Maya Banks - Sweet Possession

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Lyric said carefully.

“Oh crap, men alert,” Faith said as she ducked farther underneath the water.

Lyric looked up to see the chef and one of his assistants carry out a platter of hors d’oeuvres.

“Oh stop it, Faith. You’re freaking gorgeous. Let them look and lust over what they’ll never have,” Julie said cheekily.

“You guys are so never telling Gray about this,” Faith squeaked. “He’ll kick my ass.”

The chef cleared his throat and did his best to avert his gaze, though Lyric could see him totally sneaking glances.

“I would be happy to provide drinks for you ladies. I have a fully stocked liquor cabinet, and one of my assistants is a trained bartender.”

“Ohhh, Lyric. You have all the good stuff,” Julie sighed.

Lyric grinned. “Well, order up. I’ve never tried drunk swimming before. Maybe we should see if any of the security team is a trained lifeguard?”

“Not a bad idea,” Faith said.

“Ask Sam to come out,” Serena said to the chef. “What?” she asked when the other women looked at her. “He’s seen me naked before. Hello? Damon keeps me naked pretty much twenty-four/seven when we’re at home.”

“Do I even want to know?” Lyric asked.

“Oh we’ll fill you in on Serena’s lifestyle after a few drinks,” Angelina said.

Serena turned and lifted an imperious brow in Angelina’s direction. “And yours?”

Angelina flushed but laughed good-naturedly. “Okay, maybe not.”

“There I go, feeling frighteningly boring again,” Lyric said. “You guys are killing me with all these interesting comments.”

“I’m the only normal slash sane one in this group,” Julie said.

Julie was immediately swamped with waves of water as Faith, Angelina and Serena all drenched her.

“Drinks, ladies?” the chef reminded.

“Oh yeah, forgot,” Lyric said. And now that the chef and his wide-eyed assistant had gotten quite the show . . .

“Hmm, why don’t you surprise us?” Serena suggested. “Make us some yummy, fruity cocktails with the cute little umbrellas. We can stage our own little beach getaway here at the pool.”

The chef nodded, then turned and had to nudge his assistant to get him to snap his attention away from the women.

Angelina grabbed on to one of the floaties and rested her chin atop it as she floated lazily in the deep end. “This is so nice. I feel like a walrus, mind you, but man, this feels wonderful.”

“I’m so glad you all came,” Lyric said. “This has been such a great day and now it’s only better.”

“Oh? Do tell,” Julie prompted.

Lyric grinned and she reached for one of the floats lying on the side of the pool, then propelled herself along the surface of the water so that she floated close to Angelina.

“I fired my manager.”

“Whoa. Really?” Faith asked.

Lyric nodded. “Yep. Thanks to Connor.”

“Wow, we obviously need deets here,” Julie said.

“I’ll tell you all about it. Over drinks,” she said smugly.

Connor pinched the bridge of his nose and put down the last report in his stack. He checked his watch. He and Kane had been sequestered for the entire afternoon. They’d crawled through the lives of every single person even remotely attached to Lyric or her tour.

The problem was, there were more than a few who’d raised serious flags. How they ever got hired in the first place would remain a mystery to Connor. Which further cemented his opinion that Lyric’s entire operation was half-assed and run by morons.

He laid aside four profiles that required more than a cursory runthrough. One guy in particular had riled Connor’s what-the-fuck meter. He had priors for assault. There were two restraining orders issued by former girlfriends, and his old man was in jail for domestic violence.

Still, Connor had his money on the two fuck-buddy bodyguards. Maybe he was prejudiced against them, given that they’d slept with the woman he was currently sleeping with, but the evidence was stacked against them. They had opportunity and access. What Connor wasn’t sure of, however, was motive.

He picked up the phone to call Gray. He and Nathan could do quite a bit of legwork, which would leave Connor to focus his attention on the most important thing: Keeping Lyric safe.

“Hey, man,” he said when Gray answered.

“Hey, stranger. You’ve survived Lyric, I see.”

“She’s not so bad,” he defended, and then winced. He needed to just shut the hell up.

“Uh-huh. So what’s up?”

Connor relayed the information to Gray, who stopped him so he could take notes. “Can you fax me those reports you have?” he asked after a moment.

