by Sophie Oak
best that you take that up with Mr. Talbot.”
“Just tell me. I can handle it.” It was a lie, but one that came easily to her. She’d spent a good portion of her life handling things she
shouldn’t have.
“Uhm, I believe Mr. Talbot hired a private investigator to find
you. Once he tracked you to Dallas, he contacted my partner, and
Julian kept track of you. Julian has some very interesting contacts.
When he was told you had been arrested, he immediately called Mr.
Talbot and got in contact with the district attorney. Your arraignment has been scheduled. Mr. Lodge will pay your bail, and you’ll be
released to his custody.”
“Doesn’t a judge have to decide that?”
A smirk crossed the lawyer’s face. “Mr. Lodge can be persuasive
when he wants to be. Trust me, I’ll have you out of here in a few
hours. I’ll take the lead on your case, but I’ll consult with the best criminal defense attorneys. I already have a private firm researching
Renard. If he’s behind this, we’ll string his ass up. I promise, it’s
going to be okay.”
“Why would he lie?”
“My guess? He knows more than he’s telling us. That painting is
very expensive. Maybe he’s selling it on the black market.”
Jen shook her head. “Why that one? We had a Dutch master in the
studio last month. It was worth millions. Before that he worked on
restoring a Renaissance painting that’s considered priceless. It doesn’t make any sense. He can’t get more than a half a million for that one
on the black market, if he can sell it at all.”
“A half a million is more than enough to tempt a lot of people. It’s
a lot of motive.”
One to Keep
15
“He’s independently wealthy.” At least, as far as Jen knew, he
was. His house was in the best part of Dallas. He drove a Jag.
“I’ll have someone look into his finances.” He glanced down at
his watch. “It shouldn’t be long now. When we get the judge to
release you, I’ll personally take you to your place so you can pick up some things.”
“Why do I need to pick up my things?”
The door to the office opened, and Jen looked up in shock.
“Don’t worry about your things. You won’t be going back to your
apartment, Jennifer.” Stefan Talbot stood in the doorway. He was lean
and tall. His suit was immaculate, but his black hair fell over his eyes.
The slight messiness did nothing to distract from his overwhelming
presence.
Jen got to her very shaky feet. The need to throw herself in his
arms was almost overwhelming. He was solid and seemed like the
safest thing she’d seen in forever. It was an illusion. Stef Talbot was dangerous. He’d already broken her heart once. Damn if she was
going to give him a second shot at it. Before she could manage to
speak, he was walking into the room, making a straight line toward
her.
“Everything’s been arranged, Finn. The paperwork is done. Julian
can work miracles when he wants to. I can’t tell you how much I
appreciate this. We’ll be in close contact as this matter moves
forward. I’ve left notes with your secretary on how I want to proceed.
The first thing I want is every bit of information you can dig up on
that fucker Renard.”
“Excellent.” Finn Taylor was the only one in the room who
looked satisfied. He stood and collected his things. “I already have a team working on Renard. We’ll know something soon, Sir.”
That Sir grated on Jen’s nerves. So did the deferential way Finn Taylor nodded at Stef. It was more than the polite acknowledgement
of a lawyer to his client. Finn wasn’t being polite to his client. He was honoring a Dom.
16
Sophie Oak
“Your work is impeccable, Finn. You honor your Master. Tell
Julian I’ll be in touch with him.” He turned back to Jen. “Let’s move, Jennifer. I have a plane ready. We need to be at Love Field in an hour.
I have a guard waiting to process you out.”
Jen’s head whirled. “Plane?”
“Yes, plane. We’re going back to Bliss.”
“Bullshit.”
Cool, gray eyes slitted, and she could practically feel the will
rolling off him. Stef was tense, and Jen knew it was a bad idea to push him, but she couldn’t help it.
“I’m serious, Stef. I’m not going anywhere with you.” She heard
the will in her voice. She couldn’t go back to Bliss. Panic threatened to swamp her. He was here. He was right here in front of her, and her
heart didn’t give a damn that he was a bastard. For the first time in
months, she felt desire for something besides her art. She couldn’t,
wouldn’t, go down that path again.
He got into her space, a move he’d perfected seemingly long
before he met her. Jen held her ground. Even though he didn’t touch
her physically, he seemed to surround her. Suddenly her whole world
was Stef, his gray eyes, the heat of his body, his masculine, clean
scent. He filled her every sense.
“I’m not going home with you.” She forced herself to say the
words.
His lips hitched up. “At least you admit Bliss is your home.”
That wasn’t what she’d meant. Bliss, Colorado, had felt like home
when she’d been there, but she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that
Bliss wasn’t big enough for the two of them. “It’s your home. Hell,
Stef, it’s your little kingdom, and you like to play the king, don’t
you?”
