Copyright © Lainey Reese, 2014
All rights reserved.
Dedication
This short is dedicated to Denise, Nancy and Taryn. The three of you helped me complete this in a mad rush that I never could have accomplished without your input and support. I love you hard ladies...I really do.
Chapter One
"I need your help." Caleb looked up from the file he was studying on his desk and stared at the woman who stood trembling in front of him. She was five four or so, with a pleasing full figure that she had clothed in a white cotton sundress.
She was also stunningly beautiful. One of those women with a mixed heritage that resulted in skin the color of coffee with lots and lots of cream. She had full red lips, a small pert nose, and breathtaking green eyes so light and vibrant in color that it was almost impossible to look away once he noticed them. Her hair was a riot of curls that looked as soft as down, and his hands itched to sink deep into that mass and grab hold.
It took him a full thirty seconds to wrench his mind away from her looks and focus on what she had just said. "I'll help if I can." Caleb stood from his seat and reached out to shake her hand as he motioned for her to take one of the chairs facing him.
"Thank you," she said, while her hand trembled within his grasp and she sat down with a grateful sigh. "I'm sorry to barge in without calling and making an appointment, but I just came from the police station for the third time and they are just unwilling to do anything about this."
"Why don't you start by telling me your story from the beginning." The poor thing was obviously rattled, and Caleb tried to keep his voice as soothing as possible. "I'm Caleb, by the way."
"Oh," she laughed nervously, "sorry. I'm Nadia. Okay, the beginning, that's always a good place to start. I'm an author. I write very steamy romance novels, primarily for women." She paused for a moment, as though waiting for him to comment on that, but all he did was motion for her to keep going.
"Well, as a writer, I tend to be under the radar. There's comfort in that. Even though my books are fairly successful, I can come and go as I please and nobody ever recognizes me. It's the same for most authors. You have to be someone huge like Stephen King or JK Rowling for the general public to be able to recognize you on sight. But for most of us, especially at my level, we never have to worry about being called out in a crowd.
"I do have fans, though." She continued. "I get fan mail every day through email and social media. It's always been nice. It blows my mind that people will take time out of their lives to write to me and tell me that they like my work, or that my story has touched them in some way." She smiled self-consciously. "You know, I never sent a fan letter before. I love reading and I have authors that I adore, but it just never dawned on me to write to them. Well, I did right after I started getting letters myself. It felt so incredible, so heartwarming to be on the receiving end of a fan letter. I took the time and wrote all my favorite authors to let them know how much I appreciated and enjoyed their work, and what it's meant to me over the years."
She stopped for a moment, and a flush darkened her cheeks. "Oops, sorry. None of that has anything to do with why I'm here. God, I'm just so rattled."
Caleb smiled to encourage her. He didn't mind her rattling. The story she wove gave him an idea of the type of person she was; a sweet and thoughtful one. "Just keep going. You'll get there."
"So, about six months ago I got a really disturbing email. It was graphic and detailed." Her cheeks didn't just flush now, they burst into flames. "See, when I said I write very steamy novels, I wasn't kidding. They are explicit and descriptive. Very erotic and primarily in the BDSM genre. Are you familiar with the term BDSM?" Caleb almost swallowed his own tongue. He and his partner Jonas were active members of two local BDSM clubs in the area, and had both achieved Master status years ago. Not wanting to stop her momentum and get into detail however, he just nodded his assent so she would continue.
"But, it's in the context of the story. It's my books. Not my life. I don't write from experience. These are just my fantasies and imagination. So, when this letter came and it was all about how this guy snuck into my house in the middle of the night and ravished me, it freaked me out. It was all wrong. It wasn't like my books at all, it was about torture and terror. BDSM is edgy, sure, but this was miles away from that."
Caleb knew that later he would obsess about the 'my fantasies' part, and read her books for himself to see just what those fantasies entailed, but for now he was more concerned with the way all that lovely color had just drained from her face. It was now pale and ashen, as she finally touched on the fear that had driven her to come here.
