by Lexi Ryan
Flirting With Fate
Stiletto Girls, Book Two
by Lexi Ryan
Flirting With Fate, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2012 by Lexi Ryan
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this book. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
A digital version of this book was published in November 2009 by Ravenous Romance.
Cover Design by HOT DAMN DESIGNS
www.hotdamndesigns.com
Table of Contents
Author’s Note
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
Excerpt from Accidental Sex Goddess
Other Works by Lexi Ryan
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
Flirting With Fate was originally published in 2009. This revised edition has been thoroughly edited to reflect the change in my writing style. However, the majority of the story itself remains unchanged.
Although this book can be read alone, it is the second book in the Stiletto Girls series. Inspired a little bit by my husband’s love of comic book heroes and a little bit by my love of Charlie’s Angels, the series is about a group of female PIs with special powers who find love while kicking bad guy butt.
I’m thrilled to share Josie and Tanner’s story with you. Special powers and world-saving missions aside, they’re two individuals who have lost their families who find family in each other.
Just like Stilettos, Inc., this novel crosses a lot of genre lines—action, suspense, paranormal adventure, and, of course, red hot romance—and I hope you’ll love it and will look for a new Stiletto Girls story in summer 2013.
I love to hear from readers, so drop me a note, chat with me on facebook, or send me a tweet!
Website: http://lexiryan.com
Blog: lexiryan.blogspot.com
Facebook: facebook.com/lexiryan
Twitter: @writerlexiryan
E-mail: [email protected]
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/qymaH
Thanks for reading!
~Lexi
Dedication
For Annie, whose friendship, like all the best, defies geography.
Chapter One
“I need your sperm,” Josie Bovard said, folding her hands on her desk.
Tanner Wiley narrowed his eyes. He couldn’t deny he’d had quite a few fantasies that involved Josie and his—er—bodily fluids, but somehow they’d never played out quite like this in his mind. “Excuse me?”
Josie shifted in her office chair. She pulled off black-framed reading glasses and tucked a leg under her. Today her hair was pulled into a knot at the back of her neck, and instead of being dressed as a blond bombshell, as she so often was in the field, she was in soft cotton pants and a pink tank top. This Josie was even more mouthwatering to Tanner than the one who flashed cleavage, wore tight clothes, and left her long hair framing her face.
He cleared his throat and leaned forward on the desk that separated them. He’d heard her wrong. “I’m sorry. You need what?”
She leaned forward too, until her face was only inches from his. All he had to do was lift a couple of inches out of his chair and he could taste her.
She wrinkled her pert nose. “I. Need. Your. Sperm.” She enunciated each word as if he had only a loose handle on the English language. Which seemed to be the case when she was this close and his nose was filled with the fresh, flowery soap-and-water smell of her.
“Um, couldn’t we go to dinner first? Get to know each other?”
She smiled, her blue eyes crinkling at the corners. “Cute.” She passed a file across the desk. “I’d need your person too, of course, in addition to your little swimmers.”
He leaned back to flip through the file. “That’s...good to know,” he said. Now it all made perfect sense. “What is this?”
“It’s a list of all the fertility clinics within a fifty-mile radius of D.C.”
He narrowed his eyes, and she handed him another file.
“This is the list of Specials who have registered with the SIA in the last ten years,” she said, referring to Tanner’s employer.
Tanner was a field agent for the Specials Intelligence Agency, a secret group of government operatives with special powers. They worked to keep secret the existence of all Specials—humans with superhuman powers. Among “other duties as assigned” was keeping the government and non-Special humans everywhere safe from threats from radical Specials.
Tanner closed the file. “How did you get these? This is classified information.”
Josie waved a hand. “I had a hunch, pulled some strings, called in some favors.” She shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“It matters if you have classified intel.”
She steepled her fingers and studied him for a long moment.
He was no fool. He knew he was being scolded.
“You—and my SIA connection—know I can be trusted,” she said finally. “Or at least I thought you knew that, but you’re free to leave.”
He looked at his watch, more to make a point than to check the time. “Seems to me you need my help.” He did his best to sound bored.
The truth was, he wanted to know what the hell she was up to. What did D.C. fertility clinics have to do with recently registered Specials?
She sighed. “I’d like your help, but I can manage without you.”
“I’ll need more information. What are you looking for?”
“I’m not sure.” She turned to her keyboard and pulled up a spreadsheet. “I’ve run some numbers and found the Specials per capita have gone up significantly in the last ten years.”
Tanner flipped through the pages and nodded. “That’s to be expected as more and more Specials comply and register with the agency.”
