#2
“How about you? You’re Devi, right? You need a scene partner?”
Devi Taggart felt like a deer in the headlights. Zach. Zach Reed. Captain Zach Reed. The single most gorgeous man she’d ever seen had asked the question, and she was standing in the middle of the hallway wearing fet wear and generally hanging out like a creeper gathering information for her besties. She had meant to find out what was going on with her cousin, Carys, and those two men of hers, not get an invitation to play with that glorious hunk of Dom.
He was one of the spy guys. Oh, she was well aware there was a part of the membership of The Hideout that called the group the spy kids, but this was not a kid. Zach Reed was all man, and her whole body clenched at the thought of being a badass bitch and claiming him for herself. She was Erin Taggart’s daughter. Badass bitch was in her DNA.
Except she flaked. She meant to say something, but she kind of squeaked and then felt herself turn a brutal shade of red—another DNA gift from her mother was pale skin that hid nothing. And then she ran.
She slammed the locker room door behind her, barely breathing.
Not her finest moment.
Her two best friends were standing in the lounge portion of the women’s locker room. Daisy O’Donnell was studying for some kind of test, but she was scheduled to address the new training class at some point this evening. Devi was pretty sure the studying was for a college entrance exam. Bri was hanging out working on the plot for her latest story. Daisy usually played on Saturday nights, but her Dom was on assignment as a bodyguard for McKay-Taggart.
“You okay?”
Bri was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, her golden brown hair piled high atop her head. She’d been scribbling in a notebook, a sure sign she was plotting and not writing since she did that on her laptop. Sometimes Bri’s room was covered in sticky notes covering all aspects of her stories, from characters to plot lines to dialogue she wanted to put in a future story. She loved being around Brianna Dean-Miles and her glorious brain. And Daisy’s kind heart.
They were her closest friends since before they could remember anything.
So it was okay to tell them how idiotic she’d been.
“No. I am not okay. I am… I don’t know what I am. I might need a drink. Don’t the twins keep cold vodka magically around at all times?”
Daisy stood.
“Was someone mean to you? Was it a Dom? Because I can call Nate. He’s had to work with my dad all week. He would love to beat someone up for you.”
“Or we can be women and beat him up ourselves,”
Bri said with a nod like she was giving herself badass affirmations in her head. It came from being around her cousins too much.
“We might have to find a way to drug him and then tie him up and then do something to counter the drug because we want him to be awake for his torture.”
Daisy stared at her for a moment.
“You need to get out of the house more, sweetie.”
“We’re not beating anyone up.”
She loved her friends, but they could go off on tangents.
“No one was mean to me.”
“Then why aren’t you out on the dungeon floor? You said you were determined to play tonight, and you didn’t care if your brother had to bleach his eyeballs,”
Bri pointed out.
She had a plan for that. She and her brother had done what other siblings did. They carved up the club, and that map was sacred. Besides, she was pretty sure TJ would take his girlfriend Lou to a privacy room, so he wouldn’t have to bear witness to her glorious, slutty night. Because while she’d told her friends she only wanted to play to blow off some steam, she intended for all that steam to blow her straight into some hot dude. She planned to ask one of the baby Doms if they were interested in a lesson.
Then Zach Reed showed up and her nipples had gone all perky and her libido went super charged.
He worked with her brother. He couldn’t possibly be interested in her.
“Do you think she’s okay? Do we need to find a way to reboot her?”
Bri asked.
“I think that’s what the vodka’s for,”
Daisy whispered back.
“I know it seems like vodka follows the twins, but I think it’s just up in the bar. Should I go get some?”
Why had she done that? Devi crossed to the comfy couch and sank down. She should get dressed and run. All the way to New York. Where she didn’t have a job or a place to live or a future since she didn’t get any of the jobs she applied for there. She hadn’t even told her parents. Or TJ. Only Bri and Daisy knew she was coming out of what should have been an extraordinary internship, and she had no offers.
LA. The LA design houses hadn’t replied yet.
They would likely be the same. She was going to end up answering phones at McKay-Taggart, and there wasn’t anything wrong with that, but it wasn’t her passion. It wasn’t how she wanted to spend her life. She’d wanted to design clothes since she was a kid and she used scraps of fabric to make gowns for her dolls. It wasn’t the end of the world. She could still find a job. She simply had to work harder.
