Sitting in his truck, he didn't immediately leave the parking lot. He dug his phone out of his gym bag and swiped the screen. There were no messages or missed calls which he took as a good sign. Because he had the LookIt app on his phone and followed Bee, he received a notification any time she posted. He tapped the icon and waited for the page to load.
Kelly grinned the moment the image appeared on his screen. Bee had framed her smiling, beautiful face with her fingers in the shape of a heart. There was no caption to the photo or even a line of text accompanying the post but it had already drawn nearly nine thousand likes and hundreds of comments. He checked the time stamp. It had only been live for a few hours.
Though he enjoyed her secret message to him, Kelly begrudgingly admitted that Finn might have been right in his assessment of her and the current situation. Had she even considered that her stalker might believe this message was meant for him? He hated the thought of laying down the law with her but it had to be done.
When he reached the penthouse, his muscles protested every single step. Sully greeted him at the door this time. Despite being off the clock and already in his pajama bottoms and t-shirt, the man was armed and ready for anything that might come across the threshold.
"You need me to carry you?" Sully leaned against the wall and seemed to delight in the agony Kelly experienced.
He lobbed a one-fingered salute the other man's way. "Where's Winn?"
"He's in the kitchen going over the dossiers Spike sent over." Sully locked the door and reactivated the alarm. "Bee left some ibuprofen for you and had the restaurant on the ground floor send up fifty pounds of ice before they closed for the night. It's stowed in the second freezer in the kitchen."
Touched by her consideration, he decided to thank her very nicely later. "She still awake?"
"No idea. She came in about an hour ago to get something to eat and then disappeared back into her room. She was on her phone so I didn't ask about her plans for the night."
"Who was she talking to?"
"Someone named Haley?" He shrugged. "I only heard snippets of the conversation."
"Hadley," he corrected. "It's one of her friends."
"The DJ?"
He shook his head. "That's Coby."
Sully made a face. "Who names their daughter Coby?"
"It's Jacob, actually. She's named after her dad. He was a SEAL."
"No shit?"
"Yeah."
"Was?"
"He was killed over there. 2005," added. "Iraq."
Sully looked a bit surprised. "I might have known him."
"I never met him but I gather he was a damn good operator." He gestured to the kitchen. "I'm going to talk to Winn and then hit the sheets."
To his credit, Sully didn't crack any jokes. In the kitchen, he found Winn seated at the island. Sheets of paper, neatly stacked and already labeled with brightly colored notes, surrounded him. The quiet Brit didn't even glance up as Kelly entered the kitchen and dropped his bag near the door. "You need help putting together some ice packs?"
"I've got it but thanks for the offer." Snatching up the bottle of ibuprofen, he twisted off the cap and shook a couple tablets into his palm. "Anything interesting in the dossiers?"
"That depends on your definition of interesting, I suppose. I'm sorting these in three stacks according to their threat rating—red, yellow, green. I want to triage these for Spike so he has less work to do."
"Let me get situated, and I'll help."
Winn pointed to the corner. "There are plastic bags in that drawer."
"Thanks." He found the zip-top bags and filled two with ice. Grabbing two dishtowels and a bottle of sports drink, he eased onto a stool opposite Winn. He draped a towel over his thigh and another across his sore shoulder and covered them with the ice bags.
"Did you know that Bee's company only has six male employees?"
"I did." He tossed back the ibuprofen with a long drink of the berry-flavored fluid. "She was part of a symposium earlier this year about encouraging women into STEM-related studies and careers. There are a series of articles posted online. It's good reading."
Winn tapped his pen against his notepad. "The four men who work at the company aren't likely stalker candidates. There are a handful of ex-employees who fit the bill, that Trevor and Richard among them." He handed over a stack of folders. "These aren't complete yet but Spike has sent over what he has."
