Lace Underground: The Complete Trilogy Read online

  "Then that's it," I say sharply back. "I guess I'll just pack my things and hike out of here because you've already predicted my future." When the drug wore off, Detective Tennyson came jumping back in bold, flying colors. I miss her. Unfortunately, I'm certain I will miss the nectar more.

  "I think that's a grand idea." Eve swims closer, trying to intimidate me it seems. That only pushes Angie to the surface more.

  I open my mouth to say something biting back to her but realize, suddenly, that the entire pool room has fallen silent. Everyone, even Eve, turns to the door.

  His blue eyes don't sweep the room. They are already focused on me

  "Everyone out," he commands. "Now."

  There are a few muted grumbles and complaints, but everyone quickly complies with his order. Eve sneers up at me as I climb out of the pool. "This is your fault," she mouths to me before I can pull my gaze away from her face.

  I find the towel Blake supplied me with and begin drying my skin. An annoying tremble has started in my limbs. My stomach churns around the fruit smoothie I sipped before swimming. I haven't seen Kane since the afternoon in his office. Since that ended with somewhat of a calamity, I decide my best bet is to dry and quickly shuffle out with the others.

  Some of the girls grab the fried chicken and pineapple cake on the table before hurrying out of the pool room.

  "Apparently, the party is over," Georgia whispers in my ear as she scoots past. "He doesn't look happy," she adds. She swoops past the table and grabs a piece of cake on her way to the door. I decide to follow swiftly in her wake.

  People left the pool so quickly, the water laps against the tile and creates a dance of reflective shadows on the room's walls and ceilings. I avoid eye contact with his aggravatingly magnetic gaze as my bare feet slap the cement pavement outside the pool. I don't need to look up to sense his presence. It's there, tall and brooding and dark, at the end of the room.

  I keep pace with Georgia but stay behind her to keep out of sight. A long arm snakes around me stopping my progress. "Not you," Kane says quietly. There's less edge in his tone.

  I still avoid his face and focus on the door. Most of the women have left, but Eve stops and looks back, favoring me with a wicked scowl before walking out.

  "I see you've met, Eve." Kane sounds oddly normal, like we're about to have a natural, friendly conversation about the lovely Eve.

  I nod and bring myself to look at him. He is by far the most strikingly handsome man I've ever met.

  He lowers his arm, walks to the door and locks it. Not that I believe for one minute any of the women will disobey his order and return to the room.

  "Take the bathing suit off." He starts to unbutton his shirt.

  I hesitate.

  "You didn't take your last dose." It's a statement. Not a question.

  I flinch, waiting to see if he has some secret dose stored somewhere in the room or in his pants. But no syringe emerges. His slips the shirt off his shoulders and unbuttons his pants as he kicks off his shoes. "Are you going to lose the bikini? Or are you just going to watch me strip?"

  I have two voices in my head competing to come out on top. The submissive, sweet Tawny, who wants the gorgeous man in front of her so much it hurts, tells me to comply quickly and remove the bathing suit. The other voice, Angie's voice, bristles some at his command, but she also knows the gorgeous man in front of her can fuck like no other.

  "I think I'll just allow myself the luxury of watching you strip." Apparently Angie wins this round. Kane is slightly taken aback but far too smooth and recovers quickly. There is even the tiniest glimmer of a smile. I've only ever seen the sliver of a grin, but it's easy to predict that his full smile would be spectacular. Like the extraordinary naked physique now standing in front of me.

  "Guess there's a little more of the real woman without so much nectar." His cock is fully erect as he reaches back to stretch his shoulders.

  I'm speechless for a moment, wondering if the scene is real or if I'm in some drug stupor in my bed. It feels like a normal, highly flirtatious moment with a man I've been sleeping with for weeks, a man who rarely shows any side except the side focused on a raunchy good fuck.

  "Get naked and join me." He climbs up onto the diving board and does an impressive double somersault into the deep end. I stand over the pool watching his incredible form cut through the water as he spears toward the shallow end to sit on the steps. Just when I thought he couldn't be a more perfect human specimen, he rises from the water looking even better soaking wet. Drops of pool water fall off his dark hair and clump his thick lashes into spikes.

