Dirty Detail: Sexy Bodyguard Romance (Down N' Dirty in Love Book 3) Read online

  I sit up quick—too quick—and I groan as the splitting pain slices through me. My hands are bound and I’m on a bed.

  For a second I’m blind with panic. I can’t take in my setting because the blood is pumping too hard and heavy, it’s all I can hear. But then I blink and the room comes into focus. Even in the dim lighting I know where I am.

  I’ve been here before, several times.

  I’m at Rodney’s cabin. I sit up a little straighter and tug at my hands. They’re not bound too tight but tight enough.

  What the hell? I have a sick taste in my mouth as it all becomes clear. There’s no other explanation.

  Sure enough, Rodney comes out of the kitchen and gives me this shit-eating grin. I hate that fucking grin. He looks cocky as hell as he strides over to me, grabs me by the hair and plants a hard kiss on my mouth that makes me want to puke.

  I settle for spitting out his saliva as he pulls back. “Welcome to your new home,” he says.

  “What are you doing?” Of course, I know what he’s doing. He’s kidnapping me. But it doesn’t make any sense. I shake my head, trying to understand despite the killer headache. “You’re my stalker?”

  His smile turns nasty at that. “No, babe. I’m your boyfriend.”

  I blink up at him. He’s delusional. He’s crazy. But no, he’d never truly been crazy. A little possessive and controlling, but not psycho.

  That thought gives me some relief. “I thought you were dating someone,” I said. “I’d heard you’d moved on.”

  “Yeah,” he says, looking like a cocky piece of shit as he lounges in front of me like we’re just here hanging out. He reaches for a beer that’s on the side table and I realize he has been here hanging out, watching me sleep.

  Ew. What a creepy motherfucker. How had I never seen this side of him before?

  “Emily is at our house,” he said, his voice totally reasonable even though the words make me cringe. “She’s everything I thought you were,” he says. “Boring, predictable.” He arches his brows. “Stable.”

  Stable? Seriously? This man is talking about stable? I keep my mouth shut. I have no idea what he’s up to, what his plan is but all I do know is that it’s just a matter of time before Darren and Alex realize I’m gone. And one they know they will move heaven and earth to find me.

  I just have to give them time.

  Luckily for me, Rodney seems happy to chat. Lucky me, I get kidnapped by a regular chatty Kathy. He leans forward, pointing the neck of his bottle at me. “See, I thought I had you pegged, Maya. But you had me fooled.”

  I can’t tell what he’s thinking. He’s wearing a smile but I sense a simmering anger and I have no desire to trigger one of his angry outbursts. Even when we were dating I hated to see him mad. And now?

  Well now he’s kind of scaring the crap out of me.

  “You were supposed to be the one,” he says. “You were the perfect mother type, all nurturing and sweet.”

  I stare because that’s all I can do. “You broke up with me,” I remind him.

  He nods, pulling a face that says he regrets it. “I thought you were too boring,” he says.

  I flinch in response. It’s stupid, really. I mean, here I am tied up on the guy’s bed in the middle of the woods and I’m hurt because he found me boring?”

  He laughs a little, I guess at the irony of it all? “Crazy, right? I mean, I break up with you because you’re such a little scaredy cat, and then look what happens?”

  His face hardens. “I turn on my TV and see my girl dancing like a fucking stripper on national television.”

  I flinch at his anger, which is palpable. It’s like a switch just flipped and he went from normal to rage in a heartbeat. And he’s not done. He’s leaning so close now I can smell the beer on his breath. When he reaches out and clasps my face in his hand, I freeze, afraid to struggle and afraid to pull away.

  “Here I thought you were such a sad sack in the bedroom,” he says, his voice dangerously low. “And then what do I see? You fucking two men like a little whore.”

  I still at his words, the knowledge that he’s somehow seen me with Alex and Darren making me want to cry, which is stupid considering my situation.

