Secret Weapon (2 page)

“Since you like dating men of authority, you’ll love my friend.”

Derek hadn’t told her the guy’s name. That would ruin the game they wanted to play—Janine having sex with a handsome stranger. Derek had assured her his friend was extremely good-looking. Not that it mattered as long as he knew how to treat a woman and liked sex.

Hot, wild sex.

*   *   *

Janine disappeared into the master bedroom and opened her overnight bag. She riffled through the outfits she’d brought, then pulled on a sexy leather bra and thong. Silver chains cascaded from the bra and short links of chains adorned the front of the thong. Anticipation spiked through her as she glanced at the clock. Fifteen more minutes.

She walked down the hall to the second bedroom, where Derek stood waiting for her.

He smiled. “Very nice.”

He led her to the wall, where there were sturdy metal loops mounted just above her shoulder height about two and a half feet apart. Metal cuffs dangled from chains attached to the loops. Derek had installed the loops specifically for this kind of play, and when they weren’t being used for bondage, he removed the chains and hung candle sconces from them.

He grasped her lower arm and lifted it, then snapped one of the cuffs around her wrist. The feel of the cold steel against her skin sent her hormones dancing. He took her other wrist and fastened the other cuff around it. She stood with her back to the wall, her arms hanging from the cuffs.

He stepped away and smiled. “You look incredibly sexy standing there, totally helpless.”

Of course, she wasn’t totally helpless. If she told him to release her, she knew he’d do it in an instant, and she had her safe word in case she wanted to stop things anywhere along the way.

Still, she felt helpless. He could touch her any way he wanted. Strip off her clothes. Do whatever he wanted to her, and she couldn’t stop him. Not physically.

She had to trust that he’d actually stop if she told him to.

His friend, this stranger she’d never met and whom she wouldn’t even see tonight, could do whatever he wanted, too. He would see her. All of her. Naked. Flushed. In the throes of passion. His big hands would caress her. His fingers would slide into her. His cock would fill her.

The doorbell rang.

She sucked in a breath. Oh, God, she was nervous—and extremely turned-on.

“Showtime,” Derek said as he slipped the satin eye mask over her face.

The elastic held it firmly in place. She could see nothing.

She heard Derek’s footsteps cross the room, then go down the hall. A moment later, she heard the front door open, then two pairs of footsteps retracing Derek’s steps.

She could feel the stranger’s presence the moment he walked in the room. She didn’t know who this man was, but knowing he stood close, looking at her, sent a quiver through her. She stood very still, trying to keep her breathing even.

The total silence dragged on interminably.

Finally, Janine pulled at the chains on the wall. She heard his footsteps as the stranger walked toward her. He stopped and she could feel the heat of his gaze caressing her body. She almost gasped when she felt his hand brush over her shoulder, then graze the tops of her breasts, where they swelled from the black leather bra.

Her skin tingled at his touch, goose bumps dancing across her flesh. Then his hand stroked up her neck and his fingers spiked through her long, straight hair as he cupped her head. She felt his heat as he moved closer. His lips brushed hers and an electric sensation quivered through her.

She hadn’t expected him to kiss her. She thought he’d be interested in her only below the neck, but his mouth meshed with hers and his lips moved gently. The tip of his tongue glided along the seam of her mouth and she opened. His tongue slid inside and she met it with hers. They tangled, and he pushed deeper, filling her, his mouth mastering hers.

He released her lips and she sucked in air. God, what a sensational kiss.

His fingers stroked her hair and continued down her chest, stopping above her breast. She waited for the feel of his big hand cupping her, then squeezing, anticipating it with eagerness. His finger dipped between her breasts. He stroked lightly, then his hand enveloped one mound of flesh.

His hand was so hot, so big. Her nipple pushed forward. She longed to feel bare flesh on bare flesh. She arched forward, wanting him to rip the bra from her body and ravage her breasts with his mouth.

“Oh, God, I can’t do this,” a masculine voice grated.

She froze.
His
voice … Oh, God, it couldn’t be.

“Sloan?”

