The Ultimate Kink

THE ULTIMATE KINK

Cameron Dane

www.loose-id.com

Warning This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id® e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

***** DISCLAIMER: Many of the acts described in our BDSM/fetish titles can be dangerous. Loose Id® publishes these stories for members of the community in which these acts are known and practiced safely. If you have an interest in the pleasures and pains you find described herein, we urge you to seek out advice and guidance from knowledgeable persons. Please do not try any new sexual practice, whether it be fire, rope, or whip play, without the guidance of an experienced practitioner. Neither Loose Id® nor its authors will be responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death resulting from use of the information contained in any of its titles.

The Ultimate Kink Cameron Dane This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published by Loose Id LLC 870 Market St, Suite 1301 San Francisco CA 94103-2907 www.loose-id.com

Copyright © November 2008 by Cameron Dane All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared in any form, including, but not limited to printing, photocopying, faxing, or emailing without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC.

ISBN 978-1-59632-831-0 Available in Adobe PDF, HTML, MobiPocket, and MS Reader

Printed in the United States of America

Editor: C. B. Calsing Cover Artist: Anne Cain

Dedication For Corina. I could not have asked for more in an editor. You are the best. Thank you.

Chapter One “This is another setup,” Kasey growled at Canin, the giant of a man sitting to her right. She glared at Rhone and Adam, the other two partners in their security business. The men shimmied, all close and personal against each other, on the dance floor of Vixen, the very upscale sex club that catered to those who could afford to throw away ridiculous amounts of money. Snorting, Kasey surmised that many of these horny people likely couldn’t afford it, but instead maxed out credit cards and probably even mortgaged homes in order to maintain membership once inside. Kasey looked at Rhone and Adam again and knew they only had eyes for each other tonight, not this damn group of clubgoers that supposedly had a stalker in its midst. Or so Adam and Rhone had said. With people openly fondling each other here and there in many of the little alcoves -- in all varieties of pairings -- Kasey didn’t think any of them could get their minds off their libidos long enough to cause harm to its other members. Once again, she and Canin had been played. Kasey turned back to Canin, and her irritation kicked up about ten notches. God, the man knew Adam and Rhone were trying to play matchmaker again, but rather than get pissed off, his cool, ice blue gaze traveled the perimeter of the club, one booth at a time. The guy probably enjoyed playing the voyeur and watching the club members make out. Kasey, on the other hand, had only one thing on her mind: Adam and Rhone. The guys clearly wanted to return the thank you to Kasey and Canin for getting the two of them together. Kasey, however, tended to view the men’s attempts to interfere in her love life as a hostile takeover, not a philanthropic act. Especially when they wanted to partner her with Canin Quinn. Kasey shuddered, knowing herself well enough to steer clear of a man like Canin. The guy was just too…too much.

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Her gaze settled back on the two men dancing so closely, and the slow fire burning in Kasey’s belly combusted into an inferno. Tonight, Rhone and Adam’s attempt to hook her up had officially shifted from mildly amusing and irritating to downright deceptive. They had brought a client into their scheming, claiming she was afraid that her club had become the source for harassment of its members, and that she had multiple victims, all too afraid to go to the police. Man, Kasey should have sensed something was going on when Adam and Rhone called them into this last-minute “surveillance.” Next time, she would call the client herself and confirm.

No more playing nice. “Excuse me.” Throwing one last glance at Canin, Kasey rose to her feet. “I’m going to go make those buttinskies cry, and then I’m getting the hell out of here.” Her position precarious for a moment, Kasey shifted her balance on her strappy red heels. For God’s sake, she had put on these instruments of torture, along with a red spaghettistrap dress, because she thought she needed to blend in at this place in order to work. Both Rhone and Adam knew she hated to wear shit like this. Damn it, she wouldn’t yell at them; she would kill them. “Wait a minute. Wait a minute.” Canin jerked Kasey back down beside him before she could move one step. Within the next breath, he had her under him on the leather seat of the booth, his wicked smile only inches from her mouth. Immediately, her heart started skittering. She hated that almost as much as Rhone and Adam for putting her in this position. “What are you doing?” she hissed up at Canin, trying her damnedest not to create a scene. She hated drawing attention to herself. It stuck in her craw even more that Canin could bring out her temper when so few others could. “I just told you we’re not really here undercover. You can stop hanging all over me now.” Those pale eyes flashed above her, and she thought for a minute that he might smack her. Not that she thought him capable, even for all of their bickering. He just looked like he wanted to do it. Even though she knew she was in a safe public place, it sent a fast frisson of latent fear through her insides, jolting her beneath Canin’s weight. Canin’s focus zeroed in on her. “What?” Bringing up his big, callused hand, he stroked her cheek with its roughness, sending another little shiver through her. “What is it?” “Nothing. I just don’t like being manipulated.” She grabbed his waist and tried to push him off her. Even with her above-average height and weight, she couldn’t compare to Canin. Alarm bells started sounding in her head, and she shoved at him again. “Get off me, you overbearing jackass.” “Hold on a sec, Kasey.” Canin’s incredible calm pushed at her rough edges even more. “I pulled you down here for a reason.” “Then explain it damned fast.” She pushed once more, but only succeeded in settling his crotch more intimately against hers. Her pussy flared against the contact, shocking her into momentary stillness. As a punishment to her own body for becoming excited and betraying her, she went lax and took the tense contact away. “And it better be fucking good.”

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“Such a mouth on you.” The flicker of Canin’s thumb against her lower lip had her head jerking back, but he just moved with her, tugging on her mouth with the roughness of his skin. “If Rhone and Adam are so hot to get us together that they’re willing to trick us into coming to a sex club, I think I need to kiss you and give them a show. What do you say?” Panic rushed through Kasey’s organs, flooding her with adrenaline, making her breathing erratic. “I say you’re crazy and have delusions of grandeur.” “I say it’s the only goddamn way to get those two off our backs.” He lowered his mouth until barely a sliver of space remained between their lips. His eyes shone his intention a split second before he said, “Give them what they want,” and closed his mouth over hers. Canin didn’t grind his lips down on Kasey’s or force his tongue down her throat. In not doing so, he sent an even bigger trigger to Kasey’s brain to flee than if he’d pulled her panties down and tried to screw her right on the spot. He grazed his surprisingly gentle lips back and forth over hers, and licked his tongue out every now and again against her seam. Kasey looked up at the storm cloud-painted domed ceiling, and a hysterical little bubble of laughter escaped her. An abandoned church expanded and turned into a sex club. Some people just thought they were too clever. Canin pulled back, and she noticed a few clouds developing in his eyes too. “You know” -- he toyed with the strap of her dress -- “we might do a better job convincing those two cupids that we’re into each other if you actually kiss me back.” “No one would ever buy you and me as a couple, Quinn.” Kasey just barely kept the catch of fear out of her voice. “You’re not my type.” Those eyes looking down on her darkened to a ridiculous sapphire blue. “You think I can’t make you scream, sweetheart?” Canin asked, his voice deceptively soft. Oh God, she had stirred the competitor in him. “You think I can’t make you come, right here, without removing even one piece of our clothing?” “I don’t care if you…” She gasped as Canin discreetly lifted her dress. Cool air touched her upper thighs and lower belly. Looking around frantically, she realized they were in a tame position, and no one gave a damn that she lay there with her granny panties showing. “What in the hell are you doing?” Her voice squeaked. A wicked half grin, one Kasey had gotten very used to seeing over the years, appeared on Canin’s face, making her heart pound hard enough to feel sick. “You’re gonna be soaking wet by the time you give it up, honey; I can just tell.” Canin lowered himself back down, settling the seam of his jeans against her V. Pushing up just a little bit, he added, “I didn’t think you’d want a damp spot on the front of your dress from when I do this.” He rocked into her harder, circling his jean-covered cock right into her slit. Beneath her panties, Kasey grew very, very wet.

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Chapter Two Canin rolled his hips into Kasey, and she very nearly screamed. Her nerves sat right on the razor’s edge, straddling complete panic and, so unexpectedly, rapid, total arousal. What? No. It was just that everything happened so fast her mind and body hadn’t caught up. Canin provoked a temporary response. As soon as it registered that a big man pressed his solid weight into her -Right then, Canin parted her folds with another rock of his body against hers, yanking her out of her stunned silence. Suppressing a shocking hiss of pleasure, Kasey glared up at the man on top of her, snarling at the glint in his eyes and the secret smile turning up the corner of his wide, sensuous lips. He didn’t get to best her. Nobody did. “Don’t look so smug, Quinn.” She knew he hated her calling him that, had once admitted that it made him think he and his brother were interchangeable to her. “The reaction of a few key body parts can’t be controlled, whether the mind wants to or not. You don’t prove anything by making me come with a few swipes of your dick against my clit.” His pupils flared and he jolted against her, but she couldn’t tell if she turned him on with her language, or wickedly pissed him off. “It’s just biology, nothing else.” Canin’s jaw ticked, right before he said, “Can’t claim involuntary response when it happens with this,” and scraped his lips against hers with deliberate intent. She jerked away as soon as their mouths touched. So did he. Their gazes clashed, searching for something she didn’t want to acknowledge she looked for and most definitely didn’t want him to see in her.

Mutual desire. “Damn,” he muttered, his hands digging into her ample hips as his lips descended to hers again. “Why does it have to be you?” “It’s n --” She didn’t get another word out before he had his mouth on hers again, drawing the very breath right out of her with a carnal kiss, the deep, taking kind she had

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expected from a man like Canin, right from the start. A little bubble of panic exploded inside Kasey, as it always did when she didn’t hold the control in a sexual encounter. One of the reasons she never let herself picture intimacy with Canin was that she knew he would never let a partner take over the act. He was far too macho to let a woman tie him up and have her way with him, allowing only her rules and guidelines to dictate the outcome. Frissons of latent fear ran right under Kasey’s skin, pinpricking goose bumps all along her exposed arms and legs, once again pushing her near to screaming. You’re working; don’t

make a scene, damn it. You can get through this, for the job. Don’t freak out. Just keep it cool. Remember, you’re in a public place. Just then, Canin grazed his lips down her jaw to her throat, growling as he inhaled. “Jesus Christ, you smell good enough to eat.” He rubbed his hands up and down the outer length of her thighs, transferring such heat from his palms into her flesh that, shockingly, the first cold wave of instant fear dissipated, quickly replaced with every little nuance of him. Canin’s hands warming her legs with his touch, Canin’s solid, hard weight pressing her into the firm leather cushion under her back, Canin’s tongue drawing the most incredibly tantalizing line along her shoulder, taking little nips out of the soft layer of skin there, drawing raised flesh for a reason altogether different than fear. And during all of that time, he kept up the gentlest rocking motion between her legs, keeping her clit so damn engorged with blood she knew he would make her come. The need to hide suddenly kicked in, the fear of Canin seeing her in such a state of release a thousand times more terrifying than the thought that he would hold her down and hurt her. Desperate to run, Kasey almost sobbed when Canin rolled his hips into her again, spreading her open so completely beneath her panties she might as well not have them on at all. Canin dug his fingers into the backs of her thighs, groaning and straining as if he were already buried balls deep, right here on public display. “Goddamnit, Kase, I can feel and smell how fucking ready you are.” Lifting her cunt up into his jean-covered cock, he ground them both together at their cores. “Let it go and come for me, honey. Give yourself relief.” He latched his mouth onto her breast through her dress, suckling her right through the fabric, and Kasey could fight it no more. Biting her lip to keep from crying out and giving him even more power over her, Kasey shuddered beneath Canin, her sex clenching again and again and again as she reached orgasm without his ever removing a piece of her clothing. If he had kept his mouth shut afterward, she still would have burned with humiliation but could have lived with what she’d let happen. After all, she did control her own body. She grudgingly admitted that she knew enough self-defense techniques that she could have flipped him off her if she really wanted to, despite the fact that they were working. By sheer will she had refused to let herself slip into a freak-out and draw attention to herself. Seven years of growing interest had kept her beneath him, her sexual curiosity pushing through the fear.

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Kasey didn’t generally believe in violence, but when Canin lifted off her and said, “There. That ought to keep Rhone and Adam out of our hair for at least a few weeks,” she almost reached for the weapon in her purse. As Canin got up, he repositioned her dress down over her legs, every move so damn smooth she could have believed he laid women out on couches and made them come like this every day. Straightening the tie he wore with jeans and a white shirt, he added, “See you tomorrow. I’ll let you tell the boys good-bye.” With that, he slid his hands into his pockets and strode toward the exit, clearly without a single fucking care in the world. “Hell, no.” Kasey grabbed her purse from where it had slid to the floor, putting the long, thin strap over her head and shoulder the way she used to wear it when she was a little girl. “Screw the boys, you son of a bitch.” She slipped off her shoes so that she could move with speed. “I’m not nearly done with you.”

***** Once he reached the cool, fresh air outside the club, Canin stumbled, sucking in great breaths of oxygen as he tried to talk down the hard-on straining against his jeans. When he felt Kasey shake against him in the throes of release, Canin knew he had to get out of there or risk tearing her panties off and fucking her right there in the club. She had incredible strength beneath her soft exterior, and in that moment, Canin wanted nothing so much as to feel her legs wrapped around his waist, holding him to her as he drove into her tight, wet heat. Canin had a lot of fun playing with the woman, and he usually kept it at innocent flirting, knowing that she truly did not want a man in her life. Canin respected that, figuring she knew herself better than anyone else could, and must have a reason for keeping her distance from most of the men who tried to chat her up and ask her out. Both of them might have kept going on in that vein, happily sniping at each other and working together, if not for his brother and Adam planting that damned bug in his head a few months ago. That fucking “what-if” implant that, once embedded, Canin could not erase. He’d held off his newly discovered interest for weeks while Rhone and Adam threw him and Kasey into tight situations, but being in such a sex-laden environment tonight, Canin found himself dragging Kasey under him before thinking twice about what he was doing. Once he got her there, and she issued that damn challenge with her words and belligerent eyes, Canin hadn’t been able to lift up and walk away. He wanted her. He fucking wanted her so damn bad. That, he could handle. He was a guy. He often pictured himself in a sexual situation with Kasey; that had been happening since pretty much the day they met when she interviewed for a job in his and Rhone’s security firm some seven years ago. Now, thanks to “The Happy Couple,” as Canin liked to call the other half of their team, Canin pictured more than animal sex with Kasey; he had dreams of what it would feel like to wake up with her in his bed, what his home would look

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like with her stuff mixed in with his. Damn it, he was thirty-seven fucking years old. He refused to start pining for someone at this stage in his life.

Wham! Out of the blue, a steel grip locked around Canin’s wrist and pulled his arm back at an unnatural angle. What the fuck? A second later, two kicks to the backs of his knees took his legs out for a hairsbreadth, just enough for a body to shove him over the hood of his truck, pressing him into the cold metal. “You don’t get to walk away from me.” Kasey’s throaty, sultry voice warmed Canin’s ear, stroking sizzling lines of fire through his blood, cranking his cock back up to full attention. “Not without letting me return the favor.” She yanked on the arm she had pinned behind his back, pulling hard enough to make him wince, but not enough to do any real damage. Snaking her hand around his waist, she left him tantalized with awareness as she worked open the leather and buckle of his belt. She got his jeans open and pushed them and his underwear down just past his thighs. Sparing him no mercy, she pulled on his stiff prick, making him groan as she squeezed him near the base. “We’re in a fucking parking lot, Kasey,” he muttered, trying desperately to blink back the pleasure she drew out of him with little more than a handshake on his dick. The metal under his cheek warmed with his body temperature, something that spiked in steadying degrees every time he saw a couple enter or exit the club out of the corner of his eye. “At least get me in the car before you exact your revenge.” “You mean like you did for me?” True anger laced her voice, striking Canin hard in his chest. She put her hand against his mouth, palm flat. “Lick it,” she ordered, pushing into him from behind, almost as if she would fuck him if she had the equipment. “Get it all nice and wet, unless you want me to jerk you off dry.” Jesus Christ, her mouth made him so fucking hot he didn’t even think of disobeying. He pressed the tip of his tongue to the center of her palm, twitching the tip over her skin with the slightest touch. Feeling her jerk against his back made him smile, drawing him so into her and her responses that they could have gathered a crowd of hundreds to watch them and he wouldn’t know it. He cared only about her. About pleasing her and giving her back her pride. Whatever it took. Canin took a couple of good swipes along the length of her palm with the flat of his tongue, transferring the saltiness of perspiration and a hint of orange from the screwdriver she had ordered in the club from her skin to his taste buds. His blood thickening right where he lay, Canin maneuvered his lips and slid two of her long fingers into his mouth and sucked, slicking her digits up with saliva simply because he wanted to, thoughts of it eventually leading to his own pleasure long gone from his mind. He nibbled and licked on her fingers, and worked in a third for the same treatment, all the while cognizant and focused on the rise and fall of her breasts and belly against his back, hitching every once in a while with

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shortness of breath that he felt against his ear. She may have come out here for payback, but damn it, she liked having his mouth on her flesh. He wanted it there too. All over, with clothing completely removed. Kasey sank even deeper into him, her hand holding his arm between them the only thing that prevented a full-on blanketing of his body by hers. She had her legs between the spread eagle of his, and with the mile-long endless length of her legs, her crotch rubbed against his bare ass, driving him nuts with fucking sensitivity. He’d never had anybody play seriously with his backdoor before, but right now he swore if Kasey produced a strap-on and said she wanted to do him right here, he would beg her to split him open and take him however she wanted. He trembled a little bit just thinking about it, and that seemed to snap Kasey out of whatever private fantasy she had running on a loop in her head. “Enough, enough. That’s plenty good enough to do the job.” She pulled her fingers from between his suctioning lips, creating a little popping sound in the shadowed darkness of the parking lot. “You don’t get to come by your own lurid imagination tonight, Quinn.” She slid her hand around his eager and ready dick. “You have to come because of me.” With that, she started to pull on his rigid length. Canin wanted to say that wouldn’t be a problem, that he came all the time lately because of her. He jerked at the first deft drag though, moaning as she took him right to the tip, stealing his breath as she curled her hand around his cockhead and rubbed with light pressure, then wrapped up his length for another hard stroke. It was the strangest damn thing to get a handjob from another person, and the unexpected nature of it ratcheted everything up to another level. He’d had a number of blowjobs over the years and had never been hard up for a partner when he needed one, but he couldn’t remember anybody ever getting behind him and handling his dick like this, ever. There was something so bizarrely anonymous and intimate about it, all at the same time, and it made him all the harder knowing Kasey was the one doing it. She suddenly let go of his wrist and reached between his legs, grabbing his balls in a loose hold. Pinpricks of pain returned to his freed arm in stinging enormity, but even that couldn’t shift his focus off what Kasey did to him. His arm fell dead to his side, but he continued to pump his hips into Kasey’s touch without missing a beat. He dragged his cock back and forth through her moist hold, wishing with everything in him that he had her spread open on the hood of the truck in front of him, sinking his cock in between her legs rather than the snug circle of her fingers. Her hand had skills, though, and her rolling touch on his heavy, cum-filled sac pushed Canin to the edge a thousand times faster than he wanted to go. She had him bent over in a parking lot, but Canin wanted nothing more than to prolong this moment between them, even with the risk of detection. Reaching farther between his legs, Kasey slid her fingers over that smooth as hell patch of skin between his scrotum and anus, and tipped him right over the wall.

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“Ohhh, Christ, Christ…” “No, it’s Kasey.” His sharp bark of laughter turned into a hoarse shout, ripping through the silence around them as he lost the battle with Kasey and his body. Every muscle in his being locked up tight and then released. He came hard, shooting a load unlike anything he’d experienced in a ridiculous amount of time, spraying the grille of his truck with a shower of cum, all at the direction of Kasey’s firm grip on his cock. Canin could hardly breathe in the aftermath, and for a few seconds, Kasey slumped against his back too. Everything about the moment felt damned near perfect, until she went stiff as a board and then pulled away. He whipped around and faced her, mindless of the fact that he had his jeans down around his thighs, with his dick still half-hard and sticking out from between the placket of his shirt. He noticed her bare feet first, and had the crazy thought that he wanted to pick her up and carry her to her car so that the rough pavement didn’t cut up her feet. Something about the way she wore her purse, with her shoes buckled around the strap to hold them in place, spoke of a backwoods teenage girl walking home along a dirt road, carefree and wistful, without a care in the world. His gaze finished traveling upward to the unnatural brightness in her eyes, and that wiped right out of Canin’s mind any sense of those lighthearted images in regard to Kasey. “We’re even now,” she said, her voice unnaturally husky and thick. She met his gaze for a moment, but then tore it away, a move more unlike Kasey than anything they’d done or he’d witnessed in her before. “Don’t toy with me again unless you want more of me dominating you and putting you in your place every damn time you try it.” Taking a moment to straighten her dress, she smoothed the material over her incredible curves, pushing at Canin’s ability to achieve another erection in too short an amount of time. She finally did lift her gaze to his again, and this time he witnessed the steady strength he’d become so accustomed to seeing in the formidable woman. “Let’s leave what happened tonight here at this club, and go back to work tomorrow in the same way we’ve been doing for years. All right?” She didn’t wait for him to nod before saying, “Good. We’re agreed.” She left Canin standing in the parking lot, his eyes glued to her lush ass as she walked away, all the while thinking if it was anything like tonight, he might have to push her again and see how she chose to dominate him next.

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Chapter Three “How could you just…just up and leave my club!” Isobel Binoche, the owner of Vixen, hurled her accusation at the combined Quinn Security ownership with an impressive French accent -- one Canin knew was no more authentic than her European-sounding name. Her real one happened to be Doreen Cooper. “I call you in distress that my patrons are being harassed, and this is the response I get! I should terminate my contract and take my business elsewhere right this instant!” “Now, Ms. Binoche” -- Adam stayed very calm and maintained a congenial tone in his voice, but Isobel only had to look at the piercing blackness of his gaze to know he was dead serious -- “in all fairness to Quinn Security, you gave me very little to go on yesterday afternoon. Just a vague something or other about someone watching your club members, and you wanted us to come and see if anyone stood out as suspicious. If there’s something more serious going on here, and you want us to help you, then you’ll need to be more forthcoming with us than you have been thus far.” “How about a lot more forthcoming,” Canin mumbled, earning him scathing glances from all three of his partners. He couldn’t help it, though. It bugged the hell out of him to get self-righteousness from someone who hadn’t bothered to give them full disclosure, but still expected them to understand why she was so dissatisfied with the service she’d received.

Shut it, Quinn, Kasey discreetly mouthed his way. “Ma’am.” She reached across the table and covered Isobel’s trembling hands. “I can see that whatever is going on at your club has you very afraid.” “Oui.” Isobel nodded. “It is very terrible.” “Okay, and I believe you.” Kasey withdrew her hands, but her eyes stayed on Isobel’s, constantly tracking the woman’s fidgeting. “But we can’t help you if you don’t tell us everything. Right now.”

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Isobel stood, but even her expensive clothes, sleek hairstyle, and elegant face couldn’t cover the wringing of her hands or the pinched look around her mouth. “Okay, I will tell you, but you must each make me a promise that you will not go to the police. My clients will not speak of what happened to them to anyone but me, and I will not betray their privacy and take this to the authorities either. If I tell you everything, you must assure me that you will extend them the same respect.” It grated on Canin’s very last nerve to have someone issue him stipulations. By the raised eyebrows and head shakes happening with Kasey, Rhone, and Adam, they felt the same way. Isobel slammed her open palm on the conference table. “Listen to me!” Her accented voice rang sharp. “This should not be so difficult for you to grant me. My clients, they will not speak to the police about what happened to them. They fear ridicule, and that their claims will not be taken seriously once it is discovered that they belong to a sex club. They are terrified their names will be leaked to the press if they go to the police, and that their employers and families will reject them when they find out how they like to spend their free time. My customers pay me great amounts of money because I give them privacy to be who they are. If I no longer have that, then I will be out of business, and you will be out one client as well. I will tell you that something hideous has happened, and in the same breath, I will tell you that it does not matter if you wish to go to the authorities because you will have no victims to back up your claims. My customers will not talk, nor will I.” She went around the table, stopping to meet the eyes of each of Quinn’s ownership before adding, “Does this make it easier to promise me your silence in exchange for what has happened and an agreement to help?” Canin, Rhone, Adam, and Kasey all exchanged long glances. After working together for such a long time, they didn’t need words to understand the others’ thoughts in regard to business. Turning in his chair to face Isobel, Canin spoke for the group. “I don’t like it, lady; I’m not going to lie. But you have our word.” Christ, he hoped like hell they didn’t regret this move. “Everything you say to us will be kept among the people in this room. Now tell us what in the hell is happening to your clients.” Isobel took a seat at the foot of the table. Her voice wavering, she said, “It seems as though someone is using my club to find couples to harass. This harassment ends with rape.” A collective gasp of breath was heard around the room. Isobel went on, and gave every detail she knew.

***** Canin lifted his attention from his paperwork, shooting a murderous glare at his brother where he leaned his broad shoulder against Canin’s open office door.

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“What the hell is that look for?” Rhone sauntered into the office, uninvited, and threw himself down into one of Canin’s visitor’s seats. “I’m not the one who dressed you down for leaving the club before you finished the job.” “Damn it, Rhone.” Throwing down his pen, Canin gave up all pretense of working as he relived Isobel’s anger -- as well as her fear. “Neither Kasey nor I would have left if we didn’t think that whole gig was another setup. You and Adam need to stop playing matchmaker.” Isobel could have been a lot more forthcoming yesterday with Adam about the seriousness of the issue regarding her clients, but she was not sitting in front of him anymore, and Canin was still mad as hell. He did not like to appear as if he didn’t care about his job in front of the client, and for that, he blamed Rhone and Adam. “I’m not kidding about the meddling.” Right there in his office, Canin visualized Kasey standing in that shadowed parking lot last night after she had jerked him to completion, her eyes haunted in ways that kicked in protective instincts Canin usually only felt for his baby brother. “You’re really pissing Kasey off, and if you don’t let up, I’m afraid we might lose her over it. You’ve been interfering so damn much lately that we had every right to believe this was just another one of your ‘accidents’ designed to push the two of us together.” “I would never compromise our work to execute a personal goal,” Rhone said, his pale gaze never wavering. “I know that.” Canin’s jaw still ached from gnashing his teeth together all morning. “Now.” Frustration ruled him, and he couldn’t contain it. “Damn it all, it would have been nice to have gotten all of that information from Isobel last night.” “Agreed.” Rhone’s jaw clenched with visible frustration too. Canin ran his fingers through his already mussed hair. They hadn’t even begun working the case, and it already felt like they were playing catch-up. Christ, he might have missed something vitally important at the club last night while he was busy working hard at getting Kasey to come for him. Fuck. Looking up at Rhone, he said, “This is some bad shit, brother, and we need to figure out who the hell is behind it. Fast.” “Agreed, again,” Rhone said, his voice grim. Suddenly, he sat up straight and leveled a hard stare on Canin. “And now that we are all on the same page with just how serious this case is, let me just make something very clear here. Adam and I are happy together. We think if you gave it a shot, you and Kasey could be too, but I would never use a client to make that happen.” He picked up Canin’s discarded pen and pointed with it. “If you weren’t so caught up in proving me wrong about you and Kasey, you would know, without me having to remind you, that I’d never stoop to such an act.” Shame filled Canin’s belly, twisting it up in hard knots. “I know you wouldn’t compromise everything we’ve worked for. I just…forgot for a minute; that’s all.” “I understand.” Rhone’s eyes went from solemn to twinkling with laughter in one blink. “This time. But only because it’s hard for any man to remember much of anything

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with a sexy-as-all-get-out woman like Kasey sprawled out under him and his tongue halfway down her throat.” “Hey.” Canin jerked upright in his seat, his nostrils flaring as he remembered that moment with a little too much vivid clarity. “You don’t need to be noticing stuff like that. I thought you were into guys now.” “I’m into Adam because I love him.” Rhone didn’t miss a beat. “But I’m not dead, brother. I can still recognize a beautiful female when I see one.” “Well, stop noticing her,” Canin snapped. “She doesn’t like it. Trust me.” Dropping his chin into his hand, Rhone said, “So find out why. You could do it, Canin. You have a heart big enough to heal hers. I know you could find a way in.” He raised a knowing eyebrow that Canin had come to dread seeing over the years. His brother knew him so damn well. “Only problem I see is that you’d have to open yourself up to her too. Are you willing to do that?” “Not a matter of willing --” Adam popped his head in the doorway, his dark eyes shining bright in a way that cut Canin’s bitching off at the knees. “Kasey thinks she has something. Come see in the conference room.” Canin and Rhone leaped out of their chairs, breaking down the long hallway at a dead run, careless of the dozen or so employees working in offices with open doors. Skidding to a halt at the doorway, Canin had to pause and catch his breath at the picture of Kasey today, so very different from just eighteen hours ago. She had her long dark hair back in a more familiar loose bun. She also wore her narrow, black-framed glasses, something she always did when reading or working on a computer. She dressed for comfort, professionalism, and efficiency in a crisp light blue button-down shirt and tailored black slacks. Clearly she didn’t have any idea how well the pin-tucked shirt framed her lush breasts, or how the pants caressed the long line of her leg where she had one crossed over the other. Maybe Rhone was right. It could be time to show Kasey just how much she excited him. Not, however, at this moment. They had work to do right now. Moving into the room, all three men surrounded Kasey where she sat, the laptop sitting in front of her on the shiny, reflective surface of the conference table. “What do you have?” He braced a hand on the table and leaned, his focus on the myriad of windows displayed on the computer screen. “Someone look suspicious?” Kasey shook her head. “Too many repeat members visiting for one person to stand out in the crowd. I think I figured out the MO our asshole uses to select his victims, though. Look at this.” Punching up one of the windows until it filled the screen, everyone stared -- their faces getting a little red all around -- as they watched a man and a woman work up quite a sweat in the shadows of a small alcove at Vixen, but come up just shy of penetration. No actual sex

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was allowed in the main area of the club. They had special rooms if one wanted to do the deed. On the computer screen, the top of the woman’s dress slid down around her waist. Her small nipples twisted tight with arousal, and she followed blindly as her partner led her away from the table. Eventually they disappeared from camera sight. “Now look at this.” Kasey pulled up another window that showed the same couple from a different camera angle as they slipped through an unmarked door. “Now” -- yet another window took over the laptop -- “watch again.” A different couple came on the computer, doing much the same things, and then moved out of sight, but were caught on digital security cameras as they went through the same door as the previous pair. Kasey repeated this process until they watched four sets of couples do this. When finished, she froze the image and turned around in her chair to face the men. “Those are the couples Isobel says have come to her with claims of assault. In the course of the last three months, all of them have made out in the body of the club, and then have gone into the same private room. Within a week of this happening, they all got a threatening phone call at their homes.” According to Isobel, a disturbing phone call started a similar chain with each of these couples. A subsequent break-in occurred at their home, ending with the rape of the wife, the husband forced to watch with a weapon held to him. “Okay,” Rhone said. “We’ve found a pattern, somewhere to begin. Which room is that again?” Each of the dozen private rooms at Vixen served to satisfy the different “kinks” of their clientele. “They call it the ‘Tied with Love’ room,” Kasey answered. “It’s the largest of all the private rooms. This particular one is lined with two-way mirrors on three of the four walls. A couple goes in there to play out a sexual fantasy, involving bondage of some kind, knowing that anyone who wants to watch them can, from the other side of the mirrors.” Canin threw himself down into a chair. “Shit. That just leaves every club member and every employee as a potential suspect. We can’t discount staff members as suspects either, so let’s look again at our previous background checks on all of the staff and club members, just to make sure we didn’t miss something. Maybe something will pop onto the radar since they were either hired or approved.” “That is assuming the sex club is the link,” Rhone added. He took a seat, waited for Adam to do the same, before swiveling his chair in his lover’s direction. “We don’t know that for sure; we just suspect it because it’s logical. Adam, have you found anything else these couples might have in common?” Since getting full disclosure from Isobel, Adam and a few other staff members had spent their time doing extensive searches on each of the couples who had been subjected to an attack. “Not a damn thing,” Adam answered. “They don’t even all live here in the city. Two of them live in completely different Chicago suburbs. Other than the club, the only connecting factors are that all of the couples are married, and none of them have children. Vixen is the link.” Authority rang in Adam’s voice. “Our guy --”

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“More likely another couple,” Kasey put in. “Don’t forget, one person assaults the woman, but someone has to stand there and hold a weapon to the husband.” “That’s a good theory to work from,” Canin said. “But let’s not discount a dominating guy working alone in the club with a passive partner he keeps at home to help him carry out his rape fantasies. Or even a dominating woman with the same.” “Right.” Kasey nodded, her eyes and demeanor solemn and serious. “Everyone is a suspect. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.” “It wasn’t a correction, Kase,” Canin said. “Just a comment.” For all of her capabilities, both she and Adam occasionally still needed Rhone and Canin to remind them that they were both full partners in Quinn Security now, even if, for the sake of recognition, the name on the business cards remained Quinn. Shifting in his seat until he faced Kasey head-on, Canin steepled his fingers against his lips. “How many couples and/or individual club members were in attendance on each of the nights a couple became a target? More importantly, of those people, how many of them went into the viewing area of the Tied with Love room and watched our victims perform?” He knew he didn’t have to question if she’d had time to gather that info yet; Kasey never did anything half-assed. “More than a few.” She winced before quoting the exact figure. “It seems like once these folks go to the place a few times and get past their initial shyness, it becomes something of a full-time hobby. I don’t get the feeling these people stay at home on Thursday nights because they just can’t miss Survivor. You know what I mean?” Canin chuckled at the private joke, catching the light that glittered Kasey’s eyes to the color of emeralds. “Not a Yau-Man fan in the bunch, huh?” Canin had stumbled on Kasey in the darkened conference room around a year ago watching the reality competition show on the company’s flat-screen TV. She had sputtered and tried to defend herself, but Canin just threw himself down in one of the chairs and told her to tell him what he’d missed, as he’d forgotten to record it before leaving the house that morning. “Not a one,” Kasey answered, her voice hitting Canin with such soft intimacy he forgot to breathe -- and that they had two other people in the room with them. His pain-in-the-ass brother loudly cleared his throat, breaking the moment. “So, you have something in common,” Rhone said easily, smiling in a truly evil way as soon as Canin and Kasey turned their attention to him. “That’s good. You’ll need to look very familiar with each other if you expect anyone at Vixen, most especially our perpetrators, to believe you’re married.”

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Chapter Four Kasey had known it was coming, yet still, hearing Rhone state the scenario “you and Canin will pretend to be married” clamped a tight fist on her chest. Damn it. She glared at Rhone, knowing he had her. They were dealing with a serious case here, but she knew the man still relished the idea of putting her and Canin in such close proximity. Thinking about what she and Canin would have to do to draw this sicko into their ruse convincingly enough to fool him… Kasey shuddered, but only to herself would she admit it happened just as much because of the possibilities as it did her instinctual desire to run. Putting a stop to the telling tap tap tap of her fingers on the armrests of her chair, Kasey forced a serene expression. “We should get started on this as soon as possible.” She turned to Canin, and practically dared him to make a joke. “We can pull one of our ‘couple’ cover histories, and you can move yourself into my apartment today.” Quinn Security had extensive scenarios and bios set up that a person could Google and believe were real. “We hit the club tonight.” The smallest hint of a smile tilted the edge of the man’s too sexy, hard lips. “I was actually thinking you could move into my place.” “Not gonna happen.” “Why not?” Canin sat up in his chair, his eyes suddenly showing blue fire. “What’s wrong with my place?” “It’s not mine; that’s what.” Before Canin could work himself into a lather, Kasey held up her hand, thinking damned fast. She could not move herself into this man’s private domain. “Let me explain.” He seemed to do it reluctantly, but Canin did nod his head for her to continue. She opened her hand and touched the tip of one finger. “First, your building has a doorman and way too much security. We don’t want this guy following us home, taking one

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look at your apartment complex, and deciding to go for another couple. I have plenty of personal security at my place, but I don’t have a guard in my building.” She held up a second digit. “Also, I have a lot of windows, and the fact of the matter is this guy won’t have to try very hard to peep on us at my place if he wants to badly enough. That might entice him to choose us as his next target.” She ticked off a third finger. “But most compelling is this: one of the victimized couples only lived about a dozen blocks from me. Familiarity with the area will hopefully breed confidence in him that he can attack there again, along with maybe a laxness that will allow him to make a mistake so that we can catch him.” She raised a challenging brow. “Compelling enough argument for you?” Canin rapped his fist on the arm of his chair. “Damn it. Okay. Make me a key.” “Now that we have that settled.” Rhone stepped back into the conversation, all business once again. “We need to start doling out surveillance assignments to our people without giving full disclosure about why they’re doing what they’re doing. Adam is going to spend some more time with Isobel today and, using the footage aimed at that door, we’ll get the names of every couple who went into the Tied with Love room to watch a performance that featured one of the couples who were attacked. We need a place to start with suspects, and that’s where we begin. We also need Isobel to give us the names of every couple who has gone into the TWL room to perform since the last attack.” There were no security cameras in the private rooms at the club, but there was an additional charge to perform in the Tied with Love room, so she could easily check her records and find out. “We’ll focus on the heterosexual married couples who performed as our potential future victims. “Oh” -- he swung around to face Adam -- “let’s get the dates of when the harassment of each couple began, and then the dates of the subsequent attacks. With luck, we can find a pattern emerging. I don’t see this as some sort of cult or ritualistic situation, but let’s go ahead and cross-reference significant dates in any type of religion or folklore, earth or moon cycles…you name it. Check everything, just in case. In the meantime, our guy has had more than a week to fall down from his attack high and start the search for a new victim. Let’s hope he hasn’t chosen one, but we need to identify those potential future victims and start watching them, just to be on the safe side.” Always used to living without, Kasey started seeing columns of figures in her head. “If we don’t catch this guy fast this could get very, very expensive. Are we sure we trust Isobel to be good for the bill?” Canin snorted. “We’ll sue her ass if she refuses to pay.” Spinning the laptop around, he focused in on the frozen image of the final terrorized couple. “Doesn’t matter right now anyway. We have an obligation to protect the club through our original contract. In all good conscience, I can’t let the potential victims go unprotected even if we don’t have to do it, legally speaking. We know what’s going on as a result of membership to this club. Since we can’t involve the police, we have to do this ourselves. I won’t be able to sleep at night otherwise. That simple.”

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A vise clamped down on Kasey’s throat, and she had to look away to blink a sudden rush of moisture from her eyes. Damn the man. Ninety percent of the time, Canin pushed so many of her buttons that she didn’t have any difficulty keeping him at arm’s length. Then, that other 10 percent showed up and knocked her legs right out from under her, making her wonder, what if I could let myself go with him? Would he put that protective cloak over her as strongly as he did for his brother? Every once in a blue moon, Kasey wished she were brave enough to find out. “Well put, Canin,” Rhone said, the adoration in his soft tone breaking Kasey out of her paralysis. “One more thing before we get started.” Adam slid a box across the slick conference table, where it glided until Canin reached out and snagged it under his big, rough hand. “If you’re gonna pull this off, you’ll need those.” Canin lifted the top off the small red box, and nestled within white velvet sat two rose gold wedding bands. Kasey just knew they would both be a perfect fit too.

***** “So this is my new home, huh?” Canin took in the wide-open loft space, done in cozy, warm colors of brick, sage, and dark woods. A big wall of bookshelves held a surprising number of knickknacky-type things interspersed with rows and rows of paperbacks, some turned sideways on top of others to fill in many of the nooks and crannies. At the back of the loft, a kitchen area took up half the wall, all stainless steel appliances and cabinetry in the same dark wood that ran through the furniture in the open floor plan of the apartment. One glance up showed Canin a smaller level upstairs, certainly just enough space for a bedroom and likely a bathroom. Kasey hadn’t exaggerated about the windows either. Much of the wall on the west side of the space had a wonderful line of what looked like the original framing on the panes of spotless glass. The line of windows let in so much natural light Canin felt certain the studio wasn’t nearly as big as it looked, but that his eyes tricked him due to the brightness. “Close your mouth, and take one step forward.” Two hands shoved against his back, and Canin stumbled inside. “Yes. I really have a home. Did you think I lived in a cave?” With a start, Canin followed Kasey inside. Dropping his two suitcases beside the couch, he said, “You know, I can’t believe I never thought of this, but it just occurred to me that I’ve never been to your place before.” Kasey arched a brow his way as she walked past him. “And you still wouldn’t if it weren’t for this case.” She slung her purse over the back of one of the chairs at the long, rustic kitchen table, and tossed her keys into a multicolored glass bowl that sat in the center of said table. “So don’t get too comfortable, Quinn.”

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Snagging her around the waist, Canin turned Kasey to face him and backed her into the bar. “Don’t call me that again.” She struggled against him a little bit, her eyes flashing forest within the purer green. Feeling a little belligerent, he guessed. Good. It pricked at him damned hard and stirred his ire when she called him that name, and she damn well ought to know it. “We’re married now. Remember? You never know who’s watching.” She shot him the most juvenile eye roll and then shoved against his chest. Grunting, he let her get away. “We haven’t even declared ourselves at the club yet. There isn’t anybody watching us right now who needs to see you towering over me.”

Towering over me. Interesting choice of words. In addition, she had said something about him “pawing her” last night at the club. That tickling of awareness that Kasey had something damned ugly in her past reared its head again. Hmm. Canin picked up his suitcases and followed her up the stairs to the bedroom. “You know I won’t hurt you, Kase. Right? No matter what we have to do in that club, it will never come from a place of overpowering you and making you submit to something you can’t handle. You tell me to stop and I’ll pull away, consequences be damned. If it comes down to that, we can figure out another way to catch this guy.” They reached the top of the stairs and right in front of him a big bed dominated this level of the apartment. Spinning to face him, Kasey crossed her arms against her chest and planted her legs in a military stance. “I am a professional, and I will do whatever it takes to catch this son of a bitch. You don’t have to coddle me. If fact, you’re gonna piss me off if you do. “Now, half of the drawers in that dresser are empty.” She pointed to a large faded white piece that looked chipped and worn from many decades of actual age and use, not through antiquing techniques. “Fill them up and then disburse the rest of the stuff you brought with you.” They had discussed family photos, an Xbox 360, and a few other things that needed to be in her home to make their perp believe a man lived here too. “There’s not much closet space, so you’ll have to make do, unless you want to use the coat closet downstairs. It’s about half empty.” “See?” Canin flashed a fast smile. “No room for my stuff in the closet. This guy is going to believe we’ve been married for years.” “Let’s hope it’s that easy.” Before Canin could agree, a furry little white head with a pink nose poked its way out from the foot of the bed. Within a second, an entire body followed, meowing as it wound its way around Kasey’s legs. “Hi, baby.” Her voice shifting, all gentle, in a way that stroked straight down to Canin’s cock, Kasey stooped down and scooped the small cat into the crook of her arm. “Did you miss me?”

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What in the hell? Did he know nothing about this woman he had worked with for seven years? “Who is this?” He moved in and scratched the animal behind its ears, to its obvious purring delight. “When did you get a cat?” “This is Zin.” Kasey’s entire face softened as the cat rubbed its head under her chin in hello. “We hooked up about six months ago.” “Where’d you get her from?” Canin plucked the not-quite-kitten out of Kasey’s hold and help it up in front of his face. The animal immediately took a little swipe at his cheek, leaving a quick sting. “Oow. I see we still have our claws.” He went ahead and nuzzled his nose against hers, and this time the cat purred and nudged back. “Just like her owner.” Kasey threw Canin a pointed look. “Don’t ever forget that.” “All right, all right. But you didn’t tell me where you got her.” “A neighbor found her in his pot of zinnias. When nobody claimed her, he asked me if I wanted to take her. I did.” She rolled her eyes. “For God’s sake, quit flirting with her. We have a lot of work to do before tonight, and not very much time to turn ourselves into a happily wed couple.” Damn. Did she expect to lob a pitch like that right over the plate without enticing him to take a swing? “I can think of one surefire way to get closer to that goal.” Zin still in hand, Canin leaned in and captured Kasey’s lips in a clinging kiss.

Game. On.

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Chapter Five Canin’s lips touched hers, and every nerve ending in Kasey’s body jumped to full alert. Against every sense of self-preservation in her, she moved into him and slid her arms around his waist, digging her fingers into pure, steely muscle. Groaning, he dipped the tip of his tongue through her seam and touched against hers, drawing forth a shiver of awareness she could not control. Everything about Canin, from his six feet five inches of height, to his honed-to-perfection body, all the way to his crass way of speaking that matched hers, told Kasey to expect roughness and dominating force from a seduction at his hands -- things Kasey could not allow in a partner. Yet every time a personal moral code showed itself from Canin in their work, like today, and every time he touched her with searching gentleness, like now, he spun Kasey’s own personal rules for a loop. He deepened the kiss, tangling his tongue with hers. Moaning at the slow heat that warmed her one lick at a time, Kasey kissed Canin back with an abandon she hadn’t exhibited with a partner -- ever. She wanted it, but at the same time, everything in her shrieked that she should run, that faking a relationship with this man would end with a damaged soul and a broken heart.

Her soul damaged, and her heart the one broken. As much as a secret little place inside her might wish for normalcy, Kasey knew she could never give that to a man. Life had carved that knowledge into her heart long, long ago; latent, dormant attraction for a man who used to be her boss -- but with hard work had become her equal -- bursting to life within her or not. Canin worked his fingers into Kasey’s hair and twisted her bun, tugging hard enough to sting. Kasey bit Canin without thinking, her heart racing as she tore her mouth off his and pushed him away.

