Unconditional (8 page)

“Excellent. I was worried for a minute there. She seems a little closed off.”

His first instinct was to walk away. Leave it at that. He had too many friends already. Except he didn’t actually have any past Ryan, and Ryan knew so very little about him. He used to have friends. He used to be open. Five years of being utterly frozen was starting to wear on him. “She has some very closed-minded views of sexuality.”

Derek nodded. “Yeah, I heard some of her story. Jill talks about their hometown sometimes. Apparently their mom was pretty uptight after their dad left.”

Her mother had died a while back. Keith had known a little of the family history, but not enough. “Yeah, if I had known how bad it was, I never would have put Jill on a bus back there.”

Derek’s eyes went a little wide. “That was you?”

“Nice. Gossip. Football can wait.” Taggart was sitting in his recliner, which apparently had a 360 degree rotation. “Besides, I’m waiting for Knight to finish making himself pretty or some shit.”

“He’s taking a shower,” Adam said, rolling his eyes. His hand started inching toward the remote.

“So you were the one who took over Jill’s contract when Ryan decided to lose his fucking mind?” Taggart asked.

“Shouldn’t gossip be beneath you?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to go into his life story with Taggart.

Taggart shook his head. “Fuck no. I used to be Agency. You know what being a CIA operative means? It means you better listen to gossip because that’s where all the intel is. I once took down an entire terrorist organization by just putting the rumor out there that dude number one was messing around with his lieutenant’s daughter. Yeah, that got bloody. It was beautiful.”

“Seriously, if you don’t start talking, he’ll bring out the slide show,” Adam said. He shuddered a little. “Someone really should check him for the sign of the beast. I’m sure it’s somewhere on his body.”

Keith frowned, but decided if there had ever been a man who had slide shows from his days as a CIA assassin, it would be Ian Taggart. “Ryan had his reasons. He’d just lost everything. He loved Jill, but they weren’t exactly great communicators.”

And he’d learned from them. His contract with Ashley was very specific. Everything had been laid out, including the fact that he very likely wouldn’t see her outside the club.

He wouldn’t have dinner with her or meet up with her for lunch. He wouldn’t invite her over to his condo or spend the night at her place. He wouldn’t see how she looked in the morning after he’d spent the entire night inside her.

“So they were twenty-four seven?” Derek asked.

Oh, that was asked with the curiosity of a man who had thought about it. “Yes, they were. You’ll note they aren’t now.” This he felt perfectly comfortable talking about. “Twenty-four seven is hard on both partners.”

“You thinking about it, Brighton?” Taggart asked. “Really?”

The lieutenant shrugged. “I’ve done the whole modern relationship thing. You know what it got it me? Divorced, but not before she cheated on me with my brother. Yeah, I know it was a true shining moment for me. My ex was the perfect modern woman. She didn’t need me for much of anything. Wait. She had me fix a couple of parking tickets for her. Can you blame me for wanting to try something different?”

“I can blame you for being a dumbass. Ask Karina out,” Taggart said.

“You should do it, Derek,” Adam added, inching closer to the remote. “Karina’s a great girl. And Liam says she cheats at cards, but that’s because she’s way better than him. He has that tell…”

Taggart held up a hand. “Don’t ever tell him. I need the money I make off Liam to pay for Charlie’s obsession with QVC.”

Derek pushed his leathers off his hips. No one gave a crap about nudity in the dungeon, much less the locker room. “Karina and I have a history.”

“Good, more gossip.” Taggart suddenly turned his head and smacked at the hand trying to grab the remote. “Down, Adam!”

Adam pulled his hand back quickly. “Asshole still has great peripheral vision. We need a second TV.”

Taggart growled a little Adam’s way. “Ain’t happening. Derek, how did Karina take your balls off?”

Keith laughed as the lieutenant turned the brightest shade of red. He’d walked into the locker room planning how quickly he could get out, and now he was wondering how the sweet sub had taken the cop’s balls, too. Because he’d seen the way Derek watched Karina—like she was a dangerous animal he really wanted to take a bite of.

