by Lexi Blake
“Well, I have my reasons for that.” He wasn’t going to bring up his insane curiosity about how they knew one another. Thinking about it made his gut roll with jealousy, and he hated that feeling. There was no logic to it. Even if she’d slept with Jared, it had been long before she’d met him, worked for him, become his friend. It had been another lifetime, but the thought made him want to punch his brother in his perfectly symmetrical face. “You shouldn’t bug her at work.”
Jared’s eyes widened. “You can’t honestly tell me that’s your reason. I was bugging her at work.”
He didn’t want to go into the real one. The real reason would lead to a family counseling session and while he was willing to talk to his brother about his career goals, he wasn’t willing to go there. “I owe it to her to provide her with a workplace where no one harasses her.”
“I wasn’t harassing her. I was talking to her and you went twelve kinds of possessive. Come on, Kai. We both know why you did that, and I’m worried it’s the very reason you kept your distance from a woman you obviously wanted.” Jared wasn’t letting up. He started to follow Kai out of the locker room.
“You just got here. You haven’t seen me in years. Don’t act like you know what’s going through my head.” He wasn’t ready for this conversation.
“You’re still angry with me for what happened. I get that. Don’t take it out on Kori. She’s not Hannah.” Jared was hot on his heels.
“I never said she was and you shut the fuck up. You think you know me so well? Then you remember that I don’t air my dirty laundry in public. You’re making a scene.” He couldn’t stand it. He wasn’t the guy who posted his every fucking feeling on social media. Some things were private, needed to be dealt with in quiet and thoughtful fashions, but his brother had never met a public argument he didn’t love. He would throw down in front of anyone.
Jared stopped as they walked into the lobby. Up ahead, Kai could see his entourage was waiting for him. And look, his assistant had shown up. Lena was dressed for clubbing in a way-too-short skirt that would very likely show off all her assets as she got out of the limo they would surely take.
“Fine,” Jared said, his voice hushed. “But since I’m living with you for the next couple of weeks, don’t think this conversation is over. Maybe I’ll make an appearance at this club and then call it an early night because I think we should talk about this.”
He turned and joined his group. High-fives all around. Jared smiled like they hadn’t just gone from being fairly cool with each other to nearly having a public knock-down, drag-out, but then that was how his brother rolled.
“Hey, Kai, you coming with?” Squirrel had traded his leathers for the equally awkward jeans that seemed painted on his body and a V-neck shirt that proved he was way less serious about working out than Jared.
Brad or was it Tad? He couldn’t remember. They were dressed in the same douchebag outfits as the rest of the crew, as though they were all trying so hard to be Jared. One of the “_ads” gave him a nod. “The more the merrier. We’ve got plenty of room in the limo. Come with us. You’ve never gotten trim the way you get it when you’re with this guy.”
The asshole was patting Jared on the back like it was his duty to ensure every guy got laid by some chick who really wanted Jared but would take whatever they could get to be in a star’s orbit.
The other “_ad” nodded and got a wolfish leer on his face. “Yeah, these chicks will do the craziest shit to get near him. And the drunk ones are easy pickings.”
“Ah, date rape. It’s the call of the lesser, more criminal male.” Yeah, his brother needed to find another way to cope. “You’ll excuse me if I choose better company.”
He walked off toward the bar where he saw Vince hanging out with Mistress Jackie. Hanging out was a euphemism. He was actually curled up at her feet, his cheek against the leather of her boots that had come straight from Dominatrix.com or wherever Jackie was buying her outrageous getups these days. She looked lovely, but he couldn’t imagine having to be stuffed into a corset. Some days he genuinely thanked the universe he’d been born with a dick. And now that he thought about it, his dick wasn’t that much smaller than his brother’s. It was simply that his dick had some humility, some modesty and refinement.
“I thought you would be in a privacy room by now,” Jackie said, a knowing smile on her scarlet lips.
With Kori. How was Kori going to deal with the fact that everyone would think they had moved their relationship past the friend zone? How would she handle the fact that they actually had moved past it? That was the better question. It wasn’t like she’d hung around. There could be serious issues for them to work out.
But he wasn’t going to let that stand in his way. She was perfect for him. She complemented him.
And the truth of the matter was it was way past time for him to move on and settle down and start to build something. He could do that with her.
Was he being rash? Probably, but this decision didn’t make him antsy. It didn’t feel like something he should meditate on.
She made him feel alive.
“Where did Kori go, Vince?”
Jackie sighed. “Did the little coward run away?”
“I’m sure she’ll have a reasonable excuse.” And he would listen to it. “Mistress Jackie, could you please ask your submissive where my submissive went.”
Vince’s head came up off Jackie’s fuck-me-hard boots, his eyes lighting up. “I knew you two made a connection. It was so easy to see in the way you caned her. That was beautiful. She needed that so badly. And she ran away like a coward. She even forced Sarah and Mia to leave with her. I think they went home, but I stayed here with Mistress. Mostly because I love Mistress, but also because when those three complain about men I get scared.”