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His eyes darkening to expensive sapphires, Canin rubbed at his mouth, transferring a smear of bright blood to his finger. “What? What did I do?” “Nothing.” She paced away from him on unsteady legs, away from the picture of him flush from kissing her, away from the fact that he still so sweetly held Zin in his hand. “I just don’t like my hair pulled; that’s all.” “I wasn’t pulling, Kasey. I was loosening.” From the sound of his voice, she could tell he hadn’t followed her to the railing, and for that, Kasey thanked God. When he strayed too close, he clouded her thinking, and she could not afford bad judgment in this job…or with him. Lifting her hands to smooth her hair, Kasey cursed the tremor she saw in them. Good God. She could not let her nerves about what would happen in that club get the better of her. She counted to ten, taking deep, cleansing breaths with each number. Once everything settled within her and reeked of professionalism again, she turned and faced Canin. “Let’s talk about our history, get some signals straight, and decide our general plan of attack for tonight.” His gaze intense enough to make her squirm, Canin abruptly nodded and put Zin down. “Okay. Follow me.” He started for the stairs. “We can get this figured out while I unpack.” With one ear on Canin and their conversation, Kasey quietly started to think about the Tied with Love room. More than that, the creativity and inner calm she would need in order to survive it.

***** A low, long whistle greeted Kasey as she came down the stairs, making her cheeks heat. Canin got up from the couch and moved across the floor to meet her at the bottom. “What in the hell made you decide on this getup?” Kasey wore a loose-fitting pair of tuxedo trousers with a fitted matching jacket and a white pinstriped shirt. She had her hair twisted in a coil, for the most part hidden beneath a gray fedora hat. The kicker was the deep red lipstick that matched the color of her pointy, spiked heels, instruments that right this moment already started pinching her feet. Without even trying to hide it, Canin’s gaze traveled the length of her body from top to bottom, and then back up to her eyes. “I never would have thought it with something so masculine, but you look insanely hot.” Itching under Canin’s scrutiny, Kasey pushed past him to the door. “The idea is for this bastard to notice us. Every woman in that club wears a plunging top and short skirt, or a little dress that barely covers her butt.” She had taken notice of that last night, wondering if

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nobody had paid any attention to Canin pulling her under him in that booth because she blended in and looked like everyone else. Last night they needed that; tonight, they needed to grab the attention of a stalker. “We walk in like this…” Canin picked up, “A tall, curvy woman like you doing an androgynous thing…” Kasey arched a brow. “Accompanied by a big, strapping guy so clearly full of manly testosterone…” A slow smile wrapped itself around Canin’s lips, making Kasey grin right back. “We get instant eyes on us. Very nice.” Her heart skipped a beat, but she stamped it down and assured herself she didn’t preen under Canin’s praise. “I thought so.” Holding out his arm, Canin said, “Shall we?” For once in her adult life, Kasey didn’t fight her first instinct to take charge. “Let’s.” She wrapped her arm in the crook of his and let him lead.

***** Canin squeezed Kasey’s breast through her shirt, eliciting a sharp hiss as blood rushed straight to her nipple and pussy. When she opened her mouth to catch her breath, Canin sank his tongue inside and started to mate with hers once again. Nobody had ever kissed her as completely and in such a focused manner as Canin did. He touched almost hesitantly at first, with soft learning forays before moving ever slowly into deeper stuff. At this point, he had her wound so tight she thought she might come just from his mouth on hers. They hadn’t wasted any time after getting to the club. One sultry dance just to make it look like they belonged, a drink with some pretend giggles that actually weren’t faked on Kasey’s part, and then they ended with Isobel making sure they had one of the more prominently displayed booths so Kasey and Canin could start their job. Only, if Kasey didn’t slow down and catch her breath, she might not make it to the TWL room on her own two feet. One more drugging kiss from Canin and her legs would no longer hold her upright. Kasey slipped her fingers between their lips and gently separated them, but remembered to smile and touch the tips of her fingers against his mouth, catching his lower lip in a way that sent shivers through her tummy. “Why don’t we make this more interesting, honey?” She wrapped his tie around her hand and lured him to his feet. “Tonight, I want us to play on a stage.” Growling, Canin leaned down to nip her lips, playing his part, as he let Kasey lead them through a wide, ornately columned arch that led to the private rooms. “Perform all you want, baby. You know how I love putting you on display. You’re so fucking beautiful I want everyone to see it and know you’re mine.” “I am yours.” Kasey paused outside the designated door and rubbed all up and down Canin’s front, letting anyone with an interest get another good look at the new couple.

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He jerked against her, and she knew he felt the surprise she had donned before leaving the apartment. In her ridiculous heels, she barely had to lift up to press her lips against his ear. “I know what I’m doing.” She rubbed the small of his back and softened her tone, due entirely to wanting to settle Canin, and nothing to do with faking intimacy as part of their act. “Do you trust me to get the job done and make this all right for you?” Canin backed her into the door and clicked it open without ever breaking stride. He dipped down and licked her ear, but at the same time whispered, “Do what you have to do.” Isobel had already put in their request for use of this room at this time, and they went right through the crowd in the foyer to a small private changing room that bridged to the TWL room. “We have the same goal and the same dedication.” He barely moved his lips when he talked. “Let’s get this guy’s attention tonight.” The door closed with a definitive snick. They moved through the second room to the main stage. Lights automatically went on, and a dais in the center of the room with a huge high bed loomed in sight. As Kasey led Canin to it, she wondered if this man had ever let anyone fuck him in the ass.

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Chapter Six Jesus Christ. Nobody had ever bent Canin over and shafted his ass. Not with real cock, or fake. Once upon a time, a girlfriend or two had tickled his pucker. One had even worked a few fingers inside to tease his prostate, but that had been quite a while ago. A little bead of sweat trickled down Canin’s back under his shirt and jacket, and it didn’t happen only because of the bulge he’d felt in Kasey’s trousers as he pulled her close a moment ago. A large group of people on the other side of all these mirrors would see Kasey fuck him, his brother and Adam included. Canin knew the men’s focus would be the groups of people in the viewing area, but he still couldn’t help the way his rectum sucked in and clenched at what he had agreed to do tonight. A little hysterically, his mind tripped back to his thought about this very thing while Kasey pressed against his back in the parking lot last night. Careful what you wish for… A mechanical whirring reached Canin’s ears, and with his heart racing, he watched the black curtains covering the mirrors open for the spectators. He didn’t hear any noise, but he knew as soon as the curtains opened fully, the speakers that would allow the viewers to hear them would turn on too. The curtains came to a stop, and Kasey shoved Canin on the bed. She rolled him over on his stomach in one smooth move, her quick aggression shocking him and twitching his cock. Lifting his head, he watched her circle the bed to stand behind the headboard, the defiant click of her heels beating a steady drum into the absurdly shiny tiled floor. Kasey came to a stop right in front of his face, the ornate black bars of the headboard the only thing between them. She put her hands on her hips in an authoritative stance. “Undo your buckle and take your pants down to your knees.” Pulling off the fedora, Kasey’s long hair fell down her back and shoulders in cascading waves, the dark sheen of which

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caught the reflection of the overhead chandelier. She flicked the hat with her wrist and let it sail across the room, where it snagged on a hook in the wall that held a dog collar attached to a long chain. Canin slid his gaze back to Kasey. This whole room, with its various accoutrements hanging or bolted into the walls and the ceiling, and hell, even hobbling braces screwed into the floor, intimidated the hell out of Canin, slipping him to a place of sexuality far outside his comfort zone. Looking up with a gulp, he found Kasey radiating such confidence that it prompted him to draw up on his knees, moving his shoulders to slide off his jacket. “No, no.” She waved a finger at him in a naughty, scolding manner. “I’m only interested in your cock and pretty ass tonight.” She, however, slid her jacket from her shoulders, immediately highlighting the heaviness of her breasts beneath the lightweight material of her shirt. Christ, she had the most amazing hourglass curves. “Bend over and show me your virgin hole before I have to do it for you and take what I want.” Christ, she knew how to play this, almost too well. Tease the audience with the thrill of viewing a first-time experience. “Yes, ma’am.” Canin dutifully lowered his head and worked open his buckle, slipping into the role Kasey had created for him. “I only want to please you.” He pushed his pants and underwear down, unearthing his half-hard cock for Kasey and the crowd. It poked out through the ends of his shirt, the mushroom head a deep red, the veins already filling with blood. Kasey strolled around the side of the bed, pausing near where he kneeled. “Very nice.” She slid her finger under his chin and lifted his face up to look at her, the most innocently sultry smile playing on her too-red lips. “But you know I like it when it’s so hard you can’t control your moans. Hold up your shirt so everyone can watch how my big man plays with his dick.” Before he could ask, she reached into the drawer of the nightstand set up beside the bed and grabbed a big bottle of lube. Rather than squeezing some in his hand, she drizzled a line of the stuff right onto his penis, the cool stream of liquid making him hiss and jerk. “A little nervous tonight, my love?” Kasey ran the tips of two surprisingly elegant fingers over the length of his penis, drawing forth a shiver. From the both of them. Her eyes shining incredibly bright, Kasey looked at Canin as if no one else existed in the world. Canin didn’t know if that settled him, or ratcheted up his fear to an entirely new level. He just knew that nothing felt in balance right now. “Go ahead,” Kasey urged. She smeared the lube in a little bit more, but removed her hand before he received any deeper sense of pleasure from her touch. “Jerk yourself off for me. I know how you love to play with yourself when I’m not around. Show us how you do it. Show everyone how you get yourself off.” Unable to look away from Kasey, Canin wrapped his hand around the base of his cock, surprised to find his fingers shaking. Kasey glanced down and then back up at him, her eyes glittering with knowledge that drew more heat to his face than the fact that he had dozens of people watching him get ready

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to give himself a handjob. She shifted her stance in front of his just the slightest bit, turning her head and shoulders in such a way that no one behind the mirrors would be able to see her face. She mouthed the words, “I’m the only one here. Just look at me.” She moved again, giving the crowd behind the mirrors a full view of him and a profile of her. Locked on him, Kasey lifted her fingers to the top button on her shirt. His eyes riveted to her hands, Canin swallowed convulsively and started to stroke the long, thick length of his straining pole. He kept it nice and slow, knowing that he couldn’t shoot fast; he had an obligation to let this thing play out to the end. Kasey undid her buttons one by one, revealing a narrow patch of creamy alabaster skin over her chest, between her breasts, to her soft belly, before reaching the waistband of her trousers. Canin’s stomach pulsed low with burning excitement, trembling a wave of longing under his flesh. Unable to hold off, he pulled a little harder on his dick, needing more friction just on the anticipation of seeing Kasey’s breasts alone. Captivated and unashamed, Canin watched, fascinated, as Kasey drew the shirt off her shoulders, revealing stunning, weighty breasts -- cradled on either side by a black pair of suspenders. Good Christ. Canin picked up speed again, jerking on himself even harder. She hadn’t left a single detail of the fantasy untapped. Big mauve nipples puckered and twisted in front of his eyes, making Canin salivate, eager for a taste of Kasey’s sweetness. Kasey shrugged the shirt off her shoulders, but left the shirttail tucked in the waist of her trousers. “I see you’re getting excited.” Reaching down to the front of her pants, she rubbed over her crotch, cupping her bulge like a man. “You want a little bit of this, huh?” Canin licked his lips, suddenly just as fucking hot as he was nervous. “Uh-huh.” “Too bad.” Sliding her fingers under the narrow flap to the zipper pull, she started to bring it down. “Because you’re not gonna get a little.” Watching, his breath trapped painfully in his sternum, he stared as Kasey slipped her hand inside and drew out a long, narrow, flesh-colored cock through the opening. “You’re gonna get a lot.”

Fucking A. Canin had felt the thing ride his front when he pulled Kasey close earlier, but in his shock, the length had escaped him. Sweat broke out on the back of his neck and under his shirt, and his penis went a little bit soft in sight of a fake prick that had at least an inch or two on his own manhood. He stroked faster, trying to regain firmness, knowing he couldn’t disappoint a stalker who needed a good show. Kasey moved to the foot of the bed and spread her legs shoulder-width apart. She then leaned in until her knees pressed into the mattress. “Crawl over here, my handsome pet.” Gripping her hand around the base of her strap-on where it disappeared into her pants, she palmed its length and held it out straight. “Suck on this for me and get it all nice and wet.”

Son of a bitch. Every extra layer she put him through padded the number of things he intended to do to her body in retaliation before this thing ended. She held that damn dick in front of his face, pushing the head against his lips, seeking entry. Biting down a curse, Canin opened up his mouth. As Kasey guided the phallus past his lips, he prayed he didn’t gag on

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the length or the plastic taste. Immediately, a burst of fruitiness coated his taste buds, artificial for sure, but not unpleasant. The lube. Kasey had rubbed the dildo as a show of masculine raunchiness against the softness of her lush, feminine image, giving the crowd contrasts that they would surely remember. At the same time, she used what remained on her hand from touching his erection to discreetly prepare it for this wildly strange blowjob. Jesus. Canin relaxed his jaw as best he could, and filled his mouth with the firm length, nearly to the throat. “Ohh, yeah.” Kasey rocked her hips back and forth against his face, making a big show of him taking the full length of cock, without actually giving away that she backed off before the plastic appendage pushed too deep. In return, he sucked hard and made moaning sounds, wiggling his bare ass, begging for a fucking that inside he prayed didn’t hurt like hell. “That’s it.” Digging her fingers into his hair, Kasey rubbed his scalp in soothing circles, while on the outside she fucked his mouth with short, fast thrusts from her fake cock. “Show your enthusiasm. Let me hear how much you like it, and I might let you have a real one some day.” Damn, Canin knew they needed a show, but his jaw started to ache, and he really didn’t want to push their luck. Letting the appendage slip free from between his lips, he nuzzled his face into her soft belly, growing hard again for real when he inhaled the faintest traces of lemons and baby powder. How in the hell did she smell so innocent when she looked like sin? He licked her stomach, something just for him, because he had to, and could swear she moved into the touch. The tip of the fake dick pressed against his throat, and he deflated when he remembered they were on a job that they could not afford to forget or ignore. This bastard could escalate, and next time, if someone fought back, a couple might die. Canin eased off and turned around on the bed, presenting Kasey with his ass. “Fuck me, baby.” Reaching back, he grabbed a butt cheek in each hand and unearthed his asshole for her. “Take me good.” “You don’t give the orders tonight.” Kasey snapped each word with the precision of a whip, and he automatically let go of himself and straightened back up for her. “I’m sorry, ma’am.” “You are forgiven. This time.” Kasey eyed him up and down, studying him with a singular focus. “I’ve changed my mind. I want your shirt and coat gone after all. I want to see every inch of your beautiful body flexing and straining as I fuck you.” With his head turned down, Canin dutifully removed his jacket, and with fumbling fingers undid his tie and unbuttoned his shirt, stripping himself naked for her. Kasey stroked the strap-on, and if Canin didn’t know better he’d think she could feel real nerve endings tingling within the plastic. “Very nice.” She licked her lips. “Now back on your hands and knees, and offer me your ass.”

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As before, Canin did as instructed. The tip of one of Kasey’s fingers trailed down Canin’s exposed crack from cleft to bud, inducing a shiver and gasp when she applied pressure to his backdoor. Jesus. He hoped to hell he could get through this without going all wussy and having a total freak-out. Kasey made a tsking sound. “I think you’re gonna fight me on this a little bit.” A whisper of smooth as silk fabric caressed his ass. “And we can’t have that.” “W-wha --” Right then, with incredible speed, she grabbed his arms and wrenched his wrists together at the small of his back, wrapping his forearms together with a length of fabric -- very snug -- from wrist to elbow, binding him in place. Fuck. In his eagerness to do something, anything, with Kasey, he had forgotten that this was a bondage room and that she would have to tie him up. He could not move his arms at all. With his shoulders and face digging into the firm mattress, and his ass sticking up in the air for the taking, Canin knew he must look like a true submissive in repose. Holy hell. He had never been at someone else’s sexual mercy in his life. Canin’s heart began to race in earnest, and the sweat on his upper lip broke out on his forehead and neck too. What in Christ’s name had he agreed to do? Kasey’s surprisingly soft hand moved over his left ass cheek, caressing in a way that raised the hairs on Canin’s arms to attention. Her fingers exploring almost casually, she moved across the separation and kneaded the flesh on the other side. She whistled, sexy and low. “Damn it, honey, you look so primed and ready for me.” She came back to the middle and pushed her thumb gently against his sphincter, the cool feel of lube against his hole making him jump. She rubbed again, and he relaxed into the nerve-racking sensation much more quickly this time. She spanked him on the buttocks with the flat of her hand, whack, bringing immediate heat to the area and shooting a thrill of forbidden pleasure throughout his body, tingling in his balls and cock. “You’ve got me so hot for you that you may not get a gentle ride this first time out.” Visions of Kasey plunging into his body, her head thrown back in rapturous joy as she shafted his tunnel with her artificial dick filled Canin’s head and, shockingly, hardened his prick past the point of painful. “Do it.” He went with the moment, slipping into his newly developed fantasy world, every bit of it featuring this one woman, trusting she would see him through this kind of kink that normally didn’t do a damn thing for him. “Fill me up with every goddamned inch and fuck me as hard as you want.” Spreading his legs a little wider, he dropped his pelvis and let his ass sit high and loose in the air. “Please.” “Mmm, yeah,” Kasey murmured, sounding a little breathless herself. Interesting. “I love it when you beg.” Suddenly, the smooth length of the silicone cock rubbed between the hills of Canin’s ass, sending frissons of unexpected excitement down his legs and up his spine. Back and forth, that smooth tube of cool prick rode the length of his crack, warming with the heat of his body.

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All the while, hot as hell little noises escaped Kasey, feminine rumblings of equal pleasure, originating in her throat. For a split second, he wished he could see her, confirm that she didn’t fake these sounds for a crowd. Christ, Canin wanted her panting with joy, even if it came with her fucking him to the point of pain, as long as she cried out with orgasm in the end. Then he remembered. He only had to open his eyes, and he would get an almost three hundred sixty degree view of everything she did to him. Pressure kissed Canin’s entrance, and just as he opened his eyes and found the picture of them in the mirror, his asshole opened for her, and she sank that damn cock deep into his ass. “Ahh…damn it, damn it.” Canin choked, his jaw dropping open as Kasey filled his rectum to the brim. He watched through slitted eyes as she pumped her hips into him, forcing that dick into his channel all the way, and then pulling it out completely, leaving him gaping open and ready for when she took him fully again. Breathing through the discomfort that burned around his stretched ring and the insistent squeezing of the walls of his anus, Canin latched on to the image of Kasey’s reflection in the two-way mirrors. She glowed, her cheeks flushed pink, and she had her full focus on the next hard in-stroke from her fake cock. Her sensuous mouth dipped open just the slightest bit as she fucked him slow and steady, making him feel every goddamned inch of what she did to him. Good Christ, he could see it all over her face. She had totally forgotten about the others who watched them. For some reason, this act sparked her desires -- and that made Canin’s ass clench around her false appendage for an entirely different reason. Damn it, Kasey wanted him this way, and suddenly, Canin wanted nothing more than to give her someone who enjoyed it just as much. “Oh, yeah, give it to me good.” He pushed his ass back on the thrusting cock and circled his hips, wishing with everything in him that he didn’t have his arms trussed against his back. If he could get up on his hands, he could really grind back against her and give her some enthusiasm that the restraints binding his forearms didn’t allow. “Fuck me, Kasey.” Her eyes popped open on her name, just as he knew they would. Hell yeah. There wasn’t any way he would let her get away with thinking anyone but the two of them did this, crowd of spectators or not. Their last names and jobs may have to be fabricated for the purpose of this assignment, but first names were too easy to accidentally make a slip -- like what would have happened just now -- so their first names remained their own. “Cover me and ride me like a stallion.” Damn, Canin didn’t know good sex talk from bad. He leaned more toward grunting to show his pleasure in bed. “Take me like I’m your bitch in heat.” Her pupils flared, and the green in her eyes turned deeper than Canin had ever witnessed. She rose up over him and braced her hands on his secured arms, driving down into him at an entirely new angle, sawing right over his goddamned prostate. “Oh, oh…fuck, fuck…” Gasping, Canin couldn’t control the bucking in his hips as shooting lines of pure pleasure inflamed every nerve ending in his body, beginning and ending in his newly alive ass. She pulled all the way out and left him whimpering for her to fill him again, then

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dropped down on top of him, covering him completely, in the way he had so shamelessly begged her to do. Awkward due to his arms between them, Canin had never felt so connected to another human being as when Kasey opened her eyes, found his in the mirror, and finally sank her cock back into his ass, pushing in so slowly he agonized that he would come with every inch that invaded his pulsing chute. She didn’t say a single word, just laid her cheek against his nape and watched herself in the mirror, her eyes glazed and faraway in a way he had never witnessed in her before. Christ, she was beautiful. Their position crushed her breasts into his straining upper arms, and every time she rocked into him with her hips, her puckered nipples grazed along his skin, coloring a little circular pattern into him, as if her nipples were the pointed tips of new crayons and he a fresh sheet of paper. He didn’t understand the meaning of hard and painfully aroused until this very second, with this woman fucking him, looking for all the world like she felt every inch of that fake dick tease the walls of his anus just as acutely as he did on the other end. “Help me.” His request came out as little more than a breathless whisper, but he could barely think, let alone speak, as he accepted her taking of him, something so shockingly intimate that words escaped him. Canin’s dick and balls hung heavy between his legs, swollen with full arousal, with nothing but air to lessen the pain. He couldn’t touch himself, had no way to ease the blood-filled organ without aid. His eyes locked on to hers in the mirror, wouldn’t let her look away, even though he had no physical means to hold her there. “Please,” he said again. “I’m so close. Help me come.” Quickly, Kasey wrapped her arms around his chest and reared them both upright, exposing his penis, which sat up straight and weighty, swollen and needy. She put her mouth against his shoulder but kept her eyes on him, this time in the mirror directly in front of them. “I’m going to put my hands on you and spray your cum all over the place.” Her voice so low he almost couldn’t hear it, Canin realized she didn’t want the crowd to hear or read her words. “Are you ready?” Under normal circumstances, that kind of loaded orgasm didn’t happen for him anymore. Nevertheless, tonight, he swore to God he could coat the entire room with his release, all because of her. His sandwiched fingers touched over her soft belly, but he forewent that and snagged his fingers on the waistband of her pants, holding them together as close as he could. “Control me.” Fuck. That sounded cornball, even though right now, he actually meant it. “Pull on me hard and make me come.” She didn’t waste any time. Neither did he. Kasey circled one hand around his ultrasensitive cock and tugged, and slid the other between his legs, using incredibly deft fingers to massage his drawn-up testicles. With the dildo still lodged halfway in his ass, teasing right over his sweet spot, Canin didn’t have a prayer of holding anything back.

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His face contorted with almost obscene pleasure, and his muscles seized and locked his body tight. Canin threw back his head, roaring with pleasure as orgasm slammed into him dead-on. “Ahh! Yeah, yeah.” He gritted his teeth, trying to manage the power of his release. His nuts sucked halfway into his body, swirling electrified lines of joy up his spine and into his belly, tugging to the line of his cock with enough force to double him over. Thank God for his toehold on Kasey’s waistband. Canin finally spewed, shooting ejaculate in an upward arc like a fire hose, sending thick liquid splashing over the width of the headboard and through the breaks, where it landed on the shiny floor on the other side, creamy drops of seed leaving a connect-the-dots picture in its wake. All the while, his rectum milked the length of cock in his ass, and it felt so damn good that for a split second, he thought it must be real, and that Kasey, who shuddered visibly behind him, could feel it too. Before Canin could slow down his breathing from the high, automated runners along the ceiling whirred to life and black curtains slid across the mirrors, blocking Kasey and Canin from further view. Reminding Canin that they were on the job. Visual removed. Speakers closed off. Nobody liked to view the messy cleanup. Show over.

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Chapter Seven Canin clenched his teeth as Kasey separated from him and the dildo slid out of his ass. He still felt stretched wide open for the longest moment, until Kasey rubbed her palm over his cheeks and crease, and somehow helped to settle his rectum back to its natural state. “We were good together,” Kasey said, her voice absurdly throaty and soft. The inflection caressed over Canin’s naked flesh, inciting chill bumps where the sweat that coated him began to dissipate, now that the first heated wave of desire ebbed. “I think we convinced whoever watched us tonight that we are a real couple.” Hell, in Canin’s mind, Kasey talked and acted so much the part that he had become part of that crowd of believers too. Jesus. If his body had the ability to do it, his cock would have already started hardening again. “Hopefully we piqued the interest of the one who matters.” Right. Just doing a job. Shit. Canin had to remember that too. Kasey moved into his line of sight, and he immediately noticed that she already had her shirt back around her shoulders. She didn’t have it buttoned up yet though, and the way it gaped open and showed the heavy sway of her breasts filled Canin’s mouth with saliva. Damn it, he wanted his mouth on her tits. He craved the nub of her nipple grazing the roof of his mouth while he suckled her long enough, and thoroughly enough, to make her come. She opened the drawer of the nightstand again, and this time removed an oversized pair of shiny scissors. The bindings. Yeah, he hadn’t forgotten for one second that Kasey had trussed him up as part of their show. “Are you sure we weren’t too cheesy?” he suddenly asked, drawing her gaze to his, her eyes wide. “I didn’t really know what to say half the time.” Fuck. Insecurity and sex, combined and attached to him, didn’t exist in Canin’s world.

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“Maybe we were a little bit.” The apples of Kasey’s cheeks tinged rosy pink, and Canin’s mind shot straight back to what this woman looked like in the throes of a powerful orgasm. Delivered by him. He knew she hadn’t achieved one tonight in this room. “But I think a little bit of overdoing it might work in our favor. As long as the patrons are talking about us, I’ll consider us a success.” “We’ll find out soon enough.” Canin shifted and wiggled his arms her way. They felt weighted with lead, and at some point in the last few minutes his fingers had grown numb. “If you’ll cut me loose, we can get our clothes back on and start working the club members.” Kasey shook her head, and her eyes sharpened once again. “Right. Of course.” She slid the blade of the scissors under the silk scarf and started to cut. The second half of his and Kasey’s act tonight consisted of mingling, getting close to the couples who not only viewed their performance tonight, but those of the victims. They really had to hope they had roused the interest of this maniac couple terrorizing these clubgoers. As much as this lifestyle didn’t do a damn thing for Canin, he didn’t, for one second, condone harassment or assault. He thought about the occasional snickering murmurs that went Rhone and Adam’s way when they showed affection in public, and viewed it on par with that. Neither man hurt a damn soul by being together, but they still faced the intolerance of too many people who didn’t think their love was natural. Canin growled, and Kasey looked up from her work. “I know that growl,” she said. “What’s the matter?” Snapping his gaze to hers, he forced his boiling blood to simmer before it bubbled over. “I didn’t know I had identifying growls.” “You do.” Kasey snipped the last piece of silk, and Canin’s arms fell heavily to his sides, dead and useless for a moment. He started to topple, but Kasey grabbed him around the waist and steadied him, putting his nudity in contact with her once again. The second she got him upright, she whipped her hold away. “A number of them, actually,” she added. “That one was the one that tends to make me think you want to hit somebody, but can’t.” She tossed the scissors on the bed and shot back to her feet. Her fingers immediately went to putting herself to rights. “Did I get too rough with you?” Her voice sounded more tentative than Canin had ever heard it. “Are you mad at me now because I fucked you?” “God, Kase, no.” Heedless of his nudity, Canin walked on his knees across the bed until he reached her side. He took her face in his hands, the tingling of the blood rushing in his arms be damned, and held tight when she reared back in an effort to escape his touch. “I was thinking about catching this bastard, and that made me think about intolerance, which made me think about how people treat my brother and Adam sometimes. That’s what prompted the growl, not you.” Her gaze fell to the floor. “Oh.” Canin slid his hand under the fall of Kasey’s hair, cupped her neck, and let his thumb slide along the racing pulse point in her neck. Jesus, she really did think his anger was about

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her -- and it scared her. That pierced a pain through Canin sharper than the first shove of that damn toy into his clenching rectum. “Hell, woman.” He tugged her to him and scraped a rough kiss across her lips, uncaring that nobody could see them, and thus it didn’t help their cause. “I’ll admit that being tied up and fucked in the ass is not my preference, but you made me come.” He turned her face with his in the direction of the headboard, doing it in such a way that their cheeks melded against one another. Together, he led her attention to the ejaculate-streaked bars of the headboard and the mess on the floor beyond. “Did you forget that?” Kasey opened her mouth, but right then, a sharp knock rapped against the door, startling them both apart. A moment later, a Vixen employee pushed the door open a sliver, but didn’t stick a head inside. “Do you need another block of time slated for this room?” a feminine voice asked. “I can mark the book, and you can take another hour of use. Can I do that for you?” For the hourly rate, on top of the membership fee, Vixen would allow Canin and Kasey use of this room for the entire night, if they wished. Fortunately for them, Quinn Security would not foot the bill for this performance tonight. “No, thank you,” Kasey answered quickly. Just as fast, she pulled out of Canin’s hold and finished buttoning her shirt. “We’ll only need another minute to dress.” She bent down and scooped up Canin’s shirt and jacket, hitting him in the chest with them. “Hurry. If we stay in here much longer without performing again, we’ll cause suspicion.” Speed-walking across the room, Kasey pulled her hat off the hook and put it back on, this time leaving her hair flowing down her back. All business again, Canin never would have believed this woman experienced a little slip of vulnerability a moment ago if he hadn’t felt her pulse jumping so fast under his own fingers, giving him proof that she did. A perfect storm of curiosity, desire, and an unaccustomed fisting need for intimacy and connection coalesced in Canin’s belly right where he stood, igniting the old PI in him. Right there, in a sex club, Canin decided that Kasey would give him her secrets. No matter what it took. Both of them now cleaned up and dressed, Kasey paused in front of him and straightened his tie. Finding her gaze, he recognized the fire of passion lighting her green eyes. “Time for phase two.” She kept her voice low, but excitement still fused her sexy tone. “Let’s go find ourselves a stalker.” Canin slipped his hand in hers and linked their fingers. Determination burned in Canin. He had this one passage in time where Kasey had to spend time with him. By the end of it, she would give him every piece of her guarded soul. And when she looked at him with eyes like this again, he would be buried balls deep inside her tight heat, possessing her in every way until she screamed his name. Right now, he simply said, “Lead the way.”

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“You have a beautiful wife.” Kasey felt Canin tense beside her at the words, and his arm tightened around her waist. “Thank you,” he murmured. “I think so.” Kasey sized up the man in front of her, medium height, medium build, medium brown hair, medium everything, and wondered at Canin’s strong physical reaction, other than the fact that he was on their list of suspect couples. Kasey could feel the tightening in Canin’s arm that held her tucked against his side, and it radiated one piece of information right into her flesh: he did not like this man. Or, maybe it was the woman who stood at the man’s side. Tall and svelte, with straight platinum blonde hair, the woman looked like she could kick someone’s ass without breaking a sweat -- that is, until Kasey looked into her eyes. A light brown, they didn’t catch hold of any one thing for very long, and when they briefly connected with Kasey’s, the woman quickly dropped them to the floor. “Jonathan Pickering.” The man held out his hand in Canin’s direction. Canin took the offered handshake, but his fingers at Kasey’s waist dug into her side. Thank God she had an extra layer of fluff protecting her there. Even with that, she would likely show a row of fingertip-sized bruises tomorrow. “Just wanted to say your wife was mesmerizing tonight,” Jonathan said, “and inquire if you’re interested in working out an evening that would allow her to act as Domme for my wife.” The fingers digging into Kasey’s side might as well have been going in for elective surgery. “Why don’t you ask her yourself?” Canin practically growled the words, and they came out much as they had when she’d thought him angry at her back in the TWL room. “She is her own person, with her own mind, and she happens to be standing right here in front of you.” “Don’t worry about my husband.” Kasey covered Canin’s hand at her side and discreetly pried his fingers out of her liver. “He likes to let people look at me, but no participating. Besides, I’m not really a Domme.” She dazzled Jonathan with her biggest, cheekiest smile. “I just play one on TV.” The blonde woman giggled softly, but quickly bit her lip and looked down at the floor. Kasey knew the woman very likely chose, and enjoyed, playing the submissive, but something about not even having the freedom to laugh without permission bugged the hell out of her. “Excuse me.” She looked to the husband, Jonathan. “May I say hello?” Kasey slid her gaze to the woman, and then back to Jonathan. She couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Jonathan’s comfort, but she didn’t want the woman to get in trouble. She could research to infinity and know that the majority of Doms treated their subs with utmost respect, but that didn’t mean this guy wasn’t the exception to the rule. “Please.” Jonathan slid his fingers under the woman’s chin and lifted her downturned face. “This is Tara, my wife.” Kasey could see by the returning light in the man’s eyes he thought he might get a “yes” out of her yet.

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Kasey stuck out her hand and kept the smile on her face. “Nice to meet you, Tara.” Cool fingers lightly gripped hers, for just a split second. “I’m Kasey, and this giant next to me is my husband, Canin.” Whoa. For the second time, that word, husband, tripped off her tongue much too easily. She’d spoken Canin’s given name so naturally too that she said a silent prayer of thanks that they used their real first names. Work, damn it. She scrambled quickly. Think about work. “Don’t let his bark put you off.” She shot Canin a fast glare. Damn bastard just bared his teeth at her. She rolled her eyes at Tara, as if saying “husbands, what are you gonna do?” and finished with, “He is well trained to intimidate, but not to bite. I swear.” “Yes, well” -- Jonathan slipped his arm around Tara, and dipped his head -- “if you’ll excuse us?” He started to lead the woman away before Kasey got out the “goo” in good-bye. Canin resumed his softer hold around Kasey’s waist, and guided her slowly around the body of the main club area. Leaning down, he pressed a kiss against her temple, and said softly, “I like that jackass for our guy. I say we find a way to get him arrested for something, right now. I don’t much care what for.” “Yeah, I didn’t like him either, but that doesn’t mean he’s the one.” Kasey tracked the progress of the couple across the room, noting that Jonathan and Tara stopped in front of a man drinking at a table alone. From the way the new guy looked Tara up and down, Kasey guessed Jonathan decided to approach a man for his wife this time, rather than a woman. The blond guy, tall and Nordic-looking, stood and followed Jonathan and Tara to the exit, drawing a shiver out of Kasey. The thought of two men commanding her own body sexually roiled sickness in her stomach and flooded Kasey with memories that made her stumble. Canin immediately righted her, dipping down so he looked her in the eyes. “You okay?” He brushed his hand across her forehead, and then down her cheek, eliciting a different kind of shiver. “You look a little pale all of a sudden.” Canin could never know her past. “Just didn’t like that guy.” “Yeah, Jonathan creeps me out too,” a feminine voice spoke at Kasey’s left, snapping her out of her paralysis, “but his wife is sweet and Brett’s a good third.” Kasey whipped around, and found a statuesque, freckle-sprinkled redhead smiling at her. A tall, lanky guy with narrow, wire-framed glasses stood at her side. Kasey immediately recognized them from their frozen computer images. More suspects. “Sorry,” the woman added, directing her attention to Kasey. “I saw your reaction as Jonathan approached you, and then as you watched him leave. I overheard you say you didn’t like him. Hello. Foot in mouth.” She flashed a fast smile again. “Not you with the foot. Me. Now you know I’ve been sneaking peeks at you like some kind of stalker, and I can’t find any way to smoothly transition into saying that you guys were great together in the Tied with Love room. It was…” Gesturing with her hands, it looked like she tried to reach for the word she wanted out of thin air. “…palpable and intense.” She looked up to Canin. “With

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the way you let your wife handle you” -- red stole over the woman’s round cheeks -- “and your abandon with her, gosh darn it… Let’s just say everyone in the viewing room needed a cold shower after feeling the heat you two generated.” The man pulled the woman against his chest and covered her mouth with his hand. But he did it with mirth in his eyes, and an obviously affectionate kiss to her cheek. “Now that my wife has stopped for a breath, let me slip in an introduction before she gets going again.” The woman jabbed him in the stomach, but again, it seemed more familiar than a rebuke. “Jeff and Lindsey Richardson.” The man stuck his hand out to Canin first, and exchanged a greeting. “Canin Johns.” Canin shook Lindsey’s hand, while Kasey took Jeff’s. “And my wife” -Canin slid his arm around her shoulder this time -- “Kasey Carson-Johns.” “Good to meet you both,” Jeff said, his voice easy and warm. “We were wondering if we could buy a round of drinks and sit down to talk for a bit?” “Honey.” Lindsey shook her head and gave her husband a squeeze. “It’s better not to try and woo people with drinks. These people will think we’re trying to get them drunk and impair their judgment. It’s better to just come out and ask what we want to know.” This fireball of a woman plastered about the most engaging smile Kasey had ever seen on another female face, and then asked, “Are you guys swingers?”

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Chapter Eight Swingers? Canin kept the game face on for him and Kasey this time and saved them. “Thanks, but no thanks.” He pulled Kasey in front of him and slipped his arms around her waist. “I don’t share what’s mine.”

Mine. God, Kasey fought against the trickle of sweat the ownership in that word evoked -- and the way it sizzled and ignited low in her belly too. Her sex swelled against the panties she wore under the strap-on, the fabric already soaked through with her arousal at what she did to Canin in the TWL room. She had come so close to reaching climax through taking him the way she had, even though she had deliberately not worn any attachments on the strap-on that would bring self-pleasure. She hadn’t wanted to lose control and come in front of the club members…or Canin. It didn’t end up mattering, though. The excitement that had pulsed through her while penetrating him, and then watching him love it and come, nearly undid Kasey anyway. One more minute of watching herself shaft his ass in the mirror would have thrown her into a release just as powerful as his. Kasey shivered at that thought. She didn’t want to show that kind of vulnerability around Canin. Around anybody, she corrected herself. “Oh, crap,” Lindsey muttered, drawing Kasey back into the job. “I’ve totally freaked you out.” With gentle hands, the woman reached out and rubbed Kasey’s arm, transferring incredible warmth in her touch. “I apologize. Please don’t think I’m trying to pressure you into anything. We have many couple friends, both in and out of the club, who don’t swing. If it’s not your deal, then it’s not your deal. That’s cool.” “Absolutely,” Jeff said. “Anyone who can spot what an asshole Jonathan Pickering is automatically shoots up in estimation in my book.” The man lifted his attention from Kasey, made eye contact with Canin, and held it. Not an easy thing to do, hold the gaze of an

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intimidating man like Canin, and Kasey’s gut liking for this couple grew in her middle. She knew she shouldn’t form such quick opinions about suspects and chastised herself for losing her professional distance. “The offer to shoot the breeze and share a drink is still open. No strings attached.” Kasey snapped to attention and put her mind back on the job. “Sounds good.” From the brightness in Lindsey Richardson’s eyes, Kasey knew this woman had information to share, and lots of it. Gossip did occasionally have its uses. “Lead the way to the bar.”

***** Canin barked with laughter and clasped Jeff on the shoulder. “You are so right, man. There is a real curse on the Cubbies. I don’t care that reasonable intelligence debunks how and why we’ve gone a hundred years without winning the World Series again. Someone cursed our poor logo and didn’t leave an ancestor around to lift it; that’s all there is to it.” “Did I hear something about the Cubs curse, Jeff?” A blond man paused as he walked by the table where Canin sat with Kasey, Jeff, and Lindsey. Canin sat upright as Kasey squeezed his knee under the table. “Have you found someone else willing to help fund the costs of an honest to goodness voodoo priestess to come in here and lift the damn thing?” “Getting close.” Jeff stood and shook hands with the newcomer. “Good to see you, Frank.” Jeff shifted, including the group at the table. “Let me introduce you to a couple of new members. Canin and Kasey, meet Frank Kinsey. Frank, this is Canin Johns, and his wife, Kasey Carson-Johns.” “Ah” -- Frank extended his hand in greeting -- “so you’re the couple I’ve been hearing whispers about since I got here. Nice to meet you. Sorry I missed the show. The wife had a work thing we had to attend earlier in the evening.” Frank scanned the room, and then pointed out a stunning, sun-kissed brunette with close-cropped hair and mile-long legs standing about a half-dozen booths away. “There’s my Lora, looking like she’s about to make a decision for the evening without me. Excuse me, will you?” Frank shook Jeff’s, and then Canin’s, hands again. “Good to see you again, Jeff. Lindsey, looking good enough to eat, as always. Canin, Kasey, I look forward to your next show. You all have a good evening.” After Frank walked away, Jeff shared, “Frank and Lora like to pair up and play too. They’re good people.” “You’ve got to be careful with Frank, though,” Lindsey said. “If he gets a few drinks in him, he can get loud and a little pushy. Lora keeps him in check most of the time, and she’s such a lovely woman everyone tends to forgive Frank’s occasional social blunders, for her sake.” “She’s stunning,” Canin said, and then could have kicked himself in the ass. “Sorry, honey.” He slid his hand over Kasey’s thigh and rubbed the inner slope. Damn, his palm was tailor-fit for her sweet curves. “Not nearly as beautiful as you.”

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“Oh, please.” Kasey rolled her eyes. “She’s gorgeous. Did you think I wouldn’t expect you to notice?” “She used to be a professional model,” Lindsey explained. “Damned thing is, though, she’s as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside.” Putting her chin in her hand, Lindsey scrunched up her face. “Don’t you just hate that?” “Hate that you can’t hate her?” Kasey gave Lindsey a conspiratorial little half smile that warmed Canin’s heart, and then skittered it with concern. He didn’t want her to like this woman, and then find out she was half of their stalking duo. “Yeah, I know what you mean,” Kasey said. Kasey’s attention strayed to Frank and Lora and lingered. “Why does he look like I know him?” Puzzlement laced her voice, and her brow furrowed. Canin just barely reined in shooting Kasey a “what the hell are you saying?” stare. Of course Frank looked familiar to her. She’d seen his face on their computer screen just yesterday afternoon. “It’s the cheekbones and the crazy perfect nose,” Lindsey answered. “Looks just like his brother, even though Brett is taller and his hair is lighter blond. That’s the guy who left with Jonathan and his wife a while ago.” “That’s it.” Kasey nodded. She finally pulled her gaze off Frank and put it back on Lindsey. The sense that these two women had been friends forever washed over Canin again, and he said a quick prayer that this couple was not their attackers. He also vowed to have an uncomfortable talk with Kasey and remind her about not becoming vulnerable with a suspect. “I felt like I had seen him tonight, but he said he’d just shown up. It would have driven me nuts if you hadn’t said something. Thanks.” “No problem.” Lindsey lifted her hand to her mouth as her jaw stretched wide open, and a soft little yawning sound escaped her lips. “Oh, I apologize.” Her eyes widened, and she put both hands to her cheeks. “It’s not the company, believe me. I was up very early this morning and have to do it again tomorrow. We debated even coming out tonight, but I’m glad we did. We’ve had a great time hanging out with both of you, but if I stay five more minutes, I’m going to slide right to the floor.” “Right. Of course.” Canin immediately stood when Lindsey and Jeff did. Kasey got to her feet too, and Canin stuck his hand out to Jeff. “We’ll have to do this again.” “Absolutely.” Jeff gave Canin a brisk handshake, and then pecked a light, very respectful kiss high on Kasey’s cheek. Canin did the same to Lindsey, and reminded himself to stay detached. “We’d love to have you over for dinner one night,” Jeff said. He produced a card from his jacket and handed it to Canin. “I’m not professionally trained or anything, but I love to cook.” “He’s being modest.” Lindsey slid her arm around Jeff’s waist and gave her husband a fast hug. “He’s damned good. In fact, we’re thinking about opening a restaurant sometime in the next two years. I can tell you right now that he’s already going through his recipe book

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in his mind, thinking about what would be best to cook for the two of you. Don’t leave him hanging. He’s probably considering side dishes and desserts too.” “That sounds awesome.” Kasey plucked Jeff’s card right out of Canin’s hand and slipped it in the inner pocket of her jacket. Canin wondered what in the hell Kasey was doing. “I guess you can tell” -- she rubbed her tummy -- “that I love to eat.” “That ain’t fat, honey,” Jeff answered. “That’s all mouthwatering, womanly curves.” The man immediately jerked back and locked his eyes on Canin’s. “Sorry, man. That was a sincere compliment. I wasn’t trying to put the moves on your woman or hint at the swinging offer again.” “Relax.” Canin thwacked Jeff on the shoulder without pausing to think, his only instinct to settle the look of horror in the other man’s eyes. “I didn’t think you were trying anything. I like a man who is smart enough to see how sexy Kasey is, even if I don’t want him to touch her. If I ever think you cross the line, believe me, you won’t wonder if that’s the thought in my head. You’ll be too busy dislodging my fist from your face.” Jeff chuckled. “Fair enough, man. Fair enough.” Lindsey snorted, and turned a twinkling gaze on Kasey. “What do you think?” she asked. “Should we just hand them the end of our hair and let them drag us back to their caves?” “Don’t know. Can’t think for myself. Didn’t realize I was allowed to.” Kasey latched on to Canin’s arm and turned big, blinking eyes up to him. “My Lord, might I be allowed to have a thought of my own and share it with my friend?” Canin growled, snagged Kasey right up against his front, and dug his fingers into her soft hips to keep her close. “You want me to take you right here and prove that little dig about ownership correct?” Right now, he didn’t give a shit about the show they had to put on, or the job, or what a single damn person in this club thought of him. Except Kasey. Nothing else existed for him in this moment but her. He put his mouth to her ear, and whispered roughly, “I’d be damned happy to spread your legs right now and prove you have a pussy, and that I’m the one with the cock.” She pulled back and caught his gaze. Licking the edge of her lip, she said, “And here I thought you liked what I did with my dick earlier.” She ran the tip of her finger along the line of his jaw, and got as close to outright flirting with him, or anyone, as Canin had ever witnessed. “Your ass begged for --” He couldn’t hold back the moan of need. Swooping down, he captured her mouth under his and stole the rest of her thought. Her gasp of surprise let him inside, and Canin hardened in his pants on the sweetness of her taste. She darted the tip of her tongue against his and licked, almost tentatively, and Canin grabbed it with his teeth and started to suck. Holy fuck, he liked this teasing, flirty Kasey. Easygoing, loose, and open: such a very different side from the cool, intense woman he often saw at work. Both pieces of this

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complicated woman intrigued Canin and stirred his juices, and made him want to hold her all night in his arms, just as much as fuck her until she couldn’t walk. Right now, he really, really wanted the fucking. Canin slid his hands around Kasey’s back to support her, and started back-walking them to the door. “Let’s get out of here.” They didn’t have anything to grab, and couldn’t consult with Rhone and Adam while in the club anyway. “I swear to God I need inside you, right now.” “Wait. Stop.” Kasey tore her mouth away from his and danced out of his arms. She wrapped her fingers around the edge of his suit jacket and kept them somewhat connected, even if Canin could feel her hands trembling against his stomach. “G-good-byes.” Her voice stammered. He also saw the tightness at the edges of the smile she forced to her lips. Damn. Something he’d done made her nervous, and that made Canin want to growl and bark for entirely different reasons than arousal. “We didn’t say our good-byes.” Shit. Canin looked around, having completely forgotten about Jeff and Lindsey the second Kasey teased him. Catching them paused by the arch that led to the exit, Canin lifted his hand and waved, his cheeks heating as he did it. Jeff nodded his head, a knowing “I’ve been there, man” smile on his lips. Lindsey lifted her hand, thumb and pinky finger pointed outward, and put it against her ear. Independently, Canin and Kasey both nodded, automatically agreeing to the phone call. Damn it. This went so beyond the realms of professional behavior that Canin knew he would end up regretting it. The couple left, and Canin muttered, “Fuck, I just know they’re going to end up being our stalkers.” “Think of it like this,” Kasey said. “If they are, then dinner will allow us to get into their house and find something to confirm our suspicions. If we can do that, maybe we can convince one of the victims to come forward and make a statement.” Canin caught the flash of shadow darken Kasey’s eyes for a moment, and his chest hurt. “That’s not why you agreed to dinner, though, is it?” Drawing her suit coat around her body, as if cold, she said, “No.” “Me either.” Canin swore under his breath again. He had fucking forgotten how much he hated undercover work. Felt like a fucking Peeping Tom most of the time. Moreover, being in this sex club, everyone around them -- he and Kasey included -- doing things he considered intensely private, ratcheted up Canin’s sudden distaste for this job about another hundred notches. “You know what? I’ve had enough of this for tonight. We’ve met as many people as we can without rousing suspicion. Let’s go home. We’ll regroup for tomorrow.” “Sounds good.” Kasey let him put his arm around her as they left the club, but Canin didn’t for one second forget the way she tensed in his arms when he kissed her.