As Kelly flipped through the pages of information Spike had collected, he marveled at the man's ability to scour publicly available databases and the internet. Without a legal warrant, there were barriers to what he could find but somehow Spike always managed to come through for the team. The rumors around LSG pegged Spike as a former intelligence officer, maybe even CIA. Seeing Spike's handiwork first-hand, Kelly had to wonder if those rumors weren't based in reality.
"She had a high-turnover two years ago," Winn mentioned. "I flagged the employee names that coincided with that time so Spike can dig deeper."
Kelly scratched his chin. "That's around the time she moved into the offices downstairs. Yuri convinced her that it was time to stop operating out of coffee shops and dorm rooms so she took the twelfth floor."
"She started to see phenomenal growth after that. It was clearly a good business move."
"Yes, it was." Kelly reached for the copies of the text messages and photos she had received. He turned the erection snapshots face down because they infuriated him. Reading through the messages, he started to get a strange feeling. "Winn, you notice anything odd about these texts?"
Winn finished making his note, peeled off the sticky sheet and slapped it onto a file. "I had a distinct feeling they were written by two different people."
"So do I," Kelly murmured. He separated the messages into two stacks. "These read as threats and these read almost like…love letters. He's telling her how beautiful she is in her dress and how the green ribbon in her hair makes her brown eyes pop."
"He sounds like he's totally obsessed with her." Winn tapped the threatening stack. "This guy sounds angry. 'Without me, you'd have nothing.' It's an entirely different tone."
"Agreed." Picking up the photos, Kelly flicked through them. He ignored the creep's dick that was front and center in each snapshot and studied the backgrounds. "Look at the way he's framing his junk."
"I'd rather not."
Kelly slid the photos across the island to Winn. He reached for his cell phone and brought up the photo of Bee using her fingers to form a heart. Showing his screen to Winn, he said, "See the way Bee communicated with me?"
Winn's reddish eyebrow lifted toward his hairline. "Yes."
"Now look at the way her stalker is presenting himself to her. It's almost as if he's making an offering. It's…reverent."
"It's fucking disgusting." Winn flipped over the photos. "But I see your point."
Kelly studied the information in front of them. "What if we have two stalkers? One of them is probably an ex-employee or someone she's crossed paths with during her rise to fame."
"The other one, the one who is infatuated with her, is the one we should be worried about the most."
Kelly conferred with Winn's assessment. The man had broken into Bee's home at least twice and had left behind his semen without any fear. He was following her around and getting close enough to make remarks about changing her perfume. The knowledge that one of her stalkers had been within sniffing distance of Bee spurred Kelly's protective instincts into overdrive. If he'd gotten that close, he could have snatched her.
"After my morning workout, I'll call Dimitri and fill him in on these new developments. We need to adjust our strategy if we're looking for two very different men."
"What time are you heading out in the morning?"
"I'll try to be out of here by a quarter past four. I'll be back before eight."
"Don't rush." Winn gathered up the photos. "She's in good hands, Kelly. We're taking good care of her for you."
"I appreciate
it." Feeling guilty, he awkwardly added, "I realize this situation isn't ideal—"
"Kelly, there isn't a man on the duty roster at LSG who hasn't had to step into that gray world you're in right now. We've all been there—and some of us have done much worse than fight in an underground tournament."
He wondered what Winn might have done that put that haunted look on his face but he didn't ask. Something told him it wasn't a story he would enjoy hearing or Winn would like to tell.
After draining the bottle of sports drink and tossing it into the recycling bin, he grabbed his bag and made the trek to the master suite. When he stepped inside, he discovered Bee sprawled on her side, fast asleep. She had two laptops opened on the bed and the TV blaring in the background. Her cell phone rested on the pillow next to her. Two empty soda cans and a bag of half-eaten crunchy cheese puffs sat on the bedside table.
Normally, that sort of untidiness would drive him crazy but Bee had a way of making it seem cute. He'd watched her work on numerous occasions. She seemed to disappear into her own world where nothing and no one could reach her.
