Man of Mystery: A BBW Romantic Suspense (3 page)

“Miss, I’m afraid I can’t let you go just yet.” The detective’s voice turns firm and more determined.

I’m not sure how to react. Here I am, in the middle of a massive crowd and yet alone in my struggle with this scary dude who seems determined to detain me. After a couple of moments of indecision, the announcement in the background breaks the silence between us.
‘Flight SV118 to Riyadh… cancelled…’
That’s my cue; my signal that the mission has been successful as far as I’m concerned.

“Well, you can’t hold me against my will. Unless you want to arrest me without cause?” I ask.

“You’d be surprised what I can do.” He glares at me; his eyes are cold as death.

I consider my options. I definitely don’t trust this supposed policeman: if his version of events is true, then why did the flight get cancelled? But he’s definitely not going to let me go.

The uniformed men are still in place relatively near us. If his badge is as real as it looks, I can’t count on them to help me; they’ll consider him one of their own and me a criminal. Meanwhile, the staff entrance door I saw Alec use earlier is only a short sprint away. I can only hope it’s unlocked. It’s my best shot.

“Fine. At least let me call my date to cancel,” I say, looking him in the eye again. Eek. His stare gives me shivers.

He nods and instead of getting my phone from my pocket, I start rummaging in my bag until my fingers grasp the same item I had desperately clung to earlier today when I first came face to face with a potential threat. Lush Lavender,
not his style.

In one swift move, I whip the bottle out of my handbag, while kicking down hard on his right foot, and spray my deodorant all over his face.

He lets out a surprised yelp, lets go of me to cover his eyes, and I make a run for it without looking back. I’ve never been much of a runner—neither for sprints or long distance—but it’s amazing what the human body can do when threatened.

Within seconds, I make it to the door, twist the handle, and nothing happens. Locked.
Fuck
! I turn to see Detective Clyde rubbing his eyes, and the Border Force guys who have finally noticed the commotion have reached him as well to see what’s what.

My heart is hammering in my throat, and a cold sweat collects on my forehead as I try the handle again and again. Now what? Where do I go before the detective collects himself and comes after me? Then after one final tug on the door, it pushes open, and I storm in, bumping right into someone so hard we both stumble inside as the door slowly shuts itself behind us.

“Whoa, I’m sorry. You OK?” I ask, while stepping back and taking a look at who I’ve just accidentally body-slammed. It’s the guy—the mysterious stranger from my car. What a relief!

“Yeah, I’m great. You?” He grins at me while propping me up with both hands. It hadn’t struck me back in the car, or even when he got out and ran towards the cargo area, how tall and broad he really is. But now, face to face with him again, it’s impossible to ignore.

My heart had been racing before, in my panic to get away from the scary detective outside, but now, I’m flustered for a whole new reason. I’m not sure how to react anymore, so I just nod. Fine, yes, it takes a lot more than bumping into a hot guy to hurt me.

“So you did it,” I stammer, after taking way too long staring into his eyes. Green, honest eyes. “There was a guy, Detective Clyde outside. Wanted to hold me for questioning or something, but I ran.”

“Clyde, you say? Jovial, somewhat rotund Scotsman?”

I frown at his question. No, that description is way off.

Before I can answer, the door behind us slams open wide, and there he is, red-faced and even more menacing than he already looked before.

“Gotcha,” Detective Whoever sneers.

Before I get the chance to react, I’m pushed backward further into the corridor, as the sexy stranger positions himself protectively ahead of me. Oh shit, they’re going to fight, aren’t they?

I cower down behind a chair and table that’s blocking part of the hallway and peek up over it to watch the showdown. Punches fly, as the two men go head to head in full force. Detective Creep gets a couple of early hits in, but then the hot stranger has his vengeance and manages a powerful kick right into the scary guy’s chest, throwing him back against the door. Sexy stranger surges forward, restraining the detective in sort of a stranglehold, making him struggle and twitch against the reinforced steel of the door.

He has nowhere to go.

“Who was behind all this?” sexy stranger asks.

The other guy doesn’t respond, only lets out a muffled groan when the hold on his throat is tightened.

“Who’s your inside man?”

I feel like I’ve somehow gotten stuck inside an action movie. It’s surreal, exhilarating, and completely unlike how I thought tonight would turn out.

The scary man still doesn’t respond. I shuffle around to get a better look when all of a sudden I bump against something soft, warm…

“Holy fuck!” I scream, seeing the slumped-over figure behind me, sitting in what is presumably a puddle of his own blood. I try to get up, stumbling over my own feet in the process and hit my head against the wall.

“Are you alright?” the sexy stranger calls out from behind me, but I can’t answer.

“Nexus will prevail!” The detective’s voice echoes through the hallway.

Is he dead?
My heart is racing again, and I can’t breathe. I feel like a woolen blanket is thrown over me, reducing my vision from the outside in until I see nothing but a blurry tunnel. Finally, even that slips into darkness.

When I awake, for a moment I’m certain everything has just been a crazy dream. As the world comes back into focus, however, I’m not only looking at the potentially dead guy from earlier, but also the detective who’s collapsed into a similar heap nearer the door.

His eyes stare blankly at nothing, and there is white foam in the corner of his mouth.

“You OK?” A voice speaks in the distance.

I try to collect myself, get back onto my own two feet, but all I end up doing is flapping about on the floor like a fish out of water. My knees might as well be made of jelly, and my muscles don’t have the strength to pick me up.

“Tess, calm down.” The mysterious stranger in the suit comes into view as he kneels down in front of me, putting his arm on my shoulder.

“Easy for you to say,” I pant, while shaking his hand off. “Are they… dead?”

“He is,” the stranger nods over at the door. “The other one will be fine; don’t worry.”

“I’m not… Why? Why’d you kill him?”

