The Dom Who Loved Me (Masters and Mercenaries #1)(32)

Ian’s shoulders slumped, a sure sign of defeat. From the day their father walked out on them when Sean was barely ten, Ian had led the way. On only one occasion had Sean even thought about going against Ian’s better judgment. Ian had wanted Sean to go into business after college rather than following him into the army. There had been times in Afghanistan that he’d wished he had listened to Ian. But now, he knew Sean would whole heartedly tell the brother he loved to go to hell, and all over a woman. Not just any woman, he thought in a burst of revelation—the woman. Grace was the one for him. Last night had proven it to Sean.

“All right, I’ll leave you in, but watch your back,” Ian conceded. “Eve’s profile of Patrick Wright is frightening.”

It was good to get back to the case. Eve St. James had been one of the best profilers the FBI had ever trained. Now she worked for Ian. If she was scared, Sean wanted to hear about it. “Care to enlighten me?”

“It’s all in the report I sent you, if you could be bothered to read your e-mail. I’ll give you the gist. He’s highly intelligent and willing to kill, though he will wait if the time isn’t right. He isn’t governed by passion. He was almost certainly abused as a child, probably by his father. He has large chunks of time in his adult life that are unaccounted for. Eve thinks he was either underground or perhaps working off the grid when he needed cash. She’s a bit confused by some of his history, but she’s absolutely sure that he’s cold-blooded and utterly ruthless.”

“I’ll buy that.”

“Furthermore, he’s quiet and serious. He doesn’t play games or have any real wish to be caught. He has no grand desire for acknowledgment. He probably has donned masks and costumes on more than one occasion and might have plastic surgery if he thought it would help him elude the authorities. That part really scares Eve. Most of the time, these killers are caught because deep down they want to be.”

Sean nodded. He promised himself he would read the profile later tonight, but first he wanted to know one more thing. He knew exactly how Ian ran these ops and just what he would have Eve do. There would be a profile on everyone involved. “And what did Eve have to say about Grace?”

Ian’s mouth flat-lined. “She says Grace is completely harmless unless someone she loves is in danger. Then she would be a tiger. She says Grace is the kind of woman who gives her full loyalty to a person and then it is very difficult to sway her. Grace is the kind of person who loves fully and well. Eve very much liked your Grace.”

His Grace. He liked the sound of that. “I think Eve’s summed Grace up nicely, so what’s the problem?”

“Eve’s been wrong before.”

Eve had been very, very wrong before, and it had cost two FBI agents their lives. It had been the reason she left the Bureau and finally joined McKay/Taggart where her ex-husband Alexander McKay worked.

“She’s not wrong this time. Trust me, Ian, it’s going to be all right.” Sean turned to get a corkscrew for the wine. When he turned back, Ian had vanished.

Sean shook his head. He would never be able to match Ian’s skill, and he was long past wanting to try. He had his own talents. He put the sauce on and then set the chicken to cooking. This particular dish took a long time to properly simmer. It would only be fully flavorful if given the right amount of time to cook. It was a little like a relationship.

But Sean didn’t have time. Ian wanted this done, and fast.

If Sean was going to keep Grace at the end of this, he would need to bind her to him, and quickly.

Sean set the heat to low on the stove and picked up his keys. It was time to move the heat up with Grace. Sean thought he knew just how to make her boil.





Chapter Eight


Grace slid into her office chair, perfectly content with the afternoon’s excursion. Jake and Adam had been total sweethearts, helping her find three skirts, two blouses, and a dress that showed off her assets to perfection. They had found some swanky boutiques she hadn’t known existed. It was good to get a male opinion. Adam had been sweet enough to go into the dressing room with her and help her in and out of the cocktail dresses she’d tried on. He’d missed his calling. Adam should have been a stylist instead of an account rep.

“Tomorrow we could do lingerie.” Adam sat down on the edge of her desk. “I know there must be a store around here that sells Agent Provocateur.”

“Or La Perla.” Jake set down her bags. They had driven around in Jake’s Jeep. Grace had decided he was the more butch of the two. He tended to take the lead. Rather like Sean.

“I’m not sure about that.”

The way she’d read it, the Dom usually liked to pick out lingerie. Sean was in charge in the bedroom. She wasn’t sure he would like another man picking out her undies, even if that man had zero interest in seeing her in them.

Sean. She couldn’t get her mind off Sean. She couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that her big, strong Viking was at her place puttering around in the kitchen, cooking dinner. He would be there when she got home. For the first time in over a year, since her youngest had fled the nest, she didn’t feel a small sense of dread at the thought of heading home. It wouldn’t be empty. She could drive up and not be assaulted by a darkened house with its dreary silence and obnoxiously neat rooms. The neatness bothered her. It proved the house wasn’t really lived in anymore. For the last year, she’d merely existed there.