MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) (157 page)

Chapter Five

              Silvatech’s accounting division occupied an entire floor of the building, through which Kameko walked with Jake to the division manager’s office.  The cartel’s agent had avoided the more sensitive departments and hidden in plain sight among the number-crunchers, which even she had to admit had been a brilliant move.

              As soon as the manager’s mousy-looking secretary saw Jake, she jumped up.  “Mr. Silvar, good morning.  May I help you?”

              Jake smiled.  “I need to speak with Kyle, Ms. Garcy.”

              The secretary’s hand shook as she opened the door to announce them, and Kameko gave the other woman a sympathetic smile as she followed Jake in. 

              “Mr. Silvar.”  Kyle Blake got up slowly, as if in pain, and came around his desk.  “Is there something you need?”

              “Please stay,” Kameko said when Ms. Garcy began to back out of the office.  “We may need your help, too.”

              “Of course.”  The other woman closed the door, and listened as Jake told her boss about the terminal that had been used to steal the schematics.

              “That is my IP address,” Blake said after looking at the slip of paper.  “But Mr. Silvar, I’m just getting back to work.  I’ve been home recovering from surgery for the last two months.”

              “The thief could have come in here and used his terminal, I suppose,” Kameko said to the secretary.  “Do you know of anyone who used Mr. Blake’s office while he was gone?”

              Ms. Garcy frowned.  “Well, there was the man from IT, but he just came to install some new software a few weeks back.”  Her eyes widened.  “You don’t think he did it?”

              “No, I don’t.”  Kameko moved, putting herself between the secretary and the door.  “I think you did, Ms. Garcy.  Or is it Garcia?”

              “Me, a spy?  Are you kidding?”  The mousy woman faked a laugh.  “I think you’re very confused, Ms. Saito.”  She turned to Jake.  “Or maybe your assistant is trying to frame me, sir, for something she did.”

              “I rather doubt it,” Jake said.  “Seeing as she’s British intelligence.”

              Kameko saw the secretary reaching into her jacket, and drove her foot into the side of her knee, dislocating it.  As the other woman screamed and toppled she straddled her and plucked the gun from her hand.  “I’ll take that, thank you.”

              Kameko unloaded the clip and removed the bullet from the chamber before she handed the weapon to Jake.  “Mr. Blake, may I borrow your tie?”

              The manager nodded, a dazed look on his face as he slowly removed his necktie and handed it to her.  Kameko used it to restrain the sobbing secretary before she went out to sit behind her computer.

              “They wouldn’t have sent someone after me if they had the schematics,” she told Jake when he came to join her.  After a quick search, she found an enormous file hidden in the secretary’s e-mail archives and accessed it.  “Where would you like me to send these?”

              “Anywhere you like,” Jake told her.  “They’re fake.”

              Kameko stared up at him.  “What?”

              “A year ago the CIA alerted me about the cartel’s interest in acquiring my satellite designs to sell on the black market,” Jake said.  “I’ve been working with them ever since.”  He nodded toward the files.  “The real version of those are being kept in Langley.  I’ve been going there every week for the last year to work on them.”

              Kameko took in a quick breath.  “Your Friday golfing match.”

              He nodded.  “I hate golf.  Always have.”  He touched her shoulder.  “Does this make us even?”

              “I think it does.”  She felt almost proud of Jake for deceiving her, which was no easy thing, and loved him for gentle way he looked at her now.  She loved him, period, and she’d never regret a single moment she’d spent with him, either.  Now all she had to do was get out of the building before she broke down in tears and begged him to love her back.  “Thank you for telling me.”

              “Come on.”  He helped her up from the chair.  “We have to call my country’s spooks now.”

#

              Kameko sat on the balcony of the mediocre hotel room her handler had acquired for her, and sipped a glass of bland white wine as she looked out at the Silvatech building.  Slipping away while Jake had been in a private conference with his CIA associates had been a bit childish, but she hadn’t wanted to say good-bye.  Tomorrow she’d fly to Barcelona, where her next assignment awaited. 

Tomorrow would be the first day of the rest of her life without Jake.              