“I’ll e-mail them to you. Kane has them on his computer.”

“Kane?”

“He’s heading up the security team Armstrong hired.”

“Ah okay. He good?”

“Yeah,” Connor said. “Seems on top of things.”

“What the ever-loving hell?” Kane said from across the room.

“Hang on a second, Gray.”

Connor put the phone down to his leg and frowned over at Kane, who was looking out the window. “Something wrong?”

Kane turned around, his lips twitching. “Depends on whether you consider a pool full of naked girls a bad thing.”

“What?”

Connor got up and strode across the room to look down at the pool below. “Oh Christ!”

He yanked the phone back up. “Gray, mind telling me what the hell your wife is doing over here? And naked, I might add. For God’s sake, man, she’s my sister! My eyes are burning!”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Faith is out shopping with the girls.”

“Uh, no. They’re all in Lyric’s pool. Butt-ass naked, I might add.”

There was dead silence on the other end.

“Look, I got to go. I need to handle this,” Connor said. And before Gray could respond, Connor cut the connection.

“Looks like a hell of a party,” Kane murmured.

Connor followed Kane’s gaze to the clothing draped from one end of the pool area to the other. Hell, there were panties dangling from the shrubbery. He closed his eyes. “Why me?”

“Clearly I don’t have your issues,” Kane said in amusement. “None of them are related to me.”

“You just keep your damn eyes to yourself,” Connor growled. “They’re all attached. Very attached.”

Kane raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I hadn’t realized Lyric was taken.”

“Fuck you,” Connor muttered.

He turned and started down the stairs, trying not to focus on the fact that five very naked, very beautiful women were swimming in the pool. Or how the hell he was going to fish them all out. Preferably before their very pissed-off husbands showed up.

He found the kitchen in turmoil. Every single one of the kitchen assistants was busting his nuts to be the one taking trays out to the pool.

He stopped them with a single glare. They retreated into the kitchen, nearly stumbling in their haste to avoid Connor.

He stalked toward the door leading to the patio and pool area. As soon as he opened the door, the air was filled with chatter and laughter. Music reverberated through the air, and to his horror, the girls had taken up a game of volleyball, using an imaginary net.

Nothing, however, was imaginary about the way they came out of the water to hit the ball back and forth.

He quickly scanned the patio but found only Sam, standing legs apart, arms over chest, his gaze focused on an area much higher than where the girls were swimming.

“Anyone mind telling me what the hell is going on here?” he demanded.

Five women simultaneously slid under the water until only their noses were visible.

“Well hell, don’t hide now. Not like everyone in the house hasn’t seen you by now.”

Lyric scowled. “Sam alerts us when anyone steps out of the door. Or he did anyway. Somehow you got by.”

“Uh-huh. And the security team, which is charged with your safety, mind you, are all getting an eyeful as we speak since they can’t very well not protect you and watch out for you just because you decided to have a party. Which, I might add, was completely unauthorized, and you were specifically told you couldn’t have company. Nor were you to so much as take a piss without mine or Kane’s knowledge.”

Julie giggled. Then Serena joined in. Angelina snickered and Faith sighed.

“Okay, okay,” Faith said in resignation. “So he totally does have a stick up his ass.”

The four other women burst into laughter. He glared at every one of them, not that it did a damn bit of good. They laughed and kept laughing until tears ran down their cheeks.

“I’m glad you find this so damn amusing,” he growled.

Lyric swam over to the side of the pool where he stood, and before he could react, she pulled herself out and stood before him, naked as the day she was born, and goddamn if he didn’t react to the sight of her dripping wet, beads of water running over some very strategic areas. Goose bumps immediately dotted her flesh, causing her nipples to tighten as she shivered in front of him.

“For God’s sake,” he said hoarsely. “Where are your damn clothes? You’re going to freeze to death.”

She stuck out her bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. “We’re having fun, Connor. The guys are looking out for us, right? What could possibly happen? Are you expecting a team of assassins to swoop in and murder us all in the pool?”

“That’s not the point and you know it.”

“Look, I didn’t know they were coming, but I wasn’t going to tell them to go away. I enjoy their company. You and Kane were off doing your thing. I was happy to have them over. I like them.”