Chapter 1
Chapter One
S ix months later
“Darlin’, I’m going out,” Colt yelled and Kylie came out of her bedroom in time to see him pulling on his leather jacket.
“Okay. Staking out again?” She finished putting in her earring as she walked down the hallway to say goodbye.
“Yep, bastard drug dealer.” Colt was dog-tired from too many nights hoping to catch his elusive criminal. He’d served on the police force since his graduation from college with a degree in criminal justice. He’d made detective last year and was often undercover. Much as he grumbled about the hours, he wouldn’t trade his job for anything.
“You’ll get him this time, Detective.” Kylie gave him an encouraging smile.
He wolf-whistled with appreciation as he took in her loose hair, silky shirt and tight jeans. “Well, look at you, hot stuff. Got another date with the mystery man?”
He tried to appear uninterested though it gnawed on his nerves that she wouldn’t tell him anything about her new beau.
Hell, she wouldn’t even give him the man’s name. Not even Heath could sweet talk it out of her and she told him damn near everything.
Kylie claimed she was sick of him doing background checks on all of her dates, and then combining forces with Heath to scare the men off when they decided they weren’t good enough for her.
She didn’t have to deal with the scum of the earth day after day like he did. If she’d seen a quarter of the ass-wipes he’d put behind bars during his time on the force, she’d thank them for their diligence.
Thing was, none of her past boyfriends had lasted as long as this guy, and he tried not to think about it, as the fact was driving him slowly insane.
She was his roommate and one of his best friends. He’d never screw that up for a roll in the hay and truth be told, he’d never really seen her as a woman he might seriously pursue until Heath’s birthday party nearly six months ago.
Since then, he’d become obsessed with the thought that her ultimate sexual fantasy was to be tied up and spanked by not one lover, but two. It had been easy to keep his hands off of her as long as he’d believed she was a vanilla girl in his rainbow sherbet world.
“Be careful.” She leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek and he fought the urge to turn at the last minute to capture her sweet mouth with his own. He’d never given her more than a friendly peck, but lately he found himself consumed with the sight of her luscious pink lips and all the things he’d like those lips to do to him.
“I’ll probably be out all night. You okay here…alone?” Heath was out of town doing work for his architectural firm and wasn’t expected back for another week.
She laughed away his obvious, not-so-clever attempt at discovering whether or not she would be sleeping by herself. “I’m a big girl now and as hard as this may be for you and Heath to grasp, I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah well, just make sure Romeo drops you off at the door. We’re out of coffee. Besides, it’s a school night and you have work tomorrow.”
Kylie was a social studies teacher at the local high school and he imagined the teenage boys must line up to get into her class. She was petite and sweet in a sexy kind of way.
“Colt Hardin, you ass. I’ll have you know I can invite any man back to my room that I want. God knows I’ve listened to enough of your sleepovers.”
He frowned at her words. He hadn’t invited any woman back to their place in years and he was annoyed at her for dragging up ancient history.
Hell, a man couldn’t be held accountable for inconsiderate actions committed during his drunken college days forever. Unfortunately, his cell phone rang before he could take her to task.
“Hardin. Yeah, I hear you. I’m on my way.” He snapped his phone shut. “I gotta go. Just be careful, eh?”
She looked at him with suspiciously cute innocence and he felt the effects all the way to his gut. “Oh I will.”
As he left the house, he tried to kick back the instinct that told him she wasn’t going to be careful at all. Not…at…all.
When Colt pulled into the driveway, it was not long after midnight. At least he hadn’t been stuck on an all-night stakeout.
In fact, he’d gotten damn lucky as his not-so-bright drug lord actually struck an illegal deal right under his nose within thirty minutes of his arrival. He’d filed all the paperwork, dotted all his i’s, crossed all his t’s, and was looking forward to at least eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.
As he walked down the hallway to his room, he heard an unfamiliar sound coming from Kylie’s room. He was surprised to find her home already and a bit annoyed at the prospect of hearing her with some lover.
