The Secrets of Seduction (The Ladies of The Burling School Book 7)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  That only caused him to laugh harder, which was exactly how John found them.

  “I’m sorry sir, but my team lost him. He was…” John stopped, looking between the two of them, noticing their positions against the crate. There was curiosity in the man’s eyes, but he wisely kept his questions to himself.

  “Would you like me to call the police?” John asked.

  Malcolm knew that Ella was watching him, daring him to allow the security expert to bring in official help. But he didn’t take her bait. If it had been only the other person who had broken into the warehouse, Malcolm definitely would have brought in the authorities. But for some reason, he couldn’t allow Ella to be led away in handcuffs.

  Not unless he was doing the handcuffing.

  “No, that won’t be necessary, but see what your team can find out.” He started to turn away, then looked back at John. “Discreetly,” he warned.

  “Yes, sir,” the guard replied, then turned away and gathered up his team for a strategy session.

  “You’re coming with me,” Malcolm took her arm, leading her out of the warehouse towards his car. John had driven with him over here, but Malcolm knew John could get back to the headquarters building with one of his team. He wanted Ella alone to interrogate her on whatever the hell she thought she might find in that warehouse.

  “What if I don’t want to come with you?” she demanded, tugging against his hold.

  He stopped and glared down at her. “Then I will call the police and I will press charges for breaking and entering. It’s your choice,” he told her, his voice low and gravelly.

  Ella stared up at the man, startled. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Ella, so help me, don’t you dare challenge me! It’s late, I’m more turned on than I care to be at this time of the night, we have a ton of unfinished business from earlier today, and I’m ready to spank your adorable ass. But if you challenge me, I’m perfectly fine with calling the police and having them arrest you. Because if I do, at least I’ll know that you are safe for the night.”

  She’d never seen him like this before. Ella remembered him from her childhood, watching him ride his horse through the pastures of his father’s estate or laughing with his friends as they walked through the village. He always looked so cool and in control. Even earlier this afternoon, when she’d been losing her mind to his touch, he’d appeared to be completely unaffected. Turned on, but not out of control. That had pissed her off more than she’d realized until just now. But seeing him lose it like this seemed to ease her own tension.

  “Fine,” she replied, lifting her chin. It was a dare, but she couldn’t help it. He just…there was something about him that tormented her, kept her from simply acquiescing to his authority. Sure, she’d just violated the law, possibly several laws, by breaking into his warehouse. But she couldn’t simply bow down to him. She still suspected him of being an international criminal.

  So, why did she kind of like the idea of him spanking her? Why did the idea turn her on to the point where she was more than a little…crazy? With need! None of this made any sense. And since it was Ella’s job to make sense of the world and report her findings, she felt as if she were losing the threads of her life’s goal. Of her mind, even!

  “Get into the car, Ella!” he snapped.

  She hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she didn’t have much choice. He simply scooped her up and deposited her into the passenger seat.

  Ella stayed, but only because she was fascinated by this darker side of Malcolm. At least, that’s what she told herself. That explanation was good enough for the moment. Later, she’d go through the events of the night, as well as her reactions, and hopefully figure out what was really going on.

  Chaos! Craziness! Ella sat in the passenger seat as Malcolm drove through the quiet streets back to his headquarters. She wanted to tell him to just let her off at the corner, but she seriously doubted that he’d let her get away that easily. Not until he had answers.

  When he pulled into the reserved parking space in his building, he got out and came around to the other side, politely opening the passenger door for her. Ella sat there for a long moment, thinking it was strange that some women waited for men to open their doors. Where had that custom come from? Was there a point in history when women’s hands had simply fallen off? Or was there some other reason why women waited for men to open doors for them.

  “Ella?”

  She jerked at the sharp snap of his voice. “Fine! I’m getting out! No need to get snippy.”

  He sighed as soon as she stepped out of the vehicle, then closed the door after her. “This way,” he ordered, but didn’t wait for her to follow his command. He put a hand on her upper arm and forcibly led her over to the elevators. It opened immediately and they stepped inside.

  Unfortunately, the intimacy of the quiet elevator didn’t help her state of mind. The tension increased until Ella couldn’t take it any longer. One moment, she was standing next to him, literally feeling the heat coming from his tall, muscular body, and the next moment, she was in the corner.

  He turned and looked at her, one dark eyebrow lifted in question.

  She lifted a shoulder. “You’re just…hot.”

  He chuckled. “Thank you.”

  Ella rolled her eyes, ignoring the blush that stole up her cheeks. “Not hot, as in attractive,” she told him, although he definitely was! Attractive, that is. “You’re hot as in it is uncomfortable to stand next to you.”

  “Right.” He nodded, obviously not believing her. He stepped closer, trapping her against the corner of the elevator. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

  Ella glared up at him defiantly. “I’m not telling you what I was doing in the warehouse.

  He smiled, a slow, sexy expression that lit his blue eyes with a dangerous heat. “I wasn’t referring to the warehouse. I’m going to find out what you were looking for, Ella. But at the moment, I’m more interested in resolving the tension that caused you to hide in the corner.”