“I think she’s thinking about the jobs,”
Bri whispered.
“She’s definitely thinking about the jobs.”
Daisy sat down beside her, putting a hand on her arm.
“Honey, it’s okay. You still have all the LA houses and Paris.”
She wasn’t getting a job in Paris. Or London. They thought she was pedestrian. It was what one of those fuckers had called her work. They had mostly been polite and said she didn’t fit their aesthetic, but a couple had pointed out that her work lacked sophistication.
Well, she showed them. Yeah, she’d shown enormous sophistication when she’d squeaked like a mouse and run like a rabbit when Zach Reed showed the slightest bit of interest in her.
“Damn it. I am not this girl,”
she said with conviction.
“Which girl? Because if it’s the girl who downs vodka from time to time, you are definitely that girl,”
Daisy countered.
Bri chuckled and sat on Devi’s other side.
“She’s freaking out because she got turned down by the New York houses. She’s taking everything they said and making it really big and insulting and wondering if she even has a shot at this. And yes, I know because I do it all the time. Every rejection I get makes me wonder if I’m good enough or I’m wasting my time and I’m going to end up sitting at the reception desk at MT, waiting for the next time something explodes or they get raided—which happens more often than you would think.”
“I almost got there,”
Daisy said with a sigh.
“I was going to work, and that was when the assassins came and then Da wouldn’t let me work and he locked me up in a BDSM club with the man of my dreams. Good times. But I still think I would have been good at answering the phones. I even worked on my phone voice. McKay-Taggart, this is Daisy. How can I save your life and-or introduce you to the bodyguard of your dreams?”
“I don’t think Uncle Ian would let you say that,”
Bri pointed out.
“He has a strict script.”
Devi waved that off.
“When I used to answer the phones on summer break I said some crazy shit and Uncle Ian fist bumped me as he walked by. Said he had enough business as it was, and I was giving him nap time. And yes, I’m thinking about the jobs, but I’m also thinking about the fact that I made a complete idiot of myself in front of Zach.”
Her besties gasped in perfect harmony.
“What happened?”
Daisy asked.
“Did you fall? I fall a lot. Nate thinks it’s cute. If Zach doesn’t think it’s cute, he’s being a jerk. You know clumsy is totally in these days.”
“I didn’t fall.”
It might have been better if she had, but no, she was good in five-inch heels. To her mother’s never-ending dismay, she’d started wearing them at thirteen, and she could jog in those fuckers. But still, if she’d broken a leg, it would have been less embarrassing.
Bri stood, tears in her eyes.
“You asked him and he turned you down. You got all of your courage together to ask the man of your dreams to simply play with you in the sex club you both belong to. And he brutally turned you down. He wasn’t even polite about it. He probably laughed.”
Okay, sometimes Bri’s imagination took over and Devi could see she was playing the entire scenario out in her head, and that was bad for Zach. Bri was usually quiet and private, but when she felt like a woman had been dealt an injustice, she could build an army. Prom night had been a real revelation.
She couldn’t have Bri rallying the subs against poor Zach. The man might be in the military and on a CIA team, but somehow she didn’t see him fighting back against that.
“He didn’t laugh. He asked me.”
Daisy sat back up.
“He asked you what?”
“He asked if I wanted to play,”
Devi admitted.
Bri sat back down.
“Well, that changes things. Why are you here and not getting your ass happily spanked by the military hottie?”
“You do not look thrilled to get what you’ve wanted for months,”
Daisy pointed out.
“Was he rude about it?”
“Not at all.”
She was starting to calm down, but the lack of flight or fight adrenaline was also making her feel more like a moron.
“He was… I don’t know. He was casual about it. I think he wanted to play and I was breathing.”
“And?”
Daisy asked.
Bri huffed.
“Come on. You know how you would feel if Nate had looked at you and been like sure, you’ll do. She’s crazy about Zach.”
“I don’t know that I would say crazy.”
