by Katie Reus
But Berr just gave her a half-smile, clearly amused. “I meant that as a compliment, trust me. You remind me of…” His expression grew pained as he looked away, and Iris guessed he’d been about to say Loretta, his assistant’s name.
At least this guy wasn’t sensitive. She’d guarded enough men like that for a lifetime. Men who wanted her to stroke their ego—among other things. As if they thought that was part of her job. Fucking losers. They found out soon enough that she wasn’t just a pretty face. It was always a pleasure watching the shock on their faces when some moron thought he could lay hands on her then found himself flex-cuffed and flat on his face with her boot in his back. Her boss always warned their principals how things were done and made them sign very detailed contracts regarding their own behavior with her, but some of them never listened.
“The meeting starts in five minutes. We’re going to get you in, you’re going to take care of business, then my team is escorting you out. There will be no socializing or bullshit tonight. I refuse to put you at more risk than you already are. Understood?” Iris didn’t sugarcoat anything because it clearly wasn’t necessary with Berr. They’d already been over all this before, but she’d go over it a dozen more times if she felt it necessary. She didn’t think he would ignore her, but the last thing they needed was for anyone, including her team, to get hurt. Not only was she protecting Berr, but as team leader tonight, she considered her people her responsibility too.
“You’re the boss,” Berr said good-naturedly as they continued their slow trek across the marbled floor.
A few people nodded at Berr, but when he kept his expression stony and didn’t invite conversation, everyone stayed away. Which made her job easier. A jazz band played a slow song on the stage on the west side of the dimly lit room. A few giant chandeliers glittered prettily above them with what she guessed were real candles flickering from them. She was pretty sure the lighting was supposed to be romantic, but she didn’t like it. The brighter it was, the better she could see a potential threat. It was too dark right now. The sound of clinking glasses and laughter filled the air, various perfumes trailed around her, but she didn’t see anyone particularly threatening. Any server with a tray that got too close was smoothly cut off by Kell. The man was huge but moved with a stealth that impressed her. But if someone had managed to slip a gun past security…no, not with her team manning all the doors. It wouldn’t have happened. Still, she would never let her guard down.
“Iris, there’s a man at your six bearing down on you two. I’m intercepting.” Vincent’s voice had a deadly edge to it.
“Slow down,” Iris murmured to Berr, who immediately complied. Turning to the left so that Berr’s body was blocked from whoever was coming up on them, she swiveled and used her own body as a shield.
Then froze when she saw the man walking toward her, a determined glint in his piercing blue eyes.
What the hell was he doing here? Seeing him in the flesh after a month was a jolt to her system. She felt as if she’d been doused in ice cold water. Or punched right in the face. Somehow she found her voice. “Stand down, Vincent. Now. He’s not a threat.” Well, not to Berr. But he was a complete threat to her sanity.
She didn’t have to give any more explanation than that. Vincent stopped where he was, but his hand was close to drawing one of his concealed weapons from beneath his jacket.
Berr stiffened beside her, but then he shifted and must have seen who was walking toward them because he relaxed. “He’s fine, Iris. He’s joining in the meeting tonight. Last minute addition.”
Okay, that would have been nice to know, but she held her tongue. Mainly because she was having a damn hard time finding her voice. Her stomach tightened because of a whole mess of reasons, none of which she wanted to contemplate right now. As her pulse started to race, she bit back her anger at the affect he always had on her. Shit, shit, shit.
“Wyatt, good to see you. Thought you’d already be in the meeting by now. We’re running a bit late.” Berr held out a friendly hand to Wyatt, but the other man’s laser-like focus was all on Iris. And he was pissed. The anger rolling off him was almost palpable. “This is Iris Tarango, my date for the evening.”
Iris swallowed hard. Oh, Wyatt freaking Christiansen knew her very well. Too well. They’d grown up together, been friends for a long time, then a month ago she’d gone and done the dumbest thing ever.
She’d married the frustratingly sexy man.
Excerpt from
First Surrender
by Katie Reus
Copyright © 2013 Katie Reus
Sierra took a subtle sniff of her upper arm as she rode the elevator up to the fiftieth floor of the new Serafina hotel and casino—owned by billionaire Wyatt Christiansen. As head chef at Cloud 9, one of the restaurants at the Serafina, she sometimes smelled like food at the end of a long shift even though she’d changed clothes. Okay, she always smelled like food. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but she’d cooked a lot of seafood today. She didn’t scent anything too strong but was sure her friend Hayden would tell her when she saw him. At least she’d changed out of her work clothes and chef’s coat so she was comfortable in jeans and a fitted T-shirt.