“Yes, because everyone does what I say.” Stef’s low growl made
her breath speed up. “Everyone in Bliss just bows down to me. Have
you really been gone for so long that you forget Max regularly kicks
One to Keep
17
my ass? And Nell and Henry are currently protesting my gardening
practices.”
He was too close for comfort. She gave in and took a step back.
She could see plainly that he was satisfied with her discomfort.
“Don’t try to play the poor little rich boy with me, Stef. You’re a
puppet master. You like to pull the strings and see how people dance.
Well, I’m not in your kingdom anymore, and there’s no way you can
get me there again. So you can take your money and go back to
Colorado.”
It was stupid. Even as she said the words, she wanted to take them
back. She had spent the last twenty-four hours terrified in a jail cell.
She would have to be the stupidest woman in the world to turn him
down, but she’d never thought around Stef. Since the moment she’d
met him, she’d been a quivering mass of emotion and desire every
time he entered a room.
“Stubborn thing. I’ll make it easy on you.” His hands caught hers,
and before she could think she felt cold metal surrounding her wrists.
He flicked the cuffs on with the cool precision of a man who often
cuffed the women in his life.
“What are you doing?” Jen stared at her hands. At least this time
they were in front of her. She preferred it that way. Damn, her life had taken a wrong turn when she could compare and contrast her
experiences with men who handcuffed her.
“Taking you home, Jennifer. Whether you like it or not.”
He leaned down and picked her up. She was in his arms, nestled
close to his chest. She looked up at the square, inflexible line of his jaw. His arms tightened around her, and she was caged more closely
than she’d been in the holding cell. She had the suspicion that this
time Stef would be harder to escape from than before. He kicked open
the door and started down the hall.
Yep, like it or not, she was going back to Bliss.
18
Sophie Oak
Chapter Two
Stefan Talbot kicked open the door to the interrogation room and
strode down the hall. Jen’s slender body finally relaxed in his arms as she obviously figured out he wasn’t letting her go. He stared straight ahead, unwilling to look down at her. If he looked at her he might
falter, and he couldn’t risk it. Six months, and all he’d had was a
bunch of photos taken by a private investigator. He’d stared at them every day. It made him feel like a complete pervert every time he
looked at them. Luckily, he was comfortable with his perversity since
he couldn’t seem to help himself.
Trouble. She’d always been trouble. When he’d met her two years
before, his first thought was to run for the hills. No. That hadn’t been his first thought at all. His first thought had been to snap a collar on her and chain her to his side. He’d decided to run for the hills when
he’d come to his senses.
“Why are you doing this?” Her voice was quiet, almost as though
she was asking herself the question, or didn’t really want to know the answer.
He stopped right there in the middle of the bustling hall and
finally looked down at her face. Golden brown hair and large green
eyes stared up at him. Her skin was like porcelain, but there was a
smattering of freckles that crossed her nose and made him want to run
his lips across her face to kiss each and every one. Why? Why did it
have to be this woman?
“Because you need me.” He kept his answer short. If he didn’t, he
would end up a blathering idiot.
One to Keep
19
There was a sheen of tears in her eyes that told Stef he’d fucked
up. He always managed to with her. He was a Dom of the first order,
known for taking care of his subs, but he fumbled the minute she
batted those eyes at him. There was nothing to do about it now. He
simply continued down the hall. He would fix her when they got back
to Bliss.
Now that he thought about it, he should have expected this
greeting. The entire plane trip here, he’d had all sorts of fantasies
about being her hero. In his fantasies, she’d cried prettily and thrown herself into his arms. He’d gotten her out of this current scrape and
then protected her. He’d set her up in a nice studio in Bliss, and she’d be waiting for him when she was old enough to know what she
wanted.
Twenty-three. She was fucking twenty-three years old. He was a thirty-two-year-old man in love with a girl barely out of college. She had no idea who she was, and she’d proven it by running away. She
was just a kid, and he’d done all sorts of nasty, dirty, glorious things to her.
Maybe he wasn’t so comfortable with his perversity.
He turned down the main hall. Nate Wright, his old friend and the
current sheriff of Bliss, Colorado, stood talking to the district attorney and the chief of police. Lucky for him both men belonged to a very
private BDSM club and both wanted to be in the debt of very wealthy
men. They had streamlined the process of getting Jennifer out on
bond, going so far as to wake a judge to do the paperwork. It wasn’t
exactly procedure, but otherwise, Jen would still have hours in a cell, and he couldn’t even consider that.
“Damn, I hope I can keep the press off this.” The chief shook his
head as he signed the paperwork releasing Jennifer Waters to the
custody of Stef and Sheriff Wright.