“She didn’t appreciate the way I handled a case,” Brighton explained. “I didn’t appreciate the way she stuck her nose in my business. She took it up with some friends of hers and sicced IA on me.”

Taggart’s eyes went wide. “Fuck me. Karina had to be really pissed.”

“Like I said, we disagreed on how to proceed,” Derek explained with a casual shrug.

“And you stopped playing with her.” Somehow Taggart managed to make it an accusation rather than a statement of fact.

Derek shook his head and that purely square jaw of his tightened stubbornly again. “I want a sub, not someone who likes to play at it in a club.”

Keith wasn’t so sure that was the whole story. “Well, she’s my favorite sub right now. She saved my bacon out there.”

Taggart looked oddly thoughtful as he spoke to Derek. “I think you’re allowing your history to cloud your vision when it comes to Karina. She’s definitely a sub, and she needs a firm hand. I think I’m going to let her work with Simon on a couple of cases and see how that goes. He looked like he could handle her.”

Derek’s lips formed a thin line, but he simply nodded. “Good luck with that, man.”

He turned and stalked off to the showers.

Taggart frowned. “See, sports are easier. Knight, get your ass in here. I’ll show you what real football is.”

An enormous man walked around the corner wearing nothing but a towel over his muscled hips. He had a second towel he ran over his dark, wet hair. There was no way to miss the mangled mess his chest was. He had an angry red bullet wound over his pectoral muscle and what looked like surgical scars all around it. He’d had some work done and recently. “Real football is played without pads and protective gear.”

The big Irish Dom walked behind the Brit. Liam, if Keith remembered correctly. Unlike the Brit, he had put on a pair of jeans. He ran a towel over his wet hair and slapped his friend on the shoulder. “Don’t even try to explain. They don’t understand. Americans are delicate, mate.”

And they were also late. If he didn’t get a move on, his submissive would wonder where her damn Dom had gotten off to. Unfortunately, the minute he walked away from the guy talk, his worries slammed right back into his brain.

Ashley Paxon was damn near a virgin. He didn’t care that she’d had lovers before him. They hadn’t given her pleasure.

She was a kid starting her life and he felt like an old man.

Who the fuck was he kidding? His problem with Ashley wasn’t her age. He’d dated women younger than her. He tended to prefer more mature women, but Ashley wasn’t some party girl. She had responsibilities, and that was what he really had a problem with.

What the hell was he doing getting involved with a woman who had a kid?

He strode to the showers after tossing his leathers in his locker.

He’d forgotten for a moment. He’d been so fucking into her that he hadn’t been thinking about it. Then he’d seen that thin little scar right above the neat patch of her pubic hair. The same scar Lena had after she’d given birth to John Michael.

Not going there. He turned the water to practically scalding and let it beat down on him.

Being near Ashley had reminded him of everything he’d been missing in his life. Did he have to give her up? He was a smart man. He’d made billions for himself and his clients and he’d done it by knowing exactly how to walk the line, when to get in on a deal, and when to get out. He had flawless instincts.

He could handle this. Ashley wasn’t asking for anything more than a hand to hold while she explored the lifestyle. She wasn’t even asking to see him outside of the club. She hadn’t been upset when he’d walked out. He’d been able to hear giggling.

She didn’t see him as anything but a Dom and that was a good thing. A Dom was all he was ever going to be to her. It was all he had to give.

He heard something crack. It sounded like someone had slipped and maybe cracked a skull against the tile.

He stepped out, grabbing a towel. “Hey, is anyone in here?”

Derek stepped out of his stall, blood on his fist. “It’s nothing. I just fell. I’m good.”

He walked out toward the sinks. Keith glanced inside the shower he’d been using. Yeah, lots of guys “fell” forward and caught themselves so hard on their fist that they cracked the tile.

At least he wasn’t pounding inanimate objects like Brighton yet.

He caught sight of himself in the mirror. He was fit. He wasn’t going to make someone faint with his horrible looks. He did have something to offer her and when they were done, he would walk away.

Like he always did.

