A Masters and Mercenaries Crossover Event
By Lexi Blake
Coming April 10, 2018
Click to pre-order
Remy Guidry doesn’t do relationships. He tried the marriage thing once, back in Louisiana, and learned the hard way that all he really needs in life is a cold beer, some good friends, and the occasional hookup. His job as a bodyguard with McKay-Taggart gives him purpose and lovely perks, like access to Sanctum. The last thing he needs in his life is a woman with stars in her eyes and babies in her future.
Lisa Daley’s life is finally going in the right direction. She has finally graduated from college after years of putting herself through school. She’s got a new job at an accounting firm and she’s finished her Sanctum training. Finally on her own and having fun, her life seems pretty perfect. Except she’s lonely and the one man she wants won’t give her a second look.
There is one other little glitch. Apparently, her new firm is really a front for the mob and now they want her dead. Assassins can really ruin a fun girls’ night out. Suddenly strapped to the very same six-foot-five-inch hunk of a bodyguard who makes her heart pound, Lisa can’t decide if this situation is a blessing or a curse.
As the mob closes in, Remy takes his tempting new charge back to the safest place he knows—his home on the bayou. Surrounded by his past, he can’t help wondering if Lisa is his future. To answer that question, he just has to keep her alive.
* * * *
“The Daleys are perfect examples of what a family can do when they band together, work hard, and help lift each other up. I’m the only failure.”
Remy sat back as though considering how to handle her. “You have an MBA, Lisa. That’s not a failure. The job market isn’t great right now. That’s not your fault.”
Of course, he didn’t know the whole story. “I got a job easily enough. Two weeks out of school and I was making seventy K. Then I blew the whistle on my employer. Apparently that gets around.”
He frowned, the expression doing nothing to make him less gorgeous. “Blew the whistle?”
“I work in accounting. My boss runs the biggest valet service in DFW. Lots of cash,” she began.
His eyes widened. “Cash? He was laundering money?”
Well, no one could accuse him of not understanding how the world worked. She hadn’t even considered it. She’d walked into that job like fucking Snow White, with birds singing on her shoulders. Everything was happy and shiny in her eyes. “See, that’s what Bridget said the minute I mentioned he offered valet services. She told me I had to be careful because cash intensive businesses are magnets for the mafia and drug dealers and…how did she put it…douche canoes with dirty money. Have you ever met a crazed, paranoid person who turns out to always be right? It’s annoying. Something happens or we meet someone new, Bridget comes up with some crazed theory and we all laugh and bam, a month later the guy who sent Lila flowers for saving his life in the ER is taken away on a seventy-two-hour psych hold after trying to break into her house.”
Remy shook his head. “Your sister had a stalker?”
Lisa sighed. “Yeah. And he seemed so nice.”
“Maybe you should listen to Bridget more.”
Bridget thought she should be in a safe house. The idea sent a shiver through her. “Anyway, I found the doctored books, went to the cops, and now my old boss got off on a technicality and I’m left without a job or any way to get a job because I have zero references and oddly enough, no one wants to hire the whistle-blower.”
Remy had sat back up, his spine going straight and that hawkish look he got when he was hyper aware coming into his eyes. “Whoa, are you telling me the man you tried to send to jail is out and you were walking around this afternoon without any protection?”
Did everyone think she was an idiot? “Of course not. I have pepper spray.”
“Pepper spray isn’t going to stop the damn mafia.”
“Well, neither did the truth, so I don’t see why they would come after me now.” This wasn’t the conversation she wanted to have with him. Of course she wasn’t sure what she wanted from him.
Except sex. Except comfort. Except one night where she didn’t sit up and worry about what was going to happen to her.
He was leaving soon. Not just leaving the apartment building. He was leaving town and he wouldn’t be back. That actually made it way easier. Was she brave enough to ask him again? He’d said he was scared of her, but if she promised she wasn’t looking for anything but a couple of hot nights from him, would that change his mind?
Or had it all been bullshit? Had he been attempting to be kinder to her than he’d been before?
“Lisa? Are you listening to me?”
Nope. “Yes, of course.”
He stared at her like he knew she hadn’t. “I was saying you need to take this seriously. You’re in a dangerous position.”
“Jimmy isn’t violent. He’s a jerk but he’s not violent.” Suddenly she wasn’t so hungry. The whole day had been one long mistake. Did she need to cap it by making one more? “You know what? I’m really tried. I think I’m going to go to bed.”
“So I hit on a touchy subject and you punish me by sending me away?”
“No, I’m tired and I had a shitty day and I want to go to bed.”
“I want to go to bed, too.”
The moment seemed to stop, his words right out there in the open, his eyes intent on her. There was heat in those eyes.
“Ask me again, Lisa. Give me another chance.”
All the reasons she shouldn’t fell away because damn it, she was an optimist and at some point in time her luck had to change. She didn’t want to miss that because she was too scared to try. “Would you like to go to bed with me, Sir?”
“Tell me why you left the club.”
Damn it. That wasn’t an answer. “Because I gave up my car and I didn’t want to admit it to my family because they’re nosy as hell. Because I’ve been too depressed to play. Because I couldn’t play with the man I wanted to play with.”
His hand came out and he tugged her up, maneuvering her until she was sitting on his lap.
And what a comfy lap it was. She fit easily, her butt on his big thigh, his muscular arm around her waist making her feel dainty and feminine.
“I’m going home soon and I likely won’t be back,” he explained.
She nodded. “It’s okay. I wasn’t looking to get married. I’ll be honest. When I asked you six months ago, I was looking for a Dom, but not now. Now I just want someone to help me get through the night.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, ma crevette,” he whispered in her ear. His cheek rubbed lightly against hers, letting her feel that masculine scruff he always seemed to have. “But I have to go home and it’s not a place you would be happy.”
“I have a home, Remy.” God, how had she gone from bone tired to every cell in her body awake and alive with anticipation. “I don’t need some man to come in and save me. Well, except from how long the nights are lately. I could use a rescue from that. I’m not asking you to be my knight in shining armor. I’m just asking if you want to spend tonight with me.”
“No.”
She stiffened and started to get off his lap, but his arms were a cage around her.
“Hush,” he admonished. “We’re talking and we’re negotiating. I’m not about to lie to you again. I will want more than one night with you. I won’t be able to hop into your bed and hop back out again and pretend like it never happened. I’ve wanted you for far too long for that to happen. Can we make a deal? A contract?”
A contract with her dream Dom? It was likely one more bad idea in a long line of them, but she found herself nodding. Why would she say no? Her pride? Her pride hadn’t gotten her anything good lately. Because she was worried about being hurt? She’d been numb for so long that being hurt seemed like a halfway decent trade-off for feeling anything at all. He was being upfront with her. “Yes.”
His hands moved on her waist, brushing up toward her breasts. “God, chère, this is where I’m supposed to set you across from me and we talk about what we want and need out of this contract.”
“I want an orgasm, Remy,” she stated plainly. “Can we forego the negotiations tonight and agree that we’re going to get into bed and not leave again until you’ve made me come a couple of times?”
“Oh, I like how you negotiate,” he whispered.