Here, in the safety of the penthouse, it was perfectly fine for her to get lost in her lines of code. How easy would it be for her stalker to sneak up on her in a coffee shop or restaurant while she worked? He shuddered at the idea of how many times that exact scenario might have already happened.
Leaning over her, he stroked her soft cheek and pressed a tender kiss to her temple. He closed her two laptops and placed them in a chair before moving her phone to the bedside table. He picked up the trash and carried it into the bathroom.
By the time he'd brushed his teeth and stripped down to his boxer-briefs, Kelly was dead on his feet. He flipped off the lamps and slipped into bed next to Bee. The movement woke her and she bolted upright. Reaching out, he dragged her against his chest and patted her hip. "Easy, sweetheart. It's me."
Curling up against him, she pressed feather-light kisses against his jaw and idly caressed his chest. "I tried to wait up for you but I guess I was more tired than I thought."
"You've had a rough couple of days."
"So have you," she murmured against his neck. "How was your training session?"
"Brutal. How is Hadley?"
"She's having the time of her life, apparently. She's in China now. Beijing," she said. "The pictures are so incredible."
He detected the hint of envy in her voice. Wanting her to know that he considered their fledging relationship a long-term thing, he threaded his fingers through her hair and said, "Why don't we go on vacation after this whole thing settles down?"
"Really?"
"Really."
"I'd like that." Her hand moved gently along his stomach to the very top of his underwear before gliding back up his chest. She seemed oblivious to the effect her touch had on him. After their afternoon of heavy petting, he'd whet his appetite for Bee. His dick ached to be buried in her snug, wet pussy but he didn't think they were ready for that step—yet. Even so, he couldn't turn off the biological signals that were diverting blood to his throbbing cock.
"I keep a dream vacation folder in my desk filled with photos and brochures."
He tried to think of anything but the way her fingertips felt as they grazed the sensitive patch of skin just below his navel. "That's very analog of you."
"Even a girl in the digital world needs a break from a computer screen once in a while."
As if feeling adventurous, Bee let her hand slide lower. He held his breath but there was no way to stop the automatic twitch of his cock as her hand drifted dangerously close to the hard-on straining against his boxer-briefs. He knew the moment she felt the evidence of his arousal. Her breathing hitched and she gave him a playful squeeze.
"Looks like one of us isn’t that tired," she teased.
Kelly laughed softly. "Sugar, I could be knocking on death's door and your touch would make me hard."
"Just my touch?" She peppered ticklish kisses down his chest while sneaking her hand under the elastic band of his of his boxer-briefs. When she wrapped her fingers around his shaft, Kelly didn't even try to stifle his groan of enjoyment. Her silky, warm digits felt so fucking good as they stroked up and down his hard length.
She flipped back the covers and kissed her way down his chest and abdomen. Tugging on the waistband, she freed his cock and shocked him by placing a kiss right on the tip of it. Before she could proceed, he shielded himself with his hand. "You don't have to—"
"I want to," she said, almost breathlessly. "Please? I've been thinking about it since you left. I want to try. With you."
Hearing her practically beg to suck his cock snapped his control. Voice husky with need, he commanded, "Turn on the light. I want to see you."
She happily complied and was back at his side before he'd even adjusted to the sudden brightness in the room. Grasping the bottom of her camisole, he pulled it over her head and threw it aside. His hands moved over naked skin, memorizing the feel of her perky breasts and the smooth plane of her belly. Her jerked on her tiny shorts and dragged them down her thighs. "Take these off."
She followed his gruff order, falling to her side and wiggling out of them before kicking them off to the floor. He smiled at her eagerness and gave her plump bottom a playful smack. "Come here, sugar."
Bee fell into his waiting arms and let him kiss her until she was moaning and arching into him. When he tried to take the aggressor's role, she shoved him down and wagged a finger in his face. "This is my turn to play."
"I have a better idea." He sat up and nipped at her lower lip. "Let's both play."
She eyed him almost warily. "What do you have in mind?"