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Another secret. Or maybe the same one. Either way, she would tell it to him, and everything else going on in that complicated head of hers too.

***** Kasey stared up at the ceiling, her mind a jumble of fast-moving topics and thoughts that wouldn’t let her settle down and sleep. She conceded that the insomnia might have a little something to do with the big man sleeping next to her. Every time she closed her eyes, she pictured him rolling over on her and crowding her with his proximity and size. Canin pushed the boundaries of Kasey’s comfort with his everyday touching and playing under normal circumstances; ever since the start of this sex club investigation, she battled a constant state of nerves and panic that she would slip up and do something irreversibly stupid and ruin her relationship with him, and in the process, Rhone and Adam too. She had built a good life for herself here in Chicago with these men, and the thought of starting all over again somewhere else… Kasey shivered. “Can’t sleep either, huh?” Canin’s rich voice cut through the silence, and threw Kasey’s heart rate into overdrive. “Thinking about the case.” Kasey gave a partial truth. Fact was, if not for this case, she wouldn’t have this man in bed next to her stirring up old nightmares and disturbing her peace and sleep. “And how complicated this investigation could become. Not everyone on our list of suspects saw us perform tonight.” Aside from Frank and Lora whom they knew of firsthand, a conference call with Rhone and Adam after they got home confirmed one other couple had not gone into the viewing room to watch her and Canin perform. Hugh and Amanda Chalmers were in attendance at the club, but had not gone into the viewing area of the TWL room. “I worry that we’re not doing enough or setting the right trap, and this couple could go after someone else. We just don’t have enough information for me to have confidence in the way we’re going about this investigation.” “I don’t like that the odds aren’t heavily stacked in our favor either.” Canin’s confession rocked through Kasey, and she rolled onto her side, searching her partner for signs of placating or condescension. He just stared up at the ceiling, the way she had done a moment ago, and that settled Kasey’s hackles. Canin had more experience and a few years on her, but Kasey hated nothing more than someone pandering to her. Even if he thought he was being nice. “But I don’t see as we have a lot of choice without violating the confidentiality and rights of the victims,” Canin went on, frustration lacing his voice. “Until one of them agrees to publicly identify and file a report with the police, we won’t gain anything in our investigation by going to the authorities and reporting what we know. Maybe I’ll give Logan a call.” He mentioned a homicide detective friend of his. “Just to feel out what he thinks, but keep it all very general.”

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“Just be very careful,” Kasey answered. “I don’t want to out these victims and turn them into public spectacles.” “Maybe Adam will have some luck getting one of the victims to come forward,” Canin said, a wishful tone in his voice. So far, two of the four couples had agreed to a meeting with Adam, on the condition that he could use whatever information they had to share in order to aid in Quinn’s investigation. If it went to law enforcement, the couples promised they would disavow any knowledge of said conversations. “He’s good at getting people to listen to him. His ability to empathize with those in pain might help them see the wisdom in pressing charges too.” Yeah, if Adam had been a friend twenty years ago, Kasey might be an entirely different person than she was today. Slipping backward in time, the sudden scrape of concrete cutting into her bare back dug into all of Kasey’s senses, leaving her chilled. She remembered the pressure of the shove that rolled her over onto her stomach, and then the same cutting roughness against her breasts, shoulders, and belly, rubbing her flesh raw. The pull on her hair, the sting so rough Kasey cried out with it, clamped a fist around her throat and made breathing a difficult thing. None of that could touch the terror, the horror, the wailing pain that came with the tearing, the filling -“Hey, you okay?” Canin’s voice, and the touch of his fingers brushing her hair behind her ear, jerked Kasey back into the moment. Canin lay on his side as well now, his eyes fully trained on her. “You looked like you went to a different place for a minute there. I don’t like the little layer of perspiration I see coating you skin.” His hand trailed down her bare arm, and Kasey shivered. Right now though, she didn’t know if the reaction resulted from residual panic, or attraction she wished with everything in her didn’t exist for this man. “I’m fine.” Kasey didn’t know how she looked right into Canin’s pale, piercing eyes as she told that out-and-out lie, but somehow, she did. “But I know this case is going to take it out of both of us, so I think we should try and get some sleep.” She rolled over, desperate to get away from Canin’s probing stare. She couldn’t afford to let him see her with old memories playing havoc inside her. “See you in the morning. Good night.” Kasey held her breath, and didn’t let it out until Canin said, “’Night, Kase.” The mattress shifted under her, and she knew he at least rolled onto his back again, if not onto his side in the other direction. As much as she hated it, and could still feel the need for connection between her thighs, Kasey knew the distance they kept between them was for the best. Canin didn’t have any idea that her tying him up at the club tonight didn’t have anything to do with the bondage room they needed to use in order to catch this stalker couple. He didn’t know that Kasey tied up every man she fucked. She couldn’t have sex any other way.

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Chapter Nine Kasey leaned against the windowsill and stared out at the rooftop of the apartment directly across from hers. Spring flowers were in bloom, and a riot of pinks, yellows, reds, and greens took over the well-kept garden that grew high off the ground. An elderly man tended to the plants and flowers daily. Kasey often watched him and wondered if she would get any pleasure out of such a task, as he seemed to do. Nursing a mug of coffee, Kasey let her mind wander to the evening ahead. A second night at the club, which meant more of Canin holding her and kissing her, and more of her touching and teasing him. That was where the real danger in this assignment lay, and Kasey knew it. She had confidence in her ability to fight off a potential attack from this couple they hoped to provoke; she didn’t know how long she could maintain a successful distance from Canin Quinn. Emotional, much more than physical. The man scared the hell out of her. She could admit that to herself, at least. Everything about him was so damned big, and overwhelming, and intense. At the same time, he took a joke at his own expense without anger. And the way he loved his brother… Damn, Kasey envied that sibling closeness. She didn’t know anything like that in a family. Not anymore, anyway. Canin had a ridiculously macho, masculine aura about him too, and yet he not only embraced Rhone and Adam as a couple, he was the one who saw the love Rhone had deeply buried inside him for Adam, and came to Kasey with the challenge to play matchmaker and get them together. Canin did it because he wanted to see his brother happy, and if another man would do that, then that’s what Canin wanted for Rhone. Kasey suddenly rubbed her neck, feeling the hairs there stand on end, and knew her partner was no longer asleep. A moment later, Canin moved in beside her, Zin tucked under his arm. “Pretty view,” he murmured, his gaze following hers to the garden-covered rooftop.

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“People don’t usually give up places in charming neighborhoods like this once they take ownership. How’d you find it?” “A weird stroke of luck,” Kasey admitted. The midmorning sun shining in through the glass, and the smell of early morning rain still seeping into the loft through the open windows, lulled Kasey to a place of comfort she rarely experienced around other people. “When I used to work for Templeton and Sons” -- she named the PI firm she did reception, computer, and apprentice work at before coming to Quinn Security -- “I used to have lunch in this little park at the same time, same place, pretty much every day. One day, I see this older woman sitting by herself, and then I see her again, and again. After about a week, I was like ‘well, she’s sitting alone, and I’m sitting alone’ and thought maybe she would like some company. I struck up a conversation with her and listened to her tell all of these great stories about growing up here in Chicago. I don’t know if the crazy things she told me were true or not, but I could see that she liked telling them, and I didn’t mind listening. We did that five days a week for almost two years, and then one day she up and tells me that she has decided to move to Florida, and would I like her apartment? I knew where she lived by then, even if I hadn’t ever seen it. I knew I couldn’t afford it, and told her so. That’s when she said, ‘No, dear, I don’t want to sell it to you. I want to give it to you.’” Kasey had to stop for a moment. Almost nine years later, and it still formed a lump in her throat when thinking about Virginia Pace. Canin reached out and rubbed the nape of her neck, his warmth against her chill generating a shiver. “You were kind to a lonely woman when she obviously needed it,” he said. “She wanted to reward you for it.” “I wouldn’t let her just give it to me.” Kasey scratched Zin behind the ears, needing to busy her hands. “That didn’t seem right. She turned ownership over to me for a ridiculous five-thousand-dollar check, and then for the rest of her life, until she died a year ago, I sent her something, whatever I could afford, depending on my income at the time. Upon the reading of her will, her lawyer contacted me and told me Virginia -- that was her name -had left me something.” Kasey blinked hard to keep the wetness from shining in her eyes. “Damned stubborn woman cashed every check I sent her, but never spent a penny. She willed me, to the penny, every dollar I paid her over the years for this place.” “You needed your pride, and she allowed you to have that.” Canin’s voice, so low and gravelly, stroked through Kasey like a rough caress. “But at the same time, she needed to give you this gift as a thank-you for your friendship to her over the years.” “It was no hardship.” Kasey twisted out of Canin’s hand on her neck, needing air and room to move. “Virginia was an interesting, quirky woman.” Pacing the length of the apartment, Kasey fought the instinct to keep on walking until she went right out the door. What in the hell compelled me to tell Canin such a secret, special part of my life? One of the only special moments, really. She could never tell him that passing the interview process for Quinn Security, and them bringing her into their company as a full partner, were the others. “It was my privilege to know Virginia for the brief time that I did.”

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“My grandmother was a special woman like that,” Canin said softly, drawing Kasey’s attention from across the room. This time, Canin stared out the window, his mind looking like it took him a thousand miles away. Kasey didn’t know much about Canin’s grandmother, other than she had raised Canin and Rhone, and that she passed away a little over two years ago. “For the longest time, I didn’t appreciate that she gave up her own life to come and take care of me and Rhone all those years ago. I was so angry that my mother was gone and that my father ran away, instead of pulling himself together and raising his two sons that needed him. My father wasn’t around to yell at, though, so I took it out on my grandmother. I constantly questioned her and mouthed off to her, and I tried to protect Rhone, even from her. Didn’t much work. He took to her raising us so easily that I got jealous of that too and was afraid I would lose Rhone to her. It was like a competition for me, and I wanted Rhone to love and depend on me, because I knew that I would never go away and leave us alone. I couldn’t be sure about anything else. I was such a little shit. She never let me get away with it, but she also never stooped to my level and shamed me about my behavior. She didn’t have to.” Canin’s chuckle came across like sandpaper against wood. “I did that to myself.”

Don’t, don’t, don’t, let yourself care about this man any more than you already do. “I’m sure your grandmother understood that the ground wasn’t very firm under your feet during that time, and that you needed to test her to see if she would leave you too.” “Yeah.” Canin shrugged. “I still didn’t like the way I treated her, though. It wasn’t right, and it wasn’t the behavior of a man.” “Well, you weren’t a man,” Kasey said. She moved back to his side, the pull toward him too strong to sever. “You were a boy. And a scared one at that, I’m sure.” “My troublemaking went on for too long.” Canin put the cat down and linked his fingers behind his neck, lifting his gaze to the ceiling. “I was only five when she came to us, and it wasn’t until I was fifteen that I snapped out of my anger enough to see myself through her eyes. There aren’t enough ‘I’m sorrys’ to make up for nearly ten years of attitude, back talk, and ignoring rules and curfews to replace the heartache and worry I put her through.” Her heart hammering, and her head screaming No! Kasey lifted her hand and cupped the hard angle of Canin’s stubble-rough cheek and jaw. “She must have done well enough to get through to you, even when you didn’t know it.” The huskiness in her voice betrayed her and brought his gaze down to hers. “Other than Adam, I don’t know two men finer than you and Rhone. That had to come from somewhere.” “Thank you.” Canin’s voice caught, and for a moment his torment slipped through his eyes to her, piercing her in the heart. In a flash, he snaked his hand around her neck and hauled her against his chest, his heart racing so fast she couldn’t feel her own against the pounding slamming through him. “Thank you.” Intent and need flared his pupils and shrank the pale blue of his irises to almost nothing as his lips descended to hers. He paused for just a second, connecting to her through shared breath and a stare, and then closed the distance, latching his hungry mouth onto hers. His hand squeezed reflexively around her neck, and he

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pushed his way inside, stealing a deep, hard kiss, seeming to feed off her with quiet desperation. Moaning, she clung to his waist, her fingers digging into hard, hot flesh beneath the layer of one thin T-shirt. He tasted like toothpaste and molten lava, cool and hot at the same time. His tongue swept along the length of hers, twisting together briefly, primal in a way that rumbled a groan throughout the length of his big, hard body plastered to hers. Canin slid his hand down Kasey’s back and cupped her ass, yanking her hard against his groin and grinding. A little streak of instinctual panic raced through Kasey and made her squeak. Canin swore and tore his hand and lips off her with a heave to his chest. “I’m going to go for a run,” he said abruptly, stepping away. Just like that, he swiped his keys off the coffee table, never looking back as he let himself out of the apartment. Kasey slid down the wall to a bundle on the floor, her legs suddenly not nearly as steady as ten minutes ago. “He’s just as scared as I am,” she whispered, stunned that she had never even considered vulnerability in Canin before now. He presented such a strong, yet at the same time easygoing, image that Kasey had never noticed a crack in his armor of cool confidence. Never once had she thought anything about Canin’s persona or behavior might hide a less than completely together person beneath the surface. Canin was human. Shit. Kasey could fight perfection and invulnerability in Canin Quinn without any problems, and had been doing so with relative ease since the moment they met. A real man, though, a little bit broken, like her, Kasey didn’t know how to erect a wall thick enough and tall enough to keep this new Canin out of her heart. Her fingers shook as she covered her face. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

***** Canin ran to keep the memories at bay. This morning, he did it as a way to bottle up all the stories of his past that he had almost spilled to Kasey, right there in her living room, no prompting from her at all. Canin knew he had no right to burden Kasey with his pathetic childhood hurts, not after having gleaned that she had something big in her past that would put his pain to shame. He wanted to know her secrets, but he didn’t need to give up his own in return. His were just stupid, while he sensed hers were life changing. For all of Kasey’s prickly behavior toward him, Canin knew she had a giant, giving heart buried deeply within her that she let very few people ever see. He wanted to know why. Canin knew the basics of Kasey’s life: born in a northern Minnesota mining town, and that her family still lived there -- although Kasey never visited them. She shared only that when she graduated from high school, she left Minnesota and never went back. She told them nothing more personal than that, and Quinn had a policy of not investigating employees beyond their work history and criminal background. Templeton and Sons hired her on as a receptionist/gofer at age nineteen, where she steadily but slowly worked her way

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to an apprenticeship with Templeton himself while going to a community college at night. Kasey stayed with them for almost eight years, until Templeton retired. Kasey never spoke ill of her former employers in her interview, but Canin suspected she interviewed with Canin and Rhone for placement of a junior private investigator with a business degree because Templeton’s sons didn’t respect her abilities the way the old man had. It didn’t take Canin and Rhone long to see Kasey’s skill and intelligence, and not much after that to offer her a partnership at the same time they decided to present one to Adam. In all of Canin’s flirtatious bickering and teasing with Kasey over the years, never once had he thought that he would tell her his secrets, in the way he had confessed to that little bit about his grandmother a short while ago. Other than being a wretched little snot for most of his childhood, Canin didn’t worry about what he had told Kasey regarding his behavior as a kid. He didn’t think she would hate him or anything. It was the fact that he’d told her at all, that he hadn’t even considered “should I tell her this?” but had simply done it because it felt so damn natural and right to share with her. That feeling terrified Canin. He had never been with a woman and had the thought “this is exactly where I should be for the rest of my life.” Right there, standing side by side at the window with Kasey and her cat, those very words resonated in Canin’s brain, and quickly raced down to his heart…and then his cock. The kiss put Canin off-kilter even more. Kasey liked kissing him; Canin knew enough about women and chemistry to feel her responses and know the truth in that. He also paid close enough attention to this particular woman that he tasted the fear mixed in with the sweetness in her mouth, and felt the hesitation in her body before she let herself move into him and respond. There was a tightly wound desperation and a continual push and pull that wreaked havoc on every sexual move Kasey allowed herself to make with him -- except for in the TWL room last night, where she seemed to let go and enjoy the raw sexuality of the moment.

Where she was in full control of me. Damn it. Childhood sexual abuse immediately popped into Canin’s head. He growled right on the street, wanting to demand the truth and then go take Kasey’s father apart, piece by painful piece. It made sense. Leaving home at eighteen, never going back to visit, not even on the holidays. No contact with the mother, either. She might have been aware of what her husband did, but chose to look the other way. Must not be any siblings, because Kasey wouldn’t leave a brother or sister in harm’s way; he knew that without having to ask. Pair that tangible fear with the little involuntary jerks and pulls Kasey’s body made when Canin touched her -- something obviously beyond her ability to stifle. A sure sign that someone had crossed the line with her personal space that affected her to this day.

Stop it. Canin quickly reined in the direction of his thoughts. He had no proof of his theory, other than a lot of little, separate things that, when added together, seemed to point in one direction.

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Canin suddenly sprinted and ran harder, letting the soles of his sneakers pound into the ground beneath him, taking him away from Kasey’s apartment with a seizing pain in his chest that had nothing to do with shortness of breath from exercise. Everything in Canin wanted to race back to Kasey and demand answers so that he could right a wrong on her behalf and slay her dragon. Canin’s heart and gut wanted nothing more than that. His head, however, knew better and thankfully won out. Kasey needed to trust him so that she could tell him her secrets in her own time. If he pushed, he knew he would lose her forever. Canin kept running, away from Kasey’s apartment, and gave her space. He had never done anything more difficult in his life.

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Chapter Ten Making their way into the viewing area, Kasey steeled herself to remain cool and indifferent, no matter what she saw play out on the other side of the mirrors. She reminded herself that tonight they had to get close to Hugh and Amanda Chalmers, the one couple on their suspect list they had yet to personally meet. Adam and Rhone had already made contact with a handful of other couples, and their staff was already hard at work on background checks and surveillance for all of the suspected couples and potential future victims. For Kasey and Canin, they had one job: draw the attention of these perpetrators and incite an attack. Canin rode Kasey’s back like a second layer of skin, as he had done all night since entering the club. Even Lindsey commented on it, and the woman had only known them for twenty-four hours. If she thought his behavior odd, then surely others had noticed it as well. With his hand on her hip, Canin nudged Kasey in the direction of their target for the duration of the upcoming sex show. Tall and sophisticated, Amanda Chalmers wore her auburn hair in a stylish, angled bob cut, perfectly accenting her incredible cheekbones and wide, rosy mouth. Her black wrap dress hugged her curves as if it had been tailor-made for her tall, slender figure, which it probably had. Her husband, Hugh, put Kasey in mind of an austere lawyer of days gone by, such as Atticus Finch from her favorite book as a teen, To Kill a Mockingbird. With light brown hair precisely combed and graying at the temples, and his impeccable single-breasted suit, Kasey thought Hugh Chalmers seemed like a guy who would view physically attacking someone as beneath him and not worth his valuable time. She knew she couldn’t trust the visual, and that elegant-looking men charmed women all the time, only to then become violent and ugly.

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Canin squeezed Kasey’s hip again and tried to get her moving, but she pulled up short and rounded on him, stopping him in his pushy tracks. Canin snapped his gaze from their suspects and drilled in on her. “What?” He slid his hand up her hip to her waist and then curled around her side to her lower back. His fingertips rubbed a soothing circle into the soft skin there, and Kasey shivered as a zing of awareness shot straight to her sex. God, when had that spot become so sensitive? He stroked some more, and Kasey’s legs turned unsteady on three-inch high-heeled boots. Immediately, Canin gripped her more firmly, and his pale gaze darkened to the colors of a glacier. “Are you okay?”

What in the hell? Why is he behaving this way, as if I might collapse into an incompetent puddle at any minute? Lifting up on her tiptoes, Kasey leaned into Canin and put her mouth to his ear, sending loverlike signals to everyone around them. “What is wrong with you, dearest?” Honey had nothing on the sweetness in Kasey’s voice, but Canin knew her well enough that he stiffened against her, picking right up on her mood. “I will be fine the second you stop treating me like an ineffectual little girl whose hand you need to hold to ensure that I don’t do anything stupid. Back off, Canin. You’re acting like a bear protecting his food and are scaring people away from talking to us.” A shadow settled in Canin’s eyes for a long, drawn-out moment, and he stared at her as if he didn’t quite see her. His hand curled into a tight fist at her back, and a visible tic worked his jaw before he stepped back and gave her a foot of space between them. “Sorry.” He leaned down and brushed a quick kiss across her upturned mouth. Lingering, with his lips pressed against her cheek, he kept his voice soft. “I don’t like the predatory way some of these guys look at you, and I have a hard time pretending otherwise.” Kasey shivered. She didn’t know if it came from the protector instincts in Canin, apparently kicking into play on her behalf, or the fact that he pointed out a truth that made her sweat every time she thought about it too deeply. Her skin crawled a little bit at the way some of the patrons of the club openly ogled her, even as she knew she needed it to happen if they hoped to catch the interest of their attackers. Most of the men were like Jeff and pulled off the heat when Canin and Kasey told them they didn’t hook up with other couples or do group parties. A few of the men, however, proved stubborn and seemed to move well past stripping her naked in their minds. Some of the guys looked at her as if they had her spread open on the floor of the club, alternating between pounding their erections into her pussy and shoving that same length down her throat. A handful of them exchanged glances every once in a while in a way that made Kasey think they shared in fantasies such as this, with multiple men going at one woman in turns, or even at the same time. A split second of black panic reared up in Kasey, hazing her vision, and she trembled again.

No. No. Don’t let your mind go to that place. Kasey knew how to defend herself against an attack. She quickly listed all the self-defense courses she had taken since leaving Minnesota, not to mention the weapons training she had received at the urging of Simon Templeton, her mentor. She also reminded herself that this was a sex club, and that some

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women enjoyed having more than one man focused on her sexual needs at the same time. Just because she couldn’t even have one man on top of her, let alone contemplate voluntarily welcoming two male bodies sandwiching hers, didn’t mean some of the other women in this club didn’t get a lot of pleasure out of a pairing such as that. “Look alive.” Canin pulled Kasey out of her pep talk to herself, and jerked his head in the direction of Hugh and Amanda Chalmers. “Our couple just took a seat at a table that has two chairs free. Let’s get them before someone else snaps them up.” Canin laced his fingers with Kasey’s and got them moving, clearly back into the work zone. Coming to a stop at a black bistro-style table, Canin paused, waiting a heartbeat for Hugh to glance up from his glass of wine. “Mind if we sit with you?” he asked, but showed enough alpha dog tendencies to wrap his hand around the back of one chair and begin to tug it out without permission. “The viewing area is starting to get crowded, and we’ve been told Frank and Lora always fill the room.” Isobel was a smart businesswoman. She didn’t pack patrons into the viewing area like sardines, but she did allow a big enough crowd that it would break a claustrophobic person out into hives. Overpriced drinks and conversation were the only things to do in this area while waiting for the show to begin, and Kasey imagined Ms. Binoche saw the viewing room as an expensive holding pen. Kasey always thought the woman very shrewd and clever, even if her choice of business left Kasey cold. “Please.” Hugh stood up as Kasey took her seat, welcoming them with a wave of his arm toward the empty chairs. “Hugh Chalmers.” The dignified-looking man reached his hand across the table to Canin, exchanging a brief shake as Canin shared his name. “Good to meet you, Canin,” Hugh added. As he sat down, he slid his arm across the back of his wife’s seat. “Let me introduce my wife, Amanda.” Canin introduced Kasey, and everyone said hello and shook hands. The strength in Amanda’s handshake took Kasey by surprise. The woman exerted an almost dominating squeeze around Kasey’s fingers, as if she battled for the position of top dog. Interesting. Kasey backed off the hold first and let Amanda piss and mark her territory. Better not to threaten the woman by twisting her hand with a simple defense move and taking Amanda to her knees in a complete reversal of power. “I haven’t seen you before,” Amanda began, her voice turning the air around them just a tad frosty. “Are you new to the club?” “Very,” Kasey answered. “This is our first week.” She paused for a moment and let her gaze drift to Canin and hold. His pupils dilated, and through the lift of his flat belly, she noticed his breathing shift, and that thickened hers too. “But we like it.” She looked him up and down boldly, for the first time in their acquaintance unworried about being caught staring with appreciation in her eye. Canin’s features had a harsh, almost brutal beauty to them that warmed Kasey’s blood…and skittered nervousness in her heart. His overwhelming size, even when sitting, turned her throat tight and dry, even as she knew he would never

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use his strength to hurt her. “I think we’ll be here quite a lot.” An unintentional purr laced Kasey’s words. Holy hell, that noise had never come from her body before. She cleared the thickness from her throat and tried again. “What about you, honey?” Canin took her hand from the table, turned it upright in the heat of his, and kissed the tip of each finger. “Definitely,” he murmured. He dipped the tip of his tongue out and swirled a tiny circle against the heart of her palm, and Kasey swore she felt the pattern coil down through her stomach and pull a tug of need from her sex. The walls of her pussy fluttered, and right there, she creamed her panties. She sucked in a small breath of surprise. No one had ever teased a hint of desire out of her with so little effort. Canin caught her tiny response and turned the most wicked smile she had ever seen on her, and then to Hugh and Amanda. “Seven years of marriage, and my wife still tempts me like no other,” Canin said, his tone so matter-of-fact it almost made Kasey a believer in their nuptials too. “I know what you mean,” Hugh answered. His focus drifted to his wife. Kasey watched closely and saw a spark flash in Hugh’s eyes, as well as an almost imperceptible mashing of his teeth. If Amanda saw her husband’s reaction, she gave no indication in her body language. She had two fingers elegantly propped against her jaw and sent her gaze around the room, studying one table at a time. Hugh’s already dark eyes deepened to black. “They do know how to get under your skin and never let go, don’t they?”

Ah, potential trouble in sophisticated paradise. Could be something worth watching and having someone at Quinn investigate further. Kasey didn’t need to signal Canin to see if he saw what she did. They had worked together closely for a lot of years, and she didn’t have to look at him fully to see how his torso shifted upright just a bit, and that he uncrossed his legs from his casual position and planted his thick-soled shoes flat against the flooring. It wasn’t much, but if he were a Brittany spaniel on a foxhunt, his body would be locked into position and his tail would be straight out on end. The man sensed blood, and he merely waited for the okay from his superior to flush out the prey and put it in the line of fire. Kasey searched for a leading question that wouldn’t sound intrusive, but before she could find it, Amanda Chalmers’s face lit up, wiping away the ennui she conveyed to the room so effectively. Kasey’s attention quickly shifted to Hugh, and noticed his teeth gnashing some more. Brett Kinsey strolled up to the table and pressed a kiss to Amanda’s cheek, and Kasey quickly understood. He’s jealous. Maybe Kasey was naive, but she figured one who frequented a sex club probably shouldn’t spend too much time indulging in jealousy. To her, it would be a sign that the man didn’t have a personality suitable for the lifestyle. “Amanda, Hugh” -- Brett shared a lazy smile with the group as he stuck his hands into his trouser pockets in the most casual of stances -- “it has been a while.” “Too long, darling.” Amanda put Kasey’s purr to shame. “Give me a call, and we’ll set something up.” From the knuckle-whitening hold Hugh put on his wife’s chair, Kasey didn’t think the man liked his wife issuing that invitation one bit.

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“Will do.” Brett’s hazel gaze shifted Canin and Kasey’s way, and the smile somehow grew even cheekier. “No introductions needed on your end,” Brett said. “I caught your show last night.” His focus drifted to Canin, lingered, and then came back to Kasey, holding just as long. “Very nice. If you ever want to make good on that reward you issued to your husband last night -- or was it a threat? -- I would love to participate. Keep me in mind.” Kasey’s mind raced through everything that happened during their show last night. Oh. OH. That bit -- “I might let you have a real one some day” -- she’d said to Canin right before she penetrated him. A surprising wave of ownership crashed down on Kasey, and she wanted nothing so much as to shift her chair and hide Canin from Brett Kinsey’s appreciative gaze. Didn’t even matter that he looked at her with the same burning interest. She had only one thought in her head. Nobody touches Canin but me. “Thank you, but --” The lights in the viewing area suddenly dimmed, and the smooth mechanical whir of the black curtains peeling back from the windows hushed the murmurs of conversation in the room. Brett circled their table, out of the way, and leaned against the wall behind them. Kasey couldn’t focus on him, and she could barely keep half her brain tuned to the couple sharing their table. Not with the sight on the other side of the glass filling her vision and popping all the hairs up along the back of her neck and down her arms. Lora Kinsey, gloriously naked, her body still model perfect, captured Kasey’s full attention. Lora stood chained in an X formation, her arms above her head attached to cuffs bolted into the ceiling, and her legs spread wide, her feet encased in red high heels and her ankles shackled to the floor. Her husband wore black leather pants and heavy biker boots, his thick, hairless barrel chest bare. No bed on the dais in the room tonight, just the nightstand with a lineup of toys sitting on top, and a knotted-tip cat-o’-nine-tails in Frank Kinsey’s hand.

Crack! Frank snapped the whip’s tails across his wife’s buttocks, and Lora jerked in her restraints, crying out as the leather made contact with her golden skin. Right there, a rush of adrenaline overtook Kasey, and she almost passed out.

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Chapter Eleven Whack! Lora Kinsey’s body arched forward, pulling against the restraints as the tails of the whip made biting contact with her back. The sting of the hit reverberated in the viewing area, and a tremor shot through Kasey, chilling her skin. Kasey watched the bound woman take another lashing, this time across the firm cheeks of her ass, and in response, Kasey dug her fingernails into the fleshy part of her palms to keep from crying out herself. As much as the scene horrified her to watch, Kasey forced herself to stay rooted to her chair, knowing she couldn’t get up and leave. She had a job to do. A scraping sound reached Kasey’s ears over Lora’s moans through the speakers, and a moment later, Canin had his hand linked loosely to hers and his mouth on her ear. “I’m sure she has a safe word, Kase. Don’t forget that.” He kept his voice so soft that Kasey almost had to interpret his words rather than hear them. Somehow, in the darkness, he had picked up on her discomfort. Fuck. “It’s no different than what you did to me. I trusted you not to cross a line, just like I’m sure Lora Kinsey trusts her husband not to step over hers.” Humiliation burned through Kasey, taking over the sickness in her stomach and the dizziness rushing to her head. Damn it, she didn’t want this man seeing her shortcomings. She needed him to view her as his partner and equal, not someone whose hand he had to hold through a job. “Harder, Sir. Oh, please, please.” The woman in the TWL room practically sobbed for the beating. “Harder.” Lora’s begging drew Kasey back to the play on the other side of the glass. Frank cracked the whip across Lora’s reddened back once more, to her moaning, obvious delight. “Damn it, just look at her.” A male voice from behind pulled Kasey into the awe in his words. Brett Kinsey. He whistled low, and while Kasey could only see out of the corner of her eye, she thought the man rubbed his cock through his dress pants. “Look at the way her

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sweet body responds to his discipline. Look at the lust she can’t keep out of her eyes and the juices she can’t keep inside her hot little pussy. She is magic.” Kasey glanced down, and sure enough, Lora’s inner thighs shone with the moisture of her excitement. Traveling back up the length of the chained woman’s body, Kasey saw nipples beaded tight with pleasure, a passion-red mouth panting with clear desire, and brown eyes burning bright with what Kasey could only define as drugged lust. Frank moved around Lora’s shackled body. He let the ends of the whip slide over the toned shape of her hip and thigh, and then moved some more until he brushed the braids of the tail over the smooth, shaved mound of her sex. Frank teased that bare, sensitive area of flesh on his wife’s body, using gentle, almost loving, soft caresses of the leather over her skin, drawing whimpers and little jerks of motion from the chained body in front of him. “We’re so, so wet, aren’t we?” Frank shifted his hold on the whip and slipped the thick handle between his wife’s spread thighs. Back and forth, he moved the handhold over Lora’s swollen labia, transferring so much moisture that the whip handle soon glistened with Lora’s bodily secretions, catching the light of the chandelier in the room. “My pretty pussy loves the feel of the leather leaving marks on her perfect body, doesn’t she?” “Yes, Sir.” With her limited mobility, Lora writhed over the whip handle that teased her cunt, clearly struggling to grab even more pleasure than Frank allowed her to feel. “Your pretty pussy loves to feel your brand on her even when you’re not with her.” “Breathe, my pet.” Frank leaned his weight into his wife’s body and forced her head to the side until she faced him. “Prepare yourself to take it,” he said, and then shoved the whip handle deep into Lora’s pussy. Lora cried out, “Oh, yes, yes!” and convulsed in front of everyone as her body eagerly accepted the fucking. Frank didn’t let up; he twisted the huge, cock-shaped object within Lora’s body, to her obvious delight. He pushed the handle even farther inside her channel, leaving only the nine braided tails visible, dangling from her cunt. Lora stared at her husband through glazed eyes, panting, her fingers gripping the chains so hard Kasey felt certain she would have cuts on her palms come the morning. Lora seemed glued to Frank, and every time he withdrew the long length of hard leather and then forced it all the way back into her vagina Lora keened and bucked on the invasion. Frank watched his wife just as intently as she did him, and Kasey couldn’t swear it, but she thought he took his cues from Lora, even though it appeared as if Frank dominated her completely. He leaned in and took Lora’s mouth with a thorough, hot-as-hell kiss, and Kasey started with a gasp as her sex squeezed deep inside, milking, but getting no cock for all of its clenching. Oh, no. Not possible. This could not arouse her. No. This restrained and at the mercy of a man -- made Kasey nauseated Nevertheless, right there where she sat, Kasey watched Frank kiss throat, lingering on the trail down her breastbone, each touch or

scenario -- a woman and her skin crawl. his way down Lora’s lick from his tongue

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patient, as if he worshipped every inch of his wife’s flesh, not just her orifices. Taking his time, Frank eventually captured one of Lora’s perfect, uptilted breasts and suckled it, drawing the large dusky nipple between his teeth and tugging, manipulating the tip until it stood out at stark attention like a tiny dick. In accordance with Frank’s sucking, Kasey felt her own nipples tighten under her blouse and shoot a tight line of sensation straight down to her weeping sex.

Oh God, I don’t understand. How can acts such as these turn me on? Kasey felt as if her body betrayed her, but even as she felt that, she couldn’t look away. Frank rendered the same thorough ministration to Lora’s other tit, leaving it hard and begging for more too. Lora pulled against the chains holding her arms stretched high above her head, her sleek, feminine muscles contracting and releasing with each sip her husband took from her perspiring body as he made his way down her quivering belly to her mound. “Hold it in tight, my pretty pussy,” Frank murmured. Before Kasey could determine his meaning, Frank let go of the whip handle still buried inside his wife’s sex. He used his now free hands to peel her open and unearth her clit. The shiny red pearl of sensitive nerve endings stood out at attention, reaching for contact. Frank latched his lips over the poking nub and took it into his mouth. “Ahh, ahh, yes, Sir, yes, Sir. Eat your pretty pussy…” The chains rattled as Lora gripped them tight, lifting right up onto the toes of her high-heeled shoes. Her legs locked straight, straining her long, lean thighs as she struggled to accept the pleasure her husband wreaked on her, while also doing as Frank had instructed and holding the blunt end of the whip inside her body. Frank ate of his wife with open enthusiasm, creating little grunting sounds of his own that put Kasey in mind of a pig sticking his nose into slop and foraging for food. Frank’s hands crept up Lora’s legs while he feasted on his wife’s essence, and when he got to the crease, he grabbed a handful of the dangling leather tails and tied them around her thigh. Never missing a beat, he did the same with the remaining strands around her other thigh, pulling each side tight enough that he effectively secured the makeshift dildo inside Lora’s cunt. Even if the walls of her vagina released the whip handle, it wouldn’t slip more than an inch or so out of her sex before stopping, due to the ties. Lora struggled and tried to spread her legs even farther apart, while at the same time pump forward with her hips for more of her husband’s eager mouth. When that happened, Frank pulled off his wife’s clit, his face covered in Lora’s juices. As he stood, he smacked her mound with a sharp, fast tap from his open hand and then moved behind her to the nightstand. “My pretty pussy has gotten too excited too quickly.” He fondled the length of a long, narrow riding crop, and Kasey swore she saw him shiver. “I have not given her permission to come. Does she need further discipline in order to understand that she must wait until I say it’s okay to flood me with her release?” The tip of the crop slipped between Lora’s thighs from behind and tapped at the exposed end of the whip, jostling the length lodged inside Lora’s body.

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Lora bit her lower lip and squeezed her eyes shut, her muscles flexing tight as Frank teased her inner thighs with the leather tip at the end of the crop. “Yes, Sir.” The woman’s entire body vibrated before everyone’s eyes as Frank took the stimulation away and moved in front of her once again. “Remind me how I am not to come until told.” Frank snapped the crop against Lora’s smooth-shaven mound with three fast smacks, eliciting a yelp from the woman and leaving a red streak on her flesh. Quickly, Frank moved up his wife’s body and issued more quick hits, this time over her belly and torso, to finally her breasts. The contact of the crop grazed Lora’s nipples with a quick flick from his wrist, leaving fast-forming marks in its place. Frank slipped a hand between his wife’s thighs and worked the whip handle in Lora’s pussy, clearly pushing her to the limits of what she could stand.

Because she so obviously loved it, not because she had to endure it. Kasey swallowed and shifted in her seat. She somehow managed to pull her focus off the couple in the TWL room and discreetly put it on Hugh and Amanda Chalmers. Canin squeezed her fingers, and out of the corner of her vision, she saw him use the motion of rubbing his neck to sweep his gaze across the length of this part of the room, searching for reactions from their other suspects. Adam and Rhone worked the room where it turned a corner, taking watch on what she and Canin couldn’t catch. Not that Kasey exactly knew what she hoped to see, or not see, for that matter. Perhaps just something in the eyes, or an exchange of glances that looked suspicious. If something in one of the pairings sparked Quinn Security’s interest this evening and it turned out that one of the couples performing in the TWL room tonight received a harassing call within the next day or so, maybe they would have someone move to the top of their list of suspects. Kasey hoped that wasn’t the case. She didn’t want someone else to get that terrifying call; she wanted to get it herself. She relished the thought of taking down an abuser, even as her heart thudded and told her their chances of catching this guy without the assistance of the victims wasn’t good. Looking at Hugh and Amanda, bile rose from her stomach. Amanda paid little attention to the performance Frank and Lora gave, and even less to her husband. Her glances strayed back to Brett Kinsey more often than she watched the man’s brother work over his wife. Kasey leaned back and planted a soft kiss on Canin’s cheek, letting her lips linger on his warm, stubbly skin so that she could take a look at Brett. The man had his attention locked on the scene in the TWL room. And while he no longer stroked his prick, it did stand out in clear prominence against the front of his loose-fitting slacks. Kasey forced down her shudder. Without having to ask, she knew how uncomfortable it made Canin to know that Rhone had witnessed him in a sexual situation last night. That this man watched his brother with such open appreciation and spoke of his sister-in-law with such intimacy spread icky little shivers down Kasey’s spine.

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She knew she had her own weird issues that would turn other peoples’ stomachs too -Right then, Brett took his focus off his brother and his sister-in-law and dropped it right down to Kasey, stealing the rest of her thought. Piercing, and seeming as if he knew her every thought, Brett didn’t look away. Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm. Kasey swallowed the sour taste in her mouth, but rather than diverting her focus -- after all, he had caught her staring -- she boldly looked right back at Brett and tilted her lips up in a little smile. With deliberate intent, she lowered her focus to his straining erection, watched it twitch against his slacks, and slowly came back up the length of his body. She took her time perusing his physique, which looked pretty darn fit under his clothing. Unfortunately for him, she’d seen Canin naked now, so Brett didn’t stand a chance of exciting her cautious libido. It already terrified her that Canin could. The rattle of chains broke Kasey and Brett’s stare apart and put their interest back on the scene in the bondage room. Little red marks riddled the front of Lora’s body, showing Kasey that she had missed a number of whacks from the crop while silently challenging Brett. Still encircled with cuffs, Lora’s arms now rested at her sides. The small freedom didn’t last long. With a point of the crop, Frank ordered Lora down on her hands and knees. As soon as she did that, he attached her cuffs to bolts in the floor and secured her once again. “I think my pretty pussy needs something to wash out that dirty mouth that speaks without permission,” Frank said. He moved to the corner, grabbed a velvet-covered stool, and set it down in front of his wife’s face. “Does she need it full of cock so that she can’t speak at all?” Lora had her head dropped down in full subservience. Apparently, Kasey had missed something vital in their play while caught in her tug-of-war stare with Brett. Frank tapped Lora’s cheek with the tip of the crop. “You may answer.” “Yes, Sir.” Lora’s face remained hidden. “Your pretty pussy will accept whatever her Dom wants as punishment.” “Very good.” Frank worked open the buckle of his black tooled leather belt, leaving it dangling rather than slipping it out of the loops. The hidden button and zipper came next. Frank peeled back the plackets and pulled out his thick, dark erection. It didn’t have more than an average length, but Kasey had never seen anything so thick in her entire life. Frank held up his cock and spread his legs a little wider, and Kasey saw why. He had a cock ring secured around his penis and testicles. It looked like black leather too. “Come,” Frank ordered. He scooted the stool right up to Lora’s face, not stopping until the fat tip of his prick nudged the top of Lora’s head. “Lift up and open your mouth for me.” Lora did, and Frank had his cock waiting right there for her. Her lips parted, and slipping out of character a little, Frank moaned as he pushed his dick into his wife’s mouth. Lora had to stretch her jaw open wide to allow Frank’s girth inside, and Frank didn’t stop feeding it to her until he had himself buried all the way to the root. Some rustling in the viewing area had Kasey taking a quick look around, and she noticed a number of men

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shifting their legs and adjusting. Huh. Kasey wouldn’t have thought a deep throated blowjob all that big a deal for people who frequented a sex club. Perhaps just the thought of a blowjob -- any kind -- stirred the blood of every red-blooded male. Kasey had the crazy urge to turn around and check out whether Canin sported an erection behind his jeans. Right there, her mouth watered, and she had to stifle the vision of going down on him and offering relief if he did.