*   *   *

Sloan stepped back, away from the lure of her delectable, nearly naked body. Away from the first chance—serious chance—he’d ever had to fulfill his deepest desire to make love to the woman of his dreams. Janine.

He’d wanted her for years. And she’d known it.

When Sloan had called Derek to accept the invitation for this fantasy night, Derek had clarified that his relationship with Janine was more of a close-friends-with-benefits kind of thing. Apparently, she dated other guys, too. That meant Sloan could actively pursue her, and he fully intended to do so. Hopefully, he hadn’t just ruined his chances for good.

Derek unfastened one of her wrists, then the other one as Janine reached for the blindfold. Sloan wanted to flee, but he wouldn’t. He always faced his demons. Even a spitfire blonde with the eyes of an angel and the heart of a hellcat.

She tugged the black satin eye mask from her face, revealing those beautiful blue eyes of hers, the same color as the turquoise blue topaz ring on her right ring finger that her brother—and Sloan’s best friend—had bought for her graduation day. Now those eyes blazed with emotion, though whether anger or something else he couldn’t tell.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded.

Ah, anger.

He grinned, knowing that would throw her off-kilter.

“Is that any way to greet an old friend?”

“Does an old friend try to have sex with me while I’m blindfolded?”

“No, apparently only a stranger can do that.”

The sight of her with her hands on her hips and her eyes flashing, especially while she wore that sexy black leather bit of nothing, sent hormones blasting through him. God, he wanted to drag her into his arms and kiss the life out of her.

Next, she would scream at him, and fly into a rage. That would be a sight to see.

But to his surprise, she sucked in a deep breath, calming herself. Her hands dropped to her sides and she drew her shoulders back, standing straight and composed. One would think she wore a tailored business suit and faced someone a rung or two down the corporate ladder rather than wearing a skimpy bit of cloth and facing a man in full police uniform.

“That’s the problem with you, Granger. You always find something to criticize.”

“I don’t criticize. I just want you to be safe.” His jaw clenched at her rolling eyes. “For God’s sake, Janine. Having sex with a stranger? I could have murdered you.”

“Yeah? I don’t think Derek would have let you.”

She glanced toward Derek, who stood in the background, leaning casually against the wall, his arms crossed and an amused grin on his face.

“Okay, this time, but for all I know, if it hadn’t been for Derek, you would have picked up a strange guy in a bar.”

Her eyes blazed to life again. “Who the hell do you think you are? Don’t judge me.”

He held his hands at his sides, palms toward her. “Janine, I’m not judging you. I just worry about you. I want you to be safe.”

She sucked in a deep breath. “You sound like Ben.”

“Your brother loved you very much. He just wanted you to be careful.”

Janine had always been a free spirit. Ben had worried that she was too naïve and that men would take advantage of her. He’d been protective and watchful. A typical older brother.

“Yeah. And ain’t it ironic that despite all his urging to be careful and stay safe, that he’s the one who’s dead now.”

The bitterness in her voice showed the depth of pain she still carried at her brother’s death.

“He was a cop,” he said gently. “It happens.”

He saw the pain flash across her blue eyes, but she quickly quelled it.

“Yeah, so I’m told. The point is, life is a crapshoot and I could live my life closed up in a shell, never experience anything, and still get killed crossing the road one day. Or I can simply choose to live my life to the fullest every day.” She stepped toward him and poked his chest with her finger. “I choose the latter. And not you or anybody else has anything to say about it.”

With that, she turned around and walked away, her sweet ass swaying in a way that made his groin fill with heat. Oh, God, this woman drove him insane.

*   *   *

Janine strode to Derek’s bedroom and closed the door, barely blinking back the tears springing to her eyes. She leaned against the door and sucked in a deep breath. She caught her reflection in the mirror. Black studded leather encasing her breasts, the swell of soft flesh pushing over the top, a skimpy black triangle covering her pussy and nothing covering her ass.

Damn, she must have looked like an absolute fool. He thought of her as a bimbo who didn’t know what was best for her, and standing there spouting at him, looking like this, would only have accentuated that opinion.