He’d started work at the Serafina the same time she had. It had officially opened a year ago. She’d been brought over from one of Christiansen’s other hotels to work here and Hayden had been hired after retiring from the Navy. Christiansen’s wife Iris ran all the security at the hotel, but Hayden was directly under her as her second-in-command. Sierra didn’t know how they handled the stress of security at such a mammoth hotel. She’d go cross-eyed trying to watch all those cameras at once. But, they had a good team with minimum problems.
As the elevator dinged, announcing her arrival to the security floor, damn butterflies took flight in her stomach. It always happened when she was about to see Hayden and she hated it. When she’d first met him, she thought he was a big jerk. A big, scary jerk. Okay, a sexy-as-hell jerk with tattooed sleeves covering both his arms. His tats added to that whole tall, dark and intimidating thing he had going on. As a former SEAL, Hayden certainly had the training for his current profession. But she’d come to learn that he was one of the sweetest men she’d ever known. For the last year they’d hung out constantly as friends and Thursday nights they had a standing ritual of dinner, drinks and sometimes she coerced him into going dancing with her and her friends. Usually he just stood guard by one of their tables and growled at any males who got too close. Which made her adore him even more.
God, she really was a masochist. Hayden was never going to be interested in her romantically but that didn’t stop her from wanting him more and more every day. Hayden could have any woman he wanted and she knew she didn’t fit the mold of his type. It was her freaking curse in life. Growing up and in college she had a lot of male friends because of her ‘friendly’ personality but she never dated any of them. One of her college friends had told her that she was way too ‘the girl next door type’, the type of girl you brought home to your mother—which was freaking annoying. She wanted to be the type of girl who got a man’s pulse pounding out of control. The kind who got him so hot and bothered that he couldn’t think straight. But not just any man. Only Hayden.
Her flat sandals snapped softly against the marble as she entered the security floor. A giant glass wall greeted her. Behind it she could see desks, and too many television screens to count. Some huge, some small, focused on dealers’ hands, patrons, the various bars and pretty much anywhere legal a camera could go. The array of them still astounded her. Stopping at one of the glass doors, she placed her hand on the biometric scanner. Once it scanned her palm, the door immediately opened with a whoosh. She had no business up here but about eight months ago Hayden had programmed her into the system so she wouldn’t have to bug him every Thursday. Sometimes she got off earlier than him and preferred to wait in the security room as opposed to the bar in her restaurant. She was there enough during the week; she didn�
��t want to hang out in her off time too.
Stepping inside she was inundated with noise and frantic chatter. Men and women were talking into their headsets, some clearly worried. There was normally a fast pace up here but today it seemed different.
Glancing around, Sierra didn’t see Hayden anywhere but assumed he was in his office. Before she’d taken two steps in that direction, Marty, one of the tech guys, jumped up from his desk when he saw her. “Hey, honey. What are you doing up here?”
She normally didn’t like nicknames but Marty called every female honey. She smiled. “Just stopping by to see if Hayden could sneak away early.”
Marty’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh…he’s not here. He said something about a date.”
A date? The word was like a punch to her gut. For a moment she was totally stunned, but she wasn’t going to show it in front of anyone, especially not a coworker. This place was worse than a middle school when it came to gossip. So she pasted on a smile. “Oh, right. He mentioned that, I totally forgot.”
Marty started to respond but Iris Christiansen strode through the glass doorway looking fierce in black pants, a crisp white button down shirt and a sleek, clearly custom-made black jacket. Everything about the other woman was, well, fierce. She was gorgeous but also a little scary, especially since Sierra knew the former Marine was always well-armed. The tall woman gave Marty one look and he scampered away.
Luckily she gave Sierra a bright smile. “What’s up, Sierra? You got a problem at the restaurant?”
Still struggling to find her voice, she shook her head. “No problem, just leaving. See you tomorrow.” Sierra tried to hurry away, but Iris followed her to the elevators.
“What’s going on? You don’t look okay.”
Sierra swallowed hard. Lord, was she that transparent? “Just had a long day. Busy, you know?” Gah, why wouldn’t the elevator hurry up?
