Tempting Calm Waters

by Samantha Wolfe

  I looked at Lu again. Hope and fierce determination burned brightly in her eyes, tempered with an edge of suspicion as she fearlessly met my gaze with an antagonistic expression. For some incomprehensible reason, I wanted that suspicion and antagonism gone. I wanted her to trust me, and I had no idea why it was so important to me or why I even cared, but it made my decision easy.

  "If we do this, you do it as a civilian, you sign an NDA before I share any of the club's member information with you, and I call the shots," I told her gravely.

  She scowled and opened her mouth to say something I knew I didn't want to hear.

  "No," I interrupted her, and her scowl deepened. Too bad. "This isn't open to debate. I want this guy too, but Désir Dangereux's reputation is on the line, and I won't risk compromising it, unless I have a good reason to do so." I eyed her sternly, having no intention of changing my position on this. "Do you understand?"

  Her jaw clenched and her eyes darkened angrily, but she didn't argue with me even though I could tell she wanted to. "Yes, I understand," she finally said grudgingly. "Sir," she added caustically.

  Her use of the word "sir" dripped with sarcasm, but it still managed to feed my libido, and made me picture her on her knees at my feet. I began to fear I was in over my head here, but was too far in it to stop now even if I wanted to.

  "But I'm going to be involved with everything," Lu continued. "I'm not just going to sit around looking pretty while the boys make all the decisions." Her voice was stubborn now as she crossed her arms, her breasts pushing together and up. It was goddamn hypnotizing, and it took everything I had in me not to ogle them shamelessly and piss her off.

  "Of course not," I replied. "You'll be just as much part of it as I am."

  I imagine since she worked in such a male-dominated career that she was used to being treated like that, and expected it, but I wasn't going to do that to her. In just the two times I'd been around her, it was clear to me that she was a strong and intelligent woman who anyone would be a fool not to utilize to their advantage.

  Despite my past penchant for BDSM and for dominating woman during sex even now, I had no problem with a woman being strong, taking the lead, and being their own person outside of the playroom or a bed. In this case, gender had nothing to do with it, no matter what Lu thought.

  "Okay," she said with a stiff nod as she straightened, her demeanor all business now. "When does the club open next, so we can get started?"

  I smirked at her enthusiasm, which of course earned me an instant glare. "Oh no, we're not going to the club while it's open until I know you can handle it."

  "I can handle it," she insisted with a stubborn glint in her eyes

  I made a scoffing noise. "Have you ever been to a BDSM club before?"

  "No," came her irritated reply. "But I'm familiar with the lifestyle."

  "Let me guess," I replied in amusement. "You've read a few erotic novels and think you know all about it now. Right?"

  She glared at me, but didn't deny it. "If I can fake interest in a john, I can fake just about anything."

  I ignored the slight choking noise Calder made behind me. I'm sure he was thoroughly enjoying this. Bastard.

  Her not so subtle dig at me had the opposite effect though. It didn't piss me off like she wanted it to. It just made me more determined and horny as fuck. I so wanted to spank her sweet ass red for her insolence, grab a hold of it, and go to town on her tight little body with my tongue and other bigger and more insistent parts of my anatomy.

  Whoa. What the hell was I doing? I was already biting into my lower lip in anticipation, and on the verge of giving her a thorough eye fucking that was sure to earn me a knee to the groin. Shit, I needed to get a grip and focus here.

  "Faking it isn't going to cut it," I replied, trying my damnedest to ignore her parted lips and the hard pebbled nipples jutting out under the crisp white shirt beneath her suit jacket. "If you can't sell it completely, we'll be dead in the water before we even start, and I'm sure you don't want to risk that any more than I do."

  "So...what?" she asked dubiously. "You're going to have someone give me a crash course in BDSM?"

  "Exactly," I replied smugly with a big smirk, "and not just anyone, babe. Me."

  Her eyes blazed, and I didn't know if it was from the fact that I'd be her teacher, the look on my face, or because I called her babe. I suspected it was a bit of all three. I watched her expression shift from indignation, to thoughtfulness, and finally grudging acceptance.