"It wasn't even well written." She smiled- an attempt to shake some of that fear, he could tell- but she wasn't fooling him or herself. "I mean come on, if you are going to write a descriptive love scene to an erotic author, you better know your stuff, right?"
"Right." He gave her a token chuckle, in an effort to ease some of her tension. He could actually see her body tightening up as she braced to tell him the rest.
"The letter was disgusting. He was talking about cutting me and using my blood as lubricant, and that was the mildest thing he wrote." She dug into the floppy, oversized bag she'd brought with her and pulled out a file. When she handed it over and he opened it, the images he first saw tore a curse from him.
"The letters kept coming. And he started sending pictures, too, as you can see." Her eyes filled when she added, "It got really scary when he started sending pictures of me." She reached forward and shuffled through the mass of them and started pulling out photos of herself in different settings. Some were obvious book signings at public venues and others, more chilling, were taken while she was out on various errands. Walking a dog, grocery shopping, working out at the gym.
"Fuck." He muttered under his breath.
Her hand actually trembled when she pulled out the one of her naked in what looked like the gym's locker room shower. "How long ago was this one?" He was pissed. The malice behind the letters and the photos was clear as day.
"I'm not sure. That could have been taken any time up to about a month ago. I stopped going after I got it."
"Who could blame you?"
"It was pretty bad by that point. Then it got worse. He got my phone number. The texts and calls are awful. I changed my number and he got the new one too. And blocking him doesn't work, because he calls from those burner disposable cell phones, and it's a different number every time." Tears filled her eyes, and fear and frustration shone clear in their jewel-bright depths. "Then last night I came home from visiting my parents and he'd been in my house."
Caleb felt every muscle in his body tense. Security was his profession. He'd dealt with people in various forms of distress and danger since he'd entered this field at the tender age of eighteen, more than seventeen years ago now. Yet hearing that from the woman across from him triggered something he never let himself feel before. It just got personal. Why and how she'd gotten under his skin after only minutes didn't matter to him. All he knew was, without a shred of doubt, she had gotten to him on a level that was beyond the job, and her safety had just become his primary concern.
"I walked in and my alarm had been deactivated somehow. My house was in disarray. Not ransacked really, but it was like he just went around and touched everything. I hadn't dusted yet this week, and I could see that all my knickknacks and pictures had been moved. All of them. The couch was a mess, with the cushions scattered, and the throw blanket was crumpled in the middle of it instead of folded on the back. He'd even used my toothbrush. " Her face clearly showed her revulsion, then she shuddered and whispered "And he ejaculated on my pillow."
Chapter Two
Nadia was trying not to cry. Months of frustration and fear were wrecking her nerves, and tearing down her composure like a demolition crew on a condemned building, and the tears fell despite her efforts. When the detective cursed again and pushed up from his chair, she tracked his movements as h
e stalked to a door on the side wall that she hadn't even noticed when she'd come in. He wrenched it open with surprising force. "Jonas!" he bellowed. "Get in here." Then he stalked back and sat down. Not in his chair behind his desk, but in the one next to her; he rested a hand on her knee. "Wait for my partner, to tell the rest. I want him to hear this, and I don't want you to have to go over it more times than necessary." She nodded, absurdly reassured. Not just by his thoughtfulness, or by the fact that he was concerned enough to bring in his partner, but mostly by that large warm palm on her knee.
In that touch was comfort and strength. She was feeling so vulnerable right now that the gesture, small as it was, soothed like a ray of sun breaking through the clouds after days of rain.
"Hey, what's up?" The man that walked in was as rugged and handsome as the one sitting next to her, and Nadia had to take a moment to let her mind adjust to what her eyes were telling her she was seeing.
It had been hard enough to believe what was right in front of her face when she walked in and saw Caleb, now with the addition of his partner, she was taken aback again.