What in the hell is this place doing to me? Kasey snapped her attention back to Frank and Lora and forced herself to focus. After all, they were suspects too, even if they turned themselves into potential victims tonight as well. They liked to watch and be watched, as was the case with all the victims and suspects in this case. Lora bobbed her head along her husband’s cock in a pattern that had Frank gritting his teeth. Frank guided the tempo by bracing his hands on the stool and lifting his hips for each penetration. He pulled his cock all the way out of Lora’s mouth each time he dropped back, which seemed to be a signal for her to seal her lips shut. As soon as she did that, Frank nudged the thick head of his prick against the seam and forced her to open back up and take him deep again. Lora sucked in her cheeks and took a long, tight drag on her husband’s erection, drawing a shudder out of the man that made his arms tremble. “Nuh-uh, pet, you’re not getting me that way.” Lowering his butt back down to the stool, Frank dug his hands into his wife’s short tresses and pulled her off his dick. He caressed her tousled hair as he got up and let his palm linger down the length of her bare back, pausing when he reached her buttocks. “Not with the way you’ve been wiggling your ass at me all night, begging for a fuck.” He smacked each cheek, stinging the tormented flesh pink again. “Lower your shoulders into the floor and offer me your hot little hole.” Unable to shift her shackled wrists, Lora folded her elbows down and pressed her cheek into the tile flooring and, in doing so, managed to leave her ass raised in the air, tilted and open for Frank’s desires. Going back to the table, Frank picked up a bottle of lube with a nozzle tip and moved to his knees behind his wife. Splitting her open, with no warning, he pushed the nozzle directly into her rectum and squeezed. A spasm rocked through Lora. She looked so vulnerable in this submissive position, but she didn’t complain or pull away. Frank quickly removed the tip from his wife’s channel, threw the bottle aside with a jerky motion, and replaced the nozzle with the head of his cock. Holding his root with one hand, he took hold of Lora’s thigh with the other and bore down on her until she opened for him and he slipped inside her ass. Groaning, Frank took hold of Lora’s hips and thrust his thick length into her channel until he could go no more. “Ahh…yes, yes…” Lora’s hands curled into fists against the tiled floor, and she rolled her head until her forehead dug into the cool marble too. “Ream my ass until it hurts.” She looked like she tried to spread her legs wider, but the restraints didn’t allow her feet to move.

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Her knees slid farther apart on the flooring and her high heels dropped off her feet with a soft clatter, and somehow that made everything less scripted and more real. “Damn it, Lora.” Frank’s face pulled taut over his cheekbones and jaw as he shifted his angle and pounded his wife’s channel with a bruising fucking, surely working the whip handle still tied inside her cunt with incredible force too. “No one slips my control the way you do.” “Me either, baby, me either.” Lora pushed back on her husband’s impaling erection with her limited movement, reaching for every inch of his taking of her. “Tight, tight.” He came down on top of her and shoved his hips hard into her backdoor, holding there and grinding, his teeth clamping together as he did it. “So fucking tight.” “Oh, God.” Lora jerked beneath him. “It’s so good.” She lifted her head from the floor and turned back to Frank, her face twisted in the throes of this coupling. In what this man, her husband, did to her. From the second Frank penetrated his wife’s anus, all pretense, roles, and games slipped away, and it became very apparent to everyone in the viewing room that they watched a mating between a couple very much devoted to each other and in love. Real squirming from the other bodies in the room began around Kasey then. Equally from the men and the women. Every single person watching could feel the emotion and chemistry between Frank and Lora and reacted to the connection permeating the air, drawing lots of shifts in seating, kissing, and light fondling among couples, as well as audible murmurs of appreciation from everyone in the room. “Oh, damn it, pet, I’m so close.” Frank’s pumping became more erratic and choppy, and his face flushed to full red. “Tell me what you want.” “On me, baby, all over me.” Lora sobbed her wishes. “Anywhere you want. Please.” Frank pulled his dick out of Lora’s chute and ripped the cock ring off his penis and balls. Rearing back, he fisted his shiny length for one stroke and roared, “Now, pet, now!” The first stream of Frank’s cum splashed in a heavy spray across Lora’s buttocks. With first contact, Lora keened and started to shake, seeming to experience sharp, fast orgasms with every drop of her husband’s seed that hit her flesh. Frank kept right on coming in short, heavy spurts, coating his wife’s perfect ass cheeks with his release. Eventually Lora collapsed, and only her ass held firm in the air. Rather than release her, Frank dipped down and began to lick his ejaculate off his wife’s rear, lapping at it, as a mother cat would do to a newborn kitten. Lora’s sigh came through the speakers, soft but clear. With Frank still cleaning his wife, the soft motoring whir started up again, and within moments, the black curtains closed the couple from view. Immediately the conversation around them grew to a fast din, all in praise of the show they had just witnessed between Frank and Lora. Kasey took a glance at Canin and caught the tightness around his mouth that turned the area pale.

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Two thoughts entered Kasey’s head and started the sweat trickling down her back. First: I’m so damn turned on I could come right here just with Canin looking at me. Second: If Canin and I want people talking and focused on us, we’re gonna have to

make another appointment for the Tied with Love room and amp up our game. She could see in the strain around his eyes Canin thought the same thing. Kasey had one more piece of knowledge that rolled a small tremor through her.

This time, I have to let Canin do me.

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Chapter Twelve Holy fuck. What a show. The viewing room buzzed all around Canin as the spectators slowly filed out of the vicinity, but Canin couldn’t take his eyes off Kasey and the burn shining in her pure green gaze. He couldn’t mistake the unsteady rise and fall of her breasts or the flush of red that tinged the apples of her cheeks either. Heaven help him, he ached with need too, and he didn’t give a shit that he used another couple’s arousal to get what he wanted. Canin said thickly, “Let’s get out of here,” at the same Kasey blurted, “I need to use the restroom,” and shot to her feet. She added, “I want to talk to Lindsey too. I’ll see you in a bit.” She made big strides with her long, shapely legs and booked the hell out of Canin’s sight. Canin shifted in his seat, deciding to wait for his boner to let up the choke hold on his crotch before he got back to work. A low noise rumbled up from his chest. He bit off a curse as he wondered how easily Kasey would have identified his current mood from that particular growl. “Cock blocked.” A voice broke into Canin’s frustration. Canin looked up at Hugh Chalmers, still sitting at the table. Canin glanced around and didn’t see the man’s wife in the quickly emptying room. Brett Kinsey had disappeared as well. Ouch. “Been there, man,” Hugh said. “You must’ve done something to piss her off. Better start thinking about what it could have been so that you can apologize if you want back into your bed.” Deep shadows filled Hugh’s gaze, but he surprised the hell out of Canin by not looking away. “Don’t let it go too long. In a place like this, with so much variety to choose from, you risk never quite getting her fully back.” Canin growled. “Thanks, but I don’t share her. With anyone.”

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“I didn’t either.” Hugh wrapped his hand around his wineglass so hard Canin thought it might shatter under the force. “At first. If you’re not careful and very, very open about what you want, a place like this can destroy a couple. You look at your wife with a lot of passion, and she does the same to you,” Hugh shared. “I’d hate to see it turn cold and bitter. Just a bit of advice from someone with a few more years and life experience on him. Take it or leave it.” “Don’t put us in the grave yet, man.” Twin forces battled in Canin, tugging a sick feeling in his gut. A sense of greed that Hugh had just offered Canin an outlet to more information battled against Canin’s instinctual desire to lighten some of the darkness he saw in Hugh Chalmers’s eyes. “I’m only thirty-seven, and you can’t be that much older.” “Forty-three next month.” Hugh shifted his gaze to the left and his dark eyes shadowed once again. Canin turned and found Amanda entering the room with Brett Kinsey. The man had his arm loosely around Amanda’s waist. Hugh’s smooth voice suddenly thickened with rust, and he added softly, perhaps not meant for Canin’s ears, “Some days it seems like a dozen years more.” Abruptly, he stood. As he straightened his jacket, everything on Hugh Chalmers’s surface became slick and cool once again. “Excuse me, will you? I need to speak to my wife.” Canin watched Hugh join his wife and Brett, his shoulders pushed back with a bit too much stiffness for Canin to buy as casual confidence. He saw a man cloaked in a protective layer of armor. His wife spoke, but she barely looked at him, and she didn’t touch him. Even so, Hugh nodded at whatever she said and followed the small group out of the room. Canin had the thought that his fake marriage to Kasey was a thousand times more real than Hugh’s legitimate one. Interesting…and sad. Canin went in search of a discreet conversation with his brother. He knew he shouldn’t risk it at the club but, Christ, he needed to unload on someone he could trust.

***** Kasey washed her hands at one of the ornately designed sinks in the elegant bathroom done in creams, Wedgwood blues, and marble. If Kasey lived in another time, or this weren’t a sex club, she might call it a powder room. When finished, she took a small towel from an attendant and dried her hands, leaving a tip -- God, she hoped a couple of bucks was an okay amount -- in a lovely crystal bowl perched on a low divider wall. She shared a thank-you for the service. Kasey passed through a large, cushioned seating area on the way out, and as she did, a muffled, squeaking noise reached her ears. Scanning the three small clusters of women sitting in the room, Kasey discarded them and came upon a lone woman bent over with her head between her knees, the long blonde fall of her hair hanging to the floor. Tara Pickering. Kasey would recognize the striking, pure whiteness of her tresses anywhere. Glancing to the

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other groups of women, Kasey had to fight down the urge to knock some heads together. God, didn’t any one of them care that this woman was crying, albeit quietly? Damn it, Kasey didn’t want to snap to a judgment, but her radar sent squealing, buzzing signals to ringing in her head that told her one thing: Jonathan Pickering had something to do with his wife’s tears. A myriad of days and nights spent with her face buried in her pillow, all the while knowing that no one would come and put a hand on her back or her shoulder to soothe, had Kasey across the room, her boot heels click click clicking on the tiled floor with her approach. Getting to the woman’s side, Kasey sat down next to her. She deliberately put herself close enough so Tara could feel her body heat but forced her hands into a loose clasp on her lap. “Sometimes,” Kasey started, “the world just sucks, and you have to cry.” Tara whipped her head up and put a big-eyed, wet stare on Kasey. Red rimmed Tara’s eyes and shined the top of her nose. Kasey offered a small smile and a shrug of her shoulders. “Otherwise, you’ll go mad.” “I’m fine.” Softness edged Tara’s voice, doubling Kasey’s image that this woman would break on one loud noise. “I was told to come in here and take a few minutes to ready myself before we leave.” “Leave?” Kasey dug into the pocket of her slacks and pulled out a neatly folded Kleenex, something she carried with her all the time. Allergies. The bane of her existence since taking in Zin. “Somewhere you’re not sure you want to go?” “It’s nothing,” Tara insisted. Her attention dropped back to the floor, and she twisted the tissue in her hand tighter, and tighter, and tighter, rather than use it to wipe her nose. “Once we’re there and he begins to instruct me, I won’t have time to think or have worries.” Tara lifted her head, and Kasey watched her cheeks turn ruddy, joining her nose and eyes. “I’m sure you could tell by what my husband said to you the other night that he likes to see someone dominate me. I’m…I’m a sub.” She looked away and blinked hard, but it didn’t keep the stream of tears from falling. “Training to be his slave.” Kasey closed her eyes and breathed. She took herself back to the last time she’d had sex, not counting what she did to Canin the other night. Two years ago, the man’s wrists and ankles cuffed to one of her kitchen chairs, her front facing away from him, riding his cock so that she didn’t have to look into his eyes and see the questions about why she needed him restrained in order to let him inside her body. Kasey forced herself to look at the picture she made if other people were to see her at her most bizarre, and suppressed her knee-jerk reaction to Tara’s statement. Slave. The word brought out an instinct to cringe. Tara finally used the tattered tissue and wiped it delicately under her eyes. Her back straightened some, and a wobbly smile appeared. “You must think I’m silly, huh? Here I am in a sex club every night, and I’m crying about the fact that -- hello -- I’m going to have sex tonight. Pretty wimpy of me, don’t you think?”

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Kasey assessed the woman’s dewy skin and flawless features, and absorbed the puppydog eagerness that seemed to take over her light brown eyes. “I think you’re very young.” She didn’t put the girl at more than twenty-five, tops. “And I think that if you’ve gotten into something more deeply than you imagined it would be, then there’s nothing wrong with saying so and getting out.” “No. This is our agreement, our contract.” Tears welled in Tara’s eyes again. “When we met online I told him I had dreams of being a sub. They consumed me. Jonathan offered me a new life, and I took it. It’s his role to push me. I can’t change my mind now.” “You can do whatever the hell you want,” Kasey said. “And from what I understand, surrendering yourself is supposed to bring about a sense of peace, if you have a true slave mentality and a master you can trust. I’m not seeing that in you right now. I see anxiety and some real fear. Perhaps it’s not that you don’t want to be a sub anymore, but rather that you’re figuring out that your husband is not a loving Dom. Maybe he’s not the right man to help you explore that side of yourself. Is that a possibility?” Tara darted her gaze to the other women in the room, holding on them even though they didn’t so much as pay a smidge of attention to her. Eventually she came back to Kasey, and Kasey thought she saw a bit more jutting of the woman’s jaw. “Maybe,” she said. “I met him when I was seventeen. He brought me here, and we got married when I was nineteen. I only know the people he has introduced me to.” Kasey sat on her hands and breathed through the heat that consumed her and burned her flesh from the inside out. At this moment, every urge that lived inside her wanted to storm out of this bathroom and slam Jonathan Pickering up against a wall until he cried. She schooled her features to bland. “How old are you now?” Kasey kept her tone casual. “I just turned twenty-three two weeks ago.” The girl’s voice cracked, and Kasey fought tears that wanted to fall as she absorbed Tara’s shame in crushing waves. “I didn’t like the birthday present he gave me.” Kasey cleared her throat. “Which was?” “A night with Brett and Frank Kinsey.” Tara’s chest heaved, and her throat clogged, making her words tough to hear through her emotions. “Jonathan joined in too.”

Son of a bitch. “Don’t you have a safe word?” Kasey wanted to grab this girl and run, but just kept sitting on her itching hands and remained seated. “Surely even if your husband wanted to push, one of the other men would not allow it.” “I have to please him.” Tara’s voice shook with every word. “He’s all I have. I can’t take care of myself, and I can’t go home, not after all of this. Besides, I know he can be kind and patient; I’ve seen it.” “Oh, honey, no, no --”

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The bathroom door slid open a crack, and Amanda Chalmers appeared. Her eyes tracked the room and landed on Tara and Kasey. That pale, cool gaze stayed on Kasey for a long, drawn-out moment before finally shifting to Tara. “We’re waiting for you, whenever you’re ready.” “Oh, of course.” Tara popped up like a jack-in-the-box, completely compliant in the blink of an eye. “Let me splash some water on my face and I’ll be right out.” Amanda’s focus came back to Kasey. It seemed as though the woman stared so hard that she got right inside Kasey’s head and read every one of her thoughts. Even so, she turned back to Tara and nodded. “Okay, sweetheart.” Whoa. Was that actual warmth in the woman’s voice? “Take your time.” Amanda disappeared back into the club without looking at Kasey again. “Listen.” Kasey followed Tara to the sinks and met her gaze in the mirror. “If you ever change your mind, or you just want to talk about this some more, call me. Anytime.” Kasey produced one of Kasey Carson-Johns’s business cards out of a slender enamel case. The last name and occupation on it might be false, but the number was real and Kasey would answer it. “All right?” “I’ll be okay.” “Take it anyway.” Kasey picked up the woman’s teeny tiny purse from the counter and slipped the card inside herself. “Keep it somewhere safe.” “’Kay.” All of a sudden, Tara sounded and looked like she was about fourteen years old. “Thank you for being so nice to me.” Her attention shifted to the one group of women still sitting in the bathroom. “You don’t even know me. You could have just kept on walking.” “No.” Kasey shook her head. “I wouldn’t have been able to sleep tonight if I’d done that.” Thinking about her little brother who she hadn’t seen or talked to in almost fifteen years, Kasey gave into an age-old need and embraced Tara in a tight hug. God, it felt like forever since she’d let herself touch someone with such selfless affection. “Think about using that safe word if you need it,” she said softly at Tara’s ear. “That’s what it’s there for. Call me if you need anything, and I’ll be right there.” Tara sank into the embrace and squeezed Kasey hard enough to hurt, but just as quickly pulled off and backed away. “They’re waiting for me. I have to go. ’Bye.” Tara went to the door, and Kasey followed, pausing at the end of the short hallway that opened back out into the main club. She tracked the young woman as she joined her husband, Brett Kinsey, and Hugh and Amanda Chalmers. Jonathan Pickering smiled at Tara, but he put a hand around her upper arm and dug fingers in hard enough that Kasey saw the girl flinch. Kasey’s hands curled into fists and squeezed. “She’s an adult,” she whispered to herself. “You can’t make her leave, Kasey. Remember that.”

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“Bet you wish you could though, huh?” Kasey’s heart seized as Lindsey moved in beside her and leaned against the wall. She had her attention on the impromptu party leaving too. “Tara brings out the mothering instincts in me, and I’m not old enough to be her mom.” She slid Kasey a quick glance. “Neither are you.” Kasey slumped against the wall. Thank God I didn’t give anything away. “I don’t like that man, I admit it. She may be twenty-three, but she’s just a girl. I can’t remember the last time I met someone so innocent whose life should make her anything but.” “Yeah, I offered her a place with an aunt of mine who needs some help if she wants to make a change,” Lindsey shared. “But that son of a bitch has her so certain she can’t make even the smallest decision for herself that she doesn’t think she can survive without him. I tried to give her some Web site address and literature about what it really means to be a slave and how a master should treat his or her sub, but she wouldn’t take it.” “She’s afraid to know the truth,” Kasey murmured. “She doesn’t think she can make it on her own, so she doesn’t want to know that what she has is not as it should be. I gave her my card. We’ll see if she uses it.” “I hope she does.” Kasey believed Lindsey’s sincerity with every bone in her body. Suddenly, she felt really dirty and sick to her stomach. Constantly having to think that one of these people was a stalker and a rapist, or an assistant to a rapist, made her want a shower. Even naive Tara wasn’t exempt. It was entirely possible that her husband had such control over her that he not only brought her into such a crime, but that he could make her don a strap-on and do the actual assault herself. They didn’t yet have a victim confirmation that they were definitely dealing with a male perpetrator. “Oh look.” Lindsey drew a start out of Kasey and snapped her back into the club. “There’s your husband.” Kasey followed the line of the woman’s arm to Canin, and the big strides he took in her direction. “I think he’s looking for you. Oh, hell for you, girl. He looks a little dark and like a man with a mission. Wonder who pissed him off?” Lindsey started to back away. “Take a look at your calendar,” the woman added as she back-walked. “We’ll talk in the next day or two about you guys coming over for dinner.” Kasey pushed a tight smile to her lips. “I’ll do that. ’Night.” Waggling her brows, Lindsey paused when she passed Canin, probably saying “hi” as she gave his arm a friendly pet before moving on. Her heart heavy and sick, Kasey tried to smile as Canin joined her. Canin slid his hands into his pockets and stooped down until they were eye level. “You okay?” he asked. “Lindsey said to be gentle, that you had a rough talk with Tara Pickering that got to you.” Oh, damn it, that just pushed even more pressure behind Kasey’s eyes. She didn’t deserve Lindsey’s concern. “Can we just get out of here?” Kasey stabbed her fingers against

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the pressure points above her eyebrows and tried to lessen the pounding. “I don’t want to think about this place anymore for the rest of the night.” “I know what you mean.” Gravel roughened Canin’s already deep voice, and brought Kasey’s focus up to his eyes. He looked as shadowed and strained as she felt. Moving in, he slipped his arm loosely around her shoulders and drew her away from the wall. “Let’s go home.” For the second time in less than a week, Kasey followed a man’s lead.

***** Canin drummed his fingers against the hallway wall while he waited for Kasey to unlock the door. He had not been able to get his brother alone for a talk at the club, and his mood only darkened as he watched an entire fucking group of their suspects leave the club together. Finding Kasey unnerved, and that damned caring warning from Lindsey about being gentle, twisted Canin up inside even more. What he witnessed in the viewing room still had him wound tight, and he knew he wanted to unleash everything brewing within him right onto Kasey. Christ, the need to get inside her had him on edge. “Damn it, I need a beer.” Canin tossed his jacket on the couch and made a beeline for the kitchen. “Maybe something harder.” Pausing at the island counter, he lifted his eyes and found Kasey perched on the edge of the couch slipping off her boots. He spun away, the gesture too damn comfortable and arousing for his volatile mood. Jesus, she was only taking off her shoes. Clearing his throat, he eased the tightness within. “I never bothered to look before. Do you keep the liquor in one of these cabinets?” “I don’t have anything harder than red wine, Canin.” Her voice inched louder with each word, and Canin steeled himself to the fact that Kasey would soon be in the kitchen with him. Then she touched his upper arm. “Hey.” Her fingers, surely unintentionally, curled around the muscle, drawing out a flinch. “What’s going on with you? Are you all right?”

Stay down, stay down, stay down. “Nothing a stiff drink won’t cure.” His cock had no interest in following orders. Canin took a deliberate step forward and, thank God to all that is holy, pulled out of her touch. “Maybe I’ll run out and get something. I think I saw an allnight place a couple of blocks away.” “Slow down, Quinn. No so fast.” Kasey grabbed his arm again, and this time spun him around. She didn’t let go, and Canin responded, visibly, something she would notice if she looked down. Thank God she didn’t. Disheveled and a little wrinkled from the end of their long day, Canin reacted to this Kasey a thousand times more completely, with exquisite torture, than the bare-breasted woman in the TWL room the other night. She cocked her head to the side. “Did something happen at the club you’re not telling me about?”

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“No,” he answered. She had told him about Tara Pickering on the ride home. He had mentioned Hugh, but not the helplessness the man had drawn out of him. “Just…frustrated.” “Oh, okay.” Slumping back against the counter, Kasey smiled. “I know what you mean. You had me worried there for a minute, though. I thought maybe someone questioned your curiosity or recognized you from your real life or something like that. Don’t scare me like…” Too late to get the bar between them, Kasey finally glanced down to his crotch. “Kasey.” Canin reached her in two strides, but drew back and gave her space just as fast. She stared, and he twitched. “Fuck. You don’t --” Her gaze came up to his and held. Canin had an apology on his lips, along with a promise that he would sleep on the couch tonight, and a “screw it” if someone watched them and thought it suspicious. Then, her breath caught, lifting her breasts against her blouse. Holy. Fucking. Shit. Her nipples poked hard at the silky material, visible and dark through her white shirt, and even her bra. He looked up and found her watching him, her skin flushed and her breathing choppy. He took a step forward, his hands shaking. She didn’t run.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. “I’m sorry if I’m reading this wrong,” he voiced roughly, and then took her mouth in a hard kiss.

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Chapter Thirteen Christ, this woman had the most amazing mouth and body, and touching her went right to Canin’s head. He smashed his lips against Kasey’s without any sense of cool and forced his way inside, stealing a gasp of breath from her and taking it for himself. Tongues clashed with wet heat, tangling with a frenetic urgency that quickly boiled his blood to the tipping point. Aggression and hardness ruled everything in Canin, pushing him to lick deeply and claim ownership of Kasey right here and now. A little whimpering sound escaped Kasey that kicked Canin’s cock the rest of the way up in his jeans. He took advantage of her need for breath and grabbed at her tongue, sucking it deep into his mouth and nipping. Biting back and then retreating, Kasey pushed her hands in between their fronts and clutched her fists into his shirt, putting a few inches of distance between them that Canin did not want. Lindsey’s words “be gentle” echoed in Canin’s mind, but nothing in him knew how to slow down right now. He rubbed himself against Kasey’s softness, and the solid yet supple feel of her body against his overrode every bit of Canin’s good intentions in five seconds flat. He grabbed Kasey’s hips and pulled her between his spread thighs, and then slipped his hands around the back to cup her ass. Moaning at the lush bounty he found, he murmured, “Damn, you feel good. I want you spread open and eager to take my fucking right now.” “Mhmhs…” Kasey tore her mouth away, but her fingers remained twisted in Canin’s shirt in a way that kept them close. “Wait.” Her body heaving, she looked up at him. The smokiness clouding her gaze and the swollen redness of her kissed lips had Canin backing her into the counter and plastering their hips together once again. She shivered, her mouth dropping open as she gasped. Yeah, he knew she could feel their need too. He dipped down and pulled the shoulder of her shirt aside, revealing smooth, pale skin that made his mouth water. “What, baby?” He leaned down for a taste, groaning as more of

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that powder and lemon scent tickled his nose and drove him just a little bit mad. Taking a small lick of her sweetness, dizziness fogged Canin’s thinking as he imagined sampling the rich flavors she kept hidden between her thighs, readying itself with all kinds of wetness, he knew. The pungent aroma already teased his nostrils. “Goddamnit, you go right to my head.” Her fingers dug into his chest at that, and he grunted. “Yeah, that’s right. You have from the moment I met you, and you know it.” “You don’t… I can’t…” Even as Kasey said the words, she bit at Canin’s lower lip, stinging the skin. She maneuvered herself away from the counter, pulling him out of the kitchen. “You have to stop. This can’t happen.” She pushed him, and his ass hit the edge of the table. “You don’t know. You don’t want it.” The hard-on leaking a river in his pants told Canin otherwise. “Oh, yeah.” He took her hand and shoved it down on his straining cock. “I think I do.” Her hand didn’t move on him, and a skittering sensation rippled up Canin’s spine. He looked at her, and a rainstorm clouded her grass gaze. Leaning in, he grazed her cheek. She flinched, and his heart stopped. “What?” He pulled back so that he could see her face. “What’s the matter?” In one blink of her eyes, whatever hint of shadows Canin thought he saw disappeared. Fire ignited the green depths, and she shoved him down on the table, drawing a little yelp out of him. “You think you want it” -- her fingers went to his belt and pulled, making him hiss -- “until I tie you down and have my way with you.” Canin pushed back on the table, cursing when he hit his head on a bowl. He swiped it aside and kept right on going. “Darlin’ --” He stopped, taking a minute to breathe as Kasey unzipped him, her knuckles grazing against the length of his prick. Oh hell, yeah, they could do this. Canin ripped open his shirt and tore it off, sucking in a breath as his goddamned nipples hardened before her eyes, just thinking about her touching him. “You don’t have to restrain me in order to take a ride.” Slipping his hand into his underwear, he groaned at the sensitivity and ridiculous stiffness of his erection. He pulled his cock out and held it up, the thick head shiny with his precum. “I’m not going anywhere.” He stroked himself, his hips bowing off the table with the hard, almost painful drag. Christ, he wanted inside her snug little pussy yesterday. “You don’t have to worry about that.” She moved from the table across the room. Canin followed her with his eyes, watching as she went to the wall of bookshelves and stooped down to her knees. “Hey.” Damn it, he suddenly felt all kinds of foolish lying here with his underwear and pants around his hips and his dick in his hand. “What are you doing?” “Seeing how much you really want this, Quinn.” Canin growled at that damn name. Fuck. He thought they’d gotten past her calling him that in the last twenty-four hours. “Ahh, here it is.” Pulling a slender box out of a cubbyhole, Kasey brought it to Canin and set it on the table next to his left hip. The intricately carved narrow chest had a small numerical lock embedded in the wood grain, and after three turns the latch snicked and

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Kasey lifted the lid. Deep blue velvet lining looked rich with only the moonlight streaming in through the row of windows behind him. Against that, in stark contrast, lay lengths and lengths of pure white rope.

Shit. Cool chips of emeralds met Canin’s gaze. “Still sure you want to do this?” Kasey lifted the first piece of cord out of the shallow box and ran the end across his abdomen. Canin’s stomach contracted, sending striations from his core to every corner of his body. A spectrum of a thousand different thoughts raced through his mind, and so he couldn’t understand if the reaction came from a place of titillation or absolute terror. Kasey looked down at him, her chin angled just so, her gaze closed and hard. She expects me to say no. Maybe she even wanted him to reject her. A test of his desire for her? A fetish she was afraid to share? A need to control their encounter? Her eyes told him he wouldn’t get an answer out of her…tonight. She would give him her secrets if it was the very last thing she ever told him on this earth. Right there, Canin made that vow to himself again. “Bring it, sweet Kasey.” Canin let go of his cock and stretched in an X across the sturdy table. He met her eyes, and gave her everything. “I trust you. Do with me whatever you want.”

What? No way. Kasey pulled back, the smooth length of silk rope sitting heavy over her palm, burning her skin. Her focus darted from the floor to his middle, and her throat tightened at the erection still straining there. Her sex fluttered, and a pull-string of need tugged down from her belly. “Change your mind?” Canin’s low timbre broke through the layer of panic coating her insides. “Because I’m more than willing to roll you under me and do it like that.” She snapped her gaze up to his, and found a twinkling that cut through her paralysis.

Smug bastard. He couldn’t have said anything more perfect to get her moving, and he probably fucking knew that too. “Careful what you say to the one with the ropes.” With smooth dexterity, Kasey worked a slipknot around Canin’s wrist and tugged, straightening his arm until the muscles bulged. God, she liked the look of that. Securing the other end of the rope around the table leg, Kasey quickly grabbed another rope and did the right arm too. Now that Kasey had Canin half-restrained, some of the tightness constricting her chest released. She hadn’t been able to breathe properly since he pulled her into that kiss and bruising embrace. “Still sure you want to do this?” She ran the tip of one finger down the center of his body, drawing a line from his Adam’s apple to his cock. “I can always let you

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loose, and you can beat off while I go take a shower.” She swiped his slit, transferring clear liquid to her finger. Canin growled, and the sound reverberated through his entire body. She glanced up at him, and his cheekbones stood out in stark prominence under skin pulled taut. “Jesus Christ, woman.” His attention dropped to her hand for a second and then came back up. “Lick it.” He tried to move his arms, and for the first time obviously realized the actual limitations of the restraints. His face darkened, but he didn’t look away. “I’m fucking not going anywhere.” Kasey held up her finger with the smear of precum on it. “Do I have to worry about you?” She had condoms in her bathroom upstairs. She was on the pill though, and, God, something scary inside her that she didn’t want to examine too closely didn’t want even that one thin layer separating their flesh in they didn’t need it. Thunder darkened the ice in Canin’s eyes, and he cursed a string of foul words. “I’m gonna come in a minute just from looking at you, and you’re not going to have to worry about that at all.” A little grin that Kasey could not control hitched the edge of her lip. “I didn’t think so.” She brought her finger to her lips, and paused. “Had to ask, though. You understand.” “I’m not asking you, and I’m not wor…” The tip of her tongue flicked her coated finger and took the smallest swipe of the salty flavor. He jerked on the table in front of her. “Geez, Quinn.” Circling the table, Kasey grabbed the other ropes and moved to his feet. She undid the laces on his thick-soled shoes and removed them, as well as his socks. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d have any trouble getting a woman to swallow you.” He didn’t say anything for the longest beat of time, forcing her attention up to his face. As if he’d waited for her, he finally said, “Never been you, though.” Oh, no no no. She would not let him make this into something special. Kasey tied his ankles to the table legs quickly, refusing to even remove the rest of his clothing. Full nakedness on his part changed this thing from scratching an itch to something infinitely more intimate. Me naked, on the other hand -- Kasey unbuttoned and slipped off her blouse -- keeps him off balance and focused on my nudity. She knew men well enough to understand that the size of the body didn’t matter. As far as they were concerned, the barer the skin, the less they thought with the head between their ears. She worked the three front clasps of her bra, but held the weight of her breasts cupped in her palms with the material still covering her. Canin’s cock bounced up against his belly as he watched. He pulled with his left arm again, cursing the Lord under his breath when he clearly remembered that he couldn’t give relief to his hard-on. His jaw clenched, creaking through the thick silence. He bit off, “If you don’t grab my nuts in the next thirty seconds, you’re gonna have to entertain yourself for an hour until I can get it back up. Damn it, Kase” -- he struggled against all four restraints, rattling the entire reinforced table -- “quit teasing me.”

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“This is not the man I know.” A wicked little part of Kasey liked seeing Canin at her mercy, well beyond the fact that she needed it in order to do this. She slid her hands aside, letting her heavy breasts spill free. Rolling the size in her palms, she plucked at her nipples and swallowed a moan as fast lines of tight pleasure shot straight to her cunt. The tips slowly distended to rosy, upturned peaks. All the while, she didn’t look at herself; she looked at Canin. “Close your eyes and recite the Blackhawks roster if you don’t think you can make it on your own.” She worked open her narrow belt and undid the hidden catch and zipper, trembling herself as the soft fabric whispered down her legs to puddle at her feet. Canin’s focus dropped to her panties, and it was as if the flesh-toned fabric didn’t exist between his eyes and her mound. Deep pulsing throbbed through her pussy, collecting moisture between her thighs. She shifted and squeezed her channel to ease the ache, and a little light sparked in Canin’s eyes.

Son of a bitch knows exactly how wet he’s making me just by looking. No way would she let him have the upper hand. Smiling to herself, Kasey turned and bent at the waist, thrusting her backside within touching distance -- if he weren’t tied up. Then, she hooked her fingers in the waistband of her panties and drew them down over the round flesh of her ass and hips, the fabric clinging to her dripping pussy before separating and falling to the floor. Kasey couldn’t see his face, but Canin growled and the table shook again, scraping against the floor. “You’ll wish you didn’t play with a wolf when the tables are turned, little girl.” The image of Canin smacking her bottom rocked through Kasey, drawing a quivering in her cunt and a tightening in her nipples that had her upright and climbing on the table between Canin’s legs. She didn’t want him returning the favor. Even if she did, she knew she wasn’t capable of letting it happen. “No.” She tucked her knees between his thighs and planted her palms on either side of his hips. His cock jutted out right in front of her, but she slid her focus the rest of the way up his body and latched on to his gaze. “I won’t ever give you the reverse,” she promised, and then opened her lips over him, filling her mouth with half his penis. A strangled cry escaped Canin, music to Kasey’s ears. God, she wanted him so crazed with excitement that he would take whatever he could get and forget about the fact that he had ropes tying him down to a table. Canin pumped his hips up with his limited motion and pushed more of his cock toward her throat. Kasey bobbed down over as much of his length as she could swallow and swirled her tongue around his salty, velvety-hard flesh, a little moan escaping her as she savored the feel of his heat sliding past her lips and grazing along her cheeks and tongue. She didn’t usually like giving head, but over the last seven years, she’d gotten used to her attention straying down to this one while at work, and wondering what it would feel like to have it invade her mouth…and her pussy.

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She shifted her weight to one hand, delved between his legs with the other, and palmed his sac loosely with her fingers. “Harder. Oh Christ, harder.” Canin grunted. Kasey didn’t let up on the long drags up and down his pole, but looked up to see his head lifted and the tendons in his neck straining as he watched her suck him off and toy with his balls. He had the edge of his lower lip pulled between his teeth, his face in a full-on flush. “Make it hurt or I’m gonna come.” Kasey pulled off Canin’s burning-hot erection for just a second. “Control it. Don’t come yet.” Explicit pictures of what she and Canin had witnessed tonight flashed like a slide show in front of her eyes. A swelling between her legs put her back at the end of Frank and Lora’s performance -- and her shocking response to it. Smiling against the tip of his cock, she added, “I haven’t given you permission.” Canin groaned low and deep, rumbling the vibration throughout his entire body. “Temptress.” Lust turned his eyes slate blue. “You’re not whipping me.” He rolled his hips, pushing the head of his dick in a swiping motion across her cheek, leaving a trail of residue along her jawline. “If you ask me right, and ever let us do this in another position, I might let you smack my ass.” The thought of Canin on all fours with her administering him a sharp, openhanded spanking rolled through Kasey in a drugging wave, weakening her thighs to jelly. No. She didn’t want that. She couldn’t. A line of perspiration trickled down her spine, pooling at the small of her back. Stop thinking too much, Kasey. Just let this moment happen. Her heart suddenly started racing too fast, sending panic racing through every nerve ending and leaving a buzz humming right under her skin. No no no. Don’t freak out. Not right now. Not in front of him. Kasey scrambled in a fast turn and straddled Canin’s hips, positioning herself over his cock. “No.” Canin’s voice sliced through Kasey like the sharpest sword, freezing her with his head poised against her slit. “Turn around, Kasey.” She knew the tone well, and nothing in it spoke of a negotiation. “You look at me while we do this. I gave you the restraints, when everything in me wants to explore every damn inch of your body with my hands and mouth. You give me this in return.” Her eyes fell closed. Her heart pounded so damn fast she feared it would burst right out of her chest. Think, girl, think. “You’ve obviously never done it like this.” Her voice registered only a little higher than normal. “If I’m like this you have an open view to your cock sliding in and out of me every time I move. Let me show you.” “No.” The order cut to the quick again. “Face me, Kasey. I know you want this just as much as I do. I can hear it and see it humming all through you. Look at me and take me. Give us what we both want.” She hung suspended over him for an endless heartbeat, and then he murmured, “Unless you’re too afraid to let me see your face while we fuck.”

Goddamned, mind game-playing prick. She would know all of his buttons one day just as well as he knew hers. “Just so you know” -- she crawled off him and turned around, her

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chin sitting so fucking defiant and hard it would shatter glass -- “I’m aware of every little bit of reverse psychology you use on me, you manipulative fucker.” “Yeah.” His grin notched up, just a little bit arrogant. “But it worked, didn’t it?” She reached behind and grabbed the base of his cock, drawing a groan out of him that wiped the smile right off his face. “That’s better.” Never had sparring with him turned her on or spiked fear in her more. She lowered herself on him and let just the tip split her nether lips. He shuddered, and this time she smiled. “Now we’re good.” She tilted her hips and pushed down on his hard length, desperate to feel him inside her. For seven years, the most secret part of her soul dreamed of this moment. Out of her control, every damn muscle in Kasey’s body coiled with tightness. She bore down on Canin’s mushroom head, gasping as she struggled to relax her snug channel and accept him. Rocking against the buried head, Kasey shook as the walls of her sex just barely stretched and slowly, slowly, she sank down and took all his length. Beads of sweat popped along Canin’s hairline and started trickling down his temples. He expelled a rush of breath, and a tremor rocked his body. “Jesus Christ.” His cock pulsed within her, and Kasey quivered around him in response. His gaze snapped from their joined bodies up to her face. The way he stared at her, his face so hard and his eyes so pale and bright, Kasey felt his touch over her flesh as if she had not bound him at all. “You’re so damn tight you’ll cut off my circulation.” “Been a while.” The confession slipped out before Kasey thought it through. Damn it, every second they spent together she gave him more power over her. “Doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten what to do or how to make you come, though.” Planting her hands on his stomach, she closed her eyes and started to move. “Kase --” “Shh.” Without looking, she reached up and covered his mouth. “No. Don’t talk.” His belly flexed hard beneath her other hand, bracing and firm. She dragged up the full length of his erection, to the point where one more shift would have slipped him out of her snare, and then allowed him back in one thick inch at a time. Savoring every smooth, spike-stiff bit of his prick forcing itself through her pussy, Kasey moaned and fluttered around him until he could get inside no more. She curled her hand into a fist against his stomach and squeezed his hips with her thighs, doing her damnedest to catalog every subtle sensation and nuance of this particular coupling. Frantic and calm did war inside Kasey, and her brain sent mixed signals to her body and heart, suddenly pushing her to bounce faster and harder over Canin’s buried cock, searching for her place of normalcy -- which deep inside she knew wasn’t normal at all. Canin’s body writhed beneath her as he fought against the ropes binding him virtually immobile. Kasey let go of her death grip on his mouth and braced herself against his chest as everything in her began to twist tighter and tighter, from her nipples, to her belly, to her core. Her breasts swung heavy, almost painfully, with every forward pump of her cunt over

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Canin’s cock, sending an aching need for Canin’s touch through her body that she could not assuage in a mating such as this. “Please, Kase --” Breathless desperation sank into Kasey’s bones through Canin’s stripped-bare tone. The battle of his body to break through his restraints forced her to break her code and look up at him. Red slashed his cheeks, and his pupils were pinpoints in an ocean of winter blue. “Touch yourself for me, please.” His words registered rough and low, and moved over her flesh like one of his callused hands. “Tease your tits and show me your clit. Give me what I can’t do for you.” He jerked hard against the ropes, and she could see that for all the fine quality of the silk, he would still have marks on his wrists come tomorrow. “Rub your fingers over your nipples and imagine that it’s me.” His voice sank through her skin into the marrow of her bones, and Kasey rubbed her hands all over her stomach and sides, moving over her body as if Canin commanded her limbs. She tickled the tips of her fingers between her breasts and up over her collarbone on either side of her neck, and then over her lips and down the column of her throat, all the while rocking over his embedded erection, gliding his hot ridge along her clutching, greedy walls. He watched intently, and within the confines of his restraints, his long, almost elegant fingers shifted in harmony with hers, and she fleetingly believed he somehow really did own her arms and hands. “You have the most amazing breasts, honey.” He licked the corner of his mouth, and her nipple contracted, puckering with need. “Graze the hard little pebble for me.” She flicked the tip with her thumbnail, and his eyes glazed and his jaw went slack. “Oh yeah, hold it up so I can put it in my mouth.” Kasey slipped two fingers in her mouth, wet them, and rubbed them over her jutting nipple, leaving a sheen of saliva all around the circle as she teased the already aroused flesh. “Other,” he said, and she did the same, anointing herself with her own spit, which somehow felt like Canin’s lifeblood. Riding his cock, Kasey pulled on her breasts and twirled the beaded tips between her thumbs and index fingers, sending the nerve endings in her nipples to shooting lines of joy into her arms and legs and up her spine so that she could feel the touch everywhere. All the while, in her mind, she felt Canin holding her tip between his teeth, inflicting just a little bit of pain while he tormented her flesh with his tongue. “Christ, I’m so fucking close.” Canin rolled his hips in a circle under her, touching her inside in a different, deeper way that she didn’t understand. “I want to come in your pussy and in your ass and on your tits. I’ll put my scent all over you until no man passing on the street dares look at you with interest, let alone anything else.” He bared his teeth and tore at the restraints, and the fact that they held and he couldn’t get close to her seemed to throw him into a rage, as if he needed to slay onlookers right now. “Fucking better not or I’ll kill every last one of them. Touch your clit.” She pushed her fingers down through her mound of dark curls and whipped her fingers in a frenzy over her button, pushing herself so hard she made it hurt. She couldn’t stop the rubbing over the bead of rich nerve endings or dragging up and down on his cock, pushing until he pounded her core with each slam down on his

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lap. Canin bucked under her equally hard, out of control. “Come with me.” He threw his head back and pulled hard against the ropes, popping all of the muscles in his arms in stark relief. “Please. I need it, together. Right. Now.” He speared up at the middle, and Kasey bore down at the same time, taking so much of his length that she could not hold back her body’s response for all the money in the world. “Ah God…” The first spasm hit, jerking her like a lightning bolt. “Canin, Canin.” Her thighs contracted on him, and he roared, “Ohhhh, shit, Kase.” He swelled unbearably inside her and burned her to cinders with his heat. “Never like this…” Her pussy clamped down around him as the second wave of orgasm overtook her core. She milked him deep inside and Canin exploded, crying out as he lost it, pumping her full of steaming seed in a long wave of seizures, each one seemingly tied to hers. Slowly, Kasey came down from the drugging high of sex with Canin Quinn. The fog cleared, and she found his gaze waiting for her. She didn’t know what in the hell to do.

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Chapter Fourteen His chest rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath, Canin’s muscles finally went lax after his release, leaving him feeling like a puddle of goo. Flushed, healthy exhaustion radiated from every pore of Kasey as well, blanketing any residual chill in the apartment in balmy warmth. Kasey’s short fingernails dug into his stomach hard enough to cut skin, and her gaze seemed glued there too, after giving him only a split second of eye contact as they’d both come. Damn, Canin couldn’t remember having an orgasm shake all the way through him like the one he had just shared with this woman. It still snaked along every nerve ending and muscle in a slow-moving, cascading wave, tagging his DNA with elements of hers; he could feel the invasion. Holy hell, he never could have imagined sex with Kasey would have ended up like this. He certainly never envisioned himself spread out in an X across a kitchen table with ropes pinning down all of his limbs. In retrospect, with a complex woman like Kasey that he did not yet fully understand, maybe he should have. Once he had kissed her, though, and she started kissing him back, he would have agreed to whatever she wanted in order to get inside her tight body. He might have gone so far as to allow a session with the whip. Shit, he must really be in love with her to even consider something like that. Whoa. What? Where did that come from? One fuck and he was already thinking the L word. Since when had he become a Victorian woman with compromised virtue?

Oh Christ. He did love her. His gaze darted to Kasey and found her still contemplating his abdomen. His chest suddenly constricted for an entirely different reason. He moved to caress her cheek, but his wrist snapped back to the table with barely an inch of movement. Fuck. The drive to touch her forged through Canin even more deeply than just a few minutes ago.