  I quickly slip off the bikini and dive in. I swim toward him and come up between his long legs. My arms hook around his thighs, and he playfully lifts me up and down. It's all just a little too different.

  Kane rests his arms back on the pool edge, spreading his muscular chest wide and thickening up the muscles in his arms. The scars stand out from being cold and wet.

  "That was an impressive double flip into the pool." I let my legs float back behind me.

  "Ah yes, leftover talent from my high school glory days. I was on the diving team."

  "Never would have guessed. Were you good?"

  "I was. I spent my college summers doing cliff diving shows in Mexico. Made good money."

  "Sounds scary. Weren't you afraid you'd break your neck?"

  "It was a distinct possibility that I accepted easily." A dark flicker in his eyes makes it easy to find the hidden meaning in his statement. The thought of potential death was welcome, it seems. There are more layers to the man than I have the stamina or enthusiasm to peel away.

  "I didn't expect to see you here tonight," I say. "I wasn't sure if I'd see you at all."

  He lifts me higher, and I fall forward into his arms. His hand sweeps around and takes hold of my ass. He squeezes it just enough to send a tremor of warmth through me. "Why did you think that?" he asks.

  I'm far braver when Angie's prevalent. But with the way my body presses anxiously against him, physically, I'm still weak as a kitten in his arms. "You said I would lead to your downfall." I reach up and rub my fingers along the beard stubble on his chin. It is rare for him to be unpolished or unshaven. I like the rougher look. I look him in the eyes, even knowing just how damn seductive his gaze can be. "How will I lead to your downfall?"

  Kane lifts his hand and pushes a wet strand of hair back from my face. It's too normal. Too tender. It makes me lose the thread of our conversation for a second and my mind goes straight to him fucking me.

  "You're my weakness," he says. "My Achilles' heel. Something I never knew I had until now."

  I don't know how to process his declaration. There are too many conflicting voices in my head. In between the muddled thoughts, my pussy is aching for attention. "I'm just little old Tawny with no home or decent family. I'm nobody's Achilles' heel." I move closer so that my nipples rub against his chest. "You are a complicated man, Mr. Freestone. I wish I could see inside you to figure out how you work."

  He shakes his head slightly. "Sweet Sin, you don't want to look inside this. It's all bad. I'm as warped as they come."

  I kiss his chest. His grip on my ass tightens as he presses my hip against his erection.

  "It can't be all bad." I scoot back out of his arms and look at him. "And you're not weak. You walk into a room and everyone holds their breath."

  His dark lashes drop lower over his blue eyes. "You walk into a room and I hold my breath."

  His words wrap around me and hold me hostage for a moment. There is little nectar in my blood and I have no leather cuffs on, but he still has me captive. I float back away from his arms. "Show me," I say quietly. "Show me. Where do I make you weak?"

  He takes possessive hold of my wrist, mimicking the leather cuff. One sharp yank and I'm resting against his erection again. He holds my hand tightly as he lowers my palm to his chest. "Here," he says in that mellow, hard liquor tone. He lowers my hand beneath the water and presses i
t against his cock. "And here. Always here. Day and fucking night. You are my nectar, Sweet Sin."

  A groan rolls up from his chest as my fingers tighten around his cock. He releases my wrist and takes hold of my face. His kiss starts unusually gentle but quickly progresses to deep and punishing.

  I'm so heady from the onslaught, I'm barely aware when he lifts me from the water and the pool. He carries me dripping wet to one of the upholstered chaise lounges and lowers me down. I'm wet and cold and thankful when his body covers me. He leans between my thighs and places his palm against my face. Water from his hair drips onto my cheek. He flicks it away with his thumb.

  That same thumb traces around my mouth. "These lips," he mutters. "Can't get them out of my head." He kisses me as he fills me with his erection. My pussy contracts around him, but I don't melt instantly into an orgasm.