The DA seemed much more comfortable. “The girl’s never been
in trouble before. It’s unusual, but we’re releasing her to law
enforcement. Besides, I don’t know if I buy Renard’s story. He’s a
20
Sophie Oak
shady fellow. If she stole the painting, then where is it? We’ve
searched her place.”
Jen’s head came up. “You did?”
Nate never looked up from the paperwork he was now signing.
“They didn’t find anything beyond your own work, and this afternoon
the whole thing is being packed up and moved to Bliss. Stef packed
your work himself this morning while we were waiting on the judge.”
“I’ll make sure all of your work gets back home,” Stef said. He
hadn’t been able to get her latest work out, but it appeared she had
just finished it, possibly the night before her arrest. The oil was still wet. Renard, the fucker, had refused to release it, and no amount of
intimidation had worked on him. At least the work in her apartment
was properly packed and readied for transit.
Her lips turned down, and she held her hands up for all to see.
“And do you intend to keep me cuffed during my stay?”
He’d love to. He’d love to bind her arms and legs and keep her
tied to his bed. He’d let her out to paint. It was important, and she was far too talented to ignore, but other than that, she would be constantly spread for his pleasure. He shifted uncomfortably. His cock was hard
as a rock.
Nate’s eyes went straight to the handcuffs around Jen’s wrists.
“Was that really necessary, Stef?”
“She was being uncooperative.”
“And he was being an asshole,” Jen shot back.
At least she was getting her spirit back. It made Stef very happy
that she was starting to fight again. He’d watched her in the interview room while she spoke to Finn Taylor, and everything about her had
seemed dimmer than normal. Her eyes had been dull and downcast,
her shoulders slumped. Now there was fire in them again, and it gave
him hope.
“No surprise there. He’s been a complete asshole for six months
now,” Nate complained. He settled his hat on his head and looked
every inch the small-town sheriff he was. “He’s giving Max a run for
One to Keep
21
his money. I swear if I catch the two of them pounding on each other
again, I’m going to put them both in lockup.”
Stef set her on her feet and hoped he didn’t have to chase her
down. She immediately walked to Nate, holding out her cuffed hands
in greeting.
“It’s good to see you, Sheriff. How are Callie and Zane?” Jen’s
face shone as she looked up at the sheriff.
She hadn’t smiled once at him.
“They’re fine. Zane opened a bar, and now he’s got Callie
hopping. I had to hire a new admin because Callie’s having so much
fun learning to bartend,” Nate explained. His face went a little bit
hard. “She’s looking forward to seeing you again, Jen. She missed
you.”
Jen flushed. Her skin was so pale he never had trouble reading
her.
“I missed her, too.”
“A letter would have been nice. It would have let her know you
were alive.” Nate turned his stony face to Stef. “We should get going
if we’re going to make the plane.”<
Jen’s smile fell, and Stef kind of wanted to put a fist through his
friend’s face. He knew how Nate felt about Jennifer. Nate had made it
entirely plain to him during the plane trip to Dallas. He was angry
because his wife, Callie, had been very hurt by Jen’s sudden
disappearance. Callie’s other husband, Zane, was a bit more
forgiving. Zane understood the need to run. If Zane would have been
a lick of help, Stef would have brought him instead of Nate.
Unfortunately, Nate was the sheriff of Bliss, and there was just no
substitute.
“Come on.” Stef tried to soften the gruff command by placing a
hand on her back.
She stepped away. “You’re sure I can’t just stay here? My trial is
going to be here. That lawyer person said I could stay with him.”
22
Sophie Oak
Stef’s heart plunged. She would rather stay with a complete
stranger than come home. Maybe he should let her. Julian Lodge
would make sure she was safe. Perhaps he should simply bow out. He
never meant to come after her anyway. He should step back and allow
her to live her own life.
“You’re coming with me or you can go back to jail.” So much for
stepping back. He just couldn’t. And Julian lived in one of the most
notorious BDSM clubs in the world. No way was he going to allow
Jennifer to live there. She’d be collared in a heartbeat. She’d belong to someone else. He couldn’t handle the thought.
“See? Puppet master Stef is in the house. Fine. I’ll go back
because Bliss is way better than the Dallas County Jail, but don’t
think I’ll trade favors for my freedom.” She turned and walked out the door, her back regally straight as though she were a queen leaving her castle.
“I wouldn’t dream of it, love.” Stef followed her quickly. He shed
his own jacket because the little queen was going to be awfully cold.
He caught up with her and settled the jacket around her shoulders. He
thought briefly about uncuffing her, but decided he didn’t want to get slapped. He led her to the drive. “Wear it.”
She smiled up at him, but there was no warmth in it. “Of course. I
wouldn’t dream of refusing Master Stefan. Besides, I like the fact that you’re cold.”