They were two of the handsomest men she'd ever seen in person. Maybe even beyond that; she'd be willing to bet that Hollywood didn't even have this kind of male beauty on tap. Both were tall, at least six feet, they both had brown hair, only Caleb's was darker, almost black, while Jonas' was more of a sandy color and had a slight curl to it. They had impressive builds, showcased nicely in their choice of attire. Caleb was dressed in what she always considered business casual. He had on black dress slacks and a crisp, white button-down shirt that outlined impressive shoulders and pecs.
His partner was dressed in jeans that had been worn to soft perfection, and displayed his lower half in mouthwatering glory. He wore a navy blue, high quality T-shirt with them that hugged his torso tight enough to make her pulse kick, but not tight in a bodybuilder gym rat kind of way.
And that was just their bodies; both of them had rugged good looks that made their physiques just icing on the cake. Nadia was distracted enough to let her mind wander, as it usually did under normal circumstances, to how she would describe them if they were characters in one of her books. Words like chiseled and devastatingly gorgeous came to mind. But the bleak reality that had brought her to these men would not be overshadowed for long, and her playful musings faded away like smoke on the wind.
Jonas set one hip on the corner of Caleb's desk while he listened to the other man catch him up on the conversation thus far. His brow furrowed with concern and concentration as he picked up the file and began to leaf through it. Nadia saw the same resolve in his expression that she had seen in Caleb's, and she recognized that even though they looked handsome enough to be models, they also looked competent and capable.
"I'm glad you came to us." Jonas looked up from the papers in his hands, and his gaze was piercing and unwavering. "We're going to be able to offer you protection that the police just don't have the time or the manpower to provide. We're also going to find this sick son of a bitch to make sure he gets put behind bars where he belongs. That's a promise."
"Thank you." Nadia's voice was hardly recognizable to her own ears, she was so choked up with fear. "I can't tell you how much better I feel just hearing that. All the police could say was that they would order drive-bys and that if they caught him, thanks to my pillowcase, they would have DNA to convict." Nadia felt her lips curl in derision. "On breaking and entering and stalking. With no prior convictions he would get a maximum of five years. They were kind enough to point out that, with a good lawyer, he'd most likely get off with probation, though, if there were indeed no priors."
"We are going to make sure you are safe." Caleb told her in his deep soothing voice. "And believe me when I tell you, when we catch this guy, we'll build a case against him strong enough that there won't be a lawyer on the planet good enough to get him out of jail time."
She did believe him. Confidence and trustworthiness clung to him like expensive cologne, and Nadia felt more and more relieved with each passing second.
"That's so great to hear." She beamed at him and then at Jonas. "So great. So how does this work? I need someone on me day and night. Will you guys tag team me, or do you have other partners who will take their turns with me?" It took a full thirty seconds for Nadia to realize what she'd said, and how it must have sounded. As her face went up in flames she gave the men full marks for professionalism, for though she could see from their expressions they clearly caught her blunder, neither of them commented on it.
Caleb was the first to respond. He cleared his throat and sent a pointed look at his partner as that man started to cough into his fist. Obviously choking on pent up laughter, Nadia thought, and smiled a little as she herself fought against a fit of inappropriate and embarrassed giggles. "As it happens, your timing is perfect. Jonas and I only take on security details like yours one at a time, and we just finished a tour with an ambassador through Guam and the Philippines. We've only been back for a couple days."
"As far as the other work on our plate, it's nothing we can't pass off to one of our junior partners." Jonas, having regained his composure, leaned forward as he assured her. "You have just become not only our number one priority, but our only priority."
"That's how our security works, Nadia." Caleb rejoined. "That's why we're so good at what we do. When we take you on, you get one hundred percent of our focus and one hundred percent of our expertise. No one is going to get past us to get to you. No one."
Chapter Three
Jonas was just unpacking the last of his shirts and putting them in the top drawer of Nadia's guest room dresser, when Caleb appeared and rested a shoulder against the door jamb as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Why am I not surprised that you still haven't unpacked?" When Jonas' only response was to flip him the bird, Caleb chuckled. "Nice digs this time around, though." He said.