  Unlike our usual moments together, this one seems real, passionate but subdued, like two people who care about each other. It's unexpected and slightly terrifying. It's no longer the nectar doing its magic. I'm reacting physically and mentally. I want this. I want Kane. And even without the usual kinky additions, the cuffs, the anklets, the sex toys, he still wants me.

  Kane slips his hand beneath my ass and lifts me higher to meet his ever deepening thrusts. He lifts his mouth only to stare down at me, seemingly gauging my reaction to all of it. I don't know how to feel. I shouldn't be feeling anything except repulsion or shame. Instead, I feel pleasure and a connection with the man holding me beneath him. There is almost a twinge of something akin to empathy for Kane. I can't explain why.

  Kane lowers his mouth to my ear. "Sweet Sin, you're all I need." His words finish as his body moves faster. I clutch at his hard arms and wrap my legs around his waist. He plunges deeper, scooping forward with long luxurious strokes, searching for that magic g-spot. He knows my body so well. It takes him only seconds to bring my body to the edge. He hesitates before bringing me over it.

  "Say my name," he growls. "Say my name. I need to fucking hear you say my name." He thrusts into me. My pussy clenches around him.

  "Kane," I say on a breath. "Kane," I cry as the waves of pleasure overwhelm me. He moves fast and hard now, slamming into me, igniting new sensations with each move.

  "Fuck." His head drops back and he groans with release. His body is like steel, hard and rigid over me as his hot seed spills inside of me. His blue eyes flicker like flames as a shudder runs through him. He stares down at me for a long, intense moment before collapsing next to me on the chaise.

  It's that moment, that moment that Tawny craves. It seems Angie does too. That moment when his strong arms wrap around me and he pulls me against him. It doesn't usually last more than a few minutes, but something about it helps me feel right about what is happening. It helps me not feel dirty or sordid. It helps me feel wanted.

  The air inside the pool room is moist and dense with the smell of chlorine. We are poolside but there is no sun above. He's created such an oddly comfortable world. I gently trace my finger around the hollow of his throat. Unexpectedly, his throat moves with a deep swallow. I wonder briefly if my touch caused it.

  With my head clearer, my curiosity has some traction. "You so obviously have all the qualities a person needs to succeed up above, in the real world." He doesn't drop his arms or push briskly off the chaise so I continue. "You're a genius. You could be working in a research lab creating cures for cancer. Instead, you live here, just below the surface, keeping your brilliance to yourself. You would be wildly successful."

  He stays quiet long enough that I don't expect a response. Then his deep voice floats out and mingles with the humid air. "There's nothing for me out there except terrible memories."

  His hand moves down my back to my ass. He is hard again and feeling his cock press against my belly, sends a luxurious scroll of heat through me. I react instantly and jut my ass out toward his touch.

  Kane flips me onto my stomach. "On your knees," he demands. Considering the lack of nectar, I'm shamefully eager to comply.

  He moves to kneel behind me. I hold my breath in anticipation as he takes firm hold of my hips. "Besides," his voice is deep and heavy as he invades my pussy. "I have everything I want right here."

  6

  Maddox

  "Get in here, Maddox," Clark calls from his office. I click out of the social media accounts the tech team has created for my alternate personality, Rick Haverton, the twenty-five-year-old reckless, shallow heir to a huge fortune. Apparently, most of my unearned money is sitting in foreign accounts avoiding U.S. taxes like all good rich people, but Captain Clark called in some favors and had a fake multi-million dollar account created in my new name.

  "What’s up?"

  "Close the door," he says grumpily, which either means something is up or someone grabbed the maple bar, his maple bar from the donut box in the break room. Both events can cause the same reaction.

  "The jig is up, as they say." He sits back and steeples his fingers on his belly.

  I stare at him in confusion. "Gonna need more than that."

  "Investigators finally made some headway into the two murders. Turns out one guy was just a run of the mill rich creep who was known to strangle women during sex."

  "Nice." I sit forward. "They allow murderers in the club as long as they can pay the fee?"

