Sophie Oak - Lost in Bliss

Nate looked at them seriously. “Are you two really interested in trying this? None of that taking-turns shit. You have to be in this together. You have to be a team.”

Cam looked at Rafe, almost afraid of his reply. Rafe had far more to lose than Cam. Cam’s mother would sigh and then get another beer. She wouldn’t reject him. Rafe was running a risk.

“Cam has always been my partner,” Rafe said. “Even when we weren’t working together. Yes, we’re serious.”

“Then you need a plan, my brother,” Rye said with a friendly smile. “We’re good with plans.”

Max looked at his brother like he’d gone insane. “No, we’re not.

We’re horrible at them. Rachel always sees right through them.”

“Well, I’m good at them,” Stef said with complete confidence.

There was a loud snort from outside the office.

Every male eye in the room rolled.

“That’s ten, love,” Stef called out. “Do you want to make it twenty?”

“Fine,” a feminine voice called from behind the door. “We’ll go.

Callie has to use the bathroom anyway. And Rachel needs to feed Paige.”

Max flushed. “My life was easier when the only ones hanging off my wife’s boobs were me and my brother.” Cam finally laughed. Long and hard. It was ridiculous. It wasn’t normal. He was standing here talking about how he was going to share the woman he loved with his best friend.

And he felt happier than he had in a long time.

Rafe doubled over, his hand coming out to balance against Cam’s shoulder.

Cam stayed still so his partner didn’t fall.

He was quiet as they started to talk about how to win Laura.

His pretty rabbit paced, her arms crossed. She could feel the connection. He was certain of it. There was a tension to her body that let him know she was anxious. She was impatient. He wondered if she’d missed him.

They had an intimate connection—far more intimate than any sex she could have had. He’d held her life in his hand. For the hours they had been together, he had been her god.

He was going to do it again, and no one could stop him. Certainly not the two idiots who sat beside him, talking about the case and making plans. They had sat beside him for years never realizing that the killer they were looking for was right in the room.

This was why he needed her. She was the only one to see through him. Oh, for certain, she hadn’t seen past his mask, but he wouldn’t make that mistake this time. This time he wouldn’t wear the mask. No theatrics between them.

His cock hardened. It almost never did that anymore. Certainly when he was with one of his charges, administering discipline, he would become aroused, but almost never when he was simply thinking about it.

His rabbit did this for him.

He wouldn’t be able to hold it in. He answered his colleague on some meaningless point of procedure, but his brain was looking around the room.

So many ladies. And so many of them were naughty.

He would have liked to play with the one who tried to take her clothes off in a public forum, but her husband had saved her.

A pretty redhead walked behind a man.

“You don’t have to do this, Caleb. I really can get a ride with Laura,” the woman said. “I live right next door.”

“No.” The man simply herded her out the door.

Obviously they weren’t married. He wondered if the man with the gold and red hair would drop her at her doorstep. He doubted those two were having sex. These cabins were so easy to get into. No one here really protected themselves. He wondered if his rabbit would appreciate a friendly gift.

“I’m heading back to the motel,” the Marquis de Sade said, stretching and standing. “Nothing’s going to happen tonight. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

They nodded and gave him a friendly goodbye.

On his way out the door, he bumped into that obnoxious reporter.

She rolled her eyes.

“Excuse you,” she said with a huff as she fixed her hair and charged into the room past him.

He watched her ass sway in her tight skirt. She was a loose end.

She’d been useful over the years. Jana Evans had been more than willing to report what he told her to report. He’d always been careful with her. He used disposable cells to call her and never the same one twice. He gave nothing of himself. It had been mere coincidence that his rabbit had been involved with such a piranha.

Of course, piranhas had nothing on sharks.

He turned and followed the redhead and her escort. It was time to announce that the Marquis de Sade had arrived in Bliss.

“I don’t see why I can’t go to the bathroom, Logan.” Laura had to glare up at the deputy. This close, she could see the tired look in his eyes. Lately he’d taken to wearing a pair of aviators everywhere he went, but tonight he’d left them off, and there was no denying the red rim to his eyes. Logan Green was on the edge of something, and damn if Laura could figure out how to help him.

