Chapter 15
SHEP
“THEO? WHAT ARE you—”
I didn’t get the chance to finish before he pushed me inside, slammed the door, and took my lips in a crushing kiss.
The second his mouth was on mine, I forgot all about the unease I’d seen written on his face when I answered the door.
That look had quickly turned heated, though, when his gaze traveled down my body.
He nipped at my lower lip, tugging so that my mouth parted and he could slide his tongue inside.
I had two choices here: I could push him away and demand he leave, or I could lean into it and enjoy the kiss currently blowing my mind.
Option two it was.
My back hit the wall, and I reached for his face, angling his head and holding him for a deeper taste.
It should’ve been no surprise that Theo had a wicked mouth and knew just how to use it, but that talented tongue had wrenched an orgasm from me I was still thinking about the next day, so when he sucked mine into his mouth, I couldn’t help my moan.
He reached for my towel, ripping it off my body, but when he tossed it to the floor, something else fell with a bang and I pulled away.
The black box at Theo’s feet wouldn’t normally have made me look twice, but the anxious look on his face when he’d arrived had me pushing him back so I could pick it up.
“What’s this?”
“We can look at that later,” he said, moving back in to brush his mouth over mine.
But something niggled in the back of my mind, his deflection making me wonder what he was, yet again, trying to hide.
“Or we can look at it now.” I turned my head to the side, avoiding his kiss, and opened the box. The only thing inside was a single flash drive, and I frowned as I picked it up. “What’s this?”
Theo sighed and took a step back, but when his eyes lowered to my semi-erect cock, I grabbed my towel and tied it back around my waist. The man would take any distraction he could get and use it to his advantage, and right now I needed answers more than I needed his body.
And wasn’t that fucking unfortunate.
I held the drive up and arched a brow. “Theo? What’s on this?”
“Not you giving me a hot show, that’s for sure.”
“What?”
He ran his fingers through his hair and then shrugged. “The box was on my bed with a red bow. I figured it was your way of thanking me for a job well done.” When I only stared at him, he added, “For giving you the best blow job you’ve ever had, obviously.”
“For fuck’s sake—”
“And that too. You think I let just anyone pound my ass and get away with it?”
I started to respond, but that was exactly what he wanted. Anything to avoid talking about whatever was really on the drive.
I’d just have to see for myself.
My laptop was still in the living room where I’d left it, so I headed in that direction, Theo following on my heels.
“Shep, wait—”
“Why did you really come here tonight?” I threw back over my shoulder. “And why didn’t you use your key?”
“I forgot it.”
“Because you rushed over here so fast?”
When he didn’t immediately respond, I shook my head and inserted the drive into the laptop.
“Sure you don’t want to tell me what I’m about to find?”
“Why bother? You’re not going to believe me after you see that anyway.” Theo moved in behind the seat I’d taken, and as I went to hit play, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I glanced back to see a grimace pulled tight across his usually smug lips.
“I don’t know who’s sending this shit, but they’re really good.”
Which told me whatever I was about to see was similar to the first message we’d received. “Okay, well, let me check it out.”
Theo gave a clipped nod, and my pulse started to thump as I hit play. An image of the building from the first video appeared pre-explosion, but this angle was new.
“What am I looking—”
“Wait for it.”
Not a second later, Theo could be seen crossing the street and heading toward the doors. He pulled it open and headed inside, then the video switched to another angle of the same moment, this one capturing an up-close snapshot of Theo’s face.
“Fuck,” I said.
“Mhmm.”
“That’s definitely you.”
“Except it’s not.” When I raised a brow at him, he said, “What? It’s not.”
“That’s”—I shook my head and looked back at the screen—“really hard to believe.”
“I know, but it’s the truth. Do you really think I would go in the front door and look at the camera before going inside and blowing the thing to smithereens? Come on, Shep. I’m smarter than that, and you know it.”
He was, and I did. But that still didn’t explain what I was looking at. The image on the screen where I’d paused it was unmistakably the Prince of Monaco entering a building that was recently blown to high heaven.
If this video got out, accompanied by the first, Theo and his family would be fucked. There were no two ways about it. King was going to have a fit.
“Look, it’s not me, so who cares?” Theo said, and reached around me to pull the drive from my computer. “I’m not worried.”
“Really? Then why are you here?”