Iris raised a dark eyebrow. “Do I need to kick his ass?”
Staring at her, Sierra frowned. “What? Who?”
“Hayden. What’s he done now?”
The mention of his name made Sierra’s stomach flip-flop. It also pissed her off. If he’d had a date he could have had the decency to tell her. Shrugging jerkily, she breathed out a sigh of relief when the elevator stopped and dinged. “Hayden hasn’t done anything.” And she wondered why Iris would assume this had anything to do with the man. It wasn’t like they were dating.
Iris didn’t respond, but her lips pulled into a thin line as the doors shut behind Sierra. Once she was alone, Sierra didn’t bother to keep up a happy face. Hayden hadn’t mentioned dating anyone in the past year, though she knew the man had to be dating. He was walking, talking sex appeal. Absently she rubbed the center of her chest. So, he was dating. No big deal. Right? Ugh, yeah right. Swallowing back the traitorous tears threatening to overwhelm her, she hurried into the below ground parking garage. Normally Hayden or someone else walked her to her vehicle but she didn’t want to bother asking anyone else. Not when she felt like crying. No way was she embarrassing herself and becoming a source of casino gossip.
Picking up her pace, her sandals slapped quickly across the concrete. As she reached the second row of cars, a tiny scream escaped her lips as a man wearing a mask jumped out from behind her Jeep. The guy was huge, maybe six feet tall, and when she saw the flash of metal—a knife!—in his hands, her chest constricted as a hundred horrible scenarios raced through her mind. Knowing she’d only get one chance she let out a blood-curdling scream at the top of her lungs as she backtracked and started running in the other direction.
Blood rushed in her ears as she continued screaming and digging in her purse for her pepper spray. She knew she wouldn’t be a physical match against anyone and—pain exploded in her scalp as he grabbed her by the hair and jerked back.
Instinctively she reached back to try to stop him and quickly realized her mistake. Using a lot of force, he slammed her forehead against a nearby car. Another burst of pain launched inside her skull as she tried to shove away from the vehicle. He pulled her head back again and she struggled to find breath—suddenly she was falling.
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to Kari Walker, Carolyn Crane and Joan Turner for their valuable input into this story. For my readers, thank you for reading my stories! I’m deeply grateful for your support. I’m also incredibly thankful for the beautiful design work by Jaycee with Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs. She’s done many of my covers and each time I wonder how she’s going to top the last one. Somehow she always outdoes herself! Last, but never least, I’m thankful to God for so many wonderful opportunities.
Complete Booklist
Red Stone Security Series (romantic suspense)
No One to Trust
Danger Next Door
Fatal Deception
Miami, Mistletoe & Murder
His to Protect
Breaking Her Rules
Protecting His Witness
The Serafina: Sin City Series
First Surrender
Sensual Surrender (2014)
Deadly Ops Series
Targeted
Bound to Danger (2014)
Non-series Romantic Suspense
Running From the Past
Everything to Lose
Dangerous Deception
Dangerous Secrets
Killer Secrets
Deadly Obsession
Danger in Paradise
His Secret Past
Paranormal Romance
Destined Mate
Protector’s Mate
A Jaguar’s Kiss
Tempting the Jaguar
Enemy Mine
Heart of the Jaguar
Moon Shifter Series (paranormal romance)
Alpha Instinct
Lover’s Instinct (novella)
Primal Possession
Mating Instinct
His Untamed Desire (novella)
Avenger’s Heat
Darkness Series
Darkness Awakened
Taste of Darkness (2014)
About the Author
Katie Reus is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Red Stone Security series, the Moon Shifter series and the Deadly Ops series. She fell in love with romance at a young age thanks to books she pilfered from her mom’s stash. Years later she loves reading romance almost as much as she loves writing it.
However, she didn’t always know she wanted to be a writer. After changing majors many times, she finally graduated summa cum laude with a degree in psychology. Not long after that she discovered a new love. Writing. She now spends her days writing dark paranormal romance and sexy romantic suspense. For more information on Katie please visit her website: www.katiereus.com. Also find her on twitter @katiereus or visit her on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/katiereusauthor. If you would like to be notified of future releases, please join her newsletter.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Excerpt—Breaking Her Rules
Excerpt—First Surrender
Acknowledgments
Complete Booklist
About the Author
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