She turned her head as she heard the doorknob rattle.  By the time the intruder came in, she had taken out her weapon, flicked off the safety and concealed herself.

“Don’t kill me,” a deep, all-too-familiar voice said.  “I come in peace.”

Kameko closed her eyes for a moment before she stepped out to glare at Jake.  “Have you lost your mind?  Do you know how close you just came to being shot?”

“I trust your trigger finger.”  He held up a bottle of wine.  “Plus I come bearing much better booze than the Brits.”

She set down her weapon and strode over to the door, closing it and locking it.  When she turned around Jake was right there, reaching for her.  “Don’t do this,” she warned as she took a quick step back.  “We can’t be together.”

“I’m here, you’re here, there’s a bed.  I brought wine.”  He raised his brows.  “What more do we need?”

She avoided his hands and went around him.  “I’ve lied to you every day since we met.  I left you when I should have stayed to protect you.  Then I let you have sex with me and still kept lying.”

“I can spank you, if you’d like.”  When she eyed him, he shrugged.  “I admit, I do need some pointers on how to deal with your submissive side.”

“I’m not a whore,” she lied.  “That’s just part of my cover.”

“I wouldn’t care if you were.”  Jake watched her.  “I’d want to get you tested, and then I’d talk you into retiring.  Or maybe I’d just buy all the nights you want to work for the rest of your life.”

Kameko told him exactly what she thought of him in Japanese, and then stalked out onto the balcony.

Jake followed, and joined her at the railing.  “I suppose I am kind of a dog for lying to you, but you did the same to me.  Does it mean I really have to suck the rotten eggs of a fat serpent?”

She bit back a laugh.  “And you speak Japanese.  Of course.”

“Damn right I do.”  He put his arm around her shoulders.  “I spent two years in Tokyo working on superconductor research with a crack team of their best designers.  None of whom cared to learn English, oddly enough.”

“I am a submissive, you know.”  Kameko rested her cheek against his shoulder. “That part I never have to fake.  My parents died when I was young, and I was taken in by a woman, who looked after a lot of orphaned girls.  No one knew how she was training us in secret.”

Jake went still.  “Training you to do what?”

“To be submissive concubines.”  Kameko stared at the lights of the city.  “She started by having us watch sex tapes, and then showed us how to masturbate.  We learned to use our fingers and then sex toys.  Some of the girls she convinced to have sex with each other; others she had practice on some men who liked children.  She made it all seem very exciting and beautiful.  She called us her little geishas.” 

He made a disgusted sound.  “That bitch.”

“Most men thought she was a very demure, kind lady.”  Kameko smiled a little.  “She sold me when I was thirteen to a very wealthy Englishman.”

Jake paled.  “What did he do to you?”

“He set me and the other girls free.  The Englishman was a spy working against an international human trafficking ring.  After he threw my abuser in jail, he arranged for me to be placed with a good family.  He even paid for my education.”  She sighed.  “Once I became an adult, he came back and asked me to work for his people in the U.K.  I’ve been a field operative ever since.” 

“So they’ve had you all your adult life.  It’s my turn now.”  Jake turned her toward him.  “I want you to stay here, with me.  So don’t go to Barcelona.”

“I still work for British intelligence,” she reminded him.  “And how do you know about Barcelona?”

“My friends at the CIA were very grateful.”  He nodded and tugged her closer.  “MI-6 doesn’t own you.  Resign.  Then you don’t have to go.”

“Jacob, please.  Don’t do this to me.”  She knocked her forehead against his chest.  “The sex was amazing, and all this espionage seems exciting, but it’s not enough.” 

“Love is.  You love me, don’t you?”  When she reluctantly nodded, he grinned.  “Good.  It would have been lousy to be in love with someone who just liked the sex.”

“You’re in love with me.”  She couldn’t believe it.

“With all my mind, heart, body and soul.  But I can show you, too.”  He lifted her off her feet.  “All you have to do is say no to Barcelona.”

Kameko smiled.  “No to Barcelona.”