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“Are you okay?” he asked, keeping his voice gentle. Kasey jerked her head up, and they were back to the Kasey who had shoved him onto the front of his truck and forced him to come. Jesus, that already felt like a lifetime ago. “This changes nothing, Quinn. We aren’t going to sit around like a couple of teenage girls talking about what happened and dissecting it eight ways from Tuesday.” Pure steel coated a hard shell around every word Kasey uttered. “Know that right now, or I swear to God I’ll get up and leave you tied to this table for the rest of the night.” “Well, hell.” Canin bit back the half-dozen questions sitting right at the edge of his tongue, and shoved them deep down next to the twist of sympathy knotting his chest. He knew Kasey didn’t want that either. In its place, he plastered a loose smile to his lips. “I guess I’ll put away my nail polish and my copy of The Breakfast Club.” He batted his eyelashes prettily. “But I was really, really looking forward to comparing notes about the cute boys down at the office. I think that guy Canin is a super hottie, but I hear that badass, smartie Kasey wants him all to her -- Oof!” Kasey slugged a pretend punch to his side, with a little too much enthusiasm. “Careful with the bod, woman.” She lifted up onto her knees, and Canin paused, hissing as his cock slid free of her snug entrance. Her gaze shot up to his, and the rounded softness in her eyes -- that surely she didn’t realize almost took over her face -stole his breath…and then broke his heart. Son of a bitch. He didn’t know her secrets, but no one deserved to be haunted in this way. “If you hit me again” -- instinct, and his history of Rhone’s sadness after their mother’s death and their father’s abandonment, told him to make her smile -- “I might make you kiss my boo-boos every hour on the hour until they’re all better.” She didn’t smile, but he could tell she bit the inside of her cheek. The sneak. “You’re such a smart-ass, Canin.” She dropped off the table and moved to his feet. With her head turned down and focused on untying him, she didn’t catch the little tremor that rocked him when she slipped back into using his first name. “I can never tell what you’re really thinking half the time.” He waited until she moved to the head of the table and started unknotting his arms. “Hey,” he said softly, and waited for her to look up at him. Holy Mother, he could get lost in the secrets living in her shadowed eyes. “If you ever truly want to know, just ask me.” She held his stare, for longer than he thought she would. “I don’t think so.” Her hands weren’t quite so steady as she went back to releasing him from the ropes. His right arm came loose and shifted, shooting blood back into the forearm and hand with needle-sharp pinpricks over every square inch of his skin. “Right now I just want to solve this case so that we can stop our nightly visits to the sex club and get back to our lives.” Kasey worked him loose of the second rope, and with his freedom regained, awareness of his exposure and nakedness attacked Canin. Awkwardness ruled his arms as he struggled to grip his jeans with tingling fingers and slip them back up around his waist. Canin was suddenly never so grateful that Kasey made as little eye contact with him as possible. In fact,

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she slipped her blouse on rather quickly and buttoned it up too, the rounded end just reaching down enough to conceal her sweet ass from his view. “I’m going to go take a shower.” She still didn’t look at him as she gathered her clothes from the floor. “When I’m done, if you want to take one, there’s a soothing lotion in the medicine cabinet that you’re welcome to use on your ankles and wrists afterward.” He studied her every line and curve without hiding as she walked, her back straight, to the stairs. “See you in the morning.” Okay, well, fuck. That was that. “Thanks. ’Night.” He let her go, her layer of protective insulation still intact. But if she thought this was a one-time thing, she would find that she didn’t yet know Canin Quinn at all.

***** Kasey gagged as humid breath panted against her cheek, and the cloying, sugary smell of bubble gum assaulted her nostrils. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing more than a cough came out. Her voice had become a series of scratching sounds long ago. A weight pushed against Kasey’s stomach and chest, rubbing sweaty skin and downy hair against her with every inhuman thrust. She squirmed frantically, as if she had a thousand cockroaches crawling all over her that she desperately tried to knock off. He wasn’t that big, and she should be able to push him away, but the other one dug his fingers into her thighs and forced her open, and for all that she had scraped her wrists raw and bloody, she couldn’t slip them from the bright blue nylon rope attached to a rusty old radiator bolted into the wall. Soft hands grabbed Kasey’s breasts and pulled. She cried and tried to roll out of the touch, only to hear laughter and “Stay still. We ain’t done with you yet, girl.” He twisted her breasts harder and shoved deeper into her, digging the freezing concrete into her back and cutting her open in yet another way. Defeat and exhaustion overtook her will, and Kasey stopped fighting. At the same time, she couldn’t hold back the tears leaking down her temples into her hair. God, why couldn’t she just go numb? Why wouldn’t her body shut down and let her go away from this place until it was over? Instead, she stared up at the cobwebcovered ceiling through blurry eyes and focused all of her attention on a big black spider walking across the giant, open room. As it made its slow trek, she prayed with every new hurt flaying her open

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that it would drop down and bite her. If there were a God, the bug would be poisonous and take her away from this terrible pain. The boy grunted above her, and each time he shoved her into the floor with his thrusts, beads of sweat dropped off his face onto hers, mixing with her tears, violating Kasey in a somehow more personal way. Oh, God, please, please, make him stop. I don’t want him doing this to me; I swear I don’t. Right then, he dug his pasty paws into her breasts and squeaked, “Oh fuck, little Kasey,” and her sex suddenly filled with hot wetness. She knew what that was. Sperm. “Oh God, no.” I don’t want to have a baby. Horror stripped bare what little Kasey had left in her voice. Bile rose in her throat, scorching her esophagus as the contents of her stomach roiled. Turning her head, she retched violently, throwing up what she had eaten for lunch. “Oh, gross, she puked.” The boy cuffed her in the head and pulled out. He scrambled back across the floor, and the other one let go of her legs. “Nasty,” he added. Kasey gagged, coughing and choking as snot and bile burned her nasal passage. The other boy said, “So what? Just roll her over.” He pushed her onto her stomach, and Kasey cried out as her wrists twisted unnaturally in the nylon rope, digging the synthetic fabric even deeper into her broken flesh. “Here, Jimmy, help me get her doggiestyle.” Two sets of hands pushed her legs under her, each shove to get her there digging her knees into the concrete floor, scraping her skin raw to the point of bleeding. Kasey concentrated on the stinging, throbbing pain in her knees and wrists, and turned all of her focus to the fat trickle of blood working its way down her forearm, tickling her as it created a little river of dark red. “Hey.” Jimmy’s higher voice cut through the ocean waves crashing in Kasey’s ears. “I didn’t even think about her butt.” Oh God, no. “Think I could get it in there?” “Hell, yeah, you can.” The softest clattering of tin hitting the floor went through Kasey like a sheet of ice. “Why do you think I stole the Vaseline from my mom’s bathroom? I’m going first.” “No, please.” The words barely more than a whimper, a lowflying plane flew over the abandoned building right then, drowning her hoarse screams… “Nooo!” “Kasey!”

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Hands held Kasey’s shoulders down, restraining and suffocating her. “Noooo! Get off me, get off me, get off me!” Kasey flailed at the oppressive weight on her back, and she swore she could feel the millimeter-sized granules of loose concrete cutting up her knees. “Oh God, stop, please. It hurts.” “Kasey! Look at me. See me. It’s Canin.” The weight of the bigger boy and the horrifying pain he inflicted held Kasey prisoner, racking shudder after shudder through her frail body. “Ohh, no.” A hand dug into her hair and pulled, snapping her neck back, and everything in Kasey wanted to die. Sobbing, she whispered, “Please, no.”

***** “Kasey! Wake up.” An insistent, deeper, familiar voice broke through, offering safety and a way out of the nightmare. “You’re at home in bed.” Kasey latched on to that voice as her light, crawling toward it on a broken body. “You’re in Chicago, with me, your partner and friend. I don’t have my arm around you anymore. I’m not touching you. No one is touching you.” No more boys hurting her anymore. The voice said no more touching. And she believed it. She recognized the rough depth in it, and sought its warmth. Oh God, oh God, oh God. Canin. Chicago. Her own home. No Jimmy and Clinton. No Keegan, Minnesota. No abandoned factory. Tension drained out of Kasey’s shoulders, arms, and legs…for about a second. Chicago. Canin.

Oh. God. No. “Kasey.” Firmness rang in Canin’s voice. His heat radiated into her from behind, seeping into her flesh and consuming her with his presence in a way that made her want to throw the covers over her head and disappear. “What just happened?” he asked. “I had my arm around your waist, and we were fast asleep. Then you started thrashing. Talk to me.” No way. Her entire body went still. She could not even feel her own heart beating. “Kasey.” Kasey’s heart fell right into her stomach. I can’t do this right now. I can’t tell him. Before her eyes, the brushed silver knob on the lower drawer of her nightstand came into focus, while everything else around it faded into a blur. “Kasey.”

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“Don’t want to talk.” She snatched the drawer open, grabbed a drawstring bag, and crawled on top of him in a straddle. “I want a taste of your cock.” She pushed his arms above his head, and Canin complied without a fight. The velvet bag fell to his chest, and the metal of the cuffs clinked as they unraveled. “Shit.” “Wrap your hands around the headboard” -- she steadfastly ignored looking into his eyes, but his middle tensed between her legs -- “and I’ll suck you off until you come.” His sigh whispered against the fall of hair curtaining her face. “Kase, we don’t need --” “I won’t pull away.” The first cuff clicked closed around his wrist, but she held off on forcing his hand close enough to secure the second. So damn close. “You can come in my mouth.” He rolled beneath her, groaning as he slid his wrist within cuffing distance. Metal against metal latched into place, securing the big man to her bed. Canin muttered, “Damn. I didn’t even think about that. My arm just moved on automatic.” Kasey chuckled, taking her first breath that didn’t feel like it would strangle her. “Your erection knows what it wants.” She swung over to the open drawer, withdrew two black scarves, and shifted toward the foot of the bed. “No.” Canin’s voice reminded Kasey of the whip Frank had cracked across his wife last night. Her arm paused in midmotion, and goose bumps popped up under her flannel bottoms and red T-shirt. “Look at me,” he said. For a man handcuffed to a bed, his voice reeked of complete authority and sizzled down her spine. “We go no further until you look at me.” God, how everything in her itched to crawl off the bed and walk away. Her body wouldn’t move an inch. She gave him a sideways glance and found that damned unwavering stare waiting for her, making her feel like she was the one who had binding around her hands and her legs, holding her immobile. “What? I’m looking.” “I want in your hot little mouth more than just about anything,” he finally said. “My body clearly knows that quicker than my brain does. I gave you restraints on all four corners last night, and I’ll give you the cuffs right now. Give me my legs, Kasey. Just that one little thing.” Her gaze dropped to the expensive lengths of fabric she twisted in her hands. “I don’t…I can’t…” God, why couldn’t he just accept her terms? “Kasey, look at me.” She did so without conscious thought. He could very well be sitting across from her in a meeting at work, if not for his halfnaked state and the cuffs. “I won’t use my legs to hurt you.” Other than that one word, his voice remained steady. “Give me that one piece of faith. That’s all I ask.” A long, drawn-out moment passed between them. Kasey didn’t know if he held her trapped to him or the other way around, but her sex started pulsing between her legs just as

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hard as her heart raced behind her breast. The arousal in and of itself, so close on top of her nightmare, stunned her into stillness. Canin’s eyes steadily deepened from glacier to cobalt as he challenged her, and his chest began to rise and fall in a quicker, shallow motion. His gaze suddenly darted down to her breasts. She followed, gasping at the hard points jutting against her T-shirt. Canin exhaled sharply and rolled his head back against the headboard, his hip shifting against her thigh at the same time. A small stain darkened the gray of his sweats to charcoal, grabbing her full attention. A low expletive broke the tight silence in the room. His head still back, his Adam’s apple bobbing convulsively, Canin uttered, “My body is giving you all the proof you need in every goddamned way how much I want you to do this.” His cock twitched in his sweats, and he grunted, adjusting his hips some more. “But I can live with jerking off in the shower too.” He chuckled, the sound a little raw. “God knows I’ve been doing it with a picture of you in my head for years already.” Kasey’s eyes slid closed. No right. He had no right to say stuff like that and be so damn sexy, pushing her to a place of dizziness as she moved between his legs, her answering need to deliver him complete release battling with old fears that pushed to lock her knees in place, atrophying her with the allure of safety. His loose sweats already rode low on his hips, showing off his flat lower stomach and trim, hard hips. Kasey slipped her fingers around the waistband, gasping at the heat his flesh generated, warming her freezing fingers. He started at first touch, and she drew back, not quite getting his cock free. The cuffs rattled against the headboard and Kasey jerked and drew back, her gaze shooting up to him. “I want to touch you so fucking much. I’m not used to these being there” -- he yanked on the handcuffs again -- “and so I’m going to automatically tug against them when I think you need my hands on you. Christ, baby.” His voice softened, and God, his eyes did too. “I want to know why you flinch when I get too close to you. I want to know who put this fear in you.” He stared at her face, but the intensity slipped right through her breasts and waged an attack on her soul. “And I want to know what I need to do in order for you to trust me to help take it away.” She tore her gaze away. No, huh-uh, no. No other combination of words could have gotten Kasey moving faster. She grabbed Canin’s sweats and tugged, springing his heavy cock right in her view. “The only thing I need right now is to see you come from one long suck on your cock. Keep your legs spread like that; don’t move them.” “Won’t.” He sounded breathless himself, and Kasey breathed even a little easier. Running the tip of her finger up the underside of his shaft, along a heavily ridged vein, she grinned, settling more comfortably when a little shiver broke goose bumps over his inner thighs. He growled a little, but he didn’t move his legs. He sprouted a leak from the tip of his prick too, but she knew how to take care of that. “God, Canin, you have such a pretty cock.” She darted her tongue out and flicked a lick across his slit, teasing herself with his salty essence.

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Canin hissed. She glanced up just in time to see him expel a breath through clamped teeth. “Don’t call my cock pretty, woman. You’ll insult it and make it wilt.” She chuckled, and more lightness blossomed in her, making her brave. “Don’t think that’s really gonna be a problem for you. But just in case…” Wrapping her hand around the thick base, Kasey leaned down and closed her mouth around his prick, sucking hard on the smooth mushroom tip.

God, he tastes good. Immediately needful and greedy, Kasey grabbed Canin’s hip and bobbled down, taking more. His thickness filled her mouth and teased her taste buds with salt and man. She moaned around his length, not stopping until her lips hit her hand and she could take no more. “Ahh, son of a mother --” Canin ground his ass into the mattress, gyrating as she dragged back up his length with powerful suction. “That’s so fucking good.” The clatter of metal rattled against wood. Uttering another oath, he said, “Hair, baby. Hold it back. Wanna watch.” Kasey grabbed one of the scarves and tied her hair at her nape, eager to get him off in every way imaginable. She reached between his legs and cupped his balls, giving their hot, heavy weight a little bit of pressure, pushing at his comfort. At the same time, she let his cock slide free and licked all around his length, giving him a good look as she gave a tongue bath to every inch of his rock-hard penis. Canin’s thighs tensed like stone on either side of her, making her want to eat him up even more. She pushed down on his ridge until his head hit the back of her throat. She pulled on his sac, and it suddenly seemed as if every inch of his body, except for his legs, worked itself into the bed, looking like a cat up against a wall trying to relieve an itch. “Oh yeah, squeeze a little harder.” She milked his balls like a teat. “Oh shit yeah, just like that. More, more…” He started pumping his hips in earnest, pushing his knob against her throat. “I can take it.” Kasey dipped her index and middle finger to the soft patch behind his scrotum and switched to full drags on his cock, allowing him the visual of his penis fucking her mouth as deep as it could go. On the pull up, she twirled her tongue around his capped head, sipping off his slit before taking him all the way back inside…and then applying pressure to his sensitive taint. “Ohhh shit…fuck…Kase…Kase…” Kasey looked up as Canin’s head fell back, digging his skull into the headboard as every muscle in his body locked up tight. She grazed her teeth against the base of his cock, and everything in him flew into release. He keened, his balls drawing up in her hand as the core of his body jerked in hard pumps. His length swelled against her tongue and cheeks and then he came, filling her mouth with thick, bitter streams of ejaculate. Kasey held on and took it all, swallowing down every drop, eager to take Canin’s pleasure, stealing some of his carefree exuberance and life for herself.

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His body still visibly humming from top to bottom, Canin’s next words came out in a guttural rush. “Let go of my cock and crawl up me right now. Put your tits in my mouth and let me suck.” His words squeezed a tight fist of need between her legs. “You can leave me cuffed, baby. Just ride my chest and let me taste you. I want to watch you come.” A shiver rolled through Kasey at the mere thought. She hadn’t felt lips or a tongue on her bare breasts in such a long time. He wouldn’t hurt her. Couldn’t overwhelm her too much with hands bound above his head. And he had obeyed her command not to move his legs. Forcing her gaze up from his lap, he burned her insides with a stare that would not waver. Her pussy throbbed deep inside in answer, so, so needful -He started to talk, and she couldn’t take her eyes off his sensual mouth. “Take your bottoms off and rub your slit all over my chest while I eat your tits.” Canin stopped to let out a low moan, and she couldn’t help her thoughts drifting to how those lips would feel on her nipples. She licked her own lips, and his sated cock stirred to life in front of her again. “Christ, I want this so fucking badly. You can already see it, again. I know you must be soaking wet between those thighs, aching to come too. Give it to me, Kasey. Give me your release.” Her breasts, so heavy and sensitive, her nipples already hard buds abrading her shirt, made the decision for Kasey. She drew her T-shirt over her head, revealing herself to him again. His pupils flared, and his dick jumped some more. “Damn it, you have incredible breasts. I love the way they sway when you move.” She shook her head, even chuckling a bit as she hooked her fingers into her waistband and drew off her pajama bottoms. Climbing up him, she spread her legs, tucking her knees on either side of his chest. “You’ve got to be the only guy I know who gets hard over weight and sag.” “Sweetheart, they’re real, and they’re right for you and your body, and that makes them just about damn near perfect.” His fingers opened and closed above him, and she fluttered inside, swearing she could feel his fingers caressing her plump folds. “Now lean in and give me a taste before I defy nature and come again just from looking at you.” Cupping her breast in her palm, Kasey shifted forward and nudged his lips with her poking nipple. He opened up and took her inside his wet heat with slow suction, and Kasey bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. “Ohhh…” So long since anyone has done this to me. Kasey curled her fingers around the headboard next to his bound wrists, white-knuckling the dark wood. She closed her eyes and rocked her pussy over his wide, warm chest, the sparse hair matting him there just as arousing over her swollen labia as his wonderful mouth on her breast. Canin suckled her with voracious, aggressive drags, filling his mouth with her breast and then pulling off almost all the way, only to grab her nipple between his teeth and tease the areola with tiny licks from his wonderful tongue. Striating lines of pleasure raced from

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the gentle nips from his teeth all the way down to her sex, forcing her hips into greater swipes and grinds against his chest, needful of him and the sensations and desires he dragged out of her in tearing waves. The pungent fragrance of her arousal thickened the air around them. Heavy breathing through his nostrils and her mouth mixed in with Canin’s wet sucking and the frantic swipes of her dripping cunt over his skin, dragging her even further under the tide of long-denied need. Everything coiling within her, so close to coming, her breast popped free of Canin’s hold and she almost screamed. “Other one, want the other one,” he said. He nuzzled his face into ultrasensitized flesh and licked his way down the slope of her breast, planting a line of openmouthed kisses over every hint of skin along the way. “Damn it, you taste good.” Growling, he bit the weighty underside and then soothed it with his tongue, eliciting a yelp and a moan out of her. “Like you wash in a bath of lemons.” Tormenting her, he grazed the tip of his tongue across the point of her nipple, and she nearly lost her mind. “Please…please…” She pushed her needy tit against his lips and writhed over his pecs, shifting her hips forward to rub her clit over him too. “Take it. I want it in you when I come.” “Oh fuck, Kase --” He jerked beneath her and opened up wide at the same time, engulfing half her breast and taking one long drag, pulling with suction until her distended nipple went past his throat. “Oh!” She choked as what Canin did to her stole her very breath. “Oh God.” Everything inside coiling tight, Kasey erased the small space between her fingers and Canin’s. She clutched his big hands and the metal of the cuffs, digging in with every ounce of strength in her as her heart raced, and her body fought the need to come. He twisted his hands under hers and turned his palms outward, and somehow lined their hands up, linking his fingers in between hers. He squeezed, and the first spasm hit Kasey with a powerful jamming force, reaching through to every nerve ending in her body and then racing back to her pussy in a fast rush of release. “Ohhh, yesss…” She held on to his rough hands as orgasm ripped through her in jolting convulsions, trembling over him and around him, and even still in him, as she came. For a long moment after, they both held frozen like statues, with her death grip bruising his hands, her breast still in his mouth, and her pussy still pulsing against his chest. His torso rose and fell in a steady rhythm between her aching inner thighs, the muscles already protesting the extra workout she’d given them last night and this morning. Basking in this strange afterglow, Kasey stretched her body over the length of Canin’s and slid down, popping her breast free of his claiming. A hard ridge between her legs bumped up against her pussy and stopped her journey, and she found herself face-to-face with a smiling Canin.

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He lifted his head and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Morning,” he said, his voice all sleepy and sexy as hell. “Wood,” she replied automatically, and got a sharp bark of laughter right in her face from him. “I love it.” He nuzzled his nose to hers and scraped their mouths again. “Word association at its sexiest and most astute. Can’t imagine the shrinks ever thought it would be used like that.” He rolled his hips and shifted the line of his cock along her crease, drawing a shiver out of Kasey, one that didn’t come from fear. “Care to take it for a ride, or do you need some time to recover?”

Oh God, is it possible for me to get used to contact from him without panic? He rubbed along her pussy with his erection, insistent but not rough, and her channel squeezed to grab him, wanting him inside. Aching for that connection again. Her gaze went to the bag with the keys for the cuffs, a burgundy square against the rumpled white sheets on her bed. Her heart thumped in triple-time and a chill cut right through her, but she reached for it anyway, her hand unsteady and all. She got her fingers around the drawstring, but had to stop and breathe. You can do this. You know him. You do. “Kasey?” Just as she looked up at him, facing the questions in his eyes with barely a visible shake rocking through her, the phone rang.

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Chapter Fifteen Rinngg. Rinnngg. Kasey froze as the phone jarred through the suddenly silent apartment. Maybe it’s our guy! Elation whipped through her…for about two seconds. Deflating, she crawled off Canin’s lap and grabbed the velvet bag off the bed. Talk about a moment-killer. “It’s not him.” Shoot. For just a breath, she thought they’d enticed this bastard to action. She quickly released Canin from the handcuffs, taking a second to rub his wrists before hopping off the bed. “That’s the ringtone of my personal cell. It’s not the apartment, or any of the three cells we have set up for the case.” “Shit.” Tension radiated through Canin, and Kasey figured another growl wouldn’t be long in coming. “Fucking killed my wood.” He shook out his arms and then stuffed his cock back in his sweats. “We ought to have gotten something out of it.” Kasey pulled the bedspread around herself and tore toward the stairs. “Maybe it’s Rhone or Adam,” she called back, already halfway down the steps. “Maybe they turned up something they need to share.” Canin treaded down the stairs, right on her heels. “You’d better hope it’s not one of them,” he muttered, “unless you’re interested in visiting me in prison for two homicides.” “So dramatic.” Rolling her eyes, Kasey grabbed her cell off the charger. “You got relief. You came.” He scowled, advancing on her. “Do you have any idea what a feat it is that I got that bad boy up again so fast, woman? To then have it wasted…” Glancing at the call screen, Kasey sobered quickly. Local pay phone number. She slapped Canin’s arm, getting his attention and shutting him up at the same time. What the hell? Fewer than ten people had this number, one of whom stood right next to her. Could the guy have figured them out and decided to harass them anyway?

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Her heart racing, her eyes glued to Canin, Kasey put the phone to her ear. “Hello? This is Kasey.” Better not to give a last name…just in case. Silence greeted her, and a chill sliced down her spine. “Hello?” she said again. She strained her hearing for every breath given through the technology of fiber optics, and picked up the murmur of voices in the background of the call. “You’ve reached Kasey.” She looked to Canin, who had a gaze as wide her hers must be. Not a word. Her heart rate slowed to normal, and irritation got her pacing, the phone jammed against her ear. “Listen, buddy, you’re gonna get about five more seconds of my precious time, and then I’m hanging up. Five…four…three --” “Kasey,” a male voice, tentative and scratchy, reached her ear. “Yes,” she bit off. “I said this is Kasey.” “Kasey, it’s Nate.” Kasey’s knees went out. Her butt hit the arm of the chair, preventing her from dropping to the floor. “Nate?” she choked, her throat closing and tears filling her eyes. “Is that really you?” “What?” Canin kneeled in front of her, his pale eyes full of questions. She covered his mouth, sharply shaking her head. “Nate,” she said again, her heart somersaulting right down into her stomach, just saying his name. “Are you still there?” “Yeah.” The masculine voice, completely unfamiliar, sank right into her heart. “I’m…I’m in Chicago.” “You are?” She grabbed Canin’s hand from where it rested on her knee and put it in a vise. “When? Where?” “Just now. I’m at a bus station.” He mentioned the station by name, one Kasey immediately recognized. A tapping noise came through the phone, and she wondered if he drummed his fingers the same way she did. “I…I came to see you. I don’t…I might need some help.” Already back on her feet, Kasey made for the stairs. “I’ll get dressed and be there soon. Wait, I don’t even know what you look like, and you don’t know me.” “I’ll find a piece of paper around here somewhere and make a sign,” he answered. “I’ll be inside the terminal; I’ll stay near the line of phones.” “Hold tight. I’ll be there in less than an hour.” “Okay. Thanks. ’Bye.” Nate ended the call. Kasey threw the phone on the bed and went right for her closet. “Whoa, hold up,” Canin broke in, his voice right on top of her.

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She spun around, and he moved too. It took her a second to realize she still had his hand in a death grip and had dragged him all the way up the stairs with her. “Oh.” She let his hand go. “Sorry about that.” “I don’t care about the bruises.” Canin didn’t back up one inch. “Who in the hell is Nate?” Kasey never thought to say these words to her friends in Chicago. “He’s my brother.” Canin paled, and this time she grabbed his arm so he didn’t topple over. He straightened quickly, growling, “Since when do you have a brother?” “Since always. He’s in town, and he wants to see me. I have to go.” “I don’t know about this brother suddenly turning up. You’ve never mentioned him. You’re obviously not close.” Canin’s stare narrowed. “It could be a trap. I’m coming with you.” Grabbing clothes, Kasey really didn’t care to waste time arguing. “Fine.” This wasn’t part of the case, no matter what Canin’s suspicions. Her brother was in Chicago. He’s finally giving me a chance to explain why I had to go away. She didn’t intend to screw it up.

***** Kasey pushed her way into the bus station and scanned the crowded area, Canin’s heat still burning up her back. The steady murmur of dozens of conversations, and the raised voices of parents aimed at misbehaving children buzzed in Kasey’s skull. The din mingled with the clamminess already coating her hands and the tingling skimming all along the surface of her body, making it a challenge to focus. God, where is he? I want my brother

back so damn much. “There.” Canin pointed, and she followed his arm line to the bank of phones in the distance. “Let’s see if we can find him.” In haphazardly thrown on jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt, Kasey took off at a half run, pushing her way through clusters of people, uncaring of her rude behavior. The image of a dark-haired guy suddenly swam before her eyes, a yellow sheet of legal paper clutched in his fingers with NATE scrawled in black ink. Kasey skidded to a halt, her sneakers squeaking across the flooring. Gulping, from a distance of ten feet between them, she drank in his image. Overlong dark hair brushed his shoulders, and he had a tall and lanky frame, maybe an inch above her own six feet. Stubble covered his jaw and chin, and he had chocolate brown eyes that made her breath catch, as they so mirrored her vivid memory of their father’s hard gaze. Her brother had become a man. So much time had passed them by. She should have tried harder to see him again, even if she had to keep facing his anger. She kept looking, staring, unable to break away. A fading bruise surrounded his left eye… Wait, what?

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“Nate, is that really you?” She rushed him, her legs churning on automatic. “It’s me, Kasey. God, I know I look so different from what you must remember.” She had weighed a lot less the last time he saw her. “What happened to you?” She fingered his face with light brushstrokes, hardly able to believe that he didn’t fade away like a mirage. Nate flinched and drew back, and that was when she caught the darkness of other bruises under his stubble. “I had some trouble back home,” Nate answered. His gaze jumped from her to Canin and stayed there for a moment before coming back. “Nothing that’s gonna follow me, you don’t have to worry about that.” He chewed on his lip and shifted his weight from his left to his right, taking her back to when he was a little boy. Geez, he had to be twenty-five now. “I might need somewhere to stay.” “Of course. What kind of trouble?” she asked. “What happened?” His gaze strayed to Canin again. His focus dropped down, then came back up. “Look, I didn’t know you were married now.” Their wedding rings. “I shouldn’t have just shown up like this and intruded on your life.” “No, it’s not --” “It’s fine,” Canin interrupted, drawing a fast glare from her. He gave her a soft-edged smile and slipped his arm around her waist. “Any family of Kasey’s is my family too. Excuse us for just one moment though.” Caressing her waist with his big palm, Canin nudged her back against him. “Okay?” Nate darted back and forth between Kasey and Canin again. His dark gaze held on Canin’s for a long heartbeat and then moved down to their hands. “Yeah, all right,” Nate finally answered. “I need to use the restroom anyway.” He picked up an oversize duffel bag. “I’ll go do that.” “You don’t have to drag that thing with you.” Kasey wrangled the bag out of her brother’s hold. God, her brother. Right here in Chicago. “We’re not going anywhere, all right?” She rubbed his shoulder, so uncertain about throwing her arms around him in welcome. She hadn’t hugged him since leaving home, and he looked so skittish she feared she would run him right off if she did too much. “We’re just going to talk for a minute. We’ll be here when you get back.” Nodding, Nate slid his hands into the pockets of his faded jeans. He dipped his head and wandered away. When Nate moved out of hearing range, Kasey rounded on Canin. “What in the hell was that about, telling him we need to talk in private? You scared him.” “That was me subtly reminding you that we are working a case right now, and we cannot have your brother living with us. Not if we’re hoping to get these bastards to come to our home,” Canin answered, his voice soft but insistent. “We aren’t exactly going to draw anyone to attack us if we have a houseguest, now will we?”

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“Damn it.” Turning away, Kasey dug her hands into her hair, tugging until it stung. The job. For just one hour, the club had completely slipped her mind. She spun back on Canin, fighting the urge to kick something. “What am I going to do? This is my brother. I haven’t seen him in fifteen years, and the last time I did, he didn’t want anything to do with me because he thought I abandoned him when I left home.” God, she still had the scar from the wound he inflicted on her hardened heart the day she tried to come home for a visit with him. She should have known better than to think her parents would have corrected Nate’s misguided hurt for why she moved away all those years ago. “He’s finally making contact with me, and he’s obviously been in some kind of trouble. I can’t tell him I don’t have time for him because I have to go to a sex club and let my partner screw me so that we can hopefully catch some bad guys. If I put him off he might run and never come find me again.” “I’ve never seen you like this before.” Canin cupped her cheek in his hand, rubbing his thumb along her jaw. “Calm down.” Doing a little growling of her own, Kasey batted his hand away. “Don’t tell me to calm down.” She sat down and leaned forward, pressing the heels of her hands to her forehead to stop the pounding. “That is a completely patronizing thing to say.” “You’re right, I apologize.” Canin dropped into the seat next to her. Leaning in for a moment, he bumped his shoulder against hers. “I didn’t mean to sound condescending. I’m not used to you like this, and I didn’t know how to react. Do you want to pull out of the case? We can disappear from the club and put a couple of our junior staff inside with an entirely new cover. They can reestablish, and maybe we can still catch these bastards.” Kasey’s mind went to a pair of faceless perpetrators attacking another innocent couple, possibly Lindsey and Jeff -- if they weren’t the guilty themselves -- and a cold sweat washed over her right where she sat. “No.” She grimaced. “I don’t want to do that.” “All right, so we stay in. Question one answered. What next?” “We move this thing along.” Kasey swallowed down the sickness rising in her throat and prayed like hell she didn’t betray that fact that inside she wanted to scream hysterically. “We go tonight, and we get into that bondage room again. This time you do me, and we give those sons of bitches a reason to come after us. Fact of the matter is, if too much more time passes we’re going to have to assume they’ve already got their eyes on someone else, and we’ll be left hoping we’ve got enough surveillance on the other couples that we catch them before another attack.” “Okay.” Canin took her hand and drew it to his knee, linking their fingers together, warming her and settling her strung-tight nerves. “So, then what do you want to do about your brother in the meantime?” Now, the hard part. Kasey pursed her lips, squeezed her eyes shut, and said a quick prayer that she even had the right to do this. She blurted out, “What about your place? Will you let him stay there until I’m able to bring him to mine?”

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Canin sighed, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw him rub his brow. He turned, caught her staring, and tied her to him with the intensity in his ice blue gaze. “Let’s talk gutcheck here, Kase. This man was a kid when you last saw him, according to your own admission. What makes you think you can trust him, and that he’s not here to take advantage of you?” “I don’t know.” The words choked in her throat on the way out, but Canin held her to him so powerfully with his stare that she couldn’t utter the lie that would have gotten her what she wanted. “I just know he’s my brother, and I want him here. I also know that even if he weren’t, that man who just stood before us looks like a dog that someone recently kicked, and like he needs someone to give him a chance. We do that at Quinn, don’t we? We bet on the long shots, and hope we win.” “Yeah” -- he hitched that damned devastating half smile -- “I guess we do at that. Okay, he can crash at my place. One condition.” He pinched her lips shut before she could utter a word. “We can’t have any more contact with him until this case is resolved. I’ll call Rhone and Adam, and they can come pick him up and get him settled. With just this short amount of time, we’ve possibly already talked with him for too long and compromised our cover.” She pried his fingers off her lips, pausing to rub away the tingling sting of his warm, rough touch. “If we want Nate to keep thinking we’re married for the moment, what are we going to tell him about why you still have your own apartment?” “We’re newlyweds,” Canin answered smoothly. “It’s a tough market, and I haven’t been able to unload it yet.” “I guess that would work.” She gnashed her teeth. Damn, why did Canin have to have an answer for everything? “Okay. I don’t want to turn him over to someone else, but I understand.” Kasey fought the urge to lean into Canin for support, and locked her back straight. “Let’s just get this case solved, soon, for all our sakes. All right?” Bringing their linked hands to his lips, Canin pressed a kiss to her chilled skin. “We’ll socialize like hell tonight and make the sex undeniably smokin’.” He rubbed the back of her hand against his jaw and drew a shiver out of her. “That’s all I can promise.” God, she wanted to kiss him right now. “I’ll do the same.” Just as fast as she wanted that connection to Canin, Nate came back into view. Her heart lit up, and ached, at the same time. “Okay, shh, here he comes. You’re all big and intimidating.” She untangled her hand from his and tried to shove him away. “Go make your phone call while I tell him what’s going to happen.” “Fine.” Rather than backing off, he moved in and smashed his mouth on hers, crushing her lips with a biting kiss before getting up. With her heartbeat racing frantically, he growled, “I’ll be right back.” He reached out to give Nate a pat on the shoulder as he walked by. Nate shrank away, but then reddened and forced himself back into line.

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What in the hell had happened to her brother in Keegan? Come hell or high water, she would resume her role as his big sister and get her answers.

***** Lindsey snapped her fingers in front of Kasey’s face, jerking her back into the club. “You okay?” Concern etched the woman’s voice, and her gaze softened to match her tone. “You seem a million miles away.” “Sorry.” Damn it, pull yourself together. Kasey couldn’t keep her thoughts from straying to the Tied with Love room, and what she would have to endure in there very soon. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her slacks to hide the tremors. You have to do it, so just buck up and get it done. “It’s not the company, I swear,” Kasey answered. “Just wondering where my husband is.” She scanned the club for effect. “Good question.” Lindsey searched the area too. “Maybe they’re incognito together, because I don’t see mine either. Jeff had better turn up soon. He’s the one who made these late dinner reservations with a couple of colleagues, and I don’t want to walk into the restaurant with the other couples already there, even though I know I’ll be snoozing by the end of the appetizer course.” Kasey chuckled, and silently thanked this woman for her gift of putting people at ease. “That boring, huh?” Pressing her palms flat together, Lindsey pretended to lay her head down on a pillow and snore. “You have no idea.” “Hope you’re not already critiquing Kasey and Canin’s performance,” a teasing, deep voice said from behind them. Brett Kinsey slid in next to Lindsey and pressed a fast kiss to her cheek. “I saw the happy couple’s names on the list for tonight and expect it to rival their first act. Frank and Lora are very excited to get to see them in action this time, after the buzz and the way I talked up your first mastery of your husband.”

Did these people want more of the same? No. Better to surprise them, no matter how much she wished she had that strap-on locked and loaded, and ready to take Canin’s ass again. “We might give you a little something different to gossip about tonight.” Kasey smiled, and even touched Brett’s arm. Squeezing before she let go, she added, “That is, if I can track down Canin.” “I haven’t seen him,” Brett answered, chuckling as his eyes twinkled. “But if I run across him, do I have your permission to try and sweet-talk him into couple sharing? You’re both delicious, and I can think of at least a few other pairs I’d like to be a fifth for with you guys.” Kasey’s face flamed, and a jittery giggle escaped her. “You won’t have any luck, but you’re welcome to --”

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“Oh, hey,” Lindsey interrupted, “there’s mine.” She pointed toward the arch that led to the restrooms. Jeff emerged, looking very nebbishly handsome in a black suit and red power tie. “Let me go and grab him before he disappears on me again. Brett” -- she leaned up and kissed the blond man’s cheek -- “always good to see you. Kasey” -- they exchanged a quick hug -- “our place, eight o’clock, tomorrow night.” Back-walking toward Jeff, she blew a kiss. “It’s gonna be a lot of fun. We’re really looking forward to it. ’Bye!” “We’ll be there.” Kasey waved back. “Have a good time. Try not to fall asleep in your soup!” Lindsey waggled her brows as her husband locked her up in his arms and got them moving toward the exit. Watching Lindsey straighten Jeff’s tie, and then Jeff swatting his wife on ass as they left, Kasey’s spirits lifted along with the light mood she witnessed in them. She glanced up at Brett and caught him in a heated stare at the pair. “They have got to be about the cutest couple I’ve ever seen,” she said. “Don’t you think?” Frank Kinsey joined them, answering before his brother could. “Absolutely. They’re wonderful fun to play with.” Affection laced his voice, but if he said anything else, Kasey didn’t hear it. Frank’s Nordic features swirled into a blur before her eyes. In fact, everything around her did, except for the big, consuming image of Canin, who stood behind Frank, his face set in hard lines, even though he smiled. This was it. The time had come. Her turn at the mercy of Canin and the Tied with Love room. Right there, her stomach cramped wickedly, and Kasey thought she might throw up.

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Chapter Sixteen Canin’s heart raced as he prepared them for the show. He stretched Kasey’s arms above her head and tied her to one of poles of the four-poster bed that had been put in for tonight’s show. As he leaned in and cinched the length of silk around her wrists, her pebble-hard nipples grazed his chest, making both of their breaths catch. Kasey wore a black and burgundy corset that let her breasts spill free; she had also donned a pair of black three-inch spike heels, and nothing else. This woman made him hotter than hell in flannel and a T-shirt. When she’d slipped off her robe and revealed this getup from the wardrobe Vixen kept on hand, Canin’s mouth went so dry he couldn’t speak. Saying only, “Let’s do this,” Kasey had lined her spine up against the bedpost, and silence had reigned between them ever since. Right now, her breasts rose and fell in a rapid, shallow cadence, and the pulse point in her wrist drummed heavy enough to bleed through the thin layer of skin into Canin’s fingers, tugging on his heart…and his conscience. He slid his hands down the smooth flesh of her arms to the brocade covering her middle, and then went a little lower, pausing at her hips. Christ, he loved the ample grip she provided there. His brain moved a half-dozen steps ahead to digging his fingers into her flesh and pounding her tight cunt until he marked her deep inside with his cum. Just thinking about it, Canin’s cock strained against his jeans to get out and play. Having already removed his jacket and shirt, he unfastened his belt and released the button and half the zipper of his jeans, sighing at the slight relief of pressure. Kasey jerked in front of him, her eyes slid closed, and a niggle of doubt crept in again.

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“We don’t have to do this,” Canin said. They still had a few minutes before the curtain would pull back and reveal them to the waiting crowd. “You can tie me up and do me again, and we’ll make it work.” Kasey’s eyes opened, and familiar green fire burned within. Today, they radiated an inferno. “I am your partner in this, Canin.” Her legs locked straight and she vibrated with renewed energy before him, snapping and crackling sparks of emotion. “Don’t treat me as if I can’t handle myself in this room as well as you did. Do whatever the hell you want with me, I can take it.” Gritting his teeth -- damn, she’s so frustrating -- he said, “I fucking will.” He slipped his hand between her thighs and pushed two fingers right against her dewy entrance. Damn, she was slick for him already. “As soon as you pick a safe word and tell it to me.” She clamped her legs on his hand, almost crushing bone on bone with the muscles in her powerful thighs. Still, he kept the tips of his fingers teasing right against her swollen pussy lips, and his gaze clashing with her. “We don’t need one.” She squirmed and squeezed against his hand harder. “Because I’m not going to tell you to stop.” Canin tucked the blunt tip of his middle finger inside her just the slightest bit, grinning wickedly when she fluttered around him and whimpered. He leaned in, pressed his forehead to hers, and said with utter softness, “Give me a word, Kasey.” Damn it, he didn’t understand it, but everything in him right now wanted to bite into her, leaving a visible mark on her flesh. “Do it.” Growling, he replaced one aggressive need with another. “Right.” He rubbed his chest against her lush breasts, moaning as the hard tips scraped against his skin. “Damn.” Darting out his tongue, he nudged against the seam of her lips and pushed through for a quick taste, marveling at the sweetness inside her, for all the tartness she let the rest of the world see. “Now.” She writhed against him, arching her body out in offering, her wrists still confining her arms high above her head. “Pizza.” Her lower belly grazed his crotch, and he immediately held her there for a fast, hard grind. “Oh, God.” She whimpered, bucking against his invading finger, her tight walls grasping for more. “Pizza. Pizza.” “Is that the word?” Jesus, he needed at least a dozen deep breaths and a freezing splash of water over his heated skin to calm himself down. He couldn’t just fuck her. These people needed more than the basic, raw screwing he would kill to give this woman right now. “Do you want me to stop?” “Don’t stop. That’s the safe word.” Her voice slurred just a little bit. “Won’t hear it, though. Just --” He slipped a second finger in and eased them both up a couple of inches into her suffocating, wet heat. Her sex pulsed and clamped down around him, seeming to want to pull more of his fingers inside. “God, keep doing that.” Her thigh muscles relaxed some and released the grip on his hand, allowing him deeper into her soaking entrance. “Uh-huh. That. That.”

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A band tightened around Canin’s chest, hurting his heart. Christ, he wanted to take her in a bed, as a husband does to his wife. He cursed and blessed this job that had taken their relationship to a different place, half out of their control. Torn by his needs and their growing closeness, his gut-level attraction and desire did war with his fear that he would damage her this night. This woman had secrets. Big ones, and he knew it.

Shit. Shit. Shit. “Need to do more than this, baby.” He nuzzled, drinking in her warm lemon scent, intoxicating him even more. He lifted his head and brushed his lips against hers, barely moving his mouth, let alone creating a whisper. “You know that.” “S’okay.” She nodded against him, but her pupils dilated and her lips compressed, paling to white. “I’ll be fine. Make it good.” Her irises shrank to almost nothing. “Believable.” She wrapped her hands around the bedpost above her wrists, squeezing the wood. “Want to catch them.” The hum of the curtains slowly sliding open jolted through Canin, and the tall, voluptuous length of Kasey’s straining body shivered too. She pumped her cunt against his buried fingers, bringing blooms of color to her cheeks. Fuck, she had never looked more vulnerable and beautiful. “Don’t stop. No matter what.” Giving in, uncaring who saw it, Canin swooped in and captured Kasey’s mouth in a long, hot kiss, desperate to push his love for her into her body. He swept his tongue along the length of hers, tangling and thrusting and retreating, taking her taste inside him, giving her his in return. He kissed her hard and deep, pushing her head into the bedpost with the force of his, and still, he couldn’t slow down or stop. He ate at her like a man possessed, praying she would feel his emotion and accept it, and that it would get her through this coupling that they both wanted…but certainly never imagined would come in this way. Kasey reeled under the power of Canin’s kiss. The strength of it -- and him -- raced through her body to her core. Everything in her fought not to show the rush of adrenaline coursing through her, drenching her in a layer of supersensitized awareness of every touch Canin put on her flesh. Instinct said to yank and rip at the bindings and break free, to crawl away and hide before this act went to a place from which she couldn’t recover. Pressure built behind her eyes, threatening tears. At the same time, Canin tormented her masterfully with his two fingers, making her pussy swell and get even wetter, pushing an undeniable physical response into a battle for self-preservation, and very possibly, her soul.

No, he can’t have that. I won’t let him. Kasey reared back and banged her head into the bedpost, breaking the kiss. Snapping back too, heat flared in Canin’s light gaze, darkening it to lake water. He kept sawing his fingers in her channel, weakening the strength in her legs. He kept up all outward appearances of lust, but mouthed the word “pizza?”

