think I may have helped with that issue. Marsha Vargas, Trey’s probation counselor, is creating a rigorous program for him. It includes the benchmarks he’ll need to achieve in the next year. Fifty percent of them deal with schoolwork, his grades. Thirty percent involve behavior, essentially his attitude, and the remaining twenty are about commitment. He needs to stick to what he says he will do. I had Marsha make that benchmark that he will stay through one season of basketball with me.”

  Jesse was touched. “You’re smart, aren’t you?”

  Dameon smiled. “Yes, I am. But Trey is a good kid, and a nice kid. He’s worth it.” He added, “So are you, Jesse.”

  He moved closer. “You look beautiful.”

  “Right!” Jesse snorted tugging at her ponytail, knowing that any makeup she may have had on earlier was long gone.

  “No, Jesse. You are a beautiful, enticing woman.”

  Dameon angled his chair next to her and reached for her hand.

  She pulled back. “No. Don’t, Dameon…. ”

  He frowned. “Uh uh, Jesse. Don’t move away. And yes, I am going to talk about what happened the other night.”

  Jesse looked down to avoid his intense expression. She couldn’t believe the shivers coursing through her.

  Dameon’s voice was firm, unyielding.

  “Don’t pull away. I’m not going to let you do that, Jesse. I’m not going to let you dismiss what happened between us. It was real.”

  She peeked up at him and saw that while he had a slight smile, his expression was serious, intense. He took hold of her hand and placed his other hand on her knee, capturing her in his powerful space. Jesse couldn’t believe the tremors that streaked across her sensitized nerve endings. She prayed he couldn’t feel the fevered reaction his actions caused.

  “Jesse, I told you the other night and I’m going to tell you again. I’ve never been so hot for a woman in my life. And honey, I don’t know if that is how you usually respond but—”

  She interrupted, embarrassed, remembering how frantic she’d been, how needy. “I… I was upset….”

  Dameon lifted an eyebrow and his lips twitched. “Hmm, if that’s what it was, tiger, I’m going to have to upset you a lot more often.”

  She was flustered. “No. I didn’t mean that. And, no. That’s not how I usually am. God no. I… I’ve never felt like that, ever. I can’t explain it.” She hesitated. “It scared me. You scare me.”

  Dameon nodded. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. Because you’ve freaked me out of my ever-loving mind.

  “Listen, Jesse, I’ll give you time as much time as you need… maybe… or I’ll push things if I have to. Honestly, I don’t have a plan or a path in mind. But I will tell you this now. When I do take you? Make love to you? Honey, you’re going to know what ecstasy is.”

  Jesse did her best to contain the rush of sensations that flooded her at his erotic threat. Her heart was racing. It was hard to take a deep breath but she managed to assert, “I do know. Kind of… I’m not innocent… I do, okay? I know how to please myself—”

  Dameon reared back, not covering his surprise. “Are you talking about by yourself?”

  She pushed his hands away, annoyed.

  “Never mind.”

  Dameon laughed and shook his head. His eyes were sparkling.

  “I’m not… I’m not just talking about ‘pleasing you’ Jesse.” His voice dropped a level. “I’m talking about driving you out of your mind. Taking you places you’ve never been before.”

  His sexy claim and the lust in his eyes sent a torrent of sensation straight to her groin.

  His gaze intensified. “Uh uh, honey. What you do by yourself is going to seem like riding a tricycle. I’m going to give you orgasms that will rocket you to the moon. Orgasms you’ve never dreamed were possible. So many that you will lose count.”

  She grabbed a protective breath and sniffed. “I can give myself a better orgasm than any man can.”

  Dameon sat back in his chair studying her. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He laid a hundred dollar bill on the table.

  His eyes were sparkling with a mix of laughter and fierceness.

  “Would you like to put money on that, tiger?”

  At that moment Trey and his new buddies came around the corner. Dameon scooted his chair back and stood up. He leaned down to help pull her chair back and whispered in her ear.