Except she kind of was. It had been lust at first sight, but she didn’t want to be the kid sister who pined for her brother’s friend. Although it wasn’t like they were close. TJ hadn’t been working on the team for long, and he spent most of his free time with a hot dog in one hand and Lou’s boobs in the other. They really should be more circumspect. Uncle Ian might deserve to walk in on them doing it in a conference room, but she’d been a good sister, damn it.
Daisy stood, brushing back her dark hair and pacing as though thinking through the problem.
“You have talked about that man since the day he walked into this club. You practically drool when he’s around. I don’t get why you would say anything except Sir, yes, Sir. And Nate kind of did. He didn’t even know it was me. If he’d known it was me, he would have run the other way, so I don’t get why Devi doesn’t want to shoot her shot. I mean at least you would know. And if it doesn’t work, you got some hot sex out of it. I’ve heard rumors. He’s kind of hard core. Is that what you’re afraid of?”
Zach wasn’t a big player, but he had spent some time with several of the subs here at the club. Usually outside of his friend group. He’d played with a couple of the subs Gabriel Lodge had brought in, and some of the hostesses/servers from the restaurant group. They had seemed deeply satisfied with his services.
She didn’t want to be serviced.
Except that was exactly what she’d been planning for the evening. She’d planned to do what he did—go outside her friend group, pick a Dom, ride him to some sweet stress relief.
“I’m not worried that he’s hard core. I like it rough,”
she admitted. She was known as one of The Hideouts hard bottoms. It took a lot to make her cry.
Some Doms liked a challenge.
“Then why?”
Daisy’s head shook.
“Okay. I know why. You’re being cautious. It was okay for the sex to be casual if you didn’t care about the guy.”
“Yes.”
Bri nodded vigorously as though happy Daisy had gotten it right.
“She’s half in love with him.”
She wouldn’t say that.
“I don’t know I would use the word love yet.”
Daisy pointed Devi’s way.
“That’s my point, friend. You’ve spent so little time with him that the guy you like is mostly in your head. You’re not in love with him. You’re infatuated with the idea of him. He’s got a pretty package and seems nice and smart, and you like how he tops a sub. That doesn’t mean you know him. It doesn’t mean you would even like him if you spent time with him, but how will you ever know if you don’t spend time with him?”
Bri frowned.
“I don’t like it when she’s all logical. I prefer my Daisy talking about soul mates and true love.”
Daisy took Bri’s hand.
“But how can you find either if you don’t try? I know what I felt for Nate as a kid was a crush. Believe it or not I only intended to spend one night with him. One night to get him out of my system.”
“And now you’re engaged.”
It was how things went with Daisy. She could walk into a perfectly normal situation and it would upend almost immediately. In this case it led to assassins and being stuck at Sanctum for days, but also with her being engaged to Nathan Carter, who did turn out to be the love of her life.
Had she walked away from her chance to do the same?
“Yup, because when the opportunity presented itself, I was open to it.”
Daisy sat back down, looking at Devi with a serious expression on her usually sunny face.
“The whole love thing is not for the faint of heart. It doesn’t simply happen. We make it happen. Or at least we open ourselves up to the possibility. We don’t run away from it. Even when you know it can break your heart. You know what our Aunt Grace says.”
“It’s better to have a broken heart than an empty one,”
Bri said quietly.
“It’s easier on paper. I watch my brother. I love him so much, but he’s screwing up with the two people he’s loved since he was a child. I keep thinking if those three can’t make it, no one can.”
“But they will,”
Daisy vowed.
“This is a bump in the road. You have that attitude because we’re in one of the hard parts. Note I said one. I’m not so unrealistic that I think it’s easy going from here out, but the beginning is hard. It’s normal to want to protect yourself when you see heartache all around you. When you see how the people you love long for something they think they can’t have. When you watch them screw up again and again and there’s nothing you can do about it. My brother is at fault, too. So is Carys. They’ve all made mistakes, but they’re finally confronting them now. It’s a good thing. It’s why I think Devi should confront what’s really bugging her.”
“I thought it was Zach,”
Devi said.
“I mean I’ve got a lot going on right…”
Damn it. She figured it out. Daisy had been studying way too much. She was going back to college to get certified to work with kids on mental health.
