Layers Crossed (3 page)

“
Just get
her out of the city for a while,” they’d said. “She needs a calmer
lifestyle and a change of scenery. And no fucking around.”

Well, she
would have to wait until we scheduled another meeting.

Shifting from
one foot to another, I couldn’t wait any longer. Hopefully, if my
bedazzled girl came out early, she’d wait for me. As I stood in the
stall, pissing for what seemed like hours, I regretted drinking all
that water. But how could I have not? Looking at her move her body
up and down that pole, all I could think about was her slickness
sliding along my length. My mouth had felt like the middle of a
desert. Shit, even remembering those thoughts forced my dick to
stand at full mast, making it nearly impossible to piss.

I shook off
the last drops, washed my hands, and went back out to the bar.

My first
priority when she returned
–
right after I got her name, of course
–
would be to get her out of this
dirty hole of a strip club. There was no way she’d let me drive her
home, she was too smart for that, which made me wonder what the
hell was she doing here in the first place. The bodyguard had said
she was from New York. Didn’t they have better establishments than
this in her home city? She didn’t look like someone who should be
stripping for cash; in fact, the bodyguard said she was dancing
tonight for free
–
that’s why they let her in. Well, maybe that was one of the
reasons. I couldn’t imagine that any woman more beautiful worked
here
–
or anywhere in
the entire state
–
so
having her up on that stage was a bonus for this place. And while
she definitely looked like a professional, at least she’d confirmed
this wasn’t her job.

I lowered my
gaze to my watch again. It had been too long. Had she ditched
me?

“You wanna
beer, honey? Or maybe something more?” a raven-haired waitress in a
bustier asked me while stroking the side of my arm. Chills of
disgust flew through me. Hooking up in a place like this was
definitely not my style. And honestly, I wasn’t sure whether I’d be
able to think about another woman ever again.

Of course I
wouldn’t verbalize all that to her, and so I replied, “Not tonight.
Have you seen that girl who danced last? She went backstage to
change, and it’s been a while.”

“The one with
the gems?” Her brow rose in a funny way, as if this was a question
she’d already answered more than once tonight.

“Yes.” My eyes
flew open.

“Emma. Her
name is Emma.”

“Emma.” The
moment I said her name, something odd happened in my chest. The
profound pounding and a light-hearted sensation were new to me. I’d
never experienced lust of such height. I mean, I’d gotten hot for
women before – it was only natural that I would – but Emma. God,
Emma just took over my entire being with her presence, and if I
didn’t see her soon, I’d go insane. “Where is she?”

“She
left.”

What? The
waitress was lying – she had to be. There was no way that Emma
could have dismissed the connection we’d had so easily. Was she
safe? I quickly ran out the front door. There was no sign of a
struggle or commotion. Why would she have disappeared so quickly?
It couldn’t have been me, could it? Was I too forward? Too strong?
Dealing with city women who had a mind of their own wasn’t my thing
– but Emma… If I ever got a chance to see her again, I would never
let her go.

When I
returned, I asked the same waitress, “Do you have Emma’s last
name?”

“Sorry, hun, I
don’t.”

“An address,
or a license plate at least? Anything?”

She shook her
head sideways.

“Fuck,” I
swore under my breath, running my fingers through my hair, already
imagining spending the rest of my life looking for the one that got
away. “I’m sorry. She said she’d come back…”

Was I fucking
stuttering? What the hell was that about? How could I have let
myself be affected by a woman to a point of desperation? There was
no reason to even hope now, was there? I’d better forget about her
– think of Emma as a dream. A dream that would never come true.

C
HAPTER
3

Emma

I shuffled
through the photographs on my desk re-arranging them for the fifth
time this morning, wondering how I would break the news to
Christine of her husband’s infidelity. The zoomed-in pictures of a
girl younger than my client by at least two decades, riding her
husband, was unmistakable. There was a specific order in which I’d
need to show her these. See, some women had to be broken down
first. If I showed a young model blowing the cheater like he was
the best lollipop in the world, they’d accuse me of forgery. It
took much longer for the truth to sink in – even though deep down
they’d always known what it was. Instead of slamming into them, I’d
need to work my way into their heart first. Most of the time, I’d
show my client a photo of her husband meeting his mistress, maybe
even exchanging a kiss before the clothes were torn off.