“Because you could be brutally murdered.”

“In the ladies room?”

He shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I was almost brutally murdered in my boss’s office. It happens.” And that was the trouble. Months before, Logan had been tortured by members of the Russian mob who had come to Bliss looking for a painting of Jen Waters’s. Logan had endured hours of painful questioning. It was a miracle he’d survived, but the sweet boy who loved comic books and napped at work was gone. That Logan Green had died, and Laura wasn’t sure how to get to the one who had taken his place. “Logan, you can stand outside, if you like. All the other women are allowed to go to the bathroom.” He looked down at her, an unmoving slab of granite. “I’ll let you go, but I stand outside the stall.”

She closed her eyes in frustration. She didn’t really need to go.

She just wanted a minute alone.

“All the other women are not being hunted by a serial killer,” he said without inflection.

He had been like this for thirty minutes. He followed her around, not speaking unless he needed to. He’d just been a hulking presence as she talked to Stella and her husband, Sebastian, about the wedding, and then Brooke Harper about how they were going to get Nell into a bra before Stef and Jen’s wedding. Not once had the deputy cracked a smile.

“Logan, do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly. It looked like she wasn’t going anywhere until Nate Wright decided to un-sic Logan.

There was only the fine tightening around his eyes to let her know he’d even heard her. He looked older than his twenty-three years. The last six months had given Logan a body to die for. It had toned and tightened him until even his face had lost its boyish charm and was replaced with a hard masculinity. But he’d also lost his joy.

“I know what it’s like,” she said. “You feel utterly helpless. You know what it means to be in someone else’s power, and it’s horrible.

It changes you, but it doesn’t have to ruin your whole life.” But wasn’t she letting it ruin hers? Hours she’d spent agonizing over letting Rafe and Cam go. Was she doing it for the right reasons?

Or was she just afraid?

No. She couldn’t think that way. It was selfish. She wasn’t afraid of them anymore. She had loved them once, but she’d proven that she could live without them, and happily at that. This was her home, and her friends were her family. Rafe and Cam would give up eventually, and they would find a life that made them happy, too. Rafe would go back to the FBI, and Cam would find someone to build a family with.

Logan simply stared at her as though he could read her thoughts.

“Sure. Voice of reason, huh? You’re totally adjusted, Laura. I’ll take that under consideration.”

“There she is!” Jana’s flat Midwestern cadence broke through the chatter surrounding Laura. Laura knew she’d cultivated that accent.

Jana was from Jersey. “You look…fine. I think the whole small-town girl thing will really sell this story.” She stared at Jana, wondering what to say. Laura had been reconsidering this little plan of hers. Maybe Rafe and Cam were right.

De Sade would come after her anyway. All she was doing by taunting him was bringing Bliss back into the spotlight. She was just about to open her mouth to tell Jana to go to hell when Rafe and Cam walked back into the hall, looks of grim determination on their faces. Stef, Nate, Zane, Max, and Rye walked after them. Every man walking in looked at her.

What the fuck was going on?

Whatever it was, Laura had the feeling it was going to be interesting.

Cam walked straight up to Jana. “You, go away.”

“I will not. I have an interview. Laura promised me. If I don’t get my interview, I’m going to run the story anyway. I can make her look good, or I can make her look like the cowardly FBI agent who doesn’t care that women are being killed.” Jana’s perfectly sculpted lips curled into a sneer. “I can make her look like the hero, or I can make her a complete pariah. It’s up to you.” Laura was just about to defend herself when Cam stared down at the reporter. “And I promise that if you attempt to smear her in any way, I will find a way to make your life hell. I am damn good with a computer. I got a stern talking-to from the government at the age of twelve because I managed to hack into several of their systems. They were kind enough to decide I wasn’t a criminal and took an interest in getting me into the FBI. I will turn criminal if that’s what it takes to fuck with you.”

Rafe turned to her as well. “And I have connections. I will use those connections to ensure that you are not hirable.” Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t do that.” Stef Talbot smiled lazily as he stepped forward. “Oh, I assure you I can. I happen to know that several of the heads of the networks are great lovers of art. A well-placed word and your career is in the toilet.