Take a Chance (3 page)

Derek was acting as general contractor for
the new club while Mark handled all the general business
decisions.

Steve and Mark hoped the new venue would push
Derek to move past his loss. Hadn’t happened yet, but they had
faith he’d move on with his life and find another woman to
love.

Fun times ahead, once the place finally
opened.

“
What’d I miss?” Steve
sailed into the room and flopped on the new sofa, waiting for the
next explosion.

Mark settled on the matching chair. “Derek’s
training the new staff submissive we hired.”

“
Sweet job. Why all the
yelling?” When Derek didn’t reply, Steve turned to Mark. More
silence and a lifted brow.

So it was about Mary.

And he was no fucking counselor.

“
She wouldn’t want you to be
alone.” Fuck it, but Derek needed to get his shit together and
Steve was damned tired of keeping his mouth closed.

Anger and pain poured out of his friend, and
an unvoiced question. How do you know?

“
She loved you. Mary never
hid her feelings around us like she did on the floor. You were her
husband and her lover and her Dom. We were her friends.”

Derek sagged into the other upholstered chair
and stretched his legs out into the open space between the
furniture. “Where have you been all day?”

Okay. Better to change the subject than argue
about a dead woman with the man who wouldn’t let go. “I worked a
bid at Lindsay & Associates. One of us has to make some money.”
He and Derek were the owners of G&L Security, business partners
and best friends.

Derek leaned back and popped his neck before
answering, and he still didn’t meet either’s gaze. “Forgot about
that. How’d it go?”

“
We’re in.”

“
What, no squabbling about
the cost?”

Good. A decent response along with a change
of subject.

Mark spilled his two bits, even though he
wasn’t part of their security business. “I remember Simon Lindsay
from school. He was head of the debate team. Can’t imagine he just
rolled over and took the first offer.”

“
Helps when I show up in
time to stop a robbery and rescue the little sister.” Yeah, he was
gloating, but the altercation with the bad guys had gotten his
blood pumping, and so had the meet and greet with the lady. Letting
them stew on that little bit of information, he got up and looked
around the room. “Where the hell did you put the
fridge?”

Mark laughed. “The new cabinets were
installed this morning. Open the one on the far left.”

“
Damn, I keep forgetting you
like to hide stuff. All this fancy ass furniture confuses me.”
Steve pulled out a cold bottle of water and offered it to Derek
while the other two laughed, then tossed it to him and grabbed
another. Mark shook his head, so Steve closed the door and went
back to his chair.

“
Did you stage a break-in to
get the contract?” Derek asked.

More laughs all around, then Steve told them
the whole story. ”And the little sister is all mine.”

“
Somehow I doubt Simon will
allow you to drag his sister to a BDSM club, no matter how nice the
facilities are,” Mark replied. “I know for a fact he’s as
straight-laced as they come.”

“
Yeah, maybe, but she’s a
grown woman and makes her own decisions.”

“
You’re delusional. She’s
got three older brothers. Three overprotective older brothers. Give
it up.”

They were right, but he didn’t give up
easily.

A knock on the office door interrupted his
retort, and Mark’s assistant, Mildred stepped inside.

“
Mr. Harrison, the carpet is
here.”

“
Finally.” Mark stood and
stretched. “We have work to do.”

“
We’re not laying carpet,
are we? Didn’t they bring people to do that?” Steve asked. Hell,
all he knew about carpet was that it was something to walk on. He
could build and wire a security system, or create internet
barriers, or act as a human shield, dammit, but he didn’t do
carpet.

“
Don’t be a baby.” Mark
shoved his shoulder. “We’re moving the already delivered furniture
out of the way in each room, then putting it back.”

Derek opened the door and ushered them out.
“A little exercise will be good for us, blow off a little
tension.”

Mark laughed. “Still got that hard on?”

“
What else did I miss?”
Steve asked, following them down the hall.

* * * *

Dena shut off the faucet and turned on the
jets, then sat on the side of the tub while steam and bubbles rose.
There were a few bruises to catalog, and her wrist still hurt, but
her heart was light.

Slipping into the hot water, she let the
motion of the bubbles ease her mind while the jets soothed her sore
muscles and she decided what to wear to dinner. She’d already
called her friends to cancel the bar hop. They’d been sympathetic
about her attack and awed at the description of the hot and
handsome Steve Gladston.

She’d wanted an adventure, and now she’d have
her own personal white knight.

Steve had all the makings of a great lover.
Instead of a playful pretty-boy face and a trust fund, he had
ruggedly handsome features and a sensual intensity that made her
knees weak. From what she recalled of when he held her, there were
muscles under those nice clothes he wore, and not the kind from a
gym. His came from physical labor and were used for more than
primping for women.

He was a flirt, too.

And good at it.

The dark hair made his blue eyes sparkle. A
hint of a smile, like he knew a secret and wanted to share it with
her, made her giddy.

The fact that he was friends with her
brothers was an added perk. If they could back off enough for her
to date Steve, she could convince them to stay out of her life
after their little affair ended.

And it would. She had no illusions.
Commitment had nothing to do with this date for either of them.
Steve Gladston wasn’t the marrying kind, and she didn’t expect him
to change for her. He was the wild fling, the man who taught her
about sex and decadence. He was her affair to remember when she was
an old woman.

She said that word out loud, affair, listened
to it echo in the tiled room, and laughed. At twenty-five, she’d
yet to have a long term relationship, largely because her brothers
interfered constantly. Sex, yes. But not anything memorable, since
one of her brothers managed to alienate the boyfriend and ended up
in the guy’s face. She couldn’t prove it, but she thought they drew
straws to see whose turn it was to harass the man she was
dating.

