Page 110 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

KIERA

How do Caleb and Nolan know Greg Dratch? And more importantly, why is his photo on one of their laptops? Now, after all these years. The man has been dead for almost a decade.

That thought roars out, only to be replaced by the memory of Caleb’s mouth on my clit. His fingers in my pussy. Nolan watching me the entire time, his hand fisted over his cock. The white-hot, bone-shattering intensity of my orgasm.

I drag my attention back to what’s important. Forget their hotness. You could be in danger. Are Nolan and Caleb affiliated with Sirkovich? Is my cover blown? Have they figured out who I am? Do I need to run?

Then there’s Xavier’s phone call. His voice, clipped and terse, when he told me to come into his office this morning. Am I fired?

I’d just started at Club M when Brett Fisher put the moves on me, flat-out refusing to take no for an answer.

At that time, I’d read the employee manual cover to cover.

I was looking for a big 36-point font headline.

Something that made it brutally clear to Fisher that employees of Club M couldn’t date the members.

That if I agreed to go out with him—not that I ever wanted to—I would get fired.

Newsflash: It doesn’t exist. Not, of course, that Brett Fisher would have given a crap about the rules. I had turned him down, and he was determined that he would make me change my mind. I was a challenge to him, not a person.

Fisher had cornered me in a narrow hallway one night. He’d caged me against a wall, his breath reeking of booze. His gaze had been predatory, and not in a good way. He’d called me a cock tease before he stuck his tongue down my throat.

Terror was a familiar companion. I’d been in witness protection for a few years by then, and I’d grown used to the fear. I hid cash in a pillowcase in my linen closet so I could run at a moment’s notice. I was wary of strangers. I spent my days looking over my shoulder.

But when Fisher touched me, it had pushed me over the edge.

Maybe it took me back to San Diego, to memories of letting one of Greg’s buddies paw me so he’d tell me where Bianca was.

Or maybe it was because I had believed, up to that point, that I was safe inside Club M.

Everyone who worked there had been clear: Xavier Leforte took care of his own.

And he had. Xavier had revoked Brett Fisher’s membership, and he’d apologized to me personally. The guy is a freaking billionaire who runs a vast, global business empire. He owns half of Belgium, if I was to believe the rumors.

And despite all his power, he’d sat behind his desk, and he’d crossed his arms over his chest, and he’d told me he was deeply sorry that Fisher had harassed me. That he’d believed—incorrectly—that I was interested in the man, and he took responsibility for his mistake.

I remember what I said to him that day. “I’m not here to date the members. I’m not looking for a sugar daddy. I just want to do my job.”

What’s Xavier going to think now?

Best case scenario: he thinks I’m terminally stupid.

Worst case scenario: He fires me. This time, I’ll only have myself to blame.

I pull into the employee parking lot. It’s a little before noon on a Saturday.

Not a busy time and the parking lot reflects it.

Yesterday, it had been so packed that I had to park in the far corner of the customer lot and take my chances that Henri, the concierge wouldn’t find out.

Henri isn’t a bad sort; he’s just a stickler for the rules, written and unwritten.

If he finds out what I did last night, I’m in for a two-hour lecture. Farid would probably join him.

Stop stalling, Kiera. I get out of the car and make my way to Xavier’s office. The door’s ajar. The club owner sees me before I lift my hand to knock—the parking lot has cameras too—and waves me in. “Sit,” he invites. If he has a comment on my t-shirt and shorts, he keeps it to himself.

I take a seat across from him. For a long moment, he just stares at me, his fingers steepled. “Are you interested in Caleb Reeves?” he asks finally.

Last night, the answer would have been an unqualified yes. This morning, after I’ve seen Greg’s photo, my thoughts are more muddled. Maybe. I don’t know.

I don’t reply. Xavier’s eyes narrow. “Did Caleb make you feel, at any time, that your job here was at risk if you didn’t go home with him last night?”

He’s misinterpreted my silence. I sit up in my chair. “No. I went there because I wanted to.”

“And while you were there, did either Caleb Reeves or Nolan Wolanski do anything that made you uncomfortable?”

They made me come so hard I saw stars. I shake my head again. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

There’s another period of silence. Xavier breaks it first. “When we last had a discussion about this, you made it clear that you weren’t interested in dating any of the members.

” I open my mouth to answer, but he lifts his hand.

“Let me finish. I know my club. I know who’s up for a quick hook-up, and who isn’t.

I know who sneaks in after-hours to take advantage of some of the more specialized equipment.