  The elevator pinged, indicating that they’d reached the executive floor. She sighed with relief, but when he didn’t move to exit, she simply grinned up at him…then ducked under his arm and walked out by herself, leaving him alone.

  She walked into his office, assuming that’s where he wanted to discuss the night’s events. Sure enough, he walked in behind her and slammed the office door behind him. “Okay, explain.”

  Ella’s shoulders pulled back and she glared up at him. “What do you want to know?”

  He stared at her for a long moment, then sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair. “Ella, it’s late, you were almost killed, you broke into a warehouse filled with machinery that’s about to be shipped to Malaysia, and…what the hell were you looking for?” he demanded.

  “Women,” she admitted. “Girls, actually.”

  He stared at her, not comprehending. “Why would there be any women or girls in that warehouse? Especially at night.” He paused, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “I know that there are women that work in the warehouse during the day,” he offered. “Did one of them…is there something illegal happening with one of my employees? If that’s the case, I need to know.”

  She shook her head. “Not an employee,” she told him. “At least, not an official employee. I’m looking for women who were kidnapped and are now being used for sex slaves.”

  He cringed, pulling back. “That’s disgusting!” he lashed out. “Why would…?” he stopped, his back stiffening. “Hell, you think that there are women being trafficked through my warehouses?” He moved closer to her, his eyes hard and determined now. “Tell me what you’ve found. I guarantee that I’ll put a stop to it. I’ll work with you any way I can.”

  Ella blinked, stunned by his offer. She eyed him carefully, trying to gauge the sincerity of his words. He certainly looked and sounded earnest, both about his horror that someone was using his warehouse for illegal purposes, as well as his offer to work with the
authorities to stop whoever was doing the atrocities.

  “You’d be willing to let the police into your warehouse and look around?” she asked, trying to clarify.

  “Any time, any place,” he confirmed. “If someone is shipping women into the country, or out of it, then I want it stopped. I don’t condone illegal activities,” he told her firmly. “I know that you don’t believe me. So, what can I do to prove it to you?”

  She edged closer, looking into his eyes. “I know that you recognized the symbol I showed you earlier today. I could see it in your eyes.”

  He sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly, but he was still determined and angry. “Okay, yeah. I’ve seen it before. So what?”

  “That symbol was on a shirt that one of the villagers in a small Tular town saw right after some women disappeared.”

  She could see gears grinding in his head. “And you think that their disappearance meant that something bad happened to them,” he stated. He paused, his body tensing. Ella didn’t know how she knew his muscles had tensed. Nothing about his demeanor changed. There was just a…stillness about him now. “What if they were taken to a safe place where they were given medicine and asked to help stop the traffickers who had hurt them?” he offered.

  She watched his eyes, seeing something there. Ella wasn’t sure what, but she’d been trained not to trust wealthy, powerful men. “Is that what happened?” she asked, the doubt apparent in her tone.

  Malcolm shook his head slightly. “I don’t know. I’m just offering a possibility.”

  “Fine,” she whispered, suddenly aware that he was close again. How did he keep doing that?

  “Fine…what?”

  Ella suspected that she was going to regret her next comment, but figured she had to know. Keep one’s friends close, and one’s enemies closer, she reminded herself. “Fine, you can help me. We’ll figure this out together.”

  He smiled, but the light in his eyes warned her that he wasn’t smiling about her agreement. “Good. So what’s next?” he asked.

  She wasn’t going to tell him that she was going to do some internet searching. It was pretty amazing what one could find just by surfing through some of the “back-door” chat sites. It’s where she found most of her leads. “The first thing to do is to find out who is talking about things. Why don’t you talk to your sources and ask around? See if anyone recognizes the flaming hand symbol.”

  “Fine. I’ll get right on that,” he said, his voice heavy and deep, obviously not impressed with her assignment. “And what are you going to do?”

  “Same thing,” she told him, although she didn’t mention that she’d be doing it differently. But she was starting to think that he really didn’t know anything about the trafficking. Or maybe there wasn’t any trafficking going on. Okay, that wasn’t true. Human trafficking happened on a daily basis, although most people were unaware of it.

  “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  “Fine,” he moved closer. “But one more thing,” he began.

  “What’s that?” she asked. Unfortunately, she didn’t move fast enough. Not mentally, or physically. Before she understood what he was going to do, Malcolm reached out and pulled her into his arms. Just like this afternoon, as soon as his lips touched hers, everything exploded. There was no hesitation this time either. As soon as he kissed her, Ella wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers curling into his dark hair. It wasn’t soft. She doubted anything about this man would be soft. But the whole kiss, everything about him was rough and heavy and powerfully enticing. His teeth nipped at her lips, demanding entry. When she opened her mouth, his tongue moved in, mating with hers, mocking her attempts to pull back until she was just as active a participant as he was.

  For a long time, he kissed her and she clung to him, her body aching as she kissed him back. Ella wasn’t sure who pulled back this time, but she would wager money that it hadn’t been her. When he lowered his hands to his sides, she looked up at him, confused and wishing he’d continue. To pull her back into his arms and make love to her on the table behind her.

  Then reality sunk into her lust-muddled mind and she remembered that she wasn’t the type of woman to make love on a conference room table.