Chapter Five

“You’re seeing Keith? Ryan’s friend Keith?” Jillian’s eyes went wide.

Ashley giggled just the tiniest bit. It was hard to shock her sister. Emily managed to squish a banana in her little paws. That’s what happened when her momma didn’t shovel the food in fast enough. She scooped a good amount of oatmeal and offered it up. Emily liked to feed herself but she was still very hit or miss with a spoon. “Yes, that Keith.”

“That Keith” was rapidly becoming important to her. It was funny what a couple of honest to goodness orgasms could do for a girl. She’d had five sessions with Master Keith, and she could hardly wait for tonight.

But she thought she should probably warn her sister that she wouldn’t be working behind the bar this evening.

Jillian shook her head. She was tan and looked rested and happy after her Hawaiian honeymoon. A couple of weeks of doing nothing more than lying on the beach with her hubby had done wonders for her sister, but she wasn’t taking the news well. “And you’re…how do I put this?”

She knew exactly where that was going. It was why she’d waited until the morning to tell her. She and Ryan had gotten in the night before, but Ashley thought everyone should be wide awake for this conversation. “No. Well. Sort of.”

She’d needed to prepare for it. She hadn’t realized how hard it would be to tell her big sis she’d taken a Dom.

Jill grabbed a mug of coffee and sat down. “What does ‘sort of’ mean? Because we’re going to have to tell Ryan, and he might get upset about his friend screwing his sister-in-law.”

“Excuse me?” Ryan Church stood in the doorway dressed in a perfectly pressed suit. His face was blank but there was a darkness to his eyes that let her know he’d heard enough.

Jeez, her brother-in-law was really good with the intimidation thing. It was on the tip of her tongue to apologize, but she had nothing to be sorry for. “I’m sort of, kind of seeing Keith.”

Now his mouth turned down in a stern frown. “What the hell does that mean, Ashley? You’re seeing Keith? I’m glad to hear it because it obviously means that your eyes are functioning properly and he’s still alive. Which he might not be if you mean anything else by that statement.”

Luckily, she’d figured out that Ryan was a teddy bear underneath all that big bad Dom. She sat up a little straighter, deciding to take control. The sessions she’d had with Keith had taught her more than the fact that she could come. “Yes, I’m just pointing out that I don’t need glasses. Although I think I might because I keep seeing this black SUV that seems to be following me. Paranoid much?” She nodded to her daughter who was giving her one of those grins that made her heart constrict. “Mommy’s paranoid. Yes. It’s just like they talk about in class. Next she’ll start hearing voices. Yes, she will.”

“Ashley?” Ryan didn’t seem to be distractible.

“Honey, he won’t go away because you disappear into baby babble,” Jill said. “And I’m a little worried about it, too. Keith is into the lifestyle.”

“That’s not the problem. Ashley’s obviously subby,” Ryan said. “But Keith is not the Dom I would have chosen for her.”

“Did everyone know that? The sub part? Because it would have been nice if someone had told me. I might have figured out the sex stuff way before now.” She felt a smile cross her face because so far the sex stuff was really good.

Not that they’d had real sex. It was real. It just didn’t involve his cock going into her, but she wanted to fix that pretty damn fast.

Ryan turned a little green. “Sex stuff?”

“We’re not all as technical as you and Ian,” she shot back.

“When I left, you were hiding from that man. Now you’re calling him Ian?” Jill asked, her mouth hanging slightly open.

She’d gotten far more comfortable with the big boss since Keith had started sitting with the men for an hour or so every night. She’d taken to sitting with her head in his lap and sort of halfway listening. Ian Taggart liked to cuss a lot, but underneath it all was a man who really gave a damn about the people around him. In the guise of being a complete dick, he’d managed to convince Jesse Murdoch to ask out some chick at their office, hounded Simon Weston into calling his cousins, who were apparently more like brothers to him, and gotten the raging ball of murder to go see a doctor about his health issues. No one else seemed to see that he was actually the most nosy, pushy busybody in the whole place. He was currently talking to Keith about expanding his business to New York.