Christine was
different, though. She was a fighter and I knew she’d want to see
the worst damage as soon as she sat down in the leather chair at my
desk. And the image I’d held in my hands of her husband wearing
nothing but a leash, tied to a bed with his leather-bearing bitch
right over him, was enough evidence to help her decide how to
proceed. She’d been smart enough to have a pre-nup. With the
airtight clauses I’d seen in there, the bastard would get nothing
from her.

My heart tore.
This work was beginning to eat at me from the inside out. Couldn’t
my brothers see I wasn’t happy, constantly dealing with cheating
couples? How in the world was that supposed to restore my faith in
true love? The faith I’d had two years ago before I joined Cross
Enterprises, our family-run top private investigations firm,
full-time. My only reason for doing so then was to lose myself in
my work – to forget the pain and eventually work my way up the
ladder. While my brothers’ love for their wives was the only thing
that kept me from completely losing hope in a successful
relationship, I was beginning to think that honest men like Julian
and Tristan didn’t exist anywhere else these days. And the one I
had known had slipped through my fingers way before his time. My
heart ached at the memory. It had crumbled that day to pieces, and
no one had been able to put it together. Yes, I blamed myself for
his death; but I wasn’t the only one to do so.

“
It’s your
fault,” David’s brother had said. “You’re the one who took him from
us.”

Cold shivers
flew through my body. Everything could have been so perfect if I
had just stayed home. Why did I have to be his doom? And would I
ever be able to let myself love as wholly as I had loved David? I
had yet to meet a man who could hold a candle to him.

What happened
to the courteous, old-fashioned ones who brought flowers to your
doorstep or stood up in a restaurant when you wanted to leave to
the powder room?

They all left
to live on Mars, that’s what happened!

The guys I’d
dated called themselves ‘metrosexual.’ All trim and proper, who
manicured their hands and worked out just enough to have the
muscles necessary to be a good catch. Most of the city boys I’d
dated (because honestly, they couldn’t have been called men) were
more into themselves than anyone else. They cared too much about
their own hairstyle to even notice my new cut, and kept asking
whether their shirts were crisp-ironed but failed to see my new
dress. I swear, sometimes I wondered whether all the guys I’d dated
should have reconsidered their sexual orientation. And even if one
had potential, he would be scared off by my brothers before I got a
chance to know him.

But the way my
brothers swept me away before I got a chance to find the intriguing
Cowboy the past weekend, forcing me to leave him behind, was a new
low. I should have stood my ground, but their offer of good things
to come at Cross Enterprises swayed me too quickly. They’d promised
changes and good cases, and I fell for their trick like a frickin’
kindergartener. I should have known better. There was no way Julian
and Tristan would ever let me go under cover or work on a dangerous
case because three days later, I was still sitting here, at my
desk, waiting for the first appointment of the day to show up and,
once again, crush my belief in true love.

I sighed. Were
there any knights in shining armor left in this world? And did I
really want to be swept off my feet like a damsel? After all, I was
a strong, independent woman who didn’t let men control her life
(except for my brothers, of course). Did I want a man to take
charge and lead the way?
Hell, yes!
For once, I didn’t want
to make decisions or hold back. I wanted a man who could drive me
crazy both in bed and out. I wanted a man who would love me with
everything that he was, who would care for me and who would die for
me without a second thought.

Propping my
chin on my hands as I leaned over my desk, I sighed again.

Finally
inserting the condemning prints into the envelope, I looked through
the frosted glass of my office, where the silhouette of a tall man
with a cowboy hat walked by. I shot off my chair and rushed to the
door, pulling it open, secretly hoping it was him. That he’d gotten
my note after all, found out where I worked, and come to see
me.