  But still. What I have with them is meaningful. It’s real. It’s more real than anything I had with this psycho, and I hate to think that he had anything to do with it, even if he just saw us from afar.

  “I realized from that first night I saw you on TV that I had to have you back,” he says. “Because you’re mine and you always will be.”

  His anger seems to disappear as quickly as it came and he gives me a smile that’s knowing and coy and makes me gag. “But now I know that you weren’t cut out to be my wife. No sir. You, my little slut, are not mommy material. Emily, now she’s perfect for that role.”

  Disgust roils in my gut but I try not to let it show.

  Still, I’m pretty sure he can see it when he reaches out and strokes my cheek. “You’re going to be mine, all right. You’re going to be my little whore.”

  Chapter Six

  Darren

  I know something’s wrong right away. Don’t ask me how, but I know it. Something feels off. At first I tell myself it’s just that conversation. It wasn’t supposed to happen at all and it sure as hell shouldn’t have gone down like that.

  I should be pissed at Alex. If he’d have listened to me we could have handled this right. But I can’t bring myself to be too angry. Truth be told, I’m kind of glad it’s out there in the open. I know she needs space but at least she knows how we feel.

  Alex was right earlier. She’s been getting more and more stressed, more and more worn down, and we both know it has as much to do with us as the show.

  I try to relax and ignore this pang of discomfort that tells me something is off. I’m being paranoid, I know that. We’re all stressed. We should head home and decompress, give her time.

  Aw, fuck it. I can’t take it anymore. “Something’s wrong,” I say.

  Alex pulls the car over and comes to a stop. He’s staring straight ahead and I see his grimace in the reflection of the headlights. “We shouldn’t leave her like that. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  “She wants space,” I start.

  He nods.

  Fuck. We’re technically just her bodyguards and we’ve been off the clock for ages now. We’ve been mixing business with pleasure and now it’s impossible to see where one ends and the other begins. How much of what I’m feeling is misery over her silence or my instincts as a bodyguard, which I don’t take lightly.

  “Go back,” I say. Now isn’t the time to err on the side of polite consideration. She’s still in danger and whether she needs space or not, it’s still our job to look out for her.

  Alex is already putting the car in gear and turning around. “We’ll ask the night guys to go in and check on her,” he says.

  I can hear the tension in his voice, just like it’s in mine.

  Nothing feels right. Not that conversation and not driving away from her like this. We’ve been with her around the clock and maybe I’m just overprotective, maybe my emotions are clouding my judgement, but at this particular moment, I don’t give a fuck.

  All I care about is keeping our girl safe.

  Alex is calling one of the night guys with the car’s Bluetooth. I’m half listening as he barks out orders, not bothering to explain why they need to go knock on the door and check on their assignment, just that they do it ASAP.

  That’s when I see it. I’ve been eyeing every car that passes, watching every jogger and every walker with a dog. There’s plenty of activity in this neighborhood and I’m watching it all. That’s the way I was trained and when I’m on, there’s no shutting it off.

  My senses feel heightened right now, probably because of this sick feeling I have that something’s not right.

  For a half second I don’t make much of the car that passes us in the opposite direction. It’s a beige four-door sedan.
I turn slightly to follow it, something about it is ringing a bell in the back of my brain.

  It’s a Ford Focus. It’s unassuming, it’s nothing special, it’s…the car that her ex drives.

  “Turn around,” I say.

  Alex doesn’t hesitate, he swings the wheel and we’re behind the Ford at a safe distance.

  Alex shifts so he can half turn to face me, concern all over his face. “What’s going on.”

  I shake my head. Hell if I know. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”

  I feel crazy. I can’t tell what’s paranoia, what’s pent up emotion, and what’s honest to God gut instinct. “Just follow that car for now.”

  Then the night guy calls and Alex puts him on speaker. “She’s not answering.” The warning bell in the back of my mind goes ape-shit.