He was sure lots of things scared Vince when Jackie was around. She placed her well-manicured hand on his head and eased him back down. “You did well, pet. Perhaps later I’ll reward you with an old-fashioned pegging. I do enjoy going old-school. Spank that brat when you find her, Kai. She deserves it.”
It was said with an affectionate fondness. At least he knew Kori’s play partners had accepted her apology. Not that they would be playing with her again.
His cell phone buzzed and he looked down. A text came through from an unfamiliar number.
Where is your brother heading for the evening? He lost me at the light.
Ah, the feds were quietly hanging around. That text made his stomach turn. It reminded him that he wasn’t simply fulfilling a contract. He was spying on his brother. He was trying to figure out if a killer had gotten close to Jared. He would go through their files again, check their histories against his instincts. His brother’s entourage was one fucked-up group of people.
He could do that tomorrow. For tonight, he was done. Let the feds do their thing. He had his own fucked-up human to deal with.
Some club. I don’t know. Check his social media. I’m sure he’s announced it to the world.
He shut his phone off for the night. The doctor was out.
He had other things he needed to do.
CHAPTER SIX
“What do you think of Case Taggart?”
Kori turned to the woman who had asked the question. Mia was sitting on the couch, her legs curled under her and a glass of wine in her hand. Sarah sat next to her, a frown still on her face. She hadn’t wanted to leave the club, but there had been the small problem of Kori’s tires getting slashed. She’d explained to Sarah that she couldn’t drive home without tires and getting someone out to fix it would have to wait until the next day. That was what she got for parking outside of Sanctum. She’d forgotten her keycard to get into the parking lot, but there was a nice gate between the parking lot of the building Kai owned and Sanctum that only required a code, so she’d parked by her building and walked over.
And some asshole had taken a knife to her tires. All four had been slashed. She’d had to run back into Sanctum, trying to hide fro
m Kai the whole time, and then convince Sarah to give her a ride home.
If anyone knew she’d gone out by herself, there would have been hell to pay. She’d snuck around the bouncer because she hadn’t wanted to wait for an escort out. Kai could have found her and then she would have been forced to talk about her feelings.
Apparently Mia was having feelings for a guy, too, though she seemed inclined to talk about them.
“He’s a nice man.” Kori answered Mia, who had come along for the ride. Her training Dom had gotten stuck at work and she’d gone home with Kori and Sarah. It looked like they would have a guest on the couch tonight. “He’s been through a lot.”
“I know he recently lost his brother.” Mia took a long drink of the rich ruby liquid. “He seems to hate me. I don’t get it. I’m nice to him and everything.”
She hadn’t seen them interact, but she knew Case. Big Tag had called her and a couple of the long-term subs in for a crash course in BDSM with Case. She wasn’t sure why Case Taggart had suddenly needed Master rights at Sanctum, but she’d been game. Anything to help a friend. “I think he’s hurting. Theo wasn’t only his brother. He was Case’s twin. They shared everything. When they graduated from high school, they went straight in the Navy together. They got separated in the beginning but were in the same SEAL training class before the CIA yanked them both and they somehow ended up here.”
She didn’t know the whole story. One day McKay-Taggart had way more employees than it had the day before.
Mia put down her glass. “That’s fascinating. So the Taggart brothers went straight from SEAL training into Agency work? And they talk about it? Shouldn’t that be classified?”
Shit. Was she not supposed to know that stuff? She’d gone to dinner one night with a bunch of the McKay-Taggart crowd and they talked pretty openly. Then of course they probably didn’t think she would mention it to people outside the circle. Maybe they thought she was like Kai and what they said was covered under confidentiality. Charlotte might shoot her. “No, they don’t talk about it and you shouldn’t either. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“Why?” Sarah asked. “He’s not a spy now. I personally think way too many things are classified.”
“I don’t think he was ever a spy.” Now that she thought about it, if Charlotte Taggart didn’t want someone to know something, she wouldn’t talk about it. “I think he was always a soldier.”
Mia looked thoughtful for a moment. “And his brother died on a mission? I thought McKay-Taggart worked for businesses. I guess I thought that was things like finding corporate spies. Not many of those in the islands I would think.”
“They work everywhere from what I can tell.” It wasn’t surprising that Mia was interested in Case. He was an amazingly attractive man. Like all the Taggarts, Case was a Viking god. “They do lots of kinds of work. I haven’t heard the story about how Theo died. I only know a job went very wrong.”
“No one wants to talk about it.” Sarah set her glass down. “It hurts too much.”
“I find it interesting that he died on the same island as Senator Hank McDonald. Did y’all see the news on his death? He died on the exact same island and around the same time. I always wondered about the story of his death,” Mia said.
“Are you talking about the dude from Houston? Didn’t he have a heart attack?” Sarah poured herself another glass of wine.
Mia was often interested in politics, but Kori couldn’t help her here. “I have no idea. Once we all realized Theo was gone, I don’t think any of us thought much past him, and Big Tag doesn’t talk about work outside the office. If that’s true then I suspect something was happening and the team was likely working to protect the senator. They do a lot of security details. We’ll never know. That side of the Sanctum world keeps its secrets.”
She couldn’t help but think about Erin. Erin had been there when Theo had died. Kori knew that much. Had she held him as he died? Felt him take his last breath?
