Secured Undercover (2 page)

Smith Security Services had been in business for five years now, and, in that time, co-owners Shannon Smith, Bob Sparks, and Weave Sparks all engaged in some crazy assignments in order to make ends meet. Not a single one of them wanted to crawl to their parents for money.

The Queen of Diamonds annual charity event was by far the craziest assignment they took part in. It was being held inside a grand hotel. The numerous security issues they had to consider were mind-numbing. They were only just beginning to set up, and things were already insane. Each one of the queens were hard core divas. They each wanted their own personal guard refusing to accept that they weren’t there to guard them personally. They were there only to secure the expensive jewelry and gowns that were being put on display before being auctioned off at the end of the gala, but that little fact hadn’t stopped a single one of them from receiving some very personal demands that Shannon would be taking to his grave. With all of their equipment in place, and all of the charity pieces locked up tight, the three men were taking a much-needed break.

The gala meant big bucks in tourism, since so many queens from around the country traveled to see the fashion show, fighting like cats and dogs at the end of the night to buy their favorite pieces. For this reason, several cities put in their bids each year in hopes of being the event’s hosting city. This year the winner was Nashville, Tennessee. Upon arrival at Nashville International Airport, Flower took a taxi straight to the hotel and checked into her room before making a quick tour of the ballroom and banquet room. Then she ran back upstairs to change, and headed down to the hotel bar. She was in desperate need of a very strong drink after stressing all day that her dresses would be damaged in flight. Now that she was settled, she needed a moment to relax. She wasn’t fit for company, and her room felt too confining. She headed down to the hotel lounge thinking to lose herself in a crowd. The suite Bradley and her were sharing boasted two bedrooms, a kitchen, and living room, but when he wasn’t there it just felt empty. Unfortunately, she recognized right away that she’d only be enjoying one short drink before heading back to the security of her room.

The hotel bar was a dangerous place; not because Shannon couldn’t handle himself, that was one of the few things he excelled at, but because it was filled to capacity with women—only he was pretty sure there wasn’t actually a solitary woman present. This men were professionals, and it was virtually impossible to tell the women from the men. As he scanned the room, his gaze landed upon the only one wearing jeans and a tight sweater. He knew immediately that this was no man. A party raged around her, but she kept her eyes glued to the sketchpad she was holding, turning it at different angles.

“Who are you watching so intently?”

Shannon glanced over, barely suppressing his annoyance at Bob’s question. “I’m only trying to decide if we need to set some cameras up in here.”

Bob snorted into his drink. “Yeah, right, try another one,” leaning over in his chair, Bob peered in the direction Shannon had been looking in. “Sweet,” he drawled. “You managed to find the one lone woman in the room.”

Shannon scowled but remained silent, while Bob had no such qualms. “She’s the show’s fashion designer.”

“She has a funny name something like Fauna or Flora,” Weave interrupted.

Shannon rolled his eyes at Weave Sparks saying anyone’s name was funny. Bob snapped his fingers. “I know. It’s Flower, Flower Calloway. Rumor has it she’s pretty famous over in Texas, but I think she’s fairly unknown here and hoping to branch out in order to make a name for herself.”

“Hmm,” Shannon said, splitting his attention between the identical twins Bob and Weave and the woman across the room. As he looked on, she dug through her handbag and threw some money on the table. She stuffed the sketchbook inside and he realized she intended to leave alone. Shannon jumped to his feet to follow. He could hear Bob saying something behind him, but he ignored him in favor of following her. Once out in the hallway, he saw she had already made it all the way to the elevators. He picked up his pace. The elevator doors opened, and she started to step inside, leaving him behind. He called out, stopping her. “You shouldn’t be out walking alone at night.”

She turned her head in his direction, and he almost froze at his first clear view of her face. Her skin was pale and smooth. Her hair was dark, framing her face perfectly, and a set of sparkling green eyes stared at him curiously. “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

He broke into a sprint the last few steps and caught up to her. “I said, you shouldn’t be out walking around by yourself at night. It’s not safe.”