  “Game on, tiger. But accept it. You’ve lost before you start. Count on it.”

  When he walked them to the car, Jesse waited until Trey was inside.

  “Dameon, I… I can’t—”

  He shook his head. “Jesse. You can and you will. But honey, we’re gonna go slow. Get to know each other. This is too important to rush. It deserves time. Okay?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip, then looked up at him shyly and nodded. “Okay.”

  Chapter 16

  The next morning Dameon sat at his desk trying to focus on the presentation he was giving to the City Council at noon. As usual his mind was on Jesse. If he allowed himself, he could almost smell her, that bewitching complex of spiciness and musk. At the thought, his cock came to life. He groaned. His unruly prick seemed to think that ‘aroused’ was now its steady state.

  At the knock on the door, he looked up to see Marsha Vargas, Trey’s primary counselor, in the doorway.

  With a raised eyebrow and slight grin she said, “Incoming. Down the hallway at your 11 o’clock. Guard your six, Chief.”

  From the outer office, Dameon heard Garrett Chambers’ angry voice.

  “No, I don’t have a goddamned appointment, but I’m confident he’ll see me!”

  Dameon leaned back in his chair preparing for the onslaught. When Garrett Chambers burst in, brushing past Marsha Vargas, Dameon shook his head and faced the angry man before him.

  He dismissed Marsha with a quick wink and pointed to the chair in front of his desk.

  “I see you’re still using that temper to demand your way into places, huh, doc? I heard they released you the other night. I gotta tell you, if it was my call you’d be on the psych ward.”

  Garrett’s face flushed a dark crimson. “You… you arrogant son of a bitch. I swear to God, I’m going to have your job.”

  Dameon gave a loud sigh.

  “Okay, doc. Let’s get real. Forego the name calling and threats or get the hell out. At least be smart enough to know where you are. FYI, doc. This is my house, my turf. I run it. I own it. I call the shots. You have a choice. If you want to stay in my house, sit down.”

  Dameon glanced at his watch. “I have ten minutes.”

  Garrett was visibly trembling. He stood for a minute then jerked back the chair and sat in it. Bright splotches marked his cheeks. Spittle resided in the corners of his mouth. Dameon thought again that the guy was borderline deranged for sure, maybe paranoid compulsive.

  Not bothering with an introduction, the doctor spit out. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Insisted that my son be part of a ghetto team of juvenile delinquents, just to rub it in my face!”

  Dameon regarded him for a long moment, making an effort to tamp down his disdain for the self-righteous prick.

  “You might be surprised to know, doc, that the probation plan the juvenile counselors developed is for Trey, not for you. It is intended to help him. To give your son a fighting chance to pull h
is life back from the edge of the cliff that he was going over.”

  Chambers continued his rampage, ignoring Dameon’s description of the serious issues Trey was facing.

  “You wanted to prove a point, didn’t you? Assert your supposed power. Lord it over me. Because you don’t like people like me, do you? You want to try to take us down.”

  “People like you, doc?”

  Garrett sneered. “Upper-class, educated people. The kind of people cops like you don’t know.”

  Dameon smiled. He knew that he had as many advanced degrees as this asshole did in addition to speaking five languages, but that was beside the point.

  “You’re correct. We don’t use ‘class’ as a criterion when we develop programs for at risk kids. We design them to meet their needs.”

  Garrett leapt to his feet. Placing his hands on the front of the Dameon’s desk, he leaned forward. Dameon spotted the red streaks in his eyes, a sure sign of heavy alcohol consumption. The doctor’s twisted expression was as ugly as his words.

  “So that’s why you’ve got my son playing ghetto ball with a bunch of niggers and beaners?”

  Dameon sat up straight in his chair.

  “Garrett? Is that your name? I’m gonna tell you. I have one nerve left and you’re riding it hard. If you have something constructive you want to say, I’m pleased to listen. In the meantime I’ll tell you what my goals are for Trey and why we put him on this basketball team as part of his probation program. If you’re willing to listen, sit down. If you’re not, leave now.”

