Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries #11)(99)

Nothing. Her girl parts didn’t spark. No deep desire to shed her panties. No desire at all. Ezra was a lovely man but he was like a painting to her. Something to admire, but not touch. She’d been relieved when he would disappear for chunks of time, leaving her with a female bodyguard McKay-Taggart had sent so he could take a couple of days off.

Kayla Summers was awesome. She was up on all the TV shows and never minded when Mia wanted to walk the streets to get some inspiration. Kayla just viewed any super-long city walk as a chance to try all the local street food.

One of the things she intended to talk to her brothers about was a change in bodyguards. Ezra had been perfectly pleasant for the most part, but something about him bothered her. Now that her attention wasn’t constantly on Case Taggart, she’d had time to study Ezra. She’d noted his secrecy. Oh, he tried to pretend he didn’t take phone calls in the middle of the night that suddenly stopped the minute she walked in the room. And then there were the trips to Dallas that he lied about.

At first she’d thought about declaring herself bodyguard free, but then she’d started to feel like someone was watching her. It had begun in Loa Mali. She’d felt eyes on her, an instinctive sense that someone was watching. It had followed her back to Austin. She was probably paranoid, but she wasn’t giving up the bodyguard.

Which meant until she could convince Kayla Summers to come on full time, she was stuck with Ezra.

Which meant she had to tell Ezra about the e-mail she’d gotten from Tony. He had a new line on Theo and he was willing to meet her here in Austin. Naturally, he’d done the whole song and dance about not telling anyone and meeting in complete privacy, but like she was going to do that. Ezra was good at making himself scarce and still being around. He’d proven that in London when she’d had a nasty run-in with a guy who wanted to steal her bag.

And again in Paris right before they flew home. Someone had been in her room, but Ezra had managed to run the man off.

Thieves, it seemed, were everywhere.

“You haven’t checked the voice mail on this phone,” Riley said, setting the phone on her dresser and striding over to sit next to her. “That’s your old phone. I might not have turned it off when you asked me to.”

“Did you forget? I knew I should have asked your secretary. Wait. Does Bambi know how to call and get a phone turned off?” Her brother tended to hire his assistants based on their boob size.

He held his hands up. “Her name was Brooke and she turned out to be not what I was looking for in an assistant.”

Mia felt her lips curl up. The work relationship tended to get messy once Riley had slept with his assistants a couple of times. “Got clingy, huh?”

Riley’s eyes rolled. “I didn’t actually sleep with her. I think I’m getting old. I got tired of having to do my own work because she couldn’t figure out the word processor. She quit after Taggart yelled at her. Well, he didn’t actually yell. He did that super-cold voice thing and told her if she didn’t get her hands off him he would call his sister-in-law and let her take care of the situation, and that might include actually chopping off her hands. I think Brooke believed him. Not only did she not touch his abs anymore, she quit. Now I have a very nice legal secretary named Tom who’s totally in good with the rest of the staff, brings me all the helpful gossip, and makes an excellent latte.”

“Well, I’m glad you figured that out. You’re not getting any younger. It’s time to hang up your manwhore clothes and get serious about making me some nieces and nephews.” Serena would have had her baby by now. Had it been the girl she’d wanted so badly? She wondered how Erin was doing with baby TJ. He would be sitting up by now, probably babbling like mad.

A look of pure horror crossed her brother’s handsome face. “Don’t count on that. I’m not about to settle down, much less start pumping out kids. I’m not that old. I’ve got many years of manwhoring in my future, thank you. Once I get through flirting with Ellie Stratton, I’m going to come home and have some fun.”

“And if you fall madly in love with her?” She’d seen a picture of Ellie Stratton. She was a serious-looking young woman, but there was something about her eyes, a little light that let her know the CEO of StratCast had some sparkle inside her. Riley was going to ruin her life. It didn’t seem fair since she hadn’t been the one to kill their parents. That had been her father, but this was the only way to get to Castalano. Their first target. Revenge was her brothers’ main goal in life.

Was it Erin’s now that she had her baby? Or would she give it all up just to see Theo one more time?

Thinking about Erin brought her back to something Riley had said before. “Why would Big Tag let Erin defend his honor? I should think his wife would do it.”

“I didn’t say it was Big Tag. It was Case. He was a big hit with all the women here, but he let them all know he was taken,” Riley said with a smile. “I think he was going to sic the redhead on Brooke. He said she hadn’t killed anyone in over a year and it made her twitchy. Your man’s pretty funny for a dude who can kill another dude about five hundred different ways.”

“He’s not my man.” Of course every woman at 4L would want Case. It was a tech firm. Most of the men who worked there were like twenty nothing and spent more time in front of a keyboard than at the gym. Case Taggart had probably walked in and every woman in the room had fallen at his feet.