Hunky Steve Gladston wouldn’t put up with it
and didn’t look the type to back off from a fight, even with one of
her brothers. He had too much pride to back off. Her brothers,
especially Simon, wouldn’t be able to stop her from dating him.

When the water cooled, Dena pulled the plug
and wrapped a bath sheet around her body. The aches had eased and
her wrist barely hurt when she moved it. She stepped into the
custom closet she’d had installed and paged through her
dresses.

Something sexy but not overly provocative
would do. Most of what she had looked more like business attire and
she had no desire to look like she was on a job interview.

When her hand landed on the dark blue sheath
she’d bought last fall, she stopped.

Perfect.

It clung to her body in all the right places
and the scooped neckline would highlight her attributes. They
weren’t huge, but decently proportioned and all she had.

Dammit. She was acting like a giddy
schoolgirl before prom.

Exchanging the bath sheet for a robe, she
went into the kitchen and opened a can of soup. She’d skipped lunch
in favor of talking to the police a second time, and then her
friends, before she left the office.

Simon had insisted she spend the next three
days recovering from her ordeal, treating her like the proverbial
helpless baby sister. Sure, she’d recover, but in her own way, and
what her big brother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

She checked messages on her phone while her
afternoon snack heated, then sat at the bar to eat the tomato
bisque with some crackers. Lost in her own thoughts, she jumped
when the doorbell rang. Her damn brothers were going to push her
into moving out of state if they didn’t back off a little. Every
step toward the door built up steam for her reminder that she was a
grown woman.

She started talking before the door fully
opened and had to break off in mid-sentence.

Sara held up a hand and laughed.
“Surprised?”

“
Sorry,” Dena said, waving
her inside. “I thought you were—”

“
One of the boys?” Sara
finished.

“
I hate it when they
hover.”

Sara walked past her and dropped her purse on
a chair. “I should’ve called, I know, but I wanted to hear the
whole story first hand so I could tell everyone tonight.” She
grinned. “I don’t want you to leave any detail out. So, spill.”

Sara Henley was her best friend and pushy
should have been her middle name. Instead, it was Denise, a middle
name she shared with Susan, her twin sister. They were fraternal
instead of identical, which helped a lot, since they were very
different women.

“
I went to work early this
morning so I could leave in time to meet you at the club tonight.
Some guys broke in through the back—”

“
Stop right there,” Sara
said. “I don’t want those details. Tell me about the guy, you know,
the hot one who asked you out.”

With a laugh, Dena went back to the bar and
Sara followed, sliding a cracker off of Dena’s plate. “Oh, come on.
Don’t make me wait.”

“
He saved me.”

“
Got that. What else? What
does he look like?”

Dena made her wait for a few minutes. “He’s a
grown man, not a college boy, and he rescued me. He tied up the
guys that hit me and then, after he saw my bruises…” Dena brushed
her fingers over the puffy red marks on her cheek. “…he went back
over to them and punched them in the ribs.”

“
You mean, after they were
subdued? That’s illegal.”

“
He’s not a cop, and he
was—I guess he was mad because they hurt me.”

Sara’s prelaw education jumped in. “Still,
they were restrained. He could be charged with assault.”

With a shrug, Dena said, “Who’s the jury
going to believe? A couple of men who beat me up or the only
witness—me?”

A long stare later, Sara shook her head.
“You’ve got it bad and you haven’t been on the first date yet. Are
you planning to roll over and spread your legs for this guy?”

Dena answered with a quick no but knew the
hot blush on her face gave away her intentions.

“
Dena, you don’t know him.
Don’t give it away.”

Shocked wasn’t a look she saw much on Sara’s
face, and Dena grinned. “He went to school with Simon, so he can’t
be too dangerous. And that makes him twenty-nine, pushing thirty
and old enough to know how to give a girl a really good time.”

“
There’s really no way to
tell if that’s true until you give him a try.” Sara giggled. “I
find that keeping my expectations low and being surprised by
greatness is the best way to go.”

Dena took her bowl to the kitchen sink and
washed it out while Sara expounded on her past relationships and
the new man in her life.

“
He’s older, too. He has a
job at his family’s company and there’s money in the family, I
think. Anyway, I haven’t slept with him yet. But soon.
Maybe.”

“
And you’re giving me
advice?” Dena pulled two glasses out and filled them with ice and
water, passing one to Sara. They settled on the sofa and Dena
deftly changed the subject. “What’s going on with Susan these days?
I haven’t heard much from her.”

“
She and Kellie rented a
condo together. She’s working at a law firm part time while she
finishes her masters in marketing.”

“
Kind of strange that you’re
prelaw and working at a computer company while Susan works at a law
firm while studying marketing. It’s like y’all switch brains once a
month or something,” Dena said with a laugh.

“
Not really. We have a lot
of shared interests, you know, and it gives us things to talk about
when we hang out together.”

“
I guess, but tell me this.
Why is it you just started working on grad school and she’s almost
finished?”

Dena hadn’t gone that route, getting her
bachelor’s degree in office management made her more than qualified
to run the day-to-day operations at her dad’s firm. She’d grown up
listening to business conversations and knew she wanted to be part
of the firm, just like her brothers. They’d all followed their
father into brokerage and investments. Except Brent. He was the
youngest and a little wild, but he’d come around eventually.

“
Easy answer. I goofed off
more than she did.” Sara looked at her watch and stood. “I need to
get gone so you can get dressed. When is he due?”

“
Six.”

Sara hugged her tight. “Have fun and call me
tomorrow with the scoop. The whole truth and nothing but.”

When her doorbell rang an hour and a half
later, Dena was itching to get the night going. She opened the door
with a smile to find one tall, stylishly handsome man eating her up
with his eyes. Heat crept up her chest and into her cheeks when his
slow smile followed his gaze back to her face.