Damaged Goods (17 page)

Three and a half hours later, Terryn thought her feet were going to fall off. Right after her spine snapped in two. She was a quick study and had pretty much conquered the coffee-making part, so much so that Jenny had left her to mind the counter while she went back to the kitchen. Business was steady and even though she knew it was slow compared to what they normally did, it was more than enough to keep her on her toes.

She had just finished serving the last person in line when she heard the bell over the door chime. Mustering a smile, she looked up to greet more people and let go of her mini fantasy involving a break stretched out on the couch in the employee area. The smile froze when she saw who had just walked in.

Brice stood in the doorway looking confused for about thirty seconds. Then the confusion melted away and a murderous scowl darkened his handsome face.

Terryn upped the wattage on her smile and decided to brazen her way through. “Hey there, Detective. What can I get for you?”

“You can get your ass out from behind that counter, for one thing. For another, you can tell me just what in the hell you think you’re doing.” It was then that Terryn realized that maybe she should’ve mentioned to him what she had planned ahead of time.

“Jenny?” she called. “I need to take a quick break, if that’s all right.” Jenny hollered back that that was fine, so Terryn calmly stepped out from behind the counter and motioned for Brice to follow her to the break area in back. As soon as the door closed, she turned to face him.

“Look,” she began, “I didn’t plan this out very well. Looking at your expression right now, I’m thinking maybe I should have discussed my plans with you before I put this in motion.”

She ignored his, “Damn right you should have,” and kept talking.

“Jenny needs help. With what’s happened, there’s no way she’s going to get anyone in here to work until that psycho is caught. Jenny is going to make herself sick trying to work this place with only Mandy to help.” She reached out and laid a hand on his chest. “I have to help her. I have to. For Katie.”

Brice layered his hand over hers and said in a soft and dangerous voice, “Over my dead body.” Terryn gasped and tried to pull back, but he tightened his grip and she got nowhere. “This isn’t a game and this isn’t a movie. It’s real live life and death going on here.” His grip tightened more and he said, “Katie is dead, Terryn. Dead. Amber too and Angie is in a coma with a skull that looks like a piñata after Cinco de Mayo. You know what those poor girls had in common? Working here. That’s it. That’s the tie and there is nothing you say that’s going to make me okay with you working here and putting yourself next in line.”

Her gasp was loud and filled with temper. “You don’t know that. You don’t know for certain that is the only thing linking them together. And I know there’s a risk. But you can’t stop me from working here, Brice, you can’t.”

“Try me, Red.” He gave her a look that promised she would be sorry if she did, but Terryn had already made up her mind. Even though she liked being bullied in the bedroom, she wasn’t about to let him bully her out of it. “You think I won’t close this place down? You think I can’t? I can and I will if that’s what it would take to keep you safe.”

Terryn believed him. He wasn’t just a highly respected detective—he was also from an extremely wealthy and well-connected family. Hell, at dinner he’d been chatting about the mayor and a bunch of other people who could easily follow through on his threat. He had a look in his eyes that convinced her he wasn’t bluffing. She reached for patience and tried to focus on the fact that he was acting this way out of fear for her. It didn’t change her mind or lessen her belief that she was doing the right thing, but it did help her remember to try and reason with him instead of fight. Fighting would just end up not only hurting them, but it could also close Jenny down.

“I thought about the risks. I was hoping you would help me there.” She looked up at him and tried a small smile, thinking to herself that the old adage about bees and honey was a cliché for a reason. “I know that you work so hard already, but I was hoping that on the nights when I have to close you might be able to see me home. You know, kinda like my very own bodyguard. That way I won’t be scared and you will be here to make sure I’m safe.”

She could see him think about it. She watched as he struggled to overcome his preference and consider what she wanted.

“I don’t like it, Terryn. I don’t like you anywhere near here until we catch this guy.” His brows furrowed and he softened his grip on her hand while he brushed her hair from her cheek with his free hand. “Terryn, for me being a Dom isn’t something that I turn on and off at will. It’s in my blood—it’s what makes me who I am. For some men, it’s just a sexual preference and has nothing to do with the person they are on the inside. But for me and guys like Gage and my cousin, it’s different. Deeper.” He took a moment to kiss her forehead and tuck her head under his chin. Then she felt his arms come around her warm and secure while he said the rest.