He sighed and took a seat on the other side of the living room. “I don’t know. Jesus.”
“I think you do.” I put the laptop on the coffee table and leaned back into my seat, and didn’t miss the way Theo’s eyes caught on my naked chest. But I wouldn’t let him change the topic.
“I think there’s more going on here than what you’re telling me.
Sure, this might not be you, but you know something.
You already told me you were in Istanbul, but you’re also telling me these videos are fake. ”
“Those two things can be true, you know.”
“I know.” I ran a frustrated hand through my damp hair. “But I can’t help you if you don’t start trusting me. You’re holding something back, and I want to know what it is.”
Theo’s eyes narrowed. “You think I made that building explode.”
“I don’t know what to think, but you sure as shit aren’t giving me much to go on. So if you want to keep King off your ass, and save your own, you might want to start talking.”
Theo shot to his feet and started to pace the length of the room, and it took everything I had not to push further. But I knew if I did, it would just push him away, and that was the last thing I wanted.
I had no idea what had happened in Istanbul, or who was behind these videos, but I suddenly found myself wanting Theo to trust me enough to open up and tell me how he’d ended up in this fucked-up situation.
“I went to Istanbul at the request of a former acquaintance…”
That was a start, but he was still being evasive, and that just wouldn’t do. Not when someone was threatening to ruin his reputation on a global scale and possibly expose his Libertine connection.
“What kind of acquaintance? An ex?”
Theo stopped pacing and looked over his shoulder at me. “Would you be jealous?”
“Would you focus?”
He licked his lips and ran his gaze down over me. “Sure you want me to do that?”
“I meant on our conversation.”
“Shame… But no, not an ex. A former royal guard here at the palace.”
That was interesting. So whatever was going on had something personally to do with Theo, not Libertine.
“Former?” I pressed. “I thought that position was basically lifelong once given.”
“It can be, but he left due to family matters. Or at least, that’s the reason he gave. We figured that meant a sick parent he needed to take care of, and he was released from his position immediately.”
I crossed my arms and didn’t miss the way Theo’s attention fell to my chest. Even discussing something important wasn’t enough of a distraction, it seemed.
“Why would a former guard asking you to come to Istanbul be a reason to take out your tracker and keep secrets? What are you hiding?”
Theo began to pace again, and as the silence between us dragged on, I felt my impatience rise. I sat up, about to snap at him to get on with it, but then he turned around, looked me in the eye, and said, “The former guard is Conrad Black.”
All the blood drained from my face, and I shoved my chair back, getting to my feet as Theo held his hands up.
“Let me explain—”
“Conrad Black is a traitor and informant with blood on his hands. Why the fuck would you have anything to do with him?”
“See, this reaction is exactly why I didn’t tell you. Any of you.”
“Have you lost your mind? You willingly got yourself mixed up with this…this…terrorist—”
“He’s not a terrorist,” Theo said, standing his ground as I stalked toward him.
“He disclosed highly classified information that cost people their lives, Theo. That’s not someone any of us should have anything to do with, especially you.”
He opened and shut his mouth before finally nodding and dropping his hands. “You’re right. It’s fucked up what happened, and there’s no excuse for it. But he needed help, and I owed him one—”
“You owe him shit.”
“He saved my life, Shep.”
I stopped in my tracks but then narrowed my eyes. “That’s what guards do.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “He wasn’t on duty. I was young and stupid and messing with people I shouldn’t have been. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but sometimes my mouth gets me in trouble.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed.”
There was a hint of a grin on his face, just that tiny spark of devilishness, but just as quickly it was gone.
“Look, Conrad stepped in when I got outnumbered by a bunch of pissed-off guys with more than their fists for weapons, and if it hadn’t been for him, you sure as hell wouldn’t be seeing this handsome face right now.
He saved my ass and he kept it quiet. He didn’t have to do that. ”
“Why haven’t I heard about this?”
“Because no one knew. Not my family, not King. Conrad never said anything, and I sure as hell wasn’t volunteering that info.”
“So, what, he’s been holding this over your head to use when he needed you?”
“It’s not like that. He asked for my help, I made a choice, and it was the right one.”
I scoffed and gestured back at the laptop. “Really? A bit of blackmail’s not a big deal for you compared to whatever you’re really doing now?”