“Believe me, it wasn’t my wish for him to die, but as soon as I let go of him to check on you, he took something and died within seconds.”

“Why would he do that?” I mumble, staring at the dead guy’s face.
Shit, this image is going to haunt me forever, isn’t it?

“He didn’t want me to know what he knows.”

“But he’s a cop…”

“Believe me, that was not the real Detective Clyde.” His voice is solemn, almost sad. I turn to look at him again to find his expression equally glum. “I can only hope he’s not dead too. Nice man.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Now what?” I ask, looking over at the guy who according to Green Eyes
isn’t
dead. Now that I’m calmer, I finally do see indications of breathing.

“Once my partner arrives, I’ll hand over the suspect for questioning, and I’ll finally get to enjoy my day off.”

“What about your unit? You said it was compromised or something?” I ask, while rubbing the side of my head.
Ouch
. I guess I hit it on my way down when I fainted.

“I’ve received word that the situation has been resolved. A leak, apparently, within our ranks. Looks like this guy here tried to infiltrate Scotland Yard as well.”

“Ah.” That’s all I can manage to say. All of this is way too weird for me to come up with some clever or thoughtful remark.

“Tess.” The suited stranger places both his hands on my arms. “Thank you.”

“But I didn’t even do-—” Our eyes meet, and I’m lost again. I shouldn’t let this guy have such a profound effect on me, and yet… The way he looks at me suggests he’s equally interested, even if I can’t quite understand why a stud like him would even notice a girl like me.

I blink a few times, trying to shake the fuzziness in my head, as well as figure out if all this is in fact still a dream or hallucination, but every time I open my eyes, the green depths in front of me still invite me to drown in the fantasy. He leans down slightly, bringing our faces closer together. His breath tickles and teases against my skin.

He smells of a subtle aftershave or cologne, with a hint of something manly and rugged mixed in. When he reaches over and pushes a lock of my hair behind my ear, it takes my breath away.

I instinctively lean in closer, until the tips of our noses almost touch, tilt my head and wait. His hand, which had been resting on my shoulder so far, wraps around the back of my neck and pulls me in. I feel faint again, but not in a bad way this time.

Our lips touch and send shivers down my spine. His kisses are gentle, controlled almost, but this facade is quickly reduced to rubble when I part my lips, signaling my willingness for more. Our tongues find each other in a feverish embrace. I wrap my arms around him, feeling his hard, well-trained body underneath my fingertips.

Oh God, he’s easily the sexiest man I’ve ever seen, and now here I am, sucking face with him! It’s all too good to be true.

A muffled moan originating from the bleeding man by the wall interrupts. Despite how it seemed, we are in fact still stuck in the real world, where I was nearly arrested by a fake policeman while he stopped a flight from taking off with some mysterious and dangerous load on board. I pull back, looking him in the eye again. What the hell are we doing?!

“I never did catch your name?” I finally ask.

He glances over at the man on the floor, who is stirring slightly, then makes eye contact with me again.

“Liam.” His lips curl into the beginnings of a smile as he nods his head. “Liam Everson. At your service.”

“Nice.”

Before we get the chance to do or say anything more, the door opens, revealing an equally buff, much more rough around the edges guy in commando gear, flanked by a petite yet intimidating red-haired woman no older than forty in a tailored trouser suit.

“Everson. Good job, old boy,” Commando guy says, while stepping over the dead fake detective. He winks at Liam before focusing on me.

The redhead cocks her head to one side and gives me a suspicious look as she enters.

“Boys, contain the situation, will you?” She nods at the three men still outside the door, all also clad in what looks like all black combat gear. They jerk into action instantly on her say-so. One checks the vitals of the two bad guys on the floor, another cordons off the area outside.

“Agent Everson. I expect your report on my desk by the morning,” she says to Liam, whose amusement—although subtle—is still very obviously written on his face.

“Next time, try not to involve a civilian. Have her debriefed and include her statement in your report. Dismissed.” Her eyes rest on mine for a moment, before stepping ahead into the corridor and bending over the bleeding, softly whimpering man. She grasps his hair, lifting his head to get a look at his face.

“Process him, and take him for questioning, Clark. I want an ID ASAP, understand?”

The cheerful commando who had entered first nods his head. “Yes, Ma’am.”

He gives Liam a slap on the shoulder and gets to work, while Liam takes my hand and leads me out of the corridor and back into the terminal. The area has been sufficiently cleared that we have space to exit freely, but there are still crowds of curious bystanders in the area, observing our every move.

“Wow. She’s a ballbuster,” I mumble.

Liam chuckles but doesn’t respond, simply guides me through the commotion until we’re well away from it all and once again nearing the coffee shop where I had waited initially. It takes me a few moments to realize what’s happening.

“Where are we going?” I ask, looking down at Liam’s hand still hanging on to mine.

“You tell me,” he says.

“Well, it’s your day off, and you’re all dressed up.” I glance at the black suit. Damn, he looks good in that suit. “Where were you going?”

“Dinner.”

“Dinner? All by yourself?” I ask.

“Not anymore. Unless you have a better idea.”

I’m not sure I’m hungry. Am I hungry? “Dinner sounds lovely.” Though I’m not hungry yet… not for food anyway. “Or we could always skip ahead to dessert.” Me and my big mouth, I blurt it out before I can stop myself.

Liam pauses and looks at me again, his eyes seem almost sparkly. “I like the way you think.”

On the way to where I’d parked my car, we never let go of one another. We barely speak, just rush onwards, eager to get to where we’re going.

I don’t know what this means; is it a fling; a one night stand? Something more? Who cares. It’s completely crazy and exactly what I want and need right now. Our kiss earlier had been full of promise, full of possibilities. I can’t wait to see where else we can go tonight.