She glanced around with laughter in her eyes. “We’re inside, and the lights are on.”

He wanted to smile at her obvious mischief, but kept his face smooth. “It’s even worse inside. You could get yanked inside any one of these rooms.”

She stepped onto the elevator then leaned her head out, preventing the doors from closing. She was openly laughing now. “I’m thirty-three. I should
be
so lucky.” She leaned back inside, and as the doors began to close she added, “I haven’t gotten any action in years.”

Shannon blinked at the closed doors wondering if he heard her right, then a smile spread across his face; Ms. Calloway wasn’t getting away from him so easily.

As soon as the doors closed, Flower fell back against the wall, covering her face with both hands. “Ohmigod,” she breathed in mortification. Did she really just say that? What was she thinking? Her only excuse was that when she turned at the sound of his voice, all good sense fled at the sight of him. He was golden; golden skin and amber eyes. Lord, she almost swallowed her tongue. His body looked as if it was sculpted out of marble. His smile showed a set of perfect white teeth, but that was no real excuse for her moment of insanity. With any luck, she’d never see him again and wouldn’t be forced to feel like an idiot. It was a hope that was dashed as soon as the elevator doors opened.

“Years you say?”

She looked in both directions down the hall. “How did you get here so fast?”

“The stairs,” he answered on a shrug. “So years, huh?”

The stairs? He didn’t even appear to be winded.

“Who
are
you?”

He held out his hand for her to shake. “Shannon Smith, Smith Security Services.”

She shook his hand lightly, regretting the loss of his warmth as soon as she reluctantly dropped his hand. “Flower Calloway,” she returned.

“I know,” he said flashing another sexy grin.

She was momentarily flustered. “Okay,” she moved around him, taking out her key card. She reached her door and swiped the card. “It was nice meeting you Mr. Smith. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.” She quickly stepped inside, closing the door in his face, but as soon as she did, she thought better of it and reopened it before he could get away. He turned to walk away, but as soon as the door reopened, he turned back. “It has been
several
years,” she emphasized before closing the door once more on his stunned expression.

She managed to kick her shoes off and make it halfway across the room before a knock sounded on the door. She laughed all the way back to the door; throwing it open wide.

“That was not an invitation to have hot monkey sex….” she trailed off as she recognized Chad standing there, leering. “Hot monkey sex, I’m in.”

“No, you’re not,” she told him as she closed the door in his smug face. She slammed it a little harder than intended but gained so much satisfaction that she couldn’t find it in her heart to regret it. She wasn’t sure why Chad decided to target her again after all these years, but he had been laying it on thick for the past few months. There were several flower delivers and more offers for dinner than she could count. There was also one ill-fated marriage proposal that still made her cringe when she remembered it. It came right after Chad returned to Flatline after years of living and working in the city. He drove into town and straight to her door, confessing his inability to stop thinking of her. At first, she was flattered since he
did
still have a full head of hair. She hadn’t forgotten how those finely shaped lips used to take her breath away, but after one dinner date, she realized quickly that he was still an asshole. Once she experienced her, “Oh yeah, I remember now why we’re no longer together” moment, she tried desperately to shake him with no success, but she wasn’t beyond hoping.

CHAPTER THREE

This gig was turning out to be even more of a security nightmare than he could’ve ever dreamed possible. At least every fifteen minutes, one of the diva’s tried to make off with a jewel. One even went as far as to demand a trunk load of the designer dresses, claiming they were his own, and forcing them to intervene. How they managed to stuff so many kleptos into one room was beyond him. The only thing keeping him from snapping was the sight of Flower. She chose a gown of deep green that matched her eyes exactly, and it dipped so low in the back that it ended right at the top of her perfectly shaped ass. Just as he thought he might be getting accustomed to the view from behind, she turned, giving him the full frontal view. The sight nearly knocked him on his ass. The dress dipped almost as low in the front, and there wasn’t much left to the imagination, but he was cool with it; so was every other man in the room, even some of the ones dressed like women.

