Brazen (B-Squad #1) (16 page)

A
month later
, Taz was standing in front of his brothers and the coven, a term the women of the B-squad had embraced wholeheartedly, at the Corsair Club with a champagne glass in his hand and a dumbass smile on his face that he couldn’t wipe off. It was as if his past and present had come crashing together and the fallout wasn’t earth-shattering explosions but an equal melding of two worlds into one.

In a word, it was
soartă.

The room was filled with friends, people from the gym and a few of his brothers’ relatives from the old neighborhood—including Marko’s mother, who was trying to set him up with everyone from the female waitress to the male bartender just so he too could
finally
find his one. He just lifted one dark eyebrow, kept his mouth shut and retired to a booth in the corner with his bourbon on the rocks and an unobstructed view of Elisa as she spun on the dance floor in one of those weird all-girl dance clumps. All of the St. B’s girls were there—including Gidget, who still bore the trauma of the forced injections of Genie’s Wish but she was determined to come back from it.

Even Tamara was there. She wasn’t in the middle the action, but she’d managed to make a place for herself on the B-Squad team as the office manager.

Bianca peeled away from the group of women dancing. Her hair hadn’t recovered from their quickie before the party, so she’d pulled the brown mass into a messy bun. She had her hair like that a lot lately. There were many supply closets with locks on the doors at the Devil’s Dip Gym building. Just watching her strut over, her long legs on display in a blue dress that clung to her every curve, had him wondering if there was a closet nearby.

“You look like you’re up to something.” She swiped his glass and took a sip of the bubbly.

He curled an arm around her waist, letting his hand rest on her hip. Electricity singed his fingertips. “Just trying to figure out how to sneak you away.”

“It’s our engagement party.” She chuckled and shook her head, letting free some of the long brown strands that had been tentatively holding on. “We’re not allowed to disappear.”

He pretended to pout. “That’s not fair.”

“Is life supposed to be?” She turned in his embrace and looked up at him.

“Nah, but it sure as hell is good.” And with Bianca it always would be—of that, he was certain. He brushed his lips across hers, wanting nothing more than to sweep her up in his arms and carry her out of this place. Of course, Bianca would probably knock him on his ass for that so he broke off the kiss that, even though brief, already had him half hard. “If you’re bound and determined to stick around, how about a dance instead?”

“Any excuse to get handsy, huh?” It came out breathy and more than a little turned on.

He led her out onto the dance floor. “You know me too well, Kitten.”

* * *

If someone had told Tamara a month ago that she’d be sipping champagne at her ex-husband’s engagement party, she would have laughed in that person’s face. If they’d have said she’d be working as the office manager at her ex-husband’s fiancé’s security and investigations company, and loving it, she would have punched them square in the nose. Ex-beauty queens and soon-to-be trophy wives didn’t roll that way.

It was funny how life turned out.

Settling in on the velvet-covered settee in the Corsair Club’s private party room, she contemplated getting another glass of wine from the open bar.

“Looking for one of these?” The man belonging to the deep bass voice held out a glass of her favorite chardonnay.

Whereas everyone else in the room was dressed in designer suits and glittering cocktail dresses, the tall, dark and handsome man in front of her was in pressed Wranglers, cowboy boots and a crisp white dress shirt. If he’d had a tie or a sports coat on at one time, he’d ditched them a while ago, judging by how his shirtsleeves were rolled halfway up his corded forearms. Not that she noticed that, or had scoped out the way his broad shoulders filled the shirt to perfection, or was tempted to ask him to turn around so she could confirm that his ass looked as good in those jeans as she imagined.

Men were no longer on her to-do list. But wine? Yeah, that she could do.

“Thank you.” She took the glass and drank a sip.

The man sat down beside her, his brawny frame taking up most of the settee she wasn’t already parked on. One of his jean-clad legs brushed against her bare knee and for the first time in months a wave of warm desire had her clenching her thighs together.

Unable to figure out how to inch away to allow for space between them without being obvious about it, she crossed her legs. The move made her emerald-green skirt slide up her thigh a bit more than she was comfortable with under the circumstances. Still, giving him a glimpse of skin was less…unsettling…than actually touching him.

“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.” He held out his hand. “I’m Isaac Camacho.”

She knew that name, and now she’d have a face to go with it every time she entered in expense reports. “You work with the B-Squad.”

He nodded. “On a come-and-go basis as a freelancer.”

“Why’s that?” From the number of clients she’d had to turn away in the past month, she knew the team could use another member.

“I’ve been told I don’t play well with others.”

His grin did something funny to her stomach.

“Now that really is too bad. It’s important to play nice—mostly.” It came out before she could stop it. Damn it. She didn’t flirt. Not anymore. Men had been her drug of choice for too long and she’d sworn off.

He leaned in close. “Look, I don’t want to make a scene but we need to get out of here. Now.”