THE END

Bound to the Alpha Billionaire

Book 4

(Can be read as a standalone book)

By: Lucy Wynand

The Designer’s Obsession

Chapter One

Backstage at the House of Belanger fashion show at the Castle of the Three Swans, chaos reigned.  Dressers sorted garment bags on crowded standing racks, checking the photos pinned to each garment to match models to their looks.  Hair and makeup stylists danced around the girls in their chairs, plying their cosmetics and tools.  Voices prattled in Spanish and English, while others swore in French.  Smoke from a dozen cigarettes, surreptitiously smoked in corners, curled up to form a haze around the light poles.    

“Wait.”  Thierry Belanger put his mobile on mute and tugged a six-foot tall blonde from the line of models.  “No.”  He turned his head and bellowed for his American.  “
Kate
.” 

“One moment, Monsieur,” a brisk voice called back.

He put his mobile back to his ear and demanded, “What do you mean, Saito is still in New York?  I need her here, in Barcelona.  Now.  Put her on a plane.”

“She was attacked yesterday,” Simon Denning, his British intelligence liaison, advised him.  “She can’t make it.”

“What?”  As his show seamstress’s sleek head of braided apricot hair appeared under his nose, Thierry gestured to the model’s breasts, which threatened to spill over the too-tight bodice.  “Kate.  Please.  Before she pops.”  He walked out to an adjoining hallway before he told Simon, “So bandage her, give her some painkillers, and put her on the plane.”

“Kameko has resigned.”  Simon paused, listening to Thierry swear before he said, “Wren Calhoun can be there on Saturday.”

“This goes down tomorrow night, Denning.  Not Saturday, not next week, not next month.  Tomorrow.”  Thierry strode out into the castle’s fragrant grove of citrus.  “Rodrigo will be here for one night only.  We’ve been working for a year to set this up.  The contact won’t pass the plans to me.  She is expecting a woman.  My mistress.  My
supermodel
mistress.”

“Then you’ll have to find one,” Simon said, “because Saito is through, and Wren can’t leave Tokyo until Friday night.  None of our other female operatives can pass as a supermodel.”

Thierry considered hurling his mobile into the oranges.  Since he liked oranges, he went with his second option.  “I quit.” 

“You can’t,” the British agent countered.

“I should.”  Thierry closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.  “Why am I doing this?  I have more money than your Queen.  I could be in Paris now, eating real food and drinking good wine.  Do you know what they have in Barcelona, Denning?  Gazpacho.  I hate gazpacho.”

“Find someone, old boy.”  The Englishman’s tone turned flinty.  “This attack the cartel is planning has every country in Europe on high alert.  We have to know what the target is.”

              Thierry switched off his mobile and swore until he saw Kate come out of the castle.  “The blonde?  You fixed it?”

              “Nothing wrong.  Right look, wrong blonde.”  She handed him an insulated tumbler.  “Here.  They’re walking in two minutes.  Drink fast.”

              He took a sip and closed his eyes.  For him savoring the taste of real Parisian dark-roasted coffee took a moment.   He looked at his seamstress and sighed with pleasure.  “I love you, Kate.”

              “Yesterday you hated me,” she reminded him as they walked back into the castle.  “You fired me, too.”

              “I am an idiot.”  As they entered the backstage area, he scanned the line of models.  Thanks to Kate every look in his spring collection appeared flawless.  He stood with her to watch the models saunter down the cat walk.  The audience gaping and the cameras flashing made him feel just a little smug. 

Beside him his slender American kept her shrewd, jade-colored eyes on the garments.  He knew she was tracking each one to see how it fit, moved, and a thousand other tiny details.  A genius with fabric and thread, Kate had been translating his designs from paper sketches to reality for almost three years now.  She worked as obsessively as he did, and never complained.  No matter where they traveled, she always found French coffee, which made her the perfect woman. 

Thierry knew he was too selfish to love anyone, but he truly adored his American.  He bent his head to hers and murmured, “Marry me.”

              Kate chuckled.  “One day I’m going to say yes, just so I can watch you drop dead with a heart attack.” 

Thierry glanced down at the American’s long, lean body.  Work, not starvation, kept Kate as slim as the girls on the cat walk.  She never wore make-up so she wouldn’t accidentally smear it on the looks she worked on, but she had the smooth ivory skin and bone structure to showcase any cosmetic enhancement.