Continuing past his own room, he stopped outside her closed door. Again the strange, sharp sound came, but this time it was followed by Kylie’s cry of pain.
“Please stop,” he heard her whimper.
He tried the doorknob only to find it locked. Impatient to get inside, he leaned back and kicked. The doorframe splintered and the door fell in.
It only took him a second to take in the horrifying scene.
Kylie was naked and tied facedown on her bed. Her wrists were secured to the headboard, while her ankles were bound together at the bottom. A man Colt had never seen was standing over her, striking her with a belt. Her ass was covered with painful-looking welts and she was crying for the man to stop.
At Colt’s entrance the man froze mid-strike, but Kylie, obviously in pain, continued to thrash against her bonds in an attempt to escape.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Colt bellowed. She flinched at his voice and her struggles became even more earnest.
Without thought to his actions, he crossed the room in three steps and led with a right hook that had the man on the ground with one blow.
Bending down, Colt picked the man up by his shirt only to beat him down again. The man threw his arms over his head protesting, but he was too enraged, too furious to hear anything but the pounding of his own blood in his ears.
Finally, one sound made its way through to his consciousness.
“Colt!” Kylie cried. “Colt, please stop. Please. Stop!”
The man was cowering on the ground. Colt struggled to catch his breath. Turning slowly, he saw her fighting desperately to break free. “Untie me. Please.” Tears were streaming down her face and he felt his anger rise again at the red-hot swelling on her ass and legs. “Untie me,” she repeated and Colt quickly crossed to the bed to release her.
As soon as she was loose, she scrambled under the blanket, obviously anxious to cover her nakedness. She winced the second her rear-end hit the bed and his hands clinched into fists again.
“Stop, Colt. Please. Don’t hit him anymore.”
At her request, the man on the floor seemed to rouse himself. “Who the fuck is this guy?” He bellowed the question at Kylie who looked down at her hands, clutching the blanket tightly around herself and avoiding his gaze.
“He’s my roommate.” Her voice was trembling slightly. Colt fought to get a deep breath.
“Roommate!” The man hissed at her.
Colt turned slowly to face the man, more than ready to resume the pummeling, but she must have sensed his intent.
“No.” She grabbed roughly at his arm before he could swing again. “Colt, no.”
He looked down at the jerk on the floor. “You’re under arrest.”
The man stumbled to his feet, wiping blood away from his mouth. When he looked at Colt, his face was snarled with rage. “For what?”
“Assault and battery. Attempted rape.”
“Colt,” Kylie cried as the man laughed humorlessly.
“You can’t arrest me for any of that. She asked me to do it. She asked for it all.”
He drew back his arm to strike again, but she held tight. “Colt, I mean it. Stop now.” Her voice was stronger and it caused him to turn around. “What Scott said is true. Just let him go. I’m not pressing charges.”
“Kylie?” His heart lodged in his throat as he took in her tear-stained face.
“Let him go,” she repeated and Scott’s cold laugh assaulted his ears again.
“Told you so. She likes it rough. Don’t you, sweetheart?”
He turned so quickly Scott never saw it coming. Colt’s fist connected with his jaw and laid the man out yet again.
“Jesus Christ,” Scott shouted. “I’m the one who’s going to file for assault, you fucking asshole.”
“Get out.” The words came from between his clinched teeth and his fury was barely contained. The man must have sensed the danger as he gathered up his belt, jacket, and shoes and ran out of the room without another word.
Kylie dragged in a shaky breath as she leaned back against the headboard and tears form in her eyes.
“What the fuck just happened here?” Colt struggled to contain the rage that was clogging his chest.
She refused to meet his gaze or answer his question, so he repeated it as he dropped down to sit next to her on the bed. When she failed to answer a second time, he placed his hand on her chin and lifted her face until she had no choice but to look into his eyes.
“I’m not going to ask you again, darlin’.”
“It was a misunderstanding. Everything is fine now. Really. You look beat, Colt. Why don’t you go on to your room?”
“Are you crazy? Did you bump your head? I’m not going to bed until I get some goddamn answers.”