"Straddle me," he ordered, "but face my feet."
She considered his instruction. "But then my…you know…would be…"
He grinned wolfishly and claimed her mouth in a sensual, promising kiss. "Exactly. Now—come here."
She giggled as he manhandled her, pulling her onto him and twisting her around into just the right position. He could feel her trembling with excitement and nervousness as he hauled her parted thighs higher up on his chest. Nuzzling his face between them, he sought out the pink bud hidden there and flicked his tongue against it.
"Oh. My. God." Bee tried to wriggle out of his grasp but he held firmly to her hips and kept her right where he wanted her. Her short nails scratched at his legs when he lapped at her clit. "Kelly!"
He chuckled against her sweet pussy and continued his sensual assault on the most sensitive part of her. She recovered from the shock of his tongue fluttering over her swollen clitoris and began to explore his cock. She painted his shaft with saliva before sucking just the crown of him into her mouth. He groaned at the amazing sensation and fought the urge to pump up into at that hot, wet alcove.
Balls buzzing and gut clenching, he relished the velvety rasp of her tongue against his cock. What she lacked in skill, she more than made up for in enthusiasm. She drove him fucking wild with her passionate moans. The humming vibrations rattled through his shaft and amplified the wicked sensation of her tight lips.
Loving the taste of her, Kelly attacked her clit with a steady circling rhythm. He could feel her thighs clenching, her knees digging into his sides as she chased her climax. Gripping her hips, he craned his neck and attacked her pussy. Hell bent on making her come first, he suckled her clit, drawing on the pink pearl and fluttering his tongue over it until she pulled away from his cock with a muffled howl.
"Yes!" She came hard, rocking and thrusting back against his mouth. "Oh! Oh!"
He loved the way she let loose with him. He wanted her to feel free to explore the sensual side of herself, to enjoy the blossoming eroticism that their time together was awakening.
She was still shaking with the aftershocks of her climax when she wrapped her lips around him again and began sucking him in earnest. Lazily tonguing her, he let go of the stranglehold on his own release. Just as groin tightened and those electric jolts began, he tried to pull free
from her mouth. "Wait. Bee, you don't need to—oh, fuck! Fuck!"
She stunned him by swallowing him as deep as she could and hungrily groaning. There was no way he could hold back now. The top of his head felt as if it might blow off. At the first blast of his semen against her tongue, she made a surprised sound but didn't pull back. She responded with enthusiasm and drank him down with such eagerness.
Totally spent, he sagged against the mattress while she licked him clean. Overcome with exhaustion, Kelly watched her flick off the lamp. He grasped her hand and cuddled up against him. They shared a few passionate, sleepy kisses before settling down to sleep.
Despite his tiredness, Kelly managed to stay awake longer than Bee. Stroking her arm and petting her silky hair, he allowed himself to dream about the future. For so many years, he'd been living day to day, maybe week to week. Holding Bee, Kelly wondered what it would be like to have her in his arms every night.
Once they caught her stalkers—and they would—he would have to make a decision. He could get used to this. Going back into the field wouldn't be an option. How could he guard a protectee when he would be constantly thinking of Bee?
He was still mulling over thoughts of his future when he finally succumbed to the lull of sleep. Sometime later, the most annoying ringtone ripped him out of his dreams. He sat up and glanced around the dark room to get his bearings. It was just before four. His alarm would go off soon but it wasn't his phone ringing.
Reaching over, he gently shook Bee. "Sugar, it's your phone."
She mumbled something and slapped at his hand. He gave her another shake. "Bee. Wake up. Your phone."
Groaning, she rolled over and smacked at the bedside table until she located her phone. Answering groggily, she greeted, "Hello? Hari? Do you know what time it—what? When? Shit. Okay. Okay. Call everyone and get them in as quickly as possible. I'll be down in a few minutes."
Instantly alert, Kelly braced for the worst as she hung up, flicked on the lamp and scrambled from bed. "What's wrong, baby?"