  "Fine," she answered gruffly, and I sighed inwardly in relief, unsure why I was so invested in her involvement in this. "When and where?" she asked.

  "Tonight at Désir Dangereux," I said. "The club is closed tonight so we'll have the place to ourselves."

  Uncertainty flickered across her eyes, and I didn't like it. Even though she had no reason to trust me, it bothered me that being alone with me made her nervous. I wanted to reassure her without pointing it out and pissing her off. Shockingly, this time I didn't want to get a rise out of her.

  "I'll meet you there at eight, and have Pete, our head of security, meet us there as well since he needs to be in on this too." I was happy to see her mollified expression.

  "Okay." She nodded. "Text me the address."

  We took a few moments to exchange cell numbers as I secretly reveled in the knowledge that I would be alone with her later tonight. She might not want anything to do with me, but I wasn't going to deny the raw desire and hunger I felt around her. I'd take whatever I could get out of this situation.

  She briefly thanked Calder and me, then walked out wagging that sweet ass behind her. I stared after her like a slobbering dog until she disappeared around the corner at the end of the short hallway. I turned around to find Calder watching me with an unbridled grin of amusement.

  "What?" I asked him with an arched brow.

  "So that's her, huh?" Calder asked as his smile morphed into a smirk.

  "Yeah." I'd told him the other day at lunch all about my first encounter with Lu.

  "And you're coming back to the club," he continued.

  "Uh, huh."

  He shook his head and snorted.

  "What?" I asked with a frown.

  "Nothing," he replied with a shrug before his face finally sobered. "You're sure this is a good idea?"

  "Yes," I answered unwaveringly, even though I was unsure if I'd made the decision with my brain or my dick. Either way, I couldn't bring myself to regret my decision since both got what they wanted. My need to find the bastard responsible for those girl's deaths was just as strong as my baffling and irresistible attraction to Lu. I wasn't going to deny myself either.

  Calder nodded in satisfaction. "This is your show, Scott. I trust you to protect the club." The man had some serious trust and control issues, and the fact that I was one of the few people he trusted, and he let me make this decision without any hesitation on his part, was both humbling and terrifying. Gee, no pressure, dude.

  I nodded in agreement as a frisson of uneasy excitement fell over me. Oh yeah, it looked like I was seeing this potential shit show through to the end, and fuck if I couldn't wait.

  CHAPTER

  SEVEN

  ____________________

  Lu

  I parked my baby in a nondescript parking lot behind an equally nondescript industrial building and glanced around my surroundings. The only other cars in the lot were an enormous white Ram dually pickup truck and a sleek silver BMW. I smirked, guessing which one was Scott's, and thinking it was a definite sign of overcompensation for what he lacked in a certain part of his anatomy, despite having seen the very obvious proof otherwise in his jeans earlier today. Nope, not going there. I didn't want that annoyingly sexy man, no matter how differently my traitorous body felt about him.

  I blamed it on the sad state of my sex life over the last few years. I didn't do boyfriends. I didn't have the time or inclination, and my job had been so chaotic since moving to vice that I was too tired
in my off hours to go out looking for a hook up to scratch an occasional itch. Don't get me wrong, I loved men and sex, but finding a man who came even close to satisfying me in bed was few and far between. Most of the time it was just easier and more expedient to take care of things myself, if you know what I mean. My disaster of a blind date the other night was a one off that I'd agreed to so I could appease my sister, who was always trying to meddle in my love life.

  I'd just come from my mother's apartment where Emilia and I had dinner tonight with Mom and her latest boyfriend of the month. She was always on the lookout for a new love of her life, and the next one she married was going to be her fifth. Even after all those failed relationships she hadn't given up trying to find "the one" and would mold herself to fit each man until the fling imploded in her face. I couldn't understand how she still had this unwavering belief in true love after so many abject failures.

  From what I'd seen, the idea of true love was a delusion I'd never bought into and thankfully never experienced. I couldn't imagine getting that wrapped up in another person and losing myself like my mother did. No thanks. I gave this latest relationship a month at most, and I'd be left consoling my mother and her broken heart all over again. I was relieved that I had the excuse to leave Mom's place early to meet Scott, since she and her new guy had been so sickeningly affectionate that I could barely finish my dinner.