  Stepping away from Malcolm was difficult, almost painful, but she managed it. She looked around, trying to locate her messenger bag. It was on the floor and she had no idea how it had gotten there. Hadn’t it been on her shoulder before? No, she’d whipped it off, over her head and dumped it onto the conference room table so the contents would be handy, in case she needed a weapon of some kind.

  Grabbing it now, she pulled it back over her head, settling the leather bag against her body as if it might protect her.

  Goodness, if she had needed some form of defense, Ella doubted that she could have done anything about it. Apparently, Malcolm Reynolds, Marquis of Theeds, billionaire many times over, and her number one nemesis for the past several years, just had to kiss her and her mind turned to mush. Not good!

  Turning, Ella walked out of his office for the second time that day. And just as before, her knees were more than a little wobbly as she entered the elevator.

  Chapter 5

  Ella wandered through the aisles of clothing, not really seeing anything. Her mind wasn’t on shopping, it was on Malcolm. More specifically, two nights ago when she’d lost herself in his arms, kissing him back as if there was no tomorrow.

  What did that mean? Why had she so completely lost it with him? She never lost herself when she had sex. Okay, so she wasn’t a particularly sexually active person. In her profession, finding someone to have sex with wasn’t that high on her list of priorities. Staying alive had ranked much higher. She’d gone through wars and famines, reported on heinous crimes and had to dodge kidnappers on several occasions. Besides, one usually needed a bed for sex. Over the past few years, more often than not, she’d slept on the ground, in a hammock, in tents and, on really special occasions, on an air mattress. The few times she’d come home, Ella had stayed at her dad’s house or in her tiny apartment. Again, not places that would make a woman feel especially sexy.

  But still…her reactions to Malcolm were…overwhelming. Especially since she was trying to prove he was a criminal on a global scale. This story was huge, she could feel it in her bones. And despite her belief three days ago that Malcolm was at the center of this “flaming palm” mystery, something told her that Malcolm wasn’t involved in sex trafficking. But…he’d recognized the symbol. She knew it! So, why had he lied to her? Why hadn’t he just told her what he knew of the flaming palm?

  Or was her intuition about him wrong, twisted by lust that seemed to flare up every time they were alone together? It didn’t seem to matter where they were…an elevator, a warehouse, in his office…as soon as they were alone, the lust flared up, ready to consume them.

  Ella didn’t flatter herself that she would have stopped him last night. She’d been completely into the kiss, eager to take it further. Malcolm had been the one to pull away and she hated that. It gave him all the power and Ella preferred having the power in her own hands.

  Still…maybe he wasn’t the horrible person she’d thought he was all these years.

  And yet, she still remembered her mother’s tears the day she’d come home early from work at the estate. Malcolm’s father had fired her, without any notice or severance pay, simply because she’d started losing her hair due to the chemo treatments. He’d said she was slacking off, but Ella knew her mother. She never slacked off. If anything, Ella’s mother would have worked even harder, despite the ravages caused by the chemotherapy.

  Ella moved along the racks of clothing, wondering why retail stores used circular racks instead of long, straight ones. Circular racks took up more space. They didn’t seem to be more organized. And they forced a customer to shift in weird ways. Nope, circular racks were silly.

  She picked up a pretty, lace bra, holding it up to the light. And why did women wear these things? Lace wa
sn’t practical. Personally, she wore sports bras and cotton panties, preferring the comfort. Lace and satin…not practical when running down dirt pathways and dodging bullets.

  Of course, Ella admitted she wasn’t dodging bullets just now. So, maybe she could wear lace and satin when she was home? Ella put the pink bra back on the rack and picked up a black one. Would Malcolm like this on her? The lace was interesting and probably would show her nipples. She didn’t know from personal experience, but she’d heard and read that men liked nipples. Her college boyfriend hadn’t really been a breast man. He’d been more of a…, well, Ella suspected that Jimmy had been more of a man’s man. She’d suspected that he was more into men than women. They’d broken up in college and remained friends. She called him whenever she traveled north to Scotland and he’d meet her in the capital for dinner or just drinks, whatever they had time for on that day.

  “The black one would look amazing on you,” a deep voice came from behind her.

  Ella was so startled to see Malcolm that she dropped the bra. He chuckled knowingly as he picked it up. But when he stood, his tall body straightened slowly, as if he were contemplating every aspect of her figure, picturing her in the black lace. “Yes,” he nodded, returning the lacy piece to her. “Definitely the black.” Their eyes locked and her breath caught in her lungs. Instantly, she pictured herself in the black lace. In that picture, he was watching her as she slowly released the buttons of the blouse she was wearing. One by one. His eyes gazing at her fingers, waiting for every inch of skin revealed by her slow strip tease.

  “Yes,” he whispered hungrily.

  “Do not kiss me here,” she whispered forcefully. She didn’t know what his favorite color was, or his favorite food. She knew what kind of car he drove, but not if he was a fast or cautious driver.

  But Ella knew that look in his eyes. She’d seen it several times already and her heart accelerated, her stomach tightened. Anticipation, she thought. This was what it felt like.