What did bother him was the Mr. Sleek asshole that spent the entire night trailing her. He knew a little bit about reading body language. It was obvious she didn’t want the guy hanging around, but still the jerk managed to be at least five steps behind her at all times. He reminded Shannon of one of those used car salesman, always quick with a false promise, just looking for that next big sell. He really hated those guys, so while Mr. Sleek kept Flower in his sights, Shannon kept him in his.

Shannon began to make his way through the crowd, but when Flower caught sight of him, she took off in the opposite direction. He was determined not to let her get away. She already admitted it had been years, and wasn’t that just such a shame—a beautiful woman like her going without for years. What she needed was for him to fix that.

She spotted him right off the bat. Even though she felt quite sure he’d already seen her, she still tried to lose herself in the crowd. Damn he was looking extra yummy tonight. She thought he looked pretty hot the night before, with his t-shirt stretched tight across his muscular chest, and his aged jeans hugging him in all the right places, but now, dressed in a black tux, he was enough to make a woman drool.

“Why are you running?”

His lips brushed across her ear as his fingers stroked down her spine, and she made an important discovery; every place Shannon touched held a direct line to her hoo-ha.

“Are you stalking me?”

Shannon’s amber eyes flashed with humor at her question. “Would you like me to?”

Oh yes, she definitely did, but she couldn’t very well say that. His hand went to his earpiece and he muttered a curse. “I’m sorry but I’ve got to go. Will you sit with me at dinner?”

She could feel her cheeks aching from the intensity of her smile. “I’d love to.”

He flashed a boyish grin and was off like a shot. A small giggle escaped. If she knew this crowd, and she did, Steven Alfred, aka Candy, was trying to put the silverware in his purse.

“Who was that? Yum, yum.”

Bradley’s voice didn’t match up with his words, but Flower grabbed his hands in excitement, barely suppressing the desire to jump up and down like a little girl in her happiness. “He’s working security. His name is Shannon and we met last night in the hallway.”

Bradley leaned a little to the side trying to get a better view. “Damn, sugar, he’s a hot one.”

“I know,” she squealed barely suppressing the urge to cackle like a mad woman.

“Not that I really care, but what about Chad? I just saw him skulking in the corner.”

“Shit,” she muttered. “I forgot all about Chad.”

Bradley’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll take care of Chad. You just worry about yourself, and remember to have fun, but you don’t know that guy, so take care.”

Flower grabbed Bradley around the shoulder’s hugging him tightly. “You are the best friend ever!”

An odd look passed over Bradley’s face, but it was gone as quick as it came, and Flower couldn’t be sure it wasn’t a trick of the light. “You too, babe,” he said before rushing off again. The click-clack of his heels followed him across the room in Chad’s direction.

With another disaster averted, Shannon stood on the fringes watching the crowd. Despite the many issues they encountered, it could still be deemed a pretty successful night so far. A lot of money was being raised for a good cause, and everyone appeared to be having a great time. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate on his job, his gaze continued to return to Flower. She spoke animatedly with a tall blonde in spiked heels and a Marilyn Monroe wig. She was clutching the guy’s hands laughing, and he could tell by the way they leaned towards one another that it was someone she considered to be a good friend.

“I just broke up a cat fight in the men’s room.”

Shannon turned his amused gaze to Weave. “Did you find out what it was over?”

“Someone pissed on someone else’s six-hundred dollar shoes.”

Shannon raised an eyebrow at his answer, almost hating to ask, “On purpose?”

“No. Apparently it is a lot harder to jack up an evening gown in order to take a piss than it is to unzip pants.”

“Well, who knew?”

Weave shrugged. “We’re going down to a skeleton crew during dinner, and some of the guys are going to go in on some pizza. Do you want to get in on it? The shit they’re serving here barely looks edible.”

They were all invited to join in on the five-course meal, but it was fancier than most of them were used to. “Sorry dude, but I’ve already made plans.”

Weave’s eyes lit up with interest. “What kind of plans? Do they have anything to do with the hot designer I saw you talking to earlier?”