She’d like to think she didn’t care, but she did. She’d always respected Sloan, ever since they were kids. Ben and Sloan had been best friends in school, and Janine had always had a bit of a crush on him. Actually, more like a tempestuous, wanting-to-throw-herself-at-his-feet-and-give-him-her-virginity kind of crush. He’d been her first kiss. A kiss that had totally blown her mind and set the bar against which she’d measured every kiss that had come since.

Knowing they were playing with fire, however, they had both backed off. Ben was Sloan’s best friend. She was Ben’s little sister. If they had continued beyond that kiss, they would never have been able to keep their hands off each other, and there was no way Sloan could have lived with himself if he had defiled his best friend’s little sister.

Janine clasped her hands together and her finger automatically found her ring and stroked the blue stone.

After Ben died—shot by some thug during a holdup—Sloan took over Ben’s role as her protector. He’d also decided to become a cop. He seemed to thrive on the rules, and on getting some sense of bringing order to the streets, but she wished he could have just been a man—someone to hold her, to help her grieve. Someone to love her and, as much as it rankled her to think it, to take care of her. Not by imposing rules and limitations on her, but by being with her, holding her. Loving her.

After Ben’s death, Sloan seemed incapable of touching her. Even at the funeral, when she’d hugged him and cried on his shoulder, he’d stiffened and patted her back, clearly uncomfortable being that close to her. She wasn’t stupid. She knew it was probably because he felt it would be a betrayal to Ben. Somewhere along the way, Sloan had equated having sex with Janine to hurting her.

Once Sloan became a full-fledged cop, he’d enlisted his buddies to watch over her, too. It got so that she couldn’t turn a corner or talk to a guy without a cop showing up with an eagle eye on her. It made it tough to get a boyfriend.

Finally, she’d left L.A. She needed to find her own way, needed to get away from Sloan and his overprotectiveness—and her intense yet unfulfilled yearning for him.

Now she had her own gaggle of uniformed men around, but not to protect her. And she’d come to really dig handcuffs.

A knock sounded on the door behind her and she jumped.

“Janine, it’s Derek.”

She hesitated, her hands balled at her sides.

“Sloan’s gone. May I come in?”

She turned and opened the door, then stepped back to let him in. As Derek stared at her, understanding glowing in his warm brown eyes, she feared he saw too much. He drew her against his solid body, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, then rested her head against his chest.

“I didn’t know you had a brother. Sloan told me how he died.” He tightened his arms around her. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

The tears welled, and one escaped and fell on his chest, leaving a damp splotch on his uniform shirt. He stroked her hair behind her ear, then kissed the top of her head.

“If you want to talk about it…”

Ah, damn. She didn’t want to dredge up the pain. She didn’t want him to see her vulnerability.

“Sure, I’d like to talk.” She stroked her hand down his solid washboard stomach, then grabbed the tag of his zipper and tugged it down. She dipped her hand inside and stroked his bulging cock through the cotton of his boxers. “I want to talk about bringing out this bad boy”—she slipped her hand inside his boxers and wrapped her fingers around his swelling erection—“and you shoving me against the wall and driving into me.” She squeezed. “Hard.”

Two

Janine tugged Derek’s uniform pants until they fell to the floor with a thump, then freed his erection from his boxers and stroked its considerable length. Grinning, she stepped back and unfastened her leather bra and eased it slowly from her breasts.

His simmering chocolate eyes watched intently as she drew it downward. She revealed the edges of the aureolas, which were all puckered and nubby, then the tight buds of her nipples. She tossed the garment aside and smiled.

Her fingers found her nipples and she teased them while he watched.

He leaned over and picked up his pants, then retrieved the pouch from his belt. Then he stepped forward and grabbed one of her wrists. Before she knew it, he’d pulled his silver handcuffs from the pouch and flicked one cuff around her wrist. Her breathing caught at the bite of the cold steel and the hard, metallic click as it locked around her wrist.

He turned her around and tugged her hands behind her, then imprisoned the other wrist. His hands gripped her shoulders and he turned her around to face him again.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’re under arrest. For indecent exposure.”