Her heart fluttered. She mentally rolled her eyes at herself. What could she say? Old habits die hard—even when they were oh so bad for her. “Why’s that?”

His full lips flattened into a grim line. “There’s a bounty hunter making his way through the front of the restaurant now. He’s got papers on you.”

This time, his words made her heart stop.

“That’s about the worst pickup line I’ve ever heard in my life.” She meant it to come out as dismissive, but her voice shook too much to be convincing.

“Unless you want to head back to Idaho and have to reveal to a judge exactly where Essie is, so her shitbag of a cult leader father can grab her and sell her off to the highest bidder, then I suggest you get your pretty little ass up and follow me.”

She glanced around. Everyone was smiling and laughing just like they should be at an engagement party. After all the trouble she’d caused when she’d arrived and tried to extort a million dollars out of Taz, the last thing she wanted was to make trouble for them—and if they got busted for knowingly harboring a fugitive. She couldn’t do that to them.

“Why are you helping me?” She searched his face for an answer, but there were ancient languages she could decipher easier.

“I owe the team one, and I don’t want a bounty hunter messing up Taz and Bianca’s engagement party, because that’s exactly what will happen. You know there’s no way these people will let you go down without a fight.” He shot her a flirtatious grin and stood up. “Anyway, I’m a sucker for blondes who behave badly.”

Glancing back at the tinted window wall separating the Corsair Club’s front restaurant from the back party rooms, she could see a man in a baseball cap and dirty jeans marching his way straight toward them.

She stood up. “Okay. How do we get out of here?”

“Just follow me, darling.” He tucked her arm into the crook of his elbow. “I’ll always lead you true.”

Now
that
she highly doubted.

* * *

Stepping into Taz’s arms on the dance floor as the music slowed, Bianca tracked Tamara and Isaac’s quick exit out the kitchen door. “Now where are those two off to?”

“Don’t tell me you’re going all mama bear about Tamara.” He chuckled then pulled her closer, his splayed palm on her lower back.

She considered for a second as the moved to the beat. Tamara Hazard should be the last person she’d want to watch out for, but… “Weirdly enough, I am. She’s been acting a little off lately.”

The other day, she’d walked into Tamara’s office and found her red eyed as she shredded a stained piece of paper. She’d asked if everything was okay and Tamara had transformed instantly into the icy cool, unflappable beauty queen she’d met almost two months ago—minus the extorting bitch part, of course.

Taz shrugged and spun her in a lazy turn around another pair of dancers, at the same time sliding his hand down to her ass and giving it a squeeze. “Then Isaac may be just what she needs to let off a little steam.”

Teasingly, she shot him a dirty look and pushed back, putting him in his dance space and her in her’s. “Is sex your cure for everything?” It came out extra prim and totally fake.

“I didn’t hear you complaining last night.” He glided his hand back down to her ass. “Or this morning.” He dipped his head down so his lips practically brushed her sensitive earlobe. “Or in the parking garage before we made it inside.”

“Nor will you.” A delicious rush of desire slipped across her skin. Far from fighting it, or chalking it up to the honeymoon stage, she took it for what it was—love.

“Good.” He whirled her around again. “Then I will consider myself the perfect husband-to-be.”

His smartass response warmed her in an entirely different way than his confident, possessive touch. It wasn’t just lust or pheromones—not that those were a bad thing. Instead, it was pure satisfaction that came with the certainty that she’d be seeing that smirk for the rest of her life. She couldn’t wait.

Chuckling, she rolled her eyes. “Your ego is out of control.”

“That is just the way you like me.” He winked and flashed an unapologetic grin.

“I like you every way.” And she meant it—totally and completely.

His hold tightened and all of the cocky attitude disappeared, replaced by complete sincerity. “Ditto, Kitten.”

She brushed her lips across his, a pledge for today and a promise for tomorrow, and began a silent countdown to when they could dip out of the party and she could get him out of his suit for a good long while.

T
hank
you so much for reading Brazen! I hope you liked Taz, Bianca, and the rest of the B-Squad team. If you have a second to leave a review, that would be awesome. And if you want to find out all about what went down with Taz and Bianca at Bisu Manor, check out
Bulletproof
, the novella that started it all! And if you’re curious about tiny microchips that can be injected into someone’s blood stream, check out
this article
. While it’s still in development, or at least it was at the time of my typing this, as a tool to test for diseases and is not meant for mind control, like in
Brazen
, seeing that old scientific article really got my creative juices going.

Next up in the B-Squad series is
Bang (check out a sneak peek on the next page!)
. This will be Tamara’s story (come on, you knew she had to have one after pulling that fake marriage stunt) and how she tangles—and gets naughty—with freelance investigator Isaac Camacho. It will be out in the fall of 2016. Then, get ready for Marko’s story,
Bold
, in early 2017. Both will be full of all the action, hotness and sass you expect from a B-Squad book.