No, huh-uh. I won’t break here. I won’t let it happen. She could do this. Her reflection in the two-way mirrors multiplied almost all the way around her, but it was as if Kasey could

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see through them to the many faces on the other side, a pair of them monsters who needed to be caught. Connected to Canin’s gaze, she gave the slightest shake of her head, but tilted her hips away from his hand anyway, slipping his fingers free of her channel. She struggled against the bonds of rich silk holding her arms above her head, but due to the quality, the fabric didn’t give -- as she knew it wouldn’t. Giving a tiny nod, Canin cupped her mound and rubbed his fingers against her sex with one hand, and with the other, smacked her hip with a sharp, small slap. “You want to fight me a little bit tonight?” He rubbed the sting away, and then spanked her again, reddening her pale skin. “Go ahead. When you get all flushed and frustrated, I just get hotter and want to do even more.” He crushed her into the post with all of his weight and took her mouth in a biting, claiming kiss. “Don’t ever pull away when I’m kissing you again.” He gripped her jaw in one hand, tugging down as he came back in for more. “Now kiss me back, before I get angry.” A tremor rolled through Kasey at the sharp tone of Canin’s voice, only she didn’t know if it came from fear or arousal. He bit and kissed at her with superior strength, holding her mouth open for his carnal attack. Deep pulsing between her legs overruled the butterflies in her stomach, and she slanted her mouth across his, thrusting her tongue into his wet heat. The burn of whiskey mingled with a hint of mint, and her thoughts flicked to a dangerously sappy place, wondering if he had popped an Altoid for her before coming into this room. The thought that he might have… Her channel fluttered with long-denied need for more than just sex. She moved to slide her arms around his neck, frantic to touch him, but came up against the resistance of the silk, slipping her back to another place and rushing panic into her blood. Suddenly on her back and then her stomach, the cut of synthetic rope ripped through her tender flesh. Softer, smaller hands clutched her hips, pulling her into an unwanted touch. Her breathing quickened, having nothing to do with the breath Canin stole from her with his kisses. Kasey bit at the tongue filling her mouth and tore their lips apart. Panting heavily, her breasts heaved with extra weight she hadn’t possessed when last tied up. Kasey did her best to look passion-dazed and recapture what Canin had drawn out of her before she remembered that she couldn’t move her arms and panicked. Canin’s chest rose and fell in deep waves too, and his cock strained visibly against his jeans. Meeting his gaze, she licked her lips. “You didn’t tie me up just for a few kisses, lover, did you?” She lifted her leg and slid her inner thigh along his outer one, rubbing denim against her sensitive skin and bringing a fresh wave of longing back to her empty pussy. “You’re more creative than that at home.” Narrowing his focus, Kasey could have sworn Canin tried to read her mind. And succeeded. Holding her complete attention for an uncomfortably long stretch that had her

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fusing her spine to the post at her back, a slow smile appeared from him -- God, he is sexy when he smiles -- matching a new glint in his eyes. “That’s right. I did promise you a little bit of heat, didn’t I? We’ll have to get rid of this pretty covering first though, I think.” Reaching around to her back, he worked the laces of the demicorset open with smooth dexterity and slipped the garment free of her body. “There. That’s better.” He dipped down and licked the red grooves the corset left on her body, soothing the angry lines. “Mmm.” Kasey arched her middle, reaching for his tongue. “No, no.” He stepped back, walked to the nightstand, and picked up a taper candle in an ornate silver holder. Removing the taper from the holder, Canin brought the candle back to her, where she tracked it with her eyes as he waved it in front of her face. “This” -- he withdrew a lighter from his front pocket and briefly sparked the flame to life -- “we’ll get to in a minute.” Closing the lid, the chrome lighter went back into his pocket. “But first, every candle needs a scent, and this one doesn’t have one yet.” Teasing it across her breasts, he flicked the wick over her nipples, playing there until she puckered and hardened under his watchful gaze. “Let’s remedy that, shall we?” With that, the tip of the candle made a trail straight down the center of her body where its smooth texture slipped between her legs.

Oh God, he’s going to put it inside me. The cool, smooth wax length rubbed along her slit, teasing her lips apart, but didn’t slip inside. Back and forth, he moved the candle, separating her labia a little bit more deeply with each stroke, where the silky-hard texture rubbed over her clit, driving her insane. Her knees fell open as best she could allow. She dropped her weight down, trying desperately to get a firmer touch. Before her, Canin grinned, slow and easy, and a small shudder racked Kasey, beginning and ending in her cunt. “Very good. That’s number one.” She heated inside, red suffusing every inch of her skin. Why did he have to see every little thing her body did for him? “Let’s see if we can get a few more out of you before this night is finished.” He slid the candle through her slit again, but this time kept going until it split her ass crack and rubbed along that secret skin too. “You’re panting like an animal in heat, and I’ve hardly begun.” The slick wax grazed over her sphincter in reverse as it made its way back along her pussy to her clit, making her clench. “You want this thing inside you.” The never-ending rubbing swelled her aching bead again. “Don’t you?” God help her, Kasey met Canin’s gaze and nodded. “Please.” Her voice thick and scratchy, she steeled herself to accept without screaming if he shoved the candle into her ass. Please, don’t. Not there. He tied her to him with the intensity in his stare, holding her for an extended beat of time, and she swore neither one of them took a breath. Finally, he pushed the length through her folds and turned it like a spit along the crease of her sex. She jerked and whimpered, relief flooding her, leaving her weak. “Don’t worry; we’ll get to your pretty ass another time.” He stepped closer and cupped his palm around her hip, squeezing before he slid around to her buttocks and kneaded one cheek,

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opening her up every time he dug his fingers into her flesh. He slipped a few fingers into her crack and tapped the snug ring of her anus, making it suck in and her ass channel throb as he did it. Her heart raced and a rush of perspiration coated her neck and back, but she stayed with him and forced herself to push back into the touch, rather than flip out and run away. Not that she could run, even if she wanted to. Even if she didn’t have silk binding her wrists, Kasey didn’t think she could have moved her legs and walked away anyway. Not with the way Canin stared at her with such complete focus right now. Canin rubbed over her quivering hole one more time, and just as her rectum settled, his fingers drifted back to her hip. “I’ll have that sweet pucker of yours one day, honey.” He pulled the candle from between her legs and held it up in front of her face. “But it’ll be with my cock, not this.” He teased the wick over her lips, and the rich, honey scent of her arousal assaulted her nose. Nudging the narrow tip against her seam, he said, “Now open up and suck it. I want you to taste what your body does for me, and I want you to think about the last time I had my cock in your hot little mouth while you’re doing it.” Kasey parted her lips just a hair, and Canin slowly pushed the candle through, filling her mouth with wax and her own excitement. Tart and biting, the taste of her secretions burst on her tongue and took over her mouth. Canin slipped more of the length inside, consuming her with its slowly thickening length as the tip made its way to the back of her throat. Just before it hit her soft palate, he withdrew the silky hard wax and swirled the wick over her lips and chin, painting a light trail of wetness all over the lower half of her face. She could only imagine it glistened as it caught the light from the chandelier; she didn’t dare look to the mirrors anymore in order to find out. “Take it for me again, baby.” This time he fucked her mouth with the taper in a back and forth motion, and she lapped at it eagerly, her eyes glued to his while she licked and sucked, her mind drifting back to this morning in bed. “That’s it. Christ…” He stuck his free hand down the front of his jeans, moaning as he surely pulled on his cock. “I do love seeing your mouth do something dirty.” He took her mouth deeply once again with the wax, pumping it with a few quick thrusts and then slipped it out. “But it’s getting me too excited and I’m not done with you yet.” He took the wick between his thumb and forefinger and twisted it, probably getting her saliva off it. That done, he rubbed it against his jeans a little bit more and produced his lighter once again. “You ready for the next step?” He struck spark to the butane, and an elongated orange flame appeared. “Might burn a little bit and leave a mark.” He put fire to the wick of the candle, and it flamed to life with a flash of sizzle. Aching need and a bizarre fascination washed over her, tugging her nipples to hard points before his very eyes. “Oh yeah, that’s nice.” The lighter went back into his jeans pocket. He moved the taper to right above her left breast and turned it sideways, a couple of inches above her skin. The

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flame danced before her, heating her on the inside and out, and she couldn’t look away. “You want it, even if you can’t give me the words.” They both watched, eyes glued to the tip of the candle as the first bead of red wax grew in size, excruciatingly slow, making her breath quicken and her pussy throb as she waited, waited… The molten bubble broke away from the taper and splashed on her nipple, making her cry out and her body jerk with the heated touch. Another drop quickly followed, spreading a thick red stain over her tip, warming it with sharp heat and then burning warmth, while at the same time rushing shivers through her that coated her arms in goose bumps and raised the little hairs on end. He glanced up from the laser lock he had on her tits, the blue in his eyes burning as hot as the candle that nearly singed her skin with its closeness to her flesh. Tilting it upright and pulling it away, he asked, “Too much?” She shook her head. “Huh-uh.” Biting her lip, a glow of perspiration coated her body as she gave in to this new need. “More. Don’t stop.” Giving her that damn knowing smile, he nearly made her come again with it alone. He shifted the candle again and reacquainted her with the wonderful new torment.

Drip, drip, drip from the candle followed in rapid succession, each burst of fiery heat against her tit pulsing an accompanying need between her legs as it hit her flesh. He soon had almost her entire breast covered in splotches of red, and if it didn’t have her panting and glowing with moisture like a woman on the verge of coming, she would have thought the image almost obscene. Canin slowly moved the candle flame to the valley of her breasts, letting the wax drop in a series of drips, one on top of the next, creating a long blood colored line down the center of her body to her belly button. Her stomach trembled as the red stuff pooled in her navel, where it drew a tugging sensation straight down to her clit, pulling her insides taut with the ache for release. Canin drew the tip of his index finger through the warm wax while continuing to let the burning drops land at a starting point between her breasts. The hot wax moved along with his finger, coating the tip in the red color too. The thick coating stayed with him as he continued past her belly button over the swell of her lower stomach and into her nest of dark curls. “You’re so damn close to coming again, baby; I can see it shimmering all over you.” He threaded his big fingers through her pubic hair, rubbing the tips over the soft skin hidden below, pulling shiver after shiver out of her. “I want to feel another one take you over right now, and I want it to be bigger than the last.” He speared into her slit with his middle finger and went right for her clit. Wax coated the pad that teased her bead, creating the most bizarre, unique sensation Kasey had ever felt. Seeing his hand between her legs, she knew he touched her, but at the same time, with the layer of wax covering the pads of his fingers, he didn’t. “It’s okay, Kase, just go with it.” He quickly pulled the heat of the burning candle away from her breasts and blew it out, tossing it on the floor with a careless clatter. “I want

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to watch you come. Nothing else matters. Don’t think about anything else beyond that.” He used his free hand to tweak Kasey’s nipple that he hadn’t covered in wax. Her nipple pebbling almost too hard to bear, Kasey moaned and Canin pulled on the tip, stretching it to the point of pain. A wonderful pain. “’Kay.” The word, giving him and herself permission, choked out through the lump in her throat. Why? How do I want this so desperately? She opened up for more, unable to stop the small spreading her legs would allow, or the rush of moisture that coated her inner thighs. Canin teased her clit with slow, hard strokes with one hand, and dipped down and took her breast in his mouth with the other. He suckled deeply from her already too sensitized nipple at the same time he slid another finger into her slit, pulling her open for a two-finger attack on her clit. Blood rushed to her core, flaming through her insides and swelling her unbearably. “Please…please.” She bounced down on his fingers like a wanton, the drop straining her arm muscles as she tested the hold of the silk restraints in order to get more of Canin’s wicked touch. He growled around his mouthful of her breast and squeezed her hot nubbin between his rough fingers, and Kasey lost it. “Ohhhh…” A low, roughly feminine groan ripped out of her throat as everything inside exploded at once. “Fuck, God.” Sharp, deep pulses racked through her, shaking her entire body from top to bottom in an orgasm that hit her pussy hard and had it grasping for something that wasn’t there. Canin bit down on her breast as her release rippled through her, making her gasp at the sweetly painful aggressiveness of it, and then moan as he did it a second time and made her come again. Just when she didn’t think she could take any more of coming or his biting, he licked her, soothing the sting. He eased his touch off her too sensitive clit and stepped away so she could recover in peace. He didn’t give her long to rest. His eyes open with his need, and his cock still straining a permanent stamp into the front of his jeans, Canin moved in again and ran his hands up her quivering arms. He reached her wrists and put his hand around the series of knots that kept her wrists from being tied directly to the bedpost. Pulling on the millimeter of give, he took her wrists in his hands and started to shift them. “Move with me as I turn your wrists the other way.” Her heart suddenly racing for something altogether different from orgasm, she had no choice but to shift with Canin’s twisting of her wrists in the tight hold of the silk. He didn’t stop her until she was facing the post. “Now wrap your hands around the wood and hold on for me.” Rubbing the backs of her hands, he helped her curl her fingers around the polished wood. “I’m not nearly done with you yet tonight.” With that, he kneeled down behind her, his face only inches from her ass.

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Chapter Seventeen Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Keep it together, Kasey, just keep it together. Canin held her ass cheeks in his hands, digging his fingers into her flesh as he pressed a kiss to her cleft. His thumbs slipped into the lower curve of her buttocks, grazing the sensitized skin hidden there. Kasey’s legs automatically moved together, her muscles clenching tightly. “Don’t get shy now.” Canin tapped a sharp slap on her ass, rushing blood to the heated area. “Open your legs back up for me, baby.” The safe word sat right at her throat, desperate to claw its way out. No. She couldn’t say it. People have been raped, girl. Just do it. The words screamed loud in Kasey’s head, and she forced herself to spread her legs open for him a little bit wider. Canin opened his palm over her buttock and soothed away the sting he’d created with his smack. “That’s my girl.” He squeezed the hills of her ass in his big hands again, pushing the ample flesh together and then spreading her cheeks apart once more, opening her clenching hole to his view. Out of her control, she clamped her legs back together, and all those muscles sucked inward at the same time. Still, she ground her teeth together, forcing the safe word to stay trapped inside, unspoken. “No. Don’t do that.” Canin spanked her again, quick tight hits with his open hand against the fullness of her backside, rushing burning heat to the skin, swelling her flesh in a way that raced warmth between her legs, and made her pussy pulse with excitement -- if only he didn’t keep looking at the snug ring of her ass. “If you’re not going to listen and keep them spread, baby, I can force them apart on my own. You don’t open for me, and that’s tantamount to you telling me you want me to make it so that you can’t close them until I let it happen.”

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An image of one of the male members of the club performing with his partner last night flashed across Kasey’s mind in a split second of time. His hands chained wide apart to the foot of a metal-framed bed, his legs set even wider at the ankles and knees. The pleasure on the mahogany face of that beautiful man as his partner forced him to take everything, to feel everything, with no way to hide, appeared before her eyes. No control. He didn’t have to think about it. He just closed his eyes and let it happen.

I can do that too. Even if it doesn’t bring me pleasure, as it did for that gorgeous guy last evening. “Please.” Her voice came out dangerously high, near to panicked pleading. “Do it. Use the spreader bar on me. Force me wide open and take what you want.” Kasey flooded as she spoke the words, her body betraying her once again. As she slipped even further into this role of wife and exhibitionist, falling to a place where fear and need battled for supremacy, she cursed the weakness that spurred her to impress and please this man, the weakness that allowed him to do with her whatever he wanted. Even to the point of degradation and humiliation. The tips of his fingers grazed over her hips and down her thighs, shooting electricity through her and turning her legs to jelly.

A betrayal of my body to go along with my mind. Hanging her head down low, her eyes slid closed, and everything except this room and the two of them disappeared from her thoughts. Hedonistic and raw for him, her throat full of grit, she uttered, “Put me in your power and fuck me, Canin. Do it however you want and make me come for you again.” A soft kiss caressed the small of her back, and Kasey shivered. She saw nothing but the blackness and spots behind her closed eyelids. The steady pace of boots hitting the tile floor as Canin walked to the wall of equipment sank into her ears and whisked through her body, pushing a cold sweat to the surface of her skin. Along with that, upon the footfall of his return, Kasey’s cunt wept with anticipation of his next move -- no matter what it was.

How can I let him do this to me? How can I want it so desperately, with everything I know about myself? What is wrong with me? Canin moved in again and knelt behind her legs, rushing everything from her head except what she knew he had in his hands. He put the spreader bar down, and when the metal made the softest tap against the tile, her entire body jerked. “Don’t lock up, baby. I don’t want to hurt you.” He wrapped his hand around her left ankle, took a moment to uncurl his fingers and rub the rise of her foot, but quickly came back to the hold. He applied insistent pressure on her ankle and calf and forced her legs to open. Cool air swirled around her soaking entrance and mingled with the moisture on her inner thighs, drying the thin layer of personal lubrication. Time only to process that one thing; everything else went away. Cool leather and cold metal from the buckles on either end of the spreader bar grazed the backs of her knees as Canin moved the device between

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them. Her knees felt especially open, at more than a foot apart. The soft sounds of the buckle releasing from the leather scraped as loudly as fingernails on a chalkboard in Kasey’s ears. Leather closed around her left knee, quickly pulling snug to the point of complete awareness of its presence, but not to where it would cut off her circulation. Breathing through this first step, the sigh of metal on metal grated, and Canin pushed her right leg out even farther as he increased the width of the adjustable spreader bar, not stopping until it felt like nearly two feet of metal between her knees held her open for him. He quickly secured the other cuff and cinched it closed tightly, effectively splitting her spread-eagle for his every desire. “Christ, you look good enough to eat back here.” Canin whistled, low and long, and Kasey squeezed her hands around the bedpost, desperate not to get any wetter for him. So open like this, she risked the proof of her excitement dropping right to the floor. He ran his hands up and down the backs of her thighs. The soft folds between her legs fluttered for him, and her clit strained out long and hard from its protective hood, begging for his touch. “Arch your back and stick your ass out for me. Issue me an invitation I can’t refuse.” She did as he asked as best she could, wiggling her tush. Her ass poked out so close to his face, the warm pants of his breath whispered over the soft skin of her cheeks, tingling the area, as she remembered his light spanking just a short while ago. She tried to shift her hips for him again, unsure if she did it to tempt him or relieve some of the powerful ache taking over her pussy. Straight-armed to the bedpost, Kasey pushed back in his direction and bumped her ass into his face. He growled, the sound rumbling through her from that one connection. Then he bit the ample globe of one buttock, tugging the skin between his teeth. “Oh!” Shock at the sensation of his teeth sinking into her flesh distracted her from any other thoughts. The sting of the bite put an imprint on her skin; she could feel it all the way down into the tips of her cramped toes. He laved with his tongue and bit again, drawing a moan out of her that pooled moisture in her crotch. Trying to clamp her thighs and catch it, the immovable force of the spreader bar pushed against her knees, locking her right in place. A flash of panic and a picture of herself held immobile like this for Canin’s needs formed in her mind, but instead of sickening and putting fear in her, she swelled and blossomed for him even more, and her nipples hardened unbearably, desperate for his touch. Canin nibbled short, nipping bites across her ass to her crease, delving his tongue into her crevice for a quick lick of her cleft, before licking and stinging his way to the other hill of her ass. He squeezed the fullness of her cheek with one hand, almost as if he held her up to his face in offering, and then bore down with his jaw for another big bite. Kasey whimpered at the feel of it, sensing his teeth weren’t breaking skin, but that he pressed down with enough force that she would bear his bruises tomorrow. Just the thought of it drew a low moan out of her, and she pushed her ass back for more. “There you go,” Canin murmured as he pressed baby kisses to her crease, the sound rumbling into her, forcing more weakness into her legs. She didn’t know how much longer

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she would be able to stand upright, spreader bar locking her in place or not. “I knew you’d like that.” He spread her cheeks apart again, and this time she shivered with the need of him, need of him to do anything to her however he wanted, no fear. She didn’t understand why this was happening to her, and how she could go to such a place and find pleasure in it, when she knew how much pain and damage it could do to a person. “I want this pretty hole of yours.” Wetness flickered over her pulsing ring, rocking a tremor through her that felt near to orgasm. His tongue tapped against her entrance again, frightening and exciting the small muscle at the same time. “But I want a drink of what that sweet pussy has been brewing for me all night far too much to pass it by.” With that, he titled her pelvis up, buried his face between her thighs, and thrust his tongue deep into her waiting cunt. “Oohh, God…” Kasey dug her fingertips into the bedpost to help her hold on. Her thighs shook with what Canin did and the delight he wrung out of her with his masterful tongue. He darted his tongue in and out of her channel, and she panted in tempo with every pierce he gave her with that wonderful instrument of torture. It was too much, and she tried to push her legs closed again, crying out when she met with the immovable force of the spreader bar again, no give in it at all. Canin had open access to her in every way, and he slipped his tongue out of her pussy and licked it up her slit, taking full advantage. “Christ, you taste like heaven.” The tip of his tongue flicked over her clit, just so, and Kasey lost control. “Canin, Canin…” Kasey choked and shook as orgasm hit her hard, the sweetest sensation of coming rushing to every corner of her body before racing back to her pussy. “Oh, fuck, I need to feel it, baby.” Before Kasey knew what was happening, the feel of Canin’s mouth on her crease slipped away. “No, please…” She cried out at the loss, pushing back at him for more. Just as she did, he drove into her with one powerful thrust, stretching her with unbearable joy, making them both grunt as his burning cock filled her to the hilt. “Holy Christ” -- he covered her and rode her like an animal in rut -- “you’re so fucking good.” His hands slid up her sides and he delved under her arms, grabbing a breast hard in each hand. He pushed her tits together and rubbed her aching nipples to the point of pain, drawing an answer in her channel where she milked his prick in her tight heat. With each thrust in, the scrape of his belt and jeans rubbed right under her ass, adding to the frenetic energy of the screwing. Sweat slicked his chest and coated her back too, mingling with the slapping, sucking noises her wet pussy created every time he slammed into her and pulled out, never stopping until he took her to the core each and every time. His legs hit the spreader bar with every hit he took into her cunt, forcing the leather cuffs to chafe around her knees; she knew she would be red and raw tomorrow.

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Kasey yanked at the silk bindings like a madwoman, desperate to shove Canin’s hands down into her mound and through her curls so that he could get to her aching hot bead again. “Please, please…” She grabbed at the bedpost and pulled, popping the muscles all up and down her arms, almost surprised when the wood didn’t give under her need for freedom. “Touch me again. Make me come. I want to come for you.” Her voice reached her own ears with broken neediness, shaming her, even as she couldn’t slow down or make it stop. “Make me come on your cock.” “Oh, baby, shit.” Canin’s left hand raced down her stomach and dove through her mound, arriving at her clit just as he buried his cock deep inside her and tucked his face into the nape of her neck. “I’m so fucking close. Come for me fast.” He whipped her clit into a frenzy, and Kasey howled, a noise unlike any she had ever made before. “Ahhhh, God, yessss…” Release hit her with the force of a freight train, throwing her into an inhuman place where only mating and orgasm existed. She bucked and clamped down inside, squeezing Canin’s cock with everything in her. Then she went to another place within and gave him more. Canin exploded with a roar, deafening her as his body tensed and he swelled inside her channel. He pushed with exquisite delight over Kasey’s walls just a split second before he jerked on top of her and came. His cock pumped little pulses within her as he spilled and filled her with spurt after spurt of hot cum, marking her as his forever. Exactly where she wanted to be.

Oh God, I’m in love with him. Everything hit Kasey all at once. That she had allowed him -- no, welcomed him -- to tie her up, spank her, and bite her as well as fuck her. And she had reveled in it all, temporarily burying a past that reared its ugly head right now, reminding her she could not allow herself to love Canin. Or anybody. Right there, as the whir of the curtain closing signaled the end of this part of their job, Kasey started to shake.

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Chapter Eighteen Kasey trembled, and it rolled through Canin in a palpable wave, shocking panic straight into his soul.

Christ. Christ. Christ. Please don’t let me have hurt her. “Are you okay?” He pulled his weight off her, moaning as her snug channel rippled around his cock one more time, teasing a need to sink right back in and take her all over again. “I’m fine.” Her voice reached him a little bit raw, but in less than two quick blinks, he watched her stiffen, and it was as if the shivering that rocked against him had never happened. “Just get me out of this getup so we can finish this job.” A tightness fisted Canin’s chest, but he stamped it down and slammed a lid on it.

Kasey’s needs are the important ones here, not mine. “Right.” He cleared the frog out of his throat and dropped to the floor to unlatch the first buckle. “Sure.” As soon as he moved the spreader bar from between her knees, she closed her legs up tight, and serious questions about what he had done began gnawing at Canin’s conscience. Did I assault her, all for a job? No. She wanted it; I know she did. Canin jerked at that, and rose to his feet to untie her wrists. Don’t all men who assault women say that? That she wanted it, and he knew she did, so he gave it to her. Oh God, did I rape her? Did she keep her mouth shut just for the job? Canin pulled at the knots twisting the silk restraint, cursing his fumbling fingers. Kasey still had her head turned down at the floor, and it tore him apart. “Talk to me, Kase.” Jesus, he fought the need to lift her into his arms, tuck her against his chest, and carry her home without letting a single soul in this damn sex club look at her again. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

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That got her head snapped up and her green gaze drilling a hole right through him. “Stop questioning my ability to do this job, damn it.” She rumbled a growl that rivaled one of his. She was getting good at that. “Now fucking untie me so that we can get those assholes talking to us before they move on to the next people willing to give them a show.” So, she was upset. Kasey cursed and snarled at people when she didn’t want anyone to stick around and take a closer look at her. Canin knew that, at the very least. “Come on, man.” She tugged at the silk still holding her prisoner to the bed. “If you can’t get it undone just get the scissors and cut it off. We still have to clean up, and we’re losing time.” She pushed him to places he’d never been with any other woman, and he barked back, “If you stay still and stop goddamned fighting me for a minute, I’ll have it done.” He didn’t have any trouble with his fingers now, and had the silk loosened in short order. “You might try working with me and trusting me, just once, instead of automatically pulling against everything I do, making everything a damned sight more difficult than it has to be.” He cupped one of her wrists in his hands and rubbed up and down the length of her arm, working circulation back into the limb. “I told you that we didn’t have to do this, and that I would let you take me again.” He transferred his massage to the other arm. “You said it was okay.” “And it was okay.” She ripped her wrist out of his hold and glared at him. “It was more than okay. You made me come four freaking times, and I swear I’m still buzzing between my legs from it.” Grabbing the burgundy silk robe off the bed, she wrapped it around her like a cloak. Dipping down, she snatched the bustier off the floor. “It was fucking fantastic, all right. Now for God’s sake, pull your pants up and grab your shirt so that we can get this thing moving.” She moved for the door that led to the midroom where they could clean up and change. “Chop-chop.” Swearing under his breath, Canin beat her to the door and slammed his hand over it before she turned the handle. A wickedly condescending sigh escaped her, and she looked up at him as if she were a truant and he the school principal. “Yes?” She crossed her arms under her breasts. “What is it now?” Right now, he could as easily strangle her as he could kiss her. “You don’t make things easy, woman.” Canin took a step away from the door and raised his hands in surrender. “You know that?” Her eyes darkened to dewy moss, holding his gaze for an unbearably long heartbeat. “I know.” Fuck. He slipped right back into wanting to carry her away from this place forever. He locked his hands behind his back, his fingers twisting in his bunched-up shirt. “You gave good advice before.” He dipped his head in concession. For now. “Let’s just do what we need to do tonight so that we can get out of here. Okay?”

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Her shoulders rolled forward a bit, and some of the tightness left her face. “Sounds like a plan.” She pushed open the door and moved into the softly lit changing area. Canin bit down on every need in him to shield and protect, and followed.

***** Kasey forced a plastic smile to her face and laughed at something Frank Kinsey said. Her cheeks ached, and her head hurt, and her feet were killing her from having worn those stiletto heels in the TWL room. Aside from all of that -- which put her right into a bitch mode that she had to stifle -- her gaze kept wandering and her mind kept shifting from the focus of the people she chatted with in this small group. And went right to Canin, across the room.

Bastard. Making her fall in love with him. Bringing her to orgasm, in ways and by means that should have paralyzed her right where she stood, trapped and unable to run. Overriding her fear and throwing everything she ever knew and believed about herself into a tailspin of doubt and self-loathing. How can I want him so desperately -- in any way that he’ll take me? Kasey’s gaze drifted Canin’s way again, landing on him in a conversation with Brett Kinsey and Hugh and Amanda Chalmers. Once again, Amanda had her fingers resting on Brett’s arm rather than her husband’s, inciting anger in the older man that no one around him could miss. Except, apparently, for Mrs. Chalmers. Brett clapped Canin on the shoulder, chatting and grinning in that naughty boy way of his. Canin shook his head at whatever the man said and turned his focus to Hugh, making Kasey’s heart swell with some damn sense of pride that Canin surely didn’t need her feeling. Giving Hugh that respect though, in the face of his wife not doing it… Kasey shivered, her sex already pulsing for him again. “You’re a lucky woman.” A sultry, feminine drawl jerked Kasey’s attention back to the group, and right on Lora Kinsey’s beautiful, knowing face. “He’s obviously completely taken with you.” She clicked her tongue, and her immaculately shaped eyebrows drew up as she watched. “And such a fine specimen of a man.” Visions of this woman touching Canin had Kasey shifting her back to the man under discussion and blocking Lora’s view to where he stood. “I don’t share. It’s not our thing.” “Down, girl.” Lora laughed, the sound a perfect mix of throaty and innocent. Figured. No wonder so many of the men in this club wanted her. Women too. “I know you guys don’t share or swap.” Lora leaned in and squeezed Kasey’s arm, twinkling the diamond on her finger and the gold bangle bracelets on her wrist. “Brett mentioned that he approached you a few days ago and you told him the same thing. I wasn’t making an invitation, just an observation.”

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“Sorry.” Heat snaked up Kasey’s neck and filled her cheeks, and a ridiculous little part of her wanted to sink into the floor and hide in the face of this confident, elegant woman. “We’re new here, and we’re still adjusting to how open everyone is about everything. I didn’t realize we’d have so many offers for swinging or adding a third so quickly.” “There aren’t too many who are shy, I’ll agree with you about that,” Lora said. “Except for maybe that sweet young thing right there.” Lora made a discreet pointing gesture with her wineglass before bringing it to her lips. Kasey followed and found Tara Pickering, more of that little girl quality overtaking her lovely face. Tara kneeled to the left of her husband, a smile on her face that looked eerily similar to the one Kasey had been forcing all night. Her husband stood in conversation with Brett, who had apparently disentangled himself from Amanda Chalmers. God, Kasey hoped the men weren’t preparing another night of slave training for sweet Tara. Kasey shifted her attention back to Tara and found pale brown eyes waiting for hers, and a tentative, real smile on her face. Kasey smiled back, just as genuine, all the while wishing she could take the girl home with her and help her start a new life.

Which she might not even want, her conscience nagged. She could be an aide to a serial rapist, or the perpetrator herself, for all you know. “Do you really think she wants to be a slave?” Kasey found the words leaving her mouth, unable to hold in her fascination and curiosity for this fetish. “It hardly seems to me that she’s done enough living to make that kind of choice.” “Frank says she has the natural makings of one,” Lora answered, drawing Kasey’s focus back to her. “Now if you want my opinion, I don’t think Jonathan is the man to nurture it and bring it out in her. He’s always seemed a little cold to me, and Tara needs someone who’s going to encourage and let her blossom into this person her soul wants her to be, not degrade her into it. Personally, I couldn’t take that final step to a master and slave relationship with Frank, and thank God he was okay with it. I like him to dominate me and I like it when he makes me sting with pain, but taking it a step further to complete mastery over me, in every way, I couldn’t do that. It takes a very special person not to abuse that power. Unfortunately for Tara, I don’t think Jonathan is that man. Who knows?” Lora chuckled, her eyes shifting to Jonathan and Brett. “If he keeps inviting Brett into their bedroom to discipline Tara, Brett may just steal the girl out from under him. Literally.” “Maybe,” Kasey murmured. Anything had to be better than Jonathan. “Maybe what?” Canin’s familiar gravelly voice rumbled into Kasey from behind, and seconds later he slipped his arms around her waist and drew her against his chest. A shiver cascaded over her, visible to the small group, and certainly enough for Canin to feel it too. Frank laughed and raised his glass in the air in Canin’s direction. “Damn, man. I wish I got that kind of reaction out of Lora just by putting my arms around her.”

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Lora scrunched up her beautiful face and smacked her husband in the upper arm. “Shut up, you randy son of a bitch. I get plenty hot for you and you know it, so don’t go letting all these people think I don’t appreciate you.” “Yeah, we’ll see about that.” Frank dipped down his massive shoulder and lifted Lora right off the floor and over his arm. She shrieked, and he spanked her ass a few times with his open palm. “I’ll take you home and tie you to the bed, see how much you appreciate me then. ’Night, guys.” Frank winked and waved as he started to walk. “I have something I need to do.” Lora made all kinds of threats and banged her fists against Frank’s strong back, but her eyes twinkled, catching the soft light in the club. She waved, called out, “See you later,” and let her husband carry her out of the club like a caveman would. “You ready to head out too?” Canin said softly next to her ear. “I’m beat and ready to go to bed.” Another shiver rolled through her, and everything Kasey had buried from the TWL room just a few short hours ago began toiling within her again, racing dread, fear, and old memories through her blood and into her brain. She couldn’t be alone with Canin. Not after everything she knew now, everything she’d let him do to her, and how much it sickened her that she loved every second of what they’d done, knowing that she should have abhorred it. She was sick inside, disgusted and horrified and completely out of balance. Panic froze her insides even further. Canin squeezed her around the middle and tickled her ribs. “Kase?” He gave her a little jiggle. “Did you hear me? Are you ready to head home?” The other four people in their group looked at them, putting Kasey on a slide under a microscope. The plastic smile automatically slipped back into place. They’d allowed everyone to get enough of a look at them for tonight. “Yes, of course. Let’s go.” Releasing her middle, Canin held out his hand, his gaze pale, kind, and completely unaware of the storm fighting to brew into a hurricane inside her. Kasey linked her fingers with his anyway, and let him lead her to the exit.

***** Standing under the driving spray of water, Kasey shook violently as the icy cold drops numbed her body, pruned her skin, and turned her fingernails blue. Unable to make herself even stand in the same room as Canin, let alone share a bed, Kasey used the excuse of needing a shower to get the club off her before she could go to sleep. Forty-five minutes of relentless scrubbing and trying to tell herself that nothing she had done since beginning this investigation really mattered had Kasey more locked in place than those restraints at the club had. Pictures of blue rope and white silk intermingled in her mind, confusing the pleasure Canin wrung out of her with the shock of twenty-one years ago

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when she discovered that Clinton and Jimmy were not the sweet boys her little girl head had fantasized they were. She fell against the wall, knocking the shampoo bottle off a shelf with a heavy thud as she went back to that moment when she realized those boys wanted to do more than “hang out.” No. Don’t go there. Stop. God, her fantasies of sex at that point consisted of kissing and thinking she might want to feel a boy’s tongue in her mouth and maybe a hand on her breast. Maybe. Everything changed after that day, but she had figured out how to survive and how to have sex in her life on her own terms -- ones that didn’t threaten the delicate balance of things.

Damn Canin for screwing it up and making me want something I’m not meant to have. A normal life. With faith, trust, and love. With a husband to lean on and a dog to go with her cat and…children. A shudder rolled through Kasey hard, dropping her to her knees. “Oh, God, no.” She rubbed her hands over face, shocked to feel the warmth of tears streaking down the chill of her skin. “What is wrong with me?”

Why can’t I find my way back to order and balance? The way things were before this case -“Kasey! Kasey!” A strong grip jerked her shoulders, snapping her head back against the shower wall with a sharp burst of pain. “Kasey!” The familiar timbre of Canin’s voice ripped through the fog, trying to tug Kasey away from that horrible place. “Are you okay?”

Okay? When was the last time she had ever been okay? Twenty-one years ago on March 16, the voice in her head mocked, dragging her away from Canin and back to that afternoon and evening. Nothing had been 100 percent okay since. “Kasey. What’s the matter?” Canin’s voice reached her, just barely, through the haze. The spits of freezing water splashing against her skin suddenly stopped. “You’re as white as a ghost and shaking like a leaf. You’ve been in here with the water running for over an hour.” He tossed a towel over her body and started rubbing her upper arms. “Now tell me what’s going on right now, or I’m pulling you off this case.” She couldn’t bear to look at him. Not like this. “It’s nothing.” “It’s something.” He took her chin in his hand and forced her eyes to meet his. “I’ve never seen you like this before, and it has me damn worried.” She pushed against his forearm, pressing all of her weight against it until he released the hold on her face. “I’m fine.” His eyes snapping, he got to his feet and grabbed another towel. “You’re not.” “It was nothing,” she insisted. “It won’t interfere again.”

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“All right. Fine.” He tossed her another towel and held her fuzzy robe over his arm. “I’m pulling seniority and taking you off this case.” “No!” Kasey shot to standing, uncaring that she stood in moisture and could easily crack her head open for the fast move. “You can’t!” “Then talk to me, damn it!” Everything in him vibrated, and his fists clenched so hard she knew he could crack walnuts in them. “Right. Damn. Now.” “No!” “Yes!”

Fuck. She could lose the secret, or lose the case. Oh God, oh God, oh God. “Tell me, damn it.” Canin’s voice reeked of command. “Right now.”

Bastard. “I was raped, okay!” Planting her hands on his chest, Kasey shoved him with all of her might, cursing him for forcing this level of nakedness out for the world to see. “When I was goddamned fucking thirteen years old, two boys held me prisoner for an afternoon and raped me. Okay!” In front of her, Canin paled and stumbled to his knees.

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Chapter Nineteen Holy fucking shit. Raped. At thirteen years old. Goddamned thirteen years old. Still just a baby. Canin had known it was something bad. From the very beginning of their working relationship, his gut had told him she had dark secrets. From that first acquaintance, to friendship, to now knowing in his soul that this woman was his mate, every moment they shared together bonded him to her more fully. Down on his knees, paralyzed, Canin raged inside, the desire to kill for Kasey nearly overwhelming him. He didn’t care that he would go to jail, he didn’t give a rat’s ass that it was against God, he only knew that he had to tear limb from limb anyone who did this woman harm. She stood in the bathtub, her eyes flashing and her chin lifted high, all the while clutching the towel around her middle like a coat of armor. Everything about her screamed “don’t you dare pity me,” stifling every word of sympathy sitting in Canin’s throat. He looked into her eyes, giving her the true depth of everything he felt for her, putting up no shield or blockade at all. Her pupils flared, and a soft catch in her breath escaped into the air, making them both jerk with a jolt of electricity. In a flash, she scrambled over the ledge of the tub. “Excuse me.” She pushed past where he still kneeled. “I’m going to bed now.” Canin snaked out his hand and grabbed her by the ankle, halting her forward progress. “Wait a minute.” He tugged gently on her leg, and she took a few small steps backward without a fight. Guiding her around him, he eased her down on the lid of the toilet. He handed over her fuzzy robe, waiting for a moment while she worked it on over the towel.

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Only when she secured the belt did she slide the towel out from under it. The vulnerability in her eyes stole his breath. Sensing she desperately needed some breathing room, Canin shifted to the opposite wall and leaned against it. He bent his knees and dangled his clasped hands between them. “Tell me what happened, Kasey.” Her toes curled under, and her fingers fiddled with the sleeves of her robe; it took every ounce of discipline Canin had ever taught himself to remain seated on the bathroom floor with three endless feet of space between them. “It’s time to talk.” She let out an unsteady breath. “There’s not much more to say.” Crossing one leg over the other, she drew the robe even tighter around her middle. “Two older boys, one of whom I had a crush on, talked me into going for a walk with them one Saturday, and they spent the afternoon taking turns raping me. They tied me to a radiator in an abandoned factory, and when it got dark and there was no light for them to see me anymore, or maybe they had another reason, I don’t know, they untied me and told me to go home. Oh --” The most horrific chuckle grated out of Kasey, bleeding Canin’s ears. “And they told me I was a lot of fun and that if I didn’t want them to have some more fun with me, then I’d better not tell anybody what happened.” “Sons of bitches.” Canin clenched his fists, practically able to feel his knuckles slamming into the breakable bone and tissue of each of the bastards’ noses. He didn’t give a shit that they were teenagers. They’d violated a child and deserved whatever the fuck they got. “I hope to hell your father went and beat them to within an inch of their lives before hauling them off to the cops.” Kasey’s chuckle turned downright cynical. Canin stiffened. “What?” Her gaze shifted to a dull, flat green. “My father didn’t want to rock the boat,” she answered. “My father didn’t want to risk losing his job, seeing as how one of the boys who raped me was the son of the man who owned the mine that employed two-thirds of the town, my dad included.” “No way.” The words slipped out of Canin unchecked, his mind unable to wrap around the information Kasey so casually shared. “No father says that to his child after someone has violated them in such a terrible way.” “He didn’t say it to me,” Kasey corrected. The first tear slipped, but she gave it an aggressive swipe with her hand, abolishing it before it could roll down her cheek. “He said it to my mother after he asked me to leave the kitchen.” Limp strings of wet hair fell forward, partially covering her face. Canin wanted to move them behind her ear, but was afraid to touch her right now. “God, I remember the cold hardness of the plaster at my back as I stood there on the other side of the kitchen wall, listening to everything they said, rather than going to my room as I was told. My mother didn’t say much, but then again, she never did. My father told her making a fuss wouldn’t change anything for me; I couldn’t be unraped by

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reporting it. He said it would get him harassed and intimidated on the job until he had no choice but to quit, and then what would we do? Nobody in Keegan would dare cross Big Johnston Caruthers and hire my dad, and we certainly couldn’t afford to move somewhere new. He told my mom to clean me up and help me to forget that it ever happened, and not to speak a word of it to anyone else. “I ran to my room and waited for my mom, and sure enough, she came and gathered up some of my clothes, and we went into the bathroom. She put me in the shower and got in there with me, and just started scrubbing me down, abrading the broken skin on my wrists and knees and chin; putting new bruises on top of bruises, she cleaned me so thoroughly.” Kasey paused, blinking a bunch of times, working so damn hard to hold back those tears that she clearly viewed as a weakness. She put her elbow up on the sink ledge, leaned into it, and stared at the wall to Canin’s left, her eyes still distant. “Looking back now, I don’t know if she looked to wash away evidence, or her own guilt over what she was doing. All the while, she created this elaborate list of reasons why it wouldn’t be good to rehash this, and that it would hurt me more than the boys, feeding me line after line of what I’d heard them talk about only minutes ago. She kept me home from school for nearly two weeks while my body healed, getting my homework for me and telling my teacher I’d caught a bug that was just taking a while to shake. My mom was good. She played her part so well she convinced me she was right. She was my mom, you know, so of course I never told anyone.” Kasey finally came back to him, and the brightness and life she’d tried so valiantly to keep at bay washed over every inch of her face. Then sadness took over, and stole the breath right out of Canin’s body. “And that mistake will haunt me for the rest of my life.” “You know your own power now,” Canin observed softly. “It stands to reason that you would look back on it as an adult and wish you’d spoken up. Doesn’t make you wrong or a bad person for not having done it.” “No, that’s not why.” Her eyes filled with wetness, and bleak despair sat on her. “It doesn’t haunt me because I didn’t get revenge; it does it because two months later, they did it to another girl.” She batted her hand and knocked a cup holding toothpaste and a toothbrush off the counter, sending it flying across the bathroom. It hit the wall with a satisfying crash and tumbled to the floor. “If I had just been brave enough to stand up it wouldn’t have happened to her. I could have saved another girl going through what I did, but I didn’t. Even then” -- she wiped away the layer of tears shining on her cheeks -- “I could have spoken up and backed up her word, but I didn’t. My parents said there was no need to drag me into it, and that the boys would pay because of what they did to the other girl. And once again, I let them, even though all the way back then I knew it was wrong. Keeping quiet ate at me, and festered in me, until it hit a point that I knew the second I graduated from high school I would leave Keegan and never go back.” Shifting her head on her hand, she finally connected directly to his gaze. “I changed my mind because I missed my brother. He didn’t reply to the letters I sent him, so I went back once to see him and talk about it, but it didn’t go well. I don’t know what my parents told him about why I left, but he thought I

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abandoned him for a glamorous life in a big city and didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. “So, that’s my secret.” Kasey pushed off the commode and moved into the bedroom, quickly and carefully sideswiping Canin’s hands. He shoved up and rushed after her. “Can we quit boohooing with each other now and put our minds back on the job?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “I wish I’d known this before tonight,” he told her. “I never would have tied you up like that at the club. My God, Kasey, I held you open with a spreader bar so that I could fuck you --” Kasey rounded on him and got right in his face. “Don’t” -- she poked him in the chest with her finger -- “bring that shit up again. This thing happened to me over twenty years ago. I handled that fucking bondage room tonight like a pro. We had those people eating out of the palms of our hands and begging for more. Hell, we’ve got people hitting on us left and right.” She backed off and moved to her side of the bed, dousing her lamp. He turned away, moving to his side of the bed, giving her privacy as she slipped her pajamas on, leaving the robe covering her until she was finished. “Brett wants us so badly he can taste it, Lora thinks you’re nothing but all kinds of sweet eye candy, and Jonathan wants me to discipline his wife. Hell, after tonight, he’ll probably approach you about it too.” “No thanks.” Canin crawled in bed beside Kasey, but very mindfully gave her plenty of breathing space. “It was all I could do to say no to Brett again tonight without wanting to punch him in the mouth for his persistence.” “Right.” Kasey shot him a knowing look, and Canin’s heart swelled at the way she bounced back from sharing her terrible history. “And that doesn’t even count that we’re having dinner at the home of a pair of swingers tomorrow night, for God’s sake.” Grabbing a small tube of hand lotion out of the drawer in her nightstand, she went on, “We’ve got the club buzzing about us, which is exactly what we went in there to do. We’re doing great. Don’t behave like we’re not, or as if I’m deficient in some way because you know this piece of me now. Don’t presume that you know me well enough to make that kind of judgment or assessment about me.” “But --” Canin opened his mouth and snapped it back shut, speechless by the jumps in her complex mind. “But nothing, Canin.” The phone rang, and Kasey held up her finger, the familiar embers of fire sparking in her eyes. “Don’t be that guy; that judgmental, know-it-all guy. You don’t want to be him.” She put two fingers over his mouth before he could speak. Putting the cell phone to her ear, she said, “Hello? This is Kasey.” The heavy breathing came right through the earpiece, even reaching Canin’s ears. Kasey kept the phone to her ear but reached up, pushed a button, and suddenly the breathing sounded like it was in stereo. “Listen, you pervert” -- she shot a quick look to Canin, and he nodded discreetly -“I’ve got a real man here ready to breathe right up close to my ear. I don’t need --”

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“You’ll pay, bitch.” An eerily digitized voice filled the room, making Canin growl under his breath, and Kasey shiver. “You and your bastard of a husband are gonna get what’s coming to you, and there won’t be any way you can stop it.” “Who is th --” Click. The line went dead, and the drone of buzzing filled the room. Kasey ended the call and put the phone down, her eyes wide on Canin. They didn’t even have to discuss that she hadn’t been on the line long enough to triangulate the call. “So.” Her voice barely registered as a whisper. “We did it. What now?” Canin slid down in bed. Stacking two pillows behind his head, adrenaline popped and snapped through every pore of his body. “Now, we go to sleep. And we wait.” When Zin hopped in bed with them five minutes later, they both jumped about a foot off the mattress. Heat suffused faces and curses spewed in short bursts, but neither commented or called out the other for the tell. They both settled back in their pillows and admired the ceiling, the cat purring between them.

