The Men with the Golden Cuffs (Masters and Mercenaries #2)(7)

She was going to fight. Alone if she had to.





Chapter Three


Jacob Dean watched a pretty blonde give him the eye. She wore very little clothing, but that was the nature of Club Sanctum. No one wore much. He was in his leathers and a pair of boots. The blonde—he thought her name was Kallie—wore a leather bustier, thong, and no shoes. The bare feet marked her as a submissive. The tray in her hand marked her as working.

But that never stopped a good Dom. If he wanted, he could play with her. She had a lovely figure, very fashionable. She was slender with graceful breasts and slim hips. Her makeup was perfect and not a strand of platinum blonde hair was out of place.

So why was he thinking about a messy brunette?

He shook his head slightly to let Kallie know he had no interest. She shrugged and moved on.

He knew why he was thinking about Serena Brooks. Because she was far softer than Kallie. She was an adorable mess, with big green love-me-take-me-protect-me eyes. He’d taken a single look at Serena and wanted to take her into his arms and feel her soften against him. He’d wanted to get her in between him and Adam and not stop until one of them was buried in her * and the other in her ass.

And he didn’t trust that feeling.

“What has crawled up Adam’s ass and died a horrible death?” Liam’s musical accent brought Jake out of his thoughts.

“He’s pissed at me.” That was an understatement. Adam hadn’t talked to him all afternoon. Adam had shoved him out of his office and locked the door. Adam was having the grown man equivalent of a temper tantrum.

“Yeah, I got that. I asked where you were and he nearly bit my head off. He’s still at the office. What’s going on with that? He never works late.”

Liam was right. Adam was great on a case, but when they were in between, the man liked to play. That was the problem. Adam was already on a case. It didn’t matter that the group hadn’t taken the case yet. It only mattered that Adam was already engaged.

Damn it.

Adam fell too hard and too fast. No matter how many women they had tried and failed to connect with, Adam was still trying to find ‘the one.’ After the Grace debacle of six months before, Jake had been happy Adam had taken some time off from his search. But the minute he’d seen Serena, he’d known that Adam’s time off from his love search was at an end.

Sure enough, he’d been right. The minute Jake had walked into that room and seen the way Adam looked at Serena, his gut had clenched.

Couldn’t Adam see that there wasn’t one perfect woman for both of them? Women would play at ménage, but there wasn’t a woman in the world who would actually live the lifestyle they wanted. They had tried living with a couple of women, and they always left.

Or they utterly betrayed them. Like Jennifer. She’d wrecked their careers in the military just to get a step up. And she’d laughed while she did it. He’d asked her to marry him, and she’d told him he was a freak. No one would want him, she’d said, because he was only half a man.

No one would ever understand how much he needed Adam. And lately he was thinking that it was time to let that dream go. Maybe it was better to be half a man and have a wife then it was to feel complete when the whole of society thought they were wrong. And then Serena walked in the door and he’d just known he was going to get his heart ripped up all over again. He’d managed to stay out of the thing with Grace. He’d known she loved Sean Taggart, but Serena was a different story.

Eve St. James strode into the bar area, a frustrated look on her face. She carried her briefcase in hand. She was still dressed in a chic business suit, her hair perfect. “Does anyone know what the hell this is about?”

“What?” Jake wondered why half his team was here, but no one was dressed for play.

“You haven’t checked your cell?” Eve asked.

He hadn’t. He’d gotten to the club with every plan to find a sub and settle in for the night—with or without Adam. But he couldn’t get Serena out of his head. And he couldn’t stop thinking about her case.

The cops were wrong. He felt it deep in his gut. The cursory information led him to believe this was a jerk who liked to feel powerful. He hadn’t done anything beyond harass her on a social networking site and send her e-mails. But he would.

He would get sick of being ignored, and he would escalate.

Jake’s gut churned, acid building. He wasn’t going to be able to turn her away.

Adam walked into the bar. He’d ditched his tie, but he hadn’t put on his leathers. Alex was right behind him, carrying his briefcase. The gang was all here, it seemed.

“Did everyone get that terse message from Ian?” Liam asked.

Jake found his phone and noticed the text. It was simple. Ian Taggart, his boss, told him to be at Sanctum at eight pm.

What the hell was going on?

“Do you know anything about this?” Jake asked, looking at Adam. “Did you go to Ian about Serena?”

Adam’s jaw firmed, a sure sign that he was irritated. “No. I wouldn’t go behind your back. I worked on the presentation of her case. Grace put it on the board for tomorrow’s morning meeting. I’ll convince everyone then. I’ll even convince you.”

Jake pulled him aside as everyone started talking amongst themselves. “You don’t have to convince me. I’ll recommend that we take the case.”