I know that Caleb comes in every Friday and orders an obscure cocktail, and you make it for him. ”

Where is he going with this? “What do you want me to say, Mr. Leforte?”

He frowns. “I was in college with Nolan and Caleb. I like to think I know them better than most people. Neither of them is looking for anything serious. Whatever might be going on between the three of you, it’s temporary.

It won’t last longer than a month. I want you to be perfectly clear what you’re getting into. ”

That’s not what I thought he was going to say. At all. “I get it,” I murmur, my hands folded in my lap. “They’re very rich. We’re from different worlds. I have no illusions that I’m in the same league as them.”

“It has nothing to do with you,” he replies.

“This is on them; they don’t commit. There is a smorgasbord of sex on offer at Club M.

To the best of my knowledge, you don’t partake.

I’ve always assumed you wanted something more committed.

If you pursue this thing with Nolan and Caleb, fleeting sex is all there will be. ”

Every word of his warning lands with the force of a hammer.

“Caleb flirts with everyone,” he continues. “It’s as natural as breathing for him. You work at the club. How are you going to feel when he scenes with someone next month?”

Once again, I open my mouth. Once again, he lifts his hand to stall me. “You don’t have to answer me. That’s not what this is about.”

“Am I being fired?”

He looks surprised. “No, of course not. This is simply a friendly warning from someone who has your best interests at heart. As long as your relationship is consensual, I don’t care who you sleep with outside of work hours.

I run a sex club, Kiera. It would be hypocritical of me to expect celibacy. ”

I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding. My heart starts to beat again.

He leans back in his chair. “If you need to talk, about anything at all, my door’s open.”

I hesitate. I do need to talk. I need to find the link between the two men I was with last night and Greg Dratch.

I need to determine if Nolan and Caleb are connected to the hacker.

Xavier Leforte has known Caleb and Nolan since college.

He might have answers to the questions buzzing in my brain like angry wasps.

But the half-formed words freeze on my tongue. I’ve never told anyone about my past. I cannot afford to trust people. Not even Xavier.

I thank my boss and leave his office, heading back to my car.

Greg’s face swims back into my mind, gnawing relentlessly at my thoughts.

Is Sirkovich out of jail? He received life in prison, no possibility of parole, but he also had high-price lawyers who were doing everything they could to get him out.

Is he free now? Instead of going home, should I just keep driving?

There’s only one person who knows the truth about my past—the detective who placed me in the witness protection program. Miles Armstrong.

Even with the windows down, the car is a furnace.

Sweat trickles down my back as I dial his number.

My mom swore up and down to anyone who’d listen that every cop in San Diego was dirty, and maybe they were when she was growing up, or maybe that was just her daily cocktail of drugs and alcohol talking. Armstrong has always been good to me.

“Yes?”

“This is Kiera Lynne Thompson.” I’ve been Kiera O’Leary for so long that my birth name sounds odd to my ears. A fun little side effect of witness protection.

I haven’t spoken to him in more than seven years, but he remembers me right off the bat. “Kiera? Is something the matter?”

He sounds surprised, but there’s something else in his voice. Caution? Wariness? Whatever it is, it makes me edgy. Beads of sweat gather on my brow. “Is Vladimir Sirkovich still in jail?”

“He got life. Where else would he be?”

I don’t know, Detective Armstrong. Why don’t you tell me why you sound so nervous? “Has anyone else been looking for me? Asking about me?”

There’s a split-second hesitation. “No.”

Goosebumps rise on my skin. Something’s wrong. For three years, I’ve settled in this corner of the country, on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, and nothing has ever happened. I’ve felt as safe as I ever have.

Until Nolan Wolanski walked into Club M…

Nolan and Caleb are the keys to this puzzle. I’ve known that from the instant I saw Dratch’s photo on the laptop. They want to sleep with me. I want answers. And life has taught me how to use all the weapons at my disposal.

I end my call with Detective Armstrong. With shaking fingers, I call Caleb. He answers on the first ring. “Hello, Kiera.”

His voice is a warm caress. Hearing him, desire sparks through my blood and pools in my belly. “Caleb.” I’m trying to sound sexy, but I just sound nervous. “You told me last night you liked to be in charge.”

“I did.”

Now or never. “Will you show me? Both of you?”

He inhales sharply. “When? Where?”

“Tonight. At the club. My shift ends at ten.”

Caleb flirts with everyone. It’s as natural as breathing for him. You work at the club. How are you going to feel when he scenes with someone next month?

“Okay,” he agrees. “See you there.”