"Yeah, hell of a lot better than the crap hotels they put us in Guam, that's for sure."
Nadia's home wasn't as opulent as some of the places they'd seen during their joint tour in the Secret Service, , but it was what he'd expect from a successful author of her rank. The beds were large and comfortable, and they both even had their own guest bath. Not too shabby at all.
"So, we gonna talk about this finally, or keep pretending like we're not hard as rocks every time she's in the same room with us?" Jonas had been Caleb's partner since they first enlisted, barely out of high school. They'd come up through the ranks together surprisingly fast, and they both knew that it was their team work that got them there.
They were confident enough in themselves and in each other to admit where they were weak, and call on the strength in the other when needed. Side by side, they had overcome each other's shortcomings, and bolstered each other's strongest attributes, so that they'd shot through to the top like rockets. Jonas knew Caleb's thoughts and feelings as sure as he knew Caleb was in tune with his. "If I believed in that shit, I'd say fate brought her to us."
"I hear that." Caleb agreed with a nod. "Huge fucking coincidence that an author of BDSM erotica would come to two established Doms for help and protection."
"She really said she only writes from fantasy, not experience?" Jonas shook his head at that.
"Yep." Caleb was doing some head shaking of his own.
"Christ, I've never seen a more beautifully natural submissive woman in my life. How in the hell has she not been collared already?" Jonas wondered, referring to what happens when a Dominant and a submissive enter into a committed relationship.
"Beats the crap outta me," Caleb said, clearly baffled. "After less than two minutes in the same room with her, my hands were itching to get her under me."
"It took you that long?" Jonas asked. "It took less than thirty seconds before I was fighting to keep my composure."
"Well," Caleb said as he stood up and began to pace the room. A habit he had whenever he was marking out a plan or strategy. "We've got to nail this asshole quick. The so
oner we get him in a cage, the sooner we can claim the little subbie." Jonas wasn't surprised that Caleb would put the job first, and not even think about acting on what they were feeling for their client until she wasn't a client any longer. He was a stand-up guy in that regard. Straight and narrow, and honest as the day is long; that was his partner and his best friend.
Jonas, not so much. He wasn't one for sweating the small stuff, and cutting corners when needed, as long as the ends justified the means. He also had no intention of resisting the sweet temptation of their lovely hostess for longer than necessary. They'd been working side by side for almost two decades, and had never come across a situation where they were even interested in a client. To his way of thinking, once every twenty years was a rare enough occurrence to justify acting on it.
"And if it doesn't happen soon enough?" Jonas asked.
"Get your head out of your ass, Jo." Caleb responded. "She's scared and vulnerable right now. Only a prick would hit on a woman who'd turned to him for protection."
"Why don't you get the stick out of yours?" Jonas shot back. "This isn't just any woman. She's a sub. Whether she's had any actual experience at it or not. You and I both know that, for a sub, the rules are different. Subs like her, with the tendencies and instincts that deeply ingrained feel safest in the confines of a D/s scene." He grabbed a book from the bedside table and tossed it to Caleb. "Fuck, read for yourself. You read even just the first chapter, and then tell me that little lady wouldn't get her first peaceful night's sleep after a scene with us."
"You read one of her books already? We've only been here two days." Caleb looked from the book in his hand to Jonas with his brow quirked.
"It's pretty fucking hot. I wanted to see for myself what her fantasies were. I thought I'd browse through a couple chapters to get an idea of how her mind works. Holy fucking hell Caleb, she dives right in and doesn't come up for air. I couldn't put it down." He stepped close and lowered his voice, just in case Nadia was close enough to overhear. "Man, it's like she's been spying not just on a BDSM club; but like she's been spying on us. Every scene is crafted like fucking poetry, and she's so beautifully submissive I'm fighting myself to keep from going out there right now and giving her the peace and release she needs."