  Dameon watched the war of emotions play out on the angry man’s face. If he had seen or heard one iota of concern about Trey, he might have given the prick room. But he saw nothing but self-righteous anger. Just when he was preparing to stand and bodily throw the asshole out, Garrett sat down, glowering at him.

  Dameon held his gaze, and kept his voice low and controlled. At least he could show the pompous jerk how gentlemen conduct a serious discussion.

  “I’ll put it this way. I’m not sure your son will be able to make it on our team. The young men on the team are four to five levels above him. They’re bigger, stronger. Even playing up it will be hard for Trey to keep pace. That doesn’t mean he’s not a talented player. He is a very talented guy and smart as hell. He’s had some good coaching but he’s a sophomore in high school playing with men who would be getting college scholarships anywhere in the country if not for their backgrounds. If Trey sticks with it, he can be good. Really good. We made basketball part of his probation program for several reasons. One, because he loves it. Trey told the counselors if he could do anything he wanted all day long it would be basketball. Two, because he’s talented. And three, because he’s never been pushed to excel. We wanted to give Trey a chance to succeed at something he loves but that he will have to work like crazy to achieve. If he does, it’ll be a huge boost to his confidence.”

  For Trey’s sake, Dameon decided to go the extra mile and see if he could actually reach the pretentious son of a bitch. Try to break through Garrett’s ingrained self-absorption and sense of superiority and get him to think about his son, not himself.

  “If I were Trey’s father or if someone was telling me this about my daughter, I would listen. Trey is riding a thin rail. He could go either way. The animosity between you and his mother is a decided strike against him. He needs strong positive adults around him. That’s a role I can play. I do it with other kids like him. I’m committed to kids like Trey. I was one. A good man took me in hand and I became a better person because of it.”

  Dameon rose from his chair. He reached in the top drawer and took out his Glock and slid it into his back holster. He took his suit coat off the padded clothes rack and shrugged it on completing the appearance of the polished professional leader that he was.

  “That’s my sermon, Doctor Chambers. You get to decide how you handle this. Whether or not you will support Trey in achieving his goals is your decision.”

  Garrett stood up and glared, blatant hatred radiating from him. Apparently, Dameon’s impassioned appeal had about as little affect as Dameon had suspected it would.

  “So you’re telling me I need to go over your head to your superiors to get you to rescind your misguided plan for my son?”

  Dameon slowly shook his head.

  “One more time, doc. This is my house. There isn’t a second floor. You’re looking at my superiors.”

  He tapped the intercom on his desk.

  “Angela, will you please show Dr. Chambers out? Thank you.”

  “I hate to preach and run. I have a City Council meeting to attend. Given that I’m the featured speaker, I best be on my way. Good day.”

  He nodded to the stony-faced man as he strode by. Neither of them spoke.

  Chapter 17

  Dameon had Zoey for the next week. Knowing that Trey was with his father, Dameon called Jesse but got her voice mail and left a message.

  “This is going to sound like a strange invitation, Jesse. I have my daughter with me this week.” He chuckled. “She gives me a curfew so I can’t ‘stay out late.’ I have a special event tomorrow night, one of those dammed command appearance events. I was hoping you would go with me, be my guest.”

  Several minutes later, he saw her number on his caller ID. He answered with a question.

  “How about it, Jesse? Will you give the condemned man a reprieve? Turn a tedious evening into a memorable one?”

  He heard the hesitation in her voice.

  “Thank you, Dameon. But I can’t. If it is the event at the Mayor’s house, I… I’m already going.”

  Dameon huffed in surprise. “Well I’ll be damned. Who—”

  She spoke quickly. “It’s nothing, no one. It’s… he’s one of Raoul’s cousins, part of his family. Raoul thinks he needs protection. I think he just wants me to babysit him.”