“Congratulations.”  As the final walk music cued, Kate plucked the tumbler from his hand.  “You pulled it off again, Monsieur.  Beautifully.”             

“Yes.”  An idea began to form in his head as he took the arm of his featured model.  “Somehow we always do, don’t we, Katie?”

#

              Kate carried the last cases out of the castle to stow them in the House of Belanger van.  After rubbing a sore spot on the small of her back, she nodded to the driver.  “That’s the last of it.  See you in the morning.”

              From the castle she walked down to a café where her co-workers had gathered and hailed her with waves and grins.  She liked hanging out with the other seamstresses and dressers after a show.  Everyone still bubbled with adrenalin, and partied happily with relieved satisfaction.  She also knew only too well that tomorrow morning they’d all be grumpy and bitching as they checked out of the hotel to head for the airport.

              It helped her to blow off a little steam as well.  As the head seamstress and show manager for the House of Belanger, Kate worked hard.  She had to; hers was one of the fashion industry’s most stressful jobs.  Insanely talented and demanding, Thierry Belanger could be a real pain in the ass, too.  Before hiring Kate he’d gone through a half-dozen of her predecessors like razor-sharp shears through organza.

              She probably would have quit herself, long ago, if she hadn’t fallen for the big, dark Frenchman.  He’d owned her heart from the first moment she’d looked in his soulful midnight eyes.  She knew he’d never see her like that, but she didn’t care.  At least he fueled her fantasies occasionally by asking her to marry him.

              Tonight he’d given her such a strange look, though, before he’d walked out to take his bow with the featured model.  Kate wondered what he’d been thinking when he’d studied her with his beautiful dark eyes.

“Marcel said you had to switch two looks a minute before the girls walked,” a hair stylist said.  “How do you do this so fast,
cherie
?”

              “Scissors, hem clips, and body tape.”  She lifted the beer someone gave her to acknowledge the knowing hoots.  “A show seamstress’s three best friends.”  She took a long drink before she saw some horrified expressions around the table.  “Don’t look so petrified.  Monsieur never knows.”

              “Ah, Kate.”  The stylist nodded past her shoulder.  “He does now.”

              Kate glanced back to see Thierry Belanger standing just behind her, his strong arms folded and his expression dark.  “Well, damn.  I guess I’m fired again.”

              “Not yet.”  The big Frenchman took hold of her arm to tug her to her feet.  “We need to talk.  Come with me.”

              Kate brought the beer bottle.  Once they were a block from the café, she offered it to her boss.  “I just snipped off a few buttons so I could switch the looks quicker,” she told him.  “You know I’ll sew them back on when we get home.”

              “We’re not going home, Kate.”  He dropped the bottle in a trash bin.  “At least, not tomorrow.  I need you to do something for me.”

              Oh, the things she wished she could do for him.  She’d start by running her hands through his lion’s mane of black hair while she kissed his beautiful mouth, and work her way down his hard, ripped body until she got to his toes.  Then she’d go back up again.  A hundred times.

His midnight eyes searched her face.  “Katie?”

“Sure,” she said, feeling flustered now.  “What do you need?”

              Thierry stopped by a park bench and drew her down to sit beside him.  “I want you to go to a party with me tomorrow night.”

              Kate frowned.  “You’re showing looks at a party?  You never do that.”

              “It is not a fashion party.”  He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.  “I’ve made some new contacts here, and they invited me to join them for a special gathering.  They are expecting me to bring a date, too.  My supermodel girlfriend.  If I do not, I lose face, and then everything is ruined.”

              Now she felt really confused.  “Monsieur, you don’t date models.  Or supermodels.  You don’t date anyone.”

              “This is why I need you to come with me,” he said.  “So they will believe you are my girlfriend.”

              Kate stared at him.  “You want me to
pretend
to be your girlfriend.  Your supermodel girlfriend.  Me.”  She pressed her lips together, but a giggle still escaped her.  “That’s a good one, Monsieur.”

              Thierry took her hands in his.  “The thing is, I am not joking, Kate.”