“It’s not because I didn’t get the jobs I wanted.”
Bri sent Daisy a look. Like they’d talked about this and came up with a plan to handle it. To handle her.
“Fine.”
She sat back with a sigh. It looked like her hot evening was going to turn into a girl-talk session.
“My deep desire to get railed by a hot and forgettable Dom tonight does have something to do with the job hunt. Dais, I know you’ve run through a lot of jobs and it’s got to hurt when you get fired…”
Daisy held a hand up.
“It does, but I’m not putting my soul into what is essentially art and having it judged by everyone. I know, sweetie. It’s why Bri won’t let anyone but us read her incredible novels.”
“They’re just not ready,”
Bri argued.
What wasn’t ready was Bri, and that was okay. She needed to take her time and learn her craft. She could do that because she was a writer. Devi wanted to do the same, but designing clothes wasn’t a solitary job. Not the way she wanted to do it.
“You’ll know when they’re ready. But I’m definitely letting the rejections get in my head. I thought I was feeling confident. I walked out that door feeling hot and sexy, and then Zach was looking at me and all I could think about was the fact that I designed this corset and the shorts, and they called my work pedestrian and unflattering and worst of all, safe.”
Daisy and Bri both winced.
Safety wasn’t a bad thing, but none of her friends wanted to be safe when it came to the things they were passionate about. They came from families of spies and military operatives and bestselling authors, and extremely fierce people. Being called safe hurt worst of all.
“You are not safe,”
Daisy said.
“You make some of the coolest fet wear I’ve ever seen. I would bet you didn’t send them those designs in your portfolios.”
Devi sighed.
“Fet wear isn’t exactly what these companies make. But I do get your point. I might have played it safer than I should have.”
“You still have so many applications out there,”
Bri said encouragingly.
“You’ll find the right place. I just wish it was here in Dallas.”
“We’re not a hotbed of design.”
The thought of leaving these two made her heart ache. They’d been apart during college and the year she’d spent in Paris doing an internship. These last couple of years spent at home working on her portfolio and doing custom pieces for weddings and clients in the lifestyle had been fun, and being with her friends inspired her.
“But I need to be in LA or New York or Paris if I want to make a real name for myself. London, maybe. You’re right. I let myself freak out over something I’ve wanted for over a year. I should have smiled and had a wild night and walked away at the end, satisfied that I tried.”
Because there was no way they worked. He would end up being cocky and full of himself and into video games and sports ball like most of her brother’s friends. At best they might work as a D/s couple, and not a monogamous one since he was gone most of the time. He didn’t even live here. Unlike the rest of the team, he lived in DC. He was only here every couple of months.
Why hadn’t she leapt in? She was smart and capable and not clingy. She didn’t need a man. Well, to spank her. She couldn’t spank herself, and honestly, she preferred an actual man to a vibrator when it came to sex.
“I blew it.”
She’d had one shot, and she wouldn’t get another.
“Or you change your mind,”
Daisy offered.
“It’s been a couple of minutes. I scarcely think he’s already found another sub for the night. Go back out and find him. Tell him you changed your mind and need a good hard session. Have fun with him. He’s not going to judge you.”
“How do you know?”
Devi asked.
“Because he’s a dude, and all he’s going to be thinking about is getting into those super-hot boy shorts of yours,”
Bri replied, looking lighter than before.
“Tell me. Are they tearaway?”
Devi grinned. She did have fun designing fet wear.
“Of course. You know I love it when I get my clothes torn off, but I don’t like losing the clothes. So I found a simple solution. I spent a couple of months designing a whole fet wardrobe for Aunt Charlotte. My uncle is tight fisted when it comes to cash, but he opened the wallet for this one. All tearaway. I managed to make the Velcro completely unnoticeable if you line it up properly.”
She’d made a pretty penny off that commission. She’d also made some cosplays and Ren fair costumes, and she was super popular around Halloween.
She designed Carys’s wedding gown and the bridesmaid dresses. That had been fun, too. But was it too safe? She was designing for her family and friends. They wouldn’t tell her if something sucked. They would be gentle and maybe wear it even if they didn’t like it.
She didn’t want to be safe.
Devi stood up.