But of course
it wasn’t my Cowboy. This one didn’t compare to the man whose name
I hadn’t even gotten.

Was there some
kind of a country and western convention my brothers had just
attended to recruit business? I’d seen a couple downstairs as well.
It seemed that each time I turned around, I saw a cowboy hat – or
maybe with my heightened thoughts of the man who had caught my
attention three nights ago, I noticed what I never had before.

I frowned,
slamming my door shut.

I’d cursed my
brothers over and over again since last Saturday. Treating me like
a five-year-old was getting old. Didn’t they both have their own
children to take care of? If this continued, I’d need to talk to
Allie and Kendra about keeping their husbands on a tighter leash so
that they’d loosen mine.

With the spies
they had on me already, it was difficult to have any fun at all. If
it weren’t for my sisters-in-law, who still went out clubbing with
me once in a while, Tristan and Julian would have chained me up and
fastened a chastity belt on me long ago. So when my office door
swung wide open this morning, and instead of Christine, both my
brothers stepped in, locking it behind them, I wasn’t sure whether
they’d thought of a new way to make my life miserable, or were just
going to fire me and lock me up in an attic somewhere out in the
suburbs.

“What do you
want?” I grumbled.

“Still mad?”
Tristan sat down in the leather chair in front of my desk. “Come
on, Em, you were at a strip club. And thank God we didn’t come
earlier to see exactly what you were doing.”

“It’s my
business what I do with my body. It’s my business where I go or
whom I see. IT’S. MY. BUSINESS.” I bared my teeth at them both like
a hyena with mad cow disease.

Julian stepped
closer to my desk and folding his arms across his chest sat at its
corner. “The problem is, Em, that you are our business. You’re our
sister and a great partner at this firm. Your intuition is one of
the best assets we have, and we’re simply at fault for loving
you.”

I rolled my
eyes.

“Don’t roll
your eyes, Em. It’s not polite.”

“Well, you
keep pulling that love crap and give me no choices. You can’t
control me. You can’t keep scaring guys away by showing your gun
collection. Daddy’s never done half the things you two have. And I
swear, if things don’t change, I’m out of here. I’m a grown woman.
I need to experience life on my own terms, not yours.”

“Em, you know
you mean the world to us.” Tristan leaned his elbows on my desk.
“And we may be a bit over-protective, but we would love for you to
find someone worthy. I swear, I don’t know where you find these
guys you’re seeing! It’s as if you wanted to sabotage any possible
relationship yourself before you even go out. They’re not real.
They only date you for your name. They’re not David – and we don’t
want them to be – but it’s time you gave yourself a true chance,
Em. Besides, the things we’ve seen in this business – you know very
well what can happen to a woman.”

“And you know
very well I can take care of myself. You made sure of it.” The
years I’d spent in the boxing ring, training in jiu-jitsu, and
learning about the Cross Enterprises business had definitely paid
off. There was no way a man could overpower me with his strength. I
knew nerve spots on a neck that could immobilize a person with one
pinch.

Julian shifted
by a fraction, drawing my attention back to him. “We know you’re
strong, and could use a bit more independence and rebuild your hope
in love.”

I lowered my
head, thinking about David again. “All I need is time and
freedom.”

“That’s why
we’d like you off these cheater cases.”

“What? What
will you have me do? Bring your morning coffee?” I rolled my eyes
again.

“If you don’t
stop rolling your eyes, we’ll reconsider giving you this new case
that came in.”

“Seriously?
You’re lying.” I shot off my chair.

“We’re not
lying, and yes, it’s time to give you what you want. Now, from what
the client had said, there isn’t yet much to go on, so you’d have
to do all the work.”

“So you’re
saying that he’s a safe bet. Nothing dangerous.” I slouched.

“Honestly, Em,
we don’t know because we haven’t done the preliminary work… which
we trust you’ll do great at.”