  I know Maya. Alex knows Maya. There’s no way she wouldn’t answer for our guys. She knows how worried we’d be. She knows that they’ll fucking tear down the door. The only reasons she wouldn’t answer were if she was passed out or gone.

  She’s not asleep; I know that. Maya might be exhausted but she always had a post-rehearsal “high,” as she calls it. Granted her favorite way to come down from that high is to have us fuck her till she’s too exhausted to stay awake, but for lack of that?

  “She wouldn’t go to bed without eating something,” Alex says.

  That’s exactly what I’m thinking. She didn’t eat dinner and she’d just spent the better part of the day working her ass off onstage.

  “Keep following,” I order. “But don’t let him see us. Tell the night guys to go in and see what they can find.” In the meantime I call up our files on my phone. I do some more digging into her ex and I tell Alex everything I find.

  He cuts me off at one point. “What properties does he own?”

  We’d gone over that before during our initial investigation and I can see that Alex has a thought. Yup, sure enough. He’d inherited a cabin up in the mountains.

  “That motherfucker,” I growl.

  But we don’t have time to be pissed. We don’t have time for emotions, period. If I give myself the luxury of feeling, I won’t be able to function. The woman I love—the woman we both would give our lives for—she’s in danger.

  And we haven’t even told her how we feel. Not really. Not totally.

  She needs to know that we want it all with her. A family—and atypical one, maybe—but a family. We want forever with her and I’m sure as hell not about to let some loser ex get in the way of that.

  “I swear to God, if he touches a hair on her head,” Alex says beside me, his tone finishing that sentence for him. He’s already calling the night guard again, filling him in so he can alert the local authorities.

  He doesn’t need to say it. I know. I feel the exact same way. If that motherfucker even thinks about touching her I will kill him with my bare hands.

  I reassure myself with the fact that we’re right behind them. Besides that, even if he catches sight of us and tries to lose us, I’ve got all I need to know in these files. I know where he’s heading…and we’ll be right behind.

  Chapter Seven

  Maya

  It all happens so fast, it’s like I’m in the middle of a movie.

  One second it’s a horror flick, complete with the creepy creaky noises and squeaking floorboards. Rodney is hovering over me and saying these awful words that are so not in keeping with the Rodney I knew.

  It was honestly a nightmare come to life.

  And then the door bursts open and I see the best thing I could ever imagine.

  They’ve found me. My guys have come for me. I knew they would. I never doubted it. But seeing them here…my heart just about explodes out of my chest.

  I can’t do anything more than watch as Darren takes Rodney down to the ground with a punch and a tackle. Alex races to my side, touching my face, feeling my bones, asking me questions that I just can’t answer right now. Are you all right? Did he hurt you?

  Finally I shake my head. I have questions of my own. “How did you find me? How long have I been out?”

  The questions are still pouring out as he’s untying my wrists and pulling me into his lap.

  And then the questions don’t matter. I mean, they do. I want answers. But they can wait. He’s holding me so tight and I can hear his pounding heart beneath his shirt.

  Then Darren is on the other side of him, curving around me so I’m encased in their arms. I can hear Rodney cursing and struggling on the ground nearby, apparently tied up with the same rope he’d used on me.

  Honest to God, I don’t care about him. The local sheriff arrives and he’s taken away. I should be angry, I guess, but right now I’m just relieved.

  I know there will be shit to come—charges to file and questions to answer, but for right now, I have all I need here in their arms.

  My guys take me home after I make a statement. They get me some food—I never did get a chance to eat—and they get me all bundled up in my favorite cozy pajamas and tuck me in.

  I know I should sleep. I need sleep…desperately.

  But I can’t. Not until I’ve told them what I’ve figured out. It might have taken a fucking kidnapping to help me realize it but I finally realized what I need.

  And that is, to stop being afraid.