Josie typed at her keyboard, reminding him that as well as being a beauty, Josie was a brain. “Yes, but with that variable taken into account in addition to the increased awareness and compliance, there’s a dramatic increase far beyond my projected numbers—specifically in terms of births in the D.C. area.”
Tanner frowned. “You think fertility clinics are behind the rise?”
Josie rubbed her neck. “I don’t know yet. I just...” She stared at the file in his hands.
“You have a feeling,” he supplied.
“Yeah.” Her voice sounded distant. “I just want to check it out.”
“What exactly will you be looking for?”
“We will be looking for anything…suspicious. It’s not like we’ll be going in there blind. We have our abilities to help us see what we can about the doctors and nurses. Anyone who works at any of those clinics who is a Special or knows about us is a potential lead.”
“But these Specials who have registered in the last ten
years would have been born, what? Sixteen? Twenty? Even thirty years ago.” There was a hell of a delay between when someone was born and when they became a Special. Sometimes even more before they realized their power. All in all, it made Josie’s hunch difficult to track and it would be nearly impossible to know whether or not it was happening today.
“What’s done is done. If they’re not tampering with fate now, we won’t worry about it.” She forced a smile and something in her eyes told him she was lying.
What was she really looking for?
“And I’m guessing this is where I come in?”Tanner squirmed. Hell, he was really considering this.
“We’ll be the happy infertile couple.”
Yeah, because that was his fantasy. Was the universe mocking him now? His shit-ass excuse for a childhood hadn’t been punishment enough for his past life transgressions? “What’s the plan?”
The tensing of her jaw was at odds with her nonchalant shrug. “Best-case scenario, we feel out the doctors. If we happen to run into one who is a Special, we’ll find a way to mention we’d like our baby to…be like us. Then we see what happens. Worst case, we find nothing.”
She was looking for something else, but she wasn’t saying what.
He pretended he didn’t notice. “That’s a pretty hefty assumption. What have you seen?”
In addition to being a bombshell beauty with the body of Angelina Jolie and the brains of Einstein, Josie Bovard was a precog. By simply touching another person, she could see pieces of that person’s future, which was precisely why the SIA wanted her on their payroll. Too bad she’d turned them down flat when she was told she wouldn’t be doing field work.
Josie and her Stilettos, Inc. comrades preferred to do their own ass kicking—not just gather intel.
“Nothing helpful,” she muttered, taking a sip of her tea. “Not that I would tell you if I had.”
He sighed and finally asked the question that had plagued him since she’d sent him the e-mail asking for his help. “Why me? Why not take Chrissie in? She can go around feeling up employees and figure out what’s been happening.” Chrissie Elliott’s power was the opposite of Josie’s. When she touched people, she saw pieces of their past through their memories.
Josie’s face grew somber and long seconds ticked by as she stared at nothing in particular. “The other girls don’t know about this project yet. I’ll tell them after Paige’s wedding, but they have enough on their plates right now.”
Bullshit. “Busy with wedding stuff? Even Chrissie?”
“Yeah. Bridesmaid stuff.” She chewed on her lip and studied him for a beat. “And anyway, Chrissie can’t disappear.”
“So you’re using me for my sperm and my ability.”
Her smile turned to a smirk. “Among other things.” Her voice was low, husky, and had his balls tightening.
Shit. She might as well pull out the leash. She had him right where she wanted him and she knew it.
“What’s in it for me?” Might as well pretend she hadn’t had him whipped since the first moment he’d set eyes on her. “Why should I help you when you aren’t planning on telling me the whole story?”
“A non-Special child’s right to life isn’t enough for you?”
Great. He wasn’t whipped. He was just an asshole. Even better. “You know what happens if we find evidence that some fertility clinic is manipulating DNA.”
“If there’s anything there, it becomes a federal case, and we turn our files over to the SIA. I know, I know.”
She knew, but it never seemed to stop her or her Stiletto Girl partners in crime from carrying on as they pleased anyway.
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
She treated him to one of those signature Josie smiles that made him feel like a fucking god among men. “I’d hoped you would!”
Hell, she’d had him at sperm.
****
Tanner had been summoned to his lieutenant’s office, which either meant he had a new mission or he was about to get his ass chewed.
Nicholas Fernandez was seated across from their superior. Tanner lowered himself into his seat and exchanged a look with his partner. Several seconds later, Darian Lorring joined them, making their unit complete.
“I have another case for you,” Lieutenant Armstrong said. “Something that’s becoming an area of expertise for you three.”
“What are the Stiletto Girls up to now?” Fernandez asked.
The lieutenant frowned. “It isn’t what they’re up to. It’s what trouble they’re in. Recent intelligence indicates the Ascendants are weeks, if not less, from hatching something big.”
