The Dom Who Loved Me (Masters and Mercenaries #1)(10)

Sean didn’t like the grin that crossed Adam’s face. There was far too much intimate knowledge in it. “While you’ve been in the Windy City, we’ve been here. We’ve been her happy hour buddies for the last several weeks. She apparently likes to take new employees under her wing, show them the ropes. She quickly decided that Jake and I were of a homosexual bent and introduced us.”

“I’m playing hard to get.” Jake said, taking a drag off the longneck.

“As if. We flipped a coin, and I have to be the softie this time. I hate that, although it seems to work with Grace. Anyway, she’s very happy with her matchmaking. This last weekend, she invited us out to her place for dinner. She made a heavenly lasagna. It wasn’t as good as yours, of course, but I was more than willing to spend an extra hour or two in the gym to work it off. Of course, I would have preferred a different workout.”

Sean leaned over. He hoped his face was as intimidating as he felt.

Jake put a hand between them. “Stop it, Adam. He’s got it bad, and you know why. She’s a sweetheart.” Sean sat back. “And he hasn’t gotten laid in a long time.”

“Hey.” What was up with everyone commenting on his love life, or lack thereof? It was starting to get annoying. “This is a job, and I think I’ll fare better with Grace than the two of you.”

Adam ran his free hand through his curly brown and gold hair. “What makes you think that? We can be very charming when we want to be. We’ve been pretty good at getting close to her so far. You didn’t receive a dinner invite yet, did you?”

“She’s submissive.” He was absolutely sure of it now. The way she’d clung to him when things got physical and that breathy little “Sir” sealed the deal. She might be intensely competent in her workplace, but she would submit in the bedroom. She would be soft and sweet and utterly obedient. She would need it. Sean took a long drink. The beer sucked, but he needed the cold. Just thinking about being the one Grace submitted to was making him hot as hell. “She’s either been in a D/s relationship before, or she’s thought about it.”

Jake’s brown eyes widened at the thought. “With Wright?”

“Hell, no.” Sean couldn’t stand the thought of that bastard touching her. The man obviously had no control. Sean couldn’t think of a worse trait in a Dom. He didn’t care what Grace said. Her boss was in this mess up to his neck, and the sooner Sean brought him in, the better for Grace. She would be out of a job, but Sean already had plans for that eventuality. He was sure he could find something for her to do at McKay/Taggart. That way, she would be close in case he wanted to continue the relationship. “Maybe it was her husband. She’s very sure of herself. She has a self-possession that only comes from being very well loved. It’s intensely attractive. I suppose she could just be naturally submissive. But there was something about the way she called me ‘Sir’ that makes me think she knows her way around D/s.”

Jake sent Adam a long look that let Sean know something was up. Adam shook his head, but Sean knew them way too well to let it go. “If you know something, spit it out.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “Fine. But if this weren’t a mission, I would tell you to go to hell.”

Jake leaned forward. “We took a sneak peek at Grace’s eReader while we were at her place.”

“So, the lady reads. What does that have to do with anything?” Sean asked.

“The lady reads a lot about bondage,” Jake said with a chuckle. “She seems to love romance novels about BDSM, with a heavy slant toward the D/s side. I don’t know if I would peg her so much as a trained sub. She’s more like a very curious lady. I took a look at her pictures when we were at her place. She’s never wearing a collar.”

Sean felt his groin tighten. A tourist? A sweet, curious, innocent little tourist. Now that was something to think about. If Grace was really interested, he could show her a thing or two. Maybe satisfying her curiosity was a way to get close to her. But Adam and Jake didn’t need to know that. “Now tell me what you’ve learned. I know it’s going to come as a shock to you, but we’re here on a job, not to get laid.” It was a reminder he could use, too.

“Says the man planning on getting laid,” Adam shot back. “Fine. Jake and I are working in sales. It was easy enough to get in. It was also fairly easy to get access to the personnel files.”

Jake sighed. His brown eyes heated up. “Tonya in HR. She thought we were gay, too.”

They gave each other a quick fist bump before Adam continued. “We turned over the files we copied to Eve. She hasn’t come up with anything yet, but she just got them yesterday. We’ve managed to keep our ears to the ground and come up with a few choice tidbits. First, Wright is a drunk.”

Sean huffed. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Fine. He’s completely dependent on Grace. She’s involved with every meeting he has, except the ones with Evan Parnell. She never attends those. Parnell is a subcontractor who seems to have some sort of hold on Wright. Normally Wright specializes in white collar temps, but Parnell runs a small-time janitorial service. Three years ago, Wright brought him in as a way to get into the lower end of the temp services.”

“Why would he want to do that?” It didn’t make sense to Sean. “He has to make less money off janitorial services.”