She’d run away from Kai today, and now that felt like a cowardly thing to do. Kai was her friend, her best friend really. Erin had lost the man she loved, had a hard road ahead of her, and Kori was sneaking out so she didn’t have to have a difficult conversation with the number one man in her life.
Mia’s eyes narrowed. “But don’t you think…”
Her question was interrupted by a knock on the door.
It was one in the morning. Who the hell would be here at one in the morning?
“I’ll get the bat.” Sarah stood up, slapping her hands together like she’d been waiting for an occasion such as this to kick some ass.
Mia was up on her feet. “Who would come over this late? And what is she planning on doing with that bat? I have a gun if we need one.”
That surprised her. The blonde was bubbly and fluffy and didn’t look like a chick who carried concealed. “How about we find out who it is before we murder them?”
“It’s not murder. It’s self-defense here,” Sarah corrected.
Wow, she’d never suspected her friends were so blood thirsty. “Fine, if there’s a crazed killer on the other side of the door, self-defense murder him. I’m going to find out.”
Sometimes their neighbor from next door got confused. He was an elderly gentleman with the sweetest wife in the world, and every now and then he thought it was 1955 and showed up asking where Elvis was playing. Mr. Swanson needed neither a bat to the head nor one of Mia’s bullets.
She looked through the peephole and stepped back. “Oh, shit.”
Sarah had her bat in hand. “I’m ready.”
Mia was staring her way. “Who is it?”
Kai. It was Kai standing out on her porch looking completely hot and professorial with his jeans and button-down and sport coat. It was the one with those patches on his elbows. He’d put his glasses on and his hair was back. Nothing to see here, ladies. Just a super-smart man who could spank a sub until she cried out in complete surrender.
He was also a man who wouldn’t walk away. There was no way he would leave because they didn’t answer. The lights were on so if she didn’t want the entire McKay-Taggart crew called out to investigate why she wasn’t answering the door, she’d better open it.
“Stand down, warrior princesses. It’s only Kai.” She unlocked the deadbolt. Sometimes it was better to rip the bandage off quickly. They would have a short talk where she would reassure Kai that they would be fine tomorrow and he would head back out. She’d been so wrong to leave.
She opened the door. “Kai, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you I was leaving. I got involved in some things…” Like worrying about how I was going to look you in the face again. “…and I should have texted you.”
“You should have stayed around so we could talk. I went to get you a robe. Did you run around the club naked?”
She gave him what she hoped was an impish grin. “I might have mentioned that I’m an exhibitionist.”
He nodded slowly as though taking in her words. “Well, you could have told me you were leaving. I worried about you.”
“Hi, Kai.” Sarah waved his way.
“Are y’all playing baseball at this hour?” Kai nodded toward the bat Sarah was holding.
“Nope,” Kori replied, eager to get him out of the house. Now that she thought about it, it was great that he’d stopped by on his way home. Well, driven several miles out of his way since he lived next to the club, but it was good. The awkward first interaction would be gone and they would be back to normal in the morning. No muss. No fuss. “They were prepared to take you down should you have turned out to be a creepy stalker guy. Mia’s got a gun.”
Mia held up her hands as though caught. “Licensed and stuff. All totally legal here. We should let you two talk.”
Kori shook her head. “Not necessary. Kai came here to make sure I got home okay.”
“You two should definitely talk,” Sarah said, replacing her baseball bat and backing toward the kitchen. “Night, Kai.”
“N
ight,” Mia said with a wink as she followed Sarah back.
Ah, betrayal. Her old friend. Not that she wouldn’t have done the same damn thing. She sighed and turned to Kai, who had to be super tired and longing to get home to his bed. “They’re going to tease us mercilessly.”
He moved toward her. “About what?”
Was he going to pretend nothing had happened? It didn’t seem a very Kai thing to do. “About the scene.”
“Why would they tease us about the scene? The scene was beautiful.” He kept coming, crossing the space between them.
Maybe he needed a hug. Still, something about the way he was watching her made her suddenly feel like a rabbit in the presence of a very academic wolf. She backed up and tried to stop her stupid heart from thudding in her chest. This had to end. It was the adrenaline left over from the scene. That had to be it. She couldn’t feel light-headed and giddy every time this man walked in a room from now on. “It was an awesome scene. You were great.”
“I wasn’t looking for praise.” He was so close now and he didn’t seem to be interested in personal space. “We need rules.”
She nodded and found herself backed up against the wall. His words made total sense to her. Rules. They were all about rules and boundaries and all the things that made the world around them safe and sane. “Of course. Don’t think I’m going to turn into some clingy thing, Kai. I understand what happened.”
“Do you?” He stopped a few feet from her, but she could practically feel his heat.
Despite the fact that there was some precious distance between them, she couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit stalked. “I do. We’re cool, Kai.”
“I’m not cool. There is nothing cool about me right now. I need to make some rules. Rule number one is when I give you a mind-blowing orgasm, you have to at least stay around long enough to kiss me.”
Her first thought was—what? Kiss him? Her second was a little easier to handle. The arrogance of that man. “Mind blowing? How do you know it was mind blowing?”