Tanner leaned forward. “What do they have planned this time?”
“I wish I knew.” The lieutenant absently stroked his silvering mustache. “They’ve been careful this time and our intel is beyond inadequate. Our Readers haven’t been able to see how they plan to achieve it, but they’re getting visions of Ascendant rule and…worse.”
“What’s worse than those sick fucks taking over?” Fernandez asked.
“In these visions, non-Special humans are being used as cattle,” the lieutenant said.
“More of the same,” Fernandez said.
Tanner frowned. Six months ago, their SIA unit, in conjunction with the Stiletto Girls had taken down the Ascendants’ new leader. Winston had worked his way into the position of president of the United States, but he’d done so without ever letting on that he was a Special. Even the SIA hadn’t known. But Winston hadn’t just been a Special, he’d been an Ascendant and had grown more and more powerful by drinking other Specials’ blood, draining them to take their gifts as his own.
Winston had planned to use his power as president and his many powers as a Special to use non-Special humans for their blood and labor.
“It’s not exactly more of the same,” the lieutenant said. “Winston’s plan was undeveloped, sloppy in comparison to this. Our Readers have seen how it will work this time.”
“How?” Tanner asked.
“The non-Special humans are more like animals than people. It’s as if they’ve lost their ability to reason. They eat, sleep, work, and give their blood. It’s almost as if they don’t care. They just do as they’re told. It’s as if they’ve lost something.”
“Their free will,” Tanner supplied.
“Yes.”
“So what do the Stiletto Girls have to do with this?” Tanner wanted to know. Did Josie know something about this? Was she keeping something from him?
“Are they keeping intel from us again?” Fernandez asked.
“We have no reason to think that they even know they’re involved,” the Lieutenant said. “But our Readers indicate that they will be.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Fernandez said.
The lieutenant leaned forward on his desk. “Our Readers indicate they’re in danger. I need you to get close. I need you to each stick yourself to a girl and protect her,” he said. “I’ll keep you apprised of any new intel.”
“And what exactly are we looking for?” Tanner asked.
The lieutenant pulled a hand through his hair. “Let me do the looking. You keep them safe.”
Fernandez shot Tanner a look and mumbled, “Sounds to me like we’re on babysitting duty again.”
***
“To the last of Paige’s bachelorette days,” Josie said, raising her martini. A double shot of Grey Goose, the drink was desperately needed and equally deserved after the day she’d had.
Chrissie clinked her beer against Josie’s glass. “May the marriage be long, your love be strong, and your future be bright.”
Paige’s emerald eyes glimmered with tears as she covered her mouth. “Aw! Chrissie!”
Chrissie flashed her Cheshire grin. “And—in case your marriage is like all others—may your always have fresh batteries for your vibrator.”
Paige swatted Chrissie’s arm before raising her wine glass. “To the Stiletto Girls,” she said, “the ass-kickingest PIs, the most b
eautiful bridesmaids, and the very best friends.”
“Hear, hear,” Chrissie said.
Glasses clinked, and they all drank.
The jukebox played a song about tequila making a woman’s clothes fall off, and pool balls clicked at the several tables spaced throughout the room.
The bar was a bit of a dive, but it was near their office, offered top-shelf booze—which the bartenders served liberally if you weren’t opposed to letting them stare at your cleavage—and the clientele left them alone. All in all, for weeknight after-work drinks, it was damn near perfect.
Chrissie nearly drained her beer then turned in the booth and grinned at Josie. Josie loved that grin. Chrissie was a little rough around the edges. She lived hard and played hard, but when she was hurt, the cut went deep. Her spiky black-and-platinum hair and punk rocker façade might fool some, but Josie knew there was a soft heart behind that charming grin, and lately that heart had been hurting.
“What?” Josie asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I saw Wiley in your office today,” Chrissie said in a singsongy voice.
Paige’s eyes widened. “Tanner was there? Jose, that boy is so sweet on you.”
Josie’s cheeks burned. She knew damn well how sweet on her Tanner was, thanks to the ultrasonic steamy visions that bombarded her every time they touched. He wanted her. She wanted him.
But right now she needed him, and not because he made her girlie parts hum.
“You’re pretty sweet on him, too,” Chrissie said, propping her chin on her fists. “So why is it you haven’t fucked his brains out?”
Paige reached across the table and squeezed Josie’s arm. “It’s because things are going to be serious between you two, isn’t it?”
Well, yes and no...
“I’m just not ready to get involved with him.” Josie shrugged. “Those SIA guys are trouble, ya know?” She winked at Paige, who was engaged to be married to an SIA guy of her own.