“I’m going to find him and stop being someone I don’t want to be. I’m going to tell him what I want.”
“To marry him and have him love you forever?”
Bri asked.
Bri was sometimes way too romantic.
Daisy leaned against Bri.
“It does sound nice, doesn’t it? We could have a double wedding.”
So was Daisy. Devi had always known she was the realistic one.
“I’m going to tell him I need some stress relief and nothing more. But that doesn’t mean I won’t talk to him and figure out if I actually like him.”
“And then you’ll fall in love and marry him,”
Bri added.
Daisy nodded.
“This is going to be a beautiful love story.”
She sniffled.
“Like me and Nate.”
She hoped not. See assassins. Devi just wanted a wild night with the hottest man she’d ever met.
She strode to the door and walked out into the hallway. She was confident and knew what she wanted.
Captain Zachary Reed.
For a night.
Hunter was walking out of the men’s locker room. He gave her a masculine once-over and a big old sunshiny smile. Hunter McKay was slightly older than she was and he’d gone to a different school, but they’d known each other since they were kids.
“Hey, Dev. You’re looking good tonight.”
Hunter always seemed too happy to be a Dom. She liked a little frown in her men, and he rarely did. At least not around her. They didn’t spend a ton of time alone together and ran in different groups, but he was like family.
“Thanks.”
She looked over his leathers. Which she’d worked on. Everyone at The Hideout came to her when they had wardrobe malfunctions. Hunter had dropped some weight, and she’d taken in his leathers.
“They look good on you.”
He grinned and put his fists on his hips.
“Yeah, I’ve been working out with the new guy. He’s a great trainer. Luckily, thanks to you, I don’t have to buy new.”
Hunter often worked as the dungeon monitor, and he took his role seriously. Which meant he knew a lot of things and kept his eyes open.
“Hey, have you seen Zach?”
Hunter nodded.
“Yeah, he’s inside.”
So he hadn’t headed to the dungeon. He hadn’t gotten her rejection and moved on to the next sub.
“Could you ask him to come out here?”
A brow rose over Hunter’s green eyes.
“He do something I should know about?”
And he could be protective.
“Not yet, but if I get my way, that could change.”
“You sure you know what you’re doing? I know he works with Coop and the twins and your brother, but there’s something off about him,”
Hunter said.
“I can’t put my finger on it, but he’s… I worry he’s not who he presents himself to be.”
“He’s a spy, Hunt. I assure you Kala doesn’t walk into a new situation and punch people the way she does here.”
She wasn’t worried about Zach being a spy. Her brother was one, and TJ was perfectly harmless to anything but a hot dog. Or a burger. Or honestly, any kind of food. Her brother had the wildest metabolism.
“I know what I’m getting into. It’s nothing more than a fun night.”
Hunter seemed to consider it for a moment and she got ready to go in and get Zach herself because Hunter McKay wasn’t about to make decisions for her. But right before she was about to make her way into that sacred male space, Hunter opened the door.
“I’ll get him. You be careful, kid.”
“Kid?”
But the door had already closed. He was like a year and a half older than she was and he called her kid. He was a kid. He worked for his dad and everything, and just because he could fly a plane didn’t make him more mature than she was. Kid. He was a kid.
The door opened and a man walked through.
Whoa. Zach Reed was at least six foot four and had broad shoulders and a six-pack to die for. Dark hair and the warmest brown eyes and a jawline cut from granite. And lips. Damn he had gorgeous lips that were curling up.
“You change your mind, sweetness?”
The nickname didn’t apply, and yet somehow it threatened to make her toes curl. She moved into his space. He was finally looking at her, and she wasn’t going to waste his focus. She got in close and tilted her head up, looking at that cut jawline and wanting to run her lips over it.
“I’m looking for some stress relief tonight, Sir. Do you think you might be able to help me? I’m sorry for my first reaction. It’s been a rough couple of days, but I assure you I’m not normally one to run away from something I want.”
Was that a gun or was he suddenly happy to see her?
He eased back slightly since guns weren’t allowed on the dungeon floor.
“That is good to know, and I would be happy to play with you. Let’s sit down and set some ground rules.”
She followed him, ready for her night to begin.