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“What the hell is wrong with you? Haven’t you ever heard of knocking? You could have scared me to death,” she said.
“That wasn’t the body posture of a frightened woman. It looked far more like you were wondering what it might be like to be bound naked to the cross waiting for someone you trusted to use a flogger or a single tail on you.”
“I never… you…” she sputtered, climbing down from the cross.
“Never say never, Anabella. Lying to your Dom is never a good idea.”
“You’re not my Dom.”
He shrugged. “A man can always hope. If you’ll make a list of the things you need, we’ll send someone to retrieve them.”
“I’d actually prefer to go myself, or at least accompany someone. I want to make sure everything is as I left it. I left tells—you know little things a certain way. I’ll be able to tell if someone’s been there.”
“That’s not a bad idea. We’ve got the club on lockdown, and we’ll be staffing your case as soon as King gets back. We’ll start putting together relevant information and when we’re through, you and I can head over to your place. In the meantime,” he said arching a brow at the St. Andrew’s cross, “make yourself at home here or anywhere in the building other than the big conference room. Let me know if you need me to explain anything to you or if you’d like a personal demonstration.”
He chuckled as he left her alone to stew in her own embarrassment. Maybe she’d tell this King person she wanted Seth or anyone other than Coop as lead on the case. Anabella wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to look him in the eye again.
She turned to look back at the cross and at the armoire that held a veritable treasure trove of toys. For one fleeting moment, Anabella allowed herself to think about what a personal demonstration under the practiced eye and hand of Cooper McCullough might be like. A shiver ran through her body as she indulged that fantasy for the merest of moments.
No. I will not do that. I will not allow the sexy Mr. McCullough to lead me down that path.
‘Why not?’ asked the voice inside her head. ‘Would it be so bad to lean on someone? Not just to keep you alive, but to put pleasure, sensuality, and orgasms back in your life?’
Her little voice seemed to have become obsessed with Cooper McCullough. She needed him to keep her alive so that she could unravel whatever it was that Blackwood Industries was up to.
CHAPTER4
COOPER
He closed the door and was glad she was too embarrassed to have noticed the effect she’d had on him. Walking in and seeing her pressing that warm, sexy body against the cross had given him an almost instantaneous hard-on. It hadn’t helped that he’d spent most of the night dreaming of Anabella Foster and all he’d like to do with her. She had the softest, most flawless porcelain skin he’d ever seen, and he imagined how it would react to various instruments—a flogger, a single tail, a crop… maybe even a violet wand.
He would take control and take such good care of her. The part of the night he hadn’t been imagining Anabella wrapped around him, bound to the St. Andrew’s cross, or in front of him on her hands and knees while he grasped her hips and drove into her hard and fast to finish them both, he’d spent doing preliminary investigative work on Blackwood Industries. It wasn’t so much what he’d found, but what he couldn’t find that made him believe that Anabella was onto something—something much bigger than even she might imagine.
She’d been a little reticent to tell them everything until they’d reached an agreement, and Coop hadn’t blamed her. He was certain Cerberus would take her on as a client. They’d had a couple of run-ins with Blackwood before, and more notably Josiah Blackwood’s son, Josiah Junior—a more reptilian little bastard than Coop had ever met before or since. The guy was Teflon—no matter what was said about him, or charges made, the little snake managed to slither his way out of it. Coop made a vow that if he found out Junior was behind the attempts on Anabella’s life, this would be one accusation he wouldn’t be able to make go away.
He wasn’t surprised to see everyone who worked for Cerberus who wasn’t currently out of town on assignment in the conference room. What did surprise him was seeing King, who hadn’t been expected back until tomorrow. But then, if Seth had mentioned Blackwood, it shouldn’t surprise him at all.
“I’d say good morning, Coop, but you look like shit, and not in a you-had-a-great-time-last-night kind of way,” said King.
“Your grasp of the obvious is as keen as ever,” responded Coop. It did not do a man well to let the boss giving you shit go unchallenged.
As he’d suspected he would, King chuckled. “That’s why I’m the boss. So, our little Ms. Foster thinks she’s going to take down Blackwood?”
“She does, but more importantly I think she may be onto something. Seth?”
Seth nodded. “She wasn’t comfortable going into details until we’d accepted her as a client, but I’m like Coop; I think she may be able to do what so many others have not.”
“Coop, I’d like to meet privately with you in my office. The rest of you go through cases we’ve recently closed and open appropriate cases. Miley?”
Cerberus’ only female field operative in the Chicago office, looked up at King. “Yeah, boss?”
“I didn’t expect to see you back so soon. Did you get that info Fitz wanted?”
“Yeah boss. Dropped it off and then took a couple of days in London. The boss put me up at the Savoy. That has to be the best hotel in the world.”
“How does she rate the Savoy and the rest of us have to make do with one of the private rooms at Baker Street?” asked Royce Sanders, sounding offended.
“Because the rest of you bastards are like a kid in a candy store when you’re in Baker Street,” quipped Miley. “God knows you’d probably trash the room. Besides which, I think JJ made him do it.”