“Nothing happened here.” At his angry look, she seemed to rethink her words. “I mean, I think things just got a bit out of hand.”
“That man had you tied up and was beating the hell out of you, Kylie. I’d say things were more than a bit out of hand.”
“It was a mistake, that’s all.”
“He said you asked for that beating, but I happen to know for a fact, my best friend has more intelligence than that.”
She bit her lip and a tear escaped her lovely brown eyes before she could swipe it away.
“Aw hell, darlin’, please don’t cry. I’m right here and I won’t let that man touch you again, I swear it. I’m just trying to understand?—”
“I did ask him for it.”
He studied her face for a moment, sure he’d heard her wrong.
“Look at me,” he demanded.
When she complied, he repeated her words in his question. “You asked him to beat the hell out of you?”
“No,” she cried, “of course not. We…we were starting to get intimate. He seemed like a decent man—” Colt snorted at her words, but she continued anyway. “I mean we’ve been going out for a few months and I thought I could trust him. He asked me what I liked…I mean in bed, and I told him?—”
She stopped talking and tried to look away.
“You told him what?” He refused to let her escape and held tight to her chin, forcing her gaze to meet his.
“I told him I’ve always wanted to be tied up and spanked.” Her words were no more than a whisper, but they resonated in his head like a cannon.
“You didn’t like what he was doing, Kylie. Regardless of what you asked for, I’ve got eyes in my head and I know he was hurting you.”
She shuddered and closed her eyes tightly before responding. “You’re right,” she conceded. “I hated what he was doing. It hurt, but he wouldn’t stop, no matter how many times I asked him.”
“Then why the fuck didn’t you let me arrest the bastard?”
“Because I asked him to tie me up. Christ, can you see me sitting in front of one of your friends down at the precinct stating my case? I asked him to do that to me.”
Her tears fell freely now and his heart froze at the sight. He’d never seen her cry. Not in all their years together as roommates.
She was a tomboy, to be sure, and was most at home in a room full of itching, cussing, drinking men. She watched football and hockey with the same rabid enthusiasm as him and her language would make a sailor blush. She owned one dress that he’d ever seen and she had only worn that for a funeral. She’d never had a manicure and she cut her own hair, usually in a snit when it finally drove her so crazy she had no choice.
“Kylie, why?”
At his question, he watched her tears evaporate and the same tough exterior he’d grown used to reappear.
“I’m tired, Colt. I think I’m going to go to sleep.”
“Kylie—” He started to repeat his question, but she cut him off.
“Don’t. Don’t ask me. Please, leave me alone.”
He considered her request as he studied her face. He knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t say anything more on the subject. Not tonight, not tomorrow, probably not ever.
“Roll over.” His words were harsh. He wanted her to understand she could deny him the truth, but she would not deny him this.
“What?”
“You don’t want to talk—fine. You want to be left alone—fine. But I’m not leaving this room, darlin’, until I’ve seen for myself, with my own two eyes, that you aren’t seriously hurt. Now we can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way. Roll over.”
The seriousness of his expression must have convinced her refusal was futile. She smiled slightly and tried to cajole him out of his anger. “You’re just trying to sneak a peek at my ass.”
When her half-hearted joke failed to produce a response, she sighed heavily and rolled over. The blanket covered her and he had to reach up to pull it down.
When he did, it took all the strength in his body not to chase down her so-called boyfriend and kick the shit out of him again.
“It doesn’t hurt.” Her words were muffled by the pillow, but he could read the lie inside them.
He reached out slowly as if to touch her, but Kylie must have read his intent as she flinched away quickly, pulling the blanket back up. “I’m fine. Good night, Colt.”
He narrowed his eyes at her dismissal, but rose to leave.
“I’ll fix your door tomorrow, darlin’.”
She didn’t answer, so he didn’t say anything more. Besides, he had some thinking to do and a phone call to make. It was nearly one a.m. and Heath would cuss him out for waking him up, but he didn’t give a shit.
The time for action had come and serious changes were on the horizon for Miss Kylie Halston.