  Easier said than done, I know, but it’s the truth. Rodney was right in a sense. I played the boring role all too well because I’d thought that would keep me safe. I’d thought that not pursuing my dreams would keep me safe—if you don’t try you can’t fail, right?

  I’d thought that not admitting that I have feelings for Alex and Darren could keep me from getting hurt by them, but that’s just stupid. There are no guarantees in life, but I’ll never have happiness if I keep pushing it away at every turn.

  So before they can leave the bedroom, I stop them. “I need to say something.”

  The hover over the bed, the concern in their eyes making my eyes tear up with emotions.

  “I need you to know that I love you too,” I say. “Both of you.”

  Their happiness makes my whole body warm and for a moment I forget my exhaustion and every bad thing that’s happened to me in my entire life.

  They’re at my side, both of them on the bed and pulling me close.

  I’m home. That’s the crazy, cheesy thought that keeps running through my head as they shower me with kisses and caresses.

  This is home, right here.

  “I’m sorry,” I say as I pull back slightly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t admit it before.”

  They start to hush me but I don’t want to be quiet. I’m ready to talk. I’m ready to make some changes.

  “I knew how I felt but I was afraid to say it.” I swallow down the familiar nerves. “I’m afraid of a lot of things, including how intensely I feel for you guys. But I’m starting to realize that I need to learn how to act anyway. I need to figure out how to act in the face of fear.”

  Darren strokes my hair back from my face, his eyes filled with happiness and pride. “We’re here to help you however we can, love. Just tell us what we can do.”

  I just smile, because they already do it. They make me feel safe and they make me feel free at the same time. They give me strength to strike out on my own even as they give me a safe place for comfort and love at the end of the day.

  Alex is grinning at me with that shit-eating grin. “We love you, babe. We’re always here for you.”

  I know that now. I guess I always knew that but now I have the courage to put my faith and trust in them, something I’ve never been able to do before, not with anyone else.

  “You need your rest,” Alex says as he chastely kisses my forehead.

  My breath catches in my throat. “You can’t be serious,” I say. “You don’t honestly think that I’m going to just let you two walk out of here after everything that’s happened.”

  I can see their inner struggle. I watch their mental debate, which is clear as day in their eyes.


  Resistance is futile.

  I reach out a grasp their shirts, wadding the material in my hands as I pull them forward so they’re both hovering over me. We’re all breathing heavy just from this contact. My tits pressing against their chests…it’s fucking heaven.

  “I won’t be able to sleep until I’m satisfied,” I whisper.

  They don’t need any more encouraging. The blanket is gone before I can blink. Their hot skin covers mine as I rip off those silly pajamas and they strip off their clothes. Everything I’ve been feeling for weeks now—it all comes out. I don’t know how to say the words, not yet, so I show them instead.

  And with their hands, their mouths, their ruthless passion, they show me just how scared they were. If there was ever any doubt about how they feel about me, there’s none now.

  They take turns kissing me, plundering my mouth and laying claim. Their hands caress me and adore me, showing me just how cherished I am. I give myself over to them, letting myself truly accept what they’re giving.

  They’re giving me their love. And it’s terrifying. With love comes that fear of being left behind, the fear of having my heart broken… But they help me move past that, and once I do…

  It’s freedom. Their love is freedom.

  The way they look at me, the way they touch me—I know they love me for who I am, and not who I think they want me to be, or any of that crap. That was the old me talking, the one who let fear run her life.

  I might still have fears, but now I know that I can get passed them.

  Because seriously, what the other alternative? I’d gotten together with Rodney and stayed with him for years because he was the safe choice.

  Ha! It’s almost laughable now.

  There’s no such thing as safe, just like there are no guarantees that I won’t get hurt. But what it comes down to is trust and faith.

  And I trust these guys, with my life and with my heart.

  I try to show them that just like they’re showing me how much they love me with strong caresses and mouthwatering kisses. They seem to be everywhere at once, covering me completely. Their hands running over my skin, their mouths licking and sucking.