“We’re protective to a fault, overbearing, and in case you haven’t noticed we like getting our way.” He ignored her snort and continued, “I became a cop for a lot of reasons, but the underlying factor is that it serves the part of myself that needs to protect. Putting yourself in the crosshairs like this is going to shred every ounce of my focus. Because, Red, of all the people I want to protect, you’ve become the one that matters the most.”

Terryn squeezed her eyes shut to keep tears back. His words were comforting and moving and made her hope for things with him that she was afraid to let take form in her heart. She couldn’t let them sway her, though. She needed to stand strong and she needed him to be okay with that. It was more than helping Jenny now. Now it was also about him trusting her to make her own choices even when he didn’t agree with them.

“I know we’ve only been seeing each other for like a second, but what I feel for you, Sir, is bigger and more real than anything I’ve felt with any other man. I want to be your sub. I want it in and out of the bedroom. There’s a part of me that wants to sit up and say ‘yes, Sir’ to any and everything you ask of me.” She paused for a moment and added, “That scares me to death. I need to know that being your sub doesn’t mean I stop being me. You are the one with all the experience and I trust you to help me find the right balance here.” She pulled back just enough to look him straight in the eye. “I need you to help me learn how to be your sub without losing who I am.”

His eyes closed on a groan and those big strong hands that she loved so much slid up her arms and suddenly clutched around her neck. With a squeal of shock, she clasped on to his wrists just as he bent her over and started shaking her with mock growls.

She started laughing which only caused him to shake harder, and over her giggles she heard, “Why? Why did you have to put it that way?” Another couple of shakes and then he stopped to kiss her senseless. “I almost had you cowed. I could’ve gotten my way and kept you outta this, but you had to go and ask me to help you. Help you tell me no.” He looked incredulous at that. “You actually got me to shut up and let you put yourself in danger then fixed it so you think I’m essentially doing something nice for you.”

He shook his head, clearly baffled. “Fine. I want your schedule for the next two weeks. Here and for the rec center. Come hell or high water, I will be here every night you close.”

She tried very hard not to gloat as she took out her schedule and copied it down for him and she even waited until he left before she did her happy dance.

“You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.” Gage held a pool cue in one hand and beer in the other while he looked at Brice like he’d lost his mind. They were in the game room of Cade and Trevor’s townhouse. The larger man hefted the cue like he was considering it as a weapon and Brice fleetingly hoped that his cousin had good homeowner’s insurance.

Brice couldn’t blame him—he felt like he must have lost his mind. Nothing else explained why he’d left Terryn in that damn coffee shop.

“You let her work there? Where the girls are gettin’ killed?” Gage pointed his cue at him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Before Brice could offer an explanation, Trevor made his shot and said, “I’m wondering the same thing, man. When Terryn came into my office and asked me to cut back on her shifts, I thought it was because she wanted more time with you or that maybe she was still having trouble dealing with the loss of Katie. I did not know she was planning this. I don’t think I would’ve agreed if I’d known.”

Cade lined up his shot next and added, “Brice, I hate to gang up on you, but how in the hell did you let this happen?” The sharp crack of pool balls punctuated the question and Brice looked at three of the strongest Doms and best men he knew.

“She just might be it for me, guys. I think she’s the one.” If he thought his declaration was going to make them stop staring at him like he was crazy, he was mistaken. Now they looked even more convinced that he’d lost it.

“Which would make her working there even more inexplicable,” Cade said.

With a groan, Brice lined up his shot and took it, not at all surprised to see it miss. He tossed down his cue on the table with a curse. “She’s new to BDSM—you all know how new. I looked at her as we argued about this and I saw how desperately she wanted to please me. She is a sub down to her toes and she looked up at me all but quivering with the need to give me whatever I asked for.” The men were no longer looking like they wanted to beat the crap out of him, so Brice took encouragement from that and went on.