  I focused on the building now, seeing a long loading dock and a steel door to its left that Scott had told me to knock on when I arrived in the text he sent me an hour ago. I stared at it in trepidation, wondering what I'd been thinking when I agreed to this insanity. As much as I wanted to help find Tasha's and the other women's killer, my physical reaction to Scott was disturbing and unexpected. How the hell was I so aroused by such an infuriating man? It made no sense to me whatsoever. How the hell was I going to get through this without jumping his bones, or more than likely killing him just to wipe that annoying smirk off his goddamn gorgeous face? I needed to suck it up and keep my cool. I did that everyday on the job after all, and I was a professional. There was a killer to catch, and my issues with Scott didn't matter, shouldn't matter, so I finally took a deep fortifying breath to steel my resolve and got out of the car.

  I hurried toward the building, ignoring the giddy excitement that was spiking my heart rate. I knocked briskly on the door when I reached it. A moment later, I could hear the lock being disengaged, and I braced myself to deal once again with the exasperating enigma that was Scott Conrad. The door swung open, and I gaped up at the humongous form that was filling the doorway instead. Holy fuck, it was the biggest human being I had ever seen.

  The guy was at least six and a half feet tall, and had to weight well over three hundred pounds of what appeared to be nothing but muscle. His biceps were the size my waist, and his hands looked big enough to palm my entire head. The black T-shirt stretched across his massive chest, and emblazoned with the word "security" in white block letters, could have been a tent. I swear you could have fit one of me in each leg of his black pants. I blinked incredulously and finally managed to drag my gaze up to his face. He had short-cropped dark hair and an amazingly kind and friendly expression with a sparkle of amused warmth in his beautiful pale blue eyes. I suspected that I'd been wrong, and now knew exactly who owned the massive pickup truck in the parking lot, since I was pretty sure that it would take a shoe horn to cram this huge beast of a man into that poor little BMW.

  "You must be Detective Tavarez," he said with a grin, his deep voice surprising me with its lilting British accent. Between that and the smile that lit up his face, it set me at ease and made him suddenly seem more like a big teddy bear than the terrifying monster I imagine he could be if you crossed him.

  "And you must be Pete," I replied as I grinned up at him. I thrust my hand up to shake his and was in awe of the sheer size of his hand as it completely engulfed mine. His grip was warm and gentle though, reinforcing the teddy bear vibe he was giving off.

  "That's me," he answered as he released my hand. "Come on in, Detective." He stepped aside and motioned me inside with an outstretched arm the size of a tree trunk.

  "You can call me Lu," I said brightly, having already decided that I liked Pete as I squeezed past his massive frame through the doorway.

  I glanced down the empty hallway, noting the elegant dark-gray walls with white trim and the few pieces of modern art on the walls. It wasn't what I expected at all. "Where's Scott?" I asked calmly, trying to deny the eagerness that coursed through my veins at the thought of seeing him again.

  "Mr. Conrad is waiting for you inside," Pete replied as he led me further into the building, surprising me with how light and graceful his steps were given his immense size.

  I shook my head and pressed my lips together in disapproval as I followed him. It figures that Scott would have Pete greet me instead of doing it himself. He probably couldn't be bothered to do it himself, the arrogant smug jerk.

  "I'll take you to him in the public dungeon once you've signed the NDA," Pete continued as he came to a door and swung it open.

  I stopped and cocked my head curiously. "Public dungeon?" I asked with a furrowed brow.

  Pete turned and eyed me with a suddenly uncomfortable and pained expression. "It's...it's the um...playroom for the members who...uh..." -his face reddened as he shifted nervously on his enormous feet and rubbed at the back of his wide neck- "like to watch and be watched," he finished explaining in a rush.

  My eyes widened in sudden realization. Holy shit, this giant man was embarrassed to talk about sex in front of me, and it was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen. I fought a grin, not wanting to make him feel more uncomfortable since he seemed like such a sweet man.

  "Oh," I said as nonchalantly as I could manage.