  Clark sits forward too. "No, that’s why the guy is dead. We don’t have direct evidence yet. It seems Freestone runs a clean vigilante operation. The security cameras and data at the victim's estate were all stolen. No one was seen entering or leaving on the day of the murder. While it’s been determined the man was bludgeoned to death in his own bathroom, there is no weapon. But a little digging into the victim's past brought up some pretty creepy stuff, stuff that only a man who grew up in a wealthy family could get covered up. By all accounts, choking was a big turn on. When he was in his twenties, he left one very expensive escort in a vegetative coma. They pulled the plug a year later. The charges were mysteriously dropped when the woman’s family received ample compensation for their grief." Clark rolls his eyes to show his disgust. "If some silver spoon freak put my little girl in a coma, I wouldn’t rest until I put the guy in his own vegetative state. And then I wouldn’t let them pull the plug. I’d make him live like that, a breathing corpse."

  I’m listening with some amusement. "I’m guessing that little tangent has more to do with the kid Hannah is dating than some rich guy with overprotective parents."

  Clark grabs a stick of gum from his desk drawer. "The kid has piercings through his brow and his lip. Piercings," he repeats in case I didn't hear. "Hannah thinks they’re cool, but all I want to do is rip them right through that cocky little asshole's lip." He shovels the stick of gum into his mouth. The rant stops while he tackles the tough piece.

  I slap my hands on the arms of the chair. "Well, glad to act as your anger management therapist, Cap’n, but if we’re finished here, I’ve got to get back to memorizing my assets and my portfolio. It seems I have a place right on the beach in the Bahamas. Can’t wait to hang out there. If you play your cards right, you’ll get an invite."

  "Stay right there, Maddox. We’re not through. The second guy was killed in the same way."

  "Another sicko?"

  "Nope. Turns out the guy wasn’t a billionaire with a penchant for underground sex parties. He was undercover."

  "No way. Feds? Do they know anything about Ten?"

  "Not feds and the guy was killed before Ten went undercover. See, and this is why I can’t send you in. You can’t even think straight about this whole fucking thing."

  "What? Bullshit. I’m thinking straight. If not feds, then who?"

  "Turns out Nutrite, the big pharmaceutical company, hired a private eye to get into the Lace Underground. Not to bring Freestone down but to steal the drug he invented. It’s the female version of male potency drugs. Only apparently it’s about a hundred times more effective."

  "The lady part version of 'if your er
ection lasts four hours head to the hospital'?" I sit back hard.

  "Yeah, I’ll let you chew on that little fantasy for a second. I know I did." He pulls a picture from a folder. "Same bashed in skull. The fancy bathroom was in a house the company rented to make the guy look rich. Just like us. Only Freestone saw through it and had the guy killed."

  I push the picture back toward him. "That's cuz they sent in an amateur. He probably got caught stealing the stuff out of there. Did any get out, by the way?" I ask with enough enthusiasm that it pinches his face in annoyance.

  "If it did, it wasn't found in the evidence search."

  I shrug. "Just wondering. Could be the next best thing to bacon topped milkshakes."

  "Yeah, like you've ever needed help in that department." His eyes tighten to a squint. "Haven't seen Tiffany around much. Did you tell her that you'd be going on assignment?"

  I shake my head. "No, and you won't be seeing her. We broke up."

  His eyes pop back to normal size. "Really. Too bad. I thought she was good for you. I'd say you lost on that one."

  "Yep, she'll do way better than me." I sit up straight to shake away the topic. "So my mind is fucking clear as glass now. I'm ready to get in there. Just give me the go ahead, and I'll get in contact with the few names on the possible club member list."

  I know the captain well enough to know he's rethinking the whole fucking thing.

  "Don't pull the plug on this, Clark."

  "I've already risked one of my detectives, I don't relish the idea of sending another one into the abyss."

  "No abyss. I'll be working it from a different angle, a participating member of the club who is free to travel in and out."

  "Unless Freestone figures out it's a trap. He's fucking smart. We interviewed a few of his coworkers from when he was in pharmaceutical research. They said the guy is basically an introvert. Hates most people. And he's calculating and cold."

  "Except he's apparently big on protecting the women he has working for him. It's the first thing you've said that has put me a little more at ease."