***** Kasey stroked Zin’s soft fur over and over again, unable to keep still. Glancing at the digital alarm clock on her nightstand, she groaned at the hour. Sunrise would hit soon, and she had yet to get even five minutes of sleep. She knew this bastard wouldn’t attack them tonight; it was too soon. The logic in that knowledge, however, hadn’t been enough for her to close her eyes and sleep. “So you faked it all night too, huh?” Canin’s voice rumbled from his side of the bed, snapping Kasey to attention. She darted a quick look his way, and noticed he still stared up at the ceiling, just as she had done all night. He said, “The last time I spent an entire night staring into space waiting for someone to come who I knew wouldn’t show was when I was a kid and my dad left us. I’d just lie there every night wondering how I would confess to Rhone that Dad went away because of me.”

What? Her brow crinkling, Kasey rolled to her side. Canin stayed stock-still as he was, his gaze turned upward. “How do you figure that?” she asked. “I thought you said your dad left because he couldn’t handle your mom’s death.” Canin cleared his throat, and his Adam’s apple bobbed visibly. “After Mom died, before Dad checked out for good, he would go out and not come home until the next morning, or sometimes not for a day or two. We had our grandmother there by that point, so it wasn’t like we were unsupervised. Still, when you’ve just lost your mother you want your dad to be right there at your side all the time. Especially me.” Kasey held her breath, her hands knotted under her cheek, praying that he wouldn’t snap out of it and clam up.

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It seemed a lifetime passed, but finally, Canin went on. “My dad and I were so close when I was small; I remember doing everything with him. It wasn’t that Rhone wasn’t there or participating with us when we played in the yard or hung out, but I remember wanting to tell Dad everything first, whereas Rhone just wanted to tell someone; my mom would have done as well as my dad. Anyway, Dad came home after being away for a few days, and I ran up to him and tried to hug him, but he just patted my shoulder and went into another room. I was an eager little fucker and I followed right on his heels, itching to tell him about how far I kicked a ball in soccer or something, I don’t know.” Kasey bit her lip, but she would bet her life that Canin knew exactly what he had wanted to share with his father that day. “So what happened?” she asked instead. “Turns out he’d just come home to change his clothes so he could go out again,” Canin said, his voice tightening. “I was crushed that he was leaving again after not having seen or talked to him for days, so I asked him why he had to keep going away. He tried to brush me aside with a ‘no reason’ or ‘just because,’ but like I said, I was pushy, even back then. I jumped up on his bed and started throwing a fit that I didn’t want him to leave and why did he have to keep going away, making a real scene. He finally grabbed me by the shoulders and jerked me to shut me up. He looked right at me, and there was something in his eyes and in how hard he held me that scared me, but now he wouldn’t let me go. He said, and I can hear his voice in my head as if he said it just yesterday, he said, ‘Because looking in your eyes is just like looking at your mother, and I can’t bear to see you every day and know I can never have her back.’” Kasey’s hand flew to her mouth to stifle the gasp. Canin spared her a glance, but then put his stare right back up on the ceiling. “It’s all right,” he said. “I’m fine now. But back then, I can’t even tell you what his words did to me. I could hardly look Rhone in the eyes for years, knowing that I had driven our father away, leaving him with no parents, when he at least could have had one. At the same time, I became super overprotective of Rhone, and I got very aggressive with anyone who even looked at him funny on the playground or in school. It was all totally ridiculous, as I was all of one year older than him. I was quite a bit bigger though, physically, even back then. I figured I could do that one thing for him, make sure he never had to worry about bullies.” “He adores you,” Kasey shared, keeping her voice soft in deference to his. “He doesn’t even try to hide it. You must have done something right. Probably a lot more than you think you did.” “Maybe,” he said. Zin took that moment to crawl over Kasey’s belly, eliciting an “oof.” Kasey automatically contracted her muscles to combat the claws. The cat hopped up on Canin’s stomach and settled right down into a fluffy white ball. Canin absently rubbed her behind the ears, and the buzz of her purring began.

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Kasey thought Canin had given her as much as he would when he murmured, “You know, I never told anyone what my father said to me all those years ago. Not even Rhone. It seems stupid now, and like I made it a much bigger deal than it was.” “Well, if I may paraphrase what you told me, you’re an adult now, so you have some perspective. Doesn’t mean what you felt or did back then was wrong.” Canin gently nudged Zin off his stomach and rolled onto his side. Facing Kasey, his pale eyes caught the early light through the high windows, making them twinkle like blue diamonds. “Glad to know you actually listen when I talk.” He brushed the back of his hand across her cheek, and drew out a shiver. His hand slipped lower and caressed the nape of her neck. “Careful, Kase. If I didn’t know any better I’d think you liked me.” He brushed his knuckles over her collarbone, tugging her closer as his fingers snagged around the collar of her nightshirt. Her heart pounded under her clothes, and she wondered how in the hell Canin didn’t see it. “But you do know better.” She covered the back of his hand with hers, but didn’t apply any force to stop him. He pulled her to him with just those two fingers. She licked her lips, anticipation making her mouth go dry. His attention dipped down to her mouth, and his pupils flared. “No” -- his voice was all thick with the morning -- “I don’t think I do know any better.” Moving in to close those scant inches of space between them, their lips almost brushed when Canin howled, “Ahhhh!” and jumped a foot off the bed -- with Zin attached to his shoulder blades with all four sets of claws. He shot upright, and she meowled with a sound reserved for when a cat is given a bath. Kasey lunged and snatched the animal off Canin’s body before she did any more damage. “Jesus.” Canin reached back and fingered the puncture marks. “I guess she doesn’t want me kissing you.” Kasey chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Or maybe she doesn’t want me kissing you.” She put the cat on the floor, and Zin tore down the stairs in a shot. “After all, you have been sneaking her treats all week. She might be jealous.” Canin had the grace to look sheepish. “Noticed that, did you?” “Yes.” She gave him her best stern voice. “I did.” The familiar clatter of a bowl scraping across a hardwood floor reached Kasey’s ears. “Or maybe she’s just hungry and wants to eat.” Glancing at the clock, Kasey tapped the appropriate button and turned the alarm off before it sounded in the next minute. “I’ll go do that while you take care of your scratches.” She pointed at the bathroom. “There’s stuff under the sink.” “Wait,” Canin called to her, stopping her on the top step. She met his still heated gaze and raised a brow. “Yes?” “You’re not going to take care of it for me?”

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Kasey glanced down at the hard-on pushing against Canin’s sweats. “Nice try.” She couldn’t believe it, but she actually had to bite her lip to keep from giggling. What the fuck? “I’m sure you’re capable of taking care of it yourself. Come downstairs when you have, and we’ll strategize for our date with Lindsey and Jeff.” Smiling ridiculously, although she couldn’t understand why, Kasey tripped down the stairs, feeling lighter than she had in years.

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Chapter Twenty As she pulled open the nightstand drawer in Lindsey and Jeff’s bedroom, Kasey wondered what in the hell she thought to find that might incriminate them. They weren’t stupid people, so even if by some stretch of the imagination they ended up being the perpetrators of these crimes -- and every day that went by Kasey doubted that more and more -- they wouldn’t keep evidence of their guilt in their bedroom. Except maybe they would. Where else would they put it? They didn’t have a storage unit registered anywhere -at least not under their own name. They didn’t own a second home or apartment, they didn’t yet own that restaurant they wanted, so that left their car and their house as the only places that afforded relative privacy from the curiosity of others. Snorting, Kasey thought about the things she kept in her home that would tell stories about her, and immediately redoubled her search efforts. Other than some lube, condoms, a watch, a small address book, and a handful of candy bars, there was nothing else in the drawer. Cursing under her breath, Kasey shut the drawer and moved to the closet, holding her breath as she pulled open the accordion pleat doors. They folded out with no squeaking, and she sighed with relief. She had begun her search quickly once excusing herself to the bathroom, but even with that, she knew she didn’t have much time left before Jeff, or more likely Lindsey, wondered what took her so long. She didn’t want to insult Jeff’s cooking by claiming stomach cramps. Examining the overall closet quickly, Kasey didn’t see anything too extraordinary other than incredible organization and neatness that went above and beyond what she had ever been able to achieve for herself. Two racks, one and a half clearly for Lindsey with the rest for Jeff. Coordinated by color and item, everything had a soldiered look to it, even the clear boxes on the top shelf, all with shoes in them and a photo taped to the outside, letting

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Lindsey know which pair was inside. With the shelf so high, most women probably would have had the boxes stacked on the floor, but like Kasey, Lindsey was tall -“See something you like?” Lindsey’s voice reached Kasey from the left, snatching her out of her search and spinning her around. Kasey’s heart raced unbearably as Lindsey leaned against the doorjamb to her bedroom, her arms crossed, her eyes impossible to read. Hurt. Anger. Betrayal. Disappointment. All good possibilities. “You’re not that much taller or bigger than I am.” Lindsey’s voice reeked with insincerity, and Kasey wanted to melt right into the carpet. “We could probably make a few things work.”

Shit. Damn. Fuck. And fuck again. What would Canin do? Giving Lindsey a half smile, Kasey stuck her hands into her pockets and shrugged. “Okay, you caught me. God, I’m so embarrassed.” Her face felt so hot she knew she must look like a tomato. “Canin and I are still new to this whole sex club thing, displaying ourselves, having people approach us about swapping, or sharing, or whatever. I look around that club sometimes and wonder if I’m those people now. Those people that others think are dirty and lurid and nymphomaniacs. I don’t feel like any of that; I just feel like me. I guess when I passed your bedroom on the way to the bathroom, I started wondering how different you guys are from us. I decided to sneak a peek and see if your room and your stuff are any different from ours, or if I might see something that would prove that Canin and I are still normal people compared to you. Maybe I thought I’d see a sex swing, or a king-sized water bed, or that the place would smell of sex, anything to give your lifestyle away.” Kasey left the closet doors open and sat down on the edge of the bed. Putting her face in her hands, her mortification quite real, she finished with, “I don’t know what I was thinking, other than being completely insensitive and grossly violating your kindness. I apologize.” “Damn it.” Lindsey moved into the room, and the bed dipped beneath her weight as she sat down. She slipped her arm around Kasey’s waist and gave her a shoulder nudge. “I’m supposed to be all pissed at you and throw you out of my house, flat on your ass, for finding you snooping around in my closet.” “I looked in your dresser and nightstand too,” Kasey confessed, on a roll. Might as well go full-out; it’s not as if she hadn’t been caught red-handed. “Well, hell. So you found my chocolate stash, huh?” Lindsey chuckled. “There’s my biggest dirty little secret, if that’s what you were looking for. I get up in the middle of the night with cravings for candy that I absolutely have to satisfy or I can’t go back to sleep.” “I get up in the middle of the night and stare at Canin.” Kasey found words coming out of her mouth that she had no power to push back down inside. “I have to look because I sometimes can’t believe he’s actually in my bed.” “Aw. You guys still act like newlyweds. That’s nice.” Lindsey’s eyes shone with a smile. “He doesn’t wait until you’re asleep to stare at you. I catch him doing it all the time. I swear

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if I couldn’t guess that you’re both in your midthirties, I’d say you were eighteen years old and each other’s first sweetheart.” Kasey turned her head in her hand and caught Lindsey’s stare. “I apologize again for coming into your room and looking around without your permission. You’ve been nothing but great to me, and I would hate to think I’ve broken the friendship we’ve developed so quickly between us. I hope you can forgive me.” “You’re let off the hook -- this time.” Lindsey squeezed Kasey around the middle, and Kasey had to stifle the urge to cry. She wanted to confess everything to this woman and still have her as a friend on the other side. It had been such a long time since she’d had a girlfriend, and she had forgotten how much she missed it. “The next time you want to know something, or see something, just ask me. I’ll tell you, if I can. It’s natural to have doubts about what you’re doing, and to wonder if people are secretly thinking that you’re a freak for wanting it. I know I did when Jeff and I started swinging. I never thought I was doing something that I didn’t want to do, but at the same time, I wondered if neighbors and friends would look at me and just know what I was doing, without me ever saying a word. I also worried about how many friends and family I would lose if they found out about my lifestyle. I think that’s just human of us. You’ll have to keep looking, and over time, examine whether or not that worry and fear is dissipating. If it isn’t, maybe you’ll need to reconsider whether a sex club is for you. Only you and Canin can answer that.” “All right.” Kasey nodded. Taking Lindsey’s hand, she pulled the woman to her feet. “Thank you for understanding.” She forced a smile. “And for not throwing me out on my ass. I know I deserved it.” Lindsey twined her fingers in Kasey’s and guided her out of the bedroom. “Yeah, I really should have.” She held Kasey’s hand, and everything in the touch spoke of those friendships that exist between little girls. “But Jeff is anxious to try a new dessert out on the two of you.” The woman’s eyes twinkled again. “There’s a blowtorch involved, and I really couldn’t disappoint him.” Kasey laughed, and let Lindsey lead her, loving having a new friend. “Take me to it. I’m ready to eat.” Their pace picked up to a trot. “Good. And later” -- Lindsey winked -- “I’ll show you where we keep the sex swing. You weren’t in the right room.” “Ooh, can’t wait.” Kasey wiggled her eyebrows. “Bring it on.” Giving mock chase, Kasey raced Lindsey to the kitchen, hoping with everything in her that she didn’t lose this woman when the lies of her and Canin’s cover came to light.

***** “So I totally copped to her catching me snooping,” Kasey said to Canin on the ride home. Canin had already shared his big fat goose egg of information he’d unearthed on his

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quick search of Jeff and Lindsey’s home. “I didn’t see her buying anything other than the truth. She just believes I was doing it because I’m experiencing uncertainty about being a member of a sex club, rather than the other. It was the best I could do.” “It was fast thinking and very smart,” Canin said. He spared her a glance as he pulled onto the street of her apartment building. “And you ended up coming out of it closer to her than ever, so that’s a really good thing.” “Yeah, until she finds out the truth and hates me for lying to her all this time.” “You haven’t been lying to her, Kase, just like I haven’t been lying to Jeff. We’re doing a job, and so we have to keep vital information from them. That doesn’t mean that what we are saying to them, and the time we’ve enjoyed with them, is a lie.” “But you know it’s unlikely they’ll see it that way when everything comes out in the open.” Her chest constricted, and she didn’t know which thing hurt her heart more at the moment: the lie of her marriage to Canin or the eventual loss of a new friend. “They’re going to feel deceived and betrayed, and like idiots for believing that we’re happily married like they are.” “We could always get married and show them that we weren’t faking about everything,” Canin murmured. He eased the car into a parking slot almost in front of the building, leaving Kasey marveling at the man’s good luck -- and his balls. “Yeah, right.” Kasey snorted, shaking her head as she got out of the car. Looking over her shoulder at Canin, she waited for him to lock everything up before opening the front door and heading for the elevator. “We’ll just get hitched and tie ourselves to each other forever so that we don’t lose our first ‘couple’ friendship. That’s a great idea. We’re both such open people we’d be the best married couple ever.” “Hey” -- Canin jammed the button for the appropriate floor -- “we’re not doing half bad at this married people thing.” He steadied her with a hand under her elbow, sending tingles all over where he touched. Looking down at her, he caught her with his stare. “We haven’t had one person question us as a couple. And I don’t know about you, but I kind of like having someone to unwind with every night. It for damn sure beats going home alone, ordering pizza, and then jerking off before I hit the hay.” “Oh, right.” Stepping off the elevator, Kasey rolled her eyes heavenward. Men. Geez. “God forbid you break in any of that shiny equipment in your kitchen and cook a meal. And sweet mercy, what is the world coming to that you might have to use your own hand once in a while to rub one out when you don’t have a willing woman on her knees every night of the week taking care of it for you.” Canin leaned his shoulder against the wall and crossed his arms, his eyes shining and his lips curved up in a downright cheeky smile. He looked so damn sexy, Kasey’s fingers fumbled with getting the key in the door. “See, that’s what I love about you so much, Kase,” he said. “There just aren’t that many women in the world who’d tell a guy to quit complaining and go ‘rub one out’ on his own. I will register one complaint about your

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criticism, though.” He followed her into the apartment, dogging her heels in that way she had come to expect from him. “And that’s about my ability to cook a meal. I’d be happy to take over cooking duties whenever you’d like.” “So can I expect steaks seven nights a week then?” God, Kasey had to keep it light. She couldn’t let herself think about Canin coming into her world for real and sharing daily chores like cooking. Kicking off her shoes by the stairs, she groaned as her toes thanked her for the reprieve. “I can handle meat --” He chuckled luridly behind her. “Shut up.” She swatted his hands before he could grab her ass, and started up the stairs. “Get your mind out of the gutter. That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” “I know.” Circling her waist, Canin rushed her the rest of the way up the stairs, his mouth nibbling against her neck. “But a guy can dream about getting a little more of the hottest damn mouth I ever watched move, whether you’re talking, drinking, or eating…whatever.” Kasey reached the landing and turned -- and then she froze. Out from the shadows emerged two bodies covered from head to toe in black, and they had guns pointed right at both of their heads.

Shit.

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Chapter Twenty-One Oh fuck, they’re here. Apparently, these bastards had decided to move up the schedule of their attacks.

Game on. Almost equal in height, the slightly shorter of the two men moved in fast, his gun trained on Kasey’s head as the other moved in on Canin. “Don’t you dare scream, bitch, or I swear to God your husband’s head will get blown clean off.” As Kasey tried to filter out the muffle of the ski mask covering the perpetrator’s mouth and get to a recognizable voice beneath, the muzzle of the gun grazed her temple. Pressing it against the soft skin a little harder, the male voice said, “Strip for me.” Another nudge against the side of her head. “Now. Show me those tits of yours, and then lie down on your stomach and show me that ass.” The other assailant’s voice, definitely another man, broke through the silence at Kasey’s right side. “Don’t even think about it.” Obviously, Canin had flinched or made a move. She didn’t dare look at him quite yet and give them away. Not with the guns so close to their heads. The second male went on. “Try to be the hero, you smug bastard, and it’ll be your wife you watch bleed out right in front of your eyes. Now sit.” Kasey could barely see through the shadows in her peripheral vision, but she thought the guy must be pushing Canin toward the overstuffed chair she had in that direction, the one she liked to sit in and read. “Your wife’s going to have a little bit of fun first.” Fucking bastard, he should not have used that word with her, fun. “If you don’t behave, we might just take a turn at you too. Remember that, when you’re thinking about jumping up to save her when she screams.” Inside, Kasey growled and snarled, knowing that those four other couples were intimidated and terrorized in just this way. She began to suspect now that these perpetrators had sexually assaulted the men too.

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She brought her hands to her shirt and started working the top button. “It’s okay, honey,” she whispered, her voice wavering, some of it real. “Just do what they say. Please.” “I love you.” Canin’s voice came across stripped bare, rubbing at Kasey well beyond the parameters of their designated roles. “Please --” In unbuttoning her shirt, she shifted enough to see Canin more clearly. He sat about halfway deep into her chair, his hands resting, open palms, on the arms. His shoulders hunched, he looked damn near broken. He glanced up at where the second man stood, the assailant’s gun still clearly visible and ready, if no longer trained on Canin’s forehead. “We have money. I’ll give you whatever you want,” Canin begged. “Don’t touch her. Don’t hurt her. Please.” “Canin, no.” Kasey slipped off her shirt and let it slide down her arms, where the sleeves bunched against her hands. “Don’t do anything stupid.” She peeked at him from the corner of her eye and noticed his attention dipping to her shirt as it slipped off one hand. She held the cuff of the other sleeve loosely in her fingers. “It’s okay,” she added. Moving her arm just slightly, she dragged the shirt forward, toward the front of where she stood. “I’ll do whatever they want.” “Smart girl,” the first man said. Bile rose in Kasey’s throat as his very visible erection pushed against his black slacks. “Now take your damn pants off and lie on that bed before I end up getting a lot rougher with you than I have to be.” He brought the gun down and used it as another finger, directing it at her crotch. “Go on. It’s not like you haven’t shown that greedy little cunt to a bunch of people already.” His hands flexed and clutched around the handle of the weapon, drawing Kasey’s complete attention. “Already sharing it with other people too. Only fair that I hit it once or twice before it’s all used up.” “I haven’t shared it with anybody --” “Shut up, bitch!” The man whipped the gun back up to her face, right to a point where she could see straight down the barrel. “You probably still smell like that bastard Richardson. Probably his ugly-ass wife too.”

Son of a bitch. Talking about her friend like that. Kasey curled her hand around the sleeve of her shirt, and she swore to God she could feel Canin inside her head, sensing her every move. She heard him say Go, damn it, go! Amen. “You might be right.” She kept her shoulders weak, her eyes demurely turned down, and twisted her other hand in the other arm of her shirt, all fumbling nerves. “But I can live with that…as long as I don’t smell like you!” She whipped the shirt up wide in a strung-tight flag, clipping and snagging her assailant’s wrists on the material, while blinding him at the same time. “What the hell!” The gun and his arms went up toward the ceiling, discharging a shot. Kasey charged him like a wild animal on steroids, taking him right into the wall with all of her weight.

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Grunts, flesh hitting flesh, and bodies knocking breakable things to the ground all reached Kasey’s ears in rapid-fire succession, but she couldn’t care about Canin or how he did against his attacker right now. She grabbed her guy by the forearm and slammed his wrist into the wall, making him cry out and lose his grip on the gun. It clattered to the floor, and Kasey kicked it away, out of the direction of Canin and his battle. Her guy recovered quickly and charged her with his shoulder, knocking the wind out of her chest and sending her stumbling across the room into the bed. He moved for the gun, and she bounced up and dived for him, flying headfirst against him and locking tight around his waist with all of her might, whipping him around and throwing him to the ground. He scrambled and stretched for the weapon, but Kasey grabbed a handful of his hair through the knit fabric of his ski mask and smashed his face into her floor, making him howl, his ski mask clearly no cushion to his forehead meeting the hardwood. She grabbed again, taking the mask halfway up his head as she wrapped her fingers in the material, revealing a sharp jaw and cruelly narrow lips, and a nose too straight and perfect to be real. Well, perfect before Kasey got a hold of it and jammed it into her floor.

Jonathan Pickering. She should have known. Kasey snatched the mask the rest of the way off his head and smacked his face into the floor one more time -- for his victims and his wife. The rattle of metal clinking against metal sounded right at her ears. “Good work,” Canin said, his voice only a little winded. Without looking up, Kasey grabbed a set of her cuffs from him and quickly secured the man’s arms behind his back. While she did that, Canin very cleverly used one of her long silk scarves and tied Jonathan’s ankles securely against one another. That finished, she spared a look at the man Canin had already tied to the newel posts of her balcony railing. Blond and belligerent, his face puffed up and fuming red, the man no longer looked the height of sexy, the way he always did at the club.

Brett Kinsey. Goddamned rat bastard. The both of them. Canin already had the phone to his ear, and she recognized Logan Jeffries’s name. The guy would make sure to get the best officers on the case, ones where there could be no chance that they would screw it up. Without missing a beat, Canin got into her dresser and pulled out a T-shirt, tossing it in her direction so that she could cover up. The shirt she wore before could be considered evidence, so she wanted to leave it exactly where it was. Kasey pulled on the T-shirt. Once dressed, her gaze connected to the fire burning in Brett Kinsey from eight feet away. The rancid, boiling ugliness bearing down on her from the man made Kasey shiver. “Uppity little bitch.” His lips twisted and his brow narrowed, matching the mottled red taking over his normally tan face. “You think you’re too good to let me fuck you and your

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husband, but you jump at the chance to swing with that pathetic Jeff Richardson and that horse-face loudmouth of a wife. You ungrateful wh --” “Shut up, Brett.” Jonathan’s voice, no longer cool, ripped across the room with deep, raw savagery. “Shut the fuck up, you fucking idiot.” Kasey stood there, swinging her attention from one man to the other, purely stupefied as the pieces started to tumble into place. “So that’s what this was all about?” It wasn’t about the TWL room at all? She put her focus on Brett. The guy oozed so much charm he surely wouldn’t be able to shut up, no matter the consequences. He loved himself and his own voice too damn much. Kasey’s gut said when the detectives put him in an interrogation room, he would sink both himself and Jonathan in no time flat. She asked, just to be sure she understood, “Those other couples turned either one or the both of you down for sex, and how dare they, so you just took what they wouldn’t give willingly?” “What the fuck do you know about it?” Brett spit out. “Who the hell are you anyway?” “Oh, I know plenty.” Kasey stormed over to Brett and loomed over him, adrenaline suddenly rushing her all at once, making her entire body buzz. “And I’m the woman who’s going to put you in prison, you fucking animal, right where you belong.” Canin swooped in and wrapped an arm around her stomach, drawing her away from Brett before she did bodily damage to the man. “Down, tiger.” He sat them both on the bed. Keeping his arms around her middle, he pressed a kiss to her temple. “It’s okay now. Logan will be here with a team of detectives and crime scene investigators within ten minutes. I’m going to call Rhone and Adam and have them get in touch with Isobel and the other victims. They’ll want to know what’s going on.” “Oh, shit.” Kasey rubbed a hand over her face, the adrenaline from a moment ago now abandoning her. “Tara. I have to warn her about her husband. I don’t know how in the hell she’s going to handle this.” “We’ll take care of all of that too,” Canin said. He buried his lips in her hair, and as much as she didn’t want it to happen, Kasey took strength from his warmth right at her side. “One thing at a time, Kase. Let’s get Logan here and some initial statements taken care of, and then we can figure out what to do about everything else.” Soft fur brushed against Kasey’s bare foot. Zin poked her head out from under the bed and gave a soft meow before jumping up onto the mattress. Kasey hugged the cat to her side, relief flooding her that the animal had been smart enough to stay in her regular hiding place throughout the break-in and the attack. Canin, Kasey, and Zin stayed right there in a tight bundle on the bed until Logan and the team of investigators arrived.

*****

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“You want to tell me when the hell you got married?” Arms crossed, dark-haired Logan Jeffries raised an eyebrow at Canin. Still in the apartment, they stood to the side while Kasey took the first turn talking to the lead detective assigned the case. Crime scene investigators collected evidence in the loft area, but Canin couldn’t care about that. His focus drifted to Kasey where she sat at her kitchen table with a female detective who Logan assured Canin was the best in her field. Kasey looked cool and collected, and he truthfully expected no less. At the same time, he knew her fervor for catching these bastards had a lot to do with what she hadn’t been able to do as a child in her own attack, and he worried what would happen when she came down from the high. “Hello?” Fingers snapped in front of his face, and Canin whipped his attention off Kasey and put it back on Logan. Cynicism pierced through the man’s pale green eyes. He slid a glance at Kasey, but quickly came right back to Canin. “What?” Canin said, distracted still. God, he wanted to go sit with Kasey and just be within touching distance, in case she needed him. “Oh, nothing, I guess.” Logan’s rough voice could not have been drier. “I stopped by your place yesterday morning to see if you felt like going for a run, just to find a complete stranger answering your door. Imagine my surprise when he introduced himself as Nate, your brother-in-law. When I said, ‘Oh?’ he very nicely explained that he was Kasey’s brother and that he’s here visiting for a while, but that you had never met him before so that’s probably why none of your friends had ever heard of him.” Logan shook his head. “When you fished for information the other day, I should have known something was up. Not that I ever would have figured out this little ‘married and joining a sex club’ scenario.” “You didn’t say anything, did you?” Canin asked. Everything else Logan said became a blur, and only the part about him talking to Nate remained. “I’m sure Kasey wants to explain the truth to her brother herself.” Logan snorted and shot Canin a narrow-eyed look. “Of course I didn’t say anything. I can think on my feet, you know, and did figure something must be going on.” Logan murmured something unintelligible under his breath, and he looked away for a few seconds. When he came back, all traces of softness were erased from his face. “I think something’s going on with that kid staying at your place too. He looks like he took a pretty serious beating and is still recovering from it. I told him I was in law enforcement, but he said it was nothing.” Knowledge of hundreds of crimes lived in Logan’s eyes. “He’s lying.” “Yeah.” Canin nodded. “I’m pretty sure whatever happened drove him here to reconnect with his sister. This case hasn’t let her spend any time with him. She’ll get the story out of him when they have a chance to talk.” “Let me know if I can do anything,” Logan said, looking away again. “As far as the job goes, I mean.”

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“Will do.” Kasey got up right then, her smile tight as she shook Detective Gordon’s hand. At the same time, a uniformed cop entered the apartment with Rhone and Adam in tow. “Detective Jeffries.” The cop approached them. “These guys say they know you and are part of this case.” “Thanks, Dan.” Logan shook the beefy officer’s hand. “They’re fine. You can leave them with me.” Neither man said a word until the uniformed cop nodded and went back to his station outside. Then Rhone spoke first. “I talked to Isobel, and she could not be more relieved that this is all over.” He slipped an envelope out of his pocket and held it up in front of his chest. “A little something to say thank you for taking this seriously and getting a result. I told her it wasn’t necessary, and that payment in full was all we require, but she insisted.” “We’ll take it.” Canin took the envelope, glanced inside at the number, and then folded it and stuffed it back in his brother’s pocket. “Give it to Jean tomorrow” -- he mentioned their accountant -- “before Isobel changes her mind.” “Adam visited with the victims while I dealt with Isobel,” Rhone added. “Yeah.” Adam picked up the stream of Rhone’s information. “One of the couples says they’re willing to talk, as long as they know you guys aren’t going to back out of the ensuing investigation and leave all the testifying up to them.” “Give me their information,” Logan spoke up. He slipped a small pad of paper out of his jacket pocket and handed it over to Adam, along with a pen. “I’ll make sure Detective Gordon gets it. She’ll handle them very gently and make sure they are shown complete respect.” As Adam jotted the name, address, and phone number down, Kasey joined them, her arms folded under her breasts. “Hi, guys.” She gave a general hand lift to Adam and Rhone. Her gaze then connected with Canin’s, and it didn’t waver. Her strength constantly bowled him over. “Your turn.” She jerked her head in the direction of her table. “Detective Gordon is ready to take your preliminary statement.” “I’ll join her in just a minute.” He touched her cheek, because he just couldn’t help it. “How are you doing? Are you all right?” “Yeah.” Her nod was decidedly stiff. “Glad this is almost over. Listen” -- she started to back away from him -- “I’m going to go make sure Tara Pickering is okay. Detective Gordon tells me that someone has informed her of her husband’s arrest; right now she is at home. I’m not going to feel right until I take care of that and Lindsey too. I could be a while, but after they finish here and you head back to your apartment, can you give my brother your key and send him home to me? Can you assure him that I’ll be back and will explain everything to him as soon as I can?”

What the fuck is she doing? “Kasey --”

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“We got ’em, Quinn,” she said, her voice sounding just a little bit scratchy. “Job’s over. Time to get our lives back to normal. I’m sure you want that as much as I do.” She grabbed her purse off an old-fashioned coat rack by the front door and slung it over her shoulder. “Lock up when you leave, okay? Thanks.” She squeezed her way past two men in uniform and moved out of sight in seconds, leaving Canin there staring down questions in the eyes of Rhone, Adam, and Logan, for none of whom did he have any answers.

What in the hell just happened? “Mr. Quinn?” a feminine voice cut across the apartment, drawing Canin’s attention. Detective Gordon leaned against the table with ease, but her face and voice bespoke all business. “Whenever you’re ready…”

One thing at a time, man. “I’ll be right there.” He needed to take care of this case first, and at the same time give Kasey a minute to take care of her brother and catch her breath. But that didn’t mean they were going back to “normal.” Not by a long shot.

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Chapter Twenty-Two “I don’t understand any of this.” Moisture brimmed in Tara’s eyes, reminding Kasey of how she had thought this woman still a girl so many times since meeting her. “Someone came to the house and told me Jonathan had been arrested, and that assault charges, and possibly much more, would be filed against him. His lawyer called me before I could even think what to do, and told me to stay put and not say anything.” Her teary gaze moved from Kasey to Lindsey, who sat at Kasey’s side, right across from where Tara sat. “What can I say, even if I wanted to? I didn’t know what he was doing. I can’t believe I lived with him for all this time and didn’t even suspect something. I’m so stupid.” “Honey,” Lindsey responded quickly, “you’re not stupid. Who the hell goes around thinking, ‘Hey, I need to keep my eyes open for suspicious behavior because my spouse might be a rapist’?” Reaching across the small space, she squeezed Tara’s hand. “It just doesn’t happen that way. You couldn’t have known.” “He was always so violent,” Tara said. A small shudder went through the tall woman, who was so much more fragile than her frame led people to believe. “Brett too, when they got together. I always thought it was part of my training. Jonathan told me that it was, and he showed me sites that backed up the things he was teaching me and doing to me.” “Maybe the actual things he did to you were part of the process,” Lindsey answered. “But I suspect how he went about them is not the way a master is supposed to teach and care for his slave.” “And certainly not the way a man is supposed to love his wife,” Kasey added. She didn’t care about the Dom/sub, master/slave part; the love should still be there and come through, no matter the roles they chose to play. “You need to start thinking about yourself now, Tara, which is just one of the reasons why I brought Lindsey with me tonight.” Well, actually, it was darn near morning by now. Waking Lindsey up and telling her that she would explain

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everything later, down to the smallest detail, after they helped Tara, had intrigued Lindsey enough to get dressed and join Kasey. Kasey just hoped Lindsey’s interest held true when they didn’t have Tara as a buffer to present a strong, unified front. “She wants to offer you another opportunity to go live with her aunt in Florida.” “Yes.” Lindsey scooted forward until she perched at the edge of the couch. Grasping both of Tara’s hands, she closed them within an embrace of hers. “My Aunt Mea would still love some help on her farm. I woke her up just a little bit ago, and you are welcome there whenever you take care of what needs to get done here first.” They couldn’t take Tara to the airport right this minute, much as they both wanted to do just that. She would have to stick around for a bit and answer some questions for Detective Gordon, as well as deal with a handful of other things in relation to her marriage. “Are you willing to take her up on her offer, now that things have changed?” “Why would she even want me?” Tara’s voice wavered. “Especially now.” “Because you’ve got a good, strong back, and she needs a little bit of help now that she’s getting up in age,” Lindsey answered. “As long as you’re willing to work to earn your room and board, she would love the help and the company. You’d be doing me a favor too.” Bringing her purse up from the floor, Lindsey stuck her hand inside and came out with a handful of photographs. “Here’s a picture of her, and of the property and house.” She handed them over to Tara. “Aunt Mea’s health and stamina aren’t what they used to be, but she refuses to move away from her home and land. I respect that, but I also worry about her. If I knew you were there to help in case something ever happened, I would feel a lot better about the whole situation. What do you say?” The doorbell gonged loud and deep just then, the sound reverberating through the cavernous home. “Let me.” Kasey got up, putting a hand on Tara’s shoulder to keep her in her seat. “I bet that’s Hugh. And if it’s not, I’ll take care of it.” On the ride over, Kasey and Lindsey decided that Tara needed her own lawyer, not one being paid with Jonathan’s dime. Lindsey assured Kasey that Hugh Chalmers was one of the best, and since Kasey sensed the man’s keen intelligence whenever they spoke at the club, she hadn’t fought Lindsey making the call. “I’ll be right back.” Kasey pulled open the giant doors on the wave of a second gong, smiling when she saw the reassuring, sharp face of Hugh Chalmers. He had a briefcase in hand, and a cell phone attached to his ear. “Hi,” she said softly. “Thank you. I’ll be in contact with you again soon.” Hugh’s smooth, deep voice lent authority and put Kasey in a place of calm -- at least where Tara Pickering was concerned. “Yes, that sounds good.” Hugh finished his call and slid the phone in his jacket pocket. His face very serious, he transferred his focus to Kasey. “Good morning. How is Tara doing?”

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“We’ll see. Lindsey’s talking to her right now.” Kasey stepped aside and allowed Hugh entry. Closing the door, she led him back to the sunroom. “Thanks for answering our call and agreeing to help.” She slowed down and eased into a walk at his side, so that she could see him. “We really felt like she needed someone representing her interests and not someone potentially in conflict with whatever happens with Jonathan.” “And that was very smart on both of your parts,” Hugh answered. Again, as they reached the sunroom, Hugh’s demeanor changed, and he became someone completely approachable in face and body language. Someone Tara could trust. “How are you doing today, Tara?” He put his briefcase down and pulled a wing chair right up to Tara’s side. “Feeling strong and ready to take care of some business?” “Yes, thank you.” Tara’s gaze slipped from Hugh to Lindsey. Lindsey nodded, and Tara shifted her focus back to Hugh. “I’m going to move to Florida as soon as this is all over. It’s time to try something new.” “Well, okay then.” He leaned forward and steepled his hands between his knees. “Let’s talk a little bit, make a plan, and get you started in that direction. Sound good to you?” Her voice just a little bit stronger, Tara said, “Tell me what I need to do.” Kasey glanced at Lindsey, and caught a smile and a wink. She gave one right back.

***** “So you guys really aren’t married?” Lindsey asked a few hours later, her voice rising high. She and Kasey shared a booth at Kasey’s favorite diner, and they were just finishing a late breakfast. In between eating, Kasey had shared the truth about her and Canin’s real relationship and what they’d been doing at the club. “Nope.” Kasey swirled her empty glass in a small circle, unable to keep down the jitters. God, she didn’t want to lose this woman as a friend. “We’re partners at Quinn Security.” She’d explained the business’s relationship with Isobel and the club. “That’s it.” “Shit.” Lindsey shook her head while shooting Kasey a sly look. “You guys sure did a bang-up job of faking it, that’s for damn sure. Everyone in that place bought into your act and wanted to share in your chemistry. It’s no wonder you fooled Jonathan and Brett so convincingly. Nobody doubted it for a second. Fuck.” She sucked on her lower lip, amazement still shining in her bright eyes. “And you say that sweet-as-hell new gay couple are your partners at this security firm?” “Yep,” Kasey confirmed. “But Adam and Rhone really are a couple. They weren’t faking it for the job.” “You know, I danced with one of them earlier in the week. The younger one, Adam. Son of a bitch.” Lindsey stopped and took a big gulp of her coffee, just freshly refilled. “He

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was trying to learn stuff about me, wasn’t he? That’s why he very conveniently, super smoothly, danced toward me and Jeff and cut right in.” “Afraid so. But he thought you were incredibly funny and nice,” Kasey added quickly. Her heart sat in her stomach as she waited on pins and needles for Lindsey to get to the point and decide whether she could forgive Kasey for her deception. “Just like I do. And just like Canin really does think of Jeff as a new friend.” She chewed so hard on the inside of her cheek she cut through skin, releasing the coppery flavor of blood onto her tongue. “I may have been at that club under false pretenses, but nothing I said to you or was trying to build with you was ever faked. You’re the first woman I’ve connected to and wanted to be friends with in a very long time. The only thing that has changed for me is that I’m not married, and I don’t frequent a sex club. Everything else was and is real.” Come on, Kasey. Just buck up and say it. Quit being so afraid. “Can you forgive me? Can we still be friends?” Lindsey picked up her bill and fiddled with the edges, keeping her eyed turned down from Kasey, making nervous perspiration break out under Kasey’s clothes. “Once again I should feel incredibly violated and want to scream at you -- And oh, Goddamnit, you thought it might be me and Jeff and were looking for evidence in my room last night, weren’t you?” “I didn’t think you were guilty,” Kasey answered softly. “But you fit the criteria we were going on, so I had to look. It was my job. All those people attacked, with the knowledge that the chances were high that it would happen again… I have to be straight with you and say I probably would have done worse if necessary. I couldn’t let somebody else get hurt.” “No, and there’s where you get me to completely understand and forgive you, once again.” Lindsey finally looked up, and her smile turned her face downright beautiful, and open, and full of acceptance. “I may not like that I was a suspect or even tricked for a short while, but damn it, those bastards needed to be caught. It was your job to do it, and I understand.” “Thank you.” Tears pushed at Kasey to get free, and she fucking couldn’t understand the swell of emotion that seemed to go so far beyond being thankful that this woman didn’t hate her. She grabbed her purse and her bill and headed for the cash register, needing a minute to work the lump out of her throat. They both waited in line and paid in silence, but as they walked outside and made the short trip to Kasey’s car, Lindsey slipped her arm around Kasey’s shoulders and gave her a modified hug. “So, are you rushing off to get home to Canin?” Squeezing Kasey, a surprisingly youthful giggle escaped her. “Work one more day out of the fake marriage with an afternoon of hot fucking? That man is sexy as all get-out, and personally, I would prolong the nuptials for as long as I could. Mmm, mmm, mmm.” Kasey couldn’t help but chuckle. The woman made Canin sound like a rich piece of chocolate. “Nope,” she finally said. “Sorry to disappoint, but there’s no Canin to get home to. The job is over, so I sent him on his way.” Her chest constricted with a sharp stab of pain, but

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Kasey ignored it. She couldn’t have Canin. Not as they were right now. He would not consent to her tying him up for the rest of his life, and she could not give him anything else. “Bummer,” Lindsey said. “I have a brother waiting for me there, though.” Time to move past Canin, before the memories of what they had shared this past week sucked her to a dark and lonely place. “One I haven’t seen in close to fifteen years.” “Ooh.” Bouncing back with life in her voice, Lindsey linked her arm in Kasey’s and put them to walking at a leisurely pace. “You’ll have to tell me all about that story while you’re driving me home.” Kasey did it gladly. Anything to take her mind off Canin, and her heart from the love for him that sat there heavy, aching to bloom.

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Chapter Twenty-Three “So you guys really aren’t married?” Kasey burst out with laughter, startling her brother, where he sat across from her at her kitchen table. Zin already lay curled up in a ball in his lap, and Kasey began to suspect that her cat was a bit of a cheap date. First Canin and now her brother; she may never get the chance to hold the animal again. Nate’s brow furrowed. “What?” His jaw clenched, and the fading bruises on his face hardly masked his flush. “What did I say?” “Nothing, nothing. I’m sorry; it wasn’t you.” Kasey reached across the table and covered his hand. As soon as she did, his curled under hers and he drew it away. Stuffing down the hurt at the rejection, Kasey sternly reminded herself that she had no real relationship with this man, and that he essentially viewed her as a stranger. Forcing a smile, she explained. “It wasn’t what you said; it’s just that I had to explain everything to a new friend just a little bit ago, and she said the exact same thing you did, in the exact same tone of voice.” “I can understand why,” Nate answered. “You and Canin really look and act married. Didn’t seem like you had to try too hard to me.” Kasey dug her fingernails into her hand, forcing a physical pain in order to push aside the other: Canin and the way she absolutely could not feel for him. “We’re friends, and we’ve known each other a long time,” she shared. She kept her gaze steady on her brother, and didn’t dare show a flinch. “We’re together all the time because of work, and that breeds familiarity. It’s nothing more than that.” “He must be like a best friend or something” -- the cat jumped off Nate, and Nate got up and put his empty cup in the sink -- “because when he drove me over here, he made sure

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to tell me how much you wished we’d stayed in touch, and that you were really happy that I was here in Chicago. He didn’t have to say the words, but I got the message loud and clear.” Kasey jumped up and dogged her brother’s heels to the kitchen. “What message?” Nate leaned against the counter, raised a brow, and looked right at her. “Don’t be an asshole and hurt Kasey, or I’ll hurt you.” “Son of a bitch.” She could strangle the damn man and kiss him at the same time. “You are welcome here, Nate, and you do not have to worry about keeping anyone happy, including me.” “Don’t be mad at him. It wasn’t like that.” Meeting her gaze for just a moment, he then chewed on the edge of his lip and walked away, moving to her couch, his temporary bed. “I didn’t feel threatened; I just got a vibe that he really cared about you and didn’t want you to get hurt by my presence.” Kasey followed, although she did so with an eye toward her brother’s obvious skittishness. She took a seat in the plush suede rocker, rather than right next to him. “I don’t think you’re in a position to hurt me.” Careful to keep her tone very gentle, she looked at him and made sure she had his full attention before speaking. “In fact, you look like you took a bit of a beating yourself and needed a safe place to heal. I’m sorry someone hurt you, but I’m glad you came to me.” “Mom gave me your number.” Nate could have knocked her over with a soft sneeze with those words. “I had to get out of Keegan, but didn’t know where to go and didn’t have any money. She didn’t either, and said the only way she could help was by putting me back in touch with you.”