  Pete averted his eyes and walked through the open door. I followed him into an office and paused to take in the opulent space. Dark hardwood flooring sat beneath my feet, and the walls were black with a subtle gold geometric pattern in it. A huge ebony-stained wooden desk dominated the center of the room with luxuriant black leather chairs around it. The artwork and light fixtures added white and gold pops of brightness that broke up the darkness of the decor. The room was intimidating, and utterly and powerfully masculine.

  "Is this Scott's office?" I asked curiously. I had a hard time imagining Scott having an office like this. He seemed to be more of a casual jeans and T-shirt kind of guy to me.

  "No," Pete replied as he walked to the desk. "This is Mr. Rennen's. Mr. Conrad doesn't have an office since he's a silent partner."

  That made more sense since this room fit my brief yet impactful impression of Calder Rennen. Not to mention that Scott was a private investigator and probably didn't have time to help manage the multiple nightclubs and bars that I knew R&C LTD owned and operated. Pete picked up a few papers and handed them to me. I perused the nondisclosure agreement as Pete spoke again.

  "It's our standard NDA, but Mr. Rennen's attorney added a few lines giving you permission to disclose any information that leads to the apprehension of the murderer to the authorities with his and Mr. Conrad's express approval first."

  I nodded. That made sense, and I was okay with it since I was here as a civilian and basically behind Warren's back. I was risking my job for this, and I wouldn't take any information to Warren, or anyone else on the force, until I was certain that it was valid. Hell, I might still get kicked off the force for this anyway, but I'd cross that bridge if I had to. My need and desire to find Tasha's killer was more pressing and important to me.

  After spending a few minutes going through the legal jargon as best as I could, I placed the papers on the desk and signed my name on it. Fuck, I was in it now and there was no turning back. I set the pen down, then nodded stiffly to Pete.

  He nodded back to me. "I'll take you to Mr. Conrad now."

  I followed Pete out of the office and further down the hallway until we reached another door. He opened it for me, and I returne
d his warm smile as he gallantly ushered me through ahead of him. I walked into the large main room of Désir Dangereux, and my eyes widened. Wow. The room was nothing like the dark and scary Gothic BDSM decor I guess I'd been expecting. The club was gorgeous and impressive, even empty and with just a few lights on. I imagined its sleek and decadent interior design would be even more impressive with all the club lights on. The smooth dark wood dance floor gleamed in the low lighting, flanked by sitting areas with low sofas and tables. Désir Dangereux simply looked like a high end dance club.

  At least, that was the case until I noticed the long bar off to my left, and the three bronze statues mounted between four mirrors on the wall behind it. The center one was a man, and the other two flanking it were women. All three were nude, bound in rope, and their bodies contorted in erotic ecstasy. The male one was also very much aroused. They were arresting and beautiful, and I wished I had the time for a closer look. Instead, we crossed the large open space and came to a stop in front of set of closed double doors.

  "Mr. Conrad is waiting inside," Pete announced solemnly with a single nod, then immediately turned and walked back the way we'd just come from.

  I frowned after him since I'd expected him to open this door for me as well, but apparently I was on my own now. I stood there and watched Pete until he disappeared through the door into the back hallway, then turned to face the now somehow ominous black doors.

  I shrugged. "Well, here we go," I mumbled under my breath, steeling myself for what I knew my body's reaction to Scott would be once I walked through those doors. I needed to play it cool, and not let him get to me. I could control myself, damn it. I turned the knob and pushed through the door into the room, then jolted to a halt when I took in the tableau in front of me.

  The huge vaulted room was lit by wrought-iron chandeliers dangling from the arching wooden beams that stretched across the ceiling, along with matching wall sconces that were spread around the room. The walls looked like they were made of stone and gave the room a medieval castle vibe. That, along with the brooding Gothic decor, gave the space a darkly erotic ambiance. Spread around the room on dark Victorian rugs over rustic dark wood flooring were multiple pieces of BDSM furniture. There were St. Andrew's crosses, spanking and bondage benches upholstered in black leather, stockades, A-frames, and sex swings. You name it, it was here. In the center of the room was a round stage surrounded by black leather chairs and sofas all facing it. Now this was more like what I expected from a BDSM club.