Four
JAMIE
“It matters because no woman, least of all one like you, should feel like she doesn’t measure up.”
She made a tsking noise with her mouth and avoided my eyes. “You don’t even know me.”
“No, I sure don’t. But from what I see, you can compete with any woman in this place.”
“Even if that were true, pretty doesn’t mean worthwhile. I could be a raging bitch. You don’t know.”
I shook my head. “Nah. If that were true, you’d have screamed and hollered at Cosmos for taking your friend away.
And when he ordered me to escort you through the club?
You didn’t even blink an eye or protest. You came along quietly, trusting us both.
A raging bitch would have made all kinds of demands, fighting like hell to stay with their friend. ”
Hubble and his wife, Jade, left the couch and walked over to me while the others in the group picked up their things and left. “You need someone to stay with you?” he asked.
“I’m good.”
“All right. See you tomorrow. Seventeen hundred hours. Meet at the office. Wheels up at seventeen-thirty.”
“Copy that.”
With a nod, the couple trailed out of the booth behind the others, leaving me alone with Abby’s friend.
After they left, I pulled the blackout curtains closed. Not to shut her off from escaping, but to drown out some of the noise from the DJ so we could hear each other.
“Want a drink, little goddess? Not sure how long we’ll wait for your friend.”
“Um… water is good. Abby drove, but depending on what happens tonight, I might need to find my own way back to the hotel.”
From behind the main leather sofa, I grabbed a chilled bottle of water from the ice bucket and handed it to her. “I don’t know what the story is with your friend, but when Cosmos found out she was here, it rocked him hard.”
“I bet it did.”
While not my specialty, I’d picked up some interrogation tactics from Edge, another Marine in our unit.
He used silence as his tactic. Usually, it made people nervous, and then eventually most told you what you wanted to know without even really asking them a question.
However, this girl didn’t succumb to this technique.
Whatever was going on between her friend and my boss, she wasn’t sharing what she knew.
I respected her loyalty. She went up another point on my scale of worth.
I gestured to the sofa. “Sit down.” I sat in one of the matching leather chairs so I wouldn’t make her more nervous.
She looked everywhere but at me, so I used the time to observe her.
The first second I laid eyes on her, I felt thunderstruck.
Petite and curvy. With her dark hair up on top of her head, I couldn’t tell exactly how long it was, but based on the individual loose tendrils she had pulled and curled from it, I bet I could wrap it around my fist if it hung loose.
Yeah, bastard that I am, I went there. Didn’t know this girl.
Didn’t have time to get to know this girl, which honestly wasn’t really my style anyway.
At least beyond the surface get-to-know-you chit-chat you made before you took a girl to the nearest bed.
But based on her interest in the doings of the barbarian and his kitty cat, I wondered if she would be interested in a hookup.
However, my new boss ordered me to take care of her right now, not pull up her skirt and fuck her into tomorrow. Pity.
“What is this place?” I heard her ask.
I raised an eyebrow at her and smirked as I brought my beer bottle to my mouth and took a long pull.
Cute as fuck, she rolled her eyes and gave a little sigh. “I mean, I know what it is, I just…”
“You mean, how does a BDSM club catering to cosplay fanatics exist in the middle of an unassuming Chicago suburb?”
“Exactly.”
Shrugging, I placed my empty bottle on the table carved and painted to appear like a bed of cartoon mushrooms. “Not really sure myself. First time here. I started working with this group yesterday, and this was supposed to be ‘New Guy Initiation Night’ until we got the message the two of you were here. Apparently, Cosmos is part owner of the joint, and I guess a few other kink clubs across the country. There hasn’t really been time to get much information from him. ”
“Abby didn’t give me much information either.
She gave me this costume to put on and dragged me along to see if she could find Christopher.
She warned me about the cosplay part, but she was so nervous, she left out a lot of information.
What I pictured from her descriptions, and what I’m seeing and experiencing are two completely different things. ”
“But you like it, don’t you?”
Her brown eyes met mine, surprised at being called out. I enjoyed keeping her on edge. There was something sexy about it. A little innocent, but a lot curious. Made me hopeful she’d open up a bit more.
“What do you do for your boss?”
I leaned forward, elbows on my thighs. “Reynolds Protection Service. Bodyguarding. Escorting through hostile territory. Security training. Basically, anything to do with protection.”
“And you started yesterday?”
“Yep. I go to my first job tomorrow night. Three months of providing bodyguard services for Jaded’s lead singer. She, her husband, and one of the other members of her detail were the last to walk out of here.”
Her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’, but this time the surprise in her eyes twinkled with glee. “I thought she looked familiar.” Then her brow furrowed slightly, as if the excitement of having indirectly met Jade lost some of its luster. “You’ll be with her the whole time?”
“One hundred days, to be exact. And yes, it’s a long job, but I’m used to long assignments.”
“You were in the military, weren’t you?”
“Marines.”
“Neither your job nor the military really allows for settling down. Don’t you get lonely?”
“Not really. I’m a pretty easygoing guy, so I make friends fast, and I don’t get too hung up when it’s time to move on.
When I come back to a place, if I see someone I knew before, I’m able to pick up where I left off, as if I was never gone.
When it’s time to leave again, I say ‘see you later’ rather than ‘goodbye'.”
There was a whole other level of conversation going on here, and I could tell that she knew it.
She definitely felt the sparks between us, but it’s not fair of me to let her get her hopes up.
I’m a one-and-gone guy, mostly. I don’t say “done” because occasionally I’ve been a repeat offender when I see someone after a long stint away, but more for nostalgia’s sake than anything else.
Then I’m off and on to the next place… and woman.
My little goddess is gorgeous, though. I already saw her as a repeat call should the opportunity ever arise, but that was dangerous territory.
She seemed to have the whole settle-down-and-have-a-family vibe.
Even once, let alone repeating, with someone like that could be hurtful to them.
Pursuing her tonight wouldn’t be fair. Chicago’s a big place, but eerily enough, even in a large city, when you were trying not to run into someone, it seemed like you never stopped seeing them.
Somehow, I got the feeling it would be hard to hold to the one-and-done philosophy with this woman. I should have felt unsettled about that, but that feeling never came.