What the hell? Kasey’s head spun and she didn’t know where to start. “I-I… Shit, I’m fucking speechless. Our mother --” She flicked her finger back and forth between them. “As in yours and mine, gave you my number? Where in the hell did she even get it?” “She kept all the letters you sent me over the years, reading them and hiding them as they came to the house.” Nate leaned over the side of the couch and reached into his duffel bag. Within seconds, he produced a stack of various colored envelopes that Kasey knew contained cards she’d sent to her brother, with notes and letters inside. “I didn’t know about these, Kasey; I swear I didn’t. I was so mean to you because I thought you didn’t think I was good enough to be your brother and that you were ashamed to be in our family. It wasn’t until a week ago that Mom gave me all of your letters and told me the truth about what happened, and how Dad had painted you in a bad light for going away.” Kasey’s skin went cold and her fingers numbed. She felt a little dizzy, and knew she had blanched well past pale. “What truth?” Nate’s brown gaze darkened to almost black, and Kasey got her first glimpse of life and passion in her adult brother. “About what those bastards did to you, and how Mom and Dad made you pretend that it never happened.” Clutching the ribbon-tied packet of letters in his hand, he drummed them against his thigh. “She says that she didn’t have a real choice, but

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accepts that she’ll go to hell for making what happened to you even worse. Dad disowned me and told me to get the hell out of town, but Mom found me staying in a Motel 6. In secret, she came to me and gave me your phone number, along with the letters. She told me to come here, and that you would accept me, and to not look back at my old life.” “What happened back home, Nate?” She watched his focus dart around her living room, shifting just about everywhere but on her. “What happened with Dad, and how’d you end up so beaten up?” Almost turned sideways and staring out the window, that stubbly, shadowed jaw of his ticked some more. “It’s over now.” His voice so clipped, the three words sounded like one. “I don’t want to talk or think about it anymore.” “You know what happened to me.” She hated doing it, but she readily played the damn shared victim card, desperate to get some answers. He could still be in trouble. “You’ve got to tell me, man. I won’t kick you out, but at the same time I can’t be of any help if I don’t know what’s going on.” “It’s nothing like that.” Nate got up and walked to the line of windows. Leaning his shoulder against the wood framing, he sighed so loud it would have rustled the curtains, if she had any. “I don’t owe anyone money or anything, and I didn’t sleep with someone’s wife and he found out about it. There isn’t anybody coming here looking for me. You don’t have to worry about that.” “That’s good to hear, but it still doesn’t answer my question.” Kasey itched to get up and move to the windows with him, but she sat on her hands and stayed seated. Staring at the rigid line of his back, he looked like someone who thought if he just stood still and quiet enough, no one would look twice and notice the scars. Not her. Not here. “Who beat you up, Nate, and why did they do it?” “I was attracted to someone and misread a signal.” A visible tremor shook Nate just then, and it drew an answering shiver out of her. Rubbing her arms through her shirt, she held her breath and waited. “I paid for the mistake. Do you remember Grady Hoffman?” An auburn-headed kid, tall and stocky for his age, filled Kasey’s mind. “Your best friend when you were little? Yeah, I remember him.” “He was still my best friend, until last week when I thought I saw something in his eyes, and in the way he grabbed me around the neck and wrestled with me. We sparred a bit, the way we always do, and we ended up with him against the kitchen counter, and me right up against him with my arms holding him there. I swear he looked at me like he wanted it, and I’ve dreamed about it for such a long time, that I took it as permission and kissed him.” He paused for a moment, rubbing his hand over his face in a haggard fashion. “It wasn’t permission, and he didn’t even hesitate when he shoved me away. He wrestled me to the floor, for real this time, and beat me up pretty damn bad, calling me all kinds of names. He made sure all of our friends knew what I did to him, saying that I was a fag and I attacked him because I wanted to fuck him, and he had to beat me up so that I didn’t rape him.

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Doesn’t matter what really happened. I tried to tell Dad that I’d never done anything like that until that one time, and that I wouldn’t again. He didn’t want to hear it. He said he didn’t want a queer for a son and that I had to go.” “And was that the truth?” Kasey asked, keeping her voice soft. “Had you ever done anything like that before?” “Never.” Finally turning, Nate stayed at the line of windows, but did lift his eyes to her. His chin jutted up a bit, but he also rubbed his open palms on his jeans. Not quite as tough as you want me to believe. “Thought about it, though. A lot. Still do.” He chuckled, his cheeks smudging with red again. “Except for the guy pushing me away and getting beat up part.” Kasey laughed too. “Yeah, I would recommend avoiding the hitting as well.” Unable to fight it, Kasey got up and went to Nate, slipping her arm around his waist and shifting him back around to face the window. Leaning her head on his shoulder, she stared across the street to the rooftop garden, smiling with the comfort and familiarity of the old man tending to it. “Honey,” she began again, “you’ve met Adam and Rhone. Did you really think I would care that you’re gay?” “It made me feel a little more hopeful, but I guess you never really know until you hear it.” He slipped his arm around her back, not too tight, still a little stiff, but Kasey had to fight the tears that wanted to fall. “When Mom found me and gave me your letters, she said it was okay, and that I was still her son. That’s why she wanted to help me get out and start a new life. She didn’t know how safe I would be in Keegan, and she didn’t want to risk it.” Moving in front of her, Nate dropped to sit on the windowsill. He leaned back and looked up, connecting and holding her with an unwavering stare. “She told me to tell you that she was sorry she never stood up for you, and that she’s proud of the life you’ve made for yourself.” Kasey swallowed past the tightness, and cleared her throat. “Maybe I’ll write her a letter one day.” As much as she might want to hold that old resentment, she couldn’t ignore that her mother had done the very best thing she could for Nate: got him out of Keegan and sent him to his sister. “Or maybe buck up my courage and give her a call.” “I think you would make her life, if you did that.” “I’ll think about it.” She lifted her hand and tousled his dark, overlong hair. “I’m glad you’re here, Nate.” “Me too.” He swatted her hand away, ducking out of her touch. “Now” -- he grabbed the newspaper off the table -- “I just need to find a job so I can earn my keep.” Kasey took the paper right back out of his hands. “I think I can help with that.” Linking her arm in his, she led him to the door. “Come with me.”

***** “All right everybody, that’s it.” Canin leaned back in his chair at the head of the conference table, taking a moment to make eye contact with everyone sitting around the

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table, every chair full. He paused on Kasey and offered an involuntary smile. In a flash, she took her gaze away and discreetly turned it down. Fighting off the need to string a line of curses together and share them with the world, Canin ground his teeth together and continued. “Good work on everyone’s part, and let’s just all thank God that we got a good result. Let’s hope we never have to draw out a couple of bastards like that ever again.” Echoing murmurs of agreement sounded around the table, making Canin damn proud. They had a fantastic staff of good, caring people at Quinn Security, starting at the top with the core four of ownership, all the way down to their newest gofer of one week, Nathanial Jordan. Canin’s attention went to Kasey again, and he found himself rising before he even realized he did it. At Canin’s left, Rhone stood too, clearing his throat as he did it. “Okay, thanks again everyone,” he said. “Now quit pissing the day away here at work. Get the hell out of here and take the rest of the afternoon off. You’ve all earned it.” Excited murmurs replaced other conversation, and as expected, everyone started wrapping things up. It also took their attention away from Canin and his stare at Kasey, as well as his “almost” move to get to her. She had been incredibly elusive with him since the end of the case, and he didn’t know what in the hell to do to get her to give him ten minutes of private time. He’d tried getting her a few times here at the office, but she made it a point to keep her door open and someone within hearing distance at all times, knowing that he wouldn’t draw their employees into the conversation. She had her brother at home, and he served as a very nice deflecting shield. Shit, she wouldn’t even tell him what she found out about what happened to Nate, on one of the few chances she paused long enough for him to ask a question. She just said that she knew, but that it was fine and he didn’t need to worry about it.

Fuck. As if he could turn it off and not worry about her and the things she cared about. She walked out of the conference room with people on either side of her, already deep in conversation with them. Canin growled, the sound rumbling in his chest. “If you love her, quit making noises and do something about it, you stubborn bastard.” Rhone’s voice broke through, pulling Canin’s gaze off Kasey from through the long picture window where he tracked her path back to her office. Canin shot his brother a quick glare before throwing himself back down in his chair. The room clear of their employees, Canin didn’t worry about speaking freely to Rhone in front of Adam, who also still remained in the room. “I’ve tried talking to her, and she doesn’t want to listen to me. She won’t give me two minutes alone with her, and maybe I need to hear the message she’s trying to tell me.” Kasey’s history constantly played in Canin’s mind, making him hesitate in forcing anything, when his instinct said to get them locked in a room together and not come out until they had this thing resolved, no matter what. If he pushed too hard and sent her back to that ugly place, and in her mind she began to link him to what she’d had to endure at those bastards’ hands… Shaking his head, Canin forced that thought

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away. “Maybe she hasn’t been lying to us all these years; maybe she really doesn’t want a relationship. Maybe I need to respect that.” Rhone didn’t ease the intensity in his slate stare one bit. “Maybe she’s too scared to be vulnerable, and you need to find a way to convince her that you’re safe.” Adam scooped up the folder in front of him and circled behind Canin, pausing when he reached Rhone’s side. “I need to make a few calls before I head out with Kasey on the Kasperin go-see.” He mentioned a potential new client. “I’ll see you at home tonight, okay?” Leaning down, Adam grazed a kiss across Rhone’s cheek. Rhone turned his head and captured Adam’s lips in a lingering, clinging kiss. He slid his hand up Adam’s arm until it curled around his neck, and then kissed his way to Adam’s ear, holding him there for a private moment. Canin looked away, envy clutching his gut. Rhone had owned Adam’s heart long before Rhone knew about it, and during some of those moments Canin spent in Kasey’s home, he’d catch her looking at him and wonder if maybe he had the same. Now he guessed that even if he did, Kasey would never open herself up the way Adam had done for Rhone. Kasey had her reasons for shutting people out. Her demons were the one thing he could not combat, without her willing to go there with him. Canin heard Adam say, “Okay, babe. We’ll see you later.” Another loud smack of a kiss, and he added, “Have a good night, Canin. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Canin circled around in his chair and lifted his hand toward Adam, already near the door. “Thanks, man. You too.” Rhone’s attention stayed on the door and beyond -- on Adam -- until the man was no longer in sight. He then swirled around in his chair and faced Canin head-on. “Adam and I have gone behind yours and Kasey’s backs and tried every damn thing we can think of to get the two of you in a situation where you might hook up and get something started. I’m out of ideas, and frankly, so is Adam. So here’s the deal; I’m not going to try and trick you, I’m just going to tell you what’s going to happen. Adam is going to go and talk to Nate right now, and invite him to have a meal and hang out with us tonight. We’ll pick him up at eight, and we’ll make sure we keep him busy until at least midnight. You know Kasey is devoting every minute to her brother since he got here, so that’s going to leave her at home, alone, when she’s not invited to join us.” Rhone’s face, normally fierce and hard, softened with complete understanding. “That’s your chance, Canin. You have a block of time, without interference, to talk to Kasey and tell her what you’re feeling. That’s all I’m giving you. It’s up to you to decide if you want to do it. I’m not going to tell you that you should, and I’m definitely not going to tell you what you should say. I will only give you this one last piece of info: this is the last attempt Adam and I will make to help you guys get together. If you don’t do anything with it, fine, but you’re on your own after that.”

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Rhone grabbed up his file and stood. “You know what, let me just say one more thing after all.” Canin raised a brow and gave a sarcastic sweep with his arm. “Go ahead. It’s not like I can stop you.” Canin knew everything in Rhone wanted to roll his eyes right now. Amazingly, he didn’t. “You saw what I was feeling for Adam,” he said instead, “and what I needed, even before I did. My heart tells me you need Kasey as a partner in your life too, beyond this business. More than that, my gut, and Adam’s too, says Kasey needs you just as much. Up to you to pursue it. Think about it.” He slapped Canin on the back, hard enough to sway him to the side. “And just in case you need it, good luck. See you tomorrow.” “Yeah.” Canin barely saw his brother leave. “’Bye.” He had four hours to come up with a plan that would win him Kasey Jordan. One that wouldn’t alienate her, dredge up terrifying memories for her, or end up pushing her even further away. Shouldn’t be too hard.

“Shit.”

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Chapter Twenty-Four Canin rapped his knuckles against the door, still praying for inspiration to hit him as he waited for Kasey to answer. Ever since Rhone left him alone in the conference room, he tossed phrase after phrase out of his head, knowing that nothing was adequate or good enough to express how this woman owned his heart and soul and that he didn’t even want to take it back. He just wanted hers in return. That thought still made him break out in a little bit of a sweat. But it didn’t make him want to turn tail and run. Metal suddenly scraped against metal, and Canin pictured Kasey working the deadbolts one by one, probably cursing under her breath after seeing him through the peephole. He chuckled with that awareness of her actions and moves; he already knew her so well. The door swung open and there she stood, sparks flashing in her pure green eyes. “What do you need? I’m busy.” “No, you’re not.” He looked her up and down, loving like hell that she had gone back to his familiar Kasey, in jeans and a white shirt. He ended his perusal at her bare feet, and his cock twitched a little bit at the red-painted toenails. So she hasn’t taken away everything from our time together. Canin had watched her paint them the day of the attack, marveling at how hot it made him to observe her doing a simple, yet strangely intimate, task. She wrapped one foot behind her ankle and curled the other one in, and he knew she remembered doing it, and him watching too. Snapping out of the shared memory, he brought his attention back up and met her gaze again. “Let me come in. I know you’re alone.”

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She opened her mouth, but he quickly talked over her before she could lie. “I know Nate is out with Rhone and Adam. Unless you called someone and made plans in the last fifteen minutes, you’re here by yourself.” Kasey’s pupils flared, and the tips of her fingers turned white under the crush she put on the door. “Oh, so now you’re in on these little plans to push us together, when you fucking know how much they piss me off? That’s just great. Guess what?” Her voice cracked with impatience. “You’re going to get the same response they did!” She flicked the door closed in his face. Canin caught it with an open palm just inches away from it slamming and closing him out forever. “Don’t” -- he pushed his way inside, begging to every merciful God in existence for forgiveness if this wasn’t the right thing to do -- “shut me out.” “I just saw you at work off and on for nearly ten hours.” Kasey’s voice held strong, but she steadily moved back, putting distance between them. Each step tugged an answering pain in Canin’s chest. “I would hardly say I’m avoiding you.” “You don’t have to keep moving away from me.” He closed the door, redid the locks, and then leaned back against it until it felt as though he had fused his spine to it. “I just want to talk. I’ll stay over here. You don’t have to be scared.” That got her rushing back over to him and right up in his face. “Don’t you dare patronize me!” “Then stop hiding from me, and start admitting that we have something between us that went deeper than that damn investigation!” “It doesn’t matter what I admit, or what we had; don’t you get it?” She backed off, half doubled over, and Canin almost couldn’t take seeing her pain. “It can’t turn into anything. I can’t let it.” He caught up to her in two strides and clutched her face in his hands, not letting her hide her eyes. Those expressive, tough eyes. “It can become something. Something incredible, like what Rhone and Adam have with each other.” “No.” She tore herself out of his hold and turned away. “We can’t, because I can’t.” “You can, Kasey.” He wrapped his hand around her shoulder, so solid, yet it trembled under his touch. He could not back off from her now. They both had too much to lose. “You’re so strong, baby. You just have to say you want it too, so that we have somewhere to start.”

Goddamned son of bitch, coming in here and pushing things that should be left alone. Kasey knocked Canin’s hand off her shoulder and whipped around on him, her chin sticking out so defiantly she thought she might knock him over with it. It would damn well serve him right. “Okay, so fine. You want the words? I’ll give you the words. I loved the week we spent together. I loved everything we did together. I thought we made a great

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couple, and I loved knowing that you were here in this apartment with me, within whispering distance whenever I had a thought that I might want to share with you. Is that what you wanted to hear? “Now do you want to hear the next part? The part where I remind you that I have to tie you down in order to have sex with you without freaking out? Is that what you want for the rest of your life? The kink of cuffs and ropes whenever you’re in the mood for a fuck?” Her fingers went to the buttons on her shirt, and she slipped the first one free of its hold. “Because I can get those pretty white ropes and strap you right back down on the table and ride you all over again, if you’re willing.” “Maybe another time.” Canin snagged her around the waist and tugged her to him. Slipping his other hand between them, he moved it down her middle to the snap on her jeans. He caught her attention, his look so intent she couldn’t make herself break away. “I’d like to try a different kind of kink tonight.” Kasey snorted, but her heart raced terribly, and her legs didn’t feel quite steady. “Oh, you for damn sure aren’t tying me up.” “Again, you mean?” Canin countered. The fastening of her jeans popped loudly in the apartment, and the zipper sighed softly as it came down. “Because I have already done that, if you remember, and you got through it just fine. You didn’t panic at all, as you seem to so completely believe will happen if you change what you’ve done for so long, even just a little bit.” He slid his hand inside her jeans and caressed her hip, kneading the soft flesh. Biting down a moan and the second slivers of panic, Kasey tried to roll out of his hold. “That was work.” She managed to turn away from him, but he wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her back against his chest. “No, that was you trusting me, and letting me inside you without fear that I would hurt you.” “I was scared.” The confession slipped out unchecked, sucking her even further into a place of fear, where she no longer recognized herself as the unshakable woman she had been for more than fifteen years. The need to connect, to have complete faith in one person, this person, after being alone for so long pounded a powerful hammer in Kasey that slowly chipped away at the wall she lived behind, protected, but alone. “I was near to panic a couple of times in that room,” she shared, unable to stop, “terrified that I would need to run, but knowing that I couldn’t.” He slipped around in front of her, and everything about his stance, and the hardness in his face, and the hint of moisture in his eyes, almost took out Kasey’s knees. “Please tell me that knowing it was me there with you made a difference, and that you never thought I was those boys who hurt you. I couldn’t live with knowing I played a part in forcing you to relive a secret that you so devoutly hide from the eyes and hearts of others.” His voice scraped raw, well beyond the normal gruff growl. “Even your best friends.”

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Everything about Canin appeared gutted in this moment, taking Kasey out of herself for a minute and into Canin’s world of half information and speculation, all because she refused to discuss this with him, beyond sharing the basics about the rapes. “I flashed on the attack during moments in that room; I won’t lie about that.” She cupped his hard, square jaw in her hand, and swore she felt him tremble. “But I never thought you were raping me, Canin. Please don’t think that ever went through my mind. In moments, you had me so into wanting you that I didn’t know half the time, or even care, that we had a hundred people watching us on the other side of those mirrors. All I could think about was you inside me, and how much I wanted to feel you all around me, and in me, when you came.” His mouth crushed down on hers, and he stole her breath with a searing kiss. Licking his tongue right inside her lower lip and then biting it with a light sting, he said roughly, “Thank you for telling me that. I lost sleep thinking I took you against your will in there, and that you didn’t say anything because it was a job.” “No.” Kasey shook her head, and rubbed the tips of her fingers over the hard line of his mouth, wanting to ease the tension there. “The situation got in my head and tried to incite ugly memories, but the fear never involved you, and how you made me feel when you touched me.” He captured her hand and held it to his lips, pressing a kiss against her fingers. “Christ, I miss you.” Everything in Canin bespoke the truth of his words, from the hint of a catch in his voice all the way through his body, which seemed to hum with life against hers. “I want to make love to you. I’ve barely slept since leaving your bed.” “I don’t have the cuffs.” Her “recreational” pairs were part of police custody now, exhibits in the cases against Jonathan and Brett. “But I have plenty of scarves.” She smiled wickedly. “Or we could take the ropes upstairs.” She looked him up and down, and untapped feminine satisfaction rolled through her at his cock straining against his jeans. “I don’t think your back can stand the table again.” “How about we try the ultimate in kink?” Canin pulled her to him and tumbled them to the couch. Both on their sides, facing each other with only inches between them, closeness unlike anything Kasey had ever experienced rushed through her like fine wine. It warmed her, but at the same time had her near to struggling out of his gentle hold around her waist. “How about we do it in the boring old missionary position, right on this couch, just you and me. No cuffs, no restraints, no agendas, no hiding; just us.” He nuzzled his nose against hers, and rocked her hips into his. “I swear to God, Kase, it’ll be the fucking most erotic thing we’ve ever done in our lives.” “No, I don’t do --” He scraped a kiss against her lips, silencing her thought. “Maybe you didn’t used to do that, but that was before.” He grazed his mouth high on her cheek, and against her forehead. Then he drew back, far enough so that she could see his eyes and the absolute gentleness living within their fierce depths. “That was before me, before you shared a bed with me for a

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week, without any real problems other than when you had that nightmare. That was before you let me tie you up, no matter that it was ‘just for work,’ and were able to get through it, because deep down you already knew you trusted me and that I would never take advantage of your vulnerable position. And that was before we fell onto this couch right now, where I have my arm around your waist, and your hands are fiddling with the buttons on my shirt, driving me fucking crazy because I want them on me without anything in between us. “Something has already flipped the switch inside you to a place of sexual comfort and trust -- at least with me. I just don’t think you ever stopped to re-examine that you no longer need those chains in order to feel safe, the way you needed them before.” He took her hand and held it against his chest. His eyes stayed with hers, so focused that it slammed in her heart. A telling throb squeezed deep in her pussy too. “Take my shirt off for me, Kasey.” He guided her fingers to the first button. “Touch me, and get us started.”

No, you can’t. You’ll lose it in front of him and Please, Kasey, please, let him touch you like he does in your most secret dreams screamed in Kasey’s head, flooding panic through her, along with a telling wetness between her thighs. “I-I don’t…” God, why couldn’t she just open her mouth and talk? “I-I-I…” Her hand curled into a fist and pushed against him, although, fuck, she should be turning the abuse on herself. “I don’t know if I can, damn it!” “There’s no right or wrong here, Kase, and no mistakes.” He put his hand over her trembling one and helped her undo the first button, and then the next. “Just you and me, figuring it out, together.” A nervous jerk of laughter shook her. “God, how do you do this to me?” With her fingers trembling, she undid the next buttons on her own. Heat radiated off his taut, tan skin, snaking into her body and warming her as she grazed her hands against his flat, bare belly. He hissed and his stomach quivered under her touch, and her attention darted back up to his eyes. His pale blue gaze seemed to swirl into a combination of slate and cornflower, and his breathing appeared unsteady too. “Don’t think I’m any cooler about this than you are,” he said, grunting as he shifted in front of her. A moment later, a soft thud hit the floor, followed by another. He gritted his teeth and reached down, a funny little noise escaping him as he contorted just a bit toward the foot of the couch. Socks came off, and he rubbed his bare feet against hers, forcing a tingling of new awareness up and down her body. “I’m so goddamned in love with you that I’m scared shitless I’m going to do something irreversibly wrong and run you out of my life forever.” He rolled her underneath him and took her mouth in a deep, slow kiss. Kasey could barely feel Canin’s weight or panic about it. Her whole fucking fragile house of cards came tumbling down at his casually thrown out words: I’m so goddamned in love with you. He sank his tongue in her mouth and rubbed against hers. She hardly sparked, where normally she went up in flames immediately at his deep, carnal kisses.

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She slipped her fingers against the seam of his lips and broke the connection of their mouths. He licked her finger instead, and bit the tip, driving her nuts. “Wh-what --” Damn it, she would regain her equilibrium with this man if it was the last thing she ever did. “What did you say?” That easy grin of his showed up again, and her ridiculously easy pussy flared in response. “You heard me.” He drew the plackets of her shirt aside and kissed his way down her throat to her chest and between her breasts, where he paused with his mouth above the front clasp of her too-small bra. Looking up at her through dark lashes, he flicked the tip of his tongue against her flesh, making her jump. “I’m in love with you. I think I have been for a while, but sharing your apartment this week brought it home for me. I don’t want to be away from you anymore. I want to move back in here and let your brother rent my place, and I want us to have a life together that goes beyond work, and even beyond sex -- although you’ve got such a hot body, I’m going to want to incorporate that part a lot.” Lowering his lips, he grabbed the clasp of her bra in his mouth and fiddled with it using both his teeth and tongue. He tugged, pulled the plastic closure away from her body, and then manipulated it with his teeth, lips, and tongue some more. Right in that second, her bra slipped out of his hold and snapped back to her body with a light sting, still closed tight. A giggle escaped Kasey and Canin growled, his cheeks turning ruddy in the soft light in the room. “Damn.” He planted a soft kiss in the valley of her breasts, and slipped his hands up to the clasp and worked the closure with his fingers, spilling her breasts from their confinement. He didn’t touch her, but instead looked up at her and rolled his eyes. “That move always looks really cool in porn.” Kasey tunneled her hands in Canin’s dark hair, her chest swelling with something that felt much too close to…contentment. “Well then, thank God it didn’t work.” His chin came to rest on her breastbone, and he looked like he had all the time in the world to sit and have this bizarre conversation with her. “I’d hate to think you were working moves on me that you’d picked up in you favorite porno flicks.” The glint of teasing left Canin’s gaze, darkening his eyes to nearly cobalt. “Does that mean you’re going to let this happen?” He rose up and settled his elbows over her shoulders, but didn’t sink his weight down on her body. He looked at her, and she didn’t think he hid a damn thing from her view. “I need to know, Kasey. Will you let me inside you, with nothing tying down either one of us?” Canin wanted her, right here, right now…without restraints.

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Chapter Twenty-Five Oh, God, this was it. Kasey’s life, her future, right here. Kasey’s head swam with the results of the first few times she had tried to have sex like “normal people,” without anything to restrain the man and keep her safe from aggression or groping while she reached for sexual release. The ensuing panic on her part, the way she’d made a fool of herself when she shoved him -- them, two times, two different men -- away from her and scrambled away, sick on the inside and her skin crawling on the outside, did a repeat performance in her head. Her hands fell away from Canin’s waist, as if burned. What if she behaved that way again? Would she ever be able to face Canin, if that same thing happened to her tonight? Kasey’s chest constricted. She didn’t know if she could bear losing Canin from her life. She looked up into the pale blue of his eyes, and shivered. “Okay.” He lifted up into a push-up position. “You’re not ready. I underst --” Kasey grabbed Canin and pulled him back down, clutching his thick shoulders. “Please…” Her voice, so scratchy, barely sounded like her own. “Give me a chance.” “Christ, baby. I didn’t mean I was giving up and leaving you.” He settled between her legs, his cock nestling right up against her sex through their clothes. Her entire body heated at the weight, and her channel pulsed repeatedly, as if reaching for him. For the moment, the need to shove him off stayed at bay. “I’m just second-guessing pushing you like this,” he said. “It’s not my place to tell you how to live your life or ask you to get rid of a system that has worked for you for so long.” Taking a deep, shaky breath, Kasey demanded more of herself than she ever had in her life. She kept her focus on Canin, when everything in her wanted to hide. “That’s just it, though.” Pushing her hands under his shirt, she ran her palms up his torso and drew the fabric down his arms, exposing the beauty of his sculpted, tan upper body. “It didn’t work

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very well. It let me have sex, and I needed that, but I didn’t want to listen to what those few men had to say about what I was doing, so I never gave myself a chance to know them beyond providing a service.” “You obviously never gave them a chance to know you either,” he said, his voice enticingly gentle. She held his waist again, let herself feel the warmth radiating through him and into her skin. She forced herself to acknowledge the erection pushing into her crease through their clothing, and then kept breathing, telling herself that although he was clearly aroused, he made no attempt to touch her beyond a light caress of her hair. “Because if you had, those men would have given you anything you wanted, just to stay in your bed.” A thousand butterflies did loop-de-loops in her belly, nudging Kasey to a place she didn’t know or recognize, raising the chill of panic within. “You talk way too sweetly for a guy who growls so much.” He dipped down and brushed his lips across hers. “And you’re way too clever and beautiful to hide yourself from the world.” He nudged his cock against her core, reigniting the fire simmering inside her. One of his hands slipped down the profile of her body, scooping up her hand in the grasp of his. Guiding them together, he pushed them both inside his jeans, gritting his teeth when her fingers grazed bare flesh. He got her inside, but didn’t force her any farther than his lower belly. His gaze came back up to hers, steady, but perhaps not quite sure. “Take down my pants, Kasey, if you want this to happen.” Her entire body ached for this connection, tugging at her deeper than the trepidation still living inside her too. She wanted him so badly, but more than that, she needed to prove to herself that she could do it. Swallowing the thickness in her throat, she slipped her other hand under his waistband, catching the fabric of his underwear and jeans on her wrists. Almost without a pause, she started to push them down. “I can’t believe I’m so easy that you give me a few simple words of love, and just like that, I’m cured, spreading my legs for you as if it’s nothing.” She grumbled, just a little bit miffed at herself for becoming such a cliché. She was so not that girl, who only started believing in herself when she had a man at her side. Canin slid his hand between them and worked open her jeans, but watched her the entire time. She knew what he wanted, what he needed, and with a small nod, gave him that permission. He took her jeans and panties down her legs, grabbing his own along the way. The fabric tangled at their feet, drawing a little chuckle out of both of them, and that settled Kasey’s nerves more than anything else ever could. Every time he showed her something that proved he wasn’t cool and perfect it became a little less of a battle to give him her flawed soul. Their clothing finally hit the floor with a soft rustle, and when he drew her thigh up along the length of his and tucked back into the V of her legs, they both trembled. His erection jutted against her folds and created a flurry of throbbing in her sex to go along with the racing of her heart. Reaching between them, he adjusted himself until the head of his cock kissed her nether lips. As he looked back up at her, he said, “I don’t think

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you’re letting this happen just because I told you I love you.” His mouth came down to rest against hers, planting a lingering, light kiss. “I think you’re letting us do it because you believe me.” With that, he bore down on her core and sank inside her entrance, pushing into her snug sheath one thick inch at a time, taking her to the hilt with the ease of one steady thrust. With nothing holding him back from hurting her, except his personal control. “Ohhh, God.” Kasey bucked up against him. “Fuck…fuck, you feel so good.” Canin pushed right back down, taking her deep again. She moaned, and he groaned at the simplistic mating. Her channel snared his length in a tight grip, and she swore she felt him swell inside her, somehow giving her even more of a connection. Everything swirled around Kasey at once; his proximity and his gaze, always with hers, no matter how she shifted or tried to conceal a part of herself from him. His breath fanned against her cheek, and his sure weight lay solidly on top of her, yet not in a suffocating cover that didn’t allow her to breathe. Finally, to the long, full strokes of his cock gliding along the walls of her sex as he pumped in and out of her, rippling teasing lines of pure joy to every corner of her body, cascading in its pleasure. Kasey undulated her hips against Canin, for the first time reaching for sexual gratification from someone who had the power to hurt her in so many ways beyond the physical. He answered a rocking motion against her, spearing his cock all the way to her core. Kasey shivered at the small act of aggression, and her thighs clamped hard against his hips. Canin immediately stilled. He pushed his hands through her tangle of hair and dropped his forehead to hers. His gaze darkened, full of concern…and still in complete control. “You okay?” “Yeah.” Almost shyly, she lifted her hips up against him one time fast, giving them friction and movement. “Don’t stop.” “Won’t.” He captured her mouth in a kiss, rubbing his tongue along the length of hers as he began a slow push in and out of her body again. “Never. Unless you tell me to.” He moved a hand down and grabbed at one of hers where she had it resting against his waist. Covering it, he scraped it up his body, over the burning heat of his stomach and chest. “Kase, touch me, please.” He seemed to have gravel lodged in his throat, and his eyes shone bright with checked desire. “Tell me it’s okay to touch you all over too.” Her heart swelling, Kasey choked back a sob as she grabbed Canin by the neck and held him to her. “I trust you.” She drew his hand to her breast and covered it, her nipple already hard and pebbled, begging for more. She squeezed his hand around her needy tit, wanting the touch that she had denied herself for so long. “I’m okay. Do whatever you want.” He shuddered on top of her, but studied her, looking at her so intently she felt it all the way down into her toes. Rubbing their entwined fingers over her breast, the touch

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pulled at her nipple, making her gasp and him jerk. She grinned, unable to hold it back, and added, “Within reason, Quinn. Do what you want within reason.” “Christ, I love you.” He crushed his mouth down on hers and quickly snaked his hands down her body to her ass. Grabbing hold of the ample flesh there, he held her to his cock and started thrusting fast and hard, sheathing his prick within her clutching, greedy channel again and again, taking her slick tunnel until he could get no deeper, each and every time. It was everything that should send her into a panic and running for cover…yet none of it did. The memories of the rapes also stayed away.

Oh, God. I don’t fear Canin, or his aggression or passion, one bit. Something exploded in Kasey, sending the possibility of a future with this man sprinkling all around inside her, touching over every inch of her body. She snagged his lips with hers, holding him in a desperate cling of mouths that quickly opened and became a heady battle of dueling tongues. Not enough, Kasey slid her hands down Canin’s sinewy hard back to his buttocks and locked onto his cheeks, helping him take her with frantic thrusts. Canin growled into her mouth and slid his hands up to the backs of her thighs, shoving her legs high on either side of her, making her keen as it opened her pussy in an entirely new way. He angled down on her, and every slide of his cock into her throbbing cunt swiped a quick, mind-blowing tease of a touch against her clit, wringing a small noise out of her every time it happened. She dug her fingers into his ass hard enough to leave little crescent-shaped cuts. He tore his mouth away and settled his blazing bright gaze on hers. He drove into her, grinding the base of his length against her entrance when he could go no farther. “Fuck…” He withdrew and sank right back in, creating a quivering along the walls of her sex. “You are perfection.” She shook her head, her lips catching on his as they brushed. “Only as good as my partner.” He reached between her thighs, covered her clit, and rubbed. Her mouth fell open, stealing her breath and her words as everything tightened to a coil inside her. She locked her hands around his back and held on, unable to pull back even the slightest bit now. Lifting to him, she settled her mouth against his. The strings of physical need between her breasts, belly, and vagina all pulled tight -- so fucking tight -- at the same time, and Kasey clutched at Canin with incredible power as the endgame raced to her fast and hard. Squeezing with everything in her as the first wave hit, her voice rose high, sounding choked. “Only as good as you.” She cried out as Canin smashed their bodies together, the touch filling her to the brim, making her jerk and her sex fist down in a stranglehold of his cock as orgasm overtook her, sending her into shaking, and feeling close to shattering. “Oh, oh, shit, baby, shit…” Canin came to an abrupt halt, his face contorting with the most beautiful, pulled taut lines, painting him in an almost savage light. He buried his fingers at least an inch deep into her thighs, creating bruises that she would see and feel tomorrow. “Ah, ah…” His head fell back, and his lips narrowed to a thin line. He jerked and pulsed within her, flooding her with the wet heat of cum. He held her legs apart like a man

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possessed, and pumped with almost miniscule movement, spurting more jets of ejaculate straight to her core with every small thrust. Kasey fluttered around his cock with each spit, her sex shivering for him as she held him, and let him touch her, in the throes of sex and orgasm. In moments, it felt like he came forever, but all too quickly he released his bruising grip on her thighs and let her legs slide down the outer length of his. Blood rushed back to her legs, sending pinpricks and tingles to the muscles, and slowly returning her to this earth.

Good God, I just had bondage-free sex with Canin Quinn and didn’t freak out. Moreover, as soon as he can recover, I want to do it again. How in the hell did that happen? Kasey contained the bubble of hysterical giggles that wanted to escape her, but just barely. Then, Canin opened his eyes and met her gaze. The complete knowledge of everything they’d just done seemed to shine in the eyes of the other person. It hit them, and they both burst out with laughter at the same time: loud, uncontrolled barks and fits of shared humor and life, full-bodied laughing that had Canin rolling off Kasey right onto the floor, which just set them off even more. By the end, Kasey was on her side looking down at Canin holding his stomach, the image blurred through the tears in her eyes. “Those little bastards,” Kasey finally said. She gave herself permission to stare at Canin’s beautiful naked body and to do it openly, without shame of the need showing in her. She fought the instinct to look away and roll over, hiding herself from his answering attention. Her breathing only hitched a little shallower, and she won the battle. “We will never live down Adam and Rhone being right about us. You do know that, don’t you?” Canin shot up to his knees and kneeled beside the head of the couch, putting his face very close to hers. “I can live with it” -- he stroked her hair away from her cheek, the touch so gentle it brought a different kind of tears to Kasey’s eyes -- “as long as I have you at my side helping to combat those smug looks that we both know are coming.” He took her hand -- her left hand -- and rubbed her ring finger. “What do you say?” She knew this man so well that she understood what he asked her, even if he didn’t yet come right out and use those precise, clichéd words: Will you marry me? Lightness combated against the dark places inside her, and when she didn’t run for the door and head for the nearest hills, she had her answer. “I say yes.” “Hell yeah, you do, woman.” Gruffness filled Canin’s voice, reaching right into her heart. Visible tension left his face, softening some of the hard lines there. Nothing would ever take them all away; he was just too severe-looking for that. Thank God she loved a rugged man. I love a rugged man. I love this man. I love Canin. God damn. He slapped her fanny, snapping her out of her thought. “Come on, babe.” He hauled her to her feet and snuggled her right up against his front. “I need a little time to get the big boy back up” -- he rubbed his cock against her stomach -- “but in the meantime, I’ve got nothing but time to start learning about what you like.” His hand slid down her ass and slipped in between her thighs from behind. He rubbed the tips of his fingers along her slit,

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teasing her into a little moan before pulling away. “At my age, I admit that I’d rather do that in a bed than on the floor. Come on.” He back-walked her toward the stairs, still keeping them connected. “My brother and Adam can’t keep Nate out forever. I know you want to spend time with him so I won’t force my way into your home twenty-four-seven.” He waggled his brows. “At least, not right away.” He pulled on her again, but this time she yanked back, halting him before he put one foot on the stairs. Canin brought his focus to her immediately, clear concern filling his eyes. “What is it?”

Shit, shit, shit. I don’t know how to do this! I’ve never done it before. Fuck. “So, um, you know that love thing you were talking about before?” “Yeah. I meant it.” “I know.” She chewed on the edge of her lower lip. God, why was this so hard? “Um, that goes the same for me, just so you know.” “Wow.” Cupping her cheeks in his hands, Canin leaned down and pressed a kiss against her mouth. Laying down a few more quick ones, he pulled back, his gaze twinkling, and that damn half smile taking over his face. “You’re amazingly bad at that.” “Hey!” She shoved him in the chest, right in the direction of the first step. “I’m giving up ropes and scarves and handcuffs for you.” She followed every step he took, giving him a light push along the way. “Show a little respect.” “Whoa, whoa. Let’s not go crazy.” When they reached the bedroom, he tripped her up and she fell onto her bed, with him covering her in a flash. “We don’t have to get rid of that stuff.” His cheeky grin turned downright raw and wicked. “You see what I’m saying?” “Hmm.” She rolled him over onto his back and straddled his hips. Running her hands up his arms, she locked them over his head, manacled in the grip of hers. “Indeed I do. Indeed I do.” “Christ, woman.” He looked her up and down, his gaze heated, creating new moisture between her thighs. “I love you.” His words seized a powerful constriction in her chest, pulling the answering emotion right out of her, no ability to censor or hold back at all. “I love you too.” “That’s better.” His cock stiffened and nudged at her opening, showing her the immediate, powerful effect of her confession on him. “I’m glad you approve.” Rather than holding him down, she tangled her hands in his and took his mouth in a slow, deep kiss, giving him everything she had never given to another man before. Her whole heart. “Because it’s the best you’re gonna get.” He laughed and grabbed her for another kiss. Once again, they came together in the fire of desire and love. No restraints needed.

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Epilogue Canin leaned back in his chair, his stomach full and his heart happy. He scanned the restaurant, although he had no real need to do it. He always knew right where Kasey was, without having to do a search. Right now, she stood on the other side of the open room, chatting with Lindsey, Jeff, and Nate. Probably raving to Jeff about the setup and food of Jeff and Lindsey’s new place, which would officially open in two days. Right then, Kasey smiled and rubbed Jeff’s arm, and the guy blushed fire engine red. Obviously, Kasey had given him glowing compliments for his cooking. Fucking A, Canin could not believe he had a wife. Of course, nearly a year of sharing an apartment and expenses reminded him on a daily basis that he did. Christ -- he chuckled -- he had never looked more forward to seeing bills in the mail these days. He liked seeing both their names on certain accounts. His brother leaned in from the side and bumped shoulders. “You know, she won’t disappear if you take your eyes off her for two minutes.” Canin didn’t even blink. “Probably not, but I’m not willing to take the chance.” She wore some black wrap dress number with high-heeled boots, and all Canin could think about was what she had on underneath -- and how long it would take him to get her out of it. “Don’t have any interest in looking away, either.” A round of chuckles in various masculine tones greeted Canin’s ears, and that finally tore his gaze away from Kasey. Rhone, Adam, and Logan lined the first three chairs down the left side of the table, and their eyes all mocked him as clearly as their barks of laughter. Canin sat up straight. “What?” Logan raised a dark brow. “I’ve known you for a lot of years, buddy --” “Me too,” Adam added. “Me even longer,” came from Rhone.

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Logan’s lip lifted just at the edge as he spared the other men a glance, but he picked right back up as if there hadn’t been an interruption. “And you sneered at people who fell in love and got married, calling them a bunch of blind idiots who didn’t understand that monogamy wasn’t a natural state for human beings.” “You did,” Adam agreed. “I remember hearing stuff like that, way back when I first met you.” Canin snorted. “You didn’t see or hear anything but Rhone back then, so I doubt you heard, let alone processed, anything I had to say about anything. And you” -- he shifted his focus back down to Logan -- “if I ever said anything like that, I’m pretty damn sure you were right there agreeing with me, every step of the way.” Logan nodded, his jaw clenching. “True enough, man. I did.” “Ignore him, Logan,” Rhone said. He took a sip of his beer, his gray eyes intent on Canin. “Just say thank you, brother. Adam and I are still waiting for one, you know. We worked damned hard getting you guys together. It wasn’t easy.” Canin glared at both his brother and Adam as he got to his feet. “We fell in love in spite of you two, not because of it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go collect my wife and take her to bed.” “I need to get going too.” Logan stood and circled the table. “I’ll walk with you and say a quick good-bye.” Canin told Rhone and Adam that he would see them in the morning, and let his focus drop to Logan and his slight but visible limp. “How are you doing with the desk work?” Stepping in on a dispute during his off hours, Logan had been shot twice, once in the thigh and the hip, putting him off actively working the cases he loved. “Surviving?” “Could be worse.” The words were there, but he grimaced as he spoke them. “I’m not dead, so I’m not gonna complain.” “Right,” Canin murmured. And fuck, that stoic pride was what made it so damn hard to offer Logan a job at Quinn Security. He would simply view it as charity. “Let me know if you’re ever in the mood for a change, and we’ll talk.” “Will do,” Logan said. They approached the small group, and while Logan began his thank yous, Canin slid in behind Kasey and snuggled his cock right into her behind. She tilted her head back and looked at him, and the light shining in her open gaze stole his very breath away. Christ, he never got tired of seeing that in her. “I see you’re all ready to go.” She wiggled her ass against his prick, delivering a very deliberate torment. He growled, and nipped the side of her neck. “Yes, I am.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Lucky for you I know what you’re thinking, even when you’re sitting all the way across the room. I was just making our good-byes.” “See? I knew there was a reason I loved you.”

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“Oh yeah, I know a few, and none of them need to be spoken about here in this restaurant.” “Fine, we’ll take the dirty talk home.” He grabbed her hand, stuck it in the pocket of his jacket, and curled her palm around a couple of cold circles of metal. “So whose turn is it to be in control with these tonight?” He manipulated her fingers, forcing her to feel the curved line of the handcuffs and the metal chinks in between the closures. She slipped her hand out of his pocket and turned around, tilting her face up to receive a fast kiss. “Play your cards right” -- she wound her arms around his waist and tugged him in close -- “and it might just be a night where we both take a turn at them.” She smiled against his lips. “And maybe even a little bit more.” As she pulled back, her eyes twinkled with all kinds of promises of an incredible night of loving ahead. “Excuse-us-we-have-to-go.” Canin ran every damn word together, and then dragged Kasey out of the restaurant in a dozen strides to the sounds of friends and family getting a great big laugh at his expense. He didn’t care. He had Kasey, and she loved him. Nothing else mattered.

Cameron Dane I am an air force brat and spent most of my growing up years living overseas in Italy and England, as well as Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Virginia while we were stateside. I now live in Florida once again with my big, wonderfully pushy family and my three-legged cat, Harry. I have been reading romance novels since I was twelve years old, and twenty years later I still adore them. Currently, I have an unexplainable obsession with hockey goaltenders, and an unabashed affection for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I’d love to hear from you! Visit me on the Web at http://www.camerondane.com.