  “Damn, Jesse. I’ve warned you about the Morales family. Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Do what?” Jesse’s voice was sharp. “Act like a professional woman who’s working hard to start a new business? Are you going to tell me how to run my business, Dameon? How to manage my clients? Actually, in point of fact, my one client?” Before he could answer, she added, “Yes, Dameon, I do want to do this. Thank you for the invitation. Perhaps I’ll see you at the Mayor’s house.”

  The dial tone indicated that she’d hung up.

  “Fuck.” Dameon hated that he’d upset her. That she was angry. But hell, so was he. That fucking Raoul…. Christ, he could only imagine which one of the Morales clan he was foisting off on Jesse. They were all dangerous. The ones who were proudly cartel and the ones like Raoul who were supposedly going straight. Dameon had warned Raoul. But the son of a bitch told him to mind his own business. The prick didn’t seem to understand that Jesse was his business.

  ~~~

  Jesse regretted hanging up on Dameon. It was childish. Damn, what was wrong with her? At base, she knew. The sexual tension between them was hot, disconcerting. Ever since the night on her porch she was on edge, jumpy. Wracked with uncertainty. She didn’t know if she could handle a relationship as fraught with danger as one with Dameon would be. She was almost certain she couldn’t, but she was torn. Not only was he the sexiest man alive, but she liked him. The minute he left, she was eagerly waiting to see him again. She missed him when he wasn’t there and was afraid of what might happen when he was. She groaned. Given her need to control and tightly manage her emotions, none of these things boded well. They were a recipe for a broken heart or worse. But, god, he was sexy….

  ~~~

  The melodic sounds of a jazz quartet in the background combined with the starlit night made the party seem unreal. It resembled a carefully crafted scene out of a Hollywood movie. Movers and shakers all, women in beautiful dresses and men in formal evening wear underscored the importance of the evening. As always in affairs like these the conversation revolved around money. Recognizing the familiar elements, Jesse grinned to herself t
hinking about the missions she’d been involved in the last ten years. At least here on the Mayor’s veranda, the exchange being discussed didn’t include illegal weapons sales, or potential international incidents. Rather in this mix of politicians and businessmen the currency being discussed was access and power in exchange for cold cash.

  Jesse saw the woman before she saw Dameon. She had long dark hair. It hung in a shiny curtain down her back. Her perfect features and pale skin highlighted her velvety upturned black eyes. She looked like an exotic flower, delicate, fragile. She wore what had to be a one of a kind gown. It was a beautifully brocaded silk dress. The elegant sheathe hugged her slender frame. Jesse would have noticed her even if she wasn’t clinging possessively to Dameon’s arm.

  The two extraordinarily handsome people were engaged in a lively conversation with the Mayor. Jesse couldn’t believe what a stunning couple they made. Dameon was a star in his own right and standing next to this exquisite woman, they were a sensation. Guests hovered around them. Some were snapping pictures.

  Finding her courage, Jesse turned to Emilio Morales, praying for nonchalance.

  “Who is that with Chief Macarios?”

  Emilio looked surprised. “You know the Chief, Jesse?”

  “Yes. My son ran into some problems. Chief Macarios put him on his basketball team.”

  Clearly impressed the young man whistled. “Wow, your kid must be good. The Chief plans on taking those kids all around the country.”

  Feeling protective of her son, Jesse downplayed the connection. “Trey is young, not nearly as experienced as the others. We’re not sure what will happen, but Chief Macarios is giving him a chance.”

  “Well, take it from one who’s known him all my life. If you’ve got the Wolf on your side, Jesse, you’ve got the world on your side.”

  Jesse forced herself to repeat the difficult question. “Um… who’s the woman with him?”

  Emilio stretched up to peer over the taller guests. “Oh, her. That’s his wife.”

  A shower of ice water froze Jesse’s heart in her chest. Breathing was a challenge. After a hard moment she managed to squeeze out the words. “I didn’t know he was married.”