“She also looked up at me and confessed that that was what she wanted. To please me in and out of the bedroom. Then she went and asked me to help her not lose who she was in the process of becoming my sub.” He raised both hands in the air and then let them flop in frustration. “How in the hell could I say no after that? She said she trusted me to help her figure out how to be a sub without becoming a doormat.” He snagged Gage’s beer and downed half of it before asking them all, “What would you have done? When she put it that way, what else could I do but back off.”

Trevor was the first to relent. One eyebrow quirked and he let out a soft curse as he racked up the balls to start another game. “Well, I’m glad I’m not you, man. That’s all I can say.” Brice picked up his stick and agreed with a grunt.

“Brice, my friend,” Gage said as he took another beer from the mini fridge, “I hear what you’re sayin’ but she’s still in danger. If I were you, I’d never let her work there. I’d chain her up in my room and keep her mind scrambled with a couple dozen orgasms a day until she forgot all about working there.” He took a deep draw off his beer and grinned crookedly at them. “’Course, that’s just me.”

“Throw me another and come break,” Brice said with a chuckle. “Jackass, you just wait till you meet yours. She’ll tie you up in knots too. Just watch.”

Gage handed him his beer and broke the balls with a satisfying crash and said, “No, sir, not me. For me it’s gonna be a sweet li’l southern thang whose only goal in life will be to serve me.”

Cade lined up his shot next and laughed outright. “Yeah, Gage, good luck with that.”

Chapter Sixteen

The last customer of the evening left and Terryn locked the front door with a grateful sigh. As first days went, this one had been a doozy.

“Sweetie, why don’t you head on out? Bill is here and I’ll make him help me do the cleanup.” Jenny’s words were music to her ears.

Terryn thought that sounded like heaven, but she asked, “Are you sure? I don’t want to run out on you if there is still a ton to do.”

Jenny laughed and said, “Believe me, the cleanup stuff is easy and I got Bill here, so no worries. Go. The detective has been glowering in that booth for half an hour. You should put him out of his misery.”

Terryn smiled, completely without remorse. Jenny didn’t know it, but that glower was because he had plans for them tonight and every second longer it took just intensified the anticipation.

As soon as Terryn got in the waiting Town Car with Brice, he laid her back and clamped her hands over the arm rest. “Keep them there, sub, and don’t speak a word until you are given permission.”

Terryn nodded, her eyes wide at this stronger side of him. He looked dangerous and a little mean in the dim light. She had the thought that maybe this was his way of reclaiming his dominance since she’d gotten her way earlier. Whatever the cause, her body liked what he was doing and was already responding.

Brice set back in the seat and said, “Spread your legs.” She did. “Wider.” He picked up one and draped it over his lap while she moved the other out as far as she could and still be comfortable. “Now don’t move.”

She was wearing loose cotton slacks, so when Brice’s hand slid up her thigh and settled on the soft folds of her sex she could feel the feather-light brushes of his fingertips without any difficulty. She bit lightly at her lip and looked at the privacy glass separating them from the driver. She’d never seen a Town Car with this feature before—it was just another glimpse of the luxury he had at his fingertips.

Terryn wondered if the driver could make out anything going on back here. She thought of what he’d see if he could. She was stretched out along three quarters of the seat with her arms over her head, her legs sprawled and Brice’s hand playing between them as casual as you please. For a moment she wondered what it said about her that the thought of this unknown driver seeing this only added to the excitement.

Then Brice gave her another command and she stopped thinking about anything but what they were doing. “Pull your blouse up and unclasp your bra.”

Her fingers trembled when she did it. His dark gaze zeroed in on her exposed breasts while his fingers kept up that maddening caress. It was too light now, too soft. She lifted her hips to show him she was ready for more pressure.

His reprimand was quick and sharp. Before she could guess his intent, he lifted his hand and brought it down with a snap that jolted from her core where he’